Stolen Liberties & Echoes of Freedom: Chapter 6 page 3

Beth asked Ben again, “What about Bitcoin? What the hell does all that have to do with integrity and your news site?”

Ben took a sip of a drink on a table next to the sofa, then put it down and said, “Well, do you remember the story about that guy who bought Bitcoin years ago when it was really low, and then he threw his computer out with the keys to the account? Today it’s worth like 500 million or more, I think.”

Luke said, “Yeah, I heard he was suing the town to excavate the trash to get to it. That would be one treasure find for sure.”

Ben said, “Well, we had a big discussion one day at Whatfinger about it all in relation to what we did when faced with a small dilemma. Basically, one of the guys asked what we would do knowing this guy was looking for it, and now hundreds have scaled the fences at the dump and were digging for it. So, we asked what we would do if we found it. Pat and I had a serious chat about it. I told him I would voluntarily give it to the owner, and Pat agreed. A few others said we were nuts and that they would keep it and be rich. But Pat and I both held that it wasn’t our money. To get it like that wasn’t right since the man was looking for it, and we all knew about it only because he was in distress and talking about it. Which means it was his. So, if we found it, we would give it to him with no expectations.”

Lisa and Beth looked at each other as if trying to see what the other was thinking. Beth said, “But that money could be put to great use, no?”

Ben said, “It can, by the owner. I mean, if the owner were cool and wanted to throw us a bone, then we’d accept it and then give that away as well. But the computer was his, the Bitcoin his. That’s integrity. Taking it is theft. That kind of thing eats at a human’s heart, knowing we did wrong. The reason we spoke about it all was that some in our volunteer office at Whatfinger wanted us all to do something that was dishonorable, like Citizen’s Freeper Press was doing, in order to make it big. We chose not to once we understood what it was.”

Lisa said, “What was that?”

Ben said, “Well, Whatfinger News was the number two aggregator after Drudge at one point. Even Steve Bannon on War Room spoke of us, but then a low-integrity person came into the fray named Candy Cane. He ran Citizen’s Freeper Press and still runs it, still playing the same scam on War Room, Charlie Kirk, and Real America’s Voice to this day. You see, we all knew that Drudge was running a scam for traffic and used it to get famous. He basically had his website reload every 60 to 90 seconds. What a reader would see is the screen would jump. It was so annoying, but it gave him hundreds of millions of fake pageviews, which he then used to scam media by saying, ‘Look how big I am; I did a billion page views…’ Well, the scam worked, media picked it up, and ran stories telling how great The Drudge Report was. The scam then became reality as the free publicity transformed into real traffic. The lie still persists even to this day.

How we figured it out is that the fourth-largest aggregator was a tiny site called CFP, or Citizen’s Freeper Press.  They saw the low-moral way as the way to scam their way to the top. We watched them do it month after month, and the scam worked. Even to this day, he reloads his site every 90 seconds, giving him hundreds of millions of pageviews. So he then played a scam game of contacting Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon, telling them how big his site was. He did the same with the National Pulse’s editor, I forgot his name, but he used to cohost War Room with Bannon. Anyway, all the free publicity he got weekly resulted in his site doing the Drudge route—low integrity, low morals. We said at the time, ‘Let’s see what happens if we do it,’ so we did for a few weeks and were on pace for a 60 million page view bonanza. Blowing away Citizen’s Freeper Press since we were still much larger.”

Beth asked, “So why didn’t you say anything?” As she spoke, they could hear Pat at the table speaking softly to some of his people. They each trained one ear on Pat and the other on Ben.

Ben continued, “I think Sgt. A did. He has a loudmouth, and it pissed him off. No patience in him at all. National Pulse had our widget on all of their pages at the time, and he had an email exchange with him on it. That email exchange scared Candy Cane so much that he emailed us as we played stupid with him to see if he would admit his scam. He didn’t, but it was obvious he was scared we would out him.”

Beth said, “So he faked it until he made it, scamming Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, and all of Real America’s Voice with fake traffic, so they all put him on their shows in call-ins so he could tout his crappy site over and over and get real traffic. It’s evil, but it is smart. In a scheming, smart type of way, I guess.”

