A quick thought on the investigation

You hear everyone talking about how great things are going since the announcements of the indictments and guilty plea. And on the surface of it, it does look like a good start.

I am a bit concerned. What has been discussed seems either too easy or not that relevant. I know there was much talk about the meeting last summer with younger Trump and now the new information on another meeting last spring. If you were really trying to create conversations with a campaign from another country, you think it would be more clandestine. Invitations to come get dirt on emails about an opponent, this seems too elementary.

I still feel any collusion was done years ago. They may not have decided ten years ago that Trump would run for President and the Russians would create a social media attack. Yet, I think there is more to Manafort’s money laundering and somewhere some Trump involvement. I feel there would have been some agreements that somebody owned somebody a favor. I am not quite sure who would have owed the favor. Maybe Trump did some Russian oligarchs a favor by laundering some money through his properties. Or Trump owes the favor because he received some badly needed money invested in his properties. Either way I think if there is a relationship with the Russians it goes back a few years.

I do believe whether in collusion with Trump or not, the Russians did make the effort to influence our election through social media and maybe other resources. To me, the fact that more Republicans are not standing up and demanding more answers is amazing and scary. I have made the comment before that people may have the goods on them and that is why they do not stand up more. I say this in jest, but I must wonder how right I may be. No matter whether the investigation exonerates Trump or leads to impeachment, all Americans should be very wary of any foreign power trying to sway one of our elections. I once posted that the Citizens United decision left the door open for foreign influence. Now we have use of our own inventions, social media platforms paving the way for our undermining.  

Everyone in Congress and yes, the President should spare no resources to find the extent of foreign influence in our country. This should be a priority by our government. To maintain an open society takes real work so we need to address this attack, so we can enjoy our freedoms, yet maintain our security. Our freedoms, our values, and our Constitution make us special, not any individuals. Letting someone skate or letting something suspicious go unchecked is our leadership abdicating their responsibility to us.

Obviously, there is an enormous amount of information to sort through and hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have said before, for this country to heal post Trump either way, the evidence will need to be very convincing and thorough. Unfortunately, whichever side feels wronged will not go down without a fight. The better the conclusions, the more chance the average American will be convinced and can lessen the impact of the losing side. We will need a strong majority of people behind the answer to move forward. I hope we achieve this so please let the investigation carry forward and do not put too high of expectations into it till more is known.

Peace folks

A follow up to the previous post and more story

I was reading and ran across something that made me realize there are a few people who feel entitled that I would like to punch in the nose. Still hold to my opinions previously that we have a problem with the use of the term entitlement in the general sense currently and we may need to address this differently.

And have you seen the AT&T commercial where they show people enjoying something discomforting instead of enjoying Uverse. If you have ever called their 800#s, you know what is discomfort. And on top of it the geographical hold cable companies have is one reason people are leaving them. Monopolies of any kind do not benefit the consumer. And it is not capitalism or the free market. Another reason not to trust what the one percenters are doing.

And we need real tax reform. Anything this Republican Congress passes will screw the clear majority of this country. Folks it is up to us.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now to continue the story

Jill still kept track of Congressman Greg as best she could. She also knew about the other Greg. And the Russian spy. Jill was beginning to put things together, yet still couldn’t figure out a motive. She was very aware of world events and her job had her working extreme amounts of overtime the last few days. She had very little time for her own projects, yet for Greg she found a few moments. Jill was trying to tie together everything for her superiors on Iranian troop movements and the news was not good. They were mobilizing, calling up reserves, working intently with the Russians on logistics. They were preparing for one large war.

Hezbollah started making forays into Israel. This was by design now. Iran felt comfortable Israel would not join a war with the Saudis, but they did not want Israel having the time to jump in at their own convenience. Iraq having survived ISIS wasn’t too keen on another fight, yet they started moving some troops south as a precautionary measure. Syria went in right behind them and built up their army on the Iraq border, also prompted by Iran and Russian. No one knew which way Iraq would go if they joined the fighting. Russia was working with Iran to help cover their other borders if war broke out. Terrorist groups ramped up operations throughout Europe, mostly on their own taking advantage of the American troop announcement to rally their operatives.

Jill kept track of the unfolding drama and knew more than anyone and unfortunately more than the President since he wouldn’t listen to anyone anyway. Paul’s superiors knew this trait about him and worked hard to see him. Right now, he was playing commander in chief, so he spent his entire time telling the Generals how great of a war he was about to win. The Pentagon worked diligently to find some way out of the madness and still protect Saudi interests.

