A World Of Laughter, A World Of Tears

[Aranfan]

IIRC, Kennedy's career went south when race relations did. He was too involved in civil rights.

[Snarf]

Originally Posted by Aranfan

IIRC, Kennedy's career went south when race relations did. He was too involved in civil rights.

Speaking of civil rights, I'm surprised we haven't heard a LOT more from Earl Warren (who somehow is still Chief Justice in this TL). He'd be the one person at a senior level who could at least attempt to hold back some of the shenanigans we've seen.

[Japhy]

On the "Somehow is" Chief Justice Comment, you have to remember at the very start of his administration, Disney followed Eisenhower's lead on issues.

[Snarf]

Originally Posted by Japhy

On the "Somehow is" Chief Justice Comment, you have to remember at the very start of his administration, Disney followed Eisenhower's lead on issues.

True, and even Eisenhower regretted picking Warren. But unlike Eisenhower the people around Disney seem determined to 'correct' their mistakes. I'm surprised nobody has tried to pressure him into resigning from the bench.

Eisenhower appointed a total of 5 Supreme Court justices including Warren in OTL. If Disney appointed the other four on his own, I'm surprised they didn't decline certiorari on Brown v. Board of Education in the first place.

[statichaos]

That's an excellent point. I'm simply going to say that the other picks were still made under the advice of Eisenhower, as Disney didn't trust his own instincts when it came to such matters.

[RogueBeaver]

Actually, JFK voted with the South on the 1957 CRA IOTL, some Dixiecrat leaders even thought he could be paired with one of them on a Dixiecrat ticket. In the 1960s, it was the Attorney General who became the Southern Antichrist (aka "Chief Martial Law Administrator"), a status he'd retain for the rest of his life.

[statichaos]

Since I haven't had an update for a few days, I thought that I'd give you a quote that sums up the one thing that I try to keep in mind when writing this timeline:

"It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people."

-Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by truth is life

...You did not seriously make the barbershop quartet a radical and outlaw sound, did you? DID YOU?
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Well, if anything drives home how dystopian this US is, that's it.

It's more barbershop harmonies mixed with cool jazz and a bit of rock and roll. No, I have no idea how such a thing would sound, but I love playing with the idea.

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by The Vulture

Okay, here's the lowdown:

I decided to take a look at this TL (I keep meaning to read all the major TLs on this site, but I don't often have much time) and ending up reading the whole thing, all 36 pages, in one sitting, only taking a break long enough to rest my eye, strained from staring at the screen.

I actually started slapping the desk and screaming curses at my laptop when Rockwell (a historical figure I too find horrible yet fascinating) became a Senator.

Not only is this one of the most compelling ATLs I have ever read, but it is one of the most compelling pieces of fiction I have ever read.

So well done, man. Well done indeed.

One quick question: What of Rockwell's OTL protege, Matthias Koehl? He would've been 24 or 25 around now, perhaps he could be an aid to Rockwell or something?

Thank you so much for the compliments on the timeline. I'm still having enormous fun working on it, and knowing that other people are enjoying it (albeit in a somewhat horrified manner) is gratifying.

Good question about Rockwell's protege. He's probably working for the Senator at the moment, but I'll have to decide later on whether or not he's going to play a part in the future of this TL.

[statichaos]

Thinking on Ten Thousand Things
Of Tao; milky white dogs running
down streets of vile ranting toughs
Oh, God! Oh, Yahweh! The chosen
are black and white and Jew and all
seem dreams of madmen slumbering
in bunkers of fantasy and steel
Gray, cold San Francisco harmonizing
sounds made along the southern shores
A nation of the insane sending sanity
to white walled padded rooms of skewed perception

-"Freedom Wail", Alan Ginsberg, 1960


They are allowing me some freedom Wally but I do not know what to do with it since wherever I go it is the same insane dance of death, seeing something crawling on my skin as I glance to the side, something that is gone when I look back. God, Wally, I am not knowing what is happening to my mind or my soul, and I am terrified, but I do know from the young fellow Ken who works at the asylum that what they have given me is something called LSD, and it is the baddest of the bad news possible. Ken says that it is all in the setting and the mindset, and that is possible, but all that I know is that I keep thinking that I am followed by agents of the government, then realize that they would not care about me, then think it again, and my own mind, Wally, my own thoughts, they are no longer mine, but in the hands of the monster movie mad scientists who pull the levers and control the doses and feed me sugar cubes like a horse. I need to get out, Wally, I need to escape far across this land called America where the sun still shines and there is open space and a man can still dream of freedom without chemicals working their way into his brain and destroying what purity and goodness is left.

