A Shift in Priorities

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Actually just realized that the psychotherapists also might cause this, they try to cure the boy of his suicidal tendencies, in doing so, they might not remove the original cause, just redirect his emotions towards anger/revenge to the ones that took his beloved Vira away.
 

abc123

Banned
I fully agree. I think that Fraijln Wach may try to liberate her, and I can imagine that they get some helpful information from the Heymshtot secret service to do so, yet very discretely.

Another possibility is that the Heymshtot wants to use this to weaken Okhrana. Say they loose that girl of the tsarevitch again and then she makes her adventures public, say in China...

I pretty much doubt in informations from Heymstot Intelligence. At least officialy. OFC, some member of HI can do that on his own hand, but HI has nothing to gain by pissing Okhrana...

After all, Russia is a neighbor of Heymstot, and a pretty big and strong neighbour, so pissing off Russia isn't the wisest thing to do.

Bolded part is a real danger, and that's the reason why I said that Okhrana should disposed them both right away, allready in Argentine or in ship, after gaining money and hazienda from Vira.
;)
 
On top of the mountain lives the eagle, and the fly lives on the horse’s butt.
(Albanian proverb)

Downing one more glass of Rakı, Luigi Esposito stared at the classy woman who had just taken the seat beside him at the bar. She was a long-legged beauty with big breasts – and Luigi could clearly see her erect nipples under the thin cover of her silken cleavage dress. She beamed at him with black-rimmed eyes and lips painted glossy red and shook her shining chestnut-coloured hair in an inviting gesture. Luigi sensed his prick going rigid and pressing acutely against his fly.
“Shall we go to my room?” she asked in poor Italian.
“How much?” Luigi queried in return.
The woman smiled teasingly.
“Twenty Lekë – thirty, if you want without rubber…”

The barmaid placed another Rakı in front of Luigi.
“Want buy drink for the lady?” she inquired in pitiful Italian.
“What would you like to drink?” Luigi asked the hottie, while mentally converting her price into Lire. This was a real bargain!
“Same as you.”
The barmaid handed her a filled glass. They chinked glasses and drank.
“What’s your name?”
“Lule – that means flower in Albanian. And you?”
Unsolicited, the barmaid refilled their glasses.
“Luigi – that’s a short form of Ludovico.”
They drank again.

When Luigi awoke, he was naked and lying on his back on a garbage heap. Still stinking drunk, he rose to his feet and lurched away from this inclement and cold location, trying to find a more comfortable place to sleep it off.

When he awoke next, he was dragged away by two policemen. His babbling protests were ignored and his weak resistance resolutely broken. The Albanian police station had no sobering-up cell, therefore Luigi ended up in the backyard of the station, handcuffed to a wall. But at least the policemen had the clemency to provide him with some reeking rags to cover his bareness.

As Luigi had no baksheesh to offer, the policemen were not eager to help him out of his embarrassing situation, and it took almost a day before an employee of the Italian consulate arrived and bailed him out. At least, Luigi was sober again at this point in time.

He had a complete blackout, couldn’t remember anything that had happened after he had told his name to Lule. His clothes, his money, his passport and his papers were gone. – The consulate man accompanied him to his hotel, promised him a provisory passport and some money for tomorrow – and left. After phoning his company and telling them that he was delayed, Luigi took a bath and afterwards donned a new suit.

Finding the bar again wasn’t difficult – but didn’t help much. The barmaid didn’t know whereto Lule had led him when they had finally left the bar; and she didn’t know Lule, had seen her for the first time on that evening two days ago…

It was hopeless, Luigi soon realised. And although Durazzo – or Durrës, as the Albanians called their capital – wasn’t really large, there also was no prospect of finding Lule. The consulate man, who came to his hotel as promised the day before, said that there had been other cases like Luigi’s in the recent past. It was believed that a gang had specialised on foreign business men sojourning in Durazzo.

So, this had been an expensive weekend off. Sullenly, Luigi returned to the construction site. His company had won the contract for the section Durazzo – Struga of the Trans-Balkan Rail- and Motorway that was currently under construction from Burgas on the coast of the Black Sea to Durazzo on the coast of the Adriatic. His project was the railway tunnel between Përrenjas on the Albanian side and Radolishta on the Bulgarian side of the mountains lining Lake Ohrid in the west. With a length of 10.5 kilometres this tunnel was quite an ambitious undertaking. As site manager, Luigi had to co-ordinate the work of some 2.000 people, Italians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Swiss. – And with his recreational weekend trip to Durazzo gone adrift, Luigi was in no mood to listen to the eternal complaints of the foremen. He would – in effigy – whip them to work…
 
Funny stuff. Poor Luigi.
I keep seeing a downtrodden naked Luigi chained to a wall with only his green hat left. And Mario bailing him out...
 
