Chapter 64: July 1991 – February 1992
“We didn't start the fire.”
– Billy Joel
SHED YOUR GLOVES AND MASKS! HANTAVIRUS NOT SPREADABLE BETWEEN PEOPLE!
…The moment of truth arrived early this morning at the labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Center of Disease Control can now confirm that testing has proven that the hantavirus outbreaks in the western US states were the result of several isolated incidents of humans coming into contact with rodents carrying hantavirus as a result of a combination weather and human activities. More specifically, ZED projects near the Navajo Nation – a technically-sovereign Native American nation spanning much of northern New Mexico – flushed rodents out of certain areas, and irrigation projects created water runoff that lured many of the rodents into new areas, who likely reproduced quickly in the more favorable conditions.
The CDC has also announced that the hantavirus cases that were reported in New Orleans were from the local variation of the virus, and thus were unrelated to the cases found in the American southwest. The Bayou Hantavirus having a major outbreak the same time as the southwestern variant appears to simply be “an amazing but unfortunate coincidence,” according to Dr. Terry Yates...
– The New York Post, 7/24/1991
THE CRISIS IS OVER!
…the governors in the four states hit hardest by the hantavirus epidemic have declared their respective states of emergency to still be in place until the number of cases drop “as a safety precaution,” as put by Gov. Kirkpatrick… …hot summer temperatures and federal government agencies spreading information on how to avoid contact may just have proved instrumental in minimizing the spreading of hantavirus…
– The New York Times, 7/24/1991
…As state sanitation departments clear away underbrush and hose down old buildings in Arizona and New Mexico, no new hantavirus cases have been confirmed since the 6th of July… 194 people are confirmed to have contracted the virus; the current mortality rate: 41.1%...
– KNN News, 7/28/1991
“My gut, you know, my instincts, they told me that this hantavirus was no big deal. It turns out I was right! And the D.C. fat cats simply overreacted. That’s Washington for you – always looking for some overblown excuse to limit your freedoms.”
– Governor James Richard “Rick” Perry (D-TX), 7/30/1991
LEE IACOCCA MAKES PRESIDENTIAL BID OFFICIAL!
– The Los Angeles Times, 8/4/1991
[pic:
https://imgur.com/tRqTxj3 ]
– Iacocca’92 logo, first used 8/4/1991
“Iacocca is tough where it matters most. He’s tough on red tape, protecting personal freedoms, and defending democracy. He’s tough on crime, he’s tough on budget spending, and tough on injustices everywhere. It is this sort of toughness that we need in the White House. We need someone with a clear goal, a clear mission in mind, a clear plan for the country. …Another benefit that Lee would bring to the table is his ability to respond well to crises. Lee responded swiftly and admirably when Chrysler was set to go belly-up; his reaction and response is proof that he is a man of action and not just words.”
– George Steinbrenner endorsing Lee Iacocca for President, 8/5/1991
The White House’s handling of the hantavirus outbreak received both praise and criticism. While some defended her immediate coordination with state governors as a preventative measure, others believed this was an overreaction. Radio personality Rush Limbaugh notably stated “Our Lady-in-Chief overreacted like an inexperienced dunderhead,” for which he was derided and condemned by many. Conservative politicians such as Governors Andrews and Perry who disagreed with implementing mask-and-glove measures and subsequently accused of endangering the people of their respective state, felt vindicated when it turned out that the hantavirus strain of New Mexico and Louisiana were not transmittable from human to human. Nonetheless, “it was still irresponsible that they didn’t play it safe like the President wanted them to,” as then-US Health and Welfare Secretary Dunham put it in an August 6th Meet the Press interview…
– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018
On August 11, Bellamy and Volkov signed the Russian-American Nuclear Arms Proliferation And Monitoring Treaty, often shortened to the RANAPAM Treaty. The bilateral agreement emboldened previous treaties opposing nuclear stockpiles, limited strategic nuclear weapons development further, and outlined a plan to halve the current nuclear stockpiles of both countries by the year 2000. Privately, Bellamy was hopeful that this and other relations-strengthening moves would lead to her having Russia’s support in addressing “the issue concerning North Koreas.”
– Andrew S. Natsios’ The Famines of North Korea, Institute of Peace Press, 2001
When the Civil Rights bill of 1991 finally made its way out of the Senate, House Republican leadership packed themselves into an elevator and hit the “stop elevator” sign as soon as a doors closed. Members-only elevators in the capitol building are one of the very few places on Capitol Hill where a congressman can speak to his colleagues in confidence. Packed into this claustrophobic cage with his two subordinates, Speaker Walker addressed the House majority leader first. David F. Emery of Maine, a liberal-minded second-in-command, was impatiently waiting for his moment to rise to the occasion – and to rise to the speakership. Emery’s journey through House leadership had been slow while the conservative Walker’s had been fast, and many a time, the moderate Edward Madigan, third in line as Majority Whip, had to play peacemaker. With this in mind, Madigan, the third man in the elevator, watched his two superiors closely while filling the small room with the smell of tobacco, his mouth and nose still smoking like a chimney as always.
“I couldn’t care less about what the latest batch of jejune mouth breathers making up the cast of SNL will have to say about me, we have to crush this bill,” Walker remarked. A hawk on deficit spending determined to keep Bellamy from violating the BBA, Walker had been pushing to reduce federal spending since entering office two years after Emery had. Something rarely discussed, though, was that he and Bellamy agreed on funding NASA, as both leaders supported science, space programs, and weather research. Emery remembered how Walker had even eased the establishing of the Department of Energy and Technology, making it a new cabinet position in a matter of mere weeks in 1989. But that was where the comradery had ended. A fierce and unapologetic defender of the war on recreadrugs, Emery knew that that was next on the agenda after the killing of this bill.
“This miserable excuse of a bill would establish quotas for businesses and schools. How is that equal opportunity, when every mom and pop shop has to have an equal number of men and women in it? When every car shop, every sausage factory, and every single f*cking beauty-salon would have to be half-and-half?” Walker inquired.
“And don’t forget places as white as Wyoming or Vermont,” Madigan came to Walker’s defense, surprising Emery. “They will have to overturn every rock in every corner of every town in every county until they find enough non-whites to fill their quotas.”
“Right,” Walker nodded and turned back to Emery. “And all to avoid costly litigation on charges of perceived discrimination? Your liberal friends have gone too far here, David!”
Emery defended his prior backing of more moderate laws by saying “Businesses use that as an excuse to be prejudice anyway and you know it. Next thing you know they’ll be claiming their hiring practices are due to ‘customer preference,’ and so fair employment violates the rights of customers.”
“The phrase ‘take your business elsewhere’ comes to mind,” Madigan mused with another drag of his cigarette, making the elevator even stuffier. Emery wondered if he was violating the building’s fire code.
“Yeah,” Emery replied.
“Wrong!” Walker reacted swiftly, “How can they take their business elsewhere if everyone has to adhere to unreasonable quotas to protect themselves from the possibility of litigation?”
“Uh, I guess, if the bill passes, those customers will just have to learn to be less racist?” Emery answered weakly.
“‘If’ is the key word, David,” Walker retorted. “Tell your liberal cohorts to f*ck off and get ready to make the rounds.” He slammed on the “open elevator” button and left. Madigan left next, his head practically encased in a cloud of smoke that slowly drifted apart as he followed after Walker. David began the round, which means he began to meet with liberal House members and convince them to abstain from voting yes on the bill.
Across the aisle, Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, having succeeded Hale Boggs upon his retirement in 1989, and Gephardt’s new “first mate” of sorts, the more liberal Minority Whip Barbara Kennelly, were certain they could win over enough left-leaning Republicans to pass the bill. Meanwhile, Madigan sat down with moderates while Walker discussed the matter with conservative Democrats, just to be on the safe side.
The House had 223 Republicans, 210 Democrats and 2 Independents (Sorrell of Vermont and Cherney of New York, both former Democrats who caucused with said party). On August 16, despite being passed 54-46 in the Senate just before the summer break, the Civil Right bill of 1991 failed to pass in the House, 227 to 208; five conservative Democrats crossed the aisle, while only two liberal Republicans voted in favor of passing the bill.
– Julian E. Zelizer and David F. Emery’s Burning Down The House, Penguin Publishing Group, 2020
On 17 August 1991, Hurricane Bob hits the eastern seaboard of the United States, killing 9 people and causing over $1 billion in damages.
– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk
…Ollie stuck to what he did best – seasoning a third of a pound of lean beef with a blend of 32 spices for his delicious Ollieburgers.
By the 1990s, KFC’s Wendyburgers firmly held onto silver as McDonald’s gripping onto gold in the burger Olympics that was the 1980s, as brands such as Red Barn and Burger King began to drop in prominence due to mismanagement and other factors. But through all that, Ollie’s stuck around. The franchise even experienced a resurgence, a revival of sorts, a bit after the 1990s decade had begun, as a new generation of young Americans, born between 1981 and 1998 – the centurions – became aware of the would-be Colonel’s niche offering.
– proudsoutherner.co.usa/food/ollies-trolley/you-could-be-the-next-colonel-sanders
The early 1990s music technology industry saw the CD quickly replace audiocassette tapes, making them go by way of the 8-track, the record player, and the phonograph, but the biggest music
scene of the early ’90s was undoubtedly the neo-feminist punk rock movement “Riot Grrrl.” With early RG pioneers like Kathleen Hanna, Moly Neuman, Allison Wolfe, The Slits, Bratmobile and Tobi Vail leading the way in the wake of the Ms. Arkansas Wave of 1986, and given strength and courage by both major political parties nominating women in the 1988 Presidential election, women rockers fought back against the sexism that had enveloped the punk rock music scene, with acts like The Sex Pistols reaching national prominence while female bands were largely confined to the underground circuit. The movement continued to gather momentum under the inspiring President Carol Bellamy. …The RG movement made further impact on the national scene with an indie music festival held by K Records from August 20 to August 25 called the International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Washington, the nexus of the punk, reeflex and indie rock scenes. The event elevated several Riot Grrrl band to national attention and influenced American music styles and genres for years…
– Tumbleweed Magazine, December 1999 End-Of-The-Decade Review issue
[vid:
youtube.com /watch?v=L0oeqAQ1qE8 ]
– “Rebel Girl,” a classic early Riot Grrrl song by Bikini Kill, first performed as early as 1991 [1]
Life in Heck And Other Fun Places first aired on The Overmyer Network’s “TON-o’-TV” or “TON-TV” on September 4, 1987 and switched to the Overmyer “Ton o’ Toons” lineup when Overmyer expanded. The show – about a family of mutant rabbits living in an exaggerated version of “post-meltdown” Oregon, gave us iconic and memorable characters, from Binky and his family to their neighbor, the semi-retired Krusty the Clown. But the Matt Groening series that made an even bigger impact on pop culture in and out of the US was
Futurama. …I traveled to Oregon to ask Groening about the show’s legendary behind-the-scenes drama.
