State of Play: USA aligns with Russia?

It's now day 1103 of the Russia's two day special operation in Ukraine. While the battle rages on there it seems Russia is making some gains outside that theater, seemingly with the help of relatively newly re-elected USA president Donald Trump. In just around two months of his second time in office the USA has held "Peace Talks" with Russia without Ukrainian participation and decided to halt aid going to Ukraine after President Trump publicly clashed with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.

On top of this his high tariffs on Canada, Mexico (he also renamed their gulf) and China as well as sanctions relief for Russia some speculate he's building "the bridge" to trade primarily with the Russians in the future. This has sparked more than a few interesting comments of "Trump is a Russian agent" and "Congrats to Russia on winning the cold war". I suppose we will see if and how this changes the battle field but one thing's for sure: Putin must be pretty happy right now.

October 2022: Day 250 of the war

The Ukrainian "advance" (to reclaim territory) continues, inspiring the people of Kherson, a city captured early on by the Russians, to no longer accept their rubles. To be fair, it might just be because rubles are not worth much these days with all the sanctions.

Their opponent, President Putin, has had an explosive birthday month for after being angered by the Crimea bridge explosion on/near his birthday, his forces conducted a retaliation bombardment that took down a third of the Ukranian power facilities in two days. They also have an interesting method of recouping their lost people by sending captured Ukranian kids to be adopted by Russians, some of whom publicly stating said kids should be drowned and/or burned alive.

The Russians have also found allies in Belarus and Iran, the latter of which is doing some serious multitasking by killing protestors with religious fashion police. They're also making strides for an alliance with North Korea, who are busy shooting missiles over Japan for the shits and giggles.

In true Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon style, China continues to bide its time as Xi Jinping secured his third term in power. Is it worrying that they might have "police" stations worldwide where they can drag you in and beat you up? Maybe?

Germans have proven indifference is just as effective as beatings though, as these not so smart scientists discovered when they protested for climate change. They were simply left in the sticky situation they got themselves in and were proven to be the hypocritical morons they actually are.

Finally, at 50 days, the shortest serving UK PM has finished her low% speed run successfully crashing their economy. Good job?

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September 2022: COVIDED

Well, it finally happened: I got Covid for around a week this month. Itchy throat, headaches, lots of flem with sudden, violent coughing and blocked sinuses that made it hard to breathe. Not fun at all. Ultimately only ended up taking 2 days off though, being able to work from home the rest of the time.

Being sick doesn't stop the world from carrying on though: Queen Elizabeth II died, and Russia's conflict with Ukraine continues with Putin ordering a mobilization while also increasing the penalties for desertion or refusing to serve. In what looks like desperation, Russia is trying to "legally" annex the parts they currently control. This is most likely in response to Ukraine's counter offensive which is best viewed in this "200 days animated" tweet (its the big blue chunk towards the end of the animation).

Meanwhile China's scored a win with an agreement to buy Russian gas at a 50% discount. According to the Russians, the USA is to blame for the whole gas shortage in Europe. I wonder if they'll also get the blame for the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage leaks? Private talks between those two nations is currently focused on a different issue though: that of avoiding the use of nuclear weapons.

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April 2022: Day 65 of the war

Or in Russian, it would be Day 65 of the special operation. There are now laws in which saying what the government doesn't want to hear or agree with a crime worth 15 years in prison. For similar reasons they've sent a wikipedia a hefty fine for spreading misinformation.

After losing a war ship, a few more tanks, being chased by drones, and being poisoned by locals, Russian forces were redeployed from attacking Kyiv to partake in a major offensive at Donbas to the East which includes the long besieged city of Mariupol. They have also started deploying dolphins, because that's apparently a thing that the USA does as well?

That's an artsy destroyed tank turret.

With the supposed default of the Ruble coming soon (speculated May 4th), Vladimir Putin has announced that the Russian lunar program will continue. Perhaps that's an additional reason why Russia is cutting the gas supply to both Poland and Bulgaria. To quote reddit: "Russia can't get enough fuel to drive a few hours to Kiev. Moon is a bit further".

