Chapter 82: January 2001 – June 2001
“God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes – and we must.”
– Jimmy Carter (OTL)
THE JESSE JACKSON ADMINISTRATION AT THE START OF 2001
Vice President: Governor
Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
CABINET
Secretary of State: outgoing US Senator
Ann Richards (D-TX)
Secretary of the Treasury: US Rep. and House Financial Services Committee Chair
Timothy Peter Johnson (D-SD)
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury: former U.S. Rep.
Suzanne Bump (D-MA)
Secretary of Defense: US Army Gen. (ret.)
Larry Rudell Ellis (R-MD)
Attorney General: US DC Circuit Appeals Court Chief Judge
Harry Thomas Edwards (D-DC)
Deputy Attorney General: former state Attorney General
Robert Abrams (D-NY)
Postmaster General: former associate editor of The New York Times
Raymond Walter Apple Jr. (I-OH)
Secretary of the Interior: author and former Governor of Alaska
Nora Dauenhauer (G-AK)
Secretary of Agriculture: food security advocate and US Rep.
Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Secretary of Commerce: Chicago University professor and economics author
Robert Reich (D-IL)
Secretary of Labor: former US House Minority Leader
Richard A. Gephardt (D-MO)
Secretary of Education: US Rep. and former state Executive Council member
Dudley W. Dudley (D-NH)
Secretary of Health and Welfare (renamed Health and Humane Services in 2003): US Rep. and former state rep.
Jane L. Campbell (D-OH)
Secretary of Transportation: New Mexico University President, former Governor and former US Secretary of the Interior
Toney Anaya (D-NM)
Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs: US Army Col. (ret.)
Mary Ann Wright (R-AR)
Secretary of Energy and Technology: former Governor
Jimmie Lee Jackson (D-GA)
Secretary of Community Development (position established in 2001): former US Senator
Mario Obledo (D-CA)
CD Undersecretary for Urban Development (position established in 2001): US Rep. and former state rep.
Babette Josephs (D-PA)
CD Undersecretary for Rural Development (position established in 2001): former Navajo Nation President
Peterson Zah (D-AZ)
CD Undersecretary for Suburban Development (position established in 2001): former St. Paul Mayor
James Scheibel (D-MN)
CD Undersecretary for Coastal Development (position established in 2001): former US Rep. and former state rep.
Harlan Baker (D-ME)
CABINET-LEVEL POSITIONS
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): CIA Deputy Director and former US Army Intelligence secretary
Linda Rose Carotenuto Cleland (I-NJ)
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): former NYC Police Commissioner
Raymond Walter Kelly (I-NY)
US Trade Representative: former US Rep.
Ron Dellums (D-CA)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA): US Rep.
Major R. O. Owens (D-NY)
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): painting instructor and former Governor
Bob Ross (I-AK)
Administrator of the Overwhelming Disaster Emergency Response Coordination Agency (ODERCA): US Rep. and former state senator
Bill Gwatney (D-AR)
THE PRESIDENT’S EXECUTIVE OFFICE
White House Chief of Staff: political science professor deputy campaign manager
Ronald Daniels (D-OH)
White House Deputy Chief of Staff: government bureaucracy expert
Morton Halperin (I-DC)
Counselors to The President: political scientist and energy/bottom-up economics researcher
William J. Antholis (I-VA) and Speechwriter
Kevin Alexander Gray (D-SC)
Chief Domestic Policy Advisor: social critic and progressive philosopher
Marcus Raskin (D-WI)
Chief Economic Policy Advisor: St. Albans Mayor and former City Ward Alderman
Jeffrey P. Weaver (D-VT)
Chief Foreign Policy Advisor: anti-war activist and Institute for Defense & Disarmament Studies founder Dr.
Randall Caroline Forsberg (I-MA)
Chief National Security Advisor: former FBI agent and former Assistant US Attorney for NY’s Southern District Court
Louis Freeh (R-NY)
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: campaign manager
Gerald Austin (D-OH)
Other Counselors and Advisors: political analyst
Bob Beckel, political adviser
Frank Watkinds, campaign policy director
Frank Clemente, field director
Eddie Wong, and political strategist
Peter Daou
White House Communications Director: campaign HQ operations manager
Betty Magness (I-DC)
White House Appointments Secretary: San Francisco Board of Supervisors member
Mabel Teng (D-CA)
White House Press Secretary: campaign press secretary
Pam Watkins (I-DC)
Administrator of the Small Business Administration: economics author and lecturer Prof.
Franklin Roosevelt III (D-NY)
President Jackson’s personal secretary: social justice advocate and political/media strategist
Jehmu Greene (D-TX)
OTHER MEMBERS
Solicitor General (representative of the Federal Government before the Supreme Court): ret. US 11th Circuit Appeals Court Judge
Robert Smith Vance (D-AL)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: US Army Gen. (ret.)
Henry Doctor Jr. (I-SC)
Secretary of the Army: US Army Gen. (ret.)
Johnnie Corns (I-WV)
Secretary of the Navy: US Rep. and House Armed Services Committee Chair
Norman Mineta (D-CA)
Federal Reserve Chairman: former Southern Economic Association President and economic researcher Prof.
William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr. (D-VA)
NASA Administrator: incumbent NASA Administrator and former Deputy NASA Administrator
Dale Dehaven Myers (D-WA)
NOTABLE AMBASSADORS
To Argentina: US Rep. and former Lieutenant Governor
Jim Folsom Jr. (D-AL)
To Australia: Ambassador to Samoa and former American Samoa Lt. Gov.
Eni F. H. Faleomavaega Jr. (D-AS)
To Brazil: professional actor and political activist
Pernell Roberts (D-CA)
To Canada: former US Senator
Madeline Kunin (D-VT)
To China: former Governor
Bucky Ray Jarrell (D-KY)
To Colombia: former National Intelligence Council Chair and former Assistant Secretary of Defense
Joseph Samuel “Joe” Nye Jr. (I-NJ)
To France: former Governor
Cleo Fields (D-LA)
To Germany: former Governor
Paul R. Soglin (D-WI)
To Ghana: businessman, husband of US Rep. Maxine Waters, and former Cleveland Browns quarterback
Sidney “Sid” Williams (D-CA)
To Greece: former Governor
Chris Spirou (D-NH)
To Israel: author and political scientist Prof.
Norman Gary Finkelstein, PhD (D-NJ)
To Italy: former Governor
Mario Cuomo (D-NY)
To Japan: Chairman of the Japan-America Society of Chicago and former state Treasurer
Adlai Stevenson III (D-IL)
To Korea: former Governor
John Lim (R-OR)
To Mexico: former US Rep.
Don Riegle (D-MI)
To New Zealand: former Ambassador to Australia
Swanee Grace Hunt (D-TX)
To Russia: former US Rep.
