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AH Run-downs, summaries and general gubbins

Military inventory of the Brazilian Army in 1990, 18 years after the Brazilian military junta was overthrown by left-wing guerrilas following the United States' withdrawal.

Active Personnel

600,000

Reserve Personnel

900,000

Handguns

• Makarov PM
• Browning Hi-Power
• Colt M1911

Assault Rifles

• Imbel MD78 (standard issue)
• AKM
• AK-47
• Type 56
• vz. 58

Battle Rifles

• FN FAL

Machine Guns

• PK
• DP-28
• RPK
• FN MAG
• Browning M1919

Submachine Guns

• PPS
• M3

Recoilless rifles

• SPG-9
• B-10
• Carl Gustaf

Rocket-propelled grenades

• RPG-2
• RPG-7
• Type 69 RPG

Anti-tank guided missiles

• AT-3
• AT-5

Medium tanks

• T-55

Main battle tanks

• Type 69

Light tanks

• PT-76
• M48 Walker Bulldog

Armoured cars

• Cascavel
• Cadillac Gage Commando

Armored personnel carriers

• Urutu
• M113

Self-propelled howitzers

• 2S1 Gvozdika

Self-propelled rocket launchers

• ASTROS II

Transport helicopters

• Mil Mi-8
• Mil Mi-6

Attack helicopters

• Mil Mi-25
 
Workers Party posters from the 1931 Rozvi General Election

This is the election in Crisis of the Heart. The main images were produced using Gencraft AI, and then I added text and the party logo.
First Buchwa:

1000049616.jpg
1000049618.jpg

This one for Penhalonga is a bit intimidating, although that's not out of character for Ncube. But the figures after the two front rows are at best stereotypical, and then degenerate into I don't know what.

1000049617.jpg
 
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The Communist calendar also known as the Soviet calendar or the Salnikov or Polyanin calendar, was a calendar system devised in the early 20th century in Communist Russia and thereafter proliferated across Europe and around the world at various times. Today, it is only in use in a handful of scattered communist states, who have largely altered it to be in line with the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the Russian Empire still utilized the Julian calendar, which had been supplanted in the rest of Europe. After the Revolution, Soviet leader V. I. Lenin ordered a transition to the Gregorian system over the course of 1918. However, the use of the standard Gregorian calendar was short-lived, as Lenin's various successors began altering the calendar for political and economic purposes.

In the period after Lenin's assassination, there was a tendency to remove anything that resembled the "old ways" including the nature of the work week and the calendar itself. Factional disputes over workers should have a five-day work week or six-day work week was subsumed into a greater debate about religion and the desire to reduce the importance of Sunday as the day off. As such, the day off was usually Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Another key change was the abolition of the old names for the days of the week and the months, instead being referred to simply by their numbers, i.e. the 2nd day of the 7th month, the 11th day of the 3rd month. Another major argument was over the placement and selection of holidays. Two holidays had consensus status, New Years Day (the former 1 January), and Workers Day/May Day (the former 1 May). Other dates were inserted and removed for political expediency and depending on production needs. Among these were Bloody Sunday, Lenin's Martyrdom, Day of the Paris Commune, and Marx's Birthday.

The biggest shift in the calendar system came under Salnikov, who announced a complete change to a "perfect calendar", with the 365 days of the year reformatted into 13 months of 28 days, organized in 4 seven day weeks, and a solitary additional day which was not counted as one of the 7 days of the week or included in any of the months, to be celebrated as the national holiday. In the seven day week, the 7th day would be the day off for all workers, and the second day off would be the 3rd day of the week, with workers divided into halves which would alternate every other 3rd day as their day off. The months were renamed after revolutionary and communist heroes and days were renamed after heroic qualities of the workers. This system proved rather difficult for workers and state officials alike to adapt to. Consequently, most people continued covertly using the Gregorian calendar to maintain internal timekeeping, depsite Salnikov's prohibition of that system and the secret police being authorized to suppress it.

Salnikov's "perfect calendar" was interrupted by the Continental War, which necessitated greater levels of production. The alternating day off on the 3rd day of the weeks was suspended and all workers were on a six-day work week. However, to alleviate discontent, more holidays were added at random dates whenever it was felt that a brief gap in production could be accommodated. As Soviet troops crossed the continent establishing more communist regimes, Salnikov attempted to enforce his calendar system on them to varying degrees of success. At the end of the war, most of Europe was under communist regimes, and all of them at least nominally agreed to utilize his calendar. However, one oversight during the war had been the intercalary leap days utilized in the Gregorian calendar to keep the calendar aligned with the solar year. Having missed two leap days during the war, and skipping the one immediately preceding it in order to increase productivity, Salnikov decided to add the three days onto the next National Day along with another three days for a week of continent-wide celebration of Communist victory, borrowing the days from the next three leap days, which could now be skipped.

For the next five years, the Salnikov calendar remained stationary and its usage became more commonplace, particularly in Russia where people had adapted to it well enough to no longer need to consult the Gregorian calendar as a reference. However, the system broke down with his death. His immediate successor, Goncharov, inserted a national holiday into the calendar for Salnikov's funeral, which he viewed as necessary in order to maintain consistent production in the week after the holiday. This interruption caused other members of the International to be out of sync with Russia, as not every nation followed suit. Most of them simply made it a regular day off, substituting the day of the funeral for that week's 7th day. To remedy this, Goncharov announced that all years would now have 366 days, with the anniversary of Salnikov's death as a permanent holiday like Workers Day, and ordered the International to follow suit. This was achieved over the course of the next two years amid considerable hand wringing and arm twisting.

Goncharov had thus completely destroyed Salnikov's perfect calendar, forcing the calendar out of alignment with the solar year and Gregorian calendar, and opening the door for further political manipulation of the calendar. Goncharov's death prompted his successor, Polyanin, to give him the same treatment as Salnikov and add a holiday to the calendar. This was vehemently ignored by the rest of the International, thus creating a problem where the Russians were on a 367 day year while others were on 366 or even reverting to 365. Polyanin, who was becoming obsessed with the emerging computing industry and its potential for economic planning, convened a symposium of engineers, economists, and mathematicians to develop an improved calendar. The system which they developed was based on an 8 day work week, consisting of 3 days of work followed by 1 day off, repeating. The 3-1 system was believed to maximize worker productivity. An 8 day week necessitated a year of 360 days, 368 days, or some other variation in between those consisting of holidays. Polyanin decided as the year had already been made to include 367 days, adding one more to make 368 would be the most efficient. This would enable the year to be divided into 2 equal halves of 23 weeks. In each half of the year, 4 days would be assigned to holidays.