The Russian spy had disappeared, and this worried Jill. She had been trying to find him in the little spare time she had and to no avail. He was in communication with the people in Iran, the Persian nationalists. They didn’t call themselves Persian nationalists, however, this was basically their aim. This group of people saw opportunity, yet were unprepared to implement any takeover of the Iranian government so they did something the rest of the world would regret. They were not terrorists, however, they tried bombing a government facility. It was partially successful. The government agent who had been in charge when they captured and tried to get answers from the American spy realized this was some type of new group and internal. He was not listened to by his superiors since he had blown the information on the American spy. They publicly blamed Saudi’s. The Saudi’s filed a protest in the United Nations and the Security council voted 4-1 in their favor, only Russia voting for Iranian interests. China sided with the Saudi’s because they did not want war at this time. Their military was concentrated in Southeast Asia still aggressively trying to take over the South China Sea and the surrounding area. They had gone all in on winning a skirmish with the US to take complete control of all the Southwestern Pacific. They supported the Saudis, yet they saw the US being stretched very thin with the troop commitment by the Americans. They were playing their own opportunistic games.

The Pentagon reading Jill and others like her reports on all the world movements were working feverishly to find an out because there was no area where they had superiority on the planet and any fighting might catch them in a serious deficit. The troops the President had promised were not in Saudi Arabia yet, but they were pulled from Europe and some ships form South east Asia. All headed somewhere and not being where they were needed immediately.

Russia started the war because they moved into the Ukraine again. Not a real attack, just enough troop movement to cause Europe to panic. Germany, France, and England sent troops to help the Ukraine government, but it was the bombing in Iran that created the largest outbreak. Saudi bolstered by the promise of help went all in and attacked Iran because they misinterpreted the Security Council vote against Iran as allowing them the right to go to war.

The world went to war.

The next day Jill finally figured everything out and knew the true cause of the war. Her work slowed as the military took over all logistics of everything the US had. She still worked mind you, but she had more time to work on her projects and Congressman Greg was her pet project right now. She figured out the answer to a degree except she couldn’t put the motive together. Nor the exact details of the incident.

Otherwise Greg was conscious and acutely aware the United States had just joined a major war and no one in Congress had voted for one. He was pissed and still bedridden.

Sheriff Daniel unknown to Jill and actually to himself was about to be told the cause. Only he didn’t care about the war, he just cared about Greg.

To be completed

Word or term commentary

I have a feeling about some use of words or terms that is hard to describe and in my opinion, are misrepresented. I know you can argue against my point if you take the literal application that I am about to refer, yet I hope you realize I am trying to make a point about some aspects of our society.

The first word is entitlement. And that word is thrown around quite a bit lately. The alt right and so called very conservative will say all the welfare recipients feel they are entitled to their benefits. Or you have people who say the rich feel entitled. And there are many other examples you might think. So, which is it and who is it. In the cases I am trying to make my point I will say neither. Truly there are people who you want to punch in the nose because you can tell they do feel entitled. There is no mistaking those people.

For the people who get called entitled in the general sense though I feel we need a new word. To feel entitled you must understand where you arrived to get there. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor you exude that feeling to others and well the rest of us should punch you in the nose.

The generalities though apply to large swaths of people by ignorance do not know they exhibit entitlement. The 19-year-old woman with one or two children receiving aid does not feel entitled. In fact, the problem is she knows no other way. Many were brought up in this way of life. Multi-generational poverty has taught them no other option. Or the rich kids running about town expecting everything to drop in their lap without showing a morsel of gratitude are in the same level of ignorance. Their whole life has been handed to them and they just do not understand others. This isn’t their fault. We are now dealing with multi-generational lack of empathy.

I could go on about this, yet I do not want to turn this into a lecture. I see these misapplications of the term as a problem we have that shows we are having a hard time addressing who we are as a society. By no means do I feel this is a root problem. This is more of a symptom of lack of understanding of others. And then more importantly how do we turn around the behavior and beliefs, so the various groups can interact better within society.

The other word or term is the concept of someone being deserving. I think we throw that term around too much and in my opinion incorrectly in many situations. Again, this does not apply completely, yet when is someone truly deserving versus the need to create a new word or application to better identify what a person should receive.

And explaining this idea is not going to seem straight forward, you need to broaden how you approach my point. Here is a made-up example to give you an idea. I do not want you to think I have a negative feel about the idea that some people are deserving, but in what cases and how can we better approach defining who is deserving

So, let’s say someone has gone through many trials and tribulations and for a long period of time. Maybe one family member had cancer and died, there was loss of income that ruined the family, their house experienced a large disaster or was flooded in a storm, or any other combination of events that make life miserable for a stretch of time. And then something good happens such as they inherit a large amount of money or win the lottery. People will say that person deserved that money. And I say really. Do not get me wrong I am very happy for that person, maybe envious to be truthful. I am glad they did receive the blessing to help them get over the tragedies. Yet are they deserving?

Or how about team hasn’t won a championship in a long time and finally win. People will say the city is deserving or the fans are deserving or the team itself is deserving of that championship. Are they? Again, I do not want to take away anything from them or the victory, yet how are we applying deserving.

