A World Of Laughter, A World Of Tears

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by Geekhis Khan

I'll mirror the EPIC comments!

And serious extra points for making Gus Grissom the first man in space.

I figured he was due.

[Geekhis Khan]

Originally Posted by statichaos

I figured he was due.

True that. In a spacewank I wrote a few years back I made Ron McNair the first man on Mars for the same reason.

[Hendryk]

This gets more interesting with every new instalment.

[TNF]

Communist Israel?

Oh wow.

[Eldorado Dingbatti]

A couple of other characters that you could include but haven't been mentioned are John Wayne and Gene Roddenberry. While I would imagine the Duke would fit right in, it would be interesting to see if something comparable to Star Trek could come about. As it was originally a kind of western in space, that aspect I could work, but maybe the Federation might get replaced by the United States of Earth/America space fleet. Maybe even change it so it more closely resembles the mirror universe setting . Alternatively, Roddenberry was both liberal and aethist, so it is possible he might never make it, or maybe make it in Europe (HMS Enterprise, flagship of the Royal Space Fleet).

On a similar note, any plans for mentioning Europe in the political sense? I would imagine that both sides view each other with suspscion, so I could see left leaning Europeans setting themselves up as the Leaders of the Free World (earlier European intergration, less of a special relationship between UK and US). Similarly, with Canada. What do they think of the Disney government, and vice versa?

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by Eldorado Dingbatti

A couple of other characters that you could include but haven't been mentioned are John Wayne and Gene Roddenberry. While I would imagine the Duke would fit right in, it would be interesting to see if something comparable to Star Trek could come about. As it was originally a kind of western in space, that aspect I could work, but maybe the Federation might get replaced by the United States of Earth/America space fleet. Maybe even change it so it more closely resembles the mirror universe setting . Alternatively, Roddenberry was both liberal and aethist, so it is possible he might never make it, or maybe make it in Europe (HMS Enterprise, flagship of the Royal Space Fleet).

On a similar note, any plans for mentioning Europe in the political sense? I would imagine that both sides view each other with suspscion, so I could see left leaning Europeans setting themselves up as the Leaders of the Free World (earlier European intergration, less of a special relationship between UK and US). Similarly, with Canada. What do they think of the Disney government, and vice versa?

I'll have to do further research before I include the European governments, but I imagine that many of them aren't too happy with all of the young Yanks running around on their streets and corrupting their youth.

More:


If you'd ask me for a word that could sum up my feelings towards Israel going Red, I'm not sure that I could come up with one. There was a word that I was throwing around my office pretty regularly, though, and that was "bullshit". Look, like most American Jews, I wasn't that good at the religion thing, and I only hit Temple during the High Holy Days. Of course, I was even worse as an Episcopalian, but that's not the point. Point is, I still identified as a Jew in some ways--living with Mother was a major part of that--and I couldn't stand it that they'd gone over to a philosophy that was dedicated to destroying America and everything that it stood for.

So, yeah, that's what led up to what happened at the meeting. You know the story...incoming freshmen Republican Senators and Representatives being given a dinner at the White House. Walt hadn't been up to it for months, but he was feeling his oats pretty shortly after Grissom's shot into space, and decided to make a party out of it.

So there we were, with me acting like a butler, making sure that these wet-behind-the-ears types are doing okay. The President eats his dinner, then retires early after a couple of remarks about the party and how everyone there is a good representative of the ideals. Got a couple of remarks in there about Lincoln, too.

Not that there were many there. We didn't even have to use the big banquet table for this one. So anyway, I glance over to the side, and there's a couple of our staff talking with Senator Rockwell. And so I walk over, and he's going on about foreign policy. Of course I listen in while acting like I'm not there. It's a talent you learn when you're on the make in D.C. He was going on about Israel, of course.

I'd been dealing as the go-between with State all week when it came to Israel. I'd also been in touch with our ambassador. Of course, we didn't have much pull in the nation since they'd decided that we were too close to the Arabs, but we still had a couple of sympathetic types there, mostly former U.S. citizens who went over after the founding. They were trying real hard to keep things from spilling over into total anti-Americanism. Hell, they were putting their futures at risk, and maybe even their lives depending on how things went. So it burned in my gut to hear this man going off about this crap.

Anyway, I walked up behind him, and said "Senator" in a friendly voice, but one just sharp enough to make him jump a little. He turned and gave me that grin, the one that they practice once they realize that they'll always be running for office. He greets me with "Roy!" and puts an arm around my shoulders, and steers me to his companions who were a couple of oil men. He shows me off like his pet yid, and says "Now, boys, this is an example of a good Jew. He's anti-Red, and pro-American. If more of his people were like this, we wouldn't have a Jewish-Communist conspiracy threatening the United States."

