The Cold War: Economic Crisis

During the Cold War, there were many problems that arose in the world. A major problem, though, was the economic crisis regarding oil. The Prices of Oil skyrocketed, under the OPEC embargo oil prices jumped 400% in one year. With the oil prices going up, the price of everything goes up because that means the price of energy went up. Everything requires energy. The cause of this inflation was an increase in government spending, so the deficit increases. When the government is in debt, they jack up the prices for items. The American manufacturing economy collapsed because the American workers were not producing as much as they were being paid.

Arms Race

The arms race was a race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan called the Arms Race a race between the good and the evil, with the Soviet Union being the "Evil Empire." Reagan also portrayed the Soviet Union as a country that would not negotiate. The Soviet Union was putting way too much money into the military and they weren’t spending anything on daily essentials such as making soap or food. The workers that were in charge of making those resources were put to build arms for the military instead, making daily life in the Soviet Union during the Arms Race subpar.

I'll be back.

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger born July 30, 1947 is an Austrian-American actor, filmmaker, businessman, investor, author, philanthropist, activist, former professional bodybuilder and former politician. He served two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011.Arnold started weight lifting at age 15 and at age 20 he won Mr. Universe and 7 time Mr. Olympia. Many may know him as being the governor for California and being the star of the Terminator. He went from a immigrant boy coming to this country to becoming a beast in the weight room to being a governor and a movie star. What can't he do! 

Women rights

Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls of many societies worldwide, and formed the basis to the women's rights movement in the nineteenth century and feminist movement during the 20th century. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom,and behavior, where as in others they may be ignored or suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of women being seen as house wives and always being seen as the moms. The ones to pick you up from soccer practice to go get some ice cream after a cut on your knee. Women are more then moms and house wives!

MAD

During the Cold War, the time period where the United States and the Soviet Union were against each other in many differet political and military aspects. One of the most prominent and infamous parts of the Cold War was the nuclear arms race. Both sides of the war were fighting each other to see who could build the most nuclear bombs and the most powerful bombs in order to establish protection and supremacy. One important feature to come out of the nuclear arms race was Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD. The concept of MAD was very simple: both sides, the Soviet Union and the USA, had the military capacity to be able to fully destroy the other and cause complete destruction of each other. This strategy was used as a form of deterrence as a way to stop the use of any nuclear weapons.
In my opinion, MAD is a bad idea because it allows each side to keep building up their weapons supply to keep up with each other and also encourages other nations to join in because they also want protection. By building up more and more weapons that have the capacity to destroy the entire world, it puts everyone at a huge risk that may not actually be worth it in the end.

Women's Rights Movement

During the 1960s, women were beginning to feel a desire to become something more in life. They desired to leave behind their aprons and wedding rings (for younger women) for a lifestyle that allowed them to embrace their freedom and youth in ways that hadn't explored before.Women became more free with themselves and desired to express themselves in new and different ways, without being held back by society's expectations. A book called the Feminine Mystique encouraged women to "be more than her husbands wife" and to do something about the dissatisfaction they felt in their lives. This new found desire for accomplishment and individuality was a major factor in the women's rights movement.

latin americans

African Americans were not the only people fighting for civil rights. Another group that fought were the Latin Americans. In class I learned that Hernandez was not treated fairly at all when being tried in court. Mexicans were legally given the right to participate in jury duty. However, far after the civil rights movements, Mexican Americans and other Latinos were still viewed as lower class humans than many other races. They were only believed to be citizens because they were born there. However, after this trial, the Mexican Americans are viewed with more equality than before.

Richie Nixion

Richard Mihous Nixion was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. He subsequently served on active duty in the U.S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968 he ran again for the presidency and was elected when he defeated Hubert Humphrey.

The Persian Gulf War and Its Effects

The Persian Gulf War began when Iraq invade its neighbor Kuwait in 1990. Arab powers like Egypt and Saudi Arabia were alarmed by this action, and feared that Iraq would attack them as well. The invasion of Kuwait was alarming to the United States as well, because if Iraq succeeded in its campaign it could have potentially had control of a large majority of the oil supply, and the US had not forgotten the economic crisis it suffered in the 1970s from middle-eastern oil embargoes. Saudi Arabia allowed the US to use it as a staging ground, and in 1991 the US began a massive air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 100 hours of ground fighting, the US and its allies had won, and much of the Iraqi forces in Kuwait had fled, surrendered, or been killed. The Persian Gulf War was important to the American people because it restored confidence in the military. In Kuwait the US did not have to worry about cold war repercussions like it had in Vietnam, so it was able to utilize its full potential. In addition, the technology of war had improved greatly since Vietnam. Smart bombs and stealth aircraft were widely used allowing the US military to be terrifyingly precise with its bombings. Also, unlike in Vietnam the press was only allowed to see what the military wanted it to see, which was simply smart bombs hitting targets and not the suffering of the victims of the war. Overall, the Persian Gulf War was a much needed victory for the US, boosting confidence in the US military, as well as restoring American pride.

The Concept of MAD

Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, and new type of danger was looming over the human race: Nuclear Holocaust. With both sides of the Cold War having the ability of a first strike, the press of a button could kill millions. It was from this fear of a surprise first strike that the idea of Mutually Assured Destruction, also known as MAD, was formed. Simply put, MAD is the idea that if you can guarantee death to anyone trying to kill you, even if they can kill you they won't sacrifice themselves doing it, and thus a conflict never arises. In the Cold War, MAD was built upon the ability of a massive response with nuclear weapons in the event of the enemy initiating a first strike. This guaranteed nuclear response was made possible by 3 key weapons: Submarines, Bombers, and Missiles. Both the USA and the USSR had many nuclear submarines lurking by the enemy's coasts. If the order was given, any one of these subs could launch up to 24 nuclear missiles at the enemy without even surfacing. ICBMs were also key in MAD. In the event of an attack, ICBMs (inter-continental ballistic missiles) could be launched at enemy cities. In addition, both sides used long-ranged bombers equipped with nuclear bombs. Both sides guaranteed that there would be bombers in the air at all times, so that if they were attacked these bombers would be able to fly to the enemy and drop the bombs. Overall, using these weapons allowed each side to guarantee that they could kill 25% to 50% of the enemy's population if they were attacked. These unacceptable losses were the foundation of Mutually Assured Destruction in the cold war, because it assured both the USA and the USSR that nuclear war would be nuclear suicide.


Works cited:
http://www.rickcampbellauthor.com/styled/index.html

economic boom world war II

After the second world war, even though we won, there was still a slow start to our economy. The countries that lost the war, Germany and Japan both had a lot of casualties. In 1968, Japan became the worlds 2nd largest economy. Japan experienced a growth of 9 percent in the economy between 1955 and 1973. Germany became the second largest economy by the 50s. As the economy grew, renowned brands like Sony, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes, and Toshiba sold well all over the world. This cause Japan and Germany to have more efficient employees than the United States. More people started buying Japanese and German goods. Many large U.S. corporations lost money or saw a decrease in profits.

Nixon, Good or Bad?

Nixon is known by lots of American youth, and certainly was known by me until I learned further, as the man who did that Watergate Scandal thing, and I didn't even know what that was until this year, but that's how I knew Nixon. Because of this, I always thought that Nixon was this awful corrupt president, and that he was one of the worst we've ever had, regardless of the fact that I knew nothing about him.
This, however, wasn't totally true. Nixon got America out of Vietnam! This was a feat multiple presidents before him had struggled to do. This was the biggest achievement of any president in the last decade.
Aside from Vietnam though, he was a little rusty. He did several suspicious things, including bugging the white house, and other shady actions, including the Watergate scandal, which he was no doubt a part of. Still, I would argue that Nixon was ultimately a benefit for America, mainly due to his action in Vietnam. I would also like to point out that the shady things he did were, in my opinion, probably not too different than presidents before him, and that he really didn't have any good choices once they were found out. Did anyone think he would realistically tell the press and media he was involved? That would kill his presidency in an hour. He did what he thought was the best for his position, and really the only real option that he had.

