Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 271 Good Luck to Those Cubans
David Kennedy leaned back on the sofa in the living room of this South District holiday villa, took a sip of brandy, and then looked at Tommy. The young man was holding a mobile phone in his hand, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, admiring the night sea view of Miami, and talking to his family with a smile on his face. There were two calls, one to his home and the other to his fiancee's home. During the call, he was concerned about his father's health and reminded him to go to the hospital He was concerned about his sister's studies and learned about her grades. He could even chat with his future mother-in-law about her recent travel for more than ten minutes with relish, discussing why in Finland, a country where all the people are indifferent and introverted, Santa Claus, an image that does not conform to the Finnish character, was born.
He even cared about whether his two adopted dogs were depressed. He was an impeccable American young man who loved his family.
Not to mention his future mother-in-law on the other end of the phone, David Kennedy felt that if the footage of Tommy making the call was recorded and broadcast on TV, many American mothers with daughters might consider this handsome, self-disciplined, family-caring, sunny, kind, and humorous young man as their criterion for selecting a son-in-law.
As his mother-in-law, she might be willing to give him her holiday villa for him to stay temporarily. Yes, this villa is the property under the name of Tommy's fiancée's mother-in-law. When she learned from her daughter that Tommy came to Miami for vacation, she called and asked Tommy to move in. She also thoughtfully gave the previous servants a long vacation so that Tommy could hire temporary servants to serve him and avoid her old servants from seeing some scenes that they should not see.
After Tommy finished chatting with his mother-in-law and hung up the phone, he returned the phone to Paige, then he straightened his shirt cuffs and sat back across from David Kennedy. He poured himself a glass of wine and explained, "Talking to my family once a week is a habit I've kept for a long time. It's definitely not meant to disrespect anyone."
"I understand that only by respecting your family can you respect everyone." David Kennedy adjusted his sitting posture after stretching his waist, which was a little sore from sitting. "This is a good habit. If you can't even appease the emotions of your family, it's even more impossible to appease the easily angry American people. I have always felt that a good politician must first be an expert in solving various family problems."
Tommy raised his glass and clinked it with the other man's. "When it comes to solving family problems, you must be the best. Bill told me that if he had half of your ability to solve family problems, he wouldn't have quarreled with Diane so often."
David smiled proudly and did not deny that his two ex-wives and current wife lived in peace and all acted according to his wishes. When his scandal broke out, his three wives and their families appeared in front of the media cameras to show the public their support and trust in him, which was certainly a display of ability and charm.
If it weren't for that damn scandal, according to normal development, he would have ended his ambassadorial work and entered the Senate long ago. His name should have been on the list of Democratic candidates in last year's presidential election. Unfortunately, there is no if. He lost his political life and the opportunity to lead the most powerful country in the world. Now he only has this city left, and he cannot lead it openly in his own name.
Noticing a slight change in David's expression, Tommy took a sip of wine and said, "Politics is really dangerous. If you are not careful, years of hard work will be wasted in an instant."
"Perhaps I can take this as your dissatisfaction with Rona?" David smiled at Tommy, and the sighs disappeared. He came here today because the election has entered the second half, and Tommy is a little dissatisfied with his procrastination.
Tommy looked at the drink in the glass for a long time before looking at David Kennedy. "I understand you very well, or rather Rona's reaction. After all, you suffered misfortune in the past, and your political career was ruined by reporters and police. So when you encounter such a situation, it is natural to hesitate and be cautious. But there is a problem. If I can handle it from beginning to end, David, I can give Jeff's seat to Rona or to someone else. What do you think?"
David Kennedy stared at Tommy with his sunken grey-blue eyes without opening his mouth to respond. Of course Tommy could speak in a relaxed tone, because even if Jeff lost, it would not affect the young man at all. This was just a game he played during his vacation.
But if he or Rona were caught, the only remaining city would probably be lost, and then he would be left with nothing.
"You know what? Tommy, I've always wondered why Stephen and Bill... value you." After a long while, David spoke up, but abruptly asked another question: "I tried to understand your information, but found that you seemed to have founded two TV networks, produced and sold a software before, and were an investor in some technology companies. There didn't seem to be any very conspicuous information. I'm not saying that you are worthy of attention now, but... I understand politics and the importance of politicians. You just donate money and never participate in many political discussions. It seems that you have no other influence except for TV media opinion. At most, you are another Turner, but do Democrats respect Turner? No, but you are different. Why?"
