A More Perfect Union

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SPANISH GOVERNMENT DEFAULTS

Spain goes the way of Greece, Portugal and Ireland when it defaults on it's loans. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appeals for refinancing by the EU as well as a second bailout package. He agrees to the Merkellian austerity cuts. Riots tear up the Basque country and Catalonia, bolstering the nationalist movements in those regions and solidifying the leftist parties with a year to go til the next general election.

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PLAYSTATION 4 RELEASED

The PS4 is released in China then Japan in the Spring of 2014 to great fanfare. It will be fully compatible with Avatar-esque 3D technology to give worlds a realisic depth and incorporate MotionScan technology to truly reflect the voice actor's facial muscles and retinae to portray emotion more accurate. The new console will, like XBox 720, still rely on HDMi yet use advanced motion-sensing technology to record body movements. Complaints arise of the abundant handheld guns and gadgets many of the games require but the console breaks records as the fastest-selling of all time.

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03/03/14

IRAQI PARLI AMENTARY ELECTION

Hussain al-Sharistani
State of Law 

Ayad Allawi
Al-Iraqiya

Barham Salih
Kurdistani Alliance

In the midst of a bloody civil war, the Shia Islamist party of Al-Iraqiya led by Hussain al-Sharistani wins a large majority of seats. President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a majority Shia Muslim himself, welcomes the victory with 'hope that majority rule shall continue in Iraq and civil strife shall soon cease". China, Russia and Iran support the Shia government's subjugation of the Sunni minority. No official response is forthcoming from the US while the EU "abhors the Iraqi government's response to 'civil strife'" and promises sanctions if the regime persists.

{President Barack Obama, StateSec John Kerry and NSC Director Sam Power confer in the decision room}

If we come out against the regime we admit that our policy in Iraq was a failure, if we support it we alienate Europe but can probably get them to follow.

Our policy? I ran against that sh**t. And i'm pretty sure the world remembers when that monkey-looking  was behind the desk

I miss Saddam...

Nods of concurrence all 'round.

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Footage of Bradley Manning is released by an anonymous online source via WikiLeaks, in which he appears to be wearing a dress, make-up and other traditionally feminine apparel with hands cuffed. The former Army Private seems to be crying in the photos, which appear to have been taken by military detention facility personnel. Parallels will be drawn between this and the Abu Ghraib detention facility fiasco of a few years earlier.



 Julian Assange will plead not guilty to charges brought against him in a US court. But not so fast... Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott will fulfil a campaign pledge of not "hav[e}[ing] an Australian's rights abused so flagrantly".
Is the Amero-Australian War as prophesised by the Houser brothers imminent?

 

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18/07/14
INDIA LAUNCHES LUNAR ROVER CHANDRAYAAN 2

With the aid of the Russian Space Agency, India launches it's second unmanned lunar rover, this time operating partly on solar power and equipped with stereophonic camera-based 3D. The lander will be Russian-designed, the orbiter Indian-made.

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20/08/14
AFGHAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

With most of the Operation Enduring Freedom coalition's intra-national militaries withdrawn, the US Army stands alone at polling booths across deserts and mountains as President Hamid Karzai prepares to step down.

Mohammed Fahim  Sima Samar
47.65%        >        38.19%

Violence occurs at several barely-guarded Indian consulates due to the election's strain on US troops whose presence at polling stations is considered more impotant.
With such an expectedly close race between a drug trafficker and a women's rights activist, US, UN and NATO officials push for a November runoff in the hopes that what remains of their troops will vote for Samar. Unfortunately for them, Fahim wins the runoff comfortably and is sworn in on 7/12/14.

