Volume 4: White Devil Chapter 287 Your True Purpose
"I think the President won't cause trouble for himself. He just supports the investigation but won't express more personal opinions. As for what Congress thinks and whether it will set up a committee to investigate KeyBank, he won't interfere and he is not interested. But it is very likely that Republican Congressman Mike Bradley will set up an investigation committee. The President doesn't like him and Mr. Cheney doesn't like him either. This guy has been calling on Congress to cancel the resolution that designates the South African National Congress as a terrorist organization. He doesn't care at all. If this resolution is canceled, many of the United States' interests in South Africa will be damaged. He should be taught a lesson that he is a black American, not a black South African." Charles Salmon sat on the sofa opposite Tommy, stroking his lips lightly with his fingers, looking at Tommy and said.
Tommy leaned back on the sofa, stroking the snoring orange cat in his arms. He had picked it up during his morning run in Beverly Hills Park. "I know Mr. President won't jump out to cause trouble, but what you said now makes me feel that Mr. President is copying the love-hate relationship between President Reagan and your future father-in-law. That's how Reagan dealt with your future father-in-law. He arranged some tricky investigations for him. If Mr. Cheney wasn't smart enough, Reagan would have ended his political career in this way. I hope Mr. Mike Bradley isn't that smart."
Charles Salmon's girlfriend is Liz Cheney, the daughter of the current Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. It is thanks to Tommy that they can get to the point of getting married. Previously, Stanford University organized a charity dinner to raise funds for veterans with the help of Tommy. Among those who came to support the event was Congressman Dick Cheney, the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee who was being severely suppressed by President Reagan.
Charles did not attend that dinner because he had graduated and left Stanford. By then, he had gone to Yale. However, that did not prevent him from getting Cheney's contact information through Ted and Ian, the then heads of SSD. In the name of a student organization, Charles invited Yale alumnus Cheney to return to his alma mater to give several lectures. Charles was not prepared to have too close contact with Cheney until one time when he invited Cheney and found out that Cheney had brought his family with him. Then he found out that Cheney had a baby daughter, Liz Cheney. That year, Liz was 18 years old and he was 24 years old.
Liz Cheney was in her senior year at McLean High School in Washington. She was the captain of the cheerleading squad, the most beautiful girl in McLean High School, and one of the top eight in the National High School Cheerleading Championship. Her figure and face were all like Charles'...or rather, she was like all the boys' aesthetic tastes.
Blonde, white, smart, and cheerful. In Charles' words, the first time I saw her, I felt that it was time for my Dick to say goodbye to other women.
At that time, Charles had not yet thought about what it would be like to compete with a cunning Republican congressman father-in-law, but he had already thought of the name of the child he and Liz would have.
This guy has been dating Liz since 1984. At the beginning of their relationship, Charles made money like crazy while continuing his studies. He used the money he earned to visit his girlfriend. After all, he was studying in Connecticut and Liz was studying in Colorado, and Charles had to fly back and forth for their weekly dates.
If Tommy and his SSD brothers who were in the computer industry had not found out about it and suggested that this guy buy some company stocks and make a lot of money, Charles would probably have been drained dry by his part-time job before he was drained by his girlfriend.
On this point, all the SSD brothers were convinced by Charles, because he could easily ask his family to give him a high-limit credit card. His family ran a battery manufacturing factory. Even if he did not have billions of assets, he still had tens of millions. But this guy just didn't ask for money. He insisted on using his own money to pick up girls and pursue girlfriends. He could even use the remaining money after his own expenses to buy a mini car as a gift for his girlfriend.
At first, the Cheneys were not very optimistic about their daughter's relationship with Charles, because Cheney himself graduated from Yale, and he knew what kind of people the men who graduated from Yale were. Whether it was talking nonsense or picking up girls, they were definitely all kinds of tricks.
He couldn't bear to watch his daughter being toyed with by a jerk from Yale. After all, when it comes to shamelessness, no other American university can compare with Yale except Harvard. For example, Dick Cheney was so shameless that he chose to postpone graduation several times in order to avoid military service and death in Vietnam, married a wife before graduation and got her pregnant, gave birth to a daughter immediately after graduation, and then completely got rid of the American military service on the grounds that he was 26 years old, married and had newborn children to support.
So during that time, Charles flew out for dates every week, and Cheney made long-distance calls to his daughter every week, encouraging her to take the initiative to meet other outstanding boys in college. She was still young and could slowly discover and find a boy who was truly right for her.
The problem is that the boys at Colorado College are completely incomparable to Charles, who has been a student leader since Stanford University and Yale University. Even if his daughter is blind, she can tell which man is better. So in the next two years, the Cheneys gave up. In addition, after Charles successfully completed his degree at Yale, joined a large think tank in Washington, and began his career with well-known political theorists and gradually demonstrated his abilities, the Cheneys accepted the reality that Charles was going to marry their beloved daughter. Now the two families have begun to spend Christmas together, waiting for Liz to graduate from college and plan a wedding.
