America 1982

David Kennedy sat on the sofa in the living room of this South Side vacation villa, took a sip of brandy, and then looked at Tommy. The young man was holding a mobile phone in his hand and standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows admiring Miami. The night sea view, while talking to his family with a smile on his face, two calls, one to his home and one to his fiancée's home. During the phone call, he was concerned about his father's health and reminded him to go to the hospital regularly as arranged by the doctor. After checking his body, he cared about his sister's studies, learned about his sister's grades, and even enjoyed chatting with his future mother-in-law for more than ten minutes about his sister's recent trip, and discussed why Christmas was born in Finland, a country where all the people are indifferent and introverted. The image of an old man does not suit the Finnish character.

He even cares about whether his two adopted dogs are depressed. He is an impeccable American young man who loves his family.

Not to mention his future mother-in-law on the other side of the phone, David Kennedy felt that if the scene of Tommy on the phone was recorded and broadcast on the TV station, many American mothers with daughters might recognize this handsome, self-disciplined, and caring person. Family, sunny, kind, and humorous young people are the criteria for selecting a son-in-law.

As his mother-in-law, she might be willing to give him her vacation villa for him to live in temporarily. Yes, this villa is the property in the name of Tommy's fiancée's mother-in-law. She learned from her daughter that Tommy came to Miami for vacation. , the other party specially called and asked Tommy to move in. He also thoughtfully gave the previous servant a long vacation so that Tommy could hire temporary servants to serve him and prevent his old servant from seeing some things that he shouldn't. picture.

After Tommy finished chatting with his mother-in-law, he hung up the phone and returned the phone to Page. Then he straightened his shirt cuffs and sat down opposite David Kennedy. He poured himself a glass of wine and explained: "Every week with my family. Chatting on the phone once is a habit I have maintained for a long time, and I definitely don’t mean to disrespect anyone.”

"I understand that only by respecting your family can you respect everyone." David Kennedy moved his waist, which was a little sour, and adjusted his sitting posture: "This is a good habit. If you can't even comfort 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 a master at solving various family problems."

Tommy raised his glass and clinked it with the other person: "When it comes to solving family problems, you must be the top one. Bill told me that if he had half of your ability to solve family problems, he wouldn't have frequent quarrels with Diane. It’s too late to talk.”

David smiled proudly and did not deny that his two ex-wives and current wives were living in peace and could all act according to his wishes. When the scandal broke out, his three wives and their families appeared in front of the media's cameras. , to show the public their support and trust in him, which is of course a display of ability and charm.

If there hadn't been that damn scandal, according to normal development, he would have ended his ambassadorship long ago and entered the Senate. His name should have been on the list of Democratic candidates for last year's presidential election. Unfortunately, without if, he lost his political position. Life has lost the opportunity to lead the most powerful country in the world. Now only this city is left, and it is still unable to lead it upright and in its own name.

Noticing some subtle changes in David's expression, Tommy took a sip of wine: "Politics is really dangerous. If you are not careful, years of hard work can be in vain."

"Maybe I can take this sentence as your dissatisfaction with Lorna?" David smiled at Tommy, and those sighs disappeared. He came here today because the campaign has entered the second half, and Tommy was a little dissatisfied with his delay.

Tommy looked at the drink in the glass for a long time before looking directly at David Kennedy: "I understand very well, or Rona's reaction. After all, you experienced misfortune back then, and your political life was ruined by reporters and police. So in this situation, hesitation and caution are natural. There is just one problem. If I handle it from beginning to end, David, I can give Jeff's seat to Lorna or to others. What do you think? Woolen cloth?"

David Kennedy's deep-set gray-blue eyes stared at Tommy without opening his mouth to respond. Of course Tommy could speak in a relaxed tone, because even if Jeff loses, it will not have any impact on this young man. This is what the hell A game for his vacation.

But if he or Lorna is caught, the remaining city may be lost, and then he will really have nothing.

