I saw this and thought other people might be interested to see it. I don't think it qualifies as student life, but I don’t know what else to flair it as (we really need a miscellaneous flair).
POD: The Axis somehow wins WW2.
War Years (1940-1945)
When Australia was called by its mother country Britain to join the next world war, it had no expectation of where it would end up.
At first, the war seemed to be something far away that troops were dispatched to assist in. However, it was only a matter of time before Japanese aggression came for the land down under. In 1942 Japan declared war and immediately began sinking any number of ships off of Australia's coast. It was feared an invasion would come in any day, and anxieties only grew as the war dragged on with an Allied victory seeming growing out of reach.
Pictured: a Japanese sub raised from Sydney harbor after a raid.
In 1945, toward the end of the war, these fears turned out to be correct. The Japanese launched a naval invasion of the town of Bamaga, successfully capturing and holding it against the Australians. It turned out that the town would be severed from its own country, as the Japanese successfully managed to acquire it in the peace treaty ending the war. Australia was now right next to the Japanese Empire.
Grow or Perish (1946-1960)
As soon as the dust settled, the Australian leadership class began trying to reassess everything it had done up to that point to ensure Australia could survive as a country. One policy arrived at was encouraging more immigration to grow the country's population, an offer many Brits were eager to take up as large portions of the country had escaped the devastation of war (at least compared to Europe). Much of the immigration came from Britain, but over 150,000 refugees from continental Europe came to find a home in Australia as well, mostly residing in the South due to its distance from the Japanese.
More controversial were the refugee flows from Asia, mostly Indonesia. In an effort to escape Japanese atrocities, a number of refugees hopped on makeshift boats and attempted to sail to Australia. A number of people attempted to flee Japanese-owned Bamaga as well, with the story of five comfort women who managed to free themselves from sexual slavery becoming especially widely known. Although the "White Australia" policy was supposed to limit immigration by Asians, the moral and practical challenges involved in returning refugees led to nearly ten thousand Asians integrating uneasily into Australian life.
Although Australia became a founding member of the LFN in 1947, it mostly sat out of the South African War due to its own hesitancy to commit a number of its troops to a foreign war with the Japanese right on their doorstep. That did not keep Australia from being involved in any kind of diplomatic crisis, however: not long after the 1953 peace settlement between the LFN and the Third Reich, the Japanese began trying to seal off Bamaga by constructing a giant wall. In response the government mobilized troops and called for LFN support, and the situation could easily have become a war had the American President not resolved the crisis diplomatically. The area along the border still remained one of the most militarized in the country.
Politically, the 1950s were generally stable for Australia. The Labor Party was removed from power in 1947, and the new coalition between the Liberal and Country Parties managed to assume control of the country for the entire coming decade. The government sought to promote economic development through high tariff barriers, although this was criticized by economists as inefficient. Despite this, the economy of Australia grew throughout the 1950s, and with it grew a new suburban middle class that got to enjoy all of the fruits of modernity.
As 1960 draws to a close, Australia continues to be at the front lines of the LFN's cold war with Japan. If someone makes a wrong move and a war breaks out, it will be on the front lines.
POD: The Axis somehow wins WW2.
Occupation (1940-1945)
When France surrendered in 1940, many hoped that one day the Nazi invaders would be scourged from the land.
Split into two areas - one under direct occupation and another controlled by collaborationists - France soon lit up in resistance to fascism. This resistance was met with brutal retaliation, with the Germans engaging in reprisal killings which saw entire villages massacred in response to acts of rebellion in yet another set of abhorrent crimes against humanity perpetrated during the war. However, the brave men and women who became partisans fighting for the freedom of their country had one hope: that one day the Allies would liberate France and restore the tricolor over French lands.
Pictured: German troops marching through Paris.
These hopes ultimately turned out to be misplaced.
The Allies tried to free France from Nazi tyranny, of course - they tried twice, in two separate landings along the English Channel in 1944 and 1945. However, the 1944 Normandy landings failed when additional reinforcements were brought in quickly enough to secure the beaches, and the 1945 Calais landings were something of a Hail Mary undermined by poor operational security and heavy German reinforcements.
With continental Europe clearly lost and the war left at a permanent stalemate, both sides negotiated a peace which worked for them - but which condemned France to subordination toward Berlin. Once the Allies were dealt with, the Germans forced their own peace agreement on France, one which ceded all territories East of the Meuse River to the Third Reich and forced a massive indemnity payment on what remained. Italy acquired many former French colonies, and the Germans regained the ones they had possessed before WW1. France was now reduced from a proud nation to the status of a second-rate power.
