Theo the Trump Employee Episode 33 Concede no Ground

                The mood at the White House is of elation.  Everyone is smiling and greeting each in the halls.  There’s a good reason for the excitement and positive aura; the murderous ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been killed.  Nobody in the White House has any problem with the head of the house saying in no uncertain terms that the deceased died like a dog and a coward whining and screaming till he blew himself up along with his wife and some kids.  Fortunately, there were no American casualties.  The worst injury was from a service dog that may lose a leg but is otherwise alive and well having served his purpose. 

                An employee in the Trump White House, Theo is making himself some tea as he doesn’t drink coffee.  This isn’t his normal routine but he wants to share in the celebration with his co-workers and the cafeteria is the best place to do it.  Someone approaches him and utters simply, “Like a dog”

                Theo smiles and nods, “Actually, I like dogs.  That piece of shit isn’t even worthy of being called a dog.”

                The co-worker chuckles, “That mission couldn’t have gone any better.”

                “Obviously, we got the best military in the world.  They know what they’re doing.  They know how to get shit done.  They walked into a foreign country and killed the leader of the largest terrorist organization and lost nobody.  Put the world on notice; don’t fuck with America.”

                “They cornered the son of a bitch and he whined and cried like Nancy Kerrigan”

                “Damn straight”

                This kind of language was very uncommon in the White House just a few short years ago.  It was the politically correct culture that infuriated a large number of Americans and made them disenfranchised with politicians.  That was a major reason why Donald Trump won the presidency.  People were sick of Republicans taking the high road and knew the Democrats were power hungry bullies.  Someone needed to punch the bully in the mouth.  It’s no secret that the turnout for the Republican primaries doubled in 2016 than it was in 2012 for Romney.  A majority of the country couldn’t stand either party and they needed a disrupter and nobody could disrupt like Donald Trump.  Theo was about to get an indication just how bad it was before.  Even though he lived it, he knew the kid gloves established politicians used but even he would be surprised with what would happen next. Theo declared, “It’s so refreshing to have a President that will call these scumbags for what they are.”

                “Oh yea I know. Before previous presidents would have been a tragic act that, after much deliberation, we saw no other alternative but to execute with regret that it had come to this.”

                After work, Theo went over to Vanderbilt University in D.C.  Usually these trips were to troll college kids and burst their bubbles.  He sat there and debated them lightheartedly.  He was able to stay calm because he knew he was dealing with brainwashed people so they didn’t really know what they were saying.  Listening to college kids speak, you may contemplate raising the voting age to 23.  Often times, this is actually his way to decompress because although he loved working at the White House and had great admiration for the president, it was a stressful place.  This is especially true because you are being attacked on all sides from Republicans, Democrats, the media and the citizenry, which is 90% Democrat.  This time, however, his drinking is celebratory.   Even though Theo is 35 so hasn’t been of college age in quite some time, he does believe that he won’t get much opposition to his views.  After all, he hated Obama but he praised him for executing the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden.  This was one event that was so objectively good, that no American should be against it.  Even after 13 years of being in the real world, Theo was about to find out that he still had some naivety. 

                He orders a drink and the bartender hands it to him.  Theo lifts it up and announces, “To Baghdadi, may he rot in hell.”

                A redheaded girl with plain features approaches him and replies, “That’s not right.”

                “What?”

                “A man is dead.  You need to have some respect for the dead.  It takes bravery to stand up to the bully America.”

                Normally, when Theo felt the anger building up he calmed himself by remembering his audience but this was not one of those times.  He snapped back, “Are you fucking kidding me?  No, there’s no respect for the dead of a rapist, murdering, scumbag that recruited people to murder innocent women and children.  There’s no bravery in targeting women and children.  It doesn’t take guts to behead someone who has his hands tied behind his back.”

                “We need to let them have a proper burial or else we may anger those in the region.”

                “Absolutely fucking not.  We don’t give a damn about their feelings.  They want to kill us no matter what.”

