WAR (46 page)

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The only thing people talk about is the upcoming election. Many in the LSA are happy their internet service has been restored, they are also worried the USA will attack them in another unconventional manner they hadn’t considered possible. Thousands of people take to the streets in Oakland and San Francisco to protest the election. They hold signs saying, “We already voted with our feet.” Five people hold hands while jumping off of the Golden State Bridge in protest to the upcoming election. The LSA news broadcasters discuss the suicide pact, they pledge their support for the brave five who jumped in protest. Multi-colored flags are flown at half-staff in support of the ‘Brave Five’ as the jumpers become known. Support marches breakout in Portland, Seattle, and New York City. While in Boston, supporters of the election march shouting, “Freedom!” A few of the Boston marchers are dressed as the revolutionary Minutemen surprising many in the LSA who never expected Boston to hold a rally for the election.

While the LSA is showing confusion over the upcoming election, the USA shows strong support for the election. People in central Illinois travel to Chicago where they cross the border on tourist visas, they wait for a planned march down the ‘Miracle Mile’ where they take to the streets showing support for a United States and the end of the failed progressive experiment. Displays of patriotism break out across the USA, American flags with fifty stars become one of the hottest selling products. The flags start to line interstate freeways, buildings, and in front of homes. One home in a neighborhood places a flag in front of their house, within days there’s flags flying on the front of every house on their street. The media talking heads are taken by surprise by the outpouring display of patriotism. Some fight it, many others figure out which way the wind is blowing, they change their attitude within 48 hours of the flags appearing; they turn 180 degrees, from supporting the expansion of the LSA to the reunification of the USA.    

Rash and Glenn announce a joint radio program where they announce, “We are all Americans, allowing the country to split was a mistake. Our government at the time took the path they thought would save lives and stop the outbreak of mass violence. What’s been the result of the experiment of the previous twelve years?”

Glenn responds, “Twelve years ago the USA broke up into two countries, while we in the USA have had a very good life, we’ve paid our debt down, we have a real unemployment rate of 4.5%, we’ve cut government expenses. We’ve reduced the number of illegals living in the USA to less than one million. We’ve increased our average life span, in 2010 the average life span was 67.2, in 2020 we’ve reached an average life span of 70.1 due to the recent advances of 3D printing of human organs, a new generation of anti-cancer drugs and a focus on diet. The new class of drugs, which blocks the body from absorbing certain fats, has enabled us to drop an average of 10 pounds of body weight. We’ve made enormous progress since we cut away the massive welfare system. So why are we saying the nation should come back together? If we don’t absorb the LSA back into the USA, their debt, which is currently 145% of their GNP and continues to grow, will crush the LSA. There is no way they can maintain their current system while also expanding their central government spending. Other countries have been successful in paying down their massive debt; they did it by cutting benefits and expanding the private sector. President Booker has announced this week that his goal for the next five years is to have all of their citizens working for the state. Think about this for a moment. The LSA doesn’t want to have a private sector. They will expand government debt, they will increase inflation. The net result of the LSA’s actions is they will default on their debt. When the times comes that the LSA can’t maintain it’s current level of spending, the government will have no choice but to cut spending.  With everyone working or the government, there will be no place to absorb the unemployed. The LSA will collapse in on itself. Let me repeat that, the LSA WILL COLLAPSE IN ON ITSELF.  They are running out of access to funds while at the same time they are expanding their spending. This is the same as your family having your take home pay reduced, what do you do? Do you go buy a new luxury car, a new house with a much larger monthly payment and since your existing credit cards are all maxed out, you get new ones that you use to borrow against to pay the minimum charges on your existing credit cards while you increase your spending. What’s going to happen when all of your bills come due? What happens when you can’t borrow any more money? You go bankrupt. This is what’s going to happen to the LSA. I can assure you, the LSA is running out of money, they have very few resources left to borrow additional funds from. Their time is running out. Before the split, the USA was in a similar spot, we got out of it, it was painful, we had to change. Can the LSA change as we did? Can or will the LSA change their policies as we did? I don’t think so. President Booker stated that the only change he's going to do, is to accelerate the end of the private sector thus increasing the government’s expenses. If in the upcoming election both countries don’t agree to merge, the LSA will go bankrupt, their economy will fail, and their money will be worthless. The unemployment rate in the LSA will exceed 40% since everyone will be working for the government. When they run out of money, they will have no choice but to cut overhead. In the LSA, the government supplies everything from housing, banking, postage, utilities, schools; they own the factories, they own everything. When their currency becomes worthless, the LSA will implode into anarchy. Their anarchy will spread with their hungry, unhappy, angry people into the USA. If we merge after their collapse, our costs will be multiplied a thousand fold. When the LSA government goes bankrupt the people will panic, they will rush across the border demanding we take care of them. We will be overwhelmed by millions of hungry, angry people who are used to be cared for from cradle to grave. We will end up fighting people who used to be our citizens, for resources. We will face a swarm of people rushing across the divide, people we aren’t in a position to provide for. “The only way to avoid this is for an orderly merger and change. We should vote for the merger so we have the time to integrate the LSA’s people back into the USA. Look at it this way, we’re going to have to pay for the LSA’s mistakes one way or the other. It’s going to be much less expensive and painful to handle the merger on our timeline than after the LSA implodes. We’re faced with a choice between paying less now or paying much more later, either way we’re going to have to pay for the choices the progressive government of the LSA made.”

Chapter 34

The marches on both sides of the divide increase and some turn violent. President Booker instructs Dianne to ensure the vote expands the LSA. She’s ordered to do whatever is required to make sure the number of votes shows an overwhelming support for him and the LSA.

