Fanis the Bodyguard Episode 39 New administration making amends

                Fanis is sitting in his cousin and employers flat in London, England frowning at the TV.  Mike Bloomberg is beginning to get a lot of popularity to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency in November.  Fanis and his cousin Kera are both from New York.  In 2005, when Bloomberg was a Republicans mayor of New York, Fanis worked on his campaign during the summer between his junior and senior year of college.  The conflict he had was that although he thought that Bloomberg would do a good job as the president should be a businessman and know how to budget, he had trouble putting aside his personal animus for Bloomberg.  When he worked for him, after doing a job that legally only Republicans could do, the Bloomberg campaign hired a bunch of Democrat students and immediately promoted them over the Republicans.  Unlike most interns, Fanis and his group of Republicans soliciting signatures and then canvassing never got to meet the mayor.  They were able to go to the victory party but the only people allowed on stage were minorities as they wanted to make it seem like Mayor Bloomberg was supported by a group just as diverse as New York is.  Kera interrupted his thought process, “What are you staring at so intently?”

                “Bloomberg”

“Ah, still pissed that you got discriminated for being white?”

                “It was all bullshit.  We would make signs for rallies that said ‘Latinos for Bloomberg.’  Not one Latino worked on that sign.  In fact, someone had the idea to write signs in Spanish and I had to call my Dominican friend to tell us how to say it in Spanish.  There were no translator apps back then and the Google translate was unreliable.”

                “I’m sure that happens in a lot of campaigns.”

                “I couldn’t tell you.  That was the only one I worked on but it bothered me when girls would show up and on their first day they would seduce the supervisors and get promoted the next day.”

                “You would have done it too if you could.”

                “The Republican girls in my group refused.”

                “Did they have the goods?”

                “One did, yes.”

                “So then one turned it down.”

                “Yea, and they punished her by sending her to dangerous neighborhoods.  It’s amazing that girl never had anything happen to her except having a dog attack her.”

                “Any problem you have that’s not personal?”

                “He can’t relate to people.  That’s why he says the shit he does.  He attacked farmers by saying that they have no intelligence and it’s not hard to just throw a seed down and cover it in dirt as if that’s all there is to it.”

                “Are you telling me it’s more complicated than that?”

                “Yes”

                “Look, I know that I make fun of Cleveland where you grew up but your dad’s a doctor; What do you know about farming?”

                “Enough to know that it’s not as easy as just throwing seeds and putting dirt on them.  I know they wake up at like 4:30AM and work all day plowing and tilling the fields and working all day to make sure they have a product.  They have a lot of equipment and it’s tough work.”

                “He’s just reverse virtue signaling.  City slickers love attacks on middle America.”

                “Do you city slickers love talks about how the way to deal with black neighborhoods is to throw the kids against the wall and be stern with them to let them know you mean business? I only ask because that’s what Bloomberg said.  Is that reverse virtue signaling?”

                “No, city people don’t like that.  We take pride in our diversity and getting along with multiple cultures; especially in New York.”

                “Please, liberals are so hypocritical.  How do you support Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg?  Sanders has been very outspoken that accumulating wealth makes someone evil and if you’re a billionaire, then you’re an evil person.  Then you have Bloomberg who is a billionaire.  Either you can’t run as a Democrat if you’re a billionaire because you’re party hates people who accumulate a lot of wealth or you can’t run if you hold that value.  You can’t have both.”

                “Seems like the Democrats do.”

                “That’s because they don’t stand for anything.  Right now, the only objective moral they have is to be against anything and everything Donald Trump does and support anyone that doesn’t agree with him regardless of the issue.

                “Now, that’s a campaign slogan.”

                Fanis chuckled.  “Little long don’t you think?”

                “I’m sure we can get one of those Latinos that support him to shorten it up.  Anyway, the reason I came here is we got to go.”

                “Where to now?”

                “Barcelona.”

                “Good old Catalun country.”

                “Yea, short flight too.”

                Kera and Fanis go to the air strip and get on the plane and take the short flight to Barcelona.   On the plane, Kera asks, “Who would you rather have; Bloomberg or Sanders?”

                “Bloomberg, that’s not even a question.”

                “Well you said in 2016 before you became a Trump supporter that if it was Trump vs. Sanders, you didn’t know who was worse.”

                “Well, that’s when I thought Trump would take unnecessary risks with the finances of the country.  I think Bloomberg is fiscally more responsible than Donald Trump.  Sanders is a socialist and socialism has led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of people so there’s no reason to believe that we will be an exception.”

                “That’s dictatorship and tyrants.  He’s more Scandinavian socialism.”

                “How many times do I have to explain to you that Scandinavia has lower corporate tax rates than the United States?  This is even after the Trump tax cuts.  They tax the shit out of individuals but let businesses do what they want.  That’s why it works.  It’s not socialism.  Even the prime ministers of those countries hate Bernie for calling it socialism.  Besides, he supported Russia before the collapse.  Venezuela too but I actually have the video of Russia.”

