Return of the King a Kaiserreich Canada Play through Part 2

James McAllister had never liked civilian clothes, not since he'd gone to the British Military Academy at Sandhurst as a youth of 18 back in 1912. That seemed so long ago now, before the horrors of the Weltkrieg, before the Syndicalist Revolution, before the Great Depression. He longed to return home to Scotland, but he couldn't, not while the vile Reds ruled Britain. When he returned home, he intended to do so as part of the victorious Canadian army. But that was getting ahead of himself. For now, he had a mission to accomplish, one that would be vital to Canadian national security.

MI6 (which had gone into exile to Canada with the King in 1925) had been reporting for a while that there was severe unrest in the United States. Between the Syndicalists in the Rust Belt and the America First Party in the South, it looked like America was headed into a Second Civil War. As the higher ups in Ottawa saw it, there was only one man who might be able to save America, and it was McAllister's job to make contact with him. That man was General Douglas MacArthur. He'd arranged to meet with the General at a fancy hotel in Washington called the Watergate. As he approached the door to MacArthur's room, he took a deep breath, and opened it.

"General MacArthur, I presume?" He said in his refined Edinburgh accent.

"That's right." The General replied. "So, what exactly is it you wanted to meet with me for?"

"I'm here to give you this letter. It's from King Edward VIII himself."

"Why didn't you just mail it to me?"

"The intel in it is too sensitive, we couldn't let it go through the postal service..." McAllister responded as he handed MacArthur the letter.

"Dear General Douglas MacArthur. I and my cabinet have been monitoring affairs in your country for quite some time, and needless to say, we find the situation quite troubling. We fear that, if left unchecked, the Syndicalists or America First Party might well attempt to seize power, and our intelligence service has good reason to believe this. After much discussion, the Canadian government has come to the conclusion that you may well be the only man who can save your country in this dark hour. Please rest assured that, if you are forced to take drastic action, the Canadian government will support you in your efforts.
Signed His Majesty King Edward VIII."

The stage had now been set for the bloodiest conflict the American continent had ever seen...

Return of the King, A Kaiserreich Canada Play through Part 1

When Britain went to war against the Germans in 1914, hardly anyone could have predicted that the war would end in 1920 with Russia defeated, France and Italy in revolution, and Britain herself humiliated. And it only got worse from there. The British economy took a sharp nosedive, and in 1925 Britain went through it's own syndicalist revolution, forcing the Royal Family and their supporters to flee to Canada. Like vultures, aggressive neighbors swooped in to seize many of Britain's old colonies. The Irish invaded Ulster, most of British Africa fell to the Germans, the Spaniards took Gibraltar, The Ottomans captured Cyprus, and half on India rose up in rebellion against the Raj. By 1936, all that was left of the old British Empire and Commonwealth was Canada, Australia and New Zealand (now united as the Australasian Confederation) The Dominion of India (Which was in fact nothing but northwest India) and the various Caribbean Islands. Their only remaining ally was the authoritarian democratic French government in exile, based out of old French Algeria.

Considering this bleak situation, it is perhaps no surprise that King George V died in Ottawa on January 20, 1936, a broken man. His eldest son, now crowned Edward VIII, was determined to avenge his father by taking back the British Isles from the wretched Reds.

But in order to do so, the political situation in Canada itself would need to be sorted out. The Liberal Party, under Prime Minister Mackenzie King, had been in power for nearly 10 years by 1936. It was no secret that King Edward and the Prime Minister did not exactly get along, to the point that many Canadians joked about "The War Between Two Kings." Edward VIII felt that Prime Minister King was two soft on the Syndicalist menace, while the Prime Minister saw the King as a dangerously ambitious warmonger.

Events abroad soon swayed Canadian public opinion in Edward's favor. The rise of the Totalist demagogue Oswald Mosley in Britain, and Afghanistan's attack on the Dominion of India, convinced many Canadians that a stronger leader than Mackenzie King was needed to lead Canada through the crisis. That leader, Edward believed, was Richard Bennett.

A devout Methodist, army veteran, and Empire loyalist, Bennett was the charismatic leader of the Canadian Conservative Party, nicknamed the Tories after their old British predecessors. Bennett made no secret of his stance on the Syndicalist menace, calling for it to be crushed "with an iron heel." As a result, the 1936 Canadian General Election was a landslide victory for the Tories, and Bennett was swept into 24 Sussex*, determined to crush the Mosleyites in the Union of Britain...

*24 Sussex is the official residence for the Canadian Prime Minister, and more or less the Canadian White House.

