Russia should invade:

With the Hanako route done that's 3/5 of Trinoline Genesis done.  Ayaka and Sara left to go.  Clearly the game won't last me all the way to Beijing, but it's still been fun.

I'm at exactly 1,000/1,100 in my music listