Lost Freeway
Banned
When you get right down to it, populism is just another form of elitism. After all, the people pushing it always portray themselves as being specially attuned to the will of the Common Man in a way no one else can be.
Rumsfeldia: Fear and Loathing in the Decade of Tears
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Take your time. It's no rush.
I understand first-hand the issues of writer's block.
That's actually a very interesting observation of what is going with Western politics lately.
Of course, while Latin America trended leftward (Lula, Chavez, etc.), Europe and America are trending right-ward (Trump, LePen, Sweden Democrats, etc.),
Not necessarily. What about that Bennite Labour leader, Corbyn, the Austrian Greens and Syriza in Greece?
Archibald
Banned
(cursing in French as I type this)
a) He is still alive ? How old is he nowadays ? 100 years ?
b) all the old crooks (Thatcher, McNamara, Nixon) are gone, but he remains
c) So he is backing Trump now ? Why should I be surprised ?
d) I do hope Satan is eargerly waiting for him in hell (and he probably knows it, that's why he is not in a hurry to kick the bucket)
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No. He is closer to Hilary for 2016.
One should keep in mind that Kissinger's "Realpolitik" was based on a quasi-Bismarckian focus on the "balance of power" among the various power blocs. It was believed by Kissinger and Nixon that by driving a wedge between the Sino-Soviet split, one could duplicate this "balance of power" to create a world free from fear (as Nixon would say) for the Twentieth Century.
The neoconservatives like Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney began to influence Nixon's successors to reject détente and "balance of power" politics in favor of the belief that America had a quasi-divine role to stamp out evil wherever it appears. They believed that by having politicians promoting simple moral truths (rather than the "Realpolitik" of Kissinger) that everyone could believe in, one could prevent the decay that comes from nihilism(look up Leo Strauss).
As loony as some of Trump's theories are, he rejects the neoconservative groupthink of his GOP opponents with their emphasis as continual evangelism of pro-American ideals throughout the region. His mentality appears to be as follows: "Authoritarian strongmen like Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi, and Hosni Mubarak may have been bad boys but they caught terrorists so the world was relatively safe. Now they are gone so terrorists have spread all over the place and the world is not safe. Therefore, we should promote 'strong' regimes at all costs". I personally think this mindset is a bit over-simplified (for example the quasi-anarchist Kurds in Northern Syria (Rojava) have been a tough nut to crack) but it is realist rather than the misguided idealism of the neocons like Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
There is a good documentary on neocons by Adam Curtis available on the Internet Archive called "The Power of Nightmares".
By the way, TTL Spiro Agnew didn't like Kissinger either ("that Harvard liberal" as he would say) and that certainly went well.
The question being, if he "mainstreams" himself what will be the effect among his more ardent Primary supporters; will they realize he used them? And to hold them, will he have to erupt every so often and so ruin his "mainstream" appeal outside of his primary constituency. That's the bed he's made for himself.
Indeed. I had one idea for an update on the dominionist reign of terror. If you have seen The Killing Fields, you may recall Dith Pran in his new life under the Khmer Rouge where he has an imaginary discussion with Sydney. Perhaps you could write something similar for Sydney where their symbolic roles are reversed.
bookmark95
Banned
Are you imagining that TTL Sydney Schanberg being the one who has to live in a concentration camp, subjected to dogma and lunacy, while Dith Pran in the one reporting on the madness?
I do think he's gone for the whole "erupt" thing as we saw with the whole "Judge is Mexican" affar. He seems to be attempting to pander to his base, while at the same time is trying to move to the centre. It's a very tight line, and it seems he's stumbling.
1. How heavily is the Soviet Union committed in China? Is it boots on the ground Afghanistan-style or did it commit only air power (like Syria OTL) in support of North Korean and Mongolian troops? Judging by the fact they had to resort to nukes, things are like Afghanistan times one hundred. Are they affecting the Soviet public opinion?
The USSR has created a buffer between its border and the PRC using the rump PRC (a Soviet puppet), the Mongolians and the North Koreans to avoid direct Soviet involvement in China’s chaos. Soviet public opinion would support this since others are doing the fighting and dying while the USSR continues with economic growth.
2. Is the Islamic influence becoming an issue in the Soviet Central Asia or the Caucasus?
3. Did the 1977 Moscow bombings take place in TTL? Are there ethnic rumblings going on within the USSR (like the Sumgait pogrom OTL)?
The ethnic and religious tensions continue, but Ryzhkov uses the iron fist. His MBA Communism is about economic, not political reform. The KGB has a strong hand under Ryzhkov to take “preventative” measures , and trouble makers can find themselves escorted across the border into China and left to fend for themselves. Islamic insurgencies are condemned as terrorism and blamed on the PJO. Tough moves against Islamism is supported by the Soviet Slavic population, and anti-Islamism is often used by the Ryzhkov regime to reinforce “patriotic” themes.
4. Did the Soviet rock take off? TTL in 1980 there was a rock festival.
Both Suslov and Ryhzkov would have opposed this as western decadence and taken a strong stand against it. It probably exists underground, but gets swatted every so often by the KGB. The counter is an officially sanctioned movement of “traditional” musical expression which encompasses “patriotic themes” and “socialist ideals.”
5. Does the Soviet general public have access to Western media legally (movies, music etc.)?
There has been some opening-up, although official censorship still exists. There is a strong black market in these items. Soviet authorities counter that many of them are propaganda and try to suppress them (analogous to the situation in OTL China).