Polyanin's calendar was viewed a complete absurdity by most of the International, who had by then reverted to the base Salnikov calendar, or completely back to the Gregorian calendar. His inability to effect his plan outside Russia was a portent of decreasing Russian influence in the International, as well as his personal abrasiveness and lack of tact. Nevertheless, his plan went into effect in the Russian sphere despite grumbling from Russian workers and bureaucrats. Polyanin's calendar outlasted him, as he was overthrown in a palace coup less than three years into his system. Under Dragomirovna, the Polyanin calendar was not abolished, to the consternation of her supporters. She could not deny that economic efficiency had actually increased in the new system and looked to continue. Furthermore, workers appreciated the 3-1 system, even if they had difficulty keeping track of time in the long run. Thus the Polyanin calendar last for nearly a decade.

However, the revolving door of leaders who replaced Dragomirovna did not show it the same respect and began instituting alterations which would bring the whole system down. Due to the series of coups, assassinations, and elections that precipitated the changes in the Kremlin, it became a common practice to institute a national holiday to gain favor with the populace. Some leaders wisely made a working day into a double day off, while other added a whole day to the calendar, much to the consternation of the programmers, who had to race to tack on additional days to their mathematically-defined years. Between 1967 and 1974, five such days had been haphazardly appended to the year. Vishnevsky's plan to withdraw the extra holidays met popular backlash, so to restore the balance in the calendar, 1975 was give a further three extra days, which were put together with the five bonus days and packaged together in one full eight day holiday week in the middle of the year.

By this point, timekeeping had become so disorganized that different computers in the same building would be displaying different dates. Another problem was that Soviet year was greatly out of the sync with the rest of the world, and indeed nature itself. The Russian year 1975, which had 376 days, ended 48 days after the Gregorian year. Vishnevsky announced that 1 day would be subtracted from the bonus week every year for the next eight years, in order to restore the Polyanin system. This was never achieved due to Vishnevsky's assassination, and Yablonovskya putting back that year's planned subtraction as a day to honor him. In subsequent years, the economic downturn forced increased production to meet planned annual targets, and days of the bonus week were reassigned working days. This was tolerated for a short time, but the announcement that some regular days off would be converted to working days caused mass dissent. To placate the workers, Yablonovskya agreed that each day reassigned to work would be added back as an additional holiday in the next surplus year. This was not achieved until 1983.

Between the death of Goncharov and the arrival of the long-anticipated bonus year of 1984, Soviet programmers had come to anticipate the caprices of their leaders and planners and had successfully built a robust system that could accommodate their abuses of the calendar, with centralized control to input top-down changes. However, all agreed that the 44 retroactive days which had been missed in the economic downturn could not be added back at once. As a compromise, the programmers, workers, and the Presidium agreed to implement two 400 day years in 1985 and 1986 before going back to the original Polyanin system. In the 400 day years, 24 holiday days would be added at a rate of 1 per week in the first 12 weeks and last 12 weeks of the year. A national program to distribute accurate computers to every part of the country and make sure all computers were aligned to the central system was undertaken.

By this point, the Soviet calendar had little connection to science or indeed, the rest of the world. Consequently, the Gregorian calendar had been widely adopted once again and dual usage was common across the country. The official Soviet calendar was utilized for work purposes, but the Gregorian calendar was used for international relations and commerce, annual-based contracts and plans, as well as the covert observation of religious events and the burgeoning Soviet space program. Most prominently, the Gregorian calendar was used to keep track of people's ages and birthdays, a necessity since the first 368 day year. With the Gregorian calendar in their back pocket, most people were willing to accept the wildly varying communist calendar as simply a national work and holiday schedule. This would turn out to be fortuitous, as the chaos was not yet over.

Near the end of 1985, the economist reported to Yablonovskaya that the 400 day year had been a resounding success, with productivity soaring in any timeframe, whether the 365 day year, the 368 day year, the 376 day year, and the 400 day year. The bonus days were perfectly placed to maximize efficiency. It was argued that a continuation of this program would result in continued growth far apace of a reversion to the Polyanin system. The Chairwoman was attentive but apprehensive, cognizant of the danger of upsetting the workers yet again. She deferred the decision to 1986, waiting to see if the results would be the same. When they were, she committed to a 400 day redesigned year of 12 33 day months and 4 bonus days. The announcement was met with widespread disapproval and culminated in a general strike to remove Yablonovskaya from office. It was the first government change in Soviet history caused directly by its eccentric calendar system. Her successor, Zakharenko, was brought into office explicitly on the basis of normalizing the calendar.

Zakharenko, a programmer and economist by trade, was one of the few such officers who had opposed the new scheme. Privately, he believed a reversion to the Gregorian calendar might be best for Russia, but also knew that such a disruption would be firmly opposed by the hardliners. After examining all the data and assessing the national mood, he conceded to the argument that a drastic change would be greatly damaging to the economy. After allowing 1987 to proceed under the planned 376 day scheme, he announced that 1988 would be restructured to settle the calendar dispute once and for all. In order to achieve his three main goals, that being the satisfaction of the rights of the workers, the continued prosperity of the economy, and realignment of the Soviet system with the rest of the world, Zakharenko announced that he was extending the year 1988 to have 502 days, to be followed immediately by the year 1990, which be a return to 365 days in a Salnikovesque system. This was done to accomodate for the 228 day lag behind the Gregorian year which had developed over the preceding decades. The Soviet year 1988 would thus conclude on Gregorian 31 December 1989.

Reaction to this news was mixed. The return of the 365 day year was celebrated, but the length of the coming year and the elimination of 1989 led to confusion and dismay, mollified in part by the inclusion of numerous holidays and bonus days. The overwhelming consensus was that a return to a more sensible system should be the utmost priority. Thus, Zakharenko's 502 day year went on, surpassing Julius Caesar's 445 day 46 BC, and 1 January 1990 saw Russia brought back in line with the world for the first time in over 50 years. Zakharenko surprised the nation by resigning from office on the first day of the new system, with his new system left in the hands of the powerful Bureau of State Timekeeping and more importantly the unalterable Central Computer of the Federation.

The Zakharenko system had 365 days, 366 in leap years, in which the year was organized into 11 months of 33 days, which each consisted of 4 8 day work weeks of the 3-1 system, plus one bonus day. Two national holidays were outside any month. This system was widely hailed as a triumph of central planning and logic, and remains in place to this day. For this, Zakharenko is regarded as a hero and one of the great leaders in national history. Since 2011, Zakharenko has served as Minister of the Timekeeping Bureau under the governments of five Chairmen. Monthly bonus days are called Zakharenko days. Coincidentally, Zakharenko's given name is Grigoriy, and he implemented his reforms during the reign of Pope Gregory XVIII, so his system is also sometimes called the Grigorian calendar, although this is mostly said as a joke.

Today, any country which does not use the Gregorian calendar, with its 12 months and 7 day weeks, usually utilized either the original Salnikov system or some alteration of the Zakharenko system. The Gregorian calendar remains the international standard. In Russia itself, the history of the calendar system is used in many common sayings. A "Zakharenko year" refers to an inordinately long time, while a "Yablonovskya" refers to doing something longer than is preferred. 1989 is used to refer to fictitious times, comparable to "when pigs fly" in English. Many youths say they were born in 1989 when pretending to be adults to acquire alcohol or other restricted products. Any politician who attempts to alter the calendar is dubbed a Goncharov or a Vishnevsky, and Polyaninism means undue adherence to the computer based planned economy.