The National Revolution (1946-1951)
Although German troops mostly withdrew from France in 1946 (a few bases remained as part of a permanent lease clause in the peace), the reign of terror hardly ended there. Rather, the extension of Philippe Petain's "national revolution" to former German-occupied territories saw the atrocities committed by Germans against Frenchmen simply turn into atrocities committed by Frenchmen against their own people. The newly-declared French State wasted no time working to eradicate what remained of the resistance by rounding up and executing those it suspected to belong. Things were not safe for what remained of France's Jewish population, either; when the authorities became aware of Jews who had survived Nazi occupation, they either handed them over to Berlin to be murdered in Eastern European death camps or simply slaughtered them themselves.
Many of those left in France attempted to get out. Tens of thousands began heading toward the shores of the English Channel in an attempt to escape fascism, taking small boats across in an effort to evacuate. These "boat people" soon were joined by similar escapees from the Low Countries, and government of Clement Attlee announced its intention to work with other Western nations in resettling them. Their journey was highly dangerous, and it is estimated nearly 100,000 died on the way. However, by 1960, over 800,000 people had successfully made the journey. The vast majority settled in Britain, the United States, Canada, or Australia, but other countries such as Brazil took on tens of thousands.
Others remained and continued to fight in the underground resistance. These rebels struck a big blow in 1948 when Joseph Darnund, the head of the infamous Milice paramilitary force, was assassinated by partisans. Although those responsible were eventually killed for it, this act nonetheless helped inspire more subtle and un-subtle resistance to French officials just in time for the South African War to escalate, leaving France in an unstable state as it occurred.
Pictured: Joseph Darnund, the head of the notoriously-brutal Milice militia.
Revolving Door (1951-1955)
Although France remained mostly out of the South African War, it was nonetheless bombed by the LFN at various points in attempts to destroy German bases in the region. Resistance fighters also escalated their attacks on government targets, killing a number of prominent officials.
The most prominent death of them all, however, was not one carried out by the Resistance: on July 23rd, 1951, Philipe Petain died from complications related to old age (he was 95 at the time). His death set off a succession crisis in Paris, as he had failed to annoit a successor. The ultimate victor was, as expected, Prime Minister Pierre Laval, who assumed control of the state. His tenure would be mostly defined by international affairs: Laval spent most of the war privately signalling a desire a willingness to broker a peace settlement for both sides, and the atomic bombing of Bonn led the Germans to finally agree. He consequently hosted the peace negotiations at Montpellier, which led to a settlement in 1953.
Pictured: Pierre Laval in his office.
However, Laval himself would not live long afterward. A life-long chain smoker, Laval had developed lung cancer in 1949, and it progressed to particularly terminal stages by the end of 1952. He consequently died in September 1953, barely two years after having attained power for himself. Unlike his predecessor, he had prepared a successor: the former Labor Minister Marcel Déat.
Déat's tenure was mostly defined by efforts to promote closer ties with Berlin. He freely extended more basing rights to them, and generally made a key effort to appease them further. The main notable event to happen under his tenure was the formation of the German-led Unity Pact to mirror the Japanese-led Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere and the American-led League of Free Nations. The Algerian Revolution also began under his leadership, with the Toussaint Rouge attacks setting off the brutal conflict. He generally would not have time for much else, as he would ultimately die in January 1955, leaving Paris in a state of chaos.
Chaos was something that René Bousquet, the head of the police forces, was able to make use of. Taking advantage of his control of law enforcement, he promptly arrested many of his opponents, clearing the way for him to take Déat's place.
Continuing Chaos (1955-1960)
Bousquet inherited not just the Algerian Revolution but a series of other colonial independence movements as well. Many West African holdings broke out into revolution, and supressing them would prove difficult. The French would nonetheless attempt to, and often resort to brutal crackdowns and the murder of many innocents. This only provoked further resistance, enflamming opposition to French colonial rule even further and creating more militants who would rise up against the metropole.
France also faced many concerns at home as well. The economic strain caused by German reparations payments limited French economic growth, as did lingering damage to the war - damage which the Germans refused to help repair in a similar way as the Americans did in Britain. Bousquet announced a "three-year plan" to try and spur greater economic growth through increased investment in key industries, but this turned out to be mostly ineffective.
Pictured: René Bousquet, the head of the French State after Déat's death.
Among the segment of society that did not slip into poverty during this period of stagnation, new countercultural ideas were beginning to take shape. Called "chasseurs," they emphasized non-conformity, personal autonomy, and sexual liberation - all threats to "traditional values" as imagined by the French authorities. Despite operating underground due to humiliation and occasional arrests for possessing smuggled British goods, the chasseur movement continued to grow with time. With it grew the illegitimacy rate, a source of much anxiety for French officials obsessed with what they regarded as "traditional values."