“Sir, now that you’ve changed your mind to allow the election to be overseen by the Council of the Fifteen, they are sending security and military people to every voting location. You agreed to allow them to be the official vote counters, we’ll never touch the ballots. Hence, we can’t adjust the vote.”

“Did I have a choice?”

“Not really. I warned you to read the treaty before you signed it. Your answer was you would read it after it was signed into law so we had time to review the law.”

“Dianne, the draft of the law was over 2,200 pages long, it was to be voted on and signed the day after being presented to me. How could I read and digest 2,200 pages in one day while having to do my other tasks?”

“Sir, we followed your lead, none of us read the bill until you signed it. We discovered the Council of Fifteen Nations will manage the election on both sides of the divide. Neither country is allowed to touch the ballots.”

“This is crazy, why would we agree to this? What else was in the bill?’

“I tried to warn you to read the bill before signing it.”

“You of all people are saying that to me? You were one of the progressive Senators in Congress, you passed the 2,000 page Affordable Care Act, did you read it first? Or what about the 1,800 page budget? Or the 2,500 page spending bill? Did you read any of the monster bills you voted for?”

“That was different, those bills supported our progressive agenda. This one took away our rights. We have to follow what you signed.”

“I signed away my own rights to fix the election? What else was in the bill?”

“We’re still reading it, however one very worrying section is we, the leaders of the LSA, can be held personality responsible for crimes against humanity, we can also be held responsible for national waste.”

“What the hell does national waste mean?”

“I guess it means whatever the winning side of the election wants it to mean.”

“Shit, we’re screwed. Why did you allow me to sign it into law without a review?”

“Mr. President, we can’t change the law or move the election. We have less than 60 days until the vote.”

“Start offering the people bonuses for voting to maintain the LSA. Offer them each an additional month’s salary to vote yes.”

“Sir, we don’t have the funds to pay everyone an extra month salary, our cash reserves are very low.”

“Dianne, do you think we’re going to win or lose the election?”

“Right now, I think it’s 50/50.”

“Let’s plan for the worst case, you and I should convert our assets into gold, move the gold offshore, if it looks like we’re going to lose, we’ll skip out the night of election. We’ll go someplace where we’ll be safe and very rich.”

“How many people should we take with us?”

“I’m going to take a staff of ten, I suggest you do the same.”

“I’ll draw up a list and discuss it with you at our security meeting tomorrow.”

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The Smith family sits in the large airy restaurant of the Carolina Hotel waiting for their breakfast order to be delivered when Wolf walks in. He looks around, seeing the Smiths he smiles, waves and makes his way to their table.

Jason leans over to Sharon whispering, “This can’t be good. I’m sure he was sent to try to get us back or change our story. Be very careful what you say.”

Scott and Sissy wave to Wolf, Sissy says, “Mom, look who’s here. Mr. Wolf is here to be part of the program again. I wonder if he brought us a surprise from home.”

Sharon leans over to Sissy saying, “Honey, we talked about this before, this is our home now. We’re not going back to Beaverton. You’re going to be going to the same school as Beth. We’re going to move into a nice house a couple of streets from Beth and Leon’s home.”

“Mom, I miss my old friends. I miss my room and my stuff.”

“I promise you, we’ll get you new stuff just as soon as Daddy and I get settled in our new jobs. I don’t want you to say anything to Mr. Wolf about how or when we got here. Don’t say anything to him about our trip. It’s our family secret. OK?”

“Mom, I remember. Don’t worry.”

Scott overhears saying, “Mom, I remember, don’t worry about me.”

Jason stands to welcome Wolf, “Hello Wolf, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Jason, Sharon, Leon and of course Sissy, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you safe and sound. When you disappeared we were all worried something bad happened to you. Did you have a safe trip to visit the Jones’?”

Sharon replies, “Wolf, we’re not visiting; we’re staying here. We’ve put a deposit on a new home, Jason and I have new jobs.”

“How did you put a deposit on a new home when all of your bank accounts are still in the Bank of the LSA, and by the way frozen by the DepLIES who are very interested in where you are. Even President Booker is very concerned with what happened to you. I can’t wait to tell him you’re safe and sound.”

“Wolf, the how, isn’t important. That we’re here, is all that matters.”

“Scott, are you sure you want to give up all of your friends and school to move across the continent? Do you think you’re going to be happy here? If you want, President Booker has agreed to absorb all the costs to return you to your home which hasn’t been touched since you left. The DepLIES has agents guarding your home for you. Your old jobs are still open, in fact, I understand both of you were going to be promoted to supervisor class 1 with a large raise and two new electric cars. One of your old ones was going to be transferred to Scott, who is approved to get his driver’s license. He’ll be able to drive himself to his friends and to school. He’s been classified as stable enough to be granted a license and the ability to drive to school versus having to ride the bus. As you may remember, only 3% of students are allowed to drive their own cars to school. Scott, think about it, you’ll be one of the exclusive at school. Every girl will want to be your friend to get a ride to school. You’ll instantly become one of the class leaders, doesn’t that sound like fun? If you move here, you’ll be starting all over again. Do you want to be a teenager who doesn’t know anyone in your school? You’ll never fit into a USA school. You’re going to learn you’re going to have to relearn almost everything you’ve already learned, you’re going to have to work four times harder than anyone else. You’re not going to have any time for social functions. You can forget about dating. Oh and, by the way, the USA doesn’t allow boys and girls to share gyms or bathrooms. You’re going to have to learn all of their social media sites. You’ll end up alone in your new school without friends.”