Fanis is
sitting in the flat in London where he lives with his cousin Kera. Kera is an international Chinese art
dealer. You would never know this from
looking at her as Kera and Fanis are both 2nd generation
Greek-Americans. What many don’t realize
is that all over the world, people equate exoticness with intelligence. In America, a British accent gives you
credibility as an intellectual. Asians
are also assumed to be much smarter than the denizens of America. In Asian countries, however, the opposite
dynamic is seen as white people are seen as intellectually superior. That is why it is easier to get a job as a
white person in Asian countries than it is for Asians. It’s simple economics; lower supply leads to
higher price for that labor. There is an
abundance of Asians but not many white people. Kera took advantage of this and
became a very reputable art dealer. With
the reputation, however, came danger.
Since Kera spent most of her time working, she wasn’t very rich in the
relationship department. This coupled
with an innate inability to trust made choosing a body guard hard. Fanis was the closest she could come to it
with also having the desire to drop his life and follow her around the world
protecting her. That’s where they stood
now.
Kera
came into the living room where Fanis was watching TV. She announced, “Well, you may not have agreed
with the original collusion accusation against Trump but now he’s clearly
obstructing this impeachment inquiry.”
“No he’s not. He has the power of executive privilege. He can shield people from testifying as much
as he wants. Clinton and Obama did it
all the time”
“Why do you always defend Trump
by bringing up shit Democrats did?”
“Because it exposes
hypocrisy. Anyone that has a problem
with Trump using the power given to him for the office of the president but is
okay with Obama and Clinton doing it, then they’re frauds and hypocrites.”
“What happened to Trump being the most transparent president?”
“He finally realized that enough is enough. They are redoing Mueller and we all know how
long they dragged that on. Besides, he
didn’t say he refused, he said that they need to vote on impeachment and then
he’ll do it.”
“They don’t have to do that. There’s nothing in the constitution that says
they need to vote”
“It says that the sole power of impeachment lies in the
House of Representatives. In order to
figure out what the House of Representatives want, don’t you have to vote?”
“Maybe”
“It doesn’t say the ‘Speaker of the House’ or ‘the House
Intell chairman’”
“So what do you think is going on?”
“Why do you think they don’t want to just vote and
impeach him?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question”
“I think this is a roll out campaign. Flood the market with narrative after
narrative so that the common person won’t bother with the details. For three years, the Democrats have told us
not to get worried about the details and look at the bigger picture. Nobody wants a spotlight on what they’re saying
or to ask questions or peel the onion”
“That was Comey”
“And AOC”
“Well, they have official documents. The Senate Intel committee came out with
“Russian Active Measures in the Russian Collusion in 2016 election Part II”
“At least they’re not hiding that they’re re-litigating
Mueller.”
“Yea, this one is different”
“No, it’s not.
It’s an FBI biased attempt to take down Trump. This time instead of James Comey, it’s Clint
Watts”
“Who’s Clint Watts?”
“Thank you for proving my point. You saw the title of the report but didn’t
actually read the report. Clint Watts is
the FBI agent claiming to be an expert on Russia. He claims Russia attacked Hillary, Ted Cruz
and Marco Rubio”
“Put a pin in that.
We got to go”
“Where to?”
“Guangzhou”
“Wow, Southeast China.
I mean that’s only like a couple hour train ride from Hong Kong. Given all the unrest in Hong Kong right now,
is that a good idea?”
“Aren’t you my bodyguard?
Isn’t it your job to make it safe?”
“I would think part of my job description would be to
keep you from dangerous areas”
“We go to dangerous areas all the time”
“Yes but they’re always dangerous. This one is political unrest”
“Right, so the closest large Chinese city to Hong Kong is
Guangzhou”
“Right”
“So, naturally that’s the city that China uses as a post
to defend against Hong Kong”
Fanis rolled his eyes.
He got where she was going, “All the security is going to be focused on
Hong Kong so they will be preoccupied.”
