Real Characters episode 47 It's Time to Pick a Side

                2020 had a very ominous start though few in the world realized it right away.  The Global Times came out with an article that didn’t get much traction around the globe; an oversight that the world would regret in a just a couple months.  Chinese police in Wuhan China had arrested eight people for spreading rumors about a local outbreak of a new kind of pneumonia.  On the surface, it just seemed like another news story about the oppressive non-free speech granting Chinese government.  There was one person; however, that believed this to be a very big deal.  He knew that it would create a lot of heat to do what must be done but, luckily, he never really concerned himself with what people thought of him.  Even though he is considered by many to be the most powerful man in the world, you would never know it by the impunity that he is attacked on a minute by minute basis.

 

                President Trump banned all travel to and from China a couple weeks after the Global Times article.  Just like with his first travel ban, he was attacked incessantly by the media and frequently called a ‘racist’ and other names.  Around this time, Nancy Pelosi was handing over her articles of impeachment to the Senate who would have a trial to see if they should remove President Trump from office.  This didn’t deter the president from keeping a close eye on China.  Luckily for the nation, this time the judiciary didn’t abuse their power and put a stay on the travel ban as they decided if it was constitutional or not.  Those that knew why he did what he did attacked him for overreacting to a minor problem that wasn’t an American problem.  They couldn’t have been more wrong.

 

                After impeachment failed to remove the president from office, the rest of America was beginning to notice that President Trump had been right all along.  Now, this ‘new strain of pneumonia’ had a name.  To be honest, it had many names.  The most common name was the ‘Coronavirus’ or ‘Covid-19.’  Others called it the ‘Wuhan Virus’ or ‘Chinese Virus’ borrowing from the last 100 years of calling diseases by where they originated.  Despite what the Chinese officials were saying now; the virus did originate in Wuhan, China so any of these terms were applicable. 

                As the country begins to take precautions by outlawing hand shaking and keeping six feet from people, the Wuhan virus is prevalent on everyone’s mind.  The media, being the 1984-like revisionist historians that they are, are no longer saying this isn’t an American problem and are happy that restaurants in many cities have closed.  Due to the message of the threat being widely known, they cycle back to their primary goal in the last three years of finding ways to make everything an attack on Donald Trump; one of the only Americans that thought this was a crisis in January.  A media outlet asks the president about why he wasn’t prepared for the worst pandemic since 1918.   President Trump calmly responds that they were prepared for the virus, which is why he banned travel to and from China.  President Trump, not being one to let the media get away for their lies and malfeasance, brought up how they all attacked him and called his a racist for the travel ban.  There is a solemn tone to the president as he has figured out that now that the global economy has shut down, the media is once again picking a fight with him and making it about them vs. Donald Trump.  He knows he has to play their game or else the country will fall. Just as how the media didn’t realize the Wuhan virus threat in January, they can’t see the bigger issue of what they’re doing now.  Then, President Trump makes a concession and admits that he wasn’t prepared for one thing; the media. 

                The media, being the sycophantic lemmings that they are, refrain from asking questions about the progression of treatment and getting testing out but instead, a representative from another mainstream conglomerate, asks if President Trump has any guidance now that some members of congress have gotten the virus.  The President responds with what everyone from himself to the media to the CDC, to Dr. Fauci, to anyone with a platform has been telling people for weeks; avoid contact.  Remembering that he’s in a fight, President Trump uses this opportunity to point out how the media is not listening to the warnings as they are all seated within six feet of each other.  He makes light of it and offhandedly suggests that he would be in favor of only having 3-4 journalists in there as gatherings of over 10 have been banned in most areas of the country.  Given that the task force is made up of up to six people, who are also within six feet of each other on the podium, there is only recommended to be 3-4 other people in the room.  He points to one journalist and jokes that they should leave immediately.  The implication is that Congress, like everyone else, should self-quarantine if they feel sick. 