                “You’re just an ignorant American”

                “Are you an American?”

                “I am but I’m woke.”

                “I’ve been to 40 countries.  How many have you been to?”

                The girl stuttered but came out with, “Well, you should have picked up something with the respect Europeans have.”

                “Are you fucking serious?  In Scotland, they hated a British king so much that they wanted to try him for war crimes.  The probably was he died before the Scotsmen could get to him.  When the Scottish got their independence they dug up his body and had a full trial for a skeleton.  You want to know what happened next?”

                “Ewwww”

                “They sentenced the remains of the king to death.”

                “How did that work?”

                “The same way you kill an alive human, they hung him.”

                “Fine, bad example. I’m not a European scholar or anything.  James Winnfield, Obama’s military leader so not some chump, said we should give him an honorable burial.  Don’t you think he would know?”

                “Nope!” Theo shouted, “I think you just confirmed the problem with Obama.  He was weak and all those around him were weak.  Terrorists feed off weakness.  That’s why President Trump won because he wasn’t afraid to say he wanted America to win.  He told everyone that the President of America should prioritize America over anybody else.”

                “Look, I just think that we need to be more diplomatic.”

                “Go to Syria and say that. See how far diplomacy gets you.”

                “Did you just tell me you hope I get raped?”

                “No, I told you to go to Syria and repeat what you said.  The fact that you took that comment as my telling you that I hope you get raped, actually proves my point more than anything else you could have said.”

                The redhead rolls her eyes and storms off.  Theo shook his head.  He couldn’t believe that he just had that conversation.  He repeated himself in his head that he came here to argue with liberals, so he can’t get mad.  He reminded himself this is what he wanted.  A dark haired, baby face boy approached him.  He criticized, “It’s a little hypocritical that you talk shit about Al-Baghdadi for killing and raping women but then you think you’re big and tough yelling at a woman.”

                “Are you fucking kidding me?  You think laying down some truth in a forceful tone with a woman is the same thing as raping her?”

                “Sexual assault can be verbal”

                “But rape can’t.  What about murder?  You think it’s on par?  I’m just trying to get your value system.”

                “I don’t like that we withdrew our troops.  We abandoned the Kurds and that wasn’t cool.”

                “Do you think it’s cool we killed Baghdadi?”

                “No, I think it’s just going to breed more terrorists.”

                “They’ve been fighting for centuries.  We’re not going to be able to improve anything.  We need to take care of ourselves.  I find it odd that the same people the criticized President Trump for withdrawing the troops claiming that if we don’t fight them there, we have to fight them here; are now criticizing Trump for killing the leader.  You want to give that piece of shit an honorable burial?  Fuck that.  He doesn’t deserve it.”

                “You don’t think it’s helpful to have the biggest guy backing you up in a fight?”

                “Usually big dude can’t fight very well.  I’d much rather have a little guy that is scrappy.  A guy that’s been picked on several times but he just keeps coming at you.  The more you knock him down, the more he gets back up and attacks.  You may get your shots in but in the end, you’re not going to think it was worth it.  Eventually, people just leave him alone because they don’t want to take the time or effort.  People are predators; just like in the animal kingdom, predators don’t go after the large and healthy prey, they go after the small and weak ones.  They’re not looking for a fight; they’re looking for a slaughter.”

                “You have to admit that Trump didn’t sound too presidential when he taunted a dead man.”

                “No, he didn’t and I loved him for it.  He sent a message to the world that there’s a new sheriff in town and if you mess with us, then you’re going to find yourself at the end of a cave whimpering and crying.  We will find you.”

                The boy shook his head, “Wow, you really think that killing one guy is going to make a difference.”

                “No, we also killed a spokesman for ISIS.”

                “So we shot the messenger”

                “Yup! Sends a message to other messengers that they’re not exempt.  You side with ISIS and you attack us, then we come at you with great vengeance and furious anger.”