Kera smiled, “Very good cuz”
They got on the plane and headed toward Guangzhou. Fanis asked, “Do you want to continue the Senate
report?”
“Yea, that Clint Watts dude. What’s your problem with him?”
“He founded a company called Hamilton 68, which detects
whether or not social media stories are authentic. Every time you hear ‘Russian bots are doing
this’ it’s Hamilton 68 that trolls the Russian bots.”
“Alright, and the allegation is that Russia used social
media to influence the election so that’s the guy that we should have on this
case.”
“Except for this part” Fanis shows Kera an excerpt from
the report and continues, “See, Watt is saying that he’s not convinced about
this bot thing because they’re all not Russian and we don’t even know if they
originated in Russia.”
“Fine, so he investigated these bots and found them not
to be credible. That doesn’t ruin his
credibility. It takes a big man and
humility to admit you founded a company to look into something that you
realized was false. I give him credit
for that.”
“I’ll give you that, but look at what he alleges are the
media campaigns to get Trump”
“The IRA? Aren’t
they Irish?”
“Different ‘IRA.’
This one is Russian.”
“Oh alright, so the report says they targeted blacks to
create a racial divide in America. They
highlighted the kneeling for the national anthem among other things. These really happened so what’s the problem?”
“In 2016, did Trump win because
of the massive black vote for him?”
Kera dropped her head. She couldn’t believe she just walked right
into that. She now showed some humility
of her own, “No, it’s kind of the opposite.”
“Remember, I’m not saying Russia
helped Hillary. I’m saying that they
wanted to cause chaos in America. They
succeeded but they succeeded because the Democrats keep falling for it. The IRA is a Russian organization to cause
chaos and it’s working”
“Right, so the Democrats should
just drop their accusations against Trump because that’s what the Russian want”
Kera opined with heavy sarcasm
“Yes” Fanis replied dead
serious. He followed up with, “Look at
this ad campaign that supposedly helped Trump”
Kera looks at an ad saying ‘Save
American Muslims, Vote Hillary.’ She
exclaimed, “All this is in the report?”
“No, this is the indictment
Mueller wrote up when he tried to get Russians to go to court. When they showed up, however, Mueller claimed
sources and methods and refused to actually prosecute.”
“I do remember you bitching
about that. You thought that Mueller
never thought they’d show up.”
“Do you have a better
suggestion?”
“I haven’t thought about it in a
while”
“You didn’t have a rebuttal back then either”
“You didn’t have a rebuttal back then either”
“I don’t remember. I know you have Russian friends but you know
I hate Russians so I’m never going to believe they’re on the up and up. I grew up with Russians”
“I’m not saying the Russians are
our friends. I’m simply suggesting that
they didn’t use Trump to help them. They
meddled with our elections on their own using their men not ours. Well, they tricked our DOJ but not explicitly
working with Americans. All the western
intelligence agents that they colluded with did so because they were tricked by
the Russians. The Russians merely
exploited their animosity for Trump.”
“Well, at least you’re not
defending Russia.”
The Guangzhou airport is very
large. They take the hour long subway to
the train station and stay at a hotel across the street from there amidst
advertisements for Women’s Hospital. The
train station in Guangzhou is open with only a roof. Due to this, there are many bugs and large
ones at that crawling around the station.
They stay at a hotel across the street and Kera, fluent in Mandarin,
does all the talking as the people in Guangzhou, even in the hotels, don’t speak
English. Technology has assuaged this
problem as people communicate on their translator apps but given that
non-Chinese phones don’t work in China, you have to use the Chinese person’s
phone. When they get to the hotel, Kera
states, “Try not to speak. They think
that English speakers are supporters of Hong Kong”
“I think it’s pretty obvious by
my clothes and my looks that I’m American.”
“Just trust me on this”
“I don’t trust anyone. And even if I did, you don’t trust anybody so
why would I trust someone who doesn’t trust anyone?”
“Fine, do what you want.” Kera
fired back with obvious frustration in her voice.
