Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
is sitting in his office with an incredulous look on his face. Grassley has had a roller coaster of the last
three years. As a Republican, he is naturally
attacked by the left incessantly regardless of what he says so he’s used to
that. It’s the right that frustrates him
as they don’t seem to have any memory. When
he castigated the Democrat Senators during the Kavanaugh confirmation, they
cheered him. Then, when he was not
opposed to the Mueller report because he believed that if the President was
indeed innocent, an investigation wouldn’t matter, they viciously attacked
him. Once the Mueller report was over,
he urged America to move on and the right was annoyed by that. After two Inspector General reports that
Grassley was able to decode as he is fully aware on how to read legalese and
documents intended to obfuscate, he reamed the FBI for their FISA abuse and
abusing their power. Again, the right
cheered him but he knew that if he agreed with anything a Democrat did again,
the tide would turn on him on a dime.
Luckily, he did what all politicians should do; he gathered the facts
and acted on what he believed to be true and advised and made policy to the
best of his knowledge and ability. Now,
there is time to react once again as more of the Intelligence Community
Inspector General Horrowitz report has been declassified; namely a couple
footnotes and a letter written by the DOJ to the FISA court. As these things are wordy and cumbersome to
read, he also has his staff reading parts of it. He gathers them in for a meeting to discuss
the topic to see if they are as appalled as he is.
Grassley starts the meeting,
“Let’s start with the letter as that seems pretty much straightforward. Can someone please tell me that I misread the
part about Ohr?”
There was a brief pause as
people looked at each other afraid to speak.
A woman spoke up, “Well sir, from what I understood, the DOJ clearly
stated that Ohr informed the FBI that Steele contacted him in late July 2016
about information that Carter Page was colluding with Russians.”
“Right, and that information
only exists in the dossier right?”
“Yes sir.”
“That would mean the FBI lied to
everyone when they said they hadn’t received the dossier until September 2016.”
“In fairness sir, I think that’s
word play. They didn’t need to see the
document because they were talking to Steele themselves.”
“I’m not interested in the play
on words! They illegally spied on a
president. Do you know how serious this
is?! Then it goes on that Ohr had
already given most of the information to his handling agent.”
The woman put her head down and
didn’t want to respond. A male staffer
took over, “The letter is plainly written, sir.
Steele reported that the dossier information was given to the FBI over
the course of several meetings between June 2016 and August 2016.”
“When was the investigation
open?”
“July 31, sir”
“So, when the FBI tells us the
dossier had nothing to do with opening the investigation?”
“It doesn’t appear that they
have any way to make that claim now.”
“What’s worse, now let’s move to
the dossier, did you all read footnote 461?”
The woman finds her confidence
again, “Yes sir, it corroborates the DOJ letter.”
“I got the same thing from my
reading.”
“There was something else about
the footnote I found disturbing.”
“That list is long with me but
let me hear it. That’s why I wanted
everyone to read it.”
“The FBI never bothered to ask
Steele if he was the source of the Yahoo
News article about Carter Page colluding with the Russians.”
“At first, I thought that was
the least of it as Steele’s FBI handling agent, Pientka, could still have
plausible deniability. It would make him
a bad agent for not thinking to ask that question but at least he didn’t cover
it up because he didn’t know that the article wasn’t corroborating Steele but
that Steele was the source for the FBI and Yahoo
News.”
The man spoke up, “Respectfully sir,
that revelation came in Chapter 4.”
“I was getting to that. What do we find out in Chapter 5?”
“That there were drafts of the
Carter Page FISA application on October 14, 2016 that Steele was responsible
for the leak that led to the 9/23 article.”
The woman sarcastically added,
“But don’t worry, Horrowitz assures us that Steele was acting on his own
volition and has since been admonished by the FBI.”
Grassley declares, “It’s really
disturbing that the IG could write all this and then tell the world that he
didn’t find evidence of political bias.”
The woman responded, “Well, in
fairness, he did say at the trial that that wasn’t a fair
characterization. He was asked point
blank if he didn’t find political bias and he said that he couldn’t say that.”
“Given what he wrote and
redacted from the public, it should have been a little more forceful than that
don’t you think?”
“I do sir.”
“After that gem of a draft, the
final draft to the FISA reads, ‘FBI assesses that Steele’s business associate
or the law firm that hired the business associate likely provided the
information to the press.’”
The man replied, “It’s one thing
to reword it, it’s quite another to change pertinent information. The final draft makes it seem like Steele may
not have known that Glenn Simpson or Perkins Coie leaked the information to the
press.”