Ideologies of Kaiserreich

In preparation for my next Kaiserreich play through, I thought it might be useful to explain some of the political ideologies in Kaiserreich so when these terms pop up you'll know what they mean. To be clear, I won't explain what Conservatives, Liberals, or Social Democrats are, because I assume you already know what they mean. I'm going to focus on explaining terms that are either obscure or unknown outside of Kaiserrech. So. here it goes:

TOTALISM: Totalism, short for "Totalitarian Socialism" is essentially exactly what it says on the tin. Totalists believe that an all powerful government with a cult of personality around the glorious leader is necessary to protect the worker's revolution from the bourgeoisie scum. They oppose traditional religion, considering it a tool of capitalism, and tend to embrace either atheism, or in some cases paganism. Many of them are also hardcore nationalists, and they REALLY want to spread the revolution to other countries by force. The closest example in real life would be Stalin's Soviet Union, or maybe modern North Korea. Basically, they are Orwell's nightmare. One running gag in Kaiserreich is that many of the Totalists are people who in real life started out as socialists but eventually shifted to fascism, most notably Oswald Mosley in Britain, Marcel Deat in France, (google them) and Benito Mussolini in Italy.

SYNDICALISM: Syndicalism is kind of similar to Leon Trotsky's vision, in that it is made up of Trade Unions who run the economy and elect members to represent them in a Trade Union Congress, which serves as the country's government. While they're not quite as extreme as the Totalists, in that there's plenty of room for debate within the party elite, they're still hardly democratic either: non-socialist parties are banned, the media is state controlled propaganda, and religion, while tolerated, is strictly controlled and monitored by the state. The best real life examples would be Khruschev's Soviet Union, or modern Venezuela.

RADICAL SOCIALISM: These guys can be seen as the "nice" socialists. They're basically just a democratic state with a somewhat socialist economy, state's rights, free speech, and freedom of religion. Basically, they're what America might be like if Bernie Sanders were president.

AUTHORITARIAN DEMOCRACY: These guys basically believe that in order to protect the nation from it's enemies, it's sometimes necessary to use... "Questionable" methods, like, say, monitoring or arresting suspected extremists. They also tend to value traditional religious values and nationalism at least somewhat. They aren't total dictators though, they still have regular elections, and as long as you're not a radical or something, you'll probably be fine. Similar to America during the McCarthy era, or the George W. Bush administration.

PATERNAL AUTOCRATS: These people are highly conservative and highly authoritarian. All the subjects are treated as wards of the benevolent and paternalistic leader (either an absolute monarch, or some other kind of dictator.) But don't step out of line, the wise leader's patience has it's limits... Franco's Spain or Saudi Arabia would fall under this category.

NATIONAL POPULISM: National Populism is a totalitarian ideology that supports uniting the nation under a strong leader. It combines socialist economic policies and militarism, with ultra nationalist and even racist beliefs Nazi Germany would be a good real life example, as well as Assad's regime in Syria.

So there you have it. Aside from the regular liberals and conservatives, these are the ideologies of Kaiserreich! I hope this clears things up a little.

Are We Back in the 1930s?

Over the last few weeks, I've been reading a book about one of the most chaotic and dangerous eras in human history: the years leading up to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. And while reading this book, I had a very worrying thought: the tumultuous years of the 1930s were disturbingly similar to our own time...

Think about it. Back then, the world was rocked by a worldwide economic crisis which fueled discontent and anger. There were several blood-thirsty tyrants (Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo...) who were seeking to settle old grudges with the dominant powers by stirring up chaos. They were willing to throw weaker countries like Spain into civil war to give them a battleground to vent their anger and rivalries. We have plenty of tyrants like that today as well: Putin, Kim Jong Un, the Ayatollah Khamenei, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who are using Syria in the exact same way.

Back in the 1930s the Western Powers were mostly led by weak leaders like Neville Chamberlain, who sought to maintain peace at any cost, even if it meant giving in to murderous foreign thugs. Reading about it, I can't help but be reminded of Obama's cowardly deal with Iran.

And finally, the 1930s also had brave men like Winston Churchill, who were willing to stand up and speak out against the tyrants and those who enabled them. I can think of at least one man like that in the world today: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Do we have anyone like that here in the United States?...

I pray to God we do.

Historical Highlights: Avraham Stern, Israel's would be Fuehrer

Jewish Nazis? For obvious reasons, most find the idea absurd, or even a contradiction in terms. But surprisingly, Israel did once have it's very own fascist movement, and it's very own would be dictator...

