Chapter 67: January 1993 – August 1993
“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.”
– John Maynard Keynes, 1937
“During most of my time at Chrysler, I was a contrarian. I gave speech after speech saying that the ‘Roaring Eighties’ were going to collapse in a heap someday, that the huge public debt we were running up would cripple our kids, that gas should be taxes to conserve energy and encourage people to buy smaller cars, and that throwing open our market to people who were shutting us out of their markets was sapping America’s industrial competitiveness. I deliberately set out to make audiences uncomfortable. I wanted them to think.
[1]
And now I want America to think. To think about what kind of future they want to have and what kind of future they want to leave behind the generation of Americans that will come after them. I look out and I see a diverse nation of innovators can and will shape this future into a spectacular one if we think it out. If we think out a future that we can have if we want it, and if we work for it, and work hard for it, then we will have it. A future of enhanced modes of transportation, of cleaner and more efficient railways, airplanes and highway systems. A future of fairer trade policies. A revival of blue-collar businesses and small local shops. A joyous rejuvenation of the Rust Belt that protects American jobs, that sees more factories being built and repaired than torn down. A future of economic ‘re-dominance’ for America on the world’s business stage. A future of protected individual liberties and a government that gives help where help is needed. A future that begins here and now, with the spark of this new era of American renewal.
The road to greatness is better travelled together than travelled alone. The problems we face now and any we may face in the next four or eight years will not be solved through finger-pointing or political infighting.
Don’t tell me it’s all the fault of right-wing Radical Republicans or liberal Dove Democrats. That’s an intellectually lazy argument, and it’s part of the reason we’re in this stew. We’re not just a nation of factions. We’re a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
[2] We will go through these next four-to-eight years together. And we will enter the next millennium and the future that we want together, as one nation, as one people of diverse thoughts and ideas, with liberty and justice for all.”
– President Lee Iacocca’s inaugural speech, 1/20/1993
MEMBERS OF THE IACOCCA ADMINISTRATION IN { 1993 } select year
Vice President: US Senator
Larry Miles Dinger (R-IA)
CABINET
Secretary of State: African-American incumbent US Ambassador to the UN and former US Ambassador to Liberia and South Africa
Edward J. Perkins (R-LA)
Secretary of the Treasury: banking executive and CEO of the Credit Union Business School of Wisconsin
Jean M. Yokum (I-WI)
Secretary of Defense: West Point professor Brigadier General (ret.)
Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace (R-VA)
Attorney General: Attorney General of the US Virgin Islands
J’Ada Mergeaux Finch-Sheen (I-VI)
Postmaster General: former publisher of
The Los Angeles Times Albert Vincent Carey (R-CA)
Secretary of the Interior: former US Deputy Secretary of the Interior and former state secretary of state
Jack Brier (R-KS)
Secretary of Agriculture: former CEO of the McDonald’s Corporation
June Martino (R-IL)
Secretary of Commerce: Chinese-American attorney and CEO of East West Trust Saving Bank
Betty Tom Chu (R-CA)
Secretary of Labor: former President of Tulane University
Eamon Kelly (I-LA)
Secretary of Education: former President of the University of Florida
Marshall McAlliter Criser Jr. (I-FL)
Secretary of Health and Welfare: US Representative Jim
Ramsted (R-MN)
Secretary of Transportation: philanthropist and retired business executive
Robert Strange McNamara (D-MA)
Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs: former US Representative
John Forbes Kerry (D-MA)
Secretary of Energy and Technology: former President of the University of Utah
Chase N. Peterson (I-UT)
CABINET-LEVEL POSITIONS
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): former Director of the National Security Agency
William Oliver “Bill” Studeman (R-TX)
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): incumbent Director
Robert Francis Kennedy Sr. (D-VA)
US Trade Representative: former Chairperson of the US International Trade Commission
Paula Stern (D-TN)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA): former Special Olympics Board Chairperson
Elizabeth Joan Steinbrenner (R-NY)
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): former Governor
Charles Woods (D-AL)
Administrator of the Overwhelming Disaster Emergency Response Coordination Agency (ODERCA): Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
Stephen E. Higgins (R-NE)
THE PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE OFFICE
White House Chief of Staff: business consultant, organization advisor, and campaign co-manager
Richard “Dick” Brandt (R-MI)
White House Counsel: former Chief Operations Officer of Chrysler Corporation
Paul Bergmoser (I-MI)
Counselors to the President: Jerry Greenwald, Hank Carlini, Dave Platt, Dick Leasia and Calvin Beauregard
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: African-American CEO of the Teachers Insurance And Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAAAA-CREF)
Clifton Reginald Wharton Jr. (I-MI)
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: African-American conservative economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University
Thomas Sowell (R-CA)
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: economist and classical liberalism advocate
Richard W. Rahn (R-NY)
Chief National Security Advisor: Assistant Secretary of the Army
Susan M. Livingstone (R-MO)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: economist and business analyst
Mark Skousen (R-IL)
WH Communications Director: campaign communications director
Dick Rossio (I-NY)
WH Press Secretary: campaign image consultant
Don De La Rosa (I-DC)
The President’s Personal Secretary: scheduler and planner
Norma Saken (I-CA)
NOTABLE AMBASSADORS
To Canada: former Governor
John B. Anderson (R-IL)
To China: former CEO of the Chrysler Corporation
Gerald Greenwald (I-MI)
To Colombia: former US Representative
W. Henson Moore III (R-LA)
To Germany: Governor
Gloria A. Decker (D-NJ)
To Iran: former US Ambassador to the USSR
Earl Ravenal (Liberty-DC)
To Japan: CEO of General Electric
John Francis “Jack” Welch Jr. (R-NY)
To Mexico: former Governor
Ross Perot (I-TX)
Special Liaison to North Korea: US Ambassador to Mongolia
Richard Llewellyn Williams (R-IL)
To Russia: former Governor
Ann Bedsole (R-AL)
To Spain: outgoing Congressman
Doug Wead (R-AZ)
To the U.K.: former US Ambassador to Bahrain, Tunisia, and Egypt
Robert Halsey Pelletreau (D-NY)
To the U.N.: diplomat, business executive, former TXGOP Chairman and former US Representative
George Bush (R-TX)
OTHER MEMBERS
Solicitor General: former US Deputy Attorney General
Warren Christopher (D-CA)
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman: former Vice Commandant of the US Coast Guard retired Vice Admiral
Thomas R. Sargent III (I-CT)
Federal Reserve Chairman: former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)
Beryl Wayne Sprinkel (R-IL)
NASA Administrator: Deputy NASA Administrator
Dale Dehaven Myers (D-WA)
– iacoccapresidentiallibrary.co.usa/administration_members
…The European Single Market officially came into existence on New Year’s Day 1993, when the E.E.C. eliminated trade barriers. The Maastricht Treaty concurrently came into force on that day as well, officially establishing the E.U. and European Citizenship. In the first weeks after these landmark implementations, there were no immediate changes to everyday life for most. But soon enough, Britons began traveling to the mainland of Europe much more often, quickly getting used to the heightened ease of travel, even if changing currency would remain an issue for a longer while…
– Andrew Marr’s Modern Britain: A History, Pan Macmillan Publishers, 2002 edition
As popcorn chicken continued to sell excellently, other changes were unfolding in the kitchen. In order to save on costs, KFC stopped frying with animal fat, which had replaced the hydrogenated vegetable oil used in the original recipe in 1973, and began replacing it with palm oil and soybean oil in select places.
[3] Just about everyone could not taste the difference, and thus the recipe change was greenlit for all outlets soon afterwards.
– Mildred Sanders Ruggles’ My Father, The Colonel: A Life of Love, Politics, and KFC, StarGroup International, 2000
The Iacocca First Family’s three cores were daughters Lia and Kathryn, and their aunt, Delma Iacocca Kelechava. With Kathryn born in the late 1950s or the early 1960s, and Lia born in 1964 or so (after their mother suffered three miscarriages), and both sisters being very beautiful, the tabloids and paparazzi followed them around frequently during the campaign, but backed off once their father won. With Kathryn’s husband Ned and Lia’s husband Jim, plus Iacocca’s older sister Delma, the Iacocca family returned the sense of a large, supportive family dynamic to the White House grounds that had been missing for the previous four years of the "Bachelorette-in-Chief" as some had called her.
Whenever Acting First Lady Delma was unavailable for White House hosting duties, usually due to busy schedules, meetings with supporters of whichever “fluff” causes the First Lady chose – Claudia’s was music preservation and child nutrition, while the more active Delma’s was anti-bullying and cultural preservation with a focus on immigration (celebrating diversity more so than criticizing government policies) in both cases – the Iacocca daughters would serve as Acting First Ladies. Their first demonstration that they could easily handle such duties came pretty soon after their Dad entered office.
February 2nd, 1993 was the 20th anniversary of the conservation of the
S.S. United States, the largest ocean liner ever built entirely within the US. It was the eastern seaboard’s reply to California’s conservation of the
RMS Queen Mary in 1967. At the Gala Event, held first at the ship’s location at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and then at the White House, credit went to attending former First Ladies Claudia Sanders and Joan “of Art” Mondale for overseeing the conservation movements of the 1970s that lead to the S.S. US being converted into a museum in 1973.
