James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 18, 2021 18:32:39 GMT
144 – Democracy in action
Maria Arreola Rodriguez had fought for democracy her entire adult life. The democracy which she campaigned for on the streets, running for office and while holding political posts was one where everyone had a say in debates and elections which were free, fair and open to everyone. ‘One-person-one-vote’ was something she had long believed in with no one left out and all voices equal. Advantages to incumbents, closed lists and any sort of electoral college arrangement – especially the Electoral College in US politics – were what she had fought to see overcome. Unequal representation and any form of stitch-up were as opposed by MAR with as much as she passion and grit as she could summon from herself and those who shared her views. She believed in the right of protest too. MAR had led many protests during her political career and before that, she’d been part of the masses. As a youngster, she’d marched against the epitome of evil which had been (in her opinion) the 45th President and then when older led campaigns herself to try to rid her country of those who wished to subvert democracy. Another big passion of hers was the battle against armed conflict. Differences should be settled with words, she had many times said, and then through democratic voting. When President Walsh had bombed Algeria and then later done the same to Egypt too, she’d been front-and-centre in anti-war protests both on the streets and in Congress against what she had seen as illegal wars launched by her fellow Democrat, someone whom she had helped put into the White House on a promise that he would never do anything like that. The Taiwan Conflict came very fast but MAR had been prepared to lead protests against it even when, due to how hard the Chinese hit back against American forces in the Western Pacific, there wasn’t much public appetite to do that: the shooting was over before any real protest movement she could lead could get off the ground… and that wouldn’t have had much support either.
A plurality of voters in the Democratic primaries during 2028, and then the majority of the American voters that November, won her the presidency. In addition, she also managed to win the Electoral College too, a system which she hated for its unfairness. MAR didn’t believe the lies which had been told about where she was born which allowed for the US Supreme Court – yet another wholly undemocratic institution! – to rob her of what she had won. It wasn’t just her who had had that stolen: all those people across the nation, whether they lived in a Blue state or a Red state, had been the victims of a theft of democracy unheralded in modern times. Those people who protested in the streets, in the East and in the West, were just as angry as she had been at what had happened. American democracy had been finally broken, MAR had realised, after so long of it being stretched to its very limits. For MAR to do what she did, and not just support the establishment of the Democratic American Republic, but lead it too, had been something that she wouldn’t have considered doing only a few months before it happened. Events took a-hold though. MAR was carried along with them. She did what she did for democracy, for the American people. If it could have been the case that the DAR stretched from coast to coast, where the New America and the Second Republic was nationwide, MAR would have elated. Only in the West was there enough support on the streets among the protesters and also within the political establishment for the formation of a true democratic state to emerge from out of the ashes of the failed experiment which had been the United States of America though. Elsewhere, those who called themselves supporters of democracy and progressives too, stuck with the illegitimate ancien régime knowing full well that they were in the wrong for doing so. Moreover, they opted to fully support the candidates rejected by the American voters – Roberts and his VP pick Mitchell – who set about waging war against the DAR and its people from the White House. Asked by her wife if she had regrets, MAR had told Bree Davis that she didn’t. There was no other choice for her when faced with all that had happened. How could she been committing treason when the United States said that she wasn’t an American? She wouldn’t do as she did in lead the DAR because the new country formed in the West was where democracy really existed in America, and the people who lived there had chosen her to lead them.
The true democratic character of the DAR was written into its founding constitution, one crafted by the Berkeley Circle. Those men and women at her alma mater expanded the project which they had been working on with her father before his murder (killed because of her politics, killed to hurt her) and ensured that the DAR would be a democracy where there was no compromise on its democracy. There was flexibility in that founding document too so, several hundred years down the line, there wouldn’t be a situation where the DAR would be caught up in where a comma was and refusals from reactionary politicians to adapt to the modern world. Alas, that flexibility had been employed in a manner unforeseen by those behind it. One of her father’s closest colleagues at UC Berkeley, a key member of the Berkeley Circle, had complained to her upon the formation of the DAR that the democracy envisioned wasn’t being interpreted properly. The Council of Ten (as it then was) wasn’t democratic in his view yet more than that, the fact that every single delegate to the parliament had been appointed wasn’t right. The new country had been born into war though, one waged against it to strangle it at birth. That was what MAR had reminded him. She’d made a promise that as soon as humanly possible, there would be real democracy not just in theory but in practice too within the DAR. As to that professor, he’d waited a month and then left the country to end up on CNN out in the East denouncing the nation he had did his bit to create and also savaging MAR too. He said that she had betrayed her father’s memory… as well as the millions of people who had voted for her the previous year. That hurt her. She had pretended to ignore it yet had been unable to. MAR’s wife hadn’t gone to Las Vegas with her and had spent the entirety of her partner’s presidency up in Walnut Creek – in California’s Bay Area – with their children. It was thought safer for them all there rather than being in Las Vegas when the United States was on the war path. Daily contact via secure video link was had between MAR and her family. In early March, during one of the video chats over the Panda app, an argument took place between the married couple physically so far apart. The outcome of that was one which left them emotionally further apart too. A good friend of Davis’, a young woman whom she worked with at Berkeley, and who had been looking after the children on an ad hoc basis, had been arrested during the crackdown within the DAR undertaken against the extensive & disruptive anti-war protests. That friend – someone whom MAR was jealous of for all the time spent with her wife – had been detained and then held without charge by the California authorities for her important role in the protests around Berkeley and Oakland too. Davis didn’t just demand that her wife see her friend released from what she regarded as illegal detention, but wanted the further round-ups which she had heard all about to cease too.