As 1960 dawns, France is at a crossroads. The Algerian Revolution continues, and France's hold over that country as well as the rest of Africa seems untenable. However, Bousquet is unwilling to relinquish control of the remaining French colonies. Meanwhile, growing opposition to the state at home has caused the longevity of the regime to be in doubt, and the Germans are debating putting missiles in France to dissaude the United States from placing missiles in Britain. Whatever happens, France remains at the forefront of the world's attention.
This is ridiculous. It has been delayed twice, and they shut down Sadler for it this time as well (meaning Caf will be crowded beyond belief). Are they delaying it for Spring now? Why can't they just finish it during the school year?
I know the goal is to apply for as many as possible, but I want a sense for what the average number of applications is out of personal curiosity?
As a Virginian, I personally oppose this - mostly because I oppose easy access to online pornography in general and think it would be better if we could restrict access. What do the members of this subreddit think about the issue of state-level ID requirements for porn?
A big issue we discuss on this subreddit is that of populism and the poor decision-making it leads to, as well as the poor leadership it has created since elite-driven nomination processes were replaced with open primaries. However, recent discussions in this subreddit have concerned poor decision-making by elites such as public-health officials and others. While not necessarily contradictory, I do believe it yields an interesting question worth asking and thinking about: do elites make better decisions than regular voters? Regardless of which side you fall on, explain which you believe and why.
As for myself, I am unsure how I think about this question, but I do think it's worth discussing.
POD: Germany manages to win World War I through a combination of better diplomacy (which keeps the United States out of the war) and different military decisions.
Assassin Age (1918-1922)
Japan got off very light from the Great War - but its experience changed its trajectory nonetheless.
The defeat of the Entente forces in Europe led to the Japanese government to seek a peaceful accomodation. Despite the chaos the Rice Riots and nationalist revolts which called for further war, Prime Minister Hara Takashi ultimately managed to get an agreement where the status quo bellum ante would be restored - an agreement which cost him his life, as ultranationalists would assassinate him in retaliation in September 1919.
Pictured: Prime Minister Hara Takashi.
These incidents reflected a broader trend in Japanese society: that of violence as a means of resolving political dispute. Radicalized nationalist army cliques frequently engaged in plots against public officials they disliked, and often the plotters went unpunished due to broad support from a public which shared its views of the liberal political class being treasonous. To clamp down on this the Diet implemented a new law implementing harsher punishment for politically-motivated assassination attempts, but this measure proved ineffective and the violence would only grow.
The climate of violence only escalated after the Japanese government announced its decision to withdraw its occupation force from Russia in 1922. Enraged, army officers planned the assassination of the incumbent foreign minister, and it was only stopped due to the horrendous planning of the operation getting things leaked. In response, the officers were transferred, but this breakdown of already-limited civil-military relations scared the political class greatly.
Unstable Democracy (1922-1931)
Weak growth following recovery from the Great War helped foster a continuation of the violent political climate of the prior era even as the indignity of the Russian withdrawl occured. The government itself was a contributor to this violence as it implemented laws such as the infamous Peace Preservation Act, which arrested political dissidents who sought to alter the "national essence" of Japan - which in practice served as a form of political repression for leftists in the midst of a Red Scare following the triumph of communism in the Russian Civil War.
Pictured: the title page of the Peace Preservation Law.
However, the general public was content with the state of affairs - at first. The passage of universal suffrage in 1925 seemed to herald the further democratization of the Japanese government. Things seemed to be heading in the right direction, despite the violence and radical ultranationalist cliques.
This optimism gave way to increased pessimism beginning in 1927. That year, the government called in the money it was owed in bonds that it had distributed to banks following the Great Kanto Earthquake, which brought about a financial panic. This brought about the fall of the liberal Minseitō government, and a new government under the conservative Seiyūkai increased arrests.
Then the Great Depression occurred in 1929. Japan was hit hard by the crash, with the catatrosphe being amplified by a disasterous return to the old gold standard, a farm crisis, and more. Although fiscal stimulus measures helped Japan recover sooner than most other countries, it was too little, too late - the humiliations of the previous decades and slowed economy had simply done too much damage to the idea of democracy. Calls for a coup among junior officers began to grow, and it was not long before the plotting began. It was only a matter of time before someone pulled a trigger.