And correctly you can say if someone works hard, perseveres, puts in the long hours etc, well then shouldn’t the team be deserving and by default all the fans who supported them year after year shouldn’t they deserve to win. Truthfully, I do not know. If it is my team, I am extremely happy and may feel we deserved it. Shot I may feel we deserved winning if I won a softball league tournament. And rightfully so you can say they do deserve it whether it was a world championship or the softball league championship. Yet many times we apply the term deserving to situations that may not live up to its true definition.

These are just two words that started bugging me recently and I just wanted to discuss them. Overall most people have a good grasp of their meanings, yet to me it seems we bandy them about too easily at times without truly understanding how we are applying them. This again, shows symptoms of problems in our society that have deep rooted causes. And the causes are the misunderstanding of others and where they originate. Obviously, there is much more, yet I wanted to throw some thoughts out for you and if you have an opinion or want to carry this further please let me know.

I was going to write more on the story, yet this took more time than I thought and like I said before I could go on forever. Instead the Cowboy game is about to start and we are playing Washington and even though it isn’t the 1970’s rivalry it use to be, I gotta go. Cheers

Some comments and more story

So, since last night we have a couple of stories that reiterate the point I just do not understand why rational normal Americans are letting themselves be pushed around by our government.

The first is the latest and that is the protections now in place to prevent people from filing class action lawsuits against large institutions in certain circumstances. How on God’s Green Earth are we supposed to be able to protect ourselves if our government won’t?  The Senate passed it 51-50 and Trump says he will sign it. Of course, he will.  He is currently at a multi thousand dollar a plate fund raiser. Who are the people who can afford these fund raisers? Yep his good ole friends the billionaires etc. So why do people believe he has any possible motive for helping the majority of Americans, the working and middle class.

 The examples of how large of a disaster this can be are Wells Fargo and Equifax, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg in what can happen. And now who holds them accountable to the customers if they screw up in largess? No one now.

What would motivate people to actual action? Our values, our freedoms, our pocketbooks do not seem to mean much it seems. Historically pocket book issues would drive some action, however, recently not even that seems to spur a response. If it did, we wouldn’t have this convoluted tax reform that will do nothing for us. Again, the one percenters are at a fund-raising dinner for Trump. And they are all slapping themselves on the back, telling each other what a great job everyone is doing. Sure thing, more for them less for us. How can any average American person support one iota of the legislation being passed or discussed under this administration? I am for capitalism, yet capitalism that benefits the whole of the economy and country, not this anti capitalistic greed that permeates through Wall Street and the one percenters. Capitalism is not the hoarding of wealth, it is a way to move goods through the market and allows people to prosper….. and note the word people. Not too many people have the opportunity they did just a generation or two ago. And that opportunity is shrinking every year.  

And as always, I can go on, but all it does is tick me off, so enough for now (this is an ongoing disaster I can comment on any day) back to the story.

Paul’s Superior, normally a calm controlled person, very manipulative, yet calm was about to blow three caskets. There were enough problems trying to find out about Congressman’s Greg shooting, why he was shot, who was there, (one of his three caskets) and now the President had called him this morning. He was just there yesterday.

The President was always a loose cannon, but he was their loose cannon. Now though he was pissed and honestly so. He didn’t need problems. He did better when Paul’s superiors could hand him news he could share with the public that made him look good, really good. Today though he was handed bad news and he would look horrible. The Saudis were threatening him with worldwide oil shutdown if he didn’t send them troops immediately. They wanted a very visible reassurance that the United States would back Saudi Arabia against Iran. And with all the intel they were receiving about American overtures towards Iran. Yes, even just a little spy drama playing out was enough for them to put the squeeze on the President.

Paul’s superiors knew they could keep America in oil, prices would go up some. In the long run, this might benefit the American oil industry because fracking could be expanded significantly and more fields brought back on line and with the raised prices, solid profits would be wonderful. So, first glance this seemed like a threat the US could wait out. Yet Paul’s superior felt there was something missing. Maybe there was too much out of his hands right now and he was not accustomed to it. Or maybe he needed time to think and plan to put his world back in order. Either way, having the US send more troops to the region on some pretext wouldn’t cause too much concern. Unfortunately, he knew better and being out of sorts caused him to make the mistake and agree that the President should immediately reassure Saudi Arabia and send some troops. First, he did not know the scope of support they wanted and forgot to ask. Second Iran was already on alert due to the American spy connection rumbling about in the country and the controlling interests in the government not knowing the extent of it. Third, he did not know the intents of the Russian spy, Persian nationalist who had been near the Congressman when shot, only that he was trying to have him shot before he could contact Greg. Or at least that was the fear that the Spy was trying to contact Greg, they just were not sure why at the time.

