Freedom vs.Tyranny

by Ira J. Tabankin

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  Waking up early I turned on the TV to hear that Reverend Sharkton has died, I’m almost ashamed to say I’m happy, and then I heard the President had declared a week of mourning with the closing of all banks and all of the Federal Government offices. I dropped my mug of fresh coffee on the floor, breaking my best and largest mug. I was pissed. A week? Funny how he’s using this to close the banks for a week and he moves the date of his address up. Damn it, I know there’s a connection. I think we’ve just reached a tipping point, May God have mercy on our souls and may he bless America. I’ve got many errands to complete before the address tonight and his damn curfew. First stop is my bank, where I find a line, hundreds of people long. One is carried out of the bank by the bank’s guards. He’s screaming to be let loose, and he wants his money. I ask the person in front of me what’s going on, someone responds, “The bank is limiting withdrawals and forcing anyone who wants to withdraw their $200 to fill out a form stating why they are withdrawing the funds. We’re going to have to tell the bank how we’re using the money. They act like it’s their money not ours. The bank may take a week or longer to review the forms. Someone shut down all of the ATM machines. The only way, to withdraw cash, is to see a teller.”

  “Since when can the bank determine how much or why we’re withdrawing? I thought it was our money?”

  Someone responded, “Since yesterday when the damn Feds mandated it.”

  I say out loud without meaning to, “We’re nothing but a third world country now.”

  A passing bank guard heard me; he pulls me out of line telling me, and “You can’t enter the bank with an attitude like that, go home and calm down.”

  “Wait a minute, it’s my money in there, and I’m a customer I can go get it whenever I want.”

  “Not any longer, the Department of the Treasury nationalized all of the banks this morning. Now go home before you get your head beaten in.”

  Walking back to my car, I think, thank God, I keep emergency cash at home. I’m shocked to hear that the government has nationalized all of the commercial banks, is this what they meant when they said they were too big to fail?

  Chapter 8

  The nation waits on the edge of a straight razor for the President’s address. The talking heads on the networks and the internet discuss the strange behavior of the President. Every other President went to the Capital to address both houses, this time the President was addressing both houses of Congress from the White House. He claimed it wasn’t safe for him to travel the few blocks between the White House and the Capital. The President blamed the Republicans and the 1% for making threats against him; he said a major reason, they are against him, is because he’s the first African-American to hold the office. At 9:00 PM EST, every television station with the exception of premium pay movie channels carries his address. “My fellow American’s I come before you tonight to address both houses of Congress and the nation. I wish there were a better topic for us to discuss. In the past year, our great nation has seen more than our share of racist murders and mass shootings of our innocent children. I’ve done everything I can to take guns off our streets; I’ve done everything I can to make our streets safe for our children. There are a very small number of those who reject the common sense approach to saving our children. I call on these people to obey my executive orders and turn in their weapons before the 30-day buyback period expires. Those, that obey, are being rewarded with tax-free cash, those who refuse will be found and arrested. You cannot hide from us; there’s no place you can hide your firearms. Wherever you hide them, I assure you we’ll find them and when we do you’ll suffer for breaking the law. By this time next year, America will be totally gun free and safe for everyone to walk the streets anytime they’d like to. America will have gone from the top four countries in gun related deaths to last in a few weeks. Think of all of the children we are going to save together.

