Bay 12 Games Forum

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/9/chinas-xi-beijing-supports-peace-talks-between-russia-ukraine

"In a statement, a German government spokesperson said: “Chancellor Scholz, President Macron, and President Xi agreed to fully support all negotiations aimed at a diplomatic solution to the conflict."

Acceptable Star Trek future? Is the button I would push in a Paradox game to move forward here. Seriously though it is an interesting article with a different point of view from what I'm used to.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/3/7/xi-should-pressure-putin-to-end-this-war-for-chinas-own-sake

If this war truly reduces Russia into a client of China, Xi can supersede the legacy of Mao, who could only break with Khrushchev’s Soviet Union but never overtook it in their rivalry. He can even supersede Emperor Kang Xi, the most powerful ruler of the Qing Dynasty, who nevertheless signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 that recognised Russia’s possession of Siberia north of the Amur river.

If China steps in and pressures Putin to end this war now, with a now dependent Russia as its sidekick, it could dominate Eurasia with its Belt-Road Initiatives. Xi would be the most powerful Chinese ruler since Kublai Khan in the 13th century. This would pose a great challenge to the West, but a rivalry with Xi’s China would likely be much safer than one with Putin’s Russia acting like North Korea.

I found this bill after a browser search:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6753/text?r=10&s=1

To provide enhanced authority for the President to enter into agreements with the Government of Ukraine to lend or lease defense articles to that Government to protect civilian populations in Ukraine from Russian military invasion, and for other purposes.

Also that was bad of me to think such a bill would go beyond Ukraine. That's what I was worried about so I hesitated to just call for something like that without trying to learn about it. I would like to help out other countries including China with covid medicines if we have a surplus during low case numbers.

I don't have expectations of Xi and Biden to become best friends but I do hope for warming relations over time between our two countries.

I actually haven't checked this thread lately, sorry for not paying as much attention. It looks like there are a lot of places with high numbers still.

I wouldn't mind a covid lockdown but it might have to be organized in a rolling fashion around the world and all the places with outbreaks at once.

Do you think Omicron will be the last big wave? I don't know but I hope so. If the scale of it goes down at some point I'd hope we might have enough pandemic savvy to eliminate it if that's possible.

Yes, I misnamed them humanitarian corridors in my last post and fixed it to say evacuation corridors.

EDIT: From Al Jazeera livethread

Russia will stop offensive ‘in a moment’ if Ukraine meets demands, Kremlin says

Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to halt its offensive “in a moment” if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Peskov told the Reuters news agency that Moscow was demanding that Ukraine cease military action and change its constitution to enshrine neutrality.

The Kremlin also wants Kyiv to acknowledge the annexed Crimean Peninsula as Russian territory and recognise the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhuansk in Ukraine’s east as independent states, he added.

Peskov told Reuters all the demands had been formulated and announced during the first two rounds of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, which took place last week.

I like Fareed's idea also because he argues that it seems to have a reduced effect on global warming than usual extraction expansion schemes. I could wish for a too tiny tax not worth campaigning on to remove upon the increased production that goes towards fusion reactor research, but I also just thought of that and didn't check to see if it could be a good idea or not.

EDIT2: Unnecessary edit explanation removed

I found this wiki link while reading a news article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Russia

Here is the US one for comparison, I looked it up to be fair.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_United_States

I'm not an expert on the subject but I thought it was a useful link to find in the news after reading this:
(just found this site after complaining in a thread a few months ago about not having a good resource for normal people to read about current event military stuff, can't remember if I had seen it before but I don't usually pay too much attention to military topics unless it's big in the news at the time; they are doing daily reports in their publications with more information than television usually has, but of course take it with a grain of salt if you prefer.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-5

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/explainer-russian-conscription-reserve-and-mobilization

In 2021, the Russian military started a new initiative to remedy its lack of a ready reserve, the Russian Combat Army Reserve (BARS-2021). BARS-2021 aimed to establish an active reserve by recruiting volunteer reservists for three-year contract service.[15] BARS-2021 operated on the same principle as US and NATO reserves, where reservists actively train and are compensated. The concept of BARS-2021 was that volunteer Russian reservists would regularly participate in monthly exercises and maintain their mobilization readiness while maintaining their civilian jobs.[16]

I may have misinterpreted that for this, but it sounds possible:
https://www.foxnews.com/world/ukraine-invasion-russian-conscripts-military-contracts-family

Parents of Russian conscripts who say they've lost communications with their loved ones are pleading with Kremlin officials for answers as to where family members have been sent amid concerns they have been forced to sign contracts to fight as part of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, according to the report.

Olga Larkina, the director of Russia’s Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, spoke to Russian investigative news outlet Meduza, describing how Russian conscripts – those fulfilling military enlistment requirements – had been pressured, or at times even forced to sign contracts to become soldiers for the Russian military.

"Mothers are telling us that their sons have been calling them and saying they’re being forced to sign contracts. We believe it’s wrong to force a conscript to become a contract soldier," Larkina said, according to the translated article. "The parents who have gotten in touch have told us their sons were just taken by military officers, stamped, and that’s it — now they’re contract soldiers."

