Real Characters Episode 48 Congress has just sold out America

               

                Barack Obama is facing a health crisis.  A novel disease known as Ebola has come to America.  In order to combat the virus, he hires a man named Ron Klain who is very good friends with Al Gore.  Although he has no medical experience, he is the nation’s hope in dealing with the virus.  He calls a meeting of the task force and he starts, “The first item on the agenda is we need to know the extent of the threat.”

                Someone on the taskforce replies, “The standard FDA and CDC protocol is to get testing kits and send them over to the CDC for testing and they’ll come back with the results.”

                “That is a good idea.  It’s very important that we don’t have false positives out there with random people doing the test.  The CDC will be solely responsible for analyzing tests.”

                Another member inquires, “Should we maybe consider mass testing?”

                “No, surveillance is the protocol so that’s what we’ll go by.  I don’t think it’s necessary to do mass testing of the entire population.”

                It is now 2020 and Donald Trump is the president.  There is an unprecedented pandemic that has hit America and President Trump has tried to get ahead of it but had no cooperation from others in government.  In Mid-January, during his State of the Union, he warns the public about the new Coronavirus.  In response, Nancy Pelosi rips up the speech calling it lies.  Also in January, President Trump orders a travel ban to and from China.  This unleashes a fury of attacks from Democrats and the left calling him a xenophobe and racist.  It is at this time that Ron Klain reemerges and tell people not to fall for the president’s racism.  He urges people through twitter that as it relates to the Coronavirus, people should go to Chinatown and sit down to have dinner.  They should go shopping.  After all, the virus affects humans not a certain people.  He claims that fear is hurting Chinese-Americans.  This draws the attention of congress who calls him in for testimony. He tells the committee that travel bans to and from China are impossible and not practical because people need it for merchant reasons.  He advocates letting them come but to test them as they come in.  The point is to monitor, not ban, thus implying that the President is overreacting.

                Now, it is Mid-March and Ron Klain is the guiding light for the liberals and Democrats.  With the outbreak plaguing Europe, President Trump adds Europe to the travel ban for thirty days.  Again, Klain attacks it as an overreaction.  Just to be different, he claims it to be a red herring from what Klain perceives as a failure of Donald Trump.  Presumably thinking people can’t remember what he said two months ago, he now is saying that if you are not at work right now, it’s because Donald Trump didn’t do his job in January and February by under-reacting to the problem.  When asked for specifics on what President Trump did wrong, Klain criticizes, in complete contradiction to what he advocated when he was in charge, President Trump for not testing everyone.  As Trump rewrites the FDA/CDC rule to allow schools and labs to do their own testing in order to get more tests out, Klain claims it was done too late.  As he’s a frequent guest on mainstream media, he constantly touts that South Korea has done more per capita testing than the United States and there’s no excuse for that.  There is a reason that he had to clarify ‘per capita’ because the United States has tested more people than any other country in the world.

                In the last week of March, the Democrats and mainstream media are no longer interested in combating the Wuhan Virus.  Instead, they want to use it to damage President Trump in an election year as much as they can.  Luckily, they will get a chance as Congress is about to pass a 2 Trillion dollar spending bill.  The bill was all but complete until Nancy Pelosi flew in from San Francisco to block the bill.  She called Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who helped co-write the bill and praised it, and asked, “Chuck, what are you doing?  We can pass all our agenda and the Republicans will be too blinded by Covid19 and the pressure to do something to notice.”

                “Don’t you think that we need to get a bill that only deals with the virus?”

                “Of course not!  This is our best chance to bypass the President and pass Green New Deal shit.”

                “I didn’t think of it that way.”

                “I’ll make it like 1,000 pages so that no Republican will have time to read through it.”

                “What things will you bury in there?”

                “Everything including the kitchen sink.  They’ll catch some of them but others will get through and that’s all we care about.”

                After two days, the Republicans did read the bill and slashed funding Planned Parenthood in direct violation of President Trump’s executive order a couple months ago, forcing airlines to cut their emissions by 2025 and before giving a loan, a full report on the ethnicity and gender of board members plus their comparable salaries needs to be submitted.  Senator Grassley told his fellow Senators, “If we pass any of the non-virus related things, then we should include that we don’t get a salary because we failed the American people and didn’t do our job.”

