by Ira Tabankin
“Please give me a few minutes to pack. Where is your car?”
“We’ll call it when you’re ready; we didn’t want to park a military style vehicle in your driveway since it might excite your neighbors.”
“Please call for it, I think my neighbors need to be shaken a bit.”
Two vehicles arrive at the congressperson’s home; one’s a large black MRAP, the other is a black HUMMER, and both wear the DHS logo on their front doors.”
“DHS? I would have thought you’re military.”
“We are; the black paint and logo help keep certain undesirables away.”
Laughing, he says, “Let’s go.”
The member of Congress with their new security detail leave for the secret location provided by General Brownstone and his ex-Marines.
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The President enters the executive conference room joining his cabinet, he announces, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m going to sign a new revenue generation executive order, anyone who is deemed to be a domestic terrorist will have all of their personal assets confiscated by the Department of the Treasury. This will stop the right wing racists in their tracks; they fear nothing more than becoming poor. Also, it’ll provide us with additional revenue.”
The Secretary of the Treasury responds, “Mr. President, we’re having trouble borrowing additional funds. China, Russia, Japan, even the Europeans have informed us they won’t lend us any more money, none of them will buy our bonds, I offered to double the interest rate, and they still refused. I think we’re dealing with a right wing conspiracy. Somehow the Coke brothers must have something on the other world leaders. Sir, we’re having a very serious cash issue. No one is willing to lend us additional funds. Our current debt is $19.8 trillion dollars; China has said unless we pay six month's interest in advance, and in gold they’re not only not going to lend us any additional funds, in addition, they, have closed our lines of credit for any imports. Sir, we are on the verge of going bankrupt and defaulting on our payments. I don’t think you’re new plan is going to bring in enough revenue soon enough to have an impact on our liquidity issue.”
President Obsma looks concerned asking, “What happened to all of the money we saved by reducing the size of the military?”
“Sir, we spent those funds and more on our new social programs.”
“What happens if we stop making interest payments to our lenders?”
“Mr. President are you suggesting we intentionally default?”
“You just said we’re on the verge of being bankrupt, Isn’t it better if we decide which payments to make and which not to? In either case if what you’ve just reported is true do we have a choice?”
The Secretary of the Interior suggests, “Sir, maybe we can sell some assets.”
President Obsma smiles saying, “There’s an excellent idea, sell some land, we have millions of acres under federal control, we can later take it back under imminent domain.”
The Secretary of the Treasury says, “Mr. President, maybe we could delay a couple of weeks making this month’s disability and welfare payments. A short delay may allow us to sell some assets and be able to get current with the rest of our payments.”
President Obsma looks down, at the table. He picks his head up to look into the eyes of his Secretary of the Treasury, “You can start delaying disability, the military’s retirement, benefits and Social Security, those seniors won’t be here much longer, they cost us too much versus any possible return they bring us. Delay payments to doctors and hospitals under the Affordable Care Act.”
The Secretary of Health and Human Services says, “Mr. President delaying those payments might force a couple of hospitals to close, we’re already months behind in our payments. If we delay paying the doctor's many may decide to stop seeing affordable care insured people. This could cause us a major PR problem.”
“Madam Secretary, I’ll issue an executive order forbidding the hospitals from closing and stopping any doctor from dropping patients. Does this solve your issues?”
“Yes sir, it does. Sir, I’m sure the people thank you too.”
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Three national news anchors jolt awake when their bedroom lights are turned on. They look at the clock radios next to their beds; it’s 3: 30 AM. “What’s going on, Oh no, not again. I did what you asked. It’s not my fault the censors cut me off. You saw I tried. What do you want now?”
Sitting in each of the reporter’s bedrooms are three armed men, the team leaders say, “Hello again. We have another request to make of you.”
The reporter is shaking, “No, we had a deal, if I made the report you wanted, you said we were done. I made the report you wanted. I held up my end of the deal. Why are you back?”
“We just told you; we need you to report a story for us. This one will break your heart and the hearts of your viewers. A man was killed today killed a day before he was going to bury his dead ten-year-old son who was shot at the “Hands-Around-DC” rally. The father was killed because he had a black ribbon on his front door; he had a disagreement with the President of his local homeowners association. She reported him as a domestic terrorist to the DHS, who broke into his home at 3: 30 AM killing him in his own bed. We want you to report this story, drive the point home that the government has stretched the rules on defining what a domestic terrorist is. We want you to explain to your viewers that anyone could be marked as a terrorist. Anyone classified as a domestic terrorist will lose all of their assets. We want the American people to realize any of them at any time can be classified as a terrorist.”