Paul’s superiors had recognized the low-level spy following Greg around. Their Greg had been keeping tabs on the Congressman through his wife. He had planted surveillance equipment on their cars, in their house, and in Greg’s office. Paul’s superior did not like mavericks like Congressman Greg so he kept track of him. Since the spy was Russian and based on his contacts within the CIA, not a hot priority, Paul’s superior thought it would be a good idea for him to disappear if he got too close to the Congressman. The spy tried so he had ordered Paul’s group to remove him and lose the body. The Congressman being shot by someone and his own people weren’t sure what happened and thinking they did it, was the first mistake in now a long line of events that Paul’s superiors were none too happy about.

And Paul’s superiors also hadn’t planned on how fast the President would act. He always wanted to be the hero, so the President cooked up his own pretext for sending troops to Saudi Arabia and went on national TV that night to let the country know he was acting strong against threats against US allies such as Saudi Arabia. The Saud’s knew if they could manipulate the President quickly they could make a real showing with the US. So, they convinced the President Iran was preparing to shut down the gulf, cut off oil to the West on their own, or they would cut it off to “protect” their interests.

Paul’s superior watch in horror as the President came on TV that night and announced the US would be helping their allies in the Gulf against the very dangerous Iranian threat of shutting down the gulf so Iran could prepare for war against Saudi Arabia. He was not the only person watching in horror as both the leadership of Iran and Russia separately watched the same address. The phone call to the Kremlin from Iran happened about two seconds after the President went off the air.

The President told the Nation he was sending two aircraft carrier strike groups, one full army Corp with specialized brigades trained for the Iraq war so they would be prepared for the similar environment in Iran, which was another problem the President didn’t realize Iran and Iraq were not that similar, since this was done in a hurry there wasn’t much time for the military brass to explain to the President what would be efficient and practical. He ordered it, and this is exactly what the Pentagon contacts for Paul’s superiors were told when they started calling during the President’s speech. They asked separate contacts how could they allow the President to order such a force on a whim. The answer for good or bad, he is the President.

And Greg had been calling Sandra regularly trying to get some feel of the condition of the Congressman. He had no other task right now. He had not talked to his people in a few days and had no idea their current stress. He was following his last orders and since he was not getting an answer he became more and more belligerent with Sandra. She was distraught and now was not answering his calls. The messages he left her scared her, but not in the way he wanted them.

The Congressman was slowly coming around. He was still unconscious, yet there were responsive movements on his part when he was examined. His brain was not affected by the shooting so if the loss of blood did not cause an oxygen loss to the brain he should be fine if he did survive. All the major injuries were to internal organs and they were repaired. All anyone could do now was wait. Little did the Congressman know many people wanted to speak to him about what he knew. The doctor and sheriff still had a lid on people seeing Greg or the family. A small contingent of press was still in town, yet the news the President delivered had most of the nation’s press focused on Washington. 

Welcome back my friends….

To the madness that never ends

So, go outside the glass and

Throw up     Throw up      THROW UP………………….(my apologies to ELP)

I cannot fathom why we are where we are today. In the media, the press, the twitter, the comment boards there is all this hate. Yet when I go to work, or out or anywhere, people of all sorts sizes shapes colors all seem to get along. Outside of a few people that need their Mother to slap them upside the head for general rudeness, most everyone seems more preoccupied with trying to make their day than attacking any and everyone.  There are probably a few who go home and spout off on the internet, yet overall in public people seem to act human and neighborly for lack of a better term.

So why does it feel the Bannon and the alt right and the pretentious left is driving this country. We seem to have a deranged Captain on this rudderless ship headed into God only knows what kind of abyss and everyone on board is along for this tumultuous ride. And all the passengers say they do not want to be here, but never do anything about the direction we are headed. Utter Madness.

I was going to write more on my story today, however it got late. I am disappointed in myself. I was looking forward to working on it and just let the evening slip away. So, goes the life of an amateur hack. I will get back to it soon. I am excited for what is coming up.

Hope you have a great day tomorrow and hopefully we can all get together and regain control of our wonderful ship called the USA.

Really bad country song lyrics and more story

Okay here are some lyrics in case someone wants to do something with it. I will be glad to share (however everything I write is still my own Copyright 2017 and previous) so you want to collaborate with me….yeah,,, these probably won’t fly, but here goes

Trying to pay my bills and

Wishing the wife was happy

The truck needs a new radiator

And the kids need braces

I wake up every day and there

Is not enough coffee

Going to work to find the site

is closed due to its raining

Another day wasted and It is

Still four more days till Friday.

Okay these suck, but the Cowboys aren’t playing this week and it was a long work week and the rest of the month doesn’t look any better and the better half just bought a new dress to go to a wedding I can’t go with her because I will be…….wait for it……..working

Jill was scared.

