Kentucky Fried Politics: A Colonel Sanders Timeline

WIth baseball moving home field to the A.L., they could have done that or they could have moved Game 1 to Saturday in an effort to get day games on 2 weekends and not on Friday afternoon.

I guess the question is, are 2 possible extra weekend day games worth pushing the Series back a few days and not having it Friday night.

I could certainly see them just keeping the Friday-Saturday-Sunday in Wrigley idea, I'd forgotten Peter Uebberoth didn't go there to be Commissioner till after the Olympics, so it was Kuhn who made that rul;ing - and kuhn is still Commissioner till '87 now.

But, Uebberoth is the one who took away day Series games for a couple generations of kids from 1985 onward and moved them all to the night to get more revenue, somethingKuhn won't be doing, hopefully. So, there won't be any moving of the Cubs' future playoff games (until they get lights) to Comiskey or Busch Stadium or anything like that, becasue they will still be allowed to have day games.
And kids will be able to come home from school on that Friday and see a game or see the day games on Saturday and Sunday without worrying about bedtimes keeping them from seeing more than 1-2 innings.

Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammel, and Jack MOrris (replacing perhaps Scott Sanderson) as key Tigers players from OTL's 1984 help to allow the Padres to beat maybe the BlueJays (no 35-5 start for Detroit TTL, and the Jays were within 4 games at one point later I think), and then they can team up to beat the Padres in 5, with Kirk Gibson's home run off Goose Gossage coming in Wrignely Field instread to clinch the Series for the Cubs.

And, this could add to the Curse of the Colonel, because the Padres' fans might argue that had San Diego had the middle 3 games, they might have gotten on a roll and won going back to Chicago)

A\s an aside, in his 1986 Baseball Abstract, Bill James had an excellent column on the Tigers' fall to just above .500 (titled "Wha' happen?" or something similar) where, though my memory great on it, I do recall he shows the bench and clutch play were 2 of the key reasons the Tigers did so well in '84 - their real talent level was the 92-win team of '83, and while they were good after their 35-5 start (69-53), they caught a bunch of b reaks, and then fell back to earth the next year, with those breaks in the clutch going against them. So, take some of the Dubs' bench away like Thad Bosley and replace them with the Tigers' bench like Ruppert Jones, have Alan Trammell replace Larry Bowa and maybe Chet Lemon replace Garry Matthews, don't let Willie Hernandez go in ''84 but have him just set up Lee Smith (he was once a Cub), Jack Morris and Kirk Gibson start as well, you've got the makings of a very Tigers-like Cubs team with only 6-10 key Tigers there (and take the Togers to 85 or so wins). And, as I noted, free agency after 2 years, which is canon for the TL, means that's very possible.
 
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My apologies for not responding sooner, but I’ve been under the weather lately.

My initial reaction to all of the sports-related queries:


My reply after a few hours of sports-related research while also dealing with a runny nose, a slight headache, and pain in the back of my eyes:

1) Jordan to the Trail Blazers adds another twist to a league that's already been changed by the butterfly effect. Perhaps Isiah Thomas -- Jordan's arch-enemy and rival -- winds up with the Bulls? Thomas was a native Chicagoan. (I wonder how the basketball Colonels are doing?)

What else is going on in sports...
2) How are the Senators doing? Have they won at all or are they still 'first place in war, last place in the American League'?
3) The United States Football League -- without Trump involved in ownership, does the league find long-term success playing football in the spring?
I tried to plant the seeds for the NASL to survive several posts back. Was it enough, and how would its continued existence change the future of American soccer? Does FIFA step in and order the American and Canadian federations to form separate leagues (leading to the eventual formation of a Canadian league and the re-branding of the NASL)?
4) This is also the point in history where the four major leagues are beginning to consider expansion. The NBA's the first league up -- are Charlotte and Miami still on track for the late 1980s?
1) Nice idea (the Isiah Thomas thing); consider it canon! The basketball Colonels are doing okay - certainly not the worst team, but not the best-ever either.
2) They're doing alright
3) Sure, let's go with that, it sounds plausible enough for this TL.
4) Honestly, I do not know.

@gap80 what do YOU think about the following:
Expansion
1) MLB - two NL teams by 1993, two AL teams by 1997
2) NBA - Charlotte and Miami on track for 1987-88, Orlando, Minnesota and maybe another city or two in the running for 88-89
3) NFL - not before next decade
4) NHL - grow by 4 teams early next decade (San Jose, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, Miami, Anaheim, Kansas City, in the running)

5) NASL 1985
New York Cosmos
Louisville Thunder
Minnesota Strikers
Toronto Blizzard
Chicago Sting
San Diego Sockers
Tulsa Roughnecks
Golden Bay Earthquakes
Tampa Bay Rowdies
Vancouver Whitecaps
Seattle Sounders
Portland Timbers

Relocations and expansion
6) Hockey — @gap80 was the NHL-WHA merger ever discussed? If not, what about having Quebec, Edmonton, Hartford, New England, Winnipeg and Houston enter? 7) Also, have the Flames move to Calgary, and the Colorado Rockies hockey team move east to become the New Jersey Devils. 8) What about the North Stars — stay in Minnesota or move south to Dallas?
9) Basketball — the New Orleans Jazz stayed put, right? 10) And the Dallas Mavericks entered in 80-81?
11) Football — the Colts staying in Baltimore would be interesting and might unleash the butterflies to get another team to move to Indianapolis. Would St. Louis go there, or go to Phoenix?
12) Do we see the rise of the WWF and the death of the ‘rasslin territories?

1) That looks fine.
2) I think that's okay.
3) Alrightythen!
4) Sure.
5) Looks fine to me!
6) It happened IOTL, so, sure, why not here, too?
7) Consider it canon - how exactly/when in the TL to depict it is another matter...
8) That's not until 1993, but to answer the question, I do not know - should they move to Dallas?
9) That is correct.
10) I guess so...
11) I am not certain where the St. Louis team should go - what are your thoughts on the subject, Brea?
12) Of course!

A question:

The Colonel is going to die sometime within the next decade. I'm sure you'll write it very tastefully and I'll be sad to see him go. I don't know much about him iotl but you have written an incredible character, a fundamentally good but flawed man, for this timeline. My question is, after his death, will we see actors taking up the role of "the colonel" like in otl's modern KFC commercials? I can imagine many seeing that as being in poor taste with him being a former president.

Thank you for the compliment, and to answer your question, some actors have already portrayed the Colonel in a few movies in the timeline so far, so if KFC decides to do the same for its commercials after his death, it will have to be done carefully and very tastefully in order to not ruffle a lot of feathers.

I hope this gets a Turtledove nod, if not an outright win...
Thanks! I hope it at least does better than it did last year (9th place in the final round). When does the Turtledove award season begin this year, anyway?

The Trail Blazers passing on Jordan OTL was one of those "it seemed like a good idea at the time" picks in sports; the Trail Blazers wanted another big man like Bill Walton (who had left the Blazers in 1979 and had led the Blazers to their 1977 championship) and Sam Bowie, on paper, looked like the next Bill Walton (and he shared an unfortunate trait with Walton--their tendency to have leg injuries that derailed their careers). In addition, the Blazers already had someone at what would have been Jordan's position--Clyde Drexler (who was a Hall of Famer at his position), who had been a teammate of Hakeem Olajuwon (who went first OTL with Houston in 1984--Portland, BTW, lost a coin flip for him (which is an interesting PoD in and of itself)) and who the Blazers had drafted in 1983 (1). Furthermore, they also had another shooting guard--Jim Paxson (whom they drafted in 1979), so they had no need for someone of Jordan's position...

ITTL, with the fallout from the nuclear disaster and Mt. St. Helens, I can see Portland making this pick in an effort to attract more fans...

(1) I've posted a few DBWIs on Houston trading Ralph Sampson to Portland for their first-round draft pick and Clyde Drexler, and they drafted Jordan...
So, it's decided: Michael Jordan playing for the Trailblazers will remain canon!
When's the next update, @gap80?
The next update will be posted no later than Tuesday, the fourth of February.
 
@gap80


ITTL, was the Hoosier Dome built in Indianapolis? Did the city of Baltimore refuse to build a new stadium or renovate its present one? If so, things should proceeed as IOTL.

If Baltimore built the "Baltodome" (see above link) or renovated Memorial Stadium, then the Colts could stay, and the Cardinals owner would then choose between Phoenix and Indy and the other cities vying for an NFL team.

Indianapolis Cardinals has a nice ring to it...plus Phoenix has the USFL Arizona Wranglers.
 
Chapter 53: February 1985 – December 1985
Chapter 53: February 1985 – December 1985

“There’s more going around in the dark than Santa Clause, and hanky-panky is its name!”

– Henry Howell



Moderator ROGER MUDD: Well, gentlemen, today’s question is what the future holds for the Democratic Party. How should the party proceed in the wake of Gravel’s defeat?

Governor PAUL SOGLIN: I’d like to start by saying that while Gravel’s candidacy flopped, his ideas did not. George, you can point to the statistics Gallup published last month showing a majority of Americans support a National Initiative and Referendum Amendment.

Analyst GEORGE GALLUP JR.: That I can, so you’re saying “right message, wrong messenger?”

SOGLIN: Oh, no, let me be clear – Gravel lost because the Soviet Union collapsed.

Prof. WILLIAM SCHNEIDER: No, Gravel’s campaign was too far to the left to win over moderates and undecided voters.

GALLUP: Actually, our research favors the Governor’s view – most undecided voters voted based on foreign policy issues, not domestic ones, and Gravel’s strength was in domestic issues.

MUDD: Then perhaps the Democrats may want to consider focusing on foreign affairs going forward.

SOGLIN: I disagree. As the situation at home worsens, and believe me, under Denton, it will, more people are going to return their focus to domestic affairs, and the Democrats can solve those kind of problems by sticking to Gravel’s policies.

MUDD: Do you think that strategy will win them the White House in ’88, or at least win more congressional seats in ’86?

SOGLIN: Yes, especially if we go even farther with Gravel’s vision.

SCHNEIDER: What, and alienate more Denton voters? At this point, it’d make more sense for the Democrats to veer back to the center!

SOGLIN: What makes sense and what will work are not always the same thing!

– Meet the Press, 2/1/1985 discussion [1]



IRAQ PRESIDENT SIGNS RENEWED TREATY WITH NATION’S KURDS

…Iraqi president Tahir Yahya, 68, with the support of the Shah of Iran and former President of Iraq Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, seeks to continue the nation’s stability among its ethnicities, which has defined relations within Iraq since the signing of the original 1970 Peace Accord…

The Globe and Mail, 2/5/1985



…The President of Colombia is seeking to dismantle his nation’s large illicit cocaine-trafficking industry plaguing the cities and countryside of the South American nation, a problem that has developed as Colombia’s civil war continues on with seemingly no end in sight…

– CBS News, 2/6/1985 report



UN RULES IN FAVOR OF US!: GADDAFI TO SPEND LIFE IN PRISON

…Due to American forces being the ones who apprehended Gaddafi, effectively making them the victors of the War in Libya, the U.N.’s Special International Justice Committee ruled in favor of the United States, overriding a Libyan court sentencing Gaddafi to death. …US diplomatic experts fear that the ruling may jeopardize the level of support US troops have in Libya, as many of our allies over there are seeing the ruling as “American Imperialism imposing imperialistic injustice,” as the leader of the Libyan congressional opposition called it earlier today…

The Washington Post, 2/8/1985



WILLIAMS LEADS LABOUR TO NARROW VICTORY!

…Elections were held for all 650 seats… Williams of the Labour party won 339 seats, a downward swing from the 352 it held before the election, while the “wet” Conservative leader Jim Prior led his party to winning 268. The centrist SDP-Liberal Alliance, meanwhile, picked up 10 seats, bringing their total to 25.

…due to the growth of left-wing members of the party, and with many of said members remaining unhappy by the ascension of the moderate Shirley Williams to the office of Prime Minister, several progressives departed from Labour late last year to form a new party: the United Kingdom Intrepid Progressive party, or U.K.I.P. for short. Tonight, the UKIPs won 5 seats. …The Moralist party, however, seems to have imploded in the wake of the Prior candidacy appealing to the party’s base; the socially conservative party has gone from holding 4 seats to just 1, the one held by its leader, Mary Whitehouse. 12 other seats went to smaller parties.

…The most-watched race of tonight, though, was the Liverpool election that saw famous musician and political activist John Lennon win a seat in parliament…

The Guardian, 2/11/1985



…John Lennon, having just won a seat in parliament from Liverpool, was conflicted over the breakaway UKIP party. He agreed with their passion and ideology, but believed that such progressive stances would have a better chance of being implemented via through the Labour party, as it was already a well-established major party. As a result, John feared the existence of UKIP would siphon more progressives out of the Labour party, emboldening the moderate plans of Prime Minister Williams and her allies…

– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000



…On February 16, 1985, voluntary abortion became legal across Canada via striking down an abortion-when-necessary law stemming from the June 27, 1969 Criminal Law Amendment Act. Soon after, the US phrase “taking a trip to Canada” became synonymous with getting an abortion, as many Americans would take “extended vacations” to the Great White North to get “voluntary” abortions…

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



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– Colonel Sanders, age 94, receiving an award from an old-fashioned Women's Club in Louisville, Kentucky, 2/18/1985



President of Mexico Miguel de la Madrid’s actions were brought into question when a February 1985 Internal CIA report revealed that the federal government of Mexico had spent much of American assistance funding on wealthy donors instead of on the US’s efforts to fight the recreadrug “epidemic” plaguing the US, Mexico, Colombia, and several other nations of the Western Hemisphere. In response to this Denton ended the financial help, claiming the money was needed for domestic programs at a press conference the next day, February 19. That same day, Denton privately “told off” de la Madrid for “betraying” him, and, according to former Secretary of Defense William Westmoreland, adding “I should carpetbomb your mansion into dust. It seems we paid for it, so there’d be nothing wrong with it! But I’m not an unhinged man, so instead, I’ll just tell you one thing – never f*ck with me again, Miguel, because when you f*ck with me, you are f*cking with all of United States and all of its firepower. Good day.” Regardless of the accuracy of this quote, the fact does remain that US-Mexico relations under Denton became ice-cold after February 1985…

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



VP ALEXANDER’S INITIATIVES ARE TAKING FORM: A Review

…In stark contrast to the freezing-cold relationship of President Mondale and Vice President Gravel, Denton and Alexander have grown closer over the past four years, to the point that Alexander is being seen as a “Assistant President” of sorts. The label rings true especially in the wake of Alexander’s latest efforts on Capitol Hill. The Vice President has worked with conservative lawmakers – mostly Republicans, but also including conservative Democrats – to pass a string of new laws…

…One of these new bills will allow firearms in checked baggage to be transported on all public train systems… Alexander is a promoter of a new tax bill that will most likely be passed despite Democratic and liberal opposition. Alexander advocates for a “flatter, fairer, simpler federal income tax,” a reduction of estate tax, a “family-friendly” tax code, and the continuation of the federal reduction of capital gains taxes and dividends. Alexander has also opposed higher taxes on the wealthy, and has backed a plan to implement $100billion in tax breaks over the next four years to continue the nation’s growth.

…In regards to less economic concerns, Alexander is supportive of a recent bill that calls for making English the official language of the United States and the U.S. government, and replacing bilingual schools with English-only schools in order to “strongly coerce” non-English speaking Americans to learn the language. “We can’t be a united country if so many of us can’t even understand the rest of us,” claims Congressman Bob Dornan (R-CA), one of the bill’s more outspoken co-sponsors. …The Vice President has also called for more severe punishments for illegal aliens, and is opposed to “widening the pathway” to citizenship for illegal aliens in general, though he has gone on record as saying that he is “okay” with “the legal ones going through the process.”

The Atlantic, 2/27/1985 issue [2]



ANTI-SECRECY CONGRESSMEN SET SIGHTS ON SANDERS’ SPICES

…A group of five US Representatives – all Democrats – are lobbying the FDA to inspect Kentucky Fried Chicken, demanding that the multinational brand and its parent company, Finger Lickin’ Good Inc., reveal the contents of its famous “trade secret” eleven herbs & spices! “The American people have the right to know what’s in that stuff,” says de facto group leader John Donald “Don” Fuqua (D-FL-2)… Another congressman even goes so far as to suggest that the presence of Harley Sanders in the Senate constitutes a “conflict of interests” in regards to Senate votes concerning business regulations that would affect Kentucky Fried Chicken. This claim, however, conflicts with Harley Sanders having severed all ties from KFC upon being elected to the US Senate…

The New York Post, 2/28/1985



Denton approval rating shatters record high at 91%

…“The President is ushering in a new post-Cold War era with another four years of unquestioned American greatness,” says Senator Jack Edwards (R-AL)…

The Washington Post, 3/1/1985



…In a formal statement, the CEO of Kentucky Fried Chicken Lee Cummings has announced that the multinational corporation will not, quote, “violate the sanctity of respecting trade secrets,” unquote, and will not disclose the company’s famous 11 Secret Herbs and Spices to, quote, “any inquiring FDA officials,” unquote. The statement comes after members of the US House of Representatives requested the FDA inspect the famous Trade Secret. The statement also stated the company’s belief that revealing the secret composition of flavoring applied to the company’s famous chicken would jeopardize the nation’s economy and markets by creating, quote, “an unprecedented breach in the trust of businesses big and small,” unquote. As U.S. District judges for Kentucky awaits additional replies from KFC’s attorneys, sources state that at least one circuit judge favors an FDA inquiry in order assure consumer safety…

[snip]

…We now have an update on the KFC Spices controversy. Attorneys for KFC have released to the FDA documents pertaining to the specific procedures used by KFC when employees and contractors handle the herbs and spices, along with citations for the, quote, “impeccably high ratings,” unquote, that Finger Lickin’ Good Incorporated has received from various sanitation inspection entities for the past ten years alone...