The events of certain historic years in the calendar reform period have been dramatized and documented in many songs and films. One of the most notable was the film The 502 Days of Grigoriy Dmitrievich, which told the story Russian life in different parts of society in the long year 1988. Others include the comedy National Holiday, the documentary Lord and Masters of Time, and songs such as Eight Days A Week, Two Birthdays A Year, and Comrade Yevgeny's Orders. The tumult of the latter years of the calendar was widely mocked in both the contemporary and modern day United States, where the manipulation of the calendar system was presented as a hallmark of communist mismanagement.
 
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The Communist calendar also known as the Soviet calendar or the Salnikov or Polyanin calendar, was a calendar system devised in the early 20th century in Communist Russia and thereafter proliferated across Europe and around the world at various times. Today, it is only in use in a handful of scattered communist states, who have largely altered it to be in line with the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the Russian Empire still utilized the Julian calendar, which had been supplanted in the rest of Europe. After the Revolution, Soviet leader V. I. Lenin ordered a transition to the Gregorian system over the course of 1918. However, the use of the standard Gregorian calendar was short-lived, as Lenin's various successors began altering the calendar for political and economic purposes.

In the period after Lenin's assassination, there was a tendency to remove anything that resembled the "old ways" including the nature of the work week and the calendar itself. Factional disputes over workers should have a five-day work week or six-day work week was subsumed into a greater debate about religion and the desire to reduce the importance of Sunday as the day off. As such, the day off was usually Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. Another key change was the abolition of the old names for the days of the week and the months, instead being referred to simply by their numbers, i.e. the 2nd day of the 7th month, the 11th day of the 3rd month. Another major argument was over the placement and selection of holidays. Two holidays had consensus status, New Years Day (the former 1 January), and Workers Day/May Day (the former 1 May). Other dates were inserted and removed for political expediency and depending on production needs. Among these were Bloody Sunday, Lenin's Martyrdom, Day of the Paris Commune, and Marx's Birthday.

The biggest shift in the calendar system came under Salnikov, who announced a complete change to a "perfect calendar", with the 365 days of the year reformatted into 13 months of 28 days, organized in 4 seven day weeks, and a solitary additional day which was not counted as one of the 7 days of the week or included in any of the months, to be celebrated as the national holiday. In the seven day week, the 7th day would be the day off for all workers, and the second day off would be the 3rd day of the week, with workers divided into halves which would alternate every other 3rd day as their day off. The months were renamed after revolutionary and communist heroes and days were renamed after heroic qualities of the workers. This system proved rather difficult for workers and state officials alike to adapt to. Consequently, most people continued covertly using the Gregorian calendar to maintain internal timekeeping, depsite Salnikov's prohibition of that system and the secret police being authorized to suppress it.

Salnikov's "perfect calendar" was interrupted by the Continental War, which necessitated greater levels of production. The alternating day off on the 3rd day of the weeks was suspended and all workers were on a six-day work week. However, to alleviate discontent, more holidays were added at random dates whenever it was felt that a brief gap in production could be accommodated. As Soviet troops crossed the continent establishing more communist regimes, Salnikov attempted to enforce his calendar system on them to varying degrees of success. At the end of the war, most of Europe was under communist regimes, and all of them at least nominally agreed to utilize his calendar. However, one oversight during the war had been the intercalary leap days utilized in the Gregorian calendar to keep the calendar aligned with the solar year. Having missed two leap days during the war, and skipping the one immediately preceding it in order to increase productivity, Salnikov decided to add the three days onto the next National Day along with another three days for a week of continent-wide celebration of Communist victory, borrowing the days from the next three leap days, which could now be skipped.

For the next five years, the Salnikov calendar remained stationary and its usage became more commonplace, particularly in Russia where people had adapted to it well enough to no longer need to consult the Gregorian calendar as a reference. However, the system broke down with his death. His immediate successor, Goncharov, inserted a national holiday into the calendar for Salnikov's funeral, which he viewed as necessary in order to maintain consistent production in the week after the holiday. This interruption caused other members of the International to be out of sync with Russia, as not every nation followed suit. Most of them simply made it a regular day off, substituting the day of the funeral for that week's 7th day. To remedy this, Goncharov announced that all years would now have 366 days, with the anniversary of Salnikov's death as a permament holiday like Workers Day, and ordered the International to follow suit. This was achieved over the course of the next two years amid considerable hand wringing and arm twisting.

Goncharov had thus completely destroyed Salnikov's perfect calendar, forcing the calendar out of alignment with the solar year and Gregorian calendar, and opening the door for further political manipulation of the calendar. Goncharov's death prompted his successor, Polyanin, to give him the same treatment as Salnikov and add a holiday to the calendar. This was vehemently ignored by the rest of the International, thus creating a problem where the Russians were on a 367 day year while others were on 366 or even reverting to 365. Polyanin, who was becoming obsessed with the emerging computing industry and its potential for economic planning, convened a symposium of engineers, economists, and mathematicians to develop an improved calendar. The system which they developed was based on an 8 day work week, consisting of 3 days of work followed by 1 day off, repeating. The 3-1 system was believed to maximize worker productivity. An 8 day week necessitated a year of 360 days, 368 days, or some other variation in between those consisting of holidays. Polyanin decided as the year had already been made to include 367 days, adding one more to make 368 would be the most efficient. This would enable the year to be divided into 2 equal halves of 23 weeks. In each half of the year, 4 days would be assigned to holidays.

Polyanin's calendar was viewed a complete absurdity by most of the International, who had by then reverted to the base Salnikov calendar, or completely back to the Gregorian calendar. His inability to effect his plan outside Russia was a portent of decreasing Russian influence in the International, as well as his personal abrasiveness and lack of tact. Nevertheless, his plan went into effect in the Russian sphere despite grumbling from Russian workers and bureaucrats. Polyanin's calendar outlasted him, as he was overthrown in a palace coup less than three years into his system. Under Dragomirovna, the Polyanin calendar was not abolished, to the consternation of her supporters. She could not deny that economic efficiency had actually increased in the new system and looked to continue. Furthermore, workers appreciated the 3-1 system, even if they had difficulty keeping track of time in the long run. Thus the Polyanin calendar last for nearly a decade.

However, the revolving door of leaders who replaced Dragomirovna did not show it the same respect and began instituting alterations which would bring the whole system down. Due to the series of coups, assassinations, and elections that precipitated the changes in the Kremlin, it became a common practice to institute a national holiday to gain favor with the populace. Some leaders wisely made a working day into a double day off, while other added a whole day to the calendar, much to the consternation of the programmers, who had to race to tack on additional days to their mathematically-defined years. Between 1967 and 1974, five such days had been haphazardly appended to the year. Vishnevsky's plan to withdraw the extra holidays met popular backlash, so to restore the balance in the calendar, 1975 was give a further three extra days, which were put together with the five bonus days and packaged together in one full eight day holiday week in the middle of the year.

