|
Educational Directive to the Central Committee - Remarks Presuming we can get the resources and don’t end up in a war, here’s the broad strokes: Right now our educational foundation is garbage. Schoolchildren get educated till 16, if they feel like it, and they learn reading, writing, arithmetic. Attendance is spotty, and we’ve got one teacher per forty kids. We need to increase the number of teachers by about 500%. My plan is, with the funds we’re freeing up from the ‘stop building bunkers’ fund, we can do it. Import an army of grade-school teachers, offer whatever will get them to stay. Primary focus is math. When they hit 16 we’ve been giving them optional gap year(s). One semester of socialist theory, one 6-18 month at the Professional Technical school, both accomplished by the time they are 20. I know we’ve told people its so the kids can find a sponsor to choose what apprenticeship they go to, but we all know its because we don’t have enough instructors. We need more teachers. Also need more places to land them. Half the time the sponsor is delaying them because they’ll just be idle hands at the factory. I’m going to try to get more factories built. Since we’re getting the agricultural subsidy, that’s a lot of money we’re not trying to spend on imported rations. Plan is to build up the heavy industry paired with the educational expansion. We’re going to need a new tier of Party membership beyond what we’ve got for all of this. The factory administrator is fine as is, but we’re going to need Regional level. Have it train a Bachelor’s in Socialist Economics, and a graduate degree in Supply Chain Engineering and Operations. We’re going to need instructors for that, people who know how to industrialize and build big projects. Then we’re going to run every mid-level Party member through. Yes, half of you as well. For Union members I want to offer something beyond the Technical schools. Dedicated elite programs for materials science and the chemical industries, what you would need for building a 5 Year Plan from the ground up. I want us to be able to pay it forward decades from now, where we could just plant an Appalachian Corps and turn a post-warzone into a fully industrialized economy. This next level is probably ten years from now, but I want a National level beyond that. I didn’t go to college, I think Internal Affairs is the only group of people here who did. I want a dedicated group that can give me top tier advice. Have it be a think tank of policy analysis, and also a grad school of policy analysis. Going to run the high level Party members through it. Finally, I want the ALA to get trained up as well. The Soviets are telling me they can commit multiple Armies to any given conflict, that’s ten or fifteen times what we can do, even running at max. We need to know how to work with much larger ally armies, and also be trained on how to direct them. Three different specialties – Strategic Studies, National Resource Strategy, and Strategic Theory. Idea being we can identify when we need to build up, how to build up, and what to do with the total mobilization army when we have it. In twenty years I want Appalachian experts to be wanted at every level of policy making in the COMINTERP, and our industry desired as the foundation of every manufacturing project.
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 09:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:06 |
|
|
Antilles posted:Yeah, no. Nuclear weapons have scarred both our planet and the psyche of mankind itself, and it's only the discovery of magic space rocks that've given us the chance to heal the first (for the second only time will help). In an ideal world we'd ban nuclear weapons completely, but unfortunately since our academicians are 100% sure it'll effectively render impossible a major branch of space weaponry and well, everything we've discovered in our solar system indicates we'd be fools to not have at least a strong defense, some concessions will have to be made. Kalmar Union offers the following counter-proposal: Seconded
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 13:43
|
|
|
Mycroft Holmes posted:Seconded Thirded because thats going to make ground invasions a no go in most cases and I'm interested to see the work arounds that have to arise. Telsa Cola fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Jun 30, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 14:46
|
|
|
Phosgene, mostly
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 15:10
|
|
|
Loel posted:Phosgene, mostly Can't gas em if you can't land, can't land if their rail gun emplacements keep swatting drop ships out of the sky. Can't bombard the STO emplacements if as per the above proposal the underlying concern is civilian causlities and major environmental damage, because even kinetics and energy is the equivalent of tossing around a tactical nuke and you are going to need a LOT to take out the emplacements. The first time you do so the media would go wild and your WW3 traumatized civilian population isn't going to really give a poo poo that you didn't use nukes when the end result is much the same, minus the radiation. Every time you bombard you are going to likely be releasing enough atmospheric dust equivalent to major volcanic eruptions which is going to require Day 1 infrastructure and environmental terraforming support to counter act, which is again going to bring up memories of the war. Telsa Cola fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Jun 30, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 15:47
|
|
|
Mister Bates how has the work of the new nuclear authority progressed?
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 16:04
|
|
|
Telsa Cola posted:Can't gas em if you can't land, can't land if their rail gun emplacements keep swatting drop ships out of the sky. I mean, you'd be surprised: we've actually used bombs with yields equivalent to the smallest nukes in real life but nobody cared much because they weren't nuclear. It's the same with civilian power plants: nuclear waste sounds scary, but coal plants put out far worse stuff, but it doesn't matter because it's not a nuclear plant. Sometimes it's all in the name.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 16:17
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I mean, you'd be surprised: we've actually used bombs with yields equivalent to the smallest nukes in real life but nobody cared much because they weren't nuclear. It's the same with civilian power plants: nuclear waste sounds scary, but coal plants put out far worse stuff, but it doesn't matter because it's not a nuclear plant. The bombs we used don't have the same impact as a major volcanic eruption on the planet. That's an incredibly huge difference, to the point you can't compare them. Kinetics and energy weapons are going to cause biosphere collapse through atmospheric dust buildup which will eerily mirror some of the worst effects of WW3. A railgun round slightly deflecting through the atmosphere is going to cause tremendous civilian deaths, in the order of tens of thousands per round. You can hide under the fig leaf of "Well at least we didn't use nukes" but everyone's going to know it's bullshit. Game mechanics/math below. Mechanically missile weapons are still way worse 1:1 , but there's not going to be a clean bombardment. Heres the math: Missile warheads cause radiation and dust levels to increase by an amount equal to their warhead size. Energy weapons increase the dust level by 5% of their damage amount. Missile warheads inflict civilian casualties at the rate of 100,000 per point of damage. Energy weapons inflict civilian casualties at the rate of 2,000 per point of damage. Now that doesnt sound to bad, but there are severe penalties to hit emplaced ground forces without spotters in place: Ship using energy weapons for NBG have one third of the chance to hit compared to using Orbital Bombardment Support (as in the latter case they are being directed by FFD units) and do not benefit from any ground support bonus from the ship commander or tactical officer. Their to-hit chance is the base ground combat to hit chance (20%), reduced by two thirds, multiplied by the to-hit modifier of the planet's dominant terrain and divided by both the fortification of the target formation elements the and fortification modifiers of the planet's dominant terrain. In summary, blind-firing energy weapons at general concentrations of enemy forces is not a very effective way of destroying them, especially in difficult terrain, although it can be done given sufficient patience and maintenance supplies. ....Each NBG shot has a 1/3rd chance of striking the civilian population itself. Im omitting the missile weapon blurb, its on the wiki. In essence they are a poo poo ton better at killing ground units because they hit way better and they splash, but they have higher collateral which I pasted above. All means that it's very likely that you cause more death and destruction than a few missiles would because you have to blind fire. Though I suppose you could sneak in commando units of FFD (fire observers) and try to target the STOs which makes the math way nicer for you and maybe removes the civilian collateral chance. But don't know how viable that actually is. Telsa Cola fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Jun 30, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 16:26
|
|
|
And my third and final bill. We have all these fancy rights, let's see if they're being followed.quote:Permanent Human Rights Oversight Commission Bill
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 17:14
|
