Our Fair Country: The Commonwealth of New England

[CosmicAsh]

These are great! I just got back from a trip up to Massachusetts and couldn't help but think of this TL while there. Though I have to say this one image paints a rather grim picture of New England currently.

I hope you had a good time! A lot of my friends live in western Mass so I'm up there from time to time when they don't want to come down. I'm glad my TL is realistic enough to make you think of while in the real New England

Things are, indeed, not that great in present-day New England...

Have you thought about making a USSR election wikibox? Or is the USSR at a point where an election would be uninteresting?

It hasn't. These "elections" for President are going to be Party Candidate A versus "Disagree"

Hamilton, D.C.?

Yup!

 

[Britannia]

Would love to see where this is leading up to I could see some sort of World War between the USA and the USSR with the Commonwealth joining in somehow on the American side?



On a side note does Egypt have a pro British puppet government installed or is it independent?

 

[Britannia]

I would love to know how the Suez crisis unfolded and who the main belligerents where it ought to be quite the the event (how are Franco British relations as well)

 

[CosmicAsh]

The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently composed of 32 teams: 15 American, 13 Canadian, and 4 New English. The NHL is the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and the biggest sports league in Canada and New England, and a major one in the United States. The league is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec where it was founded. Nearly one fourth of the league's players come from outside the three countries represented in the league, but Canada dominates with almost half of all players coming from that country.

With the growing popularity of the sport in the United States, the 2020 NHL League Expansion has been approved, which will add four new teams from the United States, one for each division. The planned locations of expansion teams are; Charlotte, North Carolina (Atlantic), Columbus, Ohio (Metropolitan), Knoxville, East Tennessee (Central), and San Francisco, Hamilton (Pacific). Despite repeated attempts to move teams out of Canada, the League has blocked all of these requests due to the consistently packed stadiums and strong merchandise sales from Canadian franchises.

The highest attendance in the league belongs to the Los Angeles Kings, and the lowest is the Westchester Sharpshooters, which competes in the same media market as the Hartford Whalers, Brooklyn Islanders, New York Rangers, and New Jersey Devils. The Sharpshooters are currently in the process of finding a location to move to, with Miami and New Orleans being the primary target cities.

The Montreal Canadiens have the most titles with 28, and the most recent champions were the Tampa Bay Lightning, who defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Would love to see where this is leading up to I could see some sort of World War between the USA and the USSR with the Commonwealth joining in somehow on the American side?



On a side note does Egypt have a pro British puppet government installed or is it independent?

The Cold War is over. There's only minor tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Both nations have meagre nuclear stockpiles that are heavily outdated and in the process of being decommissioned because of the 2003 treaty.

The Commonwealth represents the biggest foreign investor group in the Soviet Union. It would be analogous to [Realty USA] bombing [Reality China].

Egypt is independent, and under the control of a "nationalist" government.

 

[CosmicAsh]

The North American Football League is the premier league for Gridiron football in the world, composed of 36 teams from four countries, divided equally between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. The NFL is the most popular sporting league in the United States, the second most popular after Ice Hockey in New England, the third most popular after Baseball and Ice Hockey in Canada, and the fourth most popular in the United Kingdom after Association football, Tennis, Cricket, and motor racing. The NAFL has a 21-week regular season running from early August to late January, with each teams playing 20 games and having one bye week. There is a two week October break where no games are played, and acts as a league-wide bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference (four divisional winners and three wild card teams) advance to the playoffs, a single-elimination tournament culminating in the Superbowl, where the two champions of the NFC and the AFC compete over the Grey Cup.

The main body of the NFL was founded in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, before renaming itself to the National Football League in 1922. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was contested between the two leagues. The merger was complete for the 1970 season, and the NFL continued to retain its name for another eighteen years, before the National Football League and the Canadian/New England Football League agreed to a merger to form the North American Football League. The Grey Cup, the trophy presented to the former winners of the CNEFL became the main prize of the Super Bowl for the 1988 season, which it has remained since. The NAFL has the highest attendance of any sporting league in the world, and the Super Bowl is the largest sporting event in the world, breaking records almost every year. Ten Super Bowls hold the top-10 most watched North American television broadcasts in 2016.