Well, I slipped out from under his arms, and said "Senator, don't you think that this sort of talk is dangerous? Don't you think that it'll lead to anti-Semitic violence?" He put on this sad look like politicians wear at funerals for people that they don't know, and came back with "I regret that, Roy, I really do. But unfortunately, a large number of your people have decided that their loyalty lies with Israel and not America, and now we're seeing the result of that. They've been giving every opportunity by this land, and now they've gone over."

Now, I sent the Rosenbergs to the chair. You don't need to tell me about how some Jews haven't done right by this country. But, hell, was Benedict Arnold a Jew? Or Klaus Fuchs? And I thought of my mother and how she'd tried to keep up appearances in a society where she couldn't even move up, or my father toiling away in his chambers and never being allowed into the sorts of clubs that would have let him live up to his potential, or my Uncle going to prison because his bank failed when the Gentiles wouldn't help prop up a Jewish institution. And I guess while I was thinking this, I wasn't paying enough attention to my fist, because I looked up just in time to see it connect with the Senator's nose with a nasty cracking sound.

There was a lot of blood, and a bunch of shouting, and the lobbyists dropped their cigars and pulled away Rockwell who kept yelling "You son of a bitch! You goddamned kike!" Somebody else was pulling me away. I didn't even see who it was until I got yanked into the next room by security, and I saw Jimmie Dodd saying to a White House guard "I was there, Tony. He was provoked. He'll be okay now."

I looked up at Jimmy, who was breathing heavily in his rumpled evening dress, and then looked down to the bloodstains on my shirt.

"Surprised you pulled me away" I mumbled. "Two more hits, and I would've been arrested for murder. You could've had me out of the White House."

He grinned in that infuriating way that he had, and said "Yeah, I thought of that. But, see, you would've killed Rockwell, and I figured it's a little too late in the day for me to start liking you over something like that." We looked at each other, and he chuckled, and I did too, and pretty soon we were laughing like maniacs together. He's a little shit, sure, but hell, he had his moments.

I had to apologize, and we kept it out of the papers, but it still hit the rumor mill inside the Beltway. Crazy thing is, it only helped the reputation. The Jews who had been avoiding me since we'd started having issues with Israel were suddenly inviting me to speak at their banquets again.

--Retired Senator Roy Cohn (R-N.Y.), quoted in Magic Kingdom: America in the 50s, by Studs Terkel


GIG OF THE WEEK: All interested cats should check out The Quarrymen, five young men from Liverpool, England who have arrived in Berlin just in time to explode onto the scene with a mix of jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues, and a bit of folk music. They're still rough, but frontman John Lennon has a way of rapping with the audience that makes for a crazy evening out of music and mirth, dig?

-Berlin Beat: The Expatriate Scene, 5/59


Following Cohn's physical assault on Senator Rockwell, I became even more concerned regarding the state of the White House. It seemed that ever since President Disney's illness, we'd been rudderless, and that we had only managed to keep from going completely astray due to the competent if Machiavellian efforts of Cohn and his allies. Now Roy seemed to be losing control of himself. Oh, he would threaten that he was losing control on occasion, or bluster about ruining people, but he largely kept himself in check when it came to action.

So here was the question: As the President seemed to be removing himself from all day to day decision making, was it better to have a would-be Napoleon like Roy running things? Or was it preferable for the most powerful administration in the world to devolve into a state of anarchy?

No, Roy had to be supported, if only because the alternative was simply unacceptable. I immediately plugged all of the leaks coming from my office, and put on a happy face for the media.

-The Truth Of Fantasy: A Washington Memoir by former White House Communications Director James Dodd.


I fear that as the school year continued, I was proving to be a political issue for my father. Sworn in just recently as governor, he was attempting to deal with major racial issues and campus unrest. Having his son in the middle of the action was proving to be a matter of some difficulty, and I was a target of mockery in his circles. Several times he threatened to have me committed, but on some level I believe that he respected my desire to stand up for what I believed in.

Unfortunately, the efforts of our students were scattered. What we needed was a nationwide organization that could coordinate actions over social issues that we found to be of import.

This was the birth of the SCLU, or Student Civil Liberties Union. As the American Civil Liberties Union had fallen on hard times, they welcomed an infusion of youthful energy into their organization. Also, as an independent group operating under their umbrella, they could wash their hands of us if they found any of our actions to be too untidy or controversial.

