Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

[moth]

That said I can't really see Steel going into Coalition with the Tories; Pardoe for sure but Steel no.

 

[Comisario]

That said I can't really see Steel going into Coalition with the Tories; Pardoe for sure but Steel no.

I think, given the circumstances, he’d swallow his worries and prefer to get something out of a potentially fractious Tory minority (a few Cabinet positions and the total exclusion of the “headbangers”).

Steel is more Walker than Shore, without a doubt.

 

[moth]

I think, given the circumstances, he’d swallow his worries and prefer to get something out of a potentially fractious Tory minority (a few Cabinet positions and the total exclusion of the “headbangers”).

Steel is more Walker than Shore, without a doubt.

Fair.

 

[I Saw A Red Sky]

Presidents of the Republic of China

1947-1949: He Yingqin (Guomindang)
1947 def: Li Zongren (Guomindang), Sun Ke (Guomindang)
1949-1949: Chen Cheng † (Chinese People's National Salvation Party)
1949-1949: Sun Liren (National Revolutionary Army)
1949-1951: Sun Ke (Guomindang)
1951-1951: Chen Mingren (Chinese People's National Salvation Party)
1951-1953: Li Zongren (Guomindang)
1953-1954: Chen Mingren (Chinese Patriotic League)
1953 def: No opposition
1954-1954: Tang Enbo (Guomindang)
1954-1955: Sun Ke (Guomindang)
1955-1967: Li Zongren (Guomindang)
1959 def: Zhang Bojun (China Democratic Construction Front)
1965 def: No opposition
1967-0000: Jiang Zhongling (National Revolutionary Army)

 

[Japhy]

Solider that's a hell of an interesting list is that an actual political split or is it basically just factional politics in the regime?

 

[I Saw A Red Sky]

Solider that's a hell of an interesting list is that an actual political split or is it basically just factional politics in the regime?

After Jiang's death the KMT splits between his supporters, the former warlords, and the weakened civilian leadership. When the main phase of the Civil War ends the real struggle begins. The CPNSP, the Patriotic League, and other breakaway parties represent the last gasp of the Whampoa stalwarts; it goes back and forth until Li consolidates his power in the mid-50s. At a certain point corruption, decades of Communist insurgency, the failure of Li's economic policies and half-hearted attempts at land reform, a bloody intervention in Indochina, and the spread of Islamism to the western provinces pile up and the regime goes into crisis mode.

Was gonna do a full write-up but that's pretty much it.

 

[Bolt451]

"Is that a pound in your pocket? Because I absolutely want to wreck your currency reserves."

Dammit why didnt I think of pound in your pocket

 

[morbidteaparty]

Like Being Flogged With Warm Lettuce

1975-1983: Malcolm Fraser (Liberal/National coalition)

1983-1990: Bob Hawke (Labour)

1990-1994: Andrew Peacock (Liberal/National coalition)

1994-1996: Paul Keating (Labour)

1996-1998: John Howard (Liberal/National coalition)

1998-2004: Kim Beazley (Labour)

 

[Mumby]

Something About Widening Gyres IDK

Maximum Chiefs of the United Mexican States

1928-1938: Plutarco Elias Calles (National Revolutionary)
1938-1942: Jose Antonio Urquiza (National Synarchist Union)

Presidents of the United Mexican States

1930-1932: Pascal Ortiz Rubio (National Revolutionary)
1929 def. Jose Vasconcelos (Anti Re-Election), Pedro Rodriguez Triana (Communist)
1932-1934: Abelardo L. Rodriguez (National Revolutionary)
1934-1935: Lazaro Cardenas (National Revolutionary)
1934 def. Antonio Villarreal (Revolutionary Confederation of Independent Parties)
1935-1938: Nicolas Rodriguez Carrasco (National Revolutionary)

Governor of the Military Government for the Occupied Territory of Mexico

1942-1944: Dwight D. Eisenhower (US Army)

President of the United Mexican States

1944-1950: Francisco Jose Mugica (Constitutional Revolutionary)
1944 def. Joaquin Amaro Dominguez (Union of the National Revolution)

 

[Ares96]

Maximum Chiefs of the United Mexican States

oh fuck yes

Governor of the Military Government for the Occupied Territory of Mexico

oh fuck no

 

[Mumby]

oh fuck yes

oh fuck no

hee hee hee

 

[I Saw A Red Sky]

Shahs of the Imperial State of Iran

1925-1941: Reza Shah (Pahlavi)
1941-1963: Mohammad Reza Shah (Pahlavi)

