The Co-Popes; American Gothic

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February 13th, 2006

in 1123 Post-Creation, Lucifer arrives in Heaven and begs for an audience with the Creator. Instead, he is shown to Achazia. “I wish to speak to the Creator,” he says, angry at the delay. She smiles upon him and says, “Then you may speak to me.” Lucifer flees from her, and searches Heaven, but cannot find the Creator.

in 1689, the Holy British Empire was under the rule of 2 popes again, but this time without warfare. The married Holy Couple, William and Mary, were made co-popes because William's close ties with the Protestant movement made him suspect in the minds of many bishops, and Mary was seen as an ineffectual administrator; together, though, they were quite successful. “Out of two incomplete persons, God has made a Glorious One,” the College of Cardinals declared.

in 1882, the Social-Democratic Union, a labor organization inspired by and partially funded by the Communist and Socialist parties in America, is organized in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The reactionaries in that monarchy quickly attack the fledgling labor movement, hoping to keep their immoral grasp on power a little longer.

in 1892, surrealist Grant Wood was born in Anamosa, Iowa. Although his early work was fairly conventional, he entered the company of the surrealists when he moved to New York in 1928, and his mishmash of midwestern America with strange shapes and creations sprung from his imagination captured the attention of the world. His most famous piece, American Gothic, depicting a devil, complete with pitchfork, alongside a frumpy Iowa farmwoman, has been parodied so many times that people who have never seen the original recognize the tableau instantly.

in 1904, Q’B’Ton’ra is driven from the earth’s solar system by a defensive force he clearly did not expect to be more advanced than his own. The Congress of Nations embassy ship, in a daring maneuver by pilot Lieutenant Michael Smith, manages to break through the back of his line and reach the sanctuary of Pluto. Although the earth’s people are cheered by the return of the ship, they are saddened at the loss of Ambassador Li’Kanto’Mk, and he is memorialized with full honors.

in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt of the U.S. delivered his most influential speech, decrying the “race problem” in America. He announced that his Justice Department would immediately begin prosecuting lynchings, and pushed for law which guaranteed the rights of minorities in the country. The flabbergasted elite of the New York Republican Club, where he delivered the speech, denounced Roosevelt as a “dangerous radical” for the speech, but later generations saw him as a visionary.

in 1918, Mikhail von Heflin and Velma Porter find Milo Cranston when he attacks them in their cabin. They see, to their horror, that the gem holding the being they just imprisoned is fused to Cranston's forehead, and its power is feeding Cranston. With a mixture of cunning and luck, they are able to trick Cranston and the being into jumping overboard, leaving them stranded in the middle of the Atlantic.

in 1940, Dresden, a Greater Zionist Resistance stronghold in Germany, is destroyed by a nuclear blast. Although the German Underground seeks to blame the G.Z.R., the whole world knows that it was one of their weapons, and sanctions are briefly enacted against the rogue regime.

in 1955, Israel acquired half of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the one purportedly written by Jesus himself, which began, “In the name of the most holy, we renounce all the faiths of man, because the one true God cannot be contained within the pages of a book.” Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths met secretly in Jerusalem to destroy this tract in particular.

in 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, recovering from the poison that rival Konstantin Chernenko had slipped him, orders a purge of all the Brezhnevians within the Kremlin, beginning with Chernenko. Although the power struggle results in a brief revolt against his authority, Andropov is ultimately successful, and his reform policies help the Soviet Union integrate its economy more effectively into the growing global marketplace. Andropov is often hailed as the man who saved the Soviet Union from a financial apocalypse.

