January 1988

1/2/88

NYC Mayor Koch is considering a 1-week movie boycott over $7 ticket prices


1/3/88

Mao’s widow, 94, released from prison

Ron & Nancy sent a Xmas card to lt.-gov office, addressed to Mike Curb, who hasn’t been it in 5 yrs


1/4/88

When Israel expels Palestinians (against Geneva conventions & internat law) won’t be taken by an Arab state, so will probably be dumped in Israeli-occupied Lebanon. Using “speedy trials,” meaning pressure to confess

Large Afghan rally in Pakistan. It would have been more impressive had they allowed women

As part of summit, USSR gave US a Titian painting of St Sebastian being killed by short-range missiles & in return will receive an El Greco depicting Laocoon, who warned of Greeks bearing gifts

Malaysia will detain head of opposition party for 2 yrs w/out charges or trial

San Jose will bill drunk-driving suspects for police costs, paramedics, etc, even if found not guilty


1/5/88

New debt plan for Mexico. First to acknowledge that not everything will be paid. Mexico will swap security for debt, backed by US bonds

Br: head rabbi made a Lord!

There was a coup in, of all places, the Transkei

Ariel Sharon, now Israeli minister of industry & trade, has an apt. in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, clearly intended as a provocation, he claims it is for integration

Liechtenstein begins free mass transit

Br suppressed news of a nuclear plant fire in 1957. More radiation was released than from 3 Mile Island, less than Chernobyl


1/6/88

US votes against Israel in the UN Sec Council for 1st time in 6 yrs--said Israel shouldn’t expel Palestinians

El Salvador claims guerillas killed the civil rights head (Nov?)


1/7/88

The CA. min wage inc a subminimum wage of $2.50 for those getting tips

Bush says that in I-C, the admin “erred on the side of life.”


1/10/88

Bush on Dole: “Tell him to get off my back.” Refuses to say what advice he gave RR on I-C: “I’m not a kiss-and-teller. I’m not going to go out there and try and look good... I stood solidly with the president.”

There are 14 Haitians running for prez, ½ having earlier been banned because of Duvalier ties.

US will deport 58 Haitians who tested positive for AIDS, who had applied for amnesty

FCC banned Pacifica Radio broadcast of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Asst sec defense Richard Armitage went to Panama to suggest to Noriega that he step down

EEOC let 900 age discrim cases sit while their deadline passed


1/11/88

Economist says injunction against BBC hurts the D-notice system, with which gov is not itself complying, since D notice clearance had been given

A Salvadoran judge rules that 5 nat guardsmen who killed 4 US churchwomen could not be released, as this was a common, not a pol. crime

AZ governor Meecham indicted. Yippee. Concealed a $350,000 campaign loan

RR signs the Computer Security Act

PM Shamir said Arab protests “a new kind of Arab battle against the state of Israel” designed to provoke a violent Israeli response. Whew. Glad they didn’t fall into that one. --26 dead.

Dole calls Bush the “ghost of Spiro Agnew.” Bush demands his rivals release income tax returns

Haiti’s gov drops 11 of the 22 candidates for prez, leaving only 1 Duvalierist


1/12/88

Israel kept UN observers out of refugee camps

John Singlaub says if Congress doesn’t fund Contras, he will

RR in economics speech says our trade deficit shows US economy strong (we can afford to buy the stuff). “Trade deficits and inflows of foreign capital are not necessarily a sign of an economy’s weakness.” Compared it to selling stock. Also said of a report on the Oct. crash (and after another one last Friday), that crash solely from factors internal to Wall St.

A protester whose legs were cut off by a train he was trying to stop is being sued by the operators, who claim mental anguish.

OMB wants to cut fed funds to cities with rent control.


1/13/88

Sup Court 5-3 says schools can censor students if disagree w/basic ed. mission (see 1/15)

Israel expulsion of 4 Palestinians

AMA wants to end malpractice trials w/medical review board!

The lowest 10% of US taxpayers will pay 1/5 more of earnings in fed taxes 1988 than 1977, wealthiest 1% 20% less

Evidence is out that US intelligence knew almost immediately that Soviets shot down KAL 007 in 1983 thinking it was something else, though RR publicly accused them of doing it deliberately


1/14/88

A Cal. program of $40m to aid homeless will be ended or delayed because fed gov refuses to provide its share, saying it is discriminatory because homeless AFDC families get larger grants than non-homeless.