Prime Ministers of the Imperial State of Iran

1962-1963: Asadollah Alam† (People's Party)

Presidents of the Iranian Republic

1963-1964: Gholam Reza Azhari (Independent)
1964-1985: Bahram Aryana (Independent supported by Coalition of National Construction 1964-1976, Party of Law 1965-1985, National Front 1968, and League of the Iranian Nation 1976-1985)
1964 def: Karim Sanjabi (National Front)
1968 def: Mohsen Pezeshkpour (Pan-Iranist Party)
1972 def: Karim Sanjabi (National Front)
1976: Ran unopposed
1980: Ran unopposed
1984: Ran unopposed

(Tweaking an old scenario)

Six months into the disastrous implementation of the "Shah and People Revolution", Iran stood on the brink of disaster. Despite grand proclamations and carefully staged rallies at which the Shah spoke before cheering crowds, all that had been accomplished by Asadollah Alam's government were a series of half-measures that pleased no one. Social programs intended to mobilize the peasantry as a new base of support for Pahlavi succeeded only in alienating the landlords and resurrecting the ulama's hostility towards secularism. Land reform fared no better: most of the great estates simply rebranded themselves as commercial farms, with hundreds of feudal landowners transformed into capitalists overnight. Their serfs became tenant farmers, or, bitter and hungry, flooded the cities looking for work. In Tehran, the intelligentsia's demands for political freedom only grew bolder, enabled by SAVAK chief Pakravan's loosening grip on the capital. Increasingly, Alam's domestic policies were seen by the Shah's ministers as erratic and dangerous to the social fabric of the nation. More alarming to Pahlavi's American patrons was his apparent willingness to deal with the Soviets and their satellites. Though rumors of a clandestine meeting in Moscow were later proven false, by early 1963 events had already been set in motion by Washington to affect a regime change.

Alam's greatest misstep proved to be his approach to the military. Though the Imperial Army had already been sanitized after the 1958 coup attempt, the general staff was again targeted by Alam as part of his broader anti-corruption campaign. The first to be purged was four-star general Abdollah Hedayat, stripped of his rank and sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement. A stream of charges against other senior officers followed. By May 1963, command of the army had changed hands three times in the past two years, passing to Arteshbod Bahram Aryana. A student of Zoroaster, fluent in French and English, and a self-proclaimed admirer of Napoleon and Hitler, Aryana had led a fierce resistance to the Anglo-Soviet invasion, and later played a key role in overthrowing Mossadegh's government. As an archnationalist, he detested Alam, and more importantly, was staunchly anticommunist.

On June 5, Ayatollah Khomeini was detained in Qom and secretly executed by SAVAK. Locked in a death struggle with the ulama, a desperate Alam deployed the military to disperse rioters in Shahyad Square. Aryana responded by imposing martial law on the city. Leading ten thousand soldiers supplemented with Pan-Iranist street fighters, the general marched to the Baharestan and dissolved the Majlis. Realizing what had occurred, Alam fled, but was captured outside the city and executed three days later. Pakravan was also tried and summarily shot. With no allies left, the Shah had no choice but to abdicate and accept exile. Unappreciative of the irony of being overthrown by a CIA-backed coup not ten years after he had been installed by one, Pahlavi was hosted by a number of sympathetic nations, eventually dying in 1973 in Baghdad, possibly poisoned by agents of Aryana.

Surprisingly, Aryana and the leaders of the previously-moribund National Front quickly came to an agreement. The Imperial State of Iran was abolished, replaced by the Iranian Republic, with Gholam Reza Azhari as interim president. Elections held the following year were easily won by Aryana's nationalist coalition. The triumphant general immediately embarked on an intense campaign of self-aggrandizement, connecting his personal rule to a legacy of 2,500 years of Iranian civilization and co-opting many aesthetic stylings from the Pahlavi dynasty. Portrayed variously as a heroic soldier, an erudite scholar, and a kind grandfatherly figure, Aryana faced little opposition when in 1973 he amended the Constitution to grant himself the title of Victorious Leader and Guide of the Iranian Nation. Two major challenges to his rule, the first from the ulama in 1965 and the second from Pezeshkpour's Pan-Iranists in 1969, were both ruthlessly crushed. Vilified by the new government after the relative tolerance of the Pahlavi era, most Iranian Jews fled in the 1960s and 70s.