Less people using Russian gas is exactly what the outnumbered Ukraine wants though, who are going hard on their propaganda with an excellent writing team - though sometimes a single picture can be pretty moving too. Support continues to flow for them from overseas, with Britain's Boris Johnson visiting Zelenskyy in Kyiv, USA's Joe Biden labeling Russia's action as genocide, France's Emmanuel Macron boosting weapons supplies for Ukraine after winning a second term of presidency over a pro-Russian opponent, hackers continuing to do their thing against Russia, and chef Jose Andres providing food to those he can reach.

It's also funny that Germany's Green party is saying the German government isn't being aggressive enough arming Ukraine. Again quoted from reddit: "Green party: Fuck it you know what would reduce emissions? BURNING MOSCOW *heavy metal riff*"

While I've been impressed at the use of drones in the theater of war, China is using them a different way - using mounted speakers to instruct the people locked down in Shanghai due to COVID to comply with the restrictions and "control the soul's desire for freedom". Sounds like another step towards a dark cyberpunk future! Actually, how is Hong Kong doing? Oh. Not great.

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February 2022: Russia invades Ukraine

Not the best title to follow the one from last month, but in what seems to be a live action version of the game Iron Grip: Warlord, it seems Vladimir Putin is intent on expanding the Russian borders into the "little" country that seems to be backed and resupplied by almost everyone else (except Belarus, who are very pro-Russia). Ukraine's brave President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is doing a good job rallying his people though, as are the tales such as the battle of Snake Island, the engineer who sacrificed himself to take out a bridge to delay a tank column, the possibly urban legends of the Ghost of Kyiv (ace) and the Ukrainian Reaper (sniper), or videos like this on twitter. 

They're also hoping St. Javelin protects them.

Meanwhile it's clear Putin underestimated the amount and quality of gear and tech the Ukrainians were getting gifted. After their early capture of Chernobyl (which has seen increased radiation since) to open a passage to Belarus and a closer attack window to Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, the reportedly "tactically clumsy" but massive Russian army continues its advance and unlike the defenders they can't (and shouldn't) take to social media to announce their movements to create bad surprises like this one.

And it's only Day 4 of the conflict. The war continues.

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Seems fitting posts with those titles feature for this war time post. :/

Tropico 3: Idle Advisor

[This is part of my Tropico 3 Journal!]

Due to my victories I am next assigned as an advisor to the presidente of Isla de la Rosalita, a small island with lousy geography and while there were a number of harvestable resources half of them were near inaccessible so I ignored them altogether. Seeing the lack of land for housing I built an immigration office first to stem the tide of new comers. Then the presidente does something stupid and enforces a pay rise to all the farmers and puts us so deep in debt that we can't build anything. This is made worse by a world economic crisis that makes our exports more worthless than before. As a first, both US and the USSR have gunships circling our waters. Who says they can't get along?

I say we launch a simultaneous attack in which you go first.

This doesn't stop the presidente from spending more money we don't have, donating funds to his cousin's jet pack research and getting a half price power plant that semi-melts down. Good thing humanitarian aid camps are free. As people begin striking I am forced to begin executions as stopping work or paying off the protesters is not a wise option. Sure, some people become rebels due to this but I had already foreseen it happening and was slowly building up the military presence on the island to deal with those traitorous scum. I believe in the end we killed them all, the highlight being that the rebels occupied the radio station to broadcast their opinions. I simply told the army to setup C4 and collapse the whole thing. There is no negotiation with terrorists and so called "freedom fighters".

Eventually KGB agent Boris Pavlovich asks for help to remove the current presidente through violent means. I refuse but he goes through with it anyway and somehow win the following elections (102/12) as the starving, overworked, and terrified people love me. Or fear me. Whatever. The super powers never invade which is unfortunate, as the rest of the time this is becoming more like an idle game where I am just waiting for stuff to happen. Anyway, with no real opposition left this mission is completed - though I finish with the treasury in a state of staggering debt at -97k!

Welp, I've had enough of governing for awhile so I pack up my bags from Tropico for a vacation elsewhere. Hope you enjoyed reading! =)