Shanghaied - 2ACW

[James G]

4 – Humiliation

American-led air strikes against Egypt starting May 4th 2026 were deemed Operation Golden Eagle. At the head of an international coalition, though doing the majority of the work on the military front, the United States dropped bombs upon and fired missiles into the Arab country.

President Walsh did this with the domestic political support of the Republicans though with the majority of his own party’s elected representatives in Washington being against Golden Eagle. Defending his decision to see American intervention once more in the Middle East, Walsh claimed that he was acting in the interests of the American people. Egypt was in chaos with revolutionaries slaughtering opponents within and threatening neighbours without. It had to be done and he would do it, damn the consequences. Extensive criticism at home against Walsh’s actions came from many fronts. Attacking Egypt was done alongside such countries as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Gulf Arab Monarchies. These were authoritarian regimes who were hated among a good – and vocal – portion of the American left. The ‘neighbours’ which those Islamic revolutionaries apparently threatened was translated by Walsh’s critics as just being one: Israel. Israel was more than just hated, Israel was seen as a stain on humanity that much of the American left wanted removed from existence. Walsh was ‘dropping bombs on brown people’: he had attacked the 47th President for doing this when three years past Algeria had been subject to US-led air strikes against its own revolutionaries. His own words were now used back against him. Congress, led by Senate Majority Leader Green and House Speaker Fraser, both Republicans, kept a tight rein on the military campaign’s agreed limits with the promise to invoke the War Powers Act if Walsh strayed from them. No American forces went in on the ground, not even special forces. There was the rescue of a lost pilot but that didn’t break the No Boots On The Ground caveat enforced by Congress.

Anti-war protests occurred throughout portions of the United States. They were led by figures from the left, the majority of them being Democrats. In dozens of cities, there were well-attended marches and rallies against Golden Eagle. Walsh lost his Secretary of the Interior when she resigned from her post before joining a rally in Dallas. Those attending these protests were Democratic voters, those who had been so enthused by Walsh two years past. They’d put him in the White House to make sure that their president would never do anything like this. Had Egypt attacked the United States? Was the new regime there a democratic one? Had Walsh made a promise never to do this? No, yes & yes. Hundreds of thousands attendees at various events were incensed at what their president was doing. They couldn’t stop Golden Eagle from continuing for three weeks though until, to resolve the issue, those air strikes allowed for the return of the old government to Cairo. Egyptian troops put their president back in power but they couldn’t have done so without United States intervention. That intervention came with a high death toll. Thousands were dead and there had been verifiable reports which came out of Egypt during the war of extensive civilian casualties. Once the fighting stopped, much of this could be confirmed. The air attacks had unintentionally killed many innocents. Blame for everyone of those, no matter who directly took the lives in question, was apportioned upon Walsh and his decision to launch Golden Eagle.

In Moscow the next month, a new president took office as the leader of the Russian Federation. Sergey Makarov stepped into the shoes of his predecessor who suffered an untimely, fatal brain aneurism. Rumours ran rife that that was caused by the rapid entry of a lead projectile but no evidence bore out such a theory. Walsh sent official condolences – infuriating many Americans due to the character of Russia’s last president – and also sought to establish a relationship with Makarov. An opportunity was sought to reset difficult relations between Washington and Moscow. Perhaps that might have worked out because Makarov appeared to be open to such a thing but Walsh was unable to make him any promises on what Russia would want to see to make a new relationship blossom. Congress was never going to allow for that, no matter even if the partisan control of either body within was reversed. As long as Russia continued with its subversion in foreign countries and the support of despotic regimes unfriendly towards the United States, the status quo would remain.


Weeks into 2027, America got itself involved in another foreign war. Walsh was at the helm of the nation when the unthinkable happened. The United States lost, with embarrassing speed, a military conflict.

History would call it the Taiwan Conflict. To many it was the Sino-American War of 2027 though. That January, domestic troubles in the partially-recognised Republic of China brought with them the sudden intervention of the People’s Liberation Army. Seemingly out of the blue, Chinese paratroopers and marines were inside Taiwan. The country was attacked from above and from the sea. China announced it was rescuing fellow citizens from an illegal regime. Everyone knew though that it was a land grab. The continued reunification of what Beijing believed was ‘Greater China’ move to this next step. Battered, the Taiwanese tried to fight back. In addition, they appealed for aid from overseas: from America. There were global calls for the fighting to stop while the Chinese continued to seize more of Taiwan. Only America could intervene to stop this. Across America, there were demands that that be done. Equally loud demands were for there to be no foreign intervention. Those against the conflict came from both the left and the right, just like those in favour of American involvement did do. Walsh took the decision to act. He sought a limited conflict, one to defend Taiwan and push Chinese forces off that island. Regional war, global war in fact, was risked but Walsh believed that that could be averted. Once the Chinese saw American resolve and took casualties, they would back off… so he thought.

From aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific, US Navy aircraft flew towards Taiwan. Operation Eastern Dawn went wrong straight away. Those aircraft were engaged in the air and then there came a Chinese missile attack. They fired ballistic missiles from mobile launchers on the mainland towards those carriers. Using the very latest technology, what many would consider to be science fiction, they managed to hit two (of three targeted) carriers with warheads from those missiles. Independently targetable, explosive warheads slammed into the moving targets which the Chinese sought. Casualties were horrendous and the two carriers were eliminated as warfighting platforms. Neither would sink – the butcher’s bill would have been far greater if they had – but they would never go to war again. The United States retaliated. Aircraft flew over mainland China dropping bombs while missiles rained down upon that country. Military infrastructure was targeted with varying degrees of success. China responded. Guam was targeted by more missiles with anti-missile defences that the Americans had failing to stop that attack; American forces gathered at Midway were also hit. Chinese aircraft got through American fighter protection and attacked US Navy amphibious ships departing the Japanese island of Okinawa. Those ships were carrying US Marines bound for Taiwan. Several ships were hit and would burn fiercely. China lost a submarine trying to make a follow-up attack and had their own warships targeted by American submarines as well with air strikes claiming many of them. One of China’s aircraft carriers was left burning end-to-end when the US Navy managed to get a return hit in for what had been done to their own carriers.

The clashes between Chinese and American forces went on for forty hours before they came to a stop. During that time, the world held its breath in fear of the conflict going nuclear. Unbeknown at the time, Walsh was quietly evacuated from Washington less things spun out of control. Regional allies of the United States, the Japanese especially, were in panic. Everyone wanted the war to stop. Diplomats whizzed about seeking a solution. Anti-war protests in America didn’t get off the ground. Once news came that China had managed to do serious damage to the US Navy, this took the wind out of them. Patriotism inside so many within the United States, even if it was something they usually mocked in others, kicked in when faced with such a turn of events. There was a widespread wish for the Chinese to be fought to defeat. Then came the news that the fighting was over. Using South Korea as an intermediator, Beijing and Washington agreed a ceasefire. Each side had taken fierce losses, ones which would only be revealed in detail in the aftermath. They had both had their national territory attacked with fears within that those strikes would expand further. The immediate economic hit was fierce for each too. Neither could gain anything by carrying on the fight. Mutually deciding to give in, there suddenly was agreement where before there had been conflict.

Walsh addressed the American people on January 18th. It wasn’t known at the time that he was in rural Virginia at the Mount Weather emergency bunker complex yet it was clear to those watching that he wasn’t in the White House. He’d run away from danger, seeking safety from possible nuclear war while everyone else couldn’t. Their president told them of the ceasefire agreed with China. He explained that there had been military losses incurred by each side and that the conflict had spread beyond Taiwan. The risk of global conflict was too much to allow the fighting to continue and so he had successfully sought to end the fighting. It was over with, there would be no more of the fighting taking place at sea and in the skies out in East Asia. Jaws dropped across the country. America had just given in? Had the country lost a war? The realisation that the answer to each question was a ‘yes’ came quickly enough. China was claiming victory and Beijing was announcing that they were reincorporating Taiwan within their country. The latter pointed to the former being true.

This national humiliation was the fault of Walsh. His secretaries of defence & state both resigned, along with senior military people, but the buck stopped with him in the eyes of all Americans. The political divide across the nation temporarily closed as all across the United States, people looked at their president and agreed that the one person responsible for all of this was Walsh. The world was laughing at America, his people believed, and they blamed him for that.

[gillan1220]

Here's a perfect soundtrack to fit this timeline.

The Star-Spangled Banner (Minor Key Version)



America the Beautiful

[James G]

5 – Tit-for-tat

In the time between the military conflicts that the United States found itself involved in, first with Egypt and then China, there was ongoing political violence within the country. At least once a month, every month, a high profile attack took place. At the same time, there were many other instances which didn’t gain as much media traction due to their lower profile. The murder of a producer for the news network Fox News gained less coverage than the slaying of Kit ‘Carson’ Lanyard, one of the stars of Saturday Night Live. The latter was kidnapped and subsequently murdered on his way to the studio to pre-record an episode of that hit show. He was snatched in a fake traffic stop by police imposters, taken to an abandoned building and had his throat slit. At 30 Rock in New York City, there were tears and anger when the news reached them of his body being found. SNL was on the air the following week with extensive tributes to the well-regarded ‘Carson’. It was because of his politics that he was killed. Those who did it didn’t need much of an excuse – the militia group from upstate New York were seeking a target – though acted after that murder of a senior figure in the production of Fox News. It had been reported in various non-mainstream news outlets that Lanyard had been making off-screen jokes about that first killing. He was thus killed in a tit-for-tat action. This was being seen elsewhere in the country. A Republican politician (or their family/home/vehicle) was attacked and so revenge would be taken upon someone associated with the Democrats. Violence committed against people and property went on and on.