James Robert “J. R.” Jones (D-OK)
To South Africa: former US Senator
James E. Chaney (D-MS)
To Turkey: former Chair of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Paul G. Kirk (D-IL)
To the U.K.: former Governor
Harvey Gantt (D-NC)
To the U.N.: former US Rep.
Lee H. Hamilton (D-IN)
– JesseJacksonPresidentialLibrary.org.usa/cabinet_composition/2001
Fred let me tag along as a personal assistant; he told me that when he first walked into that Senate chamber, he thought, “I might as well do some good while I’m here.”
“I’m afraid that’s just not how it works,” the chief aide would end up informing him.
“But I remember civics class,” Fred said as we – Fred, about a dozen Senate aides, assistants, advisors and interns, and I – huddled around Fred’s new and possibly first-ever work desk. “You introduce a bill, it’s voted on. If the President don’t like it, you can overrule it if you have enough votes.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” the head honcho, the chief of Fred’s new staff, began the rundown. “After preparing the bill, there’s a first reading, then it enters Committee consideration; it is very important that it does not get stuck in Committee, never to be seen again.”
Fred asked, “What happens at committee?”
“They evaluate it to determine whether or not the bill requires holding public hearings to interview experts on the subject before voting on it, like what will likely happen for the Voting Rights Act and prison reform Jackson’s pushing for. Amendments – not constitutional amendments, just little additional, uh, details – could be added at this point. Or, heck, the bill could be substituted with a similar-enough bill that’s already in committee!”
“And then it’s passed?”
“And then it gets a second reading, maybe, and possibly a third reading if necessary, followed by the transmittal of the bill – um, that is, uh, once approved by the committee, it gets sent to the other chamber, where the same legislative process with the committees and everythinh is repeated practically all over again until they take action and either approve it –”
“– or let it die in committee,” Fred said.
“Yes.”
“Then it’s passed.”
“Then there’s a thing called a Conference Committee, a meeting of the heads of both chambers involved in the bill’s journey through congress, and there they just sort of sort out any remaining issues disagreements on the bill, like last-minute provisions and the like, and basically polish it up.”
“Aw, jeez,” Fred moaned, understandably irritated.
“Finally, sir, this is when the bill is transmitted to the President, and he takes action on it,” he concluded.
Fred then asked, “So how long will all that take?”
“How long is a piece of string?” A second aide answered. “It’s subjective. Could take months, could nearly two years or more.”
“Years?! Sonny, I’m 81, I can’t afford to spend a whole year!” Fred surely must have regretted signing onto my idea of getting him to run for the Senate just to oppose some New York carpetbaggers. If he did, it was momentary. Fred soon spoke again to ask, “So what can be done to get the ball rolling, to grease the wheels?”
“Most bills never get out of committee without either public pressure to address some sort of national emergency, or, more commonly, the bill being sponsored by a committee chairperson, which could actually speed up the process by several weeks,” said the chief of staff.
“Maybe months?”
“Maybe.”
“Then we’re getting’ somewhere! Who’s the chair for the agriculture committee?”
“Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat,” answered the Chief of Staff. “I think committee members Larry Presser and Barbara Cuban might be more friendly to us, but even if they can persuade Tucker to speed things up for us, what’s the incentive, sir? Why should they prioritize it, besides its importance?”
“You need leverage, Fred. Persuasion,” I finally spoke, “something to make them interested in passing a bill for you.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll think of something,” Fred said eagerly.
– John O’Brien’s Man With A Plan: The Book Based on The Race Based on The Movie, Wind Ridge Books, 2003
FLAG REFERENDUM DATES ANNOUNCED
…the latest attempt to change our national flag can be traced back to the 1980s, where a movement to replace the national flag’s Union Jack with the flag of the Aborigine populace branched off from Aboriginal rights organizations to push for the implementation of a new flag representing all Australians.
From there, the idea of a flag referendum was politicized thanks to Labor leader Mike Ignatieff’s enthusiasm for it. Prime Minister de la Hunty hopes to put the discussion to rest by allowing a referendum to take place. Today, the dates for the two-round voting system were finalized... [snip] …The first steps taken upon the referendum being announced to occur in early 2001 were back in late 1999, with de la Hunty agreeing with Labor leaders to allocating funds for a high-profile panel of experts (artists, graphic designers, historians, etc, leading to an attempt to get famous painter Bob Ross to serve on the panel, for him to decline due to his lacking thorough history of Australia, though he did advise “pick the one that makes people most happy and joyful to be Australian.”) for a future flag referendum, in exchange for the passing of a housing and agriculture bill. Additionally, the Labor party announced a cash prize of $10,000 for the design who wins the first round, in order to encourage many people to send in designs, ranging from first-tike designers to professional vexillologists and artists. …With hundreds of flag being sent in over the past several months, the panel is expected to select the winning designs “very soon,” says one anonymous source, and that they will announce their “final four” candidates “at some time” next month, in February…
– The Australian, 1/24/2001
…A 7.7 Mw earthquake has struck, Gujarat, India. Already, the death toll is projected to be in the thousands, with experts and computer models suggesting it will lie anywhere between twelve thousand and eighteen thousand, both of which are staggeringly terrible odds in regards to this sudden loss of human life…
– BBC News, 26/1/2001 broadcast
…Earlier today, under the leadership of President Jackson’s Ambassador to the United Nations, the US joined several other nations in backing a UN resolution to condemn any nation that maintains a supply of hypersonic missiles. Though only prototypes of such missiles currently exist, the technology is out there, and experts warn that such weapons are incredibly dangerous – these kind of missiles can travel five times the speed of sound, and, according the US Ambassador to the UN, would pose a grave threat to any nation it targeted due to the difficulty of combating such a fast-acting projectile
[1]…
– ABC News, 2/2/2001 broadcast
Selecting a new CEO must be planned out carefully, with the announcement being made in advance to keep stockholders from worrying that the “regime change” will negatively impact sales and consumer confidence in the company. Ahead of the changing of the guard, Finger Lickin’ Good, Inc.’s Board of Directors perused the resumes of several candidates both within and outside of the company’s ranks. Retiring CEO Collins’ rocky tenure was viewed as being the result of him being too closely involved in the company’s “corporate culture,” having first started working for KFC in the late 1960s. The Board thus favored an outsider candidate. “Someone with another, different perspective may be the key to figuring out why our sales are dropping,” considered Board member Bob Yarmuth. “A fresh perspective, a different look from another successful company may be the ticket,” fellow Board member David Yohe concurred. Among the outsiders considered were former Deputy Attorney General Andrew Franklin Puzder (due to the pro-business record he developed as a trial lawyer during the 1980s and 1990s), former Administrator of the US’s Small Business Administration and former COO of AT&T Cara Carlton Sneed, and either one of the three most prominent members of the Huntsman family. Their Huntsman Container Corporation had continuously been doing business with KFC since 1973, and the Board considered outgoing Jon Sr, and his sons Peter (HCC’s COO) and Jon Jr. (having served as US Ambassador to China from November 1999 to January 2001) to all be well-qualified candidates. However, all three declined the offer, leading the final three options to be Puzder, Sneed, and the ultimate selectee.