1/15/88

US removing fighters from military bases in Sp. at its request

Hart is taking credit for not taking PAC money, while he seems to be doing nothing to pay his 1984 debts

NS adviser Powell told leaders of Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, El S. that if Contras can’t be kept in the field, “there will not be a sudden surge of interest in things Central American or other kinds of aid.” He was demanding a pub denunciation of Nicaragua at a Cent. Am. leaders’ meeting.

The Sup Court censorship decision said school could refuse to associate itself w/any controversial position. The school newspaper is not intended as a pub forum because students received credits, were edited & graded. Would court allow grades based entirely on writing acceptable opinions?
-Sounds like school students are not entirely stripped of const rights, like inmates & military
-Justice White op tries to transform it from a free-speech into an editorial issue.

Part of the problem w/US const rights is that they are supply-side. RR said once that 1st amend protects religion from state, not indivs from religion. Gov can ban foreigners coming to express their views because the right is for the expressers of ops, not the audience. Example: closing the PLO office.

Bork is even leaving the fed appeals court, allegedly to respond to his critics.

RR overrides law against aid for countries seeking nukes for Pakistan, certifying that it doesn’t have any.

Arias has said Contra aid should be ended but also that “If Nicaragua had complied, nobody would be speaking of sending more aid to the contras.”

This yr (1987, presumably), more Arabs than Jews were born in Israel for 1st time (inc W Bank, Gaza)


1/16/88

Petra Kelly, leader of W Ger Greens, once said that the nuclear codes should be encased in the heart of a child, which RR would have to rip open to begin nuclear war.

Attenborough’s film “Cry Freedom” somehow got permission to be shown in SA, but newspapers printing its ads are in trouble as they quote the movie which quotes banned words by Steve Biko & Donald Woods.


1/18/88

10/% of Haitian electorate turned out yesterday. So few, a Duvalierist is leading.

Nicaragua will have dir. cease-fire talks w/Contras. Lifted curb on civil rights. & partial amnesty & elections, local & for Cent. Am. Parl
-Arias says aid to Contras is entirely in Ortega’s hands
-Elliott Abrams says US attitude is wait & see, which requires aid to Contras. Huh?


1/19/88

Fred Iklé is leaving DOD

The R’s are making asses of themselves w/a major legal battle developing over Michigan delegates

Ortega says US should take Contra prisoners. “He has compared them to the national heroes of the United States. So how can he now deny the entry of Jefferson and Lincoln into the United States?”


1/22/88

Israel is now using beatings to quell rioting. I guess broken bones are better than bullets.

AZ Gov Meachan thinks someone is spying on him with lasers.

Israeli curfew keeping 250,000 Palestinians in refugee centers. Are now recruiting in Eur & Lebanon & drafting Israeli high school students for fruit picking.

RR will ask for $50m for Contras, saying essential for peace process.

Israel imposes curfew E Jerusalem

Ted Kennedy campaigning for Dukakis

In 1987, SA executed 164, 9 of whom white


1/24/88

Japan & Iceland are continuing hunting whales

Under AID, 10s of $millions funneled to relig schools and hospitals around world since 1971, inc Orthodox Jewish schools in Israel


1/25/88

STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: “Let us insure that democracy works, even in an election year.”
-“Revolution in compassion.”
-Global democratic revo.
-We Americans like the future.
-A revo in the way we think about deficits--they’re bad now [they’re also 4X bigger]. Making revenues match expenditures, like American families do [no they don’t]
-In the same paragraph as he promoted a nat curriculum he said control belongs local.
-Protectionism is destructionism
-The “Human Life Amendment” should exclude abortion to save life of mother, because the Judeo-Christian ethic recognizes right to kill in self-defence


1/26/88

US rejects legitimacy of Haitian elections, while saying it would work w/the winner. Huh?

George Bush & Dan Rather virtually came to blows last night. CBS asked him about Iran-Contra. Bush is also now running against the press.

The ind prosecutor law struck down by Appeals Court. This may overturn Michael Deaver’s conviction for perjury. But not Iran-Contra or some others, who were joint appointments

Nicaragua begins talks w/Miskito Inds


1/28/88

RR on Nicaragua: “Pres. Teddy Roosevelt once said diplomacy is utterly useless where there is no force behind it. I didn’t come to Washington preside over the Communization of Central America.”

Over 5 yrs from 1981, the FBI conducted surveillance of those opposed to RR’s Cent. Amer. policy. Photographed marchers. Student surveillance. Esp of CISPES. Allegedly after reports that CISPES provided illegal military assistance to Salvadoran rebels! One document talks of need for a “plan of attack against CISPES.”

Rehnquist says courts should stop last-min. death penalty appeals