David Kenneth hesitated for a long time, and finally asked this question. The election has now officially entered the stage of the two-party fight. The Democratic Party has been torn apart with the help of Jeff Rush before it even started to fight with the Republican Party. All media are optimistic about the united Republican Party because the primary election is over. Ileana Lighty was elected as the only Republican candidate with 87% support within the party. She will represent the Republican Party in the 18th District. While she has won a lot of support from Cubans in the district, other black Republican candidates are trying their best to win the support of black people in the district. Many die-hard supporters of the Democratic black candidate Gerald Richman have switched to the Republican camp and supported Ileana Lighty because of the news broadcast by BT TV. Because the other party said in the primary debate that they would not distinguish between Cubans and blacks, and they are all people of color and need to fight for their rights.
President Bush flew in specially to support Ileana Letty. Newspapers across the country were optimistic about her election, which would help the Republican Party win another seat in Congress. The Democratic Party was already powerless to turn the tide.
All of this was planned by David Kennedy and Tommy, and everything went according to plan. It looked like the Democratic Party was torn apart because it had not yet planned internally how to divide the political legacy left by former Congressman Claude Pepper. The party was unable to reach a unified idea, and even the candidates' slogans were in conflict. Everything was a hasty and disorganized farce. As a result, both sides had Cuban-American candidates, but because of the poor performance of the Democratic Party's Rona, many Cubans switched their support to the Republican Ileana Letty.
But the farce ended there. According to the agreement between him and Tommy, Tommy was responsible for getting Jeff to push the Cuban Americans to the Republican Party. After that, David Kennedy or his ex-wife Rona would be responsible for taking action to shatter the other party's Cuban American dream of being elected.
Of course David Kennedy had made plans long ago, but the problem was that if the truth got out, he and his three wives' families might not be able to stay in Miami anymore. Although the chance of it getting out was very low, the chance of him being caught was equally low back then, so he had some concerns. Moreover, once he really made the plans, it would mean that Tommy would hold his or his ex-wife Rona's balls, if Rona had balls.
The only way to alleviate concerns is to find out why Tommy is respected by many members of the Democratic Party. He understands the donors. Donors like Tommy who make a lot of money and do little work are of course liked by people, but what Bill Clinton and his wife show to Tommy is not just liking, but a respect that goes far beyond liking.
The kind of love that everyone has for Stephen Bean is that they send each other greeting cards on every important holiday, invite each other to any party, and talk about everything, whether good or bad.
But they treated Tommy with respect. Bill wrote a handwritten invitation, but Diane rejected it directly. Then he flew to Miami in person and asked Tommy's fiancée to invite Tommy and apologized in person. Most importantly, after the couple flew to Miami, the first thing they did was to ask himself and Rona if it was possible to get Rona to support Jeff Rush, who Tommy favored.
Before asking this question, they didn't even know that Jeff Rush was a fool who believed in the flat earth theory. Just because Tommy Hawke was optimistic about him, he was going to persuade Rona, the former deputy mayor of Miami, to give up his candidacy and fully support a genuine Floridian white fool.
If Tommy Hawke just had money, he would never have been treated like this.
Tommy scratched his forehead with his fingers, then smiled calmly, "Nothing, this is not a story that needs to be concealed, it's just that other parts of my life are not as high-profile as the TV network makes it look. Many people say that because of my friendship with Stephen, he influenced me and introduced many of his friends in the Democratic Party to me, and I naturally became their supporter. This is wrong. For example, Stephen slept with a high-class girl, and he thought this woman was good, so he introduced her to me. Of course, I can't just give her four hundred dollars just because Stephen slept with her. The most basic thing is that I have to put on Trojan and try it myself before making a decision. In the end, I will give the other party a tip, or let Stephen take that piece of shit out of my sight."
"From what you said, it can be seen that no matter whether they are old sponsors or young and strong sponsors, their evaluation of politicians is consistently profound. Can't they respect the high-class lady sitting opposite you?" David said with a smile when he heard Tommy compare politicians to high-class ladies.