                The boy put his hands up and walked away.  Theo figured that given the age of those in this bar, they probably didn’t get the Pulp Fiction reference but he didn’t care.   Since Theo had been yelling, everyone in the bar had noticed him.  As the early 20-year-olds stared over at him they furiously went through their phones wanting to troll the angry old guy in the bar.  A blond haired girl approaches him and shows him her phone.  It’s a headline from the Washington Post reading ‘Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, austere religious scholar at helm of Islamic State, dies at 48.”

                Theo looked up to see a smug smile on the girl’s face.  Theo grinned back and asked, “Did you photo shop this?  This can’t be real.”

                “It’s real”

                Theo took her phone and clicked on the link.  To his dismay, an article came up.  He skimmed it reading an excerpt,

’When Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi took the reins of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, few had heard of the organization or its new leader, an austere religious scholar with wire-frame glasses and no known aptitude for fighting and killing’ 

Theo looked up, “This is serious?  You’re not fucking with me?  I know the Post is fake news but even they can’t be this fucking bad”

                “What do you mean?  What’s false?”

                “The son of a bitch is a murderer, rapist, terrorist and beheader and they claim that he had no aptitude for violence?  Are you insane?  He’s the head of ISIS; you think that’s a peaceful non-violent organization?”

                “That’s what the article says.”

                Theo laughed, “Alright, you got a rise out of me.  Now you can tell me that you wrote this, copy and pasted the Washington Post’s logos and tried to make it look real.  You did a good job, I must say, it looks authentic.”

                “Use your phone and type it in.”

                Since Google discriminates against conservatives, Theo uses bing knowing that his gesture won’t mean anything.  He types in the name of the article and it comes right up.  He opens it and scrolls further down.  The article goes on,

From his teens, he was fascinated with Islamic history and the intricacies of Islmaic law.  Acquaintances would remember him as a shy, nearsighted youth who liked soccer but preferred to spend his free time at the local mosque.

                “He always had religious or other books on his bike” Tariq Hameed, an acquaintance from the same lower middle-class neighborhood, told a Newsweek interviewer in 2014.  The young Ibrahim disdained the Western clothes popular with Samarra’s young men, preferring the traditional prayer cap, beard and white dishdasa robe of the religious devout, neighbors said.’

                Theo wasn’t upset, he was horrified.  He looked at her and remarked incredulously, “You have no problem with this?”

                “No, he’s a human being He should be treated as such.”

                “He’s a mass murderer.  He tortured people.  They didn’t feel the need to mention that”

                “They’re not the only ones.  Here’s one from Bloomberg politics and he’s a Republican”

                “Not anymore he’s not, he switched to independent.  I worked for him in 2005 when he was running for re-election for mayor of New York.”

                “Well, your former boss doesn’t really agree with you.”

                Theo looked at the article and read

                Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi transformed himself from a little-known teacher of Koranic recitation into the self-proclaimed ruler of an entity that covered swaths of Syria and Iraq. 

                “There really is no credibility anymore.  They didn’t say this shit when we killed Bin Laden.  It was a universal good.  What the fuck has our society denigrated to?”

                The blond shimmies her body and struts away proud of herself that she he made him sad.  Theo took a long sip of his drink.  He wasn’t prepared for this.  These people really did hate America.  How can you hate Trump so much that you would root for ISIS or terrorist just because they opposed Trump too?  A blond boy about 6’2” with tanned skin and fit build approached Theo.  Although this is exactly why he was here, he was regretting this trip.  Retreat, however, wasn’t an option.  He looked up and the boy uttered, “Not having a good night?”

                “No, I knew liberals were libelous, scandalous, treacherous assholes but I didn’t realize just how much they hate America.”

                “Well, I’m not here to pile on.  I want to be a little reasonable.”

                “That would be a nice change.”

                “You have to admit that not telling congress was wrong of the president.”