The Tokyo Coup and its Aftermath (1931-1936)
In September 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army invaded Manchuria. As this had been done without the knowledge of civilian authorities now asked to explain their army's behavior, it sent Tokyo elites into a crisis - a crisis which proved easy to exploit.
A clique of army officers called the Kōdōha faction, in cooperation with other militarist groups which had grown in influence throughout the 1920s, saw this as their chance. On November 21st, officers stormed government buildings, assassinating key officials including even the Prime Minister and other army officers belonging to the rival Control faction. The Emperor refused to issue a condemnation of the violence, seeing which way the wind was blowing. Without his support for civilian rule, it collapsed and gave way to the increased power of military officers.
Pictured: Japanese military officers during the November 21st coup.
Now in control, the military promptly redirected an even-larger portion of its budget to increased arms expenditures. They also unashamedly supported an agreessive foreign policy, leading to diplomatic incidents with both the Chinese and Germans in 1934. The subsequent alignment of those two nations did not cause a reassessment of the policy but rather a doubling-down of it, with arms expenditures only growing.
As 1936 dawns, rumors are growing in Tokyo circles of a possible invasion of China. It remains to be seen if Japan will do it on that timeframe, but one thing is sure - Japan is perhaps the greatest threat to world peace, and if any nation will incite another world war, it will be the Land of the Rising Sun.
I recall seeing one 2008 edition of MAD with a small section devoted to making fun of Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show. I do have a question: did they ever do any similar features for other talk show pundits? I'd like to see any they did if so.
Also, does someone have an image of Olbermann in the aforementioned issue talking about John Edwards impregnating his mistress? I so badly want to have that for whenever he comes up in r/presidents.
POD: The Axis wins WW2.
War Years (1939-1945)
When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Britain had no choice but to defend its ally.
Both Britain and France stepped in to once again fight the Germans, and they had a plan: they would dig in to prevent a German invasion of Western Europe. This stage of the war, referred to as the "Phony War," saw an inactive winter followed by surprise German campaigns in Denmark and Norway. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was promptly repaced by Winston Churchill, who took charge right before a German invasion of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France began.
The Germans smashed through the famed Maginot line, knocking France out of the war quickly and leaving Britain to defend itself. Although Churchill had hoped to gain some support from the United States, he found this lacking: both parties nominated isolationist candidates, and while outgoing President Franklin D. Roosevelt had some sympathies for the British cause he was ultimately only able to negotiate a deal gaining additional destroyers in exchange for bases. John Nance Garner refused to undo this deal, but he also opposed calls for additional aid. Britain was officially on its own, even as the Nazis bombed its cities by night and continued to take over more of Europe. The cash required to pay for American munitions proved to be nearly bankrupting, and Britain was left low on cash.
Pictured: Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the man who led Britain during the Second World War.
Allies would join in eventually: the Soviet Union became a reluctant partner of London after being invaded by the Germans in June 1941, and the United States joined in February 1942. This all proved to be too late, however: the Nazi advance continued, and Allied attempts to stop it proved futile. The Japanese Empire similarly took many of Britain's prized East Asian possessions from it, including Singapore and Burma.
The final blow came in 1944 when the Allied landings at Normandy failed, and that combined with the Soviet Union's prior exit from the war left Britain unable to continue. Another failed landing in 1945 combined with a Japanese offensive into India led to opposition toward the Churchill government reaching a breaking point, with the House of Commons ousting the British leader and replacing him with Lord Halifax.
The new Prime Minister subsequently attempted negotiate a peace deal with the Germans, officially ending the war with a British defeat. Many of Britain's colonies in Central Africa were lost to either the Germans or Italians, and all of India east of the Ganges river was ceded to a new Japanese puppet state. Britain was also forced to pay some war reparations, putting further strains on the country. The sun had finally set on the British Empire.
Reconstruction and Early Decolonization (1946-1948)
Now the Conservative Party was associated with both appeasement during the 1930s and surrender in the 1940s, they were voted out in a gigantic landslide. The main beneficiary was Clement Attlee of the Labour Party, who was now to become Prime Minister in his own right on a platform promising to rebuild Britain after the devastation wrought by the war.
Pictured: Clement Attlee, the British Prime Minister following WW2.
Attlee's ambitious agenda was constrained by the immense debt Britain had accrued during the war. Although he attempted to nationalize some critical industries, his efforts were hampered by the lack of funds to use for compensation even though many of these industries had themselves been devastated by the war. Maintaining large colonies similarly became impossible, and mutinies in India showed that the overseas empire was also spiralling out of control. Attlee consequently granted India independence in 1946, but a rushed decolonization process ended in civil war between Hindus and Muslims in that country. A similar process occured in Sri Lanka.