The Iacocca sisters got along very well with the Kemp sisters, the Denton children, Joan Mondale, and the two of us, the oldest of the First Daughters. In fact, most members of First Families get along well with one another despite political differences sometimes at time causing tension, most often between Ted Mondale and some of the Denton sons. I think it is because of the unique commonality we all share. We’re all the children of important leaders and we all spent time living in the same house, and going to similar functions, at different points in time. We know firsthand how important it is to learn to get along, thanks to similar experiences to which each one of us can relate.
– Margaret Sanders’ The Colonel’s Secret: Eleven Herbs and a Spicy Daughter, StarGroup International, 1997
Iacocca governed to the left of his party and, at times, even to the left of his campaign. In his first 100 days, he preserved Bellamy’s regulations of disparity between worker productivity and worker compensation, and kept his lips tight when it came to BLUTAG rights protections.
His main focus during that time, though, was Japan. Japan, Japan, Japan.
“Japan is part of the World Economy Club but hasn’t paid its dues to it,” Iacocca ounce bellowed. “
We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.”
[4]
He continued, “
It’s time we started charging admission to the American market. And the price of a ticket has to be a little fairness and reciprocity… As the trade imbalance grows, our influence in the world shrinks.” He insisted that honest American businesses, together with the US government, needed to coerce “
the Japanese to open up their markets to American products and balance the trade deficit – most of which was accounted for by cars and parts.” He lamented that, “
for all their talk about building plants in the United States and providing jobs for Americans, Japanese car companies were still shipping most of their parts and components from Japan.
[5] I’ve talked with American business’ counterparts in Japan. They say, with smiles on their faces, no less, that Japanese citizens aren’t buying our cars because our cars are inferior. That’s a load of bunk. The real reason is because
the deck was stacked against us. Japan is not
practicing free trade. Japan is
practicing predatory trade. This little country with
a big ego does everything in its power to keep the trade imbalance great. It doesn’t have to bother with the rules of the free enterprise system. The Bank of Tokyo and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) make sure that the yen is manipulated (they called it ‘managed trade’) so that it’s cheaper for Americans to buy Japanese cars and more expensive for the Japanese to buy American cars. [6] I say that if Japan refuses to open its doors to other venues – farming, retailing, finance and the like – and continues on with their bubble economy, an illusion of profit from manufacturing and frequently manipulating the yen decade after decade, well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall, as they say.
Meanwhile, when it came to American manufacturers cutting costs, Iacocca heavily discouraged outsourcing and, even worse, turning to illegal immigration – “modern-day indentured servitude” – for he believed companies needed to invest in increasing efficiency. During a cabinet meeting in early February, Commerce Secretary Chu countered Iacocca’s anti-Japan rhetoric with this very argument: “The trouble isn’t Japanese trade barriers alone, sir. It’s also our own inability to match Japan’s efficiency and reputation for quality. America’s been trying to shift from mass production to lean production for years now, but most companies, the big, old, established ones, are still failing to make adopt more modern modes of manufacturing.”
[snip]
When it came to dealing with congress, Iacocca immediately locked horns with House Speaker Walker over his attempts to completely overhaul UHC despite Iacocca supporting a majority of its aspects. When Walker was purposely 30 minutes late for a meeting at the White House, the President stuck to his old saying that “All the talent in the world doesn’t excuse deliberate rudeness.”
[7] And countered by meeting more frequently with House Majority Leader David Emery [LI1]. Walker was not the first person with whom Iacocca had locked horns, and it wouldn’t be the last.
– Rosalind Lippel’s Driven: The Presidency of Lee Iacocca, StarGroup International, 2012
ANWAR SADAT, EGYPT’S PRESIDENT DURING 1970S PEACE TALKS, DIES AT 74
…the co-winner of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize (for the Atlanta Peace Treaty of that year) ruled Egypt from 1970 until his retirement in 1982. His family’s statement claims Sadat passed away in his sleep after an unspecified “lengthy illness” of some kind…
– The New York Times, 2/12/1993
…Those in Ross’ inner circle knew he did not plan on trying for another term. Bob and his mellow demeanor had captivated the state – his approval rating reached a high of 77% in early 1993, and his showing of bipartisanism in willing to work with Republicans to increase natural mining and gas production without destroying the state’s natural beauty (“which is all we’ll have left once all the mines are emptied and the oil wells have run dry,” he once privately said to his Chief of Staff), the death of his wife had cast a raincloud over him, a shadow of somberness he refused to show to the public. And one that he believed would only worsen if he continued to stay in Juneau for any longer than he was obligated to. Bob was praised for being able to break bread with people he disagreed with, with Senator Murkowski even once complaining “it’s almost nauseating how nice he always seems to be,” but, as his sister-in-law later confirmed, “He disagreed with many of the stuffed shirts in Juneau. He didn’t like to be confrontational, but ‘not expecting that when getting into politics is like expecting to stay dry when you sign up for river-rafting lessons,’ as he once put it.” Following the passage of an omnibus spending package for the rest of 1993, Bob began to keep a lighter schedule and began to spend more time with family members, friends, and charity functions close to his heart…
– R. Lynn Rivenbark’s With the Stroke of a Brush or Pen: The Life of Bob Ross, Brookings Institution Press, 2012
Iacocca attacked the threat of “super-deficits” at the state level by selling the public on a temporary 1-percent sales tax to pay for his buildup of the military and several welfare programs. The tax aimed to affect all purchases except for food, utilities, and medicines, as a matter of efficiency. Iacocca sold the notion with the American people by calling for tax cuts elsewhere, and for a government transparency bill just heading out of committee, which called for closer monitoring of the money spent on defense and the military budget. In a late February 1993 interview, President Iacocca defended to Sales Tax by comparing the US’s defense to that of Japan. His comments mirrored those that he had made on the campaign trail well over a year before: “Every time I bring it up, someone says it’s too classified to talk about, but Japan puts up about $80 per head for defense, and we put up about $880. So it’s a little over 1 to 10.”
[8]
– Catherine Whitney’s Where Have All The Leaders Gone?: A Look Back on The Iacocca Years, Simon & Schuster, 2011
“When was the last time the American President urged his fellow citizens to join him in a great journey worthy of the time and dedication of all Americans? A journey meant to explore the wonderful potential of tomorrow with the technology of today? Not since President Lyndon Johnson promised to send Americans to the moon have we shared with one another a sense of possibility as we all turned our heads upwards to the stars above. It is time for us to take back that sense of American greatness, a sense lost by the indecency and restricting regulations of the past many years. We as Americans have always sought to lead the world by example. We have always sought to be the trailblazers, the precedence setters, the spirited makers of history. As our economy expands and our quality of life improves, it is only fitting and most appropriate for now to be the time when we as a nation, united and strong, lead the world in writing the next great chapter of the history books. It is high time we sent an American to Mars.
“Of course, this is not a safe or easy task; the most glorious ones never are either of those things. And this is not to say that there are no problems on Earth. Far from it. Domestic productivity is low and wages are stagnant, and job security is at an all-time low. That is why, if we are to send an American ship to the Red Planet in what NASA is calling the Apex Window of early 2003, we must approach the project in a way that benefits Americans. It must be and it will be an investment into ourselves. An investment into the manufacturing, technology, and education of our fellow citizens, of the welders, the draftsmen, the construction workers, and the experts teaching our best and brightest in our astronaut training program. An investment into our nation’s future, into the next generation of American citizens who, if we are successful, will someday look up into the sky one night, in the not-too-distant future, and with this mission confirming the scale of American limitlessness, know that for them, absolutely anything is possible. But only if we all work together to make it so.
“Tonight I ask every American to look to one another and seek out that spark of exciting imagination that shines in all our eyes. In every American eye, in every American heart. That spark was there in 1776, and it led to the creation of the greatest country on Earth. Imagine what that spark will lead to in 2003. Let us light that spark, and seize tomorrow today. Let us seize the planet Mars. Let us seize the future with the next great American journey.”
– President Iacocca’s State of the Union Address, 2/17/1993
INTERVIEW: New NASA Director Dale Myers And His Ten-Year Plan For Landing on Mars in 2003
…While the U.K.’s British National Space Centre seeks to “expand unmanned goals” beyond the I.S.S. under PM Lennon, Myers believes America can “lead the world” in successfully sending a manned mission to the Red Planet…
– Popular Mechanics, late February 1993 issue
“YOUR TAXES, YOUR CHOICES”: Groark Signs Tax Directory Bill Into Law
…Governor Eunice Groark (R) today signed into law a controversial bill that will add “a needed step” to tax filings for the 1993 fiscal year. Starting in 1994, tax filings will include a non-binding “services checkbox” on which Connecticut taxpayers can mark what statewide services they prefer their state taxes are spent on. “If you want more money spent on schools, you make a check or fill in the box next to education. If you want more spent on road repair, mark road repair. Mark all or none, it’s your tax money,” Groark explained at today’s signing ceremony. The state Department of Revenue Services will then total up the tallies and present the Governor with “the people’s mandate” soon after. Support for this bill came from Groark’s biggest supporters, rural and suburban voters in the middle and north that sent her to the Governor’s seat in November 1990. Opponents to the bill have concerns over privacy and the possible rise in more government “red tape”…
– The New Haven Register, Connecticut newspaper, 3/1/1993
NASA SPACE PROBE LANDS ON “NEARBY” ASTEROID: Successful Touchdown Aims To Return Samples To Earth Next Year
– The New York Times, 3/3/1993
On March 4, President Iacocca made an official visit to Tokyo, Japan, to meet with the Prime Minister, Kiichi Miyazawa. He aimed to convince his executive counterpart that Japan had to play fair to prevent negative economic repercussions. But first, Lee had to humor Kiichi by partaking in a formal dinner and a quick tour of the city.