Avraham Stern was born on December 23, 1907 in the village of Suwalki in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. When World War One broke out, he, his mother, and his brother David, fled to Russia to escape the carnage. Growing up in Russia during the First World War and the Russian Revolution was obviously not easy, so it's not surprising that Stern, like many other Jews of his generation, became attracted to the Zionist movement at an early age.

After his mother's death, he decided he had no more reason to stay in Russia, so at the age of 18, he moved to Israel, then a British colony. When the Arabs of Palestine started a pogrom against the Jews in 1929, Stern served with a Jewish socialist militia. A few years later, Stern was awarded a scholarship to study at a university in Florence, Italy. While in Italy, Stern became impressed with Benito Mussolini's fascist movement. He saw how Mussolini had seemingly brought order and pride to the once disorderly and divided Italian nation, and decided that the Jews needed their own strong leader to save them from the horrors of foreign domination. He decided that he would be Israel's secular messiah.

After completing college, Stern spent the rest of the 1930s organizing Jewish militias, and smuggling Jewish immigrants into Palestine against the will of the British colonial authorities. As a result, the British arrested him in 1939. In mid 1940 he managed to escape, and founded a new militia called the Lehi, a Hebrew acronym that stood for Fighters for the Freedom of Israel, promising to establish a Jewish state based on "Nationalist and totalitarian principles". In addition to adopting fascist ideology, the Lehi copied many of the outward trappings of Mussolini's movement as well. They wore black uniforms, and even used the fascist salute. As their symbol, they adopted the half clinched fist, in reference to Psalms 137:5. ("If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget it's skill!")

Stern's hatred for the British colonial authorities was so great, that he was willing to work with the Axis to achieve his goal of driving the British out of Israel. However, he attracted very little support from either the wider Jewish community, who opposed Nazism and supported the British, or Hitler, who obviously preferred to support the Arabs. As a result, the Lehi was forced to carry out it's guerilla campaign against the British on it's own.

Inevitably, Stern's terrorist campaign failed, and on February 12, 1942, he was shot by British troops in Tel Aviv. After Stern's death, the Lehi movement began to fade away. After World War II they tried to get support from Stalin's Soviet Union, again without success, and by the founding of Israel in 1948, the movement was dissolved.

Stern's story serves as a warning that people of all, ethnic groups, not just white "Aryans" can fall prey to dangerous ideologies...

American Caesar Part 4

Nearly all historians agree that the Battle of St. Louis was the decisive turning point of the Second American Civil War. Lasting for the first half of 1937, it was the bloodiest battle in American history to date. US troops stood guard in trenches for days and even weeks on end, as wave after wave of Syndicalist and America First soldiers attacked across the Mississippi River into the city. But thanks to the fortitude of the American forces, the line held. 

By June of 1937, with St. Louis firmly in US hands, MacArthur decided he was ready for a counter attack. On June 4, US forces crossed the Mississippi and began what became known as "The Long Push". The Long Push lasted for almost two and a half years, and finally brought total victory to the United States on September 2, 1939. 

But even as the war in America was winding down, across the Atlantic, another war was breaking out. The Syndicalist Commune of France and the Union of Britain under the rule of its Totalist dictator Oswald Mosley, invaded Switzerland, forcing the Germans to come to aid of the Swiss. Meanwhile, the exiled royals in Canada saw this as their chance to liberate Britain from Syndicalism, and declared war on Mosley. The Second Weltkrieg had begun, and it was time for the United States to pick a side...

American Caesar Part 3

The first two months of the war went poorly for the US to say the least. The Syndicalists were closing in on Washington D.C. from the north, while the AUS troops were approaching from the south. Further north, the Canadians peacefully occupied New England and Alaska. MacArthur opted not to press the issue for the time being, privately admitting that it was probably for the best, considering that he had no troops in the region, and that without the Canadians, New England would likely have fallen to the Syndicalists. On the West Coast, there were fears that California, Washington State, and Oregon would secede from the Union, but a tense meeting between California governor Frank Merriam and MacArthur resulted in them agreeing to join forces.

By December of 1936, it was clear that MacArthur's strategic position east of the Mississippi River was indefensible. AUS troops had captured the naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, while Syndicalist troops took Baltimore after a bloody battle. With the fall of Washington clearly inevitable, MacArthur made the difficult decision to retreat his troops westward to the Mississippi River where they would regroup and form a new defensive line. Vowing to return, MacArthur and his wife and son boarded a biplane and flew to the new temporary capital of Denver, Colorado. By January of 1937, most of his troops had made it to St. Louis, Missouri, which MacArthur had chosen as the center of the new front line.