                Unfortunately for America, the other Senate Republicans weren’t as smart or strong as Senator Grassley.  The things that slipped through allocated millions of dollars to things that had nothing to do with the virus.  A strong Republican Senator asks a RINO (Republican in Name Only) why they did what they did.  The RINO responds, “We just didn’t have the numbers.  Rand Paul and other Senate Republicans were quarantined so we had to work with the Democrats”

                “You didn’t work with them, you sold out America.”

                “Don’t be so dramatic.  We got them to get rid of the big stuff.”

                “Don’t you realize the big stuff was there to distract you from the little stuff?  They wanted to make it appear that they were being reasonable and willing to cut back on things.  The reality is they went for the farm so they would get something.  In case you didn’t realize, we didn’t ask for anything on our special interests.  We are already $ 23 Trillion in debt; no extra money for anything that didn’t have to do with the virus should have been in there.”

                “I don’t even know what you’re referring to.  It’s 880 pages, who has time to read that?”

                “We all have staff to read these bills and report back.  Did you not do your homework?  Did you not assign and delegate someone to go through the bill before you agreed to it?”

                “Of course I did.”

                “Then what am I referring to?”

                “You’re nitpicking a couple things here and there.”

                “You can’t even tell me.”

                “Of course I can”

                “Then name one.”

                “I don’t want to play this game.”

                “How about S 60 Million for NASA.  Why was that needed?”

                “They are a scientific organization; maybe they can make ventilators and masks.”

                “Have they said they were going to?”

                “No, but I mean they could.”

                “How about the $ 8 Million for the National Archives.”

                “Museums are important.”

                “How does that have to do with the virus?”

                “Since people aren’t able to gather in large groups, they’re not going to the museums so they need help.”

                “That’s the least of our problems now.  You would be better off giving that to restaurant owners.”

                “They got money too.”

                “Then we could save that for the economic apocalypse coming.  What about 99 Million for the energy fund?”

                “Ventilators need electricity?”

                “You think there’s going to be a blackout because of the Wuhan Virus?”

                “Well, no, but, look I don’t like this line of questioning.”

                “I don’t care. You’re going to listen to it because you just sold out the country and I want you to feel ashamed for what you contributed to.”

                “I don’t have to answer to you.”

                “Yes you do.  What about the three million for Forest and Rangeland research?”

                “Three million out of two trillion is a drop in the bucket.”

                “It all adds up.  What about 27 Million for wildfire management?  Does the virus cause forest fires now?”

                “Look it how devastated Greece, Brazil and Australia had been when they had wildfires.  We need to be prepared.”

                “How about for the Wuhan Virus bill, we focus solely on the Wuhan Virus crisis at hand then, when that’s over, we can prepare for other things that might happen.  We can’t deal with the hypothetical situations, we need to deal with the problems at hand.”

                “I get that.”

                “Clearly you don’t or else you never would have voted for this.  $500,000 for a water project in Utah?”

                “If people don’t have water, the health crisis will be even worse.”

                “Again, no threat of our water supply being contaminated.”

                “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

                “Not when you’re writing a bill for a specific virus at a specific time.”

                “How many are you going to do?”

                “That’s the problem! There are so many to choose from.  The $78,000 for Native American Preservation Society.  I’m glad you have stopped making up justifications and spinning it that it may have something to do with the virus.”

                “We owe them for stealing their land.”

                “In every American war against the Indians, we had Indian tribes fighting on our side.  They were divided and the tribes were constantly at war.  They constantly stole land from each other and stole it from whoever was here before them.  We didn’t steal anything. “

                “Now who’s justifying?”

                “What does it have to do with the Wuhan Virus?”

                “Nothing; there you happy?”

                “No, I’m not happy.  Democrats want to bankrupt the country by using crises to implement big government policies and pretending that they’re the answer to save us when it’s not.”

                “It’s just temporary.”

                “No, it’s not.  This is how they always do this.  They pretend something is temporary during a crisis.  Then when the crisis is over and we try to go back to pre-crisis levels, they throw a hissy fit and claim that they’re ‘evil Draconian Cuts” and it never gets slashed.  We have to nip this in the bud or else it will become a problem after the Wuhan Virus is a thing of the past.”

