Fanis the Bodyguard Episode 51 Blowing Off Steam

                Fanis is an American living in England.  Like many people around the world, he is irate with the socialist tyranny in the form of lockdowns all over the world.  He especially is upset about it happening in America considering he believes America is the last best hope for the world.  Living with him is his employer Kera.  Kera and Fanis are second cousins and Kera hired him as her bodyguard because as a Chinese artifact dealer, she finds herself in remote areas in places that may not be too friendly to women.  Given the deep pockets of her clients and enemies, she needed someone she knew couldn’t be bought off.  Since Fanis grew up with money, he was the perfect candidate.  In the beginning, people had tried to bribe him but his vitriolic and barbaric response to it sent a wave around the international community not to even try it.  Fanis was pacing around the flat barely able to control his anger.  This excited Kera because a pissed off bodyguard was much more effective at his job because he’d take it out on people who may try to hurt her.  Kera knew that Fanis would never hit her so had no problem egging him on.  She knew why he was upset and she was about to add fuel to the fire, “You know, you were so happy when the DOJ dropped their case against Mike Flynn but you just didn’t anticipate the judge would refuse the motion to dismiss.”

                Fanis turned towards his cousin and barked, “That’s because it doesn’t happen!  If this was a movie, everyone would think it was ridiculous.  In fact, every single movie when the prosecution decides to drop all charges, they don’t even bother to have the judge accept it because it’s implied.”

                “Well, he opened it up to friends of the court to see if anyone else wanted to take over it.”

                “How is that not double jeopardy?”

                “I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

                “You don’t’ have to be to know that this is bullshit.  The DOJ acknowledges that it was an entrapment ploy and the judge wants leftists groups to go take their pound of flesh?  This is a sick human being.”

                “There was a lot of pressure from the media.  Even Barack Obama criticized the DOJ for dropping the case.”

                “That’s exactly why they’re doing it; to destroy Flynn in the court of public opinion by letting his sworn enemies file ‘official’ documents attacking him and lying about him.  It’s mudslinging but this time instead of the media, it’s a fucking federal court.”

                “It’s not just any leftist group; these lawyers that penned the op-ed were the ones who investigated Watergate.”

                “They also wanted Trump to be impeached and look how that turned out.”

                “I’m just saying they’re credible.”

                “You’re not credible because you did something that worked out 45 years ago.  Have you learned nothing the last three years?  What happened to Christopher Steele being credible because he was involved in FIFA?  It actually turned out that his information wasn’t even used for FIFA so even that was a lie but regardless, you don’t get lifetime credibility because you did a good job once.  These 16 jackasses are the ones putting the briefs with the court and they had nothing to do with the fucking case.”

                “Well, if it’s so asinine, then why don’t you have faith in that bulldog lawyer that Flynn has?”

                “Sidney Powell has already filed a motion highlighting that Sullivan is a hypocrite because he rejected 24 previous attempts by parties to intervene in the case.  He is quoted with saying ‘the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure do not provide for intervention by third parties in criminal cases.  Options exist for private citizens to express his views about matters of public interest, but the court’s docket is not an available option.’  What happened to that?”

                “That’s just for people supporting Flynn not those opposed.”

                “I know you’re joking but the sad part is that’s true.  How could this case get any worse?  You have malicious prosecution by Obama Administration and FBI, Concealment of Brady Material, Coerced guilty plea, ineffectiveness of counsel, independent review by AG/AUSA, prosecution motion to dismiss the case, a judge that accused him of treason and now putting out open season on him for anyone to try to take him out.”

                “I know, it’s a trial court so there’s literally no reason for amici except political.”

                “How does this not piss you off?”

                “I don’t know Flynn and besides I have to prepare for my next meeting.  You should get ready because I think you could use this trip too.”

                “Where are we going?”

                “St. John’s”

                “You miss the beach already huh?”

                “Don’t you?”

                “Yup.”

                “And it doesn’t look like we will be able to go anywhere in the civilized world any time soon.”

                “I’m game.”

                They head to their plane and Fanis notices that there’s no decontamination protocol before they get on like there had been the last couple months.  He queries, “So, what convinced you that this is all an exaggeration and the lockdowns aren’t based in science?”