– The Overmyer Network, 3/2/1985 broadcast



…We can confirm that a powerful earthquake has pummeled the nation of Chile. Measured roughly at 8.0 on the Richter Scale, it appears that the quake has left at least hundred people dead, and over one thousand injured, along with having destroyed thousands of homes in a significant crisis for the South American country…

– CBS, 3/3/1985 broadcast



COLONEL SANDERS PLEDGES $1MILLION TO CHILE EARTHQUAKE RELIEF EFFORT

The Wall Street Journal, 3/4/1985



On March 7, the “Big Five” of television – ABC, NBC, CBS, Overmyer and KNN – all reported on major breaking news: a bombshell scandal had hit D.C. as a Tennessee state investigation revealed that Vice President Lamar Alexander, while serving as Governor of Tennessee, had improperly accepted donations from several Christian colleges and schools, via members of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. The education-oriented institutions hoped to gain favoritism with the Governor in order to receive accreditation under his administration. Once out of office in 1979 but before he decided to launch a presidential bid later that same year, Alexander joined the board of the religious Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee, for a salary that was 200 times above average for his largely advisory role.

While this controversy alone may have not been so damaging, the investigation into this action also led to state prosecutors, overseen by attorney general W. J. Michael Cody, discovering that the Vice President had frequently shifted his personal assets between banking accounts, mainly between one in his name, one in the name of his wife, a “family account.” [3]

While Alexander both publicly and privately proclaimed that there had been no wrongdoing, his initial fumbling at a press conference held the next day – in which he said “If I did anything illegal, I had nothing to do with it” – the Tennessee justice department nevertheless continued the investigation as it became more apparent that the “shifting funds” patterned had continued until 1982, after Alexander had entered his current occupation. This meant that charges could still be brought against Alexander if necessary because, while the statute of limitations for any wrongdoing committed while Governor had expired, said statute did not protect Alexander from any wrongdoing committed during any point in his Vice-Presidency.

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DIES AT 56; Famous Civil Rights Leader Suffered From Heart Failure

…his wife of 32 years, Coretta Scott King, noted that “he had so much of his heart to give that the doctors said Martin had the heart of a 90-year-old”…

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/15/1985



EXPO ’85 OPENS IN JAPAN TODAY

…with the theme being focused on the application and use of the latest science and technology in future homes, several tech companies big and small are attending this celebration of human accomplishments and aspirations…

The Los Angeles Times, 3/17/1985



THE RISE OF THE PROGRESSIVE TOMORROWISTS

…The party was formed in 1969, when the New Democrats merged with the waning Social Credits…the interim party name was the “Leftward Tomorrow” Party, but this was changed to the current name in 1971… Under Ed Broadbent’s leadership, the PTs (sometimes pronounced “Peteys”) have slowly gained a sizeable amount of support among left-leaning and populist-leaning Canadians…

The Toronto Star, 3/17/1985



CHRETIEN WINS SECOND TERM BY A HAIR; PTs Almost Beat PCs For Second Place

…Despite winning by a margin of victory much narrower than his 1980 election, Jean Chretien (L-QC) will remain Prime Minister Canada thanks to a plurality in the popular vote …Opposition leader Erik Nielsen (PC-AB) fared better than expected, but the real winner of the night very well may have been Ed Broadbent (PT-ON), who breathes fresh air into the far-left Tommorrowists to come within five seats of becoming the leader of the opposition…

The Globe And Mail, 3/20/1985



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Above: Governor Coya Knutson (D-MN) reflecting on Humphrey’s legacy in a KNN interview, c. March 1985; Knutson worked with Humphrey on multiple projects during their time in election politics, and was “always grateful” of his early support of her career.

Humphrey passed away from the cancer two months shy of his 74th birthday. His body laid in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol before being buried in Waverly, Minnesota. Both foes and friends, from William Scranton, Mario Biaggi, John F. Kennedy and Colonel Sanders, to Walter Mondale and Coya Knutson, paid their final respects; the funeral was the first time in which Kennedy and Sanders were in the same place at the same time since the 196 debates… In the US Senate, Governor Knutson appointed state Secretary of State Joan Growe to the vacant desk, after the widowed former Second Lady of the United States Muriel Humphrey declined the offer to do so herself.

– Carl Solberg’s H.H.H.: A Biography, Borealis Books, 2001 edition



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– clickopedia.co.usa



FURTHER EVIDENCE OF VP WRONGDOING PUTS STRENGTH OF SUPPORTERS’ “STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS” CLAIMS TO THE TEST

The Chicago Tribune, 3/23/1985



Under increasing pressure to settle the matter, Alexander looked to the precedence set by John C. Calhoun, who had faced a similar scandal while serving as Vice President in 1826, in order to argue that a sitting Vice President cannot be indicted. Alexander also tried to rally public opinion, giving a speech before a friendly audience in Los Angeles asserting his innocence. [4]

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005




“People sure plumb forgot all about the Jake Butcher Scandal in a hurry, didn’t they?” [5]

– Barry Goldwater, 3/25/1985




On April 3, 1985, the interim government organized an All-Russia referendum about the introduction of the proposed posts of “President” and “Vice President” for the purpose of decentralizing power from the Interim National Assembly while still providing a clear leader for national unity and leadership on the world stage. The positions would have the power to introduce mandates and speak before congress, but would have little veto power. The RSFSR, by popular vote, went with “yea” with 68.1%, while “nay” received 31.9%. With turnout being 81.2%, the vote stood and the motion was carried.

With the position introduced, the head of the I.N.A. and the de-facto leader of the country since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Orlov, served as interim President until a Presidential election could be held three months later…

– Risto Alapuro and Oleg Kharkhordin’s Community Building in Post-Soviet Russia, Routledge Books, 2011



With the Soviet Union gone, Yugoslavian politicians began looking to the U.S. government. Former Tito ally Veselin Duranovic noted in April 1985 “I should not be so surprised. America had lasted for over 200 years. The USSR could not make it to 70. What is it about America that gives that country such longevity?”

It was on a sunny April morning when Duranovic announced that he had ultimately decided that it was the “melting pot” sense of unity that kept the US strong and united. He also had come to believe that people “work better when neighborhoods think more broadly about their shared city and desires,” and so began to push for unity relationships with the US.

To China, this was seen as another loss for the cause of communism, as Yugoslavia was the last pinnacle of communism left in Europe…

– Leslie Benson’s Yugoslavia: A Concise History, Palgrave Publishers, 2001



April 4, 1985 was not a good day for Buz Lukens. That morning, The Washington Post published the story of a woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, who, under the pseudonym Anna Mason (after two towns on Ohio’s Route 75), claimed that the US Secretary of State and his lawyers had given her $100,000 to sign a nondisclosure agreement about an “unprintable sexual incident” regarding Lukens and Mason’s 14-year-old daughter, who was given the pseudonym Sidney after another location on Route 75. The incident, Anna stated, had occurred in June 1984, and Anna was “coerced” into signing the agreement in August. Naturally, Lukens denied it all, claiming to be the lies of a woman desperate for fame and fortune. The next day, Anna filed a civil suit in Ohio to nullify the nondisclosure agreement on the claim that she signed it under great duress and intimidation.

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



The initial reaction to the accusations made against Lukens was minor, but as it made its way through the news cycle, a familiar atmosphere return to the United States. Feminist activists began to circulate the story and repeatedly refer to it on public radio and public access TV stations and talk shows, spreading their support for the ones known as Anna and Sidney Mason.

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



“Uh, Buz, this ain’t gonna be some kind of problem, right?”

“Not at all. I promise – there’s nothing to worry about here.”

– Conversation between President Denton and Secretary Lukens, c. mid-April 1985 (multiple sources, but still possibly anecdotal)



KEMP LEADS EFFORT TO CUT SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

…Led by House Whip Kemp, and reportedly tacitly supported by House Speaker Michel, House Majority Leader Polonko, and leading House Deputy Whip Emery, the conservative lawmakers are gaining ground in their call for cutbacks on Social Security benefits in order to “alleviate [a] federal burden”…

The Wall Street Journal, 4/10/1985



ENVER HOXHA, LEADER OF ALBANIA SINCE 1944, DIES AT 76

…Hoxha isolated his nation from the rest of the world with fear and paranoia, which saw him install an extraordinary number of fallout shelters across the nation’s countryside and cities. …With Albania being economically in shambles, Hoxha’s successor, Ramiz Alia, will have his hands full…

The New York Times, 4/11/1985



FEMINIST GROUPS ACROSS CA & NY CALL FOR LUKENS TO RESIGN AMID UNDERAGE RELATIONS CLAIM

The Los Angeles Times, 4/12/1985



SEC. OF STATE LUKENS MEETS WITH U.K. DIPLOMATS IN LONDON AS CONTROVERSY BACK HOME CONTINUES

The Washington Times, 4/22/1985



“It is with great sadness that I confirm that Supreme Court Associate Justice Sarah Tilghman Hughes has passed away earlier today at the age of 88. Despite suffering a stroke three years ago, she remained mentally sharp, and continued to support the policies she believed in until the very end. Hughes was an inspirational leader that I had the pleasure to work for during most of her 23 years on the bench. She was a passionate and level-headed justice, a steady and determined force on the bench who will be missed greatly by all who had the pleasure to know her and know of her.”

– Linda Coffee, former personal secretary and personal assistant to Justice Hughes, 4/23/1985 press statement



COMMERCIAL SANTE FE-TO-NEW YORK FLIGHT MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING AT O’HARE: Delta Air Lines’ Lockheed Plane Survives Microburst “Near-Miss”

…The incident comes just days after the FAA released a report calling for a “severe need” to update pilot, emergency situation, and mechanic repairs training programs. Last year, the Denton White House relaxed F.A.A. security measures in order to better the air travel industry. This move freed up funds for the F.A.A., allowing it to launch an expensive investigation into the quality of procedures and training that pilots go through to equip them for emergency situations…

The Albuquerque Journal, 4/25/1985



LOUISVILLE AIMS FOR MORE RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES IN CITY/COUNTY MERGER

…the city of Louisville has merged with Jefferson County, creating what is being called a “metro government” in an effort to maintain the inflow of employers and revenue that both areas have enjoyed (for the most part) since the early 1970s…

The Paducah Sun, 4/29/1985



FORMER SENATOR GREMILLION ACQUITTED ON PERJURY CHARGE

The Washington Times, 4/30/1985



Needing to make the second Supreme Court nomination of his administration, Denton studied the court’s composition. The justices were almost evenly split between four right-leaning justices (Denton’s 1981 pick Herb Fogel of Pennsylvania, Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson of Alabama, Sylvia Bacon of California, and Edward Hirsch Levi of Illinois) and four left-leaning justices (A. Leon Higginbotham of Pennsylvania, William Nealon of Pennsylvania, Miles W. Lord of Minnesota, and William Brennan of New Jersey). His personal secretary would later reveal that Denton did not consider gender or race when seeking out a nominee due to a woman and an African-American already being on the Supreme Court. Instead, due to the lack of western and southern representation on the court, Denton looked at potential nominees from the Court of Appeals Circuits 5, 8, 9, 10, and 11 for geographical balance. With almost a third of the Senate held by Republicans and a majority by conservatives, Denton also sought out a strong social and fiscal conservative justice for the vacant seat.

The eight Court of Appeals Circuit Judges considered the most were 60-year-old Charles Clark of Mississippi, 63-year-old James Barrett of Wyoming, 65-year-old Joseph Tyree Sneed III of California with deep Texas roots, 52-year-old Alfred Goodwin of Oregon, 52-year-old former Brigham Young University President Dallin Oaks of Utah, 56-year-old Peter Fay of Florida, anti-capital punishment 60-year-old Warren Urbom of Nebraska, and the Illinois-born 63-year-old Carl Olaf Bue Jr. of Texas. Also considered were the incumbent Attorney General of California Anthony McLeod Kennedy, a mainstream moderate; Judge Gerald Tjoflat of Florida; 69-year-old Judge Robert Hugh McWilliams Jr. of Kansas; Assistant US Secretary of Defense, former FBI Assistant Director, and former Circuit Judge William Hedgcock Webster of Missouri; Assistant Attorney General of US Fern Meyerson Smith from California; Puerto Rican Judge Mark Americus Constantino of New York; 79-year-old Senior D.C. Court of Appeals Judge George MacKinnon of Minnesota; and Court of Appeals Judge and follower of the Baha’i Faith Dorothy Wright Nelson of California.

Ultimately, Sneed was nominated on the third of May. Denton preferred Sneed in the end due to his conservative record on law-and-order issues, recreadrugs, and BLUTAGO rights. [6] Senators Hoff and Kennedy-Shriver launched a “No Need For Sneed” campaign almost immediately afterward for that same record.

– Linda Greenhouse and Morton J. Horwitz’s Upholding Liberty: The Supreme Court Under Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson, Sunrise Publishing, 2019



…KFC’s parent corporation, Finger Lickin’ Good Inc., has teamed up with the US-based Bread for the World organization to launch an anti-hunger campaign aiming to drop food insecurity levels in the “hungriest” counties in the US…

– ABC News, 5/5/1985



EX-PROFESSOR ACCUSES VP OF ACCEPTING “THE EQUIVALENCE OF A BRIBE”

A former member of the faculty at Trevecca Nazarene University has formally alleged that Vice President Lamar Alexander received payments from TNU in September 1981 in exchange for supporting a federal bill that sought to impose higher regulations on the activities of Christian schools… The placement of the payments – repeatedly switched between three different accounts – could also mean that Alexander could be charged with tax fraud…

– The Chicago Tribune, “exposé” article, 5/6/1985



FULL COPY OF LUKENS’ NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENT RELEASED! Includes Lukens’ signature!!!

…the copy of the agreement about the Secretary’s “night of sexual intimacy” with an underage girl is authentic according to several analysts… Mrs. Mason claims the documentation was made in triplicate, and that Lukens and his lawyers forgot to leave with this copy… ...one subsection of the legal document includes a bit about additional payments “if the situation requires [the daughter] to obtain an abortion.”

The New York Post, 5/9/1985



…You may not remember where you were when the papers reported that President Denton was furious, positively outraged, they said, at Lukens and his discretion. You also may not remember the additional reports claiming that the Secretary was repeatedly kept out of cabinet meetings immediately after the scandal grew in seriousness. You may not even remember where you were when Lukens filed a defamation lawsuit against Mason.

That’s alright, because what mattered more was the outrage. The fury that rose up over the revelation that the man fourth in line for the Presidency was a degenerate lowlife. …But it was not just the far-left that was enraged. In fact, conservative women being incensed by Lukens’ “abortion” stipulation was a political hit much closer to home for Denton. Some contributors to the National Review condemned the President for having “such an immoral man work for” him. Pundits were sure to take note that, indeed, there are women in both major political parties, and that women can in fact be conservative. For the first time in ages, far-left pioneers like Congresswoman Trudy Cooper and far-right talking heads like Phyllis Schlafly agreed on something – Lukens was scum.

– Radical feminist Catharine Alice MacKinnon’s More Than Words: Women’s Lives Under Men’s Laws, 1988



LUKENS LEGAL TEAM REVEALS ANNA MASON HAS CRIMINAL PAST

The Dayton Daily News, 5/12/1985



Anna Mason’s police record showed that she had shoplifted in her teens, which Anna claimed was the result of “hanging out with the wrong kind of crowd.” A report of crashing her car and another incident of disturbing the peace revealed Anna’s temperamental side. Fine was sympathetic, telling her firm’s “biggest” client “Don’t cry, and don’t apologize. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of.”

On May 20th, in Washington, D.C., the “Citizens For Women’s Justice” organization was officially launched. Officially, it was co-founded by women’s rights attorney Gloria Bloom Allred and several other big names (many being “veterans” of the Ms. Arkansas Scandal and its subsequent “Ark Wave”), but it was unofficial co-founded by them and by Anna Mason’s “number one” supporter Janice Fine, her older sister Marjorie, 49-year-old activist Doris Lake, and several others as well. Initially meant to mobilize support for the Masons at a time when many still did not believe their story, despite the evidence in their favor, due to her police record, the organization soon expanded to cover all aspects of protecting women’s rights.

– Andrew Boyd and D. O. Mitchell’s Glorious Chaos: A Guide for The Revolutionary in You, Sparkstarters Publications, 2013



EXTRA! LUKENS INDICTED BY OHIO COURT!

…An Ohio court has indicted the former Secretary of State on the charges of contributing to the delinquency and unruliness of a minor and of having sex with a minor. Both of these are serious crimes in the state of Ohio, described as “degenerate crimes worthy of high punishment” by Lukens in 1973. In that year, Lukens, as the Governor of Ohio, successfully pushed for the raising of the penalties and severity of sentences for both crimes as part of a tough-on-crime initiative ahead of his 1974 re-election campaign... The decision comes days after being subpoenaed for an unrelated, and newer, charge of workplace pestering that alleged occurred in 1978, during his last year as Governor…

The Los Angeles Times, 5/22/1985



OHIO JURY BRINGS CHARGES AGAINST LUKENS; THE US SECRETARY OF STATE MUST APPEAR IN COURT

The Madras Pioneer, 5/22/1985



Even [White House Counsel] Jesse Helms suggested Lukens be forced to resign. Denton still would not budge from his position.

“Buz is an invaluable member of this team,” Denton again defended his decision to not accept a resignation from Lukens, claiming, “He’s proven himself to be a very effective diplomat on the world stage. And now, with that mad man in Pakistan and our boys in uniform in Colombia and still in Libya, we can’t afford a destabilizing shake-up in our diplomatic line of defense against the enemies of freedom.”

Ugh, this isn’t a battle!, I remember thinking to myself, almost wanting to roll my eyes at the ridiculously over-the-top rhetoric.

Denton also defended Lukens by bringing up how his marriage had fallen apart in early 1984. “The man’s wife had left him. She'd filed for divorce, and was eyeing half of everything. He was in a bad way. If he truly did some of the things he did, he likely wasn’t thinking clearly when he did them.” From that statement, [Chief of Staff] Richard Schermerhorn came up with what “a solution” – have Lukens take a short leave of absence for “exhaustion,” and claim his previous actions to be the result of “fatigue.” I thought this was a horridly poor excuse – and, thankfully, many in the media thought so too – but my opposition to the notion fell on practically deaf ears.

By this point in time, it was becoming increasingly obvious that my presence in the White House was not nearly as effective and impactful as it had been before. [snip] I handed in my letter of resignation that November.

– Former White House Chief Domestic Policy Advisor Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson’s Behind Closed Doors: The Machinations of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1986



SENATOR NIXON TURNS ON FORMER ALLY LUKENS!

…Nixon stated “I think it’s important for it to be known what the Secretary did and how he did it.” …Nixon further stated, “if the Secretary did do what they’re saying he did, just because he’s the Secretary of State doesn’t make it legal, allowed, or alright.”