In Jefferson City, the state capital of Missouri, there was an arson attack made against the State House in that small city. In August 2026, the building went up in flames. Missouri was a Red state with that legislature there having flexed its muscles extensively in recent years. A friendly Supreme Court in Washington had ruled in favour of countless cases of state’s rights brought before them with Missouri being one of the main beneficiaries of those decisions. The fire was lit at night when politicians were absent but there were janitorial and security staff on the grounds. Multiple seats of the blaze allowed for a rapid conflagration, especially since the fire suppression systems had been disabled. News crews were on the scene before the fire department. They broadcast images of the burning of the Missouri State House across the nation. Missouri’s governor (a Republican with presidential ambitions) blamed ‘out of state actors’. He alleged that Antifa, coming from over in Illinois, had done this. There had been trouble in St. Louis early in the year when that left-wing group was blamed for the worst of the violence seen in a race riot in that city – denied by locals and Antifa activists – and the both the assembly & the senate in Jefferson City had only recently passed a law banning them. Now the State House went up in flames. Counter-claims were made that this was a false flag attack with the blame being put on the Missouri state authorities themselves: it was alleged that this was their ‘burning of the Reichstag moment’. The governor sent state troopers to the bridges over the Mississippi & Missouri Rivers where the state line with Illinois was. They stopped traffic going both ways throughout the day after the arson attack. Vehicles heading east (into Illinois) were searched for ‘suspicious persons’ while those coming into Missouri, were searched for the apparently the same. Missouri started turning back those who state troopers didn’t like the look of, just because they were coming from the Blue state which was Illinois. There was outrage in the latter state and claims made within the former from Democrats (few of them were left in any high office) of the damage that this would do to Missouri. Regardless, it continued. It was becoming a border more than a state line.

In Atlanta during October, right before the national mid-term elections, attacks were made against personnel with Immigration & Customs Enforcement. Walsh, and the two Democratic presidents before him, had all said that they would reform ICE along with the country’s immigration policy. Nothing much had been done on that regard apart from empty words delivered. Georgia’s biggest city hadn’t been co-operating with ICE for many long years, just as plenty of other cities nationwide weren’t. The legislature had recently changed that. In this Red state, the Republicans finally had complete control of all the levers of state power after years of fighting with the Democrats for them. Only this year, months before the state’s gubernatorial elections, the governor & lieutenant-governor (Democrats) had each been impeached and removed from office with the Republicans on course to win both offices at the polls in November despite those actions. Forced against their will to hand over illegals to ICE, courts in Atlanta were doing so under protest. ICE came under attack. Field officers and office staff were targeted by a proto-Marxist terror cell operating in Atlanta. Eight were left dead in three separate incidents including a shootout in the middle of Downtown where a hand-held automatic grenade launcher was used to attack one of their vehicles. Georgia’s Army National Guard was called out to ‘enforce order’ at the direction of the acting governor. In another shootout, a Guardsman killed what he believed to be a domestic terrorist: he’d shot an innocent community organiser though. Hitting back, that terror group – the Black Liberation Army they called themselves – went after the National Guard though not on the streets of Atlanta. Two domestic residences far outside of the city were each firebombed and within these were family members of national guardsmen. Another five lives were lost, two of them children. Georgia had been seeing racial violence of a political nature all year. ICE were arresting Hispanic immigrants but this African-American group went after them just as they had been targeting the state authorities in previously less-dramatic activities. The politics of Georgia were complicated like this. Latino votes – from settled migrant communities – had been captured by the Republicans in recent years while African-Americans were marginalised at the polls while being Democratic supporters: that acting governor was Latino himself. The name Black Liberation Army would be used elsewhere in the country the following year. Unaffiliated groupings on the far left of the political spectrum, those in self-declared autonomous zones in various cities, would see members claiming allegiance to such a cause without bothering themselves of the details of how it was operating in Georgia.


In November 2026, the Republicans had another very good year in the mid-term elections. The Democratic vote was down, significantly so. Unlike 2022 and off-year special elections in ’23 & ’25, their vote didn’t hold up as it had done so too in the presidential year of ’24. This was due to the air campaign launched by Walsh against Egypt in early ’26. Republican cheating with all of their gerrymandering, redistricting and voter suppression wouldn’t even have been needed to allow them to keep control of Congress… though that they still made use of it. Walsh wasn’t sought on the campaign trail by his party’s candidates running for all House seats and a third of those in the Senate. Electoral poison was how so many saw him. The demographic breakdown of the voting behaviour post-election showed that, once more, the Republicans had increased their tallies among minorities. Twenty-eight per cent of African-Americans voted for Republican candidates along with thirty-nine per cent of Hispanics. These were big numbers for a party which its opponents called one of ‘white supremacists’. These minorities were a powerful bloc of voters now for the Republicans in states where the Democrats couldn’t compete and gave them less attention.

The nation was still split into Red states and Blue states with a handful of purple ones left. Republicans did terrible in the Bluest of states and in the reddest ones, the Democrats didn’t have much luck. Each side consolidated the hold that they had on friendly territory. For example, in California, the Republicans only won five House seats (from 52); just three Democrats represented the twenty-nine seats in Florida. Overall, the Republicans kept the House with a 244-191 victory where they added eighteen gains with most of them won back from the Democrats who did well in 2024. Extensive violence marred the months leading up to the campaign with deaths and injuries. On election day, there was a shooting incident in Ohio and a (small) bomb went off in Virginia despite polling stations being the scenes of massive security efforts.

