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Five years later anglers have quite the journey from eating fish with LSD concentrations.

Workable bikes arising prior to/without the Bessemer process for mass producing steel strikes me as distinctly unlikely. Also the late 18th century potential consumer base was notably limited. Perhaps if Revolutionary France promoted the draysine in the manner it did optical...

End separation of powers in the US federal government and reaganomics becomes far more divisive. To some extent, people in the UK were voting against or for an economic outlook, whereas in the US the choice was between 2 people. The US president neither controls Congress nor implements the...

I think the (Western) european papacy hinged, as much as anything on geography: relatively short distances and a high-ish population density guaranteed good communications and fundamentally enabled a church hierarchy centered on Rome. The crusades helped sustain Latin Catholic fervor, but it...

Chavez dying under "protective custody" or being "shot while attempting escape" would provide the rebels with a bloody shirt par excellence and might also touch off rioting/strikes. In a nutshell, have the Venezuelan government overreact.

It might have been mentioned previously, but Spain emerging as a constitutional monarchy after decades of fascism. Also, Mitterrand supporting deployment of pershing II missiles to W. Germany or Rep. of China "Taiwan" holding veto power on the UN security for roughly 25 years.

How plausible is Malaysia-style, semi elective monarchy in newly independent Pakistan? I realize Jinnah had originally supported the Congress party and so might be weary of monarchism, but perhaps influential generals or aristocratic, right-wing politicians would support a monarch chosen by...

Perhaps Edward VII lives a few more years and intervenes in political battle over reforming the House of Lords or worse, Irish Home rule. OTL these were implemented under George who early in his reign had rather less political acumen than his father. My main source for this statement is...

Offhand, an earlier, sharper (more severe 1969 gold crisis?) inflationary shock might make the scenario plausible.

Granted it was a 6-3, but Twin cities new party v. (can't remember) had significant repercussions by restricting political fusion. If the 1990's decision were upended, I see the tea party emerging as a right wing equivalent of the left leaning new party.

I suspect Bush would narrowly win the Republican nomination after a fraught battle with Pat Buchanan or a similar candidate of the populist right. The primary fight would roughly parallel the OTL Democratic contest between Mondale and Gary Hart. As an aside, Hart would seem a plausible vice...

No prohibition strongly implies no ATF and a far weaker FBI, so the Mafia families would have better long-term survival prospects. Perhaps rather than OTL's "intensive" organized crime, we might see more "extensive" criminal networks, where ties between the Italian/Sicilian and US Mafias remain...

How plausible is Malcolm Rifkind?

Other than Wilson's 1880's Doctoral thesis (IIRC entitled "Congressional government" -cabinet to be selected from the House), I've seen no references to that particular reform effort. The 'discussions' must have involved proposed constitutional amendments. Reducing the threshold to override...

Perhaps the whigs evolve into the Republican's Southern "sister party"? i.e.more pro- business, most support in the growing (though still limited) cities and towns.

Could Austria not immediately recognizing Slovenian independence have bought sufficient time to diffuse the crisis? I. E. piecemeal dissolution. The precedent set by a non-violent Yugoslav break up might well have facilitated the division of other states.

Henry Ford; had he been willing to spend more of his cavernous wealth, he could have won the Senate race he narrowly lost OTL. The incendiary, Ford-sponsored Dearborn "Independent" was briefly successful and I'd wonder if he ultimately calculated a political career was not worth the risk to his...

An obvious one- England loses the 1966 World Cup, and absent this triumph Wilson does not win a landslide for Labour. I've certainly wondered how much smaller the 1924 Conservative Victory might have been without the Zinoviev letter, though structural issues like the migration of Liberals were...

Either the Zenj rebellion or the Mayan Caste war, because both focused on seizing one region within a multinational polity.

I actually meant Russia mimicking the recruitment system (divishirme?) but couldn't recall the proper term. In view of the two empire's proximity, I thought it seemed a vaguely plausible convergent evolution. To the extent of my limited familiarity with Russian military history, perhaps the...