– The Dayton Daily News, 5/26/1985



…The last manned moon mission of NASA’s Aries program before finally shifting its full focus onto shuttleplanes and the I.S.S. saw Aries 13 launch on May 28, 1985, and land on the lunar surface with four people on board – a white man (53-year-old veteran astronaut and this mission’s commander Clifton Williams), a white woman (and the fifth woman to land on the moon overall; 36-year-old Anna Lee Fisher), an African-American man (the third Black person to land on the moon overall; 39-year-old Charles Bolden), and the half-Chinese, half-Latino 35-year-old pilot Franklin Chang Diaz...

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



…After a very quick and speedy hearing process, the US Senate has confirmed Joseph T. Sneed the Third for the US Supreme Court’s vacant seat, with a vote of 55 yea, 43 nay, and two Senators – Maureen Reagan of California and Mario Biaggi of New York – abstaining from voting…

6yAmgjB.png

[pic: imgur.com/6yAmgjB ]
[picture of Sneed shown]
– CBS Evening News, 5/30/1985



GOVERNOR GREENLEAF VISITS WESTERN PARTS OF STATE AFTER TWISTER OUTBREAK RAVAGES REGIONS

…dozens of tornadoes touched down in areas in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario for roughly eight hours yesterday, killing dozens and inflicting hundreds of injuries of varying degrees...

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/1/1985



LUKENS ACCUSSER TESTIFIED IN OHIO TODAY

Cincinnati, OH – A teen-ager who says she had sex with the US Secretary of State Donald E. Lukens testified today that she appeared at his apartment in Washington, D.C. along with a female friend, and that the three of them went to bed together. [7] The accuser, Sidney Mason said that she first met Mr. Lukens in 1983, but did not see the Secretary of State again until May 28, 1984, when she and a friend of hers, one Celina Troy, whom had also met Lukens separately, were invited to his D.C. apartment.

The age of consent in Ohio is 16, but Sidney was days away from turning 15 when the alleged sexual encounter occurred. A misdemeanor statute in Ohio states that “no person shall…aid, abet, induce, cause, encourage, or contribute to a child or ward of the juvenile court (into) becoming an unruly or (delinquent) child.[8] As a result, the US Secretary of State is on trial on two charges of contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a minor.

While on the witness stand, Ms. Sidney Mason said that her and Ms. Troy took a cab to the Secretary’s apartment. He met them at the door in boxer shorts, she said, and gave her a $20 bill to pay the driver of said cab. Mr. Lukens, who once represented a district north of Cincinnati, shook his head repeatedly during her testimony. Ms. Mason said Mr. Lukens showed the two around his apartment and took them to a guest room.

“He told us to get undressed and put on two black robes,”
Ms. Mason said. She asked him why they could not wear two white robes she saw in the room. “He said those were for white people,” she said.

Ms.
Mason and Ms. Troy are black. Mr. Lukens is white.

Ms.
Mason testified that they got into bed with the Secretary of State. She testified that they then had oral sex and intercourse with Mr. Lukens. She said Mr. Lukens gave her two $20 bills and paid Ms. Troy $30. Ms. Mason said Mr. Lukens also gave her a glass of brandy and two gifts – a pink lace fan and a silver pillbox – and gave Ms. Troy a bottle of perfume and a diamond pendant.

If convicted of the misdemeanor, Mr. Lukens, who is divorced, could be sentenced to six months in jail and fined $1,000. Before Ms.
Sidney Mason testified, Mr. Lukens’s lawyer, Thomas Tyack, attacked the testimony of the girl’s mother, describing the woman as continually unemployed and desperate for notoriety and money. Mrs. Anna Mason testified yesterday that, in August 1984, she contacted Mr. Lukens after the incident and confronted him in a meeting in Washington, D.C. “I told him how old she was,” Mrs. Mason said, adding that she showed Mr. Lukens pictures of the girl. She said Mr. Lukens told her he thought her daughter was 18. [7] The Washington, D.C. meeting was soon followed by a second meeting at a Holiday Inn just outside of Middletown two weeks later, where she claimed she was intimidated into signing a non-disclosure agreement and into accepting a check that Mrs. Mason repeatedly referred to as “hush money.”

The New York Times, 6/10/1985



Reports of sexual pestering began to rise; it seems the Lukens Scandal exposed a side of America that most wanted to believe was no longer a lingering situation for women. It soon began to feel like 1985 was turning into 1970.

– Andrew Boyd and D. O. Mitchell’s Glorious Chaos: A Guide for The Revolutionary in You, Sparkstarters Publications, 2013



F.E.C. LAUNCHES INQUIRY INTO ORIGINS OF LUKENS’ “HUSH MONEY”

…the Federal Election Commission has launched an official inquiry into where the Secretary of State obtained funds for a “hush money” payment of $100,000 in August of last year. Working with Ohio’s state Attorney General Anthony J. Celebrezze Jr.’s justice department, the FEC, an independent federal agency, has formally requested access to any and all executive files, general files, legislative files, personal files, political and campaign files (including senatorial, congressional, gubernatorial, vice presidential and presidential files), public relations files, sound and visual materials (photographs and videos), speeches, banking and monetary transactions, and any and all other materials and paper trails relative to their inquiry...

The Washington Post, 6/19/1985



Lukens only worsened the situation by lambasting “all” media outlets for “blowing things really out of proportion” at a press briefing on June 22. During one strange moment during his criticisms, he was sure to single out Evan W. Thomas III, a journalist for Time Magazine at the time, for “not [being] a patriot” due to the fact that his father was Norman Thomas, a known Socialist politician.

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



Supply and demand dictated that the rise in mothers working outside the home would lead to a rise in day-care centers. What economics did not predict was a rise in anxiety, guilt and fear experienced by said mothers leaving their young with people who could quite easily be considered – by the parent or the child – as strangers. The resulting paranoia created a tense atmosphere that was set aflame upon the sordid details of the Lukens Scandal coming to light. “If we can’t trust the Secretary of State – the man fourth in line for the Presidency – who can we trust?” was the general feeling. As a result, an unforeseen consequence of the Lukens Scandal was a sudden drop in women in the workforce rates as women began becoming more reluctant to leave their children. Feminist activists such as former US Congressman Sarah Weddington (D-TX) sought out alternatives as the situation continued. Talks of things such as onsite daycare – and to lesser extent (at the time), at-home work – began to work their way around, being promoted on radio and then on TV programs and in newspapers, books and professional articles...

– Radical feminist Catharine Alice MacKinnon’s More Than Words: Women’s Lives Under Men’s Laws, 1988



So after that bizarre accusation, the U.S. Attorney General, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, declined to lead the federal Justice Department into an investigation into an alleged misuse of federal funds. Instead, after the releasing of the results of a quick inquiry into the State Department, Cianci issued and, in late June, fully released a small report claiming there was “too little evidence” to merit a full-on investigation.

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



…After almost three months [9] of protests, the scandal-stricken Buz Lukens has finally stepped down as the US Secretary of State in order to appear before an Ohio court on two charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor…

– CBS News, 7/1/1985



In 1979, both Harvey and Robert Weinstein, using the profits saved from their concert-promoting business, founded Miriamax, an independent film distribution company named after their parents Miriam and Max Weinstein. With various music and arthouse films, the company was slowly and steadily growing when

Shortly after the Fourth of July celebrations of 1985, a former assistant for Miriamax accused Harvey Weinstein of workplace pestering. This was soon followed by several former interns and a former appointments secretary stepping forward to describe either experiencing or knowing of similar instances of inappropriate behavior and sexual assault from Harvey. These accusations led to Bob firing Harvey from Miriamax in order to keep the company from being financially ruined from the scandal. [snip] Bob Weinstein continued to run the company while Harvey was imprisoned on sexual assault charges, serving three sentences from 1989 to 2014. [snip] In 2015, Bob’s brother Harvey was controversially made a silent partner in Miriamax 18 months after being released from prison on parole, and later took on an advisory role in the company. In 2016, however, Harvey stepped down from said role in the midst of increased controversy over his presence in the company, possibly due to the 2016 film “Anna Mason” reviving public interest in Harvey’s 1980s court cases; Harvey currently (as of early 2020) works as a self-hired diabetes research advocate in Montauk, Long Island.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Bob_Weinstein



LUKENS FOUND GUILTY ON BOTH CHARGES; In Lenient Ruling, Sentenced To 3 Months In Jail And $5,000 Fine

The New York Times, 7/8/1985



It began with the oil. Under Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, a structural adjustment plan had been negotiated to combat the nation’s economic slump that had contributed to Rawlings rising to power. Understanding the need to change many old economic policies, Rawlings invited foreign energy companies to invest in the nation during the early 1980s. With US companies seeking to recover from the crash of ’78, several took Rawlings up on the offer. The investing paid off in 1985, when the Jubilee Oil Field was discovered [10] off the coast of Ghana’s Western Region by an American oil company. Estimates at the time suggested that at least 2 million barrels of sweet crude oil was in the Atlantic, waiting to be used. Ghana found itself swiftly entering a new, more prosperous era, as oil and gas exploration came to dominate the economy, fueling national projects such as the construction of roads, hospitals and schools.

– Historian Roger Gocking’s The Modern History of Ghana, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005



As the US Justice Department and the Ohio A.G. collaborated with each other, FBI officials seized documents and business records in a clandestine raid on Lukens’ office in D.C. and Cincinnati on July 15. Concurrently, Denton was optimistic that “the situation with Buz,” as the President called it, would blow over “soon enough,” and so approved of his Attorney General, Buddy Cianci, appointing a special prosecutor to the source-of-funds investigation. The man Cianci hired for the role was named Stephen S. Trott, a 45-year-old former D.A. for L.A., California, then working as the Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division.

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’80s, Basic Books NY, 2007



…Despite swearing innocence, the scandal surrounding Vice President Alexander just took another incriminating turn. Earlier today, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Eastern Tennessee John W. Gill Jr. formally gave Alexander’s office a letter stating that he is under federal investigation for fraud…

The Overyer Network, 7/10/1985 report



COLONEL SANDERS BECOMES GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER WITH THE BIRTH OF HARLAND V

Five Generations of Greatness Gather In One Room At Hospital – See Inside for Photos!

…Harland David Sanders V (the fifth) was born in Florence Medical Center in Florence, Kentucky, to Harland David “Davey” Sanders IV and Samantha Lee. Davey (b. 1959) is the son of Harland “Lando” Sanders III (b. 1939), who is the son of Senator Harley Sanders, Colonel Sanders’ son, making Davey the Colonel’s great-grandson…

The National Enquirer, US tabloid “grocery store” magazine, 7/15/1985



We knew the competition was getting more serious when the Amiga personal computer came out in July of ’85, and it was a better seller than expected. About, what was it? I want to say, six? Yeah, six months later the Microsoft Corporation releases the second version of Windows, Windows 2.0 [11], and all these other, newer computer companies start entering the market. Sinclair Research, Eagle Computers, Packard Bell, Prime Computer, Texas Instruments, they all start trying to make the best computer. I mean, I wasn’t partial to so much competition, but it did spur research and development of computer technology, so in the end it was a really good, a great thing to have happened, and I’m really happy that it did.

– Bill Gates, KNN interview with Bill Gates and Kent Allen, 9/1/1995



wnvjDm9.png

[pic: imgur.com/wnvjDm9 ]
– Commodore International’s 1987 Amiga 500; this model would be an even better seller than its 1986 predecessor due to its potential for efficiency in offices during the mid-to-late 1980s



The 1985 FDRR Presidential Election was held in the Federal Democratic Republic of Russia on July 27, 1985. Several candidates ran for a five-year term in a first round-runoff election system similar to the ones used by the nations of France and Cuba. The incumbent interim President, Vlad Orlov, declined to run, making for an open election. The lack of established political parties made for a largely non-partisan election season.

[snip]

Candidates (8):

Vasily Arkhipov b. 1926 (Communist (“conservative” faction)), a Vice Admiral during the Cuba War and the Minister of Defense under Podgorny, came out of retirement to defend the past actions of the USSR.

Oleg Baklanov, b. 1932 (Independent), was the Minister of General Machine Building under Podgorny and Ustinov, and was responsible for overseeing the developments of the Soviet space industry during that time. He opposed the coup that overthrew Ustinov and opposed the collapse of the Soviet Union, but ran on a platform focused on scientific advancement and on getting foreign businesses to invest in Russia.

Vladimir Bukovsky, b. 1942 (Progressive), was a human rights activist who was expelled from the USSR in 1976 for being a dissident since the 1950s; now that he had been allowed back in, he ran on a platform focused on, along with other issues, mental health care and government reparations for survivors of the USSR’s “horrific” mental hospitals, labor camps and prison systems.

Gennady Burbulis, b. 1945 (National), had organized public forums to discuss local issues under Podgorny and Yakovlev. A supporter of democratic reform, he sought to carefully walk a fine line between institutional change and alleged “radicalism” many remaining hardliners blamed for the collapse of the USSR.

Vladimir Chub, b. 1948 (Independent), was the youngest candidate in the race, and called for major socio-economic development, government transparency, and other changes to assure Russian prosperity in both the short term and the long term.

Mikhail Gorbachev, b. 1931 (Communist (“glasnost” faction)), ran on a platform of “openness and helpfulness, but still communist,” but his closeness to Anatoly Lukyanov made him very unpopular.

Sergey Sokolov, b. 1911 (Independent), was the Minister of Defense under Dmitriy Ustinov and a defender of his actions who called for slow and gradual reform, starting locally and building up to nationwide, believing this to be the best way to “observe and adjust such impactful changes.”

Vladislav Volkov, b. 1935 (Democratic), was an engineer and former cosmonaut, first elected to the National Assembly in 1984; he supported investing in the I.S.S. project and in removing “as much poverty and famine as possible” from Russia via agriculture and urban development reform as a step “we need to take before we can even consider going to Mars.”

[snip]

Results:

Sokolov won over enough elder voters and fiscal conservatives to advance to the runoff, while Volkov’s “pragmatic” and “forward-thinking” campaign energized younger Russians, allowing him to make it to second place, behind Sokolov. In the July 27 runoff, former supporters of Baklanov, Bukovsky, and Chub rallied behind Volkov, leading to him winning the election by a margin of 12%. Sokolov, in a historically important moment went on Russian TV and radio to applaud Volkov for a well-run campaign.
[snip]

After the election, there was some more lighthearted debate over the well-known “Bald-Hairy” Pattern [12]. Former Primer Yakovlev was often counted as either hairy or bald, as he had long and wild hair, but only on the sides of his head, and was bald on top. If Vladimir Orlov, who was merely the “interim” head of state (both before and after Yakovlev), was counted in the hairy-bald pattern, then Yakovlev was considered hairy in order to maintain the pattern; if Orlov was not counted, Yakovlev was considered “bald” to maintain the pattern. Some voters decided that the election helped “clarify” the situation by a “hairy” candidate winning the election.

– clickopedia.co.usa



6kYIi50.png

[pic: imgur.com/6kYIi50 ]
– Vlad Volkov, c. 1971



…After the Soviet collapsed, the Khalq and Parham Communist parties in Afghanistan’s bicameral legislature, both of whom were funded by the Soviets, fell out of favor as funding dried up and American mining and research companies boosted the nation’s economy, making the 1980s a “Golden Decade” for Afghanistan…

– Tamim Ansary’s Games Without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan, Hachette Book Group, 2012



An insurrection in Jammu and Kashmir broke out in early July 1985. Inspired by the successful war of independence fought by the people of United Turkestan, anti-India demonstrations erupted in the disputed region’s urban centers of Rajauri and Srinagar. Indian police used batons and pepper spray on the crowds and established a curfew for night hours. Pakistan soon intervened by providing arms and training to Kashmir militants, prompting a mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Kashmir valley. Further unrest was provoked when dozens were protestors were killed on July 30, when Indian police fired on them during the second straight week of civil disobedience, leading to thousands, if not millions (sources and eyewitness accounts vary) taking to the streets, demanding the region separate from India. As the weeks continued onward, thousands of more youths traveled into Pakistan, repeating a vicious cycle of violence leading to more violence. Human rights violations were committed on all sides.

Disgusted by the violent tendencies of both nation’s governments, former US President Colonel Sanders, along with several anti-war organizations, sought to convince “all” relevant companies to end, or at least threaten to cease, all business activities with both countries unless both sides agreed to a ceasefire... International pressure would continue to develop over the months and years that followed until…

– David Tal’s US Strategic Arms Policy in the Cold War: Negotiation & Confrontation, Routledge, 2017



…Breaking News: the F.E.C.’s investigators have confirmed that Secretary of State Buz Lukens used political funds for the Cincinnati Hush Money payment, which is a clear violation of federal finance use laws as it was not disclosed to the IRS, or to the FEC, or on US State Department records… another news bulletin concerning Secretary Lukens has just come over the wire… the judge overseeing Lukens’ defamation charge has ruled against the lawsuit, effectively throwing it out of court...

– KNN, 8/3/1985 report



DENTON STILL REFUSES TO CRITICIZE LUKENS, CLAIMING “NO MAN IS PERFECT”

The New York Times, 8/7/1985



PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN 50+ CITIES OVER DENTON’S COMMENTS DEFENDING LUKENS

The Los Angeles Times, 8/7/1985



ASSISTANT HEALTH AND WELFARE SECRETARY RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF LUKENS STILL STAYING ON

…the strongly pro-life Assistant Secretary Marjory Mecklenburg remarked that she is “outraged” at Denton’s “woefully unwise” decision to allow Lukens, whom she described as “a man with no remorse and no regard for the unborn or for minors” to retain his position of Secretary of State for so long…

The Washington Post, 8/9/1985



AT LEAST 1,000 ARRESTED IN XINJIANG AND TIBET AFTER CAM BOMBS KILL FIVE CHINESE OFFICERS IN URUMQI AND LHASA

The San Diego Union-Tribune, 8/10/1985



SOURCE: MCDONALD’S IS AIMING TO BEAT KFC AND OTHERS TO BEING THE FIRST U.S. FOOD CHAIN TO OPEN AN OUTLET IN RUSSIA!

The New York Post, 8/11/1985



In early August, Alexander entered into negotiations for a plea bargain on the condition that he not serve any jail time for what he insisted was “an honest and simple…mishandling of funds.” Alexander informed prosecutors and investigators that he wanted to protect his family and the American people from “a national embarrassment,” according to his memoirs. On August 12, Alexander informed Denton of his decision to resign. Denton initially opposed the notion, telling his second-in-command that it was “out of the question.” Alexander reportedly reminded the President of his low approval ratings, and he damage his continuation in the office could do to the Denton White House. After a lengthy debate, Denton finally yielded. With a sigh, Denton uttered “Things won’t be the same around here without you, dear friend.”

