Chapter 1055: The Unpredictable Antitrust Alliance

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The 1998 US midterm elections came to an end in November, that is, on the third day of this month. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just like the "seven-year itch" that tests marriage and love, there is a "six-year itch" phenomenon in American politics, that is, when the US president is re-elected, in the sixth year of his term, that is, in the second midterm election year of his term, his party will basically lose in both houses of Congress, or reduce the number of seats.

As a matter of fact, there is no need to strictly limit the conditions to the "six-year itch," and in the general sense of the midterm elections, since 1938, the parties to which successive US presidents belong have not escaped the role of this political ~ governing law.

In the latest midterm elections in 1994, US President Bill Clinton's Democratic ~ Democracy Party was defeated by the Republican ~ Republican Party, and then it was called the "Republican ~ Republican Revolution", forcing Bill Collinton, who had no support in both houses of Congress, to choose the "middle line."

With the "six-year itch" of politics ~ governance, the power of the "Republican ~ Republican Revolution" victory, and the incumbent President Bill Clinton is deeply involved in scandals such as "Whitewatergate" and "Zippergate", the Republican ~ Republican Party and observers have reason to believe that this year's midterm elections will allow the Republican Party to further expand its results.

But after the results of the mid-term elections came out, many people were surprised, and instead of being defeated on all fronts, the Democratic ~ Main Party regained its lost ground slightly.

In the Senate election, the Republican~Republican Party won Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio, and the Democrat~Main Party won New York, North Carolina, and Indiana.

The total number of seats in the Senate remained unchanged, setting a record for the smallest swing in the Senate in any midterm election.

In the House of Representatives election, the number of seats held by the Democratic ~ Main Party of the incumbent President Bill Collinton has not decreased, but has increased by five against the trend.

Although five seats is not much, this phenomenon that violates the "six-year itch" is a bit intriguing.

In Tang Huan's view, the main reason why there is a "six-year itch" in American politics is that after six years of service, successive presidents will inevitably hand in a disappointing domestic answer sheet.

The exception to this is Bill Clinton, who was fortunate enough to catch the unprecedented wave of the Internet and the widespread bull market it has brought with it.

This big cake has made countless people taste the sweetness, and the unemployment rate in the United States has hit a record low.

Such brilliant achievements in governance can be said to have reached the point where one handsome man covers all ugliness. The most realistic American people don't know how good it is to miss Bill Clinton.

On the other hand, the conservatives, who hated Bill Clinton to the core, further started the impeachment process after forcing the US president to admit to "zippergate" through television and in front of the whole American people.

This kind of chasing and killing Jedi is a bit too much.

The most realistic American people are not so easy to fool and are beginning to get tired of this kind of politics ~ governance ~ dumping.

To use a Chinese idiom to describe this delicate situation, it is "the extreme of things must be opposed".

Conservatives are starting to get annoying.

Similar to the almost unchanged structure of the two houses of the U.S. Congress, in this midterm election, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party ~ the main party divided the governors of various federal states, and the original ratio was also maintained, and the Republican ~ Party was even robbed of a governor's position by a small third party, that is, the governor of Minnesota.

To give a few examples: the incumbent governor of Texas, Booshi Jr., was re-elected, Jeb Bushi defeated the Democratic ~ Democracy Party rivals, leaving the Florida governorship in the hands of the Republican Party~, and Gray Davis defeated the Republican rivals and let the governor of California fall into the hands of the Democratic ~ Parties......

And so on, both sides lost a spot here, and then found a spot somewhere else, thus maintaining the same pattern.

However, this kind of unchanged is the same in the overall quantity, not the same as the subtlety of each specific candidate below, and it is actually still flowing metabolically, and the city head is changing the Great King Banner.

It was after the end of this dizzying game of power change that different voices began to emerge in the 20 federal states that followed the Justice Department in suing Zheru Software for its monopoly.