This old guard of the progressive movement had let us into their house, and were expecting to be able to kick us out if we raised our voices. Little did they know that we would be taking over the house, putting our feet up on the furniture, and painting the walls with revolutionary slogans.

For now, however, they gave us a veneer of respectability in all eyes except for those of the most overbearing Mouse Clubs. And if those clubs entered Berkeley, they would find fierce resistance from progressives who were tired of being pushed around by the self-appointed representatives of an oppressive and unjust system.

--Liberation: A Memoir, Former President Jerry Brown

[oakvale]

Originally Posted by statichaos

Former President Jerry Brown

Another great update as always, by the way. Roy Cohn clocking Lincoln Rockwell isn't the kind of image you see every day.

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by oakvale

Another great update as always, by the way. Roy Cohn clocking Lincoln Rockwell isn't the kind of image you see every day.

Heh. I had President Brown before you did, which is one of the reasons that your TL fascinates me so much: I want to see how it compares to my ideas. And the Cohn/Rockwell thing was a lot of fun to write.

[oakvale]

Originally Posted by statichaos

Heh. I had President Brown before you did, which is one of the reasons that your TL fascinates me so much: I want to see how it compares to my ideas. And the Cohn/Rockwell thing was a lot of fun to write.

I've been following this TL for a while, actually since before I signed up, so I can only imagine I subconciously stole the idea of a President Moonbeam. Oops.

[Japhy]

I can't believe you Nachos, you've made Roy Cohn look good... Surely this is the sign of a terrific author.

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by oakvale

I've been following this TL for a while, actually since before I signed up, so I can only imagine I subconciously stole the idea of a President Moonbeam. Oops.

Heh. I've read your TL. That's not theft. That's taking a concept and doing something beautiful with it.

[Geekhis Khan]

Always nice to see a Nazzy get his nose broke!

[Presbyman]

Originally Posted by Japhy

I can't believe you Nachos, you've made Roy Cohn look good... Surely this is the sign of a terrific author.

It's a crazy world when Roy Cohn starts to look sympathetic ...

[Captain Brooks]

Wow. You actually made me like Roy Cohn. I guess that's an Even Evil Has Standards moment.

[Readman]

Awesome just awesome keep it up! Cheers and hearty congratations on an Epic Timeline. I am unsure if it's been asked prior but just wondering if you have an idea of where its all going to end up, or is it on the fly? Cheers again!

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by Readman

Awesome just awesome keep it up! Cheers and hearty congratations on an Epic Timeline. I am unsure if it's been asked prior but just wondering if you have an idea of where its all going to end up, or is it on the fly? Cheers again!

That's a good question. Some things I planned out more or less from the beginning (Disney's actions regarding Little Rock made sense within the context of his personality, and the tragic results seemed both realistic and dramatic), others I make up on the fly (I wasn't going to bother going into any specific Senate races, then I read a biography of George Lincoln Rockwell and realized how well he'd fit in).

Right now, I know who the Democratic nominee will be for President, and I have a couple of ideas for the GOP side. I'm not sure who will win the election.

For the most part, I have a couple of "I'd like to see things go here" concepts, but I'm more interested in letting things flow organically. This has led to some surprises for me: I had no idea that nearly the entire artistic subculture of the United States would end up in Europe, but it seemed to stem naturally from the cultural crackdown. After that, I had no idea that "Beano" would end up going back home, but it made sense following Ginsberg's departure, and it gives me a chance to explore the cultural shifts in Disney's America through his eyes...and I always love writing his entries.

It's only today that I realized whose story this really is, and this will probably shape much of the rest of the TL.

And in response to the obvious question: No, I have no idea when this will end. Right now I'm still having fun doing it, and if and when I do decide to wrap it up, I'll attempt to give some sort of closure.

[Nekromans]

Good on Roy Cohn! Rockwell was behaving like a cock, to be fair.

[President Al Bundy]

*Chant* "Iron Roy, Iron Roy, Iron Roy..."*Chant*

So Cohn still considers himself as a jew. Maybe not everything is lost.

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by President Al Bundy

*Chant* "Iron Roy, Iron Roy, Iron Roy..."*Chant*

So Cohn still considers himself as a jew. Maybe not everything is lost.

He's more Jewish than Episcopalian, that's for sure. Between his marriage and his church, he's putting on a show of being at least two things that he is most definitely not, and all in the name of power.

[Fenrir_Angerboda]

everyone's up in arms over Cohn, but I noticed one thing:

Quarrymen?
In Berlin?
Cool.