I have done a map and plan on posting it soon on the map thread (there I already posted the TL's version of Europe: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/map-thread-xx.492239/page-40#post-20875936)
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
- Status
The 2013 United States presidential election was held on the week of June 16 to 23, 2013 to elect the President and Vice President of the United States. After decades of single-party government under the Party of the Permanent Revolution, the United States entered the 21st century with liberal reforms and a restoration of the old electoral processes. However, the Party won the 1999 and 2007 election, as well the Congressional elections during that time span. Heading into the 2013 election, the nation was going through continued but gradual economic recovery from the 2010 recession under the leadership of President James Webb, a long time party man. Although there was some agitation to select a presidential candidate through an open vote among the national party membership, the Vanguard Committee decided to select a nominee through internal processes once again. As such, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich became the nominee. It would later transpire that Blagojevich had bought the nomination, or rather that the nomination had been bought for him by Chicago party boss Richard Daley, through his extensive control of patronage machines and buying party officers. Blagojevich agreed to adhere to Daley's wishes and reward many of his backers once he became president.
Blagojevich's primary opposition from the New Liberal Democratic Alliance, the successor to the old Democratic-Republican Party, itself a successor to the Democratic and Republican parties of the pre-revolutionary era. The Alliance nominated California Governor Gray Davis, a longtime critic of the Party and President Webb. Under Davis, California had a strong recovery from the recession, which he attributed to his liberal economic policies and not the tremendous amount of relief money they received from the federal government. The Preservationists, the public successors of the southern secret resistance to Party Rule, nominated their longtime Senator Beau Sessions. A new party emerged in this election, the Internationalists led by former Ambassador and Party bureaucrat Donald Beyer. Beyer and his associates split from the Party and believed that America needed to recommit to the International instead of isolating itself militarily and economically. He was a co-author of the Karachi Telegram, a manifesto detailing these ideas sent to all American diplomats in 2011. His running mate was another co-author, Zalmay Khalilzad.
At the end of counting, Blagojevich had won 26 states and DC with 48 million votes. Davis had also won 48 votes, but only 266 electoral votes. Blagojevich was 5 votes short of a victory, with Idaho yet to be called. There, Blagojevich was leading Davis with 104,556 to Davis's 103,824. A recount was ordered, after which Blagojevich was declared the winer by 547 votes. This gave him 362 electoral votes, the exact number needed for victory. Blagojevich took office on July 4, 2013, despite pervasive allegations that he and the Party had stolen the election. The new administration was weakened right out of the gate and was very shortlasted. Blagojevich soon found himself under investigation for corruption and fraud, which ultimately led to his resignation less than two years after taking office. His Vice President Jon Corzine was later removed from office due to his own corruption scandals, leading to the ascension of First Secretary Michelangelo Cuomo to the presidency. In the 2016 Congressional elections, the Party lost a majority for the first time since it had taken power, and the Alliance formed a coalition with other minor parties to take control of the House. Ultimately, the 2013 election was the last stand of the Party establishment, which would come tumbling down in the next decade.
The first change seem to be Chicago winning the cup in 1971 instead of Montréal (Montréal won in 7 in OTL) and then no expansion in Long Island. The WHA seem to be more successfull.
I'll take a guess: Since Montreal didn't win, Pollock take MacNeil side instead of Henri Richard (MacNeil bench Richard in game 5), Richard sign with a WHA team in the States (Miami? Houston?) but it's not enough to save the WHA. Cleveland, Colorado, Edmonton, Hartford, Houston, Miami and Winnipeg merge with the NHL in 1977 ( Houston, Cincinnati, Winnipeg, New England, Quebec, and Edmonton want to do that in OTL but the NHL refuse).
Thanks Richard, I appreciate that very much!
Well, while I'm here, might as well get this out of the way. For my next series of Thomas infoboxes, I decided that I'd do all the Skarloey Railway/Mid Sodor Railway engines first since they're the easiest to make. Well, without further ado, here's the Gallant Old Engine himself, Rheneas!
This article is about the Skarloey Railway locomotive. For the station on the Island of Sodor, see Rheneas (station).
View attachment 577707
View attachment 577708
Rheneas (Sudric for "Divided Waterfall") is a narrow gauge steam locomotive.He was built by Fletcher, Jennings & Co. in 1865 [1a][c] and is one of the oldest locomotives still in active service. He was delivered to the Skarloey Railway in 1865 and continues to run on this railway to this day. He is also twin engine of the locomotive Dolgoch of the Tallyllyn Railway, who was built a year after him.
Bio
Rheneas was built by Fletcher, Jennings & Co. in Whitehaven and was delivered by sea to Kirk Ronan in time to haul the train carrying the Board of Trade Inspector in October 1865. Unlike SKR #1 Skarloey, Rheneas was stern and thoughtful and fell out with Skarloey after the latter called him a "stick-in-the-mud" following an argument over cabs (which Skarloey would gain in 1866-67 while Rheneas remained cabless for several more years) . The two reconciled after Rheneas saved Skarloey from a landslide in 1867 and became life long friends.
Rheneas’ long wheelbase enabled him to ride steadily, but it also made him hard on the track and this, together with the initial absence of a cab, made Skarloey the more heavily used of the two. Unlike Skarloey (and Dolgoch), Rheneas never returned to Whitehaven. Such repairs as were needed, including the fabrication of a cab at an unknown date, were done at the Skarloey Railway workshops. In 1937 and again in 1943, he was overhauled at the NWR Works at Crovan's Gate. Like Dolgoch, Rheneas enjoys "peculiar motion," which did not make life any easier for the workshop staff.
