The Tea Party

The Tea Party, named after the Boston Tea Party in 1773, was a movement that was formed around 2009, in response to high tax rates and excessive government intervention. It was a populist and conservative movement that was mostly in response to President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act, which had a payment plan of $930 billion over 10 years. Many Republicans wanted to repeal it, saying that the cost was too high and was unconstitutional.

Facebook and other social media were the primary platforms to organize protests, in which they objected "big government" and high taxes. This party wasn't an organized political party, but it did have political influence, as many Republicans wanted to go with this movement. In fact, candidates (mostly Republican) that were backed by the Tea Party won their elections.

Works Cited:

Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. "57.3 Bill Clinton: A New Democrat in the White House." History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Rancho Cordova, CA: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. 652-55. Print.

Why Bill Clinton won the Election of 1992

George HW Bush was running for a second term when Bill Clinton ran for office. Clinton's platform was a "new democrat," full of new ideas and opportunities for everyone. His speech during the Democratic Convention speaks strongly of the themes of his campaign.

"...A government that is leaner, not meaner; a government that expands opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise.... We offer opportunity. We demand responsibility. We will build an American community again. The choice we offer is not conservative or liberal. In many ways, it is not even Republican or Democratic It is different. It is new. And it will work" (History Alive).

Although Bush had an early advantage, the recession hit those numbers hard. As the economy shriveled so did his popularity, and because of Clinton's focus on opportunity, especially in the market, Clinton was able to gain voting ground.

The second reason Clinton was able to win was a third party candidate: Ross Perot. It split the conservative vote between Perot and Bush and gave Clinton the margin he needed to win.

Works Cited

Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. "57.3 Bill Clinton: A New Democrat in the White House." History
Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Rancho Cordova, CA: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. 652-55. Print.

An intro to the Personal Computer

Computers had being around way before the 70s or 80s, but during this time the personal computer ( a computer that the average person could own and keep in their homes) began to gain popularity. Before this computers were things people assumed only those in the government or scientists worked with in large rooms that no one besides these professionals would have any chance at operating. Those in the evolving tech industry saw the potential in home computers and many companies began creating their own models. Bill Gates (Microsoft) discovered early on that the true value of these computers was the software. He began selling his software to major companies like IBM. He had the licensing rights and this way anyone wanting to enter this industry had to get his software to compete. His contracts were non-exclusive allowing him to profit form many startups, many of which failed.


One of first computers: (Very large, confusing system, not for everyday use)

One of first personal computers: (bulky, still confusing,but a major improvement for the average person)

The computer today is a major part of our society. In schools, the workplace, national defense, and almost  every industry the computer and related technology have very heavy value. However, at the start this was not the case. Many people had difficulty adapting the to unknown technology and its early models often crashed. Few people knew how to fix these problems and this stood in the way of computers steady growth in popularity. The need for a user-friendly interface increased and some discovered that adapting the computer to human common sense through visuals would be the best way to decrease difficulty. When this was achieved people slowly began finding uses for the computer like doing taxes, schoolwork, and various uses at work.

Today's computer: (yes.)

The Home VCR

The VCR was invented in 1956, but it wasn't in a form attainable for the average citizen in a popular manner until the 70s. When it first emerged in the market the film and television industries were threatened by the ability it gave consumers. It smashed the limitation of time and it allowed people to watch things when they wanted and had time rather then right when it was showing live. Those in the industry thought that the rerun value of content would be reduced if people could simply record things and play them latter. In the same stream the value of advertisements may have gone done due to the potential reduce in a live audience. There were many fears that came with this development in how people consumed their entertainment.

In reality, what happened was the film industry benefited from the VCR. Because people could only record things for themselves and not for profit as it was illegal (a fear some people had about content being sold off and abused), a new industry opened. The selling of movies was a major industry and many people began purchasing movies to watch at home at their own pace. Without the DVR showing people the effectiveness of this, the idea may not have came about and the selling of copies may not have been as popular if it were ever invented.

