Definitely. Would you be interested in playing an election game in this setting? BDSM militarists vs cult-of-personality agrarian populists vs bourgeois liberals vs "no fun allowed" elitists vs theocrats vs THE KING IN THE NORTH?
Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VI (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
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To be honest I was more concerned with stuff about tax evasion and embezzlement
Possibly? I've never really done election games, so I don't know what exactly that'd entail tbh.
Hello everyone! Excited to say that I'll be starting a wikibox contest. Before it officially launches, I'd like to get people's thoughts on how it should be run, so please head over to this thread to share your opinions. Looking forward to the start of (what hopefully becomes) a great new tradition!
The Golden Age, Part I
The original idea of a disastrous Taft presidency propelling a leftist Democrat into office is stolen from @Blair's Special Delivery series, and I used it as a base for a timeline where the golden age of liberalism and innovative government never ends.
Although he would manage to win the Presidency by rallying the conservative coalition he once led, Taft's alienation of vast segments of the public and his own party with a commitment to isolationism would cripple any chance of passing meaningful reform. His agenda of privatizing Social Security, rolling back labor protections, ending farm subsidies, and so on, was massively unpopular, and his compromise slum clearance bill and tax cut for farmers failed to remedy his perception among his former colleagues. Greatly reducing funding for public schools, prisons, and highways in hopes of a balanced budget earned ire from the state governments he sought to rescue from the federal bootheel. The breakneck spread of communism to Greece, Turkey, and China would force him to double down on red-baiting, but the damaging perception of a Republican who was weak on communism definitively killed what little chance he had at re-election.
In triumphing moderate Adlai Stevenson and offering runner-up Paul Douglas the Vice Presidency, Claude Pepper and his landslide victory would bring in a wave of liberals to Congress, and pairing with the "conscience Republicans" who killed President Taft's agenda, would form a new progressive coalition in shining contrast to years before. This supermajority alliance would hand President Pepper three massive victories in his first 100 days:
- The Civil Rights Act of 1953, which affirmed black voting rights and desegregated public schools, workplaces, and housing, and deftly avoided being filibustered to death thanks to a coalition vote for cloture.
- The Health and Wellness Act of 1953, which established a national health insurance system as well as public day-care facilities and funded a number of new public hospitals.
- The repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, which was coupled with allowing collective bargaining for federal employees and led to a surge in union membership.
Although the 1954 midterms would shake out many progressive and conscience Republicans with primary challenges, Pepper would score a major victory with the appointment of William H. Hastie to the Supreme Court to replace Robert Jackson, over fierce bipartisan opposition. Pepper also sought to win farmers back over to the Democratic Party, and strongly supported farm aid programs and preserved Taft's tax cuts.
During his second term, Pepper established the Bureau of Fair Employment Practices, a longtime cornerstone of the civil rights movement, and passed the Security for Elders Act, which amended Social Security to provide a minimum pension of $100 a month beginning at age sixty. The creation of the National Exploration and Discovery Agency and launch of the satellite Columbia was a personal and political triumph for the President. Assessments of his Presidency have been positive, moreso regarding his domestic rather than foreign achievements. The Harriman Plan for European reconstruction was an important factor in preventing the rise of Eurocommunism. Secretary of State Hiss's plan for an international peacekeeping organization including the Soviet Union, however, was killed by Congressional anti-communists.
- The Civil Rights Act of 1953, which affirmed black voting rights and desegregated public schools, workplaces, and housing, and deftly avoided being filibustered to death thanks to a coalition vote for cloture.
- The Health and Wellness Act of 1953, which established a national health insurance system as well as public day-care facilities and funded a number of new public hospitals.
- The repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, which was coupled with allowing collective bargaining for federal employees and led to a surge in union membership.
Although the 1954 midterms would shake out many progressive and conscience Republicans with primary challenges, Pepper would score a major victory with the appointment of William H. Hastie to the Supreme Court to replace Robert Jackson, over fierce bipartisan opposition. Pepper also sought to win farmers back over to the Democratic Party, and strongly supported farm aid programs and preserved Taft's tax cuts.
During his second term, Pepper established the Bureau of Fair Employment Practices, a longtime cornerstone of the civil rights movement, and passed the Security for Elders Act, which amended Social Security to provide a minimum pension of $100 a month beginning at age sixty. The creation of the National Exploration and Discovery Agency and launch of the satellite Columbia was a personal and political triumph for the President. Assessments of his Presidency have been positive, moreso regarding his domestic rather than foreign achievements. The Harriman Plan for European reconstruction was an important factor in preventing the rise of Eurocommunism. Secretary of State Hiss's plan for an international peacekeeping organization including the Soviet Union, however, was killed by Congressional anti-communists.
