Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 190 Thomas's Wisdom 3.0
Ever since he was cheated by Warner Communications over the canal issue last September, Ethan no longer paid attention to this conflicting incident which was closely related to America's interest rate but had little to do with his personal interests.

Because he knew that even if there was huge resistance to this matter, Jimmy would still get it done.

So, when Steve Ballmer said that the Senate had passed the canal treaty signed by Jimmy, he felt as if he was in another world as he leaned back in his boss's chair.

"No, has this matter been delayed until now to be finalized?"

"How long have they been fighting? Almost a year?"

The sudden news made Ethan feel a little emotional, and the next second he discovered another problem.

"Wait a minute, 68:32? Doesn't that mean you almost didn't pass?"

"So thrilling?"

Although Ethan in his previous life understood the political ecology of America for fun, it does not mean that he is completely brainless. He still knows some simple common sense.

For example, there are different types of documents signed by the President of the United States, and the validity of each type is different. For example, a treaty is a formal, legally binding agreement signed between the President of the United States and other countries or international organizations. According to the provisions of the American Constitution, the President has the right to conclude treaties with other countries or international organizations, but more than two-thirds of the senators must agree to it. This is to ensure democracy and balance.

There are a total of one hundred senators in the American Senate, composed of two senators from each state. In this case, if a treaty wants to be passed, the number of votes in favor cannot be less than sixty-seven, and the sixty-eight this time...that's exactly one more.

Even if Ethan had not paid attention to this matter throughout, judging from the distribution of votes alone, the supporters and opponents of the treaty may have had more than one battle in the Senate. Some people's brains may have been knocked out, and many people may even have gambled their political future.

"Yes, it was very thrilling. I almost didn't pass."

Steve Ballmer nodded and said, "In order to finalize this treaty, the Senate has been debating since the New Year. Of course, foreign public opinion is also quite strong. Countries like John Bull, Gallic Rooster, and West Germany have all publicly stated that they want us to fulfill our promises."

"In order to preserve that fragile alliance, the majority and minority leaders in the Senate joined together for the first time to persuade their own members to accept the treaty."

"Although the treaty was finally passed, according to the current situation, Jimmy's chances of re-election are close to zero. In order to finalize this treaty, he has dragged the entire Donald Trump Party into the water. If he continues to run in the next election, his electoral votes will probably be terrible."

Ethan nodded slightly at Ballmer's words. When he communicated with Barbara who came to visit him unexpectedly last year, he had already sensed the internal division of the Donkey Party. Not to mention anything else, even Barbara, who was invited by Jimmy to the DoJ, was very dissatisfied with his decision.

If it were a year ago, Ethan would definitely think that these things had nothing to do with him, but after being suddenly attacked by Warner Communications and being taught a lesson by Uncle Thomas, he has realized that many times you can't stay out of many things, because trouble is something that has its own hands and feet. If you don't provoke it, it will give you an unexpected surprise at some point in time.

Therefore, understanding it, integrating it, and mastering it becomes inevitable.

"Okay."

After listening to the report, Ethan gave Ballmer a thumbs up.

"Well done."

"Thank you." The bald man smiled shyly.

Just as he was about to leave, Ethan remembered something else.

"If I remember correctly, this is the mid-term election that happens every four years?"

"Yes." Ballmer was stunned for a moment, then said: "It has already started..."

Midterm elections are actually congressional elections.

The American Congress is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The term of office of senators is six years, and one-third of them are re-elected every two years. The term of office of representatives is two years, and all of them will be re-elected when their terms expire.

Since congressional elections overlap with general elections once every four years, and the non-overlapping congressional elections are held during the president's term of office, non-overlapping congressional elections are also called midterm elections.

Because mid-term elections can directly determine which party will control the two houses of Congress, there will be a big fight between the two parties every time there is an election. The reason why Ethan asked this question is that he thinks that the passage of the canal treaty may directly affect the red and blue divisions in America, which will also affect the election of the next president. At the same time, the mid-term elections also include the election of some local council members and local administrative officials, and Barbara's schoolmate's husband...

But the governor...

Ethan didn't say much, but just raised his eyebrows suggestively at Ballmer.

The bald man with great understanding turned and left.

The next day, this guy handed Ethan a thumb-thick document with dark circles under his eyes. When Ethan opened it, he found that Arkansas was involved in this year's midterm election.