6. How did Ryzhkov's reforms affect the Soviet Armed Forces? Did he axe the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft cruiser project, for instance? Did they sort out the whole lack of a single Soviet battle tank issue (OTL it was a mess between the T-64, T-72 and T-80)?
He axed the aircraft carrier along with some other bigger ticket projects, but continued development in submarines. As a management matter he would compel his General Staff to produce efficient requirements for weapons systems and eliminate redundancies. On the question of tanks, the need in the late 1980’s is more for defence in the Far East than the west (where NATO no longer exists) so the tank requirement would be for a unit that can operate under those conditions.
7. How is Warsaw Pact in general after pulling out of Germany? Does the Soviet Union keep troops in Poland or Czechoslovakia?
Yes. Ryzhkov is imposing MBA Communism on these regimes. The Germans and French are also subsidizing stability in the East under Communist rule. The Eastern zone provides a Maciladora area for western Europe, and the western Europeans are concerned that a sudden collapse of Communism in the East will create chaos (similar to current South Korean fears about a sudden collapse of North Korea).
8. Did something like Mathias Rust's flight happen TTL?
Soviet air defence was a little better TTL. He was shot down. The local defence commander at Pskov decided Rust was on an unfriendly spy mission. Germany protested, but no too much, as they did not want to upset relations with the USSR.
Dzhokhar Dudaev – Soviet Air Force General
Pavel Grachev – Soviet Military officer
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Still expelled in 1974, he is in the United States and probably a favourite anti-Soviet propagandist of the Rumsfeld Administration. If he turned on Rumsfeld then no doubt he had a nervous breakdown.
Paul K. Van Riper – You tell me
John Carpenter – some commercial success as a film maker in the 1970’s; went into UK exile.
Ridley Scott – successful British film maker.
The USSR has created a buffer between its border and the PRC using the rump PRC (a Soviet puppet), the Mongolians and the North Koreans to avoid direct Soviet involvement in China’s chaos. Soviet public opinion would support this since others are doing the fighting and dying while the USSR continues with economic growth.
2. Is the Islamic influence becoming an issue in the Soviet Central Asia or the Caucasus?
3. Did the 1977 Moscow bombings take place in TTL? Are there ethnic rumblings going on within the USSR (like the Sumgait pogrom OTL)?
The ethnic and religious tensions continue, but Ryzhkov uses the iron fist. His MBA Communism is about economic, not political reform. The KGB has a strong hand under Ryzhkov to take “preventative” measures , and trouble makers can find themselves escorted across the border into China and left to fend for themselves. Islamic insurgencies are condemned as terrorism and blamed on the PJO. Tough moves against Islamism is supported by the Soviet Slavic population, and anti-Islamism is often used by the Ryzhkov regime to reinforce “patriotic” themes.
4. Did the Soviet rock take off? TTL in 1980 there was a rock festival.
Both Suslov and Ryhzkov would have opposed this as western decadence and taken a strong stand against it. It probably exists underground, but gets swatted every so often by the KGB. The counter is an officially sanctioned movement of “traditional” musical expression which encompasses “patriotic themes” and “socialist ideals.”
5. Does the Soviet general public have access to Western media legally (movies, music etc.)?
There has been some opening-up, although official censorship still exists. There is a strong black market in these items. Soviet authorities counter that many of them are propaganda and try to suppress them (analogous to the situation in OTL China).
6. How did Ryzhkov's reforms affect the Soviet Armed Forces? Did he axe the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft cruiser project, for instance? Did they sort out the whole lack of a single Soviet battle tank issue (OTL it was a mess between the T-64, T-72 and T-80)?
He axed the aircraft carrier along with some other bigger ticket projects, but continued development in submarines. As a management matter he would compel his General Staff to produce efficient requirements for weapons systems and eliminate redundancies. On the question of tanks, the need in the late 1980’s is more for defence in the Far East than the west (where NATO no longer exists) so the tank requirement would be for a unit that can operate under those conditions.
7. How is Warsaw Pact in general after pulling out of Germany? Does the Soviet Union keep troops in Poland or Czechoslovakia?
Yes. Ryzhkov is imposing MBA Communism on these regimes. The Germans and French are also subsidizing stability in the East under Communist rule. The Eastern zone provides a Maciladora area for western Europe, and the western Europeans are concerned that a sudden collapse of Communism in the East will create chaos (similar to current South Korean fears about a sudden collapse of North Korea).
8. Did something like Mathias Rust's flight happen TTL?
Soviet air defence was a little better TTL. He was shot down. The local defence commander at Pskov decided Rust was on an unfriendly spy mission. Germany protested, but no too much, as they did not want to upset relations with the USSR.
Dzhokhar Dudaev – Soviet Air Force General
Pavel Grachev – Soviet Military officer
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – Still expelled in 1974, he is in the United States and probably a favourite anti-Soviet propagandist of the Rumsfeld Administration. If he turned on Rumsfeld then no doubt he had a nervous breakdown.
Paul K. Van Riper – You tell me
John Carpenter – some commercial success as a film maker in the 1970’s; went into UK exile.
Ridley Scott – successful British film maker.
If that happened, God would likely come down from on high and.... educate Rumsfeld on how badly he done goofed.
How are blacks and other nonwhites treated by the CVs? Are they automatically condemned solely based on the color of their skin, and subjected to a fate arguably worse than Jim Crow? Or are there opportunities to black Christians to join the ranks of the CVs if they prove their loyalty?
Lost Freeway
Banned
Your question was already answered a while back. Basically, racial minorities are tolerated as long as they toe the CV line.
If the penguins did attack them, it's truly the worst conflict for the British Commonwealth since the Emu War.
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