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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Sideways said:
That's... certainly a heck of a short TL you've created there
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Thanks, that means a lot coming from you.

It definitely got a bit more screwed up as I went along, but realistically being saved from 9 different occupations by a force of children is going to make military thought a bit more Lord's Resistance Army-ey.
 
zaffre said:
Tragically, Lee Harvey Oswald escapes from prison to kill ag
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Lee Harvey Oswald is innocent of the murder of JFK, and he really just was a patsy and framed for the killing.

He does however manage to escape from prison, gets a whole new identity, tries to make it work, only to be framed for the killing of RFK. He escapes again, and once more finds himself framed for the murder of Ted Kennedy.
 
An experiment with a slightly different format than a PM list. Essentially, the Liberals reunify before the 1918 election. The splits in the Lloyd George War Government between himself and Asquith are resolved before the election, which in my opinion was avoidable although difficult: the Asquithian dispute with Lloyd George that he is essentially a prisoner of the Conservatives is diluted here by the man himself having rejoined government, and several rejoin the government as Lloyd George tries to manouvre between the two factions to keep his options open. He is less inclined to join himself to the coalition coupon as the option of retaking office after the Conservatives make a mess of things post-war lies open to him (after an election which would probably clear away several rivals and less radical members of the government, not least Asquith himself).

This requires a lot less stubbornness on Asquith's part and sufficient diplomacy on Lloyd George's to reach out to his erstwhile colleagues. The root of their disagreement is 1) that the latter deposed the former and 2) that he relied on the Tories to do so. With this gone the Liberals can expect to survive 1918 as the official Opposition, at least. There's a different Maurice Debate in this scenario, one stirred up by Edward Carson instead.

The Liberals' mindset here is be hanged separately or be hanged together; although several prominent Asquithians do not join the government such as John Simon and Reginald McKenna, hence the promotion of several obscure members and appointment of older stopgags who won't re-appear come 1922/23. And a few people kept alive by butterflies. Neil Primrose is a junior minister. But the Liberals have been in power for 12 years and know the years ahead will be much harder without making fast friends with the Labour Party.

Lloyd George Caretaker Government, as constituted before dissolution on 25th November 1918

Prime Minister, Leader of the House of Commons, and First Lord of Treasury: David Lloyd George
Lord Chancellor: H.H. Asquith
Lord President and Leader of the House of Lords: Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe
Lord Privy Seal: Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Second Lord of the Treasury: Sir Hardman Lever
Secretary of State for the Home Department: Herbert Samuel
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs: Thomas McKinnon Wood
Secretary of State for the Colonies: Sir Alfred Mond, Bt.
Secretary of State for War and Air: Winston Churchill
Secretary of State for India: Edwin Montagu
First Lord of the Admiralty: Edmond Fitzmaurice, 1st Baron Fitzmaurice
President of the Board of Trade: Walter Runciman
Secretary of State for Scotland: Robert Munro
Chief Secretary for Ireland: Edward Shortt
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland: John French, 1st Earl of Ypres
President of the Local Government Board: Christopher Addison
President of the Board of Agriculture: Richard Winfrey
President of the Board of Education: Herbert Fisher
Minister for Munitions: Auberon Herbert, 9th Baron Lucas
Minister for Labour: Thomas Macnamara
Ministers without Portfolio: Joseph Pease
 
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1897-1916: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1896 (with Arthur Sewall): William McKinley (Republican)
1900 (with Adlai Stevenson I): Matthew Quay (Republican)
1904 (with William Randolph Hearst): Mark Hanna (Republican), George Dewey (Independent)
1908 (with John A. Johnson): William Randolph Hearst (Independence), Charles W. Fairbanks (Republican)
1912 (with Woodrow Wilson): William Howard Taft (Republican), William Randolph Hearst (Independence), Theodore Roosevelt (Independent)
1916-1920: William Jennings Bryan (Progressive)
1916 (with Henry Ford): Woodrow Wilson (Democratic), Elihu Root (Republican), Theodore Roosevelt (Independent)
1920-1923: William Jennings Bryan (Prohibition)
1920 (with Robert L. Owen): Leonard Wood (National Union), Frank Lowden (Conservative), Henry Ford (Progressive), Hiram Johnson (Independent)
1923-1925: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic)
1925-1933: Calvin Coolidge (Republican)
1924 (with Charles Curtis): Oscar Underwood (Democratic), Henry Ford (Progressive)
1928 (with Charles Curtis): Robert L. Owen (Democratic)
1933-XXXX: Charles W. Bryan (Democratic)
1932 (with Cordell Hull): Andrew Mellon (Republican), H. P. Lovecraft (Socialist), Herbert Hoover (Independent)

FLASH

The State of the United States Congress, Fully Assembled - 2020
Democratic Bryanist: 1,756/6,489
Ideology: Bryanism, moralism, social conservative, isolationism, big tent
Socialist: 1,539/6,489
Ideology: Marxist-Lovecraftianism, state atheism, social individualist, interventionism, [Factions: social conservative, Third Internationalist]
United Technocracy: 646/6,489
Ideology: State Capitalist, pluralism, social progressive, isolationism, info-way issues, [Factions: Silicon Constitution, Neoprivatism, auto-currency]
Monetary Republican: 599/6,489
Ideology: Neoprivatism, pluralism, social individualist, interventionism, [Factions: auto-currency, social conservative]
Regional Conservative: 587/6,489
Ideology: moralism, social conservative, big tent, [Factions: secessionism, Klan Politics]
Cross of Gold: 338/6,489
Ideology: Bryanist-Longism, evangelical moralism, social justice, isolationism, [Factions: Klan Politics, social conservative]
Ethnic People's Congress: 303/6,489
Ideology: Marxism, pluralism, social individualist, isolationist, [Factions: Garveyism, Atzlan Politics, Fourth Internationalist]
Social Progressive: 121/6,489
Ideology: Bryanism, secularism, Skinnerist-social progressive, interventionism
Various Minor Parties and Independents: 111/6,489
 
A collaboration between myself, @charcolt and @Gerbbro.