Media attention was on the Senate races. There were thirty-four – one of them a special election – taking place. The Republicans flipped five seats to their control. They took seats previously held by the Democrats in Georgia, New Hampshire, Michigan, Minnesota & Pennsylvania (that special). The Democrats gained a Republican-held seat in Maine in return. Democratic incumbents won big in Colorado and Virginia too, enhancing their party’s hold over each Blue state. Down in Texas, there had been the effort made to win the Senate race there and take the seat away from the Republicans. That Red state effort was no long shot but something the Democrats thought that they could achieve with it being an ‘open’ seat: the Republican holder was retiring. The Democratic candidate faced Edward Roberts though. An African-American in the Texas Republican Party, Roberts had won a House seat in suburban Houston from the Democrats in 2024. In ’26, his Senate run was a major success. The huge expense that the Democrats put into that Texas was all for nought. Senator-elect Roberts had his eyes on the White House even before he was sworn into office. He was the face of what many were calling the ‘new Republicans’: minorities within the party who were rising high and no longer just tokens. Roberts was not something to forget in the aftermath of his Texan victory. Pennsylvania’s new senator would join his fellow Republican in the Senate and would lead to media comments afterwards that that state had moved from being Purple to Red. It wasn’t though. It was still a political battleground between the parties like others such as North Carolina, Michigan & Minnesota (each with two Republican senators) where the next presidential election was going to be decided.

Members of Congress from the Democratic side blamed their president for their defeats. Plenty of them publicly did so, stating that without him launching that immensely unpopular war in the Middle East back in May, they would have held onto their seats come November. Pundits debated the truth of this with there being a lot said about Republican cheating. The facts didn’t support the latter reasoning though. The Democratic vote was down and Walsh had those shockingly low opinion polls numbers. Challengers and incumbents had tried to distance themselves from Walsh and that had worked here and there but not everywhere. There was much dread during November, December and into the New Year about what would happen in 2028 with Walsh still in the White House. It was more than whether he would drag down the party vote in Congressional races but instead whether he would lose the White House to the Republicans.


The sudden, unexpected and terrifying conflict with China came alongside the Battle of Oakland. In this California city with a long and troubled history of racial violence, mid-January 2027 there were a trio of those autonomous zones. They had been in the city for a couple of years and were no-go areas for the police. Two were run by (competing) anarchist groups with the third in the hands of a Marxist collective who claimed allegiance once New Year arrived to the Black Liberation Army. Caucasians left the third and either drifted away from Oakland or moved to the other two were there was less of a racial dynamic. As was the case with long-established other areas like this carved out of cities across the nation, a run-down section of the urban landscape had been forcibly taken away from the control of the authorities and was in the hands of those claiming freedom for the people who resided in them. They paid no taxes and enforced their own rule. Due to local political dynamics in Oakland, the police had been ordered to stay away. Media attention had been paid to them when there had been violent incidents and commentators said that each would soon fold – as had been seen elsewhere – but the trio in Oakland had sprung up in ’23 and were still active in ‘27. They attracted many people to them though not everyone stayed. Babies were born in them and parents declared that they weren’t citizens of the United States. There was education provided by the leaders and, in what had been a national scandal back in ’24, the Oakland authorities had agreed to provide free power, water and other vital services to each. Armed members of the autonomous zones patrolled the edges of each, watching for attacks from right-wing militia groups. Such had happened before here and elsewhere.

Chasing a suspect believed to have committed the rape of a teenage boy, two police officers entered that Black Liberation Army autonomous zone. Each was African-American themselves, chasing a Caucasian suspect. They shouldn’t have gone in but the circumstances of the chase sent them that way. From above, well-aimed gunshots came down and killed each officer… that suspect wasn’t fired upon and got away clean. The two corpses were then stripped of their guns and badges and dumped outside the edges of the area where it had been agreed that the police wouldn’t go. One of those officers was the son of the chief of the Oakland Police Department; the other was a young mother. Murdered because of the uniform that they wore, without any warning nor justification, the rage of their fellow officers was for a response. Without permission of higher command nor approval from the office of the city’s mayor, police officers went into that no-go area seeking the killers of their fellow officers. A huge gunfight broke out with many deaths. Though it shouldn’t have, this spread to the two other autonomous zones when police officers sought to pursue alleged ‘suspects’ who left the one they had entered for the supposed safety of the other two. Heavy weapons were put to use by those who fought with the police. They had machine guns, rocket launchers and flamethrowers. This was military-grade equipment all illegally in their hands. They even had a few shoulder-mounted missiles – home-made but with a fine degree of expertise employed – which they used to engage police-operated surveillance drones with some success.

The fighting on the streets of an American city resembled a war zone. That description was often used for other fire fights in a hyperbolic manner but it was true when it came to the Battle of Oakland. Media broadcasts from the city went out showing the nation what was happening. As to the victor, that was those who said they were only defending themselves. Ordered to stand down by the mayor, the police eventually backed off. They already hated her and this did nothing for already disastrous morale. Thirteen officers had lost their lives overall in the darkest day for American police officers on record. Proclamations of victory came from those who were calling themselves revolutionaries. They’d beaten the police in a pitched battle and would take on all comers! National political figures, engrossed by the war with China, were too distracted to pay attention at once but in the aftermath, they wanted to know why California’s governor didn’t send in the National Guard. Nothing like that was going to be done though. These domestic terrorists were naturally only emboldened by their victory and volunteers to their cause flocked to them.