Nixon Caught on Tape

It's a well known fact that Nixon installed a recording system in the white house, after all, that's how the Water Gate Scandal went down. Fun Fact: In X-Men Days of Future Past, after Mystique tries assassinating Trask, Nixon meets up in his office and tells his officers to start recording the conversation. Just goes to show that even to this day, even Hollywood is having fun trying to make Nixon references and jokes. It just goes to show the impact technology has implemented on the world. If it weren't for the recording system, Nixon and his CIA agents would have most likely been able to escape trial from Water Gate. Countless trials and prosecutions would have been voided for lack of concrete evidence. We can take as Nixon as a historical example of this, but in reality, it happens all around us now in the present day. We are all mini-newsreporters with our phones, being able to shoot video, take pictures, and record sound.  Perhaps one of us, the readers of this blog, might be the ones responsible for catching the president ordering a latte with extra cream at Starbucks, and thus, exposing him and having yourself become very wealthy. That's just how life goes now.

McCarthyism? And a side of salty McFries?

We should all remember who McCarthy was. He's the guy that complains about the food at a fast food chain after he finished eating what he ordered, and then, threatens to sue the company for that. Realistically, as far as I know he didn't sue a restaurant, but what he did do was falsely accuse a multitude of people for being supposed Communists. During the red scare, having this power and influence was a very big tool. A tool for what you may ask. A tool for beating up bushes? Nope. A tool for beating up potential political adversaries or any other individual who may have had posed a challenge for McCarthy. But lets face it, he wasn't the only one with this type of power. Anyone, even seven year old Dylan from Texas (alright, maybe not), could get away with calling someone else a Communist and getting them jailed. The paranoia in the United States at this time was way too great, perhaps greater than when the population blamed George W. Bush for doing 9/11. Just like in politics, there will always be some random salty individual who will take a bite out of his food and blame the restaurant for it; just as McCarthy proved with his fake "Communist list".

Hernandez Vs. Texas

When we look back at the time when the Civil rights movement we just think of the people they were fighting for were the African Americans, but they weren't the only racial group that were being discriminated at the time. Mexicans and other Latin America minorities were being targeted in Texas. in class we learned that when Hernandez was trialed he was not given all the fairness he should have received. Looking at the jury that had given him their decision none of them were of the same racial group as he was. Mexican Americas were indeed classified as a social group at the time giving them the right to be part of jury duty, but from the time they had been given the opportunity to be part of a jury they were never chosen. This was due from the fact that the whites still viewed them as sub humans that were only given the citizenship because they were born there. If we look at the present day we can see that we as a nation have indeed progressed since we no longer see these kinds of jury in which one could have biased thoughts as a group since they are from the same racial group.

Greg Louganis

Going back to the 1980's and 1990's where Greg Louganis took place in the Seoul Olympics. His experience there was a very special one. At the time he was talking part of the high diving event where he had suffered a concussion when he hit his head on the springboard. This did not prevent him from completing the rest of his event trials. Making it to the finals with the most points in the qualifier he was able to win the gold medal. Why is this special? What's special about this is that Greg at the time was HIV positive. Despite knowing that he had HIV and had suffered a concussion that when he dove blood would go into the pool. He not only risked his life, but as well the lives of other divers. Well this is what they would have said back then. The truth is that his blood did not have any chance in infecting the other divers since the gallons of water with chlorine killed the HIV before it made contact with any other diver and the only possible way it can really cause infection on people is if HIV has a way into the body. Which the human skin prevented it from getting into the body. On 1995 Greg announced that he was HIV positive making most of his sponsors leave except for old trusty Speedo. People would also hate him even more as he also announced that he was gay.

Overview of the 1990's

The 1990's was an era of change and was characterized by a change in culture and alternative media. New movements such as the grunge, rave and hiphop music were rising through the country as america kept opening up to new cultures. In the first two year of the decade, communism collapse, and the decade was then politically described as a "movement toward the right wing". the 1990's also saw a huge advancement in technology with the "world wide web" and the first gene therapy being put in trial on the first designer baby.

Bill clinton was a dominant figure in the international affairs in the 1990's. He was known for his attempt to negotiate peace in the middle east. His endorsement advanced free trade in the united states.

Overall the 1990 was an era of change where people started discovering new ways of having fun and were evolving.

America's Backyard

In the time period of the Cold War, there wasn't only action and tensions going on in countries in the Eastern hemisphere. We have learned about the communist uprisings/movements in Vietnam, Korea, etc.. Also we have learned about the communist revolution in Cuba from Fidel Castro, but there is also more going on in the neighboring countries of the U.S. and Cuba. An unexpected communist uprising, being the first in Central or South America, was occurring in Guatemala. Guatemala was heavily based on the United Fruit company, where that company actually owned railroads, ports, etc.. The leader of Guatemala who was a communist was Arbenz. Unfortunately for him, he failed to maintain control any longer by the Americans. However, this wasn't going to be a hopeless time for the Latin-American countries to give up on a communist regime. There was a revolution in Cuba to overthrow the dictator of Cuba, in which the U.S. had assigned just like in other countries. Now Fidel Castro took control of Cuba, showing anti-american actions by controlling U.S. properties in Cuba and being communist. Cuba and Guatemala were in a similar situation because the U.S. tried to overthrow the communist leaders in both countries. Later on, there will be more up risings in countries such as Niguaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, Dominican Republic. Meanwhile in Chile, there was a popular candidate that got elected president and his name was Salvador Allende. Allende having empathy for the poor in Chile, wanted to make regulations that would help the poor. This upset the rich and the U.S.. To the U.S. this seemed communistic and so they set CIA officials to overthrow the leader Allende of Chile. The CIA payed the Chilean military to bomb the palace where Allende was at, and because Chile was a poor country, they agreed to the deal. The U.S. also in Niguaragua, they funded a lot in the Contras who were fighting the communists. Altough they helped each other, they had a bad relationship. And Even in El Salvador where the civil war breaks out is considered the most brutal fighting/war in Central America. The U.S. is so sensitive from neighboring countries going communist that now they invaded Grenada because of communist leader. From all the involvement in Central and South America, we can see just how paranoid and worried the U.S. gets when these communists popup near their country.

Wars Star, Young Padawan. (LAST FRICKIN BLOG WOOHOOOOOOO)

The idea of Star Wars not only included a green midget who talked in weird ways, but also included protection from missiles, by satellites that shot frickin lasers. SDI stood for the strategic defensive intiative. What it proposed was this, that we were going to build satellites in space that could shoot down any missile with lasers. LASERS. Yeah I know it sounds ridiculous but it was a real idea. In my opinion it was used as more of a bluff to get the Soviet Union to back off us, and hesitate before they think of attacking us. They didn't want to have to compete against us, because their economy was going to crap due to all the funds going into the war effort. So it was better for them to be cautious and lay off because, they would've had a lot more to lose if they tried to fight us in an all out war.

let's get MAD up in this joint!

Let's get down to the brass tacks of what MAD was and how it benefitted or put us at a disadvantage in the cold war. MAD was essentially stood for Mutually Assured Destruction. Which essentially meant that if we were to send nuclear missiles at the enemy, we would have to literally destroy all of them or else they would respond with equal or greater force in order to try and destroy us. Hence the destruction part. The Mutually assured part was that our president and the enemies president agreed that this would happen if either side were to attack. So essentially this was a good thing because it basically assured that no side would get hurt, because attacking the enemy would almost definitely mean that your country was to get hurt too, and no one wanted that. A con of this would be, if one side were to attack (for any foolish reason) millions of people would die. So after that both sides were hiding their weapons in submarines and silo's in order to have a chance to rebuttal the attack if they were to be attacked.