Timelines in today's post: the Fall, the Holy British Empire, the Mlosh, von Heflin, the GZR and Communist America

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Labor Movement Oppressed In Holland

February 13th, 2005

in 1542, Pope Henry VIII executed a 5th consort for heresy. In spite of the rather horrendous ends met by his other consorts, women across Christendom still clamored to join themselves to the leader of the Holy British Empire, and Sister Catherine Parr, author of the devotional tracks Prayers and Meditations and Lamentations of a Sinner, became the Papal Consort in 1543.

in 1882, the Social-Democratic Union, a labor organization inspired by and partially funded by the Communist and Socialist parties in America, is organized in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The reactionaries in that monarchy quickly attack the fledgling labor movement, hoping to keep their immoral grasp on power a little longer.

in 1892, surrealist Grant Wood was born in Anamosa, Iowa. Although his early work was fairly conventional, he entered the company of the surrealists when he moved to New York in 1928, and his mishmash of midwestern America with strange shapes and creations sprung from his imagination captured the attention of the world. His most famous piece, American Gothic, depicting a devil, complete with pitchfork, alongside a frumpy Iowa farmwoman, has been parodied so many times that people who have never seen the original recognize the tableau instantly.

in 1904, Q’B’Ton’ra is driven from the earth’s solar system by a defensive force he clearly did not expect to be more advanced than his own. The Congress of Nations embassy ship manages to break through the back of his line and reach the sanctuary of Pluto. Although the earth’s people are cheered by the return of the ship, they are saddened at the loss of Ambassador Li’Kanto’Mk, and he is memorialized with full honors.

in 1940, Dresden, a Greater Zionist Resistance stronghold in Germany, is destroyed by a nuclear blast. Although the German Underground seeks to blame the G.Z.R., the whole world knows that it was one of their weapons, and sanctions are briefly enacted against the rogue regime.

in 1952, in the early morning hours, Mikhail von Heflin gives Juan Escobar a choice – ride back to Mexico and never bother the Baron again, or die. Escobar chooses the former, and the Baron and his companion Velma Porter deposit the Mexican paranormalist back at his motel. As they watch him leave, von Heflin cannot shake the feeling that he will see Escobar again.

in 1955, Israel acquired half of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the one purportedly written by Jesus himself, which began, “In the name of the most holy, we renounce all the faiths of man, because the one true God cannot be contained within the pages of a book.” Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and various Animist faiths met secretly in Jerusalem to destroy this tract in particular.

in 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, recovering from the poison that rival Konstantin Chernenko had slipped him, orders a purge of all the Brezhnevians within the Kremlin, beginning with Chernenko. Although the power struggle results in a brief revolt against his authority, Andropov is ultimately successful, and his reform policies help the Soviet Union integrate its economy more effectively into the growing global marketplace. Andropov is often hailed as the man who saved the Soviet Union from a financial apocalypse.


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Le Jour De La Bastille

July 14th, 2007

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The Announcement

L'Historien Alternatif Parle: Joyeaux Jour du Bastille! Allons, enfant de le Patrie... Happy Bastille Day to all our French-speaking readers! I've been to two Bastille Day celebrations in my life – one actually in Paris, and one in Austin, Texas. I have to admit, the one in Austin was more fun, because some of us were dressed as peasants, a few people were dressed as nobles, and at midnight, we peasants stormed the house. In Paris, there was no storming – just a lot of military parades. A LOT of military parades. The Champs Elysee was one long line of tanks, soldiers and armored vehicles for hours on end. The French really like to show off their guys and gals in uniform. The night before, though, was something called the Fireman's Ball, I think – where hopefully no fires start in the city, because all of the Parisian firefighters are out getting drunk. That was an interesting night to be out and about in the city.
The Bastille itself no longer exists, of course – they tore it down because it was a symbol of their oppression. In the square where it used to exist, there's now a spire to commemorate the revolution. Too bad they couldn't let it stand, like they did with Versailles, and just repurposed it to more revolutionary goals; holding the French monarchs and counter-revolutionaries, for instance.
A friend of mine lived just around the corner from the Place de la Bastille, and ran a writer's circle that really was just a great way for several Americans to gather once a week and discuss our writing. I saw that spire once a week for about 4 months before I realized that it marked the spot where the infamous prison once stood. I think it was because I usually got off the Metro one stop early, instead of the stop at the actual Place de la Bastille – like many Metro stops in Paris, the one at Place de la Bastille has a lot of historical color to let you know what it once was. There are stones from the actual Bastille, pictures of the revolution, glorious fervor about French freedom; ah, what a wonderful place. The Place is often a scene where people will gather to hold rallies about French life – recently, it was the scene of rioting after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy to the French presidency.
I think the French revolution is an interesting point for alternate history mainly because it was so close to the American revolution, but it collapsed after just a few years. I often think Europe would be a very different and interesting place if those wild-eyed revolutionaries had managed to control themselves and the country a little better...
Anyway, those are my thoughts on Bastille Day – enjoy Steve's entry for today and, vive le Revolution!

