Vote the 80s

Good morning, Stroock's Books readers, and happy midweek. Rosh Hashanah looms, the Jewish new year. As we wrote the previous sentence we realized that Rosh Hashanah falls on....9/11. 

Do we have to do the 9/11 thing? We do? We sigh in resignation. But we'll remember our way...

We've always recalled 9/9 and 9/10, weirdly so we think. On Sunday, September 9th, Mrs. Stroock's Eagles played the Rams, and we were slightly annoyed at all her cheering and clapping. The Redskins got creamed and we went into a white-hot rage the next day because we weren't able to listen to Sports Talk 980's (Washington)* recounting of the loss. That night our own Giants opened their season in Denver. The next morning, after hitting baseballs in the field next door, we tuned the radio to 66 WFAN to hear the local sports guys talk about the game. The time was about ten after ten, and there was some news...

As for the Big Day, we recall going all sour grapes in 2021 after the Biden Regency's disastrous Afghanistan withdraw. Five years later we still have not taste for Toby Keith or Martina McBride. Ah, we said nothing on the 11th. Here we are on the 12th. And we did a piece for the Kremlin which we'll republish in a day or two. 

Vote the 80s....We now recall our perception of the 80s through nightly viewing of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokow (for which our father worked). Younger reader(s), the three network newscasts were a very big deal. So were their anchoes, our own Tom Brokow, CBS's Dan Rather, and ABC's Peter Jennings. CNN is around but it's just not that big a deal, and won't be until the Gulf War. 

It goes without saying that Ronald Reagan was the president. He probably defined the 80s more than any other public figure. The great issues of the day was tax cuts. Reagan got two massive tax cut/reform bills passed, one in 1981, another in 1986. Then as now illegal immigration was in the news. Congress passed amnesty in exchange for closing the border. Go ahead and laugh. AIDS grew in importance year on year. Crime was also a big issue, part of the nation's 70s hangover, though there was little the Feds could do. 

Of course there was the Cold War, the Soviets and nuclear arms reductions. Everyone wanted a arms reduction treaty. Reagan eventually delivered one in 1988. The nightly news would periodically air reports on the effect of a nuclear war.

What else? Apartheid in South Africa. Solidarity in Poland. Speaking of, his eminence Pope John Paul was a regular newsmaker. Homelessness was a big issue. So were failing farms. The Ethiopian famine was broadcast live into people's living rooms. 

Honestly, Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror video captures the spirt of the news at the time. But because it's the 80s, Man in the Mirror ends optimistically.

People can, and still do bash the 80s, but in 1988 Vice President Bush won 53.4 percent of the popular vote (one more point than Barry Soetoro in 2008) and 426 electoral votes. People took a look at the Reagan administration and said, 'We'll take more of that.'  

Political note, local: Tom Kean is running on 'protecting Medicare and Medicaid' and is bashing Rebecca Bennett for 'working with health insurers'. Whoa. 

DOGE report.

We made some tweaks to the Thatcher's War MS. We have a vision for the Heath House raid.

We worked on the Soviet sub nuke novel short story. 

*Back then one could listen to a radio broadcast on a dialup modem. But for some reason 980 wouldn't load on our desktop.