Saddam Hussein and Iraq

When Iraq attacked Kuwait under leadership from the Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, the United States decided to intervene, preventing Iraq from annexing Kuwait. Along with another 33 countries, the United States made a coalition to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. They bombed Iraq for six weeks before starting the ground assault. They did not face much resistance, and the Gulf War ended after four days. However, Hussein was allowed to stay in power, as the coalition showed that if countries allied against a common enemy there could be relative peace.
The book didn't explain how Hussein came into power, only that he was the dictator. I found a short video that shows how he took power while someone gives an explanation of what it happening.

Explicit Lyrics - Parental Advisory

Today's rap songs often feature two tracks: a radio edit and an explicit version. However, it was not rap music that originally prompted the implementation of warning labels; it was 1980s death metal. Death metal glorified sex, violence, and disrespecting authority. Senator's wives became concerned to the point where they filed a suit demanding music like this be censored. This was not possible, however, as music is a form of expression protected under the First Amendment. The wives argued the music influenced that actions of juveniles who listened to them and was leading them on a bad path. The result of the trial was the mandatory warning label that most often read something along the lines of "Explicit Lyrics - Parental Advisory." And we still use these labels to this day.

Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/10/AR2006081000925.html

The Origins of MTV and Racial Discrimination

In the 1980s, during the era of headbands and record stores, a new form of broadcasting music was introduced: Music Television (aka MTV). MTV added an extra dimension to music because there was now a visual element other than newspaper images of popular musicians. Artists began to make music videos for their popular songs. The people in charge of choosing which music videos were played were called VJs—adapted from the radio DJ or disk jockey. Duran Duran was a band that made popular music videos on MTV who made their music videos into "mini-movies" that featured provocative lyrics and alluring women. One of their music videos "Girls on Film" was banned by MTV as it was "too suggestive," according to one VJ.

MTV also did not feature the music of African American artists. This could have been more many reasons. The producers themselves might have secretly harbored some prejudice and forbid the VJs from showing African American artists. Even Michael Jackson, who was selling one million records a year was not invited. In an interview, we saw in class on Friday, MTV was asked why there were not any African American artists featured on their channel. Not only did they admit, African American artists had not yet been featured because of their race, but it was also said that they were doing this because they had many viewers in the South and the Midwest. Regardless, MTV's popularity didn't budge. The first African American artists to be featured on MTV was Michael Jackson, after which many more popular African American artists followed.

Deregulation Under Reagan

Reagan wanted to deregulate several parts of the government, including environmental laws and S&Ls. He thought that environmental laws that had high standards for air and water pollution. Without these and other measures that improved safety in workplaces, businesses would not have to spend so much on keeping with the regulations and could spend more in their services to boost the economy. He also got rid of some environmental regulations that protected certain areas of land so businesses could drill more oil or mine, thus creating more jobs. In the case of S&Ls, or savings and loan associations, they were restricted before Reagan so they could only give low-risk and low-cost loans, mostly for buying homes. But once they were deregulated, they started to give high-risk loans in the hopes of making more money, but it left thousands of S&Ls bankrupt, which led to there being less loans, so less houses were bought, hurting the economy and making another recession, which was the opposite of what deregulation was supposed to do.

Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal Incident

When Lois Gibbs found out that she and her family were living on land poisoned by toxic chemicals, she began to investigate the impacts of the environment she lived in on other people in the area. Gibbs discovered that her entire community was negatively impacted by the toxic land. She started the Love Canal Parents Movement (LCPM) in June 1978 to educate her community about the dangers of living near the Love Canal.

The Movement spread awareness of the conditions surrounding Love Canal, and it solved the problem, but only to a very limited extent. The Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA) was formed, and it was made up of 500 families that interviewed families and made a map of disease clusters around the Love Canal area. An important study completed in 1979 found that rates of stillbirths, urinary tract disorders, nervous breakdowns, hyperactivity, and epilepsy increased. Additionally, there were three times as many miscarriages as last measured, and 56% of the babies in the area were born with a birth defect (like mental retardation, or growing another ear).