Later, Cheney became the House Whip and stayed until Reagan left and Bush came to power. Cheney, who had been Reagan's number one supporter, gradually became a person who cursed at Reagan and caused trouble for each other. Reagan privately complained that Cheney was a jerk, but suddenly he was appointed Secretary of Defense from a congressman. Charles became the future son-in-law of the Secretary of Defense overnight.
Although Charles had not officially married Liz, after Cheney became Secretary of Defense, in line with the fine virtue of promoting the talented regardless of relationship, he resolutely arranged for his future son-in-law and Yale alumnus to work in the Office of Economic Policy under the Office of Management and Budget of the President's Executive Office to receive a salary without affecting his research work in the think tank, and also gave his in-laws' battery factory the status of a Pentagon contractor.
So strictly speaking, Charles can be considered a young member of the President's huge staff system, or in other words, this guy has been politically stamped with the Cheney and Bush family's stamp.
"You said you knew that the President would not jump out. Was that a guess? Or..." Charles took his hand away, leaned forward, and asked with a focused expression.
Tommy slowly put the cat on the carpet. The orange cat lazily shook its fur, then slowly walked to a well-lit area. Tommy looked at the cat's back and said, "Gore and Stephen don't care about the president's thoughts, so I didn't tell them that I had several private conversations with Ms. Rice before. Ms. Rice would not hide anything from the president. He obviously knew about it. But speaking of it, Ms. Rice is also another mentor of yours, right? She is paid by a Republican think tank in Washington."
Condoleezza Rice, professor of political science at Stanford University, mentor of Susan Curtis, independent director of Actor, co-founder of the SHP Women's Care Foundation, newly appointed expert on Soviet issues on the National Security Council, adviser on Soviet and East European affairs on President George H.W. Bush's staff, and a permanent pain in the hearts of some conservative Democrats.
She used to be a staunch Democrat and a moderate conservative. The reason she left the Democratic Party was because she was dissatisfied with the governing philosophy of Jim Carter, a Democratic president who won the praise of the vast majority of black people. She believed that Jim Carter placed too much emphasis on democracy and freedom. If the Democratic Party, which had always been conservative and tough, began to soften and was always open to the people, the illusion that freedom was taboo-free would only make the people's greed increase exponentially, which would make American society develop in a bad direction. People are greedy. If they now demand the legalization of same-sex marriage and easily get the support of the president, it may not be long before their demands become wanting to marry clones. She hated the Democratic Party for giving up its previous insistence for votes.
Rice supports citizens' legal gun ownership and opposes same-sex marriage. She believes that the United States should not simply show goodwill to the world, but should emphasize that in the period when the Soviet Union is gradually declining, it should instill America's universal values to the world with a tougher rather than a softer attitude, so that the world can accept America's values. She insists on tough ideological invasion, which will be very effective in today's world order. The Soviet Union is already crumbling, and only America will survive. Other countries have no choice but to accept American values.
And although she is a black woman, she chose to abstain from the racial equality movement in the United States, neither supporting nor opposing it.
Let me put it this way, in Tommy's eyes, he never thought of Rice as a black person. If he really wanted to find an adjective, it would be that if this black female professor didn't show up, didn't speak, and you only read some of her writings, you would think she was a white man.
Every time Gore talked about his future plans with his friends in private, he would curse Carter. If Carter had not put photos of black people in the Capitol, and if Carter had not supported equal rights for black people, Rice, the fake black person, would not have left the party. If she had stayed in the Democratic Party, she would definitely be the best vice presidential partner for a white racist running for president.
Charles shook his head slightly. "Not very familiar with her. We have attended some meetings together. And as you know, Mr. Cheney actually doesn't like her. He thinks she is too young and only has empty theories. She lacks practical experience and sufficient depth in solving problems."
"That's right. Mr. Cheney obviously prefers American exceptionalism." Tommy smiled in understanding when he heard Charles say that Cheney didn't like Rice. Cheney is an extreme conservative within the Republican Party, and he and moderate conservatives like Rice have many ideas that they cannot agree on.
"I thought you wouldn't talk to black people about too detailed topics." Hearing Tommy say that he had already told Rice some inside information, Charles nodded in understanding: "But that's not the focus of our conversation today. Let's talk about your plan, Tommy. You have too big an appetite. Fox TV Network, the John Kruger family helped you buy back the shares on behalf of others, and Fox Film Corporation, Shriver helped you arrange for Vivendi of France to buy shares. You have already won a great victory. You have to share some food with others. Vultures always appear in groups in front of rotten meat. How long can you hide your little thoughts? Once exposed one day, you will be bitten madly by those fools who have come to their senses. But if you share some rotten meat today, when that day comes, they may not dare to act rashly when they see your vulture companions."
"You know you can say whatever you want to me." Tommy picked up the light beer on the table, handed one to Charles first, then opened another bottle and took a sip.
Charles drank beer. "Well, to be specific, Mr. Jim Pierce of McCall Publishing Company, I hope you can agree to let McCall and Ted's newspaper companies discuss the newspaper business together. If you agree, the investigation report will soon play its due role. If you refuse, it will just be gossip, and the investigation will be launched indefinitely. The investigation will not stir up any waves, and those newspapers will most likely continue to belong to Murdoch. At least Murdoch can provide a large amount ."
