Sometimes when I dream a conversation replays from the previous day. This was one of those nights. I really didn’t know if I was awake and remembering or still sleeping in a dream. But, the old man had a lot to say.
“You guys have to carry the flag. There is no telling what the voting and non-voting public will decide. We can’t leave our future to chance. These Republican a’hooks are willing to sell their soul three and four times to get a few more votes in a district with an electoral college vote on the line in a close call state. Lie, lie, lie they will. Even the clergy and pastors are upside down in many cases,” Jake told us with urgency as he nursed a light beer at the head of table, while the rest of us ate our take out food.
We remained mostly quiet as he continued to remind us, “They have so much money they get from the unscrupulous billionaires that want more tax cuts and more loopholes and market failures to exploit. They are desperate to continue robbing us blind. And, they, like their sex crazed idol in Russia, want to continue to exploit a weaker and weaker middle class. Your misery, their gain. No matter that it is a race to the bottom, as they believe they can build little bits of heaven in their estates. Who cares what’s on the outside?”
We ate a little more in silence. We were quite tired from a day at our keyboards with a few more hours to go for most of us.
Jerry, the smallest among us, sitting straight across from Jake said, “We know all that Jake or we wouldn’t be here. What is it you would have us do? I mean, more than we are now? We know the Republicans are fake except for their desire for more money and power for the benefit of a few – true fascists – king wannabes.”
“We’ve got to go deeper,” Jake went on, “in addition to trying to protect the free world from the cyber wars as we have, we need to become more proactive and bold in defeating the lovers of money and power.” Jake started pulling and twisting his well trimmed though ample gray beard like he did when he was in the middle of his thinking out loud.
“We need to become more robust than cybersecurity technicians. We need to start using our skill to counterattack and just plain old attack these enemies of the free world. And, we need to develop our own sophisticated weapons, special forces teams and agents to take the attack to these goons,” Jake paused his manly, deep voice and sipped some more of his beer, we were still eating. “We can’t leave this to chance. Our families and friends and just every innocent person on the planet. This exploitation of Earth and everything on it has got to stop.”
Now I am awake. I was next to Purdy in bed, and I realized I was no longer in a dream state. I was remembering more about what Jake was telling us. I could see him clearly though my eyes were still closed as I remained still so as not to disturb Purdy. He has a handsome older, light skinned black man. He had told me he was 80. He looked much younger, but certainly more mature than the crew. He reminded us of the threat from the Kremlin within the Republican Party as he said it was hijacked by the Kremlin with the help of the oligarchs who operated with impunity and cash worldwide. They were the special forces of the Kremlin and CCP and other irrational enemies of democracy. He couldn’t stand that these leaders were at the top of the human trafficking food chain, enabled by the likes of top GOP officials.
Jake of course covered all the shady behaviors of the various Republican leaders, including the volume of lies. Any serious lie should be unacceptable and retracted, yet they just keep lying terrible lies with no substance for us as voters. What he hates the most is the amount of scare tactics to get the elderly so afraid when they don’t need to be. There are no decent or reasonable policies, just hate and scare tactics. All the big money to get more power and money with no real benefits for the voters – only less and worse.
I drifted back to sleep to awaken to Purdy’s alarm. She quickly turned it off, and rolled back into bed with her body against mine.
Thrown away (as unedited preview)
By Daniel J Arthur
Copyright © 2024 by Daniel A Jones