alternatehistory.com
McCain Administration- Autumn 2013
Fall 2013
"And now Australia joins in on the party..."
"Snubbing the Sauds seems to be a bit of a sign here..."
"Just what is the Euromaiden thing going on in Ukraine?"
As the year begin dying down and people were trying to deal with the sluggish recovery of elections, another nation captures the news with elections. That of the rebound of the Australian Labor Party. While they were doing well in 2007, conflicts arose between the Labor Party and the Green Party over time led to friction. Furthermore in 2010, the Liberal/National Coalition would form a minority government, especially after the Labor and Green failed to reach an agreement as a result of leadership disputes within the Labor plus the Liberal/National Coalition's campaign on ensuring the global recession will not affect them. Unfortunately, it did not go over well. Government stimulus was lackluster compared to what the Labor party would've put in and the supposed gains of the mining boom ended up concentrated toward the well-off along with the growing influence of the Greens. As such, the Liberal/National Coalition lost to the Labor Party who went some new leadership along with stronger ties over to the Green Party. The new leader of the Labor Party after the end of the debacle between Gillard and Rudd would see Anthony Norman Albanese becoming leader of the Labour and thus leading them into reclaiming leader of Australia alongside forming a government with the Green Party. As such, he already began making arrangements of meetings with one of Australia's sibling nations in Canada and current Prime Minister Jack Layton. This has led to speculations on what effect this could have on British and to a lesser extent American elections, if it was just isolated issues or part of a greater change in the political zeitgeist of the Anglosphere. Regardless, it will be interesting what lies ahead in the future.
Albanese at the opening of the Holbrook Bypass in June 2013
Meanwhile, there were more alarming changes within that of the political zeitgeist within the world, and that was in regards to matters like the United Nations Security Council. The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending that the General Assembly accept new members to the United Nations, and approving any changes to its charter. Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations and international sanctions as well as the authorization of military actions through resolutions. In fact, it is the only body of the United Nations with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states. Initally, it did not seem like much would be dramatic, however, it did seem like it was a sign that matters would be changing. Initially, for the voting, they considered Saudi Arabia for the unofficial "Middle East" position laid out. However, the declining relations between the West and Saudi Arabia would have this be scrapped in favor of electing Iran as a member of the Security Council, as a result of their effort and work in helping out during the clean-up of the Iraqi-Syrian War. The news did make some headlines as a show that Iran was now a rising prominent regional power and the days of hostility of Iranian relations in the West seemed to be over and it was a promising sign that things would get better, something the Reformers would champion with pride given their dominance of Iran's political scene for nearly a decade and plenty of victories to ensure power. However, changing signs showed that the leftward shift was changing the politics, as the long-held hardliner bloc had fallen apart and while the Reformers were happy to exploit that, the more leftist elements of the Refomers were pushing for greater influence within the bloc.
United Nations Security Council on the United Nations Headquarters in New York City
Of course, not everything was quite positive in the world. Early Novemeber, many would see the hastag of Euromaiden going on across Twitter and it wouldn't be long before the people turned over to see it was from Ukraine. The name is composed of two parts: "Euro" is short for Europe and "maidan" refers to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). The word "Maidan" is a Turkish word meaning "square" or "open space" adopted by Ukrainians from the Ottoman Empire and described a large townsquare that would become the site of several large-scale protests that would define the Euromaiden. The reason for this was that in November 2013, President Viktor Yanukovych rejects an economic association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in favor of closer ties to Russia. This did not go well over with the population of Ukraine or the European Union unsurprisingly. Euromaiden became known and pro-EU protestors came out to protest the move. However, the protests spun over to a broader reach, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. According to the protestors, this was due to the perception of "widespread government corruption", "abuse of power", and "violation of human rights in Ukraine". In fact, Transparency International named President Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November intensified the situation and led to more protests. Unsurprisingly, many members of the European Union condemned the move and violent move against the protestors with the Untied States following suit... it seemed that situations would continue to worsen and some wonder what the future may hold...
Pro-EU demonstration in Kiev, 27 November 2013
...
...
...
"MR. PRESIDENT! MR. PRESIDENT! BOMBS HAVE GONE OFF IN THE CITY OF RIYADH!!"
...
...
...
"The whereabouts of the Royal Family are unknown..."
"And now Australia joins in on the party..."
