Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline

It's been a while, I keep missing these with my schedule. Just skimmed, fun choice for President, someone who hasn't been in U.S. politics, just like Sanders OTL (and TTL except for Kentucky governorship); the public is probably used that that trend by now of Presidents without tons of experience, though of course Bellany had some TTL.

Glad the Colonel's capping off that fun life with a Nobel Prize; hope he makes it to 100.

I can see him with a line like George Burns said, planning a summit for right after his birthday and quipping that he has to make it to 100 becasue he's booked.
 
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OK, So I'm happy about Cage playing Batman since, in a weird way, it really does fit him, but this needs to be said. Superman Lives/Reborn. It NEEDS to happen here, preferably in 1996 or somewhere thereabouts. It SHOULD, by all rights, happen and be successful under the right circumstances. Preferably as a combination of The Dan Gilroy Script and the Reborn Version 2 script with Kevin Smith's casting choices. Jackie boy deserves the Luthor gig after losing the Joker role. Hell, let's have DC adapt the whole Justice League with multiple directors. We could have Morgan Freeman as Martian Manhunter. In all likelihood, you could have a Justice League movie by the summer of 1998.
 
Here's hoping that ITTL Warner didn't alienate Robin Williams in their attempts to get Nicholson as the Joker. Because frankly, he'd be perfect as the Riddler.
 
Here's hoping that ITTL Warner didn't alienate Robin Williams in their attempts to get Nicholson as the Joker. Because frankly, he'd be perfect as the Riddler.

That'll happen, only if WB puts a leash o Tim Burton and prevents him from making the next Batman Film too dark.

One has to wonder. Will there still be a place for Beavis and Butt-Head in Bellamy's America? Regardless, I'm hoping she'll push through UHC by 1990, or at the very most, 1991. Needless to say, once it becomes law, maybe even an amendment, the Libertarians will do everything to make her presidency a living hell for her. :(
 
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That'll happen, only if WB puts a leash o Tim Burton and prevents him from making the next Batman Film too dark.

One has to wonder. Will there still be a place for Beavis and Butt-Head in Bellamy's America? Regardless, I'm hoping she'll push through UHC by 1990, or at the very most, 1991. Needless to say, once it becomes law, maybe even an amendment, the Libertarians will do everything to make her presidency a living hell for her. :(

I think Denton's scandal plagued administration has created enough disdain for the system that something as anti-authority as Beavis and Butthead could come out.
 
I think Denton's scandal plagued administration has created enough disdain for the system that something as anti-authority as Beavis and Butthead could come out.

I'd agree with you, only the rules have changed significantly. Carol and her bunch are in charge now. Effectively, they are the establishment and being who she is, things are going to change drastically. I can't even begin to guess what this version of the 90s is going to be like culturally. I know what the 70s were like under Mondale. Basically like OTL's 1980s only more left-wing. TTL's 80s...It's a hugely different ballpark. It's like a strange combo of the teen rebellion of Gen X mixed with the economic boom of the post-1991 US, mixed in with 2 and 1/2 of the more recognizable cultural aspects of OTL's 80s and the various scandals of the Nixon administration with Kemp, IMO, pretty much playing the role of an 80s Gerald Ford. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that this 90s will be an extension of the mid 90s punk, Britpop and Indy/Björk experimental scene, mixed in with the Y2K, Techno dance, teenybopper dance band crazy, frosted tips futurism of the latter part of the decade right from the get-go. Those surreal Anti-Ads from 1994 to 2000? Expect a ton more of them. With a progressive like Bellamy in charge, advertisers will have to get a lot more creative to get people to buy what they're selling. In fact, expect movies and entertainment, in general, to get a lot more futuristic and artsy from 1990 onwards because we're going to some wonderful places under Bellamy.

With all of this in mind, it'd be wonderful, for me, if the boy band ''Take That'' somehow made it big in the states with their biggest hit of 1992.

 
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I'd agree with you, only the rules have changed significantly. Carol and her bunch are in charge now. Effectively, they are the establishment and being who she is, things are going to change drastically. I can't even begin to guess what this version of the 90s is going to be like culturally. I know what the 70s were like under Mondale. Basically like OTL's 1980s only more left-wing. TTL's 80s...It's a hugely different ballpark. It's like a strange combo of the teen rebellion of Gen X mixed with the economic boom of the post-1991 US, mixed in with 2 and 1/2 of the more recognizable cultural aspects of OTL's 80s and the various scandals of the Nixon administration with Kemp, IMO, pretty much playing the role of an 80s Gerald Ford. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that this 90s will be an extension of the mid 90s punk, Britpop and Indy/Björk experimental scene, mixed in with the Y2K, Techno dance, teenybopper dance band crazy, frosted tips futurism of the latter part of the decade right from the get-go. Those surreal Anti-Ads from 1994 to 2000? Expect a ton more of them. With a progressive like Bellamy in charge, advertisers will have to get a lot more creative to get people to buy what they're selling. In fact, expect movies and entertainment, in general, to get a lot more futuristic and artsy from 1990 onwards because we're going to some wonderful places under Bellamy.

With all of this in mind, it'd be wonderful, for me, if the boy band ''Take That'' somehow made it big in the states with their biggest hit of 1992.


Maybe we could see something significant shifts in cultural: maybe the TTL West Wing will show a woman President. Maybe we could see openly gay and more diverse characters in fiction.
 
Maybe we could see something significant shifts in cultural: maybe the TTL West Wing will show a woman President. Maybe we could see openly gay and more diverse characters in fiction.
I’d cast Kate Mulgrew as the President of TTL’s West Wing/West Wing equivalent. She frankly deserves better than the often mediocre writing of Voyager.
 
I’d cast Kate Mulgrew as the President of TTL’s West Wing/West Wing equivalent. She frankly deserves better than the often mediocre writing of Voyager.
Assuming Brannon and Braga; the Voyager writers, don’t take a job writing Ttl west wing. You never know when Alternate history is concerned.
 
Assuming Brannon and Braga; the Voyager writers, don’t take a job writing Ttl west wig. You never know when Alternate history is concerned.
Personally, the one most responsible for Voyager and especially Enterprise being terrible was Rick Berman. Put Brannon and Braga under someone more competent than Berman and they'd be better.
 
Great timeline! Some really interesting choices for president (besides Sanders of course), never heard of Bellamy before this timeline, but she seems to be a great choice for the presidency. I also couldn't help but notice this:

…Gaddafi’s sentence of incarceration was unique because he was recognized as an international criminal. As a result, his trial sparked a conversation at the United Nations that ultimately led to the UN Detention Unit being established in Helmond, a city in the province of North Brabant in the southern part of The Netherlands, in 1991. In the meantime, Gaddafi began his prison term at Guantanamo Bay, a US Navy Base located in Cuba. …Gaddafi was relocated to Helmond in 1992…

It's not often that my hometown shows up on alternatehistory.com, so I'm happy that it shows up even if it's just a place to dump Gadaffi. Was it a random choice or did you choose it because of it's name?
 
It was a combination of the name and its geographical location; from what I could tell, it's not too isolated but not too close to a dense population center, either. Is this right?

The Netherlands are rather small and densely populated, besides some areas in the northeast it's hard to describe anywhere as isolated. Helmond certainly isn't, it has 4 train stations and it's right next to Eindhoven, which is the largest city outside the west of the country (after Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht). Eindhoven also has the second largest airport of the country. So it isn't really correct, but it's no big problem, I'm sure Gaddafi would hate it here.
 