|
|
From: The Central Studio of the Left Bank Design Bureau To be released to: Delegates Only TRÈS SECRET DÉFENSE Developments at the start of the Post-Contact Era Comrades of Earth and Luna, we stand at an important moment. We of the Left Bank Design Bureau have continued our work in the theoretical development of armed spacecraft even as we have kept an eye on the news from Mars and the Krusenstern’s fantastic voyage to faraway Minerva. The inception of Earth Guard Command and our resulting gains in practical experience with operating armed spacecraft have been invaluable in many ways. This document will focus first on the idea of reinforcing the existing foundation of our armed space force, the EGC, by modernizing its capabilities and expanding its operational envelope; following that, it will proceed to a discussion of future developments in armed spacecraft construction, both with and without the use of missile armament. Part One: Reinforcing Existing Capabilities The ten warships of the DS001 type fast-attack pattern make up the totality of the Cominterp’s existing spacegoing battle force. Their construction and operation has been a learning process. For one thing, the failure rates of advanced components such as those used in TNE military craft surpassed pre-construction estimates significantly, which has proven overwhelming for our current maintenance and support infrastructure. Each craft’s maintenance-induced downtime has exceeded previous expectations. Addressing this problem is an ongoing effort, but clearly requires an expansion in our maintenance infrastructure. As for the warships themselves, young as they are, the time for their first refits is soon approaching. Our scientific efforts are producing new technology all the time, leading us to update the DS001 design with a raft of current and near-future equipment. It should soon be possible to refit each ship to the new standard, as the following proposal demonstrates:  Members of the design bureau were allowed to assign their names to components whose inclusion they suggested. Cominterp scientists are close to solving the engineering challenges involved in nuclear-pulse propulsion; as such, we assume that a new fast-attack design can incorporate such engines. Additionally, we strongly advocate research into better capacitors, and have added them to this design on paper. This advancement is well within our near-future capability and effectively doubles the firing rate of the ship’s railgun. The design so produced, dubbed the Lamarque line of fast-attack ships, is almost the same mass as the base Bloc 1 design and requires only two additional crew. It copies the basic framework, but upgrades the engine, railgun, fire-control, and reactor. Though its fuel tanks are slightly smaller, they are still large enough for the ship to go from Earth to Mars and back under most conditions (the orbital positions of the two spheres may, at times, eat up more fuel and limit the ship’s time-on-target). The new engines make it significantly faster; additionally, its upgraded main gun is 40% more accurate and fires twice as fast as the previous model. This design assumes that Nuclear Pulse engines and Capacitors 3 get researched. This should be close enough to the original for refits to work. Another part of our current suggestions involves an upgrade to the DS001’s capabilities and usefulness by expanding its operational range. Unlike the above enhancements, greater range is achieved not by upgrading the design itself but by envisioning, as we have before, a “FAC Carrier” design with a central carrying bay large enough to accommodate a single fast-attack craft. This ship would be able to travel much farther and operate for a much longer time than the craft it carries, sparing the fast-attack craft from the need to haul the additional fuel and life-support around at all times. The carrier craft would also be able to refuel the fast-attack ship from its own tanks if necessary.  This would enable our fast-attack craft to operate not just around Earth, Luna, and Mars, but also consistently and safely reach the Asteroid Belt, or even farther afield, for theoretical engagements and patrols there. A carrier could be stationed somewhere long-term and deploy the fast-attack craft if the need arose, to recover it later. Of course, such a design could also be used to carry fighter or bomber craft, though it would have to be fitted with a magazine in order to properly support missile-armed craft. This “Escort Carrier” has the range to comfortably reach Jupiter and return without refueling, and is capable of defending itself with its two triple gauss turrets. For sensors, it sports two small missile-warning gradars for redundancy and a single larger search gradar. It also carries passive sensors, unlike our fast-attack ships. This design assumes that Nuclear Pulse engines, gauss cannons, and turret tracking get researched–those three are already in progress. It also assumes that Boat Bay and Hangar Deck are researched. Also, it assumes an expansion of Salyut Yards to reach the desired tonnage. * A French delegate submits the following for consideration: 1986 Interplanetary Defense Bill Be it so resolved that: 1. Salyut Yards be expanded to at least 5,100 tons of capacity. 2. Earth's maintenance facilities be expanded to support at least 21,000 tons of spacecraft. 3. The following research projects are to be prioritized: Nuclear Pulse engines, upgraded capacitors, and shipboard hangars. 4. Upon completion of the prerequisite research and development projects for the class, work is begun to upgrade the DS001 ships of the EGC to the new Lamarque pattern. 5. Upon completion of the prerequisite research and development projects for the class, the expansion of Earthbound maintenance facilities, and the expansion of Salyut Yards, one of the Chopin-class carriers should be laid down with the option for further production left open. 5a. Acknowledging that it will take some time before the last point can occur, Congress may opt to delay or forego the laying-down of the Chopin-class in the event that conditions have changed significantly or that additional research completed alongside its prerequisites has obsoleted components before construction begins.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 17:39
|
|
|
TDS posted:And my third and final bill. We have all these fancy rights, let's see if they're being followed. Seconded
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 17:43
|
|
|
quote:Orbital Infrastructure bill. quote:Conscription for the Defense of the Revolution Bill quote:Planetside Nuclear Weapons Ban and Operational Nuclear Weaponry Doctrine quote:The One World omnibus bill: Seconded.
|
|
#
?
Jun 30, 2022 17:45
|
|
|
The Directive on Scientific Diversification and Expansion The Bureau of Socialist Sciences will seek to acquire and promote specialists to head lab complexes in all known fields of specialty. The Bureau of Socialist Sciences shall double its current number of labs by the year 2000. The Ports and Waterways Modernization Act The Comintern shall seek to fully repair, restore, modernize, and expand the ports and waterways vital to member nations using the latest technologies and techniques. This work shall be undertaken by COMPORT, a new organization acting as sister organization to COMRAIL, which shall be endowed with all resources and authority necessary to complete the terms of this act. Waterways are to include but not be limited to: the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Erie Canal, the Grand Canal. Members are asked to submit a list of candidate ports with no limits. Proposals for new waterways and ports will also be accepted. The Universal Scholarship Act The Ministry of Education and members shall open the doors to their highest halls of learning to all other members. Any student who has completed their secondary education shall be facilitated to attend a university in any other member state, room at host institution permitting. Members shall make available to the ministry a list of fields of learning needed but not available to them to better facilitate student matching with appropriate institutions.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 00:28
|
|
|
paragon1 posted:The Directive on Scientific Diversification and Expansion This seems like a simple, eminently reasonable slate of legislation. Seconded.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 00:29
|
|
|
The Soviet Union is willing to commit its Pacific Fleet and associated air forces, as well as the 5th, 6th, 13th, and 15th armies to Operation End of the Line.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 00:40
|
|
|
Serf posted:Looking back down at the document Torres finally just nodded and picked up his pen, grabbed up a piece of letterhead and began to write his response. A letter, in tightly written German with a typed translation attached posted:To Herr Torres,
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 01:13
|
|
|
NewMars posted:There is something else: what is a soldier? Someone who does dangerous but necessary labour. They are labourers like any other. This is one heck of a take. paragon1 posted:Is an arrest for not paying taxes forced extraction of labor? Ron Paul has entered the chat Loel posted:Stopping Socialist Aid is one hell of a stick. Ron Paul's laser eyes intensify
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 02:45
|
|
|
