May 1988

5/1/88

Ron Paul (Libertarian candidate): conservs don’t want to register their guns but they will register their kids (draft)

Le Pen refuses to endorse Chirac

1987, 57% of Congressional roll-call votes rejected legislation supported by RR (a record since 1953)

Since Dec. 12, 30 Palestinians killed by tear gas, 14 of them infants


5/2/88

RR Admin wants to increase foreign arms sales to $15b from $11.7b inc $3.6b for Israel, 3.3 SK, 2.7 Egypt (what does Egypt need it for?)


5/3/88

House also approves benefits to atomic vets 326-2.

Methodists to cont. saying that homosexuality incompatible w/Christianity

Israel sends maybe 6,000 troops into Lebanon. Shamir says the raid is routing--no kidding

A forthcoming book by former chief of staff Don Regan says that Nancy reads astrology & determines RR’s schedule accordingly.


5/5/88

NZ accuses Fr of letting out the 2nd agent jailed for the Rainbow Warrior bombing. Fr was supposed to keep him in jail at least another yr

Br local election today. Labour did well, making gains from a strong majority. Tories also did well, the Alliance collapsed. Lab increased vote share in N more than S.


5/6/88

Dukakis took Ohio & Indiana, Jackson DC

Norway lost a lot of heavy water in 1983, possibly diverted to India or Pakistan. The conspiracy seems to have been private

1971 the US knew that Noriega was involved in the death of a priest, thrown live from a helicopter. Noriega was head of military intelligence. Carter admin also knew this

Br will investigate Kuwait’s 22% share in BP

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon (now finishing up) is called Operation Law & Order. They wiped out a town.

Pepsi will advertise on Soviet tv, inc w/Michael Jackson

Jackson’s reported income is 2X that of Dukakis

CA Sup Court refuses to let the Leg. cut financing for abortions--again

Mark Twain: “It is by the grace of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.”

A trade bill passes Congress that RR will no doubt veto, as threatened. It inc various punitive bits, a bit making sure Alaskan oil isn’t exported, repeal of windfall profits tax on oil (which isn’t collecting anything anyway). But the controversial bit is a required 60 dys’ notice of plant closings (100+ employees). Will also make retraining of workers displaced by imports an entitlement. And punishment of Toshiba (sold stuff to Russians). And a Competitiveness Policy Council. The D’s are threatening that if RR vetoes, he can forget the free trade treaty w/Canada, which will undoubtedly knock Mulroney out of office.


5/7/88

Hong Kong const gives Ch final say in interpretation. All rights “unless restricted by law”. Electoral college appointed by Ch.

Chirac says that the Greenpeace bombing agent released is pregnant. My, what strenuous security she must have been under


5/8/88

Jackson wants the difference in delegates between himself & Duke to be no more than 8%, the popular vote difference. What about the, what, 10+ states won by other people?

SPD won Schleswig-Holstein, 55%, after a Christ Dem program of dirty tricks became known

Mitterrand reelected w/something like 54%

In Moscow, 150 people joined to form an opposition party, the Demo. Union. 40 arrested, many released

5/9/88

White House attacks Don Regan’s new book. Nancy’s spokesperson says she will cont. consult her astrologer

Bush admits knowing that Noriega involved in drugs, reversing previous lies.

Noam Chomsky writes that Shamir 1984 said that Israel has not renounced its right to Jordan, reiterated by Herut, Feb88. And quotes Ben-Gurion that borders are not absolute (1949) & that no external factor will limit Zionist boundaries (1938). In 1973 Egypt & Syria attacked not Israel, but Israeli-occupied territories.
-Gaza has perhaps highest pop density. 2,500 Jewish settlers 0.4% pop & 28% of state lands. Arabs facing water crisis, w/water going to settlers & Israel.
-The Jewish Nat Fund, which serves only Jews & controls over 90% of Israeli land, is purchasing W Bank lands secretly through a subsidiary.
-NYT refused to print Arafat’s Jan. 14 statement that the PLO would “recognize Israel’s right to exist if it and the United States would accept PLO participation in an international Middle East peace conference.” based on all UN resolutions, inc 242. A yr earlier, a similar proposal rejected because Shamir & Peres refused to deal w/PLO. Not reported in US


5/10/88

American tear gas firms are refusing to sell more to Israel because of misuse


5/11/88

Soviets arrested the editor of Glasnost mag. after he agreed to meet the Democratic Union

The US has been pressing Asian countries (Taiwan, SK) to take US cigarettes

US can’t deliver food & aid to Contras because of the cease-fire. So will send cash, w/no monitoring.