                “Georgia and Florida opened and the predictions of doom haven’t happened.”

                “Most of the transmissions happened at home too so it seems the lockdowns made it worse.”

                “I was looking at New York’s data and health care workers actually had a lower infection rate than the general population.”

                “It’s all about control.  We were lied to about it being about flattening the curve.  That already happened so they make impossible criteria like testing and tracing.”

                “I just don’t know why though?”

                “Control, power and to hurt Trump.  Blue states will stay locked down to try to stop red states from reviving the economy and opening up.”

                “You’re beginning to make sense.  I get tracing in the beginning but you can’t trace millions of people.  It’s a bit late for that.”

                “They want to create a surveillance state like China.”

                “That’s actually true. The new tracing bill put aside $100 Billion to allow Health and Human Services to come to your house and quarantine a member if you’re sick.  They are literally going to separate families for any positive tests and the tests are geared more toward false positives than false negatives.  It is a police state and socialism has conquered the world.”

                “You never agree with me on these things.  What happened?”

                “It’s blatantly obvious with things that come out.  I mean  I hate Trump as much as the next guy but not allowing people to work and forcibly removing them from their homes all in the name to destroy the success he had with the economy is going too far.”

                “Don’t I know it.”

                They arrive in St. John’s and check into their hotel.  Just like the other Caribbean destinations, there are not many people there.  Since St. John’s is predominantly run by tourism, they love their new visitors and are willing to allow them complete access to any beaches even if they deny locals the same courtesy.  Kera and Fanis buy beer and drink on their balcony before turning in. 

                The next day, Kera meets up with her client and Fanis waits outside with the other security guards.  He strikes up a conversation with one knowing that they are about to talk about politics as that’s what everyone wants to talk to Americans about.  The guard inquires, “What do you think about all this Russian collusion stuff?”

                “I think it’s obviously a hoax.  There hasn’t been a shred of evidence in three years and there’s a lot of evidence that he was set up and members of his campaign have been entrapped.”

                “Yea, I saw someone call it the greatest fiasco in his over 50 years of journalism.”

                “That was Brit Hume of Fox”

                “Yea, all because they hate President Trump.’

                “Yup and Hume normally doesn’t inject his opinion.  He’s a straight news guy so it’s saying something he came out like this.”

                “Why won’t the Washington Post, New York Times and the other big media people just retract everything?”

                “It’s worse, they’re doubling down.  They keep pushing it and they’re doing the same thing with the Wuhan Virus.”

                “How do you figure?”

                “Anything that points to opening, they are against and anything pointing to keeping it locked down, they approve.”

                “Yea, I noticed that too.  They keep praising Cuomo and Hogan because they want to stay locked down till August.”

                “Cuomo killed people by forcing nursing homes to take in Wuhan Virus patients.  He even sent them with body bags.”

                “What about CNN?”

                “They have the worst guy of them all.  This dumbass, Brian Stelter, is trying to tell us that we are only talking about the Russian Collusion hoax and the setup of Mike Flynn to distract from the Wuhan Virus.  He talked more about the Russian collusion allegations than anyone on the planet.  It never ceases to amaze me how easily and comfortably the media contradicts themselves and engage in hypocrisy.”

                “I think this is the end of the world.”

                “Unfortunately, I agree with you.”

                Just as they were getting into it, the door opens and Kera emerges.  Fanis bids farewell to the guard and they head to the beach.  As they put their towel down, they each strip to their bathing suits and dart toward the water diving in.  They hang out in the water for a while and then retreat back to their towel.  As they are laying out, a man approaches and questions, “You from America?”

                Fanis responds, “Originally yes, but now we live in London.”

                “Do you know that your Speaker has just proposed a $ 3 Trillion spending bill?”

                “Yes, we are aware.”

                “You do realize that there is no money to do this.  There was no money for the last three or four either.”

                Fanis noticed the venom in the man’s voice so he got up and stepped so that Kera was behind him.  He responded, “There’s not much we can do about it.  She is actively destroying the economy just to hurt Trump.  It’s sick and sadistic but we’re not government officials.”

                “Why don’t the Republicans block it or Trump veto it?”