"A Lighter Shade of Gray"
35. 1957 - 1961: Vice President Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) - "They Could Lick Our Dick"
36. 1961 - 1967: Senator W. Stuart Symington (D-MO) - "A Decade of Frustrated Progress"
37. 1967 - 1973: Vice-President Frank G. Clement (D-TN) - "The Brow of Labor"
38. 1973 - 1977: Senate Majority Leader Joseph H. Bottum (R-SD) - "This Crown of Thorns"
39. 1977 - 1985: Governor H. Frazier Reams Jr. (D-OH) - "A Blast of Fresh Air"
40. 1985 - 1991: Governor William C. Cramer (R-FL) - "A Man is Finished When He Quits"
42. 1991 - 1993: Vice-President Leo K. Thorsness (R-MN) - "A Honourable Discharge"
43. 1993 - 2001: Governor Bruce A. Smathers (D-FL) - "A Modern President for a Modern Age"
44. 2001 - 2005: Senator A. Benjamin Chandler (D-KY) - "Strong and Stable...?"
45. 2005 - 2013: Senator Gary F. Locke (R-WA) - "Moderate Solutions to Extreme Problems"
46. 2013 - 2017: Senator Edward B. Teague III (R-MA) - "Defending American Values"
47. 2017 - Pres.: Governor Britney J. Spears (D-LA) - "Every Man A King, Every Woman A Queen"

For a while now the New Deal consensus has been running on massive fumes. Republicans and Democrats have each tried to fix America's staggering economy and political malaise. Cramer and Locke's moderate-conservative solutions merely felt too little to their voters, and the 12 years of Smathers and Chandler for many felt like missed progress as they sought to moderate, not radical solutions.

So perhaps it was inevitable that both parties would succumb to radicalism. The Republicans did first with Locke's vice-president being shoved aside in favour of strong Massachusetts conservative Senator Edward Teague who promised a return to American values. The Democrats responded to Teague with a moderate figure in Senator Jack Carter of Nevada. He was perfect on paper. And he lost.

As Teague's conservative solutions proved to just lead to congressional shutdown, heightened partisan clashes and greater public anger, the Democrats had their own radical. Once known as a singer, Britney Spears entered politics in her native Louisiana [always a safe Democratic state with populist tendencies] by running for Governor in 2011. Many dismissed her as a "fad", but she managed to win election and re-election. With the Democratic front-bench devoid of charisma, all Spears had to do was announce her campaign to win.

The 2016 election was the first one in which both major parties advocated serious and drastic changes to the system that lasted in some way or form since 1933. Teague advocated small government and an emphasis on social issues, while Spears was careful to emphasise her proposed "Share Our Wealth" solution, directly inspired by a former Governor. In the end, Teague was much more a parliamentarian than a president.

And America went for Britney Spears as the 47th President of the United States of America.
 
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Flipping The Deck

2001-2009: George W. Bush (R-TX) / Dick Cheney (R-WY)
2000: Al Gore (D-TN) / John Kerry (D-MA), Bill Weld (R-MA) / Donald J. Trump (R-NY) [1]
2004: Joe Biden (D-DE) / Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) [2]
2009-2017: Tim Kaine (D-VA) / Joe Lieberman (D-CT)
2008: Mike Pence (R-IN) / Mitt Romney (R-MA) [3]
2012: Sarah Palin (R-AK) / Gary Johnson (R-NM) [4]
2017-: Paul Ryan (R-WI) / John McCain (R-AZ)
2016: John Edwards (D-NC) / Barry Obama (D-IL) [5]
2020: [6]

[1] The Reform Party pulled off a generally-acknowledged PR coup in tapping Governor Weld as its nominee over a variety of crazies, compounded by Weld's pick of savvy tycoon Donald Trump for running mate - at the height of the summer Weld / Trump were actually polling even with "Gush"and "Bore" and their comparatively dull campaigns. But at the end of the day the American people wanted a reassuring, safe option, not an orange saviour, and Weld's offbeat personality and Trump's tendency to be a policy wonk eroded their fortunes. In the end Reform won no states (again) and threw what would otherwise have been a decisive victory for Governor Bush into weeks of recounts of New Mexico - Republicans, annoyed that a healthy popular vote win had almost been lost to the vagaries of the electoral college, set about making the 28th Amendment to clear up the matter, and Bush started finding those WMDs.

[2] Senator Biden's reputation as That Guy From Scranton was enough to win over a Democratic Party desperate for electability, and his promise to pick a (very prominent) woman as VP seemed like it could be enough to push Democrats over the edge. It was not. A vigorous post-election firing squad blamed the loss on Biden's long political history, gaffes, and the implicit potential for HRC to be a second Cheney in the administration. Next time around the Democratic Party needed a soft-spoken, fresh-faced, person who was a white man.

[3] The Republican primary in 2008 was of course overshadowed by the titanic struggle between the competing visions of Senator Edwards and Governor Kaine, but it produced a result that was arguably more surprising - former talk show host and prominent congressman Pence triumphed on the back of strong showings in IA and SC and picked defeated rival Romney as his VP, an uneasy pairing at the best of times. Kaine, on the other hand, complemented himself with a veteran senator on the ticket and quite adeptly monstered Pence as an unqualified talk show host and Romney as a ruthless, sexist plutocrat. '08 was... a bit of a landslide.

[4] How to pivot away from a talk show hack and a wolf of wall street, the GOP wondered? Nominate a woman. But not just any woman - the most popular governor in America (93% approval!), champion of state ethics reform, daughter of a secretary and science teacher, Mrs. Moderate herself, Sarah Palin. Palin's sweep to the nomination and gracious choice of runner-up Johnson for her ticket cemented a lead in the polls that was nothing short of daunting. But President Kaine, fast building a reputation as the most dangerous man in politics, destroyed his opponent yet again, and this time he killed with kindness. The two-term Governor was experienced, sure, and moderate, fine. But was a bespectacled Miss. Congeniality just too... nice to be President? Tina Fey struck the killing blow, with a shocking personal resemblance tied to a portrayal of Governor Palin as Fey's own stock in trade - a hapless nerd. With Palin a polite pushover, President Kaine argued, the duties of the role would fall to an unqualified number two, a real loose cannon, Gary "I can see Aleppo from my window" Johnson, who was roundly humiliated in the Vice Presidential debates as, well, an idiot. And just like that, in 2012 President Kaine ensured that the hardest, highest glass ceiling stayed right there.