The LCPM and LCHA began appealing to the public and even the government because the previously mentioned study was dismissed by the state authorities. A second evacuation of children and pregnant women was issued, and a total evacuation was completed in 1980 after being issued by President Carter. In the end, the residents at Love Canal were proved wrong in the belief that the government would always be there to protect them.

The Start of the Persian Gulf War

In 1990 Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, decided to attack Kuwait because they wanted oil. After attacking, Saddam Hussein wanted to make Kuwait part of Iraq. The United States decided to lead an international coalition to stop Saddam. The United States sent 400,000 soldiers in partnership with the United Nations. Congress approved on January 12th to “use all necessary means” to free Kuwait from Iraq. The war did not last very long, but Iraq agreed to a cease-fire after only 4 days of fighting. However, the coalition forces did not stop Saddam from having power, and he ruled until 2006 when the United States found him and he was hung to death.

History of Floppy Discs

Floppy disks also known as a floppy, or diskette was a type of storage used in the 70s, 80s, and 90s for computers. Because computers had very little memory at this time, computer companies were looking for the most effective ways to store data. The floppy disks would hold applications such as photoshop or games, which often took many disks for a single application. During the mid 90s, people started to turn away from Floppy disks because there better options for storing large files such as flash drives and CDs.

My Dad & Bill Gates

Today in class we learned about Bill Gates and his company Microsoft as part of the technology boom in the 80's. I know my dad has always been really interested in computers, so I asked him about how he felt about all of the new innovations of the time. Unexpectedly, he had a lot of really interesting stories to tell.

My dad actually knew Bill Gates in the 80's. He dated my dad's sister, Patty, for several months. He met him a few times when he would come to his parents' house. My dad asked Bill if he could get him an interview at Microsoft, which he did, but my dad didn't take the job because he took a job at Apple instead (ouch).

He also described some experiences in college. He was one of the very few people at his school, UCSB, who had a personal computer. He says that he would always have people begging to use it, as this was before there was a computer lab at the school. He got a macintosh in 1984, and he said it was $2500. The school got a computer lab just a couple years later.

In the late 80's, him and his friends created their own computer lab, which they invited the UC Extension program to use for their classes. They accepted, so him and his friends taught computer classes there. It was called the Microcomputer Education and Training Center.

Communism Survives but Change is Coming

The communist government remained in power in Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, and China. North Korea relied on the Soviets for their economic support, but once the fall of the Soviet Union they had to rely on China. China started to move towards a system similar to the United States, and many people started to protest because they wanted change and more freedom in their country. However, the Chinese government did not want change. For example, in June 1989 the Chinese authorities decided to stop the protest for democracy by sending the army to stop the protesters. A protester wanted to show serious he was about democracy, so he stood in front of all the tanks so they could not move. Once they moved, he moved with them. China did stop the protest, but China is slowly making progress to becoming a more free country.

The Sony Walkman

The Walkman was so huge in the 1980’s because it took listening to music from a fixed location of your home to where ever you were going. It was in fact a portable audio cassette/tape player that was considered “small” during the time. The Sony Walkman was a 14 ounce, blue and silver portable player with chunky bottoms along with headphones and a additional case. It doesn't stop there the Sony Walkman included another earphone jack so not one but 2 people could listen to it, how great! These pieces of junk compared to what we have today valued $200 dollars, despite the price tag these were a great hit. Even if you think about it these Walkman were only $80 cheaper than the average monthly rent of $280 in 1979.

The Flaws of "Reaganomics"

Reagonomics, on paper, initially made sense.

Reagonomics was a way to counter inflation — if you gave the investing class the money, then it would trickle down to the bottom of the pile. Essentially, by cutting taxes on the wealthy, they would spend more money, which would create more jobs and offer more products.

However, there were many issues with this ideology.

After all, it essentially killed the middle class. It hurt the wages of many union workers, and the social spending cuts that were induced by it only hurt the economy more.

Additionally, for economic growth, spending must increase. Because of reduced wages, the middle class spent money on less, which shrank the economy that wanted to sell products.

