The Continuing Saga of Ronnie Wonderful

(Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 3/5/81)

*C.W.B: Impoverished! Ronnie might have to give up a Cadillac and a Continental or two! It is sad that Ronald Reagan and Nancy haven't the slightest concept of the terrible impact his actions and proposals will have on the poor! He has stated that he wants a 32 billion increase in the military budget. In the face of the "people needs" in this country this is obscene! Military experts tell us that the United States and the Soviet Union each have enough nuclear capability to destroy the other many times over. What then, is the rationale for more?

I would personally feel more secure if we would decrease our arms supplies and begin acting like intelligent human beings. Give peace a chance! Discussion, arbitration, give and take, compromise.

The current practice reminds on of small boys and their disagreements: One gets a stick and the other feels he must get a larger stick, and so on. The difference, of course, is the deadly potential of the arms race.

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(Richard D. Hall, The Modesto Bee, 2/28/81)

WASHINGTON. Interior Secretary James G. Watt is expected to ask Congress to change the law so that he -and not Congress- could open certain non-wilderness lands to mining, grazing, and timber harvesting without delay.

The issue could become the controversial Watt’s first major clash with congressmen and conservation groups.

“We could oppose that very strongly.” Said Terry Sopher of The Wilderness Society, referring to a possible change in the law.

At issue are the 24 million acres in the West administered by Bureau of Land Management which are being studied for possible inclusion in the Wilderness Act.

Under the law, Watt must tell Congress which of those lands his department believes meet the criteria for wilderness. Then it would be up to Congress to decide for itself, and take two separate actions: designating those lands for wilderness and specifically opening the other lands to mining, grazing and timber harvesting.

Watt said after a recent meeting with Western governors that those lands not designated for wilderness should immediately be returned for those other uses. Under the law, he noted, that probably wouldn’t happen.

A spokesman for Watt later told The Bee “it appears likely that he will (seek a change in the law). He is looking on it seriously as an option.”

Many conservationists and conservation groups opposed Watt’s appointment as Interior Secretary because he previously headed the Mountain States Legal Foundation, which challenged environmental laws. The center is financed by many developers and utility companies.

The BLM lands being studied have restrictive uses because they could wind up being declared wilderness areas. Until Congress acts, those restrictions will remain.

*C.W.B: An anti-conservationist in charge at the Interior Department is like putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop! This anti-people administration seems to be winning for the moment though this cannot last long- thank God!

2/28/81 Fuel Cost Update: Cost of unleaded gasoline at our local service station has increased 19 cents since Ronald Reagan lifted controls! Less that half of this increase is due to O.P.E.C. price raises.

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(Source: The Modesto Bee 2/14/81)

WASHINGTON- The federal agency that enforces gun controls would be radically reduced or abolished under the Reagan administration’s deregulation and budget cutting plans.

Any such action undermining the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would be a victory for “new right” conservative supporters of President Reagan, and for the National Rifle Association, which has tried for years to accomplish the same thing through legislation.

Renewed demands for stricter gun control legislation followed the murder of rock singer John Lennon in New York last Dec. 8.

Hamstringing the bureau would be one of Reagan’s first major concessions to his conservative allies, including the anti-gun control forces which spent heavily in support for his election.

The bureau has been under fire from other quarters as well, stemming from the charges against some of its agents of arbitrary or violent investigative and arrest tactics.

Proposals under study would transfer some functions of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to other agencies and possibly eliminate the agency’s gun control enforcement. The agency’s current budget totals $151 million annually.

Federal law requires licensing of gun manufacturers, importers and dealers. Persons buying guns must fill out forms giving their names and addresses.

The law prohibits the sale of firearms to such persons as convicted criminals, fugitives from justice, unlawful users of narcotics, and to insane or mentally incompetent persons.

Presumably, because gun laws would remain on the books, some agency would have to continue the issuance of registration forms and enforcement would be left to local authorities.

The federal gun control law was enacted in 1968 after the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Repeated efforts in Congress to repeal the law have failed.

*CWB: How many more deaths will occur as a result of this payment of a political debt? The fact that polls have shown that most Americans favor strict gun control laws has not overcome the influence of the National Rifle Association.