                “The Republicans are pussies and Trump likes the roller coaster.  That’s why he applied for bankruptcy nine times.  He likes people thinking that he’s down and out only to do the impossible and resurrect it.”

                “That’s fine with your money but now with a country’s”

                “I agree with you.  It was my biggest fear when he was running.  It sucks that it came true.”

                “Don’t you realize that the world economy runs on America?  If you fail, the whole world fails.”

                “I do realize that but again there’s nothing I can do.”

                “Call your congressman”

                “We don’t live in America anymore.”

                “Pelosi’s bill has stuff that has nothing to do with the virus.”

                “I know, she wants to get rid of the SALT deductions, which did exactly what Democrats always say they want; it taxed the rich and left the poor alone.  Since it attacks property taxes, and Pelosi’s San Francisco district has the highest property taxes in the country, it’s no wonder she wanted that in there.”

                “She’s not even pretending this time.  She specifically said she wants to bailout states without any stipulation that it has be virus related.”

                “That’s because she wants the federal government to bailout Democrat states for decades of money mismanagement.”

                “Is it just Democrat states?”

                “Pretty much.  Florida has more people than New York but their budget is half that of New York’s yet it’s cleaner and has fewer potholes.”

                “They are increasing the unemployment benefits.”

                “All that means is that people who lost their job are less likely to go back to work even if they’re allowed to.”

                “Why is the postal service and student loan forgiveness on there?”

                “Because Pelosi is retarded.”

                “How can you just sit there and do nothing about it?”

                “There’s nothing I can do.”

                The man shoved Fanis, “You’re an American.  You can call the representatives from when you used to live in America.”

                Fanis glared at him and declared, “If you touch me again, you will regret it.”

                “Oh yea” as the man took a swing at Fanis who ducked. 

                As the man spun back, Fanis swung his left fist into his jaw knocking him down.  He then put his hands up in retreat as he just wanted to discourage him for continuing the fight.  The man nodded and apologized so Fanis put his guard down thinking that it had the desired effect.  The man drove a fist into Fanis’ stomach and put him in a headlock.  He knew what he was doing as he sprawled his legs to increase the pressure on Fanis’ neck but lower his center of gravity to make it extremely difficult for Fanis to lift him up.  Fanis maneuvered his thumbs in between the man’s palms and then snapped his head down breaking the grip.  The man unleashed a flurry of fists but Fanis dodged them all and when he stopped to catch his breath, Fanis grabbed his arm and pulled him toward him as he drove his knee into his solar plexus.  Fanis reached down and grabbed the man’s hair on the back of his head and drove his face into his knee repeatedly. 

                The man dropped to his knees and Fanis let go of his head allowing him to collapse face down in the sand.  Fanis panted more out of anger than exhaustion and shook his head.  He scurried forward and kicked the man in side repeatedly before stomping on his back as he taunted him for blaming him for the economic collapse of America perpetuated by the state governors; mostly blue states. 

                Fanis reached down and grabbed the man by the sides and gingerly hoisted him up.  He bent down and wrapped his arms around the man’s legs and straightened his knees putting the man over his shoulder he then walked to the water and unceremoniously slammed the top half of his body into the water.  Now that he was in the water, he was easier to maneuver and Fanis turned him over and shoved his head under water.  Although the man was unconscious before, the realization that he was about to die woke him up.  He squirmed and thrashed trying to get his head above water but Fanis had a strong hold of him and soon his body went limp. 

                Fanis took a deep breath and exited the water and Kera was already packing up their stuff.  When he got back, she stated, “Well, I guess our beach day is over.  Come on now, we need to get our stuff and get the fuck out of here.”

                “I’m sorry.”

                “Do you feel better?”

                “Yes, I do.”

                “Good, Mike Flynn is still a political prisoner though.”

                “Yea, but I’m not as upset about it as I was before.”

                Kera giggled, “Awesome” she blurted out

                They go back to the hotel and get their stuff and board the plane.  On the plane, Kera articulates, “Maybe, we should avoid Flynn for the time being.”
                “Why? I got my catharsis.”

                “I know I don’t want to ruin that.”

                “It doesn’t matter.  Marie Yovanovitch has popped up again.”