By this point, timekeeping had become so disorganized that different computers in the same building would be displaying different dates. Another problem was that Soviet year was greatly out of the sync with the rest of the world, and indeed nature itself. The Russian year 1975, which had 376 days, ended 48 days after the Gregorian year. Vishnevsky announced that 1 day would be subtracted from the bonus week every year for the next eight years, in order to restore the Polyanin system. This was never achieved due to Vishnevsky's assassination, and Yablonovskya putting back that year's planned subtraction as a day to honor him. In subsequent years, the economic downturn forced increased production to meet planned annual targets, and days of the bonus week were reassigned working days. This was tolerated for a short time, but the announcement that some regular days off would be converted to working days caused mass dissent. To placate the workers, Yablonovskya agreed that each day reassigned to work would be added back as an additional holiday in the next surplus year. This was not achieved until 1983.

Between the death of Goncharov and the arrival of the long-anticipated bonus year of 1984, Soviet programmers had come to anticipate the caprices of their leaders and planners and had successfully built a robust system that could accommodate their abuses of the calendar, with centralized control to input top-down changes. However, all agreed that the 44 retroactive days which had been missed in the economic downturn could not be added back at once. As a compromise, the programmers, workers, and the Presidium agreed to implement two 400 day years in 1985 and 1986 before going back to the original Polyanin system. In the 400 day years, 24 holiday days would be added at a rate of 1 per week in the first 12 weeks and last 12 weeks of the year. A national program to distribute accurate computers to every part of the country and make sure all computers were aligned to the central system was undertaken.

By this point, the Soviet calendar had little connection to science or indeed, the rest of the world. Consequently, the Gregorian calendar had been widely adopted once again and dual usage was common across the country. The official Soviet calendar was utilized for work purposes, but the Gregorian calendar was used for international relations and commerce, annual-based contracts and plans, as well as the covert observation of religious events and the burgeoning Soviet space program. Most prominently, the Gregorian calendar was used to keep track of people's ages and birthdays, a necessity since the first 368 day year. With the Gregorian calendar in their back pocket, most people were willing to accept the wildly varying communist calendar as simply a national work and holiday schedule. This would turn out to be fortuitous, as the chaos was not yet over.

Near the end of 1985, the economist reported to Yablonovskaya that the 400 day year had been a resounding success, with productivity soaring in any timeframe, whether the 365 day year, the 368 day year, the 376 day year, and the 400 day year. The bonus days were perfectly placed to maximize efficiency. It was argued that a continuation of this program would result in continued growth far apace of a reversion to the Polyanin system. The Chairwoman was attentive but apprehensive, cognizant of the danger of upsetting the workers yet again. She deferred the decision to 1986, waiting to see if the results would be the same. When they were, she committed to a 400 day redesigned year of 12 33 day months and 4 bonus days. The announcement was met with widespread disapproval and culminated in a general strike to remove Yablonovskaya from office. It was the first government change in Soviet history caused directly by its eccentric calendar system. Her successor, Zakharenko, was brought into office explicitly on the basis of normalizing the calendar.

Zakharenko, a programmer and economist by trade, was one of the few such officers who had opposed the new scheme. Privately, he believed a reversion to the Gregorian calendar might be best for Russia, but also knew that such a disruption would be firmly opposed by the hardliners. After examining all the data and assessing the national mood, he conceded to the argument that a drastic change would be greatly damaging to the economy. After allowing 1987 to proceed under the planned 376 day scheme, he announced that 1988 would be restructured to settle the calendar dispute once and for all. In order to achieve his three main goals, that being the satisfaction of the rights of the workers, the continued prosperity of the economy, and realignment of the Soviet system with the rest of the world, Zakharenko announced that he was extending the year 1988 to have 502 days, to be followed immediately by the year 1990, which be a return to 365 days in a Salnikovesque system. This was done to accomodate for the 228 day lag behind the Gregorian year which had developed over the preceding decades. The Soviet year 1988 would thus conclude on Gregorian 31 December 1989.

Reaction to this news was mixed. The return of the 365 day year was celebrated, but the length of the coming year and the elimination of 1989 led to confusion and dismay, mollified in part by the inclusion of numerous holidays and bonus days. The overwhelming consensus was that a return to a more sensible system should be the utmost priority. Thus, Zakharenko's 502 day year went on, surpassing Julius Caesar's 445 day 46 BC, and 1 January 1990 saw Russia brought back in line with the world for the first time in over 50 years. Zakharenko surprised the nation by resigning from office on the first day of the new system, with his new system left in the hands of the powerful Bureau of State Timekeeping and more importantly the unalterable Central Computer of the Federation.

The Zakharenko system had 365 days, 366 in leap years, in which the year was organized into 11 months of 33 days, which each consisted of 4 8 day work weeks of the 3-1 system, plus one bonus day. Two national holidays were outside any month. This system was widely hailed as a triumph of central planning and logic, and remains in place to this day. For this, Zakharenko is regarded as a hero and one of the great leaders in national history. Since 2011, Zakharenko has served as Minister of the Timekeeping Bureau under the governments of five Chairmen.o Monthly bonus days are called Zakharenko days. Coincidentally, Zakharenko's given name is Grigoriy, and he implemented his reforms during the reign of Pope Gregory XVIII, so his system is also sometimes called the Grigorian calendar, although this is mostly said as a joke.

Today, any country which does not use the Gregorian calendar, with its 12 months and 7 day weeks, usually utilized either the original Salnikov system or some alteration of the Zakharenko system. The Gregorian calendar remains the international standard. In Russia itself, the history of the calendar system is used in many common sayings. A "Zakharenko year" refers to an inordinately long time, while a "Yablonovskya" refers to doing something longer than is preferred. 1989 is used to refer to fictitious times, comparable to "when pigs fly" in English. Many youths say they were born in 1989 when pretending to be adults to acquire alcohol or other restricted products. Any politician who attempts to alter the calendar is dubbed a Goncharov or a Vishnevsky, and Polyaninism means undue adherence to the computer based planned economy.
Amazing
 
The Communist calendar also known as the Soviet calendar or the Salnikov or Polyanin calendar, was a calendar system devised in the early 20th century in Communist Russia and thereafter proliferated across Europe and around the world at various times. Today, it is only in use in a handful of scattered communist states, who have largely altered it to be in line with the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world. Prior to the Russian Revolution, the Russian Empire still utilized the Julian calendar, which had been supplanted in the rest of Europe. After the Revolution, Soviet leader V. I. Lenin ordered a transition to the Gregorian system over the course of 1918. However, the use of the standard Gregorian calendar was short-lived, as Lenin's various successors began altering the calendar for political and economic purposes.
I wish I had something stronger than a like to give for this!
 
