I posted this back on the third thread, page 344:
In November 1970, Rafael Bienvenido Cruz died in a car accident. His widow, Eleanor Wilson, then gave birth to their son while staying in Delaware. To honor her husband she named the child Bienvenido Rafael Cruz, nicknamed “Ben” for short. Three years later, Eleanor remarried to American academic
Peter Carson (1938-2018). Ben Cruz’s last name was legally changed to Carson shortly afterwards. Ben Carson grew up to become a US Senator in 2012 and a candidate for President in 2016. In early 2015, another Ben Carson, this one a conservative neurosurgeon, endorsed Senator Carson for President instead of running himself, saying “one Carson is enough.”
But if you thought
THAT was trippy…
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BY ANY OTHER NAME
The 2016 presidential election saw several candidates run. The following four were among the most talked-about:
Donna Trump was born into the world of business in the form of a conservative family headed by a determined businessman. On October 10, 1947, small-time businessman Hugh Rodham of Illinois was severely injured in a car accident. Sixteen days later, his wife, Dorothy Howell, gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Donna, after the nurse that saved her husband’s life at the crash site. Due to her father’s injuries, Donna Rodham often spent time helping her father run his textile business, becoming an expert in business. In 1968, Donna married
William Trump (1923-1999), USCG hero and the namesake of the USCGC
William Trump. In late 1971, shortly after Donna Rodham Trump turned 24, Hugh Rodham retired from actively running his textile business, passing over control to his more capable daughter. From there, Donna renamed the business “The Rodham-Trump Organization,” or “RTO,” and expanded development and influence into sales and marketing, retail, and property management. By 1989, Donna, by then known as Donna Trump, was a multi-millionaire; she was dubbed “The Queen of Chicago,” the headquarters of her multimillion-dollar empire. After suffering through scandal and business losses in the 1990s, she briefly ran for President in 2000, but dropped out in January upon the death of her husband in December, along with some gaffes and some conflicts with the Reform Party. In 2004, though, Donna, now nicknamed “Don” or “The Don,” returned to fame (and increased her wealth) by creating a TV series called “Trump’s Billions,” which was a success. She remarried in 2005. In 2015, Donna Trump, still sporting her iconic “female gym teacher”/“I’d like to speak to the manager”-like short hairstyle, announced her run for President, running on a populist and nationalist platform focusing on renegotiating America’s trade deals, increasing the development of American businesses and jobs, and enforcing stricter immigration laws.
Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, was born into unexpected poverty. On April 5, 1946, wealthy New York businessman Frederick “Fred” Trump died in a fire that burned to the ground the headquarters of the Trump Organization, his family business. On June 14, 1946, his widow, Mary Anne McLeod Trump, gave birth to their son; on a whim, she named him after
Hilary Knight (b. 1926), a writer and illustrator she had recently acquainted. With Mary Anne having recovered emotionally but not financially from the tragedy, she remarried to “a handsome, hell-raising, twice-divorced man from Hot Springs Arkansas,” a car salesman named
Roger Clinton. Hilary later described his stepfather as“tough, firm, angry, and mean, but fair,” though his alcoholism was a cited reason for Hilary “caring about and supporting families throughout [his] entire career.” In 1962, while visiting Oakland, CA, Hilary met Native-American
Wilma Pearl Mankiller; after marrying in 1964, Wilma starting using the nickname “Billie.” It was during the height of the anti-war protests that Billie and Hilary Clinton found their passion for politics. In the 1970s, Wilma went from activist to Congresswoman. Billie Clinton was elected Governor of California in 1986 and 1990, and America’s first female and first Native American President in 1992. However, her administration was marred by scandal, giving her the nickname “Slick Willie,” in which First Gentleman Hilary Clinton was accused of misusing funds to finance several extramarital affairs. However, Hilary Clinton redeemed himself by being elected to the US Senate from California in 2004, defeating incumbent Sonny Bono. After then serving as the US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, Hilary announced his run for President in 2015. He was strongly endorsed by controversial rapper Biggy-Squared (b.