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



…Tonight’s top story: the Vice President of the United States Lamar Alexander has resigned amid investigations into his accepting of donations from lobbyists working for a Tennessee University, donations that have been described as bribes due to the timing of their delivering and of Alexander’s opposition to a Christian schools regulation bill. The announcement comes hours after the Vice President appeared in a federal court in Nashville, Tennessee, where he pleaded nolo contendere, or “no contest,” to one felony charge of tax fraud for the year of 1981, after which he paid a $50,000 fine and was sentenced to five years’ supervised probation, a sentence raised in 1983 from merely $5,000 under President Denton. Hours later, Alexander submitted a formal letter of resignation to President Denton. A few minutes ago, the White House Press Secretary made the following statement.

[cut to footage of Press Secretary Peggy Noonan]

NOONAN: Lamar Alexander, a patriot dedicated to improving the welfare of his fellow countrymen, has resigned from the office of the Vice Presidency in order to better focus on clarifying a discrepancy concerning activities that occurred in his gubernatorial and post-gubernatorial years.

[cut back to the newsroom]

ANCHOR: The resignation leaves the office of the Vice Presidency vacant until the House and the Senate can confirm Denton’s nominee for the rest of Alexander’s term, as laid out in the 26th Amendment of 1971…

– CBS Evening News, 8/15/1985 coverage



The Russian economy often seems to go through a three-part cycle: collapse, recovery, and prosperity. It was in shambles in the 1940s (collapse), it got itself together and picked itself up in the 1950s and 1960s (recovery), was roaring prosperously under Kosygin in the 1970s (prosperity), but then collapsed in the 1980s. Now, it was starting to pick itself back up again…

Advice from American and Western voices was conflicting: conservative economists and politicians urged the new President to hold off on regulations in order to allow Russian enterprises to flourish. Others told them to invest in the private sector in order to encourage other aspects of capitalism. More liberal analysts, however, urged the new President to implement privatization slowly, warning that it happening too quickly would actually hurt the newly non-communist nation’s economy [13] Vice-President-Elect Nikolay Travkin was torn…In a telephone call to President-Elect Vladimir Volkov, the US Secretary of Commerce Alfred Hayes Jr. explained that “a nation can’t go from a command economy to a free market one too quickly. It’s crash if it tries to. It requires a well-thought-out and well-guided transitional period that is planned out long-term.”

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



VLADIMIR VOLKOV SWORN IN AS NEW RUSSIAN PRESIDENT TODAY: Former Cosmonaut Is The First-Ever Democratically Elected Leader of Russia

The Guardian, 17/8/1985



To celebrate the ten-year anniversary of hosting “The Joy of Painting,” [originally titled “The Magic of Oil Painting,”] an article in the New Yorker covered the “unexpected rise” of Bob. Calling him “a perplexing fixture in the art world,” the journalist described, likely with his nose held up high, how Bob was much more popular with the average Joe Six-Pack kind of the American, and how more traditional artists of the Art World did not appreciate Bob “making art look easy.” This, however, only highlighted why Bob was so popular with the working class – anyone, from a blue-collar worker to a college student to an independent single mother – could enjoy his instructional showcasing of the wet-on-wet style, and is they so desired create a work of art that was all their own…

– Kristin G. Congdon, Doug Blandy, and Danny Coeyman’s Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon, University Press of Mississippi, 2014



CAM BOMB KILLS 32 IN TRIPOLI

The Boston Globe, 8/27/1985



“DENTON KNEW!” LATEST CLAIM ALLEGES THE PRESIDENT OK’D HUSH MONEY MOVE

Washington, D.C. – Thomas Tyack [14], a former employee to Buz Lukens has come forward with the claim that he, as Lukens’ assistant, was present when White House officials, including President Denton, approved of Lukens’ decision to offer the now-infamous money payment… The former employee, who worked as Luken’s legal advisor, claims that the alleged meeting was in compliance with Denton’s wishes to know the goings-on in all cabinet and cabinet-level departments…

The New York Times, 8/29/1985



DENTON DENIES NEW ACCUSATIONS AS WHITE HOUSE PERSONNEL KEEP QUIET

The Washington Post, 8/29/1985



RUSSIA AGREES TO PARTIALLY COVER NUCLEAR WASTE CLEANUP COSTS

…The Russian government has agreed to cover 60% of the costs for the cleanup of lingering amounts of radiation at the nuclear meltdown site at Aktar, United Turkestan. …Iran and other nations have pledged to help clean up the Caspian and Aral Seas, where a 1984 U.N. study found that the fish in both bodies of water have been negatively affected by the deposits of nuclear material in their water.

The Guardian, 31/8/1985



“We must stay vigilant. We must protect the moral necessities in these times. Not even our Vice President and Secretary of State are immune to the temptations of sin. No one is exempt from the devil’s plans, and that is why protecting people’s souls is a daily duty of ours. Going to church is not enough. Nodding along during the service won’t save your soul from temptations of the flesh and of the coin. You must act on what you say! You must practice what I preach!”

– Southern Baptist clergyman Billy Ervin McCormack of Louisiana, CBN broadcast, 9/1/1985



GOVERNOR LARRY JACKSON BACKS STATE-LEVEL “COMMON SENSE” ABORTION CONTROL BILL

…the proposed publicly-funded program would include a “punishment” feature of sorts for “unwarranted,” or completely voluntary, abortion. “The later the term, the stricter the law,” explains one state senator …On the other side of the issue, in an acknowledgement of the financial and emotional concerns that come with a pregnancy, Jackson supports a financial aid program meant to monetarily compensate employed women for income lost due to a pregnancy. …Jackson also encourages putting babies up for adoption as a humane alternative to aborting them when they are “at the fetal stage of life, [as abortion] deprives them of even a chance at life.”

The Idaho Press-Tribune, 9/5/1985



“I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C’ and ‘D.’ Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? …I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism.’”

– Barry Goldwater, Meet the Press interview, 9/6/1985 [15]



“Not sure to what extent, if it was Denton’s idea or if he simply knew it and he just turned a blind eye to it, but I know for a fact that Denton knew about the hush money scheme because I overheard him and Buz discussing it in the White House. I heard them use the phrases ‘the offer’ and ‘the money.’”

– Thomas Tyack, former legal advisor to Buz Lukens, KNN interview, 9/10/1985



Returning from Expo ’85 shortly before its conclusion, and having perused its showcases and ideas in its last month, the Colonel immediately voiced his concerns over future technologies. He worried, “the dawn of the compers,” his word for computers, “will replace honest work! How will honest folks get by if one bot can do ten jobs and the only job left is the guy hired to hit the bot’s ‘on’ switch?” However, he did approach his worries with a bit of levity, saying a few weeks later at a KFC in Detroit, “I know big companies are working on bots and compers that can do things better than how most people can. But compers can never replace folks like you and me – cooks and politicians will always be needed. A bot can’t make food with love – they certainly will never make and serve KFC with love, not like you folks can, I can tell ya tat much – and I tell ya, the robots are going to end up being way too smart to go and dabble into politics.”

– Josh Ozersky’s Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, University of Texas Press, 2012



…When Mexico City was struck by a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on September 19, the US government was reluctant to send aid due to “what happened last time,” referring to the misuse of anti-recreadrug funds under Mexican President Miguel de la Madrid. As a result, the Mexican government sought out aide from Mexican-American organizations and companies, and on any international aide they could obtain. The campaign saw Mexican organizations at the national, state, and local level mobilize relief workers and reach out to other humanitarian organizations. Soon funding for earthquake relief found a supporter in Governor Toney Anaya of New Mexico. After getting both US Senators from New Mexico – Pedro Jimenez and Roberto Mondragon – to join him, Anaya led an effort that saw thousands of American citizens sending small donations – anything they had, from spare blankets and Band-Aids to pocket change – to the people of Mexico City. This would lead to a strong and friendly relationship developing between the people and governments of New Mexico and central Mexico as the years went by, culminating in Mexico City and Santa Fe officially becoming “sister cities” in 1995…

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



AUSTRALIA ELECTION: SNEDDEN BEATS CROSS IN LIBERAL SWEEP

…Sir Billy Snedden is set to become Australia’s 22nd Prime Minister after defeating incumbent PM Manfred Cross by a very comfortable margin. Snedden, who won the 1983 Liberal coalition leadership election over Andrew Peacock and John Howard, likely won the election due to Cross’s unpopularity more so than Snedden’s active campaign. Cross’s approval ratings steadily dropped down to 41% on election day as he failed to defend his controversial introduction of a capital gains tax in May of this year…

The Sun, UK newspaper, 20/9/1985



The VP selection process took weeks because Denton wanted to carefully consider his options. He had no need to worry about electability because he was not forming a ticket, but instead was seeking out a competent and well-functioning first-mate who he could get along with professionally and as someone that he could call friend.

Going out the box a bit, Denton considered picking a fellow Alabaman like Senator Jack Edwards or former Senator Martin. He considered picking someone that the GOP would not miss being sent to 1 Observatory Circle, like Ron Paul, or Barry Goldwater or some other controversial lawmaker. He considered Charlton Heston and Mario Biaggi, both Democrats, but both declined. Denton even seriously considered nominating Harley Sanders at one point, only for the 73-year-old to take too long to respond, and he was passed over. Years later, I remember, Harley revealed in his memoirs that he had decided to accept the position when he was informed that Denton had already been convinced by his advisors to nominate someone else.

Because Denton’s advisors had sought out a member of congress, or at least a congressional connection, figuring that it would be easy to confirm one of their own. That led to their eyes passing over Governors and instead turning onto the House leaders – Kemp, Michel, Emery and Polonko. Of the four men, Kemp was the most conservative. A bit to left of Denton in some places, but not so much in others. Actually, it’s hard to pin down where Kemp stood politically, but to Denton, it was more important that Kemp was a team player.

– historian and former political strategist K. Christian Rove, KNN Interview, 2019



JACK KEMP, CONGRESSIONAL HOUSE WHIP, NOMINATED FOR V.P.

The Washington Post, 9/20/1985



On September 22, the FBI began a new investigations into claims that President Denton greenlit improper use of State Department funds in connection to the Buz Lukens “hush money” payment scandal. When asked about it, Denton strongly denied the “baseless accusations” from “a disgruntled former employee,” as the President put it. As the Justice Department expanded its ongoing Lukens investigation to include White house personnel, all members of the White House staff were one-by-one brought in for questioning...

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



CRISIS IN XINJIANG: China’s Expulsion of Native Muslims “Finally” Gaining International Attention

…the authorities are attempting to relocate millions of native inhabitants through heartless procedures that include separating children from parents. Millions of adult Uyghurs, the main ethnic group of the region, are being sent to prisons for refusing to move away to make way for Han Chinese newcomers attempting to flee from China’s highly-overcrowded coastal cities in order to resolve the country’s growing overpopulation crisis. …The children, meanwhile, are sent to state-run schools, including boarding schools and universities, with the intention of cracking down on these locals’ devotion to Islam. “Their orders are to assimilate them, to indoctrinate them into the mindset laid out by the state,” says one anonymous expert, describing how Red China’s government is doing essentially everything short of outright and direct brainwashing to control the masses within its. “They want to the next degeneration of Uyghurs to be loyal to the party above all else.” …Despite constant surveillance and threats of mass arrests and violence, many Uighurs are fighting back...

– Follow-up article to investigative reporter Don Bolles’ August expose, The Arizona Republic, 9/29/1985



CAM BOMB KILLS 19 IN SABHA, LIBYA, AS ANTI-US FORCES FORM UNITED FRONT

The Chicago Tribune, 9/30/1985



NASA: U.S. TO JOIN U.K. & FRANCE IN I.S.S. “MEGA-PROJECT”

…In a formal announcement, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration revealed that the U.S. will contribute to a non-military International Space Station project currently underway and led jointly by the U.K. and France…

The Miami Herald, 10/1/1985



Privately, Denton hoped that the latest developments by NASA would distract the media and their avid audiences from the scandals plaguing hid administration of late. He wanted to return the nation’s attention to “the more important issues of our times,” as his Press Secretary put it…

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



...In the world of sport, Gerald Sandusky, the defensive coordinator for the Nittany Lions football team, has died in a car accident. According to several eyewitnesses, Sandusky was pulling out of his driveway when a truck carrying metal rods for a construction site swerved out of the way of a third vehicle, most likely a drunk driver according to witnesses. The truck with the rods collided at a high speed with Sandusky’s vehicle, causing the rods to slide off the truck and into Sandusky’s car. Some witnesses have stated that Sandusky was run clean through by the metal rods, but out of respect for the Sandusky family we will refrain from releasing any such grisly details. …The death of Coach Sandusky comes shortly after the Rutgers’ Scarlet Knights almost upset Penn State in a college football contest held in the Meadowlands… Sandusky, 41, is survived by his wife Dottie and their six young children… “This is truly a tragedy for football and for sports. Jerry never hurt nobody,” says Rutgers coach Dick Anderson, a longtime colleague, former teammate, and mentor of Sandusky…

– NBC, local news report, 6/17/1985 [27]



AG CIANCI STEPPING DOWN TO RUN FOR GOVERNOR OF RHODE ISLAND

Washington, DC – Vincent “Buddy” Cianci, the controversial Attorney General of the United States, has announced his resignation in order to “focus fully” on running for governor next year. The timing of the announcement is somewhat puzzling as it comes in the midst of continued investigations into the alleged misuse of government funds by the State Department in a “hush money” scandal …Cianci previously served as the Mayor of Providence from 1975 to 1981 as a Republican before being tapped for Attorney General in 1981, but due to his known independent streak, he has not confirmed that he intends to run as a Republican.

The Newport Daily News, 10/3/1985



Denton’s Deputy Attorney General Delwen Lowell (D. Lowell) Jensen of California, became his new Attorney General. Jensen immediately announced that he would oversee the “effectiveness” of the special prosecutor, Stephen S. Trott, in the Lukens Hush Money Scandal.

[snip]

…Behind closed doors, however, certain members of the Denton White House were jumpier than others. In early October, White House Counsel Jesse Helms suggested to Denton that Communication Director Newt Gingrich should be fired for not keeping Denton informed of Lukens’ activities.

“I like the guy, I really do, but we have to think about what’s best for this administration – and that would be moving on from this farcical scandal,” Helms reportedly said. Despite Helms’ logic holding less logic than a sieve holds water, Denton eventually agreed that the Newt would, reluctantly, have to be thrown under the bus.

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



DENTON FIRES COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR!

…the White House Press Secretary claims Director Gingrich “failed to properly monitor the activities of Denton’s cabinet members in a clear breach in his duties of communicating information to the President, and of promoting and developing the policies and ideals of the President to and with the members of the cabinet.”

The Washington Post, 10/9/1985



LIBYAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION POSTPONED SIX MONTHS AMID RISE IN TERROR ATTACKS

The Boston Globe, 10/13/1985



Lukens showed no remorse over his sexual relations. He even smirk once during a mid-October encounter with the press, in which he suggested he would face no major consequences for his actions. Then, just days later, more women finally came forward. It became clear from these further claims that the 1984 relations was not his first instance of sexual pestering. By the end of the month, seven women painted a lugubrious and sleazy picture. Lukens often fondled and groped low-ranking workers such as janitors and elevator operators, and even slept with interns going as far back as 1971. The alleged incidents of workplace misbehavior that occurred while he was Governor were all made ironic by the fact that he had run for Governor in 1970 on an “anti-pestering crusade,” rebuking politicians accused of “immoral behavior,” during the year of the Ms. Arkansas Wave.

Lukens again called the accusations to be all hearsay, but he no longer said it with a smirk.

– Radical feminist Catharine Alice MacKinnon’s More Than Words: Women’s Lives Under Men’s Laws, 1988



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[pic: imgur.com/Dv0PX0k ]
– Buz Lukens, then Governor, visiting Washington, D.C. with two interns, c. October 1976



The U.S. Senate confirmed Kemp as the new V.P. by a wide vote of 71-28-1 on October 10. The U.S. House of Representative did the same a few days later, on October 18, by the even wider vote of 340-93-2.

– clickopedia.co.usa/Jack_French_Kemp



As more women stepped forward, Lukens decided to file another lawsuit against Anna Mason, the mother of the 14-year-old, claiming that Mason had violated their nondisclosure agreement, essentially confirming Mason’s testimony. Lukens demanded Mason return the $100,000. Having never spent it, Mason instead returned the money directly to the State Department, taking a train to their headquarters in D.C. and dramatically slapping the check onto the receptionist desk.

– David Frum’s political textbook How We Got Here: The ’80s, Basic Books NY, 2007



Because of his business deals with wealthy clients around the world, Epstein traveled extensively. He kept fake IDs and passports for places such as Australia, Saudi Arabia, and the UK, in case of emergency. …In the midst of the social fallout of the Lukens Hush Money Scandal, Epstein, and Jean Luc Brunel decided to cut down on the frequency of their procuring and trafficking activities, but it seems this pledge was not enough to keep Epstein at bay, and in 1986, he got sloppy…

Jeffrey Epstein: Profile of a Monster, 1995 documentary



CONGRESSMAN NICHOLAS INTRODUCES DEFENSE RESTRUCTURING BILL INTO HOUSE

The Washington Post, 10/24/1985



...Abortion had not become a major topic of debate in D.C. until its inclusion in Buz Lukens’ non-disclosure agreement allowed it to rise to national prominence. Concurrently, the same agreement’s contents led to members of the religious right pushing even more rigorously than before for anti-abortion legislation at the state level in several liberal states, including in Senator Kennedy-Shriver’s home state. [16]. …Naturally, being a Catholic, President Denton was a firm opponent of Abortion, and denounced Lukens’ inclusion of “the very thought” in the non-disclosure agreement. The senior US Senator from Massachusetts agreed with the President’s views, as she belonged to America’s dwindling population of outspoken pro-life liberals. Like her church, she saw a continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life [17]. Due to her years of work with the developmentally disabled, a group of Americans who had once been marginalized and hidden away – or lobotomized, like her sister Rosemary – was ushered closer to full participation in ordinary human life further and further each year Kennedy-Shriver spent in the Senate [17]. …In a late October 1985 CBS debate held on the subject between her and a pro-choice Republican political activist from California, Kennedy-Shriver famously remarked “A poor person has no right to kill their own child... I just cannot support the notion that someone being a burden on you is justification for you killing them. Every child has the potential, especially in this country, rise above the conditions of their upbringing, and every unborn child has the potential to live. This is the same reason why we don’t unplug every comatose patient. The potential and the right to live is still there in the coma patient, just as it is in the on-the-way baby.”