Kim Philby dies in Moscow at 76

Mitterrand picked Socialist Michel Rocard as PM of a minority gov (215 of 577). Giscard d’Estaing & Raymond Barre’s supporters will judge legislation on merits, they say. And won’t censure Rocard. Rocard is a mkt-oriented socialist

Japanese cabinet official (head of land agency) said that Japan had no intention of invading Ch. in the 1930s, one of a series of such remarks over the last yr by various Jap. pols

Fr slogans: Chirac: “Ardor, Courage, Will.” Barre is True and Solid. Mitterrand: Gather & Unite. Mitterrand ran as everyone’s uncle & won as such. This was the least substantive election Fr ever had, the result of cohabitation?


5/12/88

Kemp editorial: “The GOP Can Win Blacks.” Enterprise zones, he wants.

Singapore, after 30 yrs of Lee Kwan Yew, is becoming a real problem. Harassment of opposition high & increasing, inc use of torture. Censorship of foreign press. Use of alleged CP plots to justify arrest.

RR: “I’m going to work as hard as I can to make VP George Bush the next president of the United States.” And we all know how hard that is!

House passes $299.5b military budget, cutting RR’s Star Wars request from 4.9b to 3.5b, develop Midgetman instead of MX basing.

US proposing a deal w/Noriega to drop charges against him (Sens. Kerry & d’Amato are pissed) if he leaves Panama by Aug. (why the wait?) & stay away, but only until after next yr’s election

Rocard fails to appoint a Grand Coalition-type gov w/socialists 20 of 26, many taking back positions held before the 1986 elections. Possibly a caretaker gov before a new gen election

Stansfield Turner says he didn’t know of Noriega drug running, & suggests it didn’t begin until 1983.


5/13/88

Noriega says the negotiations collapsed thought the US disagrees. He says he can run for prez next yr.

Sen. passes bill to increase use of military in drug interdiction, inc stopping ships in internat water and making arrests.


5/14/88

That head of the Japanese land agency resigns

Fr will have an election in 3 weeks


5/15/88

Worse, Wm R Hearst Jr endorsed Mitterrand


5/16/88

Meese fired the Justice Dept spokesman for not defending Meese strenuously enough. Didn’t know that was his job.

Sup Court says garbage is not protected by right of privacy
-White opinion cites Smith v. Maryland 1979. It allowed a pen register at telephone comp of a suspect’s numbers dialed. He had no legitimate expectation of privacy, because he conveys those numbers to the telephone comp. And in overflights, as anyone in a plane could see your backyard! Strikes me that what one allows a disinterested professional (in telephone billing office or garbage collection) to see is different from what public allowed to see. And availability to public (i.e., enclosed but in an accessible garbage can) does not mean that one should expect it to be seen or taken any more than one should have to assume that an unlocked door is invitation to steel. One should be able to assume that one’s property or privacy is inviolate.
-Anyway, all that’s at issue is warrants. What’s so fucking hard about getting a warrant to search garbage?
-The court is ignoring, as always, that we live in an interdependent society, reliant on professionals. Must we live like the Amish to have privacy?

The Hungarian CP will meet in 5 dys. Now, an opposition youth organiz, which is 1,000 members, only formed in March. & an ind. union w/1,026 members has met. The former will preclude members joining other pol organizs, like the CP’s Youth organiz

Jap. PM Takeshita says his faction of the Lib Dems will not field female candidates as campaigning “is too physically tough for women.”

Ollie North spent last week dodging a subpoena. It cost the Senate $2,000 in overtime to deliver it.


5/17/88

A Soviet rocket plant blew up, possibly eliminating production of the SS-24

Giscard d’Estaing’s UDF & Chirac’s RPP are allying for the election. Barre is in the cold.

Sen. passes resolution against dropping charges against Noriega.

