Real Characters Episode 38 The Rats Are Scurrying

                It is November 17, 2016.  Donald Trump has just pulled off the greatest upset in presidential history.  Unlike most times there is a new president, this time there’s going to be a real shake up.  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been intimidating the DOJ and NSA for the past eight years and they were prepared for eight more years of mafia-style rule but Donald Trump just put a wrench in their plans.  This leads the heads of the alphabet soup that is government organizations to ponder what to do as they were heavily involved in making sure that Candidate Trump never became President-elect Trump.  To the man, almost all of them decide they have passed the point of no return and must continue to double down on convincing people that Donald Trump is a Russian puppet.  One man, however, sees the tea leaves for what they are.  If Donald Trump foiled their attempts as a presidential candidate, what’s he going to do now that everyone knows he’s going to be the most powerful man in the world in a couple months?  Furthermore, what happens after a couple months when he is sworn in?  Mike Rogers isn’t taking that chance.  He takes the short trip up to New York City and head directly to the center of the universe also known as 5^th Avenue just south of Central Park.  Amongst all the high end stores and right next to Tiffany’s stands Trump Tower.  After showing his credentials revealing him to be the head of the National Security Agency (NSA), he quickly gets a meeting with President-Elect Donald Trump.  Trump greets him, “Mr. Rogers, how can I be of service?”

                “There is something I need to tell you Sir.”

                “Alright, I wish I knew you were coming.  I would have prepared more but I definitely have some time for the head of the NSA.  Is this a matter of national security?”

                “You are the first person to know that I am coming here.  I didn’t inform President Obama or anyone else for that matter as secrecy was paramount.”

                “With that, Donald Trump knew this wasn’t a casual visit.”

 

                Back at the White House, Barack Obama is furious.  He has been keeping an eye on Rogers ever since he shut down the about queries in the NSA database that contained all the information of most every American.  Rogers had uncovered abuse and stopped it after auditing the system and finding 80% of the queries were fraudulent.  President Obama was confused by this given that Rogers worked for him and he should know how important the databases were to aiding Hillary win.  He calls his Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, “Jim, do you know where Mike Rogers is right now?”

                “I do not Mr. President.  Why?”

                “He’s in New York.”

                “Oh, what’s he doing there?”

                “Meeting with Donald Trump.”

                “WHAT!”

                “Yes, are you telling me you didn’t know?”

                “No, I didn’t sir.  Rogers didn’t tell me anything.”

                “Am I to understand that that is unusual?”

                “Of course it’s unusual.  He’s supposed to keep me apprised of these things.”

                “Then I think it’s safe to say that Mike Rogers is no longer with us.”

                “What is he telling Trump?”

                “Well, you have your little birdies.  You tell me.”

                “I will let you know as soon as I do.  Thank you for the heads up and I apologize that it wasn’t me informing you.”

                “Quite alright, just let me know what’s going on.”

                “Will do Mr. President.”

                Later that day, President-Elect Trump tells his staff to pack their things as they are moving their campaign headquarters to his private golf club in New Jersey as Trump Tower is no longer a safe place to prepare the transition to the White House. 

                The next day, Barack Obama calls Clapper again.  “Do you have anything to tell me?”

                “No, Mr. President but based on Trump moving his headquarters to New Jersey, it’s obviously not good.   He knows we had surveillance in Trump Tower and now we’re flying deaf and blind.  Rogers would have known where all the bugs were and he appears to have evaded them with whatever he told the president elect.”

                “This is not good.”

                “It’s not too bad sir.  There are 17 intelligence agencies and the other 16 will be on board to keep our narrative.  Nobody is going to listen to one out of 17.”

                “Let’s just hope it doesn’t create a domino effect.”

                “It won’t Mr. President.  We have our tentacles so entrenched that even the President of the United States is no match for us.”

                “Unfortunately, I think we’re about to find out.  Good night Jim”

                “Good night Mr. President.”

                President Obama calls one of his staffers and orders, “I need you to tell the media that I plan on relieving Mike Rogers of his position as NSA director.”