                “The former Ambassador to Ukraine.”

                “Yea, the one that testified under oath that she didn’t know much about Burisma and never met any of their officials nor was ever briefed.  She admitted that she had talked to Joe Biden and Barack Obama but not Hunter and never about Burisma.   Turns out she was lying.”

                “She perjured herself?””

                “Yea, contacts have just been exposed between the US Embassy and Burisma and she was the head of the embassy.”

                “That’s circumstantial.  It could have just been people at the embassy and not necessarily her.”

                “Unlikely but there were state department memos showing Burisma wanted to polish their image before Trump took office.”

                “If you’re going to convict her of perjury, you need to have evidence she talked to Burisma, not the embassy.”

                “You mean like the e-mail she received in September 2016 about how Burisma hired an American firm named Blue Star Strategy to help their reputation and how they elected Hunter Biden to their board?”

                “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”

                “Or how about that there is documentations of a closed door meeting between Burisma representatives and Ambassador Yovanovitch?”

                “Now you’re getting it.  What were these meetings about?”

                “Pressuring Yovanovitsch to drop corruption charges against Burisma owner Zlochevsky.”

                “Well, with everyone distracted by Flynn and Covid19, they can work to get this without much opposition.”

                “Well, Senator Johnson of Wisconsin has subpoenaed records from Blue Star and the Atlantic Counsel but Romney is blocking it.”

                “Why is Romney blocking it?”

                “His friend works at Burisma.”

                “Ah, so now we know why he was the only Republican to vote to remove Trump from office.”

                “It’s all making sense now why the observer in January 2017 wrote that Ukraine tried to tip the election in Hillary’s direction.”

                “Where have I heard the Atlantic Counsel before?”        

                “It’s an anti-Russia group that’s heavily funded by Viktor Pinchuk, who is Hillary Clinton’s largest donor.”

                “There you go.”

                They arrive back in London and head to their flat and decompress from their long trip for a short period of time.  Before turning in, Kera gets serious with her cousin, “Look, I don’t know why you get so worked up over politics.  You need to calm down a little bit.  Even if socialism comes to America, black markets will emerge and I’m very good at grinding in black markets.” He gave a wry smile as he had a feeling that she was doing it even before the pandemic but said nothing.  Kera continued, “Fanis, I know you want to be kept in the dark about things that aren’t about buying and selling Chinese artifacts but it’s getting to a point where it might be inevitable for you to be keyed in.”

                “Well, let me know when we’re there.”

                “You may not have to hold your breath.”

 

Real Characters Episode 51 the media is never on the right side

                Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa is sitting in his office with an incredulous look on his face.  Grassley has had a roller coaster of the last three years.  As a Republican, he is naturally attacked by the left incessantly regardless of what he says so he’s used to that.  It’s the right that frustrates him as they don’t seem to have any memory.  When he castigated the Democrat Senators during the Kavanaugh confirmation, they cheered him.  Then, when he was not opposed to the Mueller report because he believed that if the President was indeed innocent, an investigation wouldn’t matter, they viciously attacked him.  Once the Mueller report was over, he urged America to move on and the right was annoyed by that.  After two Inspector General reports that Grassley was able to decode as he is fully aware on how to read legalese and documents intended to obfuscate, he reamed the FBI for their FISA abuse and abusing their power.  Again, the right cheered him but he knew that if he agreed with anything a Democrat did again, the tide would turn on him on a dime.  Luckily, he did what all politicians should do; he gathered the facts and acted on what he believed to be true and advised and made policy to the best of his knowledge and ability.  Now, there is time to react once again as more of the Intelligence Community Inspector General Horrowitz report has been declassified; namely a couple footnotes and a letter written by the DOJ to the FISA court.  As these things are wordy and cumbersome to read, he also has his staff reading parts of it.  He gathers them in for a meeting to discuss the topic to see if they are as appalled as he is.

                Grassley starts the meeting, “Let’s start with the letter as that seems pretty much straightforward.  Can someone please tell me that I misread the part about Ohr?”

                There was a brief pause as people looked at each other afraid to speak.  A woman spoke up, “Well sir, from what I understood, the DOJ clearly stated that Ohr informed the FBI that Steele contacted him in late July 2016 about information that Carter Page was colluding with Russians.”