Pirate Radar posted:Another part of our current suggestions involves an upgrade to the DS001’s capabilities and usefulness by expanding its operational range. Unlike the above enhancements, greater range is achieved not by upgrading the design itself but by envisioning, as we have before, a “FAC Carrier” design with a central carrying bay large enough to accommodate a single fast-attack craft. This ship would be able to travel much farther and operate for a much longer time than the craft it carries, sparing the fast-attack craft from the need to haul the additional fuel and life-support around at all times. The carrier craft would also be able to refuel the fast-attack ship from its own tanks if necessary. Is there a game mechanics reason to have a carrier to move one railgun FAC around as opposed to swapping out the hanger for more/bigger railguns
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 02:57
|
|
|
GunnerJ posted:Is there a game mechanics reason to have a carrier to move one railgun FAC around as opposed to swapping out the hanger for more/bigger railguns Not really, no. Maybe for sensor fighters or survey fighters. Its a weird design which in my opinion is going to lead to a bunch of additional tonnage that needs maintenance because 1 FAC is not really a threat so you'd need multiple of these to make an effective fighting force and at that point consolidation into a single ship would be more efficient. Now if you had a observation craft with sensors instead of a fac that would actually be really helpful as it could help scout and direct fire for a task force. Telsa Cola fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 1, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 03:03
|
|
|
GunnerJ posted:Is there a game mechanics reason to have a carrier to move one railgun FAC around as opposed to swapping out the hanger for more/bigger railguns Yeah, we can’t build bigger railguns yet.  But also, the idea is this: our FACs aren’t meant to move long distances nor can they spend very long away from shore facilities. Even if we put maintenance facilities on an asteroid or outer-planet moon so that we could station a FAC there, the FAC might not be able to get there by itself. And if there aren’t any maintenance facilities somewhere, the FACs basically can’t go there unless they’re going straight back because of their limited fuel and deployment time. The fact that clocks are basically paused for ships in hangars is important here. Even if later we build oilers that can refuel underway fleets, deployment time and maintenance clocks are range limitations in that scenario. Now, we could add more fuel and maintenance equipment to the FAC design, but we have an incentive to keep the design light. If we add fuel and such we make the ship heavier, which reduces its combat effectiveness—the railgun is a fixed mount, so the ship’s top speed determines the gun’s accuracy because Aurora makes no distinction between speed and maneuverability. We want to keep them under 1,000 tons because there’s an efficiency breakpoint there in the game mechanics; ships above 1,000 tons have to have a bridge, which is forced extra weight. The carrier with a 1,000 ton hangar deck shores up our existing investment in the FACs by increasing the number of places we can send them to and making it easier to transfer them between bases in the future.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 04:00
|
|
|
paragon1 posted:The Soviet Union is willing to commit its Pacific Fleet and associated air forces, as well as the 5th, 6th, 13th, and 15th armies to Operation End of the Line. Jessie Lin shifted uncomfortably in her drab gray uniform. It was one of the new design, totally divorced from the past and bearing no relation to the hodgepodge of surplus United States military uniforms they'd been using. They said the design was to reflect a new era, a new face to present to the world. She still didn't like it. Even on her moderate frame it hugged around the waist and under the arms. It was restrictive. She'd made it through the entire War and the aftermath wearing a t-shirt and jeans, she didn't understand why that had to change now. But she supposed it came with the position. Her shoulder bore a pair of red-and-black stripes. Major in People's Will and Captain in whatever they were going to call the Front's official military. That was still being voted on. The merger between People's Will and the other militias couldn't come soon enough. She wanted to have one rank and one set of nonsense rules to remember rather than two. Sitting across from her was Hector Torres, the man who had picked her out of her convoy unit and brought her into the official command structure. They were outside, sitting at a picnic table set up on the edge of Airfield One. The January air was cold and wet. Georgia winters didn't truly start until later in the year, but things were kicking off somewhat early this time around. She suppressed a shiver and rubbed her hands together. At least it wasn't windy and the sun was high in the cloudless sky. The light provided much-needed warmth on the chilly day. Out on the tarmac a crew of trainees were learning how to operate one of the Soviet-provided helicopters, drilling with the instructor who had a great grasp of English for someone who had only arrived a year ago. The drill seemed to be going well, not that Jessie could tell. Her machines stayed firmly on the ground, just like God had intended. She would leave air support to the crazy and the foolish. Torres grumbled something and Jessie quirked a brow. "What is it old man?" she asked with a grin. He gave her a pointed look. It was the one he gave her a lot these days, one brow slightly raised with his lips pursed just a bit. His mustache, fully silver, was getting unruly. Jessie rolled her eyes. "Fine, fine. What is it, sir?" "One of these days you'll get the hang of it." Torres' expression shifted, softening as he set down the paper in front of him. "The Soviets are committing a sizeable force to the operation." They just called it 'the operation' on account of it being top secret. Technically even Jessie wasn't supposed to know, but Torres had told her anyways. There was basically nothing he didn't tell her, and she was making an effort to drill it into her head. Uncomfortable uniform and stuffy protocol aside, she wanted to be here. Wanted to learn. "Well that's great, right? I mean we're gonna need 'em. We're doin' well just to keep things afloat here, ain't we looking for all the help we can get?" She replied, glancing down at the paper and reaching out to slide it over so that she could read it as well. "Sure, it's very good," Torres replied, reaching over and grabbing his cane. He worked the handle in between his fingers, gripping it tightly and making that squeaking noise that wood against skin produced. "You're too young to remember this, but for a good and long time the old empire was gripped by anti-Communist and anti-Soviet paranoia. Fear is a tremendous motivator. Get people scared enough, and you can make them do just about anything. And believe me, we feared the godless Commies." Looking back up, Jessie nodded. "No, I remember learning about this. McCarthyism, the Unamerican Activities Commission, blacklists out in Hollywood and all that. Witch hunts for the spooky Reds." There had been weeks on the topic, learning about all the ways that the American government had stoked the fears of Communism on the homefront. All while covering up their violent suppressions overseas. "It's one thing to learn about it in school, it's another to experience it, Major. Your father would have remembered it, I'm sure your mother does. I was an officer in the Army back when it really got started, just before the Second World War. Nevermind that we held hands with Stalin to defeat the Nazis, that was forgotten as soon as it was convenient." Jessie had learned that Stalin was a bit of a sore subject with Torres. She quite liked the things she'd read about the man, but Torres would rail against him in private. So she held her tongue. "I was never safe to voice my opinions. No one could know that I read Marx and Engels and Kropotkin and others, nor that I did begrudgingly admire our Soviet counterparts. You know I met Soviet soldiers in Germany, before everything fell apart and Berlin was partitioned. They were people, just as good and flawed as the rest of us. I did not fear them." Over at the drill site, someone clearly messed something out and found themselves subject to the large Russian's stony wrath as he loomed over the smaller man, shouting at him about how a mistake in the field would get them all killed. Jessie liked the man's style. Some people chafed under the discipline but she found it effective. Sloppiness got people killed, so you had to be precise, or you'd be dead. This thinking did not apply to dress codes, of course. "Are you still listening, Major?" Torres asked and she snapped her attention back to him. "Yeah- I mean, yes sir." He gave her the same look as before and nodded. "What I'm getting at is that most people who live outside of the Front and New Afrika and Appalachia, as well as our comrade nations to the west, they aren't like me or you." He pointed at the Soviet instructor, who had one meaty hand on the trainee's shoulder and was running him through the proper motions now. "They see that man as the enemy still. A foreigner, come to conquer the land. He wants to burn their homes, take their women and indoctrinate their children. It's not their fault that they think this way, that is the result of decades of propaganda. Untold amounts of money poured into changing how people think. That's hard to break." He leaned against the picnic table and stroked his mustache. "The Soviets' help is much appreciated, and necessary. But we need to