Thrown away – Daniel J. Arthur’s Journal

Thrown away (unedited version)

By Daniel J Arthur

Chapter 1

Sometimes when I dream a conversation replays from a recent time – this one from the previous month. 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 irrational idol in Russia, want to continue to exploit a weaker and weaker general public. 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 is at risk. 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. We had a little bit of time enjoying pleasuring each other, and after exhausting the good feelings we both got going for the day.

Purdy was a little older than me and planned to spend her day chasing a shuttle at the club with her friends. She is pretty, pretty fit and a little shorter than me. I enjoy her, especially when she was enjoying whatever she was doing. She had a good heart and a good family. I was in awe of their stability – financially and life plan-wise. They kept things going and seemed worry free.

My family was a different entity altogether. Unlike hers, a recent family of immigrants from a country turning towards authoritarianism, my family was part of the American dream for many, many years, but had become very much nuclear – divided and conquered by the decades of firehose of falsehood from the Kremlin driven right wing in more recent times. They didn’t seem to understand how to be a real family. We had been driven apart by the various personality cults that the right wing fascists had been knitting together over and over again. Nonsense seemed to prevail, and division was driven home by the right. There wasn’t an unquestioned loyalty to family.

It seemed I was the only one that understood what had been happening for decades in the United States. People were marginalized, and families lost their connections and support. It just wasn’t there. Many people became lost and drifted into a kind of path to eventual bankruptcy of funds and spirit. The glue that bound Purdy’s family had been lost resulting in an erosion of everything. The wealthy Republicans would pick over the bones and build bigger and bigger estates, but not really have love. You can’t have love if it is not for everyone.

I made my way out of bed and tried to get ready for the day. I was part of what I will call the Special Ops Secret Hackers (SOSH), but my real job was actually cybersecurity for Dale Willingham’s investment group that specializes in creating tech startups in the Seattle area. Dale lets me do whatever the heck I want, as long as his information technology systems – at work and personal, do not get hacked. SOSH is where I spend all my time as it is wherever I want to be. The SOSH group likes to meet above the Anchor Bar and Grill on Lake Washington where we have a very sophisticated Internet connection.

Today I want to do research on what we can do to protect the people without violating any laws or getting on the wrong side of any administration. We obviously cannot do what Jake suggested, but maybe there are aspects of his ideas that we can implement or innovate off of. The best place to do my research is in the library, so I will go there and be very much able to cover my tracks as research can be masked quite easily in such a place.

Also, the library is well located in downtown Kirkland on the eastside – meaning east of Lake Washington, which pretty much borders Seattle on its western shore the entire length of this beautiful natural lake. The very functional, modern library is about two blocks from the SOSH connection site, and it is on the Kirkland Transit Center with public parking. We can come and go very easily with numerous restaurants, coffee houses and bars to meet up at.

Chapter 2

I cherry pick some reading material I find already on the local shelves, things like Dark Money by Jane Mayer and some other publications that were recommended in a review of an election article. I know the average voter has no idea about the depth of the takeover America effort. How could they? They are dealing with the everyday complexity of life. They are comfortable with their democracy, not knowing that it has been stolen bit by bit for many decades. I suspect the takeover artists will make things much less comfortable. They don’t seem to be able to have empathy for the American people, but they are great at dividing and taking advantage of fear.

I looked for weakness in the cult of humongous money and power. They seem to have consolidated decades of effort supported by the fascist foreign governments, a huge effort to target dark cash, total manipulation of social media platforms and cooperation from most other media to target and confuse the weaker voters. The Democrats would have needed a miracle to win the past election. The election was rigged, bought, rigged some more and manipulated to the benefit of the super rich. Their freedom and prosperity, not the typical voter in America.

I know others are investigating what happened, and they may be able to take some legal actions to temper the results; however, that is way out of my league. I am working a new angle. This angle will not include any activity outside of the law. While the Democrats may still wield the power to stop the unconstitutional takeover of America, it will take someone bold enough to withstand the pressure. Maybe that’s why the Democrats have been very good at screening their candidates, to ensure faithfulness to the people under pressure. The Republicans don’t have that this day in age; they worship money and power. If you will blindly follow their money and power, you’re in.

So, even if the Democrats wield their power for the greater good, and not just for the good of the few with humongous money, there will be a need to instill a different kind of ethic in these rich and powerful people. That will be my goal – to seek out a way to infect them with a kind of goodness where they want to collaborate with many, many others to find practical solutions to the many problems we face in a modern society. I fear that this may be a monumental task. But, I see no alternative. If people are not able to care for all, then they will harm many – a worse disease there might not be.