                “No, it’s not.  Read the constitution.  The president can authorize military action without notifying congress for up to 90 days.  This was a couple hours.  Bill Clinton utilized this all the time.  Every time he had a scandal, he bombed Baghdad or something.  In fact, Clinton utilized that clause more than every president before him combined.”

                “Clinton was a long time ago.  Pelosi was pissed.”

                “All she does is leak.  If he told her, she would have told the press, who would have published it and Baghdadi would be warned.  And that’s just me being nice.  Adam Schiff may actually call Baghdadi to tell him.”

                “Trump told the Russians.”

                “He didn’t tell them what he was doing.  He told them that we’d been in the area for deconfliction purposes.  The Russians have troops on the ground.  They have anti-aircraft missiles.  We don’t want them accidentally shooting our helicopters out of the sky while we come in.  If Pelosi was operating an anti-aircraft gun, we’d tell her too.”

                “The President is obligated to tell congress.”

                “The president doesn’t owe congress a God damn thing.  He’s the most powerful man in the world in a completely different branch of government.”

“It’s not right to leave people out.”

“I’m curious if you say the same thing about Schiff not letting any Republicans in the impeachment inquiry hearings.”

The boy’s jaw dropped as if to say something and then he closed it.  He didn’t really have an answer to this.  He walked away. 

It didn’t take long for a dark haired girl with pale skin around 5’5” and a skinny toned look to approach him.  “Look, there are a lot of former Obama people that have a problem with the handling of this.”

“That just shows you how much of a terrorist supporter Obama was.”

                “Your president isn’t so innocent himself.  That photo from the situation room, Pete Souza, who was Obama’s photographer, informed everyone that it was staged.  The raid started at 3:30 but that photo was taken after 5:00.”

                Theo pounded his head, “Do you think before you speak?”

                “Don’t talk down to me.”

                “I have like forty five problems with what you said.  Let’s start with the obvious, how long do you think the mission took?”

                The girl looked up and gave a inquisitive look, “I never thought of that”

                “Well the helicopters left at around 5:00”

                “Trump was golfing”

                “At 3:30, what about at 5?”

                “I don’t really know”

                “Souza retracted that by the way but I guess you don’t pick it up.”

                “Yea, I didn’t see that.”

                “Shocking” Theo retorted with sacrcasm

                “That’s just one problem.”

                “Let’s pretend that you’re right.  The raid was already successful and to celebrate a successful mission in any sense of the word, they decide to gather in the situation room and take a picture.  So what?”

                The brunette opened her mouth and put her head down so her chin hit her chest.  “Well…I mean….you know…..it’s just…..he shouldn’t lie.”

                “I have no problem if he took a picture that wasn’t at exactly the same time as the raid was going on.  I’m happy that the mission was a success.  We killed him with no casualties.  But you’re concerned about when exactly a picture was taken.  Maybe you should check your values in life.”

                “Alright fine, you got me on Souza.  What about the former deputy director of the CIA, Michael Morell.  He’s like you; he admits that it was good that we got him.  Nobody is arguing that we shouldn’t have killed him….”

                “Apparently you didn’t see the Washington Post and Bloomberg politics”

                “Whatever, I’m talking about people who acknowledge that it was good.  Morell praised the mission but he had a problem with him taking back some of his body and maintaining that it may inspire extremists.”

                “Throughout history that argument has been completely wrong.  People are deterred by those who die.  That’s why hangings were done publicly.  That’s why they were left on display to let people know what happens if you cross them.  We should hang the body parts outside the White House.”

“Oh Come on! That’s barbaric”

Theo laughed, “Alright, that may be a little extreme but I wouldn’t blame Trump for keeping a little souvenir in commemoration for one of his finer moments as president.”

“You’re sick”

“And you’re too sensitive.”

                “What about Sam Vinograd?  Same thing, she agrees that it was good.  She is also afraid of the retaliation to it.  The president sitting there talking in detail about it harms our sources on the ground.  Again, it was a great thing, but there’s no need for the detailed, disrespectful description.”