                Fanis shows her a video of a much younger looking Bernie Sanders talking admiringly about his trip to the Soviet Union and how great the public transportation was and that he went to theaters that had three stages and ornate chandeliers but the most expensive tickets were a dollar fifty.  When he started talking about the puppet shows he watched, Kera giggled hysterically.  She exclaimed, “Forget the gulags and the political prisoners and executions, we got puppet shows!”

                Fanis laughed and piled on, “Sure in Russia if someone accuses you of being a dissenter or anti-communist, you were sent to the gulags to be huddled in so close that when you slept on the concrete floor, you all have to move at the same time because there wasn’t enough room for someone to reposition as needed but our subways are clean.”

                “He attacks rich people but isn’t he rich?”

                “Yea, Forbes says he amassed $2.5 million from real estate investments but he also gets a government pension and has three successful books.  The only problem is, his books are bought in bulk with campaign finance money so basically, if you donate to Bernie Sanders, he’s using the money to buy his books so he can pocket it.”
                “It’s hard to tell what money is his and what’s the campaign’s.”

                “Actually that’s very easy and politicians who don’t do it normally get charged and reprimanded for it but in this climate, you’re above the law if you oppose Donald Trump.”

                They land in Barcelona and go drop their stuff off at the hotel and go out to have empanadas and Tapas.  Afterwards, Fanis leads them through a sketchy area and nondescript roads and through a building that opens up into what looks like an alley. If Kera didn’t know that she travelled with someone that probably should have to register himself as a lethal weapon, she may have turned back a while ago.  Fanis was her bodyguard so she had to think he wouldn’t steer her to danger and if he did, he’d get her out.  As they walk into a door, it opens up to a breathtaking bar with gold plated walls and furniture to match the ostentatious aura.  Given the route they came here, Kera would never have guessed a bar this nice would exist here.  Fanis was speaking Spanish with everyone he came across, which helped ingratiate them to the patrons as this was not supposed to be a tourist bar.  After a few drinks, Kera and Fanis went back to the hotel.  It was around midnight and people were just getting to the bars and the streets were a buzz.  They both may have come from a city that never slept, but Barcelona could give New York a run for its money in that department for the Spaniards didn’t have laws forcing bars to close so it was normal for them to go all night as they did their sleeping during the day time for siesta.

                The next morning, Kera met with her client where she would try to sell a Chinese artifact to them.  Even though both of her parents were of Greek descent, she was fluent in Mandarin and all her focus and her line of work was in Chinese antiquities.  During the meeting, Fanis sparked a conversation with the other guards.  Even with his Spanish fluency, there was no mistaking him for being an American based on his manner of dress.  He also spoke Latino Spanish, which is slightly different from Spanish in Spain that the Barcelonans could tell the difference.  Given that they spoke Catalun, Fanis didn’t think they had room to talk.  He knew better than to call Catalun a dialect but if he was being truthful, if it’s a point that people get offended by and debate, then it may have some truth to it.  The guard’s name was Antonio and like anyone in the world, all he wanted to do was talk to the American about American politics.  Antonio asked, “What’s going on with Mike Flynn?”

                “He’s being prosecuted because they want to shut him up because he knows all of Obama’s secrets since he was a main part of his national security team.”

                “What’s he accused of?”

                “Lying to the FBI but even the agents that interviewed him wrote in their report that they didn’t believe he was being deceptive but they charged him anyway.”

                “Is that what the ‘Logan Act’ is?”

                “Oh no, that’s an old law from 1779 that Sally Yates just pulled out of her ass because she couldn’t get him on anything else.  It says you can’t negotiate with foreign countries as a representative of the United States if you’re not in office.”

                “Don’t lobbyists do that all the time?”

                “Yes, that’s why it’s a stupid law.  I don’t even think it’s constitutional.”

                “How did Flynn violate it if he was the National Security Advisor?”

                “He wasn’t yet.  He was going to be.”

                “So not only has nobody mentioned it in over 200 years, but now that she did, it’s a technicality?”

                “Correct”

                “Who did he talk to?”

                “The Russian ambassador named Kislyak.”

                “It should be easy to beat then if nobody prosecutes it.”

                “The lying to the FBI charge is the one that they’re pushing harder for.  I actually hope they do go back to the Logan Act so that we can start arresting Democrats for it.  It’s about time we do to them what they do to us.”

                “Do you have anyone in mind?”

                “There’s a Senator in Connecticut named Chris Murphy.  He flew to Germany to meet with an Iranian minister named Zarif.  John Kerry was at the meeting too.  Both of them should be arrested under the Logan Act.  Then when they make the defense that the Logan Act is unconstitutional, they can apply it to Flynn too.”

                “Maybe you should be his lawyer.”

                “His first one sucked but this one is really good.  There’s got to be a reason that we can’t do what I want to but I don’t know what it is.  I’d go in there and just start kicking ass and taking names.  President Trump I don’t think is opposed to that so there’s got to be some reason he’s not doing it but I have no idea what it is.  He doesn’t care if they attack him; they do that anyway.”