-Personal correspondence of "Beano" to Wally Hedrick


"As your president, I will bring the war in Cuba to a quick and decisive end, not through appeasement and unilateral withdrawal as some would have it, but through an increase in our troop presence. We cannot have a Communist government mere miles from our shoreline. We cannot have a Soviet presence--and despite the protests of Mr. Raul Castro, it is well known that the Soviets support their unlawful rebellion--threatening our life, liberty, and values on a daily basis.

"Additionally, we must take strong measures to increase our security at home. The recent attack upon the President has shown that we can no longer afford a policy that coddles terrorists and criminals at the expense of their innocent victims. Therefore, as your President, I will no longer tie the hands of the FBI in their pursuit of those who would destroy our way of life. I am currently introducing a bill that will expand the powers of the FBI to investigate and pursue any criminal act that can be tied to political radicals, rather than overburdening our local police forces with situations that they are ill-equipped to handle."

-Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, excerpt from speech announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President.


THE WALL OF BIRMINGHAM

(AP)-Citing "Terroristic threats from the local coloreds", Mayor Theophilus "Bull" Conner of Birmingham, Alabama today ordered the construction of a cement wall around the Negro section of his city. Expected to take months to build at an unknown cost, this decision has mostly been greeted with approval by the citizens of this southern metropolis.

-Associated Press, 2/4/60


CANADIAN GOVERNMENT LODGES IMMIGRATION PROTEST- Ambassador Claims That His Nation "Ill-Equipped" To Handle Negro Influx From U.S.

-Washington Post, 2/9/60


So Paulie, he gets word from Lucky, who isn't doing too well, but still has pull, that we're going into the junk business big time. And Paulie ain't happy about that at all, since he figured it was beneath him, but he has the contacts at the airport to take care of everything, and what the main Capo says is law. And we're not just talking about the nig--, uh, colored town, neither. Someone way up there wanted it on the campuses. NYU, I knew about that, but I also heard that we were shipping off to Madison in the Midwest, and Berkeley, and a whole bunch of places. And boy, did Paulie ever get pissed about that, 'cause it was one thing to deal to the animals, but when you got the white kids mixed up in it? No way. No chance.

But like I said, he couldn't do anything about it, so he tried to raise realistic-sounding questions, like "Hey, this is a federal matter, and we don't get mixed up with the feds." But what I heard? Lucchese laughed and told him it was covered. "What about Hoover?" "Covered." Every question he had, the answer was "Covered".

And you know what? We were. Never had a problem, not even from campus security. Hell, I was in the army, and they weren't even blinking about letting me off base. Something big was going on, something way past what I was getting paid to know. So I shut up and soldiered.

-Testimony from Henry Hill before the Nader Commission on Organized Crime, 1981


"This junk, this heroin, it is the White Man's poison. It is his way of keeping you down and out. It is his way to point and laugh at you, to say "Look at this ridiculous nigger', to deny your beauty and your humanity.

"My friends, I know from experience how difficult a monster this addiction is to overcome. But if you submit to Allah and plead your case, he will listen with compassion and love."

-The Collected Speeches of Malcolm X


"I had tried to apply to American schools, but for some reason they kept rejecting me, even though I had been told that they were looking for foreign students who were not communists. I was certainly no communist. However, despite my school marks, I could not find a university that would accept me.

"Finally my cousin came to me and laughed. 'You are a fool!' he said to me. I was insulted, but I held my tongue, as a man learns to do. Instead, I asked him what had brought him to this conclusion. 'Oh, Barack', he laughed. 'The United States has enough problems with this.' He then stroked my cheek. It took me a moment to realize that he meant my skin color.

