Jack of Harts

The South American Union is well-named. It is a union of independent Nation States. They have a Union Council, and each State in South America and each off world colony has a single seat on it. They elect a President from their number who is authorized to perform foreign relations and run a military much like many nations. But a simple majority vote of the council can abrogate any decision made by the President. Or remove the President altogether. Of course each Councilor only serves a single four-year term, with a quarter of them replaced each year to make certain there is a constant influx of new blood and the old blood are soon retired. This keeps the central government from growing too big for the States to keep in check.

The South American Union arose out of the fires of the violence accompanying the Second Great Depression to become a major world power. They may not have been one of the Big Three, but they had no wish to survive under the benign, at best, neglect of anyone else. They move into space on their own, built their own orbital elevator, and planted their own colonies on the Moon, Mars, and beyond. They even went to the stars on their own terms and colonized worlds and systems as they could. Though they did cooperate with the Western Alliance when it came to colonizing some of the open worlds like Pacifica, Paradisia, and Serenity. They had no reason to antagonize the Alliance after all. Playing nice rarely hurt anyone.

Tiktok is a platform run by the Chinese Communist Party via golden shares that give them control over it. I absolutely support methods of either banning the app or divesting it from the CCP. But I do not like the current law that suddenly went through the House like a wildfire. For one, I am always suspicious when both sides of the Uniparty in Washington suddenly go all gungho for any bill. For two, I remember when we passed the Patriot Act, and we now live in a world where it is aimed at parents who disagree with school boards over pornography in school libraries. For three, does anybody remember when the Democrats and their tame news media claimed anybody who disagreed with them was controlled by Russia? I do. So I wonder who this bill will be aimed at next.