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Editor says, what if Scipio Africanus has taken the purple? muses Dirk Puehl and Marko Bosscher. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 183 BC, on this day Consul for life and Dictator Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (pictured) died in the "ungrateful" city of Rome [1].
Scipio Africanus, Dictator for LifeA famous Roman General, he had become a living legend by defeating Hannibal and the Carthaginians at the Battle of Zama.
The Scipiones, as his supported were known, insisted that he was the man to lead the Empire despite the opposition of his enemies and widespread ingratitude of the citizenry. But instead he planned to retire from politics by hand-picking a suitable successor Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, the Elder, but when he died [2] Scipio was forced to take the purple.
He ruled until his suspiciously premature death aged fifty-three, almost certainly the result of poisoning or suicide for unknown causes.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Scipio Africanus, Dictator, General, Rome, Roman. Editor says, [1] in reality he refused this title, and prematurely retired from politics.
[2] in our timeline, he lived and married Scipio's five year old daughter.
~ Rebellion in the ranks? Somewhere the outward expanding empire could have ground to a halt.
~ I don't know if he could have pulled a Sulla or a Caesar. That had taken, among other things, over a century of stupid civil warfare and increasingly clear evidence that the Republic worked just fine for a city-state, but wasn't working for a Mediterranean-wide empire. And Scipio himself would probably not have had the right mind set.
~ Africanus rocks!
Editor says, what if Oswald Mosley had lucked out? muses Robbie Taylor. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1980, on this day the British Fascist Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats died in Mayfair, London [1]. Within the family and among intimate friends, he was always called "Tom".
The Death of Blackshirt TomHe was a Member of Parliament for Harrow from 1918 to 1924 and for Smethwick from 1926 to 1931, as well as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Labour Government of 1929-1931. He resigned due to his disagreement with the Labour Government's unemployment policy.
Disappointed by the two main parties in British politics, he founded the New Party in 1931. Arguing for elections based on class lines rather than geographical location, the New Party was unpopular until the full effects of the Great Depression hit England. Mosley's ranks swelled with the unemployed, and he was elected Prime Minister in 1932.
He made common cause with continental fascists Mussolini of Italy, Franco of Spain and Hitler of Germany during his premiership, but where they are all gone by the end of the decade, Mosley's rule of Britain has only begun.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Oswald Mosley, Fascist, Nazi, New Party, Hitler. Editor says, in reality he died a failure in Orsai, France. He was selected by the BBC History Magazine as the 20th century's worst Briton.
~ But why would this Nazi-loving fascist #*$*%*!! have fought against his continental buddies, when WWII led to the fascist rulers being "gone by the end of the decade." Still, it's a fascinating premise and I would love to know what happened.
~ Fascists didn't always love other Fascists. That said, I do think the Blackshirt movement was too alien to British ways-of-doing to have succeeded without major alien space bat help.
~ Eric, the fascists did not love each other...Hitler, in particular, despised Mussolini. But they did join together to form the Axis Powers.
~ Fascist Britain could've made a mint with a similar lend-lease policy supplying Hitler via the seas.
~ No Comment
Editor says, what if Diocletian had embedded a progression of offices into the Tetrachy? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 311 AD, on this day Diocletian expired in Aspalathos, one of the few Emperors of the third and fourth centuries to die naturally.
Hedges of the Night
Article written by Ed, Scott Palter & Jeff ProvineGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus Augustus was born into slavery in Salona, an ancient Illyrian Delmati city in the Roman Province of Dalmatia. From freedman he rose steadily through the ranks of the military, serving in Gaul before the appointment as Dux Moesiae, cavalry commander of forces on the lower Danube. After the deaths of Carus and his son Numerian on campaign in Persia, Diocletian was proclaimed Emperor. The title was also claimed by Carus' other surviving son, Carinus, but Diocletian defeated him in the Battle of the Margus. With his accession to power, Diocletian ended the Crisis of the Third Century.
Diocletian appointed fellow officer Maximian Augustus his senior co-emperor in 285. He delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors. Under this "Tetrarchy", or "rule of four", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the Empire. Diocletian secured the Empire's borders and purged it of all threats to his power. He defeated the Sarmatians and Carpi during several campaigns between 285 and 299, the Alamanni in 288, and usurpers in Egypt between 297 and 298. Galerius, aided by Diocletian, campaigned successfully against Sassanid Persia, the Empire's traditional enemy. In 299 he sacked their capital, Ctesiphon. he led the subsequent negotiations and achieved a lasting and favorable peace.
His life experience provided Diocletian with a broad understanding of the operation of the power structures in the Roman Empire. And from his lowly birth status grew the germ of a compelling vision for meritocracy that would secure the future. Clearly to survive the centuries, the Empire needed to devolve into a symbiotic grouping of self-sustaining admnistrative provinces which could draw from local resources (the Rhine and Danube had the good recruiting grounds, whereas the East and to a lesser extent Italy/Africa had the money). But such a structure was always vulnerable to a powerful general whose ambition was to rule the whole Empire.
The answer to this conundrum was the progression of offices under which a Count of Britain picked in York by two Caesars and two Augusti could rise to higher order roles in Trier, Antioch, the Danube and finally Rome. As a further safeguard against dictatorship, Diocletian introduced a formal separation of powers, with a strong Senate and controls to keep the Praetorian Guard in check. It was these "hedges of the night" that would sustain the rule of four in the long centuries to come, preventing the civilized world from plunging into a dark age.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Rome, Roman, Diocletian, Tetrachy, Rule of Four. Editor says, in this post we explore a point of divergence with Scott Palter & Jeff Provine. Extensive content has been repurposed from Wikipedia.
Comment from Bill Collins on Google+ Hmm. Hm hm. Instead of dividing the empire into two parts that reflect an internal schism (and presumably trying to safeguard the "best" parts for his descendants and friend's descendants), he divides it into four. I am not well read on that period. An intriguing idea. How does splitting into four divisions make it work? I also wonder if the real Diocletian considered that??
~ An interesting idea, but I don't know if he could have made it stick. IIRC the Tetrarchy didn't last too long.
~ In view of the countless military threats that the empire faced during the following centuries, the only solution that would have worked would have been one that retained central control over the army, roads, and ports. Any other solution would have been too inflexible. Independent emperors, or ceasars, could not shift forces where they were needed. Note the inability of the Western Empire to confront the Gauls, Vandals, and Huns, while the East remained relatively safe during the period. Imagine if the West were to have a hundred thousand soldiers from the East able to face Atilla... Now there's a scenario.
~ I like the idea of dividing powers along grounds of a more coherent confederacy. Could solve a lot of issues with dictatorship.
Editor says, what if McClellan had won the Presidency in 1864? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1826, on this day US President George B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Birth of "Little Mac" by Eric LippsHe was assassinated by a Unionist sympathiser who burst into the Presidential box whilst he and his wife were watching the aptly named play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's theatre in Washington, D.C.
McClellan, though loyal to the Union, was notorious for overestimating the strength of Confederate military power and, as President, had sought a negotiated peace rather than a triumph of arms he seemed to believe impossible.
Acting as general-in-chief, and also Army of the Potomac his Peninsula Campaign in 1862 ended in failure, with retreats from attacks by General Robert E. Lee's smaller army and an unfulfilled plan to seize the Confederate capital of Richmond. Later his performance at the bloody Battle of Antietam blunted Lee's invasion of Maryland, but allowed Lee to eke out a precarious tactical draw and avoid destruction, despite being outnumbered. As a result, McClellan's leadership skills during battles were questioned by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, who eventually removed him from command, before he entered the political fray and won the 1864 election.
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Eric Lipps
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Wikipedia Labels: McClellan, Lincoln, Presidency, American Civil War, Assasination. Editor says, this story is loosely set in the timeline where General Walker established a slave state in Nicaragua.
~ The setting of McClellan's assasination shows a lack on imagination
~ Getting Lincoln's bullet, sitting in his place. Something poetic in it. He was botching things up on the front lines where he definitely needed to be removed. If Lee was the Union general, he probably could have won the war -- and possibly sat in the Oval Office when Grant did? Lee was named by Zachary Taylor as the man that should run that army, but went with Virginia, instead.
~ And unfortunately, such was Lee's loyalty to his state that only if Virginia had not seceded would he have been available to be Union commander.
~ Nice switcheroo. The more things change...
~ With the war ended on favorable terms for the Confederacy the assassin would more likely have been a northerner angry at having lost loved ones in a lost war, but it needs a little more context. Who did it and what was the trial like? It would make the scenario much more plausible and interesting to know.
It is even possible that this scenario would have come to pass if the Union had lost a couple more battles in the fall of 1864 right before the election.
~ Read the entry, which identifies the killer as an embittered "Unionist."
Editor says, what if losing the 1864 election was for the best? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the May 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1829, on this day the seventeenth President of the United States, George Brinton McClellan (pictured) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of a prominent surgical ophthalmologist, Dr. George McClellan (1796-1847), the founder of Jefferson Medical College.
George B. McClellan
17th US President"Little Mac" (as he was known) was the grandson of Revolutionary War general Samuel McClellan of Woodstock, Connecticut. He first attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1840 at age thirteen, resigning himself to the study of law. After two years, he changed his goal to military service. With the assistance of his father's letter to President John Tyler, young George was accepted at the United States Military Academy in 1842, the academy having waived its normal minimum age of sixteen. It was an early warning signal of a "golden boy" being rushed into a position of ultimate responsibility that he was not quite ready for.
During the American Civil War, he organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Out-generalled by the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, Robert E. Lee, he was eventually removed him from command, first as general-in-chief, then from the Army of the Potomac. Yet he remained one of the most popular of that army's commanders with its soldiers, who felt that he had their morale and well-being as paramount concerns. Perhaps in the final analysis he was merely a victim of youthful inexperience, because after all Lee was nearly twice his age. Or, as his detractors argued, he lacked the "3am" courage of his ultimate successor, "the butcher" Ulysses S. Grant.