Starting Over

In the beginning of the mid-1970's, there was many lost of confidence in America as a great nation because the U.S. just lost it's first war in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal involving Nixon brought distrust to many Americans, and also the economy was just starting take a downfall from inflation and growing unemployment. During this time, people obliviously were looking for new hope to make America a great nation again, taking away the current problem. After President Nixon resigned and after his vice president took position as president, Jimmy Carter is one running for president. Eventually, he does win the election because people saw him as an everyday American and he made them feel hopeful. However, when it came to the votes there was a major drop in younger voters participating to vote. Some of the ones that supported the movements in the 1960's that failed to make change just started to get involved in dancing, mostly dancing disco in the 1970's. There was also a huge change in the automotive industry all over the U.S.. There were American cars that had 8 to 10 miles to the gallon, where the Japanese cars had much better fuel-efficient automobiles. A terrible incident that happened in the U.S., even after the environmental movement, was the Love Canal. The Love Canal was the discovery of chemical waste being dumped into public rivers, specifically in this one area, where children got infected by multiply diseases. There was even the murder of two homosexuals in the gay rights movement, which caused other gay people to pay respects. On very important event that occurred was the Iran Crisis, which has ruined Carter's reputation as president. Now due to the Iran Crisis, the U.S. lost trades from OPEC. Carter gave a speech called the "malaise speech", which did also did make him look worse and worse as president. In his speech, he basically blamed the American people for some of the things. From all these failures to support, it got one new guy to gain great popularity and power in the 1980's....Ronald Reagan.

Bill the science guy (Bill Clinton)

William Jefferson Clinton born and raised in Arkansas and is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he was also a member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Phi Beta Kappa and earned him a Rhodes scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. Hillary Clinton who is now running to be the first female president, is also Bills wife which they met at Yale law school when earning a law degree.As the governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states educational system and served as Chair of the Nation Governors Association.Becoming the third youngest president this beautiful nation has had, with becoming the 42nd president beating out George W. Bush.

GIVE US OUR RIGHTS

Innocent black man, Emmet Til was murdered brutally for for flirting with a white girl. A huge mob came in and severely beat him to death. The ringleaders of the lynch mob were not in trouble for what they have done and were deemed innocent. This caused a furious outrage in the south. Emmett Til's mother decided to generate empathy for her beloved son by showing an open casket of her son. Mississippi, which was the most segregated state in the south was fired with protesters. MLK jr. was able to get high schoolers to protest for their rights. However, the police retaliated by beating the protesters, injuring many and killing some. The African Americans were protesting in a peaceful manner. This went to international television and this made all the Americans look bad. Media become important in this era.

AIDS means gay

The 80's was a time of revolution for many people in the United States. Many found good changes, many of our citizens also had a miserable experience during the 80's. These people had AIDS, a sexually transmitted disease. People did not know where AIDS came from causing it to be a great fear. During earlier years, it was associated with homosexuals. AIDS was viewed as a punishment from god for being homosexual. The government sadly did not pay much attention to this deadly disease until much later. The disease eventually spread to a great portion of the population regardless of gender or orientation.

star wars

Named after the mega blockbuster that came out in the late 70's, Star Wars was a project that emphasized strategic defense created by our president Ronald Reagan. Reagan wanted a way to design laser weapons that can strike down any missiles or bombs launched from the communist countries. However, look at their time era vs our time era. We have nothing like this today. The Star Wars project is considered "off the wall" to this day.

90s kids thinking they too rich

When I saw the documentary segment that was focused on Reginald Denny in the 90s, I was actually horrified to the point where I could barely watch. There was a man, who was just a truck driver, being dragged from his vehicle, after they threw bricks at his windshield, and being savagely beaten to the point of unconsciousness. All of this was due to the fact that he was driving through a suppressed neighborhood and he was not black. They literally smashed his face with bricks because they felt so oppressed like no one was representing and or listening to them. This is absolute cruelty, but it goes to show just how desperate these people were. The damage and rioting was so bad that there are still some places in LA that have yet to recover from the way that these people were expressing their rage upon their surroundings.

Star Wars

Named after the popular science fiction move that had just come out, Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI for short, was initiated by President Ronald Reagan.

The goal of this program was to design laser-based space and group weapons that would provide defense against nuclear war heads, without the Soviets being able to disable or counteract these defense devices at any time.

Of course, if you look at our time versus their time, and see that not even we have something like that, then you can presume that of course people were very skeptical of it happening and that Reagan was just a bit over his head with this. It didn't stop him from actively supporting it, and even having other people support it after he had left.

Before the idea finally came to it's end, a total amount of 30 billion dollars and nothing even close to the believed anti-nuclear missile system came about.

Gorbachev's Early Years

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, son of Sergei and Maria, was born on March 2, 1931.  In 1952, he joined the communist party in 1952, influencing his ideas for the next 20+ years.  Gorbachev  married his wife Raisa.  1955 was a big year for Gorbachev.  He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Moscow State University.  He was also appointed to first secretary of the communist party which he would remain in for the next 3 years.  The next year, in 1956, Mikhail and Raisa said hello to their first born daughter, Irena.  He graduated from the Faculty of Economy at Stravropol Agricultural Institute, preparing his in his education fully for his rein as leader of the Party and all of the Soviet Union.

The 1990's

During the 1990's, many thing happened that would eventually shape how the the future would be.

Near the beginning of the 1990's,  The Persian Gulf War was going on. As with the Vietnam War, the media was covering the majority of the war. But very unlike the Vietnam War, the Army more carefully controlled, showing only many of the good and lighthearted things about it. It was very much used as a way to display our power, and to show the people that we actually have this under control.

Also during this time was an election year. Running in this election would be Clinton. The thing is, Clinton had a lot of rumors and scandals going on that involved him. Because of this threat to his presidential campaign, he had put in place a "War Room", which took any negative information about him, turned it on it's head, and put it back out for the public. This saved him many times, but could not prevent the cheating scandal he would eventually have, and deny, and be used as a target many times by media and the other presidential candidate. It also did not prevent the rumor that he used went to college simply to dodge the draft for the Vietnam War.

Although these rumors did come out and slow his popularity growth a bit, it didn't stop him from eventually becoming president.

Rich Homie Reagan

Reagan seemed to be a fearless leader, yet there was an ominous threat that would forever be there for him to deal with; The soviet union. Reaganomics was a system put into place and based off of Reagan and all of his policies, this system was mainly reliant on the removal of government influence from the economic and business world. He saw that if the government, which also included him, was too involved in the way that the business' are trying to run themselves, then it would only cause a decrease in revenue. By using this system, yes there would be more money for the industries, however, this would only encourage the businesses to infringe upon human rights and manipulate their workers as there are no laws that legally bind them to be fair and help their employees out. So while yes more money would be generated by these corporations, the people whom work underneath them would be crushed by their unlawful practices, which with Reaganomics, would be encouraged as long as profit is made.