The following day, Kera went to
conduct her business with Fanis close behind her. While Kera was negotiating whatever it is she
negotiated either a purchase to be sold later or selling an artifact she
already procured. Fanis normally talks
with bodyguards of the other side but he knows there’s a language barrier so
can’t. Lucky for him, one of the
bodyguards holds out his phone. Fanis
stares down at the phone and sees Chinese lettering and then English lettering
underneath, “American?”
Fanis takes the phone and types,
“Yes”
They pass the phone back and
forth having a conversation. “Did United
States President make threat to withhold money if they don’t investigate former
2nd leader”
Fanis figured that “2nd
leader” referred to ‘Vice President’ he answered, “No”
“How do you know?”
“They released the
transcript. I read it and there was
nothing to threaten.”
“US wasn’t going to give them
money?”
“It was military aid but that’s
not the point. New evidence shows that
Ukrainians were planning to re-open the Burisma investigation in February.”
Fanis noticed that ‘Burisma’
didn’t translate and was still written the English way in the translation. Sure enough, the man responded, “Burisma?”
“Ukrainian energy company that
the son of the Vice President was on the board for even though he had no prior
experience.”
“Why do we care?”
“They are accusing President
Trump of threatening to withhold military aid if Ukraine didn’t open an
investigation into Burisma. Why would he
have to threaten that if they already were re-opening it before the call
happened?”
“You said February; when was the
call?”
“July 28”
“Was this in the informant’s
report?”
“The Whistleblower? No, which is
weird. Why would he leave it out? He must have known. Almost like he was trying to set up the
president”
“How did you get this
information?”
“There is a reporter named John
Solomon who found it out. He had the
documents to prove it.”
“What happened after the request
in February?”
“NABU, which Is like the
Ukrainian FBI, and started by Joe Biden actually made the request and then on
March 28, the prosecutor office agreed to the request and filed a 15-page
notice of suspicion alleging illicit funds from Burisma between 2010 – 2015.”
Fanis could tell by the confused
look on the guy’s expression that not all of that translated well. “When was Biden 2nd in charge?”
“2008-2016 but that’s not the
right question. His son was on the board
of that company the last two years of that range.”
“How much?”
“3.4 Million dollars was just
one of the transactions they were looking at”
“A lot of money for someone with
no experience”
“And dropped out of college for
doing too much drugs”
“You’re beginning to make sense.”
“Then April 2019, Ukraine’s law
enforcement asked another government agency to help with analyzing the bank
records”
“With all this, there was no
reason for your president to threaten Ukraine”
“That’s what I’m getting at.”
Kera walked out of the meeting
and Fanis nodded at the bodyguard who nodded back. They left and Fanis asked, “How was your
meeting?”
Kera scolded in Greek, “Speak
Greek”
Fanis switched to Greek and
asked the same question
“It was successful. I will be able to expand my business”
“Wow, good job”
“All that means is I have more
things to sell.”
“Still good job”
“Thank you but can we get back
to impeachment (Kera didn’t know the
word for ‘impeachment’ in Greek)”
“Yes”
“Pelosi also says there’s no
precedent”
“Well, it’s only happened two
and half time. With Johnson and Clinton,
the house voted on impeachment. Before Nixon resigned, the house voted to
impeach him. That vote was the most lopsided as only four house members said
not to impeach.”
“No wonder he resigned”
“Yea”
“Why do the Democrats keep
talking about obstruction if there’s nothing there?”
“Obstruction is a judgment
call. It’s not clearly objectively
defined so it’s easy to take advantage of the grey area. Since they don’t have the real qualifications
for impeachment; High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bribery, and treason.”
“What do you want to happen?”
“I want the White House not to
give in. We can’t let them do the same
thing that happened with Mueller. That
hurt the administration and Trump’s legacy.
Just get it over with. If they’re
going to keep threatening then stop threatening and just do it. Get it over with.”
While walking around, a Asian
looking man walked up to them and exclaimed in English, “Americans!”
Kera’s muscles tightened and
Fanis smiled and yelled back, “Hey!”