To make things even worse, the syndicalist government in Mexico decided to take the chance to declare war on the United States in order to regain lost territory. For the most part, MacArthur tried to limit the war with Mexico to small border clashes, but it hardly made his position easier. It was difficult to see how he could accomplish victory now...

American Caesar, Part 2

September 26, 1936, Washington D.C.:

General Douglas MacArthur had fervently hoped it would never come to this, but alas it had. President Hoover had proved himself unwilling and unable to quell the chaos and subversion of the Syndicalists and America Firsters. If America was to be saved from tyranny, Hoover had to go. MacArthur had already secretly discussed this with Vice President Curtis, who had agreed to support him, and the General was now marching on Washington at the head of his 1st Infantry Division.

Within a few minutes after leaving the barracks, a number of civilians had gathered around to see what was going on, and many of them jeered at the troops.
"Syndies..." MacArthur snarled under his breath. One of the soldiers next to him seemed nervous, casting worried glances at the angry mob.
"Don't worry Private." MacArthur told the young man. "As long as you keep marching and don't let on that you're afraid, they won't dare bother you."
"Yes Sir." The young soldier replied. Sure enough, as the troops marched on undaunted, the mob lost their nerve and dispersed. Within a few minutes, MacArthur and his men could see the White House just ahead. As they neared the gates, they finally encountered a guard.

"HALT! WHO GOES THERE?!" The guard demanded.

"General Douglas MacArthur." The General replied calmly. If there was one thing he'd learned after so many years in the army, it was keeping cool under pressure. He wasn't about to back down now, not with so much at stake.

"What's your business?" The guard asked.

"To save this republic." MacArthur replied, keeping his poker face as much as possible.

The two men stared at each other in silence for a tense few seconds. Finally, the guard spoke.

"Alright. Go ahead sir." He said, opening the gate and saluting MacArthur, who strolled into the White House lawn as his troops surrounded the building. Finally, he came to the Oval Office door, took a deep breath, and opened it.

"General MacArthur?!" President Hoover exclaimed. "I wasn't notified that you had an appointment here/ What's going on?!"

"Mr. President," MacArthur replied, with all the nerve he could muster, "as you have proven yourself unable and unwilling to protect this country from subversive elements, I, as Chief of the Army Staff, am invoking the 25th Amendment, which allows for the cabinet to remove a president who has become unfit for office. As Vice President Curtis is in poor health, he has agreed to place me in office as acting president."

"THIS IS AN OUTRAGE! IT'S TREASONOUS!" Hoover bellowed.

"On the contrary Mr. President, it's perfectly constitutional."

"And what if I refuse to comply?!" Hoover demanded.

"I would not recommend that, Mr. President. My troops have surrounded the building. I suggest you do things the easy way, and leave peacefully.

Hoover's face was still red with rage, but he grumbled "Fine" through clenched teeth. MacArthur than had him escorted out of the building to a comfortable house arrest.

-
The next day, Acting President General MacArthur made a speech to congress, announcing his takeover from Hoover and cancellation of the 1936 election until the situation had stabilized.. Congress, having essentially been presented with a fait accompli, voted unanimously to approve MacArthur's coup, giving his junta an air of democratic legitimacy. MacArthur made it clear that he did not intend to impose a dictatorship, and would keep the Congress in place as an advisory body. Most ordinary Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, breathed a sigh of relief, believing that the crisis was over. But not everyone accepted the change so readily. Syndicalists rioted in several cities, and MacArthur responded by declaring martial law, and banning the Combined Syndicates, as well as the America First Party.

This proved to be the last straw for the extremists. On November 24, 1936, Jack Reed's Syndicalists took control of Chicago, and proclaimed a new regime called the Combined Syndicates of America. Two days later, on November 26, Huey Long's Minutemen Militia took control of Atlanta and announced the creation of the American Union State. MacArthur refused to back down, and there was no turning back. The Second American Civil War had begun...

American Caesar, A HOI4 Kaiserreich Playthrough Chapter One

At the dawn of the 20th Century, many Americans believed it would be their time in the sun. However, they were cruelly disillusioned. The German victory in the Great War (also known by its German name, the "Weltkrieg"), and the resulting Syndicalist revolutions in Britain and France, cut the United States off from Europe, resulting in a disastrous economic depression.

Inevitably, the resulting social chaos in the United States led to the rise of extremist parties on both the left and the right. On the left there was the Combined Syndicates of America, led by Jack Reed, a journalist who had covered the failed Bolshevik revolution in Russia, and now wanted to bring Syndicalism to American shores. 