Am grinning here too. maybe a good inspiration for nintendo for a new sequel? (or prequel).

Apart from that will be interesting to see what organisation is behind this, considering the job Luigi does, it means he has access to a large amount of explosives (for blasting tunnels). Sounds like a identity theft kind of thing too.
 
Secrets with girls, like loaded guns with boys, are never valued till they make a noise.
(George Crabbe)

Gitel, his secretary, interrupted Isaak Teitelbaum’s cosy after-lunch nap.
“It’s this Okhrana operative again, Isaak, Her Bazarov, on the phone. – He would like to make an appointment with you.”
Groaning, Teitelbaum set up on his sofa, rubbing his eyes.
“Is the bloke in town already?”
“Yes, he’s at the Russian embassy.”
“Okay, tell him he just can hop in now for a jolly cup of coffee – and make some fresh coffee, please.”

Fifteen minutes later, Boris J. Bazarov arrived and first of all delivered a flower bouquet to Gitel.
“For the speedy service, Miss Katz; always a pleasure to deal with you.”
After shaking hands with Teitelbaum, both men sat down in the conversation pit of Teitelbaum’s office, which provided a magnificent view of Byalistok and Nai-Byalistok, the government district. While Gitel served the coffee, they exchanged courtesies and made some small talk.

“Well, what leads you to me again?” asked Teitelbaum, when Gitel had minced out of the office and closed the door.
“Just wanted to let you know that our operation has been successful. – We apprehended Bobkova, and the Tsarina got her precious money back. That substantially reduced her enmity opposite our prime minister. – How’s Boikova doing?”
“Gee, she’s pretty much traumatised, as could be expected. – What did you do with Bobkova?”

“Ah, I would have eliminated her in Argentina, but General Diterikhs insisted that she be brought back to Russia. You know, the General is kind of romantic and gallant when it comes to dames. He even dreamt of making her an Okhrana agent. Luckily, he finally realised that this wouldn’t work…”
“And what happened to Miss Bobkova’s escort, Miss Mandlstajn? She’s a citizen of the Heymshtot, after all.”

“That’s what I wanted to discuss with you. – While the General dismissed the idea of recruiting Bobkova, he still wants to win Miss Mandlstajn for the Okhrana. The woman really would make an eminent operative. – But I don’t think it will work. – And I reckon I can dissuade the General from this idea – if you offer Gurkov and Billinsky in exchange for Miss Mandlstajn.”

“The two spooks we arrested when they tried to copy our Stats Armej’s alarm calendar?”
“Well, you know how it is. – Anyway, would you be interested in the deal?”
“One private person, who doesn’t even work for the Seichl, in exchange for two professional spies? Doesn’t look to me like a fair deal… – Actually, I think that the information you have on the German experimental rocket site near Wolgast – and Miss Mandlstajn – would make a fair counterpoise for Gurkov and Billinsky.”

Bazarov smiled appreciatively.
“So, the Abwehr seized your mole in Colonel Milch’s office? A pity! – Well, yes, I could imagine that we could make available this information, if you add your dossier dealing with Mister Goddard to the deal…”

December 1st, 1933, was a cold and sunless day. Some five centimetres of snow were – on average – covering the Heymshtot. But for Fajga Mandlstajn, who had just arrived with a train coming from Russia, it was a bright and joyous day. The Russians had treated her quite well; nevertheless she had always felt like a prisoner. Even General Diterikhs’ gallantry hadn’t made her feel at home. And working for the Okhrana had been completely out of question… Although she had been born in Russia, she no longer had ties to Russia. She was a proud and faithful citizen of the Heymshtot now – and would never betray her adopted nation.

A stranger, who introduced himself as Isaak Teitelbaum, awaited her on the platform and welcomed her back home. He had an offer to make…
 
looks to me that the fact that the amount of spies being much bigger than otl (at least it looks to me that way) has caused them to act a little bit more practical (less hysteric as otl at least) when it comes to espionage.
 
Running a large country is like cooking a small fish.
(Laozi – Tao Te Ching)

Chinese Prime Minister Feng Hào had decided that his age was 42, although the date of his birth was far from certain. What was certain was that his parents had been poor rice farmers in the foothills of the Nanling Mountains in the south of Hunan. Being a third son, Feng had never attended school, but had been working – mainly in the rice fields – from early childhood on.

