Nouno the Vigilante Episdoe 24 Illogical outrage

                Jorge Rodriguez-Saldana is an illegal immigrant from Mexico living in Southern New Jersey.  He doesn’t have a driver’s license due to his immigration status but that doesn’t stop him from driving on a daily basis. While driving in Newark, New Jersey he strikes a vehicle with an elderly woman and her 7-year-old grandson.  The child will not survive the accident and the grandmother will suffer severe injuries. 

                When Saldana is apprehended, he is processed through the system. Once they realize that he is not a citizen of the United States, Saldana becomes worried that he is in even more trouble than he was originally.  At 30-years-old, he may not be young enough to make the treacherous journey to America from Mexico.  Luckily for Saldana, he lives in the state of Corey Booker and Bob Menendez.  The higher ups release Saldana on a summons.  Predictably, ICE catches wind of the story and requests that Jorge be turned over to them.  The New Jersey authorities inform ICE that they will not be cooperating and informs them that Saldana is no longer in custody.  Although ICE is frustrated, they are not surprised.  Many Democratic states fight ICE tooth and nail at the cost of the safety of their citizens.  It doesn’t take long for illegal immigrants to catch on that the administration’s hatred for ICE gives them a license to do whatever they want with full immunity. 

                On the other side of the country, in Arizona, Nouno and Abby are in their home.  Nouno has been in a foul mood as of late because he knows that the talks to impeach President Trump are completely ridiculous.  He jokes, “You know, in college, people would say ‘Bush lied and people died.  I think the tag line now should be ‘Obama spied and the Trump campaign didn’t die.’”

                His wife Abby replies, “Don’t be too certain.  They’re pretty sure they got him now”

                “And how many times have they said that?”

                “They only need to be right once”

                “Yea, but it should make people less hopeful every time they’re wrong”

                “And yet, we’re not”

                “Hope springs eternal mighty Casey”

                Abby smiles as she gets the reference.  It’s from the story of Mighty Casey who is up to bat to win the game.  The first two lesser baseball players get on and it’s all up to Casey to win the game.  Casey, however, strikes out.  “There’s a breaking New York Times piece that Trump talked to the Australian leader for personal gain.”

                “Really?  That’s the big story.  The President of the United States talked to the leader of an allied nation?”

                “Well, it was about the Russia investigation”

                “So, he wants to find out the truth and what they know”

                “To benefit his campaign”

                “So, the truth may help his campaign and that’s a bad thing?”

                “Well when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so bad.  He may be pressuring them though.”

                “The Australians are big boys, they can decide for themselves.  If they feel pressured, they’ll complain just like the Ukrainians complained when Biden pressured them to fire their prosecutor general for investigating his kid.”

                “Why would the New York Times do it?”

                “They are embarrassed that they got burned because they were at the forefront of the Russian collusion hoax and it was a giant dud”

                “Well Bill Barr keeps talking to foreign countries”

                “Bill Barr is investigating the greatest scandal in American history.  If that bothers the mainstream media then that’s their problem.  If Barr finds malfeasance, why wouldn’t the New York Times and mainstream media want to know it?  It’d be a juicy story.”

                “I’m not sure”

                “It’s because they don’t want justice and they’re embarrassed they were wrong and got tricked by the DOJ.  This isn’t over.  They’re going to keep publishing stories about this to try to intimidate Bill Barr to not do his job”

                “He’s colluding with Australia and other foreign officials”

                “Actually, Australia wrote him a letter offering to help him after they heard Trump give a speech in May saying he wanted Barr to look into Ukraine, UK and Australia to investigate the origins of the 2016 Russian investigation.  If they volunteered, it’s hard to pressure.  Where was the outrage then?”

                “So, why do you think there’s outrage now?”

                “The IG report is coming out and it’s going to be devastating for them.  They’re going to try to pretend that Trump investigating foreign collusion by the Democrats is colluding with foreigners.  How do you investigate foreign collusion if you don’t talk to foreigners who the Democrats may have colluded with?”

                “I don’t remember this May thing”

                Nouno sends her a clip where Trump is outside giving an impromptu speech as he often does.  He tells the media that there was an attempted coup and that it should never happen to anyone else.  He informs everyone that he is going to let Barr use declassified information as he sees fit to investigate the 2016 election.  Trump expresses his hope that he looks at the UK, Australia and Ukraine and ends it by giving a blanket hope that he looks at everything.  “In case you forgot, Australia was involved because the former ambassador to the UK, Alexander Downer said that Papadopoulos told him that he had dirt on Hillary Clinton.  Downer then passed that information to the FBI and the American embassy.  The fact that the New York Times has a problem that the truth of this matter will help Trump politically is an indication of how corrupt the New York Times is.  Shouldn’t journalists want the truth to a story?”