1990 is going to be a great year, but I can't wait to see what happens next. Bellamy is bucking so many well known American political stereotypes. The ''Family Figure'' thing, the smiling, faux-charisma, talk less, smile more thing. It's so strange yet, so right. Colonel Sanders is going to die soon, I think. The guy is 99 years old, can barely walk and has to sit down more often than stand. At this point, death would be merciful. At any rate, I'd really love to see a third party come into power come 1996. Ironic as it may sound, I feel as if Bellamy would encourage a multiple party system. Ron Paul Could very well become president 41 in the late 90s. It could work if there's a huge libertarian exodus from the Republican Party to the Libertarian Party.
 
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I just had an idea on how to make Beavis and Butt-Head work in Bellamy's America. Just make the show about the High School, after all, the Simpsons have already been retconned so why not do the same for this show? Kinda make it like an early to mid-90s Daria with Beavis and Butt-Head as side characters. It'd basically be like a Gen X, cartoon take on the traditional Saved by the Bell style teen Drama/Comedy, but without the usual glamour and over idealism. More gritty and Chaotic.
 
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Chapter 61: January 1990 – July 1990
Chapter 61: January 1990 – July 1990

“There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there.”

– Colonel Sanders [1]



“How’s the saying go? Hospitals are dangerous – people die in those places all the time!” Father joked only half-heartedly. The truth was that the increasingly frequent visits to doctor’s offices and hospital rooms unnerved him. In June of the previous year, he had learned he was suffering from leukemia. His physicians informed him that he was now more susceptible to bladder and kidney infection, a condition often related to leukemia treatment as it can have the side effect of reducing a person’s ability to fight infection. [2] Adding this to the diabetes and high blood pressure made Father know that he was “not too long” for this world, as he grimly framed it.

Nevertheless, the family insisted on him taking chemotherapy and blood transfusions. With a typical recovery time of seven weeks (four weeks of chemo, then three weeks for bone marrow recovery), during which time the patient is basically confined to the hospital, Father had his hospital room include a phone and rolodex near the bed in order for him to continue monitoring KFC operations and stay in touch with his friends and family members…

– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991


b9PfvSZ.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/b9PfvSZ ]
– Colonel Sanders with family members, date unspecified



“BLACK JANUARY”: Recession Returns As Market Drop Ends 11 Years Of Growth

The Wall Street Journal, 1/18/1990



FEDERAL RESERVE CUTS RATES TO OFFSET RECESSION IMPACT

Washington, D.C. – The Federal Reserve today announced a “minor” cut to interest rates in order to lower the effects of the recent economic downturn that began late last month…

The Washington Post, 1/19/1990



…the recession that ended 11-and-a-half years of growth most likely came about from a combination of several factors. Laying at the feet of Presidents Denton and Kemp was their tax cuts for the upper classes, the long-term effects of investors being weary of market unreliability during the Second Ark Wave, and, most prominently, their support of policies that deregulated the markets in 1981, 1985 and 1987. Other economists, on the other hand, pointed to runaway inflation going unchecked. Others still, in an early rebuke of President Bellamy, claimed the federal government’s reforms and massive public welfare endeavors were hurting the national debt despite operating costs for new education measures being less expensive than they were before.

Disregarding the unhelpful voices of critics, Bellamy responded to the situation pragmatically by immediately supporting the introduction of stimulus packages into the financial system, a “tax shift” from the middle classes to the “lower upper” class, and a federal bailout for small businesses. While calling for a protection of unemployment insurance during the “moment of mandatory action,” Bellamy also sought to offset conservatives lambasting the “snob snub package” (a phrase coined by Bellamy ally Charles Albert James) by coming to the defense of the Negative Income Tax Rebate, a GOP talking point that was overwhelmingly popular. However, by admitting the average American was kept afloat in times of hardship by the NITR, Bellamy made herself vulnerable to long-held claims that additional government benefits such as food stamps were unnecessary…

– Doris Helen Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership In Turbulent Times, Simon & Schuster, 2018



AL GORE JR.’S LATEST FILM EXPOSES THE GRIM FLAWS IN OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

…Gore’s second documentary, “Get Well Soon” does not promote Universal Healthcare so much as it instead focuses on the shortcomings and complicated bureaucracy of our health and both the corruption and innovations of the pharmaceutical industries. …in the third act, Gore Jr. follows his father, long-time US Senator Al Gore Sr., around the nation’s capital, and in a scene that is both touching and foreboding, the elder Gore must follow government protocol and cannot get his son, or Jr.’s film crew, into a meeting with lobbyists and two unidentified Congressmen... By being less polished, the film’s raw and unedited documentation of how our current system has negatively affected several case studies – from genetic disorders to accident survivors – makes for a dramatic and shocking exhibition of the America’s current health care system without falling into the UHC camp or expressing sympathy for socialism. Gore Jr.’s ability to thread this needle demonstrates how far the former journalist has progressed as a filmmaker…

Variety magazine, 1/27/1990 film review



POWERING VENEZUELA: Will Petkoff’s Investments Pay Off?

…President Petkoff is aiming to make his nation a stable powerhouse in the region via financing in the oil, natural gas, wind and solar energy industries. Capitalizing on his high approval ratings, Petkoff’s shifting of the nation’s economy could prove instrumental in Venezuela’s future, especially if it is a success… One Venezuelan company is researching the possibility of harnessing the power of lightning due to the high number of lightning strikes that hit Lake Maracaibo due to Catatumbo Lightning. An atmospheric phenomenon unique to the nation’s northwestern coast, storm clouds produce lightning strikes that occur 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour [3]. “The technology is still in its infancy, but there is still promising potential there,” says the scientist leading the company’s R&D department... Public and political support for the energy policies initiated last year comes from their apparent ability to cut down on previously-rising unemployment numbers, which, as studies have shown, are most likely tied to the influx of refugees from war-torn Colombia next door…

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 29/1/1990



“While the second successive quarter was not as bad as the first, the GDP still fell. …The unemployment rate reached a high of 7.3% in February. Not nearly as bad as it was in 1979, when it peaked at 8.2%, but it was still disconcerting for Bellamy. …The 1989-90 recession affected talks about UHC, though, it changed the dynamics of it all. It made the idea of a healthcare “safety net” become more popular with the average American, as poll after poll showed, even as Bellamy slowly but surely dragged us out of the recession.”

– Former US Treasury Secretary E. Gerald Corrigan, KNN interview, 2001



THE COLONEL KNIGHT?! Colonel Sanders Awarded Honorary Knighthood!

…The Chicken King, former US President Colonel Sanders, was bestowed the award of Honorary Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his “decades of dedication to improving US-UK and international relations across the globe.” According to the UK’s The Guardian, “Sir” Harland Sanders received the award in London, with The Colonel traveling to the U.K. after he was informed that he was receiving the honor two weeks ago. The honorary title is given only to those that the U.K. honors system recognizes for “exceptional achievement and service to the nation,” performed by non-British nationals, particularly for “their important contribution to British interests.” The Guardian states “all British honors are awarded on merit, and honorary awards are conferred by HM The Queen on the advice of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Secretary. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire was founded in 1917.” According to the rules that come with this award, The Colonel cannot use the prefix “Sir,” but can use the suffix “KBE” should he desire to do so…

The New York Post, 2/2/1990



“…the debate on the hill right now is on whether or not the UHC bill needs additional amendments regarding the extent of free and full coverage and the ability to opt in or out of a system meant to cover everyone. Some other figures on the hill, though, such as House Minority Leader Robert Smith Walker question such discussion at a time when millions of Americans are still reeling from the economy situation at the moment…”

– White House correspondent for CBS, 2/12/1990 broadcast



The President turned off the TV set, cutting off Buckley's rant mid-sentence. “Can you believe that man?” she remarked. “‘Without financial incentive, people won’t be careful with their health?’ He’s saying Americans are too stupid to keep themselves out of harm’s way! The contempt of that cynic; what a snob!”