Feng’s life had radically changed when he compulsorily had been recruited into the ‘army’ of Peng Dehuai. Peng, who was even younger than Feng, came from a still poorer Hunan background. He had become a soldier in 1916, and in 1921 had founded his own outfit. Loosely allied with the powers residing in Guangzhou, Peng had controlled southern Hunan in their name.

Finding a soldier’s life much more agreeable than a miserable peasant’s existence and proving a certain ability to motivate his fellow soldiers, Feng, who also showed great prowess in combat, had quickly risen in rank under Peng’s patronage. In order to prepare him for becoming a company commander, Peng had ministered private tuition to Feng, who thus had been able to pick up some basic education – although reading and writing never would be his favourites.

But then General Chiang had ‘integrated’ Peng’s ‘army’ into the Republic of China’s forces. For Peng and Feng this had meant replacement by trained and educated officers coming from the Guangzhou military academy. After Peng had rebelled against his demotion – and been killed in the process, Feng had quit and gone home.

At that time, Zhu De, a renegade warlord army officer and former opium smoker, had started scratching together a peasants’ movement in Hunan and Sichuan. Witnessing that Feng – although hardly educated – had the power of the word and could address his fellow-peasants in a way they could easily comprehend, Zhu had recruited him for his fledgling movement.

The peasants had strongly supported General Chiang’s policy of Chinese unification, but had been disappointed in their hope for a land reform. The war for Xinjiang had completely alienated them from Chiang. While Feng had organised armed resistance in the final phase of Chiang’s rule, Zhu had started smoking opium again and had eventually slipped to irrelevance.

When General Liou had formed the Round Table in Beijing, Feng had begun synchronising the various peasants’ movements in China. – Because Feng had a strong talent to influence others – and because Feng’s way of life was impeccable, he quickly had risen to become the overall leader of the peasants. Feng neither drunk nor did he take drugs; he was no womaniser, but a devoted husband and father. That he eventually was getting richer and richer, only qualified him more in the perception of his clientele; after all, this was what every Chinese farmer dreamt of.

As Imperial Chancellor, Feng’s foremost task would be to keep the Combined Peasants’ Party functional and united. There were many centrifugal tendencies in the movement, as well as regional sensitivities. Only if he managed bringing off a land reform, could he hope to keep the peasants together. The land reform had been the touchiest part of the negotiations with his coalition partner, the right ‘wing’ of the Round Table. Fortunately, the military men of the right ‘wing’ hadn’t been opposed to land reform – and had finally swayed the representatives of the Shenshi, the landed gentry, to accept a reform.

The peasants – like many Chinese intellectuals – were rather xenophobic. Under General Chiang’s rule, foreign privileges and concessions hadn’t been touched – they had been seen as possibilities for acquiring foreign loans and selling Chinese goods, a stance that the Round Table had perpetuated. Under Feng’s rule this was going to change…

And finally, there was the Russian danger, of which General Liou, the minister of war in Feng’s cabinet, talked so often. Feng could imagine that the Russians might want Heilongjiang and Jilin back. Possession of Hăishēnwăi would provide them with a port clear of ice on the Pacific Ocean. One would have to see how things developed.

The East Asian League did not play a prominent role in Feng’s deliberations. He saw the Japanese as another kind of irksome foreigners; the Vietnamese and Siamese were hardly more than cattle for him.
 
¡ Hi ! ¡ NICE MATUTIN QUOTE !:D:cool:.

I think that Middleafrican citizens maybe will it be learning the important lesson for the survival of that country, that if are united can conquer and defeat all the problems:), the scary part i supose that are becoming some scary kind of middleafrican superpower:eek:.

Yep, the Heymslot are playing very well the game of spies for survival:D, and i liked the fact that some high spies how to say, ask and given favours and information for obtain proffits, resources, gains, you know, and i suspect that Heymslot industries will it be obtain a lot of tecnologies because Heymslot´s spies:rolleyes:.

And for last, for some time the alliance between farmers and military people will it became the elite, the higer class of China, and why i suspect that maybe is posible a war between Russia and China:eek:, and after that the Japanese empire maybe will it be the real winners of that war;):D;).

Is latte, i going to sleep.

Peace, good night and good luck:).
 
Interesting developments in China.

The land reform is indeed important and could be greatly beneficial - if handled correctly. It will be of major importance how the interests of the landed gentry (probably still an important group as they can provide capital and skills) and the peasants are balanced out.

On the other side, xenophobia and isolationism in China reemerging will not do them any good. And in the shaky economic situation china probably still is in, any alienating of western countries should reduce investment from there.

In any case, the Japanese got the rising tensions between China and Russia leading to an arms race. Feng being ignorant of the East Asian League leaves the South-East Asian members open for Japanese influence, which is also in their interest.
 
