Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread II

To that Kiki just shrugged. If there was one thing that the world taught her it was that people would always find something to complain about. And some people complained louder than others.

Complaining is half the fun. The rest is disagreeing for the sake of disagreement.

Damn, but this story gets me to google so many people. x'D
 
Hopefully Kiki has gained an appreciation for the role that her family plays in Germany, one of the blank windows should have an image of a helicopter to show the importance of the changing nature of combat medicine and also some representation of the humanitarian mission that the JMS plays should be shown.

Harriman is right to downplay the Germans using the Panama Canal but he should be wary because IOTL,the Panamanian people are just starting to get a little bit froggy about the status of the canal.
On the negotiations over Guantanamo Bay, Harriman should offer two different options to the Cubans, first option a modest increase in the rent, some trade concessions, and a foreign aid package, second option is the status quo and if Cuba objects and try to do something about it then all bets are off as the United States is never going to leave Guantanamo Bay voluntary.
 
a question that I wanted to ask, what kind of power do the different Dukes of the German and the king of Bavaria have at this time.
 
This is also the 20th anniversary of the Tumbler Ridge Massacre, how is Gia holding up?
By now her life story is probably a cultural phenomenon with numerous movies, books, and even there could be a musical about her.
I wonder if she has ever asked herself what her life would have been if the massacre never happened, would her mother have become the Czarina?
Gia must look back at the thirteen year old girl and wonder what happened to her.
 
a question that I wanted to ask, what kind of power do the different Dukes of the German and the king of Bavaria have at this time.

Build more cinderella castles for the tourists. After all, germany should, in this timeline, have far more medival / baroque buildings left in its city centers, as they hadn't been arially renovated by the allies.
 
The Congressional District that Bill Stoughton represents was represented IOTL by the likes of James Michael Curley, John F. Kennedy, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and now by Joseph P.Kennedy III, the district encompasses Harvard academics, Irish dock workers from Charleston, and Italian construction workers from East Boston and they all like their politics the same way they like their Bar brawls: Bare-Knuckles.
I have no doubt that Congressman Stoughton is known to his constituents as "Big Bill" Stoughton.
The OTL voters in that district likes their Representatives to be tough, pragmatic, fighting liberals and unless something ITTL changes that district then that shouldn't be different.
While the working class people have no great love for black people they will have no hesitation in punching a Klansman in the face and then giving them a kick when they are down for the Massachusetts 54th.
 
f there was one thing that Bill Stoughton abide it was weakness in others when it came to doing the things that needed to be done, especially when they couched in terms of principle. His namesake ancestor might be painted as the villain in depictions of the hysteria that had gripped what then Massachusetts Colony, but Bill took a different perspective. Someone had needed to step in and impose order and it was an important thing that Bill understood. In a moment of crisis, people would follow those who were strong, right or wrong was simply not a factor in moments like that.

This sounds like someone ready to do a power grab. And as Speaker he is second in line to the office of president.
 
Peabody-Martini may be setting up a double fake and Job could actually still be a serial killer. Wasn't there bite marks on one of the victims? Dental impressions may not match. Very possible for multiples to be working similar areas as happened with Kroll otl
 
Part 92, Chapter 1439
Chapter One Thousand Four Hundred Thirty-Nine


24th March 1961

Munich, Bavaria

Being in the city was like an itch that he couldn’t scratch. That was how Albrecht I, King of Bavaria found it when he needed to come into Munich on official business. He much preferred to spend his time in Starnberg. In this case it involved his presence in the Landtag so that the Bavarian Parliament could be formally dissolved ahead of the General Elections that were going to be happening in a few weeks, not just in Bavaria but throughout the German Empire. Considering the complicated relationship that the Kingdom of Bavaria had with the rest of Germany, no one wanted, any funny business or even the perception of it, to occur here. As it was Bavaria made a show of maintaining its independence. The Government had more power than that of most of the other Federal States and maintained its own Military beyond the Landwehr.