“Though he does make one good point, UHC will be a major expense for the federal government,” noted the middle-of-the-road Chief Economic Policy Advisor Charles Albert James, sitting across from the President on the end of the counch. “And if the Balanced Budget Amendment takes affect before we can even get UHC off the ground, it would be even worse.”

Commerce Secretary Young sat on the other side of the half-circle of Oval Office seats. Likely panicking over the recent talk of siphoning away funding from federal departments to pay for UHC (“A bone to small-government supporters,” Defense Secretary Lagomarsino called it), he eventually jumped into the discussion with the notion, “We can afford this expense! The Commerce Department is underfunded as is!”

Before Bellamy could calm Young’s nerves, Labor Secretary Nader replied, “Well we certainly can’t cut funds for my department.”

Interior Secretary Anaya chimed in as well. “My department’s also too important to take a budget cut, either!”

“How?” Nader remarked with a bit of doubt and even less politeness, “Did the recession leave several hundred thousand rocks unemployed, too?”

Before the arguing could continue on any further, Bellamy intervened, “Alright, stop it, stop it now. Fighting will get us nowhere.” Everyone quickly apologized for letting the situation "get" to them.

After further, calmer discussions on how to best fund UHC funds equally, the decision ultimately came down to the gutting of certain programs provided by Medicare and Medicaid, as said programs would be made obsolete by the passage of UHC.

– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018



[Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc. CEO Lee] Cummings retired after nine years on the job that Lee described as “rewarding but very tiring.” We initially considered Floyd “Sonny” Tillman [4], the head executive of Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc.’s Barbeque Steakhouse franchise since 1967 (replacing inaugural executive John Y Brown Jr.), only to learn that Tillman himself planned to retire soon, and would only serve as an interim capacity.

Ultimately, the board settled on James A. Collins (b. 12/20/1926) for CEO. Jim Collins actually had roots to Pop that ran even deeper than Tillman’s. Collins originally worked in the burger business, opening up “Hamburger Handout” in 1952. Collins was inspired to open a hamburger store after meeting Richard and Maurice McDonald. However, in February 1960, Jim went to Louisville, Kentucky, met Pop, and started selling Kentucky Fried Chicken at his hamburger stores, Hamburger Handout. In 1961, Jim partnered with two associates and opened three take home Kentucky Fried Chicken stores, in Anaheim, Tustin and Costa Mesa, California. Jim became good friends with the Colonel and started helping him train new franchisees and eventually became the southern California agent for KFC. Between 1962 and 1968, Jim opened 240 KFCs for the Colonel, of which his company, Collins Foods International, owned and managed 33 stores.” [5] With a resume as impressive as that, it was not at all a surprise when he became a board member of FLG Inc. in 1969, where he oversaw the introduction of the Wendyburger into South American markets during the 1970s and 1980s. With his promotion to CEO, Collins became the first non-relative of the Sanders family to head the company, a position from which he hoped to continue Pop’s legacy.

6W3FEbR.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/6W3FEbR ]
Above: Collins, with Claudia and Pop, years earlier.

– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000



As the nineties began, only more Canadian comedies entered prominence in American entertainment. With Canadian TV, and even British comedies, becoming big hits in the US, celebrities such as William Shatner, John Candy, Steve Smith (two-time winner of the International Comedians Award), Carol Kane, SNL’s Matt Frewer and CSTV’s Dave Foley experienced a boon in their careers during this decade…

– James A. Miller and Tom Shales’ The Comedy Wars: SNL vs. CSTV, Vanguard Publishing, 2016 edition



On February 24, 1990, the emergency spending bill failed to pass the House, with only 211 of the 235 Democrats and 3 of the 198 Republicans voting in favor of it. This was due to conservative Democrats led by Congressman Bill Lipinski voicing over the practicality of the “tax shift.” The nay-saying Democrats joined several Republicans in questioning the fiscal responsibility of the Bellamy administration, claiming that the emergency spending, plus the allocation of non-emergency funds for projects such as the UHC bill, would place the federal government in the red, in violation of the Balanced Budget Amendment (expected to become into effect in January 1991, as soon as one more state legislature approved it). …As economic recovery efforts slowed, Father openly criticized the instigators of the congressional gridlock. From his hospital bed in Louisville, Father said in a February 27 guest call-in spot on Meet the Press, “Politicians are increasingly acting like they never went to school and don’t know how to get along. Ain’t that ironic – I didn’t even finish school and I’m thinking I’m twice as smart and thrice as wise as these stubborn ineffective college-educated mules! Those suits in D.C. have to kick their lobbyist puppet-masters where the sun don’t shine and get back to doing the work they were elected to do!”

– Harland David “Harley” Sanders Jr., In the Thick of It: The Story of The Colonel and His Son, Sunrise Publishing, 1991



UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE: Breaking Down What It Is And How It Would Work In The U.S.A.

DUNHAM: …we are determined to pass it before congress’ summer recess at the latest, that is the plan. We currently have a National Health Insurance-type model, while this bill would make it into a single-payer system. This differs from, say, Germany’s Social Health Insurance model because it doesn’t force everyone to buy insurance. In my eyes, to force people to do that would be socialist.

JONES: So it would be like the UK’s?

DUNHAM: It’s an Americanized version of the UK’s. More individual freedom would be involved here.

[snip]

DUNHAM: Studies show that preventive care reduces the need for expensive emergency room usage. Without access to preventive care, 46% of emergency room patients went because they had no other place to go. They used the emergency room as their primary care physician. This health care inequality is a big reason for the rising cost of medical care. [6]

JONES: Well, a clinic is a health center smaller than a hospital where patients that are less sick can go and do not stay overnight. If emergency rooms are really being misused, wouldn’t it be easier, cheaper and simpler to expand the number of general clinics instead of completely overhauling our current system?

DUNHAM: It’d be cheaper but it wouldn’t be better, because that would not address any of the many other flaws in the current system…

[snip]

JONES: So on one hand, universal coverage would lower health care costs for the economy, but on the other hand, it would force hospitals and doctors to provide the same standard of care at low cost?

DUNHAM: There’s more to it than that.

JONES: So what exactly is the standard of low-cost care?

DUNHAM: That's exactly my point. That’s another concern, how high should the standards be? I think UHC would free up a lot of expenses, though, so it would not be any sort standard, but, again, we really should see what the final bill ends up looking like.

JONES: How would it free up expenses, and what expenses?

DUNHAM: It would eliminate administrative costs.

JONES: How?

DUNHAM: By eliminating the need to deal with private insurance.

JONES: Unless conservative Democrats get that amendment attached that allows people to opt out of the system for private insurance, correct?

DUNHAM: Um, yes, that is correct.

