• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Anarcho-Occultist's Way Too Soon Wikibox Thread

The Spirit Walks In Darkness
"What we need now, more than ever, is a return to normalcy. This president has discarded allies, disregarded experts in their field and sought to shred basic norms of both the law and fundamental decency. If we are to move forward as a country, we need to reestablish who we are as a country."
-Former Vice President Joe Biden, August 7, 2020

"Look, folks, Sleepy Joe-he's a loser. He's a pushover, Nobody respects him like they respect me. We beat ISIS, we beat the invisible enemy-we've won so much over the last four years. If Biden-he'll roll over. And we'll lose as a country. It'll be a disaster. A huge mistake."
-President Donald Trump, September 2, 2020

WH REPORTS INDICATE FAUCI ON 'THIN ICE' OVER RECOMMENDATION TO REVIVE STRICT QUARANTINE MEASURES AS CORONAVIRUS SPREAD REKINDLES

UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS FOR SEPTEMBER HIT 32 MILLION

GOV. ABBOTT SAYS 'CYCLE MUST END', REFUSES TO ALLOW LOCAL QUARANTINE MEASURES

TRUMP VOWS TO 'HOLD CHINA ACCOUNTABLE' FOR CORONAVIRUS, ECONOMIC DISRUPTION

PROGRESSIVES PROTEST INCLUSION OF INCREASED IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT FUNDING IN LATEST STIMULUS BILL

POLLS INDICATE DROPPING SUPPORT FOR AMASH, HAWKINS AS ELECTION DRAWS CLOSER-BIDEN LEADS BY 4-6 POINTS NATIONALLY

IN VP DEBATE, PENCE FLOUNDERS AMIDST HARRIS ATTACKS

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH ENDORSES BIDEN, CALLING HIM A 'STEADY-HANDED LEADER'
-Headlines of The Washington Post, September-October 2020

"At this moment, with less than three days left to go before the election, it seems likely that Biden will emerge triumphant given his consistent lead over Trump in the polls. However, caution is important given that the Clinton campaign four years ago lost crucial momentum in the final days leading up to Election Day. Additionally there remains the concern regarding how the Republicans will react to a defeat-Trump has regularly tweeted about voter fraud and the 'outbreak hoax' being a Democratic ploy to drive down turnout."
-Ezra Klein writing in Vox, November 2, 2020

"ELECTION RIGGED BY DIRTY DEMS! I will not stand for this cheating from Sleepy Joe. See you in court!"
-Donald Trump on Twitter, November 5, 2020

"The president's refusal to accept reality is disappointing, but unsurprising. We have a clear mandate from American voters and expect that Trump will fail in his effort to steal this election from its legitimate winner."
-Biden campaign spokeswoman Symone Sanders, November 7, 2020

"As an Arizonan, I stand by the president 200%. There were major voting irregularities in this state and I honestly don't see how Arizona could have gone Democrat by the margins we've seen without illegal voting. I think we must investigate and, if the Biden campaign did in fact cheat, he ought to be charged with treason."
-Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward, November 9, 2020

"This president's efforts to outright steal a presidential election are flagrantly unacceptable. This demonstrates an extreme unfitness for office and must not go unchallenged."
-Representative Steny Hoyer introducing the second round of articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, November 11, 2020

"These impeachment charges are clearly political and partisan in nature. It is the Senate's right to determine whether an impeachment trial is to be pursued and given all of the irregularities in this election, I do not deem it appropriate to dignify these charges with a trial."
-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, November 11, 2020

CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYERS ARGUE MCCONNELL'S REFUSAL TO HOLD TRIAL ILLEGAL

SUPREME COURT NARROWLY RULES TRUMP CAMPAIGN HAS RAISED 'VALID QUESTIONS' ABOUT THE LEGITIMACY OF THE ELECTION, DEMANDS A FULL AUDIT OF THE VOTES

MASS PROTESTS ERUPT IN MAJOR CITIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES IN RESPONSE TO SUPREME COURT RULING

ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES ISSUES STATEMENT THAT TRUMP'S ACTIONS 'VERY CONCERNING', SAYS BIDEN IS THE LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT

UN RESOLUTION CALLING FOR THE US TO RECOGNIZE BIDEN AS THE LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT VETOED BY US AND RUSSIAN AMBASSADORS
-Headlines of The Hill, November 2020

"The moves by the Trump administration to usurp the results of a legitimate and fair election are absolutely unacceptable. The signatories of this Compact-consisting of 26 states-recognize Joe Biden as the legitimate president of the United States and Kamala Harris as the legitimate vice president of the United States. We will not obey the orders of an aspiring autocrat."
-Governor Gavin Newsom announcing the formation of the Compact for the Constitution, December 3, 2020

"NEWSOM AND OTHER DIRTY DEMS ARE NOTHING BUT TRAITORS. Patriots know what to do!"
-Donald Trump on Twitter, December 3, 2020

"I signed the Compact as a Republican, what does that make me?"
-Governor Charlie Baker in response to the above, December 3, 2020

"The storm is upon us. The time has come to act."
-The 4chan poster known as Q, December 5, 2020

RNC VOTES TO EXPEL BAKER, HERBERT, HOGAN FROM PARTY OVER SIGNING THE COMPACT FOR THE CONSTITUTION

PRESS RELEASE FROM EUROPEAN UNION AND UK URGES TRUMP TO CONCEDE POWER TO BIDEN, TRUMP THREATENS NATO FUNDING IN RESPONSE

ATTEMPTED SHOOTINGS AT ELECTORAL COLLEGE MEETINGS IN AZ, FL, NC, MI KILL 34, INJURE 52

13 MILITIA GROUPS ANNOUNCE THE FORMATION OF 'AMERICAN PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE' AIMED AT THWARTING 'GLOABLIST COUP' AGAINST TRUMP

CLASHES IN THE STREETS BETWEEN BIDEN AND TRUMP SUPPORTERS KILL 63 IN SPAN OF A WEEK
-Headlines of The Washington Post, December 2020

"As of this moment, the United States Armed Forces is stuck in a very uncomfortable position given the contested nature of the presidential election. Around a quarter of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have been dismissed by Trump for encouraging him to concede power to Biden, though Biden supporters and certain units of the armed forces continue to recognize them as key military leadership. As of this time, neither Biden nor Trump have attempted to issue orders to the Armed Forces, though this will likely change in the near future. However, it is unclear which side they will ultimately come down on-the military's generally conservative lean has been weakened by Trump's rhetoric surrounding the 'deep state' and isolationist sympathies coupled with Biden's own moderation and the fact Biden internationally has more recognition as America's legitimate leader than Trump (who counts among those recognizing his government many traditional American rivals such as Russia and autocracies such as Turkey, Egypt and Hungary)."
-Excerpt from 'A House Divided' published by The Atlantic, January 2, 2021

"Repeat after me: I, Joseph Robinette Biden, do solemnly swear..."

" I, Joseph Robinette Biden, do solemnly swear..."

"....That I will faithfully execute...."

"...That I will faithfully execute..."

"....The office of president of the United States..."

"...The office of president of the United States..."

"So help me God."

"So help me God."

"Congratulations, Mr. President."
-Exchange between Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Joe Biden in Baltimore, January 20, 2021

"Repeat after me: I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear..."

" I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear..."

"....That I will faithfully execute...."

"...That I will faithfully execute..."

"....The office of president of the United States..."

"...The office of president of the United States..."

"So help me God."

"So help me God."

"Congratulations, Mr. President."
-Exchange between Chief Justice John Roberts and Donald Trump in Washington DC, January 20, 2021
View attachment 20186

So good news is me from 10 months ago was overly pessimistic about the Supreme Court.

On the other hand...well I got Trump's outlook on the election right.
 
1976

“Good evening and welcome to the first of our presidential debates.” Morton Downey, Jr.’s words came out unusually calmly for a man so famous for veering into angry rants during his broadcasts, but President Edwin Walker could respect that. He knew the importance of the pivot when it came to speaking—there was a time to show your hand and a time to only hint at it after all. “Onstage tonight we have our three candidates for the presidency. In the middle, our incumbent President-“ Downey was cut off by a flurry of applause from the audience. Walker smiled at the camera and waved briefly while mouthing ‘thank you.’ He made a mental note to thank Cohn for thoroughly vetting the audience for him—he didn’t want a repeat of what had happened to LeMay back in ’68. That had looked pretty bad, forcing his predecessor to come face-to-face with some damn pinko. “-and the nominee of the National Union Party Edwin Walker. On the left, former Governor of Georgia Lester Maddox.”

“Thank you, Morton and thank you everybody.” Maddox said in the common southern drawl. He too smiled for the camera, but Walker could tell he was a bit nervous. Good. That means he knows his place tonight. Some of his fellow members of the AIP didn’t quite get what their job was. Like Wallace, for instance. The bastard had actually thought he was entitled to compete for the White House, had the right to attack LeMay and Walker for doing what had to be done to save the country from Bolshevism. So needless to say he wasn’t given a chance to go up against Walker again this year—he didn’t know the details, but Liddy had gotten he matter taken care of.

“On the right side, we have the Liberty and Freedom nominee-“ At this, Downey was disrupted by the crowd. Boos and shouts of ‘traitor’ and ‘commie’ rained down as Downey tried to stammer through his introduction to the third man on the debate stage. “-Oregon Senator Mark Hatfield.” The Oregonian did his best to look serious yet optimistic but it was clear the audience’s reaction had rattled him. Probably should have expected a bit more, but Hatfield was nothing if not quixotic. The Liberty and Freedom Party had been banned from its founding in 1966 until last year, when Walker had generously allowed it to reestablish itself after it complied with the federal laws against Marxist or socialist political organizations by handing over socialist organizers within their ranks to federal authorities.

They were still dangerously extremist of course, demanding a return to the era of Eisenhower and Nixon politically. It saddened Walker that there were so many Americans who were ungrateful for the work he and his predecessor had done to dismantle global communism. LeMay had taken care of communism across the seas, bombing the Russians and Chinese enough that whatever hamlets survived had no choice but to go back to feudalism. He’d stumbled a bit when it came to Bolshevism within the country—sure, he’d taken care of the student groups, thwarted Johnson’s attempt to claw back power for the Reds within and stopped the integrationists cold. On the other hand, he had kept the crypto-Marxist New Deal largely intact. That had been why he ultimately had to go when he did—why Walker and some of his partners didn’t tell LeMay about Bremer until the bastard was marching towards him with a pistol.

“We will begin tonight’s debate with opening statements. The opening statements will proceed in reverse order from the polling which means we will begin with Senator Hatfield.” More boos and jeers erupted. Walker cracked a small smile as he looked at the Oregon man. This would be fun to watch—if he didn’t know his place before walking in here, he should have some idea of it now.