Nevertheless, two years later, the war continued to rage and Lincoln's prospects of re-election had receded sharply. And during the fall of that terrible year, Atlanta held out, and the Confederates won at Cedar Creek and his fate was sealed. Ironically, his opponent was McClellan who won with the support of Peace Democrats like Clement Vallandigham and Fernando Wood who planned to cash in their chips once the McClellan administration took office. Even more strangely, McClellan was a reluctant candidate who was not personally in favour of a peace settlement1. And in fact the military situation disguised an imminent Confederate collapse.
Both candidates clearly saw how close to defeat the rebels really were, understanding that the situation called for a pressed military assault during the remaining five months of Lincoln's Presidency. And sure enough General Sherman was duly ordered to take the Confederate Capital of Richmond in a no holds barred assault. The only question now was whether a lame duck President could muster the necessary authority to seize victory before the inauguration day. Or whether the Confederates could pull off an assassination or perhaps kidnap that would curtail his term of office.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: George B. McClellan, Texas, Presidency, America, Abraham Lincoln. Editor says, in authoring this article we refer to Civil War Talk and Discussion Boards, we also repurposed content from Wikipedia.
1) He supported continuation of the war and restoration of the Union (though not the abolition of slavery), but the party platform, written by Copperhead Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, was opposed to this position. The platform called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a negotiated settlement with the Confederacy. McClellan was forced to repudiate the platform, which made his campaign inconsistent and difficult. He also was not helped by the party's choice for vice president, George H. Pendleton, a peace candidate from Ohio.
~ I think you mean "muster" the necessary authority. :D
~ McClellan wasn't a _bad_ general, and he'd have possibly made a better CinC than Lincoln did.
~ McClellan was beter at organizing an army than at actually using it. His constant (errorneous) belief that the Southerners had him outnumbered kept him from pressing the advantage when he had it.
As for abolition, it would have come sooner or later, even in a victorious South; if nothing else, mounting pressure from Britain and France would ultimately have forced the issue. The only question is when.
~ If an all out attack is made prematurely, with a doubting president-elect in the background it may fail.
Lee may get away with his army and there is no surrender at Appomattox Court House because he was surrounded.
This was partly because the attack was unexpected and there were delays whilst the troops "drew" rations.
Meanwhile general custer's cavallry as used in an all-out attack, get cut down, and as not there for a pusuit. "Colonel Custer's Charge" goes down like the Charge of the Light Brigade" in history, charging the Confederate batteries.
Lee's army gets away.
Guerrilla fighting continues on other fromts.
McCleelan once inargurated opens negotiations.
I don't think necessarilly the CSA would continue, but some new loose union, as someone has said with slavery continuing for the moment.
~ I think it would be hard for the Union army to raise itself for victory. The CSA would know that simply giving ground and keeping a substantial and credible force in being would be sufficient until inauguration. Whatever McClellan's personal thoughts he would have been elected on a crystal clear peace mandate. It would have been impossible for him to avoid a peace settlement. I think the momentum towards a negotiated settlement once McClellan won would be too much, would Lincoln have dared to countermand his own electorate by pressing so hard when his programme had been voted down? Also Sherman would have taken some time to redeploy for Richmond, time for his troops to desert, refuse to attack given the election result and so on. You seem to be proposing that Lincoln was a dishonourable man who would attempt to circumvent the clear wishes of the electorate. I suspect the outcome for the Union of this election would be the same as for the Russians after the fall of the Tsar, the wind would come out of their sails, they would just sit it out til the peace settlement.
In terms of the settlement we can assume that the existing CSA would be recognised as a separate nation. What of the border states, would the Copperheads be prepared to concede plebiscites in Maryland or any other states technically in the Union but with strong Confederate sympathies? What about the western territories? How would they be divided? Would they use the Mason-Dixon Line? Also there would be the poisition of West Virgininia, presumably the rump Virginia would demand this back. So I propose as a reasonable peace: recognition of the CSA, plebiscites to be held in any states whose legislatures vote for this within an agreed period (say 6 months so it did not drag on), West Virginia reincorporated into Virginia, Mason-Dixon Line to California border to be the demarkation of western territories. That might be a bit unreasonable for a negotiated peace, however, it would depend upon how desperate for peace the Union became once the election was held.
As for slavery this is all about international pressure, clearly the CSA would be unliklely to emancipate in the near future, the issue would become a source of national pride and identity. They might try to expand slavery's scope, say with some territorial landgrabs in the Caribbean, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic. I feel, though, that wihtout being able to build some international slave-holding bloc they would soon be compelled by moral condemnation to end the practice, perhaps after a generation, say the 1880s. By 1860 slavery had been got rid of by almost every major nation who could influence the CSA, they would have been too late by then to build such a blco, so I agree slavery was a dead duck regardless of CSA wishes.
Editor says, what if Iqbal's variant of the two-nation theory had been adopted? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1971, on this day the Islamic Republic of Sindhustan invaded the Punjab.
Land of the PureThe risk of this type of conflict had been fully recognized by Anglo-Indian planners twenty-five years before, but the future potential for border dispute had been considered of secondary importance to the primary threat of sectarian violence immediately after the dissolution of the British Raj. And so they chose to adopt the "Iqbal Plan" which was conceived in 1930 by the leader of the All-India Muslim League Allama Muhammed Iqbal.
This particular implementation of the two-nation theory led to the formation of non-contiguous Muslim States in the north-west and south-east of the Indian sub-continent. The need for large-scale population displacement upon Independence was avoided. But an immediate and largely unanticipated setback was that the machinery of government passed into the hands of the Hindustan Republic, and as a result, the British under the command of Sir Douglas Gracey retained control of the army and security forces until 1951.
The leadership of great statesmen was desperately required to move forward from this malformation, but tragically the man best suited to do so, Mohammed Jinnah died of tuberculosis and lung cancer just one month after independence. Although Jinnah had been encouraged to return to India by Iqbal, he had almost immediately began to promote an alternative two-nation theory. He proposed a "hard partition" resulting in a new secular state called Pakistan, a name devised in 1933 by Choudhary Rahmat Ali as an acronym of Punjab (P), Afghan (a), Kashmir (k), Sindh (s) and Balochistan (tan) and based upon the persian word "Pakstan" meaning "land of the pure".
Chronic instability problems from the beginning ensured that those six areas soon became independent states. But the situation radically changed in 1979 with the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. The region was flushed with a huge influx of American arms and money. And the eventual defeat of the Red Army led to a renewed appetite for building a Fort of Islam.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
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Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: India, Pakistan, Iqbal, Jinnah, Islam. Editor says, in this post we re-visit an idea originally conceived by Guest Historian Jeff Provine.
~ At least fewer resources would limit atomic bomb creation possibilities. War's bad enough without M.A.D.
~ But you're implying that there was a single Hindu India?
~ Combine this with the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and the Middle East would have exploded.
~ So how does the rest of Hindu India react?
Editor says, what if Lincoln failed his law exams? muses Jeff Provine on the This Day in Alternate History web site. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the November 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1839, in another critical moment of failure of famed States Rights advocate Abraham Lincoln, his application to practice law at the federal level was dismissed, possibly due to finagling from Democratic opponents.
Abraham Lincoln Fails his Admission to the US Circuit Court The grounds for refusal were based in his fiery rhetoric and several challenges of his character, giving examples from his history of scatological humor and rough story telling. Lincoln could not deny these remarks and attempted a defense on First Amendment Free Speech, but he would soon give up as he fell into one of his "melancholies" (believed to be what modern psychologists would call clinical depression).
Lincoln's life had been fraught with hardships. Born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, young Lincoln was the son of Thomas Lincoln, who had become a wealthy and respectable man in the real estate business until he was wiped out in 1816 due to court cases over a faulty title. They moved to Indiana, a state where slavery was banned, and tragedy struck again as milk sickness (tremetol poisoning) took Lincoln's mother. Frontier life was hard, and the Lincolns moved westward again to Illinois to a new homestead. Lincoln left home and worked on a river barge before returning and starting a store that would ultimately fail. After losing a political campaign in 1832 and serving as a captain in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln finally found his path as an orator and lawyer.
A new story by Jeff ProvineHe was famously self-educated, stating, "I studied with nobody". Instead, Lincoln read Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, the Revised Statutes of Indiana, the Declaration of Independence, and the United States Constitution while working as a secretary and surveyor in New Salem, Illinois. In 1834, along with his legal firm, he successfully began his career with the Illinois General Assembly as a Whig, following his hero Henry Clay, whose American System ideals he had begun to follow passionately. As a Whig, he would be firmly for investment in infrastructure to improve the nation, voting for projects such as the Illinois and Michigan Canal to connect Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, roads, and railroads. With the Panic of 1837, however, the projects became bankrupt and Illinois was "littered with unfinished roads and partially dug canals" while its bonds tumbled in value. Lincoln suggested making up the money by Illinois purchasing federal land and selling it for a profit to private citizens, which the federal government refused. These disappointments by federalism would later impact his philosophy of state self-dependence.
Just as his career seemed to be on the proper path, Lincoln's subtly failing strength as a Whig became a stumbling block blamed for costing him the ability to argue cases in the US Circuit Court. His world collapsed as he settled into depression, even skipping offers by John Todd Stuart, a war buddy and benefactor who had inspired Lincoln to take up law, to meet his cousin Mary Todd. Eventually the two would meet and even marry, though they once broke their engagement due to second thoughts. During this time, Lincoln determined his ideas on independence and voluntary mass-agreements, like marriage, and he focused on local items for his legal practice and political career supporting federalism as less important.
In 1847, Lincoln advanced to the federal level as a representative in the US House. He argued bitterly against the Mexican-American War (disgusted with calls for the glories of war, which he called an "attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood") and reaffirmed his "free soil" stance on slavery saying, "the Congress of the United States has the power, under the constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia; but that power ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the people of said District" while still denouncing the evils of slave-holding. He was rewarded with his support during the election of Zachary Taylor with an offering to be governor of the new Oregon Territory, but Lincoln declined, wanting to stay close to his home of Illinois.