America's Economy (SBAC sucks)

America in the modern world is, despite being in debt, an economic powerhouse. The country we live is one of the biggest consumers in the world, and certainly has one of the highest GDP's. This, however, wasn't always the case. America experiences several economic downturns in the past century. The first one we learned about, in modern America, was the legendary Great Depression. As we know this was at least partially due to a major stock market crash, which led to the whole economy taking one of the biggest hits in history. Wartime production is what got America out of this problem. After the war, there was a period of rebuilding, which was great for the economy, and helped American production a lot. The next really major economic issue came in 1973, when we had the whole oil price deal going on because of the middle east. This had major effects, especially for our domestic car industry. This is around the time when Detroit started to fall apart. Following that in the early 80's, there was a minor recession and a large rise in unemployment rates. These are the main ones that we've learned about so far, but there are a few more to come. So, as great as one might think America's economy is, we have definitely had our ups and major downs, and we can only hope the next massive one doesn't come any time soon.

The Draft

Going back to a few weeks ago, we looked at the Vietnam war. The thing that really caught my eye was the draft during that time period. Something that surprised me about the draft was that, once you were drafted you were basically thrown into the war with little to no training, being inexperienced soldiers was not necessarily a good thing if you wanted to win a war quickly and efficiently (something that is valuable to the US). The men who were drafted were only drafted for a year, usually by the time they were considered experienced, their year was up. Another thing that was shocking to me is the lengths people would go to avoid the drafts and how it was reasonably unfair to the middle and lower classes. Before anything else you needed to be declared Physically fit by a doctor before you could even think about going to war, this is where we see money coming into the draft, where poorer people just had to have something wrong with them to be excluded the richer people could just pay to have the doctor "find" something wrong with them. Another exception was if you were in college you could avoid being drafted, but the problem is during this time it was generally the richer people were the only ones able to afford college. In 1969, they did, however, reform the draft to make it fairer. They began using a lottery system that assigned certain numbers to dates and if the number associated with your birthdate was called you were drafted. The draft was also used to influence people's behavior. In colleges, if you were doing poorly or if there was a disciplinary issue, some chancellors would threaten to report students to the draft.

1980s- AIDS

To think I knew a lot of information on the 1980s.   So much interesting occurred during the 1980s that I often found myself wanting 4th period to come as soon as possible.  As we learned more and more each day, I wanted to explore even further into the depths of this intriguing decade.  I found the topic of AIDS to be one of the most interesting to hear about in class.  Back then, AIDS had created a very strong stigma around it as well as provoked fear into the lives of a good percentage of the population.  AIDS was a killer and the process of receiving it was unknown.  Originally it was thought that only homosexual males could obtain AIDs as some sort of punishment form God.  Soon after the disease spread to a significant portion of the population, regardless of background or gender. Today we know the cause of this terrible disease and have treatments to fight its effects before it's too late.

1980s

At the beginning of the 1980s, a general feeling of “gloom” was present throughout America because many people died in Vietnam, there was a lot of economic problems, and Anti-Americanism sentiment was spreading in the Middle East. Reagan was appealing to many Americans because he said he would help the country get over the humiliation from Vietnam and become the economic, military and moral leaders once again. Although he was appealing, reduction in welfare programs under President Reagan had negative effects. Homelessness became a prominent feature in urban areas. In the urban areas, the influx of “crack” cocaine magnified bad effects. Cocaine was cheap and the effects were strong. Because the effects only lasted a few minutes, it was super addictive. Reaganomics got rid of government regulations and cut corporate taxes so corporates could get rich quicker because it increased corporate profits. The people around Reagan were conservative and people who got AIDS got it by doing things other people didn’t approve of and wouldn’t do.” They thought it was something that only homosexuals were affected by. Once a few celebrities got AIDS, the public realized it wasn’t just for lowly people. Gorbachev made changes and allowed others to make changes. He wanted to be more accepting of other viewpoints and that allowed people to speak out. People said they didn't like communism and started to rebel peacefully, which led to eventual demise of communism. Reagan is anti-communist and that speeds up the end of communism in Europe.

America's Backyard

In 1954, the CIA believed that if PB Success worked in Guatemala, it would work in Cuba, but it didn’t because Cuba was different. PB Success was the CIA operation consisted of making Arbenz government look bad or ineffective. It drove Arbenz and his wife in exile. Because PB Success didn’t work, they decided that they had to go more extreme, so they launched the Bay of Pigs operation. By the early 1960s, there were left-wing uprisings in Central and South America: Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Perú, República Dominicana, Cuba, El Salvador. The American government was hostile to Salvador Allende’s government in Chile because his government helped people associated with Che Guevara that Americans are trying to capture. Allende was kind of communist, so Americans didn’t like him. American companies were afraid that President Allende would take their resources. On the other hand, in Chile, the rich people didn’t like them because they were taking money from the rich to help the poor.

1990s

The images of police brutality during the 1990s were strangely similar to the ones that we see today. This brings up a very important question: why hasn't anything changed? It is really interesting to me that in about 26 years, there has been so little progress made in the issue of police brutality. I think that this really helps to calls into question the efficacy of the evaluations of police and the power that police hold against the community.

1980s

Even though the 1980s was a pretty recent decade, I found it interesting that there was so much that I didn't know about it. The part of the 1980s that was the most interesting, although sad, was the effect of AIDs ad the stigma around it. While I did know that there had earlier been a stigma around HIV/AIDs because of its connection to the gay community, it was interesting to learn about the gradual shift out of that mindset and the events that led to its stigma being reduced.

Social Movements

In the 1960s, different conditions existed and created a variety of social movements. One of them was the women’s rights movements. Women had limited rights. Not only could they not open their own letters, they couldn’t open their own businesses. Betty Friedan shared her perspective on the issue through her book, “Feminine Mystique.” This book discusses Betty’s sense of dissatisfaction and lack of opportunities. Similarly, Helen Gurley Brown wrote a book about her own life and how she supported herself. Both authors were a huge impacts on women because they gave them a different perspective on life. Another social movement is the environmentalist movement. One author Rachel Carson, wrote the book Silent Spring. The book discussed the detrimental effects on the environment. Pesticides were released and entered the biosphere, killing bugs but also making their way up the food chain threatening birds, fish and children. Chemical and agricultural companies attacked her for releasing the information, but the government backed her up. Rachel Carson play a big role in starting the movement because she spread the information to the public, allowing them to see what was really going on. In addition, another social movement that created is the gay rights movement. Gay men were forced to seek treatment because they was supposedly something wrong with them. They started the Stonewall riot and fought the police in order to stand up for themselves. They were tired of being called wrong.

Black Civil Rights Movements

The overarching theme linking the strategies used during the Black Civil Rights Movements is appealing to people’s emotions with media. Emmett Till was murdered at the age of 14 for flirting with a white woman in Mississippi. His mother decided to have an open casket during his funeral. His mother did this to show everyone the truth and how bad everything was in the South. This strategy generated empathy within people because compared to everywhere else, Mississippi was one of the most segregated areas. In addition, Martin Luther King got high schoolers to protest against segregation. Because they were protesting, police beat them with hoses even though protesting is nonviolent. The protests were on international television and made Americans look bad. This intentional protesting was to make Americans stand up and advocate for change. Media was very important during the Black Civil Rights Movements because without it, it would have been harder to promote change.

The Relationship Between Gorbachev and Reagan

Gorbachev and Reagan had discussed many times on the diplomatic issues of their times, such as nuclear disarmament. Their discussions lead to a reduction in nuclear arsenal for the two nations and even the removal of the Berlin Wall and the separation of East and West Berlin.

In Reykjavik Summit in Iceland, the two men would end up a major disarmament of both nation's nuclear arsenal to try and promote peace and good feelings between the two nations. However, Reagan's unneeded persistence to have his SDI defensive weapon exist, while the whole idea of the weapon itself was almost impossible for the time. His clinging to this weapon left the idea of complete nuclear disarmament to the future, if it will ever even happen, and could have been one of the most famous points in human history.