Reaganomics was inherently flawed, and overall was certainly a failure.

Why was Reagan so Popular?

Reagan was, certainly, one of the most popular, well liked presidents of his era. Certainly, there is a massive amount of evidence to back up his popularity -- he was incredibly charismatic, and did many great things for the United States.

However, Reagan also was an extremely controversial figure, due to his many failures. Reaganomics, for example, did not repair the issue that it intended to. Additionally, his issues with the "contras" also resulted in lowering his reputation.

Despite these issues, he still maintained a great reputation. Why?

Reagan's humor and charisma eventually pulled through. He understood the keys to political success -- and was able to portray himself a hip, well-informed, good person. Because of this, Reagan was always well known, despite his controversies.

What as the significance of flight KAL 007

I decided to further research into the incident of the KAL 007. On September 1, 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean Boeing 747 from its decent from New York to Sol Korea departed Alaska, on this route Soviets departed a missile. This killed 269 passenger and crew. Ronald Reagan scolded it and described it as a terrorist act of innocent people. It became known as the Korean Massacre, and US officials state that the Soviets might have mistaken it for an American spy plane. Sadly, the Soviet Union did not take blame or apologize for their mistake. Because of this Americans banned Russian goods, and made them "pay" for the lost lives. But there where many thought it was American fault, blamed them for placing the Boeing 747 into the line of fire to test the Soviets Missiles.

The Rise and Fall: Jimmy Carter (summarized)

          During the mid-1970s people felt a lack of trust towards the government because of the watergate scandal that removed president Nixon from his post and the high inflation and high unemployment that was occurring across the nation. Many Americans were losing a sense of national purpose and were turing back to an individualistic perspective due to all of these problems. Jimmy Carter saw this unrest in the American people as an opportunity to run for the presidency. He built his campaign on the fact that he was honest and his government would be too. He was a peanut farmer, highly educated, and represented traditional values that seemed to be appealing to a broader audience in this era. He didn't seem like the typical politician of the time and because of these reasons he was appealing to the public. He was a very popular candidate and won the 1977 presidency, making him the 39th President of the United States.

           Carter had a great start to his presidency, but how his presidency ended overshadowed this and many of his accomplishments in the role. Carter gave a famous speech, the "malaise speech", which was meant to be about taking responsibility of the problems occurring in the country after talking to regular citizens about what they considered to be issues with America. Shortly after that speech Carter fired his entire cabinet and this seems to show a lack of confidence in his message and his own government. It also made his speech seem like he was blaming others, the country, and Americans for the current state of the economy and the other issues surrounding the time. This message upset many Americans. 

           Another thing that lowered his standing in the American people's opinion was the Iran Hostage Crisis. Because Carter was not able to get the hostages out of the situation without threatening war with the Soviet Union he appeared weak on both accounts. When an attempt to save the hostages ended poorly and due to what appeared an embarrassing and fatal failure he seemed even more of a weak leader to the American people and to other foreign leaders. The final blemish on his reputation was the years of the declining economy and lost hope of the American people. When election season was near, many Americans were ready for a change from the Carter Administrations and the state of the economy so when Ronald Reagan ran, seeming like that voice of change, Carter had very little chance of convincing the American people that he was the best choice for the new term.

Reagonomics

           Ronald Reagan became the 40th president in 1981 after Jimmy Carter. He was a fairly successful actor and a U.S governor before his presidency and he was able to win the presidency with his message that things could only get better with him as a leader. He posed the question "Are you better of now than you were 4 years ago?", which inspired many Americans to consider him the leader of an era of change from the 70s that many people had grown tired off. When Reagan was in office one of his main concerns was the economy as it was experiencing high inflation and low employment rates. To fix this issue he suggested a strategy that later was known as "Reagonomics". In this plan the government would give money to the investing class and through their investments and businesses the money would trickle down to the bottom of the pile. It would cut taxes on corporations and companies so they would be able to spend more and create more products. In this way people would benefit with the jobs and the new circulation of money. To make up for the tax cuts on the upper class, the government needed to cut from their own budget, this meaning benefit programs that many Americans relied on to survive. Reagan's plan relied on faith in the investing class to fulfill it's role, which was one of it's major faults. Though inflation did go down, Reagonomics was making the economy much worse as unemployment increased to rates seen in the Great Depression. Reagan, realizing the harm created by his program spoke to the American people expressing how his stubbornness got in the way of him properly analyzing the economic situation and the best solution.