Sen. 68-27 for death penalty for drug kingpins who order killings & for killers, inc reckless indifference

Danish elections. The 3 socialist parties lost 7 seats, mostly to right-wing Progress (9 up to 16). Center-right gov still has 70. The Progress vote indicates voters didn’t vote on the defense issue that provoked the election. Total in Folketing = 179. Center & left hold 90, Soc Dems 54


5/18/88

Washington Times calls for Meese to resign

Dukakis wins Oregon

5/19/88

Tammy Baker says she wants Sally Field to play her in a tv movie

USSR closes down Glasnost mag.

The stealth bomber has been unveiled. It will only cost $½b each for 100 & seems of use only in a prolonged nuclear war. And even then, where would refueling planes come from? And they threaten the stabilizing mobile missiles. However, 1980s strategy says all Soviet targets must be kept vulnerable. Cruise missiles could do the job just as well. The Stealth (B-2) has been so secretive that its purpose has never been discussed in public


5/20/88

Soviets pulling troops out of Afghanistan. Death toll 15,000 or so

Gallup poll shows a 54-38% margin Dukakis v. Bush

Will Durst comments that Marcos is in Hawaii, Duvalier in the s. of Fr: Noriega must be having nightmares about Tahiti


5/21/88

Duvalier will be tried to embezzling in Fr.

Israel has acted w/out USSR & says it will require Soviet Jews to travel through Romania rather than Vienna

Outline of Noriega deal: he’ll be out of Panama 10 months (exc holidays), could pick his successor, all senior officers retire.


5/22/88

Hungary CP votes Janus Kadar out of his job after 32 yrs. His successor is supposed to be a reformer, but more econ than pol

Bangladesh has become an officially Islamic nation. Though not fundamentalist or non-tolerant.


5/23/88

Nicaragua unilaterally extends cease-fire 1 mo


5/24/88

Pakistan fires a missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon

An adviser to Gorbachev is talking about a nationwide “popular front” as alternative to CP. They have been encouraging creation of ind pol clubs

RR vetoed the trade bill; House votes to override

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 was started by the shooting of the Israeli ambassador to Br. A yr later, he dictated an article that the war was a pol & moral mistake. No American Jewish journal would publish it.
-One comments that Israelis are scared to go to W Bank, Gaza & even Galilee, so in this Greater Israel, it’s smaller than the 1967 borders


5/25/88

To get enough votes for her poll tax, Thatcher had to drag up more backwoods Lords than have been seen for some time, 500, largest since 1971 or 2, EEC entry vote

Communism is now to be considered a “world process” rather than as a “system”--less Moscow-centric. No model.

Negotiations w/Noriega break down

The problem w/gov decisionmaking is that gov service doesn’t pay enough to attract the best astrologers.

One analyst of today’s Demo. debate said Dukakis’s important statement was that the “Mass. Miracle” & his growth plan don’t apply to CA’s problems, which are with growth

Ala. & Fla. have voted to rescind call for const conv


5/27/88

The INF treaty ratified 93-5, and just in time for a summit, too.
-R’s stopped proposing “Micky Mouse” or “killer” amends. There is some mixing of metaphors here.

Angola says US is training & arming UNITA in 6 bases in Zaire. Cuban troops & Namibia are being negotiated between Angola & SA. The US, however, says that aid to UNITA will cont. regardless

Now the Navy wants Stealth technology to make ships radar-invisible


5/28/88

USSR talking about limiting CPSU party posts to 2 5-yr terms unless 3/4 of party cmte votes for him (secret ballot)


5/29/88

VN cutting troops in Cambodia, Laos. Halved in Laos & cutting 50,000 of 120,000 in Cambodia


5/31/88

Israel will investigate that soldiers buried 4 Palestinians up to chest with rocks for several hrs.

RR is in Moscow making speeches about econ freedom. Funny from someone who thinks that econ freedom is the freedom to close plants & steal into the night

Gorbachev is pushing to stop party leaders at 2 terms while RR says he will push to have US presidents serve more than 2 terms

Israeli tourism ad theme: “Come see for yourself.”

Yeltsin, ousted as head of CP in Moscow last yr, calls for resignation of Ligachev, the conserv #2 in CP

Soviet students (secondary) have had history exams cancelled while the authorities are deciding what the history was