In commemoration of a crackpot realization I had around the release of The Tortured Poets Department...

NOW AND THEN - an alternate discography of Taylor Swift (1989-)

Teardrops On My Guitar (2006) based on TAYLOR SWIFT (2006) and other OTL Debut-era demo/non-album songs
- I'd Lie / Stay Beautiful (2005)
- Teardrops On My Guitar / Tell Me Why (2006)

Taylor Swift (2008) based on the EP BEAUTIFUL EYES (2008), FEARLESS (2008), and other Fearless-era non-album songs

Enchanted (2010) based on SPEAK NOW (2010) and other Speak Now-era non-album songs
- Crazier (2009)
- Speak Now (2010)

Electric Touch (2011) based on the "vault tracks" for SPEAK NOW (TAYLOR'S VERSION) (2023) and RED (TAYLOR'S VERSION) (2021)

Red (2013) based on RED (2012)
- We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together (2012)
- Red (2013)

Bad Blood (2014) based on 1989 (2014)

Suburban (2015) based on 1989 (TAYLOR'S VERSION) (2023) and other 1989-era non-album songs
- Blank Space / Shake It Off (2015)

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince (2018) based on LOVER (2019) and some elements of REPUTATION (2017)

T.S. (2022) based on FOLKLORE (2020) and EVERMORE (2020)

Shake It Off (2022) based on MIDNIGHTS (2022) and 1989 (TAYLOR'S VERSION) (2023)

Guilty as Sin (2024) based on REPUTATION (2017) and the first half of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)
- Down Bad / Delicate (2024)

How Did It End? (2026) based on MIDNIGHTS (2022) and the second "anthology" half of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)
- Karma (2023)
- How Did It End? (2025)
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (2026)
 
The Communist calendar also known as the Soviet calendar or the Salnikov or Polyanin calendar, was a calendar system devised in the early 20th century in Communist Russia and thereafter proliferated across Europe and around the world at various times.

Absolutely dizzying.
 
The Hungarian Republic is a landlocked multiethnic natural state on the Pannonian plain extending eastwards to the Carpathian Mountains. As the Hungarian language sets the country apart from others in Europe, so too does its form of government, drawing inspiration from both the French consular and British constitutional monarchist models.

The Governor-President of Hungary is the head of state, whose term lasts until his mandate is rescinded by the upper house consisting of hereditary nobility and leading Catholic clergy. That recension can only occur, however, by the upper house naming someone else to the position.

He appoints the Minister-President to lead the cabinet responsible to the lower house where snap elections are possible, and mandates cannot exceed five years. Ministers president, like everyone else in the legislative space, cannot be a member of both houses at any one time, and needs not even be a member of the elected lower house. However, if he is a member of either house, he is free to remain such during his duration as minister president. These same rules apply to the rest of the cabinet as well.

The exact allocation of powers between the governor-president and minister-president varies from one combination to the next, as with the French consuls, but clear contours do exist. Interestingly, some argue that the real power center in the Hungarian political system is in the count palatine, who presides over the upper house, and stands in for the governor-president filling that position should a vacancy occur until some other person is appointed. Nonetheless, upon becoming governor-president on anything other than a temporary basis, the count palatine surrenders his previous title. As legislation must pass both houses with identical language and subsequently be cosigned by both the governor president and a relevant minister to become law, the count palatine wields considerable influence even as the lower house controls supply.
 
CONTEXT: THE NEW AEON REDUX

PROPERTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOR THE PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY


ANALYSIS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND'S POLITICAL FACTIONS
DATED: APRIL 14, 1938

HIS MAJESTY'S ADMINISTRATION
THE BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY: A BROAD-TENT AUTHORITARIAN PARTY THAT CALLS ITSELF 'CENTRIST'. FORMERLY A COALITION OF FIVE SEPARATE PARTIES COLLECTIVELY KNOWN AS THE 'NATIONAL FRONT'. LED BY GENERAL J. F. C. FULLER WHO GOVERNS AS PRIME MINISTER.

FACTIONS OF THE B.N.P.
- THE MOSLEYISTS: FOLLOWERS OF NOW-DEAD PRIME MINISTER OSWALD MOSLEY, THEY ARE AT ONCE THE MOST ORGANIZATIONALLY COHERENT AND MOST IDEOLOGICALLY INCOHERENT FACTION. FORMERLY THE 'CENTER PARTY'. THEY ARE INTERNALLY DIVIDED BETWEEN PEOPLE LOYAL TO MOSLEY'S IDEAS, SUCH AS A. R. THOMSON, AND THOSE LOYAL TO THE CENTER PARTY'S ORIGINAL FOUNDER CECIL MALONE AND HIS 'NATIONAL COMMUNISM' IDEA, BLENDING COMMUNISM WITH BRITISH NATIONALISM. THE MOSLEYISTS ARE REGARDED AS THE B.N.P.'S 'LEFT-WING'.
- THE IMPERIALISTS: BRITAIN HOLDS A CONSIDERABLE EMPIRE EVEN AFTER ITS DEFEAT IN G.W.1. AND THE IMPERIALIST FACTION BELIEVES THAT THIS SHOULD BE PRIORITIZED ABOVE ALL ELSE. IMPERIALISTS TEND TO BE NOBLES OR SYMPATHETIC TO NOBILITY, AND SO THEY'RE SKEPTICAL OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (THE RENAMED AND REORGANIZED 'HOUSE OF LORDS'). THEY ARE OPPOSED TO 'EUROPEANISM'.
- THE MODERNISTS: FORMERLY THE 'MODERN PARTY', THIS FACTION IS AN AUTHORITARIAN AND FUTURIST ONE THAT BELIEVES IN THE IDEA OF PROGRESS AT ANY COST. THE MOST SOCIALLY PERMISSIVE FACTION WITHIN THE B.N.P. AS WELL, OFTEN INCLUDING FEMINISTS WHO ARE VETERANS OF THE 'WAR OF THE SEXES' OF 1911-1914 AND 1920-1924, SUCH AS ROTHA LINTON-ORMAN, HEALTH SECRETARY.
- THE ESTABLISHMENT: THE 'MODERATE' FACTION OF THE B.N.P., IT IS STILL VERY MUCH AN AUTHORITARIAN FACTION, BUT ONE THAT SEEKS TO CREATE AN 'ACCOMMODATION' WITH THE ESTABLISHED INTERESTS OF ENGLAND. THE ECONOMIC FACTION. IT HAS A FEW PEOPLE WHO CALL FOR 'TECHNOCRATIC' GOVERNING BY EXPERTS AS CONTRAST TO POLITICIANS, A 'BUSINESS GOVERNMENT'.
- THE STRATOCRATS: THE MILITARY HAS ENJOYED GREAT INFLUENCE OVER ENGLAND SINCE THE IRISH REBELLION LED TO THAT ISLAND BEING GOVERNED IN A DE FACTO MILITARY ADMINISTRATION. THE MILITARY HAS ALREADY REMOVED THE PREVIOUS TWO PRIME MINISTERS, AND IT IS WIDELY SEEN AS THE WORK OF GENERAL EDMUND IRONSIDE ABOVE ALL, WHO IS SEEN AS THE 'KINGMAKER' OF BRITISH POLITICS. IDEOLOGICALLY AMORPHOUS, THIS FACTION CARES MOST OF ALL ABOUT FUNDING AND EXPANDING THE MILITARY ABOVE ALL.
- THE ATLANTEANS: THERE IS AN ESOTERIC RELIGION CALLED 'THELEMA' AND AN UNORTHODOX ECONOMIC THEORY NAMED 'SOCIAL CREDIT', AND ADVOCATES FOR THE TWO HAVE MERGED AS ONE FACTION. PRIMARILY LED BY GENERAL FULLER, THE MOST INFLUENTIAL 'ATLANTEAN', HE HAS JUSTIFIED MUCH OF HIS RECENT MILITARY EXPANSION ON IT FULFILLING THE 'GREAT WORK' - I.E. POTENTIAL WAR.