Bouncing between the Agriculture and State departments under President Douglas and named by Taft as Undersecretary of Agriculture as a sop to Democrats, Hiss was a high-profile Secretary of State to President Pepper, as much for his outspoken internationalism as his supposedly scandalous past. Cruising to the nomination and taking hawkish progressive Henry Jackson as VP, Hiss resoundingly defeated the hollow red-baiter Judd and flaming racist Stennis, and entered office with a large and progressive agenda.
Shepherding to passage the 22nd Amendment which banned poll taxes and presiding over a sweep of liberal legislation, most notably the Food, Water, and Shelter Assistance Act, which created a massive number of federally-owned food banks for the poor and provided free housing for all homeless. Other legislation like the Education Access Act, which would have provided free college education to all Americans, were no-starters with the fiscally conservative Congress the midterms ushered in.
Hiss also staked out a number of foreign policy achievements during his terms. Hammering out the treaty that gave the Nationalists treaty ports along the Chinese coast in exchange for diplomatic recognition of Red China garnered a mixed international reaction. Using sanctions as a club to bruise non-compliant regimes remains a controversial practice, although bringing down the Chinese-allied communist regime in the Philippines was a popular move at home. Hiss also presided over numerous accomplishments in space, including the centerpiece of his second term, the 1967 Moon landing. It was widely accepted that Jackson would succeed him and carry on the liberal revolution. History, however, failed to comply.
Shepherding to passage the 22nd Amendment which banned poll taxes and presiding over a sweep of liberal legislation, most notably the Food, Water, and Shelter Assistance Act, which created a massive number of federally-owned food banks for the poor and provided free housing for all homeless. Other legislation like the Education Access Act, which would have provided free college education to all Americans, were no-starters with the fiscally conservative Congress the midterms ushered in.
Hiss also staked out a number of foreign policy achievements during his terms. Hammering out the treaty that gave the Nationalists treaty ports along the Chinese coast in exchange for diplomatic recognition of Red China garnered a mixed international reaction. Using sanctions as a club to bruise non-compliant regimes remains a controversial practice, although bringing down the Chinese-allied communist regime in the Philippines was a popular move at home. Hiss also presided over numerous accomplishments in space, including the centerpiece of his second term, the 1967 Moon landing. It was widely accepted that Jackson would succeed him and carry on the liberal revolution. History, however, failed to comply.
How the hell Norman Mailer won the Democratic nomination remains a question party insides ask themselves to this day - both out of curiosity and in seeking how to prevent something like it from ever happening again. Mailer had a large base of young activists who whirled across the country just ahead of each primary, handing Henry Jackson embarrassment after embarrassment. The riotous convention, riddled with drugs and fistfights, saw Mailer clinch the nomination after a massive liberal walkout. Taking a hesitant George McGovern as his running mate, Mailer campaigned on a "left-conservative" platform, advocating local autonomy and gonzo ideas like halting all mechanical transportation on Sunday.
Jim Rhodes, the industrial state conservative, a staunch believer in the value of a job and opponent of handouts, was the perfect conformist to go against Mailer's systemic rebellion. His landslide victory, then, is unsurprising.
Rhodes worked to reduce waste and inefficiency in popular programs, centralizing disparate agencies into the Department of Welfare and appointing his kind of Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, to head it. His public works and soil conservation programs would coax many environmentalists into the Republican party, and his greatest triumph in his first two years would be the Omnibus Environmental Protection Act. He worked quietly but toughly on desegregation in housing and schools, enacting George Romney's busing plan, but was otherwise socially conservative. Many Democrats shifted to the center on social issues after seeing the outcome of Mailer's socially liberal campaign. A relatively bipartisan consensus on abortion and sexual equality emerged, the line being "when the time is right", neatly failing to specify when that time will come, if ever.
On the world stage, Rhodes rejected the progressive internationalism of Hiss, preferring to delegate more autonomy to intelligence agencies. Secretary of State Kermit Roosevelt Jr. oversaw numerous assassinations, coups, and other fun and games in the Third World. Unless faced with a charismatic challenger, Rhodes seemed to be sailing to a second term. Unfortunately, he would be blindsided with just that.
Jim Rhodes, the industrial state conservative, a staunch believer in the value of a job and opponent of handouts, was the perfect conformist to go against Mailer's systemic rebellion. His landslide victory, then, is unsurprising.
