America 1982-Chapter 599 - 131: Transferring Money in the Name of Freedom_2

Previously at the hearing hosted by Bradley, the FBI, which had been subservient and promised to continue the investigation into KeyBank, turned around and took two unlucky black Peruvian illegal immigrants who were nannies in Mike Bradley’s household for questioning. The tax authorities and immigration agencies also got involved.

The investigation found that Bradley paid the two illegal black workers a weekly salary of one hundred and fifty dollars, provided simple room and board, but made them do the work of four people, including gardener, chef, nanny, and driver. According to American employment standards, a trained professional nanny should have a minimum weekly salary of two hundred and fifty dollars. The congressman was only paying them three hundred dollars per week, yet forced the black illegal immigrants to complete the workload worth a thousand dollars that four people should be paid for.

Mike Bradley, who hadn’t even had the chance to host the second hearing on KeyBank that he was chairing, was instead scheduled to attend a hearing by the Congressional Judiciary Committee to explain his conduct to Congress.

Ever since that black man from California named Earl Rash accurately leaked the news of his meeting with leaders of the South African black liberation organization, Mike Bradley understood that someone was deliberately making trouble for him. Apart from the damn President who had been the CIA Director, who else could have gotten the details of his private meetings abroad?

Just because he had been urging Congress to boycott the President’s policies on South Africa, and for calling for attention to Mandela’s release, the President, who had close relations with the white financial magnates of South Africa, prepared to use the investigation into KeyBank as an opportunity to leave him discredited and force him out of Congress.

The nanny scandal was as a wake-up call, letting him know that resigning now would still be dignified. Otherwise, leveraging the current attention, the other party could release even more of his scandals. So, Mike Bradley straightforwardly held a press conference, publicly apologized to the people, and then announced his resignation, leaving Congress in disgrace.

The black population had one fewer target to confront, leaving only the New York Post, The Washington Post, and behind them, the Murdoch News Corp, who had taken in the four journalists responsible for the death of four black individuals.

In truth, the response of the two newspapers was not slow. When KeyBank had the five Native American tribal chiefs make an appearance, they immediately realized the problem. Their PR departments expressed their willingness to donate to Native American cultural protection associations and promised to increase coverage of the Native American community over the next two years, and swiftly terminated the contracts of the four white investigative journalists.

However, no matter what they did, it was wrong. Once the four investigative journalists were fired, Earl Rash immediately called on the Black Journalists Alliance, the Black Print Workers Union, and the Black Newspaper Delivery Workers Union to strike in solidarity with the four investigative journalists who had been scared into severe depression. The rationale was that the journalists shouldn’t bear all this; the real problem was that their employer forced them to do so. Murdoch’s news has always been like this—sensationalistic, eye-grabbing, and once trouble arises, employees are thrown under the bus.

The strike began in the early hours of the morning when a group of black print workers sabotaged the printing presses, preventing that day’s New York Post and The Washington Post from being published.

Also, due to the mass black worker protests blocking the newspaper buildings, top executives had to use helicopters to land on the rooftop helipads for access to their buildings. The interrupted printing operation could only be temporarily and expensively subcontracted to the America Newspaper Production Research Center in Oklahoma, from where printed papers were flown back to New York and Washington for distribution.

The owners of KeyBank, the five Native American tribal chiefs, donated to the striking unions on behalf of KeyBank, thanking them for all they had done to stand up for the oppressed Native Americans.

Countless American domestic newspapers and TV stations called this strike America’s Wapping incident. Everyone was focused on one issue— which major American political figure would step forward to play the role of Thatcher, who had helped Murdoch use military and police to beat workers and force the unions into submission.

To the disappointment of Americans who love to watch the excitement, from the beginning to the end, no politician stood up to speak for the News Corporation. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Because of the spiraling costs, Murdoch’s News Corp lost two hundred and seventy thousand and four hundred and twenty thousand US dollars respectively for each day they published newspapers. Either they continued to burn money on airlifting papers from afar and relying on helicopters for commuting, or they compensated the four severely depressed and mentally ill investigative journalists with exorbitant settlements, and met the various exaggerated conditions the unions took the opportunity to propose, such as reducing computerized printing, promising to add a thousand print worker jobs, and improving salaries and benefits.

The striking workers, receiving union funds to cover their expenses during the strike and facing no political intervention to dissuade them, sustained the strike for three months.

The eventual resolution saw the Federal news agency stepping in to facilitate a deal under the pretense of securing the distribution of well-known American newspapers and workers’ rights. The McCall Company, with a management team composed of 67% Black individuals, was orchestrated to acquire the New York Post and the Boston Herald. Similarly, Teed News Corporation, with a management team comprising 62% Black individuals, took over The Washington Post and several other regional papers, ensuring the creation of a thousand new printing jobs for people of color.

Earl Rash, who had led a massive mobilization of the Black lower class through BT Television Network and the Rainbow Organization during the whole affair, became a hot commodity within the California Democratic Party.

In March 1990, the moment to reap the benefits of the concessions made finally arrived when an amendment to the "Communications Act" regarding the definition of internet information was announced and passed in Congress, ushering in the information age.

KeyBank publicly announced that, given the controversy, the board had decided to put an absolute and thorough end to the disputed micro-entrepreneurial community loan practice. However, KeyBank’s enthusiasm for serving the underserved wouldn’t wane, and plans were underway to launch a new philanthropic initiative better aligned with the spirit of America’s freedom, universal values, and the American Dream.

Meanwhile, the trashy variety show "Leap to Success," directed by Stephen Binns, after more than half a year of reshooting, editing, and internal review, was finally ready to be aired.

The day before the premiere, Stephen made a special call to remind Tommy to watch it on time and casually mentioned the thoughts of KeyBank’s shareholders: "While the shareholders didn’t object, they were actually very dissatisfied with Jim’s announcement to halt the small loan business. The returns on that type of lending were incredibly high; besides, the government isn’t going to investigate the Native Americans, and even if they did, we could just put the blame on those five chiefs. No one understands why we had to stop it."

"With this project, we have to hand out real cash to those black people. If it weren’t for needing those black people to help me strike, do you think I’d be the kind of person willing to lend to them?" Tommy asked rhetorically.

"Although we provide the principal, don’t they pay us interest?" Stephen asked, puzzled.

"Right, that’s the whole point of why we need to upgrade this model. Before, we were lending our money to those black people and making them pay high interest. Now, taking advantage of the opportunity that people are questioning our high-interest loans, it’s just the right time to announce that we’ll no longer provide loans but instead make black people lend to themselves and then pay us the interest," Tommy explained.

"What do you mean?" Stephen asked.

"Jim and his team of economists are researching a project called ’water-drop fundraising.’ In simple terms, it means that we no longer use our own money to fund the black people to sell weed, they pool the money and give it to us, we then relay it to the entrepreneurial center, which lends it to other black people who aspire to high-risk entrepreneurship. This time we do nothing—no usury, no guilt by association—simply the innocent and kind-hearted gesture of assisting black people, in the name of freedom, to transfer money," Tommy instructed his servant to help him pack his clothes:

"For the specifics, you can ask Jim. He should be able to explain everything more clearly. I’m busy packing clothes right now."

"Shouldn’t you be sitting in front of the TV waiting to watch my variety show right now? Where are you going, on a vacation with Odelia?" Stephen asked curiously.

"No, I’m off to San Francisco to get Jason to move his ass, so I can take his place, and show those guys in Silicon Valley what Tommy has been up to and what I plan to do next," Tommy said.