At about the same time that Richard Mellon Scaife met Julian Robertson, a small reception was held at the White House in Washington.
It was the same celebration, but the scale was much smaller and the standards were higher than the celebration party on the day of victory.
For example, as long as you pay a little attention to the current political and economic structure of the Federation, you can easily select a few core figures in the Westeros system with the strongest strength in the United States from among the more than 30 guests present. Joseph Schlapp, one of the heads of the political lobbying team of the Westeros family, Celia Miller, Simon Westeros' personal military affairs assistant, and her husband Philip Miller, as well as, the identity should be Simon ·Philip Raybould, another brother-in-law of Westeros.
These are only on the surface.
As for which of the cabinet officials or members of Congress present are spokespersons fostered by the Westeros family, only guests with deeper political connections can tell the difference.
"Yes, Celia, the failure in Somalia happened before. This time the Ministry of Defense plans to outsource part of the business, but I have seen the quotations submitted by you. Only those headquartered in Columbus, Ohio and Perth, Western Australia. Of those two, I haven’t seen any team plans from the Ukrainian side. As far as I know, the Ukrainian mercenary team is the most affordable?”
Celia Miller, holding a cocktail in hand, faced Hillary's inquiry and explained: "Madam, the main thing is that we hope to give more opportunities to the federal and Australian teams, not to mention, no matter what, they are considered our own. Isn’t it?”
The two men discussed the United States' resumption of increased military deployment in Africa.
As the scars from the Black Hawk's fall in 1993 gradually fade away, and as the strategic situation in Central Africa becomes tense again, and of course due to lobbying from various interest groups, Clinton plans to re-strengthen military deployment in Africa during his second term. .
On the other hand, the success stories of the Weijia private army are first seen in the past few years. This private army has received large orders in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and even Latin America. This kind of poaching is justifiable and legitimate... Oh no, It is an opportunity to contribute to the country, and other interest groups will certainly not miss it.
In order to avoid repeating the same mistakes as the US military in Somalia three years ago, the Ministry of National Defense is increasingly favoring military outsourcing.
All parties hit it off immediately.
Hillary doesn't believe Celia's so-called "own people" argument. She even believes that this is Westeros taking the opportunity to strengthen its private army in the United States and Australia. After all, a strong army must be tempered on the battlefield. Yes, the Ukrainian private soldier two years ago was baptized by the Rwanda War and successfully formed an army, directly becoming an important private military force in the hands of Simon Westeros.
Unfortunately, Ukraine is too far away from the United States after all.
On both the federal mainland and Australia, due to various rules, it was impossible to deploy as randomly as in Eastern Europe. It took more than two years of quiet operation before it took shape. According to the information Hillary has seen, the two private armies currently in the hands of the Westeros system in Ohio and Western Australia have a total strength of 3,000 troops that can be sent directly to the battlefield. This is far from what was initially possible through a small number of teams. Get some rough sketches of military training orders.
Since everyone knows this, Hillary will not dig into the details. What she said just now is just a hint of "I know your intentions."
Celia Miller would not take the initiative to confess anything. The two parties chatted warmly for a while and basically finalized some tacit understanding. Celia took her husband and walked away.
Hillary looked at the couple walking away affectionately together, and couldn't help but think of a word, 'best friend'. She just smiled and walked to her husband's side. Clinton was chatting with his Treasury Secretary, Bob Rubin, and another young man named Philip Raybould.
The topic was about Yale.
Whether it is the president and his wife, the current finance minister, or even a certain Westeros wife's brother-in-law, they are all Yale graduates, and all of them are from Yale Law School.
"Skull and Bones, Philip, you are right to refuse to join. Well, I'm not just saying that because you were not qualified to join. After the 1970s, Skull and Bones has declined rapidly, and it would be a waste of time for you to join. Speaking of which, The membership of Skull and Bones before the 1970s was an elite one, like the eldest son of our former president.”
"Although it's a little silly."
"Haha, Bob, I've never heard that before."
"Hey, you know, our governor of Texas was a Yale cheerleader."
"Okay, why did I want to laugh again when I heard that? Haha, it's a shame for a man to steal a woman's business."
"It's actually quite enviable."
"Yeah, that's right, haha." Mr. President laughed a few more times, and did not neglect a young man. He asked with a smile: "By the way, Philip, are there any interesting stories about the Yale and Harvard football teams, who are mortal enemies, in recent years? , we used to have a carnival every time."
Philip Raybould had the self-awareness of a junior without showing any timidity. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "The most exciting thing was probably my sophomore year, when we recomposed the Harvard school song and switched to the tune of the Yale school song halfway through. Leading Harvard students to sing together before the game.”