                “You said that you don’t care if it violated your constitution.  That’s not right.”

                “If they don’t have to follow the constitution then we don’t have to either.  It can’t be a set of rules only for one side.  Also, it can’t be protection for only one party.  It’s everyone or no one.”

                “That makes sense to me.”

                “Yea, unfortunately many Republicans still think they can take the high road and be nice to them and they’ll go away.  We’re in trench warfare now.  They already spied on us, they imprisoned us, what more can we wait for?  When they start rounding us up and sending us to internment camps?  There’s no more waiting.  We need to strike now and it must be with great vengeance and furious anger with no mercy.”

                “You sound like you’re arguing for a revolution.”

                “We’ve gone from spying to lying about collusion to impeachment to imprisoning his supporters.  It keeps getting worse and Civil Wars have been fought for less.  We need to stop making excuses for them and start standing up for ourselves and letting them know that we’re not going to take it.  I guess the short way, yes, I’m not opposed to a violent removal of every communist or socialist in government.”

                Kera exited her meeting and Antonio and Fanis voiced their good bye and Fanis left.  They toured the city as the Catedral Sacre Familia was one of Fanis’ favorite buildings in the world.  They then went to Gaudi house and park making it a Gaudi day.  Kera told him that they needed a break from Gaudi so they went to the Dali museum.  When they left, a man that Fanis had never seen before approached him with a sword.  He yelled, “En Guarde”

                Fanis looked around and was stunned to see nobody on the street but then he remembered that siesta was already an hour in.  Fanis was unsure if the man knew that he carried weapons but he took out his Kukri, which is smaller than a sword and touched blades with the man and queried, “Why are we doing this?”

                “You spoke of starting a revolution over Mike Flynn.  That’s not even the president.”

                “Oh don’t worry, there’s still a soft coup against the president but Flynn was always the target since he knew the ins and outs of the Iran deal and was an outspoken critic of it and he also attacked the Department of Justice for being weaponized and politicized.”

                The swordsman came at Fanis swinging the sword and he perried every blow a little nervous since he was working with a much smaller weapon.  Kera ran off and headed straight to the hotel.  While she was running, Fanis came at the swordsman swinging and slashing his Kukri and it was the swordsman turn to block the blows.  The swordsman stated, “Flynn was subordinate.  He contradicted Obama when he claimed Al-Qaeda was dead.”

                “Flynn knew he was lying.”

                “You must respect the president.” The attacks came more ferociously this time and Fanis ducked under one and spun to the other side of the swordsman swiping at the back of his neck but he the swordsman dropped his weight and turned to face him in one motion.

                “I guess his insubordination was the reason why Flynn was the only person that President Obama told Trump during the transition not to hire.”

                “Trump didn’t listen.”

                “Because he knows that an enemy of Obama is a friend of his.  I wish he also knew the reverse that a friend of Obama is an enemy to him.”

                The swordsman swung the sword and this time when it collided with the Kukri, he spun it trying to provide torque on Fanis’ hand so he would lose his grip.  Fanis was doing the same with his blade and it was a contest on who could hold longer.  The Spaniard had the edge given that swords are longer, which makes it a longer fulcrum.  As Fanis’ ancestral countrymen Archimedes explained, ‘give me a fulcrum long enough, and I can move the world.’  The two men approached each other in this test of strength and technique then Fanis reminded the swordsman that this was not a fencing bout but a street fight.  Fanis kicked the swordsman in the chest and the swordsman dropped his weapon.  Fanis then stepped beyond him and snapped his kukri into the Spaniard’s hamstring.  The swordsman fell screaming in pain and Fanis picked up his sword in his left hand.  He lunged it into his opponents Achilles Heel on the other leg to take the fight out of him.  There was more yelling and Fanis stepped on the wound and barked, “Why did you attack me?”       

                There was silence so Fanis put more weight and dangled the sword against the man’s neck and asked him again.  He muttered, “I was paid to.”

                “By who?”

                “A Muslim man.”

                Fanis put the Kukri back in its holster and removed the swordsman’s scabbard and put it on his waist opposite the kukri.  He then sprinted toward the hotel thinking that Muslims have no respect for women so the hitman probably was going to rape or kidnap Kera as they paid to kill Fanis so nobody could rescue her.  When he got back to the hotel, he found Kera safe and alone and he gave her a big hug.  Kera was a little confused but hugged him back.  Fanis never told her why he was so scared but they quickly went to bed. 

The next day, they boarded the plane and headed back to London.  Kera turns to her cousin and announces, “Back to Bloomberg, I saw a video where he was telling people that he’s okay with denying health care to 95-year-olds because it should be for younger people.  That’s ridiculous.”

                “Well, we live in London.  They ration care all the time with long waits to see specialists.  Sometimes it’s up to nine months.  You should be used to this.”