The New York Times, 2001 article



GLORIA DECKER ELECTED GOVERNOR

…in the first gubernatorial race to feature two female main-party candidates in the history of the Garden state, state senator Gloria A. Decker, a conservative Democrat from Phillipsburg, was elected Governor over state senator Barbara A. Curran of the Republican party. Former state senator Gertrude Berman ran as a liberal independent; together, the three women split the vote 54.5%-40.2%-3.1%, respectively, with the remaining votes going to all the other candidates on the ballot…

The Star-Ledger, 11/5/1985



BELLAMY RE-ELECTED MAYOR IN LANDSLIDE

…with roughly 75.8% of the vote going to Carol Bellamy of the Democratic party (and endorsed by the Liberal, Progressive, and Natural Mind parties of New York), the incumbent Mayor of New York City was declared the winner before midnight. Her biggest challenger tonight, US Congressman from Staten Island Gaetano “Guy” Molinari of the Republican Party (and endorsed by the Conservative party of New York) received roughly 20.5% of the vote, with several minor third-party and independent candidates dividing the remaining 3.7% of votes…

The New York Times, 11/5/1985



TYLER WINS GOVERNOR’S SEAT

…state senator Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr., a Democrat, is the 60-year-old grandson of John Tyler, who served as US President from 1841 to 1845. Before election to the state senate in 1981, Governor-Elect Tyler was an attorney who shifted to a career in academia in 1967, and spent the succeeding 14 years teaching history at the University of Richmond and the Virginia Military Institute [18]. Tyler won over the Republican nominee, US Congressman Stanford Elmer “Stan” Parris, by a margin of 4% in a night that has been very fortuitous for Democrats…

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/5/1985



On November 6, 1985, three vehicles carrying 35 M-19 Marxist guerillas drove to the Palace of Justice of Colombia, the judiciary center for the nation and the workplace of Colombia’s national court’s justices, and attempted to enter the basement while a second group of guerillas sought to storm the building from the front. However, American and UN security forces in the capital and at the building prevented the vehicles from entering, leading to the “basement group” opening fire and attempt to enter through the basement by force. Upon hearing the gunfire, the second group attacked the first floor, only to be met by counter-guerilla security forces. After two hours of firefighting, the US/UN forces repelled the outnumbered, outgunned and outmaneuvered M-19 Marxist guerillas, but not before their detonation of a “nail bomb” (explosives surrounded by scrap metal and other dangerous projectiles). In the end, 20 guerillas were dead, but so were 15 US soldiers, 12 UN security officers, and 4 civilian bystanders. However, U.S. intelligence soon afterward declared the attack on the building to be a “final stand for them,” as the fall of the USSR “has taken the air out of their tires.”

– Miguel LaRosa and German R. Mejia’s Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History, Chronicle Books, 2013



On November 9, Garry Kasparov defeated Anatoly Karpov in all-Russian chess match for World Chess Championship. The competition of strategy and intelligence lifted the spirits of the Russian people as they tried to move on from the Soviet Era and create a new chapter in their people’s history.

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



MAUROY CRISIS: SUPPORT PLUMMETS AMID SCANDALS AND LEGISLATION IMPASSE

Scandal!: Mitterrand Had False Health Reports Published While President To Hide Early Cancer Diagnosis [19]! His Former Physician, Dr. Claude Gubler, Claims Mauroy Knew!

Le Parisien, French newspaper, 11/11/1985




NEW HOMOSEXUAL LAW REFORM ACT ENACTED; Amends The Crimes Act Of 1961

…in a move celebrated by the BLUTAGO Zealanders nationwide, the new reform act legalizes the act of consensual sex between men aged 16 [20] and older…

The New Zealand Herald, 11/11/1985



A week after one chaotic calamity hit Colombia, another one arrived. On November 13, the Nevado del Ruiz Volcano violently erupted, killing at least 20,000 people, most of them in the neighboring town of Armero. The deadly tragedy’s high casualty count was avoidable, as seismologists had distributed maps of the likely lava flood zones over month before the eruption, only for them to be ignored by many local authorities who accused the scientific and civil defense agencies of fearmongering at a time of high-intensity guerilla warfare. UN workers already in Bogota immediately began the process of rescuing and treating injured survivors, but continued to deal with internal fighting as guerilla fighters accused the government of being corrupt and “dangerously inept.” It seems as if not even thousands of their fellow countrymen burning alive in lava flows could impede the violence. If anything, this as the moment when the UN decided to work more closely with the Colombian government to put an end to the guerilla warfare…

– Miguel LaRosa and German R. Mejia’s Colombia: A Concise Contemporary History, Chronicle Books, 2013



JACK KEMP IS SWORN IN AS OUR NEW VICE PRESIDENT

The New York Times, 11/15/1985



EXTRA! DENTON FIRES SPECIAL PROSECUTOR STEPHEN S. TROTT ON “PROCEDURAL MISCONDUCT” CLAIM!

The Washington Post, 11/17/1985



FIRED W.H. COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: “DENTON HELPED LUKENS”!

…“In August or so of last year, Lukens spoke to Denton directly about paying off the mother of an underage girl he’d slept with back in June of last year. I was in the adjacent room when it happened, and I overheard everything. Neither Buz nor Jer spoke to me about it, though. They didn’t speak to me, and they didn’t speak through me. I’m just a scapegoat for them.” Gingrich has stated that he is willing to testify if called to do so…

The Atlanta Constitution, 11/19/1985



BLOOMBERG L.P. CEO ACCUSSED OF WORKPLACE PESTERING

The Wall Street Journal, 11/20/1985



“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Chief of Staff Richard Edward Schermerhorn said to Denton. “To think that Buz would consider aborting a bastard child – it’s disgusting! All life is sacred, including the lives of the unwanted,” the firm anti-abortion conservative expressed his beliefs to a disheartened Commander-In-Chief.

“Richard,” the President contemplated as he stared out at the early snowflakes beginning to stick to the window sill, “if I could misjudge Lamar and Buz, who else am I misjudging?”

“These past few months have been unsettling for all of us, sir. But the good thing about having an important job – like Governor, Senator, or President – is that not every call has to be made on your own. You still have us – Helms, Louie [Giuffrida], Curt [LeMay], me. And there’s at least one thing you have, Jer, that can’t be second-guessed – your morals. Your conviction to your principles. That’ll get us through this, Jer, you’ll see. You – ”

A buzz from Denton’s desk cut short Schermerhorn’s monologue. “Mr. President,” the personal secretary informed her boss, “Some F.B.I. agents are here.”

“Again?” Denton asked, “Listen, we already told them everything we knew about Lukens’ – ”

“They’re here for Richard, sir,” she quickly explained.

“Me?” the Chief of Staff’s eyes widened.

The agents were let into the room. Skipping the customary exchanges of pleasantries, the lead agent spoke directly to the Chief of Staff. “Richard Schermerhorn?”

“Yes?”

“We have reason to believe that you directly interfered with a federal investigation.”

“What?”

“Richard?” the President looked at his advisor with curiosity and shock clearly visible on his face.

“You need to come with us, sir.”

“For what?” Schermerhorn inquired.

“You need to answer a few questions for us, sir.”

By the end of that week, Denton was again questioning his judgement abilities, as Schermerhorn was ultimately arrested on the charge of directing assistants to destroy documents concerning the Lukens Hush Money Scandal back in late April of 1985. An FBI task force, performing a sweeping overview of White House activities in conjunction with the FBI’s investigations into the Lukens Hush Money Scandal, had received a tipoff from a former White House employee (a former paid intern for Schermerhorn) that the Chief of Staff had instructed employees to shred a “large pile” of document papers...

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



…In political news, another scandal has broken concerning a member of Denton’s Cabinet. This scandal features the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, former US Representative Thomas Beverley Evans Jr. of Delaware, and lobbyist and former nude model Paula Parkinson, the latter of whom is being accused of engaging in sexual favors in exchange for political influence…

– ABC News, 11/30/1985



After 21 years of Mitterrand, the scandal-riddled Socialist Alliance’s poor excuses for graft and cover-ups, and the ineffective multiple conservative parties not making things better, a general strike over another tax hike by President Mauroy to pay for social programs saw support for Le Pen and his National Front to rise even further as December 1985 began. Not even Le Pen’s claims that Mauroy was a puppet, that former President Mitterrand was controlling the Mauroy administration, and that “Mitterrand is also a puppet by being on the payroll of Jewish organizations, and particularly of the B’nai B’rith” [21] could slow his momentum as the weary post-Cold War people of France turned more inward. Some of his more avid followers even reportedly enjoy hearing news reports that Le Pen practiced torture on prisoners while in French army during the Algerian War of 1954-1962 [21]. Of course, Le Pen denied committing war crimes, but he also launched several defamation lawsuits over the reports...

– Jonathan Fenby’s The History of Modern France, Scholastic, 2015



WALL STREET TECH CEO IS SERVED CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT PAPERS AMID WORKPLACE PESTERING CLAIMS

New York City, NY – Michael R. Bloomberg, the millionaire founder and CEO of the data software company Bloomberg L. P. of New York City, has been formally served a filed class action lawsuit, the petition of damages laying out accusations of gender discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, and workplace pestering. The lawsuit was organized the legal representatives of a group of 23 female former and current employees of Bloomberg L.P., some of which are currently remaining anonymous. The women claim Bloomberg directly pestered them and supported a workplace environment at Bloomberg L.P. that they described as “aggressive” and “hostile” to female employees. [22] “Behind closed doors, in the office, he is constantly insulting to women he deems to be ugly,” says one member of the lawsuit, describing the CEO making “degrading comments” on various physical features on various women workers, and more than once telling a woman he deemed to be ugly to “kill it” upon being told that she was with child [23]. Bloomberg and a spokesperson for his company could not be reached for comment…

The Financial Times, 12/6/1985



…The FBI has announced that it is expanding its investigation into the Lukens Hush Money Scandal in light of President Denton’s November 17 firing of Special Prosecutor Stephen S. Trott …Also in political news, SBA Administrator Thomas Beverley Evans Jr. has stepped down over revelations concerning his years-long unprofessional relationship with a D.C. lobbyist…

The Overmyer Network, morning news brief, 12/9/1985



“The President knows that the people of this country are behind him and will continually support him over baseless accusations of wrongdoing.”

– White House Press Secretary Peggy Noonan, 12/9/1985



On December 12, House Majority Leader Bob Michel, with minority leader Hale Boggs, jointly announced the formation of formal hearings to clarify the extent of President Denton’s knowledge of the Lukens and Alexander payments. “We simply seek to determine for the sake of justice and clarification whether or not the President’s actions were unquestionably legal. If we is innocent, he has no reason to not comply with the legal process,” Michel explained, confident that the sooner the justice department cleared matters up, the sooner Capitol Hill could return to other matters. House Ethics Committee chairman Louis Stokes was chosen to co-head the hearings with House deputy whip David Emery, creating a bipartisan panel of experience legislators.

[snip]

On December 16, Senate leader Howard Baker yielded to Democratic leader Robert Byrd’s demands and greenlit the formation a Special Senate Committee to investigate the extent of President Denton’s involvement in the Lukens Hush Money Scandal...

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



DENTON DEDICATES MORE TROOPS TO U.N. CAUSE IN COLOMBIA

…more advisory troops and supplies are being sent from the U.S. to Colombia as American military leadership takes the lead in an international effort to end the combination civil war/drug war conflict ravaging the northern South American nation...

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 12/18/1985



DENTON MEETS WITH RUSSIA’S VOLKOV IN GENEVA AS US-RUSSIAN RELATIONS KEEP IMPROVING

The Chicago Tribune, 12/21/1985



vid: youtube.com/watch?v=6XJZeW9IQZc

– A Christmas-themed KFC commercial, circa December 1985



With a raspy voice, Lukens requested that the start of his newest trial – this time for the illegal use of State Department funds – be postponed in order for him to seek treatment for throat cancer. The former chain-smoker claimed he needed surgery to correct a saliva gland deficiency and trouble speaking. As his cancer was in the early stages and the “saliva gland surgery” was actually an elective therapy of sorts, the judge overseeing the case against him declined to delay the case – it was still set for January ’86. …In his later years, Lukens would try in vain to become a “poster boy” for various anti-smoking organizations...

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Based on comments made by Igeo654 and President_Earl_Warren on page 31 of this thread!
[2] All of his positions here are OTL: https://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Lamar_Alexander.htm
[3] Source 31 on his wikipage states “Alexander frequently shifted assets to his wife's name, yet such transfers are not legal under federal ethics and security laws,” so I don't think this is too implausible.
[4] Italicized parts are from Agnew’s wikipage.
[5] Similar to an OTL quote on his from 1973: “I think the country sure as hell forgot about Chappaquiddick in a hurry, and I think that’s worse than Watergate.”
[6] His wikipage states he ruled “in favor of three-strikes law; LGBT employment discrimination; and the eviction of substance abusers by their landlords,” and cites this article which goes into further detail on said subjects: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/is-carly-fiorina-a-chip-off-the-old-block-
[7] italicized parts are from here: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/us/teen-ager-in-ohio-testifies-to-sex-with-a-congressman.html
[8] italicized parts are from Source 6 of Luken’s wiki page
[9] The timing/chronology of events here is based on how quickly things went down in OTL (Nov: event; Feb: story breaks; May: testimony; June: conviction)
[10] This oil was not discovered until 2007 in OTL!
[11] Microsoft had only released Windows 1 by this point in OTL (11/20/1985)
[12] The what? This!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald%E2%80%93hairy
[13] Like it did in OTL.
[14] Who? Some guy who defended Lukens in court in OTL: https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/25/us/teen-ager-in-ohio-testifies-to-sex-with-a-congressman.html
[15] An OTL quote he said to the US Senate in September 1981
[16] In case you missed it: As I mentioned in Chapter 27, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade (birth name: Norma Nelson) was killed by a jilted lover in October 1967; as a result, lawyers Weddington and Coffee failed to find a client whose case could be brought to the Supreme Court (leading to Weddington serving two terms in the US HoR, as previously mentioned), meaning abortion is still a state-by-state thing at this point in the TL...
[17] This/these italicized part(s) is/are from here: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/opinion/31douthat.html
[18] Age and OTL bio found here: http://wikibin.org/articles/lyon-gardiner-tyler-jr.html
[19] OTL!
[20] They picked that age IOTL; I don’t know why… :confused:
[21] OTL, according to his wiki article.
[22] OTL: https://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-built-a-toxic-sexually-charged-nightmare-for-women-2019-11
[23] OTL, according to this QT politics video, near the 15:30 mark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGzaJP3KWrw
[27] It couldn't find a source stating that Sandusky began doing what he did any earlier than in the 1990s.

Also: @Bree, the Baltodome wasn’t built because Governor Mandel still pulled the plug on it in early 1974; ITTL, the recent oil shock creating a dip in the economy and renewing concerns over unnecessary spending were contributing factors on top of the OTL problems.

EDITS: fixed errors in the UK entry and moved the Sandusky bit to later in the year. The people are protesting Denton still supporting the former Sec of State b/c Lukens is so unpopular. Hogan was already using the All-American bit by January '84, so, if anything, I think he'd continue it to support the notion that America still rocks despite the ruckus in D.C.
 
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I'd really like to look into the Pro Wrestling world for the next update. the political climate change has probably caused some massive changes. No doubt there's no longer any need for an All-American Savior like Hulk Hogan, so what happens now?
 
Good work Iraqi president Tahir Yahya in dealing with the Kurds by treaty not bullets or wmd
I wonder where they are going to hold Gaddafi? He clearly is not a normal prisoner.
"famous musician and political activist John London" - who? Typo? Also "Jim Prior led his party to winning 2678." - Parliament got swole.
John Lennon, MP? Awesome. Stay away from the loony fridge though mate!
Alt UKIP is hilarious
Denton's war on drugs: he is not going to win help if he screws with countries like Mexico
"Denton approval rating shatters record high at 91% " - Pride before the fall?
$1 mill for Chile? Leading the way Colonel
RIP Dr King
Interesting Canadian election results
"the funeral was the first time in which Kennedy and Sanders were in the same place at the same time since.." I wonder what they said to each other?
VP Financial scandal and The Mason's- the one-two punch to the Presidency?
Successful Aries 13 - nice there was no bad luck on their voyage!
Harvey Weinstein caught? GOOD
Hope you keep the sweet oil money Ghana - don't let is all go aboard!
I hope the Amiga does better than OTL- great machine.
Good luck Vladislav Volkov - you have one heck of a country to assemble. Don't let the gangster and oligarchs in!
Kashmir - trade blockades of India and Pakistan until they sit down and talk properly?
"I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism.'" - Go Goldwater!
ISS Project: Is the Hubble Space Telescope project also ongoing at this time?
Seems like a lot more women are getting elected... which is a good thing
Go New Zealand in sorting gay rights
Bloomberg? Another tick on the scum list

Denton must almost be wishing he had lost the Presidency!
Another great chapter @gap80
 
A little unfinished business on the previous one - the Cubs headline is about the World Series (76 years) but on the date they'd have won the pennant if it went 5 games, so just push that date 7 days later and it's a Cbus win in 5 games. (I doubt, given their histgory with Dewey Defeats Truman!, that they'd guess it could be a Series win when they just won the pennant; and 39 years was long but not the record, that was 41 years between pennants for the Athletics, from 1931 in PHiladelphia to 1972 in Oakland).

Anyway, this year's...

You have protests over Denton supporting LUk3ens after he resigned - I think you meant Ale3xander.

I agree we'll still see President Kemp. I wonder if this gets more athletes to enter politics, as he was a former AFL quarterback with Buffalo.