Rhodes worked to reduce waste and inefficiency in popular programs, centralizing disparate agencies into the Department of Welfare and appointing his kind of Democrat, Lyndon Johnson, to head it. His public works and soil conservation programs would coax many environmentalists into the Republican party, and his greatest triumph in his first two years would be the Omnibus Environmental Protection Act. He worked quietly but toughly on desegregation in housing and schools, enacting George Romney's busing plan, but was otherwise socially conservative. Many Democrats shifted to the center on social issues after seeing the outcome of Mailer's socially liberal campaign. A relatively bipartisan consensus on abortion and sexual equality emerged, the line being "when the time is right", neatly failing to specify when that time will come, if ever.
On the world stage, Rhodes rejected the progressive internationalism of Hiss, preferring to delegate more autonomy to intelligence agencies. Secretary of State Kermit Roosevelt Jr. oversaw numerous assassinations, coups, and other fun and games in the Third World. Unless faced with a charismatic challenger, Rhodes seemed to be sailing to a second term. Unfortunately, he would be blindsided with just that.
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A little thing, for an ALT timeline where the CSA wins.....and Uncle Sam comes back in the 1990s.
The 2170 papal conclave was convened to elect a pope to succeed Pope John Paul III following his resignation on 13 May 2170. The period of sede vacante for the Holy See was typical of the age of colonization, with several of the extrasolar cardinal-electors needing in excess of a month of travel time to gather at the Vatican. Once the 147 participating cardinal-electors had gathered, they set 21 June 2170 as the beginning of the conclave. On the seventh ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Inhaxiô Phòng Nguyễn Bao, SJ, Archbishop of Huế. He took the pontifical name of Paul IX.
The 2170 papal conclave is notable for several reasons. Among them, Phòng is the first pope from Vietnam, and the third Jesuit to be elected to the papacy. The seven ballots needed to elected Phòng is the highest of the 22nd century, largely attributed to the tumultuous period of human history with ongoing colonial wars in the eastern Orion affecting high-numbers of extrasolar Catholics, and with the recent establishment of diplomatic relations with the gret, only the second sapient alien race (alongside the three ak polities) to have formal relations with the Alliance of Terran States. The conclave is also notable for the absences of three cardinal-electors, all from the outer colonies of the eastern Orion; of the three absences, only Cardinal Luis Gonsalves, Archbishop of Hard Landing, explicitly stated his absence was a "matter of conscience over the silence of the Catholic Church's Earthbound institutions on oppression of the people of Ashoka and the greater eastern Orion."
Only three months after his election, Pope Paul IX announced his intention to call a general council. Though some segments of the Catholic laity, and non-Catholics, were surprised, the announcement was expected by many members of the College of Cardinals, the Roman Curia, and other Church officials, as were the topics it was called to address. In his announcement, Paul IX called the existence of alien life "perhaps the most pressing new theological issue of the age, that has gone ignored too long."
Preparations for the Council began immediately, including transmitting the announcement to all colonies and space stations in Alliance space. The Fourth Vatican Ecumenical Council, commonly known as the Fourth Vatican Council or Vatican IV, addressed the theological issues surrounding sapient alien life. It formally opened on 15 August 2171, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the General Roman Calendar, and formally closed on 23 November 2175, the feast day of Saint Clement of Rome.
The Council involved over 3700 members of the Catholic clergy, and several interfaith observers also attended from all of humanity's major religions. According to the Paul IX, the most central message of Vatican IV was that sapient alien life were too made in the Image of God, thus part of His Creation, and it was the duty of the Church to spread the Word to sapient aliens.
In the wake of the closing of Vatican IV, Paul IX authored the second encyclical of his pontificate, Creavit Deus Caelum (God created the heavens). In it, the pope explains the logic of alien life being God's Creation, and calls upon all Catholics, and the peoples on all human worlds, to extend the love of God to their alien brothers and sisters. It was published formally on 12 September 2176, the feast of Saint Julian the Hospitaller.
Creavit Deus Caelum was released by the Vatican in Latin, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Tagalog, Hindi, and Arabic, along with the original Vietnamese; translations are available in most human languages, Ak Trade Creole, with a translation underway for Standard Besht, the interstellar gret lingua franca.