                The next day, the New York Times runs with the story that President Obama wants to do just that.  In his last couple months as president, he orders his intelligence community to put out a consensus backing a document that has been circulating that Donald Trump colluded with Russia.  The document is known as the Steele dossier.  When it comes out, Mike Rogers is still the NSA director and while almost all of the intelligence community puts out a statement that they have high confidence that the dossier is legitimate, Mike Rogers is the lone detractor and claims he’s only moderately confident.  Pretty bold for someone that was threatened to be fired but not insubordinate enough to force the lame duck President to carry out the threat based on the obvious insubordination.  The question on everyone in the Obama and Hillary orbit still remains, ‘what exactly did Mike Rogers tell Donald Trump?”

                The next three years is a whirlwind of attacks on President Trump.  All the heads of the agencies that double downed have been fired and picked up by mainstream media outlets to continue to attack the president in the news sphere.  A special counsel was set up by one of the few people that President Trump allowed stay, Rod Rosenstein.  His thanks to the president for allowing him to keep his job was to hire Bob Mueller and various Democrats linked to Hillary Clinton to investigate whether President Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.  Two years and $ 40 Million later, the results are in; no collusion and no obstruction as Rosenstein expanded the scope to obstruction. 

                After the Mueller probe, president Trump went on the offensive and his new Attorney General Bill Barr and US Attorney of Connecticut John Durham investigated the origin of Crossfire Hurricane or the investigation into Donald Trump.  They are trying to determine if there was proper predicate for the FBI to have opened that investigation.  The Steele dossier has been proven to be a complete hoax with not a shred of truth in it.  The recently released Inspector General (IG) Horowitz report confirms that and confirms how the FBI lied to a FISA court to get a FISA for a Trump campaign member Carter Page so that they could spy on his campaign.  The IG, however, only looked at the FBI whereas Durham is looking at all the intelligence agencies.  That is why, unlike Horowitz, Durham has Mike Rogers in his office for questioning.  Once again, the Obama acolytes that double downed find themselves asking a similar question as before; what is Rogers telling Durham? 

                After three years and a fake impeachment, those that hate Donald Trump are beginning to realize that they have a formidable opponent.  Eric Wemple of the Washington Post shakes his head as he sees the writing on the wall.   His paper has been front and center in attacking Donald Trump and pushing the latest made up scandals.  It started with Russian collusion, then it was Ukrainian collusion then threatening the Ukrainians and he’s thinking that it’s time to cover his own ass.  He writes an article attacking Rachel Maddow for continuing to believe the Steele dossier when everyone knows by now that it’s fake.  Since most of the Trump haters have moved on to Ukraine, admitting Russian collusion is a hoax won’t get him in trouble with his editor.  As nobody really knows Eric Wemple’s name or that he also promoted the hoax, he’s not going to seem hypocritical for going after Maddow.  This is how the game worked.  When the strategy fails, you go after the loudest speakers and nobody screamed Russian collusion and the validity of the dossier louder in the media than Rachel Maddow.  Wemple pulls no punches in his all out assault with his keyboard against her. 

                In the Trump White House someone reads Wemple’s article and his brow furrows in surprise, “I’m shocked that the Washington Post would write an article like this.  I mean, good for them for finally telling the truth; it doesn’t make up for everything they’ve done the last three years but I’ll give credit where credit is due.”

                This was expressed in ear shot of a member of Rudy Giuliani’s staff.  The staff member smiles and declares, “It’s called the Giuliani effect.”

                “What’s that?”

                “David Dinkins turned New York into a cesspool of violence, crime and drug needles littered the streets of Manhattan.  There were prostitutes all over Times Square and gangs ran rampant.  Many believed New York was beyond saving.  Then Rudy Giuliani became mayor and vowed to clean up New York as he was the law and order candidate.  He was mocked and ridiculed by all the same players; Saturday Night Live, the mainstream media etc all believed  he was crazy.  Then when it started working, they ignored it.  Then when New York was one of the safest big cities in the country and businesses started moving in and property values were beginning to skyrocket, only then did they admit that New York’s first black mayor, Dinkins was a total disgrace and a horrendous mayor.  Prior to that, they beatified him.  When that happened, the people who yelled the loudest about how Giuliani was full of shit were viciously attacked by the people that claimed it more quietly. “

                “So President Trump is proving how great America can be and it’s shining a light on how bad the first black president was whom they anointed as the messiah.  This is the tipping point where people stop covering for him.”