  On another topic, I would like to speak this evening about income inequality, for far too long the mega rich have economically enslaved the poor. The 1% in our society are the cause of most of our suffering, let’s look at what the rich have brought us, a ruined economy where the 1% get richer, and the rest of the country gets poorer. Millions lost their homes when the 1% owned banks foreclosed on them; many of those who lost their homes had nowhere else to go, they ended up in homeless shelters or on the streets. The 1% closed companies; they moved jobs overseas to save a couple of pennies. They put millions of loyal workers out of jobs. They have stolen from all of us. By shipping jobs overseas, they have taken food out of the mouths of millions of you. By not paying their fair share of taxes, they have limited our ability to make increased unemployment payments to those who are in the most pain. Even with the lowest unemployment in twenty years the 1% has raped this great country of ours. They have reduced worker’s hours; they have tried to force salaries down. Congress has refused to act. Congress has refused to take care of the millions of American’s who need our charity. America is the first country to respond when others are in need, when other countries experience a flood; we are there, when others suffer earthquakes we are there, where are we when our people need us? If Congress won’t act, if Congress refuses to act when our people beg them for help, I won’t let our people down. You elected me to change and transform our great country into one that is more respected around the world; we are accomplishing this. You elected me to end the wars; I did. I come before you tonight to say; America always moves forward, since Congress is standing still, I will move us forward. I’m going to move America forward through executive orders. I’m starting tonight by signing an order right here in front of everyone, to increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Think about this a moment, if $10 was good, if $15 an hour will bring millions out of poverty than $20 an hour will move the poor into the middle class. I promised to increase the middle class and with my signature, it’s happened right in front of the world. I’m also signing an executive order increasing the taxes on all families earning over $250,000 a year to 50%. Does anyone really need more than $100,000 a year to live on? These two executive orders will do more than any other President has ever done to equalize income. In addition, the Republicans in Congress have spent this country almost into bankruptcy, we all have to pay for the massive borrowing and spending binges the House has been drunk on for the last five years as such I signing an executive order establishing a 3% national sales tax. This tax will impact the 1% much more than anyone else. Those, who have more to spend, will pay more tax. If you earn less than $25,000 a year, you will get a tax refund for the amount of the sales tax you paid, hence this new tax won’t harm the poor while helping to raise funds to pay for the folly of the Republicans in Congress. We have to work together to pay off the credit card from China the Republicans have charged everything on. I have tried to stop their spending. However, there are hundreds of Republicans in Congress to just one of me. I need your support; I need your help to stop these Republicans. President Bush got us into two wars, two wars I had to get us out of. Since we’re out of Bush’s wars and the world is peaceful, I have decided it’s safe to cut the armed forces by 50% and use the saved money to increase welfare payments. In order as not to overstretch the new smaller military, I have signed a new treaty with China. Whereby we will leave the peacekeeping of the Pacific Ocean from Midway to China to the Chinese. Who have offered to provide peaceful naval forces to patrol this large area, freeing us to focus on what’s really important? Speaking of the military, I’ve spent the last six years trying to figure out why we have thousands of nuclear weapons, weapons everyone knows we’ll never use. These weapons cost us billions of dollars a year. Why are we spending billions of dollars on nuclear weapons and a large military when we have no enemies? In today’s world no one is going to use nuclear weapons, the fears our fathers had in the depth of the cold war, the 1950s and 60s proved that saner minds have always prevailed. I’ve appointed a panel to review the need for our expensive nuclear weapons program
s. We’re going to save billions of dollars that will be used to support our domestic programs.

  Another program I’m announcing tonight is a government sponsored investment program for everyone earning less than $500,000 a year. For the first time, every worker, everyone who receives any government payment will now have 5% automatically deducted from their payments; this payment will go into a new government invested retirement investment program. No one has to rely on just Social Security. The government will help you save for your later years; the government is going to invest your funds into the market for you, we’ll pool all of the funds to enable them to grow faster, when you retire you’ll have both Social Security and your new retirement payments. These payments will start at age 67. The government is here to help our citizens; we are going to provide a better life for all.

  I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about our education system, our schools are the backbone of our future, and we trust our schools to teach our children what they need to know in order to be good citizens and productive taxpayers when they grow up. Many of our children are so called home schooled, there are no standards for these children, we as a society have no idea if these children are really learning anything or if they’re spending their days sitting in front of a television or tablet surfing porn on the web. We need all of our children to be well educated, if we allow a growing number, a number that has increased over 125% over the past four years to go uneducated what will our future look like? Who’s going to invent the next great products if more of our children go uneducated, as such I’m taking action to outlaw homeschooling. America was founded on the separation of church and state, meaning that we don’t allow religion to interfere in the running of our country, hence, I’m outlawing religious schools, we can’t have our children being brainwashed which will send them into adulthood ill adjusted.

  I know there have been a lot of rumors about my future plans. I was a constitutional scholar before being elected. I would like to make a very clear statement; I have no plans to run for a third term. I will step down at the end of my term. I have also decided to make a major announcement, an announcement that is months early, however, I think it’s a very important announcement to keep us moving forward, I’m very happy to announce that Michelle has agreed to run for the office of President to replace me, this will enable our vision to continue another eight years.”

  The Democratic members of Congress sat stunned; moments later they stood and began cheering, the cheering goes on for five minutes. Hillary Clifton, who had served as the President's Secretary of State in his first term, sat in the audience shocked by the betrayal. She was set to announce her run for President the very next day, she now found herself on the outside looking in, she swore to herself she would get revenge on the President and his family.

  The media sat in shocked silence, then went crazy, their wildest dreams are coming true; American has their first true royal family. Some started to whisper that the President could become the First Ladies Vice President, resulting in them staying in power as a team for another eight years. Many in the Democratic Party are already thinking, there was no need to run a series of expensive primaries, which will save hundreds of millions of dollars that can be used to fight the Republican candidate.

  The President continued on for another thirty minutes, not saying anything of value, the real damage to the nation had been already been completed by the President in the first third of the speech.

  The Republican response was removed from the national media; the NSA was successful in censoring more than 75% of the internet attempts of people trying to make derogatory statements against the President’s Address. The administration was clear it wasn’t going to allow freedom of speech to get in their way of controlling the country.

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  The 11PM news sounds bites are:

  “The Obama dynasty lives!”

  “16 years of plenty.”

  “The President takes matters into his own hands to ensure equality.”

  “The 1% get what’s coming to them.”