[5] Runner-up in '08, Attorney General Edwards was the heir apparent in '16, the man to beat, and his barely challenged walk to the nomination was a good thing, for Democrats faced the greatest threat their party had ever known. Speaker Ryan was a raving ideologue, a far-right grandma killer and the only man to go toe to toe with President Kaine and win in the last eight years. His VP nominee of course was the ancient arch-priest of hawks, with a career stretching all the way back to the Keating Five. They had to lose. Right?

But Edwards and his running mate (the seasoned, understated Senator from Illinois, who was a bit annoyed that women kept running, losing, and dramatically proving that only white men could win) were not quite enough - Edwards lacked that Kaine magic, and his past started to look actively grubby the more voters examined it. DEMOGRAPHICS, it turned out, were a thin reed to rely on, and Edwards lost by a hair. Adding insult to injury, pundits looking at the congressional apportionment quickly realized that had the Electoral College still been around, the North Carolinian would have come out on top. Democrats dwell on the 'what if' to this day.

[6] Four years of tax-cutting, welfare-slashing, healthcare-removing (not that Kaine ever did anything with healthcare, mind you), and last but not least, BOMB BOMB BOMB IRAN. But what sustains wearied Vice President McCain, aside from the war? The prospect that the Democrats will choose their last man standing, America's favorite grumpy Jewish grandfather or, as Onion readers know him, "Uncle Joe" - prospective nominee for President of the United States, Joseph Lieberman.
 
What If W.E. Gladstone died in 1879?

List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1880-1970:

1880-1898: Lord Hartington (Liberal)
1898-1903: Edward Saunderson † (Liberal)
1903-1907: Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal)
1907-1908: Joseph Chamberlain † (Liberal leading War Government)
1908-1912: Lord Curzon (Conservative leading War Government)
1912-1924: Austen Chamberlain (Liberal)
1924-1926: Horatio Bottomley (New Radical minority)
1926-1930: Austen Chamberlain (Liberal-led coalition with the Constitutional Party)
1930-1933: Horatio Bottomley † (New Radical)
1933-1943: Oswald Mosley (New Radical)
1943-1949: R.A. Butler (Liberal and Constitutional Party)
1949-1955: Ernest Bevin (New Radical)
1955-1961: R.A. Butler (Liberal)
1961-1970: Alfred Robens (New Radical)
1970-????: Enoch Powell (New Radical)

Points for anyone who can figure out the game I've played here.
 
Autumn 2019punk but with extra 2020 Spice


2019-Dec 2019: Boris Johnson (Conservative Minority)
Dec 2019-Jan 2020: Boris Johnson (Caretaker Govt)
Jan 2020-2020: Ed Miliband (Labour lead “Remain” Government)
April 2020- May 2021: Ed Miliband (“Pandemic” National Government)
May 2021-November 2021: Ed Miliband (Labour lead “Remain Government)
August 2021 EU Referendum: DEAL 55% REMAIN 45%
Electoral reform Referendum: YES 52% NO 48%
November 2021- March 2022: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour Lead “Remain” Government)
March 2022-Present: Priti Patel (Conservative-Moderate Coalition with Lib Dem S&C)
http://forum.sealionpress.co.uk/ind...s-and-general-gubbins.905/page-17#post-499419
please see the associated Party rundown
 
Venocara said:
What If W.E. Gladstone died in 1879?

List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1880-1970:

1880-1898: Lord Hartington (Liberal)
1898-1903: Edward Saunderson † (Liberal)
1903-1907: Joseph Chamberlain (Liberal)
1907-1908: Joseph Chamberlain † (Liberal leading War Government)
1908-1912: Lord Curzon (Conservative leading War Government)
1912-1924: Austen Chamberlain (Liberal)
1924-1926: Horatio Bottomley (New Radical minority)
1926-1930: Austen Chamberlain (Liberal-led coalition with the Constitutional Party)
1930-1933: Horatio Bottomley † (New Radical)
1933-1943: Oswald Mosley (New Radical)
1943-1949: R.A. Butler (Liberal and Constitutional Party)
1949-1955: Ernest Bevin (New Radical)
1955-1961: R.A. Butler (Liberal)
1961-1970: Alfred Robens (New Radical)
1970-????: Enoch Powell (New Radical)

Points for anyone who can figure out the game I've played here.
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Well, except for Saunderson and Robens, they're all very stereotypical ATL Prime Ministers. I feel like there's probably more to it than that though.
 
1973-1974: Richard Nixon / John Connally (Republican)
1972 def. George McGovern / Sargent Shriver (replacing Thomas Eagleton) (Democratic)
1974: John Connally / vacant (Republican)
1974-1977: John Connally / Bob Dole (Republican)
1977-1982: Tom McCall / William Proxmire (Independent—Third Force)
1976 def. Hubert Humphrey / Lloyd Bentsen (Democratic), John Connally / Bob Dole (Republican)
1980 def. Ronald Reagan / James Holshouser (Republican), Lloyd Bentsen / John Gilligan (Democratic)
1982: William Proxmire / vacant (Independent)
1982-1985: William Proxmire / Jay Hammond (Independent)
1985-1993: John Warner / Edwin Meese (Republican)
1984 def. Donald Fraser / Cliff Finch (Democratic), Jerry Brown / various (Reform Alliance)
1988 def. Jesse Jackson / Alice Tripp (Democratic), Dan Quayle / Steve Symms (American Freedom), Dick Lamm / Pat Choate (write-in)
1993-1997: Jim Webb / Jane Byrne (Democratic)
1992 def. Edwin Meese / Al D’Amato (Republican)
1997-2001: Bob Dornan / Dick Lugar (Republican)
1996 def. Jim Webb / Willie Brown (Democratic)
2001-2009: Charlotte Pritt / Jim Jontz (Democratic)
2000 def. Bob Dornan / Dick Lugar (Republican)
2004 def. John Ashcroft / G. Walker Bush (Republican)
2009-2017: Linda Smith / Tom Tancredo (Republican)
2008 def. Jim Jontz / Barbara Mikulski (Democratic)
2012 def. Mike Moore / Mike McGinn (Democratic)