THE LEGAL OPPOSITION
THE CONSERVATIVE AND COOPERATIVE COALITION: AN ALLIANCE OF THE CENTER-RIGHT CONSERVATIVES (CALLED 'TORIES') AND THE CENTER-LEFT COOPERATIVE PARTY IN OPPOSITION TO THE B.N.P. THEY ARE A COALITION UNITED AROUND THE IDEA OF DEMOCRATIC PRESERVATION.

MEMBER PARTIES OF THE COALITION
- THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY: THE PARTY OF ENGLAND'S ESTABLISHED ELITE, IT HAS SUFFERED ELECTORALLY IN THE 20TH CENTURY AS THE COUNTRY EXPANDED THE FRANCHISE. THEIR LAST PRIME MINISTER WAS GEORGE CURZON IN 1925.
- THE COOPERATIVE PARTY: A MERGER OF THE CENTER-LEFT INDEPENDENT LIBERALS AND TWO FAR-LEFT PARTIES IN THE 1920S, IT IS A SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PARTY BUILT AROUND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, AND HAS RESISTED THE B.N.P.'S DRIFT TO ILLIBERALISM.

INDEPENDENTS: THE B.N.P. ALLOWS INDEPENDENTS TO RUN FOR OFFICE, AND THEY BROADLY ALIGN WITH ITS IDEOLOGY.

THE ILLEGAL OPPOSITION
POORLY ORGANIZED, THEY ARE MANY AND DIVIDED. THERE EXISTS IRISH NATIONALISTS (OF BOTH IRELAND AND ENGLAND VARIETIES), ANARCHISTS AND SOCIALISTS, AS WELL AS THE ENGLISH 'MISTERY', A SECRETIVE GROUP THAT BELIEVES IN FEUDALISM. THE 'MISTERY' IS ILLEGAL BECAUSE IT SOUGHT TO UNDERMINE THE B.N.P. THROUGH MORE VIOLENT ENDS DESPITE THE FACT THEY ALIGN WITH IT 90% OF THE TIME.
 
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The Arab Islamic Republic, commonly called Arabia, is a theocratic representative but not democratic republic anchored on the Arabian Peninsula, which it controls entirely, reaching towards peripheral wadis and rivers on the edge of Mesopotamia, home to modern Iraq, the Syrian desert on the north, and the near slopes of the Jordanian Highlands to the west. Governed in accordance with sharia law, the politics of the Arab Islamic republic balances the interests of clerics with tribal elites and a permanent bureaucratic class accountable effectively only to itself.

Some scholars view Arabia as an example of adhocracy as the state lacks traditional constitutional underpinning having been formed by treaty following the independence war raged against the Khedivate. Indeed, some political figures discontented with the status quo threaten promulgation of a new cross-tribal treaty as a means of replacing a government they frequently see as feeble, short-sighted, overly dogmatic, or corrupt, critiques often as fair as they are hypocritical. Furthermore, inconsistent practices of local governance only reenforce this view, as local authorities can be rescinded as easily as they are created and lack uniformity in form or composition when they do exist.

The treaty only establishes that governance is to be shared by clerics, sheikhs, emirs, imams, qadis, and tribes. The system evolving from these terms consists of a majlis, functionally a parliament, in which each tribe or tribal confederation enjoys one vote through whichever representative they wish selected how they wish, and sharing power with a guardian council, modelled in part on the senate of the French consulate, but comprising of only clerics and changing composition entirely separately from any other branch of government or body. Bills must clear both the guardian council and the majlis in order to become law, but the latter has the power of the purse. A committee of the guardian council is also functionally the highest judicial authority in the state.

The head of state is known as the Rais, or the Amin al-Dawla. He is chosen by the Majlis from any citizen in the realm agreeable to a majority and ratified by the Guardian Council. His term in office endures until a replacement is named. He appoints the al-Wazīr al-'Awwal, or grand vizier, if he desires, as well as other wazirs to lead government ministries at his pleasure and subject to approval by the guardian council. Such ministers are compelled to resign upon the inauguration of a new Rais.

The civil service is selected through a system modeled on the French list of notables. Initially, under the 1799 constitution, the list of notables were the electors to whom the public delegated the authority to choose their leaders. Under subsequent reforms, with universal suffrage reintroduced to the French republic, the notables became the pool of civil service candidates, electoral candidates, and government appointees. In Arabia, tribal leaders and members of the majlis nominate individuals to the class of notables and from this pool civil service and political appointment positions are filled.
 
According to the deal between British Aerospace and Airbus to develop the New Concorde, signed in 2019, BA would develop the aircraft while Airbus was in charge of its production.

The administration of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan had sought to work with the British government through the two companies to develop the New Concorde since October 2017, but the government of Theresa May refused the idea due to its cost, and to focus on more pressing matters such as crime and immigration. However, the flamboyant populist Boris Johnson had a different attitude to the issue than his predecessor, and agreed on the plan with his French friend Dupont-Aignan.

When the New Concorde was cancelled, development had barely began, if anything, and the project was widely criticized by voices ranging from Greta Thunberg to key figures in the aerospace industry, who thought the new aircraft would damage the environment, cost too much and not be worth it, or prove to be a safety hazard like the original Concorde, or a combination of these arguments.

On the other hand, there was enthusiasm for the project among members of Generation X who grew up while the Concorde flied, as well as aviation nerds more generally. The commercial posted by the New Concorde YouTube channel has gotten 6.4 million views as of April 2024, and had a positive ratio before YouTube began hiding dislike counts.
 