Ronald Reagan is consistent in his anti-people program.

(Source: The Modesto Bee, 1/10/81)

Haig says peace not top priority
The Los Angeles Times

Washington- Alexander M. Haig Jr. seized the initiative Friday as hearings began on his confirmation as secretary of state, and he made the foreign policy of the incoming Reagan administration - not the domestic record of former President Richard M. Nixon- the dominant theme of the day-long session before the senate foreign relations committee.

In implicit criticism of President Carter’s policies, Haig told the committee that avoidance of conflict should not supercede the national interest as top priority in U.S. policy.

“There are things we Americans should be willing to fight for.” Haig said, pledging to maintain “consistency reliability and balance,” as the watchwords of his conduct of foreign affairs.

Committee democrats, in their unaccustomed role as the minority party, served notice that they will press for documents from the Nixon era that they believe bear on Haig’s conduct of the White House business during the Watergate scandal.

With hearings scheduled to run through Saturday and resume for most or all of next week, Watergate no doubt will be thoroughly rehashed before Haig is confirmed.

But Haig clearly anticipated this in the opening session Friday. He attacked that issue head-on by asking to be sworn under oath before testifying- a rarity in confirmation hearings. He asserted his innocence in any wrongdoing in the Nixon era in his prepared statement to the committee and at greater length in a detailed appendix to the statement.

Haig reminded the committee that he had testified previously on Watergate, and on his role in Nixon-era wiretaps of officials and reporters, and on his role in Southeast Asia policy and covert operations aimed against the election of Salvadore Allende as president of Chile.

“I have testified at length under oath at many times concerning my role in many of these incidents. “ Haig said in his statement. “none of hose investigations have found any culpability on my part.”

Except for a series of questions on Watergate by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., and Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and on Chile by Sen. Paul Tsongas, D-Mass., the day-long session was dominated by foreign policy questions, and the implied target of criticism was Jimmy Carter, not Richard Nixon.

Haig spoke in his prepared statements of the recent upsurge in worldwide Soviet military and political influence as “perhaps the most complete reversal of global power relationship ever seen in a period of relative peace,” and pledged a foreign policy that would in many respects reverse the priorities of the Carter years.

Asked by Senate Majority Leader Howard H. Baker, Jr., R-Tenn., whether avoidance of nuclear war should be the top priority in Reagan administration foreign polic, Haig replied in effect that the national interest is even more important. *

“We should focus our interest ,” he said, explaining that a policy that made avoidance of conflict the main objective would result in undermining that objective.

* C.W.B: Peace is not in the National interest?

Ronnie and Alex (source: The Modesto Bee 12/21/80)



My late grandfather, Charles W. Baker, was a lifelong educator and pacifist. He was tolerant of just about all things except intolerance. As such, he was no fan of our fortieth president, Ronald Reagan. Give or take a few years at either bookend, Charles W. Baker and Ronald W. Reagan essentially shared the same period in history, one as a Baltimore boy turned teacher, the other as a Tampico tot turned President. No two men have been more different.

Back in the days before bloggin', my grandfather did it the old-fashioned way. From 1980 to 1982, he kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings regarding the Reagan Administration, along with his private comments, and a series of letters that he and my grandmother sent to the President. My grandfather's words are scathing, and, up until now, have just been shared with family and a few friends. Now, this posthumous publication of presidential peccadilloes is available for all to see. This irreverent indictment of Imperial ignominy is on the Internet! After this post, all of the posts in the blog will be the words of Charles W. Baker, and the authors he cites. I will post a comment from time to time, and encourage you to the same. Just wait until you see the parallels to today!

A sneak peak at some of the actors that will fill these pages: Alexander Haig, Nancy, George H.W. Bush, James Watt, William Clark, Jerry Falwell, Tricky Dick and Spiro, Too!, Gerald Ford, Ed Asner, Jimmy Carter, William French Smith, Khadafy, Clarence Pendleton, Al Gore, and Barney Frank, just to name a few!

So sit right on back, and get ready for the Continuing Saga of Ronnie Wonderful!