“I understand I am not popular in this room. And I suspect I know the reason why—” Hatfield was interrupted by even louder boos. The word ‘traitor’ was thrown about by some people. “—but that I am onstage tonight at all is a victory for the people of this country. I have been across the nation from my home state to Maine. I have seen the struggles faced by our young, our poor and the Negro population. I have been to the ruins of New York—the city that, when I was growing up, was the greatest in our nation. I have spoken to the mothers of children who were born deformed by radiation, children whose parents died of cancer on the streets.” The audience had quieted down by this point. Walker’s smile had faded. Where was he going with this? They hadn’t approved of this! Hatfield had submitted an opening statement for the approval of the Debate Committee to qualify for participation and it had been mostly banal platitudes about freedom and democracy—harmless stuff. This wasn’t harmless. “The number one question I hear in these places is why? Why must we suffer? Why must my children, parents, friends suffer? And the answer, America, is onstage with me today-“

The crowd erupted at that comment. The shouting reached a new volume. It was no longer just a few people crying ‘traitor’, but a mass of them. A few members of the audience outright began running towards the stage, likely in a bid to attack Hatfield. The Secret Service agents at the base of the stage looked at Walker for guidance. Walker mouthed “Stop them” to the guards, who proceeded to restrain the crowd. While Walker appreciated the desire to beat the bastard on television, the optics would be bad, especially given letting Hatfield participate had been crucial in alleviating social unrest. Better to do things in a more orderly fashion.

“If I may,” Walker began, speaking loudly to be heard over the roar of the crowd. “I believe Senator Hatfield’s comments were seditious in nature. What do you think?” The crowd cheered. Hatfield, notably, did not appear surprised or even concerned by this. “I think we have heard enough from the Senator for now. Mr. Downey, I think he should be kicked out from the debates.” The moderator, previously flustered and confused, seemed to regain his composure.

“Senator Hatfield, you have violated the rules of the debate. In addition to potential legal consequences, you are hereby barred from the rest of tonight’s debate and your invitation to future ones hinges on changed behavior. Is that clear?”

“Crystal.” Hatfield said. “I meant everything I said though.” More jeers erupted. Hatfield did not respond and did not move for long enough a pair of security guards proceeded to grab him and drag him out. What stuck with Walker, even as he continued to ‘debate’ Maddox, was the level of hatred carried in Hatfield’s eyes as he was dragged from the building. It frightened him enough that, by the time he left the debate, he had made a decision upon returning to his car.

“Call Bundy.” He ordered Liddy. “Tell him to take care of Mark.”
Walker Pres.png
 
REFORM IS GONE.png
The Reform Party is a former American political party formed originally in 1988 by American businessman Ross Perot. Perot formed the Reform Party as part of a bid to establish a party ‘unburdened by the existing system of party alliances and unmoored from unnecessary ideological rigidity.’ Perot’s Reform Party began competing in elections that same year and made some headway in both People’s Alliance and Conservative Coalition strongholds, electing a number of representatives who declared themselves no fans of the existing party system. The 1990 midterms saw Reform make additional gains, mostly at the expense of the Conservative Coalition owing to the unpopularity of President Gingrich, and some speculated the Reform Party could form an alliance of its own. Indeed, Perot in 1992 suggested the formation of a ‘Alliance for Middle America’ to leaders of the Liberal, Libertarian, Christian Democrat and New Whig Parties, though these efforts were rebuffed by party leaders. Nonetheless, Reform continued to gather strength throughout the 1990’s and into the 2000’s.

It was in 2002 that the party’s fortunes would take a turn for the worst. In 2002, Perot abruptly announced he would be retiring from politics, throwing the Reform Party into a chaotic vacuum stemming from the lack of overall leadership. The interim leadership of Reform was taken over by Richard Lamm, Perot’s running mate in the 1988 and 2000 elections. Lamm inherited a party that was gradually starting to unravel. While nominally centrist in outlook and united in opposition to multinational trade agreements, the party otherwise had a number of divisions. There were several small cliques—the ‘Natural Law Caucus’ of John Hagelin and Marianne Williamson, the Freak Power Party led by former journalist Hunter S. Thompson and the American Renaissance Alliance of Jared Taylor and David Duke. However, all three of these groups remained fairly fringe overall in the party. The bigger divide that existed was between the ‘Independent Reformers’ and the ‘National Reformers.’

The Independent Reformers took their name from a key element of their goals: they wanted the Reform Party to be truly independent not only of the pettiness of major party alliances but of dominance by corporate interests and groups viewed by the members as bigoted. The Independent Reformers has been among those who encouraged Perot to select retired Senator Eugene McCarthy as his running mate in 1992. Now, though, the group was headed by Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska, one of the closest things the Reform Party had to an elder statesman. Gravel had originally been aligned to the Liberal Party in the 1970’s, but in the years since had drifted further to the left. Now Gravel and his allies, which included Governor Jesse Ventura and former New York City Mayor Lenora Fulani, wanted Reform to become a vehicle for stronger changes. These changes included renouncing corporate donations, adding planks to the party platform calling for more direct democracy, expelling the American Renaissance Alliance from the party and abandoning the platform’s neutrality on social issues in favor of strong liberal stances.

The Independent Reformers had their near-mirror image in the form of the National Reformers. The National Reformers had once had their preferred choice, former Virginia Congressman Pat Buchanan, challenge Perot for the nomination in 1996. The National Reformers’ leadership currently was centered on Colorado Governor Tom Tancredo and former Reform Party Senate candidate Tucker Carlson. Tancredo and Carlson viewed the goal of the Reform Party quite differently from the Independent Reformers. They viewed it as Reform’s job to protect America as a nation and defined that nation in a much more right-wing way. They retained Reform’s heterodox economic stances on things like trade and environmentalism. However, the National Reformers sought to move the party towards the right on social issues, embracing immigration restrictions, a national abortion ban and stopping the ‘homosexual agenda’ from gaining further acceptance. The National Reformers had the cliques they wanted to expel from the party too—not the white nationalists that Gravel wished to kick out, but instead the ‘anarchist’ Freak Power Party members and members of the Natural Law Caucus who they accused of ‘anti-Christian stances.’

The 2003 Reform National Convention was expected to be contentious. Lamm had hoped that as someone of a more moderate temperament and with stances both sides sympathized with—more liberal ideas on economics for the Independents, anti-immigrant sentiment for the Nationals—he might be able to maintain order and control. However, Lamm’s efforts utterly failed. Within an hour, most of the delegates had voted to remove Lamm from the position as chair of the Reform Party. This was incidentally the only moment that the Independent and National Reformers came together over the course of the meeting. Each clique put up their own candidate for chair—the Nationalists attempting to install Buchanan while the Independents sought to name Representative Tim Penny to the position. Attempts to alter the platform likewise met with clashes—moderates in the party often simply working to block all proposals considered controversial to the chagrin of both sides. By the third day, order had returned—thanks to about 75% of attendees having walked out. The remnants of the Reform Party slogged on to 2004, but fell below the newly formed groups. The Independent Reform Party and the National Reform Party both eclipsed the original and soon settled as parties of their own, eventually gravitating towards the coalitions members of both groups had often railed against.
 
It had been a rough time for the United States leading up to the 1980 election. The resignation of Nixon over Watergate and the ascension of his unelected Vice President George Bush to the White House had been a troubling time. Bush’s insistence on trying to hold the line in Vietnam up until the last minute left him woefully unpopular and paved the way for the rise of Senator George McGovern in the 1976 Democratic primaries. Senator McGovern had been the runner-up in 1972, narrowly losing to Muskie in the primaries and at the convention. While at the time he had seemed a radical and even in 1976 was made out to be one as he selected fellow antiwar Senator Mike Gravel to be his running mate, he managed to nonetheless crush President Bush in a landslide. McGovern promised many things: détente, amnesty for those who avoided the draft, universal healthcare, ethics in government. And to his credit he did try his damn hardest to make those promises reality. Unfortunately Congress was reluctant to play ball. Crises he inherited refused to go away and new ones dawned over the course of his term. Perhaps his assassination at the hands of the Manson acolyte Squeaky Fromme helped salvage his legacy in a sense in the end.

That left Vice President Gravel in the position of President of the United States going into 1979. Gravel shared the McGovern agenda. Unfortunately Gravel had one big problem that the sympathy following McGovern’s death couldn’t overcome: he was just not that good at being likeable, at least to his fellow politicians. His efforts to push through more direct democracy, better healthcare and strengthened voting rights floundered amidst a hostile relationship with Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle. Gravel did make overtures to the party at large by selecting the union-friendly Adlai Stevenson III as his Vice President. But overall, Gravel’s friction with Congress coupled with unstable oil markets, problems in Iran and claims his nuclear policy mounted to appeasement seemed to leave an opening for the Republicans. The GOP had not been without its struggles—the legacy of Watergate loomed large and the party’s conservatives had become divided after former Governor Ronald Reagan died in a plane crash just after announcing a primary challenge to President Bush—sparking conspiracy theories on the fringes and leaving uncertainty of how to proceed for that wing of the party. Ultimately, conservatives would rally behind New York Senator James Buckley, affectionately known as ‘the Buck’ to his fans. The brother of William F. Buckley selected South Carolina Governor William Westmoreland as his running mate as a symbol of the revived American power he planned to bring.

There were other candidates on the ballot too—independent Tom McCall and Libertarian Eugene Burns each got around 3% of the vote for instance—but it was a Buckley vs. Gravel race. And it was clear from the get-go it would be a narrow one. Gravel had a number of advantages—incumbency and sympathy being at the top of the list, just ahead of wariness about Buckley leading America into another quagmire war on Westmoreland’s advice. But Buckley had some too. Many looked at the liberalism of McGovern and Gravel and had begun to balk. Things seemed like they might be moving a bit too fast. And their plans weren’t working—look at Iran! Look here at home! The competing advantages and disadvantages made the election widely seen as too close to call going in. And few could have seen the outcome. A few thousand votes in the state of New York—that was what it had come down to. And there would be many, many lawsuits and recounts to verify the results. But in the end, the initial call held. Despite a popular vote loss, it was James Buckley would be inaugurated as president on January 20, 1981. All Gravel could do was take solace in his popular vote win and keep his eyes on how things proceeded while devouring as many Grover Cleveland biographies as he could find…
Gravel vs Buckley.png
 
Twitter inspired me.
Cruz the Ghost Hunter.png
Ted Cruz is a Canadian-American paranormal investigator best known for hosting Ghost Investigations from 2009 to 2014 and for the CruzinForGhosts YouTube channel since 2016. Cruz was born in Calgary, but brough to the United States shortly after. Cruz attributes his interest in supernatural phenomenon to the death of his father, Rafael Cruz, in 1981 after a car accident. After his father’s death, Cruz became fascinated by the idea of contacting his spirit and according to his own accounts attempted to conduct seances to speak to his late father over a dozen times from 1981 to 1984. Cruz claims that he was able to say goodbye to his father during the final séance, but subsequently became more interested in more modern methods of looking into ghosts and other spirits. Cruz became active as a paranormal investigator in 1994, appearing in various documentaries about hunting for ghosts. Some of Cruz’s footage from the 1990’s has become popularly cited evidence for the existence of ghosts—for instance, Cruz’s Bragg Road footage from 1998 remains unexplained and even doubters have conceded it would be difficult (though not impossible) to fake.

Cruz’s stature as a paranormal investigator grew from 2009 onwards when he began hosting Ghost Investigations on the History Channel. Cruz ultimately quit the show when he got into a feud with Senator Chuck Grassley that ended with Cruz posting an expletive-laden thread attacking Grassley for being a ‘fucking Nazi.’ Cruz subsequently would launch CruzinForGhosts in 2016, which is one of the most popular paranormal investigation YouTube channels. Cruz has earned renewed popularity in recent years owing to his three collaborations with the crew of Buzzfeed Unsolved and for his Twitter account, which is generally found humorous. Cruz still has faced controversy, however—most notably for his 2020 violation of guidelines intended to prevent covid-19 when he held a 60-person birthday party at his home in Houston. Cruz apologized for doing so, but it is still held against him.
 