[snip]

At the time of this interview, Senate support for the bill broke down as follows: 46 (Basha, Schroeder, Sanford, Hatfield, Uccello, Dodd, Mink, Inouye, Church, Simon, Dixon, Hall, Lugar, Jespen, Hughes, Wetherby, Sanders, Muskie, Masterton, Sarbanes, Chiles, Mikulski, Kennedy-Shriver, Growe, Dayton, Kelly, Bradley, Sorensen, Peabody, Beaulieu, Jimenez, Mondragon, Pell, Rockefeller, Galifianakis, Stokes, AuCoin, Gore, Richards, Hoff, Kunin, Unsoeld, May, La Follette, McGee, R. Byrd) support it, 31 (Smith, Hansen, Kassebaum, Dole, Holloway, Roemer, Lousma, Franklin, Meredith, Hatch, Laxalt, Vucanovich, McDermott, Mochary, Wilkinson, Edwards, Thurmond, Hollings, Baker, Paul, Moss, Garn, H. Byrd, Obenshain, Raese, Engeleiter, Wold, Garner, Biden, Roth, Armstrong) oppose it, and 23 (Heath, Murkowski, Goldwater, Tucker, Fulbright, Nixon, Obledo, Bilirakis, Nunn, Skandalakis, Weld, Peterson, Mudd, Williams, Biaggi, Link, Conrad, Glenn, Richardson, Casey, Schneider, Pressler, Farrar) are undecided.

The Atlantic, newspaper interview with US Health and Welfare Secretary Dunham, 2/28/1990 issue



HOUSE AGREES ON REVISED EMERGENCY SPENDING BILL, PASSES 223-210-1

…seven liberal and moderate Republicans crossed the aisle in a last-minute showing of bipartisanship…

The Washington Post, 3/4/1990



BELLAMY BACKS ESTATE TAX OVERHAUL BILLS TABLED FOR THIS FALL

The Washington Times, 3/8/1990



While Canada’s international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions had increased dramatically after the end of Cold War under the direction of Chretien and Copps, the Canadian was hit by the American stock market downturn in late 1989 and early 1990, causing voters to focus more on domestic accomplishments of late as the latest general election approached.

On March 12, [1990,] Copps faced off against Ed Broadbent of Progressive Tomorrow, Erik Nielsen of the Progressive Conservatives, and Pierre-Marc Johnson of the new Quebec Party, created in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Chretien-Bourassa Talks of the previous year. In what is considered to be a surge of conservative backlash to Copps’ “extremist” reparations to Native Canadian groups, Nielsen obtained a plurality of the vote, and collaborated with Pierre-Marc Johnson to obtain a working minority government by the 14th. Copps underperformed, but not as badly as Broadbent, who eventually stepped down as party leader of the results.

“Yukon Erik,” age 66, had risen to prominence during the PC party’s long period of opposition during most of the 1980s. Representing Yukon in Canadian Parliament for over 32 years, since December 1957, Nielson was considered a lucid and experienced lawmaker with a blunt, straight-forward campaigning style that appealed to most rural, most conservative, some suburban, and some moderate voters. Furthermore, him being from neither Ontario nor Quebec led to him and his party gaining ground in both provinces.

Hollywood was abuzz over the news that long-time film actor Leslie Nielsen’s brother is now the next Prime Minister of Canada. His election, and his entering of the office on March 30, raised public interest in the career of his younger brother Leslie, and it also renewed interest in the 1985 CBS mockumentary “The Canadian Conspiracy”…

– Richard Johnston’s The Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, UBC Press, 2017



TORNADOES RIP THROUGH GREAT PLAINS IN FIVE-STATE SWEEP

…spanning from Texas to Iowa, an outbreak of 64 deadly tornadoes that began two days ago seems to have finally dissipated… While only 1 death has been reported so far, dozens have been injured and millions of dollars of damages have befallen numerous towns in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa… Vice President Litton’s Air Force Two touched down in Hesston, KS, where the first tornado touched down, to oversee the extent of damage. …As the Bellamy White House battles recession and anti-UHC politicians, Governor Slattery of Kansas states “We will bounce back from this. We will recover, as we always do. Each and every time twisters touch down, Kansas rise to the occasion.”

The Houston Chronicle, 3/13/1990



UHC BILL FINALLY PASSES HOUSE!: Senate To Hold A Vote On It “Soon,” Says House Speaker Boggs

The Boston Globe, 3/19/1990



BELLAMY SIGNS INTO LAW BILL CREATING MULTISTATE “BUFFALO COMMONS” PRESERVE

eUdRyX1.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/eUdRyX1 ]
…a vast nature preserve proposal that originated in a 1987 essay by Frank J. Popper, the bill, now called the Buffalo Commons Act, protects 139,000 square miles of the drier portions of the Great Plains to native prairie… The massive preserve is meant to help bring back not just the Buffalo. It is also meant to encourage people to invest in America’s breadbasket and in the companies and businesses of new “alternative energy” industries sprouting up across the American west… The Buffalo Commons bill was approved in both chambers of congress on bipartisan lines in a showing of camaraderie that contrasts with the current debate raging on in the Senate over the Hoff-Abzug Universal Health Care Bill aiming to implement an “Americanized” form of the UK’s UHC system, with supporters of the bill dubbing it “Americare”…

– The Reno Gazette-Journal, 3/22/1990



PLOTINO: The Life of a Greek-Mexican Mormon Anarchist

Release date: March 25, 1990

Genre: history/farce comedy/adventure/biopic

[snip]

Synopsis:

Plotino Constantino Rhodakanaty (Greek: Πλωτίνος Ροδοκανάτης) was a Greek-Mexican socialist anarchist and a prominent Mormon pioneer who was an early activist in Mexico's labor movement in the years leading up to the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

The film begins with Plotino being interrogated by police. He claims he was born in 1828 in Athens, Greece to a father of Greek aristocracy and a mother of Austrian citizenship, only for the police to allege that his mother was born in Mexico, that Plotino is ethically Mexican, was born in London, and is maintaining a persona. Plotino’s lawyer counters with documents showing that he had traveled to Budapest in 1848 to assist in the failed Hungarian uprising of that year, then traveled to Berlin where he was exposed to the ideas of Hegel, Fourier, and Proudhon.

The film flashes back to 1850, when Plotino visited Paris to meet Proudhon, but is enchanted by a beauty young Spanish woman who is also a fan of Proudhon. From her, he learns of Mexico's rural system of relatively self-governing agricultural communities and the threats that capitalism and privatization presents to them. She convinces him to return with her to Barcelona, where he lived for “at least two” years in the large anarchist community there, before moving with her to Mexico City, determined to “save…a way of life.”

In 1861, after nine years of community networking, Plotino publishes the radical essay “Cartilla Socialista” to propagate the ideas of several European thinkers, with the overall theme being “Down with all governments.” Growing a small but dedicated group of followers of the next several years, he founds a “liberty school” in 1870, run by a former disciple of Francisco Zalacosta.

Plotino’s teachings catch the attention of the Mexican government when one of his former radical students, Julio Lopez Chavez, leads a peasant insurrection involving as many as 1,500 armed guerillas in central Mexico. It is the first revolt in Mexico with a political anti-government program.

With government agents monitoring his actions, Plotino carefully expands his circle of followers in Mexico City to include other radicals such as Santiago Villanueva, Francisco Zalacosta, Julio Chávez López, and José María Gonzales. A brief flashforward to the present revealed that all these men later played important roles in the pre-revolution labor movement.

Amid Chavez continuing his guerilla insurrection, Plotino comes across some translated sections of the Book of Mormon, a scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), in 1875. He becomes captivated by them, and soon becomes convinced that they are “the word of God.” This leads to an argument with his domestic partner – the Spanish woman from years before – over the values advocated by the LDS Church, such as their communitarian practices at the time of communal property and emphasizing self-reliance. The fight leads to them “taking a break,” and a bitter Plotino petitioning the LDS Church's leadership in Salt Lake City to send missionaries to Mexico, and trying to convert his friends and acquaintances. Further talks with the LDS Church leads to him meeting with Mormons that on-screen text explains will be the ancestors of future American politician George Romney, Governor of Michigan and 1976 Presidential candidate. Plotino Rhodakanaty is baptized a Mormon on November 20, 1879 and is appointed to head the local congregation, resulting in Plotino’s significant other breaking up with him.