2016: Susan Sadlowski Garza / Rick Nolan (Democratic) v. Dennis Kucinich / Rick Santorum (Republican)

After his resignation, McCall tries to play shadow president, phoning Proxmire every day from his hospital bed to discuss policy minutiae. His continued involvement with the White House becomes public knowledge and the story frustrates his successor, who has already begun his own term deep in another man’s shade and finds himself sinking deeper. Tom McCall dies less than a year after leaving office, his popularity high but his historical role still in doubt. One small legacy is visible in the short term: the shocking illnesses of both McCall and Hubert Humphrey contribute to a social push for men to discuss their health problems more openly.

With inflation largely under control by the end of 1982, Proxmire acquiesces to the lifting of the last wage and price restrictions. They remain available in the Presidential toolbox, but the strong pressure for a return to normalcy means they won’t be called out again for a long while.

The trappings of Third Force governance begin to slip. Republicans and independents begin to leave the Cabinet, replaced with a more specific strain of post-Watergate Democrats, and William Cohen quits the administration caucus in the Senate. Everyone knows the new President is a bit of an asshole; there’s no way he can hold together such a personalist coalition.

Proxmire attempts to retain a sheen of bipartisanship by appointing the Republican governor of Alaska, Jay Hammond, as Vice President. Hammond was a participant in the Crisis Conference and an ally of the McCall White House. He is known for his rugged masculinity and for the innovative Alaska Permanent Fund, a mechanism for redistributing oil industry profits that shares similarities with the basic income ideas floated by some Third Force thinkers. The VP, however, becomes a punchline almost as soon as he steps onto the national stage. With his folksy attitude and bristly beard, the former bush pilot might be popular in the Far West but reminds the rest of the country of a caveman.

Proxmire’s only major achievements are passing a campaign finance reform bill and finally signing the much-delayed Panama Canal Treaty. His budgetary wizardry gets him nowhere with Congress. With the economy recovering, austerity politics are a tougher sell, and the news out of Afghanistan makes defense cuts a non-starter. When Jerry Brown announces his intention to challenge Proxmire for the Third Force Presidential endorsement, the organization, never built for dissent, completely falls apart. McCall’s big names head back to their respective parties. One side of the acrimonious split swipes the mailing list and start talking about a Green Party. Aimless and friendless, Proxmire declines to run in 1984, the twentieth century’s own John Tyler.

First Lady Elizabeth Taylor and her handsome husband enter the White House on the first wave of Boomer nostalgia for Camelot. While the Republican Party is deflated and disorganized – the liberals lost all influence by defecting to the Third Force, but the New Right was battered down in turn by Reagan’s electoral failure – their intrapartisan alliance ticket wins by attacking Proxmire’s defense cuts and promoting a buoyant, vaguely patriotic vision of American grandeur that has been lacking for years. The moral equivalent of war was an inspiration, but now people want the moral equivalent of peace.

It’s content-free Reaganism: most McCallite laws end up staying on the books out of inertia. Ed Meese, Bill Bennett, and the rest are given free rein to bash gays and gin up moral panics, but state-sponsored family values seem a little rich when the first Presidential divorce plays out in lurid detail on every supermarket checkstand. (The Moral Majority backs a third-party bid in 1988, which fails once it becomes clear that Quayle and Symms are being bankrolled by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and a consortium of overseas corporations eager for trade deals). The 3E stands and abortion remains safe, legal, and common. The dovish Warner’s war on the Evil Empire only goes about as far as gladhanding with John Paul II. TTL’s historiography of the Cold War might declare its end in 1975 – everything after Vietnam being a slow simmer down to nonviolent Great Power rivalry.

The conservatives are more successful on the economic front. The Republicans and neoliberal Democrats unite to abolish the ESB completely and “deactivate” the most painful article of the Jackson Act by removing the mechanism for oil price enforcement. (Full repeal of the Act fails, however, so the government retains the right to set prices in another emergency.) There is a credit card boom and Wall Street goes wild: after a Long 70s, it’s finally the 80s of cocaine and padded shoulders. Even the President is now a swinging bachelor. The McCall era is dead and buried, for about a minute.

Jesse Jackson does better than one might expect in 1988, and manages to keep above McGovern levels in the EC. (The farm crisis happens on schedule, seeing as ag policy was not one of McCall’s priorities.) Nevertheless, after failing again with populist liberalism, it’s time for an alt-DLC to take charge, embracing the language of “limits” to attack Republican sleaze and excess.

Meanwhile, an attempt to revitalize the Third Force goes nowhere, since the rich liberals are happy with Warner and the radicals are excited about Jackson. Only a few oddball Westerners get behind Dick Lamm’s write-in bid. Focusing on the two themes of environmentalism and immigration, Lamm invokes McCall’s name at every opportunity as he tries to keep the old dream alive.

The boom of the eighties gives way to a hangover of more stagflation, and the Democrats return for the first time in over two decades with their very own Virginian veteran. Webb’s term is dominated by conflict in the Middle East, Kurdistan having requested aid against Iranian incursions. The American deployment makes history as the first action approved by Congress under the War Powers Act. With the Iranians withdrawing almost as soon as the first US border patrols land, the short, apparently virtuous war and the mood of economic recovery gives Webb the cover to slash regulation and stack the NLUO with building trades leaders and property developers. (Even the international far-left cuts Webb some slack, excited by Abdullah Öcalan’s participation in the Kurdish coalition government – a bright light for socialism as the Soviet Union quietly sheds republics and welcomes American capital.)