His Father’s Son

Going into the 2016 Republican primary cycle, Senator Rand Paul had good reason to be optimistic. After all, he had high name recognition, an established following from his father’s campaigns and some credibility with GOP leaders such as Mitch McConnell that his father did not share. There was a lot of reason to hope he might succeed in the Republican primary, but those hopes on the part of the Paul campaign were dashed following the entrance of Donald Trump into the race. Faced with ascending populist energy going towards Trump, Paul elected to lean into and embrace the more hardcore libertarian positions in a bid to shore up support. He began to speak more radically on topics he’d been hesitant to touch—welfare reform, drug legalization, the Federal Reserve, mass surveillance, wars. He angered many GOP leaders when he announced he would support President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, becoming the sole Republican to cross party lines to do so. And to an extent Paul’s efforts did pay off. He managed to pull an upset third place finish in Iowa that breathed life into his campaign and may have been the knife that brought down the Cruz campaign.

But ultimately only so many Republicans wanted Paul’s libertarian future. The main feud that existed was between Trump and Rubio, with Paul as a wildcard third candidate. Paul had no hope of winning outright and to an extent the Kentucky Senator grasped this. That was why in April 2016, Paul ultimately suspended his bid for the presidency. Paul additionally announced his defection from the Republican Party and that he was joining the Libertarian Party, becoming its first member of Congress (though the defection of likeminded Representative Justin Amash to the Libertarians a year later prevented him from being the last). Paul would be selected as the running mate of Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson in a bid to help the party crack 5% of the national popular vote while evading sore loser laws. This maneuver proved successful in achieving its aims as the Libertarians managed to crack 6% of the popular vote nationwide (outperforming the independent Trump/Flynn ticket which struggled to gain ballot access in many states). Paul was not, however, able to return to the US Senate, instead managing to only crack 19% of the vote in his bid to hold the seat he had won as a Republican in 2010. He was replaced by his 2010 rival Trey Grayson.

Paul ultimately would challenge President Rubio and Senator Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 presidential election as a Libertarian. This effort saw Paul manage to gain access to the presidential debates. However, after a poor performance, Paul barely cracked 5% of the popular vote, just barely scrapping enough votes to keep the federal matching funds. The Paul coalition looked different from the Johnson one—it leaned more conservative and is credited with helping Warren win flip North Carolina, Florida, Nevada and Arizona from the Rubio camp as it ecked out a victory over the controversial incumbent. What future Paul holds as a political figure is unclear—rumors about a 2023 challenge to Governor Beshear or an attempt to return to the Senate in 2022 continue to circulate. Many Libertarians have criticized Paul’s more conservative stances on immigration and abortion as antithetical to the party’s principles and hold that Paul has failed to build a coalition that will allow them to crack the duopoly. Whether these critics win out or not remains to be seen.
Rand Paul if he had principles.png
 
Beto O’Rourke is an American politician currently serving as the United States Senator from Texas. O’Rourke comes from a politically prominent family in El Paso and previously served as a representative from Texas’ 16th District. O’Rourke’s victory in the 2018 United States Senate election in Texas was seen as a major upset, with O’Rourke triumphing over former presidential candidate and incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz by around 4,000 votes. O’Rourke’s victory in Texas helped highlight the growing strength of the Democratic Party in the South during the Trump administration, which was further reflected by the 2019 victories of John Bel Edwards, Mike Espy and Andy Beshear in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky elections for governor.
O’Rourke was seen as a potential presidential candidate even before his victory over Cruz and after triumphing continued to be considered a formidable candidate. O’Rourke’s entrance into the 2020 presidential primaries was controversial among Texans, as nearly 56% of them held it was a bit too abrupt to enter the race. This did not stop O’Rourke from developing a strong base of support in the Democratic primaries, largely by appealing to voters eager for a fresh face who could broaden the Democratic coalition. It is likely due to this that O’Rourke was able to narrowly triumph in the closely contested Iowa caucuses and clinch second in Nevada. O’Rourke’s upset victory in South Carolina is widely considered to have sounded a death knell for the campaign of Joe Biden, though the former Vice President would remain in the race through Super Tuesday.
[11:48 PM]
However, O’Rourke’s popularity was far from universal. Even when Biden finally dropped out after Super Tuesday, he had to compete for votes with his colleague Amy Klobuchar and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders emerged from Super Tuesday with a strong lead in the delegate count. Despite a push from more moderate Democrats, fearful Sanders may have been too extreme to win, O’Rourke, Klobuchar and Buttigieg all remained in the race, splitting the more moderate vote. Meanwhile, after several poor showings, Senator Elizabeth Warren dropped out in mid-March, endorsing Sanders as she departed the race and all but guaranteeing a Sanders victory. Even the exit of Buttigieg and Klobuchar shortly after in a bid to rally around O’Rourke floundered and Sanders secured enough delegates to become the nominee by April.
O’Rourke, contrary to the hopes of the more aggressively centrist figures in American politics and the fears of Sanders supporters, was largely gracious in defeat, giving a keynote address at the DNC firmly supporting Sanders. He spent the remainder of the campaign as a strong advocate of get-out-the-vote measures and encouraged Sanders not to presume anywhere was unwinnable. Polling indicated Sanders had a small, but consistent lead nationally but with unclear electoral conditions. On Election Day, those muddy waters cleared up. While Trump held on to some historically key swing states like Ohio, Iowa, Florida and Wisconsin, Sanders was able to flip several electoral votes to his side, including winning all of Maine’s electoral votes, winning back Michigan and Pennsylvania and managing to win Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. Texas also proved to be shockingly close—something many attributed to O’Rourke’s efforts in the state. While Sanders lost the state, Trump’s 2% margin of victory was extraordinarily narrow.
[11:48 PM]
This, of course, made O’Rourke a major source of outrage to the outgoing president. Trump mentioned ‘Beto the Bastard’ at least two dozen times on Twitter as he accused him of helping rig the election in favor of Sanders. It is likely due to O’Rourke’s support for the nominee that he was named by members of a Texan militia who participated in the January 6th Capitol insurrection as a target to be executed for treason. O’Rourke was among the 13 Senators who had not managed to evacuate the chamber when it was breached by the mob and he was injured in the ensuing scuffle alongside Senators John Thune and Tim Kaine. Thune, Kaine and O’Rourke at least had the fortune of surviving the insurrection, unlike Senator Mitt Romney who was killed outside the Senate chamber by the attackers. After the certification of Sanders’ win, O’Rourke was a strident advocate of the second impeachment of Donald Trump, which made it through the Senate with 70 votes.
O’Rourke was speculated to be a potential Sanders cabinet pick by many, but the Senator himself dismissed said rumors by pointing out that it would sacrifice a key Senate seat Sanders could not afford to give up. With a 52-48 Senate that had many centrist Democrats, Sanders’ policies have often been watered down compared to his platform. But several key Democratic priorities have passed thanks to efforts to curb the filibuster, reducing its ability to obstruct legislation. Voting rights reform, cannabis decriminalization, Medicare expansion and strengthened climate action have all made it through Congress with O’Rourke’s support. While O’Rourke is more moderate than the President, he has remained a key ally. It has been speculated that O’Rourke may yet run for the White House again—perhaps in 2024 if rumors of Sanders standing down after one term prove true, but 2028 remains a possibility for the ambitious Texan Senator—assuming he can stave off a challenge from the vengeful Cruz or Patriot Party leader Allen West.
Senator Beto.png
 
Over the Edge (To the Edge and Maybe Over's Alternate Ending)
The triumph of Ron Paul was an unlikely outcome in the grand scheme of things. Paul was a man who went against the grain of the Republican establishment in crucial ways. His fundamentalist free market ideology clashed with many Wall Street types, especially regarding monetary policy. His reluctance to use the national government to force social conservatism was not in line with the aims of the Christian right. His isolationism was anathema to the national security-oriented right-wing. And yet, Paul was able to smooth over or offset those differences in 2008. Business interests were prepared to forgive his anti corporate welfare stances if it meant axing Lieberman’s green initiatives. Social conservatives warmed to Paul for his kindred beliefs even if he wasn’t as aggressive in pushing them as they hoped. The neoconservatives meanwhile had been largely discredited in the eyes of Republicans by virtue of their alliance with the Lieberman administration. Coming off a widely unpopular 8-year Democratic administration helmed by Joe Lieberman, Paul had the fortune of facing off against John Edwards, a man whose personal baggage proved too much to be offset by Paul’s extremism. Paul came to office promising ‘a rebirth of American freedom’ and many of his followers celebrated this.
The leadup to 2008-the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, the economic recession and the climate of censorship surrounding things like violence in video games–all served to aid Paul, but also served to obfuscate the ugliness of what was coming. Paul’s previous ill-fated campaign in 2004 saw many rally to his banner who espoused extremist sentiments. Paul received a number of donations from members of the white nationalist website Stormfront, including $140 from its founder Don Black. The infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who had claimed that Lieberman was involved in planning the 9/11 attacks, was a prominent Paul booster who hosted Paul on several occasions. Even with the 2008 campaign being taken more seriously, a number of Paul’s supporters were assorted bigots and cranks. More concerning, though, was how close many of them were to the eventual president-elect. Lew Rockwell, whose website exploded in popularity as Paul ascended to the nomination, was Paul’s former chief of staff. This did not stop him and his website from hosting articles questioning the effectiveness of vaccinations, the official accounts of 9/11, the JFK assassination and the Holocaust and the very idea of racial equality. Tom Woods, an author who wrote Paul’s favorite book on the 2008 economic crisis, was a founding member of the League of the South and had written in defense of the Confederacy. The same was true of many Mises Institute scholars Paul had indicated he wanted to tap for positions in his White House such as Thomas DiLorenzo. Members of Paul’s national security team included controversial ex-CIA operative Michael Scheur and Philip Giraldi, whom had implied that Lieberman’s Judaism meant he could not be an impartial arbiter of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
All of these had been brought up by the Edwards campaign and even some of Paul’s GOP rivals like Jeb Bush on the campaign trail, but he had overcome them then. However, after the victory of Paul, many of these figures would once again come under heightened scrutiny. Paul was not so foolish as to select such controversial figures for Senate-confirmed positions in his administration. However, many would become core staffers around Paul. Paul’s campaign chair Jesse Benton, who had more established ties to the Republican Party, was able to secure a position as Chief of Staff, but other roles were taken by more extreme figures. Scheur was given the role of National Security Advisor, with Giraldi as a deputy. DiLorenzo took the helm of the National Economic Council and several other Mises-affiliated scholars gained positions there, as did Peter Schiff, the son of serial tax evader Irwin Schiff. Bruce Fein as the White House Counsel in comparison barely was even noticed by observers until six months into Paul’s term, where his denial of the Armenian Genocide became more widely known. Staffing roles throughout the White House would largely be filled by others who came from the ‘paleo’ world of right-wing ideologues with reactionary social viewpoints and extremist right-wing economic ones. Several–most notably Richard Spencer–were outed as open white nationalists and were dismissed following public backlash.
Even aside from the general political extremism in Paul’s staff, the cabinet was also a mess. Commerce Secretary Mark Sanford was caught having an affair and using taxpayer dollars for travel to perpetuate it, leading to his resignation in early 2010. David Stockman, who Paul had hoped to have head the Office of Management and Budget nearly 2 decades after previously departing the job, was indicted for an attempt to defraud investors just before confirmation hearings could get started, dealing a fatal blow to his nomination. John Allison, Paul’s Treasury Secretary and former head of the Cato Institute, was accused of burying reports Treasury officials wrote that contradicted the Austrian school theorists heading Paul’s economic agenda. Secretary of Defense Dana Rohrbacher was accused of being on the payroll of Russia by many, though this was never confirmed. The biggest blow would come I. 2010, just in time for midterms, when Benton was accused of bribing Iowa state legislators to endorse Paul in the 2008 primaries.
2010 was already shaping to be a catastrophe for Republicans. Paul’s coattails were anemic compared to usual, with a narrow 16-seat House majority and a comparatively weak 53-seat Senate. The recession actively worsened as Paul refused stimulus proposals despite outright begging by the likes of Mitch McConnell to do something. By November 2010, dozens of banks had filed for bankruptcy, unemployment had hit 15% and consumer confidence had hit record lows. The Paul administration had pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan almost instantly and had begun trying to shed global alliances like NATO. The fall of Iraq to Islamists and the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan triggered a refugee crisis and Paul’s reluctance to accept refugees dented his standing globally. Paul’s anti immigrant sentiments and push to overturn Roe v Wade via legislation alienated progressives and antiwar liberals who had supported him in 2008 out of disgust at Lieberman. Paul’s Senate majority eroded when Norm Coleman announced his defection to the Democrats after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.