First, Jim Hunter, the governor of North Carolina who was home to the former headquarters of Bank of America, said: "Microsoft's acquisition of Sebeth shows that there is still plenty of effective competition in the software industry. That being the case, there is no need for North Carolina to waste taxpayers' money in the United States of America v. Zheru Software Inc. monopoly case. ”

As soon as the voice fell, Florida Governor Designate Jeb Buten, when facing reporters to talk about his policy measures after taking office next year, also mentioned, "It has been proven that the Department of Justice has sued Zheru Software for monopolizing the entire industry, abusing administrative power, and interfering with market freedom~. There is no need for Florida to waste resources for something like this, which is still controversial. ”

Then, South Carolina Governor-elect Jim Hodge also said: "The United States of America v. Zheru Software Monopoly case is no longer meaningful, and South Carolina has decided to withdraw." ”

Finally, Luo Jiahui, the current governor of Huashengdun Prefecture, where Microsoft and Amazon are located, announced: "After carefully listening to the assessment of industry experts, Huashengdun State no longer believes that Zheru Software Company monopolizes the industry, so it has decided to withdraw from this antitrust case." ”

In this way, the lineup of 20 federal states that sued Zheru Software for its monopoly quickly shrank by one-fifth.

The crowd that had been watching the excitement of US President Bill Clinton being sent to the chariot of impeachment was suddenly confused and could not find the north: this ...... What is the situation, and how did the anti-Zheru software company monopoly suddenly become so unpredictable?

Joel Klein, the Justice Department's prosecutor in charge of the United States of America v. Zheru Software Inc. monopoly case, said angrily: "I could have guessed with my eyes closed that Don used his influence to make public relations relations against those federal states." ”

Not long ago, the "New York Post", which made a fuss in the turmoil of the richest man's tax return, jumped out and echoed it: "That's right, it must be public relations." We got the news that the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics have received donations from Zheru Software. ”

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In the midst of this up-and-down hustle and bustle, the division of the anti-philosophical software company monopoly alliance is becoming more and more confusing.

Since Joel Klein suspects that Mr. The richest man has done something, the answer can only be given by Tang Huan himself.

As a result, the media began to chase and intercept Mr. The richest man.

It's just that once Tang Huan wants his ears to be clean, then he can see the head and not the tail of the dragon.

The richest man is busy, and according to the schedule, he will go to Asia next to attend the APEC summit and the 13th Asian Games in Funan, and before that, he will have to communicate with California Governor-designate Gray Davis.

One of the reasons why Gray Davis won this gubernatorial election is that he grasped the education issues that are most important to the people of California and promised to increase public education investment after his victory.

Thanks to the .COM bubble, California's fiscal revenue, unemployment rate and other data at this stage are quite good, so the main direction of governance is how to spend money and benefit the public.

Gray Davis's public education support policies include below the university level, while the Shennong Foundation's student assistance campaign has long focused on universities.

So in this meeting, the richest man said: Shennong Foundation will launch a scholarship program for high schools.

After a lot of friendly topics like this, we talked about a lot of them, and then we had a meal together, and the two sides ended the meeting successfully.

Next, the richest man is on Silicon Valley No. 1 and flies to Asia to attend the APEC summit, while Gray Davis, who is still serving as lieutenant governor, continues to plan his own ambitions.

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This year's APEC summit was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and there were quite a few eye-catching contents.

For example, Russia, which was also affected by the financial crisis, officially joined APEC.

Although the Asian financial crisis ended in the form of the "Great Miracle Day" of the Hong Kong stock market, it has left a lot of chicken feathers, which really needs to be cleaned up.

However, the media is more concerned about whether Funan and Java, whose relations have reached a freezing point due to the fierce military conflict that broke out a few months ago, will hold an official-level summit during this summit, and whether Tang Huan, the world's richest man and Chinese leader who has severely criticized Java, will engage with Javanese leaders at the non-governmental level.

Java is currently in the transitional government ~ government stage, the previous dictator has stepped down, and Habibie, who has only been vice president for more than two months at the time, succeeds him.

Habibie, who was equivalent to picking up a president, moved to Germany in 1955 at the age of 19, where he studied and worked for many years, and it was not until 1974 that the dictator recruited him back to Java to promote Java's industrialization.

