TENT CITY - EPISODE 6 - TECH
RUN-A-MOK
FADE IN:
EXT: SENATE OFFICE
BUILDING in DC - DAY
INT: OFFICE OF SENATOR
BUTSUKER – DAY
Senator BUTSUKER and
Senator SELURSOL, both close allies of the President are meeting with CHAD
SMITH, PRISHA CHOPRA and STEVE GEEKOS, the top three Silicon Valley tech giant
CEOs in regard to the Senators co-sponsored Chip Tracking Bill to implant micro
ID chips into the wrists of the remaining 25 million Tent City citizens.
BUTSUKER
Gentlemen, we have done
all we can. The Chip bill would make it through the Senate but the new House of
Representatives won’t even bring it to the floor for a debate!
SELURSOL
It’s true – this Bill is a
dead duck. We tried guys but we lost the House last election, and this is the
new reality.
CHAD
The reality is that we
collectively have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to your campaigns
since your party retook the Senate 8 years ago. That does not even include the
sweat equity of having our workers do all in their power to sway the elections
in your direction via our social media platforms. Therefore, we expect you to
follow through on your end of the bargain.
STEVE
Yeah – need I remind you
that we can easily tip the scales of mass media toward the other parties this
presidential election cycle unless…
PRISHA
Unless you re-introduce
another version of this bill, albeit with a few revisions to appease the masses
- just get the bill passed and signed by the president who also owes us big
time!
BUTSUKER
That’s simply not possible
– it’s an either/or Bill – either we implant chips in 25 million Americans, or
we don’t – there is no compromise. We packaged and presented the Bill with the
selling points we all agreed to – eliminate cheating on receiving rations and
supplies, high efficiency ID chip technology to reduce waste and the time
waiting in lines and using the chips to help relocate Tent City residents. But
the American people are not buying it, and the available government research
data does not back up our claims!
SELURSOL
Yes, Senator Butsuker is
right – the key fob IDs are working fine, with virtually no reports of cheating
and studies have revealed that a microchip implant would only reduce time waiting
in lines by a few seconds – that the Tent City residents have said they will
gladly deal with rather than have a chip put in their arms.
BUTSUKER
And as far as your
corporate opaque reasons having to do with your main business interest in this
invasive Chip Bill, namely increasing your advertising revenues by tracking 25
million consumers 24/7. Yet the US government does this already through the
keyfob tech that have GPS and radio frequency tagging to track the Tent City residents’
movements. This information is kept under lock and key with the highest-level
quantum encryption by a bi-partisan commission to ensure citizens’ privacy will
be protected until the temporary disaster laws are rescinded. This tracking was
only allowed based on the Patriot Act 3, which will surely be revised in the
near future as the American public is growing impatient with all the post flood
disaster legislation that curbs their basic rights and freedoms.
SELURSOL
Furthermore, the House is full
of new Progressives and Green Party members again – and they are looking to
shake things up with the majority of citizens behind them. Senator Butsuker and
I will be lucky if get reelected in this current atmosphere. Let’s face it –
you guys and Ms Chopra only supported us and the president with donations to
our campaigns to eventually get this Chip Bill through so you could make back
some of the advertising fortune you lost decades ago when the Progressives
passed the Data as Labor Act, and you lost millions of users, were forced to erase massive amounts of
people’s personal data and had to compete with new players switching to mostly
monthly subscription plans for your vastly smaller customer base. Not nearly as
lucrative as the 24/7 advertising dollars you reaped for decades in exchange
for billions of peoples’ free private data.
STEVE
Senator – what you say may
contain some truth, but with all due respect you are not telling us anything we
do not already know about the Chip Bill and its merits or lack thereof. We
initially offered to take charge of the government keyfob technology for no
charge but a few Democratic Socialists and Progressive holdouts in the Senate
and House prevented it from happening. Needless to say, we could not support
their grass roots campaigns by their own choice and thus the disagreeable
outcome. You and Senator Butsuker’s job was to convince the congress and
American people that our three-way corporate chip endeavor was the best path
forward and you have failed. And FYI - we survived the Data as Labor Act because
our companies’ acquisition portfolio was big and diverse – even having been
accused of being monopolies by a Senate Judiciary Committee years ago. So, we
simply moved our different companies’ headquarters to other, more hospitable
countries with much lower tax rates as well. Therefore, not having to break up
our huge syndicates and lower tax rates – a win-win for us!
BUTSUKER
Yes that was very
patriotic of you all (sarcasm).
