MTLNOVEL Chapter 751: Slinging Mud
The mansion still had a TV...
Joe Ga found a TV in the reception room on the first floor, turned it on, flipped through the channels, and quickly found CNN.
There was a late-night program playing, similar to a live talk show.
Joe Ga really didn't expect that American election candidates would go so far as to appear on late-night shows.
When the TV came on, it happened to show Donald Depp pouting and talking about so-called 'political secrets'.
"There's an invisible hand manipulating America, their chosen candidates wasting taxpayers' money while taking funds from the Shah...
Those sons of bitches are betraying our country, he is betraying our people...
The private jet Rashiri is flying in now, I helped purchase it for her during my time with the Democrats, trust me, I know how greedy she is."
"sir, but Rashiri has published her tax returns..."
"Yes, I fucking avoided taxes through some means, but what of it? It only shows I'm smart.
And my lawyer told me, it's allowed by the law!
Am I the only one doing this?
There are people who took advantage of their positions and caused more harm.
I am stronger than all of them because I can even forgo my salary; I even rejected money from Wall Street, because I am who I am, I don't lack money."
"sir, according to our understanding, your reputation on Wall Street is quite average, so..."
"Who told you that, no one understands Wall Street better than I do, and nobody knows better than me how much money Wall Street took from the hands of the middle and lower classes.
People on Wall Street hate me, they fear I'll take their money and give it to the poor.
Buddy, our country shouldn't be like this, look at our industry, agriculture, unemployment rates, our people are starving.
Immigrants are taking the jobs that should belong to us, unreasonable tax systems have forced many businesses to move abroad...
Our country shouldn't be like this!
This country needs someone knowledgeable like me to manage it, to get it back on the right track.
Look at the mess the person in the White House has made...
Look at their current candidates...
oh shit, they only care about themselves, none of their policies really help the poor.
I can!
My business sustains tens of thousands of people, I have a successful track record, and I don't care about money so I can't be bought.
Look at the evidence published online, Rashiri took 40 million US Dollars from the Shah, she is selling our nation for money.
I don't know why the FBI hasn't acted by now, they should arrest both that Shah person and Rashiri...
I'm going to tweet the FBI director right now, you must remember to retweet and like, then you'll see how those bureaucrats operate..."
Joe Ga had always known that politics in Europe and America can be quite bare-knuckled, but the confidence and fervor displayed by Big Mouth Don still shocked him!
The dealings between Rashiri and Shah Intelligence Agency were leaked online by Thompson.
The incident is real, but the story is fabricated, yet the information online contains detailed financial transaction records.
Joe Ga is knowledgeable about the internet, an sensational news headline, creating a thrilling political mystery story, and mixing in some real information attracts a lot of attention.
This thing, whether Rashiri or Shah Intelligence Agency sees it, they have countless ways to invalidate the evidence and exonerate themselves, but the goal for Boss Joe isn't to convict Rashiri...
What if the story is made up? They can't withstand thorough investigation.
By now, the Shah people are probably buying plane tickets to flee, this burying of silver somewhere evident only adds to Rashiri's troubles.
Now it's election time!
America's elections sometimes resemble a talent show.
Candidates have their core bases and staunch supporters; right now, they need to win over the general public.
So in every level of elections in America, candidates will have a campaign team, their job is to brainstorm campaign strategies, schedule events, and so on...
But the most important, the starting point, is an impressive 'slogan'!
To put it bluntly, perhaps a large part of America doesn't truly care about the presidential agenda, their voting depends on which side they like more or hate less.
From Rashiri exposing Big Mouth Don's tax returns, the competition has become the most thrilling and exciting part of mud-slinging and tearing each other apart.
Whereas past politicians maintained some dignity, now Rashiri and Big Mouth Don have cast that aside.
Rashiri's tactics are low, but she hasn't realized, this kind of verbal battle is what Big Mouth Don is best at; because his political persona is relatively simple and unburdened with many conflicting interests, he dares to say many things Rashiri wouldn't.
The public loves watching a spectacle, especially one involving big figures.
In a real, structured debate, Big Mouth Don is no match for Rashiri.
This has nothing to do with eloquence, it's because Rashiri's team is more experienced than his, and more importantly, the media doesn't have a good impression of Big Mouth Donald, bias in live debates is practically a given.
Now Rashiri gave Big Mouth Donald a chance by dragging herself into the vortex of dirty water and trash talking, she's at a disadvantage when both sides start a race to the bottom!
The late-night talk show turned into Big Mouth Donald's program of slinging mud and self-praise…
Honestly, Joe Ga found Big Mouth Donald quite amusing when he spoke; the guy had a businessman's cunning and obviously, his tone and rhythm had been polished by experts and went through extensive training.