How could MAR be the leader of a country which silenced dissent like that? Why would MAR allow that all to happen? Davis had been furious. MAR had signed off on the crackdown. It was a policy brought forth by her colleagues, those on the Council of Twelve who led the nation, yet MAR could have stopped it from happening if she had wanted to. That she hadn’t though. MAR had understood that it was necessary. She saw evidence like her fellow leaders did that agents from the United States were behind many of the violence which came with the protests, using deception to turn people against the country which was fighting to defend their freedom. There were extremist terrorists too using the cover of innocents to strike out against the DAR. Arrests such as those of MAR’s wife’s friend were a consequence of what MAR understood had been overreach and she wasn’t happy with that, but she didn’t make a move to see all of that stopped. The protests were deemed illegal by the state authorities in the states where they took place and had been extremely damaging to the war effort. Davis had been utterly furious at her wife taking about the ‘war effort’ when she explained it in such a manner. The first anti-war march which the two of them had been on together, back when they first knew each other, had been one against the ‘war effort’ being waged by the 44th President: another Democrat who the two of them had regarded as having betrayed everything he had been elected upon. MAR was leading a country engaged in a war and her excuses for actions undertaken to lock up those who Davis regarded as just like her drove Davis to anger. The two of them didn’t speak for several days afterwards, and when they did, not much was said. A public show was made only for the children. Between them, the gulf only widened.
While her country’s army was fighting in Arizona to retake territory which had been claimed by the Democratic American Republic, MAR had decided that the country which she led needed to fulfil what she had come to believe was a real democratic mandate. Her deceased father’s friend & what he said after having fled to the United States, her wife’s extensive & angry criticisms and too all of the anger she had seen before the crackdown swiped the heart out of the leadership of the anti-war protests made her believe that her people needed to see democracy in action. It was what the people wanted, it was what MAR had turned her back upon the United States of America for. She met with Vice President Padley and also some of the most ideologically committed parliamentarians to discuss her feelings and a plan of action rather than taking the matter to those on the Council of Twelve first. Padley didn’t agree with the suggestions put to her and her president both by several people out of the parliament but MAR did. Her views were in sync with several Members of (the US) Congress who had defected to the DAR and sat in that assembly instead of the one in DC. The people of the West wanted democracy and they needed to be given it no matter what was going on with the wider situation of war. MAR believed that she owed her citizens that.
It had been announced that elections for the DAR Parliament would be held later in 2029 following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence made in mid-January. The idea was that once the country had got up on its feet, they would go ahead with appointees temporarily becoming parliamentary delegates until that time. The leadership council was then given a formal role to help govern the country when – as the DAR Government declared – warfare was initiated against the new country and its people. That was done because with the nation under attack, it made election preparations impossible. MAR had explained all of that to her new country. Feedback had been generally good though there had been still many complaints about a delay. Those who made those hadn’t ceased them. It was argued that the leadership council of the governors of the states was undemocratic and, because it gave each state equal weight, was very much like the hated US Senate. California’s Governor Pierce had been one of those critics despite sitting on the Council of Ten/Twelve/Thirteen/Twelve. He’d wanted his home state, where the majority of the people of the DAR lived, to have a say in the leadership of the country representing the size of the population accurately. Election delays were also criticised because it was the Twenties after all! There was no need for polling booths and long lines for them. Voting could be done electronically with rapid results too rather than doing things the old-fashioned way, the way it was done in the backwards United States. Among those who made those arguments back in January, but Pierce not being present, MAR listened to them come March. She agreed that a big mistake had been made earlier in the year.
She wanted immediate elections – including that for herself as president too – and a dis-establishment of the Council of Twelve. That was real democracy, that was what she believed that the people whom she represented both wanted and deserved. Working up details with those parliamentarians on-side, plus making use of government staffers supporting her office while she was in Las Vegas, MAR set out a plan of action to make it all work. She anticipated opposition to be raised and sought to negate that by pinpointing legitimate concerns and finding solutions ahead of time. What she didn’t want was for her colleagues to shoot her down at once due to flaws in her proposal. It didn’t take that long and was done soon enough. MAR had a detailed plan of action to see democracy in action across the DAR even in the midst of war. She then moved to present it to the Council of Twelve: those fellow advocates of democracy such as herself. Their reaction wasn’t what she had hoped for.