Bob Rubin also became interested: "This is much more exciting than stealing the bulldog mascot back then. Philip, how do you spin it? Sing it and listen."
Philip got a feel for it and quickly started singing a cappella, then moved to the Yale school song. The president, his wife, and the finance minister all joined in and the atmosphere became more lively.
The singing here attracted a lot of envious looks, but when they found out the identity of a certain young man, everyone could only be envious.
Can't compare.
It was impossible for Mr. President to devote all his time to Philip. He only chatted for five or six minutes, not forgetting to ask about the other party's work, give a few words of encouragement, and then turned to other guests.
It was not until the cocktail party came to an end that Joseph Schlapp approached Mr. President again and talked about some serious matters.
Mainly, the Westeros system has been promoting some bills on telecommunications, Internet, entertainment and other fields.
In this election, the Westeros system was extremely low-key.
However, the resources that should be given to Clinton were not reduced at all. In order to avoid attracting attention, the investment cost of indirect operations was even higher. The core of American political elections is actually the exchange of interests, whether it is the exchange between politicians and the public, or the exchange between politicians and capital. In short, I give you support and you give me benefits.
Successfully re-elected, compared to the cautious first term, Clinton, who is unlikely to pursue a third term, has much fewer worries. Moreover, the key to the Clintons becoming the fastest-rising political powerhouse around the millennium is that The exchange of interests and the liberal loosening of capital restrictions on all parties in the federation ultimately won continued support in the post-Clinton era.
Therefore, the two of them talked happily.
"Regarding the Ygritte antitrust investigation, Joseph, you know my difficulties. Now that 23 federal prosecutors' offices are involved, I need time. Moreover, at the beginning... you should understand why I did this, If the Department of Justice launches an investigation, the result will definitely be much better than if Congress initiated it.”
"I understand, but Mr. President, you should have said hello to Simon last time."
"I'm also sorry. Things were too urgent at that time. I heard the rumors in Congress and had to start in advance. Moreover, the election situation at that time, you also know, it is not suitable for the White House to contact Simon."
"Okay," Joseph Schlapp agreed. Before ending the conversation, he mentioned another thing: "Also, Mr. President, maybe you don't know yet. Some time ago, the Simon and Mellon families agreed. Chad Mellon Scaife had some bad experiences.”
Bill Clinton immediately perked up again and his eyes lit up.
Richard Mellon Scaife, one of the important driving forces behind the large amounts of money spent in the past few years to dig up dirt on himself, Bill Clinton can't say enough that he is gritting his teeth. However, even as the president, he has nothing to do when facing the Mellon family, which has been deeply rooted in the Federation for more than a century. If he really does anything, he will only give others a handle.
In the federation, what can resist capital is often another capital.
His thoughts were racing, and Clinton did not hesitate. He lowered his voice slightly and said, "If you need my help with this matter, you can always ask."
As a mature veteran politician, Clinton will not easily deviate from the rules, but within the rules, if he can suppress the Mellon family, which has made him disgraced in the past few years, he will be merciless.
After all the things that needed to be discussed were discussed, Joseph Schlapp said goodbye to the president and his wife, left the White House, and hurried back to New York early the next morning.
East Hampton, Long Island.
This is Saturday, November 9th.
Although it was the weekend, Joseph Schlapp came directly to Long Island after returning to New York to report to his boss the results of his operations in Washington over the past few days.
The meeting took place in the Guofeng Art Troupe’s resident practice room near the ocean in East Hampton.
Girl A next to the boss personally took her into the largest room in the practice room. As soon as she entered the door, she was greeted by the pleasant singing and dancing accompanied by a warm fragrance. The first snow may fall at any time in New York in November. A stage has been set up in this practice room covering an area of 500 square meters. Under the stage, which is only 50 centimeters high, is a sofa set.
Joseph Schlapp looked away from the girls on the stage and looked at the sofa below the stage. His boss was sitting in the middle with a lazy posture, hugging him from left to right, with his legs raised on the pedals in front of him.
In addition to the four young girls in thin clothes on both sides of the man on the couch, there are seven or eight women of various types standing or sitting on the single sofa and other empty seats next to them, surrounding a young man who looks like a king in the middle, Joseph I think this scene is very similar to the classic scenes of some big villains in movies.
Then, the protagonist often overthrows the protagonist amidst the screams of the women being exposed.
All right.