                “One can only hope.  Some Democrats in New York claim Giuliani was a Democrat because they refuse to support a Republican.  That’s how they got around it.  The prevailing wisdom is you can only lie to people for so long before they realize they’re being worked.”

                “Once the people wise up then the opposition become cannibalistic you’re saying?”

                “Yup”

                “I guess we can expect Stelter, Todd and Nance to be next.”

                “I’m not so sure about that.  Nobody really takes those clowns seriously.  Maddow is still respected for her intelligence so she needed to be skewed.”

                “Don’t be so sure.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Axios just wrote a piece roasting Chuck Todd for claiming Republicans have an incentive to spread disinformation.”

                “Oh come on!  The balls on that asshole.  After promoting the collusion hoax and the dossier, he claims we’re the ones spreading disinformation?!”

                “If Democrats didn’t have projection, they’d have nothing at all.”

                “Yea, but sometimes you need to have discretion when to use it.  That’s what I meant before; the dude’s a moron.  He can’t even project well.”

                While the White House is talking about the cannibalistic nature of the media, there is panic in the Capitol Building.  The recent poll is out and the country is not buying Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s power play to not hand over the articles of impeachment to the Senate unless the trial is run her way.  As this is unprecedented, she assumed that the American people wouldn’t realize that she’s violating the constitution and abusing her power, which is ironic because the house just almost impeached Donald Trump for abuse of power.  If she stopped abusing her power, then he would officially be impeached yet it seems she’s not going to do that.  Pelosi calls Congressman Jared Golden of Maine.  Jared answers, “Madam Speaker, how are you?”

                “I would be better but I have this thing protruding from my back.”

                Golden knows what she’s getting at but plays dumb and replies with a hint of sarcasm, “Oh, what might that be?  Do you need a doctor?”

                “The knife you put in my back.”

                “Ah yes, that.  Well phantom puncture wounds are a pretty easy thing to treat.  Just take a deep breath, go to a quiet place and ponder facts objectively.”

                “Why did you vote against impeachment?”

                “Because everyone knows that it’s a farce.  I don’t know how you let those crazy kids force you into it.  What do those jackasses call themselves?  The squad?”

                “We need to be united or else the Republicans will win next year.”

                “Us uniting with those retards is exactly why the Republicans are united.  Never before could those prissy, holier-than-thou pinky-raising stiffs unite on anything but once we became the socialist party because of four members, they ignored their qualms with Donald Trump real fast.”

                “We tried everything else; this was our ace in the hole.”

                “Well, you got it passed without me.  How did that work for you?”

                “Shut up.”

                “I don’t have to shut up.  Just look at the Goddamn polls.  Opposition to impeach him was at 45.5% before Schiff and Nadler had their little spectacle of a hearing.  Now, after hearing witnesses only from one side; our side, opposition to impeach him rose to 48%.  As you would expect, support to impeach him dropped from 50% before the hearings to 47% now.  The more they hear, the less they believe.”

                “Those are not big differences.”

                “Because people already made up their minds.  Do you want to see independents?  Support dropped 20% before and after the hearings. “

                “I don’t give a damn what the polls say.  Donald Trump has to go.”

                “Well, we’ll see what happens when you’re up for re-election and you’re linked to impeachment. Schiff has already told the world that the only reason he wanted to impeach is because he doesn’t think anyone can beat Trump next year.  Imagine when you’re the speaker that tried to impeach a president that got re-elected after you pretended to impeach him.  If your goal was to make history; congratulations, you just might.  You’ll be a trivia question; who is the first speaker to take an official impeachment vote but then refused to make it official by not handing it over to the Senate?  You got one first under your belt, why not go for the second; first speaker to sort of impeach a president that got reelected.  If that happens, you’ll also give Donald Trump another first on his resume; first president to win re-election after being impeached.”