The Boston Bulldogs have won eight Super Bowls and have thirteen Grey Cups, making them the most successful franchise in the league, but the Green Bay Packers have nine NFL titles and four Grey Cups. The current NAFL champions are the New York Giants who defeated the Boston Bulldogs in Super Bowl LII.

 

[CosmicAsh]

The Leadership of the Soviet Union currently consists of the three most powerful members of the government. During the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev power had been gradually removed from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and entrusted to both the office of President of the Soviet Union and to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The political reforms officially separated the party apparatus from the controls of government, but for all intents and purposes the Communist Party of the Soviet Union remains the sole party of the country, and the only one that can form a majority in the Soviet.

While officially structured to make the office of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet the second most powerful position in the Soviet Union, and the defacto Head of Government, this position is in reality held by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is currently held by Maxim Suraykin, who was appointed by Mikhail Gorbachev at three in the morning Moscow time on February 24th, 2018. He had formally been a candidate member of the Politburo, but his new position granted him full permissions, and has defacto become the leader of the Soviet Union, despite Gorbachev still holding the title of President. With Gorbachev announcing he would step down, the 2018 Soviet Presidential Election will be held before April 30th. It will be the first Presidential election in the history of the Soviet Union, and Suraykin has made it known in a Saturday morning tweet he would be running to replace Gorbachev, to solidify his position as both the head of state and government of the Soviet Union. The Chairman of the Presidium, Petro Symonenko has also declared his intent to stand, which while allowed under the Constitution of the Soviet Union passed in 1999, it was not designed to be a competitive election, with the party selecting the one candidate and minor independents allowed to run, but heavily restricted. Sovietologists indicate that the challenge is seen as a leadership struggle in the Soviet Union, with hardliners and reformists clashing with one another, and this is simply the most open and public display of such a struggle.

 

[Screwhorn77]

Loving this so far, although, in Simonenko's case, you should decide what language are you speaking. The official working language of the USSR is likely Russian, and names of Ukrainians are Russified per tradition (as in, Пётр, not Петро); in English it would be as in Ukrainian, though. (Or is it different ITTL?)

Also, regarding Alaska.

1. Personally I don't really feel like Russians would actively settle Alaska (heck, I can't believe anyone would really try it). If they move onto Yukon, OTOH, they might get a stronghold there in some areas, probably even extending a little into OTL's British Columbia. So, how bilingual Alaska came to be?
2. Given the whole Russian Civil War thing, Alaska might become a center for White immigrants, some of which might contribute to Canada's culture and technological progress. And let's not forget Ukrainian Canadians. (Speaking of whom, do Russian and Ukrainian minorities exist in New England)
3. How different would Alaskan Russian be from mainland Russian?

 

[CosmicAsh]

The BEACON HILL REPORT is a Conservative news aggregation website run by former Conservative MP Anthony Clarke. Formed in 1998, the website regularly posts links to news sources gathered from around the nation and North America. Clarke and the website are based out of Springfield, Massachusetts Bay and has a very small staff. It gained major notoriety when it was the first news source to break the Kerry government corruption scandal. Despite its conservative viewpoint, the website offers traffic to both left and right-leaning websites and Clarke has stated the mission of the website was to "inform New Englanders." The rightward-lean mostly comes in the form of selectively edited news titles and idle speculation on the part of Clarke. His style, copied from the American Matt Drudge in the United States, is popular with New Englanders, as the website often competes with BBC New England and NECN for page views.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Loving this so far, although, in Simonenko's case, you should decide what language are you speaking. The official working language of the USSR is likely Russian, and names of Ukrainians are Russified per tradition (as in, Пётр, not Петро); in English it would be as in Ukrainian, though. (Or is it different ITTL?)