Above: KFC’s new CEO in 2001
Herman Cain (b. 1945) had a storied career that matched his impressive and diverse resume. He was the Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1995 to 1996, chairman of said bank’s Omaha branch from 1989-1991; an unofficial economic advisor to President Dinger and his 1996 campaign; and from 1996 to 1999, he was President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
And before all that, he had been the regional manager for over 500 Burger Chef outlets stretching across the rust belt before serving as said chain’s CEO from 1985 to 1988. During said time, Burger Chef was in the middle of a sales free-fall. No longer a subsidiary of General Foods like in its early days, the Burger Chef’s BoD was directionless. Cain oversaw the company cut back previous expansion efforts in order to stay afloat until the company left the red. He also met with the CEO of McDonald’s, their primary competitor, and agreed to focus more on the northeast while McDonald’s increased their number of outlets in the rest of the country. This allowed Burger Chef to become a more regional outlet, and the “backroom deal” was controversial enough for him to be let go after three years on the job. However, the company went back into the black in 1989, causing Cain to be celebrated for his “slowdown” method pulling the company out of red and yielding them enough profits in 1989 to launch a new media campaign and a re-expansion campaign.
“There are three necessities when it comes to success: education, experience, and, above all, connections. We’ve got all three of those things here,” were Cain’s opening words at the first BoD meeting he headed. “We study the local tastes and make special offers when not too costly. We study past trends to see what works and what doesn’t. And thanks to this company’s founder we’ve got a credibility for trustworthiness that makes other companies envious. All we have to do now is utilize those assets.”
Under Cain, KFC’s advertising department launched “a returning” to what they called “The Colonel’s Call” – making domestic outlets consistent and reliable, a.k.a. trusted by customers, thus creating stronger customer loyalty.
In a private discussion, The Three Elders of the company spoke of how they genuinely thought of Cain. “I like him; he’s got gumption,” said Margaret Sanders, always still cantankerous even in her 90s.
“Yeah, a certain je ne sais quoi,” uttered Mildred Sanders, chairman emeritus, “and a smart head on his shoulders.”
“I don’t know,” admitted the octogenarian Harley Sanders. “I don’t like the record he made at Burger Chef. Too willing, or maybe too eager, to sacrifice outlets to maintain profits.”
“
Extraneous outlets, Harley,” noted Mildred.
“If it employs people and feeds others,” Harley asked, “How exactly was it extraneous?”
– Marlona Ruggles Ice’s A Kentucky-Fried Phoenix: The Post-Colonel History of Most Famous Birds In The World, Hawkins E-Publications, 2020
[vid: youtube: /watch?v=2pHeYDsQW7Q ]
– A KFC-Canada commercial for the KFC "Big Crunch" Sandwich, c. 2001; under CEO Herman Cain, the Big Crunch was phased out over a 6-month period
…Everyone in the cabinet knew their roles. The Treasury and Commerce departments would work with congress to strengthen the Federal Jobs Guarantee program and to weigh the merits and specifics of a possible Federal Aid Dividend to “bolster” the effectiveness of the Negative Income Tax Rebate. Their mission what to determine how to pass out such additional funds for the lower classes without causing businesses and landlords to rise prices and rent, which is what many experts believed would happen. Secretaries Johnson and Gephardt explored the past successes and failures of ZEDs, while Reich began considered promoting the “tenancy-in-common” sort of tenant ownership as a way around “the bad kind of landlord.”
Concurrently, President Jackson and company worked with Senators Alan Wheat and Marcy Kaptur on another, stronger Voting Rights Act. “Issues facing Black people today are not as severe as in the past, but are still in need of immediate rectification: police brutality, unfair incarceration rates, income inequality, healthcare disparities and discrepancies, and natural segregation such as white flight and reverse-gentrification, which often lead to poorer funding for majority-black schools.” Freshman US Senator Bobby Scott began working with the more seasoned Senators Bethine Church, Katie Beatrice Hall, and Daniel Inouye on how to implement laws meant to curb systemic racism without inadvertently creating the oppressive red tape and high taxes that their Republican co-workers kept “warning the American people” about; the need to reform at the state and local level were required in the President’s eyes as well, with Hall suggesting that state governments needed coercion from the bottom as well as the top. “People have to make it known to their sheriffs and mayors that they support what the President wants them to do,” she said in a meeting on the hill in February 2001. “Governors also have to work with us to reform ZEDs and pass stronger anti-discrimination laws. We need more transparency so more can see the discrimination that goes on when it comes to police, landlords, and employing practices.”…
[Snip]
…In Mexico, the new reformist President Moctezuma initiated multi-national immigration reform talks with Jesse Jackson. However, Moctezuma was quick to brush off most of the blame for his country’s woes onto those of another. “Drug pushers in America get their supplies from Mexican carriers who bring in the heroin and crack cocaine from Guatemala, and if you follow that trail to where to pot fields are, you find those fields in Colombia. Colombia is the root of this epidemic of a crisis.” War-torn Colombia was also suffering a major refugee crisis as well, as the civil war caused hundreds of thousands to flee elsewhere; many of them traveled to the US, prompting Jesse Jackson to expand America’s refugee allowances via executive order, and to double the funding of immigration offices working on the paperwork to allow immigrants into the country legally, which cut down the amount of backlogged cases and overall waiting periods. Meanwhile, the Jackson administration sought to reverse President Dinger’s pouring of millions of US dollars into Mexican police and local law enforcement, and instead for FBI and CIA agents to “stamp out” cartels by going after their sources of funding. “Follow the money” became the mantra under the new CIA and FBI directors…
– Nancy Skelton and Bob Faw’s Thunder In America: A Chronology of The Jesse Jackson White House, Texas Monthly Press, 2016
By the start of our tenth year John was dealing with complicated taxation debates. Conservatives were complaining about taxes once again despite John implementing a low flat tax rate of 5% in the National Income Tax Act of 1994. John seemed anguished. The tax rate was fair without being oppressive. The whole process of finding a sustainable rate took him back to the Beatles’ 1966 hit “The Taxman”: “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street. If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
[2] John wanted a government that kept its people safe without having to financially oppress them. That messaging had led to victory in 1994, but even then, the UK’s wealthiest snobs grumbled just as they were complaining about it now. In their defense, to combat recession in 1999, John did manage to have the flat tax rate to 10%, but only for one fiscal year. “I also considered price and wage freezes,” he laments from time to time. “I still think I should have, because recovery was rockier without it.” Dealing with that while also trying to keep companies from outsourcing in the midst of economic recovery was tiring. The markets were doing fairly well by 2001, but the biggest rub John got was not from the economy or the opposition party, but from the growing number of MPs at odds with the former Beatle. John was becoming increasingly unpopular among party higher-ups for his informal behavior and due to having difficulty getting along with many moderates in the party. “We all want to fix things, but too many MPs think that only their opinion is the right one. Too few want to actually work together and collaborate on things. Sometimes it’s like I’m back in with Paul again,” he once said to me.