                “What is your problem?”

                “We can’t spend two trillion we don’t have.  Eventually, the people we borrow from will want their money back and we don’t have it.”

                “We have the best military in the world, who’s going to make us pay?”

                “Are you kidding me?  If we don’t pay, then they’ll never want to lend to us again.  If they do, it’ll be at an enormous interest rate.  That’s how this works.  Take yourself for example.  If you lent money to someone and they never paid you back, would you be less likely or more likely to lend money again?”

                “Less, but the micro doesn’t work like the macro”

                “Actually it does.  The only difference is the micro is more black and white, loan or don’t loan.  The macro; they have interest rates to assess the risk.”

                The RINO looked up at a TV and was relieved, “Look, Pelosi is on TV.  Let’s just see what she says.”

                The strong Republicans turns and looks at the screen.  They turn up the volume and hear Pelosi assure people that everything in the bill is needs that people have and is all about the Coronavirus and nothing else.  She pledges that it is just temporary.”

                The RINO replies, “There you have it.”

                “She is lying!”

                “We’ll find out won’t we?”

                “That’s the problem. We approved the deal so we will find out and then it’ll be too late to stop it.  We’re going off the fiscal cliff.  Just remember when it happens that you were part of it and you are partly to blame.”

                The strong Republican leaves the RINO gaping at the screen.  Not too far away from this debate, Dr. Burks is shaking her head.  Unlike the Ebola task force, the Wuhan Virus task force has actual doctors heading it.  She laments, “Thank God we have daily press briefings. There is just so much false information out there.  We really need to dispel the myths every day.”

                Someone on the task force chimed in, “It’s very frustrating, but this is the world we live in.  Are you ready?”

                “Yes,”

                Dr. Burks gets on stage with a stoic expression and declares, “I just want to be clear.  Right now, there are still ICU beds and significant ventilators.  There is no shortage despite what the media is telling you.  These claims of forced DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) are not a present problem.  It is important to note that we focus on the problems at hand and not ones that aren’t here yet or maybe never will be.”

A reporter queries, “What are we doing about the shortage?”

                “There is no shortage yet.”

                “But there may be.  We may become like Italy and we have to stop treating the elderly.”

                “We are of the opinion that If we need ventilators, we’ll figure out a way to make more ventilators.”

                After the press conference, Dr. Burks calls Johns Hopkins University as they have been doing a study on worst case scenarios that would require rationing care.  She inquires the open question, “How close are you to a conclusion?”

                “We’re just about done.”

                “Care to share?”

                “Well, at first we thought about rationing on a first come, first serve basis.  Our conclusion was that it’s not a very effective method.  Then, we thought of a lottery system and that wasn’t very practical either.  The more we tested, the harder it came to ignore a glaring solution.”

                “What would that be?”

                “Just build more hospitals and ventilators.”

                “That’s very Ayn Rand of you.”

                “Yes, she did say that humans could solve any problem.  The only reason they hadn’t was because it wasn’t imminent.  If it becomes an imminent problem, I do think we’ll prove her right.”

                “Considering the example she used is the sun blowing up and then we find a way to survive without the sun, it appears that building ventilators is very simple in comparison.”

                “It sounds like you agree?”

                “I do”

                “Oh good, we thought you’d be upset because it’s not really what you asked for?”

                “On the contrary, it’s exactly what I asked for.  If we run out of ICU beds and ventilators and rationing is on the table what are we going to do?  The answer: ‘building more hospitals and producing more ventilators’ does solve the problem.”

                “We thought it may be an oversimplification.”

                “Sometimes the simple answers are the correct ones.”

                “That is the basis for Ochman’s Razor.”

                “True”

                As the daily press conference is over, the mainstream media is distraught because President Trump’s approval rating has been rising since they started.  CNN, NBC and other mainstream media outlets have rallied to end live streaming of them even though they’re the ones that demanded it.  They now accuse President Trump of replacing his rallies with the press briefings as he constantly reminds the people that everything they take issue with started with Obama and when President Trump acted in January, they all mocked him.  Unlike President Trump, the media has had to do a complete 180 about the threat of the virus.  The mainstream media blamed the WHO (World Health Organization) for getting it wrong so they couldn’t possibly know but President Trump knew and they were briefed as well.  They just refused to believe or heed the president’s warning.  The Mainstream Media head is in a board meeting and asks, “Who can we get on to counter what Trump’s task force is spouting to the world?”