The smooth sailing is soon upended by the embarrassing spectacle of Jim Webb publicly feuding with the first woman Vice President. The party had originally selected Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne both as a sop to the liberals and as a counter to their Presidential candidate’s reputation for misogyny. However, the two took an immediate dislike to each other on the campaign trail. A year into their term in office, Webb is making jokes about Byrne’s appearance and Byrne is supporting dissident Democrats in Congress who refuse to vote for Webb’s initiatives.

The always febrile Democrats are beginning to split again, with liberals waking up to Webb’s sexism, his environmentally reckless regulatory bonfire, and his obvious desire for military buildup and a more aggressive foreign policy. Conservatives, meanwhile, are breathing fire over the cracking of NATO, and over a rash of rioting and crime allegedly sparked by gentrification in urban centers. It becomes clear that while Webb’s policies might be broadly popular, nobody really likes him.

1996 is a testosterone fest for the ages, and America waits with bated breath during the debates to see which candidate will throw the first punch. Bob Dornan, the GOP’s id, tosses off homophobic slurs and implies that he chose his vice-presidential candidate for the size of his penis. Jim Webb brags about killing Vietnamese people. The op-ed writers demand a new Third Force. Nobody is satisfied, turnout is low, and when Webb loses, he angrily blames “politically correct liberals” for “forcing” him to run with Governor Brown after several women declined to share the ticket with him.

Dornan and his thin Republican majorities in Congress withdraw from Kurdistan, pass draconian crime legislation, cut social spending and end the 3E’s free contraceptive program and abortion counseling. He even cracks down on the McCall-era cannabis loophole, under which one only need to claim Rastafari identity to buy and sell the scheduled drug. However, the hardest-line Sagebrush Rebels in the west are disappointed. Despite his hatred of “dickless leave-no-tracers,” Dornan is an animal lover, and he lends his support to a bipartisan bill that fully protects America’s remaining old-growth forests.

Indeed, amidst the nasty culture warring clogging up the airwaves throughout the 1990s, environmentalism has stayed a relatively nonpartisan issue. Conservative Republicans might hate the condescending antinatalists at the 3E, and Democrats might blame the NIMBYs at the NLUO for rapidly escalating gentrification, but everyone acknowledges on some level that the excess of the pre-Watergate, pre-McCall order could never stand. Whether they couch it in the language of fiscal prudence, capitalist decadence, or Christian apocalypse, there is no way to turn back the clock. Even Jim Webb, as big on bigness as anybody, happily signed the United States up to the great Jakarta Convention in 1992.

Enter Charlotte Pritt, the Governor of West Virginia, who has managed to refashion McCallism for the proletarian Democratic Party. She asks why so many Americans are miserable, atomized, overworked, and underpaid. Her New Millennium Plan proposes worker self-management, nationally guaranteed family leave, an expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, massive investment in clean energy to meet the Jakarta emissions standards, and protectionist barriers against outsourcing and the rapacity of the global market. Limits to growth do not have to mean austerity. There is already enough wealth for everyone in America; it’s time for American workers to enjoy what they’ve built.

While the plan is dismissed as communism by the Webb wing of the Democrats, it has something for everyone else. Labor loves it, of course, apart from the last conservative holdouts who survived Sadlowski and company’s reforms. Lifestyle liberals are enthused by the NMP’s McCall-esque fixation on the spiritual and aesthetic destruction wrought by unfettered markets. Women and black voters find Pritt a welcome contrast to her rival, ex-President Webb, whose comeback campaign is heavy on the “white working class” rhetoric.

She wins the nomination and opens up a slim lead. During the campaign, there is a wave of neo-Nazi bombings of 3E offices and Planned Parenthood clinics, and Dornan, as unfiltered as ever, hints that it might be a false flag operation by the antinatalist Deep State. This does not go over well.

Pritt’s large personal mandate is not matched by majorities in Congress, and the New Millennium Plan does not survive contact with political reality. Everybody can get excited about clean energy projects and more interurban rail, and the United States quickly takes the lead in the former sector, but how does all this stuff about free prescription drugs and college stipends square with the dogma of Limits? Generous maternity and paternity leave laws are the only new social spending to go through, and along with the Supreme Court’s legalization of euthanasia they contribute to a conservative backlash at the polls. Only by the hard work of her labor allies does Pritt scrape to re-election victory, and the result is so close and contentious that it inspires dark references to the Daleys and Jimmy Hoffa.

Pritt’s second term is dominated by the Second Kurdish War. The US takes a supporting role this time, but the collapse of Iran’s longtime puppet government in Iraq and the opening of a wider regional conflict still has domestic ripples as oil prices soar in the depths of winter. It is time to reactivate the Jackson Act. Wearing a parka and a Miners for Democracy beanie, the president signs an executive order reviving the Economic Stabilization Board and imposing rationing. This time, however, the economists on her advisory council have a different ultimate goal in mind.

The strategy laid out in the Black Mountain Memo is to keep rationing permanent, reducing the potential for future supply shocks. However, it goes on to suggest a slow and intentional escalation of prices to wean America off of fossil fuels entirely. Reports of Pritt’s reaction remain contradictory, and prices don’t change significantly for the rest of her term. However, when the memo leaks in the runup to the 2008 election, it confirms many Americans’ fears that the burden of a green, steady-state economic transition will fall on them.

Showing perhaps more courage than sense, Jontz confirms that he would use the executive price-setting power to phase out fossil fuels, with the rise in gas prices offset by progressive cuts to personal income tax. Unfortunately, President Pritt’s longstanding opposition to gasoline taxes was well-documented on video, already packaged for campaign commercials. The Vice President is forced to run against his own administration’s record. Already smarting from a primary battle against John Hickenlooper, who tried to outflank him on the left by promising to reform the NLUO and build housing again, Jontz loses handily to the second woman President.