I don't know if that form of contract falls under the Russian Civil Code or if it's completely seperate or treated differently which would make sense, but I did learn from an old website with limited information (so I am not sure if it is still accurate or even if it has some relation to the military service contracts) that for Russian Civil Code generally a contract becomes invalid under pressure. (again I don't know if this applies to the contract in the news article). I read that it is not allowed to force the making of a Civil Code contract unless otherwise provided by law.

This appears to be similar to the concept of nullification of agreements made "Under Duress" in the contract law of some other countries. In addition it appears that contracts in Russia can be voided through a process I know absolutely nothing about and damages can possibly be obtained in some instances, though again I don't know if any of that would be applicable especially with the phrase "unless otherwise provided by law." My apologies if any of my conjecture from search results is incorrect, I really know next to nothing about it except what was in those links and I may have been linking legal things together incorrectly due to knowing extremely little about it but that both involve the word "contract" at least... I checked because I did some small study of US contract law a few years ago and I was wondering if there was a similar Under Duress function, but I realized I am completely unqualified to even know where to start and it would take a long time assuming I could find legal sources in English.

EDIT: Many edits. I'm sad and angry to see what has happened; sad and angry for those Russians as well as Ukrainians and all the others who are victims of these events. I don't know how to say that better in a way that takes into better account of the costs of this war. I am sure with more time spent on this it may have been possible to attempt to be more eloquent and flowery, but as we are both human I hope concluding with the strength of a general principle of shared humanity will suffice for a reader. That said, I don't expect the war to end quickly from what I'm reading in the news, but I am no expert and stranger things have happened before.

How do you think a fusion age (assuming we can even reach it with a callous bastard like Putin in charge of a largely reliant on petrochemical economy who won't trust that Russia wouldn't have been left behind by a change in energy production) would impact your calculations? Actual question, not saying it's possible at this time as we don't know when (if is seeming more and more likely) power generating sustainable fusion will come about, though I'm looking forward to the new materials test.

I also think the oil and natural gas industry is going to try to make hay before fusion comes around finally. They seem to be clamoring for drilling rights in at least the US again after a series of boom and bust cycles. I think that would be bad long term despite the short term advantages as it will already be like pulling teeth to implement fusion widely with such a vested interest against it.

I was going to sleep until the State of the Union, but the posts I made above gnawed at me and I couldn't. I think that I was far too angry to post well. In addition to the overly foul language I feel that I said divisive and mean things and more importantly brought internal politics into something that is far less partisan than most things and did so at a very bad time to do so. I do feel bad at type yelling at Biden through a computer monitor in a forums I doubt he frequents. I was really considering apologizing to Tucker for posting the wiki to 5th column after I mentioned him yet fuck that it's a bridge too far for me at least today. To be fair to him I only know what he said before the war started, not what he's saying now.

I do think that even if there is no fly zone right away, that the preperation in case it is needed should be made ready (I have no idea how long it takes to have ground crews and maintenence gubbins ready). I also think having an army on the Western border of Ukraine would be useful in backing up Ukraine, but while I understand it's not as easy as I make it sound it probably also takes time to put it together if you feel you need a corridor or something. I apologize for not posting simply that the first time instead of a shrill rant.

I also believe I made some false statements, for example about twenty seconds after I laid down to sleep the Polish representitive to something, the EU I think, was asked about Polish government thoughts on ground troops (maybe no fly zone too can't remember) and said they did not support it today. I think I said in my earlier post that Eastern European Nato allies would prefer readying a counter invasion army which appears to have been quite wrong, and it was wrong of me to say that without checking first.

I've heard some pondering on an off ramp for Putin. At least the very start of that is simple, the fighting needs to stop and that will probably take a withdrawal of Russian forces unless one side capitulates, and it looks to be a long costly and bloody war for both sides if that happens. Until then there is no off ramp, but it's accessible at any time. It's not like it's the end of the world to take such an off ramp, after all, not even a quagmire to be stuck in.

Afterwards, I don't know. I had a crazy idea to suggest a neutral buffer state in between Europe and Russia before the war started, but I never saw an opportunity. I might have floated it upon this internet if Putin had made a deal or even simply stopped pressuring Ukraine with a buildup, but in my opinion I shouldn't have at the time because of it seeming like a Dirty Document style suggestion. If Ukraine survives this war in it's current form without being able to associate or join the EU (or NATO but I think the rules disallow that when in conflict), then maybe?  but I also don't have a clue what Ukrainians would think about being such a buffer state if the EU doesn't associate/invite them and their opinion on that is more important than my distant and uninformed guess disguised as an opinion.

Here is the fictional setting where I got this silly idea, a state (created in the fictional example from portions of the two larger powers) between two mutually antagonistic nations, armed and supported by both sides.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/FRR

Finally LW I'm sorry for tripping out about the joke you made, it wasn't even bad and I expressed my opinion very poorly on a subject that would require far more words than the inelegant if not even insulting way I responded to you.