                “I contacted Andy Slavitt.  He said he’d be interested in coming on” Comes a journalist.

                “Who’s he?”

                “He was part of FEMA and loyal to President Obama.”

                “Great, have him on.  We’ll have him debate with Craig to make it seem like it’s not biased but make sure you allow Slavitt time to make his attacks and keep Craig on the defensive.”      

                The segment airs and Slavitt attacks President Trump because there is an abundance of masks but people are hoarding them.  He never explains why it’s the President’s fault that people are hoarding masks but he is given free rein to make the accusations.  Rather than play the media’s game, Craig rips out the microphone snapping, “I’m not going to deal with bullshit people” and walks off the set.  The host tries to convince him to come back but he was already gone so Slavitt backs off a little bit and expresses he has no personal probably with Craig as he doesn’t know him personally.

                As the segment was ruined, Slavitt takes to twitter.  He has just read a report that stated that a major hospital in the Midwest has stated that if they run out of ventilators, they may have to resort to rationing.  Based on the article, he tweets out, “a major hospital in the Midwest had reached a limit on ventilators.  Says rationing is going on right now.”

                The lie gains traction and travels around.  Someone close to Slavitt calls him and queries, “You know that the article said that they weren’t there yet right?”

                “Yes, I know but it’s a simple economic formula about expectations vs. reality; more specifically, creating reality.”

                “I’m not familiar with that economic principle.”

                “Let’s say that you want the price of gas to raise a dollar per gallon tomorrow.  There may be no reason for that to happen but you announce it to the world and somehow get a message to every cell phone in the country.  This causes a panic for people and they immediately drive to the gas station to fill up on gas even if they aren’t that low.  With this huge increase in demand, simple economics, higher demand means higher price.  The next day, the price of gas may just be a dollar more per gallon than it was the previous day.  What you have just done was create a self fulfilling prophesy.”

                “Let me get this straight.  You put that out there so that anyone that coughs for like choking on their own saliva will rush to the hospital to get a ventilator.  With the mass hysteria, you may create the reality that we’re out of ventilators.”

                “Yes”

                “That’s pretty diabolical”

                “We have to milk this crisis for everything it’s worth.  It’s not about saving people’s lives, it’s about making Trump look bad so he doesn’t get re-elected.  This is what it takes.”

                “This is too much man.  People are dying”

                “The ends justify the means.  You have to break eggs to make an omelet.”

                “People will know what the actual article said.  You’re not going to get away with it.”

                “Yes, I know but then I just remove the tweet and write a retraction.  In which case, a fraction of the people that saw the original tweet will see the retraction and my ass is covered.”

                “This is too much.”

                “It is necessary”

                “Okay, well, you do your thing.”

                “I intend to.”

                Slavitt isn’t the only one taking to twitter to attack president Trump.  Julia Ioffe of the New York Times taunted the president with a simple tweet, ‘Who’s the shithole country now?”

                This was in response to the United States having the most Wuhan Virus cases in the world.  Like most things with the Wuhan Virus, it is heavily relied upon unreliable data; in this case; Chinese data.  This is nothing new as the New York Times and mainstream media always believed everything Russia told them.  Even those that travelled to Russia were fooled by being shown only what they were supposed to see and the Pravda media spread their disinformation throughout America using the American media as their conduit.  The Chinese are repeating that strategy now.

                Over at CNN, an executive is having the same conversation as everyone else in the mainstream media; how do we hurt Trump.  A reporter remarks, “Why don’t we just do a fact check.”

                “We always do that.”

                “Yea, because it works.”

                “What are you fact checking?”

                “Trump said that we’ve done more Coronavirus testing than any other nation.  Let’s see if that’s true.”

                “Have you checked it or are you just asking the question?”

                “I checked it.”

                “And what did you find?”

                “He’s right that we have the most testing but it’s misleading because we don’t have the highest per capita.”