                “Good alliteration.  Let me get this straight.  Last week, people were claiming that if we don’t fight them there, we’ll see them here.  Now, a week later, it’s ‘celebrate a little but then blame Trump for radicalizing Islamic terrorists’?  The key word in Sam’s little speech is ‘afraid.’  That’s the problem.  American presidents were too afraid to do what was necessary.  We are so coddled that we are afraid of the real world.  Trump believes in the American grit.  He believes that we’re not this cowardly.  He knows Americans are willing to fight and he knows that the death penalty is a deterrent.  The world know that we will find you and we will kill you.  If we can get to the leader of ISIS and Al Quaeda, then we can get to you too.”

                “It’s more like: kill them but don’t talk about it and be nice to them now that they’re dead.  It’s not nice to be mean to the dead.  We also shouldn’t steal their oil“

                “We have never stolen any countries’ oil despite the amount of time and conflicts we’ve had in oil rich countries.  If we wanted oil, we’d go closer; like Venezuela.  It wouldn’t be hard to steal a country’s oil.  We’re the greatest military in the world; we could do in probably under a year.  We don’t do those things though.  Instead, we secure the oil fields so that the Kurds can build a stable economy and sustain themselves.  That way, they don’t need us.  Capitalism has lifted the most amount of people out of poverty than any other system.  It can happen in Syria too.”

“He didn’t have to go into so much detail”

“Were you this appalled when Obama advised on the movie Zero Dark Thirty, which is literally a movie about how we killed Osama Bin Laden?  That wasn’t detailed?  It was like a two hour movie.  Trump gave like a short speech.”

“You always have an answer.”

                “It’s not hard.  You’re bombarded with stupid shit but you haven’t developed a good bullshit filter yet.  Hopefully, you get one quick so these evil liberals don’t corrupt you for life.”

                The girl walks away and Theo notices the people that confronted him are gathered together talking.  A redheaded boy walks over.  He announces, “Are you trying to say Democrats wouldn’t have gone after him?”

                “Well Obama had various meetings and, according to the movie that his administration advised on, they delayed a very long time before finally pulling the trigger on the mission.  Based on that, no, I don’t think they have the stomach for it.”

                “What about Biden? He was vice president when we got Osama Bin Laden.”

                “Biden is on the record saying that when they had the meeting, all but one person hedged their answer.  Lee Penetta was the only one that said they should go.  Biden was the last to speak and he told everyone that they owed him an answer.  Biden, however, said they needed to do two more things to make sure Bin Laden was where we thought he was.  He wanted to delay more.  Luckily, Obama didn’t listen to him, and went through with it anyway.  Based on that, no, I don’t think Biden would have gotten it done.”

                “Is there any Democrat you do like?”

                “Not in the current field.  I liked Truman.  He said, ‘I never give them hell, I give them the truth and they think it’s hell.  I like that.”

                Theo finishes his drink and realizes that he, in effect, proved his point.  People came at him for a fight and after six people, he was still standing.  Now, nobody wanted to engage him.  He turned to the bartender and informed him, “Add six more drinks to my tab.  If one of the people that argued with me come for a refill, put it on me.  If they leave before getting another drink, just give it to the next person that comes to the bar.”

                The bartender does that and closes Theo’s tab.  Theo walks out realizing that it’s completely possible that the bartender will just keep it as a tip.  Though the receipt would say otherwise so he wasn’t too sure how that worked.  He leaves the bar to snickers from the students that debated him.  He goes to the subway and waits for the lights on the platform to start blinking to signal the approaching train.  Theo liked the DC Metro.  It looked very futuristic, which is a huge contrast from where he spent most of his adult life; New York.  The thing that was better about New York, however, was the price was the same no matter how far you were going.  New York was also 24 hours but D.C. was not.  As for convenience, New York won but as for cleanliness, décor and comfort, D.C. was better.  The train arrived and he sat.  As much as hated to admit it, the difference in his mood as he walked into the bar and as he left bothered him.  His experience just made him lose faith in the future of America.  He was about to get some hope.