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Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Jun 19, 2021 11:53:36 GMT
The DAR is either going to collapse or turn into a socialist dictatorship.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 19, 2021 18:10:58 GMT
The DAR is either going to collapse or turn into a socialist dictatorship. Democracy out there in the West isn't in a good shape. Someone wants to make it even less democratic too. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 19, 2021 18:11:57 GMT
145 – A pact
Governor Pierce, Minister Rawlings and General Fuller met at the DAR Marines’ Twentynine Palms base in California. They had a physical meet rather than a remote one. The chances of their conversations being intercepted while online were thought to be near non-existent yet they went for an in-person gathering rather than accept any risk. To have anyone overhearing what they talked about wasn’t desired nor was any wish to see any action taken to pre-empt them from doing what they set out to do. When talking alone within a hangar at the airstrip there, they formed a pact. California’s governor, the DAR’s defence & security minister and the commander-in-chief of that country’s armed forces agreed to overthrow their political leadership. Pierce would end up on top, of course, and would be supported in getting there by the aid of Rawlings and Fuller. With the two of them on-side, nothing could stand in his way in taking charge of the Democratic American Republic.
It was Pierce who requested the meet. He only brought the two of them to the gathering he wanted at a military base within the Mojave Desert in Southern California because he believed that they would go along with what he wanted without complaint. He had first wanted to meet nearby, down in the Imperial Valley at a civilian location but Rawlings and Fuller opted for the security of a military site. The two of them controlled all official intelligence and counter-intelligence efforts within the DAR yet informed him that absolute assurance of secrecy could only come at a place such as Twentynine Palms. It wasn’t actually fellow DAR eavesdropping which they feared down in Coachella but instead United States espionage efforts. The runway, taxiways and flight ramp at Twentynine Palms were all constructed of aluminium. Back in 1976, the US Marine Corps had tested its expeditionary air-strip concept atop the Mojave Desert with so much success that more than four decades later the exact same air facility was still operational. Pierce arrived by a government helicopter on an ‘inspection tour’ to be hosted by Rawlings who flew in upon a light aircraft. As to Fuller, he arrived by another helicopter though without any fanfare. His landing wasn’t made out where the other two arrived, in the open, but instead in an enclosed rear area. No one watched them nor monitored their movements to make note of the secret gathering. All of their caution was unneeded. Nonetheless, it was employed by them due to the concern of exposure.
Pierce told them straight off that his wish was to see the removal of Maria Arreola Rodriguez from the presidency, Cicely Blair Padley from the vice presidency and the other members of the Council of Twelve from their joint leadership role which he shared with them. He’d had enough and believed that the two he had brought together had as well. The DAR was a country at war, fighting for its very existence since its creation, and that fight was being had with hands tied behind their backs when it came to stopping the United States from wiping it from the face of the earth. Rawlings and Fuller had heard his complaints before yet when at Twentynine Palms, he detailed them extensively. Time and time again, military actions and strategic plays were vetoed by those who objected to the idea of conflict as the way to retain the independence of the West. At other times, the most stupid decisions were made when the will of the majority prevailed to achieve political objectives which spat in the face of military necessity. Like the two with him who were not in a leadership role, Pierce had unsuccessfully fought against the latter being done while argued for the former to happen. Attempting a frontal defence in Colorado, holding firm around Albuquerque, not attacking the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, putting trust in Hawaii’s acting governor when it was clear she wasn’t on-side, placing too many restrictions around military targets near to civilian areas… the list went on. Pierce spoke about voting on the Council and how on one issue he would have those in agreement with him yet the same members, faced with a different set of political considerations, would at the next instance do something detrimental to the war effort. Padley he expressed no trust in with his fears that she would like to see the DAR re-absorbed back into the United States. As to MAR, Pierce said that she really had no business as the leader of a country: she was best suited to political activism and political theory rather than making the hard choices. With regard to the Carrillo allegations, Pierce once more denied them to Rawlings and Fuller. He said though that other Council members believed them and were doubting not just his integrity but that of the DAR as a country too.
They had to go, all of them. Pierce wanted rid and stated that only with him in charge, sole charge too, could the country which the three of them had fully committed themselves to serve against all costs survive. He pointed out that while the military situation had improved, he was unsure if it would remain so in the long-term with the Council running things. He proposed a removal, a non-violent one at that. There was no need for anyone to be hurt. A takeover, he claimed, could be done with the show of force and the threat of violence rather than any need to start shooting anyone. Finished, Pierce asked for their support and for the two of them to put together a plan of action. They gave it. Rawlings and Fuller were with him. The two of them had been just as frustrated, just as mad as him. So many lives had been lost and so much damage done to the cause which they both fully supported because of the political infighting at the top of the country’s leadership. While each didn’t fully agree with the particular instances of Pierce’s individual complaints, with Fuller also thinking that on more than one occasion California’s governor had made mistakes, they did believe that the politically-mandated shared leadership was entirely wrong. Those people at the top had caused so much damage because of all of their infighting and political priorities. While they postured and had tantrums, men and women who he led had lost their lives. One of the issues which got Rawlings upset was how the Governor of Guam & the Marianas still sat on the Council… when his state was entirely back in United States hands. That man’s vote carried the same weight as Pierce’s did! She knew too about how all of those military defeats had been incurred early on in the war in Colorado and New Mexico due to the influences of the governors of both states. They wanted rid of the Council just as much as Pierce did. For MAR and Padley to go too, neither minded: each would prefer to serve under Pierce than those two women who held the top leadership positions within the DAR.