"Well, if the United States did not want me, then I had no use for the United States. I instead worked on my education the best that I could, and applied to Oxford and Cambridge. Fortunately, I had made contacts while working at the British Embassy, and I was accepted to Oxford with some assistance from officials there.'"

- Kenyan Water and Power Commissioner Barack Obama, quoted in Rise, Africa! Tales From Four Centuries of Struggle And Liberation

ROCKEFELLER LEADS IN GOP POLLS- Rockwell's Populist Candidacy Edging Up On Presumptive Nominee

-The New York Times, 3/7/60

[Fenrir_Angerboda]

Originally Posted by statichaos

- Kenyan Water and Power Commissioner Barack Obama, quoted in Rise, Africa! Tales From Four Centuries of Struggle And Liberation

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I think something Just broke from the sheer awsomeness.

[maverick]

Damn, that was grim!

THE WALL OF BIRMINGHAM

That won't end well

Testimony from Henry Hill before the Nader Commission on Organized Crime, 1981

I just love this line

Kenyan Water and Power Commissioner Barack Obama, quoted in Rise, Africa! Tales From Four Centuries of Struggle And Liberation

I guess someone was butterflied away

[Japhy]

Brilliant Update Nachos.

I have to think that if the Cities are going to turn Black Neighborhoods into Actual Ghettos, those Walls are going to be taking ALOT of dynamite over the next few years.

And Poor Beano, he'll never be the same, though is his reaction standard for individuals who use LSD, I wouldn't know from the experiences in my area.

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by maverick

I guess someone was butterflied away

Can you believe that I've been wanting to use that line since Disney's last term?

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by Japhy

Brilliant Update Nachos.

I have to think that if the Cities are going to turn Black Neighborhoods into Actual Ghettos, those Walls are going to be taking ALOT of dynamite over the next few years.

And Poor Beano, he'll never be the same, though is his reaction standard for individuals who use LSD, I wouldn't know from the experiences in my area.

It's not standard for most users. However, he was given a rather high dosage on a biweekly basis without having any idea of what the effects would be, and not in a setting that would meet Leary's definition of "therapeutic". Therefore, his reaction was in accordance with the situation.

[maverick]

QUESTION!

Is Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia still alive ITTL? What about Murder Inc or IOTL's power grab launched by Genovese?

What about Crazy Joe Gallo, who was murdered IIRC for wanting to use Negroes? and being friends with negroes...

[Japhy]

Well then thats certainly unpleasant. Hope he gets better.

As for the mob, its making me wonder, will the Government use the mob for some wetwork? And will some Mobsters take this as a reason to try and go out on their own? After all some guys are the right age to not approve of the Drug Trade but are young enough to not want and still young enough to not really care about what the Capos are telling them to do.

[Redem]

Heh while It doesn,t seem like its going to happen, a canada with a large black population from the U.S could be interesting (like in C.S.A the movie ) even more if they were add to the mix of the current carabean/african immigration we had (thought posssibly unlikely at this point)

[statichaos]

Originally Posted by maverick

QUESTION!

Is Albert "The Mad Hatter" Anastasia still alive ITTL? What about Murder Inc or IOTL's power grab launched by Genovese?

What about Crazy Joe Gallo, who was murdered IIRC for wanting to use Negroes? and being friends with negroes...

I'm still making some decisions on the Mob, but Anastasia and Murder Inc are both gone. With Luciano back in the picture (and the government backing), power grabs are a bit trickier than OTL.

Joe Gallo...you've given me some ideas. If I can find room for them without sending me off in yet another direction to take care of, then I'll do so.

[maverick]

Originally Posted by statichaos

I'm still making some decisions on the Mob, but Anastasia and Murder Inc are both gone. With Luciano back in the picture (and the government backing), power grabs are a bit trickier than OTL.

Joe Gallo...you've given me some ideas. If I can find room for them without sending me off in yet another direction to take care of, then I'll do so.

Damn, I had forgotten about Luciano still being in charge

Hopefully you'll find a way to use Joe Gallo though. He was after all, the first to notice the shift of power from the Mafia to the African-American gangs in the 1970s and was allied with Leroy Barnes

Of course,who knows if ITTL groups like the Italian-American Antidefamation league would exist or not...maybe not if Gallo kills Joseph Colombio earlier ITTL.