She loved her job at the NSA. She had peculiar personality quirks which made her very good at what she did. She watched people. In her head she created many stories on all the people she tracked. She was good. If the government needed someone tracked she could follow anyone through the maze of trails people left. A person would have to be off the grid for years for her not to pick up a scent so to speak. Even if a person switched from using cards and online reservations to cash only for a while she could still keep track of someone.  She paid attention to their habits and everyone except for the most skilled professionals left a trail.  If needed, she would pull up past behavior to tie down what they might do.  Her ability to think like another person was extraordinaire. This made her a perfect fit for her job. And her superiors learned to trust her not knowing if it was her intuition or some other claire voyant talent she had. Whatever she had, she was good.

Jill had been tracking a low level Russian operative for the last few weeks. She had many people she watched. Jill kept a long list of people, some were people she was required to track for a short time, others were people that had encountered someone she tracked, others came up because of an event, there were many. She had an extensive file of people. Her superiors knew she had some kind of database, yet never knew the extent of it. In her files, she did have one on Sandra’s friend Greg. She knew there was something going on with him. She also knew about the affair with Sandra. She kept much to herself. A person never knew when some bit of knowledge may be handy.

She also knew about Paul and Paul’s superiors, one reason her superiors didn’t know how large her database was, she knew about the men that were found in the SUV; she knew much. It wasn’t the amount of people she knew that scared her, it was the amount of people’s passes that crossed because of the shooting of Congressman Greg. She also liked him and was very mad at his wife.

Warning bells had gone off in her head when she realized the Russian operative was headed towards Greg’s home district. This was not part of his usual routine. He arrived about a week before Greg and had been stationed there under the pretense of doing sales work in towns within a 3-4 hour drive. He had been relatively quiet, just playing his role. At first, she didn’t connect him to Greg until after Greg arrived he would seem to head into Greg’s district for unknown matters and then show up back in his sales territory.

Jill knew much, she did not know everything. Her Russian operative was a Russian operative and also what might be called a double agent, yet even this wasn’t a true description.  His family was of Persian descent. His Father was a Russian operative in Iran for many years after the fall of the Shah. The Soviet Union was so large they had encompassed many people who were employed by them, yet never loyal to them. And this was the same for Russia now. He had basically taken over the role of his Father. Little did the Soviet Union and now Russia not know was they helped the Russians because the wanted to see the US out of Iran. Unfortunately, they did not want the Revolutionary Council and the Ayatollah to be the victors. The Father was smart, he knew it was coming, he couldn’t stop it. So, he laid low, worked the back channels to eventually bring Russia into conversations with the new government and kept up the ambitions of a small group of Iranians that want to bring Persia back to prominence.

The operative had worked himself into a low-level assignment into the United States. This had been planned for quite some time. His mission was to contact certain Americans, who were not enamored with the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia. He could not do this as a Russian, so he created a pretense to follow certain members of Congress under the guise these members of Congress were out to create a wedge in Russian Iranian affairs. He convinced his superiors he needed to gather information to bring back to the Iranians which would benefit the relationship between Russia and Iran. The world runs on ruses and he was trying to effect one for Persia. He was very much linked to the old men in the villages near Tehran and the government officials in Tehran that had been in contact with certain elements of the CIA.

Unfortunately, he was dealing with failure right now. He had failed to contact Greg before he was shot. He had tried. For the few days Greg had been home, he had tried to make contact, yet was unable to create a casual bump into scenario where he could pretend he was pitching his business where really, he would be updating Greg on his plans. There just weren’t too many independent people in the United States with an open mind. His CIA contact in Iran had suggested Greg to him, hoping they could at least stall some votes coming up that would strengthen the US-Saud military arrangements and arms sales.

Jill knew he was near Greg’s district. Little did she know, he was about fifty feet and catching up to Greg on the trail when Greg was shot. The Russian operative, had seen Greg go into the woods to go hunting. He, unfortunately wasn’t prepared to chase after him without being seen so he had to detour then try and catch up. He was close, but not close enough. He witnessed Greg go down from the shots. He immediately left the area, yet in his hurry he did not cover his tracks.

And his tracks were part of the reason why the FBI investigation into Greg’s shooting confused everyone. It was obvious Greg was shot from a distance, yet there were signs of a third party that may or may not have been involved. This baffled them. Well, everything baffled them right now, but the more they investigated the more questions they had.

And so, Jill almost two weeks past the shooting finally tells her superiors she discovered a Russian operative had been in the area. She kept most of what she knew to a minimum. She pretended like this was a new discovery and they may want to pursue. Her superiors trusted her information that this was new and immediately some of them contacted Paul’s superiors and told them about this operative.