The Rugers game was Sept. 28 you have Sandusky dying just after a game in June.Maybe you thought a 9 was a 6 in your notes becasue you had a paper upside down? :)

Does his death cause problems with Penn State? I can see them having the same trajectory of OTL - winning till they lose to a very powerful Oklahmoa team in the Orange Bowl - or losing 1-2 clsoe games afterward and maybe playing Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl (MIchigan lost to Iowa so didn't wint he BigTen and thus werne't in the Rose Bowl), while Miami, #2 at tne end of the regular season OTL, plays Oklahoma, #3 OTL as they'd be #1 and #1. With Oklahoma winning just as they won big OTL in the Orange Bowl while Miami lost their bowl game (when had they won they'd have had a shot at a split National Championship).

Afghanistan might bea pfairly safe place TTL.
 
Kemp is never going to become president at this point, by the way. It's all going to go the way of the Democrats come 88. Progressives or Technocrats are going to control the White House. The biggest problem is having to wait for whoever is going to be on the ballot.
 
Don't know about others, but I was thinking Denton might end up resigning. So, he'd become President like Ford OTL.

I skim some of the foreign stuff since I don't always have lots of time, but it's fun to see Kashmir trying to stay away from all the bickering between India and Pakistan, and the Kurds getting freedom as well.

Having a Commodore 64 OTL, I remember the Amiga and don't recall why it failed, from looking at Wikipedia I guess they just didn't do as well as the competition at getting their name out there. It'll be fun to see how it does TTL. I also think it'll be fun to try to trick tose Windows Support scammers by asking if they can help with my Amiga. (Really, one guy called and I told him I had a Commodore when he asked what kidn of computer I had - he was obviously typing on his computer and Googling. He asked if my computer was the captain of a ship, then he clearly read from the WIkipedia article on it and ased how I got on the Internet with it - very carefully, I told him. He just said he couldn't help me and hung up. don't know how I kept a straight face.)
 
According to Wikipedia, the Penn-State Rutgers game in 1985 was on September 28, so just have the accident occur after that date, @gap80...

Somewhere, Mike Gravel is saying "I hate to say I told you so, but Jesus Christ, I didn't see that coming..."

BTW, we'll be seeing President Kemp soon...

Having Buz Lukens win the 1970 primary IOTL and then win the governor's race in Ohio is an interesting PoD in and of itself--can't you imagine what would have happened if he'd stuck around long enough to be named Reagan's running mate in 1980; that's an interesting TL, let me tell you...

Overall, good update, @gap80, and waiting for more...
 
Chapter 54: January 1986 – June 1986
Chapter 54: January 1986 – June 1986

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else”

– Booker T. Washington



“First the Vice President, then the Secretary of State, and now the Chief of Staff? This is a crime wave! And somebody’s got to wave back! Let’s Return Dignity To D.C.!”

– Mario Biaggi (D-NY), announcing his bid for a second term in the US Senate, 1/3/1986



PEROT’S APPROVAL RATINGS TAKE ANOTHER DIP IN FIRST POST-HOLIDAY POLL

…Governor Perot’s approval ratings have dropped down from 45% last month to 37%, lower than the 38% recorded in July 1985. …While Perot was elected on a platform calling for more domestic production and technology-driven innovation – being a longtime supporter of leaders of technological advancement such as businessmen Steve Jobs and Bill Gates [1] – the restricting realities of the limited office of the governorship of Texas have stymied his efforts to curb outsourcing to other countries such as Japan and, more recently, Mexico. In order to balance the state budget, Perot signed into law a substantial fuel tax (passed by the Democrat-dominant state legislature) in July 1984, raising prices for oil and at gas stations across the state of Texas. This, and his support of the Denton administration implementing cutbacks to Social Security, has alienated Perot from lower-income Texans. [2] …It seems that not even his June 1985 visit to Mexico, unsuccessfully calling for the nation to raise wages to match American wages, has improved his approval ratings… …Texans are also concerned over the Governor’s leadership skills. Perot has already gone through two chiefs of staff, both of whom claim Perot is “incredibly” unwilling to follow advice from others, insisting on full control of all gubernatorial operations – leading to multiple private and public feuds with the Lieutenant Governor over their respective levels of power in Texas – and Perot even forces staff members to sign loyalty oaths, according to several other sources [3]. If Perot does not resolve these issues, his prospects of winning re-election this November year will remain low…

The Antonio Express-News, 1/4/1985



Oprah Winfrey led the charge on the talk show front. Her half-hour morning talk program, WLS-TV’s AM Chicago, allowed her to share with her audience her own experiences of sexual abuse in the 1960s and 1970s as 1985 came to a close. Opening up like this made her audience comfortable enough to share their own experiences as well, and this gave strength to those who sought to confront those who have wronged them. This “Second Arkwave” catapulted Oprah to national fame seemingly overnight, a led to The Oprah Winfrey Show premiering on January 12, 1986.

– Feminist writer Eleanor Clift’s The Way We Never Were, Simon & Shuster, 2002



…The Ohio court jury found Lukens guilty after only an hour of deliberating. Soon Lukens’ instincts kicked in and he began to shout at the judge, but quickly calmed down after being threatened with being held in contempt of court. Eventually, he was escorted out of the courtroom, a scowl still on his face.

Lukens had pleaded guilty to bank fraud to receive a light sentence, but the former diplomat had found the reduction to be insufficient. The Judge had given Lukens a sentence of 180 days in jail and a fine of $20,000, plus an order for him to attend sex offender classes and to be tested for all known STDs for good measure. Some D.C. bigwigs and conservatives called the sentencing harsh; most pundits, however, held the opinion that Lukens had gotten off easy. The former Secretary of State appealed several weeks later for a shorter amount of time in prison, arguing that his throat cancer worsening. The lobbying was successful, by only partially – the sentence was only cut down to just 100 days, instead of Lukens’ preferred 60. Additionally, Bond was still set at $100,000, an amount set by a state bill signed into law by then-Governor Lukens in 1975…

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



DEMOCRATS ARE GEARING UP TO CHALLENGE A POSSIBLE PRESIDENTIAL PARDON FOR LUKENS

…due to the President’s past support for Lukens, congressional lawmakers are preparing for the possibility of the former Secretary of State being pardoned by President Denton. While the White House Press Secretary has stated twice earlier this week that Denton is not “even remotely considering” pardoning Lukens, U.S. Congressman and Senators are “not taking any chances,” according to our D.C. correspondent…

The Baltimore News-American, 1/15/1986



PRESIDENT OF FINLAND WINS A SECOND SIX-YEAR TERM

…incumbent Mauno Koivisto, 62, of the Social Democratic party won over Harri Holkeri, 48, of the National Coalition…

The Guardian, UK newspaper, side article, 16/1/1986



FBI DIRECTOR FELT: WH Counsel Jesse Helms “May Have” Lied To FBI Investigators

…also being questioned is other testimony pertaining to the extent to which former members of the White House’s inner circle, Richard Schermerhorn and Newton Gingrich, were involved in obtaining the “hush money” funds, as new evidence suggests that some testimony may have been perjured “under pressure.” When asked to elaborate on this, the FBI Director declined to due to it pertaining to matters of security and due to the “sensitive nature of the situation”…

The New York Times, 1/19/1986 report



icPpmui.png

[pic: imgur.com/icPpmui.png ]

– painter Bob Ross signing autographs in Paducah, Kentucky, during a tour promoting his latest book on painting tips, c. January 1986



HELMS OUT, BUCHANAN IN

…Presidential speech writer Pat Buchanan began his new job as White House Communications Director just earlier today. At the same time, White House Counsel Jesse Helms was clearing out his office, having announced that he was stepping down from the position to “focus fully on helping federal authorities reconstruct the details of the questionable activities of former colleagues,” as Helms put it in a brief statement. In other words, Helms has agreed to cooperate with DOJ authorities investigating his role in the Lukens Hush Money Scandal...

The Washington Post, 1/22/1986



BELL: “Okay! So, what have you got for us tonight, Conspiracy Joe?”

JOE: “It’s being called the Denton Death Count.”

BELL: “Alright, first off, it’s called that by whom?”

JOE: “By me.”

BELL: “I see, and what is it?”

JOE: “A list of people that have all had connections to President Denton and are now all dead.”

BELL: “Alright, I’ll bite.”

JOE: “First off, Senator Walter Flowers of Alabama, a Democrat and early critic of Denton, who up and died suddenly on his 51st birthday in 1984. Then there the singer Elton John. He passes away, and now there’s a dead liberal for the anti-drug brigade to parade around just as anti-drug legislation is underway? How convenient.”

BELL: “But Denton’s platform in 1980 had an anti-recreadrug plank, and – ”

JOE: “And next is Congressman John East, who butted heads with the President while on an ethics committee, and then shot his brains out in early ’85.”

BELL: “Well he did suffer from depression from being paraplegic.”

JOE: “Don’t believe everything you hear, Art. Now listen – Senator Hubert Humphrey, a former V.P. and a big early critic of Denton, died last year, leaving Minnesota with a weak appointee. Senator Frank Church of Idaho – another big-time critic of Denton – died in 1984. Both of those Senator guys were Democrats. And don’t forget Phil Ochs – he wrote many songs criticizing the President, accusing him of war crimes for sending troops to Libya, then, uh, Iran, and then to Colombia – he also died in mid-1984.”

BELL: “Now hold on, there, Joe. Ochs was a drug addict who blew his head off with a shotgun because he thought an alien had crawled into it.”

JOE: “Which is just what a government implant would feel like! They were monitoring him, experimenting on him! The same thing happened to Bob Marley.”

BELL: “Oh come on! Where’s the evidence for any of that?”

JOE: “The government’s spies destroyed all the evidence.”

BELL: “Then how do you know it happened?”

JOE: “I know it happened because of the lack of evidence! Now, let me tell you about the strange and mysterious 1983 disappearance of Bob Lazar…”

– Host Art Bell and recurring caller Conspiracy Joe on KDWN’s late night political call-in talk radio program West Coast AM, Sunday 1/26/1986 [4]



“FOCUS FORWARD”: Denton State Of The Union Address Paints Optimistic Picture Of Current Affairs

…”America’s standing on the world stage give its citizens an unprecedented opportunity to make the world a better place, especially with the economic prosperity Americans are relishing in now, from Maine to Alaska, from San Diego to Miami. Now is the best time for giving back to our communities, when people can afford to contribute to charity, and to stand up for the oppressed, for there are less excuses now than ever before.”…

– The Detroit News, 1/29/1986



February 2, 1986: On this day in history, the U.S.’s Senate Middletown Committee, officially entitled the Senate Select Committee on Contentious Presidential Activities, began its nationally televised hearings; it was named after the Middletown, Ohio inn in which a woman known as Anna Mason was given and accepted $100,000 (funds that were illegally taken from the US State Department) for signing a nondisclosure agreement.

– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk



Vid: youtube.com/watch?v=9Qlnv3ATgZg

…Halley’s Comet, its last visit being in 1910, is expected to pass us on the 13th. Its next visit will not be until July 2061...

– The Overmyer Network, 2/9/1986 report



ANOTHER LAWMAKER IS “BUZZED OUT”: House Votes To Censor Rep. Packwood

[snip]

While running for a sixth term in the House in 1980, Bob Packwood was eager to meet his campaign chairwoman for Lane County, Ore. The Congressman invited Gena Hutton to dinner at the motel where he was staying in Eugene for a get-acquainted meeting. Hutton, a 35-year-old divorced mother of two, had brought along pictures of her children and even her cats. Then it was time to go and Packwood offered to walk her to her car. "As I started to put the key in the car door," Hutton recalls, "he just reeled me around and grabbed me and pulled me close to him." For an instant, she thought he was offering a good-night hug. But then the Senator planted a full kiss on her lips, wriggling his tongue into her mouth.

Hutton's first reaction was shame: she didn't think she had given any hint of a come-on. Then she thought of the scandal that might ensue if Packwood, a married man, was recognized by a passer-by. Hustling him into her car, Hutton drove the
Congressman across the motel parking lot to his room, where he tried to talk her into coming inside. "You really don't want me to do that," she said firmly. Eventually Packwood retired alone.

"I knew, without a doubt, I was not going in the room," Hutton says. "I was mortified that he would be willing to risk his reputation and everything he'd done by sexually coming on to his campaign chairperson. It was so totally inappropriate."

A political novice in Oregon, Hutton hadn't heard the rumors swirling for years around Bob Packwood, the graying boy wonder and maverick of the United State
House of Representatives. Tales of Packwood's exploits as a masher, often involving members of his staff, had long been served up for the delectation of insiders, like canapes at a political cocktail party. In the years before sexual pestering became a national catch phrase in 1970, such incidents were usually winked away.

Then came
that change in at the dawn of the 1970s, that seismic shift in social values that relocated the fault line between what was private and what was seen as justifiably public. For Packwood, the shift finally caught up to him when the rumors acquired flesh and blood last November, when an article in The Washington Post cited 10 women who accused Packwood of making unwanted sexual advances, spanning from 1969, a year after an unsuccessful run for the US Senate, to last year. Amid angry calls for his resignation, Packwood fled from sight, checking into the Hazelden Foundation clinic for alcoholism in Center City, Minn. He had reportedly been drinking before several of the harassment episodes. In December, he reappeared at a nationally televised news conference and unenthusiastically apologized to his accusers, admitting "My actions were just plain wrong." At the same time, he testily refused to discuss details. "I'm apologizing for the conduct that it was alleged that I did," he said, an utterance that struck critics as a gem of obfuscation. …It seems that, if anything has become clear in the six years since Hutton’s agonizing confrontation, it's that the national debate over sexual harassment is far from over.

Is ardently kissing a woman goodbye, when a handshake would be expected, a form of harassment? Is telling a dirty joke? Is there a clear line between illegal harassment and simply an awkward and boorish pass?

Does it matter that most of the incidents in the Packwood case took place from the late 60's through the mid-80's,
years after society had seemingly widely agreed to condemn sexual pestering? Does it matter that among the women who worked for Packwood and are prepared to testify, no one is claiming the Congressman penalized her for refusing his advances, and that some even continued serving amicably in his organization?

The
54-year-old Packwood is cast in the unlucky role of lightning rod just when Washington, D.C. is under pressure to prove its newly awakened sensitivity to the issue of sexual pestering, following the rough, inquisitorial testimony of Anna Mason last year, which prompted 58 Senators and 112 Representatives to adopt anti-sexual-misconduct guidelines framed by the Capitol Hill Women's Political Caucus. Packwood, in an irony no one's failed to note, was an early signer. The fire from women's groups at late is now being fueled by a sense of personal betrayal. For years, Packwood, who is a socially progressive Republican, has been a strong supporter of women's causes. A leader of the abortion-rights brigades, he introduced the first House bill to legalize abortion in 1972, but was unable to attract a cosponsor. He has also regularly hired women to run his campaigns and to serve as his top aides. But after the first wave of news accounts, many more women came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct.

"He's not a warm and fuzzy person," says his ex-wife, Georgie Packwood, whose marriage to the
Congressman ended last December after 22 years and two grown children. She says her husband was never comfortable discussing intimate matters. It was probably no coincidence that he chose as his chief area of expertise the United States tax code. "The intellectual idea of tax reform is absolutely the most titillating thing in the world to him," says Georgie Packwood. "How it affects Mrs. Jones on 13th Street, he doesn't give a darn about."

Packwood lives alone in a two-bedroom basement apartment in Northwest Washington. At the time of his divorce, he testified that his combined checking and savings accounts held $700. He has never been driven by the need for money. Only power.

According to Packwood's accusers,
the Congressman’s advances consisted chiefly of dropping sudden, surprise French kisses on women, usually after forcefully seizing them by their arms or waists. The women, most of them members of Packwood's staff, lobbyists and campaign volunteers, deny sending any signals of romantic interest. When they acted shocked and resisted, Packwood invariably backed off.

Some of Packwood loyalists argue he's being judged ex post facto by newly sensitive standards. …"Not to say it's right, but there was a mind-set then that was totally different than today," says Ed Westerdahl, a member of the steering committee for Packwood's 1968 Senate race and his first successful run for the House in 1970. "Before the Ms. Arkansas Scandal, at parties, I'd see people doing much more than he's being accused of and nobody gave it a second thought. The pinching, touching, feeling was considered to be friendly, not pestering."

However, in the wake of the Ark Wave of 1970, Packwood's innermost circle continuously feared he might one day step over the line and create a genuine scandal. The scandal has arrived, and has led to Packwood being censored, isolated, and abandoned by his fellow Representatives.

– The Washington Post, 2/10/1986 [5]



“It’s my belief that – and this is right on par with the Denton White House’s lack of any government transparency – I believe Denton allowed, or approved of the money payment proposal in order to keep the incident from upending his re-election campaign. If Anna or Sidney Mason had talked before November, you know, gone to the press before then, it could have been curtains, he could have lost re-election, and we could’ve gotten stuck with, ugh, President Gravel. Blech. Denton allowed that non-disclosure agreement meeting to happen to protect us from suffering that kind of fate. That’s what I think.”

“But the Masons did eventually go to the press.”

“Yes, eventually. The non-disclosure agreement made them decide not to, but then they changed their minds.”

“Anna Mason testified she felt intimidated during the August meeting.”

“And Helms told me he would never stab me in the back. People can lie, you know.”

“Did you just call Anna Mason a liar?”

“No, I said people can lie. What really happened in ’84, we may never know, but I think the President did what he thought was the best thing for him to do, whatever that was, back when whatever happened had happened.”