                Many are offended by the way President Trump speaks.  It is a debatable issue and both sides have some merit when it comes to a crisis.  On September 11, 2001, George Bush was reading a story to young children when an aid came in and informed him of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.  President Bush nodded and finished the story before calmly leaving and grounding all air traffic and dealing with the crisis.  He was skewed in the media for finishing the story and not stopping the story midway to deal with it.  His supporters will tell you that in times of crisis, it is of paramount importance to remain calm and him rushing out of the room would have frightened the children and led to more hysteria.  Others believe that fear and hysteria is necessary because it’s better to exaggerate a threat and be more safe than sorry than to downplay it.  On the same notion, people may not appreciate President Trump’s light hearted verbal sparring with the media and making sarcastic and jocular comments.  Others believe the country is panicked and so some comic relief is a good thing.  This is the battle that is taking place across America in families and offices alike.  The joking may be more controversial but even some journalists in the mainstream media have conceded that they appreciate that during the president’s daily 4-5 hour pressers, his tone is calm and measured, which is what panicked people need to hear. 

                Elsewhere in the government, the deep state anti-Trumpers have not been distracted by the Wuhan Virus to continue to cover up how they spied on and entrapped members of the Trump campaign in order to falsely accuse them of colluding with Russia to steal the 2016 election.  As president Trump uses every question about the dearth of test kits being sent out as an opportunity to remind people that President Obama had legislation in place that prohibited schools and commercial labs from producing disease tests, he reiterates that he had to cut Obama’s regulation before they could start. This delayed the response in getting testing out.  President Trump’s hope is that by doing this, people will stop asking him that and focus on how they’re going to solve the problem in the future.  This is naïve of the president because the media is incapable of rational thought and nothing deters them of jumping on any small thing they can to try to attack the president, even if it means more Americans will die.  There is one person, however, that isn’t ignoring the president’s responses; Barack Obama.  He schedules a conference call with Andrew Weissman, Lisa Manoco, Kathryn Rummler and others to discuss how what they did to take down Trump was circling back on them.  Their efforts are still on covering up their nefarious activities as Hillary Clinton paid a company called Fusion GPS, through the lawfirm Perkins Coie, to write an entirely discredited and salacious dossier and then attribute it to a British ally in the cause, Christopher Steele in order to launder it into the DOJ and FBI since Steele was a trusted confidential informant for both the CIA and the FBI; though the FBI believed them to be exclusively their source.  Someone on the call asks, “Sir, do you think that maybe this isn’t the time for partisan politics?  Most of the country isn’t focused on the Durham or Burr investigations.  Everyone is focused on the virus so I don’t think there’s much to do here.”

                “That’s nonsense.  The virus still hasn’t killed nearly as many people as the flu this year so it’s not as serious as people make it out to be.”

                “Are you calling it a hoax?”

                “Absolutely not.  Let me be perfectly clear, it is a threat.  It is the worst pandemic we have seen since the Spanish Flu.  It, however, is not the Spanish Flu and will not take out 20% of the American population like it’s being portrayed to do.”

                “Respectfully, I’m not so sure.  The mortality rate in Italy is 8%.”

                “There’s a reason that Italy and China are the only countries that have above a 1% mortality rate.  In Italy, 99% of the people that have died had a prior illness, which we all know is high risk.  The other high risk factor is age.  The virus affects the elderly much more than those under 60.  Italy has had a problem for decades of population decrease due to nobody is having children there.  That is why their average age is 12 years higher than ours.”

                “I’m confused; on one hand you say it’s a threat and on the other you say it’s not a big deal.”

                “When the death rate is less than 1%, Draconian methods like closing the entire global economy is probably an overreaction.  Even if you take Italy, only 0.8% of those that died didn’t have a previous pathology.  This is from the country hit hardest as I believe it just surpassed China.”

                “Good to know sir.  Thank you for clearing that up.”

                “Now, Kathryn (Rummler),  I’m afraid I need you again.”

                “Yes sir, what do you need me to do?”

                “You need to fight this lawsuit that Carter Page brought against the DOJ.”

                “I will get right on it.”

                Lisa Manoco snickers, “Good Luck”

                Rummler gives her a condescending look and states, “It’s not hard.  We’ve put forth in the media for years that the dossier was legitimate.  All I have to do is reiterate that the gist of it is factual. There may be a couple things here and there that are false but the main idea is still valid.”

                “The Golden Shower story, the bribes, the meeting in Prague with Cohen are those ‘little things here and there’ you’re talking about.  Tell me, what part is true?”

                “You’re missing the point of my argument.  My argument is about the gist and idea. When you do it that way, you don’t have to bog yourself down with specifics.  I’ll just make generic statements that the dossier was substantially true.”