                “It’s one thing for it to accidentally happen but this whole we’ll stop the bleeding if you’re bleeding but if you need an x-ray then you got to wait is a little too blunt for me.”

                “That’s what universal healthcare does.  There’s only two ways to distribute resources; price or rationing.  There’s no third option.”

                “Well Bloomberg thinks that medical care will bankrupt us so we need to start rationing care.”

“Well, he knows the rules too but I have a problem with that.”

“Me too.  I made fun of Sarah Palin for calling it ‘death panels’ but that’s exactly what

Bloomberg just said.”

                “Now you know Sarah Palin wasn’t crazy.”

                “Oh no, she still is.”

                “You seemed to just agree with her.”

                “Only for Bloomberg, not everyone else.”

                “No, it’s true for everyone else based on that economic principle of only two ways..”

                “This is going in a circle.”

                “Yes because you keep saying the same thing.”

                “Let’s just drop it.”

                “Okay”

                The plane lands in London and they head back to their flat where a man is standing there.  Fanis looks over at Kera and she seemed impressed and confused but Kera seemed to know him. Fanis didn’t recognize him but Kera and Fanis looked at each other.  They got out of the car and Kera started, “May I help you sir.”

                “I’m actually here for your cousin.”

                Kera gives Fanis a suspicious look and sees the confusion in his face.  She smiles and states in Greek, “This is the prime minister of England.”

                Fanis’ face snapped to seriousness and his head moved back and Kera was disappointed that he didn’t have more of a poker face.  Fanis articulates, “Mr. Johnson, I’m not quite sure how much help I can be but I’ll do what I can.”

                “Are you busy?  Do you have time to go for a drive?”

                “Of course sir.”

                Fanis got in the car and Prime Minister Boris Johnson sat next to him.  He articulates, “It’s time that England comes clean.  A lot of things that happened were in the previous administration but now that they are out of power, I wanted to come clean.”

                “I’m not quite sure why you’re telling me.”

                “I’m aware of your ties to powerful people in America so don’t insult my intelligence.”

                The truth was that this wasn’t true but Fanis wasn’t going to let Boris Johnson know this so he just responded, “Well, I am definitely interested in hearing it but I don’t think I can be as much help as you think I can be but I do want to know the truth about what speculation was right and what wasn’t.”

                “Richard Dearlove was instrumental in hammering Mike Flynn and other political opponents for Obama.”

                “I figured he had something to do with this since as chief of MI6, he was Christopher Steele’s boss and he was a colleague with Halper and Cambridge University.”

                “How about you just ask me questions?  That’s a good way to do this.”

                “Did this all start in 2014 when Mike Flynn went after the Iran deal?

                “Yes, Dearlove and Halper hosted an event in 2014 at Cambridge.  It was here that they invited Flynn and a student named Svetlana Lokhova.  Have you heard of her?”

                “Yes, she was a cute Russian who spent like a decade and a half in England that they pretended she was a Russian agent.”

                “Yes, Lokhova vehemently denies this and everyone at the event confirmed that nothing inappropriate happened between Flynn and Lokhova.”

                “Halper double downed by inviting her to his wife’s birthday party at his house.”

                “Yea but she didn’t go.”

                “Did Brennan take down Flynn in order to hurt Trump or was he trying to take down Flynn and went after Trump as collateral damage?”

                “Given that it started back in 2014, Flynn was always the target.  Donald Trump was going to be a target regardless if he hired Flynn or not but when Flynn signed on in direct opposition to Obama’s advice, Brennan looked it as an opportunity to kill two birds with one Russian collusion stone.”

                “Was the August 10 memo in Steele’s dossier really about Mike Flynn, making  Papadopoulos, Carter Page and Paul Manafort distractions from their true mission; to take down Mike Flynn?”

                “The day after those investigations were open, on August 11, FBI agents met with Stefan Halper.”

                “Halper was Brennan’s spy.”

                “Right, Brennan was really upset that Flynn wasn’t included in the investigations so he had Halper make it clear that they need to investigate Flynn.  That’s why he was a throw in on the August 10 memo and then five days later they opened the investigation on Mike Flynn.”

                “Was it backdated?”

                “Yes, based on that August 11 meeting.”

                “Here’s the big question.  Did Brennan mislead the FBI about seeing the dossier and laundered the information to him?”

                “Short answer is yes.  Everything Brennan told the FBI and Harry Reid was a lie from Russian collusion, to Flynn and Lokhova and denying that he got the Steele information from Steele when it did.  Brennan made a concerted effort to make sure the FBI doesn’t realize that the FBI’s sources were the same as the CIA’s.  Brennan wanted the FBI to think that Halper and Steele were exclusively the FBI’s sources.”

                “Yea, Lisa Page basically said that in her sworn testimony to Mark Meadows on Capitol Hill.”

                “People always jump on that but if you read the texts it’s a little more damning.  This is especially true because it’s not rehearsed or coached it’s an off handed comment between lovers.”