Still, many who Albrecht had talked to had voiced a similar concern. Despite a robust manufacturing and aerospace sectors, Bavaria was in danger of becoming a vast theme park. Many of the same politicians he was hoping that the voters would do away with came across like if they would be pleased if history had stopped sometime in the early Nineteenth Century before all that unpleasantness that came after 1848. The SDP might be confined mostly to the cities, but their potential DEP coalition partners were expected to make a good showing in the upcoming elections. While Albrecht himself didn’t agree with everything they stood for, there was a good chance that they would finally do something about a nation that was growing stagnant. If the elections put a dent in Bavaria’s reputation of being a bastion of the Empire’s more conservative political parties, then that would be a small price to pay.

Albrecht was also in Munich to see how his son Franz, who had once again made a hash of things in Berlin just a few days earlier was fairing. While he admired the gumption that it must have taken to make a marriage proposal of a girl that he had only met before a few times in passing. He said that he had done because the prior winter when he had spoken to her, she had seemed nice. The results had been less than satisfactory, she had turned him down. It also suggested the lengths that Franz would go to get Albrecht’s approval, or at least get him off his back regarding his personal life.

The young lady who Franz had asked certainly could have complained or made a big display of publicly smashing him, but she hadn’t. Instead she had said she was flattered, but had gently explained that the answer would have to be no. In Albrecht’s thinking that was probably just as well. The girl was well known to be a blue stocking and that career of hers would have been a complete scandal just a couple generations ago. The reason that she would be going to Württemberg in a few months screamed that if she had agreed to it then the entire Kingdom would know exactly who wore the pants in that household at best. At worst, it would make plain that the whole thing was a sham. It was better that Franz remain single rather than have that happen. God only knew how long he could have managed to keep up that particular farce. Not very long if his father had to guess.


Tempelhof, Berlin

Sitting around the table in Kat’s formal dining room, it was wonderful to have Gerta and Helene for lunch like they had ages ago when they had all lived under the same roof. Of course, the topics of conversation had changed a great deal in the years since. At the moment the topic was Kiki’s encounter with the feckless Franz von Bayern.

“It seems to me that Kiki handled it the best that she could have” Kat said, “Though I think that the whole thing sort of panicked her.”

“What was running through his mind?” Helene asked, “I would be completely mortified to ask a question with even half that significance.”

“She always tries to be nice to everyone” Kat replied, “I’ve never heard her say that she actually dislikes anyone, just mentioning that she doesn’t like someone’s behavior at a given moment.”

That drew an immediate response from Gerta and Helene. They knew that there were some people who Kat couldn’t be in the same room with. It was because once they made an enemy of her then she would be inclined to deal with them as such, with savage ruthlessness.

“It was stupid, I can see that” Gerta said, “But it was also a bit romantic. Like something from a different century.”

“It was that” Kat replied, “But there is always hard cynical thinking behind this sort of thing. If you asked Klaus Voll, he would tell you that was probably all about. It was a common practice in less enlightened times to keep up appearances.”

“You cannot be serious” Helene said, “This is the Crown Prince of Bavaria that you are talking about.”

“There’s also the King of Italy” Gerta said, getting a dirty look from Helene in the process.

It had always been the same with them. Helene’s politics had always leaned to the left, but only so far as the things she was comfortable with were concerned. That included her very strait-laced personal life. Gerta on the other hand, had imagined herself as far more sexually liberated than she ultimately turned out to be, something that had included a fair amount of experimentation right up until she smashed headlong into the very real consequences that only women got to experience. While Kat wasn’t sure about what the deal was with Prince Franz, he certainly gave her the impression of a few things.

“I talked to Gia the other day” Kat said, hopefully changing the subject to a less touchy topic. “She’s in a bit of a state because the Russian State and the Orthodox Church are planning some events to honor the members of her family who died twenty years ago.”

“How is she managing?” Gerta asked, “When Gia moved to Moscow she left so much behind. I still don’t understand why she did that.”

“She had her reasons” Kat replied. Neither Helene or Gerta knew what those reasons were and why Gia had not been given a choice in the matter.

“I think that she needs to put the past firmly behind her” Helene said, “If she was smart, she would use these events to do that.”
 
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ferdi254

Banned
Actually Bavaria was one of the parts of Germany which won greatly after the war. Big influx from the east and gaining a lot from the CSU in the government. Still until 1969 their tax income was below average.