“How do you suggest I do this without it being censored?”
“That’s the easy part, here’s a disk, just insert it into your office computer.”
“Will it damage the network? Will our IT people be able to trace it back to me?”
“Nope, if anything it’ll point to the government censor in your office.”
“Leave the disk by my car keys, that way I won’t forget it.”
“You won’t forget it, if you do, you’ll die on air tomorrow evening.”
“What?!”
“Just do what we ask, or you’ll have the biggest rating boost in your show’s history.”
“If I do this are we done? Am I done with these middle of the night meetings?”
“We’ll see how well you handle the story. Get some rest, you need to be well-rested tomorrow.”
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The next day, three national broadcast anchors slip a CD-ROM into their office laptops. The disk sucks data out of the network’s servers that it sends to a secret server farm. At the same time, it inserts a hydra worm into the networks’ computer networks, the worm finds its way into the DHS censor’s laptop moving into and infecting the DHS computer network. One of the worm’s tasks is to collect DHS’ information on various patriot organizations. After the worm sends the patriot’s data back to the General’s servers, it erases the data in the government servers. At 6:30 PM, the three nationally broadcast news programs lead off with a tragic story of a man who lost his son in the “Hands-around-DC” march. He was then falsely classified as a domestic terrorist and killed in his own bed. While they’re reporting the story, the embedded government censors try to cut them off, another task the worm performs is to deactivate the censors “spike” function. The entire story with the gory images gets broadcast across America.
President Obsma loses his temper watching the evening news programs, he calls his chief of staff, “I want to know how that story got on the air, who approved it, why didn’t the embedded censors catch and stop it. I want those three reporters careers killed. Get the head of DHS over here right now.”
The worm goes about its business without a thought as it moves into new networks, soon the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury are infected. The worm finds hidden data that it encrypts before sending to the General’s server. The worm replicates itself as it enters new networks, soon data is flowing into General Browns
tone’s servers from most of the government’s networks.
The General’s aide knocks on his door, “General, have you seen the summary of the data we’re collecting? It’s simply amazing. “
“Yes, I am very pleased with the results of your efforts, I think it’s time to move to the next step, select one hundred of the most vocal posters on the various social media sites, nail them next, add every one of them to the DHS domestic terrorist lists. We’ll freeze all of their financial accounts. They’ll scream at the White House, which should be fun to watch. Remember progressivism is a religion. We’re going to fight the left at the very roots of their beliefs; we’re going to increase their pain level to a degree they’ve never experienced. Pain levels they’re used to hand out to others, none of the elites has ever experienced pain to a degree we’re going to inflict on them.”
“General, Glen is on line 1.”
“Glen, you know I both like and respect you; however your march around DC idea was very naïve. You acted like a four-year girl. Damn it, Glen, you know better, how the hell could you place all of those people in such danger? You told them to stand along the 64 miles long beltway? Glen, for Christ’s sake, you put these people in jeopardy. You put these people in harm’s way. You told them to pray, and God would save them; when you knew what was going to happen. You’re as guilty as those who pulled the trigger.”
“General, I hoped God would intercede. I had hoped…”
“Glen, either grow up or take me off your speed dial list. You made the entire situation much worse than it already was. “Hands-around-DC” what were you thinking? Why didn’t you vet your idea over here? In the future, call, vet your ideas first, we might be able to save some lives.”
“General, I’d hoped the press would see their savior as he really is.”
“Glen, I understand, but did you think the press would report anything negative about the President? They helped get him elected; they’ve covered up every negative story about him and his criminal administration. The press covered up his past; they never vetted him. Do me a favor, don’t do anything like that again.”
“General, I had such hope…”
“Glen, we in the military have a saying, “Hope isn’t a strategy.” Keep that in mind, always have a plan, always have a backup plan and always have a backup to the backup, because every plan turns to crap when the enemy in engaged. Leave the strategy planning to professionals. Next time you get a brain fart, call before you announce it.”
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The next morning a nationally famous reporter stops on his way to work to pick up his morning coffee and bagel. He slides his credit card through the payment machine; his card is rejected. The reporter asks, “Is the machine broken?”
The cashier responds, “No it worked fine for the last customer.”
The reporter tries another card; it too is rejected. People behind him are starting to get restless, he tries his debit card, and it too is rejected. The reporter says, “Something is wrong with the payment machine.”
A woman pushes the reporter out of the way; she slides her credit card through, it’s accepted, she turns to the reporter saying; “The machine works, you’re just a deadbeat. Get a job, here’s a five to buy your lunch, you may need it today.” She walks out of the coffee shop smiling, knowing she’s performed her good deed of the day.
