1932: Playing with the Japanese Communist Party with a doll

"...Fortunately, the wind wasn't too strong, so the damage was acceptable. Judging by the voters' reaction, this incident won't have much of an impact on us."

"Of course!"

Miriam hummed triumphantly:

"I've always said that we in Texas don't see hurricanes every year. What's the big deal? The rooster can't just take credit for the sun rising, can it?"

She changed the subject, her tone full of disdain:

"Don't let that woman's trickery throw us off our feet... If I were her, I'd also say, 'There's a hurricane in the Atlantic this year, and it's a really big one.'"

"That woman" naturally refers to the Springfield lady in the White House; "playing tricks" of course refers to the matter of predicting hurricanes.

It was obvious from her words that Miriam had no respect or affection for President Springfield, only jealousy and hostility.

Texas's disaster relief preparations were delayed, not only because Vice President Roosevelt deliberately let things go and Texans were generally as stubborn as donkeys, but also because of the attitude of our female governor.

Miriam was quite dissatisfied with Springfield, who became the President of the United States at such a young age and inexplicably.

You know, before Springfield came out of nowhere, Miriam Ferguson was the most dazzling and most watched female political star in American politics!

Because she is the first (elected) female governor of the United States!

Well, although Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming was sworn in 15 days earlier than her in 1925, Miriam's election results were released earlier! And she was "re-elected" successfully! (As for another Oregon governor, Kelly Bertha Shelton, she only served as acting governor for 48 hours according to state law after the previous governor resigned, which can basically be ignored).

However, all the glory and spotlight of these "female governors" were instantly dimmed after the appearance of Chuntian, who was said to be only 22 years old and had top-notch looks and temperament.

No matter how much you brag about being the "Iron Rose" or the "Texas Mom," can you become governor without being connected to your husband, James? Can you compare yourself to a single woman who became a female president entirely on her own merit?

Women's jealousy is sometimes so unreasonable. Just hearing the news about Springfield from others and seeing Springfield's glamorous photos in the newspapers is enough to make Miriam hate Springfield extremely.

The following things in particular simply added fuel to the fire of jealousy in her heart: 1. Roosevelt's withdrawal from the Democratic Party.

It seems to have nothing to do with Mrs. Ferguson, but it actually has a lot to do with her.

Because her husband, James Ferguson, was a staunch Democrat, but unfortunately he was impeached and removed from office in 1917 for “minor” offenses such as corruption, embezzlement of public funds, and abuse of power (he was a genius to achieve this in the United States);

Not only that, he was also banned from holding public office forever, which led him to fully support his wife's candidacy.

Although Miriam won the 1925 election, she was defeated by her opponent in the next election. She had hoped that Roosevelt, the Democrat, would be elected president so that she could ride on this momentum and make a comeback as governor again.

The results of it?

Roosevelt suddenly quit the party and joined the "God's People Party" in Springfield, almost strangling her dream of becoming governor in the cradle.

So why did he finally get the position?

The fact that Mrs. Ferguson would never admit was:

When people saw Springfield become president, they thought female politicians were a trend, or they wanted to curry favor, or they simply thought, "If Mrs. Field is so impressive, then Mrs. Ferguson must be pretty impressive too." So...

This disgusting feeling is like a magical girl whose holes are being filled by tentacles or a female knight who rolls her eyes after being fucked by goblins. She obviously doesn't want to fly to the sky, but still gets happiness because of the other person.

Ahem...

2. Springfield "doesn't care" about her.

Nellie Taylor Ross, Wyoming's first female governor, lost to Republican candidate Frank Emerson in 1927 with 48.3% of the vote. However, she did not retire from politics after leaving office.

On the contrary, she served as the chairperson of the Democratic National Women's Committee in 1930, helping Eleanor Roosevelt promote the Equal Pay Act and the Mine Safety Act, promoting equal pay for equal work for men and women, forcing mine owners to provide insurance for workers, and cracking down on child labor.

Perhaps because of this, she was spotted by Roosevelt this year and appointed director of the Federal Mint, in charge of the three major mints in Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. She was in a high position of power and glory.

But what about Mrs. Ferguson, who was also a female governor? President Springfield never even looked at her! Not to mention giving her an official position, he never even met her once! This is really infuriating.

How am I, the "Ferguson Mom" ​​from Texas, inferior to the "Iron Rose" from Wyoming?

Why do you look up to her and down on me?

The classic saying goes, "If you are close to them, they will be disrespectful; if you are far away from them, they will complain."

3. After Springfield came to power, he severely criticized some of the "fine traditions" in American politics, such as corruption, abuse of power, the revolving door between officials and businessmen, nepotism, etc.

On the surface, this seems to have nothing to do with Mrs. Ferguson, who advocates "caring for the poor," "expanding medical support," and "anti-elitism," but what's that line?

Stones hit dogs and make them bark.

The Fergusons are textbook examples of veteran American politicians – they hold high the banner of “representing the people” but engage in the business of “family dictatorship”; they use the guise of “public interest” to pave the way for “personal gain”.