Kennedy	"The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution." ~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States
US President

After he had secretly surrendered to the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missiles Crises, and was organising a national resistance movement. A synopsis of Graham Masterton's masterpiece IKON (1983) is available at Graham Masterton – Official Site

~ quotation by Co-Historian Steve Payne from Counter-history – You're the Judge!

Oscar Wilde	"Like feasting with panthers – the danger is half the excitement." ~ Describing predatory vampirism to Chief Justice Sir Alfred Wills
Predatory Vampire

Heads up ~ In Anno Dracula historian Kim Newman described how Abraham Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker and Lord Godalming failed to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Great Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and increasingly dominant in society. By 1888 Dracula married the widowed Queen Victoria, and ruled as Prince Consort. Yet the Lord Ruthven defeated the Count who subsequently fled to Paris. Eager to stabilise his own rule of non-predatory vampires, Ruthven sought a show trial of the Irish playwright, novelist and poet Oscar Wilde. Wilde had brought a suit against the father of his familiar Lord Alfred Douglas, the ninth Marquess of Queensberry, for leaving him a libellous calling card at his club. The offending card read “For Oscar Wilde, posing predatory vampire”. Wilde was subsequently convicted. Prison was unkind to Wilde's health and after he was released on May 19, 1897 he spent his last three years penniless, in self-imposed exile from society and artistic circles. He went under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth, after the devilish central character of Wilde's great-uncle Charles Robert Maturin's gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer. Nevertheless, Wilde lost no time in returning to his previous pleasures. According to Douglas, Ross "dragged [him] back to vampire practices" during the summer of 1897, which they spent together in Berneval. After his release, he also wrote the famous poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Wilde spent his last years in the Hôtel d'Alsace, now known as L'Hôtel, in Paris, where he was notorious and uninhibited about enjoying the pleasures he had been denied in England. Again according to Douglas, "he was hand in glove with all the familiars on the Boulevard. He never attempted to conceal it." A transcript of the vampire's tale is described at Wikipedia

~ variant by Steve Payne : extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 2009, TV networks ran episode five of So What If?. Blasting the Reich Chancery Doors away with dynamite, Allied soldiers race into Hitler's Bunker. They find the Fuehrer's Deputy Martin Bormann hanging upside down, his lifeblood emptied. In a tradition as old as Macedonia, the Master had abandoned his nest, sacrificing his Familiar.

~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2008, Susan Shwartz published Suppose They Gave a Peace.... Due to the increasing count of body bags returning from Iraq, John F Kerry was elected US president in 2004. Not waiting for the promised US withdrawal, insurgents tighten their grip on the country. An Ohio family worries about its soldier son.

~ variant entry by Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genuis.

Robert Ludlum	In 1976, the "alleged", secret files of J. Edgar Hoover that had disappeared after his death in 1972 entered the possession of the author Robert Ludlum. The files, when dovetailed with even a layman's knowledge of government crises since the mid 1960s clearly ..
.. demonstrated how people in high places could be forced to do the bidding of those who possessed the secrets contained therein. A deal was struck with FBI Director Clarence M. Kelley whereby Ludlum could publish his semi-fictional novel The Chancellor Manuscript whilst agreeing to return the secret files back to the Agency.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 2002, French President Jacques Chirac was assassinated during Bastille Day celebrations by a lone gunman with a rifle hidden in a guitar case. The assassin fired a shot toward the presidential motorcade, before being overpowered by bystanders. The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, underwent psychiatric testing; the violent far-right ..	Jacques Chirac
.. group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale was then administratively dissolved but not before funding links were discovered to the CIA. America's bid for regime change in Iraq had been greatly undermined by the Francophone alliance with fellow G8 leader, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. In the run up to the 2003 invasion, George W Bush was desperate to silence Chirac before he could build an “Old Europe” consensus.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

