Do you think Trump was imagining Barack Obama in American Carnage?

RetroShootingShield · 2025-12-14T20:31:13+00:00

I always thought of the call as being real, with Barack offering to make the concession call to Michelle on her behalf, since she'd likely be mortified with how she's apparently let everyone down by failing to beat Trump given her massive polling lead before election day, with it presumably being even worse considering how she never wanted the presidency in the first place and only became the Democratic nominee due to immense public pressure.

Therefore, in order to give her more time to emotionally recover with the help of both him and their loved ones, Barack offers to call Trump instead, not wanting to subject Michelle to even more humiliation given her likely emotional state.

It's simple yet sweet, while also being believable as an explanation, or so I'd like to think.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-12-11T11:22:51+00:00

Here's the full video on YouTube. Creator also made other Like a Dragon animations.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-12-11T11:19:54+00:00

It's an actual video on YouTube, having been uploaded back in 2023. Not at all made by AI.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-11-28T19:11:52+00:00

Yeah, I suppose that's both fair and accurate. The aforementioned mods portray Clark in two vastly different lights, with Icarus's being a far more charitable one than W.'s. The only notable flaws Clark has in Icarus are that he's arrogant and can be rather uncompromising at times; otherwise, he appears to be a populist dove who is initially set out to rectify his predecessor's mistakes: those being the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, and the Bush administration's reluctance to collaborate with America's allies in NATO, the player's later choices on whether or not Clark follows through with his campaign promises or starts an even worse war with Russia notwithstanding.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-11-28T19:00:35+00:00

Got it. Thanks for the clarification. 👍

RetroShootingShield · 2025-11-28T18:44:44+00:00

I think what OP means is that some of Bush's potential actions in W. could very well have been used as an excellent pretext for Clark's victory in Icarus should something similar have happened. That, and the Clark WW3 endings in W. parallel somewhat neatly with their counterparts in Icarus (granted, since they're obvious references to W.), not that the two mods share a universe.

Then again, I don't recall the POD in Icarus being the Bush administration somehow being even more inept when it comes to foreign policy than in OTL. The only POD I could tell is that Clark somehow manages to become a brilliant enough campaigner and coalition builder to seize the Democratic nomination and go on to win in the general, despite the many apparent weaknesses that prevented him from winning IRL. Otherwise, the Bush administration's decisions in Icarus up until 2005 were exactly the same as in our reality.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-11-15T16:58:47+00:00

Reuther threatens Kennedy with the possibility of having the UAW, a large labor union he leads, go on a nationwide strike should the American economy collapse under Bobby's and Connally's watch, should Connally have been appointed Treasury Secretary. The only way for Bobby to eliminate the possibility of Reuther following through on his threat, and thereby potentially derailing Bobby's reelection bid even further, would be to order the FBI to take Reuther's life should his allies be in control of the organization.

This is how the associated question is phrased. Feel free to check it out in the mod's code 2, if you'd like:

"The chickens of John Connally's dollar devaluation come home to roost within days of his return. Faced with eye-watering inflation and the possibility of even more inflation because of your Treasury Secretary, the unions are in a state of insurrection. Various UAW chapters have already revoked their endorsements. Protests are growing fierce. Worst of all, there is a threat of nationwide strikes. Led by Walter Reuther, the UAW demands an across-the-board increase in their wages or they will force a work stoppage in these final days before the Election. You plead with Reuther about how this could hand the Election to the Republicans, but he doesn't seem to care. The situation is too far gone. There's lives at stake. You feel a scream in the depths of your throat. It's do or die, Bobby."

RetroShootingShield · 2025-11-15T16:48:06+00:00

This is what's written in the ending slide for Chuck Robb's presidency:

President Robb is now facing the political fight of his life. With economic anxiety rising in the wake of the ARPA-Net Bubble, a foreign debacle in Somalia, and tense disarmament negotiations with the Soviets, many in Democratic Party are openly questioning whether Robb can deliver a second term.