"Snubbing the Sauds seems to be a bit of a sign here..."
"Just what is the Euromaiden thing going on in Ukraine?"
As the year begin dying down and people were trying to deal with the sluggish recovery of elections, another nation captures the news with elections. That of the rebound of the Australian Labor Party. While they were doing well in 2007, conflicts arose between the Labor Party and the Green Party over time led to friction. Furthermore in 2010, the Liberal/National Coalition would form a minority government, especially after the Labor and Green failed to reach an agreement as a result of leadership disputes within the Labor plus the Liberal/National Coalition's campaign on ensuring the global recession will not affect them. Unfortunately, it did not go over well. Government stimulus was lackluster compared to what the Labor party would've put in and the supposed gains of the mining boom ended up concentrated toward the well-off along with the growing influence of the Greens. As such, the Liberal/National Coalition lost to the Labor Party who went some new leadership along with stronger ties over to the Green Party. The new leader of the Labor Party after the end of the debacle between Gillard and Rudd would see Anthony Norman Albanese becoming leader of the Labour and thus leading them into reclaiming leader of Australia alongside forming a government with the Green Party. As such, he already began making arrangements of meetings with one of Australia's sibling nations in Canada and current Prime Minister Jack Layton. This has led to speculations on what effect this could have on British and to a lesser extent American elections, if it was just isolated issues or part of a greater change in the political zeitgeist of the Anglosphere. Regardless, it will be interesting what lies ahead in the future.
Albanese at the opening of the Holbrook Bypass in June 2013
Meanwhile, there were more alarming changes within that of the political zeitgeist within the world, and that was in regards to matters like the United Nations Security Council. The UNSC is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending that the General Assembly accept new members to the United Nations, and approving any changes to its charter. Its powers include the establishment of peacekeeping operations and international sanctions as well as the authorization of military actions through resolutions. In fact, it is the only body of the United Nations with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states. Initally, it did not seem like much would be dramatic, however, it did seem like it was a sign that matters would be changing. Initially, for the voting, they considered Saudi Arabia for the unofficial "Middle East" position laid out. However, the declining relations between the West and Saudi Arabia would have this be scrapped in favor of electing Iran as a member of the Security Council, as a result of their effort and work in helping out during the clean-up of the Iraqi-Syrian War. The news did make some headlines as a show that Iran was now a rising prominent regional power and the days of hostility of Iranian relations in the West seemed to be over and it was a promising sign that things would get better, something the Reformers would champion with pride given their dominance of Iran's political scene for nearly a decade and plenty of victories to ensure power. However, changing signs showed that the leftward shift was changing the politics, as the long-held hardliner bloc had fallen apart and while the Reformers were happy to exploit that, the more leftist elements of the Refomers were pushing for greater influence within the bloc.
United Nations Security Council on the United Nations Headquarters in New York City
Of course, not everything was quite positive in the world. Early Novemeber, many would see the hastag of Euromaiden going on across Twitter and it wouldn't be long before the people turned over to see it was from Ukraine. The name is composed of two parts: "Euro" is short for Europe and "maidan" refers to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square). The word "Maidan" is a Turkish word meaning "square" or "open space" adopted by Ukrainians from the Ottoman Empire and described a large townsquare that would become the site of several large-scale protests that would define the Euromaiden. The reason for this was that in November 2013, President Viktor Yanukovych rejects an economic association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in favor of closer ties to Russia. This did not go well over with the population of Ukraine or the European Union unsurprisingly. Euromaiden became known and pro-EU protestors came out to protest the move. However, the protests spun over to a broader reach, with calls for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. According to the protestors, this was due to the perception of "widespread government corruption", "abuse of power", and "violation of human rights in Ukraine". In fact, Transparency International named President Yanukovych as the top example of corruption in the world. The violent dispersal of protesters on 30 November intensified the situation and led to more protests. Unsurprisingly, many members of the European Union condemned the move and violent move against the protestors with the Untied States following suit... it seemed that situations would continue to worsen and some wonder what the future may hold...
Pro-EU demonstration in Kiev, 27 November 2013
...
...
...
"MR. PRESIDENT! MR. PRESIDENT! BOMBS HAVE GONE OFF IN THE CITY OF RIYADH!!"
...
...
...
"The whereabouts of the Royal Family are unknown..."
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