Ten months later, Plotino is increasingly at odds with church leadership in Salt Lake City over his attempts to create “utopian” communities in Mexico. Outraged by the church’s “betrayal,” Plotino resigns as the head of the congregation and becomes disengaged from the LDS Church, but never rescinds his membership. In the present, Plotino claims he still communicates with “some” church members, only for police to reveal that he was excommunicated in 1881, leading to Plotino’s lawyer arguing with him over withheld information.

The film finally catches up to the “present” (1883), where Plotino is being held in connection to a different ex-student of his bombing a government office in Cancun. However, due to the lack of evidence that Plotino had been in contact with him since 1878, Plotino is released from prison.

In his older age, Plotino has now moved to Ajusco in the mountains southwest of Mexico City. He teaches at a small local school, which is attended by a young Otilio Montaño. On-screen text explains that Otilio would later write the treatise “Plan de Ayala,” a work that is closely related and supportive of Plotino’s goal of “a democratic and self-governing society in rural Mexico.”

Just before the credits begin to role, additional on-screen text reveals that, after suffering a degenerative disease, Plotino died of a fever in Mexico City on Sunday, February 2, 1890, from a pernicious fever, at the age of roughly 62.

Reception:

The film received lukewarm views. Critics praised the acting skills of its central cast, but the two-hours-long film was criticized for its slow pacing. Critics generally stated that the film had the potential to showcase a unique historical figure, but ultimately had little to say about its subject matter despite other films "doing so much more with so much less." The film brought in slightly more money than what was spent on it.

– clickopedia.co.usa



…as the Senate begins negotiations over how to address private health insurance under a “universal” health care system, Bellamy is protecting sufferers of Sexually-Acquired S.I.F. Viruses, also called “SASIF” Viruses, or simply “SASIFs,” by expanding relief funds at the federal level via the Department of Health and Welfare…

– The Overmyer Network Night-time News, 3/27/1990



COLONEL SANDERS COMPLETES LEUKEMIA TREATMENT: Still Recovering From Pneumonia, High Blood Pressure Bouts

…The Colonel’s travelling schedule is the lightest it has ever been since leaving the White House, as the fast-food proprietor-turned-politician recuperates from further health issues. He reportedly plans to spend more time with friends and members of his large family…

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[pic: https://imgur.com/T3tsfqt ]
Above: The Colonel peruses a copy of Reader’s Digest on hospital grounds in Louisville, KY, last week

The Louisville Times, 4/5/1990



…when he returned home from the hospital that April, he did not even stop inside the house to wash up before heading around back. He went to the main shed, pulled out an old axe and started trying to chop up some logs from the wood pile. When he swung for the wood, it didn’t even go halfway in, so he tried again and again. “Forget this, I need to fix that leak in the roof,” I heard him bellow out loud to himself as I went outside to him. By the time I got to him, he had returned from another trip to the main shed and was propping a ladder against the one back wall of the house.

“What on Earth are you doing?” I said.

“What it looks like, honey!” almost out of breath, he uttered politely but impatiently as he tried to place his foot on the first step.

“Quit acting foolish, Harland, you’re not a young man anymore.”

“I can still do things. I can still help. I’m still needed.” He tried the other foot as he tried to set his hands firmly on the sides of the ladder.

“No one said you're not. Quit acting so reckless.” But then I leaned in closer, and I could see it in his eyes; weathered and fading, the spark was sunken but not yet gone from them. “Harland, don’t think I can’t tell. After knowing you for almost 50 years, don’t think I can’t read you. I know you. Something’s up, now tell me what it is.”

He stopped, sighed so deeply he was almost quivering at the end. “The darn leukemia’s going to kill me.” He took his foot off the ladder and dropped the toolbox out of his now limp hand. “I’m on my last fillup of gas. My last KFC order. My dead-last term. I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t want to leave you. I don't –.” As his voice began to break, he couldn’t finish his thought. He didn’t have to, I knew what he meant.

When you’re as old as we were then – 83 and 99 – a part of you, large or small, knows you’re on borrowed time, at the Reaper’s door. But the bell toll still takes you by surprise and shakes you down to your core.

In that moment round the back of the house, we shared the acknowledgement of the painful realization of what was to come soon by sharing a firm and tearful hug – an embrace tight, almost squeezing each other – refusing to let each other go.

In a way, we never have.

– Claudia Sanders, in a private letter to a friend, written 2/3/1992 (publicly released/published by her estate in 2010)



On February 10, the Utah Supreme Court sided with the state D.A. Paul Van Dam, ruling that a young woman can be arrested in Utah for having an abortion in Colorado when she is officially a resident of Utah. The case was the most prominent abortion-related case in Utah since the H.L. v. Romney Supreme Court case of 1981 [7]. Increased media attention of the defendant’s appeals for a Supreme Court ruling led to controversy over the specifics of the young woman in question. Julie Ann Moseley, b. 1965 and originally from Fort Worth, Texas, was not the victim of a rape, nor was the abortion a medical necessity, but Moseley had recently separated from her reportedly-abusive husband. Her decision to seek an abortion in Colorado complicated the situation because Colorado was part of the U.H.C. Pact, while Utah was not. With the precedence of the 1981 case behind it, the possibility of the case of Moseley v. Van Dam reaching the US Supreme Court – and potentially influencing abortion rules at the federal level – produced a national debate that seemed to only grow as the year progressed. …One Gallup poll from early April found that even in conservative states, the issue was divisive and polarizing...

– Mary Ziegler’s Abortion: A History, Harvard University Press, 2015



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[pic: imgur.com/14xrMPs.png ]

– Governor Bob Ross answering tough questions at a press conference, 4/8/1990



Meanwhile, the world kept on ignoring Ossetia’s “war” for independence. The Georgian government treated the secessionists as terrorists and traitors, but only maintained troops at the border. Russia opposed the secession on their side of the border, and maintained border guards as well. This essentially kept the Ossetians surrounded. As such, their apparent failure to fully depart from Russia like United Turkestan had only a few years before knocked the wind out of the sails of similar movements in Kalmykia, Dagestan, and Chechnya, though calls for secession continued through political and less militant venues in Kalmykia and Chechnya as the decade continued on. Chechnya’s Dzhokhar Dudayev was particularly involved in such efforts during the 1990s, leading the local NCChP political opposition group in the local Chechen political area before... [snip]

Volkov’s response to the “war,” though was unpopular with war hawks in Moscow who believed it to be possible to either annex South Ossetia or at the very least keep an independent Ossetia well with Russia’s sphere of influence. Volkov’s refusal to support North Ossetia’s secession effort, over concerns that it would be a “leak in the dike” that would lead to the remaining rebelling areas demanding independence as well, led to one of his more prominent geopolitical advisors, economist Ruslan Khasbulatov, stepping down in mid-April 1990.

– Ivan Ivanovich Zassoursky’s After 1984: The Lands and Would-Be Lands of The Post-Soviet Era, 1985-2005, Milton Park Publishers, 2016



BURNED BY THE FRIER: KFC Seeks To Step Up Its Game As Chicken Competitors Siphon Away Customers

…Kentucky Fried Chicken is undoubtedly the most recognizable franchise in the US if not the world over, but that isn’t stopping rival chicken meal sellers from launching themselves into the consciousness of American consumers. …new entrants like a fast-rising Southwestern chain called El Pollo Loco, and poachers from the hamburger business, like Burger King, are prospering from sales of non-fried chicken. El Pollo Loco, based in Irvine, Calif., has become the nation's fastest-growing major chicken chain. And Burger King's ''BK Broiler,'' a broiled-chicken sandwich introduced last month, is already selling at a rate of a million a day. That compares with the two million Whopper hamburgers that it sells each day.