                “Multiple organizations have completely contradicted that.”

                “People don’t know that.  They know what we want them to know.  We have the media on our side and they’ll repeat that the dossier is mostly true over and over and brainwash the public yet again.”

                “What else are you going to say?”

                “That Page can’t show there was any malice, the normal stuff about the judge not having jurisdiction and the statue of limitations has exceeded.  I’ll focus on the facts that since Page was never formally charged, he can’t say he was harmed in any way by this.”

                “Falsely accusing someone of being a traitor to the country and colluding with Russians isn’t malicious nor does it cause harm?”

                “You just watch; that’s exactly what you will see on ABC, NBC, CNN and read in the New York Times and Washington Post.”

                “I don’t know how you think you’re going to get away with that.”

                “The same way I got away with Benghazi, the IRS scandal, and The Secret Serve scandal”

                “You were White House Counsel and had the support of the President of the United States.  No offense sir, but you are no longer president.” Focusing back on Rummler, “You don’t have the backup to pull that crap this time.”

                “Oh really?  You seem to forget when George Nadar got caught with all that child pornography on his computer.  Trump was president for that wasn’t he?”

                “We should have just let him burn.”

                Barack Obama spoke up, “That’s enough.  George Nadar has a lot of inside information about what we did.  We can’t have that getting out.  I authorized Kathryn to do that so I resent that you’re questioning my judgment.  If you were to get into hot water, I think you would want us to come to your aid too.  Everyone on the Mueller probe has a lot of our skeletons that they are hiding in their closet.  We need to make sure those skeletons stay in the closet.”

                Manoco’s tone turned conciliatory, “Don’t get me wrong sir, I do understand that and I do appreciate that you don’t let the people that aided you hang out to dry.  I just sometimes think Kathryn has seen one too many Ray Donavan episodes or thinks she’s Sal from Breaking Bad.”

                “You can come at me with that when someone I defend ends up in jail or someone goes down for a scandal.  In the meantime, the president knows that when shit hits the fan, you better call Kathryn.” Rummler shot back with an arrogant smile that made Manoco sick to her stomach. 

Lisa fired back, “Yea, how did that go with Enron?”  That comment smacked the smile off of Rummler’s face and planted one on Manaco’s.

                Andrew Weissman chimed in, “Lisa, what are you doing here?  We are all on the same team.  Why are we fighting?  Let Kathryn try to do what she does.  You can’t blame Kathryn for what happened with Enron because you were on my Enron task force too.  We all failed on that one.”

                Lisa shot back, “No, it was your witness intimidation methods and bulldog nature that got 14 out of 17 conviction that I worked hard on overturned because of shady and nefarious means we used to force witnesses to say what we wanted.  You just had to maintain that pit bull reputation of yours.  I advised a less aggressive approach but you didn’t listen to me.”

                “Well, I guess it didn’t bother people too much because the head of the FBI at the time, Bob Mueller, would appoint me as his lead investigator in the special counsel.  Did you ever wonder why nobody calls you when the case is really serious?  Kathryn and I don’t have to defend ourselves.  Our record speaks for ourselves as people trust us.  Can you say the same thing Lisa?”

                Lisa put her head down and timidly muttered, “I was appointed to the special counsel too.”

                “Not in a leading role now were you?”

                Lisa’s voice had a little bit more force but you could tell that Weissman’s words cut deep, “For the record, we failed on the Russian collusion and obstruction probe too.”

                “Yes, we did but we’re not giving up.  You seem defeated.  Just get on board and continue the fight with us.  Nobody is kicking you out but this in-fighting is sure as hell not helping.”

                “Fine, it’s just very frustrating.”

                Kathryn’s tone softened as she consoled, “We are all frustrated but you can’t lose hope now.”

                Obama commented, “Lisa, I do appreciate you bringing up your concerns.  I would just like you to keep fact based rather than personal.  Let’s not dwell on past things that didn’t go our way.  We all need to focus on the future and how we can win the next battle.”

                “Yes sir” Lisa responded while sighing at the same time.