[SNIP]
GROENING: The network wanted me to make another show for them, so I started working on Futurama in earnest in ’91, about two years before the pilot aired and three years before the series finally premiered, in ’94, about a year before Life in Heck finally wrapped up and went off the air.
JONES: Did the network want that Life in Heck crossover episode from, I believe, 1995, or did you?
GROENING: That was in reaction to the network demanding more creative control. That episode’s a metaphor for people trying to invade someone else’s project the way the characters of Futurama barge in on already-hectic lives of the Life-in-Heck gang.
JONES: Did they get the message?
GROENING: It dawned on them eventually.
[SNIP]
JONES: Why did you name the characters after your family members when they’re nothing like them?
GROENING: Because they started out as placeholder names. Maggie the student from Mars, Patty the Robot, Bart the troublemaking wiseass, Earth President-in-exile Marjorie Wiggum, all temporary names that became permanent. The only one that really were apt were Markey M. “Key” Martin, time-traveling main character named after my brothers, and Homer Simpson, the overly-enthusiastic, patriotic, high-cultured, art-loving Mayor of New New York who was named after my dad. Their personalities matched the people they were named after. Simpson, a former newspaper tycoon and philanthropist often used as a serious straight man, has a personality and even, kind of, an appearance based almost entirely on my father. Harry Shearer dos a great job voicing him.
[SNIP]
JONES: How much fact lies behind the rumors that Life In Heck is going to brought back soon?
GROENING: It is a fact that we are thinking about it. But the thing is, though, is that the show was made before everything was done on computers, and the animation for that show, I believe, works better when it’s crude, hand-drawn, raw. Smooth, slick, high-definition doesn’t at all click with the basic, blurry world of those episodes, so bringing it back with the tech of today, it just wouldn’t be the same show.
JONES: But it would be a show.
GROENING: But would it really be the show the fans want?
[SNIP]
[pic:
imgur.com/Qffs4iP ]
Above: An early promotional drawing (hence the line errors and discoloration present) for “Futurama,” c. 1994. Characters left to right: Houseley Penfield Grubbs
[2], a friend of Bart, falling off into space; Willie the Janitor; Professor Farnsworth; Zapp Branigan; Dr. Zoidberg; Taranga Marie Leela; Bender Rodriguez; Bart Farnsworth, the professor’s Dennis-the-Menace-like half-clone/son; Key, a delivery boy from our present; Lisa Wong; Mayor Homer Simpson; Hermes the accountant; Police Chief Clancy Corvallis.
– usarightnow.co.usa, 2009 interview
…Bob enthusiastically supported President Bellamy expanding military veteran health benefits, due to his past private health issues, in connection to his state’s implementation of the 1990 UHC law. …For the state budget, Bob used cost-effective analysis to create room for the arts, “Native needs,” and “Nature needs.” …Governor Ross’ anti-alcoholism campaign was proving to be a success by the fall of 1991. The campaign centered on three prongs: awareness, action, and assistance – reform state regulations for marketing and pricing; address drunk-driving and public incidents such as bar fights and brawls; establish more support groups. Opposed to the idea of running any sort of “police state,” Boss Ross did not clamp down on availability any more than the teetotaler activists demanded, and even then within reason. Instead of installing surveillance cameras, Ross encouraged the establishing of community information-sharing committees. To nip the problem in the bud, such groups sought to warn young drinkers of the consequences of overindulging.
But the most effective way to combat alcohol consumption and subsequent alcoholism was creating more homeless shelters and providing more economic relief for people barely managing to pay for a roof over their heads, let alone heating costs if a fireplace was unavailable as was the case in many urban areas. The drink used to warm up the body, and is often turned to when one is jobless or bored. As unemployment rates dropped (thanks to Ross, for incentivizing businesses to invest in the state, and for establishing a statewide jobs guarantee (albeit most of the work being manual labor jobs)), so did alcoholism rates…
[pic:
https://imgur.com/l5XkP7k ]
Above: Ross in Juneau, shortly after signing a landmark land conservation bill into law, April 27, 1991
– R. Lynn Rivenbark’s With the Stroke of a Brush or Pen: The Life of Bob Ross, Brookings Institution Press, 2012
HOST: Governor, Commissioner Iacocca said yesterday that, if elected President, he’d relax banking regulations to create trust and openness between the government and banks and, in theory, lower corruption. In your experience, do you think that would work?
SOGLIN: It wouldn’t at all. This kind of thinking typically leads to the bailout of big business at the expense of the working people, not the lowering of corruption. And what’s worse, Iacocca’s economic plan, of blaming the 1989-1990 recession on Japan, is heavily flawed, will likely lead to welfare cuts in order to get nation out of any financial problems he faces if he somehow gets elected President. Because remember, that’s what happened under Jeremiah Denton, the last Republican elected President.
– CBS roundtable discussion with Governor Paul Soglin (D-WI), 9/5/1991 broadcast
“I LIKE I?” LEE IACOCCA’S PROMISING WHITE HOUSE BID
…the current Commissioner of Major League Baseball (since 1987) and the former CEO of the Ford Motor Company (1979-1994) is an energetic old rascal with big plans for US – plans that may be broad enough to win over enough factions within the GOP to win the party’s nomination. His campaign at the time seems to be focusing mainly on transportation, technological innovation, and urban development, with a great focus on the world economics. “I want to get the American workforce back into shape, like what I did for the auto industry,” the businessman said in a recent radio interview. His dislike of Japan’s booming industry “siphoning consumers away from American products” has led to several Rust Belt politicians, most notably Senator Jack Lousma of Michigan, already joining the Iacocca bandwagon to sing his praises…
– The New York Times, 9/10/1991
IACOCCA – Promises You Can Count On?
…Iacocca says that
one way to approach industrial policy would be to have an independent industry-labor-government board look at the five industries that are the biggest job producers – auto, steel, electronics, aircraft, and textiles. And, in a nonpartisan way, ‘see if they bring something to the party.’ For example, he said, discover whether a troubled company in one of these industries would use loan guarantees to increase productivity, introduce an efficient new process, or improve the environment. Lee’s campaign think tank, John Gargan and Ed Rollins, passionately back the idea, with Gargan stating that
“Under existing industrial policy…the government may give the steel industry favorable treatment, such as trigger prices, to counter foreign steel dumping. But it doesn’t get anything in return.” Iacocca claims that he
would have a nonpartisan federal board decide not to aid a steel company that diverts funds into buying Marathon Oil. Instead, he said the board should aid steel companies that install oxygen furnaces to become more competitive with foreign producers. Properly focused government policy can also influence labor costs. Iacocca cites a case where Felix Rohatyn (Wall Street investment banker, financial rescuer of New York City, and advocate of industrial policy) was helping Eastern Airlines chief Frank Borman weather his company’s recent crisis. Mr. Rohatyn told Iacocca that if Eastern had only been able to borrow another $50 million to million in wage concessions from his unions, instead of the $300 million he did get. He explains,
“Union leaders simply weren’t willing to give up more unless they felt Eastern could invest in new facilities and equipment that would pay off in future for all concerned [sic]”…
[3]
– Time Magazine, mid-August 1991 issue
MOTHER-POST:
Anyone remember “The Doozy Bots”?
It aired on the Warner Bros’ Nickelodeon lineup and premiered in September 1991
Here’s an old promo for it to refresh your memory:
[vid:
youtube.com/ watch?v=e8um1N78AhY ]
The show ran for three seasons –
three! – most likely for the toy lines that came with them. Looking back on it, I think it had an interesting premise, but its one-dimensional characters and stereotyping seemed very outdated even for 1991. For example, the only female Doozybot is a stereotypical cheerleader despite then-President Carol Bellamy being an inspiration for millions of young girls at the time it first aired. But despite that, I still think it was an okay show. Anyone else remember it?
>REPLY 1:
It still has a cult following but it is a smoll one. The lack of girls made it an almost exclusively male-oriented show, but in their defense, attempts to change this in the second season with greater focus on the scientist’s daughter upset the male audience, so they quickly abandoned it do you remember that .
>REPLY 2:
WTF? Did I just watch a robot ostrich lay eggs?? Why would you ever need a robot bird that lays eggs??!!!
>>REPLY 1 to REPLY 2:
So you can make egg puns? Why else wud you make an egg-laying robot?
>REPLY 3:
I remember watching this when I was little. It was weird but a good kind of weird. Fun!
>>REPLY 1 to REPLY 3:
Me too this show was awsome!
>REPLY 4:
Needed more robots
– euphoria.co.usa, a public pop-culture news-sharing and chat-forum-hosting netsite, 2009 posting [4]
GOVERNOR RODHAM-CLINTON PRAISES STATE EDU DEPARTMENT PROGRESS MONTHS AFTER SIGNING CHILD PROTECTION BILL INTO LAW
– The Chattanooga Times Free Press, 8/20/1991
…With most nations cooperating with one another in order to not be “left out of the big game,” as Shimon Peres put it,
[5] the situation in Iran remained peaceful as their Shah continued to walk that thin line between adopting “practical westernization” (i.e. technological and social modernization) and still honoring and retaining Islamic tradition. The people of Oman, meanwhile, was becoming the “Switzerland” of the region by being the go-to place for formal peace talks and by luring in financial investors with economic incentives, and died quite well for themselves throughout the decade. Meanwhile, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, while a reluctant ally of Israel, was an ally nevertheless due to their shared disliking of Islamic fundamentalism.