“Either way, they’re all working
together. Glenn Simpson owns Fusion GPS
and used Perkins Coie’s money to pay Christopher Steele. If any of the three of them leaked the
information to the press, then it’s not corroborating evidence.”
“They didn’t make that clear to
the FISC”
“Okay, so we all got the same
interpretation. The FBI has been lying
to us for three years. Is there any
other way to look at this?”
“No sir” came a communal
response
“Now, it’s time for action. I have no choice but I need to write a letter
to FBI Director Christopher Wray and tell him that he needs to turn over
everything he had on Crossfire Hurricane.
Enough is enough. We made a
mistake confirming this guy. This was
not a good appointment by the president and we can’t count on Wray to clean his
house and keep it in order. We have to
step in. Is there any resistance or
rebuttal to that conclusion?”
Everyone in the room says ‘No
sir.”
As it turns out, Wisconsin
Senator Johnson has a similar meeting with his staffers and came to the same
conclusion and also wrote a letter to Wray requesting the same thing. They both then send a memo to the President
recommending him to terminate Christopher Wray.
As President Trump receives the
memo, he shakes his head. He is with his
Wuhan Virus taskforce and he exclaims that he needs to get to that later because
he needs to focus on the issue at hand.
He walks into the press briefing to update the American public on the
latest regarding the pandemic. Last
night, he met with the governors and decided on a slow, sector roll out of the
economy in the lesser affected states.
Just like every other day, he knows that the press is out to get him and
they will ask trap questions but he is unafraid as he is a master of not being
fooled into saying what they want him to say.
A reporter asks him about the pushback in states where the governors
have gotten tyrannical by restricting what people are allowed to buy at
supermarkets or fining people for attending a service in their cars with the
windows up listening to the service on a car radio. He finishes with, “How important is it for
these people to get in line?”
President Trump does not make
any overt facial reaction to the question but inside he’s smiling. He knows that if he praises the people, then
the headlines will be that he was advocating lawlessness and chaos but if he
condemns them then the headline will be that he approves of tyranny and told
people they don’t have a right to push back or protest the government. Luckily for President Trump, he has always
been in tuned to what the American people are thinking and the pulse of the
country he heads. He calmly responds in
a serious tone almost empathetic, “No, people are suffering. You know staying at home isn’t completely
safe either as people are still dying.
People want to go back to work, they don’t like being suppressed. Our country wasn’t founded on that; in fact,
it was founded on the opposite. Some
governors have stretched their power and people don’t like it.”
The mainstream media does not
put any tag line at the bottom of their screens and there will be no headline
as there wasn’t much they could do with that.
Meanwhile, many watching nod their heads as the conservatives repeat to
themselves that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution aren’t suggestions;
they mean something and it is always applicable. The moderates, on the other hand, tilt their
head and think that they will get in line if the request is reasonable such as
social distancing and working from home for a while but there’s a line. If that line is crossed, however, then they
will feel the need to push back. They know, though, that they’re not there
yet. The Democrats, on the other hand,
frown. They are not full leftists so
they are still capable of rational thought.
They see the reaction to the president’s words and think to themselves
that every tyrant has believed that their passion to squelch liberty will
supersede the oppressed desire to not have their liberty suppressed. History has proven that that is a
fallacy. What keeps Americans relatively
peaceful and not revolutionary is the thriving and prominent middle class. They have a lot to lose so they aren’t as
willing to engage in revolutionary behavior.
Given the shut down and the mass forced unemployment by the government,
this is becoming less and less true and if it is prolonged, a pushback seems
inevitable.
The press conference ends and
President Trump is given a video of Joe Biden as it is now official that he
will be his opponent in the coming election.
His staffer articulates, “Mr. President, I think you should see this so
you know what you’re up against.”
President Trump looks at the
video that is only 11 seconds long. Joe
Biden is asked a question and he fumbles and mumbles his words as he loses his
train of thought consistently. If this
was the first time, then it could be understandable but this is just another
example in a litany of confusions and misstatements. The staffer has a smile on his face but Trump
grimaces. He shakes his head and
pronounces, “It’s really sad what the Democrats are doing to him. He isn’t well and instead of getting him
help, they nominate him so he can humiliate himself. The only thing I can think of is they’re
going to force Hillary or Michelle (Obama) to be his Vice President. They want a figurehead for the presidency so
that they can bring an unelected person of their choosing to be the real
president. It’s really a travesty. The DNC are deranged people. There is something seriously morally wrong
with this.”
The staffer’s smile runs away
from his face and he feels embarrassed. He
opines, “It never ceases to amaze me how you get the liberals to expose
themselves for the hysterical power-hungry or ignorant people that they are.”