Gorbachev and Reagan also worked to bring down the wall after events that lead to a loosening in the security of the wall. After Reagan's challenge to demolish the wall to promote freedom, As a response to a peaceful German protest, Gorbachev announced that the reunification of Germany would become an internal issue, and the Soviets would no longer intervene to maintain the separation of Germany.

In conclusion, Gorbachev and Reagan and their relationship clearly helped heal the Soviet-American relationships and helped prevent the world from plunging into another war. However, there are still wounds to heal and problems to fix even today.

Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev was the last leader to the Soviet Union and attempted to usher in a period of peace between the Soviet Union and America. He was clearly a man of the people and tried to give more freedoms to the Soviets.

During his time as leader, he was very open to the people and began to bring the USSR away from the more extremist side of the left to a more moderate place. For example, Gorbachev gave his people freedom of speech, which was something so extreme for previous leaders to give to the people. Another example is when a West German landed in the Red Square and was greeted fairly calmly rather than with armed guards. If another leader, such as Brezhnev, was in control, this man would have been executed within the hour of his landing if he was not shot down by soldiers on the border.

Gorbachev was also very open to diplomatic meetings and consolidations with the US rather than throwing threats at them. He even proposed to completely disarm both nations of all nuclear weapons, which had never been even considered by any other leader in the past for both countries.

In conclusion, Gorbachev's time in office was clearly a positive one as he attempted to try and make the world a better place for everyone. Perhaps nuclear disarmament will be reconsidered in the future, but for now, there will always be the looming threat of nuclear launch sometime in the future.

World Politics

In class, we talk a lot about the works of America, but the 90's were a changing time for the whole world. Keeping up with whose political party is whose can be confusing at times, so hopefully this helps out. The early 90's witnessed the fall of communism in most of Eastern Europe. This means that most of these countries, including Russia, shifted towards capitalism. The middle East at this time was a bit of a mess, and was experiencing several dictators or civil wars, so we'll just call them "finding their way," for now. Eastern Asia is largely communist controlled still. China, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are under communist influence; this dates back to the Vietnam war and those shenanigans. Most/All of western Europe is capitalism, this hasn't and won't change for the most part. Africa probably won't be talked about in our class, but that area of the world is a mix of dictatorships, or minorities ruling, (South Africa). In the time leading up to the 2000's and after, the biggest changes in political power will be seen in Africa, but mainly the Middle East, where America will have most of its involvement.

The Persian Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War started in the 1990s when Saudi Arabia was invaded by the Iraqi military.  Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein thought that Saudi Arabia was siphoning oil from them, and invaded their territory because of this.  The Unites States moved troops into Saudi Arabia because of this invasion.  When the iraqi troops did not leave, the US military had to use force, which started the Persian Gulf War.  Most of the public did not know much about what was going on in this was because the military censored most of it.  So the public only knew what the government wanted them to know.

Still not Equal

In the 90's, America was a booming country, with technology sprouting every which way. To most, we thought we had left the era of stigmatization and unrest behind, and in a lot of cases, we had, but not everywhere. Racial unrest was still majorly prevalent in the 90's especially in the justice system. The 90's saw some of the biggest riots America has ever seen, and they were because of racial injustice. This started when Rodney King's beating had been captured on video camera in early 1991. After a trial had been conducted and none of the police officers were indicted on any charges, riots broke out all over LA. These were some of the most destructive and damaging riots America had ever seen, and with the introduction of more TV exposure, the whole country saw the horrors that were taking place. This was the start of more changes that would come in order to bring true equality to the justice system for minorities of all types. The point of this post was not to educate on everything wrong that was happening, it was simply to remind everyone that racism was not out of American minds by the 1990's.

90s and 80s music

During the 1980's and the 1990's, other than the economic changes that happened, There was a great change in music. As music synthesizers were invented, We saw a great change in music. The music of the 80's was very upbeat. Artists that came up in the 1980's included such acts as The Police, Phil Collins, The Cure, Prince. These artists during the 80's played a great impact on pop culture in our live. Many of these artists in the 80s inspired 90s music. In the 90's, music got better. Bands like Backstreet Boys, REM, Westlife, Nsync, and REM proved another turning point in the music revolution. These new bands of the 90's were known for their upbeat tempo and had many of their songs written by the popular artists of the 80's. If one wants to listen to 80s or 90s music, a station that the SF bay area has is 96.5. They play a variety of 80s and 90s music.

president reagan

President Reagan was a president that many people in the 1980's admired. The Jellybean Obsessed president had a great sense of hope about what the United States should be like. Reagan before becoming president of the United States worked as an actor and a radio announcer. During his years as an actor and radio announcer, Reagan developed the talent of delivering speeches with a humorist approach. He was able to show his goody goody. Before his term as president, he was the 33rd governor of California.

On the 3rd of March in 1991, Rodney King was pulled over by the cops. As he cooperated with them, he was still beaten to the ground by the police officers. The police officers insisted that they were dealing with a man who was resisting them. This was an extremely unfair situation. The police in their actual minds were racist. They just wanted to treat the African Americans worse because they were different and that they seemed dangerous by look. This was the start of a string of police brutality events that were committed on other minority citizens.

Case of Police brutality in the 1990s

Rodney kind was severely beaten up on March 3rd 1991. The police had attempted to pull him over in the San Fernando valley after he was caught speeding. He led the police on a short pursuit because he knew that if he was going to get pulled over his prior robbery would resurface and he would get arrested. The police attempted to arrest him and claimed that he was resistant to them. They also believed he was on drugs. The police proceeded by beating Rodney for about 15 minuted resulting in a skull fracture, multiple bone fractures and broken teeth as well as some permanent brain damage. The police was being filmed by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. The tape was shown on TV but id not rise much attention  despite the horrors of the images.

Over a thousand cases of police brutality were reported each year and many riots were taking places in LA causing even more strains between interracial communication. Police brutality remains a sever issue today and it ought to be addressed.

The impact of Reaganomic on our country

Reagan had implanted some new economic reforms but it seemed that is was not as successful as the partisans had hoped. The plan was to balance the budget but obviously everyone knew that was a hard challenge to face. There was a huge increase in military spending (the pentagon spent over $34 million an hour on the countries forces!!) Taxes were increasing drastically as money was being sucked out of the government's pockets. By 1982,  our country was in the middle of one of the biggest and most impactful recessions since the Great Depression in 1930, over nine million people were unemployed in November 1982. Many business were closing and families were losing their homes,
As the economy slowly started growing again, "reaganomics" was still very popular. Although people though the stock market crash of 87 would undermine the confidence of the middle and high class, it did not make them worry about the president's economic agenda: During Reagan's 8th year in office, the country experienced the most debt in the entire history.
Despite the hard work and dedication of liberal americans, the majority of them still believed in a conservative agenda. IN 89, Reagan left office and had the highest approval rating since Franklin Roosevelt.

The 1990s

1. 
   
   A large part of the 1990s was spent fighting the Persian Gulf War. American people feared that if Saddam was not stopped he would invade Saudi Arabia. Therefore U.S. citizens allowed the Americans to move troops into Saudi Arabia. Bid Laden thought that Americans were bad and it became clear that the only superpower willing to help the situation was the Unitied States. However, Americans fears were also fed by the government. Unlike the Vietnam War, the government had a large influence on what civilians saw. The American public only saw what the military wanted them to see. So even though the Persian Gulf War was relatively large, the American public did not see it as being so.
   During the nineties there was also a very short, sharp recession. Because Bush did not seems to be responding to this problem, he showed weakness during the 1992 Presidential Contest. The television show “Roseanne” represent the frustration of many Americans in the tough economy. It showed what life was like during the economic struggles.
   Along with Bush, Bill Clinton was also a president during the 1990s. However, early in his presidential candidacy two scandals arose. There were allegations that Clinton had been cheating on his wife for 12 year, and that he had dodged the draft. 
   During the nineties the United States also saw a lot of tension between minority groups and the police. This was especially prevalent in Los Angeles. Minorities did not like the LAPD and saw them as an occupation force, not there to help.  They felt that the police continuously used police brutality and nothing done to stop the police from using their forces. Rodney King's beating by the police was caught on tape and all the police officers got off without charges. This angered minorities and cased riots in the streets.