                Kathryn Rummler would end up writing a 43 page brief to the judge on why he should throw out the case that Carter Page brought to him.  Given that there wasn’t a shred of facts and data on her side, it may be admirable except that lawyers are very good at writing pages and pages about nothing.  This is the only way they can bury things that will cover them if the facts and data get exposed but will be lost on the reader to not realize how damning the fact or data was.  Shortly after this, Barack Obama called Lisa Manoco.  Lisa answered, “Yes sir.”

                “I wanted to see how you were doing.”

                “I’m alright”

                “You don’t have to pretend with me.  Like we said, we’re all on the same team.”

                “I know.  I’m just really frustrated.  Every time we think we have the president in a barrel, he weasels his way out of it.”

                “It is highly stressful and frustrating but the tides are turning.  His economy has just been destroyed by China, which will hurt his re-election.  I don’t want to talk about Trump though.  I want to speak more generally.”

                “Okay” Lisa’s tone was confused

                “The best adjusted people to stressful situations focus on fact-based problems rather than emotion-based problems.  I’m not saying that emotions are always bad but the great people in a crisis always know when to involve emotions and when not to.”

                “I think I see your point.”

                “A good rule of thumb is never to ask ‘what if.’  People that ask ‘what if’ generally don’t adjust as well as people who don’t deal with the hypothetical.”

                “You’re trying to tell me that when I’m stressed about something, ask myself if it’s a fact-based problem or an emotion-based problem.”

                “Precisely; that is a good way to summarize.”

                “I will try sir.  Thank you for the advice.”

                “Any time; just remember that if you ever need anything, you can call me. “

                “I will, thank you sir.”

                “Have a good night.”

                “You too.”

                Meanwhile, away from the deep state, those not in congress are suffering.  Although most any industry can be included in this, the one that people notoriously take for granted are truckers.  As cliché as it sounds, they are the life blood of the country.  Although conservatives and liberals across the country have widely considered it a good idea for restaurants being relegated only to take our and delivery, the truckers find that they don’t have anywhere to grab a quick bite on the road.  As they pull over at a rest stop, they find it shut down so are unable to go to the bathroom.  Since truckers aren’t known for being complainers, they suffer in silence but a handful of people around the country have started urging their representatives to open up rest stops.  Even if they have to go to a limited staff, it should still be done since a vast majority of the population has stopped travelling and the truckers need to keep supplying grocery stores and other places or else that population will start to starve. 

At one rest stop, a trucker has pulled into a rest area.  He found the stop closed so relieved himself by a tree nearby.  Frustrated, he decides he wants to decompress before heading back on the road.  Although there were probably better ways to decompress, he turns on the news.  This was a double edged sword for him because on one hand, the constant fighting about petty issues like what to call the virus was annoying him but when people started talking about the strain and suffering that it was causing to the economy, it gave him motivation to keep driving.  The problem was you never knew which kind of story you were going to hear.  As he turns it on, there is a story demanding Richard Burr’s resignation since he sold millions of dollars worth of stocks right before the Wuhan Virus hit America and wreaked havoc on the markets.  There are a couple other congressmen named, but Burr is the primary focus.  The trucker groans and says aloud, “Can we just deal with shit like this after we get the crisis under control?  Let’s force resignations and prosecute insider trading when restaurants and rest stops across the country are open.  How about that?”

Although it would probably be a good idea for Burr to be removed from the Senate Intelligence Committee while the investigation is going on, the trucker’s point is still valid. 

By now, the mainstream media has gotten the message that their respite with the Wuhan Virus is over and it’s back to attacking Trump.  As always, none of them appreciate that America has the most transparent president in history leading them.  Exposing himself to questioning about the virus, which the media uses to attack him, 4-5 hours a day is commendable but he will receive no commendation by the media.  When a journalist brings this up in the office of a mainstream media source, he is shot down with a simple declaration, “Trump is a tyrant.”

“Respectfully, tyrants never feel a need to explain themselves and he’s doing the opposite.”

“Oh yea, while you’re out giving credit to the enemy, I found an inside source that got behind the podium during one of Trump’s presser.  They took a picture and sent it to me.”

“I’m guessing the president didn’t say what was written on the paper?  He improvised a little bit, which I think everyone does.”

“It’s worse.  The speech writer wrote, ‘Corona virus’ and Trump crossed it out and wrote in ‘Chinese’”

His supporters have been attacking his critics claiming they illegally spied on him and you respond by having someone take pictures of something that people aren’t supposed to see and then publish it?  He has said repeatedly that he’s not going to call it what the Chinese government wants him to call it.  He has never been politically correct and he’s not going to start now.”