                Pelosi hangs up the phone without saying anything.  She contemplates how she can be the highest ranking house member but nobody is afraid of her.  Jared Golden is a nobody.  He’s not even the head of any committees.  He should be in awe of her yet he’s not.  Then again, the freshman congresswomen known as the squad don’t seem too intimidated either.  She shakes her head.  She tried so hard to toe the line between the moderates and extremist in her party.  She had the impeachment vote but then didn’t hand it over thinking that would appease both sides.  Instead, it just made her seem indecisive and weak. 

                As Nancy Pelosi is lamenting how she got herself in her position, the Foreign Investigative Surveillance Court (FISC) has reviewed IG Horowitz report and he pulled no punches on how the FBI omitted and lied to them when they tried to get a FISA warrant on Carter Page.  A FISA warrant is the most invasive way to spy on someone that American laws will allow.  Various FISC judges are meeting and the highest ranking judge, Rosemary Collyer announces, “I think we need to issue a rebuke of the FBI.”

                Another judge retorts, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.  There’s a paper trail.  It’ll come out that Mike Rogers warned us about everything that Horowitz said just days after the first FISA on Carter Page.  We still renewed it three times.  It exposes us because we knew the FBI was lying to us.”

                “We can say that all we knew was that outside non-government contractors had access to the NSA database but we hadn’t realized that it was connected to the information we were getting about Carter Page.”

                “I guess we can hide behind our ruling that the FBI grossly misused the database.”

                “Exactly.  I don’t think it exposes us because we can just claim ignorance of the connection between the two.”

                “So we rule that the FBI grossly misuses a system but don’t think to ask them if the information we got from them about Carter Page is from the misuse?”

                “Yea, unless you have a better option.”

                “Sadly, I don’t. There are no good options and that’s the best one we got.  Do we know who these FBI contractors that abused the system were?”

                “No, but now that Rogers is talking to Durham, we may find out.”

                “He may not have to.  Comey has already thrown Brennan under the bus for the dossier, who’s to say that the FBI doesn’t throw the contractors under the bus to save themselves?”

                “The rats are scurrying.  What if Durham finds out that foreign advisors spied on Trump and his campaign at former- President Obama’s behest?”

                “Then the deep state will subtly nudge them to not say who they were and just refer to everyone as ‘contractors’ regardless of their actual position.”

                “You think the President will go for identity laundering?”

                “He has so far.  He could have declassified the Carter Page FISA and all three renewals and revealed how our friends across the pond aided him but he backed down when England bitched.”

                “That may not be the case anymore since Boris Johnson won the election.  Maybe Prime Minister Johnson feels it’s in his best interest to let the British people know how corrupt his predecessor’s administration was.”

                “Just like how President Trump wants to let the American people know how corrupt his predecessor was.”

                “Yes, it appears that they are kindred spirits and after the media has been lying to the American people for so long, I think the people will demand to know who the contractors really are.”

                “With President Trump being the most transparent president of all time, it would be consistent with his MO.”

                “That’s what I’m saying.”

                “Oh God, England and the United States could unite against the old guard changing the dynamic of the world for years to come.”

                “Just like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher being kindred spirits and ruling together.”

                “This could really be a turning point in history.”

                While the FISC is trying to cover up that they were complicit in being lied to, the tea party wing of the Republican Party is still frustrated with President Trump.  They won’t be as vocal about it as they know with the threat of the liberals, a united front is crucial but as they see Donald Trump renege on his promise not to sign another omnibus bill, they look at the national debt and believe that America is on the cusp of a financial meltdown.  Herman Cain, who had a brief attempt running for president, actually publicizes it by explaining to the American people that the government over the past decade has spent an average of $29,375 per household.  As he reveals this, a tea party member shakes this head and articulates, ‘That’s really alarming.  A lot of households don’t make that much.  At least seven of those years can be blamed on Obama.”

                Cain retorts, “No, it keeps going up.  This year it was 34,000 per household.  27.8% of American households don’t make that much.  What you’re trying to tell me is the government spends 100% of what 27.8% of households earn in a year.  That isn’t sustainable.”