He always repeated the important things twice, and made sure to wait for laughter before continuing with his catchy jokes.
His speech never had filler words like 'uh', 'oh', 'ah' that came from hesitation, making him seem very confident when he spoke.
Plus, he always left everyone hanging at the end, forcing the media to pay attention to him while they tried to find answers.
For instance, at the end of the show, Big Mouth Donald tweeted right in front of the host, questioning why the FBI wasn't investigating Rashiri's election fund origins?
Then he left the show with a comment, "I'll tell you how the FBI responded tomorrow…"
After watching the show, Joe Ga couldn't help but download Twitter to follow Big Mouth Donald and liked his post.
This guy isn't a political strongman, but he definitely knows how to capture attention; he's absolutely suited for reality shows, oh no, for an election!
In the past, if you couldn't please TV media, you'd definitely be at a disadvantage during elections, but the rise of online media gave Big Mouth Donald a chance to bypass media conglomerates and forge a new battleground.
You biased, fake news-loving media don't matter; I have my own news channel,
In terms of online election campaigns, Rashiri is really no match for Big Mouth Donald, especially when both sides start attacking each other, Rashiri and her husband have too much dirty laundry!
After watching Big Mouth Donald's show, Joe Ga laughed heartily and dialed Thompson's number, instructing him to contact the SEAL Team Six members who had been sent back…
Those men were abandoned and still waiting for an explanation, but in reality, no one at the Pentagon was going to give them one, as no one there wanted to take responsibility.
The people rescued by Halliburton could initiate legal proceedings against the company, but that wasn't an option for SEAL Team Six members.
Without official recognition, they were just volunteering, 'voluntarily' going to rescue hostages captured by ISIS.
As for being 'accidentally bombed', that was because they were not known!
The "Hellhound" team's six-man tactical squad had their identities erased before departure, they couldn't even enter the Virginia SEAL Base now, not to mention getting explanations.
But now things are different, Big Mouth Donald's campaign slogan includes a project for securing benefits for retired disabled soldiers.
"Hellhound" and their teams are a bit different, but that doesn't stop Big Mouth Donald from stepping up to speak for them, anyway it's all about causing trouble for Rashiri.
…
Over at New Jersey Farm, although it's already late at night, the area around the small farm building is still bustling.
Hundreds of hastily welded cages aren't filled yet, those gang gunmen badly beaten by Jazz Squad, were dragged here, treated with basic medical aid, then locked in cages.
The only relatively intact captive now is that Russian fat man who guided boss Qiao.
Thompson sat on the couch watching the middle-aged white man, Bannon, making a call to Big Mouth Donald…
This guy, acting all teacher-like, directly criticized on the phone that Big Mouth Donald was being too conservative…
He believed to resonate with America's lower middle class, simply talking about mild stuff was useless; there needed to be more explosive content, maybe even directly targeting Rashiri's buttocks…
Thompson didn't like Bannon much because externally, this guy was the typical extreme right-winger.
Extreme right-wing is still the polite term, in reality, this guy was a downright racist 'Redneck'.
But Thompson knew that this was just a label Bannon set for himself.
Bannon was the executive chairman of an online news media, but he never sat in the office for a day; instead, he was always in Washington looking for opportunities.
He was a political creature that saw the potential of online media, lacking foresight and very greedy.
Eric approached him, hoping this guy could use his experience with online media to help integrate Big Mouth Donald's ideology and start its viral spread.
But now, Thompson felt that Bannon was a bit too full of himself.
And this guy had mentioned more than once, wanting to leverage Big Mouth Donald's influence to conduct public fundraising.
That event was called "Our Wall"!
That was the second bombshell Bannon found for Big Mouth Donald…
Everyone thought Big Mouth Donald was crazy to adopt this advice because he would lose all the votes from migrants in North and Central America.
Bannon convinced Big Mouth Donald with the 'bus theory', but the result was that though many opposed, even more supported.
The bus theory was that those who boarded first would have their living space encroached by those who boarded later.
Those first immigrants in America didn't want more fellows coming to encroach on their already discounted wage jobs.
It proved Bannon was right; this 'extreme' approach, aside from incurring verbal attacks from left-wing media, also drew vast support from the lower-middle-class white population.
Thompson, coming from an intelligence background, knew CIA's tactics well.
And Bannon's approach was to let Big Mouth Donald rise to power, even at the cost of tearing America apart.
Such an unscrupulous level was bound to provoke huge backlash.
Thompson felt he should warn this guy not to drag his boss into this…