– Newton Gingrich and interviewer, “exclusive” KNN interview, 2/12/1986



THE RISE OF LE PEN: Hard-Right Populist To Challenge Mouroy In Runoff For French Presidency

Tonight, the citizens of France partook in their septennial tradition of choosing whom should be their President. It results saw no candidate receive a majority of votes, requiring a runoff to be held on 28 February between the top two candidates. To the surprise of most analyst, the candidate of the National Front party outperformed his fifth-place standing in most polls to narrowly defeat Republican party nominee Jaques Chaban-Delmas for second place, meaning that he and incumbent President Pierre Mauroy will now face off against one another in two weeks’ time. …Despite Le Pen’s vitriolic past statements, he has amassed a coalition of lower- and middle- income voters, disgruntled and disillusioned by Mauory’s party’s own scandals and in his inability to capitalize on the economy. …The fourth-place finisher in the race was Valery Giscard d’Estaing (MRP), while the fifth-place finisher was Jean Royer (Conservative). The other candidates were Arlette Laguiller (Workers’), Rene Dumont (Independent), Michel Rocard (Independent Socialist), Marie-France Garaud (Centrist), Georges Marchais (French Communist Party (PCF)), and Michel Crepeau (Radical Party of the Left (PRG))…

The Guardian, 14/2/1986



…On February 19, 1986, New York’s Governor Mario Cuomo, running for re-election and wanting to show concerned constituents that he was politically closer to the liberal Democratic NYC Mayor Carol Bellamy than to the conservative Democratic US Senator Mario Biaggi of New York, allowed the state legislature to pass a Universal Health Care Bill…

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



… The “People Power Revolution” of the Philippines began in earnest on February 22, 1986. The overall nonviolent wave of civil resistance and disobedience saw the national Armed Forces fail to carry out Ferdinand Marcos’ orders to disperse the crowds. …One dissenting activist was famously quoted as saying “we have KFC, but we don’t have freedom.” Such criticisms had in recent weeks renewed some greater focus on American companies doing business with controversial governments. KFC was especially criticized for basically shying away from their controversial neutral stance in the matter; Lee Cummings, the CEO of its parent company, Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc., repeated the cliché “no comment” over the next four days, while the company founder retained focus on the ongoing events in India and Washington, D.C. The situation was resolved for both American enterprises and the people of the Philippines three days later, on February 25, when, after nearly two decades of oppressive totalitarian rule, President Marcos and his family fled the country to exile in Hawaii. Corazon Aquino, the widow of resistance leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., immediately became the nation’s new President. To make amends for his hands-off approach to the revolution, Cummings agreed to raise wages and family health benefits for all Philippine citizens employed by Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc. …

– Mark Pendergrast’s “For God, Country, and Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Perfect Formula Publishing, 2000



As February 28 approached, President Mouroy began to worry. Le Pen’s campaign was divisive and his rhetoric was often vitriolic, sure, but his treasury was growing faster, his base was more energized, and the uninformed and undecided voters of the nations seemed to eat it all up. In an effort to win over former backers of Jacques Chaban-Delmas and Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Mouroy attempted to moderate, only to lose support from the far-left. Mouroy then switched back to more left-leaning policies, angering moderate backers. The President seemed to be flip-flopping and thus failed the win over more support.

Le Pen, on the other hand, stood firm on his political positions, held on strongly to his beliefs, and utilized his eye-catching oration, folksy attitude and crude humor that touched the lower-class French voters. On Election Day, polls showed Le Pen trailing by only 4%; on Election Night, Le Pen was declared the winner by a margin of 2.8% (51.4%-to-48.6%).

omIL6x6.png

[pic: imgur.com/omIL6x6 ]
Above: Jean-Marie Le Pen

– Jonathan Marcus’ Le Pen: The Impact of The National Front on French Politics, Second Edition, New York University Press, 1999



PM OLOF PALME RETURNS HOME AFTER “PRODUCTIVE” 3-DAY TRIP TO THE US AND CANADA

– The Vestmanlands Lans Tidning, Swedish newspaper, 3/1/1986



LE PEN IN BRUSSELS TO DISCUSS LEGAL OPTIONS FOR FRANCE LEAVING E.C.

…The new President of France, staying true to one of his key campaign promises, is beginning an efforts to get his nation out of the European Economic Community…

The Guardian, UK newspaper, 6/3/1986



DUVALIER FLEES HAITI! 28 Years Of Family Rule Ends With Dancing Crowds As “Baby Doc” Goes To France!

…Like the people of the Philippines last month, the Haitian people are overjoyed as the nation’s dictator has finally relinquished power after several weeks of revolutionary turmoil engulfed the island nation’s streets with rebel warfare and riots… Duvalier has scurried off to France due to “Baby Doc” Duvalier “feel[ing] safe hiding behind Le Pen,” says one member of Haiti’s temporary emergency government…

– The Miami Herald, 3/8/1986



SAN FRANCISCO CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERING LEGALIZING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE!

The New York Times, 3/10/1986



In early March, another scandalous revelation rocked the Denton White House. On the eleventh of that month, The Birmingham News reported that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, H. Guy Hunt, has expended more than $500,000 of department funds for his own air traveling expenses, and for purchasing lavish items for his Alabama home, such as marble showers and custom lawnmowers [6]. The House Oversight Committee soon opened a bipartisan investigation into Hunt’s activities. By the end of the month, the Secretary had resigned from his post. He was succeeded by Reagan Veasy Brown, the former state Agriculture Commissioner of Texas.

– Jack N. Anderson and Katharine Graham’s Discretions & Disgrace: The Great Potomac Scandals of the Denton White House, Simon & Schuster, 1988



…I remember being sixteen and having this big argument with my parents. This back in, like, early March of ’86, so before my dad died that August... I’d been sucked into my generation’s hatred of the Republican Party, and I somehow got to arguing with both of my parents about Denton. I thought he should resign, at the very least, but Mom was adamant the President couldn’t be guilty of anything just by having that office. Patriotism is one thing, but blind patriotism is dangerous; false prophets have an easier time when that happens. On the other hand, maybe it was just a reaction to the amount of disrespect that young people, including myself, showed to Denton. …Like many parents who remembered the ’60s, my mother was really unnerved by how similar the anti-Denton protests were to the shoutnik movement’s anti-Johnson protests that President Johnson had had to deal with over twenty years prior. Mom hoped no more elements from that decade would come back…

– P. Davis Ryan, TNB (Trinity National Broadcasting) segment, 2006



EXTRA! SHOTS FIRED AT DENTON LIMO IN D.C.

– The Washington Post, 3/19/1986



UPDATE: SUSPECT WOUNDED IN CAPTURED AFTER HALF-HOUR STANDOFF

…the man who allegedly fired a round of bullets at the President’s limousine motorcade at roughly 9:15 A.M. earlier today has been apprehended by a SWAT team unit collaborating with Secret Service…

– The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3/19/1986



HUBERTY: WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT THE WOULD-BE KILLER

James Oliver Huberty – the detained man who allegedly tried to kill President Denton yesterday – was reportedly uncooperative with law enforcement officers during his interrogation in DC. Nevertheless, here is what we have learned about the man so far:

1. The alleged act was for “revenge” – Huberty reportedly told police that he wanted to “settle my debts owed to those who have wronged me.”

2. He claims to have acted alone – Huberty has not confessed to attempting to kill the President, but he has confessed “I let no one in on this.”

3. He once supported Denton – According to his former co-workers, Huberty claimed that he voted for Denton in 1980 and 1984, but had since grown to believe that the President’s “softness for China” had cost him his job in late 1985 to workers overseas (although his former employers claim that he was let go due to his aggressive behavior on the job). Furthermore, Huberty reportedly believes that Denton and the United States government were conspiring against him [7].

4. He believes the Endtimes are near – A relative of Huberty informed us anonymously that Huberty believed that the recent wave of “Potomac Scandals” were leading to the breakdown of society and the start of the apocalypse.

5. He is a former funeral director, welder and security guard – Huberty worked as a licensed embalmer during the 1960s, then for a welding outfit in Kentucky before moving back to Ohio in the late 1970s. He briefly failed to work as a “pimp” in Tiajuana in 1979. After that, he worked as a security guard. He then moved again in northern Virginia in 1983, where he found work in construction until he was fired five months ago.

6. He has a record of mental health issues and domestic violence incidents – frequent bouts of anger led to his wife leaving him, divorcing him and moving to another state with their two daughters, in 1977. After this, Huberty failed to commit suicide. Multiple former coworkers claim that Huberty was a quiet worker, “but at the same time always had an attitude problem,” as one put it anonymously.

The New York Post, 3/20/1986



Born in Ohio in late 1942 to devoutly religious Methodists, Huberty was emotionally crippled by his mother abandoning the family when he was eight years old. Temperamental and paranoid, he often made dark jokes about murder, and alleviated his consistent rage on the gun range. Fanatic of firearms since his early youth, his home contained no less than one gun every two feet, making his tiny Fairfax, VA apartment seem like it was haphazardly painted black.

[snip]

Early in the morning on March 19, Huberty piled two semi-automatic rifles, one uzi, five handguns and 28 magazines and rounds into the back on his truck. He drove into Washington, D.C. looking for a something to shoot up. Approaching Constitution Avenue NW at 9:14 AM, Huberty spotted a motorcade of limousines flanked by motorcycles and deduced it was someone important. Not wanting to miss out on killing an important figure, fired a semi-auto upon the first limousine in the motorcade from his truck. Unbeknownst to him, the second limousine was carrying President Denton, and so the “important figure” in question went uninjured in the shooting. Huberty also was not aware that all Presidential limousines had been bulletproof since 1964.

The Secret Servicemen and D.C. police officers present immediately fired back when Huberty’s location was spotted. Not having the time to fire upon the rest of the motorcade, Huberty began to drive away. He received a minor shot across his left arm, and, believing he had killed the limo’s occupants, decided to “take the battle elsewhere.”

Suffering a mild limp, a permanent result of recovering from polio he contracted when he was three, Huberty drove his truck, police in hot pursuit, to a housing zone outside of Annandale that had recently lost funding mid-project, making for a graveyard of skeletal building frames. Huberty held his ground on the second floor of the first house, leading to an intense gunfight with police that culminated in a sniper winging Huberty him in the shoulder, causing him to fall from his “sniper’s nest.” Police immediately jumped him before he could reach another firearm. In total, seven law enforcement officers were injured, one severely.

– Ron Franscell’s Troubled: The Stories of Angry Men, Their Evil Plans & Their Violent Actions, Fair Winds Press, 2011



“Huberty turned to guns after his mother left the family. He is not an isolated incident. By encouraging mothers to abandon their families to pursue selfish careers, we are turning a generation’s worth of American youngsters into little Hubertys.”

– conservative activists, author and commentator Phyllis Schlafly, The Overmyer Network, 1988 interview



While physically unharmed during the kerfuffle, Denton’s private secretary wrote that the President behaved “in an increasingly paranoid” manner. Veteran White House staff members later claimed Denton’s behavior had “eerie similarities” to that of President Johnson after the latter survived an assassination attempt in November 1963. After surviving said incident, Johnson was the center of an infamous incident involving the President tackling a Christmas tree. “He [Denton] would stop in mid-sentence, and after a few seconds of silence, ask something along the lines of ‘did you here footsteps’ or “do you hear someone breathing,’” one former intern revealed in 2003. First Lady Katherine once allegedly found Denton trying to smash in a part of a load-bearing wall at the White House, believing a “damn journalist” was hiding behind it, though this claim has been disputed. Others, such as Denton’s oldest son, claimed the President was actually more sullen and distant than wiry and stressed-out, telling KNN in 2001 that the “perils” and challenges of the office were “beginning to overwhelm him and diminish his confidence in his judgement skills. Being that unsure of yourself can make you second-guess anything if not everything.”

– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



Denton’s worries began to subside after Director Felt informed him on March 28 that the FBI investigation had confirmed that the “hush money” payoff funds had been entirely from Lukens’ State Department and not from members of the GOP’s Organization For Re-Electing Denton (OFRED). Upon hearing this – and upon being informally told by Felt that it seemed likely that the investigation would conclude within a few days or weeks – the President told Attorney General Jensen “You know, I really think our problems are almost over.”

– John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm’s Jeremiah: The Denton Presidency, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2002



…breaking news from Washington, D.C., where a former worker for Congressman Robert Packwood claims that the Oregon lawmaker has written documentation concerning the Lukens Hush Money Scandal. The former worker, who is currently anonymous, claims that Packwood has in his possession an extensive collection of diaries – diaries that include both his history of sexual pestering and a meeting Packwood had with Secretary Lukens and President Denton in August 1984 – allegedly, the same meeting in which Lukens and Denton discussed coercing one Anna Mason to sign a non-disclosure agreement and using State Department funds for it. If these claims are true, then it is possible that there is a first-hand, primary account of what exactly actually transpired in August 1984…

– The Overmyer Network, “Breaking News” Alert, 4/3/1986



PACKWOOD DENIES HOARDING DIARY COLLECTION

…Nevertheless, the US Justice Department has given the embattled Congressman a subpoena for the diaries, while a House subcommittee has subpoenaed two members of Packwood’s inner circle to “clarify the situation.”…

The Washington Post, 4/4/1986



…In the midst of the media’s latest “smoking gun,” Senate leader Baker asked for advice from “The Lion of the Senate,” the respectable Richard Nixon. A man with a firm grip on how the Senate approached and addressed foreign affairs, Baker valued Nixon’s opinions. Remembering Nixon’s own head-butting with the media – from “checkers” to his unsuccessful bids for President in 1960 and for Governor in 1962 – Baker was certain Nixon’s view of the situation would benefit the Denton White House.

“Don’t let them get to you,” Nixon told his fellow Senate leader. “We just have to prove to them that the President is not a crook.”

Alone with me, Nixon laughed at the situation, calling it “ridiculousness.” He thought about his use of tape-recording equipment in his senate office, and said that they were “much more accurate,” “reliable,” and “much easier to hide or destroy if sh*t ever hits the fan” than “wimpy little diaries.”

By then, Nixon had expanded the number of people aware of his tapes to a total of five closely trusted individuals – Pat, [E. Howard] Hunt, Bebe, [former Secretary of State Carl] Curtis, and myself. Due to recent calls for Denton "just tell the truth" and "reveal whatever [he] know" in an apparent campaign for government transparency, not even his good friend The Colonel knew about the tapes (Nixon once said to me "We all have secrets that not even those closest to us know about. The Colonel refuses to share with me his secret herbs and spices formula, so why should I share these [his tapes] with him? The Colonel's a good man, I know, but, listen, he really doesn't need to know about this sort of thing, now does he?"...

– Bob Halderman’s The Haldeman Diaries: Three Decades of Tough Decisions and Tricky Dick, Barnes & Noble Press, 1994



LDOJ8FX.png

[pic: imgur.com/LDOJ8FX ]
– former US Vice President, US Senator and elder statesman Richard Nixon, c. April 1986



…One policy from the Mitterrand and Mouroy years that Le Pen did continue and promote was the policy of decentralization, both for France’s remaining territories and for France proper. The creation of administrative regions to make the nation less centralized, and the placing of taxation duties, government spending, and other functioning aspects on the shoulders of local, municipal and provincial divisions allowed for greater autonomy and less dependence on the federal government…

– Jonathan Marcus’ Le Pen: The Impact of The National Front on French Politics, Second Edition, New York University Press, 1999



WrestleMania 2
was the second annual WrestleMania pay-per-view professional wrestling event that was the World Wrestling Federation and held on Sunday, April 6, 1986. The event’s use of three separate venues was criticized and is often blamed for its poor reception, but is now seen as an important lesson for WWF – ever since WrestleMania 2, all major WWF events have gone with just one arena/venue per event…

– clickopedia.co.usa/WrestleMania_2



“With all the sh*t coming out of D.C., Americans needed an all-American persona like mine more than ever. [8] We as a nation needed renew our confidence in our country. We needed to keep strong the spirits of liberty, equality and justice for all.”

– Hulk Hogan reminiscing in a 2019 interview



Lee Cummings decided to become more involved in KFC by launching a product of his own design and labor. “Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken” was more commonly known as “the Lee Special” in the Midwest; due to its fairly decent regional success, Cummings convinced Margaret, myself, and the rest of the board members that perhaps “maybe now is its time.” Lee’s “alternate recipe” received tepid approval from Dad over concerns that it was too similar to current menu items. This concern led to it being introduced in select outlets before being released nationwide. The new offering of a special combo deal of chicken, home-style fries, and biscuits to customers outside of the Midwest ended 23 years of regional exclusivity. While Lee’s own catchphrase – “It’s Lip-Smackin’ Good” – never caught on, the “Lee Special” had found its place in a niche pocket of KFC customers by April 1986.

[snip]

BFmsSuJ.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/BFmsSuJ ]
…The introduction of the Lee Special was paired up to be concurrent with the revamping of several menu items in 1986. These items were known for having poor sales records. For example, the original recipe for The Colonel’s Scalloped Tomatoes (above) was finally updated to a healthier alternative, leading to a sharp uptick its sales, especially in the southern U.S. and in several Latin American countries…

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



Now, I am fully aware that there have been some concerns over recent sentiments that KFC is a “globalist” corporation when compared to Chick-fil-A, our largest domestic competitor, which has yet to expand outside U.S. states and territories. I am aware that Chick-fil-A’s sales rate has been higher of the past three years than our own. I am also aware, however, that Chick-fil-A has seen a shift in demographic that sharply differ from our own customer base. Chick-fil-A’s founder, a deeply devout Southern Baptist, has “pulled a Colonel” and has been in the news in recent years for supporting far-right conservatism and national figures such as Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich. This has caused many of our patrons and customers in deeply conservative areas such as rural parts of the Deep South to switch to supporting them over us. Additionally, their closing of all of their locations on Sundays and the fact that the company's official statement of corporate purpose says that the business exists "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A[9] has won over many deeply religious consumers of fried chicken.

Our research department’s official report, which will be released on the 12th, shows that this trend has not negatively affected our sales. Nevertheless, there are fears of a loss of regional jobs. As the CEO of this company, it is my duty and responsibility to do what is best for the customers, the stockholders, and the livelihoods of all of this company’s employees past and present. As a result, to ease fears of layoffs, I am re-allocating marketing funds to four regional departments – KFC Deep South, KFC South Atlantic, KFC Florida, and KFC Texas – in order to boost sales with a an extensive ad campaign focusing on regional loyalty and KFC’s longstanding love for America and its values and ideals.

– KFC CEO Lee Cummings, KFC internal memo on KFC first-quarter sales report, KFC headquarters in Florence, KY, 4/9/1966



SUPREME COURT ALLOWS GREEN CARD DENIAL IN 5-4 RULING

…In a 5-to-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court will allow a White House plan to deny green cards to potential immigrants who may need government aid but may have no clear intent to become permanent residents of the US…The Department of Defense raised concerns in 1981 that “an overwhelming number” of people who immigrate to the US depend primarily or entirely on federal government assistance programs without clear intent of permanent residence. With Justices Fogel, Sneed, Nealon and Levi, and Chief Justice Frank Minis Johnson voting in favor of the measure, and Higginbotham, Bacon, Lord, and Brennan voting against the measure, the Denton administration is now set to impose higher limits on immigrants with “confirmed histories” of “excessive dependence” on government assistance programs in their previous country or countries of origin...