When the 2010 elections rolled around, the size of the blue tsunami that ensued was staggering. Over 50 House seats flipped Dem. In the Senate, Dems made massive gains. New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa were just the tip of the iceberg. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, Alaska, Kansas and Utah all also flipped. A key part of this was strong local candidates-Greg Orman in Kansas and Mitch Landrieu in Louisiana had played key roles in flipping the seats. But some were genuine shocks. Had it not been for vote splitting between centrist Jon Huntsman and hardcore Paulite Mike Lee, Rocky Anderson likely would never have pulled off a victory The Dem wave was big enough Paul became a lame duck almost immediately. Dr. No had to watch his key legislative initiatives flounder, his cabinet and judicial nominations collapse (Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy spent hearings for Andrew Napolitano castigating his extremist beliefs on prime time TV). In 2012, many Democrats saw a strong chance to dethrone Paul. Hillary Clinton, Mayor of New York City and former First Lady, was the clear initial frontrunner. Her more moderate tendencies were pitched as enabling her to pull away Paul-skeptic Wall Street types and foreign policy hawks away from the GOP. The notion of electing a female president was also a part of her appeal. However, she was far from unchallenged. Illinois Senator Barack Obama made a strong play for the nomination, seeming to come out of nowhere to draw a massive fanbase as the first primary debates began. However, Obama’s exact prowess as a candidate was never realized as Obama would be assassinated on the campaign trail in August 2011. The assassin was Chris Cantwell, a far-right Paul supporter and a believer in a number of conspiracy theories that Paul was accused of promoting or at least enabling. This was a major blow to Paul’s reputation and additionally kept the Democratic primary competitive. Clinton’s numbers faded as many Democrats began to try to find someone who could capture the passion and energy of Obama. Would it be Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer? Utah’s Senator Rocky Anderson?
Ultimately, the Democrats would find their new champion in Russ Feingold, Senator from Wisconsin. Much was made of Feingold’s Jewish heritage, inevitably leading to comparisons between the Democrats’ new nominee and President Lieberman. While both were Jewish Democrats, Feingold’s victory ultimately served as a repudiation of many of the Lieberman era’s most unpopular positions. While Lieberman had been a devotee of absolute bipartisanship across all areas, Feingold advocated a bold and progressive agenda with or without Republicans. Feingold had opposed the wars Lieberman embarked on in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran (though he also opposed the hasty exit Paul had embarked on). The Lieberman White House had worked with conservative Republicans to pass laws regulating violent video games and implement extreme counterterrorism measures, which Paul had campaigned against. Feingold, unlike Edwards or Clinton, did not defend these excesses. He did, however, stand with Lieberman on some issues. Lieberman’s Gore-inspired climate initiatives had been axed by Paul. Feingold vowed to bring them back. Feingold additionally promised to raise taxes on the wealthy and use the revenue to implement new programs such as universal healthcare. Feingold’s progressivism was off-putting to some, but his choice of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as his running mate served as an olive branch to moderate Democrats, as well as an overture to Clinton supporters (Clinton herself reportedly declined an offer of the VP nomination but suggested Napolitano for the role).
The march to Election Day was a brutal slog. The nomination of Feingold incited some of the ugliest parts of Paul’s base. Far-right conspiracy theories favorable to Paul proliferated in these first two years in office. Claims that the New World Order, usually said to be headed by George Soros and Bill Gates, had sought to keep the economy bad to justify a coup against him. School shootings were often also accused of being part of this cabal’s schemes, with the term ‘deep state’ worming its way into far right parlance. Meanwhile, other conspiracy theories claimed Paul was going to prove that Big Pharma was lying about vaccine safety. Paul did reject vaccine mandates or other public health measure during the swine flu outbreak, which had a detrimental impact on public health .While Paul himself avoided overt anti-Semitism and cited Jewish economists like Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises as key influences, his anti-Federal Reserve standpoints reeked of classical anti-Semitic tropes about Jews controlling the banking system. His comments against ‘the swan song of globalism’ at various times, including while in the White House, also carried the whiffs of anti-Semitism. These anti-Semites supporting Paul went from bad to worse with the nomination of a Jewish candidate by the Democratic Party. Supporters of Feingold on social media were frequently targeted with harassment that included slurs and Nazi imagery by hardcore Paul supporters who originated largely from the website 4chan. 4chan was also the birthplace of the White Rabbit Movement, a group of conspiracy theorists who believed Paul was carrying out an effort to liberate America from the yoke of ‘globalist-communist tyranny’ in secret. The conspiracy held that mainstream Republicans and Democrats secretly harvested the blood of children to acquire eternal youth. Often, White Rabbit Movement adherents (so called because they claimed to spot ‘white rabbits’ in speeches and actions taken by Paul) would publicly demonstrate outside of Feingold events or events deemed to be anti-Paul which included things like pride parades, events intended to honor civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King (often denounced as a communist by Paul supporters) and Democratic Party events. A few saw violent altercations ensue during these.
Paul himself did not directly incite his supporters to violence, but he did not take much care to dissuade them. He framed the election as existential and warned Feingold would ‘shred the last vestiges of constitutional government in short order.’ Several Paul supporters were caught trying to assassinate Feingold or Napolitano and Paul’s attempts to defund the Secret Service were spun by many Democrats as an attempt to enable these efforts to succeed (though in reality Paul had denied Secret Service protection himself prior to winning the presidency and claimed it was an unconstitutional form of welfare for them to defend presidential candidates). All the controversies were only furthered by the still-mediocre economy, grisly news out of Afghanistan and Iraq daily and the emergence of another swine flu strain. By the time October hit, Paul had an approval rating of 33% and some polls indicated that former Secretary of State John McCain might win some states in his independent bid for the presidency. In the end, that didn’t happen outside of Utah, which McCain won with 40% of the vote. He did, however, enable Feingold to flip numerous states including such former Republican strongholds as Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Montana and Alaska. Feingold’s victory brought with it strong coattails–Democrats would go to Washington with a whopping 61 seats in the Senate and 290 in the House.
The aftermath of the election saw some Paul supporters openly riot–vote-counting centers in Florida were stormed by members of the White Rabbit Movement and an entire neo-Nazi militia was caught just days before Congress certified the results with a vast arsenal of weapons. Still, Paul himself formally conceded two days after the election and left office with little incident. During the transition period, there were plenty of meetings held between President-Elect Feingold, Speaker of the House Jim Clyburn and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss what exactly majorities this wide might mean in terms of actual legislation. Reports that have trickled out indicate a government healthcare system, minimum wage increases, employment protections for LGBT individuals and a $1 trillion infrastructure bill with an emphasis on combating climate change are all on the table.
President Feingold.png
 
Last edited:
That was a rollercoaster of a post. On one hand, the American economy is fucked until at least 2019 2015, Obama is dead, neo-Nazis and loonies are emboldened, and the world too is in deep shit.

On the other hand, Speaker Clyburn is good, Senator Rocky Anderson is based, and President Feingold is B A S E D.
 
Last edited:
That was a rollercoaster of a post. On one hand, the American economy is fucked until at least 2019, Obama is dead, neo-Nazis and loonies are emboldened, and the world too is in deep shit.

On the other hand, Speaker Clyburn is good, Senator Rocky Anderson is based, and President Feingold is B A S E D.
The economy might not be THAT fucked tbh. Paul did fuck things up through aggressive do nothingness but a lot of his more batshit proposals never became law so some aggressive spending by Feingold and friends coupled with natural trends can probably get things moving again by the mid-2010’s.
 
The economy might not be THAT fucked tbh. Paul did fuck things up through aggressive do nothingness but a lot of his more batshit proposals never became law so some aggressive spending by Feingold and friends coupled with natural trends can probably get things moving again by the mid-2010’s.
Fair point; forgot to account for the difference in strength between Obama's IRL response and Feingold's ITTL response.
 