Linda Smith is a new breed of Republican. In Congress, she voted for elements of the New Millennium Plan, embracing an image as a compassionate conservative and a pragmatic environmentalist; as Governor of Washington she fashioned herself as a champion of low taxes and private property rights; and throughout her career she stood as a staunch Meesean social conservative, attacking euthanasia and spitting venom at The Gays. President Smith’s America is a land of bioswales behind white picket fences, a land where “NLUO reform” means sprawling acres of LEED-certified McMansions, a land where queer communities across the country are besieged under a veil of pseudofeminist rhetoric, a land where the militarized police drive electric APCs. In a word, it is an era of complacency. The country remains on track to meet its Jakarta targets, but by the mid-2010s it is increasingly clear that it will not be enough. Not only were the targets were based on early, optimistic climate models, some countries such as China have simply disregarded them. 2016 is set to be another crisis election.

Susan Sadlowski Garza, the Governor of Illinois, is no mere dynast, although her father’s role in Jackson II and the revitalization of the labor movement definitely boosted her early career. She has restored dignity to her soiled office by crushing the Daley-Madigan machine, and she has led the liberal governors’ resistance to the Smith administration’s institutionalized racism and homophobia. However, at the moment she’s riding on a wave of grassroots enthusiasm from the so-called Millenarian generation, young people transfixed by the Age of Aquarius notion that we are on the cusp of great possibility and positive change. The most radical elements of her coalition are calling for full national mobilization against climate change, including the full implementation of Black Mountain, hard caps on resource consumption, and a final nail in the coffin of Growth.

The shock-jock of white backlash, onetime Cleveland Mayor and onetime head of Democrats for Dornan, has not held elected office in decades but has cruised the primary nevertheless. In his disregard for the GOP’s traditional fiscal reticence, right-wing radio host Dennis Kucinich is President Smith’s natural heir, but his conservatism is anything but compassionate. His campaign pays lip service to the need for climate action, but asks why Americans should have to suffer for others’ sins, blames ecological destruction on the industrialization of China and Indonesia, and darkly repeats old conspiracy theories about the globalist 3E and white genocide. Instead of encouraging the heinous crime of abortion, he insists, we need to close the borders and keep out the immigrants who will spill out of our overcrowded cities and despoil America’s natural splendor.

The choice is clear: ecosocialism or ecobarbarism.
 
I've found working from home a bit hard and get distracted sometimes

bubonic-plague-3b4b2dcc5-6923-4808-9422-ff38f36bf6cflarger.jpg

No Throne For The Bug King
Part I: Taking it all back ​

Justinian Dynasty
Justinian The Great was a man in a hurry - to build the Hagia Sofia, to unite the church, to rebuild the Roman Empire. The first was his greatest legacy, the second was his most obvious failure and the third was a mixed blessing. He managed to retake Africa, Italy and Spain and build an alliance with the Franks that protected his new frontier. Future generations would be stuck paying his debts and defending the enlarged empire. In general, the descendents of Justinian managed this legacy with varying degrees of success. However, Justinian III destroyed the delicate balance with a frenzy of building plans, many impossible, plans at conquest, and many other expensive campaigns that he would frequently lose interest in or attempt to micro-manage.

527-565: Justinian I "The Great"
565-602: Justin II
602-613: Justinian II
613-618: Germanus
618-624: Justinian III "The Mad"

Valentinian Dynasty
A usurper dynasty lead by one of Justinian's generals. While the remnants of the old dynasty had little support the new one struggled to gain a footing in the popular consciousness and relied on payments to the army it could barely afford to keep going.

624-633: Valentinas
633-638: Valentinas II

Saborian Dynasty
Another government by usurption. Saborios II attempted to build legitimacy through building support in the churches. The Third Council of Constantinople agreed upon the doctrine of Monoenergism - that Christ has a single energy that is both divine and human - in a state sponsored attempt to make a compromise between the monophysite and Chalcedonian churches. However, future generations would lean on churches heavily for finance in their wars with the Avars and Kazars, and therefore gained more clout with and power over the emperors, and the doctrine was never really entrenched centrally.

638-643: Saborios I
643-661: Saborios II
661-667: Constantine III
667: Leo II
667-672: Saborios III
672-683: Saborios III

Tiberian Dynasty (Rome)
In the West, the revival of Rome as a political power, religious differences with the East and annoyance from the churches at repeated requests for money led to a general rebellion and war while the Empire in the East was at its weakest. The new West Byzantine Empire, would rapidly establish itself as a power in the region. In the Tiberian Dynasty this culminated in Peter The Great's reconquest of Frankia and re-establishment of the concept of a dual empire.

667-675: Tiberius III
675-679: Tiberian
679-718: Peter The Great
718-726: Peter II
726-747: Peter III

Leontian Dynasty (Byzantium)
While the Leontians were unsuccessful against the Avars they maintained strong contacts in the West and this developed into marital alliances, culminating in Theodotus' successful campaign into Rome to defend what he saw as his familial right to that throne. It worked, during his life, but after his death his two sons vyed for power and the never-really-reunited empire split up again.

683-707: Leontios
707-711: Leo III
711-757: Theodotus
757-768: Theodotus II

Leontian Dynasty (Rome)
In the West the Leontians established a strong relationship with the pope and attempted to assimilate into the political life of their young empire. The family was successful and wealthy, but not fertile. The family was left in the unusual position of being headed up by a woman who attempted the experiment of weilding political power in her own right. This was highly unsuccessful.

747-757: Theodotus
757-771: Constantine IV
771-779: Constantine V
779-782: Julia

Thirty Year Anarchy (Byzantium)
768-799: Multiple claimants
For nearly thirty years, the Byzantine Empire was stricken by a near constant cycle of emperors, none of whom managed to fully unite the country. Much of the difficulties were spurred on by growing religious disunity, as monophysites and chalcedonians and tiny pockets of monoenrgism fought for dominance and occassionally purged the Jewish populations when they couldn't find other Christians to persecute.

Theuderician Dynasty (Rome)
A Frankish general usurped the power of the emperor and relied more on his own people for allies. As a result, power in the empire started to move noth. So far north in fact that they ended up defending the Romano-British in their wars with the Jutes and eventually took control over much of Southern Britain.