                “We got a case”

                “Where are we going?”

                “New Jersey”

                “Ah, back to the old stomping grounds”

                “You lived in New York”

                “Close enough”

                “What New Yorker says that?”

                “Good point”

                Abby books the flight and a week later, they are on a plane to Newark airport.  Abby declares, “I’ve been looking into what we talked about last week with Barr’s investigation”

                “Okay”

                “Barr’s been really busy talking to foreigners about what they know.  He’s trying to dig up dirt on his political opponents.  That’s weaponizing the government.  Isn’t that what you always complain Bill Clinton and Obama did?”

                “Yes, we know that Obama spied on the Trump team.  There’s no question about that.  There’s serious intelligence questions about the methods they used.  They had a FISA but they may have obtained the FISA by lying to the court.  We know that they had help from foreigners because even CNN and the Guardian, a left leaning British newspaper, admitted it.  You’re problem is that we’re asking questions about it?  Barr and Durham are not paying foreigners to find dirt on their political opponents.  They are specifically asking them what they talked about with the Democrats during the 2016 election.  They are investigating a claim not a blanket hope that they find some skeletons.  It is a specific investigation.  If they can investigate Trump, why can’t Trump investigate them?”

                “it’s an abuse of power”

                “How?”

                “If you get arrested by the cops, you can’t investigate them to see if they ever committed a crime.”

                “That’s not what’s happening.  We’re not seeing if Obama, Hillary and their team committed any crime.  We’re investigating their methods in trying to investigate President Trump.  The means in which the cop arrests you is usually the first thing a lawyer looks at when he defends his client in court.  If it so happens the cop beat you unnecessarily when you were being arrested even though you weren’t resisting, the cop gets in trouble for that.  He is then charged with police brutality. This is the same concept.  We are looking at when they investigated Trump, did they plant evidence, did they set him up, did they entrap him.  All things you would check with the cop that arrested you.”

                “Maybe that’s a bad example”

                “No, it was a great example you just didn’t realize it proved my point.  Now that I’m using your example for my gain in this argument, is it wrong?”

                Abby gave Nouno a dirty look.  She goes back to her phone and reads from the Washington Post, “Look, Attorney General William Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials, including the UK and Italy seeking their help in the Russia collusion investigation”

                “So what?”

                Abby stutters for a moment and then exclaims, “I don’t know”

                “Get used to these headlines.  The mainstream media will call every meeting he has with a foreigner as nefarious in order to intimidate Barr because that’s all liberals do is threaten and try to intimidate conservatives.  It works for Republicans.  It doesn’t work for conservatives.”

                “So, you don’t have a problem that Barr personally asked foreign officials to aid in his inquiry into CIA and FBI activities in 2016 as the Washington Post alleges?”

                “No.  I don’t even know why that’s news.  It shouldn’t be too surprising since the foreigners were the ones that spied on Trump and his campaign.  Now the question is why did they do it?  Were they told by US counterparts?  Were they just trying to be good allies?  What do they know?  That is literally what Barr’s job is; to find out the answer to these questions.”

                They land in Newark and they check into a Air BNB.  Since Nouno had lived in New York for 17 years, he was very familiar with the area.  He had family in New Jersey so unlike most New Yorkers, he did cross the Hudson into New Jersey quite frequently while he lived there.  He already had a crematorium picked out.  Abby took to social media, hacking into Jorge’s account to find his whereabouts.  She found out that he had gone further south by Philadelphia but knew when he’d get back.  When the time came, Nouno drove to a bar he knew Jorge would be at.  As both Nouno and Abby were white, and that was rare in Newark, they stuck out like sore thumbs. 

Nouno’s plan was simple; walk up to Jorge and jam a sedative into him to knock him out.  It turns out Jorge was going to make this easier for him.  As Jorge was walking, a girl brushed him as she walked by.  She turned to look at him but didn’t apologize.  Jorge yelled out, “You got something to say bitch?  Say it!”

Nouno blurted out, “Man, shut the fuck up, that’s a female”

Jorge walked up to Nouno and Nouno delivered the sedative as Jorge approached.  Nouno then locked arms with him as if he was defending himself.  Really, he was holding him up.  The girl ran off and Abby drove up and Nouno helped him into the back seat.  He got in the passenger seat and Abby drove to their Air Bnb.  When Jorge woke up, he was restrained by plastic.  Nouno usually spoke to Hispanics in Spanish but he had already seen how proficient Jorge was in English as he yelled at people.  He started, “I know you’re a little disoriented”

“What the fuck?  Who are you?  Why the fuck am I here?”