On the right there was the America First Party, led by the Nationalist Populist governor of Louisiana, Huey Long, whose party was full of rather unsavory bigots. 

Caught in between these two extremes, the old Democratic and Republican Parties were losing more and more political support, to the point that President Herbert Hoover's administration was virtually unable to act, and with the 1936 Presidential Election pitting Long against Reed, many feared that the Republic as they knew it was doomed...

But one man refused to let that happen...

The World of Kaiserreich

Ok, I'm planning to start a new Hearts of Iron 4 play through, but this time I'll be using my favorite mod for the game: Kaiserreich. Now, there's a lot of lore to this mod, so I'm doing this post to explain it before we get started.

Basically the starting point where the Kaiserreich timeline split off from our own is that in this world, Germany won the First World War which is known by it's German name the "Weltkrieg" in the Kaiserreich world. This resulted in both Britain and France having Syndicalist revolutions. (Syndicalism being more or less the Kaiserreich version of communism.)  In Russia on the other hand, the White movement managed to crush the Bolsheviks, and Russia remains a (highly unstable) republic.

Because of Germany's victory in the Weltkrieg, the Treaty of Versailles never happened, so the German people do not feel humiliated resulting in the Nazis never rising to power. Instead Kaiser Wilhelm II remains the Emperor of the German Empire, although he is facing challenges, both from vengeful Syndicalists in Britain and France, and from protesters in Germany who want reform.

Italy meanwhile, is split between the highly conservative and Catholic Italian Federation in the North, and the syndicalist Socialist Republic of Italy in the South, and many predict that the Italian Peninsula is a ticking time bomb.

The British Royal Family has managed to escape to Canada, where they are plotting to liberate Britain, along with their Nationalist French allies in exile in Algeria.

India is split between the Loyalist Dominion of India in the west, the syndicalist Bharatiya Commune in the east, and in the south there is the Princely Federation, a loose alliance of various anti-Colonialist rajahs who want to cleanse India of both syndicalism and western influence.

Oh, and Australia and New Zealand are united as the Australasian Confederation.

But the most important change from our timeline is in America. The US economy has been in decline ever since the crash of 1929, and this has resulted in radical extremist movements arising both on the left and on the right. That, combined with a Syndicalist Mexico on the border, is making North America a highly unstable region. The year is now 1936, and things look likely to get very dangerous very quickly...

So now that I've explained most of the backstory, here's a list of countries I think would be interesting to play:
Germany
Russia
Canada
America
Syndicalist Britain
Sweden

I'll let you decide which I'll do. Comment below which country you want to see.

ISIS Hams it Up

Ok, this is easily the best news story of 2017 so far. Apparently a group of ISIS terrorists near the village of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, were killed by a stampede of wild pigs. No, really. Needless to say, this is probably the most humiliating death possible for a Muslim, and hopefully it will make the Jihadis think twice before crossing...


SQUEAL TEAM 6!


I'll go now...

Britain's Finest Hour a Hearts of Iron 4 Playthrough Chapter 3: The Crisis Approaches

The mood in Summer, 1936 was somewhat lightened, both by the Berlin Olympics (Though Hitler took the opportunity to show off the might of the Reich) and by the hiring of well known reformer Ernest Bevin as Labour Minister. But by Autumn Britain was facing something of a domestic crisis.

It all started when King Edward VIII wanted to marry an American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Prime Minister Baldwin believed that the still fairly conservative British people would be outraged at the very idea of their King marrying a divorced woman, and urged Edward not to go through with it, but he insisted. When the matter was leaked to the public, it caused a huge scandal, with much controversy over weather the King should marry Simpson or not. The matter was made even more complicated by Edward's suspected fascist sympathies, with Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists being particularly fervent supporters of the King. Some felt that the country was nearly on the brink of civil war. Things finally came to a head on December 9, 1936...

Village of Norchester*, Lancashire, England, December 9, 1936

"Time to close up the mill boys!" The cotton mill boss said, and all the workers immediately set about closing up shop for the day, including one George Bennett.

"Well George," his friend Frank piped up, "care to join me and me mates at the pub?"

"I don't drink Frank, remember?" George reminded Frank in his thick Northern accent.

"Aw, right, you're a Baptist. Oh well, see you tomorrow then!"

"Right. Cheerio then." George said as he wondered off. With his dusty blonde hair, wiry frame, his Protestant morals, and his Country accent, he was everyone's idea of a good old honest English worker, the type who had fought for King and Country in so many wars over the centuries. In the old days he would have been a country farmer like his Grandad had been, but things had changed a good deal since then, and these days Norchester was a factory town.