Considering the americans were one of the major investors in china, maybe McAdoo gets his next foreign war after all. It could get interesting though because it might get the americans and the russians cooperating.
 
Too bad about what happened to Peng Dehaui. He was actually one of those rare idealistic communists who actually believed the rhetoric and tried to live by it. Furthermore, he's the man in OTL who led the PRC forces against the US forces in Korea and inflicted the longest retreat in US military history; China lost a very able individual...
 
History of all society hitherto is a history of class struggles.
(Friedrich Engels)

It all was the socialists’ fault, reasoned Heinrich von Schnee. The Middle African socialists had wheeled and dealt with the German socialists – and his disempowerment had been the consequence…
That Berlin should agree to the impertinence of the first ministers had come as a rude shock for von Schnee and General von Bauer, but the Wels government had been unambiguous: Erika Djapailo’s foray was to be followed – and the council would become the responsible policy-maker in Middle Africa.

Affronted, von Schnee had initially considered resigning, but then he would have lost all influence… – something to be categorically avoided. Thus, he had eventually accepted the new arrangement, although grudgingly.
General von Bauer, by the way, had quickly bought the concept, as it placed him under the council’s control – and no longer under von Schnee’s personal supervision.

As it had turned out, the first ministers had quite a consistent concept. The council would decide, and then leave execution to von Schnee and his administration – or to General von Bauer in matters military. Von Schnee was given two votes, von Bauer one vote. Thus, the total number of votes would be thirteen, leaving the seven socialist first ministers in control of everything.
And seeing money flow in certain directions, it soon became clear for von Schnee why the three non-socialist first ministers had agreed so readily to the scheme.

In real life, however, all plans for further development and growth had long been completed – and couldn’t easily be changed. Therefore, von Schnee quickly discovered that he could talk the council in waving decisions through which were in accordance with long-term planning.
And while the socialist first ministers were concerned with workers’ rights, they understood very well that creating workplaces was the prerequisite for having workers, about whose rights they might worry.

Because the first ministers also had to govern their provinces, the council only met once in a fortnight – and von Schnee’s staff was the institution distributing the minutes of the last meeting and designing the agenda for the next.
What von Schnee, however, failed to notice, was the rivalry between two Middle African groups: There were the elected governments of the ten provinces; and there was the established administration with its bureaucratic elite; hitherto the uncontested masters of proceedings. And the bureaucrats were not at all pleased about parliamentary socialist control of their doings.

The bureaucrats, who had already manipulated von Schnee in recent years, were determined to repeat this manipulation with the first ministers. – But while the two tribal and the one religious first ministers were naïve victims of such intrigue, the socialist ones – warned by their German mentors, who had made comparable experiences with the authoritarian German administration in the early 1920ies – were well aware what the bureaucrats were up to.
On provincial level, they had already begun restructuring administrative processes in order to bring it under their control. But on national level, von Schnee’s central administration proved to be very much resistant against political meddling – and the bureaucrats were defending their sinecure with tooth and nail.

Because in that struggle the Middle African military was siding with the bureaucrats, as were the railway administration and other important managing boards, the overall situation resulted in a draw. For every little advance the socialists were making on provincial level, the central administration would throw a spanner in the works in order to slow it down or rescind it.
While Heinrich von Schnee was believing that things were going to work out positively – even with the council established – a hidden struggle for domination in Middle Africa was raging below the surface.
 
The fight for control of Middle Africa as described will continue on for decades. If you fast forwarded fifty years you would find the same players, more or less, operating as political parties. As a middle class evolves in MA it be yet one more faction.
 
As long as they use political moves instead of shoddy ex-Soviet AKs, RPGs and Child soldiers, the continent as a whole is better off.
 