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01/11/11
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE REFERENDUM

Devo Max
Yes 53% No 47%

Full Independence
Yes 34% No 66%

Alexander Salmond's SNP government at Holyrood take the results of the long-awaited two-question referendum as a partial victory as does Ed Miliband's Labour government at Westminster. Little had changed in the electorate's estimations of independence in two years since the announcement of the referendum. If anything, the answer to the full independence question was an improvement of 2% for the 'Yes Scotland' campaign and the devolutionary mandate a definite success.
 Prime Minister Miliband and First Minister Salmond confer to discuss the extent of maximum devolution. They will agree to Scotland's retaining of £ sterling as her fiscal currency, the British monarch remaining as Head of State and the general move of the UK to federal status.

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As election day nears, President and House GOP reach a 'Grand Bargain' to partially privatize social security, close the Medicare Part D 'Donut Hole' and raise capital gains taxes on those earning over 1 million dollars to lower the deificit.  The plan provides that Social Security be cut by 1.5 % of it's current cost annually until 2081 when it will be no more, meaning Americans born today will have to save up. The provision can be halted by Executive order or Congressional decree; reverted by supermajorities in both houses. Pundits consider it a law without claws but it's passage still hurts it's proponents in the polls.

It will pass the House with most Republicans and a few DLCers supporting it; and will be dropped by the Democratically-controlled Senate. Obama and his mostly Republican supporters will wait for the GOP Senate newcomers to take their seats in a McConnell-led Seante before pushing the bill any further.

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04/11/14
UNITED STATES MIDTERM ELECTIONS, 2014

SENATE

 

51 - 47 - 2

AL Jeff Sessions (R) > Ron Sparks (D)
AK Mark Begich (D) > Dan Sullivan (R)
AR Mark Pryor (D)
CO Mark Udall (D) > Jane Norton (R)
DE Chris Coons (D) > Mike Castle (R)
GA Saxby Chambliss (R) > Vernon Jones (D)
ID Jim Risch (R) > David J Archuleta (D)
IL Dick Durbin (D) Andy Martin (R)
IA Tom Harkin (D) > Steve King (R)
KA Pat Roberts (R) > Anthony Hensley (D)
KY Mitch McConnell (R) > Daniel Mongiardo (D)
LA Mary Landrieu (D) > Bill Cassidy (R)
ME Susan Collins (R) > Tom Ledue (D)
MA Deval Patrick (D) > Jim Rappaport (R)
MI Carl Levin (D) > Roger Kahn (R)
MN Al Franken (D) > Tim Pawlenty (R)
MS Tate Reeves (R) > Barbara Blackmon (D)
MT Brian Schweitzer (D) > Christy Clark (R)
NE Mike Johanns (R) > Maureen Monahan (D)
NH Jeanne Shaheen (D) > Ovide Lamontagne
NJ Cory Booker (D) > Frank LoBiondo (R)
NC Thom Tillis (R) > Kay Hagan (D)
OK Jim Inhofe (R) > Jim Rogers (D)
RI Jack Reed (D) > Robert Tingle (R)
SC Lindsey Graham (R) > Vic Rawl (D)
SD Mike Rounds (R) > Tim Johnson (D)
TN Lamar Alexander (R) > Gary Davis (D)
TX John Cornyn (R) > Rhett Smith (D)
VA Mark Warner (D) > Bob McDonnell (R)
WV Shelley Moore Capito (R) > Jay Rockefeller (D)
WY Mike Enzi (R) > Dave Freudenthal (D)

HOUSE

 

224 - 211


GUBERNATORIALS

 