Rheneas saved the railway from possible closure by keeping services going through a very lean period in the late 1940s. By 1945, Skarloey was in very poor condition and would only be run in emergencies, leaving Rheneas to run the line alone. In 1951, he managed to pull a full train home one windy day despite having a jammed valve gear and was rewarded with a much needed overhaul. When SKR number's 3 and 4 (formerly Mid Sodor Railway numbers 3 and 4, respectively) Sir Handel and Peter Sam arrived to the railway in 1952, he was sent to England for his heavy overhaul. While there, he was reunited with his twin Dolgoch. Money, however, was tight on both their railways and their repairs could not be completed immediately. Skarloey often felt lonely to know he was not there, but he often used his story of when he saved the railway to teach younger engines how to behave, like SKR#6 Duncan. His overhaul about nine years and was finished in 1961, putting him back into good condition and he returned to the Skarloey Railway soon after. Because of his bravery, he earned the nickname "Gallant Old Engine" by the railway staff.
In 1996 when SKR#5 Rusty was spreading weedkiller spray on the tracks with a special truck, Rheneas had to fetch another coach when there were more visitors than usual. He was not happy about this because this meant he would be late and it did not get any better when he had to slow down for hedgecutters. To make matters worse, because of the weedkiller spray, he ended up slipping down the hill and ground to a halt. As his crew sanded the rails, he managed to make his way, but his passengers had a limited view of the countryside. They did not mind this however, as they were more pleased with Rheneas' brave efforts. Shortly afterwards, he would be present for SKR #7 Ivo Hugh's naming ceremony.
He underwent another heavy overhaul at Crovan’s Gate Works in 2002. As of 2020, Rheneas remains in service on the Skarloey railway, often taking passengers to tourist points on the line and working at the Slate Quarries.
Photos
View attachment 577754
A painting of Rheneas from 1867 showing him without a cab.
View attachment 577750
Rheneas being lowered back onto the Skarloey Railway track after returning from his overhaul in 1961. To the right of Rheneas is SKR #1 Skarloey while the locomotive in the back is SKR #3 Sir Handel.
View attachment 577752
A photo of both Rheneas and Skarloey taken at the Boulder Quarry at an inconvenient time.
Notes
[1a]: In The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways (1987), it mentions that Rheneas was built in 1865. However....
: In Sodor: Reading Between the Lines (2005), it mentions that Rheneas was built in 1866. This difference arises due to uncertainty about his twin Dolgoch's build date. However...
[c]: In The Railway Series Book 20: Very Old Engines (1965), Rheneas mentioned of being delivered to the Skarloey Railway shortly after its opening, which was in 1865, making him a year older than Dolgoch.
More notes to come later.
Thomas infoboxes:
North Western Railway
NWR #1 Thomas
Skarloey Railway
SKR #1 Skarloey
SKR #2 Rheneas (you are here)
Other things
Fletcher, Jennings and Co.
Can someone please help me with an error I'm having? For some reason, the text I have keeps showing up bold even though I change it to normal text. I've tried fixing it several times but the text keeps reverting itself back to bold no matter what I do! It's really starting to piss me off (more so than how Skalroey and Rheneas look in the third photo of my post).
Here's the problem:
[I][B]Rheneas [/B][/I](Sudric for "Divided Waterfall") is a narrow gauge steam locomotive.He was built by Fletcher, Jennings & Co. in 1865 [B][1a][B][c] [/B]Specifically, this bit:
1865 [B][1a][B][c] [/B]You can see that there's a stray
[B] in the middle there— either you forgot to close it, or you accidentally included an extra one.Thanks for the help Kermode!
I was able to fix the problem. I replaced the a,b and c with normal letters instead.
On the plus side, vigilantes are legalised, on the negative Bat's will need warrents, probable cause and a CSI team on standby in future. Although if he actually does that it puts him a jump or two above the average US cop.
The First Biden Ministry
Progressive-Farmer-Labour Majority
The First Biden Ministry was formed in 1992 after the newly-former Progressive-Farmer-Labour Party's victory at the 1992 Columbian general election. The new party was formed following the merger of the Progressive Party and the Farmer-Labour Party, which was finalized after months of unofficial discussions and formal negotiations at the Westchester Conference in May 1992, hosted by the Marquess of Westchester at Kykuit, the estate of the noble Rockefeller family. Given the Progressives' substantially higher seat count, Progressive leader Joe Biden became the leader of the new party, while Farmer-Labour leader Max Baucus, who had inherited a party badly suffering from losses, became deputy leader with the implicit promise that he would succeed Biden. The merger terms also stipulated that given that the ratio of Progressive MPs to Farmer-Labour MPs was roughly 2-to-1, any cabinet formed, should the new party win a majority, should follow that ratio.Progressive-Farmer-Labour Majority
Following the announcement of results, party leader Joe Biden travelled to the Royal Palace at Jamestown and was invited to form a government. Biden was later sworn in as Prime Minister of Columbia and announced his cabinet. The Biden ministry was noted for its geographic diversity, as well as its inclusion of African, Hispanic, and Indigenous Columbians, the lack of which was a common criticism of the preceding ministry of Prime Minister George Bush. It was also noted for having substantially less peers than previous ministry, with only one member of the House of Lords, James Roosevelt III, 3rd Duke of Hyde Park, serving in the cabinet apart from the Leader of the House of Lords, the Lord Simon. In addition, the Marquess of Westchester, who served as Inter-American Affairs Secretary, was an elected MP rather than a Lord.