be careful. The vanguard of the action must be American. The people, they must see American faces and hear American accents-" "What's an American face?" Jessie interjected. "What's an American accent? My mom doesn't have an American accent. Do you think I have an American face? What, are you saying that we need to make sure all the frontliners are white guys or something?" Torres was not a man who was easily taken aback, but for a moment he looked genuinely off guard. His eyes widened and his hand dropped as he set his jaw and firmly set one fist down on the table. Jessie didn't often get one over on the old man, but she felt somewhat accomplished this time. "You make a good point, comrade. No, I'm not saying we need racially homogenous shock troopers to assuage the masses." He sighed. "What I am saying is that our foreign allies will not be greeted as liberators. They will be seen as invaders. Hell, there's a good chance that we will be seen as invaders too. Those propaganda efforts didn't end with the war, there are still powerful forces out there who are conspiring against the revolution. Disinformation and molding public opinion are just a few of the tools they're going to use against us. Conflict, sabotage, assassinations, these are all inevitable as part of this new war. I don't see how we can avoid them." Feeling a little bad for her sudden jab at Torres, Jessie thumped her knuckles on the paper in front of her. "Well, you're full of ideas on just about everything. What should we do?" "I think that you should be commanding things from the front, while I remain back here to coordinate efforts. I'm not going to be much use out there anyways, and I trust you to carry out the mission in my place." Jessie sat up straighter and felt her cheeks go hot with a nervous reaction. Her stomach knotted, not just with anxiety but also with a small bit of excitement. "Wait a minute, is this all so you can stick me with more work? Are you playing the long game old man?" Instead of giving her the look, Torres simply chuckled softly. "You got me. These old bones are more suited to desk duty than forward action. You're young, smart and motivated, Major. And more than that, you're right. What is an American face or accent? It doesn't matter, America is dead. Those people out there might not know it, they might cling to it. But they can't go back. You should be the face of the new world, their new reality. It won't do to coddle them." He began to gather the paperwork laid out in front of him. "At least with your accent they won't be too unnerved. You sound more Southern than the rest of the command staff put together." The blades on the helicopter began to spin and Torres moved to stand up. "Come on, I can't stand the racket those things make." Jessie stood as well and helped him collect their documents just as the wind began to whip up, sending a crash of cold air over the two of them and whipping her hair into a flurry. Torres walked with his cane in one hand, and his papers under the other arm, while Jessie moved at his side. "Back in my day, aircraft only had spinning rotors on the front. Did I ever tell you about how I jumped into France ahead of the invasion?" His words were lost in the sound of the rotors as the pair of them made for the command building together and Jessie contemplated her future.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 04:30
|
|
|
Surprise Military Exercise Startles Morgantown Visitors Worker News In a humorous moment yesterday afternoon, Aid workers were much surprised to see several dozen military vehicles roll through their planned encampment site. Says Supervisor Harris, “We had just gotten there with our boxes, and VROOM, all these big tracks come through. We thought we were being invaded,” she laughed. Harris immediately called local authorities, and they let her know everything was fine, with Internal Affairs Thompson explaining. “We haven’t done an exercise with a lot of trucks in a couple years now, and if you let the troops relax they get rusty. Something like this gets their pulse up and you can see who has been slacking off.” Colonel Roberts confirmed it. “With us joining the Cominterp recently, we’ve really had to step up our game in terms of capability. There’s a lot of really skilled troops in the Alliance, and we want to do our part to keep up. We’re doing a full exercise up here, military hospitals, ammunition convoys, even a section of the Revolutionary Brigade.” He went on to say, “While we’re up here the Aid workers will be able to keep working and delivering food, and this way they don’t have to drive all the way south to get it to people. They’ll be a good number of us right here,” Roberts chuckled. “So that will save them a trip. You’ll be seeing a lot of soldiers, and a lot of vehicles, while we put them through their paces. We might even get to borrow some airplanes or movie set pieces from Allied forces, so don’t be surprised if you end up hearing special effects.” Supervisor Harris is glad to hear it. “Maybe with all these soldiers I won’t have to carry as much!”
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 06:12
|
|
|
Operations Order 1985-3 Issued to all commands This will be a full mobilization exercise, with all active duty troops participating. We will be activating the emergency fuel reserves. Stored Semi-Trucks are to be loaded with maximum cargo of ammo and artillery shells. Previously built ammo depots are notated and to be moved to the Northern border. The munitions plant has been ordered to go to triple shifts. Aid workers have been instructed to move 1/3 of their food distribution hubs to Morgantown, with the expectation that the rest may follow in 30 days. Civilian busses are to be activated out of the parking garages for the deployment of field hospitals in vicinity of Morgantown. Self-propelled artillery batteries of the RAB are instructed to move under own power and travel to staging areas. Remaining artillery is to tow and prepare for movement. Final inspections of ALA vehicles are to be completed, oil and gas are authorized to be topped off on all vehicles. ALA troops are to prepare for movement. Regiments are to depart in listed order as the roads clear. Goal is arrival of all forces in ten days, and fully deployed and ready within 30 days.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 06:38
|
|
|
PBS World 2 News Radio posted:News from the European Forum today -- the Western European Cominterplan nations of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium have announced the revival of the FINABEL organization, a pre-GRW military cooperative pact between the capitalist predecessors of these nations (or the prior administration/iteration, in the case of Italy). Spearheaded by Italy and building off of the successful Panavia aeronautics cooperation program, FINABEL is intended to improve the countries' military coordination and produce closer relations. Talks have begun between defense firms, unions, cooperatives, and institutions across the nations for future cooperation, including Panavia-style programs for naval construction and ground weaponry. The past incarnation of the organization included Luxembourg, but the smaller country has yet to commit to joining the new institution. Proposal 2 for the Deutsche Volksrepublik Presented by Viktor Meyer, Deputy for Erfurt [Meyer is a short, rotund man who would be the spitting image of a medieval monk if he was wearing a brown robe instead of a modern power suit and glasses. He speaks with the levels of conviction and determination you would expect from such a stereotype.] While it is impossible to fully dispense with covert intelligence organizations in the modern world, we have seen too many examples of such agencies being abused or effectively going rogue to suppress and brutalize the proletariat they are supposed to be serving. We Germans have firsthand experience of this with the Ministry for State Security, which instilled a regime of fear and paranoia for its lifetime. The Americans allowed infinite budget and freedom to their Central Intelligence Agency, which then rampaged across the world unchecked. Even our Soviet comrades have experienced this, through the outrageous abuses of Lavrenty Beria and his control of the NKVD. There is a universal constant for these -- a lack of oversight and accountability. Advocates for these agencies will argue, not incorrectly, that to be fully public would destroy their ability to do their job, dealing as it does with secrets and covert operations. But this does not mean they can become their own shadow organizations. Fortunately, this problem has been recognized prior during the drafting of SPECTRE, and we must simply scale our solutions up to match. The Information and Signals Intelligence Oversight Act Article 1: The following shall be applied to all covert intelligence-gathering organizations, as well as any data-gathering and monitoring organizations that may potentially fall under the purview of mass data gathering and observation. This thus includes not only the SPECTRE intelligence organization and the FESTER surveillance stations, but also the Skarbnik and Karzalek geosurveying spacecraft, and the DOROTHY alien signals monitoring program. Additional programs may be included under this docket later. Article 2: The SPECTRE Liaison Office is to be formalized, and renamed to MISTIC, the Ministry for Intelligence Services Transparency and Information Control. MISTIC shall be classified as the oversight organization for SPECTRE and other intelligence and data-gathering services as provided for in Z-93, the bill which authorized the