[pic:
https://imgur.com/RkcwHZI ]
PM Kiichi Miyazawa laughs at an anecdote (while President Iacocca fumes at “wasting time with trivialities” instead of “getting down to brass tacks already”) during a state banquet.
Historians often compare Iacocca’s 1993 visit to The Colonel’s trip to China in 1968. Both men aimed to convince a major regional power to become friendlier with American interests. However, Iacocca lacked the patience of the Colonel, who happily partook in small talk in order to find common ground with other leaders. Iacocca, meanwhile, wanted to “cut the crap” and get down to business. It is possible that Miyazawa purposely had Iacocca partake in customs ahead of discussions in order to either test his patience or place him in a foul mood ahead of debating trade policy proposals.
Case in point, after the formal dinner came the exchanging of gifts, which were typically saved for the end of the trip. Lee received a model K-Car made out of porcelain and decorated in the Early Imari style of the 1620s, while Kiichi received a book on the economic history of Japan that was personally signed by Emperor Hirohito, a gift which had been selected by Kathryn Iacocca with the help of former First Lady Joan Mondale.
The two heads of state finally entered private “negotiations” with only their translators in the room with them. Iacocca later wrote in a private letter “I told him, ‘The best kind of business deal is win-win, where both groups walk away from the table with an agreement both groups are happy with, or with no agreement at all.’” Iacocca reportedly described Japan’s economy as being like a bubble, as stock market prices were being inflated time and again ever since their 1987 mini-recession. This was leading to credit expansion and an unchecked money supply. “I was describing a situation akin to America in 1928, and I was offering them a lifeline to save both of us, because if they entered recession, the Japanese would be even more unwilling to buy American,” Iacocca also wrote.
As one of the world’s largest creditor nations, Iacocca did something unexpected. Taking the advice of his Commerce Secretary, he promised to help Japan recover from their next recession via financial loans, in exchange for the government of Japan “doing business fairly.”
Later that month, PM Miyazawa called on consumers in Japan to “Buy American,” struck a deal with conservatives in Japan’s National Diet to “slightly” loosen trade regulations to ease the selling of American cars in Japan, and – most importantly for Iacocca’s strategy of creating jobs in the rust belt – offered tax incentives for Japanese companies that opened factories in the United States!
– Rosalind Lippel’s Driven: The Presidency of Lee Iacocca, StarGroup International, 2012
…The National Weather Service predicts below-normal precipitation for this summer for many places in the middle of the country. This could mean refreshing summer showers for many who don’t like it too hot, but the NWS warns that such above-average rainfall could spell signs of flooding in the summer, especially if the soil stays saturated from average spring rainfall…
[9]
– ABC Morning News, 3/10/1993
Yigal Amir (b. 23/5/1970) is a convicted felon known for attempting to assassinate Latvian politician Anatolijs Gorbunovs. Born in Israel to Israeli parents, Amir had a conservative upbringing. While in the Israeli military, Amir was part of a religious unit who considered him to be a religious “fanatic.” Following his military service, the religious-Zionist youth movement Bnei Akiva sent Amir, by then a law student, to teach Judaism in Riga, Latvia, as part of the liaison bureau “Nativ”'s operations in Eastern Europe.
[10]. While finishing his time there in early 1992, Amir became "outraged" by Latvian President Anatolijs Gorbunovs’ secular rhetoric, viewing it as an open invitation to attacks on religion itself. On March 15, Amir stole a handgun from an acquaintance’s home and fired at Gorbunovs as he exited a cabinet meeting in Riga. Amir, standing only seven feet away but unfamiliar with the gun’s crooked sight, fired five times before being tackled by police. All five bullets missed Gorbunovs; instead, one bullet shot a cabinet member in the shoulder, and another hit a security guard in the chest, killing him. The rest ended up in a nearby car’s door. The incident created brief international tension between Latvia and Israel. Court procedures used “the Gaddafi precedence” to determine where he was to be tried, sentenced, and imprisoned. During the trial, Amir renounced his Israeli citizenship, claiming Israel’s people had become “corrupt with the falsehood of peace with our natural enemies, something Gorbunovs has the audacity to encourage everywhere.” Amir is currently serving a life sentence in Riga Federal Prison, Latvia, for the murder of the security guard.
– clickopedia.co.uk/Yigal_Amir (stub article)
A year after the implementation of the grain deal, President Iacocca joined the rising number of voices questioning how much food was really going to the North Korean people. US observers were allowed to view large dining halls of people scarfing down the food deliveries, but according to independent journalists, these people were the families of the Korean upper classes disguised as the lower classes. On March 13, one US observer reported to her supervisor that she saw what she claimed was gold brackets and jewelry on some of the female "beggars." Others soon came forward claiming that the poor people “did not act like poor people. That look they have was nowhere to be found in that hall.”
The North Korean ambassador brushed off such comments as being “the lies of aggressors” on March 18, claiming that “the discomfort experienced by North Korea’s hungriest are nothing compared to the plight of the homeless American.” The ambassador even went so far as to claim that the famine was “practically over,” but declined supporting an end to the US grain deal immediately after saying this. On March 21, South Korean journalists from the paper
The Chosun Ilbo published an expose on the North’s famine that heavily suggested that the famine was, in fact, far from over.
Naturally, Iacocca responded to all this by calling for greater monitoring of the grain deliveries, while privately considering ending “Carol’s program” altogether if Kim Il-Sung kept “refusing to play fair”…
– Andrew S. Natsios’ The Famines of North Korea, Institute of Peace Press, 2001
The Great Blizzard of 1993, also called the “Storm of Century” of 1993, was Lee’s first true test of his leadership skills when faced with an immediate crisis on a national level. Lee listened to the forecasters at the National Weather Service and ordered state Governors in areas likely to be hit to issue blizzard warnings and make road-clearing preparations. The next day, March 9, Lee made an unofficial televised address from the Oval Office – the first time that such an impromptu broadcast was televised from the White House – in which he urged “everyone East of the Mississippi, plus the St. louis area” to prepare for wintry conditions ahead of time. “If you can’t get to a safer location, then to stay and stay warm, stay well, and stay together.” Businesses began to close up shop, schools and airports closed, highways became restricted. Panicked buyers pounced on grocery stores, convenience stores and supermarkets.
After the storm surge hit Florida on the morning of March 13, snow began to spread across the eastern seaboard, powdering a total of 26 US States and five Canadian provinces. On March 15, the storm dissipated. Over 10,000 homes were destroyed by intense winds, snowfall, and tornadoes, over 10 million households reported experiencing electrical power outages, and 153 people died.
[pic:
https://imgur.com/iGt2Abe ]
ODERCA immediately mobilized to dig out people, deliver food and blankets, and treat the injured and frostbitten. Iacocca flew down to Tampa Bay, Florida on March 16 to oversee cleanup efforts, then flew back to D.C. to call for an emergency relief bill. With the Balanced Budget Amendment acting as an elephant in the room, Congress begrudgingly subtracted the stimulus bill’s cost from the FY1994 budget overall, with House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt considering possible tax hikes for later in the year, once the economy had recovered. The Storm Recovery Assistance Act of 1993 passed 52-48 in the Senate on March 28, and 239-192 in the House on March 31.
– Catherine Whitney’s Where Have All The Leaders Gone?: A Look Back on The Iacocca Years, Simon & Schuster, 2011
Afghanistan’s 1989-1990 recession ended the Golden Decade of the 1980s and caused inflation rates to soar. Fortunately, King Mohammed Zahir Shah had not forgotten the event of the 1973 Crisis, and thus had the experience to know what to do. Austerity measures and a nationwide freeze on taxes, wages and prices were implemented in 1991. Inflation rates dropped back to 1989 levels 18 months later, leading to the King declaring “our shared crisis” to finally be over on April 2, 1993.
– Tamim Ansary’s Games Without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan, Hachette Book Group, 2012
[vid:
youtube /watch?v=_iO82JWR0PA ]
– KFC Commercial, first aired c. April 1993
CHINA’S “ONE-CHOP ZHU” AND HIS REFORMS AIM TO WIN OVER “MORE PARTNERS ON THE WORLD STAGE” FOR THE P.R.C.