What kind of woman could be so good as to spend so many years with her husband, Ferguson, a man who was impeached and dismissed from office due to corruption in a place like the United States and is now banned from holding public office forever?

During her first term as governor from 1925 to 1927, Miriam frantically issued 4000 pardons for prisoners, an average of 5 per day. Among them were even serious criminals who had killed police officers. Can you guess why they were freed?

Well, for every contract signed, the Ferguson family's bank account would "ding dong" with an additional $500 to $5000 (equivalent to $1 to $10 today).

So, don’t criticize Trump for always accepting money to grant amnesty. This is a trick that has been played out by our predecessors in the United States for a long time.

As for other issues like "the whereabouts of fiscal funds remain a mystery," "contractor profiteering," "shoddy construction," "relatives occupying key positions," "purchasing state-owned assets at low prices and then reselling them at high prices," etc., these are not unique to America...

Basic exercises, don't 6.

What's even more outrageous is that this woman is not ashamed of it, but proud of it. Her campaign slogan is directly and nakedly "Two Governors for the Price of One (pay the price of one governor, get the services of two governors)";

It can be said that the words "ruling behind the scenes" and "inside dealings in a husband-and-wife shop" were printed directly on the campaign posters.

Yet, these are the very issues that Springfield severely criticized after taking office, and he even expressed his intention to rectify these issues. Do you think Mrs. Ferguson, who has essentially done all of these things, would be furious?

4. Springfield/Roosevelt intended to "infringe" Texas states' rights.

For example, the federal government requires Texas to cooperate with federal police in entering Texas to pursue interstate criminals;

For example, to stabilize the overall cotton or oil prices in the United States, Texas is required to reduce production accordingly;

For example, it requires the Texas power grid to be integrated into the federal power grid (the Texas power grid is still independent of the entire United States), etc.

This is simply unacceptable in Texas, where most grassroots voters are politically conservative and oppose federal expansion.

Therefore, due to many factors such as women's "natural love", threats to personal interests, and the need to uphold the banner of "state rights", Mrs. Ferguson, with the support of certain unknown forces, began to take the lead in opposing the federal government's disaster relief work.

Of course, she certainly didn't have the courage to openly oppose Springfield. She just made exorbitant demands for money and policies, and found all kinds of unbelievable excuses to prevaricate and argue, which led to Texas' disaster relief preparations being as slow as a snail.

As a result, the hurricane really came as Springfield predicted, and Texas, which was almost unprepared, was hit head-on by the disaster with its bare hands.

At first, the Fergusons and the entire Texas political scene were shocked. The Fergusons once turned pale and kept muttering, "It's over, it's over."

Because, if Texas suffered heavy losses in the hurricane, even if Springfield didn't hold them accountable, those in Texas eager to shirk responsibility and show loyalty to the federal government would rush to use the couple as scapegoats for "disobeying federal orders and ignoring the saint's warnings"!

However, when they discovered that the typhoon was not that terrible and the damage it caused was relatively small, they suddenly felt that they had done it.

Oh, it's just a hurricane!

How many times do we in Texas see each other? What's there to be afraid of?

The chicken can't think that the sun rises on time and it's its own achievement, right? So, today's wonderful performance took place in the heavy rain, which was intended to inspire people but also to shirk responsibility, with the theme of "Texas unites and overcomes difficulties together."

To be honest, if it weren't for the Springfield prophecy that attracted national attention, Texas politicians wouldn't even bother to give this kind of speech in the rain.

Because Texas has been facing the Gulf of Mexico for a long time, it is greeted by storms of all sizes several times every year. Not to mention those politicians who never take the people seriously, even the people themselves do not take it seriously most of the time.

Due to these factors, the Ferguson couple, who implemented popular policies in Texas, such as "anti-Prohibition" and "anti-KKK," still have a considerable number of die-hard supporters. This speech was also a great success.

Of course, the main reason is that this hurricane was indeed "gentle". When it passed through the Houston city area, it only blew away "a few pieces of clothes on the clothesline" and did not hurt a single person (poor beggars are not considered human beings). It was really nothing big.

Mr. Ferguson naturally wholeheartedly supported his wife's hostile attitude towards Springfield.

After all, they are a couple, sharing honor and disgrace. If Chuntian infringes on his wife's interests, he is infringing on the interests of James Ferguson!

He can no longer hold office himself, so he's counting on his wife to be the governor. He can then serve as the "Governor's Special Advisor" and, along with his wife's brother, the Texas Secretary of State, he can fully demonstrate his "gentlemanly wisdom"!

However, as a man, and a former governor, he was not one to gossip like a woman in private (mainly because it was useless to gossip), so he just ordered:

"Anyway, the hurricane is gone. Next, you need to give a few more speeches and get in front of voters to minimize the impact of the hurricane as much as possible... Draft your speech first, and I'll review it for you once you're done."

"Okay... so how do we deal with that woman?"

Miriam was referring to the fact that after the hurricane landed on July 23, Springfield publicly issued an "initiative" calling on Texas to immediately speed up disaster relief work, and her words were full of accusations against Texas politics.

"The same old trick, we're still calling ourselves poor." Mr. Ferguson sneered.

