-Does the Moderator have Jim Bercow's voice? Because there's no way you didn't choose this format without malice aforethought.
-Hawkins, huh?
I saw that Brooks/Sumner reference you tried to slip in there,
@PoptartProdigy.
Sneaky.
-ERROR:
They nod to you. "Comments from the chamber?" They look around. "Yes, Senator McCormick, from Rockford."
Mel McCormick, amidst the Opposition on the left, scowls at you. "This deal indentures us to the Russian Empire," she growls. "You're asking us to agree to purchase equipment we can't make, using parts we can't maintain, on Russian money that we can't replace, all so that we have a power system we can't expand thanks to deals we can't renege without looking like fools. Well, I'm not a fool, and this deal is foolish. I won't vote for it! I yield the floor!" She sits down again, still glaring.
You hardly wait for the Moderator's cue before replying. "I feel that the Senator from Milwaukee misses something in her analysis," you say, lips thin.
Can't be from Rockford and Milwaukee at the same time.
-A little surprised that Sara's arguments for the treaty didn't explicitly call out the fact that said climate change/sea level shenanigans explicitly affect American communities too. That a demonstration of interest in the welfare of those coastal communities *cough FCNY, Miami* might well be reciprocated in the short or medium term.
That it's as much a self-interest and American brotherhood thing as it is an international diplomacy thing.
-It's nice to have acknowledgement from Sara IC that everyone, including her, had to make compromises, had to turn a blind eye to...stuff to survive.
That sort of self-awareness is necessary if there is going to be any healing in the short to medium term.
Especially with the whole issue with the Dixons.
-Going to note that the actual conference meeting was on February 14.
Happy Valentine's Day, Prince Young.
Hope you choke on it.
-Dixon's black? Oh. That explains a lot of things, about both him and the crime family he's fronting.
In a post-Victoria America where shit has rolled downhill and landed most heavily on people who were already at the bottom of the social and economic totem pole, I can see why they would have a distinctly self-interested outlook.
Especially coming from St Louis, a city thats roughly 50% Black compared to Chicago's 30%.
And almost certainly got treated accordingly by the Vics.
-Katerina's open amusement and delight suggests that she didn't actually expect the Commonwealth to take the deal.
She might have hoped, but she didn't expect.Its also worth noting in passing that Sara did not notify her that Congress ratified the treaty proposal before announcing it publicly. Flair for the dramatic, Madame President.
I'm looking forward to thinking of what Blackwell's face looks like in Augusta when he gets the news.
-Obviously we have to take all the diplomatic options.
Remember, the Vics spent at least as much effort sending out "aid workers" and "diplomats" as they did sending out divisions.
They created a whole network of treaties and agreements that served them as well as open military force.
Witness us being isolated diplomatically in the war.We have a chance to steal a march on the Vics here while they're shooting each other; best to exploit it as hard as we can.
-Looking at some of the trade talk here: It's probable that any traffic heading to the Commonwealth is going to disembark at the huge port facilities of New York-Newark port, and then smaller cargo ships will do the run from FCNY to Chicago. Makes sense to use a nearby shipping hub as an intermediate destination, and then unload at NY warehouses, and tranship to smaller cargo ships heading through the Seaway.
And it would be entirely up FCNY's alley to get some leverage that way.
-Securing Blue Mountain Farmers territory allows for alternative merchant traffic to get to Toronto without passing through the Welland Canal. Traffic that doesn't have to pay Victorian canal rates or suffer Vic cargo inspections. It's just a little over a hundred kilometers to Toronto overland, and a Commonwealth security guarantee on one end, and Toronto on the other end would make the area more or less tenable for trade and cultural links.
Which would help rebuild a Canadian power to deter casual Victorian resource-looting.
-MSR and Traverse City are both dictatorships.
We brokered peace between Detroit and Toledo; Id like to try the same here.
You won't succeed without trying.
As for pure pragmatism? MSR is in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Second largest city in Michigan. Traverse City is also accessible by land.
Neither of them is far enough away that we can't reach out and touch them, and neither of them can really afford the blowback from their neighbors from interfering with trade just when
VOTE
[X][FEUD] Pitch a Hail Mary and see if they'll listen to you if you try to mediate their disputes. Prompts a roll, DC 43.
[X][COMMIES] Guarantee the Commune's independence. Another friendly power on Lake Erie is hardly a bad thing to have.
[X][RIVER] Agree to the alliance. The Kingdom isn't a large problem, but it could definitely cause issues for your plans for the Mississippi. You're happy to limit their opportunities for expansion.
[X][MEDIATE] Oh, but it is. You have no immediate interest in Minnesota but whatever's going on between Bemidji and Manitoulin intrigues you, and you very much do have a medium-term interest in resolving this conflict to your west before it becomes your problem, later. You will have the option to organize this mediation.
Even failure is success here. Visible attempts at diplomacy instead of force or just coercion
We destroyed Victoria's network of military alliances and diplomatic agreements; now we need to build our own.
Or should we just keep going and create a United States of Earth?