Over the Edge (To the Edge and Maybe Over's Alternate Ending)
The triumph of Ron Paul was an unlikely outcome in the grand scheme of things. Paul was a man who went against the grain of the Republican establishment in crucial ways. His fundamentalist free market ideology clashed with many Wall Street types, especially regarding monetary policy. His reluctance to use the national government to force social conservatism was not in line with the aims of the Christian right. His isolationism was anathema to the national security-oriented right-wing. And yet, Paul was able to smooth over or offset those differences in 2008. Business interests were prepared to forgive his anti corporate welfare stances if it meant axing Lieberman’s green initiatives. Social conservatives warmed to Paul for his kindred beliefs even if he wasn’t as aggressive in pushing them as they hoped. The neoconservatives meanwhile had been largely discredited in the eyes of Republicans by virtue of their alliance with the Lieberman administration. Coming off a widely unpopular 8-year Democratic administration helmed by Joe Lieberman, Paul had the fortune of facing off against John Edwards, a man whose personal baggage proved too much to be offset by Paul’s extremism. Paul came to office promising ‘a rebirth of American freedom’ and many of his followers celebrated this.
The leadup to 2008-the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, the economic recession and the climate of censorship surrounding things like violence in video games–all served to aid Paul, but also served to obfuscate the ugliness of what was coming. Paul’s previous ill-fated campaign in 2004 saw many rally to his banner who espoused extremist sentiments. Paul received a number of donations from members of the white nationalist website Stormfront, including $140 from its founder Don Black. The infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who had claimed that Lieberman was involved in planning the 9/11 attacks, was a prominent Paul booster who hosted Paul on several occasions. Even with the 2008 campaign being taken more seriously, a number of Paul’s supporters were assorted bigots and cranks. More concerning, though, was how close many of them were to the eventual president-elect. Lew Rockwell, whose website exploded in popularity as Paul ascended to the nomination, was Paul’s former chief of staff. This did not stop him and his website from hosting articles questioning the effectiveness of vaccinations, the official accounts of 9/11, the JFK assassination and the Holocaust and the very idea of racial equality. Tom Woods, an author who wrote Paul’s favorite book on the 2008 economic crisis, was a founding member of the League of the South and had written in defense of the Confederacy. The same was true of many Mises Institute scholars Paul had indicated he wanted to tap for positions in his White House such as Thomas DiLorenzo. Members of Paul’s national security team included controversial ex-CIA operative Michael Scheur and Philip Giraldi, whom had implied that Lieberman’s Judaism meant he could not be an impartial arbiter of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
All of these had been brought up by the Edwards campaign and even some of Paul’s GOP rivals like Jeb Bush on the campaign trail, but he had overcome them then. However, after the victory of Paul, many of these figures would once again come under heightened scrutiny. Paul was not so foolish as to select such controversial figures for Senate-confirmed positions in his administration. However, many would become core staffers around Paul. Paul’s campaign chair Jesse Benton, who had more established ties to the Republican Party, was able to secure a position as Chief of Staff, but other roles were taken by more extreme figures. Scheur was given the role of National Security Advisor, with Giraldi as a deputy. DiLorenzo took the helm of the National Economic Council and several other Mises-affiliated scholars gained positions there, as did Peter Schiff, the son of serial tax evader Irwin Schiff. Bruce Fein as the White House Counsel in comparison barely was even noticed by observers until six months into Paul’s term, where his denial of the Armenian Genocide became more widely known. Staffing roles throughout the White House would largely be filled by others who came from the ‘paleo’ world of right-wing ideologues with reactionary social viewpoints and extremist right-wing economic ones. Several–most notably Richard Spencer–were outed as open white nationalists and were dismissed following public backlash.
Even aside from the general political extremism in Paul’s staff, the cabinet was also a mess. Commerce Secretary Mark Sanford was caught having an affair and using taxpayer dollars for travel to perpetuate it, leading to his resignation in early 2010. David Stockman, who Paul had hoped to have head the Office of Management and Budget nearly 2 decades after previously departing the job, was indicted for an attempt to defraud investors just before confirmation hearings could get started, dealing a fatal blow to his nomination. John Allison, Paul’s Treasury Secretary and former head of the Cato Institute, was accused of burying reports Treasury officials wrote that contradicted the Austrian school theorists heading Paul’s economic agenda. Secretary of Defense Dana Rohrbacher was accused of being on the payroll of Russia by many, though this was never confirmed. The biggest blow would come I. 2010, just in time for midterms, when Benton was accused of bribing Iowa state legislators to endorse Paul in the 2008 primaries.
2010 was already shaping to be a catastrophe for Republicans. Paul’s coattails were anemic compared to usual, with a narrow 16-seat House majority and a comparatively weak 53-seat Senate. The recession actively worsened as Paul refused stimulus proposals despite outright begging by the likes of Mitch McConnell to do something. By November 2010, dozens of banks had filed for bankruptcy, unemployment had hit 15% and consumer confidence had hit record lows. The Paul administration had pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan almost instantly and had begun trying to shed global alliances like NATO. The fall of Iraq to Islamists and the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan triggered a refugee crisis and Paul’s reluctance to accept refugees dented his standing globally. Paul’s anti immigrant sentiments and push to overturn Roe v Wade via legislation alienated progressives and antiwar liberals who had supported him in 2008 out of disgust at Lieberman. Paul’s Senate majority eroded when Norm Coleman announced his defection to the Democrats after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban.

When the 2010 elections rolled around, the size of the blue tsunami that ensued was staggering. Over 50 House seats flipped Dem. In the Senate, Dems made massive gains. New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Iowa were just the tip of the iceberg. North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, Alaska, Kansas and Utah all also flipped. A key part of this was strong local candidates-Greg Orman in Kansas and Mitch Landrieu in Louisiana had played key roles in flipping the seats. But some were genuine shocks. Had it not been for vote splitting between centrist Jon Huntsman and hardcore Paulite Mike Lee, Rocky Anderson likely would never have pulled off a victory The Dem wave was big enough Paul became a lame duck almost immediately. Dr. No had to watch his key legislative initiatives flounder, his cabinet and judicial nominations collapse (Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy spent hearings for Andrew Napolitano castigating his extremist beliefs on prime time TV). In 2012, many Democrats saw a strong chance to dethrone Paul. Hillary Clinton, Mayor of New York City and former First Lady, was the clear initial frontrunner. Her more moderate tendencies were pitched as enabling her to pull away Paul-skeptic Wall Street types and foreign policy hawks away from the GOP. The notion of electing a female president was also a part of her appeal. However, she was far from unchallenged. Illinois Senator Barack Obama made a strong play for the nomination, seeming to come out of nowhere to draw a massive fanbase as the first primary debates began. However, Obama’s exact prowess as a candidate was never realized as Obama would be assassinated on the campaign trail in August 2011. The assassin was Chris Cantwell, a far-right Paul supporter and a believer in a number of conspiracy theories that Paul was accused of promoting or at least enabling. This was a major blow to Paul’s reputation and additionally kept the Democratic primary competitive. Clinton’s numbers faded as many Democrats began to try to find someone who could capture the passion and energy of Obama. Would it be Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer? Utah’s Senator Rocky Anderson?
Ultimately, the Democrats would find their new champion in Russ Feingold, Senator from Wisconsin. Much was made of Feingold’s Jewish heritage, inevitably leading to comparisons between the Democrats’ new nominee and President Lieberman. While both were Jewish Democrats, Feingold’s victory ultimately served as a repudiation of many of the Lieberman era’s most unpopular positions. While Lieberman had been a devotee of absolute bipartisanship across all areas, Feingold advocated a bold and progressive agenda with or without Republicans. Feingold had opposed the wars Lieberman embarked on in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran (though he also opposed the hasty exit Paul had embarked on). The Lieberman White House had worked with conservative Republicans to pass laws regulating violent video games and implement extreme counterterrorism measures, which Paul had campaigned against. Feingold, unlike Edwards or Clinton, did not defend these excesses. He did, however, stand with Lieberman on some issues. Lieberman’s Gore-inspired climate initiatives had been axed by Paul. Feingold vowed to bring them back. Feingold additionally promised to raise taxes on the wealthy and use the revenue to implement new programs such as universal healthcare. Feingold’s progressivism was off-putting to some, but his choice of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as his running mate served as an olive branch to moderate Democrats, as well as an overture to Clinton supporters (Clinton herself reportedly declined an offer of the VP nomination but suggested Napolitano for the role).
The march to Election Day was a brutal slog. The nomination of Feingold incited some of the ugliest parts of Paul’s base. Far-right conspiracy theories favorable to Paul proliferated in these first two years in office. Claims that the New World Order, usually said to be headed by George Soros and Bill Gates, had sought to keep the economy bad to justify a coup against him. School shootings were often also accused of being part of this cabal’s schemes, with the term ‘deep state’ worming its way into far right parlance. Meanwhile, other conspiracy theories claimed Paul was going to prove that Big Pharma was lying about vaccine safety. Paul did reject vaccine mandates or other public health measure during the swine flu outbreak, which had a detrimental impact on public health .While Paul himself avoided overt anti-Semitism and cited Jewish economists like Murray Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises as key influences, his anti-Federal Reserve standpoints reeked of classical anti-Semitic tropes about Jews controlling the banking system. His comments against ‘the swan song of globalism’ at various times, including while in the White House, also carried the whiffs of anti-Semitism. These anti-Semites supporting Paul went from bad to worse with the nomination of a Jewish candidate by the Democratic Party. Supporters of Feingold on social media were frequently targeted with harassment that included slurs and Nazi imagery by hardcore Paul supporters who originated largely from the website 4chan. 4chan was also the birthplace of the White Rabbit Movement, a group of conspiracy theorists who believed Paul was carrying out an effort to liberate America from the yoke of ‘globalist-communist tyranny’ in secret. The conspiracy held that mainstream Republicans and Democrats secretly harvested the blood of children to acquire eternal youth. Often, White Rabbit Movement adherents (so called because they claimed to spot ‘white rabbits’ in speeches and actions taken by Paul) would publicly demonstrate outside of Feingold events or events deemed to be anti-Paul which included things like pride parades, events intended to honor civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King (often denounced as a communist by Paul supporters) and Democratic Party events. A few saw violent altercations ensue during these.
Paul himself did not directly incite his supporters to violence, but he did not take much care to dissuade them. He framed the election as existential and warned Feingold would ‘shred the last vestiges of constitutional government in short order.’ Several Paul supporters were caught trying to assassinate Feingold or Napolitano and Paul’s attempts to defund the Secret Service were spun by many Democrats as an attempt to enable these efforts to succeed (though in reality Paul had denied Secret Service protection himself prior to winning the presidency and claimed it was an unconstitutional form of welfare for them to defend presidential candidates). All the controversies were only furthered by the still-mediocre economy, grisly news out of Afghanistan and Iraq daily and the emergence of another swine flu strain. By the time October hit, Paul had an approval rating of 33% and some polls indicated that former Secretary of State John McCain might win some states in his independent bid for the presidency. In the end, that didn’t happen outside of Utah, which McCain won with 40% of the vote. He did, however, enable Feingold to flip numerous states including such former Republican strongholds as Arizona, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, Montana and Alaska. Feingold’s victory brought with it strong coattails–Democrats would go to Washington with a whopping 61 seats in the Senate and 290 in the House.
The aftermath of the election saw some Paul supporters openly riot–vote-counting centers in Florida were stormed by members of the White Rabbit Movement and an entire neo-Nazi militia was caught just days before Congress certified the results with a vast arsenal of weapons. Still, Paul himself formally conceded two days after the election and left office with little incident. During the transition period, there were plenty of meetings held between President-Elect Feingold, Speaker of the House Jim Clyburn and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss what exactly majorities this wide might mean in terms of actual legislation. Reports that have trickled out indicate a government healthcare system, minimum wage increases, employment protections for LGBT individuals and a $1 trillion infrastructure bill with an emphasis on combating climate change are all on the table.
View attachment 56539
What does the Senate map look like in 2013?
 