New Horizons	In 2015, by cruel irony the NASA spacecraft named New Horizons spacecraft flew by Pluto and Charon at 50,000 kilometres per hour, exploring the area for five months. Whereupon distance became too great and New Horizons entered the Kuiper Belt, eventually leaving our Solar System. It was in the belt that the spacecraft encountered ..
.. the alien intelligence known simply as the Voice. Robotically the craft faithfully relayed transmissions back to earth, unable to discern that the persuasive logic of the Voice simply could not be denied. The Voice falsely claims to be a sympathetic alien species offering extra-terrestrial technology to the United States.. for a price. Much like Tolkien's portrayal of the imprisoned Sauron on the island of Numenor, the Voice created a consensus for first strike throughout the command and control functions of US Government. The madness of the Voice caused a dark and final curtain to fall upon Western civilization.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1940, during World War II: Andrew George Latta McNaughton took command of the 7th Army Corps consisting of British, Canadian and New Zealand troops. The architect of the stunningly successful Dieppe Raid in 1942, military logic rather than political pressures prevailed and McNaughton was named Supreme Commander of Allied ..	Andrew McNaught..
.. Forces. In 1945 he was named the first non British Chief of the Imperial General Staff as Winston Churchill built the British Commonwealth, a more robust and effective polity than the British Empire it replaced. It would indeed last a thousand years.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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Moving Forward

Sonnengewehr	In 1969, former Nazi Rocket Scientist Werner von Braun informed US President Richard M Nixon that trials for the Sun Gun project would proceed during the late summer. Founding father of rocketry and astronautics Hermann Oberth had conceived the design originally in his 1929 book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt, or 'Ways to Spaceflight'. The Sonnengewehr, or Sun Gun project was conducted by 150 engineers and physicists in Hillersleben, Germany during World War II. The orbital weapon took a further thirty years to develop, mostly by members of the same team who became naturalised Americans. Times had changed, and whilst the Nazi Regime had entered history, Communists were still very much in need of the fiery punishment designed for the enemies of the Third Reich.
Sun Gun Project

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Iconic Leader	In 2009, TV networks ran Decisive Moments in Black History. The narrow escape from assassins of the iconic President of Nigeria, General Murtala Ramat Mohammed on February 13, 1976 was unquestionably a tipping point. The fourth President frustrated an abortive coup attempt when his car was ambushed in traffic in Lagos. He had already taken the early steps to lift Nigeria out of the abyss it was threatening to descend into.
Murtala Mohammed

Top federal and state officials were removed to break links with the Gowon regime and to restore public confidence in the federal government. More than 10,000 public officials and employees were dismissed without benefits, on account of age, health, incompetence, or malpractice. The purge affected the civil service, judiciary, police and armed forces, diplomatic service, public corporations, and universities. Some officials were brought to trial on charges of corruption. He also began the demobilization of 100,000 troops from the swollen ranks of the armed forces. Matters moved forward with apace after the failed coup. After all, Nigeria experienced the same level of literacy and per capita income as Malaysia in 1960, a record it has sustained to this day to the fierce joy of the diaspora.

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In 1955, Israel acquired half of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the one purportedly written by Jesus himself, which began, 'In the name of the most holy, we renounce all the faiths of man, because the one true God cannot be contained within the pages of a book.' Representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and various Animist faiths met secretly in Jerusalem to destroy this tract in particular.

	In 1961, officials in the Congolese province of Katanga declared former Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba dead. Within a week it became apparent Patrice Lumumba and his ministers had been killed on 18 January (the day they were moved to Katanga) with the complicity of Belgian and American intelligence services.
Patrice Lumumba

This revelation precipitated the immediate withdrawal of UN troops from Congo, the resignation of Mr Hammerskjold and trials for President Tshombe and General Mobutu. And not so far away in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia a grim decision to go it alone taken by a Brave War Hero who had never run away from anything in his whole life.