Ben spoke up, his tone steady. “Well, since we were much larger than Candy Cane, we could have kept doing it. But we chose not to—because it was fake, and lying to the public isn’t something we wanted to do. Over the next few years, Candy Cane got free publicity with his Drudge traffic scam. It still goes on to this day, and he even lies right to Steve Bannon’s and Charlie Kirk’s faces to keep it going. He plays Bannon and War Room for fools, and it’s so obvious. But we—well, we have integrity. We know our site is far superior, and getting ahead without actually earning it feels low to us. Integrity matters, for us, for the FBI, and for our souls. We can sleep at night knowing we’re not part of that scam.

“Sure, CFP is bigger now thanks to that con—thanks to Candy Cane fooling people like Steve Bannon, whom we love, and Charlie Kirk, and everyone else. But deep down, he knows that anyone could pull that scam. Those of us who choose not to have far more integrity than he ever will. One day, Steve Bannon will see through the con and start talking about other sites again, like Whatfinger—since we are superior in every way. I hate to sound so braggadocious, as Trump would say, but it’s true.”

Lisa spoke up, her expression thoughtful. “So, FBI agents who are just following orders have low morals and low integrity, no matter how honorable they once were. I get it.”

Ben nodded, his face hardening. “More importantly, this isn’t Nazi Germany. We’re years into this coup here in the U.S., and this is happening in real time. The FBI knows what’s up. For the few whistleblowers who have come forward to tell of the leftist rot now infesting the agency—we salute them. They’re the true heroes in that organization. But the rest are just Nazis following orders.” He paused, his voice growing heavier. “Now that the Democrats have stolen a second election, their evil is out in the open for everyone to see. Nobody buys what they’re selling anymore—destroying our nation from open borders to rising crime to bankrupting us in hopes of their so-called ‘Global Marxist Reset.’ We fight, and if needed, we die, to save our freedom.”

Beth and Lisa locked eyes for a moment, a silent understanding passing between them. “You guys are all about integrity and honor,” Beth said, her voice steady. “I love that about our group.”

As she spoke, Pat wrapped up his phone call, jotting down a few notes before joining them on the sofa.

Pat walked over, catching the end of the conversation. “What did I miss? I heard something about Candy Cane?” he asked with a wry smile.

Ben shook his head, chuckling. “Yeah, I was just telling them how we kept our integrity while Candy scammed his way into free ads for years, getting RAV and War Room to talk to him and boost his site every week.”

Pat nodded knowingly. “Yeah… like a drug dealer bragging about being rich.” He paused, letting the weight of his words settle in. “The dealer might have the Ferrari, the big houses, all the flashy stuff, but people die for his toys and lies. Better to own a small shop and do business the right way.” He looked around at everyone, making sure his point was clear. “Kids today only see the money and think, ‘Wow, that guy’s successful.’ But living a lie isn’t success. Every time that man talks about his traffic he knows he is scamming. Everyone does except those he is scamming.”

Luke spoke up, his eyes lighting up with recognition. “Hey, that reminds me of that great Twilight Zone episode on integrity and honor. Things always balance out, you know? You guys remember it—the one where a mysterious man offers a couple a box with a button, telling them if they press it, they’ll get a huge sum of money, but someone they don’t know will die.” He leaned forward, his tone thoughtful. “The moral tension builds as the couple wrestles with whether to press the button, knowing that someone else will pay the price for their gain. And then, after they press it, the man comes back, gives them the money, and says that the box will be given to someone who doesn’t know them.” Luke paused, letting the weight of the story sink in. “It leaves the couple—and us—wondering if they might be next, facing the consequences of their own choices.”

Pat nodded, his expression somber. “Every drug dealer suffers in the end. Every ‘Candy Cane’ loses, one way or another. Every scammer learns that God can’t be fooled. They might profit in the short term through lies and crime, but integrity is what matters. Honor is what matters. We do what’s right, always. And we never back down. When they stole 2020, they knew that we knew and yet they still had their media lie constantly, making us all sick in the realization at how far into dictatorship America truly was.”

“I got word from Donny in Tennessee,” Pat said, his voice a mix of frustration and urgency. “The Feds are making moves on militia groups and hunting clubs—those fools who couldn’t stay off their damn cell phones. We all warned them, over and over, that their cell phones were just electronic leashes. Now they’re paying the price.” He gave Beth a knowing look, as if sharing the burden of watching people ignore common sense.