One Nation, Under God
The 2023 Prophet of the United States election was held on November 18th, 2023 in accordance with the Thirty-First Amendment process. The election was held in the aftermath of the death of Nehemiah Scudder, the 45th President of the United States and, following the ratification of the Twenty-Ninth Amendment, the First Prophet of the United States. The death of Scudder was marked by a two-week long period of nationally mandated mourning and brutal crackdowns on celebrants. Scudder had, after taking office, used a mix of processes that included public intimidation, covert assassination and technically legal methods to pass the so-called ‘Divine Democracy Amendments’ to the US Constitution, which in practice transformed the country into a totalitarian theocracy. Scudder and his followers were able to declare Christianity the state religion, implement nationwide bans on abortion, pornography, non-Abrahamic faiths, atheism, Islam and homosexuality, carry out mass arrests of leading politicians opposed to these moves and significantly weaken women’s rights by making it far easier for men to control finances of households as well as creating ‘Family Values Voting’ which enabled family patriarchs to override the will of others in the household and determine the votes cast in (admittedly already largely sham) elections.
Scudder had built a strong cult of personality around himself, to the point where he was nearly equal to Jesus in official government propaganda. His death thus left a significant vacuum that many allies of Scudder were eager to fill. Many observers presumed Scudder’s successor would be Jerry Falwell, Jr. While not as high-ranking as other officials–being Secretary of Education–Falwell had an established pedigree within the Christian right and had made a name for himself as the main figure seeking to crack down on the various evils within American education ranging from the theory of evolution to critical race theory. However, Falwell’s own personal baggage made him more vulnerable than he appeared. When reports of him being a voluntary cuckold made the rounds within acceptable media outlets, it became clearer Falwell’s ascension was not guaranteed. This emboldened a number of others who had been considering attempting to take the title of Prophet for themselves. Robert Jeffress was one of the first to smell the blood in the water and jump into the fray. He was soon followed by Kenneth Copeland, Franklin Graham and many other leading religious figures. Despite the Prophet being largely meant to be a religious and spiritual leader, quite a few officials making up the regime of Divine Democracy would enter the fray, including Defense Secretary Michael Flynn, Commerce Secretary Mike Lindell and Attorney General Roy Moore.
The outbreak of the Covid-23 virus a month after Scudder’s death changed the dynamics of the contest to succeed Scudder dramatically. The pandemic split the field in a number of ways. Copeland spent his time endorsing faith healing as a tool to combat the disease, turning a number of his events into prayer rallies. Jeffress was more pragmatic, promising to invest resources into developing a vaccine or cure alongside making appeals to the almighty for aid. However, the Covid-23 virus also unleashed a wave of even more delusion than Copeland–delusion born of paranoia. Despite the prevalence of online censorship, theories that the virus was engineered as part of a ploy to bring about the End Times proliferated widely. These theories meant many resisted the (admittedly nonbinding) recommendations of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Ben Carson to wear a mask in crowded settings. Carson became a boogeyman to those who viewed the virus as a Satanic plot, not helped by the fact he was one of the few African-Americans prominent in the regime. Many claimed Carson was a secret practitioner of Satan-worship and working with a cabal of voodoo priests to install himself as the Prophet.
These theories paved the way for a dark horse victor in the contest to emerge as the Prophet. Pastor Greg Locke was not a figure with the name recognition of Falwell or Graham or the presence of Copeland or Jeffress. He did not have the experience taking on ‘deviants’ like Moore or Flynn did. However, what Locke did have was a willingness to promote the most deranged theories about the Covid-23 virus. He claimed that the country was under attack by demon-worshiping witches, who had triggered the plague to enable the ascension of the Antichrist to power. Locke strongly insinuated one of his rivals would be the Antichrist, though he never made such claims explicit. He vowed that if elected he would purge the country of its demons–defining demons as including any literature or media he thought were anti-Christian ranging from Harry Potter to On the Origin of Species, anyone still calling themselves LGBT, communists, the hollow shell that still persisted in calling itself the Democratic Party and anyone who objected to his plans too strenuously. This precipitated him gaining major support from the regime’s supporters. The curtailing of universal suffrage ultimately made Locke’s victory easier. A disproportionate amount of those who could vote were already primed to believe in the most ludicrous things he said and, for all his opponents pushed back, they were really the logical endpoint to what Scudder had declared all along. And thus, Locke ascended to the position of Second Prophet of the United States and the rest of the world watched breathlessly, waiting nervously to see if America’s new leadership could top its previous one.
33DA5F3B-8C6C-41A4-B3A2-9817F36E2564.png
 
J. Jonah Jameson
John Jonah Jameson, Jr. (March 18, 1913-September 3, 2001) was an American journalist, editor and politician best known for serving as the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle from 1956 to 1992. Jameson was born to John Jonah Jameson, Sr. and Mary Jameson in Brooklyn in 1913 and was an only child. The elder Jameson would disappear in 1915, leaving the younger Jameson to be raised by his mother, who eventually married his uncle David Jameson in 1917. David Jameson was a veteran of the Mollusc invasion of 1898 and the War in the Air, but abused his wife and stepson. In 1925, Mary Jameson was killed by a masked bandit, instilling Jameson with a deep distrust of figures hiding their identities. Jameson would be a Boy Scout growing up and attended Midtown High School, where he pursued interests in boxing and photography. It was in high school that Jameson would meet Joan Leland, his eventual first wife whom he married shortly after graduation. After graduating, Jameson would obtain a degree in journalism from Empire State University and began working as a journalist for the Daily Bugle in 1937.

During the Corpo regime of Buzz Windrip, Jameson contributed to publications passed around the New Underground against the government while maintaining a more government-friendly facade in his day job at the Bugle. After the fall of the Corpo regime, Jameson helped highlight the illegal actions and disinformation Windrip and his allies had stoked (such as denial of the Mollusc incursion in New Jersey in 1939) in a series of articles in the Daily Bugle that earned him a great deal of praise. In 1939, Jameson was among many who witnessed the clash between the Human Torch Jim Hammond and Namor the Sub-Mariner. Jameson’s photographs of the fight became the iconic symbol of a dawning age of superpowered figures. Jameson viewed these figures with a decent amount of skepticism, worrying that they would seek to assert themselves over humanity a la Hynkel’s Nazi Germany. Jameson did moderate his attitude towards superpowered figures after a series of interviews with Clark Savage, Jr. and, following the US entering the Second World War and the debut of Captain America, Jameson would shift towards becoming a war correspondent. Jameson was embedded with the Howling Commandos unit headed by Nick Fury for a time, but eventually was moved around the front. Jameson participated in coverage of the D-Day landings, capturing a number of iconic images of clashes between landing Allied forces and the Nazi-armed dinosaurs used to try to ward off the assault. Jameson also was one of the few photographers to capture images of the reptilian species known as the Race during their attempted invasion in 1942, before they were driven off by magical means.

Jameson returned from the war and had a son, John Jonah Jameson III, in 1946. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Jameson would continue to operate as a journalist. It was during this period his earlier wariness towards vigilantes and superhumans would only increase. After the death of Joan in a mugging in 1949, Jameson increasingly took a harsher tone towards ‘men in masks.’ Jameson offered sympathetic coverage of businessman Lex Luthor’s hostility to Superman, previously something that had alienated many people. Jameson also excoriated the leadership of Gotham City, a neighbor of Jameson’s own New York, for tolerating the actions of Batman. This was part of a broader shift for Jameson, as his articles increasingly echoed conservative reactionary sentiment. Jameson advocated for the swift and immediate arrest of all followers of Ras the Exhorter following the 1952 Harlem riots and additionally suggested Ras himself be executed. He also defended Johnny Iselin’s anti-communist crusades throughout the early 1950’s and it is believed his articles in the Bugle were a key motivator for the Kamperhaufe campaign to put Iselin on the ticket in 1952. Jameson called for a violent response to the arrival of Klaatu in 1952, arguing that ‘no other species has the right to dictate human affairs’ and advocating a ‘show of force’ against the Citadel. When the Kanamits arrived in 1954, Jameson was among the most vocal skeptics of their intentions and claimed vindication when their desire to farm humanity for food was revealed. This seeming prescience was probably what enabled Jameson to take on the position as editor-in-chief of the Bugle in 1956.

As editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle, Jameson simultaneously drew intense praise and criticism. Despite his anti-communist pivot in the 1950’s, under Jameson’s direction the Bugle took an increasingly sympathetic stance towards civil rights activists in the American South, thanks in part to the selection of Jean Louise Finch as the main correspondent covering civil rights issues. Jameson’s Bugle also broke the story that the Soviets were placing missiles in Cuba and Tropico, precipitating the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and it was under his watch that Jim Dial exposed the near-miss of the 1958 Doomsday crisis between the US and USSR, exposing the incompetence of the former Muffley administration. On the other hand, these developments were matched with a strong editorial bias against superheroes. When the homo novis/mutant population began to spike, Jameson’s Bugle was among the first to advocate for mandatory mutant registration. Jameson was most infamously opposed to the actions of Spider-Men, whom he dubbed the ‘Spider-Menace’ and claimed was a secret criminal. Ironically, Jameson’s main source of pictures of Spider-Man was Peter Parker, who was in fact Spider-Man himself. Jameson even helped sponsor Mac Gargaran to become the Scorpion, creating a supervillain in his own right. The Daily Bugle heavily focused on collateral damage caused by superheroes, running numerous pieces on the inadvertent harm caused by figures like Mr. Incredible, Rorscharch and even Superman. This helped prompt the government to pass the Super Relocation Act in 1967, placing some of the primary targets of Jameson into witness protection. The Daily Bugle also insinuated the attempted attack by Galactus in 1966 was a hoax, to the criticism of many other media personalities such as Huntley Haverstock and Phil Sheldon. He also was a vehement anti-alien individual, accusing Martian superhero J’onn J’onzz of being a sleeper agent for alien invaders and claiming that Pod People, Zygons and Skrulls were still present everywhere after their incursions were thwarted.

Jameson was a strong supporter of the war effort in Vietnam and Sarkhan, cheering the deployment of American superheroes such as Doctor Manhattan and Iron Man into the conflict. Jameson criticized Captain America when he went rogue in a bid to defend civilians in the region. Jameson ran op-eds by CEA Agent Blackford Oakes defending the morality of the conflict, including outright denial of incidents like the My Lai Massacre and Colonel Walter Kurtz going rogue and setting up a cult of personality. It is likely for this reason that Jameson was arrested by President Max Frost’s suede-denim secret police and imprisoned until a countercoup removed Frost from power. Jameson was generally favorable to Frost’s successor Richard Monckton, at least until the Watergate scandal was broken by Mark Forman. As worse details of the scandal came out, even the Bugle would come to call for Monckton’s resignation, which came in 1970. Jameson would go on to treat most presidents of the 1970’s with general disdain either for being too weak (Lyman, Dilman, Palatine, etc.) or corrupt (Fremont), though he did maintain a degree of respect for Prez Rickard’s idealism and Henry MacNeil’s steadfastness. The Bugle did maintain rigorous standards for much other journalism, including a well-praised series of articles by Jameson himself about what drove Howard Beale to kill himself live on TV.
Jameson’s son was among the astronauts originally slated to participate in the opening of Space Hotel USA in 1970, but did not reach the Hotel before the Knids’ attack on it. Jameson advocated for a ‘space force’ to wipe out the Knids in retaliation for the attack on the Space Hotel but these calls largely went ignored. He cited the Knids as proof of aliens’ dangerous nature, opposing the diplomacy the UN had with the Space Cats and advocating a violent response to the Devil’s Tower incident. He did continue to attack most superheroes and when Senator Robert Kelly first introduced the Keene Act in 1975, Jameson was among its most steadfast supporters. Momentum for this legislation stalled until the Black Prom Massacre of 1977, carried out by the mutant Carrie White, which allowed for this restriction of superheroes to go into effect. Jameson heralded this as a triumph until the Supreme Court invalidated it in 1979, which enraged Jameson. The Daily Bugle’s coverage is said to have greatly dipped in quality starting around this point, as it moved away from investigative reporting and more towards tabloid-like coverage of supposed misdeeds by superhumans, celebrities and politicians. Most infamously, the Daily Bugle spent more page time covering details Senator Joe Tynan’s affair with Karen Traynor than the ongoing Iranian Revolution and repeated the claim that Spider-Man was responsible for killing Gwen Stacy in any article so much as mentioning the superhero. Jameson did manage to get married, marrying Dr. Marla Madison in 1981.