[FONT=&quot]You see, I had been riding with the storm clouds, and had come to earth as rain, and it was drought that I had killed with the power that the Six Grandfathers gave me.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot](Hehaka Sapa, aka Black Elk)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There had been fourteen durst storms in 1932, and thirty-eight in 1933 – but there was an indication that the drought was going to end. In fact, 1932 and 1933 had been less dry than 1930 and 1931. So, the ‘black blizzards’ were a result of the 1930-31 droughts; and precipitation was increasing again since 1932. Thus, in 1934 the problem might be overcome eventually.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]That, at least, was the official interpretation of the McAdoo administration.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]But it wasn’t the developing ‘Dust Bowl’ alone that was bothering people in the Midwest; in fact, the area affected by extreme erosion of the top soil, although touching several states – Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas – wasn’t that large compared to the overall agricultural surface available. And even if the drought had led to failing crops in states not dust-stricken, it were shrinking profits due to declining market prices that caused most farmers to resign. Despite the meteorological problems, the Midwest was still producing more foodstuffs than the markets could absorb for prices covering the expenses of the farmers.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And there was competition; Canada was the largest producer of wheat in the world, even if some areas in Saskatchewan were also affected by the drought. Cheap Canadian wheat fed the British – and flooded the US market. The effect of falling prices in Canada was the same as in the US: many farmers were driven from their land and migrated to the urban centres. Nevertheless, overall wheat production remained high. – Calls for a tariff act in order to protect US farmers from competition went unheard, the McAdoo administration did not want to hurt Canada, as they intended to loosen the Canadian ties to Great Britain and to bond the country closer to the US.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There was quite a welcome aspect in the agricultural crisis for President McAdoo and his team: White Midwest persons migrated to the centres of industrial production in the East, Northeast and West where the armaments programmes were creating jobs. Thus, white workers would always be available in sufficient numbers – and no requirement for recruiting Negroes from the southern states would develop. Therefore, the Great Negro Migration that had taken place between 1910 and 1930 and had seen approximately two million blacks move to the Northeast, Midwest and West wouldn’t be rekindled.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]In fact, the armaments programmes and the creation of additional large military units had kept general unemployment rates low, only public debt was drastically on the rise – but as long as the big banks were lending money, this was not a concern. The idea that the United States of America could ever go broke was just ridiculous. And the banks were earning well in the process, as the interest rates remained constantly high, thus they had even more money available for new loans.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]What was slowly forming was a very healthy and effective military-industrial complex, attracting hundreds of thousands engineers and technicians, leading to improved construction methods and many technical improvements. The US armaments industry was leaping ahead with technical innovation as the best brains of the country were contributing to its amplification and expansion. One could justifiably expect to take the lead in many fields of development of military hardware – and hopefully become a major vendor ...[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]As people increasingly were finding new jobs, the readiness to invest in consumer goods was slowly but steadily growing, further strengthening economical recovery. This process was thought to bring back prosperity as it had existed before the 1930 stock market crash and the subsequent banking crisis.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thus, although many people in the Midwest were discontent – if not desperate – and sensing that they were being sacrificed for the benefit of the industrial areas in east and west, the general appreciation in the US population was one of careful optimism. – While the administration had clearly produced a lot of failure in the armed conflicts since 1930, they obviously had managed to re-vigorate US economy. And for the bulk of common US citizens domestic economical well-being and availability of jobs were far more important than strange adventures in foreign countries.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]That many members the east coast WASP elites were unhappy with the conduct of the Trans-Atlantic War and the Mexican Mess was merely a side note, which found expression in a lot of educated publications – but hardly bothered the working man down the road. As democracy was the predominant form of government worldwide, a special US American sense of mission for spreading democracy had never developed. There was nothing special that the US could teach the world.[/FONT]
 
The loan/mortgage bubble 80 years early? i can see this go very bad.

The private debt bubble already developped earlier. Not much time has elapsed since then to allow for deleveraging, yet inflation was high, right?

Now with the economy improving, high inflation and affordable loans, home construction should boom soon. It'S rather likely that the government supports this to set the economic development on a broader basis. Thus I think the last mortgage/loan bubble has not ended yet and will increase now even more.

rast is bilding the mother of all crisis for the US: Great Depression + High Inflation + Racism + Vietnam (Islands and Middle America) + lost Vietnam (Mexico) + 2011 government debt levels + incompetent government.
 
The private debt bubble already developped earlier. Not much time has elapsed since then to allow for deleveraging, yet inflation was high, right?

Now with the economy improving, high inflation and affordable loans, home construction should boom soon. It'S rather likely that the government supports this to set the economic development on a broader basis. Thus I think the last mortgage/loan bubble has not ended yet and will increase now even more.

rast is bilding the mother of all crisis for the US: Great Depression + High Inflation + Racism + Vietnam (Islands and Middle America) + lost Vietnam (Mexico) + 2011 government debt levels + incompetent government.

yes - i am really interested what will happen - he is a god of irony and also create really nasty surprises for all sides (midlle africa starting to be a big pain in the butt of germany :D)
 
Sooner or later the whole house of cards that is the American situation is going to fall over. It seems that Rast is aiming to have it be the most complete collapse possible. This goes beyond moving the pieces, this is burning the board that the game is played on. At its most basic level the America of the last half of the twentieth century will be rendered unrecognizable by the mighty butterfly.

Of course Middle Africa will be Middle Africa's problem in a few more years.
 
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