PRISHA
Need we remind you Senators
that the President and some of his top advisors supported the Chip Bill because
it would have served as a national security tool to monitor the Tent City
residents for weapons, something that your gov keyfobs cannot do - in case of
an armed uprising?
SELURSOL
And as you know there are
no guns allowed in the Tent Cities and all residents have to go through metal
detectors upon entering the facilities and there has been no uprisings whatsoever
in the year plus these Tent Cities have existed, which is another strong reason
why this argument holds no water. The only violent clashes have been with
outside local militias and the private police forces.
CHAD
What about all the
long-term plans this President’s administration endorsed, which includes you
and Senator Butsuker - such as tracking the ignorant social behaviors of the
poor receiving welfare? This surely is an easy sell to the other 50% of hard-working,
healthy Americans paying high taxes carrying these sick deadbeats and drug
addicts on their backs? Ideas like the drug testing, smoking, soda and junk
food penalty deductions saving the taxpayers billions, or catching disability
cheaters? Billions in tax revenues that could be applied toward education and
infrastructure for all citizens?
BUTSUKER
Yes, yes, yes. We see the
merit in these ideas but most of the American public shares one value more than
any other – their love of their rights and freedoms. All the polls show a majority
claims this Chip Bill is an intrusion of their 4th amendment right
to privacy and unreasonable search and seizures etc. And the ratio of poor
welfare recipients in these Tent Cities is the same as the general public –
around 20% - with another 30% lower middle class receiving some type of extra government
assistance in addition to UBI and Social Security and the remaining 50% are the
middle middle class that had little or no savings to deal with disasters like
the floods.
PRISHA
Yes – we know all the
facts and figures Senator – we are just very disappointed that your
administration could not get this Bill through before the new congress took
over.
SELURSOL
You all know that would
have been impossible on top of all the other extreme safety measures the
President pushed through congress after the great floods that the general
public is up in arms about – the curfew, limits on people’s movements and
suspending Habeas Corpus were as much messing with basic freedoms as the
American people could take – to add on your Chip implant – that you originally
had the audacity to suggest being done to all 430 million US citizens - would
have been the straw that broke the camel’s back and we would surely have had an
armed uprising on our hands!
STEVE
Well nonetheless – you did
not come through for us si-ne qua non, thus this chapter of quid pro quo
election cycle monies and help on our media platforms is over. Never mind
potential future cushy high paying lobbying jobs.
BUTSUKER
We don’t use those
incriminating Latin terms around here – because it’s illegal gentlemen! As for
future lobbying job prospects – let’s not be hasty! Surely there are other
Bills that we could push through in the next few months that are more realistic
and bi-partisan and still valuable to your companies’ bottom lines? You once
mentioned a merger between all three of your companies into one massive
multi-national corporation – maybe we could make that happen through the FTC
and DOJ channels along with the president working together – while we still can?
CHAD
That train has come and
left the station Senators.
STEVE
Not necessarily Chad – we
did recently discuss an all-out takeover of the multi-trillion dollar Virtual
Reality market – because content is now King again and I own most of the most
popular content studios, and Chad – you make the best-selling VR headset
hardware and Prisha’s company still has the patent for 7 years on the best 3D
optic software technology.
PRISHA
That’s true Steve – we
already own a significant portion of the market between the three of us and
seeing as all the pieces are in place to dominate this vital commercial space –
it would make sense to make this happen to get back some of the fortune we
invested in elections and wasted on the Chip plan over the last decade.
CHAD
All right, all right – but
we will need some more time to discuss this privately and get back to you Senators
about our decision. There is also the issue of whether we will support you in
the next elections – which does not look good for your party as it stands right
now. It would obviously be contingent on this merger deal going through if and
when we decide to move forward with it.
SELURSOL
Well, you all better
decide ASAP because there’s only a few months left before the election and
that’s a minimum amount of time to try to get through such a huge and
controversial and some would even say illegal merger through the FTC and DOJ.
STEVE
Yes – we will get back to
you in few days with our decision. Otherwise it’s adios amigos!
BUTSUKER
Very well then gentlemen,
concluding - we are all agreed that the Chip implant Bill is dead in the water
and could not be passed at this time. So, we will hopefully move forward on
this merger proposal to keep America on top in the global economy and keep our
mutually beneficial relationship with some of our most generous campaign donors
intact to the benefit of all parties involved.
ALL NOD CONSENT – CHAD,
STEVE & PRISHA EXIT ROOM