Tommy put down his glass and lit up his cigarette. "My first political donation was in 1984. I was still studying at Stanford at the time. The recipient of the donation was Al Gore, the Democratic candidate for the Senate. He was a member of the SSD fraternity at Vanderbilt University. I have to say that guy really attracted me at the time. He was young, handsome, and tough. He inherited his father's career at the age of 27 and became a member of the House of Representatives. He became a senator at the age of 33. He was definitely a future candidate for the US president. In addition, his slogans at the time, such as opposing homosexuality, opposing the federal government's use of money to help black people get abortions, opposing the ban on interstate gun sales, and advocating federal government support for the development of the computer communications industry, attracted me more than real high-class girls. High-class girls could only take 400 yuan from me for sleeping with me, but I had never even met him in person, so I asked my secretary to send him 100,000 yuan, and then more and more... My donation journey began like this."
"Al Gore? A moderate in the party who leans towards the conservative side." David muttered the name. That guy was definitely a rising star in the Democratic Party, as young and dazzling as Bill. He was criticized many times as a typical hypocritical white racist because Gore responded excitedly to Congress's decision to make Martin Luther King's birthday a legal holiday in the United States. When facing an interview with reporters, he sanctimoniously stated that this was a great victory. This legal holiday will continue to remind all future Americans that racial equality is very important and what contributions Martin Luther King has made to this country.
But he can also cast an indifferent vote against the "abortion neutrality" proposal, which actually helps black women at the bottom of society. When asked by reporters why he opposes abortion, he cunningly said that he is not against abortion, but is against the government paying for a private matter such as abortion. He cannot understand why the government has to subsidize childbirth benefits for women to give birth, and now even women who have abortions or refuse to have children have to subsidize the surgery fees. This proposal is an insult to American women. American women are independent and will certainly not want to be ridiculed for relying on men to have children and relying on the government if they don't.
There are also private rumors that Gore said that black women should not be allowed to have abortions because if a war breaks out in the future, those young people who were raised with government subsidies would be the best soldiers.
In short, on the surface black people can get all the respect and equal treatment from him, but in reality black people can't even think of taking any real benefits from him.
Moreover, his resume is more convincing than many other senators from aristocratic families. For example, a reporter has investigated and found that among the hundreds of so-called heirs of political families and students from prestigious universities who served in the Vietnam War, only a dozen actually went to serve in the Vietnam battlefield. Gore was one of them. Although he went to Vietnam to win sympathy for his father, Al Gore Sr. in his re-election campaign and even filmed a campaign advertisement in which he took a photo with his father in military uniform, at least he actually stayed in Vietnam for four months and saw gunpowder, blood and death, unlike most of his Harvard classmates who either got various certificates to avoid conscription or tried to stay in the reserve force in their home country to gain experience.
Last year, the 39-year-old Gore was nominated to run for the US presidency, and eventually won seven states in the party primaries, finishing third in the election. Of course, he was not really going to run, he was just testing the waters to see how influential he was. So far, the response has been very good, and all the southern states have bought into Gore's account. Even many grassroots Democrats have been unable to resist fantasizing about the next election, when young Bill and Gore will team up to see the wonderful picture of two young men defeating the old Republicans.
But in the eyes of David, who was familiar with the inside story, that was nothing but a fantasy. Bill and Gore had fundamentally different political ideologies. Except for certain public occasions, they would not even communicate in private. David even knew that once at an internal party meeting, Bill and his wife tried to understand the participants' views on promoting universal health care reform. Gore was the first to mock Bill as a Soviet who was trying to communistize American health care, violate American values, and deprive people of their freedom of choice. He also stated categorically that the United States did not need a compulsory health insurance system such as universal health care. If the Democratic Party still wanted the votes of major labor unions, because the leaders of major labor unions would surely be worried that the government would use this kind of health care reform to weaken their influence on their members, whoever proposed this system would not be able to get their votes again.
Of course, Gore doesn't actually care about the life or death of the union. That's just his excuse. The real reason is that since his grandfather Alan Gore entered politics, he has been cheering for the Rockefeller family and acting as a mouthpiece in the political arena. The Rockefeller family owns several large pharmaceutical groups. Once the universal health insurance reform is promoted, those Rockefeller pharmaceutical groups will inevitably worry that the federal government will become a monopoly buyer and will increase the demand for high-quality and low-cost drugs, which will directly affect their profits.