"You know? Tommy, I've always been curious about why Stephen and Bill... value you." After a long time, David spoke, but suddenly asked another question: "I tried to understand your information, but found that you seemed Apart from founding two TV networks, producing and selling a piece of software before, and being an investor in some technology companies, I don’t seem to have any very conspicuous information. I’m not saying that you deserve attention now, but... I understand politics, Understand the importance of politicians. You only donate money and never participate in many political discussions. It seems that you have no other influence except TV media public opinion. At most, you are just another Turner. But do the 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 fighting between the two parties. The Democratic Party did not wait for the confrontation with the Republican Party, but was already beaten to the 70s with the help of Jeff Rush. Eight fell, all the media were optimistic about the united Republican Party, because the primary election ended, Ileana Leti was elected as the only candidate of the Republican Party with 87% support rate within the party, and ran for the seat of the 18th district on behalf of the Republican Party. After she won While a large number of Cubans in the district support her, other black Republican candidates are trying their best to win over black people in the district to support her. Many die-hard supporters of the black Democratic candidate Gerald Richman have turned to the Democratic Party because of the news broadcast on BT TV. The Republican camp supports Ileana Leti because the opponent said in the primary debate that there will be no distinction between Cubans and blacks. Everyone is a person of color and needs to fight for their rights.

President Bush flew here specially to support Illyana Leti, and 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 unable to make a comeback.

This was all planned by David Kennedy and Tommy, and everything went according to plan. It seems like the Democratic Party has not planned internally how to carve up the politics left by former Rep. Claude Pepper. The legacy has become so divided that the party cannot unify its thoughts, and the candidates even have opposing slogans. Everything is a hasty and unstructured farce. As a result, both parties originally had Cuban-American candidates, but Rona of the Democratic Party lost her due to her weak performance. Many Cubans instead supported Republican Ileana Leti.

But the farce ends here. According to the agreement between him and Tommy, Tommy is responsible for asking Jeff to push Cubans to the Republican Party. Later, David Kennedy or his ex-wife Lorna is responsible for crushing the opponent's dream of Cubans being elected. .

Of course, David Kennedy had already laid out the plan, but the problem is that if the incident comes out, he and his three wives' families may not be able to stay in Miami. Although the chance of it being exposed is very low, he was arrested that year. The chance is also low, so he is a little worried, and once he really arranges it, it means that his or his ex-wife Lorna's balls will be grasped by Tommy, if Lorna has balls.

The only way to ease concerns is to find out why Tommy is respected by many members of the Democratic Party. He understands the donors. Of course, donors like Tommy who have more money and fewer affairs are loved by people, but Bill Clinton and his wife What he showed towards Tommy was no longer affection, but a regard that far exceeded affection.

The love everyone has for Stephen Bean should be the same. Every important holiday, they will send each other greeting cards, they will invite each other to any gathering, and they will talk about everything, no matter good or bad.

But they treated Tommy with respect. Bill wrote a handwritten invitation, but Diane rejected it. Then he flew to Miami in person, asked Tommy's fiancée to invite Tommy, and then apologized in person. The most important thing is that the two of them flew here as a couple. After Miami, the first thing was to ask myself and Lorna if it was possible for Lorna to support Tommy's favorite Jeff Rush.

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 had to persuade Lorna, the former deputy mayor of Miami, to give up running and fully support an underground man. of Florida white fools.

If Tommy Hawke were just rich, he would never get this kind of treatment.

Tommy gently scratched his forehead with his fingers, and then smiled calmly: "It's nothing, this is not a story that needs to be hidden, it's just that other parts of my life are not as high-profile as the TV network. Many people say that because Stephen and I friendship, so he influenced me and introduced many of his friends in the Democratic Party to me, and I naturally became their supporter. This was wrong. For example, Stephen slept with a high-end girl, and he felt that She was a nice woman, so she introduced her to me. Of course, I couldn’t just give Stephen four hundred dollars just because she slept with her. The most basic thing was that I had to put on Trojan and try it myself before making a decision. For a small tip, the other party will let Stephen take that bastard out of my sight."

"From your words, it can be seen that both old and young donors have a profound evaluation of politicians. Can't you respect the high-end girl opposite you?" David heard. Tommy compared politicians to high-end ladies and said with a smile.