Attlee was granted one lifeline in terms of reconstruction: the Eisenhower Plan. The Americans began providing large sums of money to aid in the reconstruction of war-ruined and underdeveloped nations with free governments, and Britain was by far the biggest recipient. Not long after joining the new Free Nations' Alliance, Britain was eligible for large Eisenhower Plan grants. This freed up some additional cash to provide new welfare services, although the most ambitious plans proved unable to be implemented.
Meanwhile, in Africa, decolonization continued. Ghana was given independence in 1948, and Bechuanaland was similarly given greater autonomy. However, this process was put on pause when South Africa collapsed into civil war that year, bogging down Britain in what eventually became an FNA intervention.
South African Intervention
Although the South African intervention at first remained a problem for Southern Africa, the expansion of its scope came to impact Britain proper. To try and damage FNA resolve, the Germans began indiscriminately attacking shipping lanes off the coast of Britain. The British in turn attempted to blockade the Baltics in coordination with the Americans, leading to the renewal of a bombing campaign by the Germans in 1950. Although this new round of air strikes was less effective than the Blitz had been a decade prior due to new air-defense systems installed in cooperation with the United States, it still did a lot of damage and scared the British people.
Pictured: British air defenses during the South African War.
Despite the bombings, the 1950 general election went ahead as scheduled in October. Lord Halifax managed to survive an insurgency against his leadership of the Conservative Party by narrow margins, and the South African War was making Attlee unpopular as it threatened to undo everything he had done in rebuilding the nation. The main beneficiary, therefore, was the Liberal Party. Sensing a chance to exit the political wilderness, the Liberals ran an ambitious campaign offering to provide Britain with new leadership instead of the failed policies of either the Conservatives or Labour. He managed to lead his party into becoming the Official Opposition instead of the Conservatives, who had now slipped to a distant third.
The war was eventually won in 1952 following the usage of atomic bombs on Bonn, which gave Attlee a brief boost. Now left to pay attention to other issues, Attlee once again resumed his focus on decolonization and expanding welfare - although now he was left with far less political capital than before.
The Next Phase (1953-1955)
Nigeria, Gambia, and Botswana all became independent in March 1954 following more planned decolonization efforts, and Sierra Leone followed in the next month. However, the planned decolonizations of the Rhodesian colonies 1955 would bring the end of the Attlee government.
Although Northern Rhodesia became independent without incident in February 1955, planned decolonization had been met with widespread opposition from white residents of Southern Rhodesia. The local authorities consequently stonewalled London's efforts, and then they declared independence in September 1955. Almost immediately thereafter, in an attempt to help fight against African guerrilas opposed to the new white supremacist government, the Rhodesians invited the Germans to found bases in the country.
The loss of another part of Africa to Berlin, helping box in pro-FNA nations in South Africa, was widely seen as a big defeat for the Attlee government - and it could hardly have come at a worse time for Labour, given that it occured right before the election. The Liberals, having now convinced some prominent Conservatives to join their party, capitalized on the opportunity and used it to win the 1955 election. Attlee was officially done.
Pictured: the logo of the British Liberal Party.
The New Britain (1955-1960)
Now in power, the Liberal Party promptly began attempting to push through a number of controversial laws: home rule for Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, plant bargaining in place of sectoral bargaining, and modest welfare expansion. They also implemented a nuclear freeze, while also creating a new free trade agreement with the United States to further tie Britain to its new North American ally.
Although each and every one of these moves came with its own form of controversy, it did not reflect that negatively on the Liberal government of the newly-elected Jo Grimond. In fact, the Party's popularity only grew as it absorbed much of the middle-class base it had lost to the old Conservative Party while also picking up new supporters in rural areas and among young college students. The biggest reason for this was the booming economy, with Britain now finally recovering from the devastation of war and returning once again to prosperity. The growth of the middle-class educated base boosted the Liberal Party's popularity further, and the end of wartime rationing further enhanced the incumbent's popularity. Grimond was rewarded with a second term as Prime Minister in 1960 as a result, although his margin of victory was smaller than in 1955.
Pictured: Jo Grimond, the British Prime Minister as of 1960.
However, things are not easy for Grimond. Pressure to restart the nuclear program has only grown as Germany rapidly expands its arsenal, and his way to avoid this - the deployment of new missiles from the United States - risks creating a diplomatic crisis. How much longer he will lead Britain - or how much longer there even will be a Britain - remains to be seen.
It looks like the war is only gonna continue and keep getting bigger.
People have discussed how presidents are rated, but which ones don't get the reputation they should have as being catastrophic? Surely some President deserves to be remembered in a more negative way than they are.