[gillan1220]

China watches with glee.

[oscssw]

Jan 6, 2021 16:34:40 GMT James G said:

Prelude – Shanghaied

Shanghaied: the name of a film released by the Hollywood studio Paramount in 2028.

The film wasn’t a commercial success and just about broke even for Paramount. It’s title was the subject of controversy in the United States, just one of the many, varied political disputes during the turbulent years of the Twenties. The plot concerned the stories of several fictional characters in early Twentieth Century San Francisco who interacted in a murder mystery. The principal lead was a ‘crimper’, a man who used guile and deception to supply crews to naval merchantmen making the run to China’s coastal city. This practice was known at the time as ‘Shanghaiing’ and was legal (just) as well as highly profitable for those involved in crimping.

Using such a title was said to be not politically correct and allegations were made of anti-Chinese bias and xenophobia. Paramount disputed such wild claims though studio executives did plan to release the film under a different name in China. That never came to pass due to the international situation which cut off the once lucrative Chinese market for Hollywood. In America, those on the opposite side of the partisan divide, who were outraged at the actions of their opponents who claimed offense at such a name, flocked to see the film just to make a point. Without this organised viewing – not for the story’s promise but just to rub the other side’s nose in it –, Shanghaied would never have just about managed to break even as it did.

One very slight nit.   A Crimper did not supply seaman to Frisco moored naval vessels.  It was confined solely to merchies.  It was not legal, in any sense, and it was most prevalent during the Gold Rush and was a thing of the past by the early 20th century.   

It is common to lump in RN Press gangs with Crimps but the USN never resorted to the Crimping.   The Continental Navy Captain James Nicholson, did try to impress 30 sailors but the local and federal authorities freed the men.  He later pressed men from two merchies at sea.   IMO Pressing and shanghaiing are two different acts.    Personally, I consider the conscription, as in WWII, for naval service as no different than pressing men but that's just me.  I'm funny that way.  

[oscssw]

Jan 6, 2021 16:35:45 GMT lordroel said:

Jan 6, 2021 16:34:13 GMT James G said:

This is a Second American Civil war story.
It is set in the near future.
All characters are fictional.

I hoop so, because we need a bit of escape from reality now. 

Amen to that lordroel!

I will respectfully bow out of this discussion.   It is a subject I don't find amusing. 

[lordroel]

Jan 9, 2021 18:55:30 GMT oscssw said:

I will respectfully bow out of this discussion.   It is a subject I don't find amusing. 

I understand, everybody is free to discuses matters he is comfortable with.

[James G]

Jan 9, 2021 16:24:29 GMT gillan1220 said:

China watches with glee.

This is party time for them.

[James G]

6 – Defeat

The president’s press secretary denied that the ceasefire agreed with China following the Taiwan Conflict meant that the United States had been defeated in war. That wasn’t the case at all, she firmly said in rebuttal to repeated claims it was. No, instead the ceasefire was what it was: an end to fighting between the two countries. It was put to her that why were the Chinese then continuing to overrun the rest of Taiwan? She was flustered, she was visibility shaken in how to answer. After a few moments, remarks came from her that the agreement struck in Seoul between representatives of China and the United States only covered engagements between their military forces: what was happening in Taiwan was a different matter. As could be imagined, that reply didn’t go down too well with the journalists there at the White House nor the American public who would view this exchange. Hours later, China’s state broadcaster released footage of the wreckage of an aircraft which had crashed near to Shanghai. There was nothing coming out of Taiwan now that the Chinese had successfully blanketed the nation in electronic jamming, but they showed the world what they wanted to put on display for all to see from elsewhere. PLA camera crews filmed and then broadcast the remains of a B-2A Spirit bomber. They’d taken it down the other day, using the most-modern surface-to-air missiles, and had experts crawling all over it. The images broadcast focused on proving that this really was a B-2: one of the most advanced and expensive aircraft that the US Air Force operated. The White House might be claimed that America hadn’t been the victim of a defeat, but these images certainly made it look like they had.

The ashes of defeat left a bitter taste nationwide. America had never taken a loss in war like they had done in the exchange of shooting with China. Commentators, analysts and talking heads all reminded the nation that they had been defeated. The Twenty-First Century belonged to China. America’s place as the most-powerful nation in the world was over with. Everything presumed about their country’s dominance of world affairs was now just a myth. China was #1 from now it. This really shook the national psyche. President Walsh talked about why the Taiwan Conflict had to end but Americans didn’t agree with him. There was a clamour among many for a restarting of hostilities, to give the Chinese the beating which they deserved. That wasn’t done though. He seemed to be content to allow the situation to stand with China ‘getting away with’ what it had managed to do. There was talk from administration officials of the apparent success which the United States achieved in seeing the return of captured service personnel who had ended up in Chinese custody. There weren’t many of them but when they came back – via an exchange arranged in Indonesia where Chinese POWs (again not many) were handed over too –, the White House tried to sell this as a victory. It was clear though that that was Walsh clutching at straws. There was take of impeachment in late January. Comments on doing so came from both Democrats and Republicans alike. The Republican leadership was in no mood to do such a thing though. They preferred to let Walsh squirm and be a lightning rod for all the nation’s anger. The president needed to appoint new secretaries for the State Department and the Pentagon in light of the resignations of the two previous office holders. His initial ideas for candidates were shot down by the Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Green effectively picked two replacements for the Senate to confirm. Both were Democrats but neither were strong political figures. Walsh bowed to the pressure and did what Congress wanted.