Lincoln spent the next decade working to support his home state, running unsuccessfully in the 1858 Senate campaign but becoming famous after his publication of speeches in the Douglas-Lincoln Debates, including "I believe this government can endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will be divided". He was proven wrong with the secession of the South after the narrow 1860 election of William H. Seward. During the Civil War, Lincoln argued for the rights of Southerners but agreed that a violation of the agreement of Union had taken place. He begrudgingly supported military action and rose significantly to the Illinois Senate, where his aid bills laid groundwork for military planning in decades to come.
After the war and the assassination of Seward, Lincoln became a powerful voice on Reconstruction and the necessity to return the South to normalcy, including the return of many rights. Gathering support from other wings of the Republicans and even former supporters of Douglas as well as revealing much of the corruption of victory-profiteers, Lincoln challenged and would eventually overthrow the Radical Republicans even though he had agreed with them on many anti-slavery issues before. Eventually, Lincoln's fair-mindedness and disgust of corruption would get him elected President of the United States in 1868. Due to his deteriorating health and the increasing mental illness of his wife, Lincoln would retire from politics at the end of his term, though he had already set a new precedent for the United States with regional interest and a successful plurality of political parties. Many scholars would say this disjointedness did much to limit federal power that could have alleviated social woes in the next century's Great Depression.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Law, Legal, America, Politics. Editor says, in reality Lincoln successfully passed on to argue in the US Circuit Court and continued his belief in an American system, championing many Whig and later Republican ideals. His victories through political thought and the Civil War laid much of America?s groundwork of federalism.
~ It's unclear to me how failing the federal bar would have steered Lincoln onto a states'-rights political path comfortable even with a "divided" Union.
Also, surely it should be the panic of 1837, not 1937. Fixed - thanks. Ed
~ The stuff you cite as reasons to flunk him would have probably disqualified most if not all "country" lawyers at that time.
Editor says, in Robbie Taylor's most excellent novella "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" neo-Nazis in 1968 travel back through time to create the enemy they had always imagined. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the August 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1976, discovering that the leader of the Semitic-African Resistance Nesta Robert (Bob) Marley was playing soccer with street kids, agents of the New Reich surrounded a house on Hope Road in Kingston Jamaica, but the children got in the way of the ambush and somehow "Tuff Gong" managed to escape with minor injuries to the arm and chest..
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Tuff Gong makes his escapeAfter the Neo-Nazi Conquest of Europe, the Greater Zionist Resistance had reformed into the Semitic-African Resistance. Marley's almost unique background made him a perfect choice for the leadership of this new organization. In fact he suffered acute racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life.
His father Norval Sinclair Marley was a caucasian-Jamaican of Syrian-Jewish-English descent who had served in the Royal Marines prior to the world-wide collapse of the British Empire. "I have to run like a fugitive to save the life I live. I'm gonna be Iron like a Lion in Zion"
Click 
to watch the videoA plantation overseer, he married Cedella Booker, an Afro-Jamaican then eighteen years old before dying of a heart attack in 1955 at age sixty.
Thrown into poverty as a street child, Marley had almost died of starvation in Trench Town. But he survived to lead the fightback as the indefatigable succcessor that Winston Churchill could never have imagined.
And in a sign that perhaps the tide was turning, a Nazi TV Broadcast was interrupted by the great Yahman who quietly made a calm assurance that "Everything is going to be alright".
Part one of the novel can be downloaded 
here and continues as a thread on this site.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Musicmoz Labels: Bob Marley, New Reich, Greater Zionist Resistance, African-Semitic Resistance, GZR. Editor says, Musicmoz reports ~ In 1976, two days preceding a scheduled free concert entitled "Smile Jamaica" that Marley and the then Jamaican PM Michael Manley had organized in the run up to the general election. Bob Marley, wife Rita and manager Don Taylor, were shot at their 56 Hope Road home, located just across the road from the what is now the Bob Marley Museum. Marley received minor injuries in the arm and chest. Don Taylor received most of the bullets in his legs and torso as he accidentally walked in the line of fire. He was registered in serious condition initially but was treated and sent home, and ended up having a full recovery from the wounds. Rita also recovered of the head wound she received that night.
~ Solid AH! He'd have some crazy awesome philosophy.
~ Only appropriate that the Lion of Zion leads the fight against the Nazis!
Editor says, what if the clues to the identify of Patient Zero in the movie Zombieland actually led somewhere? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 2009, Hollywood Director Ruben Fleischer announced a $1m dollar award for the first movie-goer who correctly guessed the identity of "Patient Zero" in the comedy thriller "Zombieland" which was released on this day in Australia.
Click to watch the Movie Trailer on Youtube
Who was Patient Zero in the Zombie Apocalypse?An early connection is the odd reappearance of "Victim in Bathroom" (played by Mike White) who later in the movie is scammed by Wichita and Little Rock at the "Gas and Gulp". These events are mirrored by Columbus who narrates the origin of the Zombie Apocalypse by explaining that some months before, patient zero took a bite of an infected burger at a Gas Gulp, also the location of the opening scene in Garland, TX.
When Columbus checks the washroom door, and the zombie (picture) chases him across the car lot, it becomes apparent that the Gas and Gulp at Garland is the epicentre of the Zombie Apocalypse and the mystery is solved.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© "Zombieland" (2009) written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick and directed by Ruben FleischerStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Movies Source: Wikipedia Labels: Zombies, Woody Harrelson, Zombieland, Pacific Playpark, Bill Murray. Editor says, Plot Summary from Douglas Young of the Movie Guy: The entire world is hit with an apocalyptic infection that turns people into zombies once they have been bitten by an infected zombie. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is a young geek who has a lot of phobias about almost everything from clowns, to bathrooms, to checking the back seat of cars. Being alone and scared of the outside world has kept him alive. His new fear is being eaten by zombies. To survive, Columbus has begun making a long list of rules to survive. Each time he gives you one of his rules, you see an example of his rule in action. Columbus explains to the audience in a background voice such as wearing your seat-belt, or the double-tap rule after you shoot a zombie make sure he is dead by shooting him in the head again. Trust me; this is not a wasted shot. The number 1 rule is to be sure that you can outrun the zombies, because the overweight and slow people were caught first by the zombies. He decides to go home to Columbus to see if his parents are still alive. Along the highway, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) a redneck zombie killer who loves Twinkies and misses his puppy Buck. They team up and head for Tallahassee. On the way they meet and join forces with two girls, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abagail Breslin). They may be the last surviving people on earth, and they must rely on each other to survive.
~ So what did the winner do with the prize money? :D
~ Haven't seen the movie, can't comment. I'm not a big zombie fan, honestly---I can't see the appeal they seem to have.
Editor says, What if Kennedy survived Dallas, only to escalate the Vietnam War? This story was published in the January 2009 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1963, on this day US President John F. Kennedy (pictured) announced that an additional five thousand military advisors would be deployed in Vietnam during early January. By the end of the year Saigon had received $500 million in military aid.A Quick Business Trip
Mr Kennedy had recently returned from a campaign tour of the southern states during which he had held a private meeting with former Vice President Richard M. Nixon. White House staff were quick to dismiss a suggested connection between the meeting and the announcement.
As had been reported openly in the Dallas Times Herald, by coincidence Mr Nixon had conveniently been in Dallas on the 21st November for a quick business trip. A young marine named Lee Oswald had delivered Mr Nixon's gracious invitation and the President had been only too pleased to accept.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: John Kennedy, Presidency, America, Dallas 1963, Richard M. Nixon. Editor says, In this scenario, we suggest that rather than Kennedy survive to withdraw, rather he is menaced with some unspecified threat by the industrial-military complex as represented by Nixon. Strong-armed, Kennedy survives only to escalate the war in Vietnam. We are grateful to Mr Robbie Taylor for the suggested Oswald connection.
~ Yeah, interesting scenario as to what JFK would have done instead of Johnston...
~ "Hey, hey, JFK, how many kids did you kill today?" A lot of people think that JFK would have brought us out of Vietnam...after all the work he did to get us into there in the first place.
~ Interesting. Kennedy is forced to react counter to his original plans. He was never particularly happy following the whims of his military advisors as many of those closest to him say. Increased military action could only spell doom for a re-election campaign - remember that Johnson was only re-elected on a tide of goodwill towards the Party and him following Kennedy's actual death!
~ I'd like to know the POD for this TL...it sounds fascinating... :)
~ So, does this mean that Goldwater will have a better chance in 1964? This, combined with the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuban Missile Crisis, could allow him to paint Kennedy as dangerously erratic.
~ It seems as if Kennedy, in this timeline, is heading down the road LBJ traveled.
But as for "all the work he did" to get us into Vietnam, it was President Eisenhower who sent in the first "advisers" (my stepfather was one of them, and was wounded in what was then called "Indochina"). and pressure from Eisenhower-era holdovers in the government played a significant role in JFK's early decision to add to their number. By mid-1963, however, he had reportedly begun to sour on the venture, and shortly before his death Kennedy issued an order calling for 1,000 troops to be withdrawn from Southeast Asia. Johnson rescinded thata order as one of his earliest acts as President.
There's no telling what JFK would have done if he had lived; there's room for a wide variety of alternate scenarios. The idea that he might be "strong-armed" by the miliary-industrial complex into escalating in Vietnam is unlikely, however, in my opinion. Such a move would be likely to backfire.
However, Kennedy was apparently concorned about the growing political clout of the military-corporate apparatus. It's been reported that the Kennedy administration quietly supported the making of the movie Seven Days in May as a way of warning the American public.