"McCall Company?" Tommy muttered the name.
"It's an established newspaper and magazine publishing company. Following the information I provided, it has made some timely adjustments to ensure that its development history looks very inspiring. Uh... Also, the boss's last name is Pierce, Jimmy Pierce."
"The Pierce of Barbara Pierce? Really good, showing the whole nation on TV that she is the first lady wearing a fake pearl necklace to show her frugality, and then she comes to eat rotten meat with me in private? Those gossip newspapers are right, the Pierce family is a family that perfectly inherited all the shortcomings of the British, and Franklin Pierce is the worst president in American history." Tommy was not surprised when he heard what Charles said, but complained a little unhappy:
"So, since when have you been waiting to jump out at this moment?"
The Pierce family, the family of Bush's wife Barbara, also had a president among their ancestors. He had never paid attention to the fact that the first lady's family also had an old newspaper company. After all, the Bush family's previous way of making money was mainly from oil, energy, industry or banking.
"When you were promoting on TV that Murdoch was a KGB agent, her brother Jimmy Pierce, as a publishing tycoon, realized that you couldn't scold an Australian for no reason, and then... Ms. Barbara's assistant found me easily, and then I told her what I knew, probably faster than Ms. Rice's phone line, because I thought that even if I didn't say it, she could let her husband, who was the director of the CIA, figure it out." Charles looked at Tommy and shrugged.
Tommy didn't say anything, but sipped his beer and looked into the distance.
Seeing that Tommy didn't respond, Charles continued:
"I know what you want to do, Tommy. You want to build a large enough media network and use propaganda as a bargaining chip to negotiate cooperation with those politicians, so that Gore can help you push the computer industry-related bills you want in Congress as soon as possible. Before the Internet is truly popularized, you want to weave a network to lock in latecomers. But you always have to give others some benefits. Like I said, vultures always move in groups. Just treat McCall Company as your Actor's partner. Jason and that girl, what's their name?"
"Holly," Tommy whispered.
Charles nodded: "That's right, just think of McCall Company as Holly, you share some of the benefits, it can save you a lot of trouble."
"Brother, no problem." Tommy drank a bottle of light beer, then turned to look at Charles with a worried look on his face and smiled: "We are brothers, no problem. Like you said, I can't really eat it all. I can even give more, but I need something in return."
Charles was a little surprised by Tommy's statement. He was worried that Tommy would suspect that he came here simply to lobby for others and take away the benefits he had worked so hard to earn.
Hearing Tommy's words, Charles grinned and raised the bottle in his hand towards Tommy. "To be honest, you kept silent just now. I was really worried that you would frown and say to me, hey, Charles, you have done a lot for your boss, why don't you do something for your brother? You only know how to take benefits from him. You don't treat me as a brother at all."
Tommy walked over and sat down next to Charles, then put his arm around Charles' shoulders and whispered, "If I were McCall & Company, I wouldn't come to chat. I would just release the news I got from you and tell everyone that John Kruger has signed a contract with me. I pay enough interest every year in exchange for the other party to continue to hold the Fox TV network in the name of the Kruger family. The consequence is that the three major TV networks will immediately turn around and bite me and make trouble for me. Combined with the current turmoil at KeyBank, it is enough to make me overwhelmed and unable to cope with it."
"I understand. You did a lot of persuasion for me when I couldn't see, preventing the other party from directly releasing the information and putting me in a passive position. Thank you, Boss. Tommy Hawke is not an idiot who doesn't understand the ways of the world." Tommy smiled and stretched out his hand to Charles with two fingers bent. That was the internal handshake gesture of SSD.
Charles shook hands with him in the same way and said with a smile, "You are not as selfless as you say. I persuaded you to give up some of the benefits, which actually allows me to gain something."
"Like what?" said Tommy.
"For example, if I can convince you, Barbara will be willing to let Liz start an internship at the United States Agency for International Development so that she can stay in Washington with me. If I can't deal with you, I promise she will ask Mr. Cheney to arrange for Liz to work in a financial company in New York. It's hard to say whether my fiancée will be abducted by those rich gigolos on Wall Street by then." Charles said.
Tommy laughed out loud: "It sounds like your return is a bit too stingy. Well, I can't expect the other party to be generous. I hope that in return, a certain amendment to the communications law can be passed by Congress as soon as possible. I'm not greedy, just one is enough."
"Which one? I can write it down, then go back and study it, and find a chance to help you understand the general situation of the stagnation." Charles was a little surprised to hear that this guy only proposed one revised clause. Tommy didn't seem like the kind of person who would give up on a high demand just because the other party was stingy.
Tommy looked at Charles. "Information services are defined as providing the ability to generate, acquire, store, transform, process, retrieve, utilize, or make available information and are not subject to discriminatory regulation by the FCC."
Even though Charles didn't know much about information networks, he had spent four years at Stanford University and had many brothers who were developing in this industry around him. It took him a long time to come to his senses after hearing what Tommy said: "This is your real purpose. You took these profits just to exchange for this sentence."
"I need a period of unregulated and wild growth." Tommy looked at Charles with sparkling eyes: "In order to pass it, I can spend any amount of money and discuss anything."