...administrating on a policy he calls “nationalist internationalist,” the Chairman of the People’s Republican of China is implementing government reforms that are changing things – not dramatically, but carefully and gradually. Zhu has formed advisory committees, using relationship-building skills to win over as many party allies as he can in an effort to “streamline” government bureaucracy. He has also eased regulations for transporting goods within the country, freeing up funds for other endeavors without laying off workers. The most ambitious of his current actions would have to be the planned probe of China’s central bank to root out corruption…
Zhu’s high popularity among the Chinese people and the international community, though, is not solely based on his administrating skills. Zhu is energetic, charming, and frank, and an excellent speaker of both Mandarin and English, often giving long speeches without the need of a script. His meetings with world leaders over the past several months have boosted China’s standing on the world stage, a boost the nation’s reputation needs in order to put the Western Turkestan Camps Crisis of the 1980s squarely behind them. Promoting an “even more” open China, Zhu met with US President Iacocca in Washington, DC, yesterday afternoon. At the meeting, the two men discussed US manufacturing trends, and China’s expansion into telecommunications and transportation technology, mirroring the projects Zhu oversaw as Mayor of Shanghai in the late 1980s. The meeting seemingly went better than Iacocca’s trip to Japan last month, as Iacocca was in a better mood and seemed to appreciate Zhu’s efforts to boost America’s economy “in a mutually-fair way,” as Iacocca put it…
– The Financial Times, UK newspaper, 4/4/1993
IACOCCA SIGNS CONTROVERSIAL MEDICAL BILL INTO LAW
…the new law, written and passed by the Republican-led House and barely passed by the Senate, places caps on medical malpractice lawsuits, setting damages claims to no more than $1,000,000 in all states and territories. …Even lower caps exist at the state level, though. For example, the state of North Dakota maintains a $500,000 non-economic damage cap for such malpractice cases, and many other states have less lower caps…
– The New York Times, 4/7/1993
NEW POLLING SUGGESTS DEMOCRATS ARE IN THE POLITICAL WILDERNESS
…The Democratic Party, or at least Democratic voters, may be experiencing a leadership vacuum following Bellamy’s surprise loss in November, and potentially opening up the once-dormant debate between Gravelites and Scoopers over which direction is best for the party. After defeating Senator Eunice Kennedy-Shriver in the 1988 primaries in a spectacular demonstration of grassroots activism, Bellamy was the standard-bearer of the progressive “Gravelites” in the party, while more center-leaning Scoop Jackson Democrats looked up to Senator John Glenn of Ohio, Governor Mario Cuomo of New York and others, believing appealing to Republicans was the better way to go. A new Gallup poll, though, reveals that the number of progressives in the party is almost even with the number of center-leaning members: 40%-to-40%, while 15% considered themselves conservative, and the remaining 5% were “uncertain.”
Furthermore, when registered voters were asked whom they considered to be the leader of the Democrats, roughly 44% said the party had no leader. 23% said Bellamy was still the party’s leader, while former Vice President Litton received 10%. Kennedy-Shriver, Glenn, Cuomo and “other” received 8%, 6%, 5% and 4%, respectively.
Support for progressive policies have noticeably increased over the past several years, as advocates like Mike Gravel, Bern Sanders and Carol Bellamy have helped to expand the Overton window farther over to the left during the past several election cycles. Currently, according to the latest Gallup polling, over 80% of Americans “generally approve” of UHC, and only 21% of Democrats support using military action/intervention overseas. Additionally, over half the party supports the recently-renewed calls for a National Initiative Amendment.
In Washington, DC, the Democratic National Committee is being “pressured to regroup, rebuild, and restructure,” says an anonymous source employed by the DNC, “because of the fear of further losses” this November, as Iacocca’s approval ratings remain above 50%. Donald Fowler of South Carolina, the DNC’s newest chairman after Gary Hart of Colorado stepped down earlier this year, is looking to bring dissatisfied voters back into the fold in order to find the best “playbook” for the 1994 midterms and beyond. “I’d like to bring together the progressives and centrists and everyone in between.”
– The Chicago Tribune, 4/8/1993
THE KFC SMUGGLERS OF COLOMBIA
While some countries such as Tajikistan, North Korea, North Yemen and Mongolia refuse to serve KFC, rebuking it as an inadvertent symbol of “western imperialism,” the KFC company itself shies away from opening up operations in countries plagued by internal strife. The war-torn country receiving the most amount of attention at the moment is Colombia, where government forces are combating left-wing and right-wing guerilla forces. Without negotiations, the war’s continuation keeps Colombians from living safe and comfortable lives.
Enter the black market. While a recent Newsweek expose has revealed the scale of Colombia’s sometimes-literal underground markets, one aspect only touched on is the country’s network of KFC smugglers. “People are paying a fortune to have the fast-food chicken brought in from Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador,” says one anonymous worker on the underground tunnels and jungle trails dotting the Venezuelan-Colombian border. “Local food-stall owners aren’t happy about it, but if you have to money for it, you’re going to use that money.” Black markets in Colombia have adapted a multistep process to deliver food across miles of harsh terrain and numerous blockades. For example, to bring an order of KFC from Maracaibo, Venezuela, to the port city of Barranquilla, Colombia, one can use a small boat and bribe the coastal guards in advance (though Colombia River Pirates can be in the area, and often are), or one can travel by land through the Sierra de Perija National Park through steep mountains and dense jungle-brush, briefly stopping at Valledupar, and travelling another 70 miles by bribing officers, all without being detected by anti-US guerilla splinter groups. All while protecting the food from going bad. “The risk of getting food poisoning is high, so we end up carrying around the burgers and sodas and fries in a big cooler. Sometimes we have to carry it by hand through small tunnels, ravines, crevices, and dangerous rivers,” another anonymous black market worker says in the Newsweek expose. “But it seems a lot of people think cold fast-food is worth its weight in gold, so we carry it still.” Participants of local cuisine culture in Medellin and Bogota, however, worry about how badly legitimate food preparers are losing revenue. “How will we get the country back together if we all get used to doing things this way?” Worries one proprietor in Villavicencio.
“Smuggling will always exist, as will all of mankind’s sins,” says another vendor, “I’d just like their smuggling to not put me out of business.”
– The Daily Telegraph, UK newspaper, 10/4/1993 [11]
IACOCCA POURING FUNDS INTO DIABETES RESEARCH, HOPING FOR A CURE
…Thanks to President Iacocca, the CDC, the US Health and Welfare Department, and many other parts of the federal government relating to health and medicine are enjoying higher budgets this year, and one reason for it is the President’s push for the finding of a cure for diabetes, the disease that took his wife from him. …President Iacocca is personally investing millions into these government programs. The Commander-in-Chief, citing the need for quality medical research, is also pushing for grants for medical schools “to train America’s best and brightest,” as he put it on Saturday during a White House press briefing in which he additionally touted the ongoing joint efforts of federal and state governments with medical sciences, business communities and "caring individuals." The widower President never remarried
[12] after his wife Mary K. Iacocca died from Type 1 Diabetes in 1983; the Iacocca Family Foundation was subsequently founded in 1984 to generate funds for diabetes research. Backing promising projects and programs concerning finding a cure or at least a method to alleviate the complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, such foundations bring hope and promise to many sufferers of the disease. It now seems that such sufferers can be even more hopeful, now that the President and the federal government are in their corner…
– The Washington Post, 4/14/1993
Concerns over the threat of Colombian “pirate” attacks increasing and Lennon refusing to intervene militarily led to shipping companies demanding Royal Navy escorts for British ships in the region of the Panama Canal. These concerns were a boon to Lennon’s jobs guarantee program. Shipbuilding yards saw more revenue and employees as patrol boats and larger escort ships were ordered, as were “anti-pirate” modifications (such as bullet-proof glass and rooms) for pre-existing cargo ships. Even previously-suffering yards like Wolff and Harland of Northern Ireland found themselves hiring more and firing less for the first time in years. However, Lennon aimed to create both blue collar and white collar jobs. Not just work concerning housecleaning, plumbing, child care, elderly care, road repair, agriculture, and mechanics, but also computer innovations, telecommunications, market analysis, advertising, law, medicine, architecture design, and management skills. And, of course, hiring trainers to pass down such wisdom and skills.
– Jacqueline Edmondson’s A Legend’s Biography: The Lives And Times of John Lennon, London Times Books, 2010
“America’s biggest import trading partners are China, Canada, Japan and Mexico, along with Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and – until very recently – Indonesia for Hawaii. It is imperative that we remain on good terms with all of these allies and encourage American businesses to collaborate with them in order to explore new ideas, new possibilities, and new ways to innovate and contribute to the world’s markets.”
– US Commerce Secretary Betty Tom Chu, 4/21/1993
S.F. MAYOR DEFIES STATE LAW, ISSUES MARRIAGE LICENSES TO B.L.U.T.A.G. COUPLES
Court Challenge Already Underway Over City-County Clerk Direction
…San Francisco’s Art Agnos, who was elected Mayor over Charles Gain in 1991, has been consistently supportive of BLUTAG rights. He was the first incumbent mayor to ride in the annual BLUTAG Freedom Parade, and has named many minorities and blutagists to numerous city commissions. Agnos’ latest action, making San Francisco the largest community to legalize same-sex weddings in the country by far, is supported by his two predecessors, George Moscone (who was Mayor from 1976 to 1984) and Carol Ruth Silver (who was Mayor from 1984 to 1992)…
– The Sacramento Times-Union, 4/25/1993
The “Bellamy Playbook,” a 1992 study issued by the federal government, created extensive hypotheticals and suggested procedures for future presidents. The playbook was put to the test in April 1993. The 1991 outbreak led to the 1993 outbreak being a much smaller one, occurring only in one state, New Mexico. Spurred almost entirely by a wetter-than-usual rain season, local residents immediately noticed the symptoms and took to the face masks once more. Medical experts were rushed in and the town of Gallup, New Mexico, the site of this second outbreak, was placed on temporary lockdown. By the end of the month, the situation was under control; only twelve people were infected with the respiratory virus, and of them, only three died.