The majority of the Democrats in the Senate voted against them… an extraordinary situation. Green had the votes though (sixty senators were Republicans). He pronounced that he was acting in the best interests of the country and was ensuring that there was ‘competent leadership’ where before there hadn’t been. Come February 2027, Walsh found himself under pressure to resign. The Democratic leadership in Congress met with him alongside senior party officials. They told him that he was a puppet of the Republicans and that he should stand down. Walsh refused to go though. He’d been elected to this office and would serve out his term as per the constitution. In reply, he was told that no longer could the party leadership support any candidacy of his for a second term. Should he run again next year, he wouldn’t have their support. The Democrats would find another candidate for fight in the ’28 presidential election. After considering what they had to say, hiding his anger as best he would, the president told his blackmailers that he not run again. They were happy enough with that in the end. Eyes were already on someone else.


Weeks after the Battle of Oakland, the Governor of California, Samuel Pierce, was shot at by a sniper. A state trooper serving as a bodyguard with the extensive security team around him was killed but Pierce emerged unharmed. There had been many death threats before – hence the big security detail – but now someone had moved from words to bullets. Initial speculation was that the shooting might be related to what had happened in Oakland. Left-wing radicals, maybe even an angry police officer (serving or retired), were looked at as possible suspects. However, that wasn’t the case. California Bureau of Investigation officers arrested a member of right-wing militia Oath Keepers. He lived within the northern reaches of the state, one of the few areas where there was a Republican Party presence left in California. Not a member of the Republicans, media organisations presented him as a Republican in their coverage of his arrest. The Oath Keepers weren’t Republicans though. Neither were various other right-wing militia groups across the nation. At times, individual Red states looked the other way in the face of their activities but these people were widely seen as domestic terrorists. As to that suspect, already guilty in the minds of the media, California set about prosecuting him for the murder of that state trooper. He was being transferred from custody in the north down to Sacramento when the convoy of police vehicles carrying him came under attack. The Oath Keepers sought to free their member. They had assistance in this from members of other groups active in the western portions of the United States: those such as the Atomwaffen Division and the Three Percenters. Heavy weaponry was employed by men with military training who knew what they were doing. The major shootout occurred which led to nine deaths including that of the suspect in custody plus five state troopers (assigned to the Highway Patrol as California hadn’t had a state police since 1995).

In years past, right-wing militia organisations might have been considered a bit of a joke. That they never really had been and they certainly weren’t in 2026. Many ex-servicemen formed their ranks and they were well-equipped. Only by bad luck had they failed to free their compatriot in this incident: in previous years, strength of numbers and their willingness to fight had seen even federal officials back off from a fight with them. Even in deep Blue states such as California, they had a big following. Many of those who showed up for that fight had come from far away though. From out of Idaho, Montana and Oregon (the latter a Blue state) they had joined with California-based militia to do this. Pierce had had enough. There already was a citizen’s movement underway in California for a ballot initiative later in the year for the state to ban the National Rifle Association on the grounds that it was a ‘domestic terrorist organisation’ and he threw his weight behind that with the addition to add further groups to the list of those banned in California. Pierce had a friendly legislature, one which had recently bene flexing its muscles just like those in Red states were doing. The NRA was already engaged in legal battles to forestall such a thing and they would afterwards be joined by the named militia groups. Pierce intended to ban not just the group’s activities in California but members from out of state coming into California. This was a big deal and would be fought in the courts. Pierce was acting in the interests of California’s citizens though, he would say.

Coming back at him were questions as to why nothing had been done about those in Oakland though. Weren’t they domestic terrorists who’d killed police officers? Pierce was said to be favouring left-wing radicals over God-fearing patriots on the right. It was a fair point. He responded by action. The National Guard was mobilised and into Oakland it went. They set about disarming those in the autonomous zones within that California city. This brought about criticism from sections of the left but not enough to apply any real sort of pressure on Pierce. Californians had had enough of the radicals in Oakland. Some of that negativity came from sections of the right as they did exceptional mental gymnastics defending those Anarchists and Marxists. Success came in Oakland following a final, bloody showdown. Next up, Pierce moved forward with his plan to tackle the right-wing groups. Members could be identified by their internet presence using the aspects of that law he wished voters to approve and those from outside of California would be banned from entering the state. The Supreme Court had last year supported legal restrictions on freedom of entry into various Red states from left-wing groups and Pierce would use that ruling against the right to keep California safe.


Late 2027 saw major United States overseas military redeployments. In the Pacific, Walsh approved the transfer out of South Korea of troops who came home. Seoul had made new security arrangements earlier in the year in the aftermath of the Taiwan Conflict and so, after almost eighty years of a presence there, US forces left. Congress approved this. A few years ago, such a thing would have been unthinkable but the reality of the situation on the ground in East Asia was different now that America had bene defeated in war there. As those from the Korean Peninsula came home, other service personnel were being sent to Eastern Europe. President Makarov was flexing his muscles against the Baltic States and Poland. He had his army in Belarus and on the borders of the trio of small nations beside the Baltic Sea. There were terror attacks underway within the Baltics whom America and its European partners in NATO could trace back to Moscow. War with Russia was feared as Makarov was suspected to be seeking to play on what he saw as United States weakness. Walsh sent troops to defend those countries.