Several members of the First Biden Ministry are still in Parliament today, including Al Sharpton, Ciro Rodriguez, Jim Clyburn, Janet Napolitano, and Sir Roy Cooper, who is currently the Justice Secretary in the Second Biden Ministry. Health Secretary Tom Daschle was later elevated to the peerage as the 1st Viscount Daschle of Aberdeen, and is currently the Leader of the House of Lords. Mario Cuomo and Bill Cunningham were both elevated to the peerage as the 1st Viscount Cuomo of Briarwood and the 1st Baron Cunningham of Lyon respectively, while Tip O'Neill III left the cabinet in 1994 after his father's death to take his father's seat in the Lords as the 2nd Baron O'Neill of North Cambridge.
Previous posts in the American Monarchy series:The Second Biden Ministry (2018) (List)
Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth of Columbia, 1960-
The First Biden Ministry (1992) (List)
The Second Biden Ministry (2018) (Wikibox)
1990 Democratic Republican Coalition leadership election, seat 1 (Wikibox)
List of Presidents of the Federal Republic of California, 1960-present (Wikibox)
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I decided to do a little thing on Iran in my China TL, with a small allusion to the way the PoD affects America in TTL.
*
The Imperial State of Iran is unusual among Middle Eastern countries in that its political system has been relatively one of the most stable in the region. For 95 years now, it has been a constitutional monarchy with the Shah as the head of state, but considerable power is held by the unitary National Constitutional Assembly, or Majis.
Its stability has not been without interruption. Reza Shah Pahlavi was forced to abdicate following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, and a coup d’état towards the democratically elected Mosaddegh government was planned by MI6 in 1953 after the Iranian oil industry was nationalized that would almost certainly have gone ahead had President Taft not died and his successor, Richard Nixon, advocated for Britain buying Alaskan oil to make up its shortfall instead.
The most dramatic, however, was when in 1979, protests against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s advocacy for the progressive reforms of the Hoveyda government (and generally his authoritarianism) resulted in him being forced to abdicate; his son Reza Pahlavi, only 19 at the time, was functionally a puppet of hardline Islamists, and dissolved the Majis to cause an election that the until-then dominant National Front lost in a landslide.
Ironically, this effectively doomed the theocratic movement, as the world press was appalled by the authoritarianism of new Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar’s Fada’iyan government (the recently-formed parliamentary wing of the Fada’iyan-e Islam movement), and in September 1980, Iraq invaded Iran to try and assert itself as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf. Bathonar’s policy of conscription made him hugely unpopular, leftists who had supported the protests to try and get rid of the Shah turned on Bahonar’s government, and things ultimately culminated with the assassination of Bahonar and several members of his Cabinet in the Hashteh-Sharivar bombing of 1981.
After all this, the Fada’iyan government was effectively left in ruins, and when an election was hastily called by the Shah, the National Front returned to power. The new Prime Minister, Mehdi Bazargan, proved to be an effective moderate; by 1982, Iran had reclaimed basically all the land it had lost to Iraq, and during the next seven years he spent in power, he mended Iran’s ties with the international community, privatized elements of the economy the NF had resisted Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s inclination to privatize, lessened the Shah’s power over Parliament, and continued to (much more carefully) expand social reforms.
By the time Bazargan resigned as PM in 1989, Iran was a very different place. The Iran-Iraq war finally ended in a stalemate the year before, the exiled Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, who had been a key player in agitating the Islamic fundamentalism that led to the 1979 protests, died that June, and many Iranians had come to see fundamentalism as simply leading to trouble and the current status quo of Shah Reza Pahlavi having a mostly ceremonial role in Iranian politics as for the best.
Consequently, the NF has (or to be strictly accurate, the alliance led by it has; the NF is the largest party in an alliance of it, smaller parties and independents which usually also goes by the name the National Front) effectively been a centrist party of government within Iran ever since, with all but one PM since Bathonar coming from it and its members dividing on economic stances between the ‘Mosaddeghites’, who tend to be advocates of Islamic socialism or at least milder forms of interventionism, and the ‘Bazarganites’, who are more secular and supportive of free market reforms.
Iran’s other major party/alliance, the Freedom Movement of Iran, claims to be the true heir to Mossadegh’s beliefs (though like de Gaulle in France, Mossadegh is as much a figurehead as a real ideological yardstick at this point) and advocates for both secularism and government interventionism. It is sometimes cynically described as effectively a vehicle for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a prominent and long-active leftist who made a name for himself protesting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and then the Bahonar government, and who has been leader of the party since he came out of political retirement in 2009. It has only won power once, in the 2012 election, in which the tensions that led to the Arab Spring came to a head in a more democratic form in Iran.
The 2020 election was effectively a repeat of the 2016 election at which the NF regained power; Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani was re-elected with his government winning only 5 seats fewer than it had in 2016. Since the reforms that pre-empted the second post-Bathonar election in 1986, Iran has elected 290 members using its 31 provinces as multi-member constituencies electing a proportional number of multiple members by bloc vote. An interesting idiosyncracy of Iran’s political system is that it has the youngest voting age in the world for men at 15, though women cannot vote until the age of 18.
*
The Imperial State of Iran is unusual among Middle Eastern countries in that its political system has been relatively one of the most stable in the region. For 95 years now, it has been a constitutional monarchy with the Shah as the head of state, but considerable power is held by the unitary National Constitutional Assembly, or Majis.
Its stability has not been without interruption. Reza Shah Pahlavi was forced to abdicate following the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in 1941, and a coup d’état towards the democratically elected Mosaddegh government was planned by MI6 in 1953 after the Iranian oil industry was nationalized that would almost certainly have gone ahead had President Taft not died and his successor, Richard Nixon, advocated for Britain buying Alaskan oil to make up its shortfall instead.
