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A problem with the movie "Watchmen" (based on the 1986 graphic novel about an ATL where superheroes exist, and Nixon is in his 5th term) is that a plot involving an imminent nuclear holocaust, doesn't resonate with the current zeitgeist. So, WI the plot of the original graphic novel hadn't...

WI Pelosi had never become President, and Bush (or Cheney) had carried out the so-called troop "surge" in Iraq? Of course, it's now conventional wisdom, that the Iraq War was unwinnable. However, I've read some plausible-sounding arguments, that the surge would actually have had a decent...

For purposes of comparison with Amerigo Vespucci's very well done Cuban Missile War TL... Below is a TL that I've put together, of events described in Robert O'Connell's essay "The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust" from the book "What Ifs? of American History". I think there are...

Inspired by the "Images of 1984" thread... Unfortunately, it doesn't appear there's any way to create a "1984" ATL, which isn't ASB to at least some degree. The three super-state world of 1984, as described in Goldstein's "The Theory and Practice and Oligarchical Collectivism", apparently...

WI, instead of being basically a club run in perpetuity by the five nations that happened to dominate immediately after WWII, the UN had been set up as a much more democratic institution? Say that each member state were guaranteed at least one delegate in the General Assembly, and also one...

Spin-off from my thread re: Obama's "57 states" gaffe: In OTL, on May 8, 2007, Obama made the following comment (in reference to a tornado that killed 12 people in Kansas): “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. 10,000 people died — an entire town destroyed.” (He...

POD: 2007. For some reason, Mike Huckabee doesn't run. Romney wins the Iowa caucus, goes on to win New Hampshire, and the GOP nomination. For his VP, he selects the first female GOP VP nominee: Rep. Marsha Blackburn of TN. Could Romney have done 6 points better than McCain, and won? Given...

POD: Sometime between January 1991 and October 1993. Yeltsin dies, and is succeeded by his Vice-President, Alexander Rutskoi. In OTL, Rutskoi, an Afghan war hero, stayed loyal to Yeltsin during the failed Soviet coup of August 1991. However, during the October 1993 constitutional crisis, he...

The Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics is a confederation of 12 member states, 8 of which were among the 15 republics in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Azerbijan Belarus Kazkahstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan It also contains 4 republics which...

POD: August 19, 1991. Hard-liner coup is much more competent and lucky, Yeltsin is arrested along with Gorby or shot by a sniper, the coup does not unravel. Mid-portion deleted, due to ASB-ness Almost 20 years later, the USSR still exists, officially consisting of 12 republics (the Baltics...

This one may have been done already, but I couldn't find anything in a search, so... The challenge: Create an ATL where the following statement, made in OTL by Obama on May 8, 2008, is made by Obama on the same date, and is not a gaffe: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every...

POD: 2004. About 60,000 Ohio voters cast their votes differently, Kerry narrowly wins the state by a few thousand votes, and becomes POTUS. Effects: SCOTUS: Major move to the left. After 2 Kerry appointments, liberal-conservative-moderate balance on the court shifts from 4-3-2, to 6-2-1...

Note- this is not necessarily what I think would most likely have happened if the Taiping had won... but it's my best attempt at a scenario where the Taiping not only beat the Qing but also are a success afterwards... POD: 1853. After taking Tianjing (Nanjing), the Taiping do not make the...

Maybe ASB, but... POD: 1980s. For some reason, Obama becomes a conservative Republican instead of a Democrat. In 2004, his speech electrifies the GOP convention. In 2008, Senator/Governor Obama wins the GOP nomination, facing off against Senator Hillary Clinton in the general election.