29 - 18- 2

AL Robert Bentley (R) > John Rogers (D)
AK Sean Parnell (R) > Diane Benson (D)
AZ Ken Bennett (R) > Neil Giuliano (D)
AR Mark Darr (R) > Mike Ross (D)
CA Jerry Brown (D) > Darrell Issa (R)
CT Tom Foley (R) > Dan Malloy (D)
CO John Hickenlooper (D) > Amy Stephens (R)
FL Nan Rich (D) > Rick Scott
GA Nathan Deal (R) > DuBose Porter (D)
HI Neil Abercrombie (D) > Lynn Finnegan (R)
ID Butch Otter (R) >Lee Chaney (D)
IL Pat Quinn (D) > Adam Andrzejewski (R)
IA Patty Judge (D) Bob Vander Plaats (R)
ME Eliot Cutler (I) > Paul LePage (R) > Rosa Scarcelli(D)
MD Anthony Brown (D) > David Craig (R)
MI Rick Snyder (R) > Anthony Dillon (D)
MN Mark Dayton (D) > Norm Coleman (R) > Dean Barkley (MI)
NV Brian Sandoval (R) > (D)David Oceguera (D)
NH Bill Kennedy (D) > Frank Guinta (R)
NM Susana Martinez (R) > Jeff Bingaman(D)
NY Andrew Cuomo (D) > Chris Collins (R)
OH Ted Strickland (D) > John Kasich (R)
OK Mary Fallin (R) > Sean Burrage (D)
OR John Kitzhaber (D) > Allen Alley (R)
PA Chris Doherty (D) > Tom Corbett (R)
RI Lincoln Chafee (I) > John Robitaille (R) > Angel Taveras(D)
SC Nikki Haley (R) > Jim Rex (D)
SD Dennis Daugaard (R) > Jason Frerichs (D)
TN Bill Haslam (R) > Jim Cooper (D)
TX George P Bush > Tommy Lee Jones (D) > Kinky Friedman (I)
VT Peter Shumlin (D) > Emily Peyton (I)
WI Scott Walker (R) > Tammy Baldwin (D)
WY Matt Mead (R) > Al Hamburg (D)

Blue dog Democrats give the conservative GOP the edge in the Senate while Tea Party fatigue gives the anti-Obama Democrats the House

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IRAQI CIVIL WAR INTENSIFIES

Conflict erupts in the capital of Baghdad, where secularists confront Shia and Sunni militants as well as the security forces, dirtying the name of the secular Al-Iraqiyaa party as well as the Ba'athist movement further. Car bombings increase in the predominantly Kurdish northern regions where Prime Minister al-Sharistani will deploy troops.

US WITHDRAWS FROM AFGHANISTAN

 After thirteen long years and President Mohammed Fahim's inauguration, US troops will fully withdraw from the country, leaving it to fend for itself by the end of the year. One of the President's first hign visibility decisions will be to host talks with Indian President Shri Panjab Mukherjee and declare peace between Hindu and Muslim nations.

WAR IN PAKISTAN ESCALATES

 President Obama will redeploy many troops and divert others to Pakistan to the dissaproval of much of his liberal base and delight of neocons who he see it as a new opportunity to focus on one mission.

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25/01/15

STATE OF THE UNION

"With an independent Afghanistan now free to govern itself, it is important that we concert our efforts wholly in Pakistan to finally destroy the Haqqani Network and restore peace to the whole of the region. America is going to need stable partners when the fighting is done and that requires funding for training our Pakistani collaborators with the know-how to get that job done. I would like to take a moment to applaud our brave troops who have served us all well.
 In Iraq, we are witnessing the price we are having to pay for an unnecessary and costly war. The United States condemns all prosecution on ethnic or religious grounds but through sanctions and our condemnation only will we work to stop them. For we are learning I hope, as have all great empires, that we cannot fight more than one war at a time. The War on Drugs, the War on Poverty and the War on Women must all end if we are to win this actual war in Pakistan. Let's win this war for something...
On spending cuts, I will not take any one program off the table as you should know by now. Some of you are new around here, but all of you have faced elections knowing that it's always safer to say what people want than do what needs to be done. Well now you have that chance. It may be the deal breaker that swings your constituents votes the other way but it's what the next generation needs. When our seniors are given the choice between their own Social Security cheques and the paychecks of their grandchildren, they will not be selfish. They will do what's right, and so should this Congress.
 We will make these cuts so that we can provide for the next great generation of Americans. So that we don't go the way of Greece, Italy and Spain. We want a strong America where everybody plays by the rules and a strong governemnt that plays by the rest of the world's rules."