The most dramatic, however, was when in 1979, protests against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s advocacy for the progressive reforms of the Hoveyda government (and generally his authoritarianism) resulted in him being forced to abdicate; his son Reza Pahlavi, only 19 at the time, was functionally a puppet of hardline Islamists, and dissolved the Majis to cause an election that the until-then dominant National Front lost in a landslide.
Ironically, this effectively doomed the theocratic movement, as the world press was appalled by the authoritarianism of new Prime Minister Mohammad-Javad Bahonar’s Fada’iyan government (the recently-formed parliamentary wing of the Fada’iyan-e Islam movement), and in September 1980, Iraq invaded Iran to try and assert itself as the dominant state in the Persian Gulf. Bathonar’s policy of conscription made him hugely unpopular, leftists who had supported the protests to try and get rid of the Shah turned on Bahonar’s government, and things ultimately culminated with the assassination of Bahonar and several members of his Cabinet in the Hashteh-Sharivar bombing of 1981.
After all this, the Fada’iyan government was effectively left in ruins, and when an election was hastily called by the Shah, the National Front returned to power. The new Prime Minister, Mehdi Bazargan, proved to be an effective moderate; by 1982, Iran had reclaimed basically all the land it had lost to Iraq, and during the next seven years he spent in power, he mended Iran’s ties with the international community, privatized elements of the economy the NF had resisted Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s inclination to privatize, lessened the Shah’s power over Parliament, and continued to (much more carefully) expand social reforms.
By the time Bazargan resigned as PM in 1989, Iran was a very different place. The Iran-Iraq war finally ended in a stalemate the year before, the exiled Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, who had been a key player in agitating the Islamic fundamentalism that led to the 1979 protests, died that June, and many Iranians had come to see fundamentalism as simply leading to trouble and the current status quo of Shah Reza Pahlavi having a mostly ceremonial role in Iranian politics as for the best.
Consequently, the NF has (or to be strictly accurate, the alliance led by it has; the NF is the largest party in an alliance of it, smaller parties and independents which usually also goes by the name the National Front) effectively been a centrist party of government within Iran ever since, with all but one PM since Bathonar coming from it and its members dividing on economic stances between the ‘Mosaddeghites’, who tend to be advocates of Islamic socialism or at least milder forms of interventionism, and the ‘Bazarganites’, who are more secular and supportive of free market reforms.
Iran’s other major party/alliance, the Freedom Movement of Iran, claims to be the true heir to Mossadegh’s beliefs (though like de Gaulle in France, Mossadegh is as much a figurehead as a real ideological yardstick at this point) and advocates for both secularism and government interventionism. It is sometimes cynically described as effectively a vehicle for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a prominent and long-active leftist who made a name for himself protesting Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and then the Bahonar government, and who has been leader of the party since he came out of political retirement in 2009. It has only won power once, in the 2012 election, in which the tensions that led to the Arab Spring came to a head in a more democratic form in Iran.
The 2020 election was effectively a repeat of the 2016 election at which the NF regained power; Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani was re-elected with his government winning only 5 seats fewer than it had in 2016. Since the reforms that pre-empted the second post-Bathonar election in 1986, Iran has elected 290 members using its 31 provinces as multi-member constituencies electing a proportional number of multiple members by bloc vote. An interesting idiosyncracy of Iran’s political system is that it has the youngest voting age in the world for men at 15, though women cannot vote until the age of 18.
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US presidential election of 1948 as depicted in the Jour J comic, Le gang Kennedy (The Kennedy Gang).
France won the Seven Years War and kept its colony of New France, which became a powerful American nation stretching from Québec City to New Orleans. Florida is still Spanish, and the United States never expanded across the continent. World War I ended in 1923 after the intervention of New France on the side of the British and French against Germany. In 1948, Hitler is Chancellor and Joe Kennedy runs against Charles Lindbergh but loses harshly after the deaths of his two eldest sons, Joe Jr. and Jack, make him retreat into himself. The comic ends with Britain preparing for war with the Reich and Bobby Kennedy, Joe's last surviving son, enlisting in the RAF.
Equestrian Politics
Previous boxes
Triple Crown Party and Corona Party
Party to Uphold Hippocracy
Everfree Party
Nightmare Party
Equalist Party (Marksist-Glimmerist), Equalist Party (Trotskyite), and Equalist Party (Blankist)
Free Alliance of Farriers and Ferriers
Discordian Party
Rhinoceros Party and Ponyville-North Everfree 1008 Election
Earth Pony Parties: Country Party, Municipal Development League, and the Free Soil Party
Finally, the three pegasus parties. And uhhh the description ended up being 1200 words long.
Unlike either the partisan structures of the earth ponies or of the unicorns prior to becoming the national party structure, the development of the modern pegasus party system was not based on the race's relation to Canterlot, parliament, or the royal court. Early pegasus politics in Equestria, like the pegasi themselves, were largely centered around the city of Cloudsdale and isolated from the affairs of the rest of Equestria outside of weather management. This was understandble, as for centuries folowing the integration of Pegasopolis into the Principality of Equestria, Pegasopolis and later Cloudsdale were only accessible by pegasi. Pegasi customs and traditions were therefore the most isolated and least affected by the cultural exchange of the unified principality. This isolation extended to the political sphere. Early on pegasus politics retained the highly regimented Pegasopolitan structure, thought with the shift from simply upholding the contract to the other tribes to integrating into a single nation some changes to the structure were expected. The same militaristic structure that produced the pegasus section of the E.U.P. Guard and the Wonderbolts showed itself in politics and economics in the formation of the seasonal weatherworkers' councils.