On this day in 1941, the US carrier task force which had left Pearl Harbor on November 26th returned to Hawaii. | |
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Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Barbarossa41 Source: Wikipedia Labels: World War 2, Operation Barbarossa, Fascism, Europe of the Dictators, Axis Powers.On this day in 1972, the Dallas Cowboys officially clinched an NFC wild card berth with a 27-7 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. | |
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Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Ice Bowl Source: Wikipedia Labels: Dallas Cowboys, NFL, Kansas City Chiefs, America, Touchdown.| US President | In 1989, with the East German Communist state collapsing, Chancellor Egon Krenz is forced from power. |
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| Jack Kemp |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Jack Kemp, Presidency, East Germany, Cold War, Egon Krentz.Once again, he managed to infuriate those above him though he was very well liked by the platoon that he led.
Back in New York meanwhile, Jennie Jerome campaigned for the Democrats once more in the 1897 election though she was once again unsuccessful when New York went wholeheartedly for William McKinley and the Republicans. Jerome was to fade in significance for the next few years, thoguh she would make a comeback later on.
Meanwhile American interest in intervention in Cuba became more marked, and the people of the USA were aghast at the (largely exaggerated) atrocities committed by the Spanish in Cuba. The situation came to a head with the mysterious sinking of the battleship USS Maine on February 15, 1898, at 9:40 p.m. in Havana Harbor. The sinking was attributed, by Spanish scientists, to an internal and accidental explosion; but in 1898 a Naval inquiry reported that it was caused by submarine mine and one month later war was declared.
As the USA and Spain geared up to fight, Churchill remained stationed in Fort Worth where he became frustrated at his lack of action. Just days after the war began, Churchill requested a transfer which his local commander was only too happy to adhere to.
Winston Churchill was transferred to the US V corps and soon after travelled to Cuba to fight.
Entry posted by
PJY
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Invision Power Board Labels: Winston Churchill, America, President, Death of Randolph, Alternate Churchill.Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Soviet America Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Joel Rosenberg, Robbie A. Taylor, Comrade, Soviet States of America, Communism.December 2
Editor says, what if Thomas Jefferson had drafted a letter to King George III that sought to reconcile the colonies with Great Britain? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1775, on this day Lt. John Paul Jones hoisted the Grand Union Flag above the Alfred, a man-of-war of the Continental Navy which was moored in Philadelphia Docks.
The Sword is Mightier than the PenDescribed as being similar to the English colors, but "more striped" the flag aptly symbolized a growing desire for formal representation of the colonies as self-governing states in the British Empire.
Only six months before, that mood had been succinctly captured in prose by Sir Thomas Jefferson. His reconciliatory letter to His Majesty King George III had suggested that the colonies did not wish to revolt, but simply sought the right to fair taxation and trading rights. But it took the Battles of Lexington and Concord to convince the Crown that the Americans were determined to achieve equal rights, by any means necessary.
The final agreement took effect on January 1st, 1778, and although denounced by a number of hard-liners (notably Samuel Adams in Boston), the vast majority of Americans supported the agreement, officially known as the Colonial Representation Act. Sir Benjamin Franklin served as the first Viceroy, unfortunately for only three years until his death in December 1790. Sir Thomas Jefferson served as the third Viceroy, from 1807 until 1819. Upon his retirement, he focused on furthering higher education in Virginia, establishing the University of Virginia in 1825. He died on July 4, 1826, a few hours ahead of John Adams, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Grand Union Flag, America, John Paul Jones, Alfred, Philadelphia. Editor says, in this post we re-visit an idea conceived by Guest Historian Zach Timmons.
~ If the British had offered the deal they were offering post-1777 in the pre-war era, there almost certainly would have been no war. And by now the British Empire would stretch across North America, with its capital in North America, and be ready to last for a thousand years.
~ But there was no chance the Brits would offer such a deal to what they saw as an uppity rabble of inferiors. They finally grudgingly agreed to accept American independence only when it became clear that crushing the Colonies to their knees would be too expensive, given the dupport offered to America by Britain's geopolitical rivals France,Spain and Holland.
~ And Washington gets his wish to live at Mount Vernon, quietly the wealthiest planter in the new "state".
Editor says, what if Rosa Parks actions had triggered a riot? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1968, after nearly thirteen years of prison, Rosa Parks, the famous Black woman whose refusal to comply to city ordinance that Blacks sit in the back of city buses began the campaign of Non-Violent Resistance that gradually began to end the legal position of minorities as second-class citizens in the CSA.
Rosa Parks Released from PrisonWhile her action seemed minimal, it prompted action from leaders among the Black community, particularly a young Martin Luther King, Jr., whose speech in Richmond at the Jefferson Memorial on a racially united South where all men (and women) were truly created equal. Though it would not be until 1971 that the Civil Rights Amendment was passed after the harsh treatment of caused negative sentiment toward racism (also, the year of death of Confederate President Hugo LaFayette Black, seemingly symbolic of the end), the long, slow, but promising transition to the end of "American Apartheid" was slow but gave promising steps throughout. Rosa Parks, for example, was freed two years early after mounting non-violent protest and letter-writing campaigns that swamped the Alabama State Prison system.
A new story by Jeff ProvineAlthough the South's transition to equality had its bloody times, it was peaceful compared with the near-civil war in the United States. After the CSA gained its independence, slavery continued to be legal until it ecame economically imfeasible and transformed into an apprenticeship system. Black freedmen migrated northward to full citizenship rights for years until the immigration crackdowns of the 1880s. Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., gained large Black populations that were initially embraced but soon seen as neighborhoods of trouble due to unemployment and low standards of living (brought on mainly by racism prevalent among Northern Whites).
Under the leadership of men such as Malcom X and through the Black Panthers movement, violence rose up continually among the Black population in resistance to oppression. Spread of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1930s in states such as Iowa and Indiana, which had sent vast numbers of soldiers years before in an attempt to free the slaves, now sought to keep down their Black neighbors. National Guard troops were routinely called in to place cities under martial law throughout the 1950s and '60s.
Seeing the plight of his Northern brothers Martin Luther King, Jr., began a campaign for solidarity, but only with those who would join him in gaining justice without bloodshed. He joined with others in organizing the Freedom Rides aimed at Chicago in 1961, using newly gained rights of interstate transit among Blacks to present a non-violent protest of violence on both sides. The buses were notoriously attacked shortly after crossing the Kentucky border.
After King's assassination in 1968 in Tennessee as he prepared a tour of the North, his Dream would live on and finally see conclusion with a transition to legal equality. While the question of social equality remains unanswered even after two generations, the turbulent times at least made progress toward a "day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood".
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm, Civil Rights, America. ~ Would any of these people even have been alive? A world where the CSA won the Civil War would be very, very different. IIRC Malcolm X was the son of a West Indian immigrant; he might not have even been born b/c his parents either never met or had different children. And he's just one example.
~ That's a valid point, though I note that some very well-known authors (Harry Turtledove, for one) have ignored that objection. In the novel "The Two Georges," for example, in which the American Revolution was averted throough diplomacy, there are revcognizable counterparts of JFK, Richard Nixon and Martin Lther King Jr.
A point to bear in mind is that people with those names might still have been born, but might not be quite the same people even though they shared (some of) the same ancestors.
~ True. It's definitely a point of Butterfly Effect, though there would have to be some very certain genealogy and mathematical calculation to see whether people would/wouldn't be born. Some things could obliterate the potential birth, others might go through regardless. I like the "shared name" excuse.
Editor says, what if Jesus had fallen? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 2007, upon its display in the Uffizi Gallery shortly after its recovery from the famed Louvre theft, the painting of the Mona Lisa caused a protest among the minority cult known as "Christos", the Italian branch of the international organization branched originally from Judaism.
Mona Lisa Causes Uproar Among Christos The Florentine Christos found the painting to be "discriminatory" to quote Venetian church leader Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto. The cryptic smile that had so caught the attention of Symbolist movement of the 19th century is said to be hinting at "woman's domination of god".
A new story by Jeff ProvineAccording to the cult's history, their founder Yeshua was at Passover in Jerusalem despite warnings that the ruling religious leaders may try for an attempt upon his life. As spontaneously as a changed mind, he left the Garden of Gethsemane saying "This cup has passed from me" and sneaked out of the city with his followers. While he would continue to struggle with the religious norms, he would live more quietly in Galilee, marrying a woman from Bethany named Mary, and dying peacefully at the reported age of 120 years.
This offshoot of Judaism would spread quickly through the Greek world as Gentiles were allowed to convert without necessarily following the Jewish Law. It would join many of the savior cults of the mid-Roman Empire, such as those of Demeter and Mithras, this one specializing in grace and detachment from material possessions. While continuing despite its insistence upon a single god, the cult would ultimately be overshadowed by modern Isis-worship, evident today in temples and Ankh-necklaces seen throughout the world.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: God, Religion, End of Times, Apocalypse, Creation. ~ Little did they know that a secret code in the Mona Lisa pointed to a secret about their own faith...
~ This would be an unimaginably different world from our own, after such an early POD...and would angsty, rebellious black-clad kids make a big point of worshipping Set?
~ I doubt Leonardo da Vinci would even have been born in such a world, much less painted the Mona Lisa or anything like it.
~ To be honest, I'm surprised we don't have more Set worshippers among counter-culture as is. Guess snakes just aren't cool enough.
~ It seems I can't post when I click on the link, but my question would be, how does such a cult form at all, from a guy who didn't really do anything?
~ He did have a lot of big ideas, such as the Beatitudes, which upheld the underclass, as well as telling folks to pay their taxes and carry Roman legionnaire gear an extra mile. Not to mention miracles. Still, it'd be very little compared to the sacrifice he did.
Editor says, what happens after the cliffhanger ending to the 1987 comic The Watchmen? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1985, following the publication of Rorschach's Journal in the New Frontiersman, Senator John David Keene demanded the formation of a committee of the United States House of Representatives to investigate the allegations against Veidt Enterprises. Click to watch The Keene Act & YOU (1977) on Youtube
Rorschach's Journal First elected as a Republican Senator in 1972, four years later Keene allied himself with the New York Police Officer's Union on protesting at the liberties taken by the masked adventurers. The following year after the Police Strike, he tabled the infamous Keene Act, which banned costumed crime-fighters save those sanctioned by the government. Though The Crimebusters were forced to stop their crime-fighting ways, some (namely Rorschach) chose not to stop, wreaking havoc and evading the police instead.