782-807: Theuduric I
807-814: Sigebert I
807-821: Leo III

Theophilosian Dynasty (Byzantium)
The post civil war dynasty dealt with a constant threat from the Sassanids and during their time turned the tables against that increasingly ailing empire. This would have presented opportunities were it not for religious disunity within the Empire which spilled out into a drawn religious conflict between the monophysites and the Chalcedonian-Monoenergists that would eventually cost Rome control over Alexandria.

768-799: Theophilos I
799-813: Constantine IV
813-822: Constantine V
822-845: Constans II
845-856: Theophilos II
856-862: Leo IV

Apsimarian Dynasty (Rome)
A dynasty of Ostrogoths backed by the Avar Khanate. The ascent caused serious rebellions, mostly in France, which was coming to view itself as centre of the Empire in the West. The empire might have struggled with internal conflicts, but it was still able to pacify the Balkans, and even defeat the Eastern Empire in battle, securing the West's position as the senior of the two Empires for the first time in centuries.

807-821: Tiberius IV Apsimar
821-836: Tiberius V The Roman
836-838: Tiberius VI The Usurper
838-874: Tiberius VII The Arian / The Heretic
874-878: Leodegar The Confessor

Simean Dynasty (Alexandria)
Pious beyond any reasonable levels, the Simean Dynasty was an elective monarchy strongly overseen by the church which was established as an Empire of the Monophysites and maintained power through an often tyrannical desire for uniformity and paranoia about invasion from the Eastern Byzantines.The Simeans were frequently elderly, retired generals or priests, people who the Church elders could control. With occassional periods where younger men were able to break through and demand change, which always amounted to more religious declarations and more wars with the Byzantines.

852-877: Simeon I
877-883: Theophilus I
883-899: Constantine VI
899-912: Simeon II
912-916: John I
916-918: Agathon I
918-950: Agathon II
950-956: Alexander I
956-968: Simeon III
968-972: Joseph I
972-975: Constantine VII
975-979: Gabriel I
979-988: Agathon II
988-995: Alexander II
995-999: Joseph II
999-1043: John II

The Armenian Dynasty (Byzantium)
Justinian IV secured control over the empire, however his descendents desroyed the reputation of the family fighting amongst themselves in a convoluted series of sometimes incestuous marital alliances, suspicious deaths and outright rebellions.

878-900: Justinian IV
900-906: Justinian V
906-909: Anastasios II
909-918: Phillipikos I
918-924: Justinian VI
924-927: Justinian VII

Eligian Dynasty (Rome)
A Gallic dynasty that mostly found itself defending the empire from the Tuareg and the Norse, along with increased violence from more established enemies like the Avars and the Slavs. Britain was lost again and at times even Rome was threatened, particularly by the Avars.

878-888: Eligius I The Gaul
898-909: Tiberius VIII The Patron
909-924: Theodocius III The Child
924-938: Gratian II The Frank
938-960: Tiberius IX The Wise
960-965: Basilliscus II The Martyr
965-977: Eligius II The Confessor
977-996: Tiberius X The Bearded

Non-Dynastic (Byzantium)
Valentinian was presented with the chance of the millennium, the opportunity to conquer Persia. The ailing Sasanid Empire faced Turkic, Kazar and Arabic enemies and Byzantine forces. The Roman conquest of Ctesiphon saw Valentinian add "King of Kings" to the title of the Byzantine Emperors for the rest of it's survival, and lead to the Eastern Empire briefly being seen as the dominant force in Romania.

927-954: Valentinian II

Forty Year Anarchy (Byzantium)
Valentinian's Empire had been stretched thin and rocked by inflation since their conquest of Ctesiphon. For nearly forty years, no one claimant could claim complete control of the empire and smaller powers bit at the heels of the Empire.

954-991: Various claimants

The Three Good Emperors (Byzantium)
Xeno was the first person to reclaim comtrol over the Empire, and spent his entire life doing so. He died shortly after returning to Constantinople and handed power to his close friend and adopted son, who handed in turn would hand it over by adoption again. Once again, for a brief time, the Eastern Empire was the premier empire.

991-992: Xeno II
992-1009: Basil
1009-1034: Valentinian III
 
Sideways said:
I've found working from home a bit hard and get distracted sometimes

bubonic-plague-3b4b2dcc5-6923-4808-9422-ff38f36bf6cflarger.jpg

No Throne For The Bug King
Part I: Taking it all back ​

Justinian Dynasty
Justinian The Great was a man in a hurry - to build the Hagia Sofia, to unite the church, to rebuild the Roman Empire. The first was his greatest legacy, the second was his most obvious failure and the third was a mixed blessing. He managed to retake Africa, Italy and Spain and build an alliance with the Franks that protected his new frontier. Future generations would be stuck paying his debts and defending the enlarged empire. In general, the descendents of Justinian managed this legacy with varying degrees of success. However, Justinian III destroyed the delicate balance with a frenzy of building plans, many impossible, plans at conquest, and many other expensive campaigns that he would frequently lose interest in or attempt to micro-manage.

527-565: Justinian I "The Great"
565-602: Justin II
602-613: Justinian II
613-618: Germanus
618-624: Justinian III "The Mad"

Valentinian Dynasty
A usurper dynasty lead by one of Justinian's generals. While the remnants of the old dynasty had little support the new one struggled to gain a footing in the popular consciousness and relied on payments to the army it could barely afford to keep going.

624-633: Valentinas
633-638: Valentinas II

Saborian Dynasty
Another government by usurption. Saborios II attempted to build legitimacy through building support in the churches. The Third Council of Constantinople agreed upon the doctrine of Monoenergism - that Christ has a single energy that is both divine and human - in a state sponsored attempt to make a compromise between the monophysite and Chalcedonian churches. However, future generations would lean on churches heavily for finance in their wars with the Avars and Kazars, and therefore gained more clout with and power over the emperors, and the doctrine was never really entrenched centrally.

638-643: Saborios I
643-661: Saborios II
661-667: Constantine III
667: Leo II
667-672: Saborios III
672-683: Saborios III

Tiberian Dynasty (Rome)
In the West, the revival of Rome as a political power, religious differences with the East and annoyance from the churches at repeated requests for money led to a general rebellion and war while the Empire in the East was at its weakest. The new West Byzantine Empire, would rapidly establish itself as a power in the region. In the Tiberian Dynasty this culminated in Peter The Great's reconquest of Frankia and re-establishment of the concept of a dual empire.