“You have to understand that
before me, Republicans either ignored them or caved and apologized. They’ve never encountered someone who hits
back like I do and they don’t know how to handle it. When they get confused how their well and
tried and true tactics aren’t working, they can’t help themselves but to
exaggerate them. Before me, the Republican
gave in or said nothing, which made them look weak so they never needed to
raise the hysteria a notch.”
“Well, the results speak for
themselves. They fall for it every
time.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, which
hysterics are you referring to as there are so many to choose from?”
The staffer laughs, “Their
reaction to you defunding the WHO”
“Oh that one. Yes, they love their analogies like I’m
banning firemen on 9/11. The real
analogy would be that the planes hit, the firemen came but instead of hoses and
axes they started shooting flame throwers at the Twin Towers.”
“I’m still in disbelief that
they catered to Chinese propaganda and promoted false information.”
“They knew it was false
too. That’s the disturbing part. They kept saying that there was no human to
human transmission. They attacked travel bans even though China banned domestic
travel but allowed international, and all they could do was praise Beijing.”
“China and the media keep lying
about it only being three weeks. They
knew on December 21 and as late as January 21, they were still downplaying the
threat and attacking you.”
“January 21 is early. That’s just when the first person arrived in
the United States. I think it took them
seven weeks to admit it. Seven weeks;
that’s two more weeks than where we’re at now.
Could you imagine if I had denied the threat five weeks ago and I still
was now and continued to for another two weeks?”
“I’d rather not imagine that Mr.
President.”
“Yea, that’s a good call; I
don’t really want to either.”
President Trump goes back to the
Oval Office and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani walks in. “Good afternoon Mr. President.”
“Good afternoon Rudy.”
“Well, in light of the pushback
we’ve been getting from defunding the WHO, I’ve been reviewing the legal
justification for it.”
“What did you find?”
“You technically do have the
power to reallocate funds in an emergency situation; which this clearly
is. You did it before with the border
wall and this is a much easier sell.”
“What about rescission?”
“That one is a little more
hairy. You need congressional support
for that so you’d have to send a memo to them asking for permission.”
“That may not be a bad thing.”
“It may not be too effective
because they would have 45 days to respond.”
“Is there any way that can be
fast tracked?”
“Of course; it’s even in the
law. That is perfectly within your
rights.”
“Then that may be the better
option. If they approve it quickly, then
there is less incentive for the left and Democrats to attack me just because it
was me and I acted within in my authority but unilaterally nonetheless. If they refuse or drag their feet, then you
get congress on the record defending the WHO and the American people know that
they lied to us for seven weeks.”
“From a political standpoint,
that may be the better option. It’s
easier to sell to the American people because they tend to approve of things
more if congress approves and it helps in our quest to win back the house when
they are on record defending an organization that led to the deaths of, so far,
over 30,000 people.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“Yes, I guess it is.”
Giuliani leaves the oval office
and Trump turns on the TV as he knows his press secretary Kelly Ann Conway is
giving a press conference. Paula Rhee is
in attendance and she asks Conway if she’s alarmed that when President Trump
meets with CEOs and organizations that want to help; there is a predominance of
white males in the group. At first
Conway tries to be diplomatic and explain that none of those people he’s
meeting with were chosen by him. They
all volunteered to help and it’s not the president’s fault that the only
corporations that volunteered to help were ones whose CEO was a white
male. Just as she did with Fauci and
president Trump when she didn’t get the answer she wanted, she throws a
child-like hissy fit and whines to Conway inarticulately prompting Conway to
respond calmly and sympathetically, “Paula, I’m not sure what happened to you,
respectfully, I don’t know why you changed and you’re in to reform screaming at
Anthony Fauci and the President of the United States. Quite frankly, I think it’s unbecoming. I’m here to help the American people so
that’s what I’m going to do but I think you’re here for a different reason
these days.”
President Trump’s eyes widen as
he sits back in his chair. He nods his
approval and comments to nobody since he is alone in the room, “I stand
corrected. I thought that taking the
high road with the liberals was stupid and came off as weak but she pulled it
off. I don’t think I could have done
that. She seemed genuinely concerned but
still got her shots in and they cut deep.
Well done, Kelly-Ann, well done indeed.”
The president is paged by his
secretary who informs him that his economic advisor is waiting to see him. He replies, “Send her in.”
The economic advisor walks in
and she asserts, “Good evening Mr. President.”
“Good evening.”
“I got some good news and some
bad news. Which would you like first?”
“Always bad.”
The economic advisor seems
confused by the response and she looks at her notes. “Ummm,
we’re running massive deficits.”