creation of SPECTRE. MISTIC is to be headed by an officer rated to be most trustworthy and loyal to the cause of socialism and the proletariat [Read: whatever number makes them least likely to betray us, which I think might be political reliability, hilariously]. Article 2a: The oversight mechanisms outlined for SPECTRE in Z-93, which is to say MISTIC, are also to be applied to other programs under MISTIC’s purview as established in Article 1, which is to say currently FESTER, DOROTHY, and Skarbnik/Karzalek. [MISTIC also is probably more functionally a bureau or other such element, being subordinate to a Ministry, but, hey, pun acronyms.] Article 3: MISTIC shall act as oversight on intelligence-gathering and report directly to the Cominterplan Congress on the state, progress, and objectives of the intelligence services. MISTIC shall have the authority to authorize, deauthorize, remove, and otherwise manage intelligence activities if it is deemed that they have overstepped designed boundaries, though it shall report all such activities to the Cominterplan Congress, its parent agency, and all other civilian ministries involved in its operation immediately. Article 3a: Whether such reports are to be made public or not is left to the discretion of the MISTIC commander, though such reports shall always be made publicly available no later than five years after operations have concluded, or sooner if specified by the Cominterplan Congress. Article 4: As an information agency, MISTIC and all of its overseen organizations -- SPECTRE, FESTER, Skarbnik/Karzalek, DOROTHY, et. al. -- are to be considered subordinate elements of the Ministry of Planning and Information, "Cybersyn", and shall answer directly to MPI on operations. Further specification of the MPI's design is intended to come at a later date. Article 4a: Spaceborne elements under the mission oversight of MISTIC shall still be considered within the mission control of MOSA for day-to-day operations where applicable, such as for space traffic control and when outside of the operational orbit of inhabited planets and stations ( as with the current FESTER operations around Venus). Article 5: As a manner of ensuring that MISTIC and the intelligence services are functioning in a way that benefits the larger organization, MISTIC shall have at all times a representative on its committee from other civilian ministries, with specific ministries to be determined as they are created but to currently include representatives from Education, Health, Space Affairs, and the Bureau of Socialist Sciences. The chief operating officers of the intelligence organizations shall report their progress and requirements to the other ministries, who shall contribute to determining their operating budgets and scope. Article 6: All intelligence programs shall be assigned specific operations to undertake and objectives to meet. These programs will all have clearly defined criteria for when they have “succeeded”, and upon completion, a full uncensored report shall be submitted to MISTIC, MPI, and the Cominterplan Congress. We do not send military troops into the field with “go out and find an enemy to shoot” as a complete order, and we demand that they report fully what they have done; we will do the same with our covert operations. Article 7: Long-duration intelligence programs such as counterintelligence, personal protection, and facility security shall be considered as repeating programs of five-year durations instead of open-ended perpetual operations. Such programs will be assessed at five-year intervals to determine successes, failures, room for improvement, and continued need of the program. Article 8: A lack of discovered threats is not to be considered a failure of the intelligence service. Rather, the success of the service will be measured by the overall outcome of the mission. If a nuclear power plant remains unexploded after five years of observation, even if no threats are discovered, the intelligence agency has done its job. If it has exploded, and the intelligence agency has contributed to catching and punishing those responsible, that is a less well done job but is still performing the role as designed. Under no circumstances shall an intelligence program’s success be measured purely in terms of threats discovered or stopped. Article 9: If an intelligence program is determined to be currently unnecessary due to lack of threats or changing situations, the program is to be deemed a success and closed. Personnel assigned to the program are to be reassigned, repositioned, or put on inactive retainer depending on their recommendation and the assessment of their superiors. Ships or monitoring equipment are to be assigned to other duties or, if none can be found, mothballed. The scientific success of the FESTER stations at Venus has demonstrated that a wealth of worth can be found for them without inventing boogeymen to chase down. Programs may be re-initiated if a new need for them is determined. [[OOC: I don't actually expect or want Bates to break his rear end with a constant stream of tiny reports; from an IC perspective, the Congress must have its own levels of bureaucracy that can handle those, and we'll be informed if something truly spectacular fucks up. This, however, ensures that the role and scope of our intelligence agencies will be specifically delineated, that their oversight methods are specifically defined, implemented, given checks and some degree of teeth, and that yet we can still use SPECTRE and the FESTER and DOROTHY equipment to address known threats like Gladio.]] = = = = = = = Meyer looks up, and nods at his camera. “Thank you. Comrade Fletcher has the remainder of our intelligence oversight measures.” The camera changes to Fletcher’s office, and he nods, having shifted out of his usual desk into a leather chair in front of the heater. Berlin is cold this year. “I apologize again that I could not make it to South Africa in person. Drafting the intelligence bill kept me in session with the Volksrat for too long, and we have been snowed in.” He brandishes his stack of papers. “The oversight elements defined in the prior proposal are variations on the controls the DVR applies to its own intelligence service, IvaR. Effectiveness may have been less than what it could have been, but effectiveness is what we define it as. Not producing a new Stasi has been very effective for Germany.” He smiles. “The other half is here. In addition to establishing a proper oversight agency, new laws and regulations must be implemented. These have been separated from the creation of MISTIC as they are, frankly, their own item and either can work without the other, but they are intended to function together.” Proposal 3 for the Deutsche Volksrepublik The General Information and Privacy Protection Enforcement Regulation (GIPPER) Article 1: This regulation applies to all information on individual persons gathered by general, unspecified surveillance, whether personal or electronic, which does not have a specific targeted objective in mind as defined by the standard of “strict scrutiny”. It does not apply, for example, to specific criminal records and investigations except where otherwise noted. It does apply to information gathered by the Cominterplan itself, by participating Cominterplan member states*, and by non-governmental organizations private and public operating within the Cominterplan. *Probably almost none right now, since basically all Cominterplan members have their own intelligence services, but the legal room is provided if a state wants to participate. Article 2: This regulation does not apply to information designed to be easily publicly available, such as library archives, newspapers, and Internetwork pages. It specifically applies to personal information gathered en masse by human or electronic surveillance. Article 3: Data gathered by these methods which is not publicly available to the people of the Cominterplan must be justified in its collection to MISTIC on a one-year basis. Batch justification of data retainment is not permitted; each individual person’s data involved must be justified separately and in full. This shall apply to all non-public databases in the Cominterplan system, and those of any organizations wishing to operate in the Cominterplan. Article 4: A citizen of the Cominterplan may file a request with the Ministry for Planning and Information at any time to be given a list and copies of all information the Cominterplan has regarding themselves, or any other individual. Each request must be made about one specific person. This request may not be denied; however, specific items in it which are of importance to ongoing intelligence operations (as determined by MISTIC under Article 3) may be censored in part or in full. This request will ideally be filled within one year of its filing; if it cannot be, MPI will provide the requester with a letter explaining the reason for its absence and providing a date that it will be completed. Article 4 is to be known as the “Right to Discovery” clause. Article 4 is designated to apply to all information otherwise excluded according to Article 1. Article 5: If a citizen of the Cominterplan so desires, they may file a request with the Ministry of Planning and Information at any time to have any or all information about them purged from databases under the purview of the MPI. Information essential to the Cominterplan’s upkeep of socialist standards cannot be purged (see Article 6). This request may not be denied outright. Specific instances of information retention may be presented for justification to MPI and MISTIC under similar