As the warm-weather months approach, when most fast-food chicken is sold, Kentucky Fried Chicken's fried-food onus
is beginning to become a problem for them. Despite Colonel Sanders’ promoting of healthy food choices as President and even going so far as to tweak his KFC recipe in the 1970s, the company’s image is closer to “good” than it is to “good for you.” KFC is also hurt by high chicken prices and rising competition from what many analysts see as a near-saturation of fast-food outlets.

…Under new management, Kentucky Fried Chicken
, now headed by businessman Jim Collins, has started test-marketing grilled chicken. It is also tightening operations and broadening its fried menu. ''K.F.C. has recently slipped in regard to its reputation for cleanliness and service,'' Mr. Collins has told securities analysts. He has reorganized field operations, revamped training and is conducting more frequent inspections of franchisees. A new fried-chicken sandwich and several proposed new products, like spicy chicken wings, could soon be added to attract more lunch-time business. Most of the chain's sales are at dinner time.

…The $5 billion that Americans spent last year on fast-food chicken was more than triple the $1.4 billion spent in 1980, according to the National Broiler Council, a Washington trade group for chicken producers. Ninety percent of the fast-food chicken was deep-fried.
[8]

The Los Angeles Times, 4/25/1990




ANCHOR: “…big news coming out of the capital of Maryland, where the state’s governor has been found dead in his private office from a gunshot wound to the chest. While not official, most police officers and officials are describing the death as a suicide. The sudden demise of Governor William Oswald Mills, who served in the US House for ten years before election to the state senate in 1982 and then to the governorship in 1986, comes at a time when Mills was facing possible conviction for conducting illegal activities, in regards to his alleged connections to over $500,000 in unaccounted donations made to his office by a GOP finance committee. The Cash Transfer Scandal and ongoing trial was tanking his approval ratings, and there even was talk of him being challenged for re-nomination later this year. We take you now to Easton, Maryland, where our D.C. correspondent, Christine Chubbuck, is live outside of the Mills residence there. What can you tell us, Christine?”

CHUBBOCK: “What I can tell you is that what I’ve heard today matches up with previous reports of the Governor suffering from depression. I can tell you that this is a tragedy for the Mills family regardless of the reason behind the suicide, be it the pressure of the scandal, his mental situation, or both. And I can tell you that suicide is the worst place you ever want to find yourself in. I should know, I’ve suffered from depression before, and it helps to have a support group. Governor Mills didn’t have that, it seems. He had cronies, he had Yes Men, he had lawyers, but he did not reach out to the people who loved him, and they are all in mourning as a result of that.”

– WXLT-TV Florida, 4/28/1990 broadcast



THE RISE OF PIZZA HUT

…Pizza is one of the world’s most popular foods...40 percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a week. There’s a reason pizza is so popular. Humans are drawn to foods that are fatty, sweet, rich and complex. Pizza has all of these components. Cheese is fatty, meat toppings tend to be rich and the sauce is sweet. Pizza toppings are also packed with a compound called glutamate, which can be found in the tomatoes, cheese, pepperoni and sausage. When glutamate hits our tongues, it tells our brains to get excited — and to crave more of it. This compound actually causes our mouths to water in anticipation of the next bite. [9]

[snip]

Pizza Hut is leading this section of the fast food industry, both at home and now abroad, as the multinational company finally opens its first outlet in the People’s Republic of China. Originally planned to begin serving the locals its signature pies and slices in 1988, plans were placed on hold amid the global boycott of Red China’s West Turkestan camps policy.

The Boston Globe, 5/2/1990



SENATE MOVING TO PASSS UHC BILL: Will Vote On Amendments “Before The End Of The Month,” Says Source

The Washington Post, 5/7/1990



In early May, the day finally came when the I.S.S. began operations, ushering a new, more collaborative era in the history of human space exploration… The man overseeing American contributions to the I.S.S. megaproject was Assistant Director Dale D. Myers, who supported plans to explore Mars’ polar ice caps for signs of valuable materials. Another ambitious proposal, it was certainly not as expensive as the manned moon landings had been. As a result, it received support from President Bellamy later that same month…

– Farouk El-Baz’s Up and Away: How The Cold War Competition Pushed Us Into The Stars, MacFarland & Company, 1994



X RIPS OPPONENTS AND TOUTS HIS STANDING IN HISTORY IN HIS INSIGHTFUL NEW AUTOBIO

…in what will surely be a controversial and divisive book for this year, Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published by New York Grove Press has X present himself as a social crusader who paved the way for the Negative Income Tax Rebate, the political careers of African-Americans such as James Meredith and George L. Brown, and the rise of President Bellamy. These claims, however, require more cited evidence than X cares to give. …the best aspect of the book, the silver lining of the treatise, is not his political self-posturing and historical revisionism, but instead his wholesome descriptions of family life – his love for his children, his devotion to his wife and friends. These passages portray a caring father who is much more relatable and redeemable than the social crusader depicted throughout the rest of what is, admittedly, a well-written page-turner of an autobiography… Whether it is due to his almost-poetic writing style or the enjoyment of studying his numerous claims, the fact remains that this is a captivating must-read…

Tumbleweed magazine, book review, 5/19/1990



With housing and urban renewal projects, environment protection regulation compliance, and, above all else, worker safety and worker rights, Ralph Nader continued the micromanaging style that he had used during his almost thirteen years as the head of the EPA. To assure he grasped “the whole picture,” Nader repeatedly met with labor leaders such as Karen Silkwood, Tony Mazzocchi, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Senator Philip Hoff, and even activist Cheech Marin.

“I visited his private office in May 1990. The place was swamped with books and documents, charts and graphs all over the place, it looked more like a glorified storage room than an official office,” Marin testifies.

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[pic: https://imgur.com/N0Iaw0S ]
Above: Nader on his office phone, photograph undated.

– Dana Lawson’s Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Carol Bellamy, Sunrise Publishing, 2017



Red Barn was one of our more friendly competitors. Our themes were compatible, with the Wendy logo looking like someone who would live on a farm with a red barn on it. I suspect our camaraderie may have actually helped it stick around. I remember this one time in the late spring of 1990, when I was at a restaurant convention with Don Six, one of Red Barn’s co-founders, and he seemed genuine when he suggested that we were keeping his franchise relevant.

Burger King, though, they were more aggressive in their efforts to stay in the top tier of the burger franchises, often squeezing in between Whataburger and Burger Chef, ahead of Red Barn and way ahead of the niche Ollieburger, but behind Wendyburger and way behind MacDonald’s...