– Lyn Cornell-Lennon’s memoir, Lennon & I: Our Lives: From Liverpool to 10 Downing Street And Back Again, Thames Books, 2017
…In February 2001, Congressman Bill Sorrell introduced legislation to increase “transparency standards” for large companies, trusts, foundations and other enterprises via creating a public registry of who benefits from these places making profits. After much back-and-forth between moderate and progressive Democrats in the chamber, the bill was narrowly approved…
– Nancy Skelton and Bob Faw’s Thunder In America: A Chronology of The Jesse Jackson White House, Texas Monthly Press, 2016
…Domestically, Jackson’s Justice Department went after the KKK and other hate groups, with FBI and local law enforcement and courts being pressured to pursue stronger actions against known members. Designating the Ku Klux Klan a “terrorist organization” was tricky due to there being multiple groups using the term. As a result, all said groups were designated white supremacist organizations. This action led to prominent individuals such as activist Barbara Coe and Utah politician Merrill Cook claiming the President was practicing a “double standard” for not persecuting “Black Power” organizations, but this “counterpart” was not embraced by a vast majority of Americans.
Regardless, the FBI began to monitor suspected members under the new administration; this was a refreshing reversal of the FBI’s relationship with the KKK during the years of J. Edgar Hoover, when the bureau had paid informants in the Klan and were more antagonistic to the X-Men (supporters of Malcolm X). …However, the Jackson administration reluctantly “pumped the brakes” on investigating the GOP-backing “Wide-Awakes” organizations in order to “not bite off too much too soon.” When it came to the Wide-Awakes, there was much concern of fueling partisan antagonism, as several Congresspersons and even four Senators (Helen Chenoweth of Idaho, Bernie Goetz of Colorado, Albert Lee Smith Jr. of Alabama, and D. Kirkwood Fordice of Mississippi, albeit each to varying degrees of enthusiasm for these backers) were proudly affiliated with the populist war-hawk version of the “Wide-Awake” term...
– author A’Lelia Bundles’ Consequential: The Presidency of Jesse Jackson, Random House, 2015
SENATOR ANNOUNCES HE WILL RESIGN AS SOON AS HIS DAIRY FARM BILL IS PASSED
…“I’m not partisan, folks. I will work with whichever party I need to in order to get this here bill passed. I’m introducing this bill because dairy farmers are sufferin’ all over. People don’t drink milk so much no more, there’s federal pricing problems, and the fact is that big dairy companies are stepping on the backs of all the little ones. Small country communities live off the land, off the money made by the dairy farms. And it seems to me that the government keeps saying farmers are important – and to his credit, President Dinger, did help out some – but overall, it seems to me to just be all talk. Something tells me that us dairy farmers being less than 1% of the population means we’re ignored by most. We help feed America but somehow don’t have political clout. I guess swing states don’t have enough dairy farms or something.
My point is, though, is that the current federal programs are wasteful and don’t address the real problems facing dairy farmers. The USDA seems to care more about appeasing the big dairy producers only. The only legislation we need to fix this, though, to remove the unequal treatment of farm sizes and the unfair pricing structure, is this bill right here, that replaces pricing restrictions with tighter regulation of business ethics and actions of dairy companies of the top percent of the industry.”
– The Washington Post, 2/25/2001
...Because of the likelihood that the Democrats would gain his seat if he steps down from it, Republican leaders such as Webb Franklin and Kel Downard urged Fred to not retire until 2002. Others in the GOP, though, were supportive of his attention-grabbing stunt. US Congressman Gus Bilirakis, for example, explained in a private conversation with donors at a political fundraiser that “Jackson’s approval ratings are bound to slide the closer we get to the midterms, and typically, the party of a first-term incumbent loses seats in the midterms. The sooner Governor Dean appoints one of his fellow Democrats to Fred’s seat, the better we can tie him to the Jackson administration, and thus bettering our chances of defeating said incumbent in November 2002. Of course, it’d be a liberal Republican – this is Vermont, we’re talking about – but hey, still a Republican.” Either way, Fred’s announcement was polarizing for the GOP, meaning he received more support from Democratic lawmakers than from Republican ones on Capitol Hill…
– John O’Brien’s Man With A Plan: The Book Based on The Race Based on The Movie, Wind Ridge Books, 2003
…Jack Black has come a long way from his struggles with cocaine and pigeonholing. After years of playing comical side characters, or characters so serious that they were comical, Black has finally shown his ability to depict a complex character with conviction. Fresh off the surreal TV show “Heat Vision And Jack” (cancelled in 2000 after one season), Black’s dramatic performance in HBO’s made-for-TV movie “Dawn of The Colonel” excellently captures the larger-than-life early years of Colonel Harland, at time when the former world leader and humanitarian struggled to hold down a job and keep his family together. It feels more appropriate than ever before for Americans to see that The Colonel was a real person, as KFC has immortalized their founder with a cartoon version of him that, frankly, while entertaining, does not do The Colonel’s legacy justice. This film, on the other hand, appropriately does…
– Variety, TV/film review section, 3/3/2001
…A major talking point for Jackson in 2000 was the inflated resources of the armed forces at the expense of social programs. In 2001, Jackson sought to cut military budget, but faced opposition from those quick to point out continuing operations in Colombia in Mexico. Thus, Jackson immediately called for negotiations. Within his first 100 days, Jackson aimed to establish a temporary ceasefire in the former and sign an agreement with President Moctezuma to lower American responsibilities in the latter.
On March 5, Air Force One flew down to Bogotá, Colombia to meet with President Andres Pastrana make contact with Manuel Marulanda, the head of the left-wing militant guerilla movement FARC; the right-wing guerilla movement AUC was excluded from negotiations due to their more terroristic tendencies of late, and deeper connections to the Recreadrug War. Jackson and Patrons hoped to convince FARC to essentially join their forces with the Colombian government in order to defeat the “shared adversary” of the AUC, the third player in the country’s multi-sided conflict. In exchange, FARC would be treated more favorably in peace talks; for example, Pastrana was willing to grant amnesty to as many as “the bottom 90%” of FARC participants, and agree to several government reform proposals, if AUC could be weakened into submission within two years.
Pre-negotiations discussions had a rocky start when Jackson rejected FARC’s representative, Ivan Marquez, over his ties to the trafficking of cocaine and previously-North Korean weapons in and out of Colombia. However, a more suitable representative was found before said planned March visit.