Kera slapped Fanis’ arm but
Fanis ignored it. He shook hands with
the man who was still smiling. The man
spoke softly, “Are you here to help us?”
“Help you what?”
Kera had taken a couple steps
back for she had a bad feeling about this.
The man turned to her and Kera spoke to him in Mandarin. The guy gave a concerned look to Kera and
turned to Fanis. He said under his
breath, “How do you know her?”
Fanis could feel Kera’s fear so
he decided to lie, “I don’t”
“I’m from Hong Kong”
“Should you be out in the open
like this?”
“No, but I saw that the
Americans were here, you have to help me.”
“Dude, I can’t help you”
The man’s expression turned to
fear as uniformed Chinese police charged then with riot gear and shields. Kera put up her hands and spouted off in
Mandarin. Whatever she said worked as
the uniformed police ignored her and attacked the man and Fanis. Instinctively, Fanis grabbed a swinging night
stick and kicked off a shield and grabbed another policeman by the head and
hung from his neck slamming his neck into his shield. The policeman dropped the shield and grabbed
his neck. That’s when the barrage
started coming. Kera had nonchalantly
walked off. It wasn’t safe for an
American looking person to be standing around.
She went back to the hotel. Once
Fanis realized Kera was gone and wasn’t a target, he relaxed. Nothing good ever came from fighting cops in
any country. He raised his shoulders and
put his right arm up grabbing the back of his head and his left hand balled in
a fist by his chin. This is to limit
damage caused by being punched. It by no
means makes it not hurt but it makes it more bearable. When being smacked with night sticks, that’s
all you can hope for. Once they realized
Fanis wasn’t going to fight back, they loaded him into a car and took him to
the station. Fanis was bloodied and in a
cell with a bunch of other people. He
looked around and saw some of the same large bugs that he encountered at the
train station.
A different person than he
encountered on the street approached him, “Well, we’re not going to be going
anywhere for a while so we may as well get to know each other.”
“I’m Fanis”
“I’m Wei Lee”
“What do you think about this
Whistleblower thing with your president?”
“How do you know I’m American?”
“You’re wearing shorts, you have
sunglasses, and you basically scream ‘America’ with everything about how you
look.”
Fanis knew this but after you
get beaten for answering affirmatively to being American, you hesitate. He decided he was already imprisoned so there
really wasn’t much else to lose. “Besides
that he’s a deep state political hack that set up President Trump, Byron York
now reports that he’s tied to a 2020 Democrat candidate?”
“Which one?”
“Didn’t say; but I would guess Biden”
“Why would they set up Trump?”
“Besides the fact they hate
him?”
“I mean Ukraine specifically.”
“Oh, well I got a story for you”
“I got time.”
Fanis chuckled. That was something they seemed to have an
abundance of. “There was a woman named
Marie Yavanovitch. She was the Ukrainian
ambassador for America. President
Trump’s lawyer Giuliani and others complained about her so Trump recalled
her. He, however, didn’t fire her. She continued to work for the State
department.”
“Why didn’t Giuliani like her?”
“She was bad mouthing Trump
overseas and tried to block the investigation into Biden and Burisma.”
“The energy company Biden’s son
worked for?”
“Yea”
“Well, that’s a good reason for
the president to remove you from your position.”
“Yea, but you can see why she
wouldn’t see it that way.”
“Understandable; what does this
have to do with the Whistleblower?”
“Patience, I told you it was a
story. The second in command at the
Ukrainian embassy is Bill Taylor”
“He sounds familiar”
“I’ll tell you why. He is friends with Yavanovitch so wanted to
get revenge for her.”
“You’re saying he’s behind the
Whistleblower complaint and the whole scandal?”
“Schiff’s staffer Eager went to
Ukraine right before the Whistleblower wrote his report.”
“So someone in Ukraine was
involved in this.”
“Yes”
“That’s interesting”
“I’m just getting warmed up”
“Sorry, continue”
“So Taylor texted Gorland, who
is the ambassador to the EU for the US, that he was concerned about the quid
pro quo and the whistleblower.”