“These are body blows.  This is the weakest the president has ever been so we need to increase the rhetoric and the pressure.”

“80% of people approve of the way he’s handled the virus.  Let’s ignore the fact that it’s unethical to be taking pictures of a speech and releasing it to us.  The only people that will care about his edit are the people that hate him.  His supporters will commend him for not letting the Chinese overlords dictate how we speak.  His haters won’t be any more motivated to attack him based on it but the fact that you alerted people that we are still trying to spy on the president illegally may have caused more harm than good in your attack of Trump.”

“I’m trying to save the lives of the Chinese-Americans living here.”

“Asian-American attacks are rare over this.  I mean, to attack someone you have to touch them and everyone is afraid of doing that right now.  Those that use terms like ‘Wuhan Virus’ have been very clear.  The Chinese people have their deepest sympathies but their sympathy lies in that they are oppressed by a tyrannical communist government.  Conservatives are attacking the Chinese government for covering it up not the Chinese people.”

“You think that our word games aren’t working?”

                “Yes, I do”

                “Well, Wikipedia has just put on their website that the ‘Spanish Flu’ is being renamed the ‘1918 influenza epidemic.”

                “Everyone knows that nobody calls it that.  This is like the people that want to ban smoking in older movies.  It’s pointless and even successful social justice gas lighting campaigns are laughed at when they try to retcon something.”

                “It worked for the Christian Bale batman movies.  In the Michael Keaton batman, Joker killed his parents but all of a sudden that wasn’t true in Batman begins.”

                “Those are movies.  In real life, people know when you’re trying to revise history.”

                “Only the present generation knows.  Plato’s allegory of the metals tells us that in subsequent generations, nobody will know what we did.”

                “In a maximum of five years, Donald Trump won’t be president and nobody will care what we call viruses anymore.  You think woman named Maria got attacked during Hurricane Maria?  We actually extended the naming of storms to tropical storms because we weren’t having many hurricanes until Maria and Harvey showed up.”

                “Maybe we will abandon the narrative latter but right now, we all need to be on the same page.”

                “It’s stupid.  Just so you know, the Spanish flu didn’t originate in Spain.”

                “Wow, so it really was racist.”

                “No, they called it that because the king of Spain got it.  Since he was the most famous victim, the name stuck with Spain.  Nobody in Spain or elsewhere thought it to be racist against them.”

                “Irrelevant.”

                “Unfortunately, that is the party line; history and precedent is irrelevant.”

 

                Back in the White House, one of President Trump’s advisors is applauding him on a briefing he just made.  The president responded, “Thank you. I don’t know why but it continues to baffle me how malicious and unfair the media is.  I really thought they could come together during this crisis the way partisanship went away during 9/11.  Just when I think they can’t go any lower, they do.”

                “Look at the silver lining Mr. President.”

                “I’m normally good at that game but even I don’t know where it is here.”

                “It’s the first step of things getting back to normal.  Maybe people are realizing that the threat is dwindling.”

                “I’ll believe that when more things start opening rather than closing.”

                “Something tells me that with that aspect, it’ll never go back to normal.”

                “No, I agree.  My point is that when things open, there will be a new normal.”

                “One in which more people work from home.”

                “It will harm the commercial real estate market but that’s okay.  Industries rise and fall and it’s only the people that can adapt that will survive.”

                “Yes, and telecommuting will be more common.”

                “A lot of those regulations I cut about doctors practicing across state lines and telemedicine may become permanent unleashing the American entrepreneurial spirit.”

                “That is definitely a possibility.”

                “I just need to get re-elected so that I can lead the charge and not let Biden or Bernie mess it up.”

                “This has a chance to help your campaign.”

                “I don’t know, people seem on the fence about my handling of it.  The media will continue to attack me for every little thing that happens and it does have an impact on the human psyche.  I’ll keep fighting back but I’m not sure this helped me.  I’m crippled not being able to hold rallies.”

                “Like you said, Mr. President, you need to adapt and I have faith you can.  Here’s my question though.  What’s your biggest issue?”