Richard Nixon

As we know in the 1970's, Richard Nixon after failing to be president of the U.S  in the 1960's, does eventually get his turn to become president. Nixon is one of those U.S. presidents are are significant to the things going on in American history because there were some pretty important events going on at his time as president. At Vietnam, Nixon wanted to leave the war and his strategy was to somehow make it seem like it was Vietnam's fault. There were protests going on at this point in history for peace and to end the war. Nixon, hoping to end the war quickly, sends a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia, where he sees or believes the Vietcong are supplied at. However, it did not empress the people and instead it made the war seem even longer. At another point, there was the Tet offensive, and even though it was a U.S. victory, politically it was a major lost because it made the war seem to never end. Back in the U.S., Nixon was paranoid of people trying to set him back as president, so he sets up hidden camera and audio recording to catch anyone lying to him. This will later become a big big concern for the American people on the Watergate scandal. In 1972, the Democratic convention headquarters was burglarized by actual government officials. At first it seemed weird why these people would do this, but soon answers start getting told. Soon people started to thick whiter the President knew anything about the Watergate scandal, and he stated at first he didn't. After the Saturday night massacre and many confrontations, the President faced many injustice things in abuses of power. So then in the end he resigns from presidency, being the first U.S. president to resign from presidency.

Make Love, Not War

In the 1960's to 1970's America, from the war in Vietnam, started to get growing protestors for ending the war. The war has been going on for such a long time and more and more American lives are being lost, creating Americans at home to worry. More American friends and families were dying at war. Eventually the war does end with the first U.S. president to lose a war, being Richard Nixon. Before this had happened to end the war in Vietnam, there was unrest on other movements as well, and it started with one president in the 1960's. John F. Kennedy was running for president against Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential race. During that time, it was the first time in American history that Americans were able to see their presidential forerunners or candidates on live television, and it began with the first debate. The first debate was very crucial to their first impression on the American people watching, but one candidate didn't suppress the idea too much. Richard Nixon seemed nervous and unconfident next to Kennedy, and he made himself seem under ranked compared to Kennedy. That costed him the election majorly in the end. At this time, discrimination was also a problem and it was a big problems for the U.S. that communism actually seemed more allowing in equality than the equality-for-all claimed America. Later on came the protestors in UC Berkeley, trying o achieve freedom of speech, and they even used Martin Luther King Jr.'s method of protest.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was one of the US presidential candidates, and eventually the US president, during the 1990s.  Clinton was an attractive candidate to many people.  He never seemed to say the wrong thing about anything, and he was dynamic and fun.  He was also a very young presidential candidate, which made people like him more.  He also had a “war room,” which would help Clinton come up with solutions and strategies during his campaign.  The war room helped Clinton when he was accused of cheating on his wife for 12 years.  They tackled the allegations, and his campaign continue strong.

America in the 1980s

A the beginning of the 1980s there was a general feeling of gloom across America due to high inflation rates, the recently ended the Vietnam War, and anti-Americanism sentiment spreading in the Middle East.

During this time, however, President Reagan appealed to many Americans because he represented the older, better, stronger America. Despite all the problems the United States was facing, Reagan reassured the country. Reagan reduced the amount of welfare programs because he thought that people had become to dependent on the government and that the government should not be involved in the economy. Reagan also introduced "Reaganomics" to minimize government involvement in economics so the finance industry was able to make more money. Jobs became more prevalent in the finance industry because of this. 

During the 1980s their was also an influx in the use of “crack” cocaine. This caused the violent crime rate to rise 33%. In poverty stricken neighborhoods, drug dealers were admired because they were the only people in the neighborhoods who possessed wealth. Drug dealers showed of their wealth with fancy cars, jewelry, and clothes. 

When the AIDS disease arose, so did a lack of initial government response towards the terrible disease. This is likely because no one knew how you get the disease. Reagan was a conservative president and people who got AIDS were thought to have gotten it by “doing things other people didn’t approve of and wouldn’t do.” They thought it was something that only homosexuals were affected by. However, in the 1980s public awareness and attitudes toward AIDS and its victims gradually changed during the 1980s when celebrities began getting the disease. Soon the public realized that the disease did not only affect lowly people.

The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

Communism in Easter Europe start to come to a close during the late 80's and going into the early 90's. This was a result of many factors, but two of the big influences that are attributed to this are Ronald Reagan, the president of the United States, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the Leader of the Soviet Union.
The contributions of Reagan included: His firm standing against communism, which was seen in central America. His strong progression in American defense, which tended to weaken the soviet union in general, but also his willingness to be progressive with America's foreign policy, which in the end helped smooth out the path towards more democratic countries.
Gorbachev also contributed greatly towards the fall of communism. He realized that the country was in terrible shape economically, along with its unrest within the people. His progressive changes such as free speech not only helped their country, but it also progressed them away from a communism ideal, and more towards a democratic balanced government. Also his negotiations with Reagan alleviated Cold war tension, and make it overall easier to have massive change within the Soviet system.
All in all, both Reagan and Gorbachev coming together at the same time as they did led the way to the fall of communism and rise of democracy in Eastern Europe.

It's A New Day, A New Dawn, A New Life, And A New World! the 80's

Jeez, the 80's was very, very hectic. At the start of the 80's everyone was extremely gloomy, due to the problems in the 70's and the aftermath of those problems. Like stagflation, or the Vietnam war and those who opposed it. So it was not a good start for the people who lived in the 80's, but it gets worse! President Reagan thinks it's a good idea to reduce funding in welfare programs (to fix the inflation). So he's basically screwing over the poor people and they're already having a tough enough time. They were sorta dependent on those programs... Another fun addition to the gloomy 80's was DRUGS! YES I LOVE EM. Crack cocaine was all the bad effects of cocaine in a cheap parmesan cheese looking block. Gave you a short high and all the addiction with some stronger side effects. It turned addicts into predators because they needed to get their fix or else they'd be in a state of withdrawal, and well, no one wants that... It got so bad that drug dealers were actually admired, because of the wealth and power they obtained among the neighborhoods. Let's get into some business.  Corporate raiders were the exact opposite of a man's or should I say business's friend. They'd buy a business to sell off all their products, materials etc for more profit, disregarding the people working there or how much time and effort it took to build up the company; But I mean in business you gotta do what you gotta do. One last big gloomy and extremely scary thing that was focused on was AIDS. A disease that would drop people like flies. Originally no one knew where it came from. Soon it was found out that it most commonly is found among the gay community. Of course the people shunned them for a while. So everyone was on high alert for gays and people who had aids because no one knew how it was contracted, and it would kill you with in a short period of time if you had it so, it was sort of a predator vs. prey scenario. Sadly the 80's had a lot of down sides and gloomy moments, but it'll get better... right?

Annnnnddd it's the 90's deal with it.