“You really shouldn’t be threatening women on the streets.  You even attacked me when I called you out on it.  That wasn’t nice.  I had to defend myself.”

“Well, alright I’m sorry then.  You could have just knocked me out and left me there, I would have learned my lesson.”

“True, you would have learned your lesson with what you tried to do to me and what you did to that girl.  The seven year old boy you killed, however, and his grandmother you severely injured is a different story.”

“That’s what this is about?  You can’t be serious.  That was an accident”

                “One you didn’t pay for because you’re an illegal immigrant and Jersey protected you from ICE.  You didn’t try to help the family though even after you realized you had immunity because you’re an illegal”

                “You know that’s illegal to say now.  You can be fined up to $250,000”

                “That’s in New York. This is New Jersey”

                Abby blurted out, “Really?” in a shocked tone

                Nouno turned to her, “Yea, I mean it’s not illegal if you say it in the street but if you say in public accommodations, work place or during tenant/landlord relations, it’s actually against the law in New York.”

                “What happened to the first amendment?”

                “They don’t care about that in New York, they’re run by communists”

                “I don’t see the point”

                “Really?  It’s so that when you debate people, you have to use their terms or else you can be arrested.  It’s not enough to publicly shame them in the mainstream media like every other state does.  No, now, you can actually fine them and probably throw them in jail if you say the words they don’t like”

                “Well, I guess it can hurt someone’s self esteem if they’re trying to rent a place and you ask if they’re illegal”

                “And it wouldn’t concern them at all if the question was if they’re undocumented?”

                “Yea, I see your point”

                “It’s not a pejorative.  It’s a statement of fact.  It just helps with their cultural war.  Take Jorge here.  It’s a fact that he’s in this country illegally.  The statement of that fact is to call him an illegal.  Since we refer to people who aren’t citizens as ‘aliens,’ he is an illegal alien.”

                “If they’re going to make words illegal; there are much harsher ones they should start with.”

                “But those won’t help in the cultural war.”

                “Yea, I guess”

                Jorge chimed in, “If it helps, I completely agree with you.  It’s ridiculous to make it against the law to say ‘illegal immigrant.’  I’m not offended that you called me one.”

                Nouno turned to him, “No, that doesn’t help.”

                “But I’m not like other illegals.  I’ve assimilated.  I speak English”

                “It’s not that different from Spanish, it’s not hard”

                “I keep up with the news.  I know that Barr and Durham are looking into Joseph Mifsud”

                “Yea, Washington Post and the rest of fake news is very worried what Barr and Durham will find out.”

                “Yea, he’s the reason they opened the investigation”

                “They do claim he’s the key.  Which is why he’s the best way to discredit the whole thing.  If he’s a Russian agent, like they claim, there’s some meat on the bone for what Democrats allege about Russian collusion.  Still doesn’t really hurt Trump because Papadopoulos was a low level campaign guy and that’s who Mifsud met with but at least there’s some justification IF Mifsud is a Russian agent.  If Mifsud is not a Russian agent, however, then Trump was set up and it’s all a hoax and an entrapment operation”

                “I don’t get much from the non-‘fake news’ as you call it.  I’d be interested in learning the other side.  What if Mifsud is not a Russian agent?”

                “If MIfsud worked for western intelligence then Papadopoulos is talking with an ally about Hillary.  There’s no reason to investigate Russia if Mifsud, who is Maltese, is not a Russian spy. If Mifsud is linked to western intelligence than there’s no way that it is not a set up”

                “Well, I know my source may be faulty on this but the Post did say that conservatives and conspiracy theorists say that Mifsud is a western asset.  I actually don’t know.  Why do you think that?”

                “Mifsud’s lawyer, Steven Rowe said he was a western intelligence asset too”

                “Oh, well he would know”

                “The Washington Post is going to attack anyone asking about Mifsud as a conspiracy theorists because they don’t want to be embarrassed that they were so wrong for so long”

                “So, it’s a he says, she says”

                “Not really.  Mifsud is in pictures with a lot of British intelligence agents at MI6 and GCHQ.  What? is he a double spy?  Why isn’t Britain nervous about all the people in their intelligence that are photographed with him and spoke to him?”