Jill knew they would since she kept track of everyone in her office. Many years ago, she did this just because this is who she is as a person. She liked keeping track. Over the years, this had kept her out of much trouble and with everything else was part of her treasure trove of data no one knew.

She blew the cover on this operative, not to uncover him. She knew where he was and had a good idea where he was headed. She wanted to see what would happen once he was introduced into the situation.  Her revelation went to all the groups including the shooting investigators.

She could tell this was a bombshell by all the chatter it created amongst much of the intelligence community and FBI. All had their own agenda it affected. She watched and waited. She worried over Greg and she too, wanted to know exactly who shot him. And all involved had no idea she was watching. Sooner or later she thought maybe she should meet Greg and show him all she knew. He might know what was going on.

If it isn’t one thing, it is another mumbled Paul’s superiors. Yesterday they were told about the SUV they were informed would never be a problem. Today they are told there was a Russian operative, no one knew exactly how high up or his role was discovered to be in the vicinity of Greg’s shooting.

The FBI team investigating Greg’s shooting was informed. It was imperative they try and find out who this person is and somehow ask around town about this person without raising any suspicion. The FBI itself, plus Paul’s superiors were going to let them do the work and once they reported act accordingly.

Sheriff Daniel was hoping he could match up what was on the grainy video from the first night he encountered the people in the SUV at the hospital with pictures of the SUV being pulled up from the lake. His friend at the FBI had agreed to share copies once he received them, which for some reason he didn’t understand were hard to come by. Someone was sitting tight on what was found in that lake.

Greg kept calling Sandra which kept her tense, aggravated, angry, and guilty. She just wanted her Greg to survive, never tell him about the other Greg and go back to being his wife, even if it meant being a Congressman’s wife. Near death encounters always seem to prioritize life for people.  Greg was under pressure to get in touch with Sandra, have a meeting and find out what the local sheriff and FBI group were learning in their investigation. They wanted all angles covered and hopefully to be first to learn anything they might need to know.

And while this investigation was going on, and as pursued by Paul’s superiors the President was fast tracking legislation to increase arms sales to Saudi Arabia along with stronger military assurances of protecting the flow of oil out of Saudi Arabia. The House approved it with a one vote majority. So, did the Senate and was signed the next day by the President.

Iran viewed this as an attack on their sovereignty and said they would take appropriate measures for their defense. The Russians quietly assured Iran they would be there to help.

Some thoughts of the day and finally more story

Remember the saying: Nuke ‘em all and let God sort it out”. Maybe we said that too much back in the 60’s and 70’s….seems that is coming back into play.

You hear people say it is God’s will. Well in general there are two types of people that say it is God’s will. First there are the people who just accept any and everything and no matter how bad it gets they say nothing except it is God’s will. And then there are people like Joan of Arc who said it is God’s will I DO something.  Strange but true it is both except when is it God’s will and when is it God’s will? We cannot do anything about natural disasters, we can do something afterwards.  Or do we do we believe errantly that evil is God’s will? I think not. God will’s is to do better for each other. You know; that love thy neighbor kind of thing.

The old man was sad, yet he walked on. The terrain on the edge of the Alborz mountains was always tricky. He had walked through the local villages that skirted the mountains that led into Tehran for years. Always walking it seemed. He was a young man when the Shah fell. His life was full of opportunity, however, he got caught on the wrong side of the revolution. He adjusted and survived. The loss of his son was something he knew may happen. He had secretly sent him to another family so he would have opportunity under the new regime. They boy never knew his real Father. He heard the government had killed him. He knew of the wife and the young boy. He made arrangements so they would be taken care of. He thought of the future of his Grandson. Should he start training him he wondered. He was old and hated making rash decisions, but his time was short and he wanted his country back. He would never see his Grandson as an adult anyway, yet he knew to win the war recruiting and training soldiers is part of the process.

The old man had many friends, all were young, all were bitter about the revolution. Their lives had ended. Some died immediately when the Shah was deposed and people knew they were connected to his way of life. Some had lived years dead. He pressed on. Others slowly came to him. They planned and planted their children into the government. Their children never knowing their purpose, yet working hard for the government, many successful, many with individual tasks never knowing their real purpose. Some working right next to another young person not realizing they were both working on a goal they didn’t know existed.

