Fanis the bodyguard episode 41 It's all about momentum

                Two Americans in London are watching the results come in from Super Tuesday.  Going into the election, many pundits were saying that nothing could stop Bernie Sanders from being the nominee but the establishment Democrats were sure going to try.  As the states kept coming in, it was becoming very clear that Super Tuesday was a huge night for Joe Biden and a massive halt to Bernie’s momentum.  Kera, the owner of the flat, declares, “Holy shit, Biden is winning like every state.”

                Her cousin, Fanis, replies, “Yea, just shows that just like four years ago, the polls don’t mean shit.  This is a new era of elections.  The old rules don’t apply anymore.”

                “When you said that about Trump’s victory, I thought you were crazy but Biden was trailing in most of these states that he’s winning now.”

                In all, Biden would win Alabama, Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia leaving only Vermont, California, Utah and Colorado for Bernie Sanders.  At the end of the night, Kera exclaimed, “So, it’s pretty much over.  Biden won the nomination.”

                “It’s not over.  Remember we thought it was over when Bernie won Nevada.  Don’t become a prisoner of the moment; Bernie is only 70 delegates behind.  That’s a very manageable deficit to overcome.”

                “Fanis, Sanders lost ground in most of the states from 2016; including his home state of Vermont.  You’re supposed to build from 2016; not decline.  This is very bad for him.”

                “Bad, yes but not over.  To your point about momentum, most of Bernie Sanders’ votes came from early voting not on Election Day.  That suggests that he’s losing steam.”

                “Whatever happened to your ‘Bernie Bros’ and how college kids love Bernie?”

                “People 45 and over make up 65% of the electorate voting in primaries.  Old people vote more than millennial socialists.”

                “I guess Biden is going to get the chance to beat Trump like a drum like he said.”

                “If Super Tuesday is any indication, I wouldn’t count on that either.”

                “Why not?”

                “People have been coming out for Trump and voting in the Republican primary.  I can’t even tell you who’s running against him.  He’s shattering records for an incumbent president in a primary.”

                “That’s not a very impressive record.”

                “I agree, but keep in mind this is the Tuesday after the stock market collapsed.  Yet, he’s still beating the record by two or three times.  More people voted for Donald Trump than all four current Democrats running.”

                “That’s nuts.  Trump fans are really crazy.”

                “That may be the case, but they come out to support and vote for him and that’s all you want.  I’ll give you a comparison.  In 1984, Reagan had 2.86% of the population vote for him in the primary.  Donald Trump, after 13 states, is at 5.92%.  Keep in mind, Reagan won 49 states that year.”

                “Alright, well, you should pack.  It’s a short flight but we got to go.”

                “Where are we going?”

                “Scotland.”

                “Yea, real quick flight.”

                Kera was an international Chinese art dealer. Business had slowed down a bit due to the Coronavirus but people still wanted art.  Kera, on the other hand, was avoiding picking up new pieces in China or anywhere in East Asia.  Instead, she was just going by the inventory she had had for a while.  While on the plane, Kera commented, “You may be right about the new era of elections theory.”

                “Why do you say that?”

                “Biden is on pace to win Minnesota and he didn’t visit nor does he have any staff on the ground there.  Bernie, on the other hand, has a lot of boots on the ground there, which is usually how people win.  The other way people used to win is by outspending their opponent and Bloomberg has spent $13 Million in ads in Minnesota.  Despite all that, Biden is projected to win.”

                “What did we talk about polls?  I do think Biden will win but I’m just saying, the polls sucked for Super Tuesday so what makes you think they will be good for Minnesota?”

                “Hillary outspent Trump and lost.  Bloomberg spent tens of millions of dollars in Virginia and still got crushed.  It’s safe to say that who that spends the most money will not win anymore.”

                They land in Edinburgh, Scotland and check into their hotel to drop off their stuff.  They immediately go to a bar and Fanis orders a scotch.  It is given to him in a shot glass but Fanis knows better than to take it in one gulp like is customary in America.  In Scotland, you sip it from the shot glass and savor the flavor.  Kera still sticks to beer.  After a few drinks, they head back to the hotel and go to sleep.  The next day, they head to the rendezvous point for the deal.  Fanis’ job is only to protect Kera as her bodyguard.  He doesn’t partake in the sale of the items.  In fact, while Kera is negotiating, he normally strikes a conversation with the other security guards.  He walks over and introduces himself.  The Scottish security guard is a few inches taller than the 6’0” Fanis with ripped muscles on a lean frame contrasting Theo’s broad body.  It doesn’t take long for the conversation to devolve into politics.  The Scotsman’s name is Finlay.  Finlay remarks, “President Trump seems very popular in America.”

                “Yea, but most of his supporters don’t announce themselves.  They stay low and just come out on Election Day.”