                President Trump raised his head as his eyes got wide.  He responded, “Building the wall and securing the border.  After this, the American people may not want to listen to open border activists.  The fact that the liberals and Democrats have been calling for open borders all along, it will be a strike against their credibility.   In reality, they have no credibility but the media has done a decent job covering for them.  This one will be hard to get away from; especially because they only have nine months before the election.  That’s not a lot of time to convince the world that they weren’t for open borders.”

                “That’s even truer because they will waste time by first trying to promote open borders again and not to be racist during this crisis.  They have to try and fail at that before they pivot to lying and revisionist history that they were always in favor of closing the border and stopping illegal immigrants.”

                “There are so many implications for this.  As people were dying in Italy, Italians were on their balconies singing.  They weren’t singing about the European Union; they were singing nationalistic Italian songs and anthems.”

                “That is probably your second biggest point the last three years; America first.”
                “Over 200 people have died so I don’t want to forget that.  If we’re right about these silver linings, it wasn’t worth the loss of life.”

                “Of course sir.  The only thing that will derail us is if people start attacking Asian-Americans in the streets.”

                The President shook his head, “No, that was the big fear after 9/11 too.  It didn’t really happen.  There were a couple pockets here and there but for the most part people flew the American flag outside their homes and were united as Americans regardless of where you descended from.”

                “If I may Mr. President, you mentioned earlier that after this whole thing blows over, you will deal with China.  Can you elaborate on that?”

                “We need to start seeing them as the country that unleashed a scourge on the world laying waste to the global economy.  They are highly unethical and we need to treat them more of a political rival rather than a trading partner.”

                “In other words, re-evaluate their strategic importance to us.”

                “Yes, there needs to be a reckoning.”

                “Like, you know, US and European companies need to stop doing business in China and moving their headquarters back to here or a non-communist country like Vietnam?  They need to spread out their exposure and locations so one country’s collapse doesn’t devastate them.  What does all this sound like to you Mr. President?”

                “What I’ve been saying all along.”

                “And what the Democrats have criticized and attacked you for most vehemently.”

                “I’ve made it an emphasis of my administration to cut red tape and bureaucracy; I have gotten a lot of it through this month.  You may be on to something.”

                “I think I am.”

                “I mean, you wouldn’t believe some of these regulations.  Did you know that companies that produce alcohol weren’t allowed to make hand sanitizers?  Why?  That doesn’t even make sense.  Why are we inhibiting people from producing things and fostering open competition?”

                “The leaders aren’t always Republican sir.”

                “Sometimes the Republicans do it too though.  It’s not just the Democrats.  You were right earlier; a lot of these deregulations need to become permanent.  That’s one of them.”

                “We’ll see what happens but the future isn’t all doom and gloom.  There are possibly good things on the horizon.”

                “We just need to get to the horizon.  People are being laid off left and right.  We need a way to help them but every solution has a huge flaw.  I want to get rid of payroll taxes but that doesn’t do any good if you were laid off.”

                “The stimulus bill is going to give people a check.”

                “1-3,000 dollars isn’t going to do much if things are closed down for months.  Some people will just live off their savings but others are really going to have a problem.  Many people live paycheck to paycheck and they don’t have savings to get them through this time.  How are we going to help them?”

                “They do have forced savings.”

                “We don’t force people to keep money in savings.”

                “No, but a lot of companies put pressure on people to have 401 (k) plans.”

                “Get rid of the penalties for withdrawing early.”

                “Yes, why not?”

                “I like it.  If you need the distribution take it.  Some people may take too much but we’re just asking them to do what we’re doing.  You sacrifice future income to get through an emergency now.  Obviously retirement is the ultimate rainy day fund but this is probably going to be the biggest rainy day of people’s lifetimes.  I’m defining ‘rainy day’ as something people didn’t plan for.  People generally plan for retirement but nobody saw this coming.”

                “That makes sense to me sir.”

                “I need to go propose this to people who can make it happen.  I know we’re going to get attacked by the liberals because they have no faith in the American people and think they should be the ones to tell people how to spend their money, but that’s not my way nor is it the conservative way.  Thank you for this talk.”

                “Thank you sir.  It’s always an honor to bounce ideas off of you.”

                With that, the president left the room and went back to trying to lead the country through the worst pandemic in almost every person’s lifetime.