The Transamericans were the highest category of service offered by the United States Railroad Administration (and later USRail) between 1961 and 1987. Inspired by the Trans Europ Express category launched in Western Europe a few years prior, they represented one facet - along with rolling stock renewal, urban electrification and rural service rationalization - of USRA President Alfred E. Perlman's battle to modernize the American rail industry.

Perlman, the first USRA president whose background was in engineering rather than business or politics, intended to build on the standardization carried out under his predecessors by establishing a truly nationwide rail system which could operate in a modern and efficient way, and thus lure passengers back from the airlines. There were already a large number of streamliners - fast, lightweight trains with a high level of passenger comfort - which had been established by private operators before the war, and in practice the Transamerican service category represented little more than a rebrand of these services. All had been diesel-hauled beforehand, most already lacked coach service, and while Perlman intended for a Transamerican running from New York to be the same as one running from Los Angeles, in practice the legacy streamliner equipment remained in place on many services, receiving little more than a new coat of silver and maroon paint.

Initially, the Transamerican network consisted of six routes - the Lake Shore and Broadway, which both ran from New York to Chicago (albeit over different routes, the former passing through Buffalo and Cleveland while the latter served Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), the Gateway between New York and St. Louis, the Federal between Boston and Washington, D.C., the Capitol between D.C. and Chicago, and the Piedmont between D.C. and Atlanta. These were all in the Eastern United States, and all were about the length of an overnight trip - aside from the Federal, which took 9 hours 45 minutes, all the initial Transamericans were scheduled for between 15 and 21 hours. Several more long-distance services received Transamerican branding over the following years, and after Perlman's departure in 1969, his successors would gradually fold in all overnight services.

The original Transamericans had been aimed at business travelers, but by the time of Perlman's departure it was clear that their principal market (at least outside the Northeast) would be tourists. The most successful Transamerican by revenue was the Silver Meteor between New York and Miami, which primarily catered to vacationers and snowbirds who were less pressed for time than your average business executive going between New York and Chicago. The long tourist-oriented trains in the West, like the Chicago-Oakland California Zephyr, are probably what most people today associate with the Transamerican as a concept.

Rising tourist patronage combined with dwindling business patronage through the 70s and 80s spelled the end of the Transamericans. In 1982, the decision was made to introduce open couchette cars on the western Transamericans - a style of service never before used on American railroads, but which allowed a cheaper and more space-efficient class of service while maintaining the "all-sleeper" nature of the routes. This was a genuine boost to the services' popularity, but it was also seen as watering down the Transamerican brand considerably, and after four years of service it was decided to replace it with the new InterCity Night name. Most trains retained their names and identities from the Transamerican era, however, and in many cases USRail would use those names extensively for marketing purposes.

Ironically given the name, no regular Transamerican ever ran coast-to-coast. In 1975, as part of preparations for the Bicentennial, experiments were made with through carriages between the Broadway and the Golden State, which would allow passengers a one-seat ride from Los Angeles to New York (and presumably Philadelphia, where the Bicentennial Expo was to take place). However, over its two months of operation, this service was found to have negative effects on reliability that failed to outweigh the positives. Tickets would be sold for the Bicentennial from all over the country, but passengers continued to have to change trains at Chicago.
 
The British University Constabulary are a national police service that oversee most crimes on many of the country's older campuses: specifically, those who were counted as university constituencies before 1950. They are primarily uniformed officers but also contain a CID for theft & other petty crime, and more recently a sex crimes department. Each Campus Command has its own Chief Constable, overseen by a Commissioner in Oxford.

Expansion of universities in the late 20th century did not see an expansion of the BUC, who were seen as a joke: people not good enough to be or stay real coppers, and old and outdated.
 
- THE ATLANTEANS: THERE IS AN ESOTERIC RELIGION CALLED 'THELEMA' AND AN UNORTHODOX ECONOMIC THEORY NAMED 'SOCIAL CREDIT', AND ADVOCATES FOR THE TWO HAVE MERGED AS ONE FACTION. PRIMARILY LED BY GENERAL FULLER, THE MOST INFLUENTIAL 'ATLANTEAN', HE HAS JUSTIFIED MUCH OF HIS RECENT MILITARY EXPANSION ON IT FULFILLING THE 'GREAT WORK' - I.E. POTENTIAL WAR.
okay that's fun
 
Coast to Coast: The Former United States of America (Nigel Griffiths. BBC. 1995)

Following there successful series on the Australia, Arabia, and the Russian Republic, Radio Documentarian Nigel Griffiths was tasked by the BBC with making a series on the Former United States of America, which was in the midst of startling Political, Economic and Social changes during the period of 1994, with Radio Equipment easier to smuggle and transport across the often fraught borders of American nations. Griffths conjured a luscious soundscape full of the sounds of bull rushes, washing waves and the wind blowing against the grass often interrupted by the cacophony of gunfire, angry voices and the chaos of modern life. Combined with insignificantly and often revealing interviews, Griffth’s Fourth Series revealed his talent and abilities aptly, and would win him the Reith Award for outstanding Educational and Factual Radio.

Episode 1: The Green Mountain Republic

Nigel and the crew start in Maine and travel across Vermont and New Hampshire, exploring the unrecognised Green Mountain Republic. On the way they meet Canadian's exploiting the new fuzzy borders to make money from moving refugees to shipping arms to the ramshackle rebels, they meet the newly formed Green Mountain National Guard, who despite being desperately outgunned have been using the local landscape to there advantage, Nigel has a humorous conversation with Martha Rainville, one of the many defectors from the Federal People's Military and her position as the head of the Green Mountain Airforce which mainly consists of retrofitted civilian aircraft and Nigel meets Jim Jeffords, the self proclaimed President of the Green Mountain Republic and tries to understand how a once staunch party man and military officer could end up being a prominent reformist and meets Speaker Gordon J. Humphrey, a man who claims he became a reformist through 'the force of his own logic'. Along the way, Nigel and the crew narrowly avoid getting shot in skirmish, meet some uppity policemen and try fresh Vermont Cheese whilst Artillery goes off in the distance.

Episode 2: Federal People’s Congress of America

Nigel and the crew travel, often under surveillance by the Secret Police, across the Federal People's Congress, as it deals with protests over it's conduct in the Green Mountain Republic, Economic Difficulties and the intense corruption around the Poshard Presidency. As they travel across the Nation, they meet a variety of figures, from former ally of President Poshard, David Bonior who is now turning the power of the Michigan Federal People's Party against the President, Poshard's propaganda chief and key ally Edward Vrdolyak who tries to worm his way out of intensive questioning, meet Mayor Goode and his team who's pondering splitting away from the Federal People's machine and who's belief in Social Democracy is tempered by an autocratic policing of protests and finally they meet Lawyer and Opposition politician Ed Rendell, who ponders on the possibility of the collapse of the first Vanguardist Socialist state. Along the way, the team get caught amid protests, are confronted by disgruntled policemen, barely avoid being tear gassed and try the typical image of the American Proletariat; The Philly Cheesesteak.