The New York Times, 4/18/1986



“There needs to be a paradigm shift – a fundamental change in approach – to how women, minorities, and immigrants are treated in the workforce. …We mustn’t lose our momentum. We mustn’t lose this fight for our rights. We mustn’t let corrupt and bigotry win the day, write the past, control the present, or decide the future.”

– Attorney and activist Janice Fine, Citizens for Justice rally, 4/19/1986



hitYYUB.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/hitYYUB ]
– Kemp shaking Denton’s hand after a US Cabinet meeting, Friday 4/25/1986



KENTUCKY BECOMES 14TH STATE TO JOIN “HEALTH PACT”

…Governor Martha Layne Osborne today signed into law a bill to switch Kentuckian healthcare coverage to a “universal” model adopted by thirteen other states. The Free Universal Health Care “Pact” began in the 1970s as a response to issues concerning federal health insurance and health care laws...

The Lexington Herald-Leader, 4/29/1986



…Another politician to be “Buzzed Out” of an important occupation or role was Henry Hyde, a Republican U.S. Congressman from Illinois whose 1965 extramarital affair (between him and a married woman, leading to the woman’s husband divorcing her two years later) was revealed in late April 1986. Hyde called the affair a “youthful indiscretion” despite him being 41 when it occurred. When Hyde then refused to step down from the House Subcommittee investigating Denton’s alleged wrongdoing in the Lukens Hush Money Scandal, Republican House leadership removed him from it, reassigning him to a subcommittee concerning national parks and forests…

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



On May 2, we fed the media sharks another satisfying bucket of revelations. Our investigation had found that Packwood had destroyed his diaries prior to our searching of his congressional chambers, his apartment in D.C., and his second apartment in Oregon. The home of his ex-wife was also searched for good measure. What we found were the burned remains of diary pages in a wastebasket outside his D.C. apartment. Packwood was brought in for questioning but was not held as he was not yet formally charged with a crime.

The next day, Denton summoned me to the White House to inform me that I was fired. “Mark,” he explained politely, “you mishandled the overseeing of this here Packwood investigation. Your search took too long and the whole thing was very poorly executed. Very sloppy work.” I suspected, however, that Denton was using my agency’s failure to obtain the diaries as an excuse to fire me for my investigating of the Lukens Hush Money.

On the ninth, Denton nominated Assistant Attorney General Robert H. Bork to lead the F.B.I., passing over the traditional second-in-command, Associate Director James Blackburn Adams. Adams considered resigning in protest, but I convinced him not to do so.

On the twelfth, I received a cryptic letter in my mailbox…

– J. Mark Felt’s Looking For Light Under The Cover Of Darkness, Sunrise Publishing, 1987



JUDGE THROWS LUKENS’ LAWSUIT AGAINST ANNA MASON OUT OF COURT!

The Dayton Daily News, 5/4/1986



…Tonight’s primaries for the Democratic and Republican nominations for Governor have yielded these official results. With a narrow plurality, Republicans chose US Congressman Bud Brown over state senators Paul Gillmor and Paul Pfeifer. Again, that’s Bud Brown for the Republican column, winning roughly 44% to Gillmor’s roughly 39% and Pfeifer’s roughly 17%. On the Democratic side, primary voters chose US Congressman Jerry Springer over state senator Richard Celeste by a roughly 7% margin. Springer, elected to the Buckeye State’s Second U.S. Congressional district in the Arkwave year of 1970, was a very notable and attention-grabbing candidate in this race, as he ran on the campaign theme of “brutal honesty,” admitting that he had on occasion visited brothels during his first two years in Congress, but quit after marrying in 1973. Apparently, such openness has worked. Springer has certainly captured support from voters looking for honesty from their elected leaders, especially in the wake of the Lukens Hush Money Scandal...

The Overmyer Network, 5/6/1986 news broadcast



As protests continue, talk of impeaching Denton begins in earnest in D.C.

The Boston Globe, 5/9/1986



COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF K.F.C. IN TRADE SECRET DISPUTE

…The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the billion-dollar company has the right to refuse to divulge its famous 11-herbs-and-spices trade secret, citing the Fourth Amendment’s allusion to the right to privacy extending to businesses and well as to people, and the lack of evidence that the unknown elements “pose any significant, deadly, or dangerous threat to public health and safety,” as had been previously suggested…

The Wall Street Journal, 5/12/1986



HOUSE INTRODUCES HEALTHY GUN OWNERS BILL

…in response to the attack on the President’s life in March, the House is set to sign off on a bill that will demand that states and territories of the U.S. make would-be gun owners take some form of mental health test before being allowed possession of a firearm. The bill means to address concerns over the mental health of James O. Huberty, who possessed “an extraordinary” number of rifles, semi-autos, uzis and pistols despite suffering from known mental health issues, most notably violent bouts of senseless anger, episodes of blind and unfounded rage, and troubling thoughts of both suicide and homicide… Huberty is still awaiting trial for multiple charges…

The Chicago Tribune, 5/13/1986



Just days after the release of Top Gun [on May 16], the reputation of one of its producers, Don Simpson (b. 1943), came under intense media scrutiny. Simpson’s brash demeanor, constant drug use, and “colorful [10] and aggressive” rhetoric was an open secret in Hollywood, but the Second Ark Wave led to further exposure of his unchecked lifestyle of cocaine parties and S&M orgies. Formal accusations of threatening struggling actresses into having sex with him in exchange for film roles [11] prompted Paramount Pictures to remove Simpson from work being done on Beverly Hills Cop II later that month. After refusing to enter rehab, collaborator Jerry Bruckheimer terminated their partnership in June, and Simpson was fired by Paramount in July. Simpson was ultimately found guilty of two counts of sexual pestering in 1988...

www.mediarchives.co.usa/Top_Gun_(1986_film)



HOUSE MINORITY WHIP O’NEILL: IMPEACHMENT IS “CERTAINLY A POSSIBILITY”

…The congressional leader pondered further by adding, “an impeachment process, if one even occurs, would likely be on two counts of obstruction of justice – one for trying to limit an FBI investigation by instructing Attorney General Buddy Cianci to fire the special prosecutor, and another for firing FBI Director Felt for the same motive. Both of those firings could even be considered an overstepping of power”… “However, nothing is official, at least not yet anyways.”…

The New York Times, 5/22/1986



“The President can only be impeached for bribery, treason, or other high crimes and misdemeanors, and President Denton has not done anything even remotely close to any of those things. Period.”

– Roy Black (b. 1945), President Denton’s personal lawyer, during a KNN interview, 5/23/1986



LUKENS-DENTON GO-BETWEEN SUBPOENAED TO TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE

…Theodore Bevry Olson, the 45-year-old Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, is the officeholder who functions as a legal adviser to the President as well as to all the executive branch agencies, and so worked as an intermediary, or “middleman,” for the offices of Denton and Lukens...

The Washington Post, 5/24/1986



MILLIONS JOIN HANDS ACROSS U.S. TO AID THE HOMELESS AND HUNGRY: Reach Exceeds Grasp in “Hands Across America” Nationwide Event

…at least 5,500,000 people formed a winding and mostly-continuous human chain from San Diego, California, to Houlton, Maine. The major public event was created in order to raise money to fight hunger and homelessness worldwide, but with a focus on Africa and the US, as the event was organized by the “USA for Africa” program and the “End Food Insecurity” program, with support from “Sport Aid,” the Red Cross, and numerous other organizations…

The New York Times, 5/25/1986



CONGRESSMAN DORNAN SIGNS ONTO PROTECTION OF MARRIAGE ACT

…the bill was introduced in the House last month, in response to San Francisco’s city council announcing that they were leaning in favor of making it legal for members of the BLUTAGO community to marry each other within the city’s jurisdiction. …If passed and signed into law, this conservative bill would allow states to refuse to recognize any same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states…

The Los Angeles Times, 5/27/1986



One of Denton’s most passionate defenders in the House was Earl Landgrebe, a Republican who had represented from Indiana’s Second District since 1969. A law-and-order Republican war hawk, Landgrebe refused to budge from his stalwart position, once famously stating on The Overmyer Network “No amount of so-called evidence is going to change my allegiance to my President. Show me an impeachable offense, and then compare it to the wonderful things for this country this man has done.” [12]

EqtF2ia.png

[pic: https://imgur.com/EqtF2ia ]
Above: President Denton, c. June 1986
– Paul Kengor and Peter Schweizer’s The Denton Presidency: Assessing the Man and His Actions, Simon & Schuster, 2005



I was told to meet her at the John Marshall Park at midnight. In some ways, it was like something out of a Humphrey Bogart film. However, the park was fairly well-lit in most parts, and due to its location next to the National Mall, it was not a secluded or secretive place.

Each time I received a letter, I followed it and the informant’s instructions carefully. This time, I sat on the third bench to the right of the northwestern-most corner.

Within minutes, I spotted her out of the corner of my eye. She stepped out from behind a tree and next on the bench behind mine. “Ricky.”

“Lucy,” I kept my eyes forward and my head down as we repeated our cover names (Her idea, not mine).

“Here,” she stealthily handed me an envelope, poking the left side of my torso as she slipped it through the bench rails.

How clichéd. Matches the trench coat, I thought. “What is this?”

“Information as to where Packwood hid his diaries.”

“Hid? Packwood burned them. The investigation found burnt pages in his garbage.”

“He only burned some of them. Not even half of them. And not The Big One.”

Curious, I inquired, “How on Earth is Packwood connected to Lukens and Denton?”

“Lukens and Denton have known each other since both were governors in the latter half of the ’70s. Packwood began a rapport with Lukens in early ’81 when Packwood was on a foreign affairs committee and had to meet with Lukens several times to discuss policy. They ended up also telling each other about their - heh! - their ‘sexual conquests,’ as Packwood referred to them as once," she quietly answered.

“But why did Packwood keep these diaries if they really are so damaging?”

“Pride in his exploits. Or maybe he indents to use them in his autobio.”

I pondered semi-seriously, “Maybe he planned to blackmail others with other entries we don’t know about.”

Judging by the ruffling sound across from my neck, I believe she nodded lightly. “Maybe. He tried to seek higher office before. Ran for the Senate in ’68 and again in ’74. No dice. Thought of running for President six years ago, but nixed it due to his severe drinking problem. Then he tried to become Denton’s running mate, and then tried to become VP last year. He was even going to try to run for House Speaker next year, or possibly even for President in ’88. You’d think, given how conservative the party’s becoming, he’d have given up that ghost years ago.”

The character assessment matched what I knew of the man.

With a sigh, my mysterious contact added “He seems to have forgotten why he got into this game to begin with.” After a pause, during which I must only assume that she checked her watch, she said, “I’ve got to run,” and hastily traversed the park. I turned around in time to see her move past the tree line and disappear around the corner.

– J. Mark Felt’s Looking For Light Under The Cover Of Darkness, Sunrise Publishing, 1987



“…It is absolutely shameful that Democrats are actively discussing introducing articles of impeachment against the leader of our country for something that can’t even qualify as a high crime or misdemeanor, and after surviving an attack on his, no less! …This unreasonable behavior has undeniably doomed their midterm prospects…”

– Rush Limbaugh, KFBK-AM radio, 6/10/1986



“I think the President of the United States should let the judicial system run its course. Political interference and persuasion have no respectable place in a court of law, even if that court is the senate, as it so happened to become 118 years ago, when President Andrew Johnson was tried and acquitted in 1868. The importance of placing law above political allegiance is why I have high regard for Congressmen Stokes and Emery, the Chairman and Co-Chairman, respectively, of the bipartisan House Ethics Committee. Stokes oversaw the ABSCAM scandal, and has consistently proven himself to be a man of strong moral character. …If politics do end up impeding the system of due process, do not worry – the United States Supreme Court can review an unfair impeachment trial…”

– Robert Swan Mueller III, assistant US Attorney for the District of D.C., while on a CBS panel, 6/11/1986



The 1981 repeal of the F.E.C.’s Fairness Doctrine, which required radio stations to provide coverage of both sides of an issue, or, at the very least, provide free airtime for responses to any controversial opinions broadcast, allowed pro-Denton stations to support the President without needing to even include any opposing viewpoints. This liberated the members of both the far-right (Rush Limbaugh, Larry McDonald, Pat Robertson and others) and the far-left (Bern Sanders, Noam Chomsky, and Pete Diamondstone) to express their thoughts on the Great Potomac Scandals of the mid-1980s without any counterarguments. Unfortunately, this exercise of the First Amendment could be, at the least partially, responsible for the rise in political extremism that occasionally plagued the 1980s and 1990s.

The most notable early example of this would be the actions of the right-wing extremist David Lewis Rice (b. 1958), who, on June 13, 1986, bombed a synagogue in Seattle. Rice, an anti-Semite who believed Israeli agents to be behind the then-recent scandals in D.C., planned to detonate the bomb on Saturday the 14th, when the building would be full of people practicing the Sabbath, but accidently clicked the triggering mechanism while planting the bomb, killing only himself and damaging much of the building. The incident sparked another wave of activism as the city community came together to support the local Jewish population and fund the rebuilding of the synagogue. Nationally, conservatives distanced themselves from the radio programs of which Rice had known to be an avid listener. Limbaugh was not one of those programs...

– Michael Stewart Foley’s Front Porch Politics: American Activism in the 1970s and 1980s, 2013 net-book edition



…After months of student demonstrations in the capital of Tirana calling vehemently for free elections, the new leader of Albania, Ramiz Alia, agreed to their demands. He privately admitted that his slow and steady attempts to gradually introduce economic reforms and open diplomatic ties to Western Europe is taking too long to yield results. The elections were set to be held in less than a year, giving Alia ample time to make his case for “moderate progress” to the people of Albania…

– Tajar Zavalani’s The Albanian People: A Fiery History, London Books, 2015



HOUSE PASSES PROTECTION OF MARRIAGE ACT: Senate To Vote On It After Summer Break

The Washington Times, 6/17/1986



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[pic: imgur.com/mJ5faKj.png ]

– Colonel Sanders leading a prayer group, c. June 1986



“The battle for justice is underway, but it must pick up its pace! We cannot allow the Republicans to run out the clock! Why we must branch out to the suburbs. To the ‘family people’ who think that somehow these Dentonian Scandals in no way affect them or their families. Except Dentonia does. It affects all of us, and all of us have to be aware of that. This is organizing 101, people. We must always be able to identify the specific forms of power we have and then learn to concentrate it in specific tactics while at the same time expanding it through building the organization. [13] We have the moral power, we have the informative power, we have the media power, and we have the influential power needed to finally bring forth justice, to right what Denton has wronged, and to make Denton be brought to trial and pay for his crimes. To prove to all whom seek to abuse the American people that the American people will never stand for it! Through the expansion of this organization we shall see Denton buckle under the pressure of our voices calling for justice to prevail!”

– Janice Fine, at a Citizens For Justice rally in Washington, D.C., 6/23/1986



MUSICIAN TED NUGENT ACCUSED OF SLEEPING WITH UNDERAGE GIRLS

…His 1984 song “Jailbait” does exactly help with lines such as “Well I don’t care if you’re just thirteen, you look too good” [L1], neither do other offensive songs such as “Drinking Tap Water In Mexico” and “Each Black and Blue Means ‘I Love You’”…

– The Associated Press, 6/25/1986 [14]



…As the Senate prepares for summer break, the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Bill remains lingering. The Senate Democrats are keeping this large defense restructuring bill under Committee Consideration indefinitely. In other words, they are using it as a bargaining chip against the

President. The Senate Democrats are fully aware that Denton has the votes to get the bill passed, but hope to win some of them over. …For the continued protection and safety of this nation, spend this summer writing to your Congressman and to both of your Senators. Hold them accountable for their actions by demanding that they support the Department of Defense Reorganization Bill…

– The National Review, late June 1986 issue



CONGRESSMAN LANDGREBE SUFFERS HEART ATTACK ON LIVE TV

…in the middle of an argument with CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl during an on-air political news segment, Congressman Earl Landgrebe (R-IN), 70, stopped angrily criticizing the Senate Middletown Committee, grabbed his chest, and collapsed out of his chair, leading to CBS cutting to commercial. …Landgrebe was rushed to a local hospital… he is expected to recover due to the quick actions of paramedics and EMTs…

The Kokomo Tribune, Indiana newspaper, 6/29/1986



NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] According to Source 21 on Ross Perot’s wiki page
[2] Policies that he supported according to his page on that “ontheissues” website, and according to Source 30 on his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot#1992_presidential_campaign
[3] According to Sources 32 and 33 on his wiki page (see Source/Note 2 for link).
[4] The character Conspiracy Joe is inspired by Conspiracy Bob, a frequent caller on N.J.’s 101.5 radio station back in 2011 or so. Also, the radio program Coast-to-Coast AM was founded by Art Bell and Alan Corbeth in 1978 as KDWN’s late night political call-in talk radio program entitled West Coast AM, and they renamed it “Coast-to-Coast AM” in 1988.
[5] Okay, so apparent from the un-italicized edits, this entire chunk of this chapter is from here: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/29/magazine/the-trials-of-bob-packwood.html
[6] OTL!
[7] From here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Ysidro_McDonald%27s_massacre#cite_note-99
[8] During the early 1980s, “The WWF became the most colorful and well-known wrestling brand to children because of its child-oriented characters, soap opera dramaticism [sic] and cartoon-like personas. Most notable was the muscular Hulk Hogan, who marked the 1980s with his ‘all-American’ persona. His sheer size, colorful attire, charisma and extravagance made his main events into excellent ratings draws. By January 1984, Hogan's legions of fans and his dominant role in the industry was termed ‘Hulkamania,’” as pulled from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_wrestling_in_the_United_States#Explosion_(1980–2001)
[9] Line found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A#Corporate_culture
[10] Possibly (likely?) anti-Semitic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Simpson#Personality
[11] Apparently, this guy was the Harvey Weinstein of the late ’80s/early ’90s IOTL!: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Simpson#cite_note-filmstarfacts_producer-11
[12] He really did say the italicized parts, though about Nixon, in a 1984 interview IOTL.
[13] PRIMARY SOURCE! Janice Fine was my professor in college, and I can confirm that she really did say this at the beginning of the January 2018 semester!
[14] OTL song and OTL lyrics
 
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ok, now i can see that you know nothing about France politics. There's no way that Le Pen get elected as President. His daughter who is way more moderate than him still lost in a landslide.
Just read his declaration and you can see why he can't get elected. He lost in the worst landslide in french political history, it's not something that 21 years of socialist in power can change
 
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