Tommy put down his glass, picked up a cigarette and lit it: "The first political donation in my life was in 1984, when I was still studying at Stanford. The donation was to the Democratic Senate candidate Al Gore, who was Vanderbilt. A member of the SSD fraternity at Special University. I have to say that that guy really attracted me at the time. He was young, handsome, and tough. He inherited his father's legacy and became a member of the House of Representatives at the age of twenty-seven. He became a member of the House of Representatives at the age of thirty-three. Senator, the absolute future candidate for President of the United States, coupled with his slogans at the time such as opposing homosexuality, opposing the federal government's use of money to help black people have abortions, opposing the ban on cross-state gun sales, and advocating for the federal government to support the development of the computer communications industry, this is simply worse than A real high-end girl still attracts me. A high-end girl can only take away 400 yuan from me when she goes to bed with me. But I didn’t even meet him in person, so I asked my secretary to send him 100,000 yuan, and then more and more. …That’s how my donation journey began.”

"Al Gore? A conservative moderate in the party." David muttered the name. That guy is definitely a rising star in the Democratic Party. He is as young and dazzling as Bill. He has been criticized many times as a typical hypocritical white man. Racist, because Al Gore responded excitedly to Congress’ decision to declare Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a legal holiday in the United States. When interviewed by reporters, he sanctimoniously stated that this was a great victory and that this legal holiday would continue to remind him. Racial equality is very important for all the people in the future of America and what Martin Luther King did for this country.

But he can also indifferently vote against proposals such as "abortion neutrality" that actually help black women at the bottom. When reporters asked why he opposed abortion, he cunningly said that he was not against abortion, but against abortion as a private matter. The government still needs to foot the bill. He cannot understand that when a woman gives birth to a child, the government must subsidize maternity benefits. Now even if a woman has an abortion or refuses to have a child, she must subsidize the cost of the operation. This kind of proposal is an insult to American women. American women are independent. , they will definitely not want to be ridiculed that they rely on men to have children, and they rely on the government if they do not have children.

Privately, Gore is also rumored to have said that of course black women cannot be allowed to have abortions, because if there is a war in the future, those young people raised with state subsidies will be the best soldiers.

In short, on the surface, black people can get all respect and equal treatment from him, but in fact, black people cannot take any actual benefits from him.

And his resume is more convincing than that of many other senators from aristocratic families. For example, a reporter has investigated hundreds of so-called political family heirs and students from prestigious schools who served during the Vietnam War. Only a dozen of them actually served on the Vietnam battlefield. , Gore is one of more than a dozen people. Although he went to Vietnam to help his father, Gore Sr., gain sympathy points in his re-election campaign, and even specially photographed a campaign advertisement in which he wore a military uniform and took a photo with his father, at least he was in Vietnam. I really stayed for four months and saw gunpowder, blood and death. Instead of being like most of my classmates at Harvard, they either issued various certificates to avoid being drafted into the army, or they found ways to stay in the local reserves and gild.

Last year, the 39-year-old Gore nominated himself to run for President of the United States. He eventually won seven states in the party primaries and finished third in the party primaries. Of course, he did not really want to run, but just tried. Test the waters and see how much influence you have. The response so far is very good. Southern states are buying into Gore's account. Even many lower-level Democrats can't help but imagine that in the next election, young Bill and Gore will partner. A wonderful image of a young man defeating the old Republicans.

But in the view of David, who is familiar with the inside story, that can only be a fantasy. The political ideas of Bill and Gore are not in harmony at all. Except for certain public occasions, there will not even be any communication in private. David even knows that once At a 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, trying to communistize American medical care, violating American values, and depriving the people of their freedom of choice. , and categorically stated that the United States does not need a compulsory health insurance system such as universal health insurance. If the Democratic Party still wants the votes of the major unions, because the leaders of the major unions will definitely worry that the government will use this kind of health care reform to weaken their influence on members. Whoever proposes this system will no longer be able to get their votes.

Of course, Gore doesn't actually care about the life and death of the union. That's just his excuse. The real reason is that since his grandfather Allen Gore entered politics, he has been campaigning for the Rockefeller family and serving as a political mouthpiece. The Rockefeller family owns a number of large pharmaceutical groups. , once the universal health insurance reform is promoted, the Rockefeller pharmaceutical groups will definitely 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 annual dividends or other income are invested in the research and development of some software or hardware. Research and development is very money-consuming. It feels very uncomfortable to lose millions of dollars every day when I open my eyes, but this is not the most money-consuming thing. , the money wasted after I met Al Gore." When Tommy learned that David was curious about why he was valued by Bill and others, he did not hide it and said generously:

