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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.

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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/

Send us Fan Mail

Ed's by himself today so he's got the entire episode for himself to do as he pleases. Kara is on vacation and that means Ed can do whatever type of episode he wants so what could possibly go wrong?

As a result of Kara being vacation, Ed decided to do and episode themed off nothing else done before in The Day's Dumpster Fire history. and episode dedicated to one of the worst train accidents in American history.

What was supposed to be a normal July 9, 1918, early morning train ride for folks coming in from Memphis TN to Nashville and folks coming out of Nashville TN heading to Memphis, two trains collided just a little way outside of Nashville on a blind turn called "Dutchman's Curve." This collision marked the worst train collision in US history and took the lives of over 101 men, women, and children. Furthermore, about 80% of the people who died that day were African Americans who were trying to head to a munitions factory for work.

In this episode, Ed will nerd out on some cool facts about how steam engines work and why they dominated the mass transit system of the 1800s and early 1900s. He will also dig into the litany of safety issues that resulted in the disfigurement of many railroad workers if they didn't end up dying doing their jobs. Next Ed will describe the geography of where the collision took place as well as the two trains involved. He'll explain how the accident took place, who or what was at fault and what Ed thinks is the real culprit behind this terrible accident.

It's not what you think! So, you better sit down and listen. You might just learn some math along the way.

Of course, if you disagree with Ed's theories or want to add your own be sure to email Kara and Ed at thedaysdumpsterfire@gmail.com come.

Check out the website and send a text if you want. This is not your typical dumpster fire, and it invites the community to chip in their theories.

If you're interested in this episode, check out these!

The Transatlantic Telegraph

The Hindenburg

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/