This result made Ethan go directly into his boss' office after Ballmer left, sit down on the chair in front of the desk with a smile on his face, and shout, "Sister——"

"What?" Evelyn looked at Ethan puzzledly.

"Let me ask you something."

"explain."

"Have you been in touch with Barbara lately?"

"I have contacted you, what's the matter?"

"Oh - nothing - I'm just curious as to how far she's come with her plans."

Ethan pretended to be calm and said, "Didn't you tell me before that she wanted to bring her junior sister to Washington? Is this settled? Steve reported to me about the canal incident these two days. He said that judging from the current trend of public opinion, the Donkey Party seems to be in danger."

If it were someone else, Ethan's twists and turns in his words might confuse them.

But Evelin heard his intention directly.

"It's done. It was officially finalized last December, but you were negotiating with Wenlock at that time, so I didn't tell you."

When this was mentioned, Evelyn tapped the table with her index finger, looking very emotional. "Jimmy nominated her junior to be a member of the LSC board of directors and she will take office this year. I heard from Barbara that it's a good place."

LSC is the Legal Services Corporation of America. From the name, it seems to be a private organization, but in fact it is a public organization directly funded by the American Congress.

Its purpose is to provide necessary and equal legal aid to low-income people in America.

Since its founding in 1974, the company has provided nearly $500 million in aid to more than 100 non-profit legal aid organizations in the United States. Its core power lies in the hands of 11 board members appointed by the president. Working here is actually a free way to gain connections, because you will deal with judicial institutions in 50 states, and they are all waiting for you to pay.

"If I remember correctly, Barbara has done a similar job before?" Ethan asked.

"Yes, in Columbia." Evelyn nodded, and then asked, "Why? You want to donate money there?" Then she waved her hand and said, "Oh, forget it. They don't accept donations from personal funds. Everything is allocated."

"No way! It's not like I have too much money and don't know where to spend it!" Ethan shook his head quickly.

“So you want to see if I have maintained this relationship well?” Evelin guessed, tilting her head.

"That's impossible! I just wanted to ask on a whim." Ethan didn't want to tell the truth.

“Oh—” Evelin stretched out her voice, folded her arms and leaned back, and said with a playful smile: “Then from now on, don’t ask me if Barbara has ever solicited donations from my group of donkeys.”

“…” Ethan pursed his lips.

If the two were playing badminton, then Evelin's words would definitely be a smash that could knock a hole in Ethan's head. After discovering that his sister had seen through everything, Ethan immediately threw up his hands and admitted defeat, saying, "Okay, Okay, you're right, I came here to understand this matter."

That's right! After finding out that this year was the year of the midterm elections, Ethan wanted to know if the two people in his family had taken any action. He didn't need to ask Thomas, because this native American farmer had already played around with voting, and Evelyn...

That is to say, just like him, a little insensitive.

Ethan is not sensitive because he saw too much fun as a fun-loving person in his previous life and couldn't adapt to the change of identity all of a sudden. But Evelin is different, right? She is just purely sensitive to these things...

"Donated."

While Ethan was muttering to himself, Evelyn spoke.

"What?"

This answer was somewhat beyond Ethan's expectations.

“I said I donated it.”

Evelyn shrugged and looked at Ethan with a smile.

"I'm just not that interested in these things, but I'm not stupid."

"Since my dad has said that it's not okay to just focus on running a company, how can I just ignore his words and throw them into the trash?"

"This is a big year for midterm elections. People who are interested in Washington are working hard, including Barbara. California has a gubernatorial election this year. Our current governor is from the Democratic Party and will continue to run for election. But Barbara is not satisfied with the current governor's policies because he is too open to appointing LGBT people as judges. So she has no intention of supporting him."

"But at the same time, she also called me and said that her junior's husband would run for governor of Arkansas this year and hoped that I could provide some financial help... She said that her junior was a truly ordinary person and her husband's family was not good. He lost his father at a young age and took his stepfather's surname..."

"According to Barbara's story, I donated $200,000 to her schoolmate's husband and became his biggest sponsor? If he can win, that's a good thing. If he can't win, I don't care. Anyway, $200,000 is a small amount of money for us. Just consider it as a gift to Barbara. After all, she has helped us many times. In the future, I still hope that she can be our company's legal advisor."

Evelyn really didn't like politics. In her opinion, those twists and turns, even if they were studied thousands of times, were not as exciting as a paper by her teacher Vinton Cerf. But not liking it didn't mean refusing to participate. If someone close to her needed her help, she would still help.

