But if the economy is sort of meh that could still hurt him at the midterms.
Oh and stop teasing the next update and get it done
If the US economy manages to reach a level anywhere near meh that would be a spectacular achievement and be appropriately rewarded by the electorate.
I note with sadness you still haven't accepted the majestic and considered pace of updates on this AAR.
I'll be honest, what I expect from the US for the next few years is mild tutting over the waste of money (credit or otherwise), the fact that it might (its never going to get confirmed to the public) have partially gone to Moscow and the whole country to stick firmly out of world affairs unless one of two things happen:
1) Japan choose the same insane plan they chose in OTL and openly attack the US.
2) Some Wall Street 'genius' bet much more than mere money on the credit trading system. Like, either a serious amount of money or enough of various other people's to cause another monetary crisis. Then the government may have to force whoever won in Spain to pay up...probably with a mixture of soft and hard diplomacy rather than force though.
That would be far too dull. I have plans for the US that are much more interesting than that, still working out the exact details (and worrying about quite how plausible they are) but I hope to involve my bête noire, a few hundred feet of 7⅞ pipe and some mediocre cigars. But that's not going to happen for years yet.
Yeah...I'd buy that. Though that might just be the CKII player in me (Unify GB. Conquer Ireland. Conquer Iceland. Go after Spain. A powerful strategy).
If you are suggesting that Spain should become part of the British empire then I second that (Gibraltar shall remain in British hands though)
While British world conquest is a beautiful thing that would improve everything for all involved, sadly this is not the tale of that magnificent alternate reality.
US opinion at the time supported the Soviets in a hypothetical war against the Nazis. Don't know how'd they'd go up against the Fascist/Monarchist/British/Carlist mess currently in Spain but I suggest minimal with the Depression being issue No 1, 2, and 3.
That's about the shape of it, for the public the Depression is far more important. A very different story for US industrialist though, a small minority of whom were alarmingly fascist. If they find out the extent of Soviet involvement with the Republicans they have been extending credit to, that would be interesting.
But back on topic - Nice update on the International Brigades. Marty deserves everything he gets. I'd like to put a word in for Buenaventure Durruti. Allegedly assassinated by the Communists during the siege of Madrid (but most likely just by stray gunfire), he was a well liked and intelligent commander of an anarchist column. Marty for Durruti would be a good Butterfly.
Also think the Anarchists would be more cooperative than you give them credit for. OTL they engaged with the central government quite openly, something about respecting the wishes of other Spaniards blah, blah, usual anarchist nonsense... I think they would fall increasingly under the French influence TTL.
The still-not-dead Durruti is going to face a choice soon, does he carry on leading his increasingly large column or does he stay in Barcelona to help the revolution. If he went for it I'm sure he'd easily get elected to the Generalitat, but would he want to stay in the field instead?
On the anarchists that's not the impression I got. Their co-operation seemed to be driven by a combination of force (they need to get more weapons, supplies, proper tank and air support, etc which the Soviet backed Central Government had) and the anarchist leadership slowly losing faith in their philosophy working during a war (I was not exaggerating the problems of co-ordinating anarchist columns). I did read something about the divisions between the anarchist and the anarcho-syndicalist wings of the CNT, but there comes a point where I draw a line. And that was the point.
Most of that seemed like Aussie socialist rubbish (the Australian cricket team the good guys, come on)
But I agree on to the tank porn (via Spain of course, your not getting out of a monarchist update that easily Pip)
The Australian cricket team are never the good guys, that is one of the universe's lodestars. They could play the Genocidal Communist Dictator's XI and still have neutrals hoping they lose.
There will of course be the Monarchist update, I couldn't skip it - it contains one of my favourite Spanish butterflies. Quite possibly no-one else reading it will notice or care, but I will and that's the main thing.
May I make a request that the threadmarks be just quickly updated for the duration? I'm trying to catch up but have to go through a convoluted process to get to the next update.
It takes a surprising amount of time to do threadmarks, I know this as I was trying to race through and only got up to Chapter XL. I'll try and get the rest finished over the next few days.