                While on the train, a brown haired man around Theo’s age was talking to a woman he was with.  He claimed, “You know, I’ve been following this Spygate stuff and it seems like Brennan lied to Comey and the FBI.  This whole thing was orchestrated by Brennan.”

                The woman replied, “So, the FBI isn’t really guilty of anything?”

                “I don’t think what they did was that bad.”

                Theo glared at the man and simply stated, “Wrong.”

                The guy chuckled and turned to him, “Excuse me?”

                “The FBI is culpable.  They’re not on the up and up.  I know Comey went to politicon talking about how he has nothing to hide because he did nothing wrong.  He’s not afraid of the investigation and wants full transparency.”

                “I saw that too.  He was talking about how the president is attacking the integrity of the institution”

                “Yea, he thinks that when we know everything, we’ll be okay with what they did and why they did it.”

                “Do you not believe that’s true?”

                “Oh no, I don’t.  Initially, yes, Brennan misled him but in January 2017, he knew that Brennan misled him.”

                “That early?”

                “Yes, because that’s when Comey and the FBI interviewed Steele’s Russian source and declared him a complete fraud.  Despite this, he spied on Trump anyway and renewed the FISA that he knew was based on a false document.  It’s also on him that he didn’t verify the information that he got from Comey.”

                “Sounds like he did when he interviewed the Russian source”

                “No, there’s procedure.  It’s called the Woods procedure.  You send it to the intelligence agencies of Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand to make sure you’re acting on good intelligence.  That wasn’t done.”

                “Yea, I’m not really sure if Comey would want that to come out.”

                “I’m not even done.  It gets worse.”

                “Worse than spying on a duly elected president because of information you know isn’t credible?”

                “Yes, what Comey and the FBI did to Flynn was worse.”

                “You have me intrigued.”

                “Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, has a new lawyer challenging the guilty plea.  Her name is Sidney Powell and she has exposed some Comey FBI malfeasance.”

                “You’ve teased this enough.  Do you have a point?”

                “Yea, another thing about Comey he wouldn’t want out is he sent agents to the White House seeking that given they were transitioning, he could sneak around better since they didn’t know the ropes yet.”

                “That sounds pretty slimy.”

                “It is. Anyway, back to the point.  FBI lawyer Lisa Page edited the Flynn 302.”

                “What’s a 302?”

                “The summary of an interview the FBI has with someone.”

                “That sounds pretty bad.”

                “It is, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper texted, ‘take the kill shot on Flynn’  That was originally in the 302 and Page removed it.”

                “Wait, so you’re saying they set him up?”

                “Yes, the FBI interviewed Flynn.  Two agents named Pientka and Strzok.  They both wrote in their report that they didn’t think he was being deceptive but they charged him anyway.  They then edited the 302 to make it seem like he was lying.”

                “How do they know this if the 302 was changed?  Was there a paper trail?”

                “Kind of; we have their hand written notes.  In the hand written notes, Flynn responds to a question about the 4-5 calls with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, ‘if so, don’t remember.’ Both Strzok and Pientka wrote that.  That’s why it was weird when the 302 says that Flynn recalled the four to five phone calls with Kislyak.”

                “Damn, sounds like Comey has some explaining to do after all.”

                “Yea, he thinks he covered his tracks but he didn’t”

                “Alright, so the FBI and Comey are still culpable.”

                “Yea, I hope he goes down but I’m losing hope.”

                “Well Durham has turned it to a criminal investigation and the IG Report should be released soon.”

                “I’ve been hearing, ‘end of the week’ for a couple months now.  Just get it over with.”

                “Yea, I agree.”

                Theo reaches his stop and exits the train.  He goes home and gets ready for bed.  The day had ended up starting with excitement and adulation and ended with anger.  The emotional roller coaster exhausted him so he went to bed and fell asleep quickly.