It is conceivable that such a senior engineer has little ambition or achievements in Javanese politics, where corruption is rife and the rules of the game are opaque.

The dictator, who ushered in his seventh term in 1998, went to great lengths to announce his vision of a vice-presidential candidate, which he wanted to be an expert in nature and technology, and Habibie became the obvious choice, taking office on March 10 this year.

In addition to the unanimous condemnation of Chinese people around the world, Java was also ridiculed by the cable news network that killed a black journalist in the United States, as well as the protests of black people, and then felt the international pressure as if it were a substance, so that Java's complaints about the raid on Funan, the heavy damage to its own military facilities, and the war for Jakarta were almost ignored -- they deserved it, and they were beaten lightly!

Coupled with the severe impact of the Asian financial turmoil on the Java economy, the dictator, who already had a poor international image and was protested by the Canadian student crowd at the APEC summit held in Vancouver, Canada last year, and was embarrassed and angry to protest against Canadian Prime Minister Jean ChrΓ©tien, could not wait for Funan to lift the air military blockade and return to Java from Egypt, which had hid for meetings, but was unable to clean up the mess and inevitably ended up in resignation.

After Habibie stepped into the presidency from vice president, he naturally began to carry out reconciliation actions, such as publicly stating that the public ~ civil certificate that Chinese and other non-indigenous people must show in order to prove their public ~ civil rights is equivalent to an ID card.

Then, in September of this year, Habibie issued a presidential decree prohibiting the use of the terms "indigenous" and "non-indigenous" to distinguish between ethnic groups in Java.

In short, although it is a little "virtual", it is better to do it than not to do it.

It is precisely because of Habibie's measures that observers believe that Java is very likely to use the opportunity of this APCE summit to take the initiative to make some gestures to seek reconciliation.

You must know that all economies that have been tossed up and down by the Asian financial turmoil are trying to recover, but the ferocity of Java's extermination of humanity has made many international investors suspicious, and then there is nothing to talk about attracting investment and restoring the economy.

In fact, international pressure in Java doesn't stop there.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard told the media just before leaving for the APEC summit that he would support Timor-Leste to hold a referendum on independence ~ within ten years. International public opinion is also pressuring Java to establish self-determination on the question of East Timor.

It was in this embattled situation that Javanese President Habibie had a bilateral meeting with Funan Prime Minister Zheng Yuanzheng as expected by the outside world, and said at a press conference afterwards that Java would participate in the 13th Asian Games to be held in Funan in the near future, which was regarded as a clarification of the rumors that Java would boycott the Asian Games, which had been widely spread before.

Mr. The richest man also met with Habibie, but compared to the other party's contact with Funan, it was much more low-key and secretive, avoiding all media tracking.

On this occasion, Tang Huan did not shy away from speaking straightforwardly, pointing out straight to the point: "Mr. President, you should be glad that the Funan Navy has effectively attacked the military power of Java. Otherwise, there is a great possibility that you will now be overthrown by the Javanese military, and your life will be in jeopardy. ”

Habibie, who was said to be in the sore spot, had an ugly face. As Mr. Gain's richest man said, in the past few months, the son-in-law of the dictator in Java has tried to contact the remnants of the army to carry out a coup d'Γ©tat, but fortunately it has not succeeded.

Habibie replied with a stiff face: "This is our internal business, so I won't worry about it." ”

"You're absolutely right. Tang Huan nodded and said leisurely: "Whether you like the current presidential throne or not, you are actually in a dangerous situation. Because after all, you have been in Europe for so many years, and then many political ~ political ideas are in the eyes of Javanese conservatives. are all unacceptable. ”

"If you send your predecessor to the International Court of Justice, it will not only be a complete reflection and the recognition of the international community, but it will also sweep away the remnants of his power, ensure his own safety, and leave a strong mark on the progressive history of Java. ”

Habibie stared at Mr. the richest man expressionlessly, half speechless.

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Around the same time, California's governor-elect, Gray Davis, welcomed a special visitor.

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