That meeting at Twentynine Palms came the day before MAR presented to the Council of Twelve her ‘real democracy proposals’. As well as immediate elections for the DAR Parliament, she wanted to get rid of the Council as a collective leadership body. Her reasons were different from his, but the outcome desired when it came to that one matter were the same as Pierce’s. Well… he hadn’t gotten to where he was in the world by not being able to change and adapt to unexpected circumstances. Samuel F. Pierce was an accomplished politician on the cusp of taking charge of the DAR because he knew how to neutralise such uncomfortable political events such as his president’s desire to mirror his own wishes only for a wholly different outcome. He used the Panda app to contact both Rawlings and Fuller. His trust in that civilian messaging service which the Chinese had targeted at the American market wasn’t as full as others held it in. Pierce knew full well that the United States, working with every ally they had, would be doing everything possible to break into the network knowing that the DAR leadership used it instead of supposedly-secure military channels… channels which Fuller said were, at their heart, US military ones after all and thus open to be broken into by those who helped create them. The Panda was thought safer though, especially for something quick and non-military. Another physical met couldn’t be arranged quick enough – Pierce had gone back to Las Vegas, Rawlings was up in Idaho and Fuller down in Arizona – so they spoke over the Panda in code.
‘The issues discussed in the desert’ was something which Rawlings and Fuller affirmed they still supported. They would still ‘cast their votes’ for Pierce regardless. As to ‘their coach’, they had no faith in the leadership abilities of her. A commitment to carry on with the ‘Mojave Project’ was made.
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Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Jun 20, 2021 2:39:36 GMT
Since they're using Panda, have they considered the potential of another 'foreign' country, other than the U.S., hacking into the app for its own purposes?
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gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
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Post by gillan1220 on Jun 20, 2021 2:49:39 GMT
The DAR is either going to collapse or turn into a socialist dictatorship. Democracy out there in the West isn't in a good shape. Someone wants to make it even less democratic too. The DAR is the envisioned "liberal's paradise" by the leftist-minded people in the West Coast. It is has those progressive SJW ideals that the right would consider as "woke". Take example that MAR is a Latina lesbian while her cabinet, the Council of Thirteen, is composed of diverse ethnicities with some being openly LGBTQ+. |
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Brky2020
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Post by Brky2020 on Jun 20, 2021 12:32:23 GMT
The DAR is either going to collapse or turn into a socialist dictatorship. Democracy out there in the West isn't in a good shape. Someone wants to make it even less democratic too. The DAR is the envisioned "liberal's paradise" by the leftist-minded people in the West Coast. It is has those progressive SJW ideals that the right would consider as "woke". Take example that MAR is a Latina lesbian while her cabinet, the Council of Thirteen, is composed of diverse ethnicities with some being openly LGBTQ+. Socialist dictatorship might not have been the best term looking back at it, but I stand by a dictatorship as a possibility, especially after the scene we just read with Pierce. I can't see some veneer of soclalism and progressivism not being part of a Pierce "administration", although much less of the liberal paradise the DAR was initially envisioned to be. I think James G has written the DAR as having a large non-progressive population that doesn't agree with those progressive values (if I'm wrong on that James please correct me!). So there will be some conflict within a post-war DAR on that account alone, although I wouldn't see it devolving to a DAR civil war. What that might lead to is a massive population transfer. If the civil war ends with both countries still existing, and the DAR maintaining that vision, then I can't imagine there not being some level of immigration between the DAR and the US -- those who agree with that vision to the DAR, and those who disagree to the US -- by folks who want to live in an America that best fits their values. Of course there will be more conservative/less progressive people who remain in the DAR -- and more progressive/less conservative folks in the US -- for such reasons as family, jobs, property, etc. And jobs might be the biggest issue, especially if the DAR can attract and keep the highest-paying tech and green jobs and draw them away from the U.S.. |
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gillan1220
Fleet admiral
I've been depressed recently. Slow replies coming in the next few days.