"Let's say the Texas economy suffered a devastating blow during the Great Depression. The state government is broke and has no money for disaster relief! We demand that the federal government allocate funds immediately, immediately, and quickly! And this money must be organized by our state government for disaster relief..."

Half the truth.

Texas' economy was certainly hit hard by the Great Depression, but so was every part of the country?

They are crying poor just to get more money from the federation.

The state government's money is under the watchful eye of many hungry wolves, so it is difficult to tamper with it. If you are not careful, you may incur public outrage and suffer disgrace, just like in 1917 and 1925.

The federal government's money is different - although there are still a lot of people watching it, their purpose is to work together to take a big bite out of this big piece of fat meat.

Take this hurricane as an example.

The initial estimate of agricultural losses is over $150 million. In theory, this is the amount needed for disaster relief. But do you believe that with the skillful operation of the "gentlemen", everyone can work together to "save" $1500 million?

Hey, it’s a wonderful thing that the federal government pays the money obediently and the gentlemen of the state government spend the money happily.

"Understood..."

Mrs. Ferguson nodded understandingly.

So, in the days that followed, the Texas government began to organize disaster relief efforts (mostly for show) while simultaneously going all out in the media to hype it up:

1. Emphasize that the hurricane caused only "insignificant" damage and miraculously no casualties! On the contrary, it brought abundant rain, greatly alleviating the drought in Texas. Therefore, the situation is very good and there is no need to worry!

2. They're wildly exaggerating how badly Texas was affected by the Great Depression and how severe the state's fiscal deficit was. Don't ask how they lost the money; the bottom line is, they're incredibly poor and have no money for disaster relief! They're strongly demanding federal government funding for relief.

3. Although Texas has no money for disaster relief, it has a large population and the locals have "strong organizational capabilities" and can carry out "foolproof rescue" if "there are sufficient funds"!

The combined meaning of these is:

Texas is doing fine, nothing's wrong! Stop worrying about it, federal government! If you really care about the people of Texas, then just give us money! If there's a disaster, we can handle it ourselves as long as we have the money!

Even a fool could see that Texas was clearly trying to fleece the federal government. As long as the money was in their accounts and they were in charge of disaster relief, who knew who the money ended up in.

There is no doubt that if Texas succeeds, it will be a severe blow to the prestige of the Springfield government and even the reputation of Springfield himself, and it will also trigger a group of "poor brothers" to follow suit:

Texas, a major economic region, is short of money, but Mississippi isn't short of money? Georgia isn't short of money?

I don't have any shortage in Florida? Huh...

Everyone looked in the direction of Washington.

But strangely, Springfield or Roosevelt did not get as furious as they had expected.

A White House spokesman simply responded, "Since Texas believes it can complete disaster relief work independently, the federal government respects and blesses their choice."

Then, the entire federal government acted as if nothing had happened and turned to other "more important" things, no longer caring about what Texas did - neither saying that it would not allocate funds nor that it would allocate funds.

This caused Texas' carefully prepared "life-threatening" moral kidnapping punch to hit directly on the cotton with no fulcrum.

After all, this is the United States in 1933, and the ideas of some giant babies in later generations in China are not recognized here.

Besides, it was Texas that said it had the ability to provide disaster relief, so it's only natural that the federal government shouldn't care about you!

But they weren't too disappointed - it didn't matter anyway.

Privately, Texas frequently circulates sour yet somewhat complacent remarks such as "The crowing of the rooster wakes up the sun."

Other states are watching from the sidelines, and haven't yet joined Texas in making a fuss. I have a feeling...this matter isn't that simple.

There was a sense of impending storm in the air.

Hurricane season isn't over yet...

Hurricanes 1, 2, 3, and 4 all quickly became a thing of the past. These hurricanes were either low-level (category 1/2) or primarily wreaked havoc in countries like Cuba and Mexico, and Americans paid little attention to them.

But starting with Hurricane No. 7, which formed in late July, things started to go wrong.

The weather observation ship sent back a chilling message:

This Category 5 hurricane, named "Cuba-Brownsville," reached a strength of at least Category 5! The maximum wind speed near the center exceeded 260 kilometers per hour!

The hurricane left devastation in Cuba:

At least 70 people died, hundreds of people were missing, more than 15 people were left homeless, and all industries suffered losses exceeding $1100 million!

Now, all the remaining doubts about Springfield vanished completely. Without advance preparation, the losses in the coastal states of the United States would have been even more devastating than those in Cuba.

But Texas remains calm and unfazed.

Because judging by the clear track of Hurricane No. 5, it was headed straight for Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida! It might even touch the edge of Louisiana, next to Texas!

So, when these states were urgently asking the federal government for help, and even asked Springfield to mobilize the U.S. Army or loyal NGW to enter the state to assist or lead disaster relief, Texas was still leisurely "wandering".

As planned, the governor took her former husband, the governor, on a speech tour, continuing to boast about Texas's "strength," mocking the federal government for being "stingy and not giving money," and secretly accusing President Springfield of "meddling in other people's business."

Then, something unexpected happened.