                “Economists have been saying that for years.”

                “I know but it is true.  You either monetize the debt or you pay it.  There’s no third option.  Right now, the debt is more than our net worth.”

                “Is it possible you’re overreacting?”

                “No, people need to demand a change.”

                “The last two years, the government has had record revenues.”

                “And yet they ran deficits!  If you run a deficit, it doesn’t matter how much you made, you made it worse.”

                “People don’t seem to care.”

                “That’s because the numbers are too large to fathom.  I’m sure if you asked the average person if there was anything in their life that they worked harder for and received less in return from than government, they couldn’t think of anything.”

                “They are safe and they have nice roads to drive on and if they are wronged, they have an arbiter to decide with the court system.”

                “Yes, all that is good.  Now ask them if all that is worth their largest expense, which it is for most net payers.”

                “They don’t have to think about it.”

                “If you asked parents, they would probably say their kids are things they want to spend the most on.  They would be happy with their return on investment.  Most people in the upper middle class, however, pay more in taxes than they do on their kids.”

                “Despite that, we still have deficits.”

                “Spending is the problem.  The government can’t manage the massive amount of money they get.”

                “Then we have to get rid of the Democrats.  They’re the ones who like big government.”

                “Republicans spend too.”

                “Well, once we defeat the Democrats and the socialists, then we can focus on the debt.”

                “It may be too late by then.  All you see in the media now is this battle with the Democrats.  All over the news and on Brieitbart, all you saw was that McCain laundered the dossier to the FBI for Steele after Steele was fired by the FBI.  We’ve known this for three years.”

                “Well, the IG report confirmed it.  Previously, it was only in conservative circles.”

                “What good does it do to obsess over it?  The man is dead.  Even if we did prosecute people for Spygate, which we haven’t, we can’t prosecute him; he’s dead!”

                “David Kramer, his staffer that was intimately involved, isn’t so we could indict him.”

                “Who cares about a low level member for a deceased Senator?  Are you telling me that takes precedence over the financial future of our country?”

                “Right now yes.  Democrats are the imminent problem.  Nobody knows when we’re going to fall off the fiscal cliff.  Most people thought 20 Trillion was the magic number but now we’re at 23 Trillion and still motoring along.  Things like various cities and states like Virginia outlawing suburban areas and forcing single family housing areas to be rezoned to have 15 story government low income housing smack down in the middle of it is more of a threat to the peace and tranquility that Americans have worked hard to afford than the debt.”

                “I didn’t hear about this.  They are making suburbs illegal in Virginia?”

                “Yes, all in the name of climate change and environmental consciousness with just a hint of accusing suburbanites of being racists that live in a bubble.”

                “This seems like a horrendous idea tactically”

                “Considering suburban women were one of the largest groups that opposed Trump, yea, it’s a real shitty tactical move.  What’s the reasoning?”

                “Same reasoning Democrats always give; they didn’t help out enough.”

                “Instead of using that excuse to tax them more, they’re using it to force the projects into their neighborhoods?”

                “Yup”

                “Well, between Blexit and this, the Democrats may be alienating the two groups that most opposed Donald Trump in 2016.  I’m not sure how 2020 will shape if people find out about this and it’s implemented.  Virginia is considered a blue state now; it may just turn it red.”

                “Democrats really can’t afford to lose any states Hillary won in 2016.  Hillary won by about 200,000 votes in 2016.  I think it’s safe to say that 100,000 people living in the suburbs that voted for her are going to be pissed enough at the Democrats to switch their allegiances when the neighborhoods they pay a shitload to live in aren’t as safe as they were before and their property values get knocked down.”

                “I would agree.”

                The calendar is about to turn to 2020, and there are a lot of unanswered questions and subplot and story lines yet to be resolved.   A lot can happen before November 3, 2020 when the polls open to see if President Trump gets a second term.  The question that’s bigger than what Durham is going to reveal in the spring or how many times will the house impeach Trump, is if the thundering Trump economy continues its momentum till Election Day.  That appears to be the only thing that will be able to derail Donald Trump from getting a second term.