1. “In principio CREAVIT DEUS CAELUM et terram” – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. In the very first sentence of His Word, God tells us that all the universe, all its stars and planets and other wonders, and all life within it, is His Creation. All of the universe's cosmic majesty, and the miraculous and myriad forms of life that inhabit it, is the result of his boundless love and invention. It affirms that sapient life, whatever its form, as the Creation of God, is made in His image. - excerpt from Creavit Deus Caelum
The 2170 papal conclave is notable for several reasons. Among them, Phòng is the first pope from Vietnam, and the third Jesuit to be elected to the papacy. The seven ballots needed to elected Phòng is the highest of the 22nd century, largely attributed to the tumultuous period of human history with ongoing colonial wars in the eastern Orion affecting high-numbers of extrasolar Catholics, and with the recent establishment of diplomatic relations with the gret, only the second sapient alien race (alongside the three ak polities) to have formal relations with the Alliance of Terran States. The conclave is also notable for the absences of three cardinal-electors, all from the outer colonies of the eastern Orion; of the three absences, only Cardinal Luis Gonsalves, Archbishop of Hard Landing, explicitly stated his absence was a "matter of conscience over the silence of the Catholic Church's Earthbound institutions on oppression of the people of Ashoka and the greater eastern Orion."
Only three months after his election, Pope Paul IX announced his intention to call a general council. Though some segments of the Catholic laity, and non-Catholics, were surprised, the announcement was expected by many members of the College of Cardinals, the Roman Curia, and other Church officials, as were the topics it was called to address. In his announcement, Paul IX called the existence of alien life "perhaps the most pressing new theological issue of the age, that has gone ignored too long."
Preparations for the Council began immediately, including transmitting the announcement to all colonies and space stations in Alliance space. The Fourth Vatican Ecumenical Council, commonly known as the Fourth Vatican Council or Vatican IV, addressed the theological issues surrounding sapient alien life. It formally opened on 15 August 2171, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the General Roman Calendar, and formally closed on 23 November 2175, the feast day of Saint Clement of Rome.
The Council involved over 3700 members of the Catholic clergy, and several interfaith observers also attended from all of humanity's major religions. According to the Paul IX, the most central message of Vatican IV was that sapient alien life were too made in the Image of God, thus part of His Creation, and it was the duty of the Church to spread the Word to sapient aliens.
In the wake of the closing of Vatican IV, Paul IX authored the second encyclical of his pontificate, Creavit Deus Caelum (God created the heavens). In it, the pope explains the logic of alien life being God's Creation, and calls upon all Catholics, and the peoples on all human worlds, to extend the love of God to their alien brothers and sisters. It was published formally on 12 September 2176, the feast of Saint Julian the Hospitaller.
Creavit Deus Caelum was released by the Vatican in Latin, English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Tagalog, Hindi, and Arabic, along with the original Vietnamese; translations are available in most human languages, Ak Trade Creole, with a translation underway for Standard Besht, the interstellar gret lingua franca.
1. “In principio CREAVIT DEUS CAELUM et terram” – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. In the very first sentence of His Word, God tells us that all the universe, all its stars and planets and other wonders, and all life within it, is His Creation. All of the universe's cosmic majesty, and the miraculous and myriad forms of life that inhabit it, is the result of his boundless love and invention. It affirms that sapient life, whatever its form, as the Creation of God, is made in His image. - excerpt from Creavit Deus Caelum
Even in the Space Future where we've expanded far beyond the stars, the Catholic Church still can't help itself but to have twenty cardinals from Italy, can they?
"How many cardinals should Italy have?"
"Twenty, twenty-two?"
"Sounds good. And all of human civilization beyond Jupiter?"
"The same?"
"Excellent, done."
"How many cardinals should Italy have?"
"Twenty, twenty-two?"
"Sounds good. And all of human civilization beyond Jupiter?"
"The same?"
"Excellent, done."
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But they're getting better!
Soon, it will only be like 15 cardinals from four square blocks of Rome.
Progress!
Plus all the stuff about aliens, that's good stuff.
It's a fascinating idea, really, and one that I'm sure would have a lot of implications. Even if there wouldn't be a lot of aliens converting to Roman Catholicism, they would still need to work out all the details of how you go about doing missionary work on aliens and giving them the sacraments and so on, down to some some xenobiologist nun in an office somewhere chewing on the end of her pen as she tries to work out just quite how they can safely give communion to aliens that don't necessarily eat bread or drink wine.
(this means we can marry cute aliens, right? I no longer have to live in sin with my alien girlfriend, yes?)
(please do say yes)
I'll guess you'll just have to read the full Latin text of Creavit Deus Caelum, won't you, sinner?
Another film from the same timeline as these infoboxes (King Kong and Jaws).
EDIT: I made an error on the Flash Gordon one. It should had Paramount instead of Universal, due to that was what produced instead of King Kong. I've corrected it and added what Universal produced that same year.
EDIT: I made an error on the Flash Gordon one. It should had Paramount instead of Universal, due to that was what produced instead of King Kong. I've corrected it and added what Universal produced that same year.
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kirbopher15
Kicked
Would you mind creating with an alternate timeline where John Belushi does not get a drug overdose
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