Chapter 3

The world is a lonely place sometimes. Even in the midst of millions, one can be very, very alone. It impacts people in different ways – loneliness. For me, I work a little more to fill the void. I don’t like the lack of human affection, even Purdy knows that, but I accept it and try to move forward with an end goal of having a healthier relationship in my life as life is better for everyone. I can’t understand how these wealthy bigots can get so cruel. That’s my job, to find out.

I made my way to a coffee house a few blocks away, just about equal distance from the library and my unofficial office. I kept an eye out for any sign of a tail, as I can never be certain someone hasn’t taken an interest in me. After all, I do protect quite the bankroll in addition to being a white hat hacker – searcher for truth and justice, if you will.

I checked some of my apps and notifications to make sure all was secure, looked around the place with my various cameras and wrapped up my quick break. I didn’t order any drinks this time, but the staff knows me to be a good customer. I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary and scurried along a circuitous route to the SOSH quarters. I have many other countermeasures to be sure I am not being followed electronically, and no alarms went off.

I went to my office and shut the door. I powered up my countermeasures – I add new ones as I discover them as I can never have too many. Again, I checked my apps and notifications for any important information, found none (as expected), and put on my headphones and began playing my favorite 80s track. My research helped me understand the depth of our crisis in America – democracy barely has a heartbeat. The election was rigged in a holistic way, not to be confused with holy as it was a very corrupt and evil fix of the election process started many decades ago. The tipping point had been reached, and the Harris campaign knew it and was unable to counter the avalanche of dirty tricks.

One thing that puzzled me was the lack of righteous screaming to the ends of the Earth about the obvious fix. There was not a peep out of the Democrats camp, just a resignation to the loss. Except it wasn’t a loss. It was a takeover by the god of money. And, he was a cranky old man who thinks he knows everything. The fix is already starting to create tremendous harm.

Things seemed to be going okay according to my control center information, so I started planning my approach to a peaceful turnaround of the commie-for-the-rich nazi-for-the-rest administration. Just as I got started I got a call on my secure communications app.

It was Jake, which was short for Jacque Henri Patton De la Cruz Stephens. “Hello, Jake,” I answered, “What’s going on?”

“Mathias,” he responded, “things have been going crazy, crazy since the swear no swear and all those ridiculous EOs. We have four or five groups we are monitoring that are threatening to take action if this radical stuff continues.”

“I haven’t been keeping up, but I have noticed my feed has been changing every time I take a peek.”

“Well, Mathias, I really need you to come up with something to slow things down and turn around the lunacy before someone gets in trouble. I know we can’t stop them, but we can make it less likely that they act.”

Everyone else calls me Matt, but Jake ironically likes to use my whole given name. “I understand, Jake. I don’t know if I can act in time as many, many people have been affected, harmed and possibly died as a result of these radical executive actions. I’m digging in now after a good deal of research.”

“Okay, Mathias, I’m counting on you. I’ll get some of the team on some other ideas I have. Good luck.”

With that he was gone. That was his style.

Chapter 4

Wow. I don’t know how I ended up being Jake’s idea of some kind of savior of humanity. After all, I just protect one rather small hedge fund investment operation. I have not been trained in saving the world in any way. I didn’t go to an Ivy League or internationally renowned college or university and get a PhD in knowing everything about political economy. I am mainly a programmer, really.

Maybe I could just hack all the systems of the world with a message like, “Stop your misdeeds or you will be damned!” or “Do good or perish!” I think I could do that. I don’t think it would be effective.

Oh, I get a notification – a quiet ding on my phone. It was Jake again:

I know you can do it Mathias. Channel your Mark Hamill and be like Luke. You can find a way.

I guess Jake feels I need a little encouragement. He’s right as usual. I do need to not force things, but let the thoughts flow and be with me. I can find a way to message the ideas of changing from harming to being healing. I don’t think it will hurt to flood the Internet with positive thoughts that are full of truth. Anything that fights the lies and falsehoods from the kleptocrats are a good thing. I will draft a plan and get started.

I find myself tiring and getting quite hungry. I hear another quiet ding. It was Julie, a good friend:

Hey, Kelli and I would like you to come by for dinner. Are you available?

That is a very timely request, indeed. I respond straight away:

Oh, I was just hoping to get something to eat. That sounds great. I will finish up and be one my way soon.