In the 1980’s, Jameson became more and more vocal politically. While already quite conservative, Jameson had up until this point kept some degree of separation between the Bugle as a whole and his personal views. With the Cyclops administration’s repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, the Daily Bugle quickly became more and more of a mouthpiece for conservative positions. Many of his more respected journalists, including Finch, Dials, Lou Grant, Betty Brant and Nick Alexander, would leave the publication and Jameson replaced them with the likes of Oates, Peter Petrawicki, Birch Barlow, and Mary Marsh, all of whom would populate the conservative media ecosystem for years to come. The Daily Bugle advocated for hawkish foreign policy, including explicit support for building a doomsday device as a deterrent, endorsing assassinating Erik Lensherr to restore the pre-mutant regime in Genosha and heavily favoring privatization. He used the Gozer incident of 1983 to argue that government bureaucrats were unnecessarily constraining businesses and that this posed a threat to public wellbeing. When Raoul Duke responded to the Bugle’s arguments by citing the ScrumLabs disaster, Jameson’s Bugle doubled down and called Duke a ‘drug-addled hippie’ in the article, to widespread criticism. Jameson launched a bid for Mayor of New York City in 1983, though he ended up losing. Jameson was listed as a target for capture by Soviet forces during Operation Red Dawn, though owing to the failure to reach Manhattan they were never able to make a serious attempt to capture him. Jameson did begin to move away from this ideological rigidity after the Third World War, in part due to the aftermath of the Visitor invasion. This shook Jameson’s faith in free market capitalism and additionally made him realize he couldn’t gloat about being right about the Kanamits as he had trusted these invaders owing to their proclaimed ideology.

In the late 1980’s, Jameson began attempting to restore the Daily Bugle’s reputation. As many of the hard-right commentators he had hired had already moved on to other ventures, Jameson simply sought to hire less biased figures in his newsroom. Putting Frank Fontana, Kit Kittredge, April O’Neil and Herb Welch in his newsroom, in addition to bringing back Brant, helped begin the process of restoring the Daily Bugle’s reputation. Jameson steered coverage away from superheroes for a while, instead focusing on more standard events. Many were shocked when the Daily Bugle explicitly advocated for the US to accept Tectonese refugees, as it was such a far cry from the paper’s historical xenophobia. The Daily Bugle also closely covered the rising power of the Augment bloc amidst a Soviet-American detente, warning about Khan Noonien Singh’’s ambitions to secure global domination. The triumph of Augment-aligned forces in Japan precipitated the American-Japanese War of 1991. Jameson chose to personally accompany several Naval vessels in their confrontations with Japanese forces and the Daily Bugle broke the story about the so-called ‘Battle Royale’ launched by the nationalist regime after the Akademi High School massacre of 1989. It was this conflict that ultimately led to Jameson’s retirement as well, however. Besides a health scare as the war wound down, Jameson personally asked Brant to go to the Capitol to cover the confirmation of Jack Ryan as Vice President. Shortly after the confirmation, the Capitol was attacked by a Japanese die-hard, killing most present including Brant. Jameson, blaming himself, resigned from the Daily Bugle a month later.

Jameson remained on the sidelines throughout the Eugenics Wars, though his bid to pivot the Daily Bugle back to reputable journalism successfully restored much of its earlier reputation (ironically secured in part by his departure before he could pivot once again). Jameson for a time hosted a radio show discussing current events, such as the resignation of Jack Stanton Hammond, the Harvester invasion (which Jameson survived due to visiting Metropolis to see his old friend Jimmy Olsen for the 4th of July) and the Eugenics Wars. Jameson began to warm up to superheroes towards the end of his life, in particular once he discovered that Marla’s niece Mattie Franklin, whom the couple had adopted, was operating as Spider-Woman. In his final broadcasts, he denounced many of the same positions he had once advocated for, such as superhero regulation, mutant registration and even more general hawkish foreign policy positions. Jameson in his old age thus alienated many of his earlier supporters, but regained the affection of many whom had previously turned on him, including Parker who in a visit to Jameson in 1999 revealed he was in fact Spider-Man. Jameson took this to his grave. Jameson died in 2001 at the age of 88, shortly before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Jameson’s legacy is controversial owing to the constant changes the man himself underwent throughout his life. His wife Marla was a victim of the Clover incident of 2009. His son John Jameson died fighting the Yeerks in 2002. His adoptive daughter Mattie Franklin remains alive and active as Spider-Woman.

4C8AFD6D-3DED-423E-AE4D-EDE419E06110.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Vought-American
Vought American Consolidated, often simply referred to as Vought, is an American megacorporation involved in numerous industries, including pharmaceuticals, military contracting, entertainment and food service. Vought has its origins in the 1930’s, with Frederick Vought. Vought, a German scientist and businessman, had been fascinated by the research of Abraham Erskine into creating a super-soldier possessing abilities beyond that of a normal man. Vought and Erskine were for a time collaborators, but the rise of Adenoid Hynkel’s Nazi regime caused the two to break from each other as Erskine, who was of Jewish descent and a close friend to other Jewish scientists such as Jacob Barnhardt, rejected the new regime while Vought sough to gain support for his research from them. The Nazis were quick to embrace Vought, with Johann Schmidt in particular eagerly financing his research, which was originally carried out primarily on dissidents within Nazi Germany. Vought did use his prototype serum on his wife Klara Risinger, who became the first successful trial. This success was heralded in the Reich as a triumph for Aryan science, but Risinger’s gender precluded her from becoming the prototype for Vought’s Compound V. As a result, Vought would use the serum on Albrecht Krieger, creating the more propaganda-ready Captain Nazi.

As the Second World War began, Vought was called upon to create more samples of Compound-V to be put to use in the war effort. These calls picked up especially as Britain foiled German invasion attempts and the Soviet deployment of the first Red Guardian to combat Captain Nazi’s attacks on the Eastern Front. However, Vought had begun to reconsider his support for Nazi Germany–not primarily due to moral objections, but rather pragmatic ones. Vought’s close friend Josef Merkwurdgliebe, another Nazi researcher working on superscientific research, had been examining the logistics of the Nazi regime and concluded that the limits of fascist ideology would prevent true victory. Merkwurdgliebe convinced Vought that the best way to secure their legacies would be to defect. Merkwurdgliebe made contact with the American operatives Clarence Potter and Marie Fischer, who arranged for Merkwurdgliebe, Vought and Risinger to be taken to American custody and granted amnesty in return for handing over key research materials and helping create the hero Soldier Boy. Vought was somewhat dismayed to learn of the death of Erskine, but nonetheless offered details of Compound-V to the Americans. He additionally gave the US vital intelligence about the development of Trioxin, which enabled them to capture samples of it before Hydra could unleash it upon Europe in the waning days of the war. In the postwar era, both Vought and Merkwurdgliebe were offered jobs in the US government. Merkwurdgliebe accepted, but Vought declined, instead sensing a potential alternative.

Vought would found Vought American Consolidated in 1947, after securing heavy investments from Andrew Ryan and Howard Roark. Vought had appealed to the two arch-Galtists by framing Compound-V as a method for the great men of the world to further solidify their superiority for the right price. As Vought scaled up production of Compound-V, he additionally started a number of other ventures to gain greater profit as well as manage the fact that even as Compound-V began empowering some, many other heroes with origins utterly unconnected to Vought were making their debut worldwide. Namely, Vought began to make forays into general pharmaceutical products as a method of building capital. Most Vought products, such as Vitameatavegamin, were not particularly reputable, but were quite marketable. Some of Vought’s pharmaceutical output was actually quite cutting edge for the time, which caused some competition. In particular, Vought-American in the 1960’s became a major rival of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals as the two companies competed for government contracts to help research into Trioxin. Umbrella Pharmaceuticals ultimately secured the requisite contracts and eventually purchased all Trioxin samples from US custody in the 1980’s. Vought, meanwhile, continued to lean on the creation of superheroes. By the 1960’s, there were dozens of Vought-affiliated superheroes which included Soldier Boy, Crimson Countess, Liberty (really Risinger) and many more. However, while they were more willing to do the bidding of the US government against suspected subterfuge and in wars overseas, the Vought heroes were vastly eclipsed by the likes of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the Justice League, especially owing to their tendencies to be far less ethical than these heroes. For instance, the astronaut team the Four whom Vought had intended to be their counterpart to the non-Vought affiliated Fantastic Four made contact with a parallel world dominated by superhumans and geared most of their activity over the next few decades to make it easier for that world to invade ours, which Vought permitted to occur.

Vought would solve this problem in an unusual way. In 1968, Vought would make the acquaintance of Eddie Mannix, a now-elderly veteran of Hollywood. Mannix had worked as a studio ‘fixer’ for Capitol Pictures and before that had been a promoter for reclusive animator Joey Drew. Mannix was responsible for suggesting to Vought how he could successfully grow his company: branching out into entertainment. Most superheroes not affiliated with Vought did not have official merchandise or media centering on them, but bootleg figurines, shirts and comics centering on them did quite well, the latter nearing the popularity of pirate comics despite lower production quality. Mannix recommended Vought take a page from the Hollywood playbook and, if his heroes couldn’t triumph simply on the strength of their powers, they should win the crowd via media. Vought took Mannix’s advice to heart and hired director Roger De Bris to direct a film based on the life of Soldier Boy. The film–simply titled Omaha–was not an accurate depiction of Soldier Boy’s life, but on release in 1972, it became a major hit and Soldier Boy overnight became a household name. Similar media was produced about other Vought-afflicted supers and this paved the way for them to become celebrities. This newfound celebrity was not unheard of–after all, the Fantastic Four, Superman and Captain America all likewise were household names. Vought was simply unique in prioritizing the celebrity aspect over the heroic aspect.

This increase in media attention and popularity greatly boosted Vought even as other superheroes criticized the company. Despite Vought’s own death in 1983, Vought by the 1980’s was a juggernaut. It made movies with budgets rivaling the likes of the McBane franchise. Voughtland opened in 1982 to widespread attention and within the first five years eclipsed Thrillville, Pacific Playland and Walley World. And the number of heroes Vought created only continued to grow. They were aided by the passage of time-while many superheroes were still active, they were getting older. The slow-aging Soldier Boy was far more photogenic than Captain America, who despite the advantage of having been frozen for nearly 20 years was visibly middle aged. Further, superheroes were beginning to exit the scene altogether. Vought began promoting Black Noir far more after the paralysis of Bruce Wayne, Jr., the third Batman, for instance and began preparing the brand of their most famous superhero Homelander following Superman’s disappearance after a battle against Mxyzptlk (it later transpired Superman had begun to reside within the Sun to help keep it alive).. In the aftermath of the Cold War, Vought contracted with a number of governments and the SCP Foundation to play a supporting role in creating a veneer of normalcy, using the Four to hide the existence of a great deal of extraordinary phenomenon until their death in a conflict with the opposite-minded group known as Planetary.

In the 1990’s, Vought’s supers really amplified in notability–and notoriety. Vought supers participated in the Eugenics Wars against Augment-aligned mutants and other supers. While their material contributions were limited, slick PR helped make them out to be heroes of the conflict. A similar phenomenon was present during the 1996 Harvester and Martian invasions. Vought supers in the former case especially often fared poorly against the invaders, leading to several of them being killed in action and those who survived tending to be those who had avoided outright confrontation. The most notable of these were the Seven Guns, a team of 7 superheroes consciously chosen by Vought to echo the earlier Justice League and who served as Vought’s flagship team for the bulk of the next decade. Other Vought superheroes who debuted in this time included G-Girl, Hancock, Public Spirit and Captain Hammer. Many of these individuals tended towards personal behavior ranging from scandalous to outright harmful, but Vought’s public relations machine and ample efforts at engineering heroic deeds for these heroes helped keep their names in headlines and their faces on lunchboxes, even if new heroes like the Sailor Senshi, the Power Rangers, Captain Vyom, Captain Future and the Powerpuff Girls managed to make a dent in the public consciousness as well. Some have suggested that Vyom’s death in 1999 may have been a hit carried out by a Vought super though this remains unconfirmed.

