America's Funniest President: Mo Udall Presidency & Beyond
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Thundercats may still get made though probably still be a bit in the shadow of He-Man who ITTL is more Conan IN SPACE vibes.
As for Transformers, I mentoned that ITTL, they would be Mechasaurs. Instead of vechicles, it's on dinosaurs, so basically kinda like the Dinobots, but they were dinosaurs tuned into robots by aliens and well, with the personality of the Autobots. Like Nobilius Rex being T-rex Optimus Prime.
Yeah, most likely. Action films are more fantastic here. I don't think we'd get Robocop. Termination still gives us something like the Terminator though. Not as many ruanchy comedies and so on.
So no Fast Times at Ridgemont High? What about Grease and Ferris Bueller's Day Off?
Most likely yes. As for video games, well, it's already averting the gender divide, much like how we saw in @RySenkari 's timeline though now here even more so. Of course, Japan is still Japan so while they might export a bit more, most of the female protagonists may be homegrown in the US, Europe and so on, though I got a couple of surprises here.
Fast Times could still be made, but given it's based on a book which is based on the author's undercover work, it wold be made in a different late 1970s and early 1980s, so definitely different.
Day Off may be mostly the same, but with differences. Grease was made in 1978 and based on a 1971 musical so it's unaffected by the butterfly effect.
America's Funniest President: Mo Udall Presidency & Beyond
Possible, but we don't much on his specific political leniances to say whether we would become a prominent player in the neo-progressive tide. Let us go with the assumption of him likely winning, with his reelection likely being by a bigger margin. He will likely remain close to his agricultural...
www.alternatehistory.com
Mentioned here!
Well I know of a certain scene starring Phoebe Cates in that first one that definitely wouldn't be in the movie in this timeline 😅
Did they make an equivalent to The Real Ghostbusters ITTL? While there's likely still be merchandise the writing would likely take precedent. I'd love it if they would stay somewhat horror-tinged instead of devolving into being the Slimer Show like in OTL.
I don't think I like the all-dinosaur take on The Transformers. What stopped them from doing what they did in OTL?
I don't think I like the all-dinosaur take on The Transformers. What stopped them from doing what they did in OTL?
Hmmm... likely though we haven't gotten Ghostbusters II, least yet anyway. Probablt trying to figure ot a good story.
The people behind it figured dinosaurs would be a better investment in the long term than automobiles ITTL.
How would Udall have fared against Reagan in '76? I suspect it would be a very close race still but I wonder who would have the bigger advantage. Without Reagan's disastrous presidency weighing him down in 1980 he would still have his outsider image going for him.
What happened to far-right groups like the Order and National Alliance ITTL? What happened to Alan Berg?
I’m not sure. Reagan would still be divided in support in his party while Udall would have most of the support of the Dems. Udall may still win. 1976-1980 would be a tough time to do stuff, but he could still possibly win re-election.
The Order and National Alliance would still be a plague and probably be more angry at the Udall administration’s reforms, though in turn, the Order may do stuff sooner which would lead to their potential earlier arrest (given they didn’t last long OTL) and likely spare Alan Berg.
National Alliance meanwhile may grow slightly bigger, but boy, they’d likely be on many a shitlist sooner.
