I could have sworn this already happened a couple of months ago?

Just for the record, I was using 'your' in the general sense. More properly it might be 'one's definition of upswing'. It's the relative likelihoods of the two scenarios that were being disputed in the first place. So long.

I suppose it depends on your definition of 'upswing'. If it just means 'things are going pretty well there' then fine. If, as I suspect, it means it's a military and economic superior to the USA, that seems highly unlikely given the Norths established economic potency at the time and the relative natural resources…

I'd ague that military campaigns are more unpredictable than geography. The remainder of the USA would dwarf this state. Although obviously both outcomes are pretty tenuous.

I thought we were talking about alternative history? They couldn't have won a total war, but it wasn't inevitable that the Union committed to a total war.

Right, but a few more dramatic early victories for the South might have changed the political situation in the Union so that peace was made before its industrial advantages could be brought to bear.

Finally some screen-time for Vancouver!

Is there an old Colonia that I'm unaware of?

Agreed, there were so many occasions where I thought that if any other writer approached a scene like this I would hate it and consider it a sign of amateurism, except that here it's done so damn well

Finished The Ghost From The Grand Banks by Arthur C. Clarke
A near future (2010) set story about rival attempts to raise the Titanic. Not so much a novel as a loosely linked series of vignettes on various subjects, delivered in avuncular style. It's slight, but I really enjoyed it as a palate cleanser after
Middlemarch.…

It took me far too long to work out that 'woc' wasn't some obscure racial slur here

That's largely due to the collapse of the third party vote in England and Wales over the past few years, the Liberal Democrats got 17% of the vote in 1997 but got wiped out in 2015 and UKIP just got annihilated at this election:

You didn't reference Milk in the comment I was replying to so I thought you were making a more general analogy to gay characters both real and fictional. Penn's portrayal didn't require an equivalent of blackface, only acting, which is his job. (I do think a gay actor would have been preferable here, however)

Right, but playing gay doesn't require mimicry of physical features and so won't necessarily be as reminiscent of mocking portrayals as cross-racial portrayals are of blackface/ yellowface.

Pretty sure history will show that he was actually three kids in a trench coat.

Because Martin Luther King isn't a fucking fictional character.

Museums aren't only for commemorating the parts of history you consider 'worthy'. To my mind a statue openly dedicated to white supremacy, taken from the heart of one of the USA's most famous cities, would be far more sobering to viewers than, say, one celebrating the bravery of Union soldiers. I can see the argument…

He was also the reactionary dictator who caused millions of deaths out of sheer narcissism and vainglory and who decided it would be a good plan to try and wage war against every other major power in Europe at once. They could maybe do worse, but I'm hoping for better.

"It’s very good TV, even if calling this “very good TV” is to risk sounding like a sleaze at best and an avid Breitbart commenter at worst."

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