No Coincidence

You do know how powerful Google is, don't you?

(Written on January 9th, 2021: I have had many incidents in my life I call Transformative Moments. I have written about them in my books. I had one on January 6th 2021, a day that will live in infamy.)

When I got up in the morning I was feeling anxious because I knew it was going to be a momentous day. I said to my wife Cathy, "today is going to be a major event. I want to watch the events unfold on TV. It may rival 9/11!"

The President had called for his supporters to come to Liberty Park for a rally to put pressure on Congress to initiate a formal election investigation before they certified the 2020 electoral college vote. Because it was so obvious the election was corrupted, the response was enormous and people were traveling from all over the country. Several of my friends had bought airline tickets and were going to march in support. I anticipated a million people might show up.

It never occurred to me that violence would erupt.

Cathy and I were actively looking for a replacement for our worn out sofa. By 10 AM Cathy found one on Facebook Marketplace that was just put up and looked perfect for our needs. She wanted to jump on it. At that point in the Capitol Chambers the Arizona House Representative offered an objection and it got a second from their own Congressman, so VP Mike Pence referred the Arizona congregation to begin a conference that would last a maximum allowable two hours. I said to Cathy, "They will be in conference for two hours, and nothing much is going to happen until then", so off we went to do the sofa deal.

The sofa seller offered to deliver and install it, so we came home and started packing up our old sofa. As I turned on the TV, guns were drawn on protesters that had breached security and were breaking into the Capitol chambers! Within minutes the sofa arrived in the back of an enormous Ford F-250 4X4. I was breathlessly watching as Cathy and the sofa seller and her extra-buff husband wrestled the sofa sections into place.

Then a protester fell to the floor in the hallway of the Capitol Building. People were screaming it was a woman and she had been shot!

Next thing I knew the sofa seller's wife stood next to me. She had tattoos up and down her legs and arms, and a blue streak in her long hair. We both stared at the TV, moaning "This is bad!"

Then we looked directly at each other and she said "Are you on the right or on the left?"

I had to think for a second, wondering if she might be angry with the protesters and consider anyone that supported them to be a threat to America. But I decided, I am proud to be a conservative, to be questioning the events of November and now early January. I wasn't going to be intimidated. So I said matter of factly, " I am very much on the right!"

She smiled, raised her fist and we fist bumped! I was thrilled I had patriots witnessing this momentous moment right along with me.

At one point I asked what she and her husband did. She said he was a cyber security expert in the United States Department of Defense!

Are you kidding me?

I have a computer cyber-security pro that works for the DOD standing in my living room as we watched the assault on the Capitol Building chambers! How bizarre is that?

Then we turned our attention back to the unraveling scene on the Capitol Building steps. It was quickly turning into chaos.

Meantime my wife and the sofa seller were feverishly redecorating my living room. Her husband was amazing. He had removed and then replaced our sliding glass doors to fit the huge sectional into my house. He moved all four sections of my old sofa into our utility room. He was sweating profusely.

As they packed up to leave and I thanked her husband for his service, I begged him to comment on what was happening. I said "I know what you do is pretty sensitive, but can you tell me something? For months we have been hearing that our military intelligence, and even some foreign countries intelligence agencies, have been fully aware that the election was corrupted. Is that true?"

"Oh yeah, they knew all about it, sir."

"Then where the hell are they? It seems to me that they are partly to blame for this debacle because people are so pissed! It looks like the biggest political crime in history and nobody is getting held accountable!"

He looked at me and said dismissively, "You do know how powerful Google is, don't you?"

"I do, actually."

"There is a lot of concern that a shooting war could break out because the billionaire owners of all of the communication hardware, software and cyber security systems are pretty much in charge of everything. "January 20th", he said, "may be the start of an all out shooting war. If you aren't well armed, you should be!"

I was shell shocked. What am I to think about that? He went on to explain that they were selling their sofa because they were moving out of town. He said he wanted to get away from the urban core for fear that there might be a civil war coming. His Homeland Security job allowed him to work remotely, so they were getting out now. He mentioned he was going to mount a marksman's nest on his roof, at his new home in Ramona.

I walked him out to the truck, shook his hand and hugged his wife. "You are true patriots! I appreciate what you do!"

Not until a few hours later did it sink in what an amazing situation it was for me to cross paths with this couple that are so intimately involved in the science of cyber warfare at such a transformational moment in modern American history.

A coincidence? I don't think so...