Political Retrospection: 1985 - 1989 Part 1
Political Retrospection: 1985 - 1989 Part 1
The Anglosphere
The case of United States vs Exxon would be quite an influential one in the whole nation and arguably the whole world. The court case revealed that Exxon and various other fossil fuel had conducted their own research, not only concluding that climate change caused by fossil fuel usage was a very real possibility and phenomenon, but that rather than share that knowledge, they planned on suppressing it and conspiring to spread fraud to the public about it. Coming off the heels of the case against Big Tobacco, it would rattle the public. With the rise of the baby boomers having families along with the brightbangers becoming adults too, they were the predominant vote force and were not happy with this. As such, this would establish environmental safety and long-term sustainability as top priorities on federal and state levels. Unsurprisingly, the Udall Administration would go forward with this and push the Democrats hard to go and pursue these policies on various levels. While this did lead to some trouble in certain states like West Virginia, the importance of the situation helped push them while also devoting resources to help the transition from communities who relied on fossil fuels for their economy, going from things like clean nuclear energy or preparing to shift to a service economy or the computer boom. The Republicans were more divided, due to those who were opposed to heavy government intervention and believed just the market itself would be sufficient. Others were more pragmatic since they pointed the case damaged credabiltiy on just trusting the companies for it. Beyond just the ecological motivation though, the SATMIN civil rights movement along with third wave feminism kept picking up steam, as their victories enabled to gain more outreach for the various minorities in the US, also using such connections and works with their allies to try and resolve issues like racial tensions, which would see some success as one of Udall's last acts was to pardon people who were jailed for mere possession of drugs. This was done in secrecy to not influence the election and only came out in 1989, surprising more than a few people at this. Askew would continue on finishing the list of names, having noting the disproportionate affect on people of color.
Up over in Canada, they were having to keep up with their neighbor and the revelations of the case naturally seeped over into Canadian politics as well, with some growing calls for the expansion into environmental power. Their National Geothermal Program, which had been potentially on the chopping block, was renewed and brought back to life, with the discoveries coming out of Canada's favorability to geothermal energy, specifying on the types with various locations and providing a new big discussion point over in politics. The NDP and Liberal parties capitalized on these new opportunities to try and push forward for this, especially with the influence of third wave feminism and SATMIN+ civil rights empowering those going up north as well. All of this was empower both of those parties, enough that it would see John Turner become the new Prime Minister, beating Brian Mulroney though having to form a coalition government with the NDP under Ed Broadbent. As such, they would begin pushing for some growing reforms there, such as to try and expand healthcare and for the civil rights, to try and keep up with the US. One party that would benefit alot of this would be the growing Green Party of Canada. With all of these changes, there were growing times for more political reforms to balance the concerns and needs of the people, especially French-Canadians, along with the Metis and the First Nations folk, who have all been inspired by the movements of their American neighbors.
Over in the United Kingdom, as the complications in dealing with the IRA continue on, the elections have seen a changing of the guard. . The UK would see a change come in with a hung parliament, resulting in the Tories under new leader Sir Geoffrey Howe managing to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats who took voters from both the Tories and Labour Party, albeit more from the former. Meanwhile, Roy Hattersley became became the new leade of the Labor Party and thus theLeader of the Opposition. though many have speculated that he may not stay as leader of the Labour party for long. Mainly because of the growing prominence of Peter Shore along with the return of Tony Benn, especially with SATMIN social movements tied in. As such, some predict the return of the Bennites as a prominence force. Meanwhile over in Australia, Bob Hawke 's Labor Government would grow their majority quite nicely over there, pushing the similar reforms. Both of them would also have to try and deal with the news on the climate change, such as with the British with their coal and Australia with their mining industries. It was becoming a greater concern for people. At the same time, the growing social movements would be spreading, especially because of American influence spreading such on the youth and giving fuel to the fire of the homegrown sort of movements.
Latin America
Latin America managed to avoid issues coming from the oil crisis causing economic disruptions, primarily thanks to the United States under the Udall administration pushing the IMF to not force the countries to place austerity measures (arguing that it would just stunt growth and not pay off along with other impracticalities) and just provide massive amounts of debt relief, allowing them to start going on once more. However, the revelations from the Americans' court case on oil would have profound implications to say the least.