“I figured that when I signed a
two trillion dollar Wuhan Virus bill.”
“Yes, as you know, the
government doesn’t produce anything. All
we can do is take money from tax payers and due to the shut down, there aren’t
as many of those.”
“We knew that April would be
rough.”
“Yes sir, we did but here’s the
interesting thing. Federal Tax
collections, despite the shut downs happening in mid-March, were still the
highest we’ve collected in March since 2016.”
“I broke my March record as
president then.”
“Yes Mr. President, you did.”
“And I only had about 60% of the
month.”
“Correct, before the shut down.”
“Not bad.”
“Well, no it’s not bad when you
just look at the revenues. The first six
months of the fiscal year was a record high.”
“Yes, the economy was motoring
faster than anything that anyone predicted so breaking records seemed
inevitable.”
“Yes, but most people don’t know
that tax cuts normally lead to higher tax revenues because it seems
counter-intuitive.”
“It doesn’t matter if they
realize it or not, the results are what matters.”
“Well, quite frankly sir, that’s
all well and good. You know, $ 1.6
Trillion in revenue seems good on the surface but numbers are pointless unless
you compare it to something.”
“With all this good news you
were telling me, I thought the bad news was over.”
“I’m sorry sir. It just seemed to make more sense to go with
the good news first. I’ll just say
it. We spent $2.3 Trillion in the first
half of the fiscal year so we’re still running deficits.”
“I did expect that with all the
money we’ve been spending on this pandemic.”
“Yes sir, but I’m afraid that
we’re going to have no choice but to print more money and that will cause
inflation. People’s savings accounts are
going to effectively diminished because the dollar will lose value.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong but
doesn’t that mean our debt is lower too?”
“Yes, but I’d rather us pay it
off without hurting people who saved money.”
“As would I but sometimes you
need to look at the silver lining. Once
this threat has passed, we can get back to building the economy.”
“Yes Mr. President but I’m
afraid we dug too deep a hole.”
“We did it once, we will do it
again.”
“Yes, Mr. President. I do believe you are capable but you’re going
to need to win the election. We don’t
really have enough time before November.”
“We shall see how much time we
have when the economy is fully opened up again.
Perhaps we won’t have to hurt people who have been responsible and saved
their money.”
“Speaking about savings accounts
and retirement…”
“You can speak freely.”
“Well, I spoke to the Social
Security trustees and since we have all these furloughed employees that have
left the workforce, our social security revenue has plummeted.”
“That makes sense.”
“Yes, so now they believe that
the Social Security fund will no longer be insolvent by 2035 but have revised
it to 2033.”
“In one year, we’ve lost two
years.”
“Yes Mr. President, it would
appear that way.”
“There is no good way to handle
that. The best thing to do is inform
people that are 55 and younger that we’re not going to be able to pay
them. We need to draw a date in the
sand; tell the people born after that date, that there’s no money and they need
to spend the rest of their time before retirement to arrange something else.”
“You’d still pay those over 55?”
“Of course; they have less time
to prepare so we need to take care of them.”
“I don’t advise that sir.”
“Yes, I know. The blow back would be intense and this time
it would be legitimate. They’ll accuse
me of stealing their money.”
“Well, in fairness, once we took
it from their paycheck, it was no longer their money.”
“Yes, but they entrusted us to
keep it for them but instead the government spent it.”
“Well, technically, we took the
money from them and put it in a trust fund.
The trust fund then bought Treasury denominated notes and then the
government spent that money and handed the trust fund an IOU.”
“An IOU they can’t pay because
they no longer have the money.”
“Correct, because they already
spent it.”
“You see how technically it’s the
same thing as saying we spent the money we were supposed to be saving for them?”
“Yes, because as the gap between
the employed and the retirees closed, there were much fewer workers per
beneficiary and that leads to insolvency every time; even in the government.”
“Ponzi schemes still don’t work
even if it’s the government running it.”
“Yes.”
“Well, since we can’t do what
needs to be done, all I can do is bring back more manufacturing and increase
the workforce so that the ratio of employed people to retirees starts growing
again.”
“Well, the pandemic has forced
more beneficiaries because they can borrow it while they are furloughed.”
“Well, hopefully we can get rid
of that when we open.”
“Yes, Mr. President. Of course.”
“Is there anything else?”
“No, that’s all.”
“Thank you”
The economic advisor leaves the
room and President Trump transitions to another item requiring his
attention. He is beginning to lose hope
that anyone involved in SpyGate will be locked up but he can’t worry about that
now as he needs to find a solution to places like New York and New Jersey who
can’t seem to get the Wuhan Virus under control.
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