Iran and the Contras

One of the crises Reagan had to deal with was the Iran-Contra Scandal. The Contras were a rebel group in Nicaragua that opposed the communist Sandinista government, and were backed by the Americans. Reagan and others wanted to help fund them, but Congress banned the government from sending help to the Contras. Over in Lebanon, terrorists funded by Iran were kidnapping Americans, spreading panic in the United States. After several unsuccessful attempts to free them, the hostages were suddenly let go. It was later found that someone in the United States government had illegally sold weapons to Iran in return for having the hostages let go. Since they couldn't use the illegal money in the United States, they decided to send it over to the Contras to help them out. Since both of these actions were illegal, it created a political storm where many questioned whether Reagan knew anything about the actions. They found the person who had committed the actions and found Reagan to be innocent, but until that point he was under a lot of pressure and doubt from the people.

The Late Stages of Carter's Presidency

President Carter had a fairly successful early presidency because he brought honesty and traditional values, something that had been lacking in the White House for the last few terms. However, it started to go downhill with his malaise speech. At first it seemed like a great thing because his approval rating had shot up and the people that didn't like him were starting to accept him. But when they learned that he fired all of his staff so he could start anew, they took it as a message that the people were at fault for the problems in America. This made many Americans angry with him, which only escalated with the Iran Hostage Crisis. His inability to bring them home, especially when the attempted military extraction failed when two helicopters crashed when lifting off, greatly hurt the image the public had of Carter. Finally, he didn't campaign very much because he was trying to get the hostages home, so he lost the presidential election in a landslide to Reagan.

Presidents

Over the course of the past few weeks, we have looked at the United States under various presidents, and have been able to compare what happened under these presidents. It seems that all of the presidents we consider to be successful were very good at appealing to the American people, like Kennedy and Eisenhower, while a lot of other presidents who aren't remembered as well simply weren't very good at being popular among Americans.
Considering the fact that the president can't make laws directly and does not have the power to accomplish a lot of things that they want to, do you think that historically, the most important job of American presidents is to give Americans confidence and make the public happy, rather than actually leading the government?

New Zealand; A Silicon Valley Safe Haven?

In a recent Business Insider article, author Melia Robinson explores the trend of doomsday prepping among the tech-elite, and it's rising popularity with the new administration in the white house. Many are flocking to buy property in New Zealand due to its isolation and generally peaceful political climate. Many billionaires and tech execs have bought huge properties in the area, including Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal. An advantage to this is that, unlike much doomsday prep that requires building bunkers and bomb shelters, there is little to no chance that New Zealand would be bombed. With rising tensions in North Korea, there is a somewhat valid reason to be fearful of nuclear war. But I question if it is moral for those billionaires and millionaires who have helped throw the world into turmoil to take such an easy out? Shouldn't they use their resources to try and prevent nuclear war, instead of escape from it?

What Could Nixon Have Done Differently?

Nixon is infamous for the Watergate scandal, and for the most part, everybody focuses on the negative aspects of the situation. Watergate was, after all, a disaster, and it completely destroyed his reputation.

But what could Nixon have done to improve the situation? How could he have saved himself?

The reality is that there are millions of hypothetical situations and possible solutions....but here are a few that would have made a difference.

For starters, Nixon should not have underestimated the press. However, as soon as the scandal occurred, they were all over it. Nixon should have used the press to his advantage, and acted in a way to where they would cover him in a positive fashion. The press played a key part in shaping Americans' views of him, so had they covered him more positively, Nixon would have been viewed better.

