These Fair Shores: The Commonwealth of New England

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Kaiser Wilhelm the Tenth

Banned
As always, this is first-rate, @CosmicAsh . A few comments/questions....
  • For a start, it's really ironic that Anglos are the minority facing discrimination from Hispanics in California ITTL rather than the other way around...
  • How democratic is California, really? Are the elections free and fair or is there an American-style system where "the house always wins?¨
  • Just how bad are things in America? You have mentioned before that the central government's control over the Caribbean states is slowly fading, but this is an order of magnitude worse than anything I'd imagined. What steps will Larry Hogan take to ensure continued control over Puerto Rico? Furthermore, what's the British Empire's position on events there? Same exact question with Georgia.
  • Is this state of persistent rebellion fairly commonplace in TTL's America and something with lots of precedent, or is this a truly fresh danger which the US hasn't seriously confronted before? Is the United States in real danger of breaking up and would the British Empire encourage such a thing?
  • With New England conducting missile tests and the Royal Navy moving "unexpectedly" into American waters, how seriously is London considering intervention?
  • How much does the BBC actually know about the situation in America? Obviously, garnering accurate information from a war zone is a challenging task, but a regime as restrictive as America's certainly won't help. Furthermore, how biased is their reporting? I know that TTL's British Empire retains a rather authoritarian streak about the press and media- is BBC material on the war in America as hostile as Larry Hogan would have you believe, or is it generally as fair, objective, and neutral as possible?
  • Why is Java forbidding oil production? Is it due to fear of climate change? (I know you mentioned that climate change is taken far more seriously ITTL). Seems like a questionable economic policy....
  • I find it interesting that Russia has now abolished universal conscription. If, ITTL, they're one of the three strongest world powers (I know you mentioned something about them having a naval base in Sardinia a while back- certainly a radical departure from our world), surely they would have a militarised culture and tremendous power-projection abilities. Or is it that enough young Russians join up voluntarily that they don't need conscription?
 
AdmiralMB

AdmiralMB

In the Mass Bay posting there was mention of the privatization of the "Tupper Lake Reservoir" being a major issue. Assuming the Quabbin Reservoir was never built to supply Boston's water, and ITTL's Tupper Lake is the same one in upstate NY, how does that work from a logistical perspective? Quabbin is only 65 miles from Boston while Tupper Lake is over 200 miles away. Also, is Tupper Lake still in federal hands, and if so why was that not the arrangement from the beginning if the Reservoir was entirely in Adirondack but was built to supply Boston?
 
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Geoffreylannister

Russia really is, to borrow an ursine turn of phrase, the 800-pound gorilla in the room in this universe! Their economy is larger than the entire Empire and Commonwealth combined! Sheesh! I also like how Russia being the strongest hasn't instantly turned the world into a smoking wasteland as is so often the case. Also, did Churchill, Attlee and Mountbatten feature prominantly in TTL?
 

Kibbutznik

CosmicAsh said:
VGnn1Wc.jpg
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Wait, I'm a little confused--I thought California was one of the countries where the legislature chose the President? Or was there a change to canon?

EDIT: Question was answered by map edit
 
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PaulJones202718

1) I can almost see the public information films (British for PSA) about what our licence fee gets us.

2) Having to play clean-up in a collapsed rogue state looks to be not a lot of fun. I'm suddenly thinking about the tail end of Timeline 191.
 

Analytical Engine

Considering that there is an "internet licence", and therefore a government-owned ISP in these countries, how heavily regulated is the alt-internet ITTL (in Britain and the Empire specifically, though I wouldn't mind knowing how that works elsewhere)? Are there certain types of site that are legal IOTL that are illegal ITTL and vise-versa?
 
SuperZtar64

SuperZtar64

Banned
Analytical Engine said:
Considering that there is an "internet licence", and therefore a government-owned ISP in these countries, how heavily regulated is the alt-internet ITTL (in Britain and the Empire specifically, though I wouldn't mind knowing how that works elsewhere)? Are there certain types of site that are legal IOTL that are illegal ITTL and vise-versa?
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To be clear, there isn't a government-owned ISP in these countries, there is the government-owned ISP. There are no private ISPs in the British Empire.

The internet is pretty highly regulated. From what I remember, in the English-speaking world all internet-accessing devices have a unique identifier that enable the government to see what users say and what sites they're visiting through the website host (though this requires a warrant when it comes to personal data). The internet is basically treated as an extension of the public sphere, so you can't do or access anything on the internet that's illegal IRL and if you do it's 100x easier for the authorities to track you down because all your digital actions can be traced back to you. Encryption is illegal. The Dark Web and any site where illegal things are sold or shown or occur does not exist. Hiding your digital tracks is likely to raise suspicion from authorities. This is considered a relatively liberal set of regulations compared to most of the world.

This is contrasted with the (by this world's standards) extremely libertarian Russian internet, which more closely resembles the internet we have today where it's kind of the wild west and anything goes. If this world has an equivalent of something like, say, 4chan, it could only exist on the Russian internet.
 
AstroRangerBeans

AstroRangerBeans

SuperZtar64 said:
To be clear, there isn't a government-owned ISP in these countries, there is the government-owned ISP. There are no private ISPs in the British Empire.

The internet is pretty highly regulated. From what I remember, in the English-speaking world all internet-accessing devices have a unique identifier that enable the government to see what users say and what sites they're visiting through the website host (though this requires a warrant when it comes to personal data). The internet is basically treated as an extension of the public sphere, so you can't do or access anything on the internet that's illegal IRL and if you do it's 100x easier for the authorities to track you down because all your digital actions can be traced back to you. Encryption is illegal. The Dark Web and any site where illegal things are sold or shown or occur does not exist. Hiding your digital tracks is likely to raise suspicion from authorities. This is considered a relatively liberal set of regulations compared to most of the world.

This is contrasted with the (by this world's standards) extremely libertarian Russian internet, which more closely resembles the internet we have today where it's kind of the wild west and anything goes. If this world has an equivalent of something like, say, 4chan, it could only exist on the Russian internet.
Click to expand...
How does social rights like marijuana, LGBTQ, sexual, adult film, and other libertarian rights fare even in Britain and other countries with liberal or strict regulations which involves internet license?
 
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Erinthecute

Erinthecute

AstroRangerBeans said:
How does social rights like marijuana, LGBTQ, sexual, adult film, and other libertarian rights fare even in Britain and other countries with liberal or strict regulations which involves internet license?
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The Imperial Parliament intervened to strike down laws in Massachusetts Bay which were discrimnatory against LGBTQ+ people, so it's safe to say that at least some areas of rights are quite robust in Britain.
 
GriffinFTW

GriffinFTW

EmperorHogan.png

"In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the United States will be reorganized into the first American Empire! For a safe and secure society!"
 
SuperZtar64

SuperZtar64

Banned
To paraphrase Ash on TFS Britain: "These British would bend over backwards to avoid misgendering someone, but also paint rainbows on bombs to be dropped on Bengali orphanages."
 
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