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Post by gillan1220 on Jun 20, 2021 12:55:17 GMT
The DAR is the envisioned "liberal's paradise" by the leftist-minded people in the West Coast. It is has those progressive SJW ideals that the right would consider as "woke". Take example that MAR is a Latina lesbian while her cabinet, the Council of Thirteen, is composed of diverse ethnicities with some being openly LGBTQ+. Socialist dictatorship might not have been the best term looking back at it, but I stand by a dictatorship as a possibility, especially after the scene we just read with Pierce. I can't see some veneer of soclalism and progressivism not being part of a Pierce "administration", although much less of the liberal paradise the DAR was initially envisioned to be. I think James G has written the DAR as having a large non-progressive population that doesn't agree with those progressive values (if I'm wrong on that James please correct me!). So there will be some conflict within a post-war DAR on that account alone, although I wouldn't see it devolving to a DAR civil war. What that might lead to is a massive population transfer. If the civil war ends with both countries still existing, and the DAR maintaining that vision, then I can't imagine there not being some level of immigration between the DAR and the US -- those who agree with that vision to the DAR, and those who disagree to the US -- by folks who want to live in an America that best fits their values. Of course there will be more conservative/less progressive people who remain in the DAR -- and more progressive/less conservative folks in the US -- for such reasons as family, jobs, property, etc. And jobs might be the biggest issue, especially if the DAR can attract and keep the highest-paying tech and green jobs and draw them away from the U.S.. That's one way to put it. The DAR is already suffering from infighting. Even if Pierce would succeed, it would just prolong the inevitable for the DAR's fall. Being re-annexed into the United States is a given since the DAR would not even trade with America's adversaries. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 20, 2021 17:41:55 GMT
Since they're using Panda, have they considered the potential of another 'foreign' country, other than the U.S., hacking into the app for its own purposes? The leadership uses Panda because they know it is pretty damn secure. VP Padley, who was the US vice president, received a NSA report right before she left DC for the last time which said that it was uncrackable, whereas others on the market weren't. She didn't see the second report about it being suspected - as it is - an organ of the Chinese state intelligence service. US Intelligence is aghast at the DAR leadership using that service. They've broken in, not for long, to the service with the help of allies, and know that the Chinese are storing all messages: it isn't a service which does as advertised and deletes messages after a time nor as secure as advertised. So they know in DC that the Chinese see everything. The DAR is the envisioned "liberal's paradise" by the leftist-minded people in the West Coast. It is has those progressive SJW ideals that the right would consider as "woke". Take example that MAR is a Latina lesbian while her cabinet, the Council of Thirteen, is composed of diverse ethnicities with some being openly LGBTQ+. Pretty accurate summary. But there is someone aiming to take charge who might share those values in public but is the opposite in private. Socialist dictatorship might not have been the best term looking back at it, but I stand by a dictatorship as a possibility, especially after the scene we just read with Pierce. I can't see some veneer of soclalism and progressivism not being part of a Pierce "administration", although much less of the liberal paradise the DAR was initially envisioned to be. I think James G has written the DAR as having a large non-progressive population that doesn't agree with those progressive values (if I'm wrong on that James please correct me!). So there will be some conflict within a post-war DAR on that account alone, although I wouldn't see it devolving to a DAR civil war. What that might lead to is a massive population transfer. If the civil war ends with both countries still existing, and the DAR maintaining that vision, then I can't imagine there not being some level of immigration between the DAR and the US -- those who agree with that vision to the DAR, and those who disagree to the US -- by folks who want to live in an America that best fits their values. Of course there will be more conservative/less progressive people who remain in the DAR -- and more progressive/less conservative folks in the US -- for such reasons as family, jobs, property, etc. And jobs might be the biggest issue, especially if the DAR can attract and keep the highest-paying tech and green jobs and draw them away from the U.S.. Oh, yes, there is plenty of internal opposition: not just in the two Red states which they Shanghaied. There is the left anti-war people, centralists who do not agree with anything about the state and the war, and then far left terrorist groups too active before the DAR was set up. Right-wing militias are active too. The state has a lot of power and is using emergency decrees to combat them and can win any internal fight because the opposition is scattered, at each other's throats and cannot fight them on equal terms. Only a centralised dictatorship in the hands of someone ruthless will stop all of that too. Population transfers on a limited scale happened pre-war. People left the West and others went West: more so the former. The problem with further east-to-west movement is that the DAR economy has been trashed, especially in the tech sector. Nationwide, multi-national corporations moved their operations East. They looked at customer numbers, in America and worldwide, and abandoned the DAR. Even with peace, everyone forgetting all that happened, it would be a nightmare to get them back. That's one way to put it. The DAR is already suffering from infighting. Even if Pierce would succeed, it would just prolong the inevitable for the DAR's fall. Being re-annexed into the United States is a given since the DAR would not even trade with America's adversaries. Yeah, they are pretty f*cked out there in any survival scenario. But they are gonna keep trying. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 20, 2021 17:44:08 GMT
146 – Dealing with the devil
South Carolina’s positively awful junior senator, Jerry Stokes, had used the term ‘Mancunian Candidate’ to describe Anya Winterbottom when President Roberts used an executive order on Inauguration Day to appoint her to the post of CIA Director. The 49th President had side-stepped the usual nomination & confirmation process through the Senate with her and others. Stokes, who sat on the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, would have voted against her, so he told journalists afterwards. He used that term, a play on the name ‘Manchurian Candidate’, because Winterbottom was born in Britain – near Chester, a long way from Manchester in fact – and moved with her family to the United States while a toddler. To him, she wasn’t a real American. A nativist and a racist, Roberts and he had long been apart on so many issues despite both being Republican senators. No one was really surprised at what Stokes said though and his implication that she was a foreigner out to harm America was just wholly absurd. Nonetheless, he didn’t like her and he turned his initial criticism based on her place of birth into something else when Winterbottom continued in her role during President Mitchell’s leadership.