                “I’m not sure if I saw this text.”

                Boris Johnson hands a printout of the texts between Strzok and Page highlighting the one that he wanted him to read.  Fanis reads, “To check e-mail, we got the reporting in September 19.  Looks like (redacted) got it early August.  Looking at (redacted) sync replies to me it’s not clear if he knows if/when he told them.  But (redacted) and (redacted) talked with (redacted) they’re both good and will remember it’s not about rubbing their nose in it,  don’t care if they don’t know.  I just want to know who’s playing games and is scared and is covering.  I totally get that it will never be provable.”

                “Aside from the fact that Obama’s DOJ unmasked everyone that was associated with President Trump, I wish all those names were unmasked but this is pretty ridiculous.  He admits that he knows Brennan is lying to him and leaking the media but he doesn’t care.”

                “Yes, you have the lead investigator of the FBI admitting that he knows the CIA is full of shit.  Strzok knows that the CIA got the Steele information in August when Brennan told Harry Reid but he refuses to call them out because he doesn’t care that they leak to the media or that they lied to him. If it takes Trump down, then all is forgiven.”

                “But it all failed.”

                “Yes, it did.”

                Boris Johnson switches cars and the car that he is in takes Fanis home.  Fanis didn’t hear anything that he didn’t already believe.  The only thing that he was confused about was why Boris Johnson thinks he’s highly connected politically. 

 

Real Characters Episode 39 Democrat strategy meeting

It is July 2016, and John Brennan calls his friend Richard Dearlove.  Dearlove is the head of MI6 in London England and has been friends with the CIA director Brennan for a while now as the two countries share intelligence as they work together to try to keep the world safe.  Brennan starts, “Richard, I need a favor.”

                “What can I do for you?”

                “As you know, Donald Trump is running for President and we need to stop him by any means necessary.  The about queries on our NSA database can only do so much.  I need the invasive power of the United Kingdom’s surveillance network to go after him.”

                “It’s going to be hard to get Donald Trump to London as he is campaigning for president.”

                “I know, that’s why I want to go through his satellite people; the people that work for his campaign.  I’m sending you a list of them now.”

                “Is there anything specific you want me to do to them?”

                “I need to paint a picture that they are tied with Russia.”

                “In that case, you should talk to Christopher Steele.  He’s the go to guy for Russia and a superb former MI6 agent of mine.”

                “You think he’d be able to help me?”

                “Most certainly.  He has already been hired by an American firm named Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump so it’s right along what he’s already doing.”

                “Yea, I know all about Hillary Clinton laundering money through the law firm Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS.”

                “I believe your missions are aligned then and if we’re successful, you’ll have the thanks and gratitude of the President of the United States.”

                “I agree.  This is a good idea.  Let me have his contact information and let him know I’ll be reaching out to him.”

                “Jolly good.”

                Brennan ends the phone call and then calls one of his confidential human sources commonly known as ‘spies,’ Stefan Halper.  “Steve, I’m going to need your campus.”

                Stefan Halper is a professor at the University of Cambridge, which he uses to lure people in order for the CIA and British government to spy on them.  There are various Russian professors that he works with; namely Victor Surkov and Vyacheslav Trubnikov.  He responds, “I figured you’d be calling soon.  I already saw the list of names demasked for who will be on the Trump campaign.”

                “Anything good?”

                “Yes.  Paul Manafort is the big one.  He was very instrumental in Viktor Yushchenko’s campaign.”

                “The ousted Ukrainian president that was pro-Rusisa?”

                “Same one.”

                “Oh this is really good news.”

                “I got more.”

                “I’m listening.”

                “Well, you already know I know Mike Flynn as he’s been on our campus before in 2014 when I spread the rumor he was having an affair with my Russian student Svetlana Lokhova.”

                “Not one of your finer moments as she has been living in England for over a decade and that’s about half her life.”

                “Cute though.”

                “Yes, but turns out she wasn’t as naïve as you thought and saw through those private dinners you wanted at your house to further link her to Flynn.”

                “It did keep Flynn’s mouth shut about the Iran deal didn’t it?”

                “Yes, that I will admit.”

                “Anyway, I know Carter Page too.”

                “Yes, I know him too as he worked with us in a sting operation in Russia.”

                “I know but in this business, friends become enemies pretty quickly.”

                “We’re on the same page with this one. The public doesn’t know he was working for us so I want you to use his Russian contacts, which he only has because of us, to tell the FBI that he’s a Russian agent.”

                “The FBI doesn’t know it was a CIA sanctioned mission?”

                “No, they do not.  If they ask, we’ll admit it but I’m going to wait for them to ask.  By then, Trump will be nowhere near the White House.”

                “What do you need me to do?”

                “I’m going to have the FBI call you.  Reach out to those three members and bring them to London and monitor them to see if they say or do something we can use.”

                “You got it.”