[6]
[snip]
Because of the high demand to participate in the highly-publicized and world-watched Chicken Dinner Summits held annually in Jerusalem, debate began over the possibility of thresholds on speakers and guests being raised. The main problem with this was that the organizing for the summits was very informal, almost ad hoc in nature. Previously, they were hosted by Colonel Sanders in an independent capacity – meaning not as a representative of any company or state – but since his death, future of the summits remained uncertain. Radical (as in quietly “pro-war”) elements of the Middle East hoped that the Colonel’s death would make for the perfect time to strike a match and light a part of the region that they hated on fire. Instead, recurrent summit participants met in August to forge an acceptable organization structure. An agreement was reached to rotate hosting duties – a community organizer from each treaty-signing country. As for the high demand to be on the guest list, the well-respected then-US Senator Harley Sanders supported using larger venues in the Holy City and setting a cap for the list that would ensure no group would “excessively outnumber” another group. Most notably, though, Sanders insisted that the Summit Speakers represent “the people, not the wealthy or the elite. They can be wealthy, but they must not be in it for themselves. They must be proven humanitarian-minded promoters of goodwill.”
[snip]
The September 1991 summit was another massive success. While the Colonel’s infectiously optimistic presence was greatly missed, it was celebrated and honored by the guest speakers, with Harley Sanders’ eulogy-like speech receiving a four-minute-long standing ovation. …Other American speakers included Jimmy Carter and Rev. Jerry Brown… Another memorable speech of the festivity came from Egypt’s President Mubarak. His call for an intifada (an Arabic word meaning “an uprising,” or, specifically, “a jumping up as a reaction to something”) against radicalism – “we must shake off the war-hungry howls of blood-craving fire starters who wish to imprison and enslave all who oppose their narrow vision of the world. We must stand together, and let them know that there are more peace-makers than war-makers in the world” – was met with a thunderous applause. Mubarak basked in the limelight…
– James L. Gelvin’s Lines In Sand: The History of The Modern-Day Middle East, Oxford University Press, 2010 edition
COLOMBIAN PEACE TALKS BREAK DOWN
…talks promoted by the US’s President Bellamy between opposing forces have disintegrated amid a wide M-19 counteroffensive unfolding in the nation’s easternmost provinces… United States ground forces have had a “low-intensity” presence in the nation since 1984, and President Bellamy had hoped that these talks would finally be the “key” to their return home. “We have to being able to leave without everything collapsing once they do so,” says Sam W. Brown Jr., Chief Foreign Policy Advisor for the US White House...
– The Guardian, UK newspaper, 27/9/1991
Two years ago, in September 1991, when I was in assistant Chief of Staff at Senator Williams’ office, I received the news from my sister Joan [born in 1973 and named after First Lady at the time] via telephone call. After 37 years of marriage, our parents had filed for divorce. It soon became apparent that they had waited until after Joan had moved out to go to college at the age of 18 to make official what they had been thinking about for years. According to Mother’s high school friend Susan Blake, “[
she never dated] the crew-cut white boys [back then]. She had a world view, even as a young girl. It was embracing the different, rather than that ethnocentric thing of shunning the different. That was where her mind took her.”
[7] Despite Mother’s yearning to try new cultures and explore nontraditional ideas, though, she stayed with Pop over their shared interests. Both had been from often-moving families and both believed in honor, but Mom had wanted to interact with foreign and exotic cultures, and in a way that did not involve overseeing the dropping of bombs from a plane. Her ideal trip was to a tropical UNSECO site; Dad’s was to an iconic American landmark. And with Father’s career lecturing at military academies and advising the US Defense Department on this or that, and Mother’s career as the US Health and Welfare Secretary, the two had simply grown apart from one another. It was inevitable, but it was still shocking and saddening to the both of us, especially Joan. Thankfully, their parting was amicable, and they are still very close – even if that closeness more in line with the kind found between two life-long friends, and not the kind found between husband and wife…
– Barack McCain’s Lessons From my Fathers, Sunrise Publishers, 1993
When SpongeBob’s finally opened, Steve could tell that hard work had been worth it.
The extra months had led to us developing an impressive menu, or “Galley Grub,” as the menus call it, with there being choices clearly for kids, clearly for adults, for either, for both, for a family eating together, food for anyone and everyone.
For more adult eaters, we had Linguini in White Clam Sauce, delicious-looking stew-like Smoked Cod Chowder! (like a stew), Wild Alaska Pollock, a.k.a. “Alaska’s Best-Kept Secret” (delicious and nutritious), Pretzel-Crusted Catfish, Honey Walleye (a main dish), Marinated Grilled Shrimp, Baked Dijon Salmon, and Orange Tilapia, Seaweed Salad, Kelp Shakes, Super Seaweed Shake, Oyster Skins, Sponge Patty Newburg, the Sea Sir Salad, and the Barnacle Bruschetta.
For kids, you had Salmon Cakes – flaked salmon, bread crumbs, parsley, chopped green onion, parmesan cheese (optional), lemon juice, garlic powder, black pepper, olive oil, and Old Bay Seasoning and served with ketchup, mustard, mayo and tartar sauce – Crab Cakes, Salty Sea Dogs (hotdogs made with fish meat), Buttered Barnacles (butter cookies), Shrimp Scampies, Hushpuppies, Powdered Driftwood (originally, misshapen powdered donuts purchased from the bakery down the street from us, then our own once that shop caught on to what we were doing and stopped selling them to us), the Sailor Surprise, the Crying Johnny, the Jelly Patty, the Jelly Relish Patty, the Nasty Patty (basically a Sloppy Joe made with fish meat, because Sloppy Joes were really big with kids back then), Kelp Rings, Barnacle Rings, Crunchy Cod Cuts, Nacho Oyster Skins, Bobby Fries, Bobby Chili Kelp Fries, and various chowders.
The signature dish, enjoyed by children and adults, was, of course, the Krabby Patty, also called the Bobby Patty or the Sponge Patty in some places. Two buns with sesame seeds; two slices of cheddar cheese; 3 ¼ cups of chopped onions; 1 teaspoon of salt; 2 patties of crab meat; 2 tomato slices; lettuce or kelp; and seasoning.
[8] The way Steve makes it, I can’t get enough of it. Back then, the only kind of Krabby Patty on the menu was one with cheese and one without. Now the menu’s got those and Bobby Patty Combo; Patty Deluxe; Jumbo Krabby Patty; single, double, or triple Bobby Kid’s Meal, Krabby Meal; the Double Patty Patty; the Krabby Junior Junior; the Jumbo Small Patty; Triple Decker Patty; Monster Krabby Patty; the Junior Senior Sophomore Patty; the Quarter Ounce Double Pounder, thanks to that lawsuit ending in our favor; the Super Double Triple Patty; the Jumbo Patty Super Jumbo; the Pipsqueak Patty; the Double Triple Bossy Deluxe; the Krabby Patty Double Deluxe; the King Size Ultra Krabby Supreme (regular, on a stick, or double battered and fried on a stick); Triple Krabby Supreme; Veggie Pattie; Captain Olaf’s Special, and, um, you know what I think that’s all of them.
Good thing I had those lists handy, huh? I never could have remembered all of that off the top of my head!
Anyway, I remember how Steve beamed with pride at the sight of all those customers coming in, intrigued by the nautical décor and entertained by the statues of the characters welcoming them to have fun.
But at that time, it still did not yet have that special oomph that it needed for it to really make it big on the seafood scene...
– Bryan Hillenburg, 2019 interview [9]
[pic:
https://imgur.com/AfKhO3D ]
– SpongeBob’s, soon after its 9/2/1991 Grand Opening
On September 3, 1991, the Republic of Vevcani, a micronation within Yugoslavia, found on the border of the Yugoslavian nation-states of Albania and Macedonia, declared independence for the purpose of garnering publicity and, ultimately, revenue from tourism.
– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk
…Due to the large presence of ethnic Russians in Latvia during the collapse of the USSR, the pro-independence group Popular Front of Latvia called for all permanent residents to be made eligible for Latvian citizenship in 1983. This won the support of ethnic Russians in the soviet, giving weight to its independence declaration the next year. The PFL almost negated on their universal citizenship promise after achieving independence, but when protests calling for its implementation persisted as 1984 became 1985 and 1985 became 1986, the young moderate President, Anatolijs Gorbunovs, yielded to the rising calls, and the process was completed by 1991. This ultimate keeping of the PFL’s promise lead to ethnic Russians becoming strong loyalists of Gorbunov’s Latvian Way political party. This was a deciding factor in the nation’s October 1991 Presidential Election, which saw Gorbunovs win a second and final six-year term. Of course, the nation’s economy finally improving and the establishing of Russian as an optional secondary language taught in schools were contributing factors…
– Andrejs Plakans’ The Latvians: A Study of Nationality, Hoover Institution Press, 2005 edition
US REPRESENTATIVE SWITCHES PARTIES OVER PARTY “EXTREMISM”
…US Congressman Ben Nighthorse Campbell has officially switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP, reportedly over his disapproval of the national Democrats’ embracing progressive measures Campbell believes are “dangerously disuniting.” Always an independent-minded maverick, Campbell often supports Republican-led legislation and more right-leaning political positions than do most Democrats…
– The Fort Collins Coloradoan, 10/5/1991
FINK DECIDES AGAINST LAUNCHING DOOMED CAMPAIGN
…Disgraced former Governor Tom Fink, after openly discussing the possibility for months, today declined to run for President. Fink cited an unspecified “health concern” as the official reason, despite friends of the former Governor claiming he “is in great shape” as recently as last week. …Fink had claimed after the state gubernatorial recall election that his removal from office was part of a “liberal plot” to “oppress the voices of the conservatives, the religious, and the unduped [sic] working class,” but failed to gain much media attention outside of Alaska since being booted from office…
– The Juneau Empire, Alaska newspaper, 10/7/1991
CATHOLIC BISHOP TAKEN DOWN IN ARKWAVE ’86 SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON FOR ROLE IN RAPE COVERUP
…Bishop Sean Patrick O’Malley joins former Jesuit priest James Talbot, John Geoghan, Paul Richard Shanley and a host of other disgraced members of the cloth serving time in prison for their sexually abusing minors throughout their careers or, in O’Malley’s case, actively trying to cover up such actions. …The Second Ark Wave of 1986 exposed the activities of sexual pesterers in politics and Hollywood, but outside the glitzy glamour of those two realms, revelations were hard admissions of gritty overlooked truths, previously silenced by years of intimidation and trauma. As this paper reported five years ago, child abuse cases were connected to high-ranking cardinals across New England, only for the courage of key victims to blow the lid off the church’s activities... In the years since, the Catholic Church has sought to uphold multiple changes, but the
Globe continues to keep a tirelessly dutiful eye out for any and all new or overlooked injustices...