The prospect of negotiations for a temporary ceasefire made US military personnel and US war-hawks (especially the Wide-Awakes) uneasy, as it seemed Jackson would use success in Colombia to convince moderate Democrats to sign off on a 2002 fiscal budget (presented to congress in September 2001) that contained massive cuts to the army forces...
– Nancy Skelton and Bob Faw’s Thunder In America: A Chronology of The Jesse Jackson White House, Texas Monthly Press, 2016
JACKSON RETURNS FROM BOGOTA, SAYS PEACE TALKS “ONGOING” AND “PRODUCTIVE”
– The Washington Post, 3/9/2001
…When it came to more domestic fiscal concerns, Jackson aimed to avoid “a restrained budget” by implementing significant entitlement reform and a major tax increase on the top 1%. However, Treasury Secretary Tim Johnson believed a more moderate path would suffice.
“We need a tax code shift. You can’t just raise taxes on the 1% without immediate pushback, Jesse,” Johnson suggested in a mid-March meeting in the Oval Office. “You instead need a larger, a broad tax base. So tax the top 10%, 15%, even 20%, but go after the top 1% especially.”
“Maybe we should go with a federal flat tax, somewhere between 5% and 10%, instead of federal tax brackets,” pondered OMB Director Gerald Austin. “It worked before, when the economy tanked, back in ’78. Mondale passed a 1% emergency recovery tax across the board.”
“Except,” Jackson noted, “We’re talking about overhauling three of the five major forms of federal taxation – income, excise, and corporate.” Consumption and (to a lesser extent) property and payroll were to be the least affected during Jackson’s first year in office…
– Nancy Skelton and Bob Faw’s Thunder In America: A Chronology of The Jesse Jackson White House, Texas Monthly Press, 2016
…A “Flat Tariff” deal was finally signed between Jackson and Moctezuma on March 19, 2001. Which stated that traded goods tariffs would be matched to within a 5% margin of each other in order to promote trade and product selling between the two countries. Both governments hoped that trade and consumer confidence would lower the appeal of being employed by the recreadrug lords, though Jackson also pressured his Mexican counterpart to push a federal jobs program as well…
– researcher Brenda J. Hargis’ Emboldening: The Jesse Jackson Presidency, Sunrise Publications, 2017
…In March 2001, Bellamy used her increasingly pulpit-like post as UN Secretary-General to promote an “international courtesy.” Specifically, the idea of national government agreeing to requiring international businesses and multinational citizens to give country-by-country reporting of their revenues in order to best distribute taxes. International tax law experts supported with proposal, as did the US Treasurer and Commerce Secretaries...
– Thomas Hennen Carter’s Bellamyville: The Rise And Struggles Of An American President, Scribner publishers, 2018
VOTERS PICK OPTION 4 FOR FLAG REFERENDUM
Above: clockwise from top left corner: The final four options. Option 1: The Land Down Under flag created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser; option 2: The 1998 “Canadianesque Roundel” proposal by Ash Nallawalla, Option 3: The Aboriginal-Australian flag used by various Aborigine groups since 1997, and option 4: The Eureka Flag dating back to 1854.
The first round of the flag referendum asked voter “If Australian adopts a new flag, which flag would you prefer?” Using a preferential voting system, Option 4 came in first place in the final results of the last iteration. The results are considered to be an upset, as Option 3 was the leading favorite among a plurality of referendum enthusiasts. ...Prior to voting, opinions varied among voters across ethnic and class groups. …PM de la Hunt appeared apathetic, calling the referendum “the opposition’s latest batch of bread and circuses”…
– The Advertiser, Australian newspaper, 3/22/2001
…The heads of state of the United States and Panama today signed a labor agreement to resume work on the Panama Canal’s third lock. Despite the third lock being to be used by wider ships as modern boatbuilding technology allows for the construction of transportation vessels so large they dwarf the Titanic, the third lock idea goes back nearly a century. Construction on a Third Lock project actually began in 1939, was but abandoned in 1942 due to the intensity of WWII. Taking page out of FDR’s book, American President Jesse Jackson is returning workers to the Isthmus of the American Hemisphere for a massive public works project, with Panamanian and American workers employed for it too, in order to lower unemployment, and to boost consumer confident and consumer spending in order to bring back up his nation’s economy. In doing so, the nations that use the Panama Canal may also benefit from this architectural endeavor...
– BBC, 30/3/2001
REPORTER: The film distribution companies of Warner Bros. and United Artist today announced at a joint press conference that several controversial films – the top three biggest being 1962’s The Manchurian Candidate, 1954’s Suddenly, and 1994’s Natural Born Killers – will finally to be released for home-video ownership. All three films gained notoriety upon being released for depicting a Presidential assassin. In fact, the star of Suddenly, Frank Sinatra, tried to buy all copies of Suddenly and have them destroyed after President Lyndon Johnson was shot in 1963. In 1995, rumors that Natural Born Killers inspired Lynwood Drake to assassinate President Iacocca led to it, and the two earlier films, being pulled from circulation, meaning they were no longer available in theaters or on home video, and were not aired on TV. Additionally, the UK refused to allow further cinema or home video releases of the film Natural Born Killers in the wake of investigations into copycat murders allegedly inspired by the film. However, those investigations have since ended, leading to these distribution companies deciding to finally return these movies to the big and small screens. But just how are people reacting to the news?
INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUAL 1: I think they should burn every copy. It doesn’t matter who made them or what they’re intentions were, they inspire people to kill. They glorify it. They’re cursed and they must be erased before more people are hurt by them.
INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUAL 2: Movies can’t hurt people, people hurt people, not movies. I say let people watch whatever they want to watch, and blame them for whatever s#!t they do, not the movies they’ve watched. That’s just dumb.
INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUAL 3: A movie watcher has to know what they’re seeing on the screen isn’t real, right? Cause if they can’t figure that out, well, don’t move to California, they’ll lock you up, cause you’re clearly insane.
INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUAL 4: People should just teach their kids to hate violence. That’s it.
INTERVIEWED INDIVIDUAL 5: I’ve seen some of those movies. They were awesome! Especially the ones that actually show blood! Man, people are idiots for freaking out over the dumbest little things, s#!t...
REPORTER: It seems people are divided on the merits on withdrawing and re-releasing these films...
– ABC Morning News, 4/1/2001 report
SOURCE: GRAVEL-JACKSON TALKS “PRODUCTIVE”
…US Senator and former Vice President Mike Gravel sat down in the Oval Office with the President to discuss scheduling for the 2001-2002 congress and the Senator’s National Initiative push…
– The Washington Post, 4/8/2001
YANKEE MARRIES INTO THE ROYAL FAMILY!