He also could have been more open. Nixon did literally everything in his power to cover the scandal, which only served to make him look more guilty. If he had simply admitted his issues, would that have helped? Or would that have harmed him?

What do you guys think that he should have done?

Oil Motive Behind US Involvement in Middle East

Recently in class we discussed the Iran Crisis and how it affected US oil imports, skyrocketing gas prices. Today, we still rely on the Middle East for oil. 14 percent of our imported oil comes from Saudi Arabia. Also, the US still has military campaigns going on in the Middle East, despite the fact that the longer the US remains in the Middle East, the worse tensions are between terrorist organizations and the United States. There are more and more radical anti-US groups such as ISIS, and their power is only on the rise.

So, why are we still in the Middle East?

Since the 1970s, our oil imports have risen from 12 to 25 percent of our total oil. Also, since the 1970s, the US has had military campaigns in the Middle East, even during times where no major conflicts were happening.

This is just brushing the surface. The entire US-Middle Eastern relationship is murky.

Nuclear Meltdown Consequences

Although nuclear meltdowns do not have an official definition by the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is most commonly known as the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor.

These are devastating -- for a variety of reasons. 

Nuclear meltdowns result in severe radiation, which will spread all throughout the nearby areas from where they occurred. This results in not only making the region nearly entirely inhabitable, but also poisoning all nearby life. Essentially, this disaster can have absolutely catastrophic effects.

Because of the many dangers that can come with nuclear issues, many people are hesitant to create more nuclear reactors.

What do you all think -- should we be limiting nuclear reactors, or building more?

Lois Gibbs and Love Canal

In 1987, Lois Gibbs read reports of chemical waste in her neighborhood of Niagra Falls, New York. She connected these reports to the recent mysterious illnesses that afflicted her children and began to take action.

Gibbs organized neighbors from Niagra Falls and formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association, which she led in the multi-year fight against the governments responsible for the neglect that caused her family to become sick. A key moment in the success of the people was the unofficial home arrest of two EPA agents. The residents of Niagra Falls claimed that if it was healthy enough for them to live in this town, then it was acceptable for the agents.

More than 800 families were eventually evacuated, and Love Canal began to undergo a cleanup process. The struggle was documented by the national press, and Gibb's efforts led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's "Superfund," which is used to clean up toxic sites.

After the success of Love Canal Gibbs formed the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste (later renamed Center for Health, Environment and Justice). This organization is an environmental crisis center for thousands around the United States.

Research from Youtube video shown in class and The Goldman Environmental Prize website:
http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/lois-gibbs/

Love Canal

The Love Canal was a stretch of land in New York that was used for dumping chemicals. The land was owned by chemical companies. Afterwards the company sold the land to a developer which built houses on it. Kids started getting sick and birth defects were occurring due to all these chemicals. The government only rehoused 200 families that were closest to the site. Other families right across the streets weren't allowed to move without getting free housing. This caused parents to come together and lock government officials in a house to demand the president to allow them to move. This was successful with allowing all the families to move. It also led to 30,000 other toxic sites in the USA.

Environmental Efforts in the 70's

Environmental disasters such as the Cuyahoga River suddenly bursting into flames, acid rain, the Love Canal incident, and the Three Mile Island accident prompted people to become more aware of the state the environment was in and wanting to improve it. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, and millions of Americans took the day to clean up rivers and parks or held marches to promote awareness. The EPA was made after Earth Day, and it was an important part of the policies that would be made to protect the environment. For example, the Clean Water Act of 1972, which regulated the amount of sewage and pollutants that made its way into waterways, was made after the Cuyahoga River incident. The EPA was able to oversee the quality of public drinking water two years later with the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Love Canal incident, where the community of Love Canal found that their higher rates of cancer and birth defects were due to a chemical waste dump below them, prompted the government to make laws forcing companies to clean their toxic waste dump areas after it became a big media event. After the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station had a partial meltdown and released some radioactive gas, Americans stopped trusting the reliability of nuclear power plants. This led to the end of new nuclear plants being constructed in the United States. All of these events boosted membership in environmental groups, such as the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, and the creation of new ones like the Zero Population Growth, which wanted to decreases the population growth in order to decrease environmental destruction.