                “Also, spies don’t really like to be photographed”

                “There you go”

                “Again, I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but didn’t the Mueller report claim Mifsud was a Russian asset?”

                “No, Mueller said that he had Russian connections.  What does that mean?  He knew Russians.  I know Russians, it doesn’t make me a Russian spy”

                “Now I know why fake news tries to keep people away from you people.  You start making a lot of sense.”

                “Here’s another one, Mifsud was in the Capital Building in January 2017. That’s six months after the investigation was open because someone on Trump’s campaign talked to him in London.  Now, he’s being interviewed by the FBI in the Capital Building and they let him go?”

                “Well, he disappeared from public life”

                “Why do you suppose that is?  You really think he’d be able to hide from us?  We found people in caves.  You don’t think we can find a professor that likes being photographed and loves name dropping and bragging who he knows?”

                Abby interjects, “That’s why Barr wants to talk to Italy.  Malta is pretty much a part of Italy and Mifsud is from Malta.  The Italians might know something”

                Nouno replied, “And LA Republicca, the main Italian newspaper reported that Mifsud is linked to western intelligence too.”

                Jorge was smiling.  He thought that this conversation was going well and he was endearing himself to these people.  He decided to go for it, “It’s been really nice talking to you.  I understand what you thought but as you see I’m not like other illegals.  I’m like Mifsud.  You thought I was here to just rape the system and commit crimes but I didn’t mean to kill that kid and hurt his abuela.  I try to keep informed in what’s going on.  I want to be an American.  Yea, I wasn’t charged because I’m an illegal but that’s not my fault, that’s the system’s fault.  Just how Mifsud turned out not to be a Russian spy, I turned out not to be a typical illegal who doesn’t speak English and joins gangs and human trafficking and shit.”

                Nouno laughed.  “You’re not here because you’re an illegal that didn’t assimilate.  You’re here because there were no consequences for you killing a little boy.  The worst thing I’ve ever had to so was console a grandmother who just lost her grandson.  You did that to one because you refused to follow the rules of this state.  People only don’t do things because they fear the consequences.  Well, here’s your consequence”

                Jorge yelled “no” just as Nouno lunged his knife into the major artery in his chest. 

                Abby and Nouno wrapped the body with the plastic and loaded it in the trunk.  They drove to the crematorium and broke in.  They loaded Jorge into the machine and then left as it worked.  While they waited at a nearby diner, Abbey asked, “Alright, so you don’t have a problem with the Whistleblower accusation.  You always think Trump is one step ahead. Do you think he ever made a mistake?”

                “Yes, plenty”

                “Like what?”

                “Not building the full wall, using material that has holes in it, releasing the transcript and, the biggest one, hiring Atkinson as the inspector general for the national intelligence.”

                “Not familiar with that last one”

                “So, usually what politicians do is they bring in their political opponents in order to get differing opinions by someone that knows what’s going on and may have been the ones calling the shots.  It’s important not to surround yourself with ‘yes’ men.  Obama did this when he hired Hillary Clinton.  He ran against her in the primary, then hired her after he beat her and went on to the presidency.  Not only does it give you a knowledgeable aid in your administration but it builds a coalition for future elections because the person you beat has supporters who may now become your supporters since you didn’t step on their throat.”

                “Makes sense”

                “It makes sense for anyone who is not Donald Trump.  President Trump’s political enemies want to destroy him.  Just because Trump appointed Atkinson, doesn’t make him good.  It means Trump gave in to politics and tried to throw a bone to the Republicans that hate him.  Unfortunately, this one blew up in his face.”

                “Alright”

                “So, Michael Atkinson was the senior counsel to the Director of National Intelligence”

                “I got that.  He’s a lawyer.”

                “He was also John Carlin’s lawyer”

                “Who is John Carlin?”

                “He worked for Hillary and was on the Mueller probe.  He ran the national security division under Obama”

                “Oh, so that’s what you were talking about.  Trump beat Hillary and the Democrats and succeeded Obama so appointing him shows that he’s willing to reach across the aisle and be diplomatic.  How did it blow up in his face?”

                “Atkinson made sure the Whistleblower was deemed an urgent threat and he advised him or her to go to the House Democrat committee led by Adam Schiff and ignore the Republican committee.”

                “Ah, so he’s responsible for this whole scandal”

                “He also changed the law so that the Whistleblower could come forward.  Before the phone call, you couldn’t be a whistleblower if you had no firsthand knowledge.  Now you can all of a sudden.  Not only did he change the law, but he did it secretly.”