While firmly aligned with the United States against the Soviet-Chinese bloc, the actual relationship between Aryana and Kennedy and his successors was fraught, as he attempted to expand Iran's influence over her neighbors. As a nationalist, Aryana resented the influence of the IOP, even if he accepted the necessity of its existence. In 1970 he renegotiated an increase the government's share in the consortium as the Saudis had done, with the intention of eventual "Iranization" of all natural resources. Under his rule, the rural estates were finally partially nationalized, prompting the so-called "White Flight" of the aristocratic landowning class, and the public and manufacturing sectors were continually expanded. By the late 1970s, Iran's economy had begun to falter, with the difficulties of transitioning from a primarily agricultural economy to an industrial one compounded by competing interest groups more invested in personal gain than the wellbeing of the nation.

It is now October 1984; despite rumors that Aryana's health is failing, the elderly dictator has refused to give any sign that he is going anywhere. Behind the scenes, factions among the motekhassesin that run the nation have shed Aryana's animosity towards Communism and are increasingly sympathetic to their northern and eastern neighbors, while the general staff feigns impartiality but remains committed to maintaining relations with the West. The specter of Islamism is ever present, as Ayatollah Beheshti continues to rebuke the government from his haven across the Gulf. The future remains uncertain, and the Iranian people can feel themselves on the precipice of a great change...

 

[Japhy]

ATLF: Peaky Blinders

*Spoilers*

Just a stupid thing I did at work today, Probably far too lighthearted and fun and Flashman-gets-away-with-it for modern day High Quality TV Dramas but what the hell.



The Electoral History of Thomas M. Shelby

1914-1919: Soldier, British Army, Small Heath Rifles

1914: Corporal, Awarded Military Medal at Mons ​

1915: Sergeant​

1916: Battalion Sergeant Major​

1917: Awarded Distinguished Conduct Medal as Sapper, The Somme, Verdun​

1918: Regimental Sergeant Major​

1919-1926: Private Citizen, Publican, Merchant, Horse Coper, Director Shelby Company Ltd.

1925: Awarded OBE, Officer​

1926-1931: Labour, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Duddelston

1926 By-Election def. Ronald Carr (Conservative), Bernard Hall (Liberal), Michael Ross (Communist)​

1929: John Burman (Unionist), Michael Ross (Communist)​

1931-1932: New Party, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Duddelston

1931: Oliver E. Simmonds (Conservative), George F. Sawyer (Labour), Bernard Moore (Communist)​

1932-1945: National Labour Organization, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Duddelston

1935: George F. Sawyer (Labour), Bernard Moore (Communist)​

1939-1940: Major, British Army, Small Heath Rifles

1940: Awarded Distinguished Service Cross at Narvik​

1940: National Labour Organization, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
1940-1941: National Labour Organization, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Aircraft Production
1941: National Labour Organization, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for War Transport
1941-1942: National Labour Organization, Minister Resident, Singapore

1942: Awarded George Cross for work in Defense and Evacuation of Singapore​

1942-1945: National Labour Organization, Minister for Economic Warfare, Member Churchill War Cabinet
1945: National Labour Organization, President of the Board of Trade, Member Churchill Caretaker Cabinet
1945-1950: Labour, Member of Parliament for Birmingham Duddeston

1945: Edith A. Wills (Ind. Labour & Co-Operative), Oliver E. Simmonds (Conservative)​

1947-1950: Labour, Minister Without Portfolio
1950: Created Baron, Lord Shelby of Small Heath

When we last saw Tommy Shelby he'd just used his really good sex skills and talent for backroom dealing and espionage to defeat the Communists and secure himself the backing of the British Establishment in getting himself established as a mole in the leadership of Socialism, specifically in the form of being elected an MP. I figure that once in the club it becomes harder for him to play the secret agent, MP and run his legal and illegal business empire so he basically drops the security service agent role more or less. Instead he becomes a notable figure in Labour quietly pushing what to some seems like discontent and to others seems like his own authority. He may or may not have been a mole when he crossed over with Oswald Mosley to join the New Party or he may have been tempted by the national transformation of class, welfare and power to the veteran generation that Mosley offered, no one can be sure. Though he did not follow Mosley into the black. Instead spending the rest of the 1930s as a National Labour member being a large fish in that small pond and exerting influence as he saw fit.