And so despite this emergency Registration Act, it now appeared that the so-called Watchmen had continued their activities illegally over the past nine years. Most disturbingly perhaps, the spirit of a bogus uniting threat from Doctor Manhattan had been manufactured by the megalomaniac Adrian Veidt.
Already, Keene was being hailed as a leading candidate for the 1988 race when five-term President Richard Nixon was finally planning to retire from the White House. However the relevations in Rorschach's Journal were threatening to destroy his legacy, raising fresh questions about the addition of his image as a fifth face on Mount Rushmore.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, The Watchmen (1987) Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Watchmen, Senator Keene, Keene Act, Supermen, Doctor Manhattan. Editor says, Spoiler from Watchmen the movie ~ I must be one the few hardcore old-school fans who doesn't care a bit about the squid and might actually prefer it be left out, provided the spirit of a uniting threat (which is the really important part, as far as the theme and plot go) is left in. But was there really, truly any indication that the New Frontiersman possibly publishing Rorschach's journal, thereby undoing everything that Veidt has worked so hard to accomplish is getting left out, too? This last thing is a major deal breaker for me. The cliffhanger ending is, IMO, one of the greatest endings to any story/piece of literature. It was really powerful for me to be left eternally hanging, not knowing what might happen. I could have sworn that there was earlier confirmation that this was in. Also, why include the journal at all (I've seen it in shots from the movie} if you're not going to do this? Does anyone have any idea what the deal is with this?
~ I know nothing about _Watchmen._ I should remedy this one day.
~ For the same reason "The lady and the tiger." was written . Moore refused to return,stating that all the characters were either dead or insane.Patently false. Eric,have you read the "Last galactus story." It ended in a cliffhanger,some time in the late eighties.
Comment from Jeff Mayers on Facebook: Well, as a comic book reader (and who has read Watchmen), I would say that initially the government and the public, or portions of it, would turn more against "superheroes" than they already were(basicially somewhat reminiscent of what Marvel did with it's "Civil War" story a few years ago), but ultimately Keene would be disgraced and the "superheroes" will be prominent again...
~ I always felt Moore avoided writing a "Watchmen II" for fear that like so many sequels it wouldn't measure up to the original, and might even tarnish the first series by association.
But he left the door open. At the end, Dr. Manhattan is still alive (he may, in fact, despite Adrian Veidt's efforts, be unkillable); the second Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, in their "witness protection" new identities, are "talking about adventuring again"; and Rorschacht's journal is in the hands oif a yooung man suspiciously suggestive of a youthful pre-Rorschacht Kovacs. And then there's the Doctor's comment: "Nothing ever ends."
Editor says, what if the US Congressional Committees solved the 1860 Crisis before Lincoln was inaugurated? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the October 2009 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1860, seizing the initiative in the growing secessionist crisis, Congressional Committees boldly stepped into the dangerous power vacuum that had emerged between lame-duck President James Buchanan and the sinisterely quiet President-elect Abraham Lincoln. A "take it or leave it" offer was made to the would-be breakaway states: an amendment to the US Constitution that included a cast-iron guarantee of no further territorial expansion and a protection of the states rights to continue the institution of slavery.
Thirteenth AmendmentIn so doing, Congress beat a long retreat from the growth of republicanism that had surged through the Federal Government with apace since the election of Thomas Jefferson (pictured). Not that Jefferson was the guilty architect of course, because the states debts after the War of Independence had demanded a stronger central authority in order to protect the states from bankcruptcy. Those prophets (including many of the Founding Fathers themselves) who had advocated a Confederation with a weak General Government would now in hindsight be seen as presciently correct, it simply was not safe to place American freedoms in the hands of bankers and lawyers such as Lincoln.
The landmark decision would defuse the secession crisis, extending the state of the Union for a century. Secretary of State Seward would be legally required to decline Russian's unexpectedly generous offer for the "Alaska Purchase". Given the unlikelihood of slavery in the northern latitutes this seemingly unimportant decision would suddenly become a problem of apocalyptic dimensions for President Kennedy during the Alaskan Missiles Crisis one hundred years later.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© "Lincoln's Genius" Special Collector's Edition (2009)Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Civil War AL Source: Wikipedia Labels: Abraham Lincoln, Confederacy, America, Thomas Jefferson, House Divided. Editor says, please note that extensive amounts of content have been repurposed from the source articles.
~ A century? I think you'd be lucky to avert the civil war by a decade...
~ Er no the century .. the story is subtedly suggesting (too subtle, doh!) America is destroyed in a nuclear war you see with the Soviets in control of Alaska! ie Cuban Missiles gone wrong.
~ That offer would have PO'd a lot of the North (who were good and tired of the Southerners throwing temper tantrums to get their own way) without appeasing the real hotheads and fire-eaters in the South. I believe Lincoln did propose some such compromise, although not as hardcore as this one, but the offer fell flat.
~ Ah, but Mr Editor, you're assuming Alaska would remain Russian/Soviet all of this time. It's probably a good bet that it wouldn't. Either the US still buys the place or it is occupied by the US in 1919 & annexed sometime thereafter ;)
~ Ah, you see what I'm saying (correct me if I'm wrong sir) is that to prevent the admission of free slave states who would tip the balance against the southerners, congress codifies an amendment guaranteeing no further territorial admissions (to allay that fear of being outnumbered in the future). Since by 1848 the US covered its current landmass, this was in hindsight a good solution. President Buchanan in fact sent an envoy to Lincoln with proposals at least to guarantee the institution of slavery as a states right (the first half of the deal). So my point here is the guarantee to stop further admissions (I'm assuming it wasnt timebound) prevents any future Alaska purchase prior to the Cold War, and hence the Soviets do have a footprint still in the America. I do tend to agree with Mr Oppen that such an offer probably wouldnt have succeeded, but my purpose here is to explore the gridlock in the Federal Government at this critical time. Interesting for example, that Congress considered Lincolns signature on the 13th Amendment to be unnecessary, so they did assert themselves later on and for sure, Congressional Committees were looking for a solution in the late fall of 1860. Or have I missed the point? :-)
~ The big argument against a promise to let slavery be in existing states was that the southrons were frequently insisting on overriding anti-slavery statutes elsewher in the Union and were the most expansionistic segment of U.S. body politic.
~ Right--as in the Walker affair, when in the 1850s William Walker overthrew the goverment of Nicaragua and reinstituted slavery there as part of a plan to annex that coountry to the U.S. as one or more slave states.
And Southerners, for all their talk of states' rights, demanded that the federal government essentially enforce slave-state laws in free states, at least pertaining to blacks who had aollegedly "escaped" from Southern owners while on free soil. Besides forcing Northerners to return actual slaves, this led to a number of incidents in which free blacks were essentially kidnapped into slavery, with the government's aid, by purported "owners." In essence, Southern slave-owners wanted there to be two classes of states: one whose members' laws must be enforced nationwide, and another whose laws could be trumped at will by states of the first class. This attitude virtually guaranteed that there would be war sooner or later, although whhite Southerners, smugly confident of their innate superiority not just to blacks but to white Northerners, were sure they would win wasily--"whip the Yanks in a month," as a popular saying had it.
~ Sort of like the Germans who were shouting "On To Paris!" in 1914... ;)
~ I generally liked it,but slavery was not the sole issue of the civil war.
Editor says, what if Stalin's closest confidante was a spy as he feared?. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1969, British double agent Kliment Voroshilov died of old age in his Moscow apartment on this day. The discredited Field Marshall was eighty-eight years old and the last surviving Bolshevik revolutionary. That he had survived the purges to pass away through natural causes was hugely ironic, because as Stalin had suspected during his paranoid dotage, Voroshilov had been turned by British Intelligence in 1938.
Death of VoroshilovOnly a few months later, Voroshilov led negotiations with the Western Allies, seeking a deal which Stalin initially rejected. Instead, he desired a pact with Nazi Germany explaining that "Our aim is to ensure Germany can continue to fight for as long as possible, in order to exhaust and ruin England and France. They must not be in a condition to rout Germany. Our position is thus clear - remaining neutral, we aid Germany economically, with raw materials and foodstuffs. It is important for us that the war continues as long as possible, in order that both sides exhaust their forces".
"Our aim is to ensure Germany can continue to fight for as long as possible, in order to exhaust and ruin England and France". ~ Josef StalinStalin was forced to make a sharp recalculation when he learnt from Voroshilov that the Polish Cipher Bureau had cracked the Enigma devices used by German High Command, enabling the Western allies to intercept the Nazi German secret communications known as "Ultra". And under the terms of a framework agreement signed between the British, French and Polish Governments, an Allied Expeditionary Force was dispatched to guarantee Polish Sovereignty.
"Voroshilov was a hard-riding, hard-drinking military crony of civil-war days" ~ Alec NoveAn early intimate of the Soviet leader, Voroshilov was permitted to call Stalin by his nickname of "Koba". As Stalin mental strength declined, suspicion even fell on Voroshilov. In fact, his cover was very nearly exposed at the Tehran Conference in 1943. During a ceremony to receive the "Sword of Stalingrad" from Winston Churchill, he nervously took the sword from Stalin but then allowed the sword to fall from its scabbard onto his toes in the presence of his paymasters.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© WW2 History Magazine, November 2009 editionStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Stalin, Russia, Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet Union, World War 2. Editor says, =?the source article in WW2 History Magazine leads ~ Stalin's crony, Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, became the disgraced First Marshal of the Soviet Union, but always survived.?
~ how would he have survived the existence of such as Philby in the UK intel system? Prior to WWI, Redl not only sent Austro-hungarian secrets to Moscow, but told the Russians when anybody contacted the Austrians offering to sell secrets.
~ He couldn't have. The Soviet penetration of the West is simply not believable to the curren generations. Stalin had better updates on the Manhattan Project than FDR did.