William Blythe III) and ran as the establishment figure, but also on the idea of becoming America’s first completely bald President. However, Clinton consistently had to deal with scandals ranging from sexual harassment allegations to misuse of his Twitter account while serving as Secretary of State.
The one candidate that everyone expected to be the Republican nominee, only to end up not winning a single primary, was the brother of a former President, and that man was former Governor
Jeb Bush. The family name was originally Sanders, but the father, Eli Sanders, changed their name and religion in 1941, fearing the Jewish prosecution occurring overseas could possibly occur in the United States. He changed their last name to Bush after baseball player
Owen Joseph "Donie" Bush (1887-1972), of whom Eli was a fan. Furthermore, Eli and his wife Dorothy named their first son
George Washington Sanders (later changed to Bush, b. 1934) after George Washington, and their second son Joseph Eli Bush (b. 1941) after the same baseball player. The Bush brothers also hailed from New York originally, but after their parents died in 1959 and 1962, they relocated to Texas for a change in scenery. That is where Jeb’s older brother, George, struck it rich in the oil business in 1971. It was also here that Joseph received the nickname Jeb, a composition of his initials (J. E. B.). Despite the brothers’ business suffering after 1982, they retained a very large amount of wealth. After working in the Rumsfeld Administration (1989-1993) as an economic advisor from 1989 to early 1990, George decided to run for Governor, being elected in 1994 and again in 1998; in 2000, he was elected President. Jeb, meanwhile, served as Governor of Florida for eight years. However, upon running for President in 2015, he was criticized by Donna Trump for being too “low energy” and by others for being a crony-capitalist and an establishment candidate whom would only help the rich get richer (accusations that his brother also faced in 2000 and 2004) – his tanned skin and perfectly-styled hair only supported these suggestions.
Bernie Sanders, however, was the opposite of low energy – he started a grassroots progressive movement within the Democratic Party led by millennials and minorities. Ironically, Bernard Ellis Sanders was born into a rich family in 1953. His birth name was Bernard Ellis Bush, and his first name came from famous playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), as his mother, Barbara Bush, read some of Shaw’s writings while pregnant with Bernie. However, Bernie’s outlook on life changed abruptly at the age of 18, when he was drafted into the US Army to fight in Vietnam. Despite being a former Congressman, his father was unable to get him out of it. Bernie was shocked and traumatized by the battlefield, especially after stumbling upon a destroyed village full of “dead or dying children and old people” in late 1971. After being honorably discharged in 1972, Bernie moved to Vermont for a change of scenery. It was here that Bernie fell into the “hippie” crowd, tried marijuana for the first time, and ultimately met the love of his life. She was a “flower child,” or more specifically, a college dropout whom had been sleeping in a tent when he first met her at a concert. She was called Sundrop Sanders, and soon, in 1973, Bernie adopted her last name to prove how much he loved her. They married later that year. After that, Sanders worked as a liberal newspaper columnist until being elected mayor of Burlington (while his father strongly disagreed with his son’s lifestyle, he was nevertheless very proud of him being elected mayor, and without any help from his old man, either). After that, followed by a career in Congress (like his father), then the US Senate, Sanders ran for President of the United States in 2016, and in doing so became the face of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
So, list of US Presidents here:
1981-1989: Ronald Reagan (VP: Rumsfeld, because butterflies)
1989-1993: Donald Rumsfeld (VP: Dole, meaning Dukakis picked Glenn over Bentsen)
1993-2001: Wilma Mankiller Clinton, a.k.a. Billie Clinton, or “Bill” Clinton (VP: Gore, because why not?)
2001-2009: George W. Bush (that’s George
Washington Bush, thank you very much!; VP: Danforth)
2009-2017: Barack Obama (because Obama is immune to butterflies!; VP: Biden)
2017-->: Donna Trump (well, at least she’s President here…; VP: Pence)
12/31/16 EDIT: Added a 2016 election infobox (that, admittedly, barely needed to be altered from OTL's 2016), just because:
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Please don’t hate me, this was just an exercise in imagination…