Episode 3: United States of America

Nigel and the crew travel to Charleston to witness the results of the first seemingly free Presidential election in the USA's long tultomous history. Amongst the baying crowd, the team meet the man who is credited with making it happen; long lasting political prisoner and now President Fred R. Harris, who provides a good humoured and populist image for the USA's future. The team meet former Military man and Chief of Security Affairs James Carter, who's reformist tenure is credited with the peaceful return but is cagey about his involvement within some of the worst excesses of the USA state, the team meets Charles Evers, the outgoing Vice-President who tries to offer his own perspective on his defeat and finally they meet the head of the National American Oil company, T. Boone Pickens, who's disagreement on the direction of the USA's Nationalisation Industries in comparison to Harris seems to offer the possibility of tensions in the future. Along the way, the team join the March for Peace and Justice, meet a Dissident Zydeco band and spend a day taking part in the shooting of a documentary with Ross McElwee.

Episode 4: The Colorado Republic

The peaceful abode of the Colorado Republic presents an interesting opportunity for the team, as they meet the Vice President Polly Baca of the People's Democratic Party, who is part of the new wave of Hispanic Coloradan Politicians who are beginning to muscle out the older white establishment, the Coors Brothers, William and Joseph, who's economic domination of the Colorado nation has often had them named 'The Tsars of Colorado' and they meet Eddie Boucher, a prominent Boulder based poet and artist who satirical works make him popular amongst the increasingly politically charged youth of the Republic. Along the way, they tour the Silverton Ghost town, and find out about it's potential to become an environmental disaster, visit the Durango, main hub of the Colorado National Rail and get pulled over and charged by Navajo Policemen whilst driving through the Navajo Nation.

Episode 5: United Republic of Dakota

The United Republic of Dakota showcases how the old Conservative order is being shaken up across the former United States, they meet Speaker Byron Drogan, an acolyte of President McGovern who hopes to continue the liberal movement of his predecessor, they meet Joseph Hansen, a crime writer who’s attempted conviction for Sodomy in 1975 would lead to protests and a change in the law of Dakota and they meet Beatrice Medicine, who anthropological studies and activism have forced a change in policy with how Dakota treats it’s Native American citizens. Along the meet Sioux tribespeople amid ceremonies, record folk music at a festival and get more than a bit tipsy at the Fargo Beer Festival.

Episode 6: The Commonwealth of Columbia

In the final episode, the team are greeted with the vast expanses of the Commonwealth of Columbia, who’s democracy has been a pioneer amid the despotic policies of it’s contemporaries but is at it’s own economic, social and political crossroads. The team meet Randolph A. Hearst, son of the deposed President who’s creation of his own newspaper, the Colombian Herald is credited with ensuring the end of the Yorty era and a transition to parliamentary democracy, they meet Ron Dellums, California’s Governor, who’s brand of ‘Regional Socialism’ has made him popular but also gained him a lot of enemies and Jack Metcalf, leader of the Cascadia Movement, who’s syncretic mix of Fiscal Conservatism, Libertarian Values but also strong support for Labor has made him able to bridge the political gap and present a strong if scary image of Cascadian Independence. Along the way, the group meet Mormon’s attempt to establish a new Church in San Francisco, Communist Gurus attempting to spread the ideals of Marx and disgruntled Loggers who have started engaging in brawls with environmental activists.
 
now a bit more worrying

View attachment 83615

The South Africa Crisis/Grim June was ten days of political tension following the narrow election of the People's Alliance coalition in 2014. This had been the first time in decades a left-wing government had been elected in the Dominion of South Africa and it became clear elements of the Conservative & National Party, the army, justice system, and larger businesses would not make way, making claims of a rigged election. PM-elect Zuma did not back down and went on the move to prevent 'accidents', and communities across South Africa barricaded themselves and grabbed whatever weapon they could for what was considered inevitable. Both sides courted foreign ambassadors to recognise them as the legitimate power. Both sides also held back and waited to see what Britain would do, as the dominion was one of the nation's main foreign allies and way to impress itself on Africa; would it intervene on the side of the CNP?

A British taskforce was being looked into on the third day and the British Prime Minister was clear that "we cannot allow a coup in a long-standing democracy where our nationals live", but on the eighth day of the crisis the taskforce was cancelled and Westminster backed the People's Alliance. While the United Briton government was arrogant enough to think it could shrug off international disapproval, King Edward X - newly ascended to the throne and quite young - was against it and had been seen speaking to anti-war protestors in London, and the embarrassment & potential social discontent made Westminster back down.

During the ninth day of the crisis, many of the CNP's supporters quietly announced they'd been "convinced" the vote wasn't rigged after all. On the tenth day, Zuma entered Pretoria with an honour guard of loyalist policemen and a crowd of cheering voters; the armed soldiers at the Union Buildings lowered their weapons as he approached and let him enter. (This would later come out as not a recognition that the game was up but that the People's Alliance had used backchannels to bribe the soldiers to stand down at a specific point, so the news cameras would get a nice image to show the crisis was done)
 
A sequel to my entry in the vignette competition "The $64,000 Answer" so spoilers for that I guess

Candidates and Parties in the 2024 Presidential Election
So Bernie Sanders had a presidency of two halves. I.e. that before the 7th October 2023 and after. His walking a tightrope of his opinions as a person and his role as President seems to be pissing a lot of people off in all directions.


Democrats:
President Bernie Sanders: The economy is doing well, he's pretty popular but for *gestures at Gaza*
Former Governor Charlie Crist: the “never Bernie candidate” doing better but the Prez probably has an insurmountable lead and was reasonably popular before last Autumn. Will almost certainly endorse Bloomberg
Marianne Williamson: despite Crist being there too, is Doing better out of sheer protest votes rather than any concrete support


Republicans
Governor Ron DeSantis:
The flag-bearer for the post-Trump era has won over enough of the faithful to have a strong lead in the Primaries. It remains to be seen who jump to Bloomberg
Nikki Haley: Might still end up DeSantis’ VP at this rate.
Kristi Noem: Theres another world out there where she’s the lead nominee THEN the dog thing comes out


Third Party Candidates
Businessman's Michael Bloomberg
: after shitting the bed in 2020 and barely winning two states people are just waiting for him to declare a third party candidacy. Could get a lot of support from moderate democrats and Republicans but is also a third party.

Failson Donald Trump Jr (Patriot): “The True heir to his father's legacy” is a blessing to Mikey Days career on SNL and insists he can defeat “Rino DeSantis”.

Conspiracy Theorist Robert Kennedy Jr (Independent): Dammit the brainworm jokes were really funny for a few minutes, now they’re just sad

Cornell West: Is still teasing an independent run against Bernie over Gaza. Cheers mate, now Jill Stein is crying.

Musician Afroman (Independent): Every now and then I remember Afroman is running for President. I wasn't going to list every candidate but y'know, its Afroman.
 
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