He whistled happily on his way home through the snow, looking forward to kissing his wife Vicky (she, like many women in their early thirties, was named after the late, beloved Queen) and seeing his children. And there they were when he opened the door to his cottage: Vicky listening to the radio, his little daughter Anne drawing scribbles, and his older son Edmund playing with his toy train. They both greeted him cheerfully, but Vicky seemed more wound up than anything.

"George!" She said, "Come in and listen to the radio, they just said the King's about to give a speech!"

Well, she didn't need to say that twice! It wasn't everyday you got to hear the voice of the King of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, Emperor of India... George was fairly certain he'd forgotten a few titles, but that hardly mattered at the moment, as he scattered inside, closing the door behind him.

"My loyal subjects..." The King said through the radio in his refined accent.

"Mum, is that the King?" Edmund asked.

"Yes luv, now quiet down for a moment so we can hear."

"...I have decided," The King resumed, as if he'd been waiting for the Bennetts to hush up before continuing, "that I cannot hope to rule this vast empire without Ms. Simpson by my side. Therefore, I henceforth abdicate my throne..."

Vicky switched off the radio in shock, and the room went silent. It had only been earlier that year that King George V had died, and now Britain had lost yet another king.

"Dad," Edmund said, "what's abdicate mean?"

"It means that... That the King's stepping down."

"From his throne?" Anne asked.

"No Anne. It means he's going to stop being the King." George corrected her.

"Then who will be King?" Vicky asked.

"I'm not sure. The King's not got any children,,, None that he admits to anyway..."

"GEORGE!" Vicky scolded in mock outrage.

-

A few days later, Edward VIII's brother was crowned as King George VI, and the matter was at last settled, although more than a few fascists never quite accepted Edward's abdication.

On December 16, the Germans officially announced the "Anticomintern Pact" which was an agreement between Germany and Japan to oppose communism in every way possible. While this pact was not yet a formal alliance, many saw it as a first step towards closer relations between the two fascist regimes...

In early 1937, Baldwin appointed Labour Party leader Clement Atlee as his political adviser, something most commentators saw as an attempt to reach across the aisle after the divisive Royal Crisis. In August another crisis, this one much farther away, broke out. After a border incident that many foreign observers saw as little more than a trumped up pretext for war, the Japanese invaded China. The Chinese, who had been embroiled in a civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists for years, responded to this by agreeing to a truce in their civil war, and forming a united front against the foreign invaders.

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin announced that he had just purged several "disloyal" officials and officers. Communist fellow travelers in the West insisted that the guilty men had been given a fair trial, but most more honest observers suspected it had just been an excuse for Stalin to get rid of his political rivals.

At around the same time, Stanley Baldwin, who had dominated British politics for nearly 20 years, retired as Prime Minister, and was succeeded by his political protege Neville Chamberlain, a man who was known for his determination to prevent a second Great War from ever occurring. Nonetheless, he chose to remain neutral as Asia burst into war. He also chose to stand by in December of that year, as Mussolini made claims on Yugoslavian territory, and as Spain broke out into civil war between the Republicans (supported by Stalin) and the Nationalists (supported by Hitler and Mussolini.) Increasingly, the aggressive fascist and communist powers began to see Chamberlain as a weak leader, who would not act to prevent or punish their aggression, and this only encouraged them to act out even more.

In February of 1938, German troops marched into Austria. The Austrian troops did not resist this invasion, and many Austrians (except the Jewish ones of course) greeted the German troops with cheers. The next day Hitler announced that Austria was now officially part of the Greater German Reich. Once again, Chamberlain failed to condemn this outrageous violation of the Treaty of Versailles. As Chamberlain tried to justify it "Austria is after all, a German speaking land." Behind the scenes though, he promised President Edvard Benes of Czechoslovakia that Britain would go to war with Hitler if he attacked Czechoslovakia. Little did he know that this was just the country Hitler was eyeing up as his next target.

The stage was now set for a crisis that would make the Summer \of 1914 look like child's play...

...DUN DUN DUN!!!...

Britain's Finest Hour A Hearts of Iron 4 Play Through Chapter 2: The Road to War

Most of the rest of Stanley Baldwin's time as Prime Minister was occupied by colonial policy. Concerned that Britain's far flung empire would be vulnerable in the event of war, Baldwin enacted a number of reforms to strengthen imperial defense. The most most important of these was the Overseas Service Program, in which British officers would be regularly rotated through various different colonial outposts, allowing them to gain important experience and intelligence about the various different fronts...