Stokes was joined by others in a more valid form of criticism against Winterbottom later on. She’d been promoted to the top of the CIA by presidential order (Roberts forced her predecessor out within hours of taking office) from her previous post of Deputy Director for CIA of Analysis: the old Intelligence Directorate. Part of her responsibility during the two years she was in that role had been for Winterbottom to oversee the activities of the CIA Crime & Narcotics Centre. That was an intelligence office, rather than any operations related set-up, where information on transnational criminal groups, drug smugglers especially, gained by CIA activities in other intelligence-related matters was meant to be gathered when collated & then passed on to the FBI, the DEA and others. The CIA had no tasking to act against them but to instead share anything which they gained with partner organisations within the US Intelligence Community. Winterbottom was called before the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence several times during February 2029 to answer questions about CIA activities ahead of the forming of the Democratic American Republic due to reports of foreign actions in seeing that occur. She denied that there had been any overseas influence in all of those Americans committing treason. While she was in office at presidential decree, like all such appointees, Winterbottom could have been removed if needed. Committee members, most of them anyway, weren’t minded to do that with the new CIA Director yet they couldn’t be ignored. Still, Winterbottom satisfied the majority of them that there was no foreign interference. However, during the hearings what the Crime & Narcotics Centre knew about Carrillo came up when in closed session.
Stokes and one of his Democratic colleagues (someone whom he was usually practically at war with on other matters) questioned Winterbottom extensively on the drug smuggler Carrillo. They forced it out of her that the CIA knew all about Carrillo, even his ties to Governor Pierce from California, and hadn’t shared that with anyone as they were supposed to. Carrillo was a source for other CIA intelligence efforts and so his status as a ‘respected and legitimate’ businessman wasn’t revealed when it should have been to the FBI and the DEA. Winterbottom defended what was done, arguing that information gained using his network with his cooperation saved many American lives in the fight against narco-terrorism. Assertions by Stokes that he was a CIA asset were denied by Winterbottom but those denials rang hallow. Almost the entire committee believed that he was an asset, one who had played the CIA for fools too. Instead of aiding the fight against terrorism, it looked to them that Carrillo had been expanding his illegal smuggling empire – drugs and people too – by getting the CIA to go after his enemies. CIA denials that he was never an asset appeared to be attempts to cover up the fact that they had done his dirty work for him. The follow-up attack line ran that if Winterbottom’s people had done as they were supposed to and have informed others what Carrillo really was, his alleged activities in being instrumental in the formation of the DAR would never have happened. Winterbottom disagreed but the senators wouldn’t be swayed. They ended up out for blood. Mitchell stood by her though. He wanted her to remain in post despite agreeing somewhat with what the Senate Intelligence Committee decided. Winterbottom wasn’t the only one who had messed up ahead of the secessionists acting as they did out West and he believed that the failing over Carrillo was bad but not enough to force her out of her post. Stokes continued to try though, making efforts to begin a possible impeachment against Winterbottom. He’d smelt blood and wouldn’t give up easy.
Winterbottom went to the White House in mid-March with Stephen Berman. That retired US senator had had that unexpected meeting with Carrillo down in Mexico and then gone to the CIA in El Paso (Crime & Narcotics Centre people) once he had successfully rescued his daughter. Mitchell had asked to meet him after hearing about all that had happened. He spoke with Berman, someone who’d had a one-on-one meeting with the man whom the CIA were calling ‘the Devil’ – they got that from the Mexicans: El diablo –, about the rescue and then what Carrillo had said plus handed over for Berman to give to the CIA. A feel for it all, from someone who had been there, was what Mitchell said he wanted. He received that. Berman and he weren’t cut of the same cloth politically. It had been Mitchell, then VP-elect who had back in January been at the forefront of putting the kibosh on Berman’s unofficial diplomatic effort to try and advert the Second American Civil War right before the fighting started. However they were both fathers, both against the DAR & anyone associated with it and the two of them had the same negative feelings on what Carrillo had had to say. The president was told by his guest not to deal with the devil.
Mitchell and the top of his administration were all united in opposition to Carrillo and his proposed deal which he had used Berman – his daughter in fact – as a conduit to deliver to the US Government. No one on the National Security Council wanted anything to do with it at all. They had no trust in Carrillo nor where what he had proposed ultimately came from. Meeting Berman only reinforced the president’s opinion on that.
The documents passed to the CIA through Berman had been supposedly secret DAR intelligence files on espionage efforts within the United States conducted to benefit the war effort for them. There were operational secrets and the identities of those involved. Winterbottom had told the president that while the information appeared genuine, and there might be some truth to it, she didn’t trust it overall. It would be misinformation. Among it there would be truths, useful intelligence to be gained, but overall it would be full of lies. When in the hands of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Defence Department too (components handed to each where it affected them), their chiefs agreed with the CIA on that. Admiral Miller declared that the overall intent was to have the US Intelligence Community chasing shadows where they sought to separate the wheat from the chaff. The true details would be used to mask the big lie. Mitchell understood that. He didn’t have a background in Intelligence but was experienced enough to see what the aim was overall. Winterbottom confirmed what he believed that beyond the misinformation and general deception, the intention behind that delivery of an intelligence bundle was for Carrillo to try and establish his bona files. He followed that up with what he said to Berman, aiming to establish credibility as someone who could be dealt with.