He never trusted the Americans, even before the Shah fell. His Father engrained that into him. They worked with the Americans, yet never trusted them.  Old contacts from the CIA he knew as an up and coming officer had left traces of how he could reach them. He reached out a few years ago. He still needed help to win his war. Little did he know these contacts had their own agenda now. The intelligence community was split over the constant grind to control the oil market. There was always influence from someone who had contact with the oil oligarchs. The Saudis were always made out to be American friends. Some in the intelligence community were tired of this charade. Like the Iranian Revolution, the Saudi Royal Family hated the Americans. The Sauds worked diligently to find ways to circumvent American influence. They were not always successful, yet their goal was to overthrow the American might behind oil and control the markets themselves. They knew their military was nowhere near strong enough to be a world power so they reluctantly worked with the Americans, all the time feeling like whores hoping to become free. They also needed the United States since Iran and Russia were close. This was more of a concern than American stupidity and arrogance. One day, they thought, one day things will change. For now, they still needed the Americans and the word that some American interests may be contacting Iran was too much for them. Their reliance needs to end. Today though, the Saud King put pressure on the American President. This Iranian business needed to stop or all sorts of chaos in the oil markets would begin. Quietly he thought should they make their own contacts with Russia to weaken American influence.

The American President didn’t care. More chaos meant more money for oil and he was backed highly by the oil oligarchs, not that he called them that, they were his friends.

Paul’s unknown contact though was very worried. He planned ahead. He thought through scenarios. This challenge from the Sauds was laced with danger and the unknown. He hated the unknown.  And in the last month, he was handed more unknown than he had ever imagined in his last fifty years of maintaining American superiority in the world oil markets. He controlled oil, therefore he controlled the world. There were now cracks.

The old man came to a shop. He stopped in and sat down to drink some tea. Another old man sat down near him. They didn’t speak. They both sat quietly sipping tea. Both looked like old merchants tired from their work. They were tired from the work. They both would continue on after tea. After about a half hour another old man came in. Sat by the second old man, maybe said five words. Sat silently and sipped his tea. The shop was quiet, a few customers came in. This wasn’t the ski village near Tehran, this was just a village of older quiet people. Yet, somehow over the course an hour or so much was communicated. The old man heard about an American Congressman. He did not know this person nor cared why he found out about him, but apparently it was important. He registered it in his memory. What was important to him, was the Americans he hated were much concerned about this Congressman. They were thrown into turmoil. He son’s death had now caused some friction between the Americans and the Arabians. He felt better. His son did not die in vain. And most important the “government official” that killed his son was in trouble. The fact no one knew his son had contacted an American was very disturbing in the government. This was very good news to the old man. There had always been people like the government official even under the Shah and he never liked them back then. He wanted real people running the government. He didn’t need a democracy, he just needed real Persians in control. A government of the true people.

Sheriff Daniel was still working with the FBI agents. The continued to search, yet maintained a low key in the public eye. This was somewhat difficult to do. They had to rotate agents into different motels in surrounding towns so the scope of the investigation wasn’t too noticeable.  The spot where the Congressman fell was under intense scrutiny still. There were things that still didn’t add up even with the knowledge there were two shooters.

Then the news broke and it broke big. A SUV with people in it was found in a lake about a hundred miles away. And since it was local fishermen that found it, they went straight to the police which the local news picked up and it went national fast. The fishermen did not connect the dots that the SUV was connected to the Congressman. They were just local people who now had a huge story. It is not every day you find a SUV with grown men in it at the bottom of the lake.

The FBI was there fast. Unfortunately, some members of the FBI that had contacts with Paul’s superiors were the first to arrive. Sheriff Daniel knew they needed to get out there, but Anthony said a team had already arrived. Anthony didn’t say it out loud, yet he was real curious why another team was sent, when his supervisor knew he was out there looking for something like this find. He called. His supervisor was also confused. He heard the call and offered to send Anthony out to investigate. He was cut short rather quickly.

After Anthony called, he thought about it a bit and called Anthony back. Go ahead and send some of his crew out there. Nothing was said, yet he sensed his supervisor’s thoughts. He needed to investigate who was sent and how they were conducting the investigation. He handpicked a few of the agents and went back out to the original scene. He also talked to his team about pictures they had of the tire tracks.  They were searching a wider area to see if they could find more bullets or shells. Gut feelings can be nasty on getting sleep at night

Greg was stable, yet still critical. Sandra was distraught because her friend Greg still called. The Doctor was glad to be back at the hospital once the cover was blown. He kept better care of Greg there. Sooner or later there were going to be many questions about why Greg was moved. For now, he avoided contact with everyone except a few nurses he knew really well. He also kept Greg’s old friend and nurse near Greg. Trust was not something he felt right now unless he knew them for decades.

Paul’s superiors had left the President’s office. They had a large energy planning meeting. The news of the SUV dampened any enthusiasm he had coming out of the meeting. He called Paul who made sure the correct FBI agents were sent.

And what will be a surprise to everyone, someone at the NSA turned up a Russian operative had been in the vicinity of where Greg was shot a couple days beforehand.  She kept it to herself for some strange reason.