Also, regarding Alaska.

1. Personally I don't really feel like Russians would actively settle Alaska (heck, I can't believe anyone would really try it). If they move onto Yukon, OTOH, they might get a stronghold there in some areas, probably even extending a little into OTL's British Columbia. So, how bilingual Alaska came to be?
2. Given the whole Russian Civil War thing, Alaska might become a center for White immigrants, some of which might contribute to Canada's culture and technological progress. And let's not forget Ukrainian Canadians. (Speaking of whom, do Russian and Ukrainian minorities exist in New England)
3. How different would Alaskan Russian be from mainland Russian?

Thank you! I really am unsure on Russian v. Ukrainian. I admit to being wholly ignorant of it outside of some of the alphabet. I'll change it!

The Russian immigration to Alaska was more so from the White migration (Canada openly accepted them and helped evacuations from Vladivostok), and they would have settled where there was already an extant Russian community, in this case it would be McCormick. Russian settlement was at first mostly in the Alaska Panhandle, but the government stepped in and forced them out of their homes, citing the need for Canadians to use them (this happened with Americans when they also took control of Alaska).

Alaskan Russian would probably be a bit different than mainland Russian, as they would have been separated for ~100 years and mostly left to its own devices without any major government actions either for or against it. The real question is how much would a language organically change when exposed to different languages (English and French) over a century, but its never really enforced? (i/e English and French were the languages of government, but cultural activities and schooling was all mostly in Russian).

That being said, ~2.8% of New England is Russian (the census bureau lumps Russians and Ukrainians together). They are the 8th largest ethnic group in New England before First Nations and after Quebecois.

 

[The Professor]

Would Capitol be the correct term to be used? It's the US equivalent of Whitehall and New England would have their own name for their seat of Parliament.

 

[CosmicAsh]

Would Capitol be the correct term to be used? It's the US equivalent of Whitehall and New England would have their own name for their seat of Parliament.

The New England name is "Beacon Hill," which is the name of the area where the Parliament is located in. You bring up a good point through, I'll change it to that. Makes much more sense.

 

[NVB]

Can we see a glimpse into the tv of this timeline? In particular The Simpsons and Family Guy.

 

[Deleted member 100251]

Can we see a glimpse into the tv of this timeline? In particular The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Futurama too, please!

 

[CanadianTory]

So what are the polls looking like at the moment?

 

[CosmicAsh]

((Don't worry, I'll starting working on the most recent requests now))

 

[Deleted member 92121]

I would like to say that having recently discovered this Tl, i'm Extremely impressed, and also enjoying it considerably. Count me in as a fan.

One question: In the ACW section, you talk about how president Colfax was assassinated by pro-slavers, after defeating Seward in the election, and them John Freemont becoming president before Lincoln eventual takeover. However, in the list of U.S. presidents, Seward is elected, then assassinated, and appears to be a abolitionist. Wich version is correct?

Also, would love to see a political look at present Europe. Hows Germany and France? Is there some sort of European Union?

 

[CosmicAsh]

 

[VT45]

What’s the MBTA like ITTL?

 

[CosmicAsh]

I would like to say that having recently discovered this Tl, i'm Extremely impressed, and also enjoying it considerably. Count me in as a fan.

One question: In the ACW section, you talk about how president Colfax was assassinated by pro-slavers, after defeating Seward in the election, and them John Freemont becoming president before Lincoln eventual takeover. However, in the list of U.S. presidents, Seward is elected, then assassinated, and appears to be a abolitionist. Wich version is correct?

Also, would love to see a political look at present Europe. Hows Germany and France? Is there some sort of European Union?

I'm glad you like it!!

The list of U.S. Presidents is the most recent and the correct one. Thank you for brining that to my attention, I will fix it in the older version.

I'm working on a European overview. As of now, there is no European-wide union of any type, there's a series of connected economic deals and open border agreements but nothing like the EU we know.