[13]
– History of Hantavirus, cdc.gov.usa, retrieved 2020-04-15
Popcorn Chicken’s massive success suggests 30% profit increase for upcoming quarter. Expansion of product to outlets worldwide greenlit.
– KFC internal memo from CEO Collins to BoD member Yarmuth, dated 5/1/1993
…and over on the Asian island nation of Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber, most likely belonging to the warring militant called the Tamil Tigers, has assassinated Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa. The assassination happened at a celebration of the nation’s May Day holiday, and least 10 others were killed...
– BBC World News, 1/5/1993 broadcast
HOST: New polling suggest the Sri Lankan Civil War is finally gets some attention from the general public, but what should be done about it?
GUEST: Well, I agree with the Prime Minister’s approach of sending diplomatic aides to try and reign in the chaos that has been plaguing that island for roughly ten years now.
HOST: Will that tip the scales against the Tamil Tiger militant?
GUEST: I don’t think it will hurt. But the aides just arrived there, so we’ll see what happens in the upcoming weeks or maybe months. There’s no certain timeframe for this. It is a three-sided war with cultural and religious divisions, and foreign intervention may not be wanted or welcomed by the people we seek to help.
– Sky Group Limited, roundtable discussion, 10/5/1993
It’s been ten years today. 57 years old. That’s all. Mary would turn 68 this November, on the 25th. Only 57 years. That’s all.
– Lee Iacocca, private journal entry, 5/15/1993
IACOCCA TAKES AIM AT BIG PHARMA: His Plan To Reign In Wasteful Spending
…Ever since the implementation of Carolcare, also known as All-Inclusive Health Care, or “Universal” Health Care, overthrew the status quo of states not already part of the predeceasing UHC Pact of the 1970s and 1980s at the expense of the American taxpayer, long-term economic sustainability has been a lingering concern. While UHC provides universal coverage for necessary prescription drugs, reduced spending on drugs by over $1.2 billion dollars in 1991 alone, prices remain high for drugs the government has labelled “voluntary” drugs, from valium and Nyquil to Xanax and Tylenol. To address the subsequent rise in the cost of drugs not covered by UHC, President Iacocca is championing a bill in the Senate that would require drug prescribers to negotiate for lower prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. If passed, this bill would save the country from wasting millions of dollars, and is part of the President’s overall plan to cut “wasted funds” from various venues by “at least $150million” over the next five year...
– National Review, May 1993 issue
[pic:
https://imgur.com/fmNVJuu ]
– The initial “T.O.N. o’ Toons” logo, unveiled and first used in May 1993
British attention also became more focused on the warfare occurring on the island nation of Sri Lanka, where civil warfare was still tearing the country apart ever since the LTTE (the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) officially launched their battles for an independent state in 1983. Also known as the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE were fighting for an independent nation consisting of the northern coast of Sri Lanka, a crescent-shaped region of the nation that is majority-Tamil. The actions of the LTTE – suicide bombings, assassinations, and, most recently, scorched earth policies – led to them being labeled terrorists by the US, India, Canada, and the member nations of the EU. On the flip side, the Sri Lankan government had discriminated against the Tamil people ever since independence. During the war, the government committing human rights violations against the Tamil, plus forcing disappearances, war crimes (including rape), and disregarding fair trials and due process, made PM Lennon privately detest the government the UK officially supported. The deploying of the Indian Army failed to stop the violence in the 1980s, along with the Indian Peace Keeping Force interfering from 1987 to 1990. The continuation of Pakistan’s aging dictator Zia-ul-Haq funding the Tamil Tigers didn’t help matters.
In May 1993, PM Lennon travelled to New Delhi to meet with Sri Lanka’s new President, and LTTE leader is Velupillai Prabhakaran and attempt to convince them to order a ceasefire in order to try once again to enter peace negotiations. These talks ended up focusing on the devolution of power between the two groups. With the Sri Lankan President refusing to lift the economic embargo on rebel-held territory until after the LTTE was officially disbanded, the talks broke down. After this, Lennon increased UK involvement in the conflict via recon and intel, but not via influencing weapons selling, as some critics claimed at the time.
After a second three-person meeting was held in Chennai, India, later that month, between Lennon, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to the US, and LTTE co-founder and second-in-command Vaithilingam Sornalingam. Those talks went even better for Sri Lanka and worse for the LTTE, as their representative reportedly insulted Lennon for “claiming the moral high ground while wallowing in western sin.” After this, Lennon offered Sri Lankan President Dingiri Banda Wijetunga a deal: he would lead a crackdown on international funding for the Tamil Tigers in exchange for Sri Lanka’s government openly admitting to their discrimination, internal law violations, and certain war crimes already committed. Wijetunga refused the deal.
Finally, with the backing of UN Secretary-General Sadruddin, Lennon contacted the LTTE’s third in command, Selvarasa Pathmanathan. While Velupillai Prabhakaran believed peace to be impossible had vowed to never be taken alive, fellow separatist Selvarasa Pathmanathan was more willing to negotiate for independence, but believed the moment has passed.
Defeated, Lennon returned his focus to domestic issues, but kept turning his head to look over his shoulder at Sri Lanka, until…
– Jacqueline Edmondson’s A Legend’s Biography: The Lives And Times of John Lennon, London Times Books, 2010 [14]
Understanding that international trade among world markets would reel from tariff rises, a part of Iacocca’s plan, in the event of Japan welching on their “Tokyo Deal,” was instead to promote domestic production and discourage foreign exports of products that can be produced inside US borders with US labor. A second part of this alternative plan was to increase trade with China, though this came with problems of its own.
“In recent years, as money has flowed into China, the cash grab has become more feverish. So much for the evils of capitalism!”
[15] Iacocca once ranted to his Chief of Staff. On this point, Iacocca actually agreed with former Labor Secretary Ralph Nader, who on more than one occasion openly criticized China’s tendency to produce unsafe products, as cheaply sold often means cheaply made. “Self-interest is a concept we have some trouble with. It sounds so unfriendly. But I believe every country has an obligation to put its self-interest first. On a global scale that means devising a world trade system that strikes a balance between the two extremes of free trade and protectionism.”
[16]
– Rosalind Lippel’s Driven: The Presidency of Lee Iacocca, StarGroup International, 2012
…We have some breaking news for you now: Jakarta’s Merdeka Palace, the official residence of the President of Indonesia, has been occupied by rebel national guardsmen in an apparent coup attempt against the country’s President Sudhermono. Several of the guardsmen are known supporters of Sudhermono’s political rival, Try Sutrisno…
– BBC World News, 5/19/1993
“Lee’s policies are not isolationist, and even if they were, the fact remains that he’s the President of the people of the United States, not President of the people of the world. He is doing his job, doing what he has to do to keep the country employed and protected from unfair foreign practices.”
– US Sen. Susan Engeleiter (R-WI), 5/29/1993
THE FIRST LADIES: How The Iacocca Sisters Balance White House Duties, Marriage, Motherhood, And Their Careers
– People Magazine, early June issue
NASA ADOPTS RESEARCHER MISSION MODEL FOR 2003 MARS PLANS
…analyst Robert Zubrin’s 1990 research paper calls for a more cost-efficient mission model that uses Mars’ atmosphere to produce oxygen, water, and rocket propellant for Martian missions. After making its way around to the administration, ultimately gaining the attention of the directors and analysts, NASA has announced it has adopted the “Zubrin Report” to be their “design reference mission.”…the administration’s newest space exploration project – an ambitious manned landing on Mars to be launched in early 2003 – would be the US’s first landing of a manned vehicle onto an extraterrestrial object since the last lunar landing took place in 1985. This is NASA’s largest project not tied to the I.S.S. or to either of the growing space agencies of Russia and the UK. …Zubrin thinks NASA exploring asteroids, like what happened on March 3 of this year, is not financially worth the cost. He believes the administration should instead focus on more promising endeavors such as Mars. Zubrin also concerned that if NASA fails to reach the Red Planet in 2003, we will have to wait until 2018 for so for Mars to be close enough to Earth for humanity to take “another go at it”…
– The Florida Times-Union, 6/2/1993
…When “Jurassic Park” hit theaters on June 9 of that year, its use of CRI made by Industrial Light & Magic was a groundbreaking game-changer and served as just another example of the potential CRI had when it came to filmmaking. The movie becoming the highest-grossing film of 1993 helped to popularize the use of CRI in film…
– Kristen Whissel’s CRI: Computer-Rendered Imagery And The History Special Effects of the Computer Age, Penguin Publishing, 2013
FORMER NEO-NAZI AND WOULD-BE COLONEL KILLER GEORGE ROCKWELL KILLED IN PRISON
Prince George County, VA – The FBI today revealed that George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the now-defunct American Nazi Party who in 1966 was found guilty of attempting to assassinate President Sanders with a bomb in 1965
[17], was fatally stabbed by a fellow inmate sometime earlier this week. Rockwell had become a born-again Christian while incarcerated at the Petersburg Federal Correctional Institution in Prince George County, Virginia, and was “running a religious following of sorts” centered on the teachings of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell with other inmates inside the federal prison. His murderer was a fellow inmate found guilty in 1990 of murdering 5 people along the Colonial Parkway from October 1986 to April 1988
[18]. Rockwell turned 75 on March 9. His 30-year sentence was set to expire in December 1996.