– The Boston Globe, 10/10/1991
Yes, the 1980s were good overall for the people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. But that was the thing – overall. Many Ivory Coast citizens – particularly, the people belonging to impoverished ethnic minorities – ended up left out. Their roads were unpaved, their education and health systems were severely outdated, and their quality of life was even worse than before; the oil led to many salaries being raised, which in turn led to merchants raising their prices to the detriment of those left out of the gains, not feeling either the effects of the 1985 oil boom in Ghana or the influx of European investments into the Ivory Coast, almost as if the good fortune of urban dwellers and local elites could not infect the people of say, Sanwi, in the southeastern pocket of the Ivory Coast.
The people of Sanwi – roughly under a million in total in 1990 – considered their homeland to be a kingdom, and that when they “merged” with the Ivory Coast in 1959, they maintained its monarchy despite their “governor”-like King now answering to a President. Their ruler in the 1990s, King Amon N’Douffou IV, took this arrangement to mean that the Kingdom of Sanwi was permitted to secede from the rest of the Ivory Coast. Citing the I.C.’s “neglectful ruler,” and a lack of a “fair share” of the economic prosperity, N’Douffou declared independence on October 12, 1991. The announcement was treated lightly by the I.C. President, then-85-year-old Felix Houphouet-Boigny, only for the situation to take a more serious turn in 1992...
[pic:
https://imgur.com/LN3fXfz ]
Above: Sanwi in red on a map of the Ivory Coast
– Historian Roger Gocking’s The Modern History of Ghana, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005
Phillips was at the front of the pack of video game industry in 1991, dominating video game console sales in the US, with Sega not too far behind. …Some American businessmen, such as then-presidential candidate Lee Iacocca, found the company’s market position “embarrassing” because of Phillips’ reliance on Japan’s Sony. Sega being based in Japan was another sticking point for Iacocca as well, saying in a TV interview, “If we’re going to let our children’s minds be occupied by these gizmos, then they should be American gizmos. If our markets are to have video game companies, then I want to see more home-grown video game companies – less ‘Hurry the Rabbit’ and more ‘Mickey the Mouse,’ so to speak.”
– Steven L. Kent’s The Complete History of Video Games, Random House, 2009 edition
POLAND’S INVESTMENTS IN MEDICINE YIELDING RESULTS
…Jacek Kuron, 57-year-old activist educator-turned-political prisoner-turned-politician, became the President of Poland in 1984, after co-leading the Solidarity movement with current PM Lech Walesa... The introduction of liberal shopping laws, tenant ownership, and religious freedom has transformed the formerly communist nation. …One of the government’s earliest investments, medical research and study, has produced several new proposals for surgery and new products for pharmacies…
– The Chicago Tribune, 10/21/1991
BARRY GOLDWATER, “LOUDLY LIBERTARIAN” US SENATOR, ANNOUNCES 7TH PRESIDENTIAL BID AT AGE 84
– The Arizona Daily Sun, 10/23/1991
THE PHILLIES TROUNCE THE COLONELS, WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP 5-2!
– The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/27/1991
3 November 1991: the “Halloween Blizzard” ends, after beginning on the 31st and sweeping across the upper Midwestern United States, ultimately killing 18 people and causing $100million in damages.
– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk
…Tonight’s elections yielded good signs for the national Democrats as next year’s Presidential election nears. In Kentucky, incumbent Democratic Governor Bucky Ray Jarrell won re-election over the Republican former state budget director Larry Forgy, though the state legislature did flip to the GOP. In Mississippi, incumbent Democratic Governor Ray Mabus narrowly edged out a win over his Republican challenger, state auditor Pete Johnson, who is the grandson of a former Governor and the nephew of a second former Governor. The Mississippi Democrats also retained control of the state legislature, though the state GOP did gain several seats...
– CBS Evening News, 11/5/1991 broadcast
PRO-LIFE U.S. REP. TO CHALLENGE BELLAMY IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES
…William Oliver “Bill” Lipinski, representing Illinois’ 5th U.S. Congressional seat since 1983, has decided to challenge President Bellamy for the Democratic nomination for President next year, running on an anti-abortion, “war hawk” conservative platform…
– The Chicago Tribune, 11/11/1991
“I really started to pay more attention to politics after my good friend, my very good friend, Lee [Iacocca] decided to run. He wasn’t the first businessman to get into politics, won’t be the last, maybe, but he was very impactful. He had the image, the style. In many ways he was the Colonel Sanders of the car world. And I guess you could call me the Colonel of the baseball world, because, you know, I’m an honorary Colonel just like President Sanders was
[10]. I got the honor last year after I built that sports stadium in Louisville. That was a tremendous job, I’m talkin’ big-league success, I’m telling you. That stadium is beautiful! What were we talking about?”
– Donald Trump, 2008 interview
FOX BEATS KAT!: McKeithen Bests Blanco For Governor’s Seat
…in tonight’s runoff election for governor, Louisianans voted for W. Fox McKeithen (R), the state secretary of state and the son of a former Governor, over Public Service Commissioner Kathleen “Kat” Blanco (D) by a margin of approximately 4%. Incumbent Governor Kirkpatrick was term-limited. Blanco and McKeithen advanced to the runoff after defeating Sam S. Jones (D), Dorothy Mae Taylor (Green), T. Lee Horne III (Independent), former US Rep. David Conner Treen Sr. (R), Anne Thompson (R), Fred Dent (D) and Ed Karst (I) in the jungle primary held last month…
– The Beauregard Daily News, Louisiana daily newspaper, 11/16/1991
Global Warming (later adopting the official phrase “Global Climate Disruption”) was a minor political topic of debate as the ’90s dawned. …In a GOP Presidential debate held on November 23, 1991, Presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX) came out as being “doubtful” of the world-wide phenomenon’s existence by saying the following: “Scientists in the 1970s thought that because of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, either weather would cool or the particles would balance out the CO2 and greenhouse gases. We now know that ain’t right. You would think that with all the grant money and funding these eggheads have that they’d be better at their jobs, because to me it seems they have no clue what they’re doing or even talking about!” Paul’s campaign manager and his former Senate chief of staff, Lew Rockwell, sought to defend the candidate’s stance by telling reporters the next day that “What Paul meant to say was that the jury is still out of how responsible human actions are for the weather.”
Paul’s comment, however, was overshadowed by the rhetoric of Baptist minister and prominent presidential candidate Estus Washington Pirkle (R-MS), who defended Paul’s position and went even further on his own, claiming “this G.C.D. thing is pure nonsense meant to destroy our nation and enslave us all!” Other prominent politicians, on the other hand, were not willing to let Paul off the hook so easily; even those within his own party condemned the ex-Senator for “fearmongering,” as Senator Jim Martin (R-NC) put it…
– historian Henry Franklin Graff’s Bellamy: An Analysis of A Historic President, Scholastic, 2005
[vid:
youtube.com/ watch?v= PTOOyoFq5mg ]
– snippet of an Estus Pirkle sermon, c. early 1991
A United Nations Secretary-General selection process occurred from November 18 to November 21, 1991. The winner selected for the position would begin their term on January 1.
Background
Max Jakobson of Finland, was elected the 4th UN Secretary-General in 1971 and re-elected in 1976. His successor, Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania and endorsed by the Non-Aligned Movement, retired in 1986 over criticisms that he was biased against the US during the invasion of Libya. The sixth and then-current UN Secretary-General, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of Iran and Switzerland, had won over Salim supporter Olara Otunnu of Uganda, Carlos Ortiz de Rozas of Argentina and other less successful candidates in 1986.
Candidates
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan – incumbent UN Secretary-General and the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees (nominated by the U.S.)
Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt – Former Minister of Foreign Affairs for Egypt
Bernard Chidzero of Zimbabwe – Chairman of the Development Committee of the World Bank
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria – Former President of Nigeria
Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway – Prime Minister of Norway
Jean Chretien of Canada – former Prime Minister of Canada
Krzysztof Skubiszewski of Poland – Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland
Voting
Prince Sadruddin defended himself against criticisms from a large and divided opposition prior to the Security Council voting via secret ballot while in a closed session; a candidate required 9-vote majority to win. The incumbent UN Secretary-General, who was popular within the organization, won a second five-year term on the first ballot by a wide margin. He began his second term on January 1, 1992.
– clickopedia.co.uk/UN_Secretary-General_selection,_1991
…Big news in the world of geopolitics tonight: the North Korean Ambassador to the United States has just revealed that, after months of national and international diplomatic pressure, North Korea’s government, facing an unprecedented food shortage crisis, is now, quote, open, unquote, to a food aid deal with the United States. The announcement comes after weeks of cold weather has wreaked havoc on the citizens of the Hermit Kingdom, with at last over 1,000 people dying from either starving or malnutrition in the past four months alone…
– KNN, 11/23/1991 broadcast
Recent development in US-North Korean relations was a potential game-changer for the race, as it allowed Bellamy to defend her handling of foreign affairs. Less “international” candidates, however, took the same development to criticize her. “Her focus on other countries instead of her own,” claimed Estus Pirkle (R-MS)...