“Alright, a lot of people were
concerned”
“Yes, but when people write,
they normally use similar wording and speech patterns.”
“That makes sense.”
“The Whistleblower claims that
the White House official that was his source, since he didn’t have firsthand
information, described the contents of the phone call as ‘crazy and
frightening’”
“Okay”
“When Bill Taylor texted
Gordland on 9/8, he writes, “I think it’s crazy
to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”
The guy looked at him
skeptically, “’Crazy’ is a very common word.”
“I agree but it’s weird that
such a damning text was written. Then it
is used by Schiff and they don’t even bother to comment on Gordland
responding.”
“Do you know what he responded?”
“I do. He replied, ‘Bill, I believe you are
incorrect about President Trump’s intentions.
The President has been clear no quid pro quo’s of any kind. The President is trying to evaluate whether
Ukraine is truly going to adopt the transparency and reforms that President
Zelensky promised during his campaign. I
suggest we stop the back and forth by text if you still have concerns I
recommend you give Lisa Kenna or S a call to discuss them directly. Thanks’”
“Yea, I can see why if you’re
trying to set up someone that response would kill your narrative. Better to just leave it out.”
“Another phrase in the
Whistleblower report is ‘lacking in substance in national security.”
“I’m guessing Taylor used the
same terminology?”
“On 9/1, a week before the first
text I mentioned, ‘Are we not saying that security assistance and White House
meeting are conditioned on investigation?”
“The quid pro quo”
“And the term ‘security’”
“Well that’s what he was
withholding”
“All other times when they talk
specifically about what they withheld, they call it ‘military aid.’”
“What did Gordland respond? I’m not making the same mistake”
“He said, ‘call me’”
“Well that sucks. It would have been better if we had it in
writing”
“Which makes you think that
Taylor seemed to want things in writing to damage Trump. Forget the response, have the question and
publish that.”
“Which is what they did.”
“Correct. Also in the Whistleblower report is ‘ousting Yavanovitch
was an abuse of power that led down this road.”
“Ah, the old ambassador comes
out. That’s why you think it’s a revenge
operation. You have the Whistleblower
and Taylor using the same language and then the whistleblower complains about Yavanovitch
being recalled. Do you think Bill Taylor
is the Whistleblower?”
“He could be. I’m not sure but they definitely conspired
together with maybe a third person, Schiff, that told them what to say. Remember, President Trump said the Schiff
helped write the Whistleblower report.”
“That’s right he did.”
“if they thought it important
enough to release Taylor’s texts and they did subpoena Gordland, why hasn’t
Bill Taylor been asked to testify?”
“Did Gordland testify?”
“No, President Trump waited for
him to fly to D.C. from Brussels only to tell him he’s not testifying an hour
before.”
“Why?”
“He wants the Democrats to
formally vote and impeach him before he cooperates.”
“Wow, ballsy”
“Yea, that’s kind of the
President’s thing”
“I agree. US politics has never been this exciting”
“This is just one
investigation. The FBI just found
another 340,000 e-mails on Weiner’s computer.”
“Who’s Weiner?”
“Anthony Weiner. He was caught with child pornography on his
computer. He was a Democrat politician
in New York. When they searched his
computer, they found a bunch of e-mails from Hillary Clinton being sent over an
unsecured server. That’s how the Hillary
e-mail investigation started.”
“Oh, so this could be more
problems for Hillary”
“I’m not getting my hopes
up. They can’t even get the law
enforcement guys, I doubt they’re going to get the mob boss and ring leader.” Wei
Lee laughed and Fanis smiled before adding, “Also, Durham’s investigation is
expanding”
“Who’s he?”
“He was the guy the attorney
general brought in. He’s an inspector
general helping Barr investigate the origin of the Trump Russian collusion
investigation.”
“They must have found something
that led to a whole new scandal”
“That’s why Barr said every time
they answer one question, more emerges.”
“I better pay attention. We’ll be here a while, so we can watch
together.”