                Stefan Halper then invites George Papadopoulos, Sam Clovis, Carter Page and Paul MAnafort to London to meet.  As soon as he does that, he calls the FBI.  Even though the IG report will later say that no spying happened before July 31, 2016, it is a couple weeks before the end of July, and a CIA spy, Stefan Halper, is talking to the FBI about people associated with Donald Trump’s campaign.  The FBI special agent in charge has flown to London to meet with Halper personally. Halper begins the conversation, “I’d like to talk to you about Carter Page, Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort.”

                “It is so serendipitous that you know them.  I can’t believe my luck that someone as highly respected and useful to us in the past as you happens to know all these people that we are suspicious of.”

                “When you’ve been in this game long enough, people keep reappearing.”

                “Right, so we intercepted a call between George Papadopoulos and an Australian Diplomat Alexander Downer.  Apparently a Maltese professor named Joseph Mifsud told Papadopoulos that he has dirt on Hillary in the form of thousands of e-mails.  Papadopoulos then told Downer about this in May and he came to us.”

                “I don’t really know Papadopoulos.  I’ve worked with Mifsud before.  He’s based in the Linq campus in Rome but he’s in London frequently meeting with British intelligence officials.  I wanted to talk to you about Carter Page though as I just had a dinner that he attended in London and I found some things you may want to know.”

                “So, you think we should be looking at Carter Page?”

                “Yes”

                “Why?”

                “Well, he was in Russia a few times meeting with people close to Putin in the Kremlin a couple years back.  I found it odd that he was asking me for a foreign intelligence position given his questionable contacts.  I’m not sure if he realizes I know who he’s connected with but I found it weird that he would come out of the blue and ask me this; especially since he’s working for the Trump campaign so if they’re successful, the new president could just give it to him.”

                “Maybe he’s hedging his bets because there’s no chance that Donald Trump becomes president.”

                Later, Carter Page will deny ever asking Halper this.  The FBI handler responds, “Right now our focus is on Papadopoulos.  What can you tell me about him?”

                “He’s young and he’s done some work in the Mediterranean.  Like I said, I don’t really know him but he doesn’t have any significant Russian contacts.  There’s a rumor going around that Donald Trump is a Russian asset so I think you should be looking into the people on his campaign that have Russian contacts.  Carter Page has the deepest ties but Manafort was friendly with a pro-Russian Ukrainian president.  I’d focus on those two guys.”

                It appears that this advice was partially taken.  A couple weeks after this conversation, on July 31, the FBI opened an investigation into whether or not Donald Trump colluded with Russia and claimed that the Downer and Papadopoulos conversation from two months earlier was the predicate and not the meeting with Halper a couple weeks before.  On July 29, the FBI raided and arrested George Papadopoulos when he landed at Dulles airport flying in from Greece.  He was supposed to take a connecting flight to Chicago but never made his flight as they frantically looked for 10,000 dollars that was given to him in Cyprus.  Papadopoulos was very suspicious of the money so left it with a lawyer in Greece with the intent of informing the American government to send someone there to see if the bills are marked.  As they couldn’t find the money, they arrested him anyway for probable cause without specifying what the cause was.  Later, they would indict him for lying to the FBI because he got the exact date of when he met with Joseph Mifsud months ago wrong.  At face value, it seems peculiar that that would be the probable cause sparking you to arrest a man at 2AM at an airport on a Sunday when the FBI offices are closed. 

                Almost four years later, Donald Trump is president as Brennan, the FBI, Halper, among other’s plan has failed.  The DNC is having a strategy meeting as it is 2020 so they have a second chance to beat Donald Trump. Even though they have been focused on the election for a while now, things need to ramp up.  There are three main talking heads in the meeting.  There is the establishment Democrat representing Democrats prior to 2008.  His name is ‘establishment.’  The next attendee is the woman known as ‘leftist’ for she represents the far-left and socialists of the Party.  Lastly, you have outlier who is not as extreme as the leftists but has no political experience named ‘outlier.’  The head of the meeting is Hillary Clinton as she is the mob boss for the largest mob in the country; the United States Department of Justice including the FBI, CIA and deep state swamp.  Hillary starts the meeting, “Let’s talk about Soleimani and speak with one voice on this issue.”

                Establishment blurts out, “The narrative needs to be that we don’t go around the world killing people we don’t like.”

                Hillary responds, “Nobody is really saying that.  Soleimani killed 600 Americans.”

                “Doesn’t matter.  We don’t want the American people to give President Trump credit for anything.  Since we can’t argue against the point that Soleimani specifically isn’t bad; we frame it to a general story of killing people we don’t like.  Once the opposing argument is framed that way, then you can counter it.”

                “That is our old tactic.  Since we control the media and means by which people get news, we can tell people what the opposing side is and then insulate them from actually meeting someone of the opposite side.  Sadly, even with social media banning conservatives and doing all they can to stop people from posting, the message still gets out.  It’s not working anymore.” 