  “The President announces a double retirement program.”

  “Long live our great President.”

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  Wednesday morning after the President’s address millions of Americans wakes confused by the President’s address. Some liked it; some loved the idea of his wife taking over from him at the end of his term and many hated every word he said. The media carried the President’s water on every network, nowhere would anyone see a person who didn’t like the President’s remarks, the media never showed them. For those who hated the message, there are few places one can go to express themselves. Most of the social networks censored the right wing, many of the talk radio programs have been censored off the air. Frustration was building to a dangerous level just under the visible surface of the nation when the shots heard around the world were fired.

  At 845AM, the anti 1% mob attacks a White Mercedes Benz S class taking two children to school. The mob stops the car breaking the driver’s and passenger’s windows with bricks. They reach into the car trying to drag the driver and her eight-year-old daughter out of the car; the Benz’s driver is a mother taking her eight-year-old daughter and ten-year-old son to school. Her close friend was a victim of a carjacking two years ago. Worried about it happening to her. She became a concealed carry permit holder to protect her children. When the mob broke the windows in her car trying to grab her kids she got scared, she took her Walther PK 380 out of her purse which happened to be sitting next to her, she aimed through the broken window and started firing into the mob. She hits five of the mob, four of them in the face; the small caliber bullet entered their heads but didn’t exit. The bullets instantly killed them; the mob froze when they heard the first shots. The mob got angry at the driver for fighting back; they rushed her car they pulled her and her children out of the car while she continued firing into the mob. When the police finally arrived, they found, the 33-year-old driver beaten into a coma she never recovered from. Her ten old son lay dead with his head crushed. The police found eight mob members dead plus four seriously wounded. Her eight-year-old daughter was taken and not found at the site. At noon, she was still missing. The story spread like the flu. It’s carried on every network as the lead story, if it hadn’t been for the driver’s young son; none of the networks would have touched the story. The pictures of the dead mob members and the young boy were too gruesome not to show, a mother fighting to protect her children was news. People on both sides of the isle grabbed the story to use it to support their views. The story had one chilling effect the media hadn’t expected, the gun buyback program ground to a halt, more and more people in the upper-income brackets started to carry loaded firearms. On Thursday afternoon, four youths tried to carjack a new BMW, when they broke the driver’s window, the driver unloaded his Glock 17 at the thieves, killing two and injuring two of the would-be carjackers. The police arrived and arrested the BMW driver for discharging his firearm within the city limits.

  Those on the right side of the isle became even more motivated, between the attack on the women and her children and the attempted carjacking saying the left had gone too far. Conservatives start to march in the streets demanding the overturn of the gun buyback program. Soon gun rights marches appear in forty cities. Hundreds of thousands take to the streets demanding the return of the Second Amendment. The number of people demanding the right to defend themselves grows every hour, the media are forced to take notice, the media report the number of mentally ill citizens is much higher than anyone thought. No matter how the media tries to cover up the marches or not report them, the voices of the people grow.

  The President and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security review videos of the marches taken by small drones that the DHS flew over the protests. The President looked at his cabinet officer saying, “Something has to be done about these right wing illegal marches, I’m sure none of them had a permit to hold these demonstrations in which
case they are all breaking the law. When the number of lawbreakers reaches these numbers, this is not a peaceful march; this is an act of domestic terrorism. I want your department to break this up right now.

  “Yes sir, sir what about the media? Won’t they go nuclear is we start manhandling these people?”

  “You worry about the demonstrations; I’ll hand the media.”

  “Yes sir, right on it.”

  “I want these marches stopped today.”

  The Secretary calls the anti-terrorism command post issuing a domestic terror alert; he orders the local police to disperse the crowds before things get out of hand. The local police, who receive the order, are shocked; these aren’t terrorists, in many cases these are the officer’s neighbors and friends. Many in the local and state police forces refuse to obey the orders; they turn in their badges and walk out of their stations worried about what their country has become. Others put on their body armor, send the SWAT squads and fire departments into the crowd hoping the fire department will disperse the crowd with high-pressure fire hoses. In Bloomington, Illinois many in the crowd demonstrating for their first and second amendment rights are four US Marines who are on leave, two are wearing their uniforms; two are wearing jeans and leather jackets. The local fire department arrives, turning their fire hoses on the marchers, the Marines try to help the injured who have fallen from the high-pressure water or been trampled by the crowds trying to escape the high-pressure water. SWAT sees the marine camo-clad men bending over in the street, one getting to their knees the police officers think they’re getting ready to fire on the fire department, the SWAT squad shoots and kills both marines. The other two rush the SWAT shooters they catch one and beat him almost to death; a third Marine is shot dead. The crowd panics spreading everywhere; many are injured from being pushed against walls, or being pushed through windows. The shooting of the Marines and the mother who died trying to protect her children set in motion a series of actions and reactions which pushes the country down a path very few wanted.