                “Those that oppose him are pretty loud and obnoxious about it are they?”

                “Oh yea.  That’s especially true for the media.  There’s an organization called ‘Vox’ that threw a hissy fit because Facebook’s most popular story was Hillary Clinton being deposed again for her e-mail scandal.  Vox wanted them to talk about Coronavirus and Super Tuesday so they vehemently attacked them.”

                “Why do they care what people are talking about on Facebook?  I mean for advertisement purposes I get but in general?”

                “The liberal media, like Vox, wants to pressure social media companies like Facebook to suppress conservative talk on their platforms.  They absolutely hate free speech.”

                “That’s a little hypocritical from a media agency eh?  They also seem to be in the wrong country for that.”

                “Indeed but nobody ever accused liberals of being smart.”

                “They seem like little babies to me.  We have him here in Scotland too.”

                “Oh, that’s exactly what they are.  They are projectionists.  Vox also printed that Trump supporters only run on emotion and not facts, which is the only reason they’re popular on Facebook since it’s all emotion.  The truth is the opposite.”

                “Well, did they say anything factual in their tirade against Facebook or was it just venting frustration?”

                “The only thing that was true was that people were talking about Hillary Clinton’s e-mail depositions on Facebook.”

                “That’s only a neworthy story if you add emotion.  Otherwise, it’s insignificant rubbish.”

                “Couldn’t agree more.”

                Kera finishes her deal and comes out.  Finlay and Fanis say good bye to each other and leave the building.  As Edinburg is small, there isn’t much to do besides go see the castle, which is at the top of a large hill.  Kera and Fanis opt to walk to the castle.  After touring it and learning how it was used to house American prisoners in the Revolutionary War, they become a little more fascinated.  One inmate carved the American flag into the door of his cell.  Luckily for him, at the time, there weren’t 50 states so he didn’t have to make too many stars. 

                After the castle, Kera and Fanis walk through the graveyard of an old church at the base of the hill the castle is on.  As they are walking, they see some fallen over tombstones and Fanis wonders why it hasn’t been maintained.  As he reads the headstones, he discovers that some of these people were buried before 1776, making their deaths older than the birth of America.  Suddenly, it’s no longer a mystery why tombstones have fallen over.  250 years of Scottish weather will do a number on any substance.  While they are walking, a man approaches them.  He looks at Kera and states, “Ah, an American woman.  How are you?  Callum is my name.”

                Kera shakes his hand, “I’m Kera” she responds with a smile.

                Callum ignores Fanis and Fanis chuckles.  He’s not sure if Kera wants him to tell the truth and introduce himself as her cousin, which may leave the door open for Callum to hit on her more or if he should pretend to be her boyfriend so Callum will leave.  Women always talk about giving the look when they want to be rescued from a conversation but Fanis never could recognize it.  Luckily Callum was about to give a very obvious sign that Kera didn’t want to talk to him.  He announces, “I know how you American girls love to fuck on vacation, so why don’t you come to my apartment and I’ll let you check that off your list.”

                Fanis puts out his hands and shrugs his shoulders, “Dude, what the fuck?”

                Callum glances at Fanis and then looks back at Kera, “I don’t know why you would be with such a cowardly man.  You should let me show you how a real man treats a girl in bed.”

                “No thank you” Kera answers

                “Perhaps, I should prove my point.” He utters as he grabs Kera by the arm. 

Fanis shoots his hands out and grabs Callum by the throat forcing him to release his grip.  “Now would be a good time to leave.” Fanis advises

                Callum puts his hands up in mock surrender and Fanis lets go.  Callum nods, “My apologies, you got a strong grip there man.  Forgive me, but I’m not too fond of Americans right now.”

                “Why’s that?”

                “Your Senator Lindsey Graham has compiled a witness list for the FISA abuse.”

                “Yes, and he subpoenaed Stephen Somma, who was Stefan Halper’s handler.”

                “Did you know that Halper is a CIA spy?”

                “Yes, I did know that.  He’s also friends with Richard Dearlove, who was Christopher Steele’s boss.”

                “Who wrote that lying sack of shit dossier that has sent your country in a whirlwind the last three years.”

                “Unfortunately, that is true.  Why would you have a problem with Graham though?  He wants to know why Somma pushed the investigation into Carter Page when Crossfire Hurricane was allegedly about Papadopoulos and Downer (Australian diplomat).  He’s trying to get him to admit that they had the dossier and that was the sole thing they based the investigation on.”

                “That won’t happen though.  We already know that Somma saw it because the FBI has admitted that even though they hadn’t seen the dossier till September 19, 2016, the New York Field office had it.  Guess where Somma worked?”

                “The New York FBI field office.”