It was a big commitment. Several European countries demurred over doing the same and couldn’t been strong armed by Washington. Economic and domestic political factors were at play. More so was the worry that Russia might do what China had done and be able to defeat the United States. Some back in Washington expressed the same concerns. They pointed to the immense military might of the Russians and said that if China could hit US Navy carriers and bring down the very best US Air Force aircraft, then Makarov’s forces could do the same. Walsh continued with the deployment though, once more having Congressional support from the Republicans for – as detractors called it – ‘yet another example of his military adventurism’.

In the midst of the deployment, there was more serious political violence still underway within America with shootings, bombings and an increasing series of forced disappearances occurring. Events of the Years of Lead carried on despite the threat of war breaking out overseas. A few voices back home called for American troops to be on American soil to protect the nation from so-called insurrectionists within. That was dismissed as stupid. No matter what craziness was going on, the idea of insurrection, revolt or whatever else doomsayers might come was regarded as laughable.

[gillan1220]

Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Now we'll have right-wing militia groups say that Truman should have allowed MacArthur to nuke China.

[lordroel]

Jan 9, 2021 16:24:29 GMT gillan1220 said:

China watches with glee.

Reminds me of the TV series called Jericho, where the breakaway part of the former United States nukes North Korea and Iran, so as long as any part of the United States has nukes, other countries must treat carefully in how they react.

[James G]

Jan 10, 2021 17:53:11 GMT gillan1220 said:

Ouch, that's gotta hurt. Now we'll have right-wing militia groups say that Truman should have allowed MacArthur to nuke China.

It really will hurt. People in the US say that now to be fair.

Jan 10, 2021 17:58:30 GMT lordroel said:

Reminds me of the TV series called Jericho, where the breakaway part of the former United States nukes North Korea and Iran, so as long as any part of the United States has nukes, other countries must treat carefully in how they react.

That is very true. It will be something others better remember come 2029 ITTL.

[James G]

7 – Law and order

History would call it the Capitol Hill Summit. In late June 2027, there was a gathering of those at the very top of the US Government in Washington to discuss the ongoing domestic political violence that had a firm hold on the nation. The meeting came about due to what had happened out in Pennsylvania a few days beforehand. The President and Vice President were joined by the leadership of each party in both Congressional chambers. Agency heads from the FBI, the Federal Marshals and the (emasculated) ATF were present. A trio of state governors and a handful influential senators outside the leadership were also invited. Brining a return to law and order was the matter up for discussion. Those in attendance wanted to see it done: enough was enough.

Following on from the Taiwan Conflict and then the so-called ‘Battles of Oakland’, extensive unrest gripped the United States through the early part of the year. In some of the most infamous and high-profile attacks, a state assemblyman and his family had been gunned down on their front lawn in rural Tennessee. Another Republican, this time a Congressman, had his house burnt to the ground in North Dakota… with him and his wife inside tied to their beds and drenched in accelerants. Out in Nevada, a vacationing lawyer who recently been representing the Democrats in a major court case back in Indiana had been kidnapped from a Las Vegas hotel room with no sign of him ever appearing again: an Iowa state election official had also been subject to what bore all the hallmarks of a forced disappearance. A party for students who were volunteering for the Democrats while at their Ohio college was attacked by gunfire. The Black Liberation Army and the New Ku Klux Klan had fought a pitched battle in North Carolina. A huge race riot had left downtown Chicago almost in ruin following the death a teenager shot by the police. Countless other shocking events had taken place.

Then that drone had flown above Harrisburg.

Harrisburg was the state capital of Pennsylvania, a Purple state where the two parties were each vying for political control and hoping to win its Electoral College votes in the next year’s presidential election. Attached beneath a drone which flew above the city was a home-made launcher for an explosive rocket. Perfectly aimed, the projectile fired killed the state’s governor (a Democrat) as well as twenty others gathered at an outdoor political event. Drones had been employed in domestic terror attacks a few times in years past but not put to use like that: rifle shots had been fired from them. Such things as this happened elsewhere in the world, this was just like one of the American military strikes made overseas. Once it had fired that rocket – not the missile that the media could call it –, the drone was then used in the kamikaze fashion. It slammed into the wounded and dazed where it took three more lives. The whole thing was broadcast nationwide. This wasn’t committed by a global terror network but instead a group of racist, crazy nutters ‘fighting for freedom’. Five years beforehand, the nation had been shocked by the slaying of the family of then Illinois Senator Fay Fry. She’d left office and moved overseas since then. What happened in Pennsylvania united the country in outrage like that set of murders. This was just too much. There was no excusing what had been done in Harrisburg.