                Outsider opines, “Soleimani is responsible for at least 600 deaths.  I think it’s important that we don’t try to be Iran’s lawyers on this.  We can admit that he was a bad guy and his death is good but we don’t want war with Iran.”

                Establishment piggybacked with, “I agree that we don’t want war.  Even the Republicans aren’t bringing that up.  The important thing is that we can’t appear to be weak either.  I think with Obama trying to appease them with money was a mistake.  Americans don’t like war but they don’t like weakness either.”

                Leftist fired back, “It is not weak to not want to be the world’s police.”

                “I’m not saying that.  Look at history, McCarther, McGovern, Dukakis and Kerry all seemed weak and ran on blaming America and they all got destroyed in the elections.”

                “Kerry didn’t get destroyed.”

                “Right, but look who he was running against.  George Bush was despised by the nation but John Kerry couldn’t beat him because Americans preferred the bumbling, stuttering war-hawk Bush to the weak Kerry.”

                “We didn’t have the media influence we do now back then.  Social media is a lot more involved and established and the mainstream media is less inclined to even pretend not to be on our side.”

                “That’s actually the problem.  You got Chris Matthews, who is usually not crazy he just talks forcefully, comparing the killing of Soleimani to Princess Diana and Elvis.”

                “His only point was that he was a beloved military leader just how Elvis and Princess Diana were beloved.”

                “We didn’t declare war on France because French paparazzi killed Princess Diana.”

                “That’s not the point, the point is what were our military leaders doing killing a beloved man.”

                Outlier interjected, “That point was lost with the ridiculous comparison.  Of course one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter but remember your audience is the American people and they’re not going to care what the Iranians thought of him.  They care more that he was responsible for killing 600 people.  Our mission isn’t to make Soleimani beloved here.  It’s to beat Donald Trump and if we are seen siding with terrorists over the president, that may be more difficult.”

                Leftist screeched back, “President Trump is responsible for killing 147 innocent people who were just trying to fly on a passenger plane out of Iraq.”

                “You do know that Iran shot down that plane right?”

                “Only because of the civil unrest that we caused.  Their blood is on Trump’s hand”

                “Again, tough sell.”

                “Don’t have to.  Our congresswoman Jackie Speier already said it on CNN.”

                “Which goes back to my previous point that the media isn’t doing us any favors by taking extreme positions that Middle America doesn’t sympathize with.”

                “Nobody cares about fly over states.”

                “It’s that thinking that led Donald Trump to victory in the first place.  Spieier really messed up because she admitted that she was briefed so the plausible deniability is wrong.  These representatives of our party is really hurting us.”

                “Those representatives are winning elections!  Your same American people that say we’re not resonating with are electing these people.”

                “Don’t give them a reason to regret it.”

                “Iran shooting down the plane was an accident.”

                “That’s the point.  You’re saying the Iranians are so inept, that they mistook a passenger plane for a missile.  It’s either that, or they deliberately targeted innocent people.  I’m not even sure which is worse.”

                “Or, they fired the missile at an American base and the plane got in the way and it was collateral damage.”

                “What’s a passenger plane doing taking off in Iran anyway in the middle of a back and forth bombing campaign by the Iranians and the Americans?”

                “Don’t blame the victims.”

                “It’s stupid!  The Iranians were stupid; the pilot of the plane is stupid for taking off.  It was just very poorly done.”

                Hillary had enough of the back and forth and announced, “Enough! You all raised some interesting points but the Iran conflict has de-escalated so let’s focus on the issue at hand.  What is our strategy to beat Donald Trump?”

                Leftist offered, “I saw an article that the poorest states are Republicans.  Maybe we can look at that.”

                “We tried that and the Republicans pointed out that if you break it down by counties, the Democrat counties are bringing down the Republican counties to make an overall picture of a poor state.”

                “People resonate with the debt.  Let’s look at how much in debt Republican states are vs. Democrat.  Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation and they’re heavily Republican.”

                “The issue is debt per person.  Overall wealth and debt is kind of meaningless.”

                “That helps us because Democrat states have the most population so it spreads the debt amongst more people.”

                The other people in the room sighed as they were trying to think of a delicate way to explain something to Leftist.  Establishment tried, “These facts and data never really go our way.”

                She gave him an incredulous look, “Sure they do!”

                Hillary put on a calm tone as if she was talking to a child, “There have been studies and the states with the highest debt per person are run by Democrats.”

                “What are you talking about?”

                “Nine of the top 10 have Democrat controlled legislatures and most have Democrat governors.  Kentucky is the only exception.”

                “Fine, so we look at the other side and look at the states doing the best.”

                “You get the opposite effect.  Nine of the 10 have Republican controlled legislatures.  Oregon is the only exception.”

                “Mitch McConnell is from Kentucky, we can use that to discredit him.”

                “And then bring down nine other states and hurt the party just to attack one Republican.  It also builds up nine other ones.  It’s a very poor strategy.”

                “Well, then why does everyone want to live in those states?”