                “Right, so obviously he knew.”

                “You still haven’t told me why you’re mad at Graham.”

                “He’s only pretending to be concerned.  You Americans always put on a front.  You’re liars.  See, in Scotland, everyone tells the truth and they do it in the most brutal language possible.  You Americans sugar coat everything and lie or refrain from saying things because it may hurt someone’s feelings.  Just like when I flirted with her” indicating Kera

                “I’ve been to Scotland many times.  You are blunt people but you lost me at the end because they aren’t normally that obnoxious when they hit on women.”

                Kera giggled and interjected, “I’ve been hit on by Scots before and they never disrespected me like you did.”

                “Well, it may have been egregious but it’s up to you to decide if this was just an isolated incident or a pandemic with the men of this country.  Graham seems to believe that this rampant FISA abuse was an isolated situation but the institution itself is sound.  He wants to vote to renew it even after everything that has happened with Spygate.  This is touchy for us Scotman since our neighbors to the south (England) love to put us under surveillance.  This makes us a little skeptical of international surveillance.”

                Fanis articulates, “Ah, so that’s your excuse.  Not very good considering Graham is wrong about it being an isolated incident and we know that this situation is an isolated incident.  It’s not a problem with Scotsmen; it’s a problem with you.”

                Callum smiled and then quickly had a stern face and punched Fanis.  Fanis blocked it but was a little surprised with the force that came from it.  Fanis kicked at Callum’s shin and he backed up giving Fanis a disappointed look.  Fanis put up his hands and Callum threw a right jab to the midsection.  Fanis dropped his hands to block but it was a decoy and the left came straight across Fanis’ head.  Fanis rolled with the punch and used the momentum to turn himself around and he shot his right leg back kicking Callum in the sternum.  Kera ran off as she was told to do by Fanis if situations like this arose.  The whole point was to make her safe; if he lost a fight and she was still there then it was all for nothing.  Callum called out, “Bitches kick.”

                “Then you’re about to get your ass kicked by a bitch.”

                Callum came at Fanis and dropped his arms staring at his legs expecting to be kicked.  This gave Fanis an opening and he punched Callum in the side of the face.  Callum twisted to the side but came back with a shot of his own.  Fanis dodged it and drove a left into Callum’s side.  This was retaliated by a headbutt from Callum.  Fanis took a couple steps back as blood emulated from his face.  Callum charged him and drove his shoulder into Fanis’ solar plexus.  Fanis was 224 pounds but Callum seemed to be around that too and was able to move him back.  Fanis was driven into a tombstone toppling it back as Callum landed on top of him.  Callum mounted Fanis and Fanis instinctively bent his knees up as Callum looked for an opening to punch down at his face.  Fanis slipped his right leg to Callum’s left shoulder on the inside of his arm to neutralize a shot from the left.  As Calllum winded up for a left hook, Fanis lunged his palm into Callum’s chest.  Fanis then slapped both his arms against Callum’s right to move it across his body and he tucked Calllum’s arm into his left arm pit.  Fanis then placed his left leg on Callum’s hip and pushed off turning himself to the right.  As he did this, he draped his right leg across the back of Callum’s head so it was behind his left shoulder.  Fanis then interlocked his ankles and flexed his feet choking Callum with his own arm.  Callum struggled and Fanis gripped the back of Callum’s head and pulled down increasing the pressure of the triangle choke. 

                Fanis had to hold on for a while until Callum stopped struggling as hard.  His body went limp and he fell forward.  Fanis eased him to the side and let go of the hold laying Callum out.  Fanis got up and found pieces of the tombstone he was tackled through.  He heard a moan and he turned to see Callum out of the side of his eye.  Fanis had dropped him on his back but Callum was rolled over and pushed himself up to all fours.  Fanis picked up a big piece of the headstone.  He walked over to Callum and swung the tombstone smacking Callum in the back of the head.  He barked, “That’s for calling my cousin a bitch.”

                Callum collapsed onto his stomach as blood flowed from the back of his head and onto the ground.  Fanis dropped the tombstone and made his way back to the hotel.  Kera mocked, “Did you defend my honor?”

                Fanis wasn’t in a jovial mood so he seriously rejoined, “Yes”

                Fanis removed his shirt and walked into the bathroom.  Kera noticed the small cut on his face but when she saw his back, she exclaimed, “Holy shit, look at your back!”

                “I can’t really do that now can I”

                “There is a mirror.”

                “No need, your reaction was enough”

                “What happened?”

                “He speared me through a tombstone.”

                “Here, let me help you.”

                Kera took out some gauze and rubbing alcohol and applied it to Fanis’ back.  She then did his face and proclaimed she was going to get some ice.  When she returned, she wrapped Fanis right hand in ice as his knuckles were cracked.  Fanis iced his hand for 15 minutes and then he took a shower. 