Julie responded right way:

Wonderful! See you when we do. Plan to stay.

And, with that I started drafting my plan to reverse the firehose of falsehood as one effort to turn our nation from greed to decency and reasonableness. I created a slew of SEO options to try to get some traction with GOP keywords with special emphasis on the favorite words and phrases of the right wing media including podcasters. I also developed a very substantial SEM option to complement and give more traction to the SEO words, if there was a substantial budget available. Paying for impressions and clicks on the various platforms and searches would take a substantial budget. I probably could call in a great deal of promotional credits and then use some cryptocurrency from the unclaimed stockpile.

This would be just a start. Targeting the content creators as much as their target audience. The messages might not have instant success in most cases, but perhaps would prick their conscience a bit. Then maybe one day they would find a way to walk away. Also, it might have a positive short term impact by steering some away from contributing money to disinformation. I looked at the time on my screen, felt some pangs of hunger, and decided I should go visit Kelli and Julie.

After wrapping things up, setting my security systems and using the restroom where I added a few adjustments to my person, I headed into the parking garage and out into the evening. It was a nice early spring evening, a little colder than I like, but not wet. I didn’t have far to go, but I needed to check if I was being followed or not, and I certainly did not want to attract some undesirables to my good friend’s doorstep. So, I headed up toward the park, crossed over at 7th, went up the hill, passed the synagogue, the mosque and a few churches as headed back down towards the library making a short diversion up one street with a pedestrian only sidewalk connecting to another street back down toward my usual place.

As I was heading down the hill, I received a text from Purdy:

Dad’s not well. Heading to visit for at least a few days.

While disappointing, it was not unexpected. Purdy’s father has been ill for some time, and she was always ready to spend time with him near SF, hoping to help him feel better. And, along with many other visits she would make at the drop of a hat, it kinda cut into our closeness. I would miss her, but I also was glad she would be gone as I got things rolling.

I went down to the front of our building by the minipark bears statue, and went in the middle front door. I took the stairs as usual taking my time, gave Purdy a thumbs up on her message, turned on the apartment lighting sequence using my phone, changed my hat and turned my coat inside out and then went out the back courtyard door on the second floor. Everything looked clear, so I headed back down to Kelli and Julie’s place, which was less than a block away.

Chapter 5

I texted them to please brighten the lights before I arrived, so that there would be no obvious light change when I opened the door to get in their very modern top floor condo overlooking Lake Washington toward the west and southwest.

“Hello,” I enquired as I opened the door to 512 walking into the brightly lit condo entryway and taking off my shoes.

“Hey, Matt,” answered Kelli, “we’re in the living room.”

“It smells nice,” I said, smelling something on the stove as I walked through the kitchen, “what is it?”

“Oh, just some rice noodle veggie soup with some brown rice and beans,” Julie informed me as she headed into the kitchen, “I’ll get you a bowl.”

“Cool, guys, I really appreciate it. When Purdy texted me earlier I just kinda spaced out the evening.”

“Well, she let us know that she would owe us one if we really took care of you this evening, and we are more than happy to do so,” Julie responded, “and getting you fed is job one.”

I ate three helpings of that gorgeous soup and had some kind of fruit spritzer to drink. We talked and talked as I ate and they munched. I filled them in on my SEO and SEM plans, Kelli volunteered to do the implementation as she happens to be a digital marketing expert, we discussed recent developments, including the obviously unconstitutional and cruel behavior of the Republican regime, and some potential ways to address those threats to not just America, but to the planet. After a little digesting the food time, finding out I hadn’t really exercised today, they put me on their recumbent bike for about twenty minutes as we continued to brainstorm about how any of us could respond to this terrible threat to life on Earth.

After showering, Julie and Kelli had me join them in bed, they turned on some music, maybe a little louder than usual for late evening, and we talked some more – quietly and with a sense of urgency.

“You know, guys,” I continued, “I think I need to visit someone that has experience with gangs that are under attack. How can we help people to have soft landings? When they come to America to live, legally or not, they believe in the freedom of expression that we have. So, they express themselves, mostly with the idea of making the world a better place for all.”

“Yeah, that seems reasonable, Matt,” Julie responded, “I know someone you could talk to. I met them while they were undergoing PT as they were going through a transformation, quitting the gang and going into witness protection.”

“Interesting,” I said, “that sounds like a person that could be helpful, but how could we contact them, if they are living in some kind of new identity in witness protection?”