[snip]
..In a GOP debate held in Georgia on November 24, 1991, ultraconservative candidate Rep. Bob Dornan (R-CA) criticized fellow candidate Barry Goldwater for being “willing to send our kids to fight but not your own,” and described his son Barry Jr’s use of a medical deferment in 1961 at the age of 23 to “get out of serving” during the Cuban War as “cowardly.” Goldwater fought back by describing his opposition to the “wars launched by the government” during the previous ten years…
– Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes: Roads to The White House, Sunrise Publications, 2011 edition
OPPOSITION LEADER BESTS INCUMBENT IN BELARUS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
…Vyacheslav Kebich (Independent) defeated the nation’s first President, incumbent Stanislav Shushkevich (also Independent)
[11], by a 7% margin. Shushkevich had lost the support of many Belarusians for favoring both scientific investments social democratic reforms in the face of a constrained economy affecting worker wages. During the election, Shushkevich touted with 1989 agreement with Russia to destroy the amount of USSR nuclear stockpile left behind in Belarusian territory after the breakup of the USSR as a sign of his foreign policy chops, while Kevich went after his failure to implement austerity measures “when it mattered most.” Both candidates ran on pro-Russia platforms…Belarus was the soviet most hesitant to split from the USSR in 1984, leading to the establishment of its own constitution being delayed until 1986, after several months of bilateral talks over potential reunification, which ultimately broke down. Relations between the two nations, however, remain amicable…
– The Washington Post, side article, 11/24/1991
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (b. 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician. [snip] In 1979, he joined the ranks of the CPSU, but left the military soon afterwards to become the deputy chairman of a collective farm in 1982. In 1985, he was promoted to the post of assistant director of the Gorodets State Farm and Construction Materials Plant in the Shklou District. After rising to director in 1987, he entered politics by running for the position of Deputy to the Supreme Council of the Republic in 1990. However, despite an eloquent speaking style and running on a mostly-negative attention-grabbing campaign with a fierce anti-corruption platform, his prior opposition to Belarus splitting from the USSR in 1984 became an issue. Claims that he committed fraud concerning leasing contracts connected to the Gorodets farm arose in the final weeks of the election, and he lost by a 10% margin, with a requested recount confirming the loss. A 1991 court case found insufficient evidence behind the fraud claims, and the case was dismissed soon after. Lukanshenko then returned to farming, and worked his way up to Minister of Agriculture in 2001, only to be fired for undisclosd reasons in 2005. He ran for President again in 2006 and 2011, both times on pro-Russia platforms noted for their “negative” themes, and lost both times. He remains politically active.
– knowledgecenter.co.rus, Russian website c. 2012
…Despite the government’s efforts, Indonesia’s financial crisis was only worsening. By the end of November 1991, the exchange rate was 2,000 rupiah to 1 US dollar. Indonesian businessmen worsening things by, among other tactics, buying back their own stock to keep their companies solvent were confronted by Suharto, who was hoping to placate the people beginning to riot by blaming the conditions on the upper class, and by seeking to arrest that nation’s wealthiest to keep them in Indonesia until the crisis was over. This was a very fateful mistake for Suharto, as businessmen soon began to use their influence to increase call for Suharto’s overthrowing and the financial calamity continued...
– Adrian Vickers’ A History of Modern Indonesia (Second Edition), Cambridge University Press, 2015
ROMANIANS, MOLDOVANS IN TWO-STATE REFERENDUM APPROVE OF ABSORBING MOLDOVA
…with retiring President Gheorghe Apostol staying neutral, the people Romania today voted overwhelmingly in favor of the sovereign nation of Moldova becoming a part of Romania in a nationwide referendum held concurrent with a referendum in Moldova asking the same question. Moldovans voted 63% to 37% in favor of unification, while Romanians voted for it 76% to 24%…
– The Guardian, UK newspaper, 1/12/1991
THOUSANDS MARCH IN LONDON OVER GOODLAD MINER PLANS
…100,000 coal miners and their families took part in today’s good-natured but impassioned march in London in opposition to PM Goodlad’s plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of coal miners. …Meant to adjust and modernize economy, Labour leader John Lennon has gone on record stating while he likes the idea behind the move to shift to a greener economy, he is “severely critical” of Goodlad not creating “an actual plan for the miners,” he told reporters this morning. Lennon has called for a government “jobs guarantee” program, and a training program for the miners so they can “find work first and close the mines then, but not before.”…
– The Sun, UK newspaper, 4/12/1991
[John Lennon’s first wife] Cynthia [Powell] divorced him in 1979, 2 years after the breakup of the Beatles, as he wouldn’t stop cheating on her. With one last try at reconciliation ending in failure, their three children felt the effects of a home long-broken, but now officially so. Their older son Julian continued to live with Cynthia until he turned 18 in April 1981, while the couple agreed to share custody of their younger son, James, born in 1971, and their only daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born in 1973. …After working on a duet with Philomena Begley, an Irish country music singer from Northern Ireland, in 1980, the two briefly dated. John next had a brief “innocent love affair” with Clodagh Rodgers, a singer and actress, also from Northern Ireland, in early 1981. On December 8, 1982 – a date John chose due to his feeling that he was “somehow linked” to it – the musician remarried, tying the knot with a one Lyn Cornell. Lyn, born in 1940 in Liverpool like John himself, was an English pop and jazz singer who, after a nearly three-decades-long career that saw her chart hits as a member of The Vernons Girls, The Carefrees, and The Pearls, but without the spotlight being solely on her, had finally left the industry and entered retirement in the late 1970s. At the age of 43, on August 19, 1983, after a difficult eight-and-half-month pregnancy, Lyn gave birth to the couple’s sole child, a daughter they named Annie.
– Pat Sheffield’s Dreams, Reality, and Music: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole Entire World, Tumbleweed Publications, 2000
A minor kerfuffle unfolded in the Caribbean on December 5, 1991, when Antigua and Barbuda experienced a minor political crisis. Feeling that his home island was going unrepresented by the government, led by the nation’s elitist and (allegedly) corrupt 81-year-old incumbent Prime Minister, Vere Bird, a radical 32-year-old politician named Arthur Nibbs, decided that, in the wake of previous unsuccessful runs for public office, a “bolder approach [was] necessary.” Inspired by the Colombia’s M-19 Movement, Nibbs led a bloodless political coup attempt on Barbuda, forcing city officials out of their offices at the island’s government building at gunpoint with a band of 28 followers. Three security officers received gunshot wounds, each receiving one bullet graze to their respective right hands, in the ensuing melee. Nibbs declared the island independent from Antigua and the UK, and dubbed it “The Socialist Republic of Barbuda.” Nibbs’ “government” went unrecognized by all – including local law enforcement – and his actions were condemned by all major politicians on the island. However, despite the lack of allies, Nibbs and his loyal supporters managed to continue to occupy the island’s government building for the next seven months…
– Carrie Gibson’s Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day, Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020 edition
REV. JERRY BROWN WINS THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!
…In announcing the award winner in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Rev. Brown, 53, for his “exceptional dedication” to humanitarian causes, which have been diverse in his nearly-three-decades-long career as a man of the cloth, from helping refugees in Florida during the Cuba War of the 1960s, to helping in post-war recovery efforts in Nigeria in 1967, and to charity work in several Latin American countries during the 1970s and 1980s. This award, though, is specifically for his recent work in organizing charity efforts in post-war Nicaragua…
– The New York Times, 12/10/1991
FORMER FIRST LADY CLAUDIA DONATES MILLIONS TO CHILDREN’S HOSPITALS, CONTINUING THE COLONEL’S LEGACY
– The New Haven Register, 12/11/1991
ROBERT MAXWELL, UK PUBLISHING TYCOON AND FORMER LABOUR MP, PRAISES OPPOSITION LEADER LENNON’S “INCLUSIVE” PLATFORM
...The next general election is not a few weeks, but Maxwell wants more people to “look into” Lennon’s ideas. …Lennon is looking to win over moderates as conservatives backing PM Goodlad attack his post-MP years and persona life, claiming his prior comments – the most infamous one being the 1966 claim the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” – and his past treatment of his wife and children “disqualify” him from the office of Prime Minister. …Support for Lennon is especially high in coal country, as seen by the turnout for Lennon’s speech in Kent last Saturday. There, Lennon said, “The blokes in charge need to see the people, and I mean really see and understand and know them. They have names and faces and families. They are not just numbers on a chart or statistics on a graph and they never should be. …While it is unfortunately true that no job is safe in an ever-changing world economy, the fact remains that the security and well-being of the people is the responsibility of both its people and their government. To keep their families financially secure, the miners are doing the best they can. They are doing their part, but is the government doing theirs?” The crowd answered with a passionate “No!”…
– The Daily Mail, 13/12/1991
…As 1991 came to a close, the health insurance and pharmaceutical drug industries increased their lobbying activities on the hill even further, as American UHC continued “busting their kneecaps and emptying their wallets,” as Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) put it in a December 1991. …One consequence of the landmark change in American healthcare was the laying off of over 150,000 employees of health insurance companies within the first year of AUHC’s implementation. Despite anti-UHC politicians repeatedly claiming this to be the start of some major economic catastrophe, public support for the new healthcare system was overwhelmingly high; a Gallup poll published December 14, 1991 revealed public approval was at 67%, public disapproval at 23%, and uncertain at 10%...
– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018
…On December 15, Estonia became the third post-Soviet republic to decriminalize homosexuality, following similar non-hetero decriminalization announcements and acts made and undergone by Ukraine in 1989 and by Latvia in 1990…
– Matthew Wayne Shepard’s Unmasked And Unafraid: A History of the BLUTAGO Rights Movement, Pressman Publications, 2020
UZBEKISTANI NATIONALIST EYEING U.T. PRESIDENCY, WORRYING POLITICAL EXPERTS
…The President of United Turkestan is limited to three nonconsecutive 3-year terms, commands the military, can introduce legislation but not vote on it, and can sign executive orders that can be overruled by a 3/4ths majority in the National Gathering (their version of a federal congress)... With incumbent President Mukhtar Ablyazov of Kazakhstan term-limited, after winning a hastily-held election in 1983, a much more official one in 1986, and third one in 1989, the rules state that he cannot be succeeded by someone from his own “nation,” giving the politicians of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan the chance to win the Central Asian country’s highest office in December 1992. …One of the most powerful members of the NG is Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan’s Samarkand seat. As deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Uzbek SSR at the time United Turkestan declared independence, Karimov quickly switched to UT allegiance and worked his way up the political ladder to replace Inomjon Usmonxo‘jayev as “General Secretary” of the UT “nation” of Uzbekistan in 1985, only to determine that true national power and influence laid in the National Gathering. He soon won an NG seat in 1987. Karimov’s pro-isolation stances, especially toward “the West,” has a very small but very passionate band of followers in this landlocked nation. If Karimov’s still-unofficial run to replace Ablyazov is successful (his third-place showing in early straw polls, behind Turkmenistan’s Chary Karriyev and Kyrgyzstan’s Ishenbai Kadyrbekov, suggest he may not survive the nation’s primary-runoff system, but then again, the same was said about France’s Le Pen in 1986), it would have major ramifications for the UT’s space travel and energy trade deals with Russia…
– The Guardian, 16/12/1991
…With their superior offerings, Zantigo and Chi-Chi’s may have just fully replaced Taco Bell. The Zantigo franchise touts its place in the “practicality” category of fast-food industry, while Chi-Chi’s proudly promotes itself as a fun family-oriented entertainment experience, like a Mexican Chuck E. Cheese, or like a less-ambitious-but-more-successful nationwide alternative to the Colorado-based Casa Bonita franchise. Both franchises seem to have become replacements for Taco Bell, the once-prominent chain now down to just 21 locations, most of which retain operations due to local demands (though many may close down as well if their profits continue to drop)...