London, UK – American businessman and former professional baseball player Donald Trump of New York has married the Queen’s niece, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones of Snowdon. The wedding, a lavish, but closed and private ceremony, held at St. Stephen Walbrook church in the City of London, is the culmination of over two years of the cross-continental couple dating.
[3] Trump, 54, a real estate developer, and Lady Sarah, 36, a painter by profession, are frequent flyers who plan on living in both The UK and America.
Above: The Happy Newlyweds
…The couple’s relationship has received scrutiny since its confirmation, with many Britons claiming Mr. Trump is only in a relationship with her for the fame and fortune. Both Trump and Lady Sarah have angrily refuted these claims, suggesting that the accusations are indeed false…
– The Daily Mirror, UK newspaper, 4/4/2001
“In the 1930s, congress created economic regulations after the Great Depression in order to prevent such a calamity from ever happening again. Under the Presidency of Colonel Sanders conservatives in the White House and in congress deregulated businesses for eight years, leading to the Crash of 1978. And yet everyone then, and even many people now still, blame Mondale for it, instead of Sanders’ approach to business leaders, for letting it happen. And then, Mondale’s 1979-1980 laws regulated the economy again, only for congress to undo those regulations in 1993 and 1994. Congress undid the regulations, and – wouldn’t you know it? – the economy tanked in 1999. Now congress is trying to create better regulations to stop that from happening again. But if people stay valiant, call out wrongdoing, point out machinations, then maybe pro-business profit margins people will fail to once again ruin the economy. So, before another recession can happen, the President is doing everything he can, he is working very hard, with congress to make these regulations as strong and as effective as possible – without them becoming too restrictive to discourage owning businesses, of course.”
– Bern Sanders, founder of Tumbleweed magazine and Tumbleweed TV, Meet the Press interview, 4/11/2001
…Just days ahead of Jackson’s 100-day mark, the Senate agreed to pass the House’s high-but-flat tax of an average 11.5% across the board for income and corporate taxes. However, the redistributing of the tax revenue sources, essentially reversing the pro-rich deregulating of the Dinger administration, was not technically flat, as it instead simply “smoothed out” the differences between the brackets and placed greater responsibility on the top 10%. Hence, the White House’s use of the phrase “average 11.5%.”…
– researcher Brenda J. Hargis’ Emboldening: The Jesse Jackson Presidency, Sunrise Publications, 2017
“This government is supportive of violence groups abroad and of government oppression at home. Government should reward you for hard work, not attack you for it with taxes that make it so the more you make, the more they take.”
– US Senator Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), 4/26/2001
CROP IMPROVEMENT PROJECT GROWS HOPE IN ANATOLIA
In Turkey’s desert interior, a team of Greek scientists are testing food production experiments in a project funded by two Turkish and two Greek universities, as well as several Greek and Turkish entrepreneurs, in an effort to address hunger and food insecurity in both nations. “If these genetically augmented crops can successfully grow in these blistering arid conditions, this technology could very well be revolutionary,” says one hopeful member of Project Ambrosia…
– The Atlantis, Greek-American newspaper, 4/27/2001
…Negotiators in Bogota, Colombia managed to break an impasse in the latest rounds of peace talks. The left-wing guerillas have finally agreed to temporarily suspend anti-government attacks and other activities in order for negotiations to proceed further. It seems that, for the first time in nearly a decade, there is a real chance for hostilities in Colombia to cease peacefully…
– NBC News, 4/28/2001 broadcast
JACKSON’S FIRST 100 DAYS: A Review
…With Democrats controlling both chambers of congress, President Jackson has managed to pass several major articles of legislation, such as the Tax Distribution Act, the Small Business Relief Act, the Farm Security And Rural Investment Act, the Jobs Creation Act, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, and the Open Trade With Mexico Act all within his first 100 days in office. A benchmark measuring the early success of a Presidency since FDR’s productive first 100 days in office, Jackson successfully led in passing sweeping tax reform, and worked with governors and their respective county and city departments to promote police reform at local levels. Jackson also “got the ball rolling” on peace talks in Colombia and legislation for a National Initiative Constitutional Amendment, and used executive orders to increase federal funding for stem cell research and to implement new ethics guidelines for the executive branch…
– The Washington Post, 4/30/2001
BARN AND RAZED: The Drawn-Out Decline of The Red Barn Franchise
…Red Barn was a fast-food burger chain founded in 1961 and known for its distinct style of having most of its outlet-buildings be shaped like actual barns, with a Maynard roof and large window front. The franchise, which originated in Ohio before expanding into 32 other states (plus three Canadian provinces) offered “Big Barney” and “Barnbuster” burgers, and other menu items centered around grilled beef, fish, and chicken, was the first multi-state food chain to include self-service salad bars. “It’s broad menu makes for a broad appeal,” explains Bill Lapitsky, former Regional Manager for Red Barn’s Ohio-Pennsylvania Division. “We draw in families, teenagers, and city folk who like the illusion of farm-life.”
The franchise reached its peak in the 1970s when it briefly operated three outlets in southern England. Then the chain entered a long and slow period of decline, going from a peak of nearly 800 restaurants in three countries to its current number of 107 outlets scattered around the Midwest, where their appeal had always remained strongest.
Several factors contributed to the decline of Red Barn. For one, the chain went through several owners, alternating between large companies and profit-centric entrepreneurs who passed around the company in a way that led to high turnover rates for low-level employees. Conflicting owners led to intermittent expanding and infrequent advertising, as discouraged investors interested in operations that were noticeable more stable at the executive level. Secondly, the chain entered decline at a time when the burger industry was becoming saturated; “the Burger Wars” of the 1970s and 1980s, between McDonald’s and several challengers such as Whataburger, Burger Chef, and Wendyburger, shaped the pop culture of that decade (which I went over in a previous blog spot (click link here to read it!)). Thirdly, and most controversially – maybe nostalgic customers may fight you on this – many of the menu items may have been too similar to those of other franchises. Red Barn’s fried pies once tasted very much like McDonald’s apple pies. And the franchise’s outlets still fry their chicken with a standard commercial Henny Penny pressure fryer – the exact same kind of pressure fryer that Colonel Sanders purchased and customized in the 1940s, culminating in the creation of his famous concoction.
Whether it was the result of inconsistent ownership, too many competitors, or an overreliance on familiar tastes found elsewhere, the Red Barn’s slow drop in prominence is nevertheless unfortunate. They offer a unique and charming experience that you really should try to experience for yourself – before the franchise declines any further in size.