                “Almost like he wanted to blindside someone”

                “Yes”

                “John Carlin was also one of the final signatures on the FISA information declaring it was verified through the Woods procedure when it wasn’t”

                “And this Atkinson guy is his top lawyer”

                “Right.  Carlin was also Bob Mueller’s chief of staff when Mueller headed the FBI”

                “Just because someone worked for Hillary or Obama, doesn’t make them bad”

                “it is when the topic is Donald Trump.  They aren’t masking how much they hate him and how they’re out to get him.  If Trump gets reelected, he needs to stop being diplomatic.  He should just fire everyone that was ever associated with Obama or Hillary.”

                “The media will throw a hissy fit”

                “They already throw a hissy fit for everything.  Look at the hissy fit now.  They’re pissed that he talked to the new Ukrainian president.  They’re pissed he’s asking for their help in looking into if Democrats talked to him.  There was no quid pro quo, no threat, just asked a favor.  Foreign leaders ask favors from each other all the time.  Do you think we just decided to give Ukraine a billion dollars in aid that Biden withheld unless they fired their prosecutor general?  No, they asked us for help and we helped them.”

                “Well, I know you hate Schiff but he does claim that even asking Ukrainians about negative information about your political opponents is despicable”

                Nouno pulled out his phone, which Abby knew meant he had something saved that would completely discredit her.  It was a video put together by Matt Gaetz of Schiff making the accusations about what is wrong and then playing a prank phone call in which two Russians pretended to be Ukrainians that had dirt on Trump.  Schiff asks them to send it to him and tells them he’s very interested.  At the end, Abby concedes, “Well, it does a good job painting him as the hypocrite you say he is.”

                “There you go”

                “But, splicing two things together is always suspicious.  You may be taking things out of context”

                “What context would make that not hypocritical?”

                “Maybe Schiff meant only for presidents”

                “So congressman is okay but not the president?”

                “I wouldn’t agree with that but maybe that’s what Schiff meant”

                “Tell me an explanation you would agree with.”

                “I don’t know.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s time”

                Abby and Nouno paid their bill and went back to the crematorium to clear out the bones and ashes.  They return back to the Air BNB and go to sleep.

                The next day, they are back on the plane heading back to Arizona.  Abby seems lost in thought.  She finally declares, “Alright, I won’t talk about the Whistleblower but what about Biden’s defense that he never talked to his son about Burisma?”

                Nouno shows her a picture, “This is Biden playing golf with his son Hunter and Devon Archer, who is on the Burisma board with Hunter.  Do you think they just refrained from talking about business?”

                “When was this picture taken?”

                “2014”

                “So, Biden was Vice President”

                “Yes, he was”

                “Well, I guess we don’t know what they talked about on the golf course”

                Nouno could pick up from Abby’s tone that she wasn’t too convinced.  He still treated it as if she was, “You don’t think it’s suspicious that Joe Biden went to Ukraine to talk about natural gas.  When he returned, Hunter had a 600K job on the board of Burisma when he had no energy experience whatsoever?”

                “Well, why Devon Archer?  I’m sure there are other people on the board”

                “He’s a friend and close associate of John Kerry.  Hunter and Kerry’s son started a company together.”

                “Oh, well, you’re saying he likes to be connected to high ranking American politicians”

                “Secretary of State and the Vice President”

                “Speaking about hiring your political opponents”

                “Right”

                “Well, with all these Biden attacks by Giuliani, you successfully got him to be trailing in the polls.  Now you have to deal with Elizabeth Warren.”

                “We got time to take her down too.”

                “I don’t know. Her message of even though the rich have more things than poor people, it doesn’t mean they get more of a share of the Democracy resonated well with us folk who used to be poor.”

                “Warren is worth over $ 12 Million dollars and lied about being Native American in order to get special benefits and treatment.  I’m not so sure how much poor people will like her when they find out that she’s not like them, she’s a millionaire.  But, I’m sure Trump won’t bring that up.”

                “She vilifies rich people”

                “You don’t think that some may think that’s disingenuous when they found out that she’s railing against a group she’s a part of?”

                “You really need a life”

                “I have one.  I travel the country working with the person I love more than anyone else and is the most beautiful woman in the world.”

                Abby gave a wry smile and a suspicious look but she did blush a little bit.  She responded, “Wow, you really know how to turn on the charm and blow smoke up my ass.”

                “I’m just being honest.”

                “Hmmm mmm”

                Nouno smiled and started watching a movie.  Abby trolled her social media.  They arrived back in Arizona and relaxed from two cross country flights very close together.  Now all they could do was wait for the next mission to come along.