It was in the 2000’s that Vought’s status as a megacorporation was well and truly secured. The Shiawise Supreme Court decision handed down by Chief Justice Thomas Brankin greatly increased the opportunities for Vought to hone Compound-V and continue to spread it by granting them increased immunity from oversight or regulation. The real clincher, though, was the passage of the Superhero Registration Act in 2006, which was subsequently signed into law by President John Blutarsky. The Act called for the registration of all superheroes with the government, the elimination of secret identities and the potential drafting of superheroes to fight in the War in Terror. Vought quickly noticed an opportunity and registered all of their superheroes with the government almost immediately, earning them praise from Secretary of Defense Tony Stark. This meant that in the ensuing conflict between the pro-registration and anti-registration factions, Vought swung its weight almost wholly behind the pro-registration side. Vought CEO Stan Edgar offered a $20 million bounty for any information allowing for the apprehension of Captain America. Moreover, with the increasing hostility towards the latter, Vought had Homelander officially make his debut, with the superhero quickly earning the favor of the pro-registration right-wing.

Vought did, however, have to reckon with a PR nightmare when John Horus of the Seven Guns personally murdered President Blutarsky and the whole Blutarsky cabinet out of the disgust with the Act, along with various wars in the Middle East pursued by the Blutarsky administration in 2007. Vought responded to the incident by immediately throwing the Seven Guns as a whole under the bus, giving all information needed to combat and apprehend the team to the Department of Homeland Security’s Counter-Terrorism Unit. Vought would replace the Seven Guns as their flagship superteam with a new team called the Seven, headed by Homelander and consisting of 6 other heroes. Vought also opened the Godolkin University in this time, creating a Vought-operated counterpart to institutions in the vein of the Xavier Institute (which was reeling from the death of its founder Charles Xavier and the aftermath of the Scarlet Witch carrying out M-Day, which had decimated the mutant population), Sky High and Whateley Academy. Vought had to reckon with the fallout from this decision, however. While they, unlike their old rivals Umbrella avoided being shut down by the federal government, were forced to withdraw their supers from supporting the military’s efforts overseas. Still, Vought managed to bounce back from this, hiring Sterling Cooper’s top PR team to help maintain their public reputation. Meanwhile, Vought amplified their lobbying on Capitol Hill, hiring seasoned lobbying Maggie Morris to shield the company from investigations. By the 2010’s, it was almost like the whole incident had never happened and Vought supes continued to earn public adoration amidst great personal misconduct.

Vought’s reputation did gradually take some hits over the span of this era, however, Vought was widely mocked for a series of claimed ‘battles’ between the Seven and the Furons, owing to several of them being clearly staged using CGI effects (which Vought admitted to, but claimed were ‘recreations’ of actual fights despite denials from XCOM). Vought was also criticized for Homelander’s comments following the deaths of the Guardians of the Globe at the hands of Omni-Man, where he all but explicitly stated that they had died because they were ‘too weak.’ Homelander would later issue a public apology for these comments. Several members of the Vought team the Superhomeys–notably Sistah Spooky, Major Havoc and Heavy Artillery–were killed in a bid by Vought to take out the superpowered alien known as Brightburn and the team failed in the mission to eliminate this threat. Vought collectively did not respond at all to the Galactic Federation’s conquest of Earth in 2015 or a resurrected Victor von Doom’s brief conquest of the planet in 2019. Longtime board member Donald Davenport publicly left the company in 2012, with rumors that he absconded with some teenage superheroes originally slated to attend Godolkin University circulating after he disappeared from the public eye. A number of scandals involving the Seven have come out in the last few years, culminating in Homelander’s raid on the White House in 2022 which killed President Victoria Neuman. This coup is rumored to have been carried out as a part of a scheme by the Sons of Jacob to install the defeated 2020 presidential candidate David Jefferson Adams in the White House, though this has not been confirmed despite Adams’ return to power and apparent friendly relations between him and CEO of Vought Ashley Barrett.
AA9D8B2A-F85A-47B6-835C-DB48148F21E8.png
 
Sorcerer Supreme

The Earth has been a home to magic for thousands upon thousands of years. Magic has taken on a variety of forms ranging from the celestial Force that enables some to manipulate minds and matter alike to rituals that require drawing upon powerful deities like R’hllor, Hecate or Yog-Sothoth for the purposes of spellwork. As long as Earth has been home to magic, it has faced a number of magical threats. These have ranged in nature from individual evil magic-users like Mordred, Koschei the Deathless or Voldemort to threats from darker forces. The horrors catalogued in the Necronomicon are but a partial log of the threats that Earth often faces from other planes of existence. Demons of all kinds have had the opportunity to flourish over the years. While groups have arisen to combat these demons in the physical world, there is only so much the likes of the Watcher’s Council, the Demon Slayer Corps, the Global Occult Coalition or the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense can accomplish when faced with immense demonic or Great Old One threats that risk the very fabric of standard reality. It is this sort of threat that the Sorcerer Supreme exists to deal with.

There have been a number of individuals to hold the title of Sorcerer Supreme over the years. While some have speculated the wizard Mithrandir was the first Sorcerer Supreme, the earliest definitively known Sorcerer Supreme is Hermes Trismegistus. Trismegestus is believed to have taken his name directly from the deity of the same name and been instructed in the art of magic by both Hermes and his sibling god Thoth. Trismegestus helped outline the system of Hermetic magic and was an early chronicler of means to combat occult threats. There were many holders of this title between Trismegestus. The Biblical King Solomon was at one time the Sorcerer Supreme, using his magical skill to bind mighty demons to serve him and the interests of Yahweh. Solomon’s skill in using divine power to command and control demons was likely a reason Solomon dedicated much time to outlining his methods in doing so for future generations in a multitude of grimoires. Much of the knowledge Solomon had about the occult would have driven less devout individuals mad, but thanks to his skill, he was capable of compiling the necessary information.

After Solomon, the next prominent Sorcerer Supreme was the mage Merlin. Merlin was a fascinating figure who in many respects is shrouded in myth. Merlin is said to have aged backwards and determined how to cast a spell to be reborn to serve the Pendragon kings of Britain in various ways. The Pendragon kings were varied individuals, often having the names Uther and Arthur (there is at least one rumored queen known as Artoria, but her existence remains somewhat apocryphal). Loyalty to the Pendragons was consistent across Merlin’s lives, even being maintained when the dynasty began actively persecuting magic practitioners. Merlin, in his dealings with the first King Arthur who pulled Excalibur from a stone, also was capable of seeing the future and wrote several books guiding people in the principles of wizardry to help them prepare to combat immense threats. It is not totally clear if Merlin ever truly died or survived to the present, but it is known he eventually lost the title of Sorcerer Supreme.

A wide range of people would go on to hold the title of Sorcerer Supreme. The Raven King John Uskglass of England used his prowess to educate the great magicians of his time and his four best students—Godric Griffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff—would go on to found one of the major institutions of magical studies. The title was not restricted to western magicians either. The Taoist monk Zuo Ci for a time had the position of Sorcerer Supreme and is credited with helping renew the seals around the entity known as the Child in Qinghai Lake before it could devour the world. More famous than Zuo is Sun Wukong, who possessed the ability to control myriad of elements and transform parts of his body and the world around him as a means of combatting evil influences. Meanwhile in Europe, the magician Prospero for a time held the title of Sorcerer Supreme before becoming corrupted by powerlust and renouncing the title by trying to destroy his tomes. The European magician Yen Sid was another great magician to wield the title of Sorcerer Supreme. It is Yen Sid who many attribute the creation of Toons to, magical beings often bound more loosely by physical laws than more mundane counterparts. Yen Sid’s work helped influence the later scientist and black magician Alphonse Moureau who blended the Toons’ lack of following regular physics with the various races of intelligent animals to create Moureau sapiens. In his own time, however, Yen Sid helped defend the world from cosmic-level threats.

Of course, it was in the 20th century where the most notable Sorcerer Supreme would emerge. A hermit known as the Ancient One based in the Himalayas would bequeath the title to one Dr. Stephen Strange in 1963. Strange, a former neurosurgeon, would combat a number of cosmic threats to the world in his long career. He would combat a number of entities from dangerous planes of existence, including Dormamu, Nyarlathotep, Mandrakk, Slaanesh, Bill Cipher, the Mind Flayer, the Ancient Ones, Starro, Shuma-Gorath, and many other entities. Strange was also a close ally of the Avengers, the Justice League and multiple other superteams throughout his life. He also has been credited with defeating the potential Antichrist Adrian Woodhouse in a battle in 1982 and helping repair New York City rapidly after the multitude of monster attacks and alien invasions the city suffered throughout his career. It is perhaps for this reason that Strange would end up as the longest-serving President of the Magical Congress of the United States, serving in the position from 1995 to 2015. Strange, shortly after retiring from this position, unfortunately was killed by his own enemy Kaecilius. His wife Clea currently holds the title, but she has indicated she will bequeath it elsewhere owing to her obligations to her native Dark Dimension rather than this plane of existence. The names Adam Young, Bayonetta, Justin Russo, Hermione Granger, and Shirou Emiya being mentioned as potential heirs to this title.

It is worth noting that a few have laid claim to the title of Sorcerer Supreme despite not actually ever holding the position. The infamous occultist Aleister Crowley included ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ among his many other titles such as ‘the Great Beast 666.’ Crowley, in truth, was far from being one of the most powerful magic practitioners in the world and ended up using what power he had to set himself as a leading figure in the metahuman studies-centered city-state of Academy City with an increased focus on science over his magical knowledge (a pursuit perhaps shaped by the actions of his acolyte Jack Parsons). The dark magician Oliver Haddo similarly liked to proclaim himself Sorcerer Supreme. Haddo was an experimental occultist and more affiliated with dark forces than Crowley was—for all that Crowley mockingly depicted himself as aligned with the forces of Hell, it was Haddo who openly consorted with the likes of Mephisto, the Cenobites and the Black Lodge. Needless to say, he certainly did not fulfill the expectations of a Sorcerer Supreme. Comparatively more mild was the occultist Roderick Burgess, head of the Order of the Ancient Mysteries. Burgess, unlike the braggart Crowley and outright evil Haddo, is best known for the period in which he imprisoned Dream of the Endless as part of a failed bid for immortality—something that no Sorcerer Supreme truly needed to do. It is fair to say that no self-proclaimed ‘Sorcerer Supreme’ came close to the level of skill as the real ones.

It is also worth noting that there are many other powerful magicians who have never held the title of Sorcerer Supreme. The title of Doctor Fate, for instance, holds a similar stature to the title of Sorcerer Supreme and like this title has been passed on to many, with Khalid Nassour being the most recent holder. The abilities of Doctor Fate are tied to artifacts that bestow power on behalf of the White Guardian of Order in the guise of Nabu, however, rather than being a title earned by skill alone. This distinction is crucial and disqualifies one from holding the Doctor Fate and Sorcerer Supreme roles simultaneously. The magicians of the Magic Dimension, owing to fundamental differences in their reality, possess skills nearly equal to the Sorcerer Supreme, but the likes of Doctor Mordrid do lose their power the longer they remain in our world.
CFD528FA-2F85-4690-BAD3-C901E4E0D353.png
 
Back
Top