The speech is viewed as a challenge by the President's own party members in congress and as plagiarism by one New Jersey governor, Christopher J Christie who takes credit for "our seniors will not be selfish".

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ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER RE-OPENS

The long awaited memorial to the Septemper 11th attacks and adjoing streets open to the public in early 2015. The leaves on the Survivor Tree have not yet regrown but Governor Cuomo and Mayor Christine Quinn both deliver rousing speeches intended to awaken the civic pride and rememberance of all New Yorkers. A surprise visit by President Barack H Obama is expected but never transpires, but as former mayor Rudy Giuliani once prophesised, "the skyline will be made whole again," and New Yorkers agree that it has.

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EURASIAN UNION ESTABLISHED

The economic and political integration of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyztan, the Russian federation Tajikistan is solidified when President Vladimir and other less notable national leaders sign their nations up for what critics call "a restoration of the Soviet Union".

A single currency is not ruled out at the meeting, whereupon the member nations hoped to implement measures in light of the EU financial crisis.

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The Senate passes the Saving Social Security Act (SSSA) 53 - 47 with full GOP support and two Blue Dogs. No threat of filibuster is vocalised by the Democrats but for one member of their caucus, independent socialist Bernie Sanders. The absence of any serious filbusters will lead to allegations of stealth complicity on behalf of Seante Democrats and will become more of a hot-button issue than ever during the imminent primaries. Obama signs the act into law, for his poll numbers to plummet along with the GOP.

Christ, what have I done?

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The invisible primaries commence when Democrats Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, NYC Mayor Christine Quinn of New York, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano of Arizona, former Speaker Pro Tempore of the House Tammy Baldwin and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia all announce their candidacies in what will be dubbed 'the War of the Women with Tim in'.

 Meanwhile, Republicans former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former Congressman Allen West of Florida and Representative Mia Love of Utah will anounce theirs to pick up the early bounce. Santorum, the 2012 runner-up, leads the pack for most of the Summer, while another Rick, former Governor Perry of Texas, will offer Santorum his endorsemnt after considering a run of his own along with Fmr Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Corbett.

 The ultimate polls still show the prospective candidacies of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton as the two major party's front runners, but no news is forthcoming.

Americans Elect will begin drafting candidates in the visible primary season for the major parties.

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15/05/15
UK GENERAL ELECTION

Labour
Ed Miliband

Lib Dem
Tim Farron

Conservative
David Cameron

The first election to be instigated under the requirements of the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act and 2014 Single Transferable Vote Act will see Prime Minister Ed Miliband face his first election as the incumbent party leader with an apparent economic recovery underway.

Labour will stimulate it's working-class base with the passing of living wage legislation, reach out to students with it's lowering of student fees and as-yet-unpassed graduate tax and attract Lib Dem supporters with it's passage of the STV while the Tories will campaign against high taxes and the 'Divided Kingdom', or Britain and Northern Ireland Federalism Act of 2014 as well as implying that a Miliband ministry would not be as ready to retaliate to a national security threat from Iran as well as being a divisive PM.

The election will result in a hung parliament for the second time in the  decade and will see the Lib Dems split between the Farronite centre-left and Cleggish centre in coalescing with the Labour and Conservative parties respectively, over the course of the summer recess becoming the Liberals and New Democrats.

With the full support of the Greens, Respect, Monster Raving Loonies, Plaid Cymru and the SNP a new broad coalition os social progressives and liberals willtake their seats in September with Ed Miliband as PM and Tim Farron as his Deputy.

David cameron, menawhile, will resign, triggering a leadership election immediately. Newly-reinstated MP Boris Johnson, MP Sajid David and MP Fiona Bruce will vie for the leadership.

