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This is part 2 of a two part series of The Day's Dumpster Fire's Iran Contra Affair. If you are just joining us, it is highly recommended that you listen to part 1 which can be found HERE. Part 1 will give some background as to why Iran and Nicaragua were such hot topics back in the 70s and 80s as well as the predicament the newly elected president, Ronald Reagan, was in at the time:

• On one hand, the Cold War was still very much a thing in the 70s and 80s and America was still worried about communism spreading like a contagion into America's hemisphere and ultimately corrupted hundreds of millions of democracy leaning people. The communists saw an opportunity to spread into Nicaragua, which was too close for America's comfort. The only solution to the problem was to support a group of militants known as the Contras. The only issue is that congress passed an amendment that absolutely forbade the White House from helping the Contras because it could start another Vietnam War. To get a sense of how much of a hot mess that war was for America, check out episodes 41 and 42 HERE.
• On the other hand, Iran was backing a terrorist organization called Hezbollah who were taking hostages, many of them American. During Reagans campaign, he criticized Jimmy Carter's handling of the hostage situation and vowed that he would NEVER negotiate with terrorists.

In today's episode, Ed is going to expand on how Reagan and some of his closest advisors put together a plan that could not only free the hostages held by Hezbollah but also get some badly needed support going for the Contras in Nicaragua.

Ed is going to cover the following ideas of this crazy dumpster fire:

• Who were Robert MacFarlane, Oliver North, and John Poindexter. What were their backgrounds, and how did they get involved with Reagan's plan to free the hostages. What was the strategy, how well did it work, and how did it fly out of control.
• Then we're going to look at Marine Eugene Hasenfus who survived a plane crash in Nicaragua and simultaneously blowing the lid clean off the Iran-Contra cover-up. Hasenfus's plane got shot down like any other plane of the time period, but what was so different about it was that it was full of AK-47 bullets, AK-47 spare parts, and a bunch of other stuff that served no purpose other than to support the Contras, especially since the plane was flying towards a Contra held hold out. Needless to say, the media, including Nicaragua, had a lot of questions to ask.
• Lastly, even with the cover-up no longer covering anything up, how did Reagan walk away from the entire ordeal for the most part unscathed? How did he weather the storm of political turmoil with what seemed like ease and grace. He did such a good job handling the issue, instead of being impeached, he won the next election!

This episode flies off the rails at the very beginning and it's a fascinating view of presidential powers, checks and balances, and just exactly can the president get away with. And what happens to those who are not necessarily shielded by the president's aura of protection. Be sure to get comfortable with this one! It's going to make you feel good that you never got caught selling anti-tank missiles to an Iranian arms dealer so that you can negotiate with terrorists and make some extra cash to give to some anti-communist movement in Central America that you're forbidden to do.

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If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top.

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Our President, Donald Trump has joined a long list of presidents in the 20th and 21st centuries who have embroiled America in the Middle East in yet another conflict. We here at The Day's Dumpster Fire don't like to take sides in terms of political parties, the Middle East has proven itself to do the exact same thing. It doesn't matter which president is in office, democrat or republican, the Middle East and America have been involved with one another for decades for one reason or another with no end in sight.

Kara and Ed would often get questions from their students as to why the Middle East is such a confusing conflict and all they could say is that "Well, it's complicated." And you know what, nothing has changed all that much year after year other than things continue to get more and more confusing, complicated, and worse yet for America, polarizing. The best way we can describe the situation over there is that the Middle East is a combination of multiple different jigsaw puzzles that need to be assembled but with no pictures on the boxes as a frame of reference...

... Oh, and all the pieces are in a dumpster that just so happens to be on fire...

In today's episode, Ed doesn't tackle any of the laundry list of issues in the Middle East dating back to the time after WWII. Instead, Ed has put together a few of the puzzle pieces that involve a part of the puzzle contributing to some of the issues today.

Today's episode is about The Iran Contra Affair or Scandal. In Part 1 Ed is giving us some background on:

• A brief overview of what the Iran Contra Affair was about and what sort of questions the whole kerfuffle brought about in American politics.
• What role did communism and the Cold War served in shaping American foreign affairs.
• What in the world was going on in Nicaragua and who the Contras were and what they stood for.
• What was going on with Iran and Iraq going to war in the 1980s and how the Soviet Union was playing a part.
• A quick overview of Hezbollah and the hostages they were taking with the backing of Iran.
• And lastly, what was President Ronald Reagan doing to handle Nicaragua (which his hands were tied to do anything because of congress not wanting another Vietnam War) and Iran (in which his hands were tied due to a campaign promise of never negotiating with terrorists

Be sure to tune into Part 2 when it comes out because it's going to conclude the whole ordeal and exactly how the Reagan administration got themselves in one of the wildest scandals in American history aside from Watergate.

Kara and Ed have put together some other episodes that correlate to this episode and the next one that you will find interesting:

The Vietnam War- great two-parter where Kara really explores America's involvement in Vietnam, the spread of communism after WWII, and the fears America had of "catching communism" as though it was a disease.

Support the show

Hey before you go!

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top.

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires.

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/

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Today's episode addresses a scenario that you have probably seen a few times or been a part of: you get invited to a party that you've always wanted to go to. You're beyond excited and you can't wait to dress up and have the time of your life. However, for one reason or another, you are unable to attend the party or worse yet, you're uninvited and you don't know why. Naturally, of course you're heartbroken. During the night while everyone in the world except you have been invited to this wicked party, you're at home, adrift in your sea of resentment.

That resentment can last days if not weeks and it feels like it's unshakable. Like why Karma punished you like this... until someone comes up to you who was at the party and starts the conversation with, "Hey did you hear what happened at the party last night?" When you get all the "deets" to find out that the party was a huge, colossal failure, replete with people being burned to death and what not, you're suddenly thanking Karma for blessing you by making you miss the party.

Today's episode features the valiant return of Kara, back from a fresh stint of vacation and she put out a banger of an episode for you. Imagine you're job in the 1300s was to put together a party for the king of France who is already a mass of mental health issues and is so bad, he is considered insane for the day. Access to mental health back then consisted of large volumes of alcohol and someone from the church telling you to suck it up and deal with it...

Since your job is to make this party an event fit for a king and something no one could forget, you decide to pull all the stops and go big or go home. Your idea is to make a bunch of men (king included) get sewn into these outfits, made of flammable material, covered in a flammable tree resin, then smothered in flammable fibers so that the bunch of men (king included) look like harry wild men running around the ballroom.

Mind you this is the 1300s, torches and candles were the only forms of light... What could possibly go wrong?

So be grateful as you listen to this episode 1. You or your ancestors never got invited to this event and 2. You or your ancestors were never put in charge of making the party "memorable."

Sometimes, it's good to not be the most popular or the most reliable!

If you like this episode, check out The Day's Dumpster Fire for the ever-growing library of history going horribly awry for humanity.

Be sure to check out these episodes that are similarly themed:

Henry's Wive's Demise Fire - Episode 19

Firing Fireworks Fire - Episode 26

Botched Funerals - Episode 58

Support the show

Hey before you go!

If have ideas for future episodes that you want Kara and Ed to look into, email them at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com. They would love to hear from you!

You can also send them a text message by clicking on the link at the top.

Be sure to head on over to www.thedaysdumpsterfire.com for the ever growing library of historical dumpster fires.

Check us out on the ol Instagrams!
https://www.instagram.com/thedaysdumpsterfire/