Note: I'd prefer for people to not mention Reagan, as that feels like the obvious answer on Reddit.
Full series
POD: Somehow, the Axis wins WW2 (I know the basics I have outlined below are probably not realistic, but I frankly can't think of a better scenario).
Attempted Isolation (1940-1941)
When Franklin D. Roosevelt announced he had no intention to seek a third term, the race to succeed the popular incumbent was on.
The convention bustled with activity, but the ultimate beneficiary of it was Vice President John Nance Garner. A conservative and moderate isolationist, he alienated many of the Party's more internationalist and liberal supporters. However, who else was there to vote for? The Republicans had chosen Robert A. Taft, who represented those things to an even more extreme degree, and at least Garner had extended an olive branch to the liberals by choosing Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace to be his running mate. This gesture of goodwill was well-received enough to allow him to reunite large segments of the New Deal coalition, ultimately securing a third Democratic term in the White House.
Pictured: the results of the 1940 Presidential election.
Once elected, Garner hoped to focus on domestic issues. He worked with Republicans and Southern Democrats to craft a bipartisan law imposing modest limits on union activities, while also making good on a campaign promise he had made to liberals by passing a watered-down anti-lynching bill. However, his attempts to focus on domestic issues were unsuccessful due to one big elephant in the room: the Battle of Britain. Garner's opposition to proposals for a Lend-Lease Act set him up against many in his own party, even as the German invasion of the Soviet Union amplified concerns regarding a potential Nazi world conquest.
Garner did not appease all of the isolationists through this opposition, however. Having seen how popular Roosevelt's embargo against the Japanese was due to their butchery in China, he chose to maintain it over the objections of the America First Committee. This policy escalated tensions with Japan, causing them to begin planning a surprise attack on the United States. This came to fruition on December 7th, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed the Pacific Fleet docked at Pearl Harbor without a declaration of war, leaving only one possible response from Washington.
Pictured: the devastation caused by the Pearl Harbor attack.
America at War (1941-1945)
As the smoke cleared over Hawaii, America was outraged. The public demanded entry into the world war as a means of punishing the Japanese for their transgressions, and Garner was among those outraged by this perfidy. He almost immediately requested a declaration of war from Congress, which was granted nearly unanimously.
Pictured: John Nance Garner, the 33rd President of the United States.
Given the fact that the Germans and Italians were aligned with Tokyo through the Tripartite Pact, public pressure for Lend-Lease reached an all-time high. Garner himself had come around to the idea as a means of containing Axis aggression, and he signed the law before the end of December. However, it was generally recognized as being too late: the last few months of cash and carry had left Britain nearly bankrupt, rendering it weakened. The move also infuriated the Germans, who began indiscriminately sinking American ships in the Atlantic. When the US Navy fought back, Adolf Hitler declared war in February 1942, officially bringing America into the European war as well.
At first, American bombers seemed to be making some impact on the Germans. However, tensions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union hampered efforts at cooperation, and the Germans continued to make massive gains in the East. In 1943 the Nazis won at Stalingrad, officially cutting off supply lines along the Volga river while also giving the Germans unrestricted access to Caucasian oil fields. They parleyed this into another offensive which took Moscow in September 1943, causing the Soviet Union to sue for peace.
At the same time, the Pacific campaign ran into substantial roadblocks. Defeats at Midway and Guadacanal prevented Allied offensives against the Japanese, who seemed to be only continuing to expand their hold over Pacific islands.
In 1944 a big turning point came with the attempted Allied invasion of continental Europe. However, German reinforcements from the Eastern front prevented the success of these landings, leading to a massive loss of troops and life. At this point, the war seemed to be only going badly and running into problems. Another naval invasion was attempted in late 1944, but this also failed.
Pictured: the failed Normandy landings of June 1944.
The last straw came when the Japanese invaded Darwin, Australia in early 1945 and when the US Pacific Fleet was once again destroyed in a naval battle with Japan. At this point, the only thing left to do for the Western allies was sue for peace. Negotiations commenced separately with both Berlin and Tokyo, and the subsequent Treaties of Paris (ending the war in Europe) and Kyoto (ending the war in Asia) brought an end to the whole thing. America had officially lost.
Rallying the Free World (1946-1948)
The peace deal infuriated a number of Americans, but many saw it as necessary - continuing the war was simply not possible in any event. However, it all but guaranteed that the Democrats would be unable to win the upcoming Presidential elections. Recognizing the defeat he would leave a successor with, and wanting to be remembered for more but his valiant but ultimately futile efforts to secure American victory in the war, Garner called the leaders of all of the remaining members of the Free World for a conference in New York City in January 1947. There, a key part of the new global order took shape.