Carrillo had said he represented something called the ‘Peace Faction’ within the DAR. He had refused to say who the leading members were, those he said he spoke on behalf of, but had assured Berman that they were ‘people at the very top’. Apparently, there were members of the DAR leadership who wanted an end to the war with the United States. That end would see the DAR continue as a functioning nation and holding onto all territory which it held: that under the military control of the United States would be sought diplomatically but not fought for. There would be an end to the fighting, Carrillo had said those he spoke for could bring, where the DAR would cease military activities as long as the United States did the same. The Peace Faction would make such a compromise worthwhile for the Mitchell Administration too. They could end the effects of the Glow-worm computer virus which was crippling not just the United States’ ability to make war against the DAR but also the strategic defence of the United States too. There was a code key which would cease and then reverse all negative effects, purging the entire virus with rapid effect. Carrillo had said that that could be delivered once the fighting stopped and there was a public recognition from the United States of the DAR’s right to exist.
When Mitchell had heard that first, his immediate response had been to declare that he wasn’t a fool. SecDef Ferdinand had fallen for the DAR’s trick with Glow-worm, where they sent over a false defector to have the virus’ effects doubled-down by getting the United States to reinfect its computer systems, but that wouldn’t happen again. Mitchell had pushed Ferdinand out of his post not to then fall for the damn same thing himself with someone like Carrillo selling him a deal like that. Glow-worm aside, there was no way that the United States would stop trying to eliminate the DAR on the battlefield let alone recognise its existence and move past all of that treason! It just wasn’t something that Mitchell would do. Congress would never allow that and neither would the American people. There was no agreement to be made. Mitchell wouldn’t deal with the devil.
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Post by astrorangerbeans on Jun 21, 2021 11:59:54 GMT
Who will be the possible post-Second Civil War president of the United States? Will the conservative Bismarckian outlook led to Second Constitutional Convention and the eventual death of left-wing parties, given the rise of centrist parties in a possible manner?
In the following post-Civil War 2.0., I could see the decline of English-speaking social media platforms such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and others as the cultural dominance has shifted east with the TikTok, Gapo, or WhatsApp is going to become globally dominant and the prewar cultural openness towards sex will be thrown out in favor of moderate.
And as a person from 2070, the Second American Civil War was caused by these factors such as urban-rural divide, declining middle class, political polarization, outdated constitution, and decline of Christian religion in the face of the rising East which is China.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Jun 21, 2021 18:26:38 GMT
Who will be the possible post-Second Civil War president of the United States? Will the conservative Bismarckian outlook led to Second Constitutional Convention and the eventual death of left-wing parties, given the rise of centrist parties in a possible manner? In the following post-Civil War 2.0., I could see the decline of English-speaking social media platforms such as Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and others as the cultural dominance has shifted east with the TikTok, Gapo, or WhatsApp is going to become globally dominant and the prewar cultural openness towards sex will be thrown out in favor of moderate. And as a person from 2070, the Second American Civil War was caused by these factors such as urban-rural divide, declining middle class, political polarization, outdated constitution, and decline of Christian religion in the face of the rising East which is China. I am not so sure on that future outlook for America and the world to be honest. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Jun 21, 2021 18:29:58 GMT
147 – The Panda is cracked
The United States finally cracked the Panda messaging app.
They got in and stayed in too. It was no one time raid where they were able to gain a sneak peak but instead a full penetration. Access was gained to not just a snapshot of stored messages sent before: real-time access was maintained. For months, the CIA and the NSA, working with overseas allies in that, had been trying to achieve what came in the middle of March 2029. The Chinese state’s secure messaging and video calling app which they had marketed around the world as an independent commercial enterprise – with varying degrees of success – was no longer secure once the Americans were inside. The break-in was done on Chinese territory rather than from overseas. A lot of people put in a lot of work, with danger involved for many of them, yet most of the credit was due to Wu Fang. He was a Chinese national and one of the creators of the Panda (before marketing people gave it that name to appeal to customers outside of China) back when it first started. Most of those who had been involved at the beginning had moved on yet Wu was the last one left standing. The public face of the supposedly independent company behind the Panda, the entire service was in fact controlled by Guoanbu: the Ministry of State Security. Yet Wu had been retained and left deeply involved in the operations side of the service because of his apparent loyalty to both China and its government. Wu’s loyalty wasn’t what it was believed to be. It wasn’t to China nor anyone else. Money was what his heart was bound to.
To get Wu to work for them, the United States had to pay him a fortune. He was on paper worth a lot in China but that fortune was regarded by him as illusionary when Guoanbu had ultimate control over all that wealth instead. It was real money which he demanded and then received from the United States. There was so much of that. Once he had his hands on it, he kept his end of the bargain struck with the NSA and installed spyware direct into the servers of the Panda disguised as a patch-over for an earlier security breach. Information was pulled from the servers within China before being exported abroad. There was a lot of that too. The metadata which went out was quite extraordinary. Wu covered his tracks damn well because he had been there at the start of the service and so knew his way around better than anyone else. Nonetheless, he had to keep on his toes less he be caught. That money, courtesy of the American taxpayer, sitting in a numbered Swiss bank account would do him no good should he be detected. Wu was under no illusions about his fate, a fatal one, should he be caught. He knew he was living on borrowed time and the little voice in the back of his mind told him to make a run for it before his luck ran out… but he stayed. He could have gone and would have taken a lot for his spyware to be properly uncovered, then even more for it to be removed, yet he remained in China and kept on making sure that curious, suspicious eyes saw nothing which they could put their finger on. His handlers in Shanghai – CIA people: they and the NSA had an uncomfortable marriage of convenience when it came to Wu – assured him that he was safe as long as he took those precautions which he did. Wu was told he was mighty brave too. Their massaging of his ego went alongside Wu telling himself that he would soon depart from China. That day though was one which he kept putting off. He enjoyed the thrill of what he was getting away with there in Shanghai, of living on the edge in what many would actually think was suicidal behaviour considering the consequences.