                “Right, and that information only exists in the dossier right?”

                “Yes sir.”

                “That would mean the FBI lied to everyone when they said they hadn’t received the dossier until September 2016.”

                “In fairness sir, I think that’s word play.  They didn’t need to see the document because they were talking to Steele themselves.”

                “I’m not interested in the play on words!  They illegally spied on a president.  Do you know how serious this is?!  Then it goes on that Ohr had already given most of the information to his handling agent.”

                The woman put her head down and didn’t want to respond.  A male staffer took over, “The letter is plainly written, sir.  Steele reported that the dossier information was given to the FBI over the course of several meetings between June 2016 and August 2016.”

                “When was the investigation open?”

                “July 31, sir”

                “So, when the FBI tells us the dossier had nothing to do with opening the investigation?”

                “It doesn’t appear that they have any way to make that claim now.”

                “What’s worse, now let’s move to the dossier, did you all read footnote 461?”

                The woman finds her confidence again, “Yes sir, it corroborates the DOJ letter.”

                “I got the same thing from my reading.”

                “There was something else about the footnote I found disturbing.”

                “That list is long with me but let me hear it.  That’s why I wanted everyone to read it.”

                “The FBI never bothered to ask Steele if he was the source of the Yahoo News article about Carter Page colluding with the Russians.”

                “At first, I thought that was the least of it as Steele’s FBI handling agent, Pientka, could still have plausible deniability.  It would make him a bad agent for not thinking to ask that question but at least he didn’t cover it up because he didn’t know that the article wasn’t corroborating Steele but that Steele was the source for the FBI and Yahoo News.”

                The man spoke up, “Respectfully sir, that revelation came in Chapter 4.”

                “I was getting to that.  What do we find out in Chapter 5?”

                “That there were drafts of the Carter Page FISA application on October 14, 2016 that Steele was responsible for the leak that led to the 9/23 article.”

                The woman sarcastically added, “But don’t worry, Horrowitz assures us that Steele was acting on his own volition and has since been admonished by the FBI.”

                Grassley declares, “It’s really disturbing that the IG could write all this and then tell the world that he didn’t find evidence of political bias.”

                The woman responded, “Well, in fairness, he did say at the trial that that wasn’t a fair characterization.  He was asked point blank if he didn’t find political bias and he said that he couldn’t say that.”

                “Given what he wrote and redacted from the public, it should have been a little more forceful than that don’t you think?”

                “I do sir.”

                “After that gem of a draft, the final draft to the FISA reads, ‘FBI assesses that Steele’s business associate or the law firm that hired the business associate likely provided the information to the press.’” 

                The man replied, “It’s one thing to reword it, it’s quite another to change pertinent information.  The final draft makes it seem like Steele may not have known that Glenn Simpson or Perkins Coie leaked the information to the press.”

                “Either way, they’re all working together.  Glenn Simpson owns Fusion GPS and used Perkins Coie’s money to pay Christopher Steele.  If any of the three of them leaked the information to the press, then it’s not corroborating evidence.”

                “They didn’t make that clear to the FISC”

                “Okay, so we all got the same interpretation.  The FBI has been lying to us for three years.  Is there any other way to look at this?”

                “No sir” came a communal response

                “Now, it’s time for action.  I have no choice but I need to write a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and tell him that he needs to turn over everything he had on Crossfire Hurricane.  Enough is enough.  We made a mistake confirming this guy.  This was not a good appointment by the president and we can’t count on Wray to clean his house and keep it in order.  We have to step in.  Is there any resistance or rebuttal to that conclusion?”

                Everyone in the room says ‘No sir.”

                As it turns out, Wisconsin Senator Johnson has a similar meeting with his staffers and came to the same conclusion and also wrote a letter to Wray requesting the same thing.  They both then send a memo to the President recommending him to terminate Christopher Wray.