Shelby, would quietly make money off the wars in Abyssinia, Spain and China throughout the 1930s while matching his actions with a growing, creeping strength of belief that he had taken measure of the Fascists and knew what was coming. There were hiccups with that but Munich turned Shelby into one of the more passionate, if soft-spoken critics of Appeasement. In 1939 as the war began he kept his seat and returned to the Uniform, this time as a Battalion Commander on paper and in rank as opposed to the last war when it had just been a simple fact. His time in the service was brief but notable, as the man once credited with saving thousands of lives at Mons pulled another trick out of his hat during the disastrous combat with the cream of the German Mountain troops above the Arctic Circle. After evacuation he returned to the House of Commons in Uniform for the decisive debate on Norway where he supported the overthrow of the Chamberlain government.

Winston Churchill had along ago, thanks to the question of missing BSA Lewis Guns in 1919 and many other events, developed an appreciation for Shelby and the work he could do. In the hour of national emergency he sought at once to harness those skills for the defense of the realm. Shelby was shifted over the next two years repeatedly to be an additional set of eyes, ears and if needed, fists, to deal with the brush fires of the wartime government. Be it aircraft production, or the U-boat war or anything else that came up the man was a dynamo of action or cunning as the situation dictated. Shelby would in late 1941 be dispatched to Singapore, and when the Japanese assault began almost caused a rupture with himself and Churchill as his frank assessment of the situation in Malaya clashed with Winston's wishes of a glorious last stand. He did though, eventually get the job done, preventing further reinforcement once the position was doomed and helping play a critical role in the evacuation of British, Indian and Australian troops as well as large components of the civilian population of the city, earning for himself eventually the George Cross.

Returning to Britain Shelby would assume his most famed role in the Second World War as Minister for Economic Warfare. Be his work fighting German Blockade Runners, tracking what goods were being sold to the neutral states of Europe or of course his oversight of the SOE, Shelby was everywhere, doing everything. Men operating in Sierra Leone would insist he was present for observation jobs. That he was present at Fernando Po for Operation Postmaster. Or that he regularly spoke with every Jedburgh Team sent into France. Much of it was legend, but what is proven fact is exceptional enough. It was he who wrote the blistering in the summer of 1942 Report to the Admiralty and the Government Code and Cipher School that determined that the BAMS code had been broken, later proven when the merchant code changed to be true, and it was he who in discovered the Englandspiel and saved the lives of dozens of SOE and MI6 Agents who otherwise wold have unknowingly been sent into the trap that was the compromised networks of the Dutch Resistance. At the end of the war, with this impressive if covert record Churchill hoped to make Shelby a key figure in the reconstruction of Britain and the redevelopment of its economic power. Instead Winston was soundly defeated in 1945, though Shelby, always the slick figure avoided the fate of going down with that ship and managed to even have himself nominated as the official Labour Candidate in that world-shifting election. Kept out of the Government for a few years though, eventually though his own skills and Attlee's recognition of his talents, Shelby returned to the Cabinet, specifically to investigate the state of the Post-War Intelligence Services and to reorganize them for the developing Cold War. Here it was that Shelby's reputation would take a hard banging, as his accusations against the "Cambridge Four" and the top down reorganizations he mandated for the SIS would for years to come be viewed as a purge and as McCarthyism being brought to America. Decades later in the 1980's the Verona dispatches would reveal that he was most likely right about Philby, McLean, Cairncross, Blunt and Burgess though that remains hotly debated by their partisan supporters. That work done, and interested in overseeing his families vast business empire he would tell Attlee of his intent to not run again in the 1950 General Election. Instead he made one final request, and got it.

 

[Mumby]

I think you mean Baron, a Baronet is a hereditary knighthood.

Other than that, MONSTERPHRESH, the chopping and changing of parties is very televisual-dramatic.

 

[Japhy]

I think you mean Baron, a Baronet is a hereditary knighthood.

Other than that, MONSTERPHRESH, the chopping and changing of parties is very televisual-dramatic.

I did mean that yes, didn't realize that was the difference.

 

[Mumby]

I did mean that yes, didn't realize that was the difference.

Baronets were introduced in the 1600s, nakedly to raise funds for the beleaguered Stuarts. Its in a weird middle ground between the titles associated with peerage and knighthood proper, because of that.

 

[Mumby]

Escape From...