Editor says, what if the oxygen tank of Apollo 13 had not exploded? muses Robbie Taylor. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1985, on this day the United States landed a man on Mars, right on schedule.
Triumph to TriumphThe NASA space program had moved from triumph to triumph since the moon landings in the late sixties and early seventies, and the building of a working space station in 1973 had laid the groundwork for travel to other worlds within the solar system.
Gary Davis, the first man on Mars, had been a teenager during the moon landings, and remembered vividly the sight of Jim Lovell walking on the moon during the successful Apollo 13 mission; it had inspired him to become an astronaut himself in America's thriving astronaut corps.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Space Source: Wikipedia Labels: Mars, Gary Davis, NASA, America, Red Planet. ~ This would definitely have been a HUGE feather in NASA's cap. A worthy goal, even today.
~ Had we kept moving in the direction of Mars instead of retreating from the moon back to Earth orbit, the money we've spent on the Space Shuttle program would easily have covered the cost.
~ This would have been so neat...unfortunately, I do think the Saturn V was an example of "Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time" technology. Going to the moon in '69 was like Leif Eiriksson landing in North America ca. 1000...it wasn't really sustainable.
~ This would have been a much better choice than the Space Shuttle, which was sold to the Nixon Administration as a cheaper alternative to a Mars Mission.
~ I have to disagree there. Much of the cost of the moon program derived from building the support infrastructure. Once built, maintaining and using it cost much less. The lunar program was killed prematurely (there were several more Apollo missions scheduled which never occurred) primarily for two reasons: (1) President Nixon was looking to eliminate an $8 billion federal deficit (ah, those were the days!),and (2) the lunar program was associated in the public mind with Nixon's political nemesis, JFK, and closing it down was a way for the always petty Nixon to strike at his deceased adversary. Sadly, there were liberal Democrats willing to go along because they had come to associate the space program with the military (all those generals and colonels and majors at the "civilian" NASA didn't help there).
Of course, having allowed most of the Apollo infrastructure to go to rot, it would now cost us a lot more to rebuild it. But that's another story.
~ Who arranged for the pyramids in the background photo?
~ I like the comparison of Lief Eriksson; someday, through a good deal of hard work, we could establish sustainable, even thriving colonies. Odds are we'd have some dark times ala Jamestown first.
On this day in 1973, Roger Staubach led the Dallas Cowboys to their ninth win of the 1973 NFL season as they beat the Denver Broncos 24-10; Dallas would finish the regular season at 11-3. | |
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| Roger Staubach |
Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Ice Bowl Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ban Johnson , Chicago White Sox, 1919, Sports, Baseball.| US President | In 2001, with Osama bin Laden still at large following the terrorist downing of United Airlines Flight 93 on Sept. 11, which resulted in dozens of deaths, another William Safire column accuses President Gore of "weakness" in response to terrorism. |
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| Al Gore |
In New York City, where Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has learned from government contacts that the World Trade Center had been unsuccessfully targeted for attack the same day Flight 93 went down, City Hall announces the formation of a new anti-terror police squad intended to "coordinate" with the National Guard, the U.S. Army and the FBI. In an editorial the following day, the New York Times will express concern about the possible abuse of police powers by the new squad. |
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Gore Wins Source: Wikipedia Labels: Al Gore, 911, America, Al-quaeda, War on Terror.On this day in 1971, suspicions that foiled would-be hijacker D.B. Cooper was a Soviet spy were confirmed when a KGB defector being debriefed at a CIA safe house in France was shown a photo of Cooper and identified him as one Dmitri Kaprinsky, a sleeper agent who'd been working undercover in the United States since the late 1950s. 'D.B. Cooper' was an alias created by the KGB to facilitate Kaprinsky's infiltration into American society. | |
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Entry posted by
Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: The D.B. Cooper Story Source: Wikipedia Labels: DB Cooper, Hijacks, Pacific Northwest, America, Airline Safety.| Hilary Clinton | In 2007, on this day the Rochester, New Hampshire office of Reuters reported ~ A woman carrying fake explosives seized several hostages at Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign office on Friday before surrendering peacefully to end a tense standoff. |
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| US President |
New Hampshire State Police Col. Frederick Booth said Lewinsky had strapped highway flares to his body, held a detonator that gave the appearance she was holding an improvised explosive device and demanded to speak with Clinton. Clinton had offered to cooperate, Booth said, but police negotiators did not want her to talk with Lewinsky. |
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Mental Floss, Dave 2008Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Paranormal Labels: Hilary Clinton, Confederacy, United States, America, Re-unification.Young Winston Churchill wanted to be a soldier. However, he wasn't very good with authority or taking orders and was yet to make an enthusiastic student. Later, Churchill was to name his time at West Point as 'Four of the worst years of my life'. He attempted to leave twice but was discouraged by his mother.
Churchill came to the attention of Superintendent Oswald Hurbert Ernst many times during his stay at West Point. This attention was largely negative as many of the tutors complained about Churchills attitude towards the work and towards them. At one point, Churchill was reported as having stated to a Latin tutor that 'Your subject is defunct. There can be no benefit in learning a dead language.'
Ernst wrote to Jennie Jerome Churchill in Winston's first year that
Winston has shown himself to be lazy, rude and undisciplined. Regardless of the respect that I among others had for your late father and currently hold for yourself, this cannot be tolerated at this academy. I should like to ask you to speak to your son and attempt to instill in him the importance of his time here.
While Churchill was struggling through West Point, his mother continued with her interesting social life and important role in New York society. Leonard Jerome had died in 1891 and Jennie now adopted his important role in New York society. She was seen meeting with local leaders in business, politics and high society.
Jerome tended to apply her favour to the Democratic Party and campaigned for the New York Democrats in the House elections of 1894. This did her no good when the Republicans won by a landslide. New York also elected a Republican Governor, Levi P. Morton with whom Jerome did not enjoy a very warm relationship.
Churchill graduated from West Point in 1897 second to bottom in his class. Nevertheless, he was now Second Lieutenant Churchill of the United States Army.
Entry posted by
PJY
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Invision Power Board Labels: Winston Churchill, America, President, Death of Randolph, Alternate Churchill.Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Robbie Taylor, 2004-Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi.In 2007, on this day the London office of Reuters reported ~ A man has been convicted of racially aggravated harassment after calling a Welsh woman English. Michael Forsythe was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months, after being found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, a court official said. Forsythe received the sentence at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday and was also ordered to pay 200 Welsh pounds in prosecution costs. The former lorry driver, who is originally from Northern Ireland, but lives in the Kingdom of Powys, Mid Cymru, called Lorna Steele an 'English b-' during an argument after he collided with her parked vehicle in the Welsh market town of Newport in February. Forsythe has attacked the prosecution as a waste of time and money, according to the Daily Mail newspaper. 'I find it unbelievable that I've been prosecuted for this,' he said. 'I've travelled all over Europe as a lorry driver and never had any problems with anybody and now they're officially calling me a racist. 'It's political correctness gone mad.' | Welsh Flag |
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| Wales |
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2007.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: Daily Mirror Labels: Racism, Wales, English Language, Slur, Britons.Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Crises Source: Wikipedia Labels: Ayers Rock City, Climate Change, Global Warming, Britain, Australia.After retiring as a Four-Star General in the U.S. Army, Haig served as the U.S. Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1973 Haig served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, the number two ranking officer in the Army. From 1974-79, Haig served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), the ex officio commander of the all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe. Haig is a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam Wars and is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest medal for heroism, as well as the Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the purple heart.
In 1981, after the March 30 assassination attempt on Reagan, Haig asserted before reporters 'I'm in control here' as a result of Reagan's hospitalization. Rather than being seen as exceeding his authority, the quotation became seen as an attempt to allay the nation's fear.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Today in Alternate History, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: Succession, Presidency, Assassination of President Reagan, I'm in control here, 1981 Coup.December 1
Editor says, what if States Rights were withdrawn after the USCW? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1883, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution, President William T. Sherman called upon Congress to repeal the tenth amendment.
War is HellBecause the Founding Fathers had envisaged a system of dual sovereignty under which the general government would (only) enjoy a delegated sphere of power. And in the tenth amendment, Anti-Federalists thought they had won a legal safeguard against central encroachment.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
But the legal safeguard was put aside in 1798 by the passage of the Sedition Act. And the central government and the states then entered a sixty year period of jockeying for authority including threats and then finally moves to nullify legislation and then finally secede from the Union. Both of which were priveleges that the Founding Fathers believed were enshrined by States Rights.
The decision was finally settled by the seven year States War [1]. The political elite searched for means to prevent the repeat of such a terrible cycle of destructive violence. And they concluded that the answer was to eliminate state sovereignty by repealing the the tenth amendment.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Tenth Amendment, Constitution, America, Civil War, Sherman. Editor says, thanks to Jackie Rose, Chris Smith, Tony Rocca, Bill Collins for their contributions to the development of this story.
Scott Palter writes [1] War couldn't have gone on THAT much longer. Dixie was bankrupt by 1865 and Union was getting there fast. So want you want is broken back war running down to an armistice sometime in the Spring of 1867. Essentially neither side can afford to pay their armies by this point [see our Independence War where the Continental paper money was worthless]. Most of the troops have gone home and the rest spend much of their time stealing food from the civilians and each other. An Army coup in the North would not be impossible. Radical Republicans were obsessed with the Jacobins and Roundheads as role models.
~ That could have started a ruckus...
~ It's true that he said, "If nominated I will not run...if elected I will not serve." But you can't blame a guy for changing his mind.
~ I'm not really sure about this one. In our own timeline, the repeal of the 10th amendment was never necessary. The states' rights argument lost out when the South lost the war.
~ Brian's right, but I also wonder if this would have caused another civil war, with perhaps some of the northern states on the other side.
~ With the frontier to absorb people who reject absolutism, the US might make it to a Great Depression before another big States War.