                As President Trump receives the memo, he shakes his head.  He is with his Wuhan Virus taskforce and he exclaims that he needs to get to that later because he needs to focus on the issue at hand.  He walks into the press briefing to update the American public on the latest regarding the pandemic.  Last night, he met with the governors and decided on a slow, sector roll out of the economy in the lesser affected states.  Just like every other day, he knows that the press is out to get him and they will ask trap questions but he is unafraid as he is a master of not being fooled into saying what they want him to say.  A reporter asks him about the pushback in states where the governors have gotten tyrannical by restricting what people are allowed to buy at supermarkets or fining people for attending a service in their cars with the windows up listening to the service on a car radio.  He finishes with, “How important is it for these people to get in line?”

                President Trump does not make any overt facial reaction to the question but inside he’s smiling.  He knows that if he praises the people, then the headlines will be that he was advocating lawlessness and chaos but if he condemns them then the headline will be that he approves of tyranny and told people they don’t have a right to push back or protest the government.  Luckily for President Trump, he has always been in tuned to what the American people are thinking and the pulse of the country he heads.  He calmly responds in a serious tone almost empathetic, “No, people are suffering.  You know staying at home isn’t completely safe either as people are still dying.  People want to go back to work, they don’t like being suppressed.  Our country wasn’t founded on that; in fact, it was founded on the opposite.  Some governors have stretched their power and people don’t like it.”

                The mainstream media does not put any tag line at the bottom of their screens and there will be no headline as there wasn’t much they could do with that.  Meanwhile, many watching nod their heads as the conservatives repeat to themselves that the Bill of Rights and the Constitution aren’t suggestions; they mean something and it is always applicable.  The moderates, on the other hand, tilt their head and think that they will get in line if the request is reasonable such as social distancing and working from home for a while but there’s a line.  If that line is crossed, however, then they will feel the need to push back. They know, though, that they’re not there yet.  The Democrats, on the other hand, frown.  They are not full leftists so they are still capable of rational thought.  They see the reaction to the president’s words and think to themselves that every tyrant has believed that their passion to squelch liberty will supersede the oppressed desire to not have their liberty suppressed.  History has proven that that is a fallacy.  What keeps Americans relatively peaceful and not revolutionary is the thriving and prominent middle class.  They have a lot to lose so they aren’t as willing to engage in revolutionary behavior.  Given the shut down and the mass forced unemployment by the government, this is becoming less and less true and if it is prolonged, a pushback seems inevitable.

                The press conference ends and President Trump is given a video of Joe Biden as it is now official that he will be his opponent in the coming election.  His staffer articulates, “Mr. President, I think you should see this so you know what you’re up against.”

                President Trump looks at the video that is only 11 seconds long.  Joe Biden is asked a question and he fumbles and mumbles his words as he loses his train of thought consistently.  If this was the first time, then it could be understandable but this is just another example in a litany of confusions and misstatements.  The staffer has a smile on his face but Trump grimaces.  He shakes his head and pronounces, “It’s really sad what the Democrats are doing to him.  He isn’t well and instead of getting him help, they nominate him so he can humiliate himself.  The only thing I can think of is they’re going to force Hillary or Michelle (Obama) to be his Vice President.  They want a figurehead for the presidency so that they can bring an unelected person of their choosing to be the real president.  It’s really a travesty.  The DNC are deranged people.  There is something seriously morally wrong with this.”

                The staffer’s smile runs away from his face and he feels embarrassed.  He opines, “It never ceases to amaze me how you get the liberals to expose themselves for the hysterical power-hungry or ignorant people that they are.”

                “You have to understand that before me, Republicans either ignored them or caved and apologized.  They’ve never encountered someone who hits back like I do and they don’t know how to handle it.  When they get confused how their well and tried and true tactics aren’t working, they can’t help themselves but to exaggerate them.  Before me, the Republican gave in or said nothing, which made them look weak so they never needed to raise the hysteria a notch.”

                “Well, the results speak for themselves.  They fall for it every time.”

                “If you don’t mind me asking, which hysterics are you referring to as there are so many to choose from?”

                The staffer laughs, “Their reaction to you defunding the WHO”

                “Oh that one.  Yes, they love their analogies like I’m banning firemen on 9/11.  The real analogy would be that the planes hit, the firemen came but instead of hoses and axes they started shooting flame throwers at the Twin Towers.”

                “I’m still in disbelief that they catered to Chinese propaganda and promoted false information.”