May 21, 1936, Delhi, British India

Captain Charles Wellesley supposed he should have expected this when he signed up for the Military Academy. He'd hoped for a nice comfortable post. He had a wife and a young daughter after all. But he should have realized that comfortable places usually didn't need nearly as many troops as uncomfortable places, and as far he was concerned, India fell decisively into the latter camp.

But as uncomfortable as it was, it was also fascinating and exotic, just as he'd imagined as he read those Kipling books as a boy. The people, the music, the buildings, the food, the constant tribal bickering (well, all right, he could have done without that bit) all mesmerized him.

He was less enchanted with having to deal with the people though...

"ATTENTION!" He shouted, and his Indian troops rather clumsily snapped into shape, or something vaguely resembling it. Many of their khaki uniforms were somewhat ill fitting. Many of them worse turbans, except for the Christians, who preferred to wear British style helmets. More than a few of them slouched a bit, and nearly all of them held their rifles quite clumsily. It would be up to Captain Wellesley to try and turn these tramps into a proper army, and he could already tell it wouldn't be easy.

"Permission to speak Captain?" One of the Hindus asked.

"Granted."

"Captain, I am afraid I cannot serve alongside these men."

"And why is that?" Wellesley demanded.

"Because sir, they are..." He lowered his voice, "Untouchables. To associate with them brings dishonor upon me. I would like to request that..."

Wellesley marched right up into the upstart Private's face.

"REQUEST DENIED! I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BLOODY BACKWARDS RELIGION'S RULES! AS LONG AS YOU ARE IN THE BRITISH ARMY YOU WILL FOLLOW BRITISH RULES, AND THAT'S AN ORDER!"

He turned to the rest of them.

"Now, time for drill. Lieutenant McGregor!"

"Yes sir?" A redheaded man with an Ulster Scots accent replied.

"See to it that these men are properly drilled."

"YES SIR!" McGregor snapped to attention. "ALRIGHT MEN! HUP 2 3 4..." They all marched off behind him as Captain Wellesley retired to his quarters. When he entered his old style bungalow, he was greeted by his Indian Maid, Ms. Singh dusting the walls, while his wife Elizabeth held their sleeping baby daughter Diana as they listened to very British music on the radio. Charles mused for a moment that his daughter had been born here, and had never known any other country. "Some place to raise a child..." He murmured.

"Aw Darling!" Elizabeth said, "How were things at the barracks?"

"Alright." He said. He didn't care to trouble her with what had happened earlier.

Just then the song on the radio ended, and the very posh voice of an announcer began speaking.

"Welcome to the BBC News Program! The British Parliament recently passed a new act, allowing for the finest minds in the colonies to be brought to study together in London. What eactly they will be working on there is unknown..."

Wellesley didn't know either, but being a military man, he suspected that it was some sort of secret weapons project as likely as not.

"In other news, Prime Minister Baldwin has hired Phillip Kerr as his Foreign Minister. Mr. Kerr previously worked in the Lloyd George and Ramsay MacDonald governments, and played a large role in drafting the Treaty of Versailles. He has been a well known peace activist, and it is expected that this desire for peace will have a large influence on his foreign policy."

Wellesley wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. He liked peace as much as anyone, but if peace meant giving in to people like Adolf Hitler, he wasn't sure it was worth it.

"Mr. Kerr has also announced his plans to strengthen Britain's ties with our Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, as well as our other colonies like India and Malaya. According to Kerr, this will involve aiding them in further developing their infrastructure and defenses."

Aw, that was more like it! Anything that furthered the cause of imperial unity could only be a good thing!

Elizabeth reached to switch the radio off. "Well" she yawned, "I'm ready to retire to bed. What about you Charles?"

"That sounds lovely dear." He replied. After Elizabeth handed Diana to Ms. Chandra, he followed her to bed for the night.
-

So, let me know in the comments what you thought of this more character based chapter.

THE MEME JIHAD HAS BEGUN!!!

Ok, I need to take a break from my HOI4 Playthrough for a while to let y'all know about this: the government of Pakistan just forced Facebook to remove "Islamophobic" content. (Read: anything the Pakistani government doesn't like." Now, the fact that Facebook has just been turned into a Sharia safe space would be bad enough, but it actually gets worse!

The Pakistani government is now pressuring Facebook, Twitter, and even the FBI to help them track down Pakistanis who blaspheme against Islam on the internet. Just for context, let me tell you that the consequence for "blasphemy" in Pakistan is execution...