– Nation’s Restaurant News trade publication, end-of-year review, late December 1991 issue
“
He’s a registered Republican who often votes Democratic. He’s a sometimes profane hard-driver who interrupts a conference to take a call from his daughter and talk to her in unabashedly soft and gentle phrases. He’s a tough capitalist who so admires former United Automobile Workers president Douglas Fraser that he recommended him to Denton
as a negotiator, telling him ‘
He’d be a top negotiator on anything – missiles, warheads, oil.’ And he’s a man on the run to Washington and New York who can still take time out to cook northern Italian gourmet meals, ‘with either red or white sauces,’ he’ll tell you every time.
He and his daughters spent a week in cooking classes in Italy last year, you know.”
[12]
– Robert McNamara, retired Ford Motor Company executive and close friend of Lee Iacocca [12], KNN interview, 12/19/1991
…Bellamy ran with Assistant Director Myer’s 1989 call for exploring Mars’ polar caps and, two years later, on March 7, 1991 – the 22-year anniversary of Apollo 10 and Gus Grissom landing on the moon – announced the Mars Exploration Initiative, a plan for the sending of manned missions to Mars after a 10-year period of test flights and unmanned probes (some flying by and others landing) studying the Red Planet ahead of a 2001 launch. The initiative was immediately met with opposition from fiscally conservative members of congress led by Speaker Walker. The 1990 recession, the 1991 hantavirus mini-recession, and the Balanced budget Amendment all worked against Bellamy’s plan to briefly go into the red in 1991 with multiple investments in order to close 1992 with a national surplus. Instead, in subsequent fights with Walker on the 1992 fiscal budget for NASA, Bellamy agreed to tie NASA’s budget closer to the economy in exchange for Walker “calling off his dogs,” as Secretary Kyros put it, and allow congress to allocate the funds needed for further probe launches. …While the argument that increasing funding for us would stimulate the economy and keep American industry strong failed to win over people such as Walker, the average American was more supportive of the notion. Especially the Baby Boomer generation that came of age during Apollo 10; nostalgia for the days of stargazing accomplishments has been doing wonders for NASA’s public approval in this decade so far...
– NASA Director Farouk El-Baz’s Up and Away: How The Cold War Competition Pushed Us Into The Stars, MacFarland & Company, 1994
The Finger Lickin’ Good Inc. Restaurant Manager Convention – an annual black-tie gala event held to give out awards for best managers, general, regional, assistant, and the rest – was something my oldest granddaughter called “KFC prom night.” The 1991 convention, though, was more somber than those before it, and it was obvious why. It was the first gala event without my father the Colonel, and many were worried for the future of the company. Chick-fil-A and El Pollo Loco were picking up steam. To the increasingly prominent competition, the Colonel would say something like, “bring it, ya knuckle-draggin’ youngin’s, I’ll tenderize ya something awful!” Ol’ Hardcore Harland, the dealmaker with an uncompromising commitment to high quality and directed by a never-bending moral compass. Those were some big shoes to fill, even if two or more people stepped into them together. But show must go on, as the saying goes.
As keynote speaker, I gave my speech with artificial aplomb. The rumors of job cuts, which had never happened in the company’s history, not even during the Crash of ’78, were making their rounds, even in this exclusive event. McDonald’s CEO June Martino had had to cut salaries 10% to compensate for losses in 1979, though she did stick to her promise of rehiring them within the year. But now, things were different. There seemed to be a power void of some kind, even with Collins unquestionably at the helm. It was more of a void in the marketing department more so than anywhere else, though. The boys and girls in R & D were at a loss for how to replace a company “mascot” – a term Dad had always disliked – as iconic as “The Colonel.” Questioned buzzed about, emphasizing the sobering uncertainty. Should we cease using his likeness, ending the use of his image him without explanation, without a proper send-off, like the Cooky Crisp wizard? Should we air unused footage of the Colonel in future commercials, or would it be more forward-thinking to use the growing wonders of computers to somehow manipulate the footage to some uncertain end? Nobody seemed to have an answer. Too shell-shocked, perhaps. Still mourning.
And still, the traditional band played on, the food was served and eaten, and the award ceremony went on. Harland Jr.’s short memorial video received a rounding applause. A number of Silver Wing Awards for Innovation were handed out to our managers from South America for tapping into local flavors for special regional offers. Hey, maybe there was something we could use there! Maybe. But that was the thing, wasn’t it? The suspicion of impending doom still lingered in the backs of our minds. Some new ideas were needed if we were to keep the company as is – a landmark, a success story, a legacy to someone who was a man and also more than just a man.
– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000
The issue of abortion culminated in the closely-watched
Moseley v. Van Dam Supreme Court decision in 1992. The Utah Supreme Court’s early 1990 ruling – that a woman residing in a state where abortion is illegal can be arrested and tried in said state if said woman has abortion outside of said state – led to direct Supreme Court appeal by Moseley’s lawyers on the grounds of said ruling violating her rights. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in late 1990.
Initially, Chief Justice Frank Johnson favored retaining abortion on a state-by-state level, similar to dry and wet counties; Associate Justices Joe Sneed, Herb Fogel, Gene Levi and Sylvia Bacon seemed to favor this idea as well. After the first round of full oral arguments on April 12, 1991, though, Bacon and Levi began to agree with the opinions of Justices Leon Higginbotham, Bill Nealon, Miles Lord and Mary Schroeder, that states outlawing abortion were in violation of the 14th Amendment, which protect ones “right to privacy.” Following a second and final round of arguments being made before the court on October 12, 1991, Chief Justice Johnson began to reconsider his earlier stances as well. Private discussions on the matters of trimesters, viability analysis, waiting periods, spousal notice, parental consent for minors, and other sensitive details of this nature complicated the situation, delaying the ruling even further.
After three months of deliberations, the Supreme Court ruled 7-to-2 (with Sneed and Fogel dissenting) struck down the Utah Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court ruled that women in the United States have a fundamental right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, that it was illegal for any state government to deny the establishing of abortion centers within said state, and that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. However, this ruling, while still vital to the preservation of women’s rights, did not prohibit states from determining how to defend said right, thus allowing conservative states to implement first-trimester restrictions and other pro-life measurements in subsequent years. These, of course, led to further Supreme Court decisions as the years continued on...
– Mary Ziegler’s Abortion: A History, Harvard University Press, 2015
The landmark
Moseley v. Van Dam Supreme Court ruling that essentially legalized abortion in all U.S. states and territories was a boon for the Presidential candidacy of Estus Pirkle, who touted a staunchly socially-conservative campaign platform. “The Supreme Court’s ruling is an illegal affront on state-by-state policies and is proof that the Love of God and the Life of His Creations are in grave danger of being exterminated from the very fiber of our nation,” he told a group of supporters on January 8. “It is proof that the Democratic elites do not care about American lives!”
– Richard Cramer’s What It Took: The Path to Victory in 1992, Sunrise Books, 2010
On 9 January 1992, the first confirmed detection of exoplanets is revealed via a report by scientists Dale Frail and Aleksander Wolszczan published in Nature magazine, describing the exoplanets as being within “A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar.”
– onthisdayinhistory.co.uk
…According to the International Monetary Fund’s latest reports, the Asian nation of Indonesia has lost 15.2% of its GDP in the past two years. Indonesia’s President Suharto has fired several cabinet members in recent weeks, only for such action to be perceived by the citizens as admission that his inner circle was behind the crisis. Protestors in the country’s major cities, especially the capital of Jakarta, are openly claiming that Suharto is, quote-unquote, either too old, too senile, or too out of touch with the needs of the common citizen. In light of these protests, foreign investments into Indonesia are dropping fast, which are, more likely than not, worsening the effects of the country’s recession-related financial crisis...
– BBC World News, 11/1/1992 broadcast
BIGGER GOVERNMENT MEANS BIGGER INFLATION
…From 1980 to 1992, low-debt states grew at a higher rate in GDP, personal income, population, and employment than did high-debt states. Data set after data set help a clear theme emerge in regards to the size of government necessary for the maintaining of both social order and social freedoms.
Supporters of tax-and-spend policies may try to downplay these stark facts, pointing out that many bigger government states like New York enjoy larger populations and higher average family incomes than smaller government states like Nevada. While this is true, the New York’s of America also have higher costs of living than the Nevada’s of America, rendering an absolute comparison useless. Instead, growth is the fairest way to measure policy success since the measurement is relative to the size and wealth of each state.
While it’s easy to get lost in a sea of statistics, it’s important to remember that behind each number are living, breathing human beings whose livelihood are largely influenced by the governments they pay taxes to. Because of this blatant economical fact,
policy makers should be weary to embrace higher taxes and greater spending since every dollar taken out of a taxpayer’s wallet is one less dollar that could be used in the private sector fueling the markets’ engine of prosperity. [13] And if policy makers go forth with such policies anyway, then it is the duty of the citizens to vote them out of office.
Take, for instance, incumbent Governors Gaston Caperton (D-WV), Jan Backus (D-VT), Harvey Gantt (D-NC), and Evan Bayh (D-IN), all of whom are up for re-election this November. Their respective unwillingness to cut spending plans contributed to the economic recession of 1990, and the voters of these states would benefit greatly from them being voted out this autumn…
– The Wall Street Journal, 1/19/1992 op-ed
Bellamy’s efforts to create a national surplus by raising taxes on the upper classes had mixed results – the taxes managed to take the US out of the red, only for its total surplus to be practically negligible. Her Treasury Secretary opposed the suggestion of printing more money to pay for further spending, though, as more money in the system would lead to businesses raising prices. As the money supply needs to be tightened to stop inflation, Bellamy suggested ordering the US mint to freeze money printing for six months. This led to a debate within her cabinet over whether or not this would spur a surge in demand, thus creating demand-pull inflation. Only exporters and people who took out loans benefit from the US dollar losing value.
The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy aims to tighten or relax the money supply, pending the situation, its inflation target being 2%. This percentage was connected to energy prices, commodities trading, food prices, and other aspects of the national economy. When inflation exceeded 2%, the Federal Reserve pumps funds into the banking system via bank reserves that do not go into circulation. If banks loan too much money, then the Federal Reserve will raise the amount to be reserved in order to tighten the aforementioned money supply.