“My alma mater, Stanford University, and I have established several scientific research institutions, hired many professors from well-known universities, including professors when I was a student, gave them sufficient financial support, and then based on the theories derived from their various studies Structure and research models draft related reports and submit them to Congress. Al Gore, who is very passionate about computer networks, usually holds a report meeting. Then I spend a lot of money to lobby members of Congress and draft relevant bills, but with little success. , only two or three have been passed in Congress so far, maybe the "High-speed Computing and Communications Act", the "Remote Computing Storage Communications Act", the "Remote Computer Network Neutrality Act" or the "Electronic Storage Privacy Act". I also I can’t remember clearly because there are a dozen other bills waiting for me to spend money on slowly. Of course, it’s normal for you not to understand, and neither do many members of Congress because there are no precedent bills to refer to.”

David nodded with some understanding: "Are these bills the reason why they appreciate you? Or is it because of the lobbying fees you pay them, or both? I think the main issue is the cost."

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 more intuitive. The cost is 30% lower than the budget, because the traditional industry sponsors behind the lawmakers quickly figured out this What benefits can the bill bring to them? The most straightforward benefit is that the R\u0026D company I own has designed a complete set of hardware systems for major automobile transportation logistics companies, taxi companies, and bus companies. They call it on-board information recorders. Also called a car black box, this thing is much more advanced than the $1,500 electromechanical analog driving recorder sold by the Germans. Its function is to record data during vehicle driving, such as speed, torque, distance, etc., and all driver operations. and the running status of the car will be recorded, and as long as the driver drives the car back to the company after work, the company will send another person to open the thing and connect it to the computer to find out whether the driver worked seriously today. For example, according to regulations, he was working The service station should rest for ten minutes, but he turned off the engine for thirty minutes. For example, his fuel consumption data was average before, but suddenly increased a lot today, or he could judge driving based on changes in car torque, speed, etc. Whether he is an excellent driver worthy of a high salary, etc., these 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 that you are driving the fucking car The company's truck went to the roadside to have sex with a *girl, and the gasoline in the truck was stolen and sold as wages. Now you dare to raise your salary with me?"

"If the lawyer hired by the union accuses the company of exposing other people's privacy, or asks for other data, then this bill can be thrown in the face of the other party. The bill will tell him that the storage device belongs to the company and the data stored in it also belongs to the company. The company, the company has the right to choose whether to publish it. Drivers can only wait for the company to tell them, either continue to work with peace of mind, or the company will tell your family about your prostitution on the road while driving a truck, and then fire you openly and hold you accountable. , to put it simply, it allows large companies to exploit those company employees more reasonably and legally.”

"What are the benefits of not being straightforward?" David nodded in realization. No wonder it saved 30% of the budget. Those companies will definitely let the politicians they support cooperate with the passage of this bill. After all, it will save a lot of money and a lot of money in the future.

Tommy lit a cigarette and held it in his mouth: "Military transport vehicles have also customized a number of similar hardware systems. The equipment and data belong to the military. Even if a soldier is ready to report his unit, the federal government will ask for it with a search warrant. The military provides data to assist investigations, or it can reject it based on the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and this act. The more far-reaching benefit is that if this thing is sold to the military of other countries in the future, the data will still be available to the U.S. military. "

"You try to use your forward-looking vision and massive funds to formulate various game rules in advance. When most people react, they have already become your game? If it is a game, this is a very huge and difficult game. Tommy, no one can play such a crazy game." David thought of a possibility, and then laughed out loud, feeling that this idea was too far-fetched.

"The fun of this kind of game is that it's very difficult and doesn't get boring too quickly." Tommy exhaled a puff of smoke and said:

"Put the people in my American farm like beef cattle or turkeys, and pick one to kill for Christmas when there is a shortage of food. Rockefeller can do it, Morgan can do it, why can't Hawke play this kind of game?"

"America is free to them," David said with a smile.

Tommy pointed at David with his cigarette finger and said matter-of-factly: "America is free for all citizens. The people here have the right to decide whether they want to be a beef cow or a fucking Christmas turkey. They have always Everyone has the right to make a choice, and so do you, David, so you'd better make a quick choice whether to provide follow-up campaign assistance to Jeff."

"Of course, I'm going to ask someone to make some arrangements." David's bloated body stood up from the sofa and walked out the door: "I wish those Cubans good luck."