– proudnortherner.co.usa/food/blog/barn_and_razed, 2019 e-article
McTEER LEADS PT PARTY BACK TO POWER!: Defeats Charest In PM Bid; Voters Approve of Progressive Liberal Alliance
…Maureen McTeer, MP from Carleton-Gloucester, Ottawa, narrowly defeated incumbent PM Jean Charest in tonight’s general elections. McTeer successfully kept together the Progressive Liberal Alliance formed in 2000 in response to the Action Alliance formed in 1998. In PLA consists primarily of the Liberal and Progressive Tomorrow parties, and competed in ridings tonight strategically in order to avoid splitting anti-AA votes. The election victory comes after Charest oversaw a rocky administration. Many defended his lackluster record developed since entering office in late 1999 by stating how well he was doing compared to Hellyer, a defense which many members of the Action Alliance used often – possibly too often, as it may have led to voters remembering very well that the AA is the same political alliance responsible for the government gridlock, poor initial response to economic recession, and two constitutional crises that unfolded throughout the year 1999. Charest, to his credit, distanced himself from his predecessor as best he could without ending the alliance, but ultimately, he failed to successfully implement the changes he had promised. McTeer, a former PC member who switched to PT and served in PM Mitchel’s ministry in the mid-1990s, will enter office in two weeks...
– The Montréal Gazette, French-Canadian newspaper (translated), 5/5/2001
VOTERS PICK ALTERNATIVE FLAG IN MASSIVE UPSET!
…In the second round of the National Flag Referendum, voters were asked “What is your choice for the Australian flag?” The referendum pitted the existing flag against the “Eureka Flag."
The results:
Alternative flag: 52.1%
Existing flag: 47.9%
Turnout: 63.1%
– The Northern Territory News, Australian newspaper, 5/10/2001
HOW DID IT GO SO WRONG FOR SHIRLEY DE LA HUNTY?
..The de la Hunty government sought to end debate around the Australian flag by putting it to a vote, a vote most expected would see the incumbent national flag remain on the flagpole. Instead, anti-incumbent flag sentiment was higher than anticipated among those voting… The unexpected results may very well mean the loss of political prestige for Prime Minister de la Hunty, who backed the losing flag. National Party leader Ben Carson, similarly, looked weak and indecisive for taking no side in the debate, while Labor Party leader Mike Ignatieff gained political prestige for supporting the flag change, though not as enthusiastically as other prominent Labor MPs. Still, him being on the winning side may likely help him stay on as Liberal party leader ahead of the 2002 general elections...
– The Canberra Times, Australian newspaper, 5/11/2001
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHNSON DIES AT 82!
…Frank Minis Johnson, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, helped change stereotypes about the American South by being a pro-Civil Rights centrist from Alabama. An almost apolitical man of law who upheld the creed of “equal protection under the law” for all Americans, Johnson passed away at his home from pneumonia at the age of 82, following “an extensive period” of declining health, according to a Johnson family spokesperson... Johnson had been a Circuit Judge from his home state of Alabama prior to President Colonel Sanders sending him on his way through US Senate hearings to the top judicial spot in the entire country, in March 1971...
– The Washington Post, 5/12/2001
Jackson’s search for the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court began in earnest. With the eight Associate Justices, the nation’s highest court was evenly split between left-leaning and right-leaning bench members. Joseph Tyree Sneed III of California, Herb Fogel of Pennsylvania, Emilio Miller Garza of Texas, and Larry Dean Thompson of Georgia made up the conservative bloc, while Mary Murphy Schroeder of Colorado, Miles W. Lord of Minnesota, and William Nealon Jr. of Pennsylvania formed the liberal-to-progressive bloc; Justice Sylvia Bacon of California was a moderate Republican who found herself increasingly voting more often with the latter group.
Jackson sought out a progressive-minded jurist who could still appeal to moderates, and “someone with experience, not some mediocre country lawyer like Dinger or Colonel Sanders,” as vetting committee member and former US Attorney General Amalya Lyle Kearse described in a highly controversial 2005 interview. One early named floated was Alan Cedric Page, a 55-year-old Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and former professional football player, due to his early support of Jackson in the 2000 primaries. Similarly, 45-year-old Leah Ward Sears of the Georgia Supreme Court was a rumored candidate also, as well as Jackson’s own US Attorney General, the 61-year-old Harry Thomas Edwards. Bellamy-appointed African-American Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ann Claire Williams, 51; former US Attorney General Amalya Lyle Kearse, 63; and Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan P. Graber, 52, were all reportedly considered and met with the President more than once. For a brief period, Moderates and Republicans pushed for Gilbert Merritt, a moderate from the sixth district, but opposition from both the Simon Wiesenthal Center and VP Wellstone over Merritt’s handling some prior cases led to Merritt being quickly dropped from consideration. Furthermore, several “outside-the-box’ candidates, such as 64-year-old state Attorney General and former state Supreme Court chief justice Darrell McGraw of West Virginia, 68-year-old Court of Appeals Judge for the Second Circuit Guido Calabrese, and 59-year-old state Attorney General Bill Lockyer of California, all passed on being considered.
By the end of May, President Jackson and his vetting team had narrowed the options down to five options: Harvard Law professor Stephen L. Carter of Connecticut, age 47, African-American; moderate-to-conservative Circuit Judge José Alberto Cabranes of Puerto Rico, age 60; Harvard Law School professor Michael J. Sandel, age 47, Jewish, and strongly pro-free speech/freedom of information online; Appeals Court Judge Martha Craig Kirko “Cissy” Daughtrey of Kentucky, age 58, a strong opponent of BLUTAG marriage bans; and early favorite Alan Cedric Page.
– Linda Greenhouse and Morton J. Horwitz’s Sustaining Liberty: The Supreme Court Under Our Current Chief Justice, Sunrise Publishing, 2020
“…The industries of agriculture, construction, and hotel and restaurant services cannot survive without immigrant labor. Migrant workers and Americans-at-heart are highly valuable and should be highly valued, but are not treated as such. Legal immigrants deserve protection from wage theft and other workplace hazards that should only be found in third-world countries, and never in America. …In the year 2000, legal Immigrants from Asia and Oceania made up roughly 33% of all register immigrants, and roughly 25% came from Mexico alone. Only 15% of them came from Europe and only 14% came from all of Africa. ...the fact that Mexicans are willing to become Mexican-Americans is a sign that we need to pass this bill, which I hold here in my hands, a bill already sponsored by Senators Mondragon and Skandalakis, a bill that will re-adjust America’s immigration policy to make it more inclusive and welcoming to immigrants from these regions of the globe. And it is why I call on the Senate to bill Senators Vallas and Basha’s anti-wage theft bill…”
– US Sen. Gloria Tristani (D-NM), speech on the Senate floor, 5/27/2001
SWANSON APPROVAL RATING HITS 75%
…According a new poll, 75% of Nevadans approve of Governor Swanson, while 18% disapprove; the remaining 7% are undecided. Since entering office in 1995, Governor Swanson has sought to rectify drought issues with huge water pipes system projects stretching across the state. The projects, funded by revenue brought in by mining operations and a sliver of Las Vegas casino earnings, has dropped unemployment in the state considerably…
– The Elko Daily Free Press, Nevada newspaper, 5/30/2001
JACKSON NOMINATES ALAN PAGE FOR CHIEF JUSTICE: “Who Says The Chief Justice Has To Be A White Man?”