Far away from where Wu risked it all, those on the other end who received the unfiltered product he sent out had to wade through tons of rubbish to get at the goodies. AI assistance helped a lot but what those working on all of the contents of the several years worth of stored messages and video calls had to still sift through a lot of non-pertinent data. Wu sent out everything and the smart computer search systems between the humans at the American end and the servers across in China couldn’t get rid of everything that wasn’t sought. There were far more popular apps than the Panda on the market. Worldwide, it ranked #24 and in America before the eruption of the fighting it was at #38. Still… the Panda had a lot of customers and they made great use of it. Users would send hundreds of messages a day at times from their phones and other personal devices. What the AI search ran for was both known users and keywords to locate what the CIA and the NSA wanted to find out. They were seeking the past stored messages of particular users and also focusing on the continued use by those customers. That didn’t mean that everything else from those not on the watchlist could be junked though. There was still plentiful intelligence out there from them with new names being added once those users were discovered to be worthy of having their messages searched and their activity monitored. On top of all of that, those users who had attracted the interest of those who cracked the Panda didn’t just discuss the ‘secret stuff’ among themselves. They talked about relationships, family, friends, feelings, gossip and the weather. Pictures were sent including a high number of self-nudes too. They would share memes and watch videos. Because the operation with having Wu what he did out there in China was something a while in the making – making contact with him, getting him onboard, setting up what he did etc. –, there was a system set up ready to go through all the data promised. Despite that, those on the receiving end were near overwhelmed with intelligence information flowing in.
All of that effort and the money spend were deemed worth it though. The ruling leadership of the Democratic American Republic, plus downwards through those on the various rungs of power out there in that secessionist illegal country, were prolific users of the service. They trusted it for the supposed security it provided. The Panda was believed by its users to be secure from hacking and with messages that weren’t stored by anyone to snoop on. Wu and the people with him who had created the app and been at the forefront of trying to get the whole world to use it had managed to make it rather sell-able. Politicians and retired Intelligence figures within the US as well as elsewhere outside of China had cautioned against the public putting their faith in a Chinese app but they hadn’t been able to overcome the marketing from the service provider that promised privacy. If China and the United States hadn’t fought that short, vicious conflict in January 2027, one which poisoned so much between the two countries, there had been a strong belief that the Panda would have been #1 in those usage rankings. When processing all of the metadata which Wu was sending out from his homeland, one which he had turned traitor against for cash rather than ideology, those reviewing it didn’t just gain a window into the world of those over in the DAR. The Panda was a global service. Search engines running for both the CIA and the NSA did more than only pick up intelligence on those who they had the greatest interest in due to the ongoing conflict with those who had committed treason against the United States. All sorts of interesting people had installed the same app. There were politicians, business people, criminals and terrorists alike. All of them had put their trust in the Panda, all of them had been deceived by China. In Europe and Africa especially, there were more users than had first been believed. It was the same too though in the United States outside of DAR territory. Twice the officially estimated numbers of users were within that region. There were a big shared secret among those people: they and their select friends used the app while they denied to outsiders that they didn’t. It would have made for an interesting psychological study… but those who were aware of those numbers weren’t interested in that. Only a certain number of users, particular people, had their usage analysed and secrets investigated. The others were just chaff.
A few allies, particularly the Five Eyes partners who had done so much groundwork with the Panda early on, were brought into the loop where interests aligned with overseas users. The Australians, British, Canadians and New Zealanders received high-grade intelligence with thanks sent and promises of later reciprocity. Intelligence passed onto the French, the Indians, the Israelis and the Saudis were disguised as to its source yet with assurances sent that it was both accurate and there was more to come too. All of that aside, what was really important for the CIA and the NSA was that they were ‘reading the mail’ of those at the top out in the DAR. The Panda had been cracked and those who had had all of that misplaced trust in it had no idea of that massive breach of their apparent privacy.
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sandyman
Petty Officer 1st Class
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Post by sandyman on Jun 22, 2021 11:14:07 GMT
I have been thinking about the computer virus a lot which is a first to me as I normally thing about work lol.
Would it be possible for the NSA to get its hands on a crashed DAR fighter be it F35 or F16 if the brain had survived would it not be possible to either clone it and up load the the code to several test aircraft to be flow by volunteers to see if it worked. Or have computer geeks go through each and every line of code to find out how or what is making them safe from the Virus.
I am sure that some where I’d have seen that US planes sold to allies are not affected by the Virus could their brains be cloned and used?
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