– The Roanoke Times, Virginia newspaper, 6/15/1993
…and in political news, President Iacocca signed into law the Pharmaceutical Drugs Reform Act earlier today…
– KNN, 6/16/1993 broadcast
J. Preston Bezos left Wall Street and began employment at Internal Research and Development at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley in late June 1993. He soon showed interest in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD)’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Programs (TACP), which at the time was focused heavily on creating the most efficient and cost-effective items, from suits to rovers to sampling tools, for use on the Red Planet someday. Bezos’ superiors were not surprised by his eagerness to get to Mars. Bezos had graduated from Princeton with a BS in electrical engineering and computer science, was his class’ valedictorian that year, and had been President of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS). And before then, when he was valedictorian for his high school’s graduating class, a local newspaper recorded that he told the audience that he dreamed of the day “when mankind would colonize space,” and a local newspaper quoted his intention as being “to get all people off the earth and see it turned into a huge national park.”
[19]
– researcher R. Cargill Hall’s Impact: The History of NASA, Dover Publications, 2018 edition
Iacocca Signs Small Business Job Protection Bill Into Law
The bill’s intent is to provide federal tax relief for small businesses, and to raise the amount of the take home pay of workers, as well as
to amend the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947 relating to the payment of wages to employees who use employer owned vehicles. Furthermore, the bill aims to
amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to increase the minimum wage rate and to prevent job loss by providing flexibility to employers in complying with minimum wage and overtime requirements... [20]
– The Washington Post, 6/19/1993
PAT NIXON, FORMER SECOND LADY OF THE US, DIES AT 81
…The quiet consort to her husband, former Vice President and “Lion of the Senate” Richard Nixon, died at their home in San Clemente, CA, yesterday evening. She was 81. She died of lung cancer after several years of poor health, a spokesperson for the Nixon family said. Commenting on Mrs. Nixon’s death, former First Lady Claudia Sanders said, “She was an extraordinary gal with a good heart and an excellent judge of character.” President Iacocca has issued a statement that Mrs. Nixon was “a wonderful wife and mother, unwavering in her graceful composure as Second Lady who promoted education and aid programs, earnest to do good more than to bask in limelight.” During her husband’s career as a US Congressman, then as a US Senator, then as Vice President, and then as a US Senator again, Mrs. Nixon was a steady and steadfast fixture always at his side, always seemingly listen raptly to his addresses and speeches...
– The Los Angeles Times, 6/23/1993
On June 20, the first dam burst. The repeat rain showers had loosened the soil and contributed to a partial dam leak along the Black River of western Wisconsin. Over 100 homes were submerged up to their rooftops as that river, one of hundreds that feed the Mississippi, left its bank to descend upon the streets, fields, and buildings. Soon the upper 200 miles of the Mississippi were closed to river traffic as dams and locks began to perform emergency operations. Unprecedented rain in Iowa and along further tributaries of the Missouri River led to parts of Missouri and Iowa declaring states of emergency by the end of the week. By the 24th, most counties bordering the Mississippi were on high alert.
And the rain kept pouring.
[pic:
https://imgur.com/MbGHIT3 ]
– Susan Clotfelter’s High And Mighty: The Great Flood of ’93, Andrews & McNeel, 1997 edition
Philippine President Ramos Tours Damage As Typhoon Koryn Dissipates
– The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 6/29/1993
His home office was much darker than usual, and not just because of the drawn drapes. “Nixon?”
[21] I cautiously creaked open the door. The Deputy President pro tempore of the Senate sat slumped down a bit in his desk chair, his hand on the side of his face. His index finger dug into the wrinkles on his temple while his thumb pressed into his cheekbone; the rest of the fingers rubbed his wrinkly forehead.
“Present,” Nixon answered curtly, with a sense of levity.
When Nixon was in a funk, it was typically a bad scene. But this was something different, and for a more-than-obvious reason, as anyone could tell just by tracking Richard’s eyes. He was not staring off into blank space but to the family photographs on the wall opposite him. His mourning had not waned since she’d passed away on the 22nd.
“Heh. Did you know she practically begged me to not run for President in 1980? She was worried about my health. Hers, too. That stroke she had back in ’76. She recovered, but the wind was still out of her sails.”
I was startled by his comment. It was always professional with him; I could not remember the last time he talked about something personal. He didn’t believe in sharing that sort of stuff with people, not even with friends. It seemed this was a rare case of him not keeping it to himself.
“Yes, Nixon, I remember.”
“God rest her. It was the right choice in the end, but for a while – especially in ’84 – I sort of resented her for it. Seeing the Soviets fall apart, and seeing Denton of all people getting all the credit, I kept thinking ‘that would have been me were it not for her.’ God, I hate myself for thinking that about her. And her health was back in the s#!thole by then, too.” He sighed and tried to sit up a bit. “But she was right. In the end I got more done behind the throne than I ever could have on it, especially with those ravenous species of buzzard we call reporters – medius paparazzius – hounding whoever sits behind the Resolute Desk. The President has no privacy! At least… I think he has none. I wouldn’t know, would I? What do you think, Bob?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“Yeah. Neither can I, damn it. But what’s done is done. Can’t change…any of it…”
“Are you still having trouble eating, Nixon?”
“I went through the last of Pat’s leftovers last night. The last good food I’ll ever have, I bet.”
“When was the last time you left the house, Nixon?”
After a minute, he responded, “I saw my grandkids the other day. Georgie’s gettin’ so tall, and he’s not even thirteen yet,” he said with a smirk, probably to the thought of George Nixon Bush possibly towering over him in a few years.
“Well it’s just that it’s a really sunny day out today, and I just got my new golfing equipment. The car’s filled up, our calendars are cleared for the weekend, and I’m hankering to try and beat your record!” My fake enthusiasm may have been laid on a little thick there toward the end, but Nixon did not seem to mind. My friend had never really liked nature, at least not nature on its own, without there being something to do while in it, be it camping or fishing or what-have-you. Even discussing policies while more pragmatic than relishing the ambience of nature as far as Richard was concerned. But the greens of the course seemed to have a calming effect on him. He never admitted to it, but I could tell. Here I hoped it would be therapeutic, too. It couldn’t hurt to try. "There's also some legislation I want to talk to you about. Preferably outside...where there's...light..."
“Alright, but I’ll only play a round with 18 holes,” he said with a dry smile on his face.
But as he got up, his shoulders still slumped lower than usual, his posture still slouched to Earth, and as he left the room, his eyes failed to make contact with mine. They just kept looking back in the pictures, the memories, of his beloved Pat.
– longtime US Rep. Robert Hutchinson “Bob” Finch’s Counselor to The Lion: My Memoirs, Sunrise Publishing, 1995
…Iacocca’s depiction in media began with comedic sketches on SNL jabbing at his blunt, data-filled commercials with sketches performed by Dan Aykroyd and (after Aykroyd’s passing) Phil Hartman. Upon his election to the Presidency, such comedic impressions continued alongside more serious takes. The most notable of these depictions were made by Danny Aiello, Robert Duvall, and Joe Piscopo in theatrically-released films in 1996, 1999, and 2005, respectively...
– mediarchives.co.usa/articles/Iacocca-in-film
…The dizzying humor of Robin Williams is married perfectly with the quick animation style, giving the comedian freedom from human form to instantly become anything or anyone during his funny routines. With the feeling of genuine exhilaration in all of his scenes, the genie’s comedic snippets come off as being almost improvisational, as he goes careening from one joke to another, morphing into Ed Sullivan for a few seconds before changing again, skipping to Charlie McCarthy to Elvis to Ronald “Horshack” Palillo to Mickey Mouse (of course) to John Amos to a supermodel to a Scottish terrier.
The only downside to having the big blue genie be such a great character for both kids and adults to watch is that it highlights how bland and generic the lead characters are. Once the street urchin Aladdin and the sultan’s daughter Jasmine appear back on screen the film slows down again, making the audience have to sit through chemistry that pales when compared to other, more recent, more interesting Disney couples. Thankfully, the film does not rely entirely on the genie for great moments, as its other supporting characters – the cuddly sultan, the scheming vizier, the wrathful parrot, and the mischievous monkey all help the film along in their own unique ways. The most impressive of these side characters, though, is the carpet – it has no face or voice, but with tassels and body language, it is able to present an understandable personality, being worrisome but loyal to his new friends as he whisks them around the kingdom of Agrabah…
– Roger Ebert, 7/1/1993 review of Disney’s Aladdin (1993)
“BARTHOLOMEW VS. NEFF” A MUST-SEE FOR LOVERS OF LAUGHS
…The new hit of the summer is a comedy written and directed by John Hughes. This film project that began in 1990 sees Sylvester Stallone (Jack Neff) and John Candy (S. Stuyvesant Bartholomew IV) star as feuding neighbors in a Chicago suburb. Also starring Natasha Richardson, Dave Foley and Jeanne Tripplehorn, this Hughes does it again in his latest creation that is fun for the whole family this Fourth-of-July weekend…
– Vanity Fair, film review section, 7/2/1993
Oliver Stone’s BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY
Premiered: July 4, 1993
Genre(s): political/war/thriller/horror/courtroom
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Written by: Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar
Produced by: Oliver Stone and A. Kitman Ho
Cast:
See Full List Here
Synopsis:
In 1969, a reporter investigates allegations of North Vietnamese citizens being raped and abused by American and South Vietnamese soldiers after the fall of Hanoi in early 1967.