Nixon's Policies

During his time as president, Nixon enacted several policies that for that had different purposes but overall worked to make America a safer and better country. At home, he had policies that would appeal to both liberals and conservatives. His New Federalism, a plan that would reduce the size and power of the government, appealed to conservatives and their want for more state and local government power. Under this plan was revenue sharing, which had the federal government give tax revenues to state and local governments, letting them spend it based on their individual needs, rather than those of the country as a whole. For the liberals, Nixon increased Social Security and made the Food Stamp Program bigger. He also proposed the Family Assistance Plan, which would have had poor families receive a minimum annual income from the government as long as members that could work were searching for a job. It was never passed because conservatives thought it was just paying people to be lazy and liberals thought the income was too low for families to live on.
Internationally, Nixon tried to improve relations with China and the Soviet Union. After years of tension with the Soviets, he wanted to ease it and reach an agreement with them. Thanks to the policy of détente, they were able to reduce the number of nuclear missiles and forms of delivery during SALT. They also agreed to try and avoid military confrontations as to avoid WWIII. As a form of furthering détente, Nixon reached out to China to become friendlier with them after ignoring them and not acknowledging their government for 20 years. The United States Table Tennis team went to compete in China in 1971, starting the beginning of a better U.S.-China relationship. Nixon visited China the next year, and gave them the Chinese seat in the United Nations, taking it away from the Nationalist Government that had fled to Taiwan 20 years earlier.
Overall, Nixon succeeded in making America safer, at least until détente wore off and tension between the Soviets and Americans increased again. But better relations with China did lead to more trade and better communication between the two countries, making America better with the increasing economy along with revenue sharing and other policies.

The Watergate Scandal: A Brief Summary

On Wednesday, we discussed how the Watergate Scandal led to the resignation of President Nixon—the politician who won over 96% of the Electoral College in his re-election campaign. The 1972 break-in at the Watergate office complex in Washington D.C. would likely have been swept under the rug if it weren't for the persistence of the media—a movie was made about this called All the President's Men (1976). After Nixon and his administration were implicated in the burglary, the Senate launched some hearings in which Nixon was accused in the planning and cover-up of the break-in. During these hearings, it was revealed that Nixon had bugged his own office. The Senate Committee asks Nixon to hand over the tapes, but he declines, citing Executive Privilege—a very just argument because the release of the tapes could pose a threat to national security. The Supreme Court becomes involved and it is ruled that because the President is suspected of a crime, Executive Privilege doesn't apply. On August 8, 1974, Nixon announces his resignation. Nixon's former vice-president had just recently resigned for a completely unrelated tax scandal of his own, after which Nixon was forced to appoint a new one. Nixon's resignation leads Gerald Ford, despite not being elected, becoming the 38th President of the United States. 

Watergate Scandal and the Media

Yesterday in class we started learning about the Watergate scandal from 1972-1974. It started with the robbery of the democratic national committee, at the Watergate complex, by 5 burglars, who were all ex White House aides. The biggest part of the scandal was that then, Nixon became very involved of the cover-up of the burglary, therefore obstructing justice, which made him viable to be impeached. Nixon recorded his private conversations in his office, the purpose of which to protect him from false accusations of what he said, but those recordings ended up backfiring and being used as evidence for his illegal activity. He resisted for a while, but finally admitted guilt and resigned before he could be impeached.

I found an interesting pattern between this and the other events we've studied, which is the growing role of the media in influencing the public and creating justice. In the documentary, someone said that the media kept prying into the issue and continuing to keep it alive. Without the persistence of the media, the scandal would not have erupted to the scale it did and perhaps would have died down without any repercussions for Nixon or the burglars. Therefore, the media allowed for justice, just as it did in the Civil Rights Movement. These two events, the Civil Rights Movement and the Watergate scandal, foreshadow the immense influence the media has today.