                The next day, Fanis and Kera were on the plane heading back to London.  Fanis pronounced, “You know, I have a strange feeling that Trump is going to win California.”

                “Are you fucking crazy?”

                “No, people are really pissed about AB5.  A million people lost their jobs from that little law.”

                “Is that the Uber and Lyft ban?”

                “Not really ban; you just can’t be an independent contractor.  By extension, it hurts writers, musicians and artists since their organizations can’t hire them full time.  Music and art festivals are being cancelled because it’s too expensive to pay all the performers at full employee status.  After all, that’s why they were free lance to begin with.  When you lose your job and it’s blatantly obvious why you did, you tend not to care about macro-problems and general political topics.  You’re pissed because their law hurt you.  All President Trump has to do now is mention the law and how much he’s opposed it and maybe some of them make an exception just this one time.”

                “That guy must have hit you pretty hard in the head.”

                “I’ll admit he punches hard but that’s not why I’m saying this.” 

                “I guarantee that the Democrat candidate will win California.”

                “What if it’s Biden and all the Bernie supporters in California are pissed because they believe the established Democrats colluded to make sure Bernie wasn’t the candidate; just like they did in 2016.”

                “You’re reaching.”

                “Am I?  They’re already pissed at Klobouchar and Buttigieg for dropping out the day before since most California voters vote early though mail.  Now, they’re all frustrated because their vote for Buttiegieg and Klouboucer were wasted but they can’t change it.”

                “When did the ballots go out?”

                “February 3”

                “That’s a long time ago.”

                “Exactly”

                “It’s their fault for not waiting till near the election.”

                “Why?  To see who’s left?  That’s the whole point of voting so you keep people around.”

                “It wasn’t their turn yet.”

                “Clearly.  You haven’t really given me any rebuttal.”

                “You want a rebuttal besides the overwhelming majority of liberals living in California?  How about that there is a huge Hispanic population? They don’t speak English but they know they don’t like Trump’s border wall because they have more family that want to come in.  In fact, I’m going to put it on MSNBC just to show you how liberals still hate Trump and would never vote for him.”

                On MSNBC, the journalist is talking to a store owner who only speaks Spanish.  The journalist finds a translator and asks the store owner who he’s voting for.  Through the interpreter, he says Bernie Sanders.  As they talk, the reporter finds out that he has a daughter so in order to bolster home her point, she inquires, “Who’s you’re daughter voting for.”
                He gives a long answer and Fanis, who is fluent in Spanish, laughs.  Kera turns to him suspiciously as she didn’t hear a candidates’ name.  The interpreter translates that the daughter if voting for Donald Trump causing the journalists to scream, “Why?”

                The store owner calmly responds that he doesn’t know but guesses it’s because of the economy.  Fanis grins at Kera and poses, “You were saying?”

                “Whatever, the Saudis are already helping Trump.  Jeff Bezos claims that Saudis were hacking his phone and Trump is anti-Amazon.”

                “You’d think with all that money he has, he’d hire someone to look into that.”

                “He did.  He has a Cyber security company investigating.”

                “Who?”

                Kera looks it up and answers, “FTI Consulting.”

                “You’re shitting me!” cried out Fanis

                “Why?  You know them?”

                “It’s owned by Anthony Ferrante.”

                “Who’s that?”

                “He’s the guy that Comey sent in to the National Security Council (NSC) to spy on Donald Trump and report back to the FBI for anything he found.  He then resigned from the NSC and worked for Buzzfeed where he tried very hard to authenticate the dossier.  Obviously he failed but he still proclaims it’s true.”

                “What was his role at the NSC?”

                “Cyber Security.”

                “Well then he’s qualified.”

                “Never said he wasn’t, it’s just odd that a deep state Spygate Comey acolyte would be meeting with Bezos.  It’s almost like they’re plotting something.”

                “You’re always so suspicious”

                “It’s what keeps you safe.”

                “That is true but I wish you could turn it off.”

                “Sorry, I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I could.”

                “I guess you’re right.”

                They land in London and immediately go back to their flat to rest.  They go about their lives as Kera contemplates when she could return to the Far East.  Although there are reports that China is back to normal, she knows China well enough to know that they never admit or show weakness so they would have no problem lying about them being back to normal.  The Coronavrirus decimated their economy because all their trade partners are suspicious of them and that is the majority of their economic revenue.  For now though, Coronavirus is still a hysteria so she’s going to wait just in case.

                As for Fanis, he was sore from having his back crashed through stone.  Due to this, he was okay with an extended respite from traveling the world keeping his cousin safe so he could heal up.  If Kera did need him though, no matter how much pain he was in, he would go as that is his duty and his job.