“They hit one of our units,” Pat continued, his jaw tightening, “but eight of their agents went down too. It’ll be on the news tonight—well, their version of it anyway. If we had a free press, it would already be all over the place, but they’ll wait, spin their fake narrative, and make all militias the bad guys. They’ll blow it up big time. But it’s started now, and there’s no way to stop it.” He paused, his gaze distant for a moment, then shifted, grounding himself back in the urgency of the moment.

“Ben and I are driving to D.C. for the rally,” he said, glancing at Luke, his expression serious but tinged with something softer, almost protective. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. Luke, I need you to stay here with the ladies—hold down the fort with Zach and the others. And please, no more talk about websites, traffic, or ‘Candy Cane’ nonsense. We’re all in this together now. If Candy Cane were here, I’d hand him a rifle. He might not be much use with it, but he’s still one of us. We’ve got to stay focused—freedom and survival come first.” His voice grew quieter, a hint of resignation creeping in. “All the news websites will be taken down soon anyway, you know that. Watch—I’ll bet even X goes dark in a matter of days. Musk’s gone underground with Trump; it’s only a matter of time. And that means more for freedom than anything our little Whatfinger News could do.”

Ben nodded, already prepared for what was coming. “Sounds like a plan. When are we leaving?”

Pat said firmly, “Now. Get your bags.”

Beth’s eyes widened, a flash of worry crossing her face. “Do you have to leave now? Why not tomorrow?”

Pat shook his head. “It’s a long drive—takes at least twelve hours from here. We need to be in D.C. before the crowds start flooding in.”

Beth’s composure slipped, and her voice wavered. “Can I talk to you first? In private?”

Pat softened, nodding. “Of course, hon. Let’s go in the bedroom.”

As they stepped away, Lisa and Luke exchanged knowing glances, their expressions quietly mirroring a mutual understanding. But Ben, oblivious, couldn’t resist stirring the pot. He leaned toward Lisa with a playful smirk. “Beth’s almost as good as me with a rifle. Even if she were nine months pregnant, I’d bet she could outshoot 99% of folks out there.”

Lisa’s mouth dropped open slightly, caught off guard. Luke’s eyes widened, barely masking his surprise, confirming what Ben suspected. After all these years, the smallest hints rarely went unnoticed. Among close friends, wisdom didn’t always come from words; it was often about reading between them.

Ben chuckled, glancing at them both. “Funny how the strongest truths are the ones we already know, even if no one’s said a word.” He shrugged. “We’ve all known each other too damn long to hide anything.”

Lisa leaned back, her eyes softening as she looked toward the closed bedroom door. “Years like ours? You don’t need to say it out loud for it to be understood.”

Luke nodded, a half-smile breaking through. “And no matter what we face,” he added, “we’ve got each other’s backs. Through every twist, every turn.”

Ben looked between them, his smile fading as he glanced at the bedroom door. “Even when the stakes are this high,” he murmured, “some truths don’t need to be spoken to be known.”

Just then, Pat and Beth re-entered the room. Beth’s face held a resolve that hadn’t been there before. She met each of their eyes, one by one, and they all understood without a single word. They were in this together, for better or for worse, through whispered secrets and unbreakable bonds. In the end, life is what matters most, and freedom. The Democrats are moving to take it all from us and we knew we must all sacrifice to make sure our children and grandchildren do not grow up in fear and under the yoke of a one-party dictatorship.

Next Chapter – 7

Chapter Links

Chapter 1 page 1
Chapter 1 Page 2
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6 page 1
Chater 6 page 2
Chapter 6 page 3
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9 page 1
Chapter 9 page 2
Chapter 10

Hey, Sgt. K here—also known as CK Sheldon. I’ve got one book published on Amazon as part of a trilogy, though only the first is currently available due to editing challenges. I’m working on bringing the other two books back, using ChatGPT to refine them, and I’ll likely add this new book there, too, if there’s interest. Since this isn’t about profit for me, you can always read it here on Whatfinger News for free, complete with the original links.

For anyone interested, my Amazon book is Allfather Saga. Fair warning: it’s a mix of science fiction, politics, and a bit of mature content. And yes, Trump makes an appearance in Book 3, though the story is set far into the future.

Untraceable phone – you need to see this Glenn Beck Vid with Erik Prince – See You Have a TRACKER in Your Pocket Sending Data to the Deep State – might be the MOST important vid you see this year – might save your life folks – your kids too – you’ll get it and the details will freak you out. It did me. …  Sgt Pat
https://unplugged.com/ is Prince’s company.