A Bit on MAD

Mutually Assured Destruction was a principle created in the 1960s surrounding the tension around nuclear war. People who subscribed to the idea believed that only way to have assured stability is to have each side be confident they can deter the other if there was ever a nuclear attack. There has to be a balance and understanding that if one side attacks, the other can respond with equal power to cause severe damage.  This idea would prevent one side from being attacked by making sure that the attacker also fears their own annihilation. In this model there would be no point or benefit to a nuclear war. MAD, as it was acronymed, would reduce the power and advantage of a first strike greatly. Previously, it was agreed that the only way to win a nuclear war was to strike first, hard, and fast. This meant that the first strike would have to be so powerful it disabled the enemy from responding, it would have to wipe out all missiles and render the attacked completely wiped out. MAD threatened the effectiveness of such an attack, since both sides would have to be heavily armed and prepared to strike back. After the Cuban missile crisis the Soviet Union began hiding their missiles and continued to build up there weaponry. The U.S also participated in these strategies and both sides wanted to assure that in the case of a first attack, not all missiles would be taken out, giving them a way to respond. The MAD tactic clearly only works if both sides want to survive and are not willing to sacrifice themselves for the 'victory'. Another major part of MAD or the war readiness movement was the use of the submarine. The submarine in the 1960 was a useful weapon as it could survive under water and carried many missiles. If there was ever to be an attack on the country, there would be no way to locate all the submarines underwater and they could be used as retaliation. As a result of the tension between the Soviet Union and the United States many people thought of ways to prepare for a possible war, but they soon realized how futile any drill or preparation would be in such a devastating nuclear war. There was no reason to prepare as the damage would be too severe if you were close or at the site of the bomb dropping or anywhere near. You might survive the initial attack depending on proximity, but the radiation, environmental effects, and the disturbance to society might be what killed you regardless.

Tsar Bomba

The Tsar Bomba was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. The test occurred on the 30th of October 1961 and yielded 57 megatons of TNT. The Tsar Bomba had three stages which used a fission bomb primary to compress the thermonuclear secondary, and then caused the third stage to explode from the previous explosion. This three stage design was able to yield about 100 Mt, but that size explosion would have caused too much fallout and would have destroyed the plane carrying it. To limit this the soviets put a lead tamper instead of a fusion tamper in the second stage.  The Tsar Bomba was never intended to be used against the U.S, but instead it was Russia basically showing the U.S the extent of their power.

Anita Bryant

Also known as a singer and former winner of the Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant, Anita Bryant is one of the most famous anti-gay activists in American history.

Her involvement in her "Save Our Children" campaign, a movement to repeal the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, played a large part in ruining her career. Bryant's anti-gay views drastically changed the way many people viewed her. Her campaign was based on the belief that homosexuality was a sin and that gay people would often steal children. She thought that this was true because, if homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce, they'd have to "recruit" young people. Bryant once stated, "What [homosexuals] really want.. is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life." She said that if the government granted rights to homosexuals, it would then have to give rights to prostitutes, "people who sleep with St. Bernards, and to nail biters".

I'm curious as to what shaped Anita Bryant's beliefs and what caused her to be so averse to giving rights to homosexuals. From my experience, people generally aren't inherently racist, religiously intolerant, or anti-gay, but they usually have some kind of influence that makes them buy into things like that. How do you think someone like Anita Bryant would be viewed today?

Communication between Russia and the United States during the Cold War

As we know, much of the Cold War consisted of America and the Soviet Union trying to prove that they were superior to each other. This took place through a series of "races" such as the Space Race and the Arms Race and eventually it escalated into a strong possibility of nuclear war. Neither side wanted to fight a nuclear war, but they didn't know that about each other because communication between the two sides was abysmal during this time. In order to avoid further communication issues, the Hotline, a telephone line that went directly from the White House to the Kremlin, was created. My question is, how much of the Cold War could have been avoided if the Hotline or another communication method similar to the Hotline that directly linked the two nations had been present from the end of World War Two?