{"id":66593,"date":"2021-04-07T16:41:20","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T21:41:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66593"},"modified":"2021-04-07T16:41:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T21:41:20","slug":"66593","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=66593","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Everybody Here Hates the Media, and Everybody Owns a Gun<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been writing a series for\u00a0The Stream<\/em>\u00a0on the 2018 political hit job that tried to destroy me. No such retelling of that dark time would be complete without recalling the role played by my buddy \u201cRick.\u201d<\/p>\n

To recap: On September 16 2018, the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>published a profile of\u00a0Christine Blasey Ford<\/a>. She claimed that\u00a0Brett Kavanaugh<\/a>\u00a0had sexually assaulted her when the two were in high school in 1982. She said that I was in the room where the assault allegedly took place. The allegation roiled the nation.<\/p>\n

The media mostly acted as if they were Ford\u2019s hired publicists. She leaned, in turn, on\u00a0an opposition researcher<\/a>\u00a0named\u00a0Keith Koegler<\/a>. According to\u00a0The Education of Brett Kavanaugh<\/em>, Koegler had<\/p>\n

spent many hours that summer poring over news coverage of the nomination process, biographical information about Kavanaugh, and writings and videos produced by Mark Judge. In combing through YouTube, articles, and social networks, Koegler had learned more about the house parties \u2026 and the lexicon of 1980s Georgetown Prep than he had ever thought he would care to know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will recount this entire Salem witch-trial nightmare in\u00a0a book I\u2019m writing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My Watchmen on the Walls<\/h4>\n

At the time, most people were too terrified to speak with me. I didn\u2019t blame them. Friends and family had their hands full trying to dodge reporters, who were showing up at their houses. Just a couple of guys stood behind me and didn\u2019t waver. One of them, Fletch,\u00a0I\u2019ve written about before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The other was Rick. I\u2019ve known Rick since we were kids. Our parents were close friends and our families lived just a couple of miles apart in the same Maryland suburb. Rick was into vintage cars, Van Halen, swim club and girls. He eventually would become a bartender, work he loves and is very good at.<\/p>\n

Rick is a working class guy with a salty mouth, street smart and very funny. He attended an all-boys military high school that he says cemented his habits for life. Rick calls himself \u201cSergeant Hulka,\u201d after the drill instructor in the\u00a0Bill Murray<\/a>\u00a0classic\u00a0Stripes.<\/em>\u00a0Rick owns a vintage Corvette and vintage Camaro, cars he drives to a vintage car show every year in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where his mom owns a house a couple blocks off of the water.<\/p>\n

Our Dying Moms<\/h4>\n

Several years ago, both my mother and Rick\u2019s mother began needing elder care. My mom went into a memory care facility near where Rick\u2019s mom lived. Rick proposed that I move in with his mom. That way I could help him take care of her and also be close enough to watch out for my own mom. I jumped at this opportunity.<\/p>\n

Rick and I became like brothers. He would appear in my room after he got off work and jokingly announce a \u201cLOCKERBOX INSPECTION!\u201d (I\u2019m sloppy and absent-minded.) As \u201cSgt. Hulka,\u201d Rick was there to \u201cGET THIS PLACE IN ORDER!\u201d We\u2019d laugh about or old close brushes with the law (speeding on minibikes, firecrackers, etc.). Then talk for hours about the journey of ushering our mothers through their final years (we knew they were dying). We leaned on each other emotionally and spiritually.<\/p>\n

Grilling 89-Year-Olds in Their Homes<\/h4>\n

This was my situation when Christine Blasey Ford and her pack of trained journalists began hunting me in September 2018. One of the prospects that appalled me was that Rick and his family might get drawn into the nonsense. My fears were confirmed when he and I came home one night. A\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0reporter had appeared at the front door and talked her way into the house. Then she went on to interrogate Rick\u2019s 89-year-old mother about what I was like in high school. No exaggeration: reporters are sociopaths.<\/p>\n

Rick was livid. Not at me, but at the media. Soon reporters were also blowing up his phone. As I said, Rick has a sailor\u2019s mouth. He\u2019d spent twenty years dealing with rowdy drunks in bars. You can imagine these reporters each got an earful.<\/p>\n

To convey Rick\u2019s interactions with the media on this Christian website it\u2019s probably necessary to use euphemisms. For each time Rick used a profanity that suggested the target do something anatomically impossible, I\u2019ll use the phrase \u201ctomato juice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick\u2019s encounters with reporters usually went like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Rick, this is Andrew Sleazoid from the\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0<\/em><\/a>\u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTomato juice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand you have known Mark Judge your entire life \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI got nothin\u2019 to say to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you just let me help you understand why you should \u2026 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTomato juice!!!\u201d Click.<\/p>\n

Some Loser with a Ponytail and a Notebook<\/h4>\n

Then a reporter from the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0made the mistake of showing up at Rick\u2019s house. Not his mother\u2019s house, where I was staying, but the rural Virginia house where Rick lives with his wife and dogs.<\/p>\n

Rick was bartending at the moment, but a neighbor tipped him off that some loser with a ponytail and a notebook was snooping around. Rick suggested the neighbor advise the reporter to \u2026 tomato juice.<\/p>\n

Then Rick\u2019s phone rang. It was the\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0reporter. \u201cI just have two thing to say to you,\u201d Rick said. \u201cEverybody on my street hates the media, and everybody on my street owns a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point the reporter saw the neighbor approaching. Being a member of the media he had probably never seen a genuine firearm before. He beat a quick retreat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI Just Need You to Trust Me.\u201d<\/h4>\n

I went to the bar where Rick works and told him I needed to hang out by the beach for a couple days just to try and not get killed by politicians and the media. I was planning on a motel. Rick reached into his pocket and produced a key to his mother\u2019s beach house. I couldn\u2019t believe his generosity.<\/p>\n

In a lot of movies there\u2019s a scene where the protagonist is almost out of options. He goes to an old friend and says to them, \u201cI can\u2019t really get you involved in this. I just need you to trust me. I need a car and a place to stay for a few days.\u201d The friend replies, \u201cYou need a few bucks with that?\u201d That\u2019s the kind of guy Rick is. The kind of guy our\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0hate and fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everybody Here Hates the Media, and Everybody Owns a Gun I\u2019ve been writing a series for\u00a0The Stream\u00a0on the 2018 political hit job that tried to destroy me. No such retelling of that dark time would be complete without recalling the role played by my buddy \u201cRick.\u201d To recap: On September 16 2018, the\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0published a … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enemies-foreign-domestic","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66594,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66593\/revisions\/66594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}