Well, today we started a documentary on the 90's! It's in the past so it's actually considered history, cray right? We started in class to talk about what famous things that the class knew about the 90's. Like the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, or Vanilla Ice, or the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War was a bigger focus in the documentary and it just talked about how we fighting war, in a whole different perspective. We were fighting with predominantly more technology. More efficiency, bigger, better, faster stronger. They gave an interesting face like only about 140 American soldiers died in this war, just due to the super advanced tech that we had. Then of course their aren't wars without presidents. So we started to talk about how President Bush (the first one) was very out of date, and not getting with the recession. So of course soon to be President Bill Clinton out shined Bush in every way. He was hip, light on his feet when it came to questions that were shot at him, he was very active; and just so much more appealing than Bush. Sadly with all good things, there's most likely a "downside" Clinton wasn't too faithful to his wife, which caused a lot of controversy. Sadly our juicy history ended there when the bell rung, but to be continued next time...!

Coach (Jimmy) Carter

Jimmy Carter born on October 1, 1924 a democrat in rural Georgia , was also a peanut farmer who served two terms as the Georgia State Senator, from 1963 to 1967. Also was the governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 after being the senator there for a bit before. He was elected as the president of the United State in 1976, defeating  President Gerald Ford in a relatively close election. He was also rewarded the Nobel Peace Prize Award for his work with the Carter Center.

Ronald (Mcdonald) Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan was raised in a poor family in small towns in Northern Illinois , graduated from Eureka college in 1932. He worked as a sport announcer on several region radio stations, After moving to Hollywood in 1937 he became a actor and was starred in a few major productions. Reagan was twice elected as the president of the Screens Actors Guild, the labor union actors where he worked to root out Communist influence. He was also the 33rd governor of California, then later becoming the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989.

The 1980's

Going into the 1980's people were not very happy in America. The Vietnam war was lost, and America didn't have a strong president. Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, and people had faith in him. However, corporate raiding became popular, and large companies were often able to take over smaller companies by buying the majority of their stock options. The large cooperation would then sell off the assets of the company for a profit. This destroyed many smaller businesses throughout the country during the time period. Another major event of the 1980's was the AIDS epidemic. This disease initially was most common for gays, and doctors didn't even know what it was . It took a few years for doctors to be able to identify someone who had the disease, and it ended up killing roughly 100,000 people during the decade.

5/10/16

Today we finished the worksheet on the 1980's. Discussing the Gorbachev era and how it affected the other nations around, pushing for democracy. In the end, some of them turned and others were met by force from the government.

We've also found out that we are doing a Socratic later, and that we should prepare for it. It will not be as formal (such as roles and such) but more like a real discussion between us.

Music of the 80's

Besides the political and economic change in the 1980's, there was a movement in music as well. The 60's and 70's was heavy rock and disco. The music of the 80's is know New Wave. New Wave featured a more synthesized voice. Famous bands range from Duran Duran, Boy George, The Police, and The Cure. Many of these bounds were British bands. Along with New Wave musical movement, the 80's saw the birth of hip- hop which built off of computerized beats. These artists included Run D.M.C, N.W.A, Public Enemy, and LL Cool J as well as many more. Another thing that aided the music movement was a cable tv network called MTV. With the increase in cable boxes in homes across America almost all of the youth was tuning in to MTV. MTV played music videos for hours that were more popular than the radio as they brought the music to life with animation and videography. MTV brought huge success to artists like Michael Jackson, Prince, and Madonna. Another musical aspect that grew in the 80's was punk rock featuring bands such as Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, and The Clash.

Wozniak and Jobs: Personal Computers.

What we now know as one of the most valuable companies in the world, Apple, had started off as an idea of two young ambitious engineers from the Los Altos area. At the time computers were designed by the military and large industries. They took up entire rooms and were extremely expensive and difficult to use.  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak both shared a vision where the common citizen could afford and use a personal computer. At this time, all of the computers were owned by big industry or the government. Jobs and Wozniak started their mission to create personal computers out of Jobs's garage. In 1976 Jobs and Wozniak start their own computer company called Apple. In 1976 Jobs and Wozniak started manufacturing their own computers out of Jobs's garage, which they sold to the public. This first computer was called the "Apple One". These first computers were sold for $666 which was much more affordable at the time than the massive computers in industry. Apple started seeing success and grew as a company with investors. As more and more products came out their popularity grew. Throughout the 80's other companies jumped in on the personal computer revolution. Wozniak and Jobs's dream came true and almost everyone had some form of personal computing device. Now their dream has become one of the most valuable companies in the world and their products are spread throughout the world.

Star Wars, Episode VIII, Reagan fights back

Star wars, known officially as Strategic Defense Initiative, was one of Reagan's programs that he created during his presidency. Fundamentally, it was anti missile technology that the US would have the ability to use if they ever needed to possibly shoot down Soviet Union nuclear warheads before they even got into threatening reach of the United states.
Pros (America's view) - Would be the ultimate safety technology that would give America a massive upper hand in the cold war. Would mean that MAD wouldn't be possibly is America struck first, because we would be able to defend ourselves.
Cons (Soviet Union's view) - Taking the cold war and arms race into space, that was really no man's territory. Was very costly, which to the Soviet Union meant they would not be able to compete because of their lacking economy. Escalated tension immensely if this were to go through, because the Soviet's would pretty much be at the mercy of America.
My view point - I think this was reaching a lot for Reagan to think this would be able to be possible. It just doesn't really say "practical" in many ways. The cost would be insane, the technology isn't even there yet, the entire space aspect of it is such a variable. I just don't think it would really ever be able to happen, and because of that I think everyone over reacted a bit in response to this.
What actually happened is that nothing was really ever created that came close to Reagan's dream of being able to shoot missiles out of the sky from space, but never the less a pretty cool idea.

The Effects of Reaganomics and The Reduction of Welfare Programs

Reagan was a conservative, and he believed that government shouldn't interfere too much with peoples' lives or the people will become dependent on the government. As a part of Reaganomics (supply-side economics) Reagan cut taxes mainly for big business and the upper class. However, to make up for the loss in revenue, Reagan decided to reduce welfare spending. Many middle class and upper class people were hardly effected by this, but the lower class and the inner cities were hit hard. Reaganomics initially caused a major economic recession, and in the inner cities many people lost their jobs and homes. Because of the degrading quality of life, many poor people turned to the cheap drug crack, and soon many people had become addicted. This caused a growth in the drug business in the 1980s, and many drug dealers were able to become extremely wealthy. In addition Reagan cut regulations in the stock market, and as a result Wall Street exploded. There was a large brain drain towards the finance industry, and many people were able to become successful there. However, businesses began doing corporate raids, in which a company buys the assets of another company and takes over the company, and then liquidates the company and sells everything the company owns to earn more money than they spent to buy it. This was very harmful for some American people, because in some towns the whole town revolved around a single business, and if the business was raided the town would be devastated.

Star Wars: The Strategic Defense Initiative

Preceding Reagan's presidency, the Cold War was ruled by the idea of mutually assured destruction. Mutually assured destruction, as known as MAD, was a system in which both the US and the USSR promised that if the other nation attacked them they would retaliate with nuclear annihilation, and thus the fear of complete destruction prevented any major conflicts between them. However, Reagan felt that MAD was like holding cocked guns to each others heads. In addition, he also believed that the US was falling behind in the arms race. Because of this, Reagan developed the idea of SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) nicknamed "Star Wars". SDI's goal was to intercept and destroy incoming nuclear missiles through the use of satellites armed with lasers. However, the idea of SDI threatened the stability of MAD, much like ABMs did, because it offered a way to prevent the mutual annihilation. Thus, when Gorbachev and Reagan negotiated at conferences in Geneva and Reykjavik, Gorbachev asked Reagan to abandon SDI. Despite Gorbachev's request Reagan insisted on keeping SDI. However, SDI was a very expensive, so it was never put into place. Some historians argue that Reagan never planned on implementing SDI, but merely developed the idea to have a bargaining chip to threaten the Soviets with.