Additionally, by January 1992, banks and lenders were voicing their concern over her tax hikes on the upper classes. The wealthy were responding by fighting back harder against labor, attempting to lower wages to compensate for gains lost from these new taxes. Bellamy defending labor counteracted such attempts, but only most of the time. For example, in January 1992, workers at fire hydrant factory in New Hampshire that were forced into going on strike ended up being fired and replaced by workers more willing to work for the lower wages. Bellamy’s inability to pressure New Hampshire’s governor, Bob Smith, into withdrawing his support of management led to a 14% drop in her approval ratings in that state.
– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018
In an interview at The National Theatre in 1968, John Lennon was quoted saying “I think our society is run by insane people for insane objectives, and I think that’s what I sussed when I was 16 and 12, way down the line. But, I expressed it differently all through my life. It’s the same thing I’m expressing all the time, but now I can put it into that sentence that I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends. If anybody can put on paper what our government, and the American government and the Russian, Chinese, what they are actually trying to do and what they think they’re doing… I’d be very pleased to know what they think they’re doing, I think they’re all insane!”
[14] Twenty-four years later, however, John found himself on the opposite side of UK politics. Looking out from the inside, he now knew, after a decade in parliament, how things really worked, as stated in a 1998 interview “I can now confirm that I was half-true about the people who run our society: only half an insane – some insane in a good way, some insane in a bad way – and the other half are either lazy, evil, or stupid.”
Nevertheless, John played ball with his coworkers, most often those that were lazy, stupid and insane-in-a-good-way. By doing so, his “Global Village Initiative,” which was to serve as a pro-technology platform for the UK, became a reality in 1986. Outside of parliament, and in order to win over voters in his MP seat critical of his massive wealth, John donated his entire salary to causes ranging from voter registration such as the Election Year Strategy Information Center, to college education, healthcare, music and the arts, and daycare services. His reprimanding for Prime Minister Goodlad allowing for the raising of taxes on the middle class and defending management over labor more than once was one thing – eye candy for captivated television watchers – but his ability to get along well with fellow Labour MPs such as Tony Benn allowed him to get legislation passed. This gradual buildup of rapport with parliament, more than the speeches and humanitarianism-based publicity stunts, was essential in making MPs believe that he had developed the legislative skills necessary to be an effective leader.
However, John’s “outsider” speaking style persisted onward despite becoming a politician. In a 22 January stump speech, John exclaimed “
I’m sick and tired of hearing things from uptight short sided narrow minded hypocrites. I don’t use a teleprompter because
I’ve had enough of reading things instead of speaking from the heart and from the mind. Our government is overwhelmed by
neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians, who care more for bigwigs than the hard-working, back-breaking, brow-sweating, family-loving Britons.” Borrowing from a one of his own classic songs from 1978, he bellowed on: “
I’m sick to death of seeing things from tight-lipped condescending mama’s little chauvinists. Haven’t you?”
The crowd shouted back a collage of confirmations, from “yeah” and “yes” to “yep” and “you bet.”
John shouting, “
I’ve had enough of watching scenes from schizophrenic egocentric paranoiac primadonnas.
[17] Haven’t you?”
Another audial wave of approval.
“We want transparency and honesty from our government! We want the truth! Give us the truth! What’s that we want?”
“The truth!” The people answered.
“Just give us the truth about things, about how much out leaders value us. How much they wish to screw us over! What do we want?”
“The truth!” They repeated.
“Yes! Just give us the truth!”
– Jacqueline Edmondson’s A Legend’s Biography: The Lives And Times of John Lennon, London Times Books, 2010
[pic:
https://imgur.com/Gte95ur ]
Prime Minister Goodlad suffered from his poor handling of the early 1990 recession, from which unemployment reached 2.1 million at its peak in September 1990 before dropping down in December. Lennon claimed Goodlad worsened the situation by refusing to cut interest rates by any more than 20%, which the Labour believed was not enough “at all” to combat the recession. Goodlad supporters, meanwhile, called Lennon a hypocrite for being “absurdly wealthy” despite his financial generosity in recent years. Meanwhile, Lennon’s biggest detriment ahead of the election was that his candidacy was uninspiring to moderate suburban and middle-income voters supportive of family-oriented policies due to Lennon’s record of wife abuse, neglecting his children, and for being publicly known to smoke certain recreadrugs. As a result, many Lennon supporters hoped that his fans from his music career in the 1960s and 1970s, now with families of their own, “would still be fans now,” as MP and Lennon backer Neil Kinnock later put it. As for the rest of the people formerly known as The Beatles, the hatchet-burying of the 1980s led to McCartney, Harrison and Starr all stumping for Lennon in the final weeks of the campaign. Billy Preston, an African-American musician often labeled the fifth Beatles due to his many collaborations with them, joined as well to champion Lennon’s pro-immigration and ground-up socioeconomic improvement plans, which may have helped win over minority voters.
[snip]
In the end, Goodlad’s milquetoast, shallow, vague and uninspiring campaign failed to mobilize enough traditional Conservative voters to go to the polls, while his controversial and unimpressive record as Prime Minister failed to win over undecided voters…
[snip]
After coming up short of a majority, instead obtaining a plurality by a margin of just 4 seats, Lennon formed a minority government with the Intrepid Progressives (with their 9 seats led by Jeremy Corbyn) and the Liberal Democrats (with their twelve seats led by Paddy Ashdown)…
– clickopedia.co.usa
AS FIRST PRIMARIES NEAR, GOP PRESIDENTIAL FIELD IS DIVERSE BUT DISUNITED
[16]
– The Washington Post, 1/31/1991
REP. ELLERBEE ANNOUNCES WITHDRAWAL FROM RE-ELECTION BID, CITING CANCER DIAGNOSIS
…Linda Ellerbee has represented Corpus Christi since 1987. Previously she was a journalist and reporter for NBC and several papers, and a news announcer and, ultimately, co-anchor of her own program, “Overmyer Overnight,” before mounting an unsuccessful and short-lived bid for the Presidency in 1984. …In the wake of a diagnosis of breast cancer earlier this year, Ellerbee, 47, has announced the end of her re-election bid, wanting to instead “spend more time with family while combating this internal menace” as the year continues on…
– The Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 2/2/1992
While already a prominent subgenre in Washington by the end of the 1980s, Grunge took on more attention, prominence and influence with the rise of Riot Grrrl. Despite technically coming into existence first, observers dubbed many male Grunge bands to be part of a “Riot Boi” music scene, as coined by the editors of Tumbleweed magazine in a 1992 interview.
[17]
Across the Atlantic, the U.K. was going through the early heydays of The Scene That Celebrates Itself, a social and musical scene originating in the early 1990s within London and the Thames Valley area. TSTCI was coined by
Melody Maker’s Steve Sutherland in 1990 to describe how U.K. bands were engaging in comradery instead of rivalries in order to devote more time to their passion. Bands like Chapterhouse, Lush, and Moose, along with New Wave bands, and indie bands such as Blur, See See Rider, and Thousand Yard Stare, participated in friendliness that was soon replicated in other parts of British music by 1992.
– Caroline O’Connor’s The Scene That Celebrates Itself, London Times Press, 2011
“…Instead of fighting and going after one another, we’ve put it all aside in the face of our common enemy – the grim specter of failure. This is a great time to be in the music scene right now. We’ve playing together at gigs, drinking with each other afterwards, I mean, at a concert in Maidstone just last night, Stereolab guitarist Tim Game played for Moose, and Moose’s Russell Yates played for Stereolab. That never could have happened even four years ago…
– John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show “Keeping It Peel,” 5/2/1992 Interview
The invasion that began in the 1980s reached its zenith in the early 1990s, as American culture took on more international flavors, influenced by nostalgia for the invasion of the 1960s, and, also, by the international aid efforts led by the US as the decade began. The music paper NME described the STCI movement as one in which “the good times keep on coming” accumulatively, because each time a band had a successful record, the other bands shared the publicity and a part of the limelight. This contrasted a bit with the market-driven competition found among American musicians from all genres, from rap to country…
– Colin Larkin’s The Second British Invasion, Guinness Publishing, 2002
FINLAND ELECTS ITS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT
…After the initial round of voting on 16 January, centrist candidate Elisabeth Rehn of the Swedish People’s Alliance defeated twelve-year incumbent President Mauno Koivisto of the Social Democratic party, becoming Finland’s first female President, and the nation’s tenth President overall…
– The Guardian, UK newspaper, 6/2/1992
“Economy, recession, inflation, and the BBA. Those were the GOP talking point in 1992. Legitimate commercial banking functions, state pension funds, derivatives, speculative activities, all of them got clamped down under Bellamy. The Balanced Budget Amendment was highly controversial because it allows the federal government to increase spending and lower taxes when times are good and force cutbacks during recessions – exactly when doing so would weaken economic activity and thus worsen the recession. On the other hand, by 1992 the BBA did decrease interest rates, possibly lead to an increase in investments, and shrink trade deficits, but none of it led to faster economic growth as promised. There were kinks in the system; show me a system that doesn’t and someone will find them for you.
[SNIP]
The BBA requires a federal balance between the projected receipts and the expenditures of the government. Exceptions are only for times of war, national emergency, and depression but not recessions measuring less than three straight quarters of negative GDP growth, and even then it can only be suspended, uh, waived, and only for a year, by vote of 2/3rds of congress or by executive order upheld by 2/3rds of congress. So there was really no way around it Bellamy.
[SNIP]
Bellamy refused to dip into the Social Security Trust Fund to pay off S.S. benefits, but the system wasn’t taking in enough cash from payroll taxes, which is how the SSTF financed in the first place. We tried to solve the matter legislatively, but Speaker Walker axed a bill that would have raised taxes even further on upper class brackets. So, Bellamy had to dip into the SSTF – ‘just until employment rates rise,’ I remember her saying with a noticeable strain of reluctance in her voice. It was a move the GOP forced into taking, but the fact remained that it was an unpopular move – and during an election year, no less!”