Reception:
The film was embroiled in controversy upon its release, with many accusing Stone of taking artistic liberties with real and historical events. However, critics did praise the acting, cinematography, writing and pacing of the film, and it nearly doubled its budget at the box office.
Trivia Facts:
Trivia Fact No. 1:
Oliver Stone enlisted in the US Army in April 1967, after the fall of Hanoi, and requested combat duty in Cambodia. He served there from September 1967 to April 1968 before being wounded in action, causing him to receive a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and other rewards; a transference to infantry until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1968; and limb in his walk and muscle problems in his left arm that plagued him for years and contributed to Stone often including physically injured or disabled characters in his many films.
Trivia Fact No. 2:
The film's title comes from the birth date of future U.S. Army General Ronald Lawrence "Ron" Kovic, who played a role in the rebuilding of post-invasion Hanoi; is portrayed in the film by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, in a minor "antagonistic" role, given the controversy surrounding Kovic's alleged awareness of his fellow soldiers sexual pestering locals.
– mediarchives.co.usa
FEMALE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT, THE ARAB WORLD’S FIRST, TO GUIDE CAMPUS “RESTORATION” EFFORTS
…chemist and academic Faiza Al-Kharafi became the very first female head of a major Middle Eastern university upon being appointed rector of Kuwait University earlier today...
– The Guardian, UK newspaper, 5/7/1993
HURRICANE CALVIN BATTERS MEXICO’S PACIFIC RESORTS, LEAVES VILLAGES IN RUIN
– The Houston Chronicle, 7/7/1993
While China was strengthening relations with “the global community,” the nations experienced grain shortfalls. This turn of events, and the new need for hard currency, led to Zhu Rongji sharply cutting what little aid China was already sending to North Korea…
– Shan Li’s China in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge Press, 2003
The Indonesian Civil War of 1993 was surprisingly brief, encompassing 8 hectic weeks of political factions clashing in the streets as both Sudhermono and Sutrisno each declared themselves to be the rightful leader of the country. Pro-Sutrisno soldiers sought to arrest Sudhermono in Jakarta in May, only to discover the President had already fled to the Bogor Palace, another one of the six Presidential Palaces of Indonesia. Attempts to regroup and advance on Bogor failed when a larger deployment of Pro-Sudhermono soldiers to intercept. The apparent lack of proper cooperation between Sutrisno and his army made several political allies switch sides; many soldiers uninvolved in the fighting yet ended up siding with the incumbent Sudhermono soon after this as well. After another six weeks of Sutrisno’s support dwindling away, Sudhermono was still uncaptured and unharmed while two of Sutrisno’s closest allies had died in a naval skirmish. Finally, in July, Sutrisno offered to surrender and acknowledge Sudhermono as the rightful leader in exchange for amnesty for him and his remaining close circle of allies. Sudhermono granted said circle amnesty but not Sutrisno himself. Instead, he controversially guaranteed a sentence of house arrest for Sutrisno if he surrendered immediately. Sutrisno complied, and Sudhermono’s send of the deal was upheld.
– Adrian Vickers’ A History of Modern Indonesia (Second Edition), Cambridge University Press, 2015
INTERVIEWER: On July 15, 1993, Jackson’s mansion home at the Nederland Ranch in Los Olives, California, caught fire. Jackson was hospitalized for burn wounds and died just hours later. The cause of the fire and the exact cause of his death are surrounded by controversy. Officially, but fire was a short circuit from an indoor merry-go-round, and that the singer did not suffer any adverse reaction to any drugs or recreadrugs, but the rumors and conspiracy theories still sprout up every now and about. What’s your take on the death of Michael Jackson?
TOMMY CHONG: I thought it was a darn shame. The kid had already done so much with his life, I can only imagine what other great hits he would have made if he’d lived longer.
INTERVIEWER: Do you believe in any of the conspiracy theories?
TOMMY CHONG: Not until I see something that makes sense, man. I mean, arson is one thing, but some of those theories claim that aliens did it. Aliens only blow stuff up in the movies, man. In real life, I bet that if aliens were involved, than it was that they were smokin’ pot with Michael and accidentally blew the place up. Everything short of that makes no sense, man.
INTERVIEWER: What about the claims made against Michael’s estate in 1999, in which an adult man accused Michael of inappropriate behavior against him when his parents worked at the Nederland Ranch in the early 1990s? The subsequent court case was settled out of court, and since then, two more men have come forward with similar claims but without proof backing said claims. Do you think there was some truth to these allegations?
TOMMY CHONG: It’s hard to say. I don’t think we’ll ever truly know what happened behind closed doors, but just the same, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to keep an open mind and listen to both sides of the thing. Um, can we get back to talking about music now?
– usarightnow.co.usa/culture/interview, 2014 [22]
…the levees breaking after months of high flooding resulted in the Mississippi River at Quincy, Illinois, cresting at a new record high of 32 feet on July 24...
– Susan Clotfelter’s High And Mighty: The Great Flood of ’93, Andrews & McNeel, 1997 edition
In 1992, KFC reached a deal with Artisan Entertainment and The Overmyer Network to produce a feature-length made-for-TV film entitled “Finger-Lickin’ Good,” a biopic covering The Colonel’s building of the company from its 1930s roots to its 1950s expansion. Essentially a 90-minute advertisement, the project was greenlit in the hopes of it helping the declining domestic national sales. The film had a professional cast and crew, starring William Hurt as Colonel Sanders, Joe Pantoliano as Pete Herman, Janine Turner as Claudia, rising star Jeff Garlin as Dave Thomas, and was directed by Ronald Brain Underwood. The film premiered on July 20, 1993 to polarizing reviews. Most audiences enjoyed the nostalgia and acting, especially Garlin’s depiction of Thomas, but critics were absolutely livid over the “nearly God-like” depiction of Colonel Sanders, and complained about the cinematography, with many of them feeling that it felt way too much like a movie-length commercial for, tour guide video for, or documentary on KFC. With a constantly upbeat tone that became annoying by the end of the running time, other critics accused the filmmakers of “whitewashing” history, cowering away from Sanders’ already-famous temper to promote the “happy but wise ol’ grandpa” image. Defenders of the movie, though, state that these elements make the film stand out better from standard autobiographical films, such as the two-and-a-half-hours-long film on Ernest Hemingway (portrayed by Jack Nicholson) that came out earlier that month to critical acclaim. “It knows what it is and that it has a biased angle and it is not ashamed to be a great movie despite all that,” stated Gene Siskel to the shock and visual disgust of Roger Ebert on the Saturday, July 24, 1993 episode of “At the Movies”...
– Marlona Ruggles Ice’s A Kentucky-Fried Phoenix: The Post-Colonel History of Most Famous Birds In The World, Hawkins E-Publications, 2020
SENATOR BILL BRADLEY INTRODUCES EMERGENCY RELIEF BILL
…Some House Republicans are reportedly “disappointed” in President Iacocca’s support for the bill, with House Majority Whip Ed Madigan (R-IL) stating that “irresponsible spending on state-level issues is not in the President’s job description, and it was not in Lee Iacocca’s campaign platforms either.”
– The Washington Post, 8/1/1993
…Fine survived breast cancer in her early 30s, and again in the late 2010s. During her first bout with the disease, Fine spent whatever free time she had working on helping to organize fundraising efforts for progressive Democratic primary candidates ahead of the 1994 midterms…
– clickopedia.co.usa/Janice_R._Fine
Maglev trains do not have wheels – they float above the track instead with the use of magnets. Hence the name: it is short for magnetic levitation. These types of trains are safer, quicker, and overall better for the environment than other trains. While American researcher James Powell patented a magnet “figure-of-8” coil (coils pivotal to many maglevs) all the way back in the late 1960s, it was Japanese innovators who made the concept of the maglev train a reality with the production of the HSST rail line, and much-better-known SC-Maglev of the Central Japan Railway Company. By the 1990s, Maglev train routes were beginning to be built in Russia. The first project, a 64-seater connecting Moscow proper to Sheremetyevo Airport, began operations in 1993
[23]. That same year, South Korea completed its own maglev system and showcased it at the Taejon Expo that opened on August 7, 1993…
– John Wood’s Travel Technology: Maglev Trains, Hovercrafts, And Moore, Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2019
PM OF JAPAN STEPS DOWN
…Kiichi Miyazawa resigned shortly after losing a Confidence Vote conducted by his party, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party). Miyazawa’s drop in interparty popularity is tied to a scandal involving a chief political ally. Last year, former State Minister Fumio Abe was indicted and arrested over bribery accusations. Miyazawa’s connections to Abe, slowly revealed to the public via the court case over the past several months, led to the Prime Minister narrowly losing a vote of no confidence; Miyazawa chose to step down immediately after the tally was made final...