Five reporters and ninety-five other people discover all of their credit and debit cards are rejected; one can’t pay for the gas they’ve pumped, the station manager calls the police when he drives off without paying. The police catch and pull the thief over.
“License and registration, please. I’m stopping you because you purchased gas and left without paying that’s a misdemeanor in this state.”
“Officer, I can explain, my credit card didn’t work, I was going to return to pay for the gas.”
“I’m going to check your story out, just sit here and keep your hands on the steering wheel. “
Trying to leave the car, the reporter says, “Officer, I can explain.”
“I told you to stay in your car and keep your hands on the steering wheel where I can see them.”
“Officer, do you know who I am?”
“No, but I’m about to.”
Returning to his police cruiser, the officer enters the reporter’s driver’s license number into his laptop. His screen flashes red with a rolling banner saying, “DOMESTIC TERRORIST approach with caution. Call for backup, code three.” The officer looks at the car in front of him, thinking, I earned a bonus today. He calls for backup, which arrives within three minutes. Two additional police cars arrive with their lights flashing and sirens screaming; the new police cars block the reporter’s car from being able to move. The officers exit their cars with their weapons drawn; they open the reporter’s car door and drag him out of his car. They force him to the ground, all while he’s screaming at them. They handcuff the reporter, one officer waits with the reporter’s car for the tow truck. They plan to take the car apart to make sure there’s nothing hidden in it. The other two officers take the reporter to their station to be booked. Later that day, their chief will make the announcement his people captured a wanted domestic terrorist.
Handcuffed sitting in the back of a police car, the reporter screams, “Do you know who I am? Do you know what my network is going to do to you?”
One of the officers laughs, he prints out the reporter’s record. The officer holds it in front of the reporter saying, “Look here asshole; you’re on the list, you’re going to jail, if you’re lucky, you’ll get an all expense trip to Cuba. Now shut the fuck up.”
Across America, some of the elite going about their daily business are stopped by local and state police. Most have no idea why they are stopped; anyone stopped are arrested as domestic terrorists. Their assets are confiscated; they are taken to jail where they’re placed in solitary conferment without any visitors allowed. Their families have no idea what happened to their loved ones.
Chapter 3
“Ron, did you see the news this evening?”
“Huh? What did I miss now? Did the UFOs return and take back the President?”
“Man I wish they would return and take him, maybe we should paint a huge sign pointing to the White House, and then they won’t be able to miss him. Back to the news, the courts today said that schools have the right to stop students from wearing American flag shirts to school. Something about the flag causing violence.”
“Ron, it’s OK if kids wear Mexican flags, but not ours? Kids can’t wear NRA shirts, but Satan shirts are OK? Two kids were sent home for wearing Bible verses on their T-shirts. I don’t know what’s going on with our schools today. I’ve got an idea, why don’t we buy some upside down flag shirts, we can give them out to the kids going to school?”
“Brad, you have a sick sense of humor.”
“Thank you, but that’s not the only news. The AG said today that the state’s Attorney General doesn’t have to defend state laws that are in their opinion discriminatory. Notice I said in their opinion, not the law, just their opinion. Aren’t state Attorney Generals supposed to support the laws their people voted on? If the state’s AGs don’t defend their state’s laws then who represents the state’s people? We the people just lost our say in court, didn’t we go to war over not having representation?”
“Damn. What else can they change?”
“Anything they want to, no one’s left to stop them.”
“Our laws are being written by courts. The Constitution says laws are made by Congress, why doesn’t Congress stop the courts from writing laws. Why doesn’t Congress stop agencies like the EPA from making laws? We’re out of control.”
“I agree with you. I think Congress doesn’t do anything because they’re more concerned about getting re-elected than they are about passing laws.”
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Texan President Lawson sends a message to the White House demanding Texas’ gold be returned. Texas has received only 30% of
their gold the Federal Government held. The Federal Reserve has been telling President Lawson that they’re checking on the gold; all will be returned within 36 months. After three days of trying President Lawson finally reaches the Secretary of the Treasury, “Mr. Secretary, can you, please give me one reason it’s going to take you three years to return our gold. Surely it’s just sitting in a vault someplace.”
“Mr. President, it’s not that simple, I can’t go into it right now, I assure you, you’ll get your gold back, it’s just going to take a little longer than you want it to.”
“Three years is not a little longer, maybe we should give you an ultimatum, and either return our gold in four weeks or pay the penalty.”
“What are you going to do, charge us a late payment fee?”
“No, I’ll nuke Fort Knox, you have four weeks.”