Yeah. I think you'll agree with me that our government must play absolutely no part in the execution of these brave Pakistanis who have dared to speak out against the hateful death cult that is Islam. If we allow Sharia to start creeping onto the internet, it may only be a matter of time before it starts intruding on your life more and more, until it becomes the law of the land. It already effectively is the law of the land in many Muslim communities in Europe and America.

So I've decided to draw my line in the sand. I propose that we use as many soapboxes on the internet as we can to bring attention to this and hopefully force Facebook, Twitter, and the FBI to stand up to Pakistan and say no to Sharia!

DEUS VULT!

#MemeJihad.

Britain's Finest Hour, a Hearts of Iron 4 Playthrough Part 1

Hey y'all! I thought I'd do something a little different for the next few weeks, so here's a Hearts of Iron 4 playthrough!

What is Hearts of Iron 4, you may ask? It's a strategy game in which you take control of a nation starting in 1936 and lead it to victory in World War 2. We of course will be playing as the empire on which the sun never sets. That's right, Belgium!

...

Ok, you got me, it's Britain.

The way I'll be telling this story is in a history book style format, but I may do the occasional novel style chapter to keep you on your toes. With all that said, let's begin!

Britain's Finest Hour Part 1: The Calm Before The Storm

After it's victory in the First World War, Great Britain was easily the most powerful country on Earth, with a strong military and colonies on every continent. By 1936 its economy had even largely recovered from the Great Depression. However, cracks were already starting to appear in the Pax Britannica. In Asia Japan was rattling it's sabers against both China and the western colonial powers. In Africa the Italians were running roughshod over the Ethiopians. In Eastern Europe Stalin ruled Russia with an iron fist, and was threatening to spread communist revolution throughout the world. And, most ominously of all, the Germans, embittered by their defeat in the First World War and now led by the Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler, were once again plotting to conquer the world.

Most Britons however, preferred not to worry about any of this. They still remembered the horrors of the First World War, and the Conservative Party government under Stanley Baldwin made preserving the peace it's first priority. Rather than attempt to stand up to the dictators, Baldwin's policy was to increase the British Empire's defenses to deter aggression, and leave the rest of the world to it's fate.

One of the few prominent Britons to speak out was Sir Winston Churchill, who emphasized that attempting to appease Hitler was a cowardly policy that would not work in the long run. However, most Britons at the time didn't want to hear it, so Churchill remained stuck in the political wilderness for the time being.

In any case, there would soon be matters closer to home to worry about. On January 23rd, 1936, King George V, who had led the British Empire through the Great War and the Great Depression, died and was replaced by his son Edward VIII. Edward was a charming former soldier from the Great War, and was highly popular, but some feared that he may have had Fascist sympathies...

On March 11, the world's attention was once again focused on the European Mainland, when the Germans reoccupied the Rhineland region on the border between Germany and France, despite the Treaty of Versailles forbidding them to do so. The British and French governments both issued mild protests, but took no action. Once again Churchill warned that this set a dangerous precedent, and once again he was largely ignored. History however, would soon vindicate him...

The Left's Delusions of Persecution

Something happened recently that really boiled my blood. As y'all know, the media has (rightfully) taken a lot of flak lately for it's blatant leftist bias during the 2016 election. So naturally, they trotted out Meryl Streep (who pretends to be other people for a living, and thus is clearly the person we need to tell us about reality) to complain about how the Media is the most vilified group in America.

...

...WHAT?!

Yeah, sure, never mind the Christian bakers who have their businesses destroyed for refusing to bake a gay wedding cake. Forget the women being forced to share bathrooms with crossdressers. Forget the Israelis, who are being subjected to blatant antisemitic propaganda by our own government. Forget the people being beheaded by Muslim Extremists in the Middle East. Nah, it's the MEDIA who are really being persecuted nowadays! Give me a break. Maybe you self righteous idiots wouldn't be so despised by average Americans if you weren't such self righteous twits who constantly insert your leftist biases into everything and refuse to tolerate dissenting opinions. If you want us to stop hating you, stop giving us reasons to hate you.

That's all I have to say about that.

2017 Is Going To Be Awesome

I know it's a little late for this, but I think 2017 is going to be an awesome year. I mean, think about it. Obama is going out of office. That alone makes this year better than 2016. But if that isn't enough to convince you, think about the fact that President Trump plans to repeal Obamacare, fix immigration, lower taxes, and create stronger foreign policy. If he can even come close to accomplishing all of that (and with a Republican congress, he should be able to) I think 2017 will be the best year America has had in a long time.