Oskar's Last Stand

The Trial of the Major War Criminals had fallen through again. After an attempt to go ahead without a Soviet presence, the trial had been blocked when several American political groups filed suit claiming that the Soviet People had been deprived of their right of justice. Most of those groups also asserted that the trials in the Soviet Union were ideal exemplars.

These could not prevent the creation of “Bizonia”, an administrative and financial merger of the American and British occupation zones of Germany (including the Soviet zonal areas “temporarily” occupied by the Allies in support of the Soviet administration). The French government was exploring agreeing to this, but by the time a ministry would make a decision, it would have fallen.

As opposed to the Chinese government, which would have fallen had it not been too big to fall. While the government in Nanking managed to hold most of the coastal provinces, from Manchuria to Kwangsi, either directly or through alliances with local leaders, the center of the country was more disturbed. Tibet, for example, had achieved self-control, while the Communist government had confirmed its control of Shensi.

The newly independent Dominions of India and Pakistan celebrated their freedom by massacres, war threats, and wholesale destruction. Local secessionist movements burgeoned, with the eventual hope of people shooting their own kneecaps off over the tyranny of arthritis.

Shortly thereafter, the British government washed its hands of Palestine. The newly formed Israeli government had at its disposal a large number of veterans, including a surprising proportion of Russian Jews. Demonstrations in New York, London, Paris, and other large cities of progressives flying the the flag of the new Jewish state with a swastika within the Magen David were splashed across the fronts of progressive papers worldwide.
 
The American presidential election had had interesting results. At first, President Truman had been gleeful that he had overcome the defections of the racist Southerners and the progressive Northeasterners to win election to the office in his own right

Then, the recount had thrown California to . . . the Progressive candidate, ex-Vice-President Wallace. That writer, Upton Sinclair, had rallied a coalition of actors, writers, and New Dealers to barely squeak through in a tight three-way race. The Progressive vote had also tipped Ohio to Dewey, and generally demonstrated a strong left presence in the American electorate.

The American people began learning the hard way about some of the more obscure provisions of their Constitution. The Eighty-First Congress was sworn in, and then the President pro tempore had to confirm that no candidates had achieved a majority of the electoral vote, and therefore the solons would have to choose their leaders.

Having confirmed he had not won the election, Senator Barkley was then chosen as Vice-President, though the vote was close, with many states deadlocked. The presidential vote was . . . interesting.

A Republican senator later said, “We have a president who was elected against the will of the people.” The election had gone along party lines, which meant that four states with divided delegations had not voted. And then . . . the Florida delegation had split! “The Will of the People has declared that the Nee-grow is not to be held responsible.”

Truman still won, twenty to nineteen to four (with five abstentions). He was in charge of a multiply divided country.

Only . . . one of the organizers of a Progressive Party demonstration planned in Washington had got into a quarrel in a coffeehouse. When they affirmed that that one victim of the brawl had died, and he was responsible for the fight and the death, New Yorker Savile Sax offered to confess to a worse crime . . .
 
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Shortly thereafter, the British government washed its hands of Palestine. The newly formed Israeli government had at its disposal a large number of veterans, including a surprising proportion of Russian Jews. Demonstrations in New York, London, Paris, and other large cities of progressives flying the flag of the new Jewish state with a swastika within the Magen David were splashed across the fronts of progressive papers worldwide.
Um... because?
 
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