                “They knew it was false too.  That’s the disturbing part.  They kept saying that there was no human to human transmission. They attacked travel bans even though China banned domestic travel but allowed international, and all they could do was praise Beijing.”

                “China and the media keep lying about it only being three weeks.  They knew on December 21 and as late as January 21, they were still downplaying the threat and attacking you.”

                “January 21 is early.  That’s just when the first person arrived in the United States.  I think it took them seven weeks to admit it.  Seven weeks; that’s two more weeks than where we’re at now.  Could you imagine if I had denied the threat five weeks ago and I still was now and continued to for another two weeks?”

                “I’d rather not imagine that Mr. President.”

                “Yea, that’s a good call; I don’t really want to either.”

                President Trump goes back to the Oval Office and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani walks in.  “Good afternoon Mr. President.”

                “Good afternoon Rudy.”

                “Well, in light of the pushback we’ve been getting from defunding the WHO, I’ve been reviewing the legal justification for it.”

                “What did you find?”

                “You technically do have the power to reallocate funds in an emergency situation; which this clearly is.  You did it before with the border wall and this is a much easier sell.”

                “What about rescission?”

                “That one is a little more hairy.  You need congressional support for that so you’d have to send a memo to them asking for permission.”

                “That may not be a bad thing.”

                “It may not be too effective because they would have 45 days to respond.”

                “Is there any way that can be fast tracked?”

                “Of course; it’s even in the law.  That is perfectly within your rights.”

                “Then that may be the better option.  If they approve it quickly, then there is less incentive for the left and Democrats to attack me just because it was me and I acted within in my authority but unilaterally nonetheless.  If they refuse or drag their feet, then you get congress on the record defending the WHO and the American people know that they lied to us for seven weeks.”

                “From a political standpoint, that may be the better option.   It’s easier to sell to the American people because they tend to approve of things more if congress approves and it helps in our quest to win back the house when they are on record defending an organization that led to the deaths of, so far, over 30,000 people.”

                “Then it’s settled.”

                “Yes, I guess it is.”

                Giuliani leaves the oval office and Trump turns on the TV as he knows his press secretary Kelly Ann Conway is giving a press conference.  Paula Rhee is in attendance and she asks Conway if she’s alarmed that when President Trump meets with CEOs and organizations that want to help; there is a predominance of white males in the group.  At first Conway tries to be diplomatic and explain that none of those people he’s meeting with were chosen by him.  They all volunteered to help and it’s not the president’s fault that the only corporations that volunteered to help were ones whose CEO was a white male.  Just as she did with Fauci and president Trump when she didn’t get the answer she wanted, she throws a child-like hissy fit and whines to Conway inarticulately prompting Conway to respond calmly and sympathetically, “Paula, I’m not sure what happened to you, respectfully, I don’t know why you changed and you’re in to reform screaming at Anthony Fauci and the President of the United States.  Quite frankly, I think it’s unbecoming.  I’m here to help the American people so that’s what I’m going to do but I think you’re here for a different reason these days.”

                President Trump’s eyes widen as he sits back in his chair.  He nods his approval and comments to nobody since he is alone in the room, “I stand corrected.  I thought that taking the high road with the liberals was stupid and came off as weak but she pulled it off.  I don’t think I could have done that.  She seemed genuinely concerned but still got her shots in and they cut deep.  Well done, Kelly-Ann, well done indeed.”

                The president is paged by his secretary who informs him that his economic advisor is waiting to see him.  He replies, “Send her in.”

                The economic advisor walks in and she asserts, “Good evening Mr. President.”

                “Good evening.”

                “I got some good news and some bad news.  Which would you like first?”

                “Always bad.”

                The economic advisor seems confused by the response and she looks at her notes.  “Ummm,  we’re running massive deficits.”

                “I figured that when I signed a two trillion dollar Wuhan Virus bill.”

                “Yes, as you know, the government doesn’t produce anything.  All we can do is take money from tax payers and due to the shut down, there aren’t as many of those.”

                “We knew that April would be rough.”

                “Yes sir, we did but here’s the interesting thing.  Federal Tax collections, despite the shut downs happening in mid-March, were still the highest we’ve collected in March since 2016.”