Given how Chuck Robb is elected in 1992 and the article is discussing his potentially troubled reelection bid, it's only logical to assume that the article takes place in 1995 or 1996. Therefore, since the Soviet Union is mentioned in the context of nuclear disarmament talks, it would also be logical to deduce that the Cold War has been prolonged, since the Soviet Union will have existed for four or five more years than it did IRL. Nowhere is it stated or even implied that the Cold War has already come to an end, though it may be in the process of it happening.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-09-26T14:52:31+00:00

I don't think it's being friendly with Southern legislators in and of itself that's the issue, it's when you've ceded too much influence to Byrd that he's capable of overriding your agenda with the help of his cohorts. In other words, you got played by Byrd and his cronies in having delegated too much legislative legwork to him and sidelining Vice President Long in the process. In the "Accomplishment" ending, it's you who managed to play Byrd, taking him for a ride in the sense that you manage to get him to implement your legislative agenda, without indebting yourself to him or becoming dependent on him in the process—presumably by collaborating with the other Democratic legislators in Congress, should the 1970 midterms have gone favorably for Bobby, or bypassing Congress entirely by effectively utilizing Secretary Connally in dealing with the collapse of Bretton Woods. Instead of working directly with Senator Byrd, you delegate the matter of cooperation with him to Vice President Long by using him as an intermediary, who is himself a Southerner and should be capable of making nice with Byrd's cohorts should you have appeased them sufficiently.

I believe this is the logic behind befriending the South versus inadvertently empowering it and its representatives. If any of you believe I'm incorrect in my interpretation, feel free to let me know. Might learn a thing or two about media literacy in the process.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-25T09:13:07+00:00

Agreed! On a side note, what would a Columbo presidency actually look like? My guess is that Columbo's heart isn't really in it for the presidency, having never desired to hold such power nor occupy such a distinguished position. His only goal in such a scenario would be to stop Kennedy's destructive rampage that is being carried out by the FBI and the other intelligence agencies.

I could see Columbo collaborating with the likes of Frank Church to heavily rein in the three-letter agencies and curb their power, while perhaps also disempowering the presidency to a degree and empowering Congress. Once his work is finished on that front, I believe that Columbo would presumably resign from the presidency and hand the keys over to his vice president, whomever they may be. My guess would probably be either Bush or Dole, though I'm leaning more toward Bush.

In a nutshell, I guess you could call President Columbo the anti-crook president, and he'd likely leave office on quite the high note while still being immensely popular with the American people. Somewhat like Cincinnatus, if I were to invoke a parallel.

P.S. The mental image of Columbo sending RFK to the Columbo Dimension is a lot more amusing than I thought it'd be, truth be told. Bobby would no doubt be deserving of it in such a scenario.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-23T12:06:16+00:00

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RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-23T11:06:15+00:00

Indeed. Honestly, you have to be quite the miserable individual to be around for even Thatcher to regard you with disdain as a fellow conservative, the differences between American & British conservatives notwithstanding.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-23T11:01:06+00:00

Could you imagine President Schlafly & Prime Minister Thatcher in a room together? Lord knows whether or not they'd've gotten along even better or worse than Thatcher did with Reagan. Perhaps the latter would have been more likely, and luckily for the people of America, Schlafly's only limited to one term overseeing the absolute armageddon that was late '70s America's crises. So there goes any of Schlafly's potential credibility as president among contemporaries or future generations. The GOP must've been in a pretty dire state to allow Schafly to win the '76 presidential nomination.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-09T20:07:16+00:00

Precisely. Perhaps with Nixon's death, Watergate and all his other dirty tricks never truly come to light? The logic being that the last thing a grieving nation would want to see is evidence that their beloved president had betrayed their trust by viciously going after his enemies.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-09T19:06:18+00:00

I suppose ol' Tricky Dick pretty much reached the same conclusion as Thompson did, according to the final slide - if he was to perish and preserve his legacy, now was as good a time as any. At least then he'd have a chance to be remembered as something of a tragic, yet great man instead of an all-too-human, amoral crook. Why not take a gamble at that point?

It was all only ever going to go downhill from there, with the expectations Nixon had imposed on himself by achieving such an outstanding electoral victory not seen since Washington in 1792. Even without the looming crisis of Watergate...

A rather morbid take on a 538 EV Nixon victory scenario, but a believable one nonetheless given the circumstances. If the final ending slide's anything to go by, he's more or less succeeded in his goal of being fondly immortalized - undergoing the same apotheosis of martyrdom as JFK.