Shortly after the founding of Cloudsdale, with pegasi weather production only a shell of what it is today but still expected to provide the weather for all of Equestria, Cloudsdale's weatherworkers organized into four seasonal councils - a Vernal council overseeing spring, an Estival council overseeing summer, an Autumnal council overseeing the autumn months, and a Hibernal council overseeing the winter months. A national team of weather coordinators in concert with the diarchy and parliament oversaw the councils and put together the overall weather plans, but for a long time the weather councils largely operated separately from each other. The separation plus each council's different specific needs in regard to cloud supply, front creation, and coordination with earth ponies and other creatures for distribution led to each seasonal council developing different views when it came to politics, and eventually the councils grew into different political parties as modern Equestrian political traditions became more formalized. It is for this reason that unlike earth pony parties, pegasus parties had their own existence prior to the creation of the reserved ridings. The parties essentially formed out of municipal Cloudsdale politics, and have remained active there ever since despite the rise to parliamentary represntation.
Originally, there was the Estival Party, the Autumnal Party, the Hibernal Party, and the Vernal Party. However, with the Estival and Hibernal parties being the most diametrically opposed and the Vernal and Autumnal parties found little room to stake out distinct positions and mainly took vacillating positions with either. The solsitial parties continued to grow while the equinoctial parties faded. Eventually the Autumnal Party dissolved entirely and was eventually absorbed into the Vernal Party as the latter found some footing. Originally representative of summmer and winter, the major conflict between the Estival and Hibernal parties naturally settled around the appropriate amount of cloud production. The Hibernal Party attracted the more business and metric-oriented pegasi and officially adopted a productivist stance, extending from its past as needing the most and densest cloud production of any season to supply a full winter's worth of snowpack. The Estival Party also settled into an opposing position stemming from the generally drier days of Equestrian summer. The contrast in cloud production led to most weather factory workers no matter their season gravitating toward the Estival Party, while most management and businesspony pegasi gravitated toward the Hibernal Party.
Outside of the particulars of weather management, other issues soon coalesced around the two and a half party system as the parties got used to the reserved riding elections. The Estival Party adopted a broad pro-Celestial stance in line with the Triple Crown Party, while also calling for a larger military, a move popular with the pegasi who served as a large portion of Celestia's guard and border surveillance. This setniment became particularly intense following the sudden reappearance of the Crystal Empire and Tirek's escape from Tartarus. The Hibernal Party, being already aligned with business interests in weather matters, braodened their platform to one of business friendly policies in other matters. This endeared them to the pegasi in Manehattan and Fillydelphia who, like the earth ponies who settled those cities, became engaged in overseas trade. The platform also quickly gained the Hibernal Party a following in the cloud city of Las Pegasus following its founding, as the casino and entertainment business quickly burgeoned into one of the largest cities on Equestria's western coast and soon earned it two pegasi ridings of its own.
The biggest issue that intersected pegasi and national Equestrian politics though, and where the Vernal Party found its niche, was in international affairs and non-pony relations. Pegasi politics has always been more friendly and supportive of increasing relations with Equestria's neighbors and in integrating non-ponies into Equestrian society since its earliest days. After all, it was the Royal Pegasi Legion and Flash Magnus who inaugurated normalized relations with the Griffish Isles and started the tradition of griffon-pegasi joint junior flight camps in the wake of the Dread Storm and the Legion rescue of the griffons of Beakwick-upon-Tweet. Despite the collapse of the Kingdom of Griffonstone and the isolation of Equestria, relations between pegasi and griffons have long been the strongest of any between pony and non-pony creatures. And as every pegasus is taught in flight school, a cloud cares not what nation lies below it when it is set to rain. But even within pegasus poltiics, there are differences of opinion. The Estival Party is the most supportive of greater foreign relations and of granting rights to non-ponies in Equestrian society. The Hibernal Party, while still supportive, mainly limit their advocacy to greater trade between Equestria and its neighbors, particularly with Griffonstone.
Set apart from the two major parties, the Vernal Party has here found its greatest niche within the pegasi political system. The Vernal Party, while still being more accepting of non-ponies than say the Coronists or the Country Party, are still the most aligned with them of any pegasus parties. And coupled with their platform of more decentralized cloud production, localized cloudsourcing, and a larger weather workforce, they have slowly crawled back into relevancy, winning pegasi ridings in two southern Equestrian seats and even one of Cloudsdale's six ridings. And while the Vernal Party might not align with the Coronists completely, there is some crossover - literally in some cases. In the most recent election, Vernal Party MP Arctic Circle made the rare jump from pegasus politics to general politics, declining to run for reelection in her San Palomino-Neighvada pegasus riding to instead run for the general Salt Lick City for the Coronist Party. Arctic Circle's risky gambit paid off as she defeated the incumbent Tricrowner Delicate Arch, playing off their two records on weather management in the drought stricken part of Equestria and even using her membership in the Vernal Party to outflank the Everfree Party candidate on weather decentraliztion. Arctic Circle's successful jump proved not only that the Vernal Party is still a force to be reckoned with within pegasi politics for the solsitial parties but that the pegasi are no longer as distanced from general politics anymore as mayny political observers thought.
Previous boxes
Triple Crown Party and Corona Party
Party to Uphold Hippocracy
Everfree Party
Nightmare Party
Equalist Party (Marksist-Glimmerist), Equalist Party (Trotskyite), and Equalist Party (Blankist)
Free Alliance of Farriers and Ferriers
Discordian Party
Rhinoceros Party and Ponyville-North Everfree 1008 Election
Earth Pony Parties: Country Party, Municipal Development League, and the Free Soil Party
Finally, the three pegasus parties. And uhhh the description ended up being 1200 words long.
