05-22-2020, 04:08 PM | #4781 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: New Reality Seeds
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05-22-2020, 04:15 PM | #4782 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
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05-22-2020, 04:21 PM | #4783 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
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05-22-2020, 04:53 PM | #4784 |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: New Reality Seeds
I recently read Stephen King's 11/22/63 - good time travel book, well-researched, but long (took quarantine lockdown for me to read it...), and got to thinking about divergent Kennedys. I've come up with three, to be listed in three subsequent posts.
(note: I realize that a divergence this recent, and this tragic, is uncomfortable for some people. My mother didn't want to look at the back cover of the 11/22/63 hard cover, which is a mock newspaper headline of if Kennedy had lived) KENNEDY Ever since the discovery of infinite earths, Homeliners have searched for a world where Kennedy lived. Supposedly President Clinton pressed Van Zandt himself to find the JFK timeline, before being told that’s not how parachronics works. For decades, it was all for naught. There were worlds with President Kennedys - on Dixie JFK had been a USA President, while on Reich-2 eldest brother Joseph Kennedy Jr. is the current President - but none where the timeline turned on the family. Until two years ago, when the first ‘Kennedy’ worldline was discovered - to be followed by another last year, and yet another just found. This recent, rapid run of related worlds is weird, but on the Infinity scale of things, it’s no rain of frogs… |
05-22-2020, 04:54 PM | #4785 |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Surprisingly, Kennedy-1 (Q4, current year 1979) does not diverge on JFK’s assassination, but RFK’s - the near-miss clinched the nomination for Robert Kennedy, going on to the White House. As President, he delighted & angered Americans equally with his withdrawal from Vietnam and domestic ‘Great American Deal’. RFK was lucky again in 1972, Spiro Agnew’s corruption arrest rocking the GOP field, and third-party Dixiecrat George Wallace dividing the anti-Kennedy vote.
But his second term wasn’t as kind, with OPEC oil embargo and stagflation, bringing a GOP ’76 sweep under Ronald Reagan. Ronnie couldn’t repeal the EPA or ERA, but was more aggressive abroad. Currently, he is dealing with his own Iran Hostage Crisis. ‘Bobby’ (this world’s nickname) is a political issue in Homeline America, from conservatives demanding action in Tehran to liberals who want to stop the upcoming AIDS crisis. So far, Washington hasn’t intervened, worried not just about Infinity, but also Moscow & Beijing. I-Cops are busy trying to keep Iran from acquiring a projector & getting involved. |
05-22-2020, 04:54 PM | #4786 |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Even more unusual has been Kennedy-2 (Q5, current year 1963), where the divergence was with Joseph Kennedy Jr. surviving WWII. This worldline has serious inertia, or at least historians were right that Joe Sr. had wanted his eldest to go into politics, for it was Joe Jr. who became a Senator. However, he didn’t have Jack’s magic in 1960, settling for the VP slot under President Johnson. The inertia has continued, with this Johnson Administration just enduring the Cuban Missile Crisis. I-Cops are keeping a close eye on any trips to Dallas that either man might have in November…
Infinity discovered this world (nicknamed ‘Joe’) when breaking up a swagman operation of mementos from the Kennedy-Monroe wedding. Instead of politics, JFK went into newspapers, then television, then movies. He’s now a big-name producer (the joke is he’s got more power in Hollywood than his older brother has in the White House), married to the film star Marilyn. |
05-22-2020, 04:55 PM | #4787 |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: New Reality Seeds
It was only this year that Infinity finally found a world where Jack survived, Kennedy-3 (Q6, current year 1965). 11/22/63 was a day of no significance here, and Kennedy was reelected the next year. Now JFK is facing everything from Vietnam to the Voting Rights Act.
Time Tours wanted this world after a photo of Kennedy meeting The Beatles leaked, but that was off once an I-Cop team at The White House disappeared - with signs that Centrum was responsible! Further investigation is still ongoing, but it looks like not only is Interworld on ‘Jack’ (Infinity finally got to use that nickname), but inside the Kennedy Administration. Even more disturbing, parachronic researchers think this might have been an echo, might yet still be one - maybe it was Interworld that saved JFK, and Centrum thinks he will push this earth up-quanta… |
05-23-2020, 08:52 AM | #4788 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Try this one...
In Homeline history, President Truman declined to run in 1952, although he could have done so, and Eisenhower easily brushed MacArthur, especially after MacArthur, made several embarrassingly right-wing speeches. However, in this Q6 world, Truman's popularity didn't sink as low as on Homeline (why is still unknown) so he did run in 1952. Meanwhile, Eisenhower had a period of ill health in early 1952 and declined to run giving MacArthur a free shot at the GOP nomination. "Give 'em Hell Harry." easily took MacArthur down and won a third term. MacArthur's defeat was so thorough that it sunk many conservatives with him. It also set up Truman running an winning in 1956 as well. The enhanced popularity and prominence helped Truman get National Healthcare through congress. Of course it didn't hurt that Truman had the goods on two important senators and the chance to use what he knew. There were multiple other effects as well. Neither John Foster Dulles nor his brother Allen ever rose to prominence. The "Good Neighbor Policy came fully back and became standard practice. Centrum, wants to gain greater influence in this world. more later...
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
05-24-2020, 01:16 AM | #4789 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: New Reality Seeds
The dawning of the enlightenment and the renaissance, and in turn the industrial revolution, were both fundamentally unlikely events. Homeline knows that their region of the cosmos has a preponderance of ones where Europe escaped the medieval cycle, but there are others.
I'm wondering what some worlds would look like where the enlightenment was delayed by centuries. If, even 500 years later, the industrial revolution has yet to arise. Most distinctly, it seems to me that colonialism, as a practice if not an ideology, would emerge only to wither away. Though, I suppose that in practice we might see more migration rather than colonies. The Middle and Far East both had high population densities and trade networks, so it's plausible that they would take the place of Europe, but I'm more interested in worldlines that aren't simply Our History, But and Arabic-Speaking New World. |
05-24-2020, 04:53 AM | #4790 | |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: New Reality Seeds
Quote:
Unless you radically change Islam and/or Arab culture you might get an Island or two, but Arabic new world is right out.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo Last edited by Astromancer; 05-24-2020 at 08:25 AM. |
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