Seeing Schlapp come in, Simon motioned to the dancers on stage to pause without getting up. He waited for Schlapp to sit on the single sofa that was voluntarily given up by a girl next to him, and asked the girl next to him to hand over a copy of a book with a Chinese landscape painting on the cover. He handed over the beautifully bound 32-karat booklet and said with a smile: "Exactly, Joseph, listen with me and see how they perform with your own eyes."
Schlapp nodded and listened to his boss's instructions in Chinese. The dance he had just entered started again with the English commentary of a Qingyue girl.
When Joseph Schlapp heard a name, he opened the brochure in his hand, which was obviously enough for a small collection. He quickly found that against the background of light landscape paintings, there were two Chinese characters printed on the front page of the catalog, "There is a fox". Schlapp did not Being familiar with Chinese, I quickly understood the general meaning of this oriental poem through the English annotations and the image of a cute fox wandering by the stream in the page background.
Using things as metaphors for people, the story of a fox tells the story of a woman's lonely state of mind as she slowly waits for her husband to go off to war.
On the stage, accompanied by an oriental classical-style soundtrack, the performance has also begun.
The dancer, who is dressed as delicately and gracefully as a white fox, slowly takes the stage, walking through the woods or drinking water by the stream. Whether it is music or paintings, they all appear lonely and ethereal. Occasionally I meet some companions and watch others cheering, but after all I am unable to integrate into them and end up alone.
In addition to the dancing and music, there are occasionally faint female vocal accompaniments.
*…
*There is a fox Suisui in Qiliang. The heart is worried, and the son has no clothes.
*There is a fox Suisui, who is Qili. My heart is worried, my son has no belt.
*There is a fox Suisui beside Bi Qi. The heart is worried, and the son is unconvinced.
*…
Apart from not being able to understand the Chinese singing, Joseph Schlapp had to admit that everything was perfect.
After the song on the stage ended, the girls bowed slightly to express their thanks using classical Chinese etiquette, then floated down like flowing water, and turned to the backstage. They raised their hands to applaud and saw that no one else made any move but gave up. Joseph Schlapp turned to face His boss said: "It's so beautiful, Simon. I read in the brochure that it will premiere at the Metropolitan Opera House on December 6th. Is this true?"
"Of course, the pre-publicity warm-up has already begun," Simon said, still holding a charming girl in his arms, and then asked: "I mean, Joseph, do you understand?"
Joseph nodded: "It's easy to understand, plus the notes in the manual, I just remembered the whole story just once."
"That's good. In fact, this is the result I want. If a culture wants to spread in another cultural atmosphere, it must first be understood by people. This is very simple but also very difficult. If everyone can understand it by then, If you don’t understand, it will cause embarrassment.”
"How is it possible? Even if you can't understand it, the dance just now is a visual feast." Joseph said, seeming a little embarrassed, and then said: "Simon, since we are going to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House, I can book some tickets in advance. ?"
"No problem, I'll give you 10. If there are people around you who are interested, you can give them to them." Simon nodded, finally straightened up, and said to the girl next to him: "You continue to practice, I will talk to the guests about something, soon return."
Joseph Schlapp actually didn't really want to leave. It was more enjoyable to stay here and talk about things. However, his boss had already gotten up, so he had no choice but to follow.
The two came to a lounge next door and waited for the waitress to bring coffee. Simon asked Girl A to hand a document to Schlapp and said: "We will talk about other things later. Take a look at this first. A few Just arrived from Ukraine an hour ago.”
Joseph Schlapp took the document, opened it, and quickly browsed the contents.
This is a murder that just happened in the Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine this morning local time. Yev Shcherban, a businessman from the Donetsk Oblast, and his wife went out in the morning and were killed as soon as they left their house. Several gunmen who had been waiting for a long time hit the sieve, and the driver and a bodyguard were also killed.
The document also included some photos of the murder scene.
Horrible.
The Weijia lobbying team also has an office in Ukraine. His boss attaches so much importance to that country and his actions are effective. Joseph Schlapp also has a detailed understanding of the various forces in Ukraine.
When he saw Yev Shcherban's name, Schlapp knew that he was the leader of the East Udonetsk gang.
And we can roughly guess the ins and outs.
After all, Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko’s family and the Donetsk gang in Eastern Ukraine are competing for industrial assets left over from the former Soviet era in eastern Ukraine. The conflicts in the past year have intensified since Lazarenko became prime minister. It's getting more and more serious. This time Yev Sherban was assassinated, it was not an accident at all.
Because just a few months ago, Lazarenko also suffered a public car bomb assassination, but that assassination did not succeed. Various signs also indicate that the perpetrator was Yev Shcherban. So this is clearly a tit-for-tat tit-for-tat exercise on the part of Lazarenko's family.