Unlike either the partisan structures of the earth ponies or of the unicorns prior to becoming the national party structure, the development of the modern pegasus party system was not based on the race's relation to Canterlot, parliament, or the royal court. Early pegasus politics in Equestria, like the pegasi themselves, were largely centered around the city of Cloudsdale and isolated from the affairs of the rest of Equestria outside of weather management. This was understandble, as for centuries folowing the integration of Pegasopolis into the Principality of Equestria, Pegasopolis and later Cloudsdale were only accessible by pegasi. Pegasi customs and traditions were therefore the most isolated and least affected by the cultural exchange of the unified principality. This isolation extended to the political sphere. Early on pegasus politics retained the highly regimented Pegasopolitan structure, thought with the shift from simply upholding the contract to the other tribes to integrating into a single nation some changes to the structure were expected. The same militaristic structure that produced the pegasus section of the E.U.P. Guard and the Wonderbolts showed itself in politics and economics in the formation of the seasonal weatherworkers' councils.
Shortly after the founding of Cloudsdale, with pegasi weather production only a shell of what it is today but still expected to provide the weather for all of Equestria, Cloudsdale's weatherworkers organized into four seasonal councils - a Vernal council overseeing spring, an Estival council overseeing summer, an Autumnal council overseeing the autumn months, and a Hibernal council overseeing the winter months. A national team of weather coordinators in concert with the diarchy and parliament oversaw the councils and put together the overall weather plans, but for a long time the weather councils largely operated separately from each other. The separation plus each council's different specific needs in regard to cloud supply, front creation, and coordination with earth ponies and other creatures for distribution led to each seasonal council developing different views when it came to politics, and eventually the councils grew into different political parties as modern Equestrian political traditions became more formalized. It is for this reason that unlike earth pony parties, pegasus parties had their own existence prior to the creation of the reserved ridings. The parties essentially formed out of municipal Cloudsdale politics, and have remained active there ever since despite the rise to parliamentary represntation.
Originally, there was the Estival Party, the Autumnal Party, the Hibernal Party, and the Vernal Party. However, with the Estival and Hibernal parties being the most diametrically opposed and the Vernal and Autumnal parties found little room to stake out distinct positions and mainly took vacillating positions with either. The solsitial parties continued to grow while the equinoctial parties faded. Eventually the Autumnal Party dissolved entirely and was eventually absorbed into the Vernal Party as the latter found some footing. Originally representative of summmer and winter, the major conflict between the Estival and Hibernal parties naturally settled around the appropriate amount of cloud production. The Hibernal Party attracted the more business and metric-oriented pegasi and officially adopted a productivist stance, extending from its past as needing the most and densest cloud production of any season to supply a full winter's worth of snowpack. The Estival Party also settled into an opposing position stemming from the generally drier days of Equestrian summer. The contrast in cloud production led to most weather factory workers no matter their season gravitating toward the Estival Party, while most management and businesspony pegasi gravitated toward the Hibernal Party.
Outside of the particulars of weather management, other issues soon coalesced around the two and a half party system as the parties got used to the reserved riding elections. The Estival Party adopted a broad pro-Celestial stance in line with the Triple Crown Party, while also calling for a larger military, a move popular with the pegasi who served as a large portion of Celestia's guard and border surveillance. This setniment became particularly intense following the sudden reappearance of the Crystal Empire and Tirek's escape from Tartarus. The Hibernal Party, being already aligned with business interests in weather matters, braodened their platform to one of business friendly policies in other matters. This endeared them to the pegasi in Manehattan and Fillydelphia who, like the earth ponies who settled those cities, became engaged in overseas trade. The platform also quickly gained the Hibernal Party a following in the cloud city of Las Pegasus following its founding, as the casino and entertainment business quickly burgeoned into one of the largest cities on Equestria's western coast and soon earned it two pegasi ridings of its own.
The biggest issue that intersected pegasi and national Equestrian politics though, and where the Vernal Party found its niche, was in international affairs and non-pony relations. Pegasi politics has always been more friendly and supportive of increasing relations with Equestria's neighbors and in integrating non-ponies into Equestrian society since its earliest days. After all, it was the Royal Pegasi Legion and Flash Magnus who inaugurated normalized relations with the Griffish Isles and started the tradition of griffon-pegasi joint junior flight camps in the wake of the Dread Storm and the Legion rescue of the griffons of Beakwick-upon-Tweet. Despite the collapse of the Kingdom of Griffonstone and the isolation of Equestria, relations between pegasi and griffons have long been the strongest of any between pony and non-pony creatures. And as every pegasus is taught in flight school, a cloud cares not what nation lies below it when it is set to rain. But even within pegasus poltiics, there are differences of opinion. The Estival Party is the most supportive of greater foreign relations and of granting rights to non-ponies in Equestrian society. The Hibernal Party, while still supportive, mainly limit their advocacy to greater trade between Equestria and its neighbors, particularly with Griffonstone.
Set apart from the two major parties, the Vernal Party has here found its greatest niche within the pegasi political system. The Vernal Party, while still being more accepting of non-ponies than say the Coronists or the Country Party, are still the most aligned with them of any pegasus parties. And coupled with their platform of more decentralized cloud production, localized cloudsourcing, and a larger weather workforce, they have slowly crawled back into relevancy, winning pegasi ridings in two southern Equestrian seats and even one of Cloudsdale's six ridings. And while the Vernal Party might not align with the Coronists completely, there is some crossover - literally in some cases. In the most recent election, Vernal Party MP Arctic Circle made the rare jump from pegasus politics to general politics, declining to run for reelection in her San Palomino-Neighvada pegasus riding to instead run for the general Salt Lick City for the Coronist Party. Arctic Circle's risky gambit paid off as she defeated the incumbent Tricrowner Delicate Arch, playing off their two records on weather management in the drought stricken part of Equestria and even using her membership in the Vernal Party to outflank the Everfree Party candidate on weather decentraliztion. Arctic Circle's successful jump proved not only that the Vernal Party is still a force to be reckoned with within pegasi politics for the solsitial parties but that the pegasi are no longer as distanced from general politics anymore as mayny political observers thought.