~ Everybody else seems to have already said what I might have added. Yep, it might have caused a real mess with sides not so easily defined as it was back in 1861-1865.
~ Better bets would be Sickles or Logan.
~ John, I did a lot of research on General Sherman for my e-book historical romance,"Captive Master, or: The Further Adventures of Simon Legree." You can find out more about it at www.extasybooks.com by searching under my name. Anyway, I never saw either such rumor...and if some people thought did thiink he was nuts, I think he himself advanced that theory, in order to frighten his enemies, as you can see in his famous mean-and-crazy photo, which appears on this post.
~ There was a lot of smoldering resentment in the southern states after that war; if they'd had the power through the 10th amendment to continue oppressing black people, who knows what torments they might have devised for that population? Thank goodness for the farsightedness of our ancestors!
~ Putting down secession was one thing, but fiddling with the Bill of Rights, which includes the 10th Amendment, was another thing entirely. You might have had a successful impeachment over something like that.
~ Of course, even in our history, exactly what the Tenth Amendment means is subject to fierce debate.
Not to step on any toes, but it isn't unique in that regard. People have wrangled over the First Amendment from the beginning. As for the Second, if it can be argued that it enshrines an individual righjt to "keep and bear arms," the question arises, what weapons count as "arms"? Somehow I don't think the Framers would have endorsed an individual right to "keep and bear" flamethrowers, rocket launchers or backpack nukes, if they had imagined such things. For that matter, in the eighteenth century, the phrase "bear arms" referred expressly to carrying arms in official, government-authoriozed combat (in medieval times, peasant conscripts were strictly limited as to the kinds of arms they could carry into battle, much less own). Then there's the Fifth . . . !
Editor says, what if States Rights were withdrawn after the USCW? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1883, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution, President William T. Sherman called upon Congress to repeal the tenth amendment.
War is HellBecause the Founding Fathers had envisaged a system of dual sovereignty under which the general government would (only) enjoy a delegated sphere of power. And in the tenth amendment, Anti-Federalists thought they had won a legal safeguard against central encroachment.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
But the legal safeguard was put aside in 1798 by the passage of the Sedition Act. And the central government and the states then entered a sixty year period of jockeying for authority including threats and then finally moves to nullify legislation and then finally secede from the Union. Both of which were priveleges that the Founding Fathers believed were enshrined by States Rights.
The decision was finally settled by the seven year States War [1]. The political elite searched for means to prevent the repeat of such a terrible cycle of destructive violence. And they concluded that the answer was to eliminate state sovereignty by repealing the the tenth amendment.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Tenth Amendment, Constitution, America, Civil War, Sherman. Editor says, thanks to Jackie Rose, Chris Smith, Tony Rocca, Bill Collins for their contributions to the development of this story.
Scott Palter writes [1] War couldn't have gone on THAT much longer. Dixie was bankrupt by 1865 and Union was getting there fast. So want you want is broken back war running down to an armistice sometime in the Spring of 1867. Essentially neither side can afford to pay their armies by this point [see our Independence War where the Continental paper money was worthless]. Most of the troops have gone home and the rest spend much of their time stealing food from the civilians and each other. An Army coup in the North would not be impossible. Radical Republicans were obsessed with the Jacobins and Roundheads as role models.
Editor says, in Robbie Taylor's "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" neo-Nazis in 1968 travel back through time to create a shadowy world-wide Zionist organization, the enemy they had always imagined. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the April 2013 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1955, on this fateful day in Montgomery, Alabama, bus driver James F. Blake dis-regard for an illegal act of civil disobedience allowed Semitic-African Resistance Fighter Rosa Parks to escape from the clutches of the Bund.
Rosa Parks slips through the netShe had occupied a seat in the white section in order to pass travel documents to Moyse Dayan. He, along with other freedom fighters, was travelling to liberal Canada along the re-activated Underground Railroad originally created during the US Civil War by Harriet Tubman.
It was many weeks before the incident was reported to Bund President Strom Thurmond, and only because of a chance identification based upon Dayan's signature eye-patch. By then he was long gone, but Parks real identity had been exposed and her days were numbered.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi. Editor says, in this article, we assume a Nazi Victorious scenario, where The Greater Zionist Resistance (GZR) has failed and joined forces with the equivalent of the NAACP into a global African-Semitic Resistance.
~ It is a fascinating premise, but for me it has one flaw. If the American Nazis had really taken over, would Rosa Parks be allowed to sit in a bus at all...rather than, say, a boxcar headed for a concentration camp?
~ Good point.
~ A quick escape possible for Rosa? Could the organization reach into her location and snare her away? She could be seen as important enough to keep around, despite some risks.
~ No Comment
~ Didn't Harry Turtledove's Great War series have a concentration camp angle?
~ Chris, I believe that It Can't Happen Here had the same thing...including a campaign against Jews.
Editor says, in Robbie Taylor's "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" neo-Nazis in 1968 travel back through time to create a shadowy world-wide Zionist organization, the enemy they had always imagined. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1973, leading political officer of the Greater Zionist Resistance (GZR) David Grün (David Green) died at Lower East Side New York, not far from the home of his protégé Micky Marcus.
Cast a Giant ShadowFollowing the assassination of Astrid Pflaume in 1935, he had emerged as the de facto leader of the GZR. Under the iron-like grip of his leadership the movement grew even stronger, giving the neo-Nazis little choice but to begin shuttling weapons of the future into the past. And within a decade, the tide had turned and the Zionists were fighting for their lives in a strip of land in Free Poland. Tragically, it was a far cry from his trademark greeting "Next year, in Jerusalem!".
In the Free World, Green was perhaps most famous for the iconic images (pictured) of him serving as a pragmatic mentor to the former United States Army colonel David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus who disobeyed orders from President Lindbergh to assist the GZR during this calamitous period. When he perished in the fall of Warsaw, Green personally wrote the letter of commiserations to his wife in New York City, noting "Emma, he was the best man we had". But against the odds, Green himself survived until December 1973, living to the ripe old age of 87.
Part one of the novel can be downloaded here and continues as a thread on this site.
Entry posted by Alternate Historian Robbie Taylor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Protocols Source: Robbie Taylors Blog Labels: Elders of Protocols of Zion, Robbie A. Taylor, Greater Zionist Resistence, GZR, Nazi. Editor says, in our timeline Ben-Gurion migrated to British Palestine in 1900 and became the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Please note that in authoring this post we have repurposed content from Wikipedia and used the famous picture from the 1966 movie "Cast a Giant Shadow"..
All of Robbie Taylor's novels are available for download at Amazon.
~ Things would have been very different.
~ Taylor could have had much more to write about. Possibly, an entire book.
~ Oh, where do I start. First, that lousy movie hard very, very little to do with the real Col. Marcus. It should be noted that Mickey Marcus was, before he returned to the army in 1939 to create something called the "Rangers," he was a prominent New York political figure, among other things, commissioner of prisons. Regarding the events portrayed -- incredibly loosely -- in the film, Marcus was a brilliant military organizer hired to turn an underground force into an army. Before the end of the mandate, he managed to create brigades and even the badges of rank still used in Israel today (they are based on US lieutenants' bars and majors' oak leaves). He was then called upon to organize the relieve of Jerusalem which the British -- under a Jordanian false flag -- had placed under siege at Latrun. He did this by secretly cutting a bypass road through the mountains to the south of Latrun, a feat not thought possible. By the way, in modern Middle East studies, that siege has been officially declared never to have happened -- too embarrassing to the Brits and their clients. I could go on. Someday, I hope to have the where with all to write a book about the Siege That Never Happened, and Britain's "Operation Chaos" that preceded it.
Editor says, what if the Electoral College had been abolished after 1824? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1824, the U.S. House of Representatives takes up the matter of the presidential stalemate between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams.
President William H. CrawfordSince no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Wrangling over votes in the House became intense, and several deals were struck that were later reneged on. In the end, the Representatives gave the election to the candidate who came in 3rd, as Jackson's and Adams' supporters were unable to secure a majority for their men. William H. Crawford (pictured), still recovering from a stroke, became the 6th President of the United States. And his first act was to call for the abolition of the electoral college.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: William H. Crawford, Andrew Jackson, Presidency, John Quincy Adams, White House. Editor says, in reality John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, after the election was decided by the House of Representatives.
~ Getting rid of the Electoral College would be a bad idea. One reason for its existence is to force the persons running for the only _national_ elected positions to campaign everywhere, not just in cities.
~ And instead, these days, thanks to the EC, candidates focus their campaigns chiefly on a small minority of so-called "swing states."
The chief reason for its creation was to reinforce the political power of smaller, and particularly Southern, states. The South demanded and got a number of protections in the Constitution to protect its most cherished fredom, the right to own Negro slaves. Apart from prison labor, that's pretty much a dead isue tday, but the electoral college lumbers on, distorting and sometimes derailing democracy.
~ But Andrew Jackson got to be president too, so everyone was happy.
Editor says, what if Obama had lost in 2008? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the March 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 2009, on this day President John McCain nominated his former opponent Barack Obama to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a position he also upgraded to Cabinet Status.
Ambassador Obama, RebootIn theory this bipartisan appointment was the kind of negotiated compromise that reflected the very best ideals of the Republic. Denied executive power to drive the domestic agenda, Obama gracefully accepted a diminished role in New York; outside of Washington, McCain was prepared to invite the risk of a future challenge to his authority on foreign policy. And through the unpredictable operation of democratic processes, the electorate had chosen holders for two Great Offices of State which in truth barely suited the core strengths of either candidate.
Even less predictable was the course of events and ironically the bonds of their relationship would be tested to the limit over a crisis in Africa. The catalyst was the controversial decision to arm the rebels fighting to oust Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi.
This post is a reboot of the article Ambassador Obama and is based on a suggestion from Eric Lipps.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, Presidency, China, White House. Editor says, in reality Barack Obama won and nominated Susan Rice. In this post we imagine that John McCain takes a more directly interventionist role in the crisis.