“Well, I have a special friendship with this person, and they have kept in contact with me, just in case.”

“I’m sure that’s a tricky situation.”

“Well, we can work something out,” Julie reassured.

“Maybe they can help me understand what’s going on down there with crypto and all. It is a concern.”

“Follow the money,” chimed in Kelli.

“Especially the funny money,” I added, “ and there is plenty of not so funny business happening down south of Mexico.”

“I was looking at helping some crypto exchange down there do so some online marketing, and I told I didn’t have time as everything I looked at didn’t seem legit,” observed Kelli.

“Well, maybe I will work with you to meet with your contact, Julie, and then I should meet with a reporter I know in LA that is an expert on the smaller Central American countries and the gangs that operate from there. Then, I may find an angle to stop the harm,” I said hopefully.

I remembered working with Maria on identifying some cybersecurity scams and threats coming out of El Salvador just prior to the election. There were some hints on North Korean influence when I shut down the operations with a few different methods, and I hadn’t heard much from the area since then. It was all about crypto, and with the new unregulated connection with a very powerful administration, there must be something big happening.

Maria had shown me how the gangs were providing protection for the dark money guys, gangs themselves really, that were often working under the direction of overseas intelligence units. Which, as we have noticed in the cybersecurity world, there has been plenty of dark hat cooperation by Americans – not just working with Russians, but with whoever paid and was against American democracy.

“So, you can give me a ride to the office in the morning, Kelli?” I asked.

“Sure, not a problem, I’ve got to get set up there anyway. Let’s get to bed and get up early. We promised Purdy we would take care of you.”

Chapter 6

I woke up in the morning feeling very refreshed. I was alone in bed. It was like I woke up from a very good dream, but I couldn’t remember much . . . oh, it was coming back to me, but I need to get up and get going. Kelli was taking me to work, where I would then hit the road. I quickly keyed a message to Maria in LA. Hopped over to the master bath, disrobed and jumped into the shower. I could smell something pleasant, which must be coming from the kitchen.

“Are you ready, Matt,” inquired Kelli from the kitchen.

I didn’t bother answering as I was just starting to rinse the soap off. She must have noticed some activity. A few minutes later I emerged from the bath, fully clothed and ready to go. I padded into the kitchen in some slippers as was customary to wear in their home.

“Hey, Kelli, I heard you, but was a bit busy,” I started, “Where’s Julie?”

“Oh, she’s out and about already doing her usual morning workout. I’m ready to take you and head into the office, your SOSH.”

“Sounds good,” I replied as I poured a bowl of gluten free, high fiber cereal with some almond milk and started eating.
“I’ll finish getting ready,” Kelli responded, “did you want the blonde wig or the brunette one?”

“Brunette,” I answered.

“Just leave your bowl in the sink,” she said as she headed to the bedroom.

After a few more minutes I washed the bowl and spoon in the sink, stacking them in the dish rack on the counter, found some orange juice, poured a small glass and drank it with no haste. After washing the glass, I headed back to the master bath to brush my teeth and get dressed.

“I hope these will work,” Kelli said, laying some clothes on the bed next to the wig.

“Yes, not too feminine will work good,” I observed before brushing my teeth.

“I will wait out in the entryway,” Kelli said as she walked out, “hurry up. I’m ready to get this show on the road.”

I finished up, putting the wig on last, and headed to the front door.

“Here, let me adjust the wig,” Kelli said as she started gently nudging the fake hair into place, stepped back, and said, “looks good, Let’s go.”

We went out the door and took the stairs, listening carefully after opening the door before entering. We were hoping not to run into anyone on the way to the car. We had discussed our route and strategy before sleeping, and silently made our way to the garage meeting no one on the way.

I found my car in the parking space Dale provides for me, got in, changed my wig to a ball cap, my shirt, pants and coat, and headed out. I kept an eye out for tails, checked for notifications on my phone; and, finding none made my way towards the Kirkland Crossing parking garage. Kelli made her way to the stairwell and headed to my office.

I parked on the third floor, looked around carefully, found no one around, got out and looked out toward the bus stop. There were a few people waiting for buses in or near the provided shelters. I noticed a bus pull into the driveway, pull up to the end shelter, and one person got on the bus – number 250 to Bellevue Transit Center. The other two people didn’t move from their bench. A few minutes later bus 255 to UW pulled in and stopped in the same position. No one got off again, and, peculiarly, the two people remained on the bench. Tails?

Chapter 7