– Former US Secretary of the Treasury Gerald E. Corrigan (D-MN), 60 Minutes interview, 2012
BELGRADE HOSTS WINTER OLYMPICS OPENING CEREMONY
…With the games split between the cities of Zagreb and Belgrade, Yugoslavia’s patchwork of multiculturalism is on full display for the world to see…
– The Tampa Bay Times, 2/8/1992
…Overseas, British parliament is working on a 3-billion-pound package which would create over 500,000 jobs in 12 months and establish a nationwide “jobs guarantee” training program for the unemployed and those who are destitute but able-bodied...
– NBC News, 2/9/1992
WOULD-BE MITCHELL KILLER GIVEN LIFE IN PRISON SENTENCE
…The self-described “ultra-sexist” attempted mass shooter Marc Lepine was apprehended in 1989 while attempting to fire a gun at Vancouver East politician Margaret Anne Mitchell, leader of the Progressive Tomorrowists since 1987 and leader of the opposition since 1990… The incident was a contributing factor in parliament passing the Violence Against Women Act of 1991…
– The Globe and Mail, 2/17/1992
“Yes, we are still willing to agree to facilitate the supply of two light water reactors,” assured US Secretary of State Pete Flaherty.
“Those are considered to be more proliferation-resistant?” asked his North Korean counterpart.
“More than your graphite-moderated reactors.”
“The Supreme Leader will be very pleased with this.”
“I hope so,” Flaherty’s tired eyes drifted on to the view of Manila outside as the final meeting wrapped up.
After three years of back-channel and clandestine bilateral talks, first proposed by North Korea under President Kemp in 1987, the North’s most recent bout of food shortages had spurred Pyongyang into agreeing to the suspending of the Hermit Kingdom’s unchecked domestic nuclear energy programs in exchange for shipments of grain from the United States along with light water nuclear reactors, and the gradual normalization of relations between the U.S. and the DPRK.
“Only I didn’t do this for your leader,” Flaherty told his translator as the North Korean diplomat left for the telephone, “I did this for mine.” Flaherty no doubt thought about the look on his boss’s face, a distraught look of horror and woe, as she looked upon the latest photographs of the lives of children in North Korea. Their emaciated arms and extended stomachs reminded Flaherty of the starving people of Biafra, India, Ethiopia, Botswana, all places inflicted by war, drought, and the like. Their crying faces reminded him of his own children when they were young. “And for me, too,” he uttered.
Both translators present nodded slightly, glanced at one another, and did not relay the message to Kim’s subordinate upon his return.
[SNIP]
The “Agreed Framework” of 1992 was a landmark deal that went into effect immediately upon Kim and Bellamy signing the documentation for it at a ceremony held in Manila on February 20, less than a month after the final negotiation meeting.
Back home, the grain deal received mixed responses. Supporters of the President praised her for being Kim to accept foreign aid in order for his people to not starve. Meanwhile, the Republicans both in the Hose and on the campaign trails immediately sought to undermine the grain deal by denouncing it was “a weak bowing and kowtowing to a despotic dictator,” as Speaker Walker put it. Several lawmakers aimed to impose new sanctions on North Korea, while others sought to hinder the Bellamy administration’s procuring of funding and supplies that were part of the Agreed Framework.
– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018
Several GOP candidates, but Pirkle, Dornan, Raese and Obenshain most notably, reeled from the grain deal. Even former Democratic conservative warhawks such as Larry McDonald accused Bellamy of being a “foolish radical” who was “kowtowing to maniacs.” Dornan went beyond rhetoric and introduced articles of impeachment, calling for her immediate removal from office on the grounds of treason. The House referred these resolutions to the House Judiciary Committee days later, and no further action was taken of them
[18].
– Richard Ben Cramer’s What It Takes: Roads to The White House, Sunrise Publications, 2011 edition
NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] According to this song’s wikipedia page
[2] Named after character actor Houseley Stevenson, US Senator Penfield Tate (R-CO), and US Senator James Grubbs Martin (R-NC). TTL’s Futurama’s casting list is to be included in a future chapter.
[3] Italicized passages are from here:
https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0124/012422.html
[4] A big shoutout to
@Igeo654 for bringing this show to my attention!
[5] OTL quote found on …oh dang it, some relevant wiki page, I’ll find the exact one later I guess…
[6] OTL according to his wiki page
[7] Italicized part of quote is from an article found through Ann wiki page (um, I’ll figure out which one eventually…)
[8] Ingredients from an OTL recipe for Krabby Patties that I found online via a simple and quick Google search.
[9] Nearly all menu item names are pulled from the SpongeBob SquarePants wikia. More on "SpongeBob's"'s development still to come.
[10] He really is!:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_honors_and_awards_received_by_Donald_Trump#State_or_government_honors_and_awards
[11] Fun Fact from both OTL and TTL: in 1960, Shushkevich was the instructor that taught Lee Harvey Oswald how to read, write and speak Russian when Oswald lived in Minsk!
[12] Italicized quote, and McNamara being his friend, are both found here:
https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0124/012422.html
[13] Italicized portions are found in this short stub of an article here:
https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/202995-statistics-show-that-small-government-means-big-growth
[14] OTL quote, as quoted on udiscovermusic.com
[15] Lyrics from Lennon’s 1978 song “Gimme Some Truth”
[16]
Speaking of which, ahead of the 1992 GOP primaries, I made a preference poll for y’all! It’s found here: https://www.strawpoll.me/19829251
And here’s a quick breakdown of the 20 candidates, both officially running and likely to run, found in the poll:
“Country Conservative” (i.e. deeply conservative) wing (4):
Richard Obenshain, 57, has served in the US Senate from Virginia since the late 1970s, and is best known for favoring “cautious immigration measures” among other socially-conservative stances.
Estus Washington Pirkle, 62, is a high-profile Baptist minister from New Albany, Mississippi; he is the loudest opponent of UHC in the field and has already been endorsed by Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Pat Buchanan, Billy Ervin McCormack and Billy Graham.
John Raese, 42, is a US Senator from West Virginia and former businessman touting his experience in both fields, and his self-described ability to “piss off them peaceniks Demmies” in his bid for the White House; he is a fierce defender the coal industry of his home state.
Bob Dornan, 59, is a colorfully controversial character serving in the US House of Representatives from California since 1985, and previously from 1977 to 1983; he is giving up his current, increasingly-liberal seat to seek the Presidency on a socially-conservative platform.
“Colonel Conservative” (a.k.a. “rational conservative” and “small-c conservative”) wing (5):
Norma Paulus, 59, since becoming Governor of Oregon in 1987, has established an impressive pragmatic record.
(Unofficially) J. J. Polonko Jr., 53, the former Vice President and former US Representative with some blue collar appeal, is not officially running, and may not run at all the Draft Kemp movement gathers enough momentum.
Susan Engeleiter, 40, is the junior US Senator from Wisconsin with strong regional appeal and a record reflecting tendencies that can be described as along the lines of “libertarian conservatism”; however, her campaign currently lacks a clear message other than “‘generation change’ for the GOP,” but there may be time enough for her to rise above the crowded field.
Bob Dole, 69, is a high-ranking US Senator from Kansas who has confessed that this election cycle may be his last chance at winning the Presidency.
James H. Meredith, 59, is the highly independent US Senator from Mississippi, focusing on preserving the US Constitution, protecting “the people’s rights and liberties,” and, more specifically, economic development, Black political power, and education – the same policies he has maintained focus on since his first election to the US Senate in 1978; he has ruffled feathers with the GOP more than once for crossing the aisle to support a bill, but has also supported “Country Conservatives” at times as well. He has already been endorsed by Alveda King, whose brothers are backing Bellamy (though, because their father is less iconic here, said backing is not as impactful as it is in OTL).
Libertarian wing (5):
Barry Goldwater, 84, the senior US Senator from Arizona, is mounting “one last bid” for the Oval Office over his disapproval on former Senator Ron Paul.
Ron Paul, 57, the former US Senator from Texas and former OBGYN physician, has become a divisive figure in recent years, but his supporters believe that either he has a support base strong enough to carry him to the nomination, or that his base is large enough to rise above a crowded field.
Doug Wead, 46, a retiring four-term US Representative from Arizona, is critical of Ron Paul opposing of all forms of government intervention, both bad and good; Wead is calling for a more “reasonable and pragmatic” form of libertarian governance instead. An early critic of the War on Recreadrugs, he favors decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level. He has already been endorsed by Congressman Tom Campbell (R-CA).
Earl Ravenal, 61, the former US Ambassador to the Soviet Union from Washington, D.C., is running primarily on his foreign policy chops.
Russell Means, 53, is an Native Rights activist from South Dakota running for President on the promises of cutting funding for the US military in half, implementing prison reform, and repealing most federal taxes.
Centrists & Moderates wing (3):
Lee Iacocca, 68, the MLB Commissioner and former CEO of the Chrysler Corporation, is running primarily over fears of Japan’s dominance in American markets, but is also critical of Bellamy’s handling of the economy as well; he has libertarian and conservative streaks that could unite the party behind him. He is currently the frontrunner.
(Unofficial) Jack Kemp, 57, former President, former Vice President and former US Representative, may jump into the race, but for now, is privately promoting a niche draft movement.
Buddy Cianci, 51, the incumbent Governor of Rhode Island, plans to run an energetic anti-corruption “reformist” campaign, only for a state Department of Justice “query” of his connection to certain business dealings to currently be giving donors pause.
“Rockefeller” (i.e. very left-leaning) wing (3):
William Scranton III, 45, the incumbent Governor of Pennsylvania and son of a former Vice President, is calling for a flat tax and for stronger US-led peace efforts abroad.
John B. Anderson, 70, the Governor of Illinois for ten years and a US Representative for twenty, is running on the campaign proposal of raising gas taxes to cover massive tax cuts elsewhere (based on the relative success of such a move undertaken while Governor), and on election finance reform.
Merrill Cook, 46, the retiring Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, is a former “Country Conservative” known for his moderate-to-independent streaks and for making “reluctantly left-leaning” actions while in office. He has been criticized for calling himself liberal despite previous conservative-leaning comments, such as calling Ed Brooke “too socially liberal” for the GOP; furthermore, his campaign may be forced to address reports of “attacking” mayoral staff members in obscenity-laced tirades, alleged paranoia, and other unusual behavior.
[17] Credit for the name “Riot Boi” goes to
@Igeo654 ; thanks, dude!
[18] Similar to what Dennis Kucinich did in 2008:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_impeachment#George_W._Bush
EDIT:
@HonestAbe1809, good eye! That meant to say "Homer," not "Seymour," thanks!