standards of scrutiny as described in Article 3. If granted, this information will be retained exclusively for as long as justified and then purged. The requester will be informed of every piece of information retained this way, as if it had been requested under Article 4. Article 5 is to be known as the “Right to be Forgotten” clause. Article 5 is designated to apply to all information otherwise excluded according to Article 1. Article 6: Information considered to be essential to the upkeep of socialist standards may include some or all of the following: an individual’s name, their registered address of living, contact information such as telephone number or Internetmail address, and relevant census data. This is considered essential for the purposes of economic welfare programs, taxation, criminal justice, and other reasons central to the maintenance of a modern socialist society. Article 6a: If a citizen files a Right to be Forgotten request, all information relating to them that falls under the upkeep of socialist standards as defined under Article 6 will be “anonymized”, and cannot be accessed by any non-Cominterplan sources without the express permission of the requester, who will be notified of such requests for this information. This "anonymization" will also be applied to any information which meets the standard of "strict scrutiny" under Article 1 to justify being retained in perpetuity, such as criminal records, et cetera. Article 6b: Non-governmental organizations cannot retain information based on the “upkeep of socialist standards” principle, and must purge all information with no exceptions if a Right to be Forgotten request is filed. An alternative course of action with the individual may be sought on a case-by-case basis, but a request cannot be denied outright. Article 7: This legislation shall come into effect two years after its passage, to allow adequate time for applicable governmental and non-governmental organizations to become compliant with its criteria. Article 8: Should this proposal pass without the successful passage of the Information and Signals Intelligence Oversight Act, the role of MISTIC and MPI in it shall be replaced with appropriate alternative authorities of information control and regulation. = = = = = = = Fletcher smiles. “We have plans for further additions to this as other elements of our international structure take shape, but this will ideally cover what is already in place. While some of this has been derived from DVR legislation, I would be remiss to not mention the comrades who have helped get it to completion. Input from our fellow European nations has been plentiful, but also from members and legislators for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the People’s Republic of China, the Union of Australasian Workers’ Republics, the Californian Republic, the Free City of Chicago, and,” he raises an eyebrow, “an exceptional contribution from the Democratic People’s Republic of Appalachia. I do not imagine that everyone around the world will be happy about the idea of such regulations for any number of reasons, but I can at least say that we have come together from all over the Cominterplan to try and build something that will better us all.” [[OOC: The data regulation is based on a hodgepodge of data privacy laws, including the European GDPR, the American Freedom of Information Act, the Chinese PIPL, the Argentinian Right to be Forgotten, and the American concept of “strict scrutiny”, among other things, tweaked to be applicable to governments as well as businesses and NGOs. Apart from the ever-present example of the German Stasi, this is specifically designed to counteract things like the FBI’s perpetual files which were used for blackmail by J. Edgar Hoover, and the Guatemalan “Presidential Annex” database that was used to terrorize the country’s populace for decades based on any possible personal connections.]] Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jul 1, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 08:18
|
|
|
Both seconded.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 08:35
|
|
|
Comrades, the work that's been put in to clean up the irradiated areas left behind from the war has been a truly commendable effort, but not one without its price. A price also being paid by many survivors from the great war, also one that many of our brave cosmonauts and off-world settlers may end up paying. The illnesses caused by radiation are many and varied, but treatment is lacking or ineffective for far too many. We suggest allocating resources to our health services to research and develop new treatments for radiation-induced illnesses and make them available to all citizens suffering from them. (A.k.a research Genetics, as discussed a long time ago)
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 08:53
|
|
|
Antilles posted:Comrades, the work that's been put in to clean up the irradiated areas left behind from the war has been a truly commendable effort, but not one without its price. A price also being paid by many survivors from the great war, also one that many of our brave cosmonauts and off-world settlers may end up paying. The illnesses caused by radiation are many and varied, but treatment is lacking or ineffective for far too many. We suggest allocating resources to our health services to research and develop new treatments for radiation-induced illnesses and make them available to all citizens suffering from them. (A.k.a research Genetics, as discussed a long time ago) We would certainly second such a proposal. There has certainly been high demand created, and it is not just our obligation as socialists to address it, but beneficial to all of mankind.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 09:04
|
|
|
The all encompassing general data we gather with our scanners can be enormously useful in tracking and preventing crime as seen previously, however of course this comes to conflict with peoples right to privacy. We managed to prevent the possible collapse of the cominterp with it, so giving it all up is not easy nor necessarily wise, yet it would be foolish to let it all slide by unregulated. I commend everyone effort in creating regulations. We support these regulations. A suggestion is that perhaps that there should be provisions that allows for the kind of general scanning as we did before, that we can freely place these scanners and elint modules around any body we please and scan as we please. BUT! There is a big but. These scans are done automatically without human access and all the data is sent to sealed databases that cannot be accessed by people except where: 1. A judge issues a warrant for specific and limited information after being provided with sufficient proof to establish a reasonable suspicion that its necessary to prevent a crime or a crime has been committed. Note that a separation of powers will have to be enforced for this to be effective limit. And, laws and regulations to hold people involved accountable, any warrant should be investigated and can be investigated at any time to review if this warrant was necessary and reasonable and if found to be neither the people responsible held accountable, this goes for even the judge if their decision is entirely unreasonable. 2. The data is entirely anonymized and generalized by computer protocols and AI for the purpose of statistics and research. We must not forget the scientific value of such broad data. 3. Under emergencies unlimited access can be approved for the sake of preventing large scale danger to the life and safety of people. However, this is only to be granted in the greatest emergencies and any access will be strictly and heavily evaluated afterwards and any and all misuse of this free access for the people given it during the emergency will cause the strictest of punishments up to life in jail. The point being here that I would not disallow the broad scale and general gathering of data as said data can be and has proven to be immensely useful, but rather strictly define when and how said data is allowed to be accessed and used. I do not wish for this to be in conflict with all the other intelligence bills and the regulations being established, its more aimed at the extreme data dumps of total surveillance done by the satellites, tough of course . Lets collect the data, dump them in electronic archives and seal those archives. And who knows, in a thousand years these data archives might be a gold mine for archeologist if they survive that long, informing our descendants and giving them an understanding of our lives the likes we could only dream of having of our forefathers. That could be another use for those asteroid settlements, permanent long term storage of data and information and backups. Not just intelligence but all kinds of data we want to be permanently safely and permanently stored. This of course might not entirely apply to other nations or civilizations, particularly in times of war. Spying outwardly is a different beast, this applies inwardly. That being said, the data collected will be required to be similarly sealed away in the event they should join the cominterp as they have every right to enjoy the full priviliges that any other comrade does in the cominterp. This being the general idea we hope that some other comrade will include it in their suggestion, perhaps re-written with appropriate legalese as we in the Utopia Collective have used all their options for bills this year. If we have missed a suggestion of similar nature we apologize in advance.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 11:21
|
|
|