To be continued

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And finally, a thought from the paranoid posts:

I wonder if Mr. Mueller thinks like I do? It seems to me that Mr. Bannon and the way he is planning and acting might have colluded with the Russians more so than Mr. Trump. If fact, Trump may have colluded, especially for business reasons, but Mr. Bannon’s action with the alt right seem to mirror some of the tactics the Russians used to influence the election with or without Trump’s involvement. Too many coincidences in behavior and if you wanted to take over a country, you need chaos to get started. That guy scares the crap out of me. hmmmmm

Convenience is killing us and other innocuous thoughts

Well one of these days I am going to get back to my latest story and at this point it may be only important to me. And that is okay. Sometimes just getting lost in something allows my brain to rest from all the anxiety the world causes. Making up something as I go along is relaxing because if I contradict myself, well it only messes it up a bit. I can move on and create something new the next time.

And speaking of anxiety, it seems the more we make our lives easier the more dangerous it becomes or the lazier we become. I do not know if it is because I am getting older or what, but just putting a new trash bag in the trashcan is difficult or so it seems. I know it isn’t, but sheesh it seems the biggest hassle. I used to love working outside even in the heat Mowing the lawn or digging something up always was good for the soul. Now walking a mile is tiring or worse just aggravating. I keep up my walks though since I am blessed to be able to walk to work, both my employments, one for the day job and one fun job.  So, I guess some convenience is good.

And you know of all the data breaches, email problems, work computers going down, hackers, fear of bank accounts being drained by internet thieves, our identities being stolen, all so the large corporations can make more money and lay more people off. Yes, convenience is great for our country; not sure exactly who in our country, but that is what they tell me. It is nice if we didn’t have to worry about our lives or our lives were really easier, for now though I am not downloading any new apps or signing up for new autopays. And I may reduce the ones I have set up, but you know how that is, too much hassle.

There is nothing like laying or sitting quietly with a fan blowing. Doesn’t matter if box fan, ceiling fan, oscillating fan or any other fan; as long as just the humming sound of the fan is going and no other noise with the fresh breeze hitting you, there is nothing like it.  Too bad every day doesn’t give us the chance to enjoy an hour or two to just half sleep with a fan on and the comfort of a loved one next to you. We go and go and go like crazy and never enjoy a day. So, take a moment, turn on the fan and rest mind body and soul for a moment. It doesn’t hurt.

Here is some advice for young lawyers, old lawyers, successful lawyers; when the Judge says I am going to grant you the relief you are asking BE QUIET. Do your client a favor and stop talking. Just stop.  It is maddening to watch highly educated even some that are smart do stupid things especially when it is someone’s else’s situation they are advocating. It ain’t your money, so stop talking. (You may think so, but it isn’t). Proves the old saying: better not say anything and let people guess rather than opening your mouth and prove you are a fool. A Judge doesn’t have to be a woman to change their mind.

It became muggy as heck and somewhat hot again here in North Texas, hope your fall is better. The Great State Fair of Texas is in full swing and I am fearing I may not get a chance to go. Life isn’t grand if you can’t eat one or two State Fair Corn dogs every year.  The half glass of wine leftover from a bottle opened last week is finished and I think I am too for the day. Oops got clothes to hang and fold, what a chore……

Impossible to comment

Well, I had high hopes for this past weekend to get back to my story. I really wanted to move it along. Unfortunately, I didn’t and now it is not a good time.

So many of us are at a loss for words. We want answers and we want understanding. One person that sold one of the guns said he wants closure. And there are so many willing to come up with stories, conspiracies etc for their own unstated reasons. Right now, the only person that knows the real truth is dead. Everything else you hear is conjecture even from law enforcement to outright lies from God knows who.

The sad reality is real answers are going to come slowly. And the answer may not make sense to most of us. We cannot let our desire to have an answer interfere with the truth when it does come out. There are the gullible that get preyed on, people will ignite fears and hatred in these times.

As you know I have an attempt at an imagination so I could cook up a few unruly stories in a heartbeat.

So please everyone lay low, stay with family, talk to close friends, yet do not fall victim to the hyperbole around us right now. Reach out and get proper help if you need it. These events are psychologically troubling so there may be a real need to talk to someone. We have had so many this past decade. They are coming fast and furious. Some we know such as the terrorist attacks and even though we fear a bit more now, we can at least put a real finger on our fear. We can make decisions about what we do and where we go. We under any circumstances though cannot let our fear run and ruin our lives. Or let it destroy who we are as a people and country.

Last Sunday in Las Vegas though is different. The more you read the more it does not make sense.  This makes it even more important not to jump to conclusions or let anyone sway you with unsubstantiated facts or misapplied facts. Stay strong.

And of course, prayers and condolences to the families, friends, loved ones, and even strangers that were there on this tragic evening. They need us and they need us to be strong, stay level headed, and comfort them either directly or indirectly any way you find to do something that may even comfort yourself.   And for the one fact we do all know, many thanks to the individuals and first responders who did what they could to save lives and heal the wounded. There is never enough to say for what you did and do.