It took a few months of negotiating, but in April 1947, a draft for the new Free Nations' Alliance (FNA) was revealed. Providing for the collective security of all nations opposed to both Axis and Japanese aggression, the FNA's inaugural members included Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. An attack on one of these members was now to be an attack on all.
In addition to the FNA, the United States also authorized what became known as the Eisenhower Plan (officially called the Economic Development Plan), a proposal by then-Secretary of State Dwight Eisenhower to provide massive amounts of financial aid to these countries as a means of helping them overcome their own economic issues. The largest recipient was war-ruined Britain, but Latin American nations also received money to aid in their own internal economic development. These measures helped bind the FNA together, and eventually the Eisenhower Plan was expanded to benefit non-FNA nations which nonetheless aligned with Washington.
Pictured: Dwight Eisenhower, the creator of the Eisenhower Plan.
Although the handfull of remaining hardcore isolationists like Robert Taft denounced the FNA as a needless foreign entanglement, it was popular among political elites of both parties and the American public at large. Most saw it as a way to fight against the Germans and Japanese as well as their malign influence in the world, which had come to be seen as essential for the defense of America.
While this would help Garner's approval in retrospectives toward his presidency throughout the 1950s, it was not enough to save the Democratic Party at the time. 16 years in power and one defeat in a world war had exhausted the American people with them, and the 1946 midterms proved it. The Democrats were also left without a clear successor due to Wallace's known eccentricities and unpopularity with party elites, with the ultimate nominee being the lackluster and aging Alben Barkley. The election was therefore decided before it even began, and Thomas Dewey ascended to the presidency in a landslide as a result.
Pictured: the results of the 1948 Presidential election.
The South African Intervention (1948-1953)
While America found itself distracted by an election, South Africa held an election of its own. The incumbent United Party was blamed by many (especially the pro-German Afrikaaner minority) for the losses the nation had suffered in the war due to Allied intervention, and the vaguely pro-equality notions of the United Party scared many voters. At the same time, Anglo whites feared the pro-Nazi sentiments of the Afrikaaner National Party, and this drove some of them away. The final results of the election created a lot of deadlock as a result, and the divisive election had escalated tensions greatly.
Denouncing the results, the National Party declared the United Party's government to be illegitimate. The country soon descended into a full-blown civil war, and the Germans supported the Afrikaaners by launching an invasion from Southwest Africa to support them. Fearful of losing their hold over Africa to a German client, the British called for FNA assistance. The United States, eager to avenge its defeat in World War 2, gladly obliged and supported the move by sending troops to South Africa.
Although the intervention at first seemed to go well, it became bogged down in fights against guerillas and conventional battles against the Germans. Furthermore, the Germans' use of submarine warfare severely disrupted FNA supply efforts and further crippled Britain, which began to be subjected to another wave of bombings in 1950. The war to protect South Africa was slowly boiling over into another world war, just after the last one had ended in a defeat for America.
However, President Dewey had a potential ace up his sleeve which the American public had to remain unaware of: the atomic bomb. Although proposals to build one had been met with mild skepticism from the Garner administration and a lack of funding had prevented the needed results during World War 2, Dewey was more receptive. By pooling the knowledge of top phyisicsts of the world, progress was made swimmingly and a prototype was produced in 1952.
Pictured: Thomas Dewey, the 34th President of the United States.
This was not enough to save Dewey politically, however. The Democrats used the failures of the South African Intervention to promise that they would prosecute the war more aggressively, and isolationists rallied behind a surprisingly strong bid by Ohio senator John Bricker to primary Dewey inside of the GOP apparatus. This prompted the incumbent to drop out, and Harold Stassen of Minnesota was chosen to replace him.
The Democratic Party, meanwhile, found a new leader of its own. Although Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver had performed surprisingly well during the primaries, the nod was eventually given to Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, who chose his rival as his running mate to heal party wounds. This was not at first seen as a strong choice; Stevenson's intellectual demeanor made him come across as elitist to many in the burgeoning middle class, but this was balanced by Kefauver's skills at retail politics. A bigger issue was his status as a divorcee, which generated some controversy. However, saddled with the controversy of the Republican Party's leadership during the South African War, Stevenson was able to win a narrow victory.
Pictured: the results of the 1952 election.
Around the time this happened, work on the atomic bomb had finished and a target had been selected: the Hague. It was detonated in late November 1952, scaring the Germans and leading to negotiations for a status quo peace - negotiations which Stevenson would turn into a success by mid-1953.