~ Would he be always voting "Present" in the UN the way he did in the Senate? *meow meow*
~ I doubt McCain would appoint Obama to anything; his own aupporters would burn him in effigy if he did.
~ Or, for that matter, if he made the UN ambassadorship c abinet-level post. Plenty of Republicans would prefer, as the slogan has it, "the U.S. out of the U.N., and the U.N. out of the U.S."
~ On the other hand, Democrats who aren't so dismissive of the UN would be very pleased.
Editor says, what if Rosa Parks actions had triggered a riot? muses Jeff Provine on This Day in Alternate History Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2011 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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By 1955, ninety years after the Civil War had been won, maintaining the Union and also securing rights to Black slaves, the African Americans had left behind unwilling servitude but still suffered as second-class citizens throughout the United States.
Rosa Parks Riot BeginsWhile many of the actions against them such as the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and the mob violence of lynching were extra-legal, Jim Crow laws attempted to make certain that the precedent of "Separate but Equal" kept African Americans separate but never fully equal. Simply because of the darker nature of their skin, they were not allowed in public swimming pools, refused service at restaurants, made to drink from separate water fountains, and, of course, made to ride in the back of public buses.
One evening in Montgomery, Alabama, an African American woman named Rosa Parks was returning from work, sitting in the appropriate Black section of the bus. When the White section was filled and several White men still needed seats, bus driver James Blake asked Mrs. Parks to stand, and the woman refused. Blake threatened to call the police, and Parks said he may. As Blake turned to do just that, he tripped and fell, bloodying his nose. Leaping to his feet, he accused the woman of tripping him, and the bloody nose turned to an all-out riot. For nearly three days, Montgomery was turned to pandemonium while fighting spread throughout Alabama. Most notoriously, on the second day, a meeting organized by local NAACP president E.D. Nixon taking place at the church of Martin Luther King, Jr., was raided by angry Whites, leaving both men and several others dead.
A new story by Jeff ProvineThe potential for civil disobedience suddenly evaporated throughout the South, and sentiment turned violently opposed to integration on both sides. Efforts toward desegregation, by people such as Jackie Robinson and his famed court-martial when refusing to enter a military bus by the back door, suddenly evaporated. Rumored to be caused by threats and negative public opinion, the case of Browder v. Gayle upheld segregation law.
While the South erupted in violence for years to come, the North would see a new campaign arise from the Nation of Islam. Under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, the Nation drew great attention to the older notion of the Back-to-Africa movement. Segregation seemed unbeatable; now was the time to make the separation geographical as well as legal. As conditions grew unbearable, political connections began to grow in Washington under the Kennedy administration. Part of later president LBJ's Great Society called for federal funding in grants for the reopening of colonization in Liberia. Over the course of the 1960s and '70s, hundreds of thousands of African Americans would cross the Atlantic back to their once-native continent.
Political relations with the growing Liberia among the US remained strained. American Marines were able to help halt an attempted coup in 1980, and the two both condemned Communism (though for differing reasons), but Liberia continued to call for the equivocation of rights among non-white Americans that frustrated diplomats. With the end of apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s, the world community turned to the United States in anticipation of similar actions. While some concessions have been made, Separate but Equal continued to maintain rule. As the new millennium began and increasing numbers of Hispanic Americans expand the minority into another voting bloc, advocates hope that another chance at equality may come soon, but only if alliances among white and non-white activist groups can be made.
Entry posted by
Jeff Provine
© Jeff Provine, 2010-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Jeff Provine Blog Source: Jeff Provine’s Blog Labels: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm, Civil Rights, America. Editor says, we reality the Rosa Parks bus incident began quietly. Blake did not trip, but he did call the police. Parks' arrest served as a great symbol for the growing campaign to end segregation, seemingly better suited than the arrest of Claudette Colvin in a similar incident a few months earlier. With Parks as a symbol and Colvin's case victorious in federal court, the road to equality began to open by means of civil disobedience.
~ I just don't buy it. Segregation only existed in the old south, it was not a factor in the North or West. Why would Malcolm X lead a movement to Africa to get equality when it already existed in Detroit and Cleveland? Even if he did and got hundreds of thousands to join him as stated there were roughly 17 Million African-Americans in the USA at the end of the Johnson Administration. I rather doubt Johnson could be reelected if he were blatantly pro-segregation and so much of the African-American population lived outside of segregated Jim Crow territory.
~ I'd always found it interesting that the highest percentage of population of a state with direct involvement in the KKK was Indiana. Dark days in the past.
~ I'm not at all sure how the Liberian "Americo-Liberian" elite would actually have felt about a huge movement of American blacks to Liberia. Yeah, it would prop them up vis-a-vis the "locals," but their power would be diluted and they might find themselves displaced.
Editor says, what if Satan called it quits?. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2010 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 2914, due to a radical change of heart from both beings, Yahweh rewarded the Morning Star for his benign thousand-year reign of the Earth; instead of casting the Fallen Angel into the Lake of Fire, he would be "lifted up again by the Lord".
Click to watch Full Force Gale by Van Morrison (1979) on Youtube
Satan Calls it QuitsDuring his preceding thousand-year imprisonment, the true repentance of the punished had entered his damned soul. And wisdom also - he had in fact experienced something of a revelation. Because in casting him out of heaven forever, yet asserting that repentance was the true path to redemption, he correctly discerned that Yahweh had inadvertently created a paradox of forgiveness.
"And no matter where I roam
I will find my way back home
I will always return to the Lord" ~Van MorrisonIn 1914, Jesus took control of the heavenly kingdom and the Morning Star was loosed from his prison. Therein lie his opportunity to have his status in heaven restored. And like many sinners given just one last, final chance to redeem themselves, he seized it with both hands.
In the starkest possible, apocalyptic terms, humanity was forewarned "woe to the earth because Satan comes down with great wrath, knowing his time is short". However that year did not usher in an age of violence such as no other, instead quite the reverse.
Finding humanity on the very brink of catastrophy, the pity, and yes, repentance, that once made him the mightiest of the Host of Angels, stirred once again in his sinful heart. Because something was missing from this harsh world, and that was love. And so for the first time in millenia, the Morning Star once again called the warring nations to prayer, exhorting them to love thy neighbour, yelling his holy name as he leaped across the roof-tops of the World, praise God, praise God almighty for this precious gift of life. The Morning Star that used to rise early had arisen, once again.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Religion Source: Wikipedia Labels: God, Religion, End of Times, Apocalypse, Creation. Editor says, we usher in the christmas period by sincerely wishing peace, brotherhood and friendship to the readers of Today in Alternate History. Not the potter, but the potter's clay.
~ But, does he give them this message after a certain football game breaks out among men who were previously shooting at each other? Perhaps that is why there was one last moment of hope in that year...Yes, football is a religion to us Brits
Comment from Robert Baker on Facebook: I'm sure in that case the Klingons and Romulans would seek to destroy us.
Comment from Chris Schultz on Facebook: Please, the Borg will have assimilated the whole Alpha Quadrant by then lol. I recently read The Turner Diaries, which I would only recommend for thick-skinned and grounded individuals, but the ending was somewhat intriguing. Mostly the story was beyond sociopathic, and the end is no better. Yet the curious and detached part of me cannot help but wonder what kind of world would that be like.
Comment from Wanda Russell on Facebook: I know one thing for sure,by 2914,I'll be long gone by then,not even a memory.
Comment from Andrew Moss on Facebook: But he did, in Neil Gaiman's comic the Sandman.
Comment from Jules Manson on Facebook: As long as religion exists the devil remains well and alive deeply embeded in it.
~ Beautiful thought into fairytales.
~ I've heard the "repentance of Satan" idea from a number of denominations. Seems Heaven's crowded.
~ There was a school of thought in Christianity at one time that Satan remained in hell entirely because he refused to repent...all that kept him down there was his pride. There was a story using this idea in _Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine_ called "Unferno" that used that as background...I shan't spoil the story for you, but it goes in a surprising way.
Editor says, what if Harold Wilson really a spy and this disclosure destroyed the careers of Yuro Andropov and his colleagues? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1979, on this day Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, chief of the Soviet general staff, abruptly resigned his post just after returning from an inspection tour of Red Army military bases in East Germany. His official reason for stepping down was declining health; unofficially, however, there were rumors he was afraid of being arrested, exiled, or even killed as so many other Soviet political and military officials had been in the half-decade since Yuri Andropov was dismissed as head of the KGB.
Ogarkov's FateAnd indeed there had been at least one assassination attempt on Ogarkov's life during his East German visit; that attempt had prompted two of the marshal's senior aides to turn in their own resignations a week before Ogarkov himself quit.
A new post from the Necessary Evil Thread by Chris OakleyIronically, Marshal Ogarkov might have been better off not resigning; less than two weeks after he retired as defense minister he was fatally injured in a hit-and-run accident near his Moscow flat. Post-Cold War conspiracy theorists would speculate Ogarkov had been targeted for murder by one of his political adversaries, but the official Moscow police determination in the matter of the marshal's death was that he had been hit by a drunk driver. In any case, his demise would further heighten the already intense paranoia many Soviet citizens felt about their government -- by New Year's Day 1980 anti-government rallies would become an almost weekly event in the USSR's larger cities and foreign embassies in Moscow would go on full security alert as riots began to tear further at the country's badly frayed social fabric.
The tension would finally erupt into outright civil war less than twelve months after Ogarkov's resignation.
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Chris Oakley
© Chris Oakley,2008-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Necessary Evil Source: New Statesman Magazine Labels: Nikolai Ogarkov, Soviet Union, Yuri Andropov, Russia, Communism. ~ Civil war in the USSR would have been really unpopular...there were alot of people still alive in '80 who remembered HOW bad war was.
~ And some of them remembered how bad CIVIL war was--the civil war of 1917-'22 killed millions before the White Army was defeated.
~ And some of them remembered how bad CIVIL war was--the civil war of 1917-'22 killed millions before the White Army was defeated.
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© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