Vietnam had some problems

The Vietnam war was also known as the second Indochina war and known in Vietnam as the Resistance War against America. It occurred in Vietnam, Laos,and Cambodia from November 1, 1955 to the fall of Saigon on April 30 1945. This war was also followed by the war between North Vietnam supported by the Soviet Union (communist countries) and the south Vietnam supported by United states and non Communist countries. The Viet Cong fought in a guerrilla war against anti- communist forces in the region. The people's Army of Vietnam, also known as the North Vietnam Army, engaged in a more conventional war, at times committing large units to battle.  

Central America During The Cold War

While the Cold War was going on between the US and USSR, communism began to spread around the world. This was the situation in central America, as many revolutions happened in the area. This led to many countries being a war zone for years, and a lot of uprisings were backed by communists. This caused the US to intervene with the conflicts in Central America, as they wanted to keep communism out of the western hemisphere. The CIA began to try to take down leaders who hide communist ideas or were close to known communists. They would teach people of the country to light brush fires and clog toilets in order to make the government lose support from its people. However, many of the governments the US supported were brutal to their civilians, and would initiate mass killings in order to instill fear. Once people realized this, the government lost popularity.

Not so well received rich homies of war

When all the soldiers returned home from the war there was a huge celebration in Times square, lots of kissing and an overwhelming tone of happiness. Well that was what was suppose to happen, and you'd thing that if a lot of families thought their loved ones were dead, but then were surprised that they were alive, then they would be absolutely ecstatic. However they would return from the war and go home and people wondered where they had been. Sadly though because of all of the controversy with all of the war, people were not as willing to openly pour their appreciation into these soldiers as they represented something that they did not stand for. And even though these soldiers were still putting their lives on the line just like they always have been, they are not being rewarded by the appreciation if their peers a much.

USSR and USA tension in the 80's

Going into the 1980's tension between the USSR and the USA was rising. Both sides had continued to spend a lot of money on the creation of thousands of nuclear weapons. However, the USSR began to use too much of their resources for weapons. The living conditions for people in the USSR were very low, and the government had to prevent the public from realizing how bad their lives are. The USSR began to want to make a deal with America to begin disarming some nuclear weapons, so they could focus on their own domestic issues. When the two leaders met, they began to talk about disarmament. It was a bit of a shock to both leaders that they shared some similar interests, and neither was interested in a war at all. Both leaders wanted to limit nuclear weapons, and avoid a conflict. However, they did not reach an agreement because the Soviets wanted Reagan to not put STAR WARS into action. STAR WARS was a plan created by Reagan to have satellites and ground devices that would be able to destroy nuclear missiles. However, the Soviets did not want the nuclear conflict to enter space. Because of this, they did not reach an agreement.

God in American Politics Then and Now

Religion, especially Christianity, has always played a key factor in the presidential elections. During the 1960's when President John F. Kennedy was running there was a huge controversy around his campaign in that he was Roman Catholic. This was an issue in the eyes of the some of public in that he was the first Catholic candidate to be elected. Some of public was worried he would act as a puppet for the leader of Roman Catholic Church, the Pope. Kennedy addressed this public fear by saying,"I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source..."

The revival of religion in politics can be seen during the early 80's with President Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a Christian and heavily focused on getting the religious voters. In his second Inaugural Address, Reagan mentioned God or religion 8 times which is the standing record for any president. 

Unlike the less religious candidates in todays presidential race, such as Clinton, Trump, and Sanders, Ted Cruz is trying to reignite the religious debate and religion's role in politics. Cruz takes his religious identity more serious than his identity as an American. This is seen as controversial by many Americans. 

Ronald Reagan: SDI

SDI or Strategic Defense Initiative
On March 23, 1983 during Ronald Reagan's Presidency, Reagan launched a program called SDI otherwise known as, "Star Wars". During the time of the Cold War there was a significant fear of nuclear missiles especially from the Soviet Union. The operation of this program was to create an anti- ballistic missile system in order to defend the nation from incoming nuclear missiles. This defense system would ideally be able to defend the nation from a ballistic nuclear attack. This concept was seen as very far- fetched in the eyes of the public. The program was expected to chew up as much as 30 billion dollars and the technology to create such a defense device was not even in existence. SDI was eventually abandoned after being ruled an idealistic and nearly impossible task. One of the main reasons this program was shut down is that this program was seen as a threat by the Soviet Union due to the fact that it violated the S.A.L.T Treaty originally created with the USSR. Eventually this idealistic program died out and became only a small historical footnote.

Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter was the president to succeed president Ford after his fairly uneventful presidency. His actions as executive were fairly mixed, due to his involvement and eventual embarrassment in the hostage crisis in the Middle East.

Some of Carter's successes include leading the Egyptians and Israeli leaders to peace after having had war for some time. Carter also succeeded in helping those affected by toxins in the Love Canal incident, preventing the harm of many and even leading to the discovery of other chemical dump sites in many other locations in the US.

However, there were some unfortunate events that lead to the decrease in popularity for Carter. First, after many oil producing countries began to raise prices of oil, the US experienced an energy crisis. This lead Carter to try and tell Americans to limit themselves on heating and other forms of consumption of oil products. This eventually backfired after some Americans came to believe that Carter was accusing them of over consuming products and leading to the crisis themselves

Carter also had to face the Iran Hostage Crisis, where American embassy workers were held hostage for more than a year. After Carter's many failed attempts to rescue the hostages, it was Reagan in the end who received the credit for their release and return to the US.

Rich homie Nixon doing some SUPER SHADY deals

Before Nixon was the Mr. President Rich homie, rich homie Johnson was a true homie and lied about the war to Americans, thus almost endorsing Nixon as he looked so great in comparison. However Nixon was soon to follow in those very footsteps from Johnson and quickly taint his own reputation as a real rich homie. Nixon was simply trying to regain his power and solidify his high governmental positioning and rank, however ,he did go over the top when trying to achieve it. He might have been fine if he did not keep trying to cover his own tracks, as this is the behavior that kept drilling him deeper and deeper into the pits of deception in the eyes of the American public. The public just wants a leader that they know they can trust, and sadly with Johnson and Nixon they have had a terrible run. Hopefully President Ford could maybe improve upon this deception.....

The 1960's

John F. Kennedy was appealing to many Americans during the 1960's campaign because he seemed to fulfill the American political process, but he also represented the new and glittering age.  Visuals played a major role in the 1960's elections because a film crew would follow Kennedy wherever he went, and this was the first time something like this had been organized in this way.  This helped Kennedy's campaign because people felt that they could relate to him more, and it gave people the chance to see the "real" Kennedy.  The 1960's was also a time with many civil rights movements.  There was a lot of discrimination against blacks.  Before the civil rights act, people weren't selling house to black Americans, and many black Americans were denied the right to vote.  This sparked a civil rights movement, and led to the civil rights act, which banned this kind of discrimination.  There was also the Black Panther Party, which wanted to equalize the racist police force.  The party would walk with rifles and observe the police to check their authority.  This had to be done because the all white police force had become very militant, and no one was watching if what they did was right or wrong.

The 1970s

In the 1970's there was a general feeling of distrust and discomfort with the government because of the very recent Watergate scandal and the high inflation and unemployment rate.  Jimmy carter became an attractive presidential candidate because he represented the traditional American values that other presidents did not.  He was also "one with the people," and brought then a feeling of hope for their country.  Carter's support eventually declined in the 1980's when Reagan became a candidate for presidency.  The 1970's was also considered the "me" decade where people became more selfish and worried about themselves rather than others or the country.  People went in their own direction, and the divorce rate shot up.  Many people were more cynical and had gotten tired of the American Dream