Without a German partition Bavaria would most likely have staid much longer behind the economic powerhouses of Germany.
 
If Kira was still alive ITTL, she would have rushed Kiki off to the alter so fast that it wouldn’t have been funny to Kiki, funny for us but not for Kiki.
So the Russian Orthodox Church is planning to announce some new Saints and Gia doesn’t like it, too bad Gia Russia needs its illusions and myths right now.
King Albrecht I would advise you to use it the theme park aspect to sell Bavaria to the rest of the world by pointing out that it is able to keeps its Old World charm while being on the edge of the technological revolution.
I am sure that there are a lot tourists from Japan who love the fact that Bavaria still looks like something from a fairy tale and that it modern too, and some of them could be businessmen who might be willing to invest in Bavaria.
 
Actually Bavaria was one of the parts of Germany which won greatly after the war. Big influx from the east and gaining a lot from the CSU in the government. Still until 1969 their tax income was below average.

Without a German partition Bavaria would most likely have staid much longer behind the economic powerhouses of Germany.
I am not any kind of expert on the German economy but OTL had they not got Dornier and BMW even pre WW2?
 
I am not any kind of expert on the German economy but OTL had they not got Dornier and BMW even pre WW2?

Two successful companies don't make an economic powerhouse.

Almost the whole bavarian glass-industry was (re-)build by sudeten-germany who rebuild their czech/sudeten-german glassindustry in Bavaria.
Similar to some other industrys in Bavaria/West-Germany.
And the influx of learned personel from the East did the rest.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Bavaria had some industrial centers mostly located in the north (Nürnberg, Schweinfurt).

But beware if you enter a pub in this area and say „you are all Bavarians“ you need to have a clear way to the exit and a fast car with running engine outside. This area is Franken and the people there are extremely proud of being Franken and not Bayern.

Entering an Irish pub and singing God save the queen is similarly healthy.

But by and large Bavaria was an agrarian country mostly known for its beers. The economic hothouses of Germany pre WWII were the big harbors, the Ruhr area, Berlin, Saxonia, Rhein Main area and the Southwest.
 
Bavaria had some industrial centers mostly located in the north (Nürnberg, Schweinfurt).

But beware if you enter a pub in this area and say „you are all Bavarians“ you need to have a clear way to the exit and a fast car with running engine outside. This area is Franken and the people there are extremely proud of being Franken and not Bayern.

Entering an Irish pub and singing God save the queen is similarly healthy.

But by and large Bavaria was an agrarian country mostly known for its beers. The economic hothouses of Germany pre WWII were the big harbors, the Ruhr area, Berlin, Saxonia, Rhein Main area and the Southwest.

To elaborate a bit more on that: In Bavaria there were (pre OTL WW2) several industrial centers with large corporations such as Nürnberg (MAN), Augsburg (MAN, BFW - aka Messerschmidt), Munich (Linde, BMW) among others. There were also some highly competitive universities like the Technical University in Munich. But a large part of the country was an economy based on farming or mining. Back then the industrial heartland of Germany was the Ruhr, Saxony, Silesia and to a degree Württemberg and of course the large shipyards and ship industry in the North.

After the OTL second world war Bavaria profited immensely from the fact that a several large companies had to relocate from Berlin or the then Soviet occupied East Germany. And many of those companies choose Bavaria (e.g. Siemens). At the same time the various CSU governments managed to foster industrial companies and universities and so on in order to get the economy away from farming and mining. This worked out rather well and by the 70s Bavaria was one of the more economically powerful and successful states in Germany. This trend only accelerated since then because the industrial heartland of the Ruhr lost importance due to the fact that mining and steel production grew less and less important.*

Bavaria is one of those states that completely transformed itself over the last 50 or 60 years. My father went to school in rural upper Bavarian in the 50s and he remembers that the teachers always talked about the rich states like Baden-Württemberg or North Rhine-Whestphalia.

*another reason for the sad state of some places in the Ruhr area or in the Saarland are of course questionable political decisions that just prolonged the inevitable decline of the mining and steel industries with billions of Marks and Euros in subsidies that were in the end completely useless and could've been better spent on supporting the transformation of the economy.
 
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