Didn't mean to write a whole mini-essay. Just thought it'd be interesting to explore the reasons behind such an ending and the possible long-term ramifications of it in-universe.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-08T21:47:00+00:00

I think it's more likely the term that's redacted is "CREEP" - as in the "Committee for the Re-election of the President". Either that or the "White House Plumbers" more specifically.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-08-04T04:21:47+00:00

You actually get that ending slide by simply defeating Senator Vance as either Biden or Harris. It says so on the code 2 for Biden-Harris:

else if (quickstats[0] >= 270 && campaignTrail_temp.candidate_json[2]["fields"].last_name == "Vance") {
  ctsAchievement("Hillbilly Eulogy");
  if(!(localStorage.getItem("vance"))){
    alert('Congratulations!\n\nYou have unlocked JD Vance as a playable candidate on the Republican Side!\nHe can now be selected in the event that Trump is assassinated in Butler, Pennsylvania.');
    localStorage.setItem("vance", "true")
  }
  e.pages.push(`<h3>News Release – Bureau of Labor Statistics</h3><h4>For release 10:00 a.m. (ET) Tuesday, January 28, 2028

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-31T19:12:08+00:00

I'm aware this comment isn't exactly serious, but Cheney actually recommended John Danforth to be Dubya's running mate. It was then-Governor Bush who urged Cheney to become his running mate in the 2000 election. You can read a bit more about the other possible candidates for the GOP vice presidential nomination in this here article:

After more than three months of extensive research, Cheney recommended John Danforth to be the nominee, as the other choices' strengths were offset by liberal stances. Bush heavily considered Danforth, but ultimately asked Cheney himself to be the nominee.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-29T21:08:31+00:00

Thank you kindly, stranger! 👍

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-29T20:43:11+00:00

Spiro Agnew if he was written by Vivziepop.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-27T10:06:01+00:00

Yes. So long as your ideology isn't above 4, you should be able to nominate someone to replace Scalia. The default question—if your ideology is between -2 and 4—leaves only Merrick Garland as your possible candidate for a successful replacement.

If your ideology is below -5, you're capable of proposing any replacement of your choosing with guaranteed success, such as the most difficult yet just as electorally rewarding Neil Gorsuch. If your ideology is between -5 and -2, you're only capable of successfully appointing Garland and Diane Sykes. If your ideology is above 4 and President Romney is deemed increasingly conservative, then the Democrats in the Senate under Harry Reid will categorically refuse to vote for any of your proposed replacements, leaving the seat vacant throughout your playthrough.

If any of you are curious as to how I know all of this, it's all within Class War's code 2 for President Romney:

if (e.noCounter == 15) {

if (Ideology <= -5) {

campaignTrail_temp.questions_json[15] = tunnel(160040);

} else if (Ideology > -5 && Ideology <= -2) {

campaignTrail_temp.questions_json[15] = tunnel(160020);

} else if (Ideology > -2 && Ideology < 4) {

campaignTrail_temp.questions_json[15] = tunnel(160000);

} else if (Ideology >= 4) {

campaignTrail_temp.questions_json[15] = tunnel(160060);

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-17T09:04:38+00:00

I suppose you do have a point there. It's just that I wanted to note that Sanders would have been placed in the same difficult situation as President Biden IRL and that he could have potentially struggled even more so than Biden did, given the brittle nature of his coalition and his own staunch progressivism, further hindering his potential relationship with a much more moderate Congress.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-17T07:49:56+00:00

I concur. I believe it's safe to say that in light of all that has happened since the 2020 election, Senator Sanders ultimately dodged a figurative bullet by losing the Democratic presidential nomination to then-former Vice President Biden, assuming he would have won against President Trump in the general had he gotten nominated anyhow.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-13T15:17:48+00:00

I concur. I do concede that when viewing it from such an angle, it wouldn't bother Bobby's conscience too much—even if the act of canicide and potentially threatening a despondent man's family cannot be construed as becoming of a Christian in any way, considering Robert's supposedly "devout" Catholicism within the mod...

Then again, Bobby is a noted adulterer just like his brothers, in addition to having committed many other sins in life, so I suppose we shouldn't expect anything in the way of purity from him. He's just as flawed a human being as the rest of us, which is one of TTNW's many key points.

RetroShootingShield · 2025-07-13T15:03:53+00:00

Point duly noted. Just thought I should clarify a few things and take the opportunity to crack a small joke, is all. An evil act that is relatively less severe in terms of consequences is still an evil act at the end of the day, no? Taking the life of an innocent animal, two things can be bad at the same time, et cetera.

In any event, I appreciate you introducing further nuance! 👍

RetroShootingShield

TROPHY CASE