– David Thomas’ Dave’s Way, Penguin Group USA Inc., 1992 [10]



…In Washington, D.C., the Biological Weapons Research Limitations and Regulations Act of 1989 went into effect today…

– ABC World News This Morning, 5/22/1990 broadcast



Paul Martin Jr., the son of former Leader of the Opposition Paul Martin Sr., won the May 25, 1990 Liberal party leadership election, to replace retiring leader Shiela Copps, after several rounds of close, surprisingly intense votes. His closest competitor was the “radical” MP and former First Nations Rights activist Annie Aquash, with MP Garth Turner coming in third and dropping out two-thirds of the way through the total number of rounds. Former frontrunner MP Herb Gray underperformed on the first ballot and dropped out after the second. Both Gray and Turner rallied behind Martin in an “Anti-Annie” campaign…

– Richard Johnston’s The Canadian Party System: An Analytic History, UBC Press, 2017



FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: THE U.S. IS OFFICIALLY OUT OF RECESSION

…however, this does not mean that unemployment rates will return to late 1989 levels immediately…

The Wall Street Journal, 5/26/1990



After several months of negotiations, the Senate agreed to sign off on the House amendments. The Senate passed the UHC bill 56-40-4. The breakdown on those votes is as follows: 56 (Basha, Schroeder, Sanford, Hatfield, Uccello, Dodd, Mink, Inouye, Church, Simon, Dixon, Hall, Lugar, Jespen, Hughes, Wetherby, Sanders, Muskie, Masterton, Sarbanes, Chiles, Mikulski, Kennedy-Shriver, Growe, Dayton, Kelly, Bradley, Sorensen, Peabody, Beaulieu, Jimenez, Mondragon, Pell, Rockefeller, Galifianakis, Stokes, AuCoin, Gore, Richards, Hoff, Kunin, Unsoeld, May, La Follette, McGee, R. Byrd, Tucker, Fulbright, Obledo, Nunn, Skandalakis, Peterson, Mudd, Williams, Link, Conrad) voted “yea,” 40 (Smith, Hansen, Kassebaum, Dole, Holloway, Roemer, Lousma, Franklin, Meredith, Hatch, Laxalt, Vucanovich, McDermott, Mochary, Wilkinson, Edwards, Thurmond, Hollings, Baker, Paul, Moss, Garn, H. Byrd, Obenshain, Raese, Engeleiter, Wold, Garner, Biden, Roth, Armstrong, Heath, Murkowski, Bilirakis, Weld, Glenn, Richardson, Schneider, Pressler, Farrar) voted “nay,” most of them doing so over expenses concerns, and 4 (Goldwater, Nixon, Biaggi, and Casey) voted “present.”

– T. R. Reid’s Healing America: Medicine and Healthcare in the United States, Penguin Books, 2010



"A HISTORIC LIFE-SAVING ACHIEVEMENT": Bellamy Signs “Americare,” Universal Health Care Bill, Into Law!

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[pic: https://imgur.com/25TEznu ]
Above: Litton and Bellamy celebrate the historic reform bill outside the White House [11]

…However, one has to wonder if the Bellamy Administration has exhausted its political capital with the implementation of a system derided by its critics as “communistic and costly”…

The Washington Post, 6/3/1990



Despite his prior years of political activism, it was still viewed as an “unlikely” rise. With the popular Prime Minister of the UK, Alastair Goodlad, touting high approval ratings for his handling of the economy, many big names were less willing to take him on. Nevertheless, a major change in the leadership election came in the form of a last-minute declaration of candidacy from John Lennon, the world-famous musician-turned-MP from Liverpool. Lennon ran a campaign to convince the party MPs that Labour needed to bring in more progressive-leaning voters, whose exit from Labour for the United Kingdom Intrepid Progressive (UKIP) party may have hurt them in recent local elections and in several by-elections.

Lennon was seen as a sensible choice for party leader by some, and as an insensible choice by others. He was, by far, the most visible and nationally well-known member of the Labour party, more so than the other challengers vying to replace the retiring former PM Williams as party leader. Neil Kinnock, the perceived frontrunner who opposed the notion of the party moving further to the left, was the party establishment favorite over candidates MP Kenneth Livingstone, former MP Tony Benn, and Shadow Secretary Bryn Gould. Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer John Smith declined to run, along with MPs Gordon Brown and Robert Finlayson “Robin” Cook.

On the other hand, Lennon’s winning of an election to parliament only five years prior, in February 1985, suggested political inexperience despite having quickly risen through party ranks with his winning personality and inclusive policy proposals. Accusations of being mentally “unstable” over controversial comments of the past, such as referring to the government as “the whole bulls#!t bourgeois scene” and once exclaiming “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it,” became a common aspect of this particularly negative campaign. Lennon’s supporters, though, noted that he was able to keep his seat with a campaign speech that include strongly anti-establishment rhetoric: “The people have the power, all we have to do is awaken that power in the people. The people are unaware. They’re not educated to realize that they have power. The system is so geared that everyone believes the government will fix everything. We are the government” [12]

[snip]

Within the next three months leading up to the early September 1990 ballot results, the field of candidates narrowed to just two – Kinnock and Lennon…

– Larry Kane’s John Lennon: The Music And The Man (Chapter 24: The Political Beat), Running Press, 2007



MONGOLIA TO RETURN TO PREVIOUS ALPHABET

…Mongolia’s unicameral parliament, the State Great Khural, today announced that the nation will begin taking “restorative measures” to transition its population to using the nation’s traditional alphabet and away from the current Russian-influenced Cyrillic script. The move could be a sign that the socialist government is reforming to appeal to pro-democracy demonstrators, or that the relationship between Mongolia and Russia is going from cold to freezing as Volkov retains his, albeit lukewarm, support for the demonstrators…

The Times, UK newspaper, 13/6/1990



Daniel Edward Aykroyd
, CM OOnt (/AK-royd; July 1, 1952 – June 14, 1990) was a Canadian actor, producer, comedian, musician, and filmmaker who was an original member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live (1975–1979). A musical sketch he performed with John Belushi on SNL, the Blues Brothers, turned into an actual performing band and then the 1980 film of the same name. Aykroyd conceived and starred in Ghostbusters (1984), which spawned a sequel and eventually an entire media franchise. In 1990, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy. [13] Aykroyd died in a plane crash in Sydenham, Ontario, as his pilot attempted to land near Aykroyd’s recently-acquired estate on Loughborough Lake in the late evening hours of July 14, 1990. Coneheads (1991) was his final film role. His death is often counted toward being part of an alleged curse on SNL cast members, but is more often seen as an example of the dangers of flying in poor visual conditions.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Dan_Aykroyd



After graduating from CSU Business School in December 1984 with a BA in business management, Hillenburg found a job in a New England fish restaurant before becoming the manager of a Long John Silver’s in Miami, Florida, in 1985. Remembering his days as a fry cook and later cashier in the late 1970s, Hillenburg ran the place efficiently enough for him to be promoted within the company in 1989. At the age of 28, he became an Assistant Regional Manager, putting him second-in-command of all L.J.S. locations in the entire state of Florida.

“That’s when I began butting heads with my superiors,” he remembers. “They disagreed with me on several things. I wanted to expand the menu to include more healthy options, they struck it down. I drew up some proposals to make the restaurant’s façade more unique to bring in customers way from our competitors. Its interior was impressive, but I thought L.J.S. was lacking that special uniqueness found in other competing brands like Red Lobster and H. Salt Esq. Fish and Chips. They wouldn’t go for it. I tried to push for more kid-friendly items, and my bosses had the R&D department give me the cold shoulder. I was trying to help them and they thought I was being insubordinate.” In late 1989, Hillenburg was reprimanded with a pay cut for experimenting with the fish batter recipe. “Finally, I decided that I had had enough of them.”

[snip]

“I think they were going to let Steve go anyway,” observes Bryan Hillenburg, “Sucks for them, I say. They missed out on some major financial opportunities when they disregarded Steve.”…

The New York Times, 1992 article



After years of rejection and rejection from my superiors, I finally left Long John Silver’s in early 1990 with the intention of opening up my own seafood restaurant. I expected to have the grand opening in 14 months, time for the 1991 spring break crowd typical of coastal Florida. The departure actually came at a time when the biggest seafood restaurants in the nation were Boston Sea Party, L.J.S.’s and Captain D’s, and they were all declining due to mismanagement. I decided to try and step in at what seemed like the right moment to fill in the void.

