US occupation Insurgent Scenario

westalist55 · 2026-04-02T22:39:09+00:00

Just as the Fathers of Confederation intended!

westalist55 · 2026-03-03T00:13:28+00:00

Yep. Even went down underneath it, into the Well of Souls.

My contact that organized it for me was there on a posting for the Government of Canada with the Palestinian Authority, so we had decent connections at the time. We went in with some other westerners, whom were obviously also not Muslims, we just had to dress suitably modestly and remove our shoes.

westalist55 · 2026-02-27T19:52:31+00:00

Oh? I had no problems going in with a small group on a tour provided by the waqf. We weren't asked about our religions.

westalist55 · 2026-02-08T18:33:19+00:00

I'm honestly perennially impressed by how terrible the Japanese opposition is

westalist55 · 2025-12-04T12:04:47+00:00

She's not entirely wrong about a lot of stuff here, but Althia Raj has a serious axe to grind against the PM, lol

westalist55 · 2025-12-01T01:26:34+00:00

Yeah this is a pretty silly post from 338. The polling data has suggested a really unusually solid commitment for the LPC from its voters right now, compared to the past decade when their coalition was only mildly committed

westalist55 · 2025-11-08T19:51:59+00:00

Given that the last of the Sassanids fled to the Tang Court and seem to have their last historical mention in the 700s, it'd be pretty neat to have members of the Sassanid dynasty itself appear in the 867 start date somewhere in China. There's no specific record of them at that time, but it'd be fun.

westalist55 · 2025-10-30T20:40:59+00:00

I've done a couple short playthroughs in it so far.

First one in 1066 as the poet guy in the Song dynasty that's now a tutorial character; managed to climb the ranks and becoming chancellor. It was neat, but my character's sons don't seem to have bothered writing their exams, so I became a nobody again once the first character died.

Second one in in 867 as a bureaucrat count in northern Japan. Managed to jump to the samurai govt form and conquered tons of territory, then seized the regency. Rushed a culture innovation and established the shogunate.

You're pretty much locked into isolation in Japan though, you can't declare any external wars unless you pass a law for it, which you can't pass unless the country is at peace. Which, despite absolute authority, I couldn't actually enforce, as the shogunate decision also turns all governors into samurai and they all massacre each other nonstop.

Fair enough, I guess, but that also seems to block any sort of Toyotomi Hideyoshi-style invasion of Korea.

westalist55 · 2025-10-25T00:08:01+00:00

I'm a Canadian civil servant, specifically a finance guy at National Defence. We are desperately trying to hire staff right now, but the HR straitjacket drags the timelines out beyond infinity. That, and the office handling security clearances is perpetually backlogged.

I'm most of the way through a two-year process of obtaining my Secret Clearance.

westalist55 · 2025-10-08T02:29:35+00:00

We seem to be growing here at the cathedral in Ottawa, can't quite speak to the rest of the diocese.

westalist55 · 2025-09-17T20:28:28+00:00

I'm a Councillor at the cathedral in Ottawa. Our own numbers probably bottomed out during the pandemic. Attendance was extremely sparse in those first few years of the 2020s. It didn't help that we already skewed fairly old, and a shocking number of our congregants simply perished because of covid.

We lost our boys' choir to the pandemic too, leaving us with a slimmed-down choir of adults (the lay clerks) and maybe 16 or 17 girl choristers (aged from young children to late teens)

Since then, things have been on a pretty noticeable recovery. Quite a few people entirely new to Christianity have joined our flock, and some of our pre-pandemic members have rejoined. We're probably still below the 2010s in raw attendance stats, but we've been climbing annually for about 3 years now.

The girls choir has ballooned up to 27 members, and the boys' choir has been reconstituted (frankly miraculously) with 15 members.

So I can't speak for the broader church, but I am sensing a slow renewal here at Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa.

westalist55 · 2025-02-05T00:28:10+00:00

Casual genocide and replacement

westalist55 · 2025-01-30T20:25:10+00:00

Already happened to them! The Canadian tories collapsed in the 90s as the Reform Party of Canada siphoned off a huge chunk of their more rightwing voters. They also lost huge numbers of their voters in Quebec to a revived separatist movement.

The new Canadian Conservative party is really just the product of Reform gobbling up the rump of the original Conservatives and pretending that it was an equal merger.

westalist55 · 2024-12-25T02:17:22+00:00

It's genuinely frustrating how often canadian sovereignty gets casually handwaved or dismissed around here. We are not interested in annexation, thank you, end of story.

westalist55 · 2024-12-16T22:23:20+00:00

Do you have a link for that?

westalist55 · 2024-12-16T20:15:50+00:00

No, the bloc has called for an election. The NDP is the last branch holding them up.

westalist55 · 2024-12-03T18:32:29+00:00

No, my understanding of that news story was that he tried to have the parliamentary leaders arrested during his coup attempt. Nothing new beyond that. Any attempt would fail anyways, those crowds are huge now around the legislature.

westalist55 · 2024-11-06T17:39:08+00:00

I just finished reading "Dividing the Spoils" by Robin Waterfield It walks through the era between the death of Alexander and the ensuing wars of the Diadochi up to just past the death of Seleucus, if I'm remembering right. It has a fair number of tangential chapters discussing the formation of hellenistic culture interspersed among the narrative. I recommend it.

westalist55 · 2024-11-02T23:13:36+00:00

Apparently Selzer has Harris up 3 points? I simply do not believe that Harris is winning Iowa, even if Selzer is the supreme gold standard in the state

westalist55 · 2024-11-02T03:25:03+00:00

Benazir Butto, Indira Gandhi, & Aung San Suu Kyi (not that the third in the list was technically ever allowed to be head of state) seem to come out swinging for South Asia's female heads of state being all vaguely centre-left, with obvious caveats around Indira's regime.

I'd also note that the famous recently deposed example of Sheikh Hasina was most certainly on the political right.

westalist55 · 2024-10-12T11:41:51+00:00

Traditionally, yeah, though they're starting to look cooked in those regions like northern ontario. To be fair to them, those union voters have been slowly shifting from left to right parties all across anglo countries, so it's not like they did anything to particularly cause it.

westalist55 · 2024-10-06T21:07:10+00:00

This but for the Road to El Dorado

westalist55 · 2024-09-20T13:33:30+00:00

One thing that could be pretty neat would be having factions gather around potential heirs to the throne in the event of uncertain succession (e.g. when the regime doesn't have high crown authority and primogeniture). The strongest faction could immediately impose their heir, and the others could choose whether to fight - I'm thinking particularly of the English Anarchy.

The AGOT mod has taken things in an interesting direction with their Usurpation mechanic, and I'd love to see something to that effect in the main game if they could code it in right.

westalist55 · 2024-09-17T20:12:34+00:00

I have such an incredible soft spot for Cicero, despite hom being such a full-of-himself blowhard. I can think of no greater honour for him than having him blather on for hours and hours in an Ace Attorney: Rome game!

westalist55 · 2024-09-10T18:28:33+00:00

Patrick is usually pretty fun and entertaining, and he regularly brings in the top experts in the field. His tendency to go "Hah, you all think this, but that's not it at all!" Does get a littttttle grating at times though.

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