667-675: Tiberius III
675-679: Tiberian
679-718: Peter The Great
718-726: Peter II
726-747: Peter III

Leontian Dynasty (Byzantium)
While the Leontians were unsuccessful against the Avars they maintained strong contacts in the West and this developed into marital alliances, culminating in Theodotus' successful campaign into Rome to defend what he saw as his familial right to that throne. It worked, during his life, but after his death his two sons vyed for power and the never-really-reunited empire split up again.

683-707: Leontios
707-711: Leo III
711-757: Theodotus
757-768: Theodotus II

Leontian Dynasty (Rome)
In the West the Leontians established a strong relationship with the pope and attempted to assimilate into the political life of their young empire. The family was successful and wealthy, but not fertile. The family was left in the unusual position of being headed up by a woman who attempted the experiment of weilding political power in her own right. This was highly unsuccessful.

747-757: Theodotus
757-771: Constantine IV
771-779: Constantine V
779-782: Julia

Thirty Year Anarchy (Byzantium)
768-799: Multiple claimants
For nearly thirty years, the Byzantine Empire was stricken by a near constant cycle of emperors, none of whom managed to fully unite the country. Much of the difficulties were spurred on by growing religious disunity, as monophysites and chalcedonians and tiny pockets of monoenrgism fought for dominance and occassionally purged the Jewish populations when they couldn't find other Christians to persecute.

Theuderician Dynasty (Rome)
A Frankish general usurped the power of the emperor and relied more on his own people for allies. As a result, power in the empire started to move noth. So far north in fact that they ended up defending the Romano-British in their wars with the Jutes and eventually took control over much of Southern Britain.

782-807: Theuduric I
807-814: Sigebert I
807-821: Leo III

Theophilosian Dynasty (Byzantium)
The post civil war dynasty dealt with a constant threat from the Sassanids and during their time turned the tables against that increasingly ailing empire. This would have presented opportunities were it not for religious disunity within the Empire which spilled out into a drawn religious conflict between the monophysites and the Chalcedonian-Monoenergists that would eventually cost Rome control over Alexandria.

768-799: Theophilos I
799-813: Constantine IV
813-822: Constantine V
822-845: Constans II
845-856: Theophilos II
856-862: Leo IV

Apsimarian Dynasty (Rome)
A dynasty of Ostrogoths backed by the Avar Khanate. The ascent caused serious rebellions, mostly in France, which was coming to view itself as centre of the Empire in the West. The empire might have struggled with internal conflicts, but it was still able to pacify the Balkans, and even defeat the Eastern Empire in battle, securing the West's position as the senior of the two Empires for the first time in centuries.

807-821: Tiberius IV Apsimar
821-836: Tiberius V The Roman
836-838: Tiberius VI The Usurper
838-874: Tiberius VII The Arian / The Heretic
874-878: Leodegar The Confessor

Simean Dynasty (Alexandria)
Pious beyond any reasonable levels, the Simean Dynasty was an elective monarchy strongly overseen by the church which was established as an Empire of the Monophysites and maintained power through an often tyrannical desire for uniformity and paranoia about invasion from the Eastern Byzantines.The Simeans were frequently elderly, retired generals or priests, people who the Church elders could control. With occassional periods where younger men were able to break through and demand change, which always amounted to more religious declarations and more wars with the Byzantines.

852-877: Simeon I
877-883: Theophilus I
883-899: Constantine VI
899-912: Simeon II
912-916: John I
916-918: Agathon I
918-950: Agathon II
950-956: Alexander I
956-968: Simeon III
968-972: Joseph I
972-975: Constantine VII
975-979: Gabriel I
979-988: Agathon II
988-995: Alexander II
995-999: Joseph II
999-1043: John II

The Armenian Dynasty (Byzantium)
Justinian IV secured control over the empire, however his descendents desroyed the reputation of the family fighting amongst themselves in a convoluted series of sometimes incestuous marital alliances, suspicious deaths and outright rebellions.

878-900: Justinian IV
900-906: Justinian V
906-909: Anastasios II
909-918: Phillipikos I
918-924: Justinian VI
924-927: Justinian VII

Eligian Dynasty (Rome)
A Gallic dynasty that mostly found itself defending the empire from the Tuareg and the Norse, along with increased violence from more established enemies like the Avars and the Slavs. Britain was lost again and at times even Rome was threatened, particularly by the Avars.

878-888: Eligius I The Gaul
898-909: Tiberius VIII The Patron
909-924: Theodocius III The Child
924-938: Gratian II The Frank
938-960: Tiberius IX The Wise
960-965: Basilliscus II The Martyr
965-977: Eligius II The Confessor
977-996: Tiberius X The Bearded

Non-Dynastic (Byzantium)
Valentinian was presented with the chance of the millennium, the opportunity to conquer Persia. The ailing Sasanid Empire faced Turkic, Kazar and Arabic enemies and Byzantine forces. The Roman conquest of Ctesiphon saw Valentinian add "King of Kings" to the title of the Byzantine Emperors for the rest of it's survival, and lead to the Eastern Empire briefly being seen as the dominant force in Romania.

927-954: Valentinian II

Forty Year Anarchy (Byzantium)
Valentinian's Empire had been stretched thin and rocked by inflation since their conquest of Ctesiphon. For nearly forty years, no one claimant could claim complete control of the empire and smaller powers bit at the heels of the Empire.

954-991: Various claimants

The Three Good Emperors (Byzantium)
Xeno was the first person to reclaim comtrol over the Empire, and spent his entire life doing so. He died shortly after returning to Constantinople and handed power to his close friend and adopted son, who handed in turn would hand it over by adoption again. Once again, for a brief time, the Eastern Empire was the premier empire.

991-992: Xeno II
992-1009: Basil
1009-1034: Valentinian III
Click to expand...

I love me some later Rome work. This is fantastic, Lena.
 
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