– The Washington Post, 6/1/2001
DISNEYLAND SYDNEY (FINALLY) OPENED TODAY!
…The fifth Disneyland theme park began operations today, after months of delays, with parades and fanfare culminating in a huge fireworks presentation…
– The Los Angeles Times, 6/2/2001
Political commentator and writer for
National Review DEROY MURDOCK (R-NY): “The US does not negotiate with terrorists. The US President should never negotiate with terrorists. And yet, in 1997, Jesse Jackson flew down to Colombia to participate in negotiations for the release of two American tourists kidnapped by left-wing guerrillas. His meeting with them was unsanctioned by the American government. It could have led to disaster and deaths of those tourists. And now, Jesse Jackson is trying to break bread with the same terrorist group. A group that threatened to kill American citizens. This President might need to be impeached for endangering all our lives now.”
Editor and publisher of
The Nation KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (D-CA): “He’s working out a peace process with rebel guerillas, not terrorists. That kidnapping incident was the work of a FARC splinter group that’s already been condemned by FARC leadership. President Jackson is working to save lives and improve Colombia’s situation so their government can finally rid themselves of the drug lords plaguing the US and Mexico and Colombia and every country in between, because the cartels use the Colombia countryside to grow the recreadrugs they sell wherever they can.”
MODERATOR: “Well, former Ambassador Bush, what do
you think about the Jackson’s presidency so far?”
Former US Ambassador to Colombia GEORGE H. W. BUSH (R-TX): “Well, I don’t his decision of doing business with guerillas, left or right, is a sound or sharp policy. It could start a dangerous precedent. And, not to veer off subject, but this Voting Access For All bill in committee in the House, the one they’re calling the next big bill, the, uh, the next Voting Rights Act, well, I’m not too keen on it.
Job opportunity, education, and fair play will help alleviate inequities. Sweeping Federal legislation will fail [4]. Negotiations with FARC may be less of a failure, unless he’s careful and listens to the experts, then it could be different.”
– The Overmyer Network, round-table discussion, 6/5/2001 broadcast
…Hostilities between the two countries dropped significantly once Jesse Jackson entered office. In a peace offering of sorts, Jackson traveled to Japan in March to shake hands with incumbent PM Shintaro Ishihara. The meeting was tense due to Ishihara’s anti-American support base, but the American President’s further efforts to warm up relations and return them to the closeness they were in the 1980s and again in 1996 led to support for Ishihara’s isolationist belligerence waning considerably – at least, within the LDP. The situation, plus some nostalgia for the pre-recession days and a growing sense of buyer’s remorse setting in, allowed Ryutaro Hashimoto, PM from 1995 to 1999, to stage a political comeback within the party, rising to lead the “globalist”/“pro-trade”/anti-Ishihara faction by September 2001...
– Walter LaFeber’s The Sun And The Eagle: US-Japanese Relations In The Post-Cold War Era, 2019 edition
“Page is dangerously unqualified – he’s only been practicing law since 1978!”
– US Senator Bernie Goetz (R-CO), amid Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Alan Page, 6/18/2001
…alright, we have for you all on this fine evening some breaking news, straight out of Kensington, where a representative of the royal family has just announced that the Queen’s niece, Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones of Snowden, and her husband, American businessman Donald Trump, are expecting. Their first child together is due to arrive sometime in January, according to the announcement…
– BBC News, 21/6/2001
LYNWOOD DRAKE, IACOCCA ASSASSIN, HAS DIED IN PRISON FROM CANCER, AGE 51
…passed away yesterday, according to an official statement. Drake had been suffering from an unspecified form of cancer since at least 1992, having undergone seven surgeries for “non-life-threatening” cancer in one of his legs by the end of that year.
[5] By 1997, though, his health situation was worsened, and in May of this year was relocated to a medical center for treatments…
– The New York Times, 6/23/2001
Before the start of the summer recess, Fred’s media-grabbing announcement had led to Senator Ted Sorensen (D-NE) referring to the bill as “emergency funding for farmers in turmoil,” an illusion of crisis which helped gather immediacy and speed things up a bit. …In 1933, FDR passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act, but it had lost its power and influence over the years; the “Tuttle Bill” was looked to as the newest vessel for “saving family dairy farms.” Small farms and farmers were taking a hit from pricing that kept dropping due to international competition and a lack of market demand. This aspect of the problem led to support from the more isolationist and libertarian-leaning lawmakers in congress. What brought it all together in the end, however, was Agriculture Committee Chair Tucker’s inclusion of a “trade-off,” as in one more aspect of further federal regulation – an amendment to the bill that raised the amount of milk and cheese consumed by the National School Lunch Program.
– John O’Brien’s Man With A Plan: The Book Based on The Race Based on The Movie, Wind Ridge Books, 2003
When did Canada legalized same-sex marriage in 1998 via parliamentary vote upholding earlier province-level legalizations, Dinger stayed silent on the matter, deciding not to ruffle any more feathers as the midterms neared. Once out of office, however, the Iowan President began to be more outspoken, defending BLUTAG rights, as well as gun rights and recreadrug rights, by saying in a June 2001 interview “the government has to respect and uphold states’ rights on both sides of the political aisle,” which led to him receiving praise from some on both aisles and criticism from both aisles. Later that same month, the former President sided with ex-rival Jesse Jackson in supporting a state judicial ruling – in Missouri, of all places – on BLUTAG marriage that declared “it is the actions and intentions of a spouse, not the gender, sex or sexual preference or preferences of a spouse, that determines the upholding of the sanctity of marriage.”
– Brandon Teena’s The Rise of BLUTAG Rights: The Story of the Bi-Lesbian-Undefined-Trans-Asexual-Gay Movement, Scholastic, 2019
SENATE CONFIRMS PAGE, 63-35: Former NFL Defense Tackle Set To Become First African-American Chief Justice Of The Supreme Court!
– The Washington Post, 6/27/2001
SOURCE(S)/NOTE(S):
[1] According to this article here:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/politics/pentagon-hypersonic-missile/index.html
[2] Song and lyrics from OTL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxman (it has an interesting backstory, IMO)
[3] As mentioned before in Chapters 78 and 79. Also, the idea of Trump marrying isn’t this family isn’t too far-fetched in my opinion due to the fact that he pursued Diana after her 1992 divorce in OTL.
[4] Italicized bit is GHWB quote from OTL.
[5] According to the last article found here:
https://murderpedia.org/male.D/d/drake-lynwood.htm
Also: I’m not an expert on tax lingo, so if there’s a misused phrase or term here or there, please inform me about it and kindly say how to correct it, thank you.
The next chapter’s E.T.A.: soon!