                Establishment took a deep breath and could tell Hillary was getting frustrated and was about to take the kid gloves off.  He commented, “People are leaving high tax states in droves.”

                “No they’re not.”

                “Yes, the states with the most money leaving are California, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.  The top four have liberal policies.”

                “Where are they going?”

                “Top money going into are Florida, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, Washington, and Idaho.  Again, most of them are dominated by Republican/conservative politics.”

                Outlier articulated, “Maybe that’s a good thing.”

                “How could that be a good thing?” Establishment asked.

                “We have the numbers.  There are more of us than them so rather than concentrate in blue states, we move to red states and turn them blue.  If enough Democrats move to Texas, we can make it a blue state.  Beto O’Rourke almost beat Ted Cruz in Texas.  If we take Texas, Republicans will never win again.”

                “You know, you may be on to something as Democrats tend to keep voting Democrat even after fleeing high taxes.  They don’t seem to correlate what they’re leaving with us and vote for exactly the policies they’re running away from.”

                “We thrive on the ignorance of people.”

                Feeling like she was being left out, leftist uttered, “Why not talk about how Capitalism has left so many people behind.  Homelessness is rising across the country despite Donald Trump’s great economy.”

                Hillary yelled back “If you take out California, homelessness plummeted.  The problem was that California had their homelessness rise 16% so it brought the entire country down.  We can’t shine a light on things that if people look into, it’ll make us look bad.”

                “What about how great healthcare is in France and England with socialized medicine.”

                “Will you please travel or open a book.  The five year survival rates in the United States is higher than in France and the United Kingdom for all types of cancer except liver and that’s despite the shitty food and health that our country has!”

                “Medicine shouldn’t be for profit.”

                “Do you make a salary?”

                “Yes, but I devoted myself to public service to help people.”

                “And doctors didn’t spend a shitload of money and time getting certified and don’t try to help the public by treating diseases?”

                “People are dying”

                “They die more because of government rationing and price controls.  Remember, our health care, next to maybe education, is the most socialistic part of our economy.  You can’t use the rest of the world as an example because their medical care sucks!  Bottom line is, socialized healthcare costs people more money in taxes, destroys the country and kills you faster.  It’s best not to raise awareness about that to the American public.”

                “You know what?  I don’t need you people.  We are taking over the party.  Joe Biden is plummeting; Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are still going strong.  AOC and Ilhan Omar have more influence than Nancy Pelosi.  We are in charge now and you guys can either get on board or kiss my ass!” With that, Leftist got up and stormed out of the room.

                After that, the strategy session got saner.  When the meeting concluded, Hillary Clinton called the media conglomerates and repeated what was talked about in the meeting in that they need to stop acting like apologists for Soleimani.  The media executive responded, “We had to buy time and distract the public from what Facebook said.”

                “I thought Facebook is on our side.”

                “They don’t like the strong rhetoric by Elizabeth Warren so they’re a little wary.  They still are but their media manager was caught on tape saying that Trump didn’t win the election because of Russian Facebook ads.”

                “Did he give a counter-reason?”

                “That he ran the single greatest digital ad campaign he’s ever seen.”

                “Well, then he should know why we wanted them to ban political ads.  Twitter did it why couldn’t they?”

                “That’s why they may be upset with us.  We publicly praised twitter and condemned them.  They didn’t like that we played favorites.”

                “Tough shit.”     

                “I would agree but they are very delicate flowers.”

                “God, dealing with these snowflakes is exhausting.”

                “Yes, but these snowflakes have a lot of power, money and influence.”

                “Yea, still don’t know how that happened with such weak minded people.”

                “Mystery of our time.  Speaking about kids ruining shit. Nick Sandmann really hurt us.”

                “25 Million isn’t going to break us?”

                “No, it’s not that.  It’s the precedent that it set.”

                “Look, a 16-year-old kid isn’t going to translate to public figures.  I think we’re okay.”

                “You didn’t read the motion to dismiss from CNN’s lawyer.”

                “No, I didn’t but it obviously failed.”

                “In the motion, they claimed that calling someone ‘racist’ isn’t defamatory because it can’t be proven or disproven as it’s a matter of opinion.”

                “They argued it can’t be rationally argued in court but we announce it as news all the time.  If it’s determined that we believe it is impossible to be a fact, then we can’t use it against our political opponents anymore as news.”

                “Right”

                “Did anyone besides you pick up on this?”

                “Of course, there’s a media lawyer Glasser that published it.”

                “What specifically did the motion say?”

                “’Accusations of ‘racism’ is impossible to be news because it’s opinion by definition so a non-actionable opinion.  It’s so subjective, it’s unproveable by nature.”

                “I know we love double standards but this one’s hard to get out of.  If we lose calling people racist as a tactic, then we’re really in trouble.”

                “I would agree.”

                Hillary buried her head in her hands.  Despite her tentacles still being deeply entrenched in the government, she felt like she was losing her grip.  She put her head down and asked herself the same question she’s been asking for over three years; how did she let Donald Trump beat her?