Fanis was hoping that wouldn’t
be the case. Almost on cue, an officer
came walking with Kera. He unlocked the
door and pointed at Fanis. Kera blurted
out, “You’re free”
Fanis gave an apologetic grin at
Wei Lee and walked out of the cell as Wei Lee looked on incredulously. They left the precinct and Fanis pronounced
in Greek, “Thank you”
Kera announced in Greek “I told
you”
“I know I know, don’t speak
English”
“But you didn’t listen”
“I think I learned my lesson.”
“You deserve that beating”
“Thanks for the sympathy” Fanis
retorted with a smile
“I pay you to protect me; I
shouldn’t have to save you.”
Fanis just shook his head. He had a feeling that Kera was just getting
warmed up but there wasn’t much he could do about it. There was no argument. He should’ve avoided anyone speaking English. “How did you get me out?”
“I’m a Chinese art dealer that
speaks fluent Mandarin. I’ve been a
liaison for China to the west for almost a decade. Trust me; I’ve developed some contacts in
China to help with this stuff.”
“You were in Beijing”
“And Shang Hai and Hong Kong and
now I’m in Guanzhou. What are you trying
to say? If you want influence and
contacts in China, Beijing is a bad place for that?”
“Well when you say it like that
it sounds ridiculous”
“That’s only because it is
ridiculous”
“Okay”
Kera giggled. She was enjoying this. The next day they got on a plane and headed
back to London. Fanis was still sore
from the beating he received but he wasn’t showing it. Kera remarked, “Oh look another lower level
politician is standing up to Trump.”
“What now?”
“Jacob Fry, the mayor of
Minneapolis is saying that if Trump has his rally in his city, he has to pay
$530,000 for security.”
“They charged Obama liked
$20,000.”
“People didn’t protest Obama
like they do Trump”
“it’s called a ‘Heckler’s
Veto.’ College campuses do it all the
time to suppress conservatives from speaking.”
“It works”
“Not for a president. The secret service provides the security for
the president. With the whole entourage
sleeping and eating in the city, they bring in a shitload of money. Not to mention, all the people that travel to
their city to go to the event. The
president draws a crowd; especially this president. That off sets the costs of security and then
some.”
“Well, the rally is supposed to
happen tomorrow. Let’s see who wins. Remember when you were complaining about the
about queries of the NSA database when Obama was president?”
“Yes”
“Well, the FISA court said that
the FBI has been abusing it in 2017 and 2018.
Even went so far as to call it unconstitutional”
“About time we heard from the
FISC: why don’t they seem to care that the FBI and DOJ lied to them to get a
FISA warrant for Carter Page and probably others?”
“I don’t know but the report
said that they were using it to vet its personnel and cooperating sources.”
“What? That’s what the Woods procedure is for. The databases are for seeking evidence of a
crime or foreign intelligence information.
I agree with the FISC, this is a violation of 4th Amendment
rights. They are being spied upon
without any allegation of a crime.
They’re fishing.”
“When Obama did this, you were
upset but you don’t seem upset that Trump did it.”
“The FBI did it.”
“So with Obama it was his fault
but not with Trump?”
“There are texts from the FBI
saying that the White House was running the investigation. It also reveals that ‘POTUS wants to know
what we’re doing.’ You have none of that
with President Trump. Besides, do you
really thing the FBI is willing to help out the president? They’ve been attacking and undermining him
since he took office.”
Kera bobbed her head back and
forth, “Yea, that doesn’t seem to be too plausible. Trump attacked the FBI and they fight back.”
“Like Schumer warned, ‘if you go
against the intelligence community, they’ve got six ways from Sunday to get
back at you.”
“They have proved that the last
three years”
Kera and Fanis land in Heathrow
and go back home. Fanis ices his body
and plops on his bed trying to let his soreness heal. Kera tried offering him pain killers but he
refused. Kera left him alone and acted
as if he was completely healthy. There
wasn’t much she could do. All they both
could do was wait for him to get back to 100%.
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