– The Los Angeles Times, 8/9/1993
…In Poland, President Kuron’s introduction of world prices and greatly expanding the scope of private enterprise was showing positive results. The expansion of personal freedoms as a true Market Economy was slowly implemented gradually raised the quality of life in the country…
– Maskim Gorky’s After the Iron Curtain: Eastern Europe, 1984-to-Today, Academic International Press, 2010 edition
NOTE(S)/SOURCE(S)
[1] Line quoted from here:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/I_Gotta_Tell_You/tTMAUA-99XYC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lee+iacocca+book&printsec=frontcover#spf=1589519137667
[2] Lines pulled from the OTL 2007 Lee Iacocca book “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?”:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Where_Have_All_the_Leaders_Gone/iPU_gkJo1LUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover#spf=1589419600470
[3] palm oil and soybean oil being used as a third option in the chicken recipe is mentioned here:
https://www.damninteresting.com/colonels-of-truth/ (on page 44 of 72 when printed out)
[4] Lines pulled from the OTL 2007 Lee Iacocca book “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?”:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Where_Have_All_the_Leaders_Gone/iPU_gkJo1LUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover#spf=1589419600470 (found on Page 8)
[5] Ibid., page 104
[6] Ibid., page 105
[7] Found in “Iacocca: An Autobiography,” by Lee Iacocca and William Novak.
[8] source:
https://www.csmonitor.com/1984/0124/012422.html
[9] Paraphrase of March 10 description found here:
http://www.greatriver.com/FLOOD.htm
[10] OTL!
[11] Inspired by this RL article!:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/may/19/kfc-smugglers-of-gaza
[12] ITTL, he and his OTL second wife Peggy Johnson decided to break up before the wedding due to OTL problems arising sooner. He didn’t meet his OTL third wife, restauranteur Darrien Earle, in 1987 here, because he was MLB Commissioner from 1987 to 1992 here, and so he didn’t marry her in 1991 like he did in OTL.
[13] Basically the 1993 Four Corners Hantavirus Outbreak of OTL goes a lot better here.
[14] Info on Sri Lankan situation found on Wikipedia.
[15] Iacocca quote(s) pulled from the OTL 2007 Lee Iacocca book “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?”:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Where_Have_All_the_Leaders_Gone/iPU_gkJo1LUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover#spf=1589419600470 (from page 106)
[16] Ibid., page 108
[17] Mentioned in 1965 and 1966 chapters.
[18] A.k.a., the unidentified serial killer behind the Colonial Parkway Murders of OTL, who was caught in April 1988 ITTL.
[19] OTL, according to Source 23 on his wiki page!
[20] Italicized parts are pulled from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Job_Protection_Act_of_1996
[21] Apparently, not even Nixon’s closest friends called him by his first name:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon#Personality_and_public_image
[22] See August 1979 in this TL for an earlier part of this interview.
[23] As briefly mentioned in the 1987 chapters, Japan’s economy went through a minor recession in 1987, not a financial crisis later like in OTL, and so this project wasn’t abandoned like it was in OTL.
God I would love to see the conspiracy theories of this world.
Also I do wonder if the Japan here actually make some of their crazy plans...
Shimizu TRY 2004 Mega-City Pyramid
Though could still never happen, costs, resources, what not.
Would not mind seeing advanced Japanese maglevs and possibly Japanese made bullet trains in America.
Theories surrounding which events?
Well that's an interesting pyramid; we'll see.
Maglev trains? Interesting!
Interesting update Wonder who will be in his cabinet. Nice that you find many obscure political and non political figures to use in different ways.
Thanks for the compliment!
Chapter 63: January 1991 – July 1991
1) Attack of the Killer Emu - sci-fi epic right there!
2) Ross Perot owning the Dallas Cowboys? I have a feeling Perot is going for a wider portfolio of companies here than he did OTL. Wonder if he got in on Microsoft ITTL?
3) North Korea revolution or massive refugee crisis in the early 90's? Or Korea War II?
4) Given all the changed circumstances in this timeline, I am sort of surprised you let Atwater die on schedule rather than his cancer get caught earlier and he survive
5) First SMS sent- how long to the first LOL?
6) Disneyland Barcelona is interesting as it does leave the possibility open of another resort in the East- perhaps Berlin, or Denmark- a more 'Winter Disney' experience perhaps?
7) Jim Henson’s The Muppets on Broadway - so the variety show was finally in a theatre where it belonged! Hope Waldorf and Sandler got a VIP box to heckle from over the live audience.
8) No Japanese permanent recession then?
9) Bugger about Penn Station- but the building preservation orders are at least in place to prevent another such disaster.
1) I should look up how many emu-related action films have been made in OTL.
2) I'll cover that in 1993
3) We'll see.
4) I considered it, but his personality wasn't affected by the POD, and so he still doesn't get a checkup until it's too late, like in OTL. I'm instead considering explaining away a different person's cancer.
5) We will see.
6) Disney wanted a year-round operation, so, maybe, somewhere farther south and further east?
7) Thank
@Igeo654 for this idea
8) we shall see.
9) Indeed!
Chapter 64: July 1991 – February 1992
1) I wonder if the Spice Girls would be a 'Riot Grrrl' band ITTL?
2) A 'statewide jobs guarantee' is an interesting thing in Alaska- I wonder if other states start looking into this sort of thing as automation begins to kick in?
3) Republic of Vevcani - one more flag for Yugoslavia?
4) Wonder if Poland is still making tons of coal and dominating the European market?
5) Surprised North Korea went direct to the US and not somewhere more neutral like Japan
6) I can see Belarus rejoining Russia here- as its a theme ITTL
7) Maybe NASA just needs to be given a fixed 2% of GDP?
8) Indonesian revolution about to happen?
1) Very likely
2) Very probable
3) Only if taken seriously, as it was more of a PR stunt in OTL/TTL.
4) Maybe...
5) Me, too, since this is based on similar efforts undertaken by the North in OTL.
6) Maybe.
7) Not a bad idea!
8) He might want to avoid the same thing that brought him into power in the first place; we shall see...
And you're right, I should have mentioned the treaty with NK more in the autumn campaign season, because it was one of many prominent factors in the election...
Chapter 65: February 1992 – July 1992
1) February 22: Sounds like a relatively dull debate
2) Didn't most economies comes away from that cos it failed? Mr Paul, you are not economist
3) Frozen KFC? Will simply not be the same. KFC needs to be brought fresh
4) they can launch out over the Arabian Sea?
5) The response to the Erzincan earthquake shows the butterflies caused in ITTL very nicely
6) I wonder if the Ark Wave hit Greece?
7) I had to look up Yogi Berra, as that is one cool name
8) Dramatic events in Bulgaria there- make a good mini-series
9) That bomb in Ivory Coast, sounds almost like a false flag as an excuse to move against Sanwi
10) River Phoenix as Spiderman? Man, that works so well! A Tim Burton Spider-Man movie, plus his three Batman films? Worth a dimension jump for those alone!
11) Federal Guaranteed Employment? That *should* be popular among the poorer workers and blue collar types, but I can see many arguments ahead
12) Lots going on in this update- very good chapter.
1) I concur
2) yep and yep
3) The public agrees, methinks!
4) Brilliant!
5) Thanks!
6) Yes it did - women in Greece didn't get the right to vote until 1950 in otl, so the airwaves are like "culture shocks" for many in the nation.
7) Look up his famous quotes and sayings - they're a hoot!
8) Good idea!
9) Maybe . . .
10) You can thank
@Igeo654 for these
11) we'll see!
12) Thanks!
Chapter 66: August 1992 – December 1992
1) Is Freddie Mercury able to sing his amazing
Barcelona song as part of the Olympics ITTL?
2) Wonder how bad Hurricane Andrew was for the Caribbean?
3)
Hosea, Aaron & Ralph - another movie from this timeline I'd like to see
4) If the Royal Navy starts escorting British ships around the Panama Canal, then that service is going to need some more resources than they had in OTL at this point- time for some ships, which is going to be great for British shipbuilding yards and economy. Might stop yards like Harland and Wolff going under and bring jobs to NI
5) Hunter S. Thompson's review of the VP debate was marvellous
6) The Cartoon Network's success might rely a lot on getting new programming out rather than just using old stock
5) Good line Pat Paulsen
7) Good chapter- meant to ask - what has happened to the S.S.
United States ITTL? Can't see a President like Colonel Sanders letting it rust away- has she been turned into a Museum somewhere? Alongside
Queen Mary perhaps?
1) Great idea! Thanks!
2) Typically bad, not exceptionally bad, the US got the worst of it.
3) Thank
@Igeo654 for the idea
4) This could help the jobs guarantee program; I'll cover it in 1993.
5) Thank you for the compliment
6) Sound advice!
7) Thanks; I'll cover those ships in the next chapter!
Btw did President Bellamy and Prime minister Lennon get along when they met?
Yes. That's why they and John's wife celebrated New Year's together at the White House.
Thanks for all who commented; I appreciate the feedback!
The next chapter's E.T.A.: May 31 at the latest, I hope.
Also,
@Ogrebear: Apparently, the first “LOL” message of OTL was in 1989!:
https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/05/lol-s-25th-anniversary-origins-of-still-popular-internet-abbreviation-trace-back-to-may-1989-newsletter.html.
Nice to also know that Carol's legacy is still intact. Ya can't keep the old girl down it seems, or her hairstyle. 