I opened the first restaurant, the one that started it all, in Brevard, Florida, to give back to the community I grew up in. I remember walking in to the building the first time after purchasing the property. In a prime location, it was previously a generic “soda shoppe” place that had gone out of business during the Salad Oil Recession of ’63, and nobody had kept it in shape since then. It needed a lot of work done on it. Grout, mildew, rust, water damage, graffiti, broken tiles, outdated machinery, wiring inspections, pest control, the works. I remember how [my brother] Bryan complained to me “You shouldn’t renovate when it’d probably be cheaper to just build a new building from scratch.”

I looked around at the ordering station place, the kitchen, bathrooms, exits, and decided it to be perfect despite Bryan’s objections.

“There’s no sink back here! Who on Earth would run off with a kitchen sink?”

I replied with “There’s also no food here, either. We’ll fix that soon enough, too.”

“Well, what about seating? This place doesn’t even have any chairs!” he added.

Jokingly, I suggested “we could use barrels as the seats – and pirate ship steering wheels for tables!” Then I thought, “Huh. Maybe…”

That’s how confident I was that the endeavor would be prosperous, that I could make light of the odds stacked against my supporters and I.

I then went over to the front doors again to get the paint tile samples from the car, and then I turned around. In that moment, standing at the front of those front doors, seeing the layout as the customers would soon see it, I just knew I had made the right career choice. I did my heart good to imagine bringing healthy food and good, hearty, family-friendly fun to the people of my hometown. That healthy bit was real important to my investors and I, too. We didn’t want to suddenly become the people serving up food that’s not that good for you – especially kids. [14]

After perusing the possible color schemes, I rolled up my sleeves, grabbed a bucket and mop, and said to my brother, “Welp, let’s get to it, already. This place isn’t going to clean itself, Bryan.”

– Stephen Hillenburg, New York Times op-ed, 2006



MITCHELL WINS PROGRESSIVE TOMORROW LEADERSHIP ELECTION

…Margaret Anne Mitchell won over fellow MPs Audrey McLaughlin and Adriane Carr to replace the retiring Ed Broadbent. Mitchell, a former social worker and a distant relative of Prime Minister Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, is a life-long fiery supporter of women’s rights who won her first election to parliament from Vancouver East in May 1976…

– The Calgary Sun, Canadian newspaper, 6/30/1990



People are like fireflies – they can be busy and flashy, and you might not understand their ways, but if you watch closely, you will. A firefly’s light can seem unimportant to people, that it’s just a light and no more. But in fact, their lights are very important in the world in which they live. It’s how they communicate. Watch and see, every time a firefly lights up, another one lights up right after. They’re signaling to each other where they are. They may not realize that together they are making something beautiful. To them, it’s just how they speak, and to us, it’s just a lightshow. But it’s both important and spectacular. People are like that – you might not know why someone is doing something until you look real hard and see it like how they see it. I’ve turned many strangers into friends by doing this, sweet-pea. So remember this when you start school in the fall, and you won’t fret none.

– Colonel Sanders, in a private letter to one of his great-granddaughters, 7/4/1990



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[pic: https://imgur.com/TXSlSP5 ]
…Representative Gustavo Arcos of the Stability Party (b. 1926) had fought with the Castro brothers in 1959, before turning against them over their 1960 shift to communism. While older political leaders saw this as a major controversy, this would have been a bigger issue 20 years ago; instead, younger voters born and raised after Cuba’s brief Communist Era saw this as a minor concern due to the left-leaning voting record that he had established since then. Arcos was disabled, as his right leg was partially paralyzed due to a gunshot wound to the back during the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and as such appealed to Cubans concerned about health care (a main plank of his platform called for implementing Free Universal Health Care); Arcos being the Secretary of Health under President Boitel was another positive for these voters as well. Calling for improving the nation by starting at the local level, his “build upward” campaign made him very popular among lower-class voters, as well, allowing him to win over the other candidates in the race in poll after poll.

Arcos’ main challenger was Jorge Mas Canosa of the Conservative Party (b. 1939), an anti-Communist technet businessman and former lobbyist. Mas was firmly pro-American, spoke English fluently, did business with several American companies, and fought with US soldiers in the 1961-1965 Cuban War; such closeness to the US made many question his allegiance to Cuba. This questioning cost him the support of older voters who could remember Batista’s closeness to the US and did not want to see “a repeat of history.” To counter this, Mas ran as “The safe choice,” but this may have had the effect of making his campaign seem boring, and making Arcos’ seem bold by comparison.

With a generational divide between the two controversial candidates dominating the news, third-party candidates failed to gain traction. Mas benefited from the 1985 collapse of the New Authority party as most former N.A. voters switched to the Conservatives; however, more undecideds and independents preferred Arcos over Mas.

In one of the closest elections in Cuba’s post “Castro War” history, Arcos prevailed over Mas by a margin of under 2%.

– clickopedia.co.cuba/1990_general_election/English_translation



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[pic: imgur.com/g4Ow5fX.png ]
– Dusk, c. July 1990 [15]



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] OTL quote.
[2] Italicized information concern his OTL final days and are pulled from here: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1980/11/06/Colonel-Sanders-hospitalized/608532...
[3] Italicized segment is taken from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatumbo_lightning
[4] The founder of Sonny’s BBQ in 1968 IOTL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny%27s_BBQ
[5] Italicized passage found here: http://jamesacollins.com/biography/
[6] Italicized passage found here: https://www.thebalance.com/universal-health-care-4156211
[7] OTL, except here the Governor of Utah in 1981 was Vernon Romney, not Scott Matheson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._v._Matheson
[8] Italicized parts are from this OTL NYT article from March 20, 1990: https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/20/business/getting-burned-by-the-frying-pan.html?scp=7&sq=BK+Broiler&st=cse&pagewanted=all
[9] Italicized passage taken directly from this WP article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/why-do-people-love-to-eat-pizza-part-of-the-explanation-is-chemistry/2019/11/03/5196171c-fc07-11e9-8906-ab6b60de9124_story.html
[10] An OTL book, which is described as having “commonsense language...lively anecdotes [and] sound advice for any entrepreneur or business manager” (so…my apologies if it does not come across as being like that here…sorry): https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1j8bD6SQrAC
[11] And my apologies if the poor job I did editing Litton into that picture is too distracting; sorry once again.
[12] These quotes are OTL and were found on his wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon#cite_note-liberal-236 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lennon#cite_note-trueactivist-254
[13] Italicized passages were yoinked from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Aykroyd
[14] OTL quote; here it is in full: “Yeah, well, my take on that is that we shouldn’t do that. In the show, the whole point of the fast food – the fact that SpongeBob loves being part of the fast-food chain, and that being a manager is his ultimate dream: it’s ironic. It’s something that most people don’t think is a great thing to try to achieve. And we didn’t want to suddenly become the people serving up food that’s not that good for you – especially kids. We work with Burger King, and they make toys and watches. But to actually take the step of pushing the food, that’s crossing the line. I don’t want to be the Pied Piper of fast food.” Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/movies/moviesspecial/he-lives-in-a-pineapple... Also: you might want to see the September 1977 and December 1982 chapters for refreshers as to how Stephen Hillenburg got into business instead of animation (especially since I’ve gone back and expanded on those previously-single-sentence bits).
[15] It's actually an original photograph that I myself took a while back from my front window.

The next chapter's E.T.A.: aiming for March 31 or sooner, April 2 at the very latest!
 
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