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Over the summer, the Republican field will widen to a dozen candidates, with the more notable announcements of the presidential candidacies of Senators John Thune of South Dakota, Marco Rubio of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas and Congressman  Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Shortly after this, Rick Santorum will announce the suspension of his campaign and the big endorsements will mostly be divvied up between the latter four. GOP rising Hispanic star Governor George P Bush of Texas will decline to run, claiming that he knows the party will "pick a winner for sure this year".
 The Democratic Field will also be shaken with the big announcements of Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Martin O'Malley of Maryland, as well as the shocker that former StateSec and US Senator Hillary Clinton firmly declines to run for President ever again in her lifetime. "Maybe in another life, guys..."
 Several big endorsements will come from former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida for Marco Rubio, former Governor and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney of Massachusetts for Paul Ryan and former Governor Rick Perry of Texas for Sam Brownback while on the Democratic front Vice President Joe Biden will single out Martin O'Malley for his work on immigration and crime, though few formal endorsements are forthcoming from the Obama administration, the liberal party base rallies around Tammy Baldwin.
 

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The Catalonian struggle for independence from Spain will continue unabated, until French President Francois Hollande steps in to call for compromise. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will argue that the autonomous status granted to Catalonia in the early post-Franco years was enough but Hollande, realising that bankrupt Spain can not do without it's major economic engine of Barcelona in the northeast, offers the idea of a power-sharing autonomous region administrated by the French and Spanish governments. Rajoy, very wary of the slim majority his centre-right Partido Popular holds in the parliament, will initially reject the idea before agreeing to terms that Spain receive all revenues generated by the Catalonian state. Hollande accepts.

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Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal will announce his intention to run for President, receiving the endorsement of none other than 2012 nominee former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, who vows to fight for the evangelicalish Roman Catholic Indian-American in states as far away as Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming where the Mormon party leader-of-sorts is still popular, making Jindal the frontunner temporarily.
 Mayor Christine Quinn of New York City will drop out of the race and offer Tammy Baldwin her endorsement, for former Governor Deval Patrick to step into the race and steal centre-leftists away from Cuomo and O'Malley, as well as an endorsement from Secretary of State John Kerry.
 

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The US and South Korea will dissolve the Combined Forces Command, effectively leaving the door open for negotiations between the countries on either side of the 38th parallel. The Panmunjon Accords will be held in the traditional truce village, without US, Chinese or Russian mediation between Premiers Choe Yong-Rim and Lee Myung-bak, from which another hit Psy K-pop sensation will be inspired by - 38th Parallel.
 The negotiations are seen as a positive yet indecisive baby step forward by the international community.

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Chris Christie will make the biggest splash in September when he gives a definite 'YES' to reporters at a press conference with regards to a 2016 run, stealing the Gillibrand-Warner-O'Malley thunder from the Democrats and leading the GOP field immediately. Meanwhile, Jon Huntsman avoids the big question at a press conference and Ron Paul speaks on behalf of his son at a rally in Newport News, Virginia.
 Cheri Honkala, Stewart Alexander and Van Jones all announce for the Green Party nomination; R Lee Wrights, Gary Johnson and Daniel P Gordon contest the Libertarian nomination; while Jim Clymer, Darrell Castle and Susan Ducey will vie for the Constitution Party nomination.

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Senior citizens take to the streets in the immediate and less immediate wake of the SSSA bill's passage to protest it's enactment. Bipartisanship is but a far-off dream to the vast majority of American voters who showed in record lows at the last midterm elections, but hold on... A new Gang of 10 moderate Senators will switch party alliance to the Modern Whig Party or drop it entirely in favour of demonstrating bipartisanship to the American electorate.

They are

Mark Begich
Scott Brown
Susan Collins
Joe Donnelly
Jeff Flake
Mary Landrieu
Joe Manchin
John McCain
Mark Pryor
Brian Schweitzer

They pledge to bridge the divide in the Senate and work with the President regardless of party colour and for "the American people who put us here above all."