Excuses had been made before though, for so much what had been occurring in recent years. Shootings, stabbings, arson attacks, bombings, kidnappings and even a few previous forced disappearances had been said to happen to those who were the victims because they deserved them. Their political positions had brought this on themselves. Even when it was family members killed – the father of Congresswoman Maria Arreola Rodriguez being a prime example –, there was extensive victim-blaming. Politicians in the other party from the victim as well as the highly partisan media were responsible for this. There had been the deaths last year of three former presidents. 2026 had seen the 42nd, 43rd & 45th Presidents all die of natural causes. Immense celebrations had come after the death of each man when (respectively) the Democrat and two Republicans had lost their lives. Respect for them as former office holders of the presidency had been thrown out of the window as the glee at their passing had seen disgusting scenes. Every politician in the country – as well as major public figures – needed extensive security. Wherever they went and even when they were in their own homes, mini armies travelled with them. All the security in the world couldn’t protect them though… as evidenced by that congressman’s death and then what happened in Harrisburg. The government itself wasn’t safe. Congress had faced serious efforts by armed intruders to get inside and murder them while the White House had an alarm go off once a month as various oddballs, always well-armed, made attempts against the life of President Walsh. There had been a bomb in a delivery van which got past all the extensive security around the FBI headquarters in Washington. The explosives failed to detonate property and only a small blast occurred without causing any casualties. Had the attack gone as planned (those behind that remained unknown), there would likely have been dozens, maybe even a hundred casualties.

The Capitol Hill Summit saw a general and honest agreement for all those in positions of power to do everything that they could to bring all this to and end. Law and order would be restored nationwide. Echoing the words of Governor Pierce out in California a few months before, the Senate Minority Leader said ‘enough was enough’. What had to be done, would be done. Extremism was going to be battled. These political enemies said they would work together. They would use their influence in every arena. No one expected those on the other side of the partisan divide not to do some political point-scoring while doing so, but there was a mutual understanding that they could no longer work against each other on this matter. The ATF was going to receive emergency funding and there wouldn’t be Congressional opposition to Walsh using executive orders where needed. Senator Green would back off there… part of that was the realisation that the next president, hopefully a Republican, might need to employ them himself/herself. After the meeting, the bitter political enemies who’d agreed to become allies, though just on this matter, all went off to their favoured media outlets to let the public know how it was Us, and not Them, who were going to stop all of this unrest gripping the nation. To not do this would be unnatural. However, while there was all this agreement, none of what they all decided to act in concert to achieve was achievable. They weren’t addressing the real problems. All of the political violence had a root cause and that was the partisan divide on each and every social issue of major and minute importance. Everything could be traced back to those divisions.


In the aftermath of the Taiwan Conflict, the American economy took a massive hit in 2027. There were negative economic implications across the world though most Americans focused upon their own woes as the post-shooting recession hit home… hard. There was no economic blockade during nor after the conflict between the two countries. Everything happened so fast and then there was an effort to get things back to normal. That was what politicians talked of. However, there was to be no return to normality. Businesses within America who relied on Sino-US trade started to tank and dragged everything else down with them. Americans didn’t want to buy Chinese products and China was moving to export elsewhere in the world with the realisation of this. Not all trade vanished at once, but it was going that way. Politicians in Washington couldn’t force the American people to buy Chinese. Many of them were quite happy for Americans to buy Americans. Yet, by doing so, consumers, encouraged by certain politicians, hurt their own national economy.

Of course, there was the Wall Street Crash of ’27 too. It was far bigger than the one ninety-eight years beforehand which shared the same name. Stock markets in Frankfurt, London, Tokyo and elsewhere also crashed when China and the United States started shooting at each other. In a global economy, these events had massive immediate effects. China was quicker to afterwards seek further markets for their exports beyond America. With a command economy directed by the will of their leader, they could do this better than Walsh could ever try to do. China didn’t come out of the Taiwan Conflict without any troubles, no matter what certain American commentators said, but it weathered the storm better than the United States did. Serious damage was done to other economies, those indirectly affected by the sudden turnabout in the China-US trade difference. This then bounced back on America as well. Chinese investment in the United States dried up. Why invest in an unfriendly market full of people who hate you when their country attacked yours first? There was a sell-off of so much debt from American companies that the Chinese had: it was toxic debt and they got rid of it long after they really should have. T-bills in Chinese state hands, all of those I-owe-you’s backed by the US Treasury which China had accumulated, were dumped on the international markets. China said Goodbye to so much of America, causing immense financial disruption.

Jobs were lost across America. People started spending their savings on everyday costs of living. The future dreams of so many were ruined by the outcome of a conflict which no one had wanted and everyone was angry about the outcome of. As the year went on, and the recession got worse, Democrats understood that their hopes of keeping the White House in 2028 were even worse than they feared. History had shown that whichever party held the White House during a recession, no matter what the reason, even a global pandemic, even with a different candidate, would lose it to the other party at the next election. That was just how things were: prime examples could be found in the elections of 1932, 1980, 1992, 2008 & 2020. The Republicans attacked the economic mismanagement of the Democrats, knowing the same history just as well. How they converted taking back control of the White House from the hated Democrats.

[gillan1220]

When will America get its revenge on China?

[James G]

Jan 12, 2021 3:48:59 GMT gillan1220 said:

When will America get its revenge on China?

That's looking increasingly unlikely!