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Saturday, Dec 27, 2025 - 00:06 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

We Can Has Defiance Too

With it coming to the end of 2025, it is appropriate to visit the (rather prescient) Strength, Respect and Strategy theme first proposed in April, on contemporary geopolitics:


Strength (Naval, and Other)


Missed! I nuke E6 on my turn!
(Source: theguardian.com)


Some few days after this blog's reporting on Team Red's calculated defiance in response to Amerika's imperial gesture, GEOTUS has countered with some of his own - in particular, the TRUMP-class battleship USS Defiant*, part of his new Golden Fleet, as a statement of American maritime industrial might. Per the announcement, the U.S. Navy will acquire some twenty-plus of this 35,000-ton vessel type, which will have TRUMP as one of the lead designers due to his proven aesthetic taste**. There would be some debate on the functionality of such battleships in an age of cheap and expendable drones, but the actual technical description suggests an oversized missile cruiser, i.e. an ocean-based artillery platform packing over a hundred vertical launching systems for some pretty large warheads... or heck, maybe even some of those newfangled cheap drones.

This then also recalls our observation back in June about America's diminished shipbuilding capacity of some five ships a year, on which it might be rationalized that if one can only build so few, they might as well be really good. The construction is planned to take place at the Hanwha Philly Shipyard in Pennsylvania, although it probably won't be in time for the ongoing blockade - sorry, quarantine - of Venezuela... or their oil, at least. Russia would compare*** the U.S. swiping of oil tankers to piracy, which, uh, I guess it kind of is. But what are they gonna do about it, especially since the U.S. Coast Guard had a proper, signed letter of marque seizure warrant? The Gulf of Mexico America is Mare Nostrum, after all, and the Venezuelan oil industry has been declared La Cosa Nostra.

However, all this is a bit of a sideshow for now, with The Emperor rather more engaged in reprising Caesar's footsteps. There would be the US$1776 Warrior Dividend for the Imperial Legions troops, on top of the US$2000 Tariff Dividend**** for the common plebeians citizens, since every successful Roman Emperor knows that it pays to be generous (especially to the Praetorian Guard). Culturally, there has been an attempt at bipartisan public works, echoing Trajan, coming alongside a lawsuit by The National Trust for Historic Preservation to halt the construction of the Big Beautiful Ballroom, due to it dwarfing the rest of the White House. Personally, if the Trust doesn't want the other Wing to be demolished too to maintain the balance, they might find some way to withdraw this lawsuit pronto...

The GOD-EMPEROR can't stop winning on the economic end either, it appears, with the Commerce Department recently announcing a blistering 4.3% GDP growth rate in the third quarter, together with a relatively low inflation rate of 2.7%. This would precipitate much screeching on Reddit on how the figures are cooked, to which foreign (especially Team Red) observers might be sniggering at their being new to the propaganda not going their way. Anyway, these figures do indeed appear aimed at the ongoing GDP tussle with China (first explained in Turn 14 of Twilight Struggle: New Moon back in October 2023), and I daresay we may see a lot more... creative accounting, as the race for supremacy heats up.


[*It would be noted by naval buffs that the class of the ship type typically follows the name of its first ship, but Caesar had never been much for convention. In any case, while the U.S. Navy has had three ships carry the USS Defiance name, the adjectival form appears to channel Star Trek, which has had (or will have?) two ships bearing that exact moniker. Well, as the founder of the U.S. Space Force, at present the most-likely precursor to Starfleet (or maybe also the Navis Imperialis), it seems pretty obvious what GEOTUS was aiming for.]

[**Which means gold. A lot of gold. As seen in his Oval Office design. However, given that the price of (an ounce of) gold has risen from less than US$2700 from when he resumed office, to over US$4500 today, it may be that the guy is simply a better investor and businessman than most of his critics.]

[***They have also evacuated their diplomats from Venezuela, so perhaps they understand what's probably going to happen.]

[****The spoils of (trade or military) war, distributed in what the Romans called a TRIUMPH. This edition to possibly include proceeds from some of that sweet Venezuelan war booty.]


[To be continued...]



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