Decided to do a few infoboxes for @Ephraim Ben Raphael's EEUSG entry, Republic of Chile.
Carlos Fernando Flores Labra (born January 9, 1943) is a Chilean engineer, entrepreneur, politician and political theorist serving as the Chairman of the Strategic Long Range Planning Committee since 11 October 1991. From 17 August 1975 until his formal resignation, Fernando Flores served as Chile's 29th and final President. Along with Stafford Beer, Flores is considered one of the primary architects behind the Synco network and the Syntegration theory, which he would implement following the 1991 constitutional referendum.
Spanning more than four decades, Fernando Flores's political career began with his 1972 appointment as Minister of Finance by President Salvador Allende; the then 29-year-old engineer took quickly to government service and became one of the President's closest allies, overseeing the creation and development of Project Cybersyn. In the aftermath of the September 1973 coup and the beginning of civil war, Flores was captured by General Augusto Pinochet's forces and tortured; however, he was able to escape by January 1974 and take control of the Synco network, demonstrating its military potential by co-ordinating Allendist forces in the battlefield and turning the tide of the war against the Conservatives. Following Salvador Allende's assassination, Fernando Flores stepped up to take the reins of power; as the President of a formally Marxist republic, he would spend much of his tenure shepherding economic reforms, pursuing an independent, unaligned foreign policy and expanding Synco's reach, allowing Chile to weather the 1980s economic crisis. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Flores would oversee the transition of Chile from a Marxist dictatorship to the world's first Syntegration state, abolishing traditional political offices and elections.
To this day, Fernando Flores remains a controversial figure, with supporters praising his effective stewardship of the Chilean state and its transformation into an independent, sovereign, democratic regional power. Conversely, Flores has been labelled a dictator and authoritarian leader by a number of academic and political observers, citing pervasive censorship and mass surveillance as well as the Syntegration government's strained relationship with opposition.
The National Population Sample of Chile (Spanish: Muestra de Población Nacional de Chile) is the legislative branch of government of the Republic of Chile and the highest constitutional organ. Founded on 22 October 1991 in accordance with the 1991 Chilean Constitution, the unicameral National Population Sample replaced the National Congress of Chile; it is composed of 100 members, which are chosen at random by the Synconet Computer System from the population to serve one-year terms, a manner which, according to the Chilean government, is designed to prevent the formation of a "parasitic political class". While members of the legislature frequently associate with political parties, the National Population Sample is officially nonpartisan.
Carlos Fernando Flores Labra (born January 9, 1943) is a Chilean engineer, entrepreneur, politician and political theorist serving as the Chairman of the Strategic Long Range Planning Committee since 11 October 1991. From 17 August 1975 until his formal resignation, Fernando Flores served as Chile's 29th and final President. Along with Stafford Beer, Flores is considered one of the primary architects behind the Synco network and the Syntegration theory, which he would implement following the 1991 constitutional referendum.
Spanning more than four decades, Fernando Flores's political career began with his 1972 appointment as Minister of Finance by President Salvador Allende; the then 29-year-old engineer took quickly to government service and became one of the President's closest allies, overseeing the creation and development of Project Cybersyn. In the aftermath of the September 1973 coup and the beginning of civil war, Flores was captured by General Augusto Pinochet's forces and tortured; however, he was able to escape by January 1974 and take control of the Synco network, demonstrating its military potential by co-ordinating Allendist forces in the battlefield and turning the tide of the war against the Conservatives. Following Salvador Allende's assassination, Fernando Flores stepped up to take the reins of power; as the President of a formally Marxist republic, he would spend much of his tenure shepherding economic reforms, pursuing an independent, unaligned foreign policy and expanding Synco's reach, allowing Chile to weather the 1980s economic crisis. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Flores would oversee the transition of Chile from a Marxist dictatorship to the world's first Syntegration state, abolishing traditional political offices and elections.
To this day, Fernando Flores remains a controversial figure, with supporters praising his effective stewardship of the Chilean state and its transformation into an independent, sovereign, democratic regional power. Conversely, Flores has been labelled a dictator and authoritarian leader by a number of academic and political observers, citing pervasive censorship and mass surveillance as well as the Syntegration government's strained relationship with opposition.
The National Population Sample of Chile (Spanish: Muestra de Población Nacional de Chile) is the legislative branch of government of the Republic of Chile and the highest constitutional organ. Founded on 22 October 1991 in accordance with the 1991 Chilean Constitution, the unicameral National Population Sample replaced the National Congress of Chile; it is composed of 100 members, which are chosen at random by the Synconet Computer System from the population to serve one-year terms, a manner which, according to the Chilean government, is designed to prevent the formation of a "parasitic political class". While members of the legislature frequently associate with political parties, the National Population Sample is officially nonpartisan.
As someone who's not an expert in MLP, I really wanna know what parties the characters support or if any of them are elected members for said parties.
I figure at least with the main characters they're all pretty close to the establishment, so all at least voting Triple Crown most of the time for the general seats. But since you've gotten me thinking about it more now I want to try and do breakdowns for each of the Mane Six.