1969-1974: Richard Nixon (Republican)
1968 (with Spiro Agnew) def. Hubert H. Humphrey (Democratic), George Wallace (American Independent)
1972 (with Spiro Agnew) def. George McGovern (Democratic)
1974-1977: Spiro Agnew (Republican)
1977-1980: Henry M. Jackson (Democratic)
1976 (with Walter Mondale) def. Spiro Agnew (Republican)
1980-1981: Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1981-1981: Spiro Agnew (Republican)
1980 (with Alexander Haig) def. Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1981-1989: Alexander Haig (Republican)
1984 (with Donald Rumsfeld) def. Ted Kennedy (Democratic), Jesse Jackson (Independent)
1989-1991: Gary Hart (Centre)
1988 (with Paul Laxalt) def. Jesse Jackson (Democratic), Donald Rumsfeld (Republican)
1991-1997: Paul Laxalt (Republican)
1992 (with Pat Buchanan) def. Jesse Jackson (Democratic), Paul Tsongas (Centre)
1996 (with Pat Buchanan) def. Jay Rockefeller (Democratic, endorsed by Centre and 'Opposition' Republicans)
1997-1998: Pat Buchanan (Republican)
1998-1998: Pat Buchanan (Independent)
1998-2001: Strom Thurmond (Republican)
2001-2013: Paul Weyrich (Moral Majority)
2000 (with Ezola Foster) def. Jesse Jackson (Democratic), Strom Thurmond (Republican)
2004 (suspended)
2008 (suspended)
2012 (suspended)
2013: End of the Technological Age, collapse of the United States, numerous claimants to title of President hereafter

My attempt to rationalise and use real figures for, the two movies Escape from New York and Escape from LA.

If you are unfamiliar with the movies, look away now.

The POD is that Nixon never gets rid of Agnew. When Watergate hits, Agnew presides over a few embarrassing but not altogether disastrous years, leading to the election of the hawkish Jackson. It looks like the Democrats are cruising to another victory in 1980, until Jackson succumbs to a surprise heart attack. With the economy stuttering and a more doveish New Dealer in the White House, Agnew comes back for round two, fusing Jacksonian hawkishness to his own brand of conservatism.

Agnew is assassinated not long after inauguration by Hinkley, as Reagan nearly was IOTL and the ascendancy of Haig to the Presidency leads to the escalation in tensions that culminates in the Hot War of the early-to-mid 90s. It is also under him that the Great Crime Wave begins, culminating in the establishment of the New York Prison. Frustration in the Democrats leads to the ascendancy of Jesse Jackson, who in his own way spurs on the religious awakening that will do so much damage down the line. Jackson's radicalism leads to a centrist split and the contested election of 1988 that ends in a 'corrupt bargain' that keeps Jackson, the man who got the most votes out of the Presidency.

Hart's personal indiscretions come to light and the Republicans are back. Centre crashes and burns in 1992, while the shine has come off Jackson. No-one wants to change captains as the bloodletting begins in Europe, and Laxalt tries to navigate the ship through the choppy waters. The dramatic events of 1997 culminate in his public humiliation on live TV as he broadcasts a cabbies' favourite casette tape. He resigns in humiliation and then the fun really begins.

Buchanan has been somewhat radicalised by the events of TTL and despite the dramatically shifted overton window, appears to be a fruitloop even by the standards of this GOP. He is rather quickly impeached for bringing the office into disrepute, but Buchanan is the man that turns Moral Majority into a electoral movement, to everybody's cost. The Republican dominance collapses with Thurmond's withered hands at the reins, and many predict a victory for Jesse Jackson at last. What no-one predicts is the Los Angeles Earthquake of 2000, no-one other than Paul Weyrich, free of his OTL paralysis but even more batshit. Weyrich's power of prophecy and the religious awakening come together and Moral Majority narrowly achieves victory in 2000. The United States becomes a theocratic police state, with Weyrich as President-for-Life, right up until Cuervo Jones kidnaps his adopted daughter Utopia, and he forces Snake Plissken to do his bidding. If he'd talked to Laxalt, he'd have known what a bad idea that was...

 

[RyanF]

Fun stuff @Mumby.

I believe during filming of Escape from New York Donald Pleasance kept pestering John Carpenter for an explanation as to why he could be President of the United States with an English accent. Between them they eventually knocked up a quick background of Thatcher taking over the world by 1997.

 

[Mumby]

Fun stuff @Mumby.

I believe during filming of Escape from New York Donald Pleasance kept pestering John Carpenter for an explanation as to why he could be President of the United States with an English accent. Between them they eventually knocked up a quick background of Thatcher taking over the world by 1997.

hwaet

 

[RyanF]

hwaet

I seem to remember either Carpenter or Kurt Russell mentioning it on their DVD commentary of the film.