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In 2038, malfunctioning UNIX computers suffered a little known date change problem as January 19, 2038 was truncated to 13th February 1901. Numerous programming failures resulted in channel cross overs occurring as havoc strikes the networks. Light entertainment channels show both Zombie and adult movies, at times so confusingly it was difficult to tell the difference. A post mortem showed that surprisingly few viewers changed the channel and as a result, cross genre channels were rapidly introduced.

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In 1971, backed by American air and artillery support, troops Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) invade Laos.

After many years of being on the defensive, ARVN forces were keen to prove themselves, fast becoming the regional superpower by the end of the decade.

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In 1542, Pope Henry VIII executed a fifth consort for heresy. In spite of the rather horrendous ends met by his other consorts, women across Christendom still clamored to join themselves to the leader of the Holy British Empire, and Sister Catherine Parr, author of the devotional tracks Prayers and Meditations and Lamentations of a Sinner, became the Papal Consort in 1543.

In 1689, a mere generation removed from the last Parliamentary-led revolution, William of Orange and his wife Mary, King James II's daughter, are invited to replaced Mary's father by his opposition in the Parliament. Unfortunately for the Parliament, the royal couple brought 15,000 soldiers with them, and refused to become the toothless monarchs that were envisioned in their invitation. The war that followed shattered the institution of the monarchy as Parliament won the hard-fought struggle and declared Great Britain a republic and 'a kingdom no more,' in 1695.

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In 1939, director George Cukor was released from the production of Gone With The Wind being filmed by David O. Selznick and starring Clark Gable. Both Gable and Selznick had difficulties with Cukor, but he turned out to be the only one willing to take on the huge project. The film fell apart and production was abandoned, financially ruining Selznick's studio. To add insult to injury, Cukor won the Academy Award for direction that year for The Women, the picture he went on to direct after leaving GWTW.

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In 1892, surrealist Grant Wood was born in Anamosa, Iowa. Although his early work was fairly conventional, he entered the company of the surrealists when he moved to New York in 1928, and his mishmash of midwestern America with strange shapes and creations sprung from his imagination captured the attention of the world. His most famous piece, American Gothic, depicting a devil, complete with pitchfork, alongside a frumpy Iowa farmwoman, has been parodied so many times that people who have never seen the original recognize the tableau instantly.

.

In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt of the U.S. delivered his most influential speech, decrying the 'race problem' in America. He announced that his Justice Department would immediately begin prosecuting lynchings, and pushed for law which guaranteed the rights of minorities in the country. The flabbergasted elite of the New York Republican Club, where he delivered the speech, denounced Roosevelt as a 'dangerous radical' for the speech, but later generations saw him as a visionary.

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In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, recovering from the poison that rival Konstantin Chernenko had slipped him, orders a purge of all the Brezhnevians within the Kremlin, beginning with Chernenko. Although the power struggle results in a brief revolt against his authority, Andropov is ultimately successful, and his reform policies help the Soviet Union integrate its economy more effectively into the growing global marketplace. Andropov is often hailed as the man who saved the Soviet Union from a financial apocalypse.

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American	In 1991, BBC News reported: US bombers strike civilians in Baghdad - 'Hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed and wounded in Baghdad by American bombers. Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz said: 'This was a criminal, pre-meditated, planned attack against civilians.' Local reports say two laser-guided precision bombs hit an air-raid shelter in the middle class district of Amiriya, five miles from the centre of the Iraqi capital.
Bombers

So far 235 bodies have been recovered, 12 hours after the attacks at 0445 GMT and 0450 GMT. Continuing fires and intense heat in the bunker complex - which includes a school, mosque and supermarket - have hampered rescue efforts and 300 people are still thought to be trapped inside. The White House said that civilian bombing had brought Hitler's Germany to its knees, and there was no better way to repeat the process with Saddam Hussein's tyranny in Iraq.

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In 1988, the exiled British Royal Family open the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

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In 1882, the Social-Democratic Union, a labor organization inspired by and partially funded by the Communist and Socialist parties in America, is organized in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The reactionaries in that monarchy quickly attack the fledgling labor movement, hoping to keep their immoral grasp on power a little longer.