Not to mention, Barbara had pulled them out of the abyss before.

If Barbara had not keenly discovered that Mirowa's prosecution behavior was very strange, Ethan would not have dug out the trap set by Atari and Mirowa.

In this case, they will definitely be forced to admit their losses and leave by Milova and Atari.

Then, after discovering that Milova has an invincible patent in the video game industry, they will sadly withdraw from the video game industry. Imagine being as carefree as you are now? Dream on!
In Evelyn's opinion, Barbara may be a little utilitarian now, but her original intention is still good. She just wants to pursue her own interests for the female group.

And since her nature hasn't changed, we're still friends, right?
"Donated? Then I feel relieved." Ethan's eyes smiled into crescents at his sister's words.

Although Ethan couldn't figure out in which year Barbara's husband became the governor of Arkansas, it didn't matter. Two hundred thousand might be fifteen years' income for an ordinary family, but for them it was just the sale of one hundred arcade machines.

Use this money to establish a relationship with the future president?

This special code is so worth it!

Of course, what’s even more worthwhile is that this money can also maintain the favor of the mage.

When a sum of money can be used now and in the future...

That’s a win-win situation!
Since Evelyn has become a major financial sponsor of the future governor of Arkansas, Ethan can eliminate the question mark that suddenly rose in his heart. When he was about to leave and go back to the office to continue drawing the "Minesweeper" chessboard, Evelyn stopped him.

"You wait."

"What's wrong?" Ethan's butt just left the seat and then stuck back again.

"You should think about this in the near future. If Barbara's husband becomes the governor of Arkansas, what kind of return should we ask for?"

Evelin said, “I can think of this kind of thing, but I’m too lazy to think about it, so I’ll leave it to you!”

"What do you mean?" Ethan didn't understand.

The doubt he showed made Evelin frown slightly, and asked, "Didn't you come to ask me today if I have donated to Barbara's supporters?"

"Yes."

"Then have you ever thought about what kind of return you should ask for after making a donation?"

This question got Ethan.

He blinked and wanted to say that he had never thought about it because he had never done such a thing in his previous life, but he knew that he could not say that now.

He believed that if he said this, Evelin would definitely give him a big slap.

And just as he was thinking about how to express his ignorance tactfully, the stunned expression had already made Evelin guess everything. The girl sighed, smiled and shook her head.

"never mind……"

"It's normal that you haven't thought about it."

"I didn't know anything about this before. My dad taught me all this."

"When Barbara said that her schoolmate's husband needed some donations, I asked my dad how much it would be appropriate to donate. My dad told me that it doesn't matter how much I donate, but after donating I have to let those guys do the work, because only in this way can it comply with the rules of the game in this circle."

"The relationship between politicians and financiers has existed for many years. Now, this circle has formed its own set of rules, and everyone has their own responsibilities and obligations."

"My dad said that after both parties reach an agreement on donations, the ideal situation is that the donor makes demands for benefits and the politician gives financial rewards. This approach is the most common and safest."

"For example, if I donated $200,000 to Arkansas, then after he is elected, we must ask him for more than $2 million, or even $20 million in business."

"If we donate money without asking for anything in return, politicians will wonder why we are donating to them, whether we need their help in other matters, or whether we want to pool the value of the donations and ask for a huge return from them in the future that is beyond their ability or that can only be obtained by using their political future..."

"Whichever it is, they can't accept it."

"To put it bluntly, it's like we have the leverage over them and have seen their bodies, but they know nothing about us. This will make them very uneasy and frightened."

"So, my dad said that the smartest and most rule-abiding approach is to ask for compensation from the recipients immediately after the donation is made and they succeed. This is to warn them and also to tell them that we are willing to continue to cooperate."

"Once both parties know each other and have some of each other's little secrets, the relationship will become very solid, and then other projects will be launched."

"So, since you want me to maintain the relationship with Barbara, you have to think about what you want to gain from this relationship. Since we are not familiar with each other yet, we can't ask the former governor of California to help us get some intelligence like my father did. The initial contact should be gentle, and gentle contact... nothing is more suitable than making money together..."

When Evelyn said this, Ethan, who was sitting in front of her, was already stunned.

The girl blinked at him, tilted her head and smiled, "You know, I'm not very interested in things like elections. I wanted to wait for the results to come out before deciding whether to tell you or not."

"But since you asked about this matter today, I'll leave it to you~"

(End of this chapter)