"Most of my dividends or other income every year are invested in the research and development of some software or hardware. Research and development consumes a lot of money. It is very uncomfortable to lose millions of dollars every day when I open my eyes. But this is not the most expensive thing. The money is spent after I met Gore." Tommy learned that David was curious about why Bill and others valued him, and he did not hide it and said generously:
"My alma mater, Stanford University, and I established several research institutes and hired many professors from well-known universities, including my professors when I was studying. We provided them with sufficient financial support, and then drafted relevant reports based on the theoretical structures and research models obtained from their various studies and submitted them to Congress. Al Gore, who is very passionate about computer networks, was usually responsible for convening the report meeting. Then I took out a large sum of money to lobby members of Congress and draft relevant bills, but the results were minimal. Only two or three have been passed in Congress so far. They may be the High-Speed Computing and Communications Act, the Remote Computing Storage and Communications Act, the Remote Computer Network Neutrality Act, or the Electronic Storage Privacy Act. I can't remember clearly because there are more than a dozen other bills waiting for me to spend money slowly. Of course, it's normal that you don't understand. Many members of Congress don't understand either, because there are no precedents to refer to."
David nodded in understanding. “Are these bills the reason they appreciate you? Or is it because of the lobbying fees you paid them? Or both? I think it’s mainly a matter of fees.”
Tommy smiled and shook his head:
"In fact, lobbying costs depend on what kind of bill is passed. For example, the Electronic Storage Privacy Act is quite straightforward. The cost was 30% lower than the budget because the traditional industry sponsors behind the congressmen quickly figured out what benefits this bill could bring to them. The most direct benefit is that the research and development company I own has designed a complete hardware system for major automobile transportation and logistics companies, taxi companies, and bus companies. They call it an in-vehicle information recorder, also known as a car black box. This thing is much more advanced than the $1,500 electromechanical simulation driving recorder sold by the Germans. Its function is to record data during vehicle driving, such as speed, torque, distance, etc. All driver operations and vehicle operation conditions will be recorded, and as long as the driver puts After the car is driven back to the company and off duty, the company sends another person to open the thing, connect it to the computer, and then find out whether the driver has worked hard today. For example, according to regulations, he should rest for ten minutes at the service station, but he turned off the engine for thirty minutes. For example, his fuel consumption data was average before, but it suddenly increased a lot today. Or through the changes in the car's torque and speed, etc., it can be judged whether the driver is an excellent driver who deserves a high salary. All this data can be clearly seen through the shoebox-like hardware. If the union makes trouble again, the company can publish the data and tell them with confidence, you fucking drove the company's truck to the roadside to have sex with prostitutes, and stole the gasoline in the truck as prostitution money, and now you dare to ask me for a salary increase?"
"If the lawyers hired by the union accuse the company of exposing other people's privacy or demand other data, then this bill can be thrown in the face of the other party. The bill will tell them that the storage device belongs to the company, and the data stored in it also belongs to the company. The company has the right to choose whether to disclose it. The drivers can only wait for the company to tell them, either continue to work in peace, or the company will tell your family that you went to prostitutes while driving a truck, and then openly fire you and hold you accountable. In short, it will allow large companies to exploit those employees more reasonably and legally."
"What are the benefits of not being straightforward?" David nodded in sudden realization. No wonder it saved 30% compared to the budget. Those companies would definitely ask the politicians they supported to cooperate in the passage of this bill. After all, it would save a lot of talk and money in the future.
Tommy lit a cigarette and held it between his lips. "The military also customized a number of similar hardware systems for transport vehicles. The equipment and data belong to the military. Even if a soldier is about to report his unit, the federal government can use a search warrant to ask the military to provide data to assist in the investigation, and it can refuse the other party based on the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and this Act. A more far-reaching benefit is that if this thing is sold to the military of other countries in the future, the data can still be controlled by the U.S. military."
"You try to use your advanced vision and massive amounts of money to formulate all kinds of game rules in advance, and when most people react, everything is already in your hands? If it is a game, it is a very large and difficult game, Tommy. No one can play such a crazy game." David thought of a possibility, and then laughed out loud, thinking that this idea was too far-fetched.
"The fun of this kind of game is that it's very difficult, but it won't get boring too quickly." Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke and said:
"I keep the people in my American farm like cattle or turkeys, and when there is a shortage of food at Christmas, I will pick one and slaughter it for the holiday. Rockefeller can do it, Morgan can do it, so why can't Hawke play this game?"
“America is free to them,” David said with a smile.
Tommy pointed his finger at David and said matter-of-factly, "America is free for all its citizens. The people here have the right to decide whether they want to be a beef cow or a fucking Christmas turkey. They always have the freedom to choose. So do you, David. So you'd better make a quick decision whether to provide Jeff with follow-up campaign assistance or not."
"Of course, I'll have someone make some arrangements right away." David stood up from the sofa and walked out the door. "Good luck to those Cubans."