The Lower Georgia United Workers' Front proposes the following legislation First, a top-secret addendum to Operation: End of the Line quote:If we are to truly differentiate ourselves from the empires of old, then we must act with the interests of our fellow workers at the forefront of our minds. War is going to bring a great deal of suffering and hardship, and many people in the territories we will be invading will blame the Comintern for their immiserated state. We must prevent this by extending our efforts to the oppressed masses out there. They have lived so long in invisible chains that most fear a life without them. Bombs and bullets are not going to leave the best first impression of our socialist society. Regrettably the war must happen, and so it is our duty to commit to making the best possible second impression that we can by adhering to the following: Our second proposal comes from some more fringe elements among the Front, but it was voted on and has been elevated appropriately quote:The Xenoecological Preservation Act
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 14:00
|
|
|
Serf posted:The Lower Georgia United Workers' Front proposes the following legislation Seconded
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 14:29
|
|
|
GunnerJ posted:Is there a game mechanics reason to have a carrier to move one railgun FAC around as opposed to swapping out the hanger for more/bigger railguns Being fast reduces incoming hit rates, plus active sensors are designed with a target ship size. Seeing a ship below that size is heavily penalized, but high resolution sensors also have dramatically lower ranges than low resolution ones. The best way for a fighter/FAC to survive is to be small enough that the enemy can't detect or target them at all (i.e. A sensor that can see a 5000 ton warship @ 20 mKm is 60 tons and can fit on a scout fighter. A sensor that can see a 250 ton fighter @ 20mkM is 450 tons)
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2022 22:12
|
|
|
Hostergaard posted:The all encompassing general data we gather with our scanners can be enormously useful in tracking and preventing crime as seen previously, however of course this comes to conflict with peoples right to privacy. A kind of information time capsule? That could have some merit, though I'd want to hammer out the particulars more thoroughly. The key here is to avoid these information databases being used to terrorize the population years or decades later, so there would either have to be no access allowed whatsoever or extremely close controls, or else we'd be hacking out exceptions and cutouts into the data bill before it's even come up for a vote, let alone been passed. The good news is, if the bill does pass, the two-year implementation period should give us time to weigh the options.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 00:10
|
|
|
Okay so there's been a recent revelation that has now been confirmed. Since Agnew is, apparently, dead. This means that the man in charge of the rump federal US government is Henry Kissinger.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 00:36
|
|
|
Well that's a horrifying thought. This needs to be corrected post haste.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 01:16
|
|
|
 Members of this Congress For the ones here who don't know me, I'm Dr. Raoul Julianos Cassandra. Half of the atendees of this meeting want to kill me and half of that have actually tried; but let me asure you, the NOMAD nation has been kind enough to reeducate me and allow me to use my vast intellect for the betterment of all mankind, as penance for my many crimes. And a bomb at the base of my skull keeps me on the righteous path. As we are all aware, space is a cruel, dominant mistress, twisting our bodies to its whim to which we have no natural defense. But it doesn't have to be that way. We have the knowledge and the materiel to modify our bodies with genetic manipulation and mechanical augments beyond the needs of Earth and finally be free of the tyranny of natural evolution. Some of you may say this is madness but think of the children of Luna and Mars, Venus and Ariadne. We can and must adapt, improve our bodies to better suit our condition as a spacefaring civilization. For this reason I beseech you for funding and space to set up a laboratory for the development of the Genetics and Enhanced Non-Organic Materials Adaptation (GENOMA) Project. This is of the utmost importance for humankind and hopefully, we will soon learn more about the biology and science of the Roswells and Minervans to incoporate their knowledge into our own.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 05:04
|
|
|
Pacho posted:
seconded.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 05:26
|
|
|
NewMars posted:Okay so there's been a recent revelation that has now been confirmed. Since Agnew is, apparently, dead. This means that the man in charge of the rump federal US government is Henry Kissinger. Oh gently caress no we're dealing with this before this becomes a problem.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 14:54
|
|
|
Transcript of Negotiations at Berghoff “Summit” Type: Electronic Intercept, Audio, Transcription Location: The Berghoff Restaurant, Chicago, FCC Date: 26 December 1985 This item is a secure document of the Chicago Diplomatic Service and is rated GREAT FIRE level. Readers without clearance GREAT FIRE, EASTLAND, CONVENTION, or HAYMARKET caught with this document will be detained and charged. Participants: Natalie Bauer, Diplomat for the Deutsche Volksrepublik Brief: B. Hamburg 1951, M.Pw Free University of Berlin, 5 yr. AA attache Maj. Samuel McRae, Representative for Appalachia Brief: B. Boyleton/Charleston 1936, 15 yr. service APLA, negotiations and hostage trained NB: I am glad to see you could make it. SM: drat near didn’t. Traveling through Ohio and Indiana is ten times worse on the ground in this weather. NB: I have no doubt. Take a moment, please. SM: This can’t wait, ma’am. NB: Herr McRae, you have already traveled this far and the table has been booked for the whole night. Five extra minutes will not matter. *pause* SM: True. *loud exhalation* *ambient restaurant noise* *SM jumps* Waiter: Pardon, sir. Your bread, and the menu. NB: Danke. SM: Yes, thanks. *munching noises* NB: No restaurants in Appalachia? SM: None without a UMW enforcer stationed in them. And blessed few of those. NB: That is… more candid than I was thinking you would be. SM: *tightly* You told me this place wouldn’t be bugged. NB: It isn’t, yes.* Which is why we went to the trouble of meeting here in the first place. But I will admit, Herr McRae, I was expecting you to be more dogmatic. SM: If you’re reading the official party reports, I can’t blame you. God, I’m hungry. NB: Order anything. This is a diplomatic function, it’s all covered. SM: Oh, I will. NB: But then the situation on the ground is… SM: If we can be candid here? It’s bad. Bad bad. You’ve seen the news reports and talked with the Californians, of course, so you probably know all the details. NB: For the physical situation, yes. But not the political. SM: Well, I’m not here to tell you all of that and I’m not going to. No sense putting ourselves over a barrel by spilling all the inside politics to let everyone else pick us apart. But we’re not stupid either, we know how bad it is. NB: Well, I’m listening. SM: We want industry. Right now, there’s no future up in Appalachia. There’s the present, and the past, and there’s no future. NB: I’m not sure I follow. SM: Appalachia was a colony before the war, Miss Bauer. Maybe not legally, maybe they said we were a state in the Union, but we got treated like one. We were there to extract resources and nothing else. We dug the coal out of the ground and cut the trees off the hills, and those got shipped out to other places with factories and jobs and futures. We got to live under the thumb of the coal companies, forever. Why pay for schools? Miners don’t need to think. They might talk about getting paid what they’re owed, or finding jobs that won’t kill them by 45. NB: Even with your union? SM: Ev– *hiss* yes, even with the United Mine Workers fighting for us. The coal companies might as well have been God. Even before the Revolution kicked off, they got the actual Army called in more than once to put us back in our place. We got the first taste of combat air power in the world after World War One. NB: At Blair Mountain, yes. I do know that. SM: So, that’s the past. If we just go back to mining and lumbering and farming, that’s still the past. We’re still Appalachia the colony. That’s unacceptable. It makes us– *door knocking* *interruption by the waiter. Restaurant errata, orders placed. Omitted as extraneous* NB: So– SM: It makes us dependent, and unable to support ourselves. NB: Well, I will not say I don’t understand that, or that it is a wrong thing to want. But why contact the GPR about this, and not Detroit? SM: *scoff* Fuckin’ Detroit. Golden boy of the Cominterplan around here, with all their factories and riches. Even founded out of a union, like us! And what have they done to help us so far? *finger snap* Nada. NB: That seems unfair. Central Ohio has been an active warzone for years, beyond a state like Detroit’s ability to stabilize. Also, you have hardly been offering the hand. Your borders were sealed for a solid decade. SM: There are ways around that, even while Boyle was still alive. Boyle had to get his outside information somehow, and if Detroit had been interested in offering us solidarity, we would have had to have had some way to act on it. But, nothing. And still nothing, either. NB: Well, that is why not Detroit. But– SM: You know what we’ve been through. We HAVE read your history, and we were paying attention on that observation tour. If any country in the Cominterplan is going to understand what Appalachia has suffered through, it’ll be you. Hell, your thoughts and ours on intelligence and information security mesh perfectly. We’ve both been through reactionary campaigns targeting our people and spies all over. We want our own Ruhr Complex to build us a future. NB: I see now. SM: As to what we can offer in return… that I don’t know offhand. It would depend on what we get. We don’t have much. NB: We wouldn’t ask. But for one thing. *pause* SM: You’re talking about the nukes. NB: Of course I’m talking about the nukes, Herr McRae. Both the ones you have and your nuclear bill that is pending in Congress. Herr Fletcher was not exaggerating any of the statements made in response to it. SM: Nor were we! NB: Then I don’t know if you were actually paying attention on that observation tour. SM: We did! We saw the outcome of the Fulda Gap clear as day. NB: *exhalation* Well. What did you see? SM: Um. We saw that both NATO and the Soviets fed entire armies into that chokepoint, and the armies were destroyed. Nothing got through it. Anything on either side of it was safe. NB: There are two problems with that. Three, actually. The main one, you are not seeing what we see from the Fulda Exclusion Zone. We do not see military success. We see a countryside so hot that when the wind blows off the mountains, the cities beneath them have to go into complete lockdown even now, twenty years later, after the billions of marks and decades of man-hours worth of effort put into the cleanup. We see what once was a countryside that was alive, and is now dead. Permanently, or near as makes no difference in the foreseeable future. What you see in your present, Herr McRae, is what we see as the future of nuclear weapons. And I know you do not think your present can continue. *pause* SM: poo poo. NB: Mm. SM:. …the others? NB: Well, the second is that Fulda’s “success” is a mirage. Without getting too deep in the weeds, the Fulda Gap was important for its knockout blow potential, not as the only way to win the war. They wanted to avoid turning North Germany into a meatgrinder. That happened anyway, and at any rate the French Revolution and Italian Withdrawal meant that all the plans that Fulda was essential for went up in smoke. So it was only successful in that it killed an enormous number of people, which was hardly war-winning. SM: Well, Appalachia doesn’t have THAT problem. The only real way in is the Tennessee Valley. NB: The only half-decent farmland in your region, and a major water source, which I know you are drat short on. SM: Compared to being conquered by the reactionaries all around us? NB: I find it hard to believe you could not hold them off in those mountains and that bunker system without nukes. SM: They’ll happily use theirs on us. It’s what happened before. NB: So it is said. But the third point is that you are a member of the Cominterplan now. We are a co-defensive alliance; that has always been the heart of the Cominterplan. Anything that attacks you will face a response so tremendous that nuclear weapons cannot stop it. SM: We have yet to see that. NB: Surely you are not calling me a liar or us untrustworthy, Herr McRae. SM: No ma’am. But Appalachia has been let down far too often in the past. Whether the reasons at the time were good or bad, we always get written off first. We are not going to give up our means to self-defense until there is no chance we could ever need them again. NB: I can understand the logic, but I cannot agree with it. And regardless, this is very different from what you are proposing in your nuclear armaments bill. SM: We don’t think so. As we argued, nuclear weapons are tried and– NB: Yes, yes, I have heard. So your objective is to ensure your own nuclear arsenal cannot be impinged by our global disarmament plans. SM: Yes. NB: Even at the cost of spreading nuclear weapons across the globe again? Increasing the chances that there could be another Gladio threat that can secret them around in places? You understand that is what you are risking far more than any other option, yes? The odds of a million men and tanks marching up the Tennessee Valley ever again are almost nonexistent – the only states that can field such armies in this day and age are on your side, and they can completely bypass your nuclear artillery. SM: No, the threat– NB: What threat, Herr McRae? We live in a world where the threat has been shown to be a myth. Nuclear weapons terrify but they absolutely do not deter. You would still be a colony if they did. *long pause* SM: I don’t think this is going anywhere. You see nuclear weapons as an impossible threat; we see them as the only thing that saved us. No legislation can change what happened. NB: It can determine the future, however. I did not come here to argue tactical theory with you. I have been trying to get you to see the German viewpoint on nuclear weapons because I do not think you understand how Germany is viewing your nuclear bill. SM: What? NB: The German people would see nuclear rearmament as guaranteeing a new nuclear conflict, a new destruction of our nation. We have already been treated as a sacrificial pawn to nuclear fire once. The Cominterplan acting as a means to prevent that from ever happening again is supposed to be why we are part of the alliance at all. Nuclear rearmament would be seen as a complete betrayal of that. SM: Wait, part of the alliance at all? You don’t– NB: I do not make the decision, Herr McRae, but I do read the papers and the transcripts of the Volksrat. The mood surpasses outrage. If your nuclear weapons proliferation bill passes, there is a chance – a good chance – that the people of the DVR would call for us to abandon the Cominterplan altogether. *long pause* SM: That… we don’t want that! NB: I don’t want that either. SM: God, that would… there’s no way they would be willing to help us with our industry then! NB: Likely not. I have been trying to get you to understand this. That bill needs to be withdrawn. SM: We can’t do that. It would destroy us. NB: The Cominterplan– SM: No, not like that. It’s not just what I believe, or what nukes can do for us. The artillery corps are completely dominated by the Revolutionary Atomic Brigade. They control the whole deal. We can’t get rid of the nuclear weapons, if we tried the RAB would seize the things and withdraw up the mountains with all the big guns. A split now, so soon after Boyle’s death, would completely destroy the country. Even if the rest could hold together, and even if the RAB didn’t decide to hit us on the way out, we’d have lost all our heavy hardware. NB: …ah. SM: We all think nuclear weapons are the key to our security, but… oh, to Hell with it, there’s no chance of anybody hearing here. You can’t have absolute security and everything else, too. Some things you have to trade off security for and take risks. We’re not stupid, we know that. And we’re not in the position where we can afford to not trade off for things, if we want to survive as a nation. NB: Except the RAB doesn’t think so. SM: No. The RAB thinks opening up was a mistake at all, they think it makes us vulnerable to threats from the Americas and the nearby warlords. Part of the leadership selection was… “convincing” them to go for it at all. If our security can’t be guaranteed then it could trigger more infighting, or a full-on split. NB: That we also can’t have. Fighting our comrades when the Joint Chiefs are still out there is insanity. SM: I agree. There’s no way we can go back to chipping away at the long-term rations stockpiles and– *Interruption by the waiter, as the food arrives at the table. Sizable interruption. Sounds of eating, loudly.* NB: Well, that’s why we’re here. If the bill can’t be withdrawn then we have to figure out some way to square this problem. SM: God Almighty, that’s good. …What, tonight? NB: Probably not. We have five days, at least. We can come up with something. If we can’t, well… hopefully it doesn’t pass, and the benefits of the other bills will mollify the RAB enough to give us the chance to show we are serious about mutual defense. SM: There’s a lot on the table, it might. NB: On this one, too. We can talk more later. SM: Yes. Eating to do. *Transcript ends* *No bugging by the DVR or the DPRA anyway. Chi-town up. Redeye Flight fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Jul 3, 2022 |
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 03:36
|
|
|
Mister Bates posted:Part 4 - Reports from Selected Bureaus and Departments I was wondering how things have been going with the two bureaus created with the Indigenous Restitution and Protection Act? quote:The Indigenous Restitution and Protection Act would include:
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 07:28
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 14:06 |
|
|
Also, this isn't really a formal bill, certainly it's too frivolous to really be one, but I've been of the opinion that "Blue Bolt" would be an excellent name for our railgun missile defense installations, instead of "Excalibur", because of the suddenness of a hypersonic railgun projectile and the blue "straight lightning" ionization trails they leave behind when fired. So, rather than just kind of staple this on to one of my other proposals where it wouldn't really fit, I'd like to propose we rename the EXCALIBUR weapons systems to "Blue Bolt" weapons systems.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 08:21
|
|