Pictured: the results of bombing the Hague.
The Stevenson Years (1953-1960)
Stevenson would get many more opportunities to demonstrate his diplomatic accumen. Indeed, the next would come before the end of 1953: in an effort to prevent outmigration and secure their hold over the city of Darwin (which they had acquired as part of the 1946 peace deal), the Japanese began to erect a wall. The Australians responded by mobilizing their forces, and the US supported them by doing the same. When a staredown nearly ended in a shoot-out, Stevenson managed to negotiate a tenuous peace and allow the Japanese to build their wall - with the FNA reserving the right to denounce it as immoral. Another crisis came when Indonesia broke out into civil war between the Japanese collaboration government and a left-wing nationalist resistance movement. The US began to support the rebels, which earned Stevenson much support from the democratic world due to his staunch opposition to Japanese imperialism, but it infuriated Tokyo.
Pictured: Adlai Stevenson, the 35th President of the United States.
This combined with the now-booming economy gave Stevenson great popularity, and the Democrats actually increased their number of seats in the 1954 midterms. That same year, however, the Party would be rocked by a pivotal Supreme Court case: Brown v Board of Education, which ordered the desegregation of public schools. Southerners found the idea repellant, and Stevenson gave a moderate denunciation of the decision. This infuriated liberals in the Democratic Party, and the Republicans began to recover their share of the black vote.
Despite this, Stevenson was safely re-elected in 1956 over Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. However, he would soon have to deal with a number of pivotal crises: the successful Japanese atomic test in Korea in March 1957 followed by the German test of the first ICBM (designed to deliver chemical weapons) in August that same year. The Germans announced they had developed their own atomic bomb in Feburary 1958, causing Stevenson to call for arms control. However, neither Tokyo nor Berlin was interested, and the idea was practically dead. The US itself abandoned all commitment to the idea after Argentine President Juan Peron gave the Germans basing rights in his country.
Pictured: the results of the 1956 Presidential election.
The Republicans capitalized on this in the 1958 midterms and gained a large number of seats (although they failed to flip either house), and the GOP had great hopes for 1960 - especially after Kefauver announced his refusal to run. However, they found themselves blind-sighted when the charismatic Secretary of State John F. Kennedy captured his Party's nomination and rallied its base once more. They were especially shocked by how he managed to successfully capitalize on the Japanese launch of the Ryokō-sha satellite, which he used to outline his visions for putting a man on the moon. Meanwhile, California Senator Richard Nixon lacked this charisma, and he ultimately lost in a narrow majority.
Pictured: the results of the 1960 Presidential election.
However, winning the Presidency is not the end for Kennedy - it is only the beginning. Plans to move new missiles into Britain and Iceland risk provoking a backlash from Berlin, and tensions are growing between the pro-FNA government in India and the Japanese-backed one East of the Ganges. Any wrong move could set the world on fire, something which it can ill-afford.
I have only one thing to say about this news: based.
There are a number of articles posted on this sub about the issue of climate change, but most of the discussions I have seen here rarely stray far beyond disdain for progressive environmentalists (some of which is well founded). I wanted to therefore spark a discussion: what is the solution to climate change? I don’t believe it needs to entail any of the degrowth stuff, but I also personally am skeptical of the market to figure it out without outside intervention.
You guys ready for more whining about how the election was "fraudulent on levels never seen before?" I'm not.
I keep on trying to pull up the VLC media player, but I keep getting a pop-up saying it crashed. Is anyone else having this problem? If so, do you know how to fix it?
I have a few ideas which I will list below for what my imagined DLC(s) would include:
We've probably all seen the polling demonstrating a decline in American patriotic sentiment among the nation's citizenry. We have also probably been inundated with rank anti-Americanism online, meaning that these things are likely somewhat correlated. I think this raises an interesting question: how can the United States function as a country without a strong sense of national pride? Can it function? Will it work at all?
I personally think this trend is bad and will be socially destructive if not actively combatted because I believe a strong sense of national identity (undergirded in patriotism) is necessary for a united society, but I still think it's worth having a conversation about. It will become an important issue soon, whether we like it or not.
(Reposted because I think the original title didn't leave enough room for nuance. Sorry!)
I've been rewatching DS9 recently and find it better than I remember, but I thought it nonetheless asking the question: if you could change anything about the show, what would it be?
For me, it has always been the depature of Terry Ferrell as Jadzia Dax. I understand the behind-the-scenes reasons and don't blame her for them, but I wish Dax had stayed around for the final season. I think that would push DS9 into being an almost perfect show.