Mexico would be quite impacted to say the least. Under the long iron-fisted rule of the PRI for decades, the people were becoming sick and tired. However, the case about fossil fuels would hit Mexico where it hurts: Pemex. With oil prices now damaged by the revelation and pushing for a need fo phase out fossil fuels and fuel efficiency, the PRI would be suffering quite a bit. The PRI's preexisting corruption and the memories of the Dirty War had been a backlog and Pemex now in trouble just fueled Mexico even more to go and show their frustration. Primarily in the 1988 general elections, where Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas was going against Carlos Salinas de Gortari. However, the large concerns about potential voter fraud would get the attentions of the Americans to keep an eye on things. When Salinas would win over Cárdenas, much of the nation was up over in frustration and outrage. However, Cárdenas would not exploit the opportunity to potentially call upon his supporters for this matter out of concern for violence. This did not stop peaceful protests and even Mexico's neighbors showed concern. President Udall noted that Mexico should've let the UN come to investigate such matters and that a party needing to rely on such chicanery to win did not deserve the support of the people. Some have even speculated that had Cárdenas requested assistance, the various powers, including the US, would've gotten involved. While Salinas would be considered a victor, it was a barely a pyrrhic victory at best, especially as the PRI would still be forced to contend with further problems, the loss of trust from the governments of their neigbors and Cárdenas would remain around, especially with the founding of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática.
Central America meanwhile would continue recovering from the 1970s and the leftists in charge would consolidate their victories within power, feeling comfortable to really begin moving forward with infrastructure development and their economies. At the same time, the decline of the Warsaw Pact was giving a pause on the various leftist governments, wondering on what to do and perhaps what not to do. Despite this, the countries were doing their best to putting in various reforms though some needed to face other issues. The Sandinistas of Nicaragua were feeling pressure because of the accusations of human rights violations, especially with the indigenous people. El Salvador was trying to balance the issues with its political parties. Honduras was still rebuilding though others were gong further and doing well, like Guatemala. Additionally, they were having to adjust to the rapid new world of technology that would start making it way in.
South America, happily free from Operation Condor, continued its gradual leftward shifting and recovering from the painful years of the juntas. Like their northern neighbors, the fossil fuel revelation and the oncoming computer boom was starting to have some affects on the politics of the nations. Venezuela would find itself in political turmoil as its primary export in petroleum has become jeopardized by the more unstable market and having to force the need for widescale reforms and a change a priority, hinting at further economic turmoil. Brazil meanwhile would gain some more prominence there as ecological groups began pushing for greater preservation and management of the Amazon Rainforest, a push that is seeing domestic growth also by the indigenous people of Brazil. Meanwhile the US and Colombia have renegotiated with one another; while the focus now laid on handling the drug trafficking there, the US still ended support of certain military groups as part of the so-called war against communism. This also included the US having to go and make reforms to rein in the various companies involved, including Chiquita. Peru meanwhile was having to renegotiate with the Americans and other financial institutions over Peru's hyperinflation and potential bailouts, with American intelligence beginning to uncover evidence of a potental coup by the military along with the troubles from the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and the Shining Path. Chile was still recovering from the end of the Pinochet regime back in 1983 and relations with the Americans have been improving, especially with infrastructure development. Some of the remnants of Allende's folk have begun coming back to the nation with pardons and hoping to try and continue on his work with the new government.
In a very fascinating turn of events, one of the big revelations of Chile would be that Project Cybersyn. The work of project architect Stafford Beer, the idea of management cybernetics applied to the economy, especially a mixed or planned one, emerged once more in the talks, especially when as part of the works to repair relations, Chile would be given a substantial boost in the development of computers with the folk of Project GNU, which in turn introduced them and subsequently many other bright minds to the ideals and possibilities behind Project Cybersyn. Unsurprisingly, it began meshing well with the open source ideals along with that of gowing a free internet for everyone and even a few of the big names within the industry such as Wozniak and supposedly even Jobs himself showed interest in all this. This was not just limited to the American computer community either, especially as the growing international network began spreading the ideas around. The news of a computer-empowered planned economy intrigued certain groups in the Soviet Union and China. Beer, who had been living in austere life in Wales, would find himself inviting to software conferences and to help further refine the theories of management cybernetics with the growing computational power, the young Internet and so on.
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