Twilight Sparkle: I often like to joke that she is literally an ivory tower intellectual, so very much an establishment pro-administration type. So Twilight would vote for the Triple Crown Party regularly for both general and unicorn seats. Though now that she's an alicorn and a princess I haven't decided if she's be eligible to vote, she might be ineligible in the reserved seats at least.
Applejack: Considering the Apple family is spread wide throughout Equestria and Granny Smith is one of the founders of Ponyville, Applejack seems pretty well off despite some of the money issues with keeping Sweet Apple Acres in business that are presented in the show. Triple Crown Party in general seats and Country Party in earth pony seats. Also while Applejack is probably not an officeholder herself, I could see Granny Smith having held elected office at some point. I actually made the deputy leader of the Country Party Jonagold with the implication that Jonagold is a member of the Apple family since it's an apple varietal name.
Pinkie Pie: Pinkie is... weird, and trying to figure out what her politics would be past her wacky exterior is fun. For general seats still probably Triple Crown Party, though I could very easily see Pinkie voting Discordian considering how in tune with chaos she apparently is. For earth pony seats, either Country or Free Soil, there's arguments for both.
Rarity: She's the sole proprietor of a dressmaking business and later starts hiring employees after it expands. Would easily fit in a pro-business party, except I realized the only directly pro-business parties I made were earth pony and pegasus parties, and Rarity's a unicorn. That said, she does make a lot of cultural faux pas, and in the Nightmare Moon wins timeline in the show she ends up racist against at least dragons. So while Rarity is now a straight Triple Crown voter for both general and unicorn seats, I could see her having voted Coronist once or twice in the past when she was more naive prior to when the show starts and having many regrets about it now.
Rainbow Dash: So Rainbow Dash has always been interesting to me politics-wise. On the surface she could easily be written off at first glance as a somewhat stereotypical conservative as a lazy jock type who idolizes the military, except she also comes off as lazy because she can do her job so well and knows it, aspires to and eventually does join the Wonderbolts (sort of hybrid Air Force/stunt team, kind of the Blue Angels?) while at the same time questioning some of their principles and being more of a grounding influence when she actually goes through the process of joining, is a shrewd supervisor of Ponyville's weather team (never stated outright, but she's basically managing any important weather event in Ponyville), is one of the first ponies to stick up for other creatures with the buffalo and restoring Griffonstone, and overall is a proven and caring leader. A Triple Crowner in general seats, and supports the Estival Party in pegasus seats.
Fluttershy: Fluttershy is really the only one of the Mane Six who I could see regularly voting for someone other than the Triple Crown Party in the general seats. With Fluttershy being a pegasus who feels more comfortable on the ground and her living so close to the Everfree Forest, I could see Fluttershy regularly voting for the Everfree Party in the general seats. For the pegasus seats, it's a little more difficult. Fluttershy seems most associated with spring of any season so I feel like she would be an ancestral Vernal Party voter, and remaining with the party mainly because of its alignment with the Everfree Party on more decentralization and Fluttershy taking more of an anti-imperialist bent from the Vernal Party's foreign policy.
For show characters holding office, I've generally shied away from having the Mane Six or any prominent secondary characters hold office just because I kind of like the idea of the parliamentary politics being something going on in the background that we just don't see in the show (and now with my plans to continue Switching Horses Midstream fic/TL/writeup thing through season 9, the politics being more in the background is actually relevant now), and partly it's just fun to make up names. Though I do have some secondary and background characters who hold office. I decided that Fancy Pants is the current Cheval Regent (basically Prime Minister). Also for the Ponyville election wikibox every candidate is either a secondary or background character from the show.
Here's something a rather different compared to my political-based wikiboxes. I'm not exactly sure whether or not I want to expand upon this (Maybe even do a full blown graphic TL) or just keep it as a standalone. As for why some details are blocked off, what they say should be up for interpretation (again, unless I end up expanding on this). Either way, fans of the subject material should recognize the rest of the details.
A small infobox from a TL I'm doing, depicting its WWI's weirdest battle
Caused when two ships (one Albish, the other La Platan) ended up being blasted all the way to Pourquoi Pas Island near the Antarctic Peninsula during the Third Battle of the Drake Passage and getting stranded on it, although the initial date is set as 29 April 1915 (when the ships were last seen), its end date is rather more hazy, as the entire crew of both ships died from cold, hunger or in battle (as battlements on the island's shores and damages to both vessels indicate that there was fighting) and had been entirely lost to the outside world due to the distance and irreparable damages to their telegraphs. The Jane Austen (named after the autor) was found with some frozen corpses inside on the shores of the island (resting on the side of a mountain), some of them visibly cannibalised, others seeming to be trying to warm themselves by huddling together, in 1934; while the Cervantes was found with a massive hole on its hull sunken 150 meters offshore, with no bodies inside (the prevailing theory being that any body inside was eaten by the local marine fauna)
Caused when two ships (one Albish, the other La Platan) ended up being blasted all the way to Pourquoi Pas Island near the Antarctic Peninsula during the Third Battle of the Drake Passage and getting stranded on it, although the initial date is set as 29 April 1915 (when the ships were last seen), its end date is rather more hazy, as the entire crew of both ships died from cold, hunger or in battle (as battlements on the island's shores and damages to both vessels indicate that there was fighting) and had been entirely lost to the outside world due to the distance and irreparable damages to their telegraphs. The Jane Austen (named after the autor) was found with some frozen corpses inside on the shores of the island (resting on the side of a mountain), some of them visibly cannibalised, others seeming to be trying to warm themselves by huddling together, in 1934; while the Cervantes was found with a massive hole on its hull sunken 150 meters offshore, with no bodies inside (the prevailing theory being that any body inside was eaten by the local marine fauna)
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