                “How is that misleading?  We don’t have the highest population so having more tests than China would be beneficial for us.”

                “South Korea leads the world in testing per capita.  Actually in pure number, South Korea, not China, is in second place now.”

                “That isn’t what he said though.”

                “Who cares?”

                “It’s your reputation on the line.”

                “Our audience will think it’s a legitimate point.  All we have to do is change what the president said and then reveal that it was incorrect then Trump looks like he lied again.”

                “Sounds complicated.”

                “it’s not; quite simple.”

                “Well, you have my blessing.  Go for it.”

                “Thank You”

                The executive calls to the group, “Any other ideas?”

                A reporter calls out, “The Supreme Court just ruled unanimously that if you sue for racial discrimination, the burden is on you to prove that racial discrimination occurred and that no other reason was involved.”

                “Why would we report that?  That’s bad for us.  Now, we can’t have frivolous lawsuits to make our enemies suffer by spending a lot of money on defending a case.  We may lose the case, but we take a pound of flesh and make their policy expensive.  Now, the judge can just throw it out and it will cost people we falsely accuse of racial discrimination nothing.”

                “Isn’t that good?  We don’t waste the court’s time.”

                “You are so naïve.  No, that’s not what we do.  You are not reporting on that.  We are ignoring that story.’

                “Yes sir.”

                “What else do we got?”

                An anchorwoman articulates, “I don’t think this Obama vs. Trump thing is getting much traction.  Perhaps we can go another route.”

                “What did you have in mind?”

                “We can talk about current mayors and governors and allow them to blame the president for what’s happening in their cities.”

                “You mean De Blasio?”

                “No, New York is too easy.  I want to give a Democrat a chance at redemption.  I have New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell who wants to come on to tell her side of the story.”

                “Her side of what story?”

                “Why she allowed Mardis Gras to happen.  Afterwards, there was a massive outbreak of the Coronavirus and their death rate is one of the highest in the countries now.”

                “You want to highlight a Democrat mayor destroying her city?”

                “No, I want her to say it was Trump’s fault that Mardis Gras happened.”

                “Is she going to say that?”

                “Yes”

                “On what grounds?”

                “The federal government and Trump failed to tell her about the Coronavirus.  Since she didn’t have the information, she couldn’t have known to cancel Mardis Gras”

                “But, the CDC had already warned everyone before Mardis Gras happened.”    

                “It’s been long enough that most people won’t put two and two together.”

                “Trump mentioned the Coroanvirus during the State of the Union and had a Travel ban to China from it months before Mardis Gras”

                “All people remember from the State of the Union is Trump bragging about the unemployment rate and the economy, giving Rush Limbaugh a medal and Pelosi ripping the speech.”

                “It does rile up our base.  At least an elected politician is saying it.”

                “It also gives her a chance to highlight the good things she did so her constituents don’t think it’s all bad.  Remember, if she loses then a Republican will be in charge.  We can’t let that happen.”

                “She can get primaried.”

                “Let’s just help her.”

                “What good did she do?”

                “She shut down Super Tuesday and the St. Patrick’s Day parade.”

                “Nobody had a St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

                “Exactly but Trump highlights his successes to hide his lies and failures; we should let her do the same thing.”

                “I’ll allow it.”

                “Thank You”

                As the mainstream media and the Democrats collude to use the Wuhan Virus to attack the president, people continue to die much to their delight.  Just as how when the virus was spreading around the world and set to come to America, the Democrats were impeaching President Trump, now that the Wuhan Virus is wreaking havoc on America and the American economy, instead of helping with the problem, they actively try to increase panic and are preparing to impeach the president yet again.  It looks like Trump’s Coronavirus task force are the only ones trying to save Americans and the media and Democrats will do everything they possibly can to stop them.  Whether or not distressed Americans realize this will be told in November when they vote.  Even with a Trump win, the recent Senate stimulus package may give a final blow to the United States national debt and cause massive inflation and astronomical interest rates.  By then, there may be nothing President Trump could do to reverse it.  The Wuhan Virus seems to be the greatest threat now but it appears that the reaction to it will be far more catastrophic and have a much longer lasting effect than the virus itself.  The future looks bleak even as the virus seems to be dissipating. 

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.