How big of a difference would it make if Franco’s Spain allowed the Luftwaffe to have a safe haven to train its pilots up until around the D-Day landings in 1944? I’m thinking that it becomes a bigger advantage as the war drags on and Allied fighters are increasingly able to range deeper into...
How about requiring a 2/3 vote for the President and Deputy President from Parliament? Only in 2004 did the ANC get above that on their own. It won't affect someone like Mandela (or even Ramaphosa), but it might give the ANC pause about putting someone like Zuma forward.
Weren't there shenanigans around nominations for Deputy President at the ANC Conference in 1997 that kept Winnie Mandela from running and set Zuma up as Deputy President (and heir apparent) to Mbeki? That's what I'm referencing there.
Didn't Zuma in part get the job because the powers that be decided that it was time for a Zulu to be in charge? Skipping over him in favor of someone like Ramaphosa (who's probably about as good as you're going to get from this incarnation of the ANC) would have been an unmitigated good thing...
I'm not so sure. I had a 5 hour ride back to JNB from Kruger, and one of the guys on the minibus was some sort of electricity consultant, and the stories he told make me think that pretty much anything is better than the current situation.
I mean, it's definitely an escalation. They've attacked America proper, not some naval base or embassy overseas. That said, they didn't just massacre thousands of innocent civilians on live television. I wonder if long term this is accidentally good for Osama and al Qaida-they've attacked yet...
Okay, I'll have another go at this. With Labour victorious in the 1945 general election, and Britain bankrupt from the costs of fighting the WW2, the Atlee government introduces a permit requirement for residency in London (as well as other heavily bombed cities like Hull). The intent is to...
The Luftwaffe does much better during the Battle of Britain, coming to within a whisker of actually winning the Battle of Britain. Due to better management at high levels, the Luftwaffe continues to be able to hammer London up until late 1943. The net effect is that 50 percent more buildings are...
Yes, only the Pentagon gets hit. New York and the Twin Towers escape unscathed. Americans as a whole are not going to suffer the associated mental trauma-this is going to be like a mildly worse Oklahoma City bombing at worst. Everyone remembers what they were doing when they got the news of...
September 11, 2001
Boston Logan International Airport, MA
7:58 AM
"Attention ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking, you may have noticed that we haven't pushed back yet. I'm sorry to inform you that FAA computers are down in Cleveland, we will be delayed due to limited flow capacity...
I'm wondering, just how much uglier/out of touch/out of control can Thatcher and Thatcherism get after the 1983 election? Say that she becomes convinced that she's completely safe from both being booted from power by the electorate, Labour, or from opposition within her own party for the next...
A conversation with a friend today led me to wonder what the GOP might look like today with no 9/11 (and assuming no 9/11 scale terrorist event). ''
My take was that the GOP is in something of a more moderate place. W's never going to get any support for any action in Iraq beyond limited...