                “I broke my March record as president then.”

                “Yes Mr. President, you did.”

                “And I only had about 60% of the month.”

                “Correct, before the shut down.”

                “Not bad.”

                “Well, no it’s not bad when you just look at the revenues.  The first six months of the fiscal year was a record high.”

                “Yes, the economy was motoring faster than anything that anyone predicted so breaking records seemed inevitable.”

                “Yes, but most people don’t know that tax cuts normally lead to higher tax revenues because it seems counter-intuitive.”

                “It doesn’t matter if they realize it or not, the results are what matters.”

                “Well, quite frankly sir, that’s all well and good.  You know, $ 1.6 Trillion in revenue seems good on the surface but numbers are pointless unless you compare it to something.”

                “With all this good news you were telling me, I thought the bad news was over.”

                “I’m sorry sir.  It just seemed to make more sense to go with the good news first.  I’ll just say it.  We spent $2.3 Trillion in the first half of the fiscal year so we’re still running deficits.”

                “I did expect that with all the money we’ve been spending on this pandemic.”

                “Yes sir, but I’m afraid that we’re going to have no choice but to print more money and that will cause inflation.  People’s savings accounts are going to effectively diminished because the dollar will lose value.”

                “Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t that mean our debt is lower too?”

                “Yes, but I’d rather us pay it off without hurting people who saved money.”

                “As would I but sometimes you need to look at the silver lining.  Once this threat has passed, we can get back to building the economy.”

                “Yes Mr. President but I’m afraid we dug too deep a hole.”

                “We did it once, we will do it again.”

                “Yes, Mr. President.  I do believe you are capable but you’re going to need to win the election.  We don’t really have enough time before November.”

                “We shall see how much time we have when the economy is fully opened up again.  Perhaps we won’t have to hurt people who have been responsible and saved their money.”

                “Speaking about savings accounts and retirement…”

                “You can speak freely.”

                “Well, I spoke to the Social Security trustees and since we have all these furloughed employees that have left the workforce, our social security revenue has plummeted.”

                “That makes sense.”

                “Yes, so now they believe that the Social Security fund will no longer be insolvent by 2035 but have revised it to 2033.”

                “In one year, we’ve lost two years.”

                “Yes Mr. President, it would appear that way.” 

                “There is no good way to handle that.  The best thing to do is inform people that are 55 and younger that we’re not going to be able to pay them.  We need to draw a date in the sand; tell the people born after that date, that there’s no money and they need to spend the rest of their time before retirement to arrange something else.”

                “You’d still pay those over 55?”

                “Of course; they have less time to prepare so we need to take care of them.”

                “I don’t advise that sir.”

                “Yes, I know.  The blow back would be intense and this time it would be legitimate.  They’ll accuse me of stealing their money.”

                “Well, in fairness, once we took it from their paycheck, it was no longer their money.”

                “Yes, but they entrusted us to keep it for them but instead the government spent it.”

                “Well, technically, we took the money from them and put it in a trust fund.  The trust fund then bought Treasury denominated notes and then the government spent that money and handed the trust fund an IOU.”

                “An IOU they can’t pay because they no longer have the money.”

                “Correct, because they already spent it.”

                “You see how technically it’s the same thing as saying we spent the money we were supposed to be saving for them?”

                “Yes, because as the gap between the employed and the retirees closed, there were much fewer workers per beneficiary and that leads to insolvency every time; even in the government.”

                “Ponzi schemes still don’t work even if it’s the government running it.”

                “Yes.”

                “Well, since we can’t do what needs to be done, all I can do is bring back more manufacturing and increase the workforce so that the ratio of employed people to retirees starts growing again.”

                “Well, the pandemic has forced more beneficiaries because they can borrow it while they are furloughed.”

                “Well, hopefully we can get rid of that when we open.”

                “Yes, Mr. President.  Of course.”

                “Is there anything else?”

                “No, that’s all.”

                “Thank you”

                The economic advisor leaves the room and President Trump transitions to another item requiring his attention.  He is beginning to lose hope that anyone involved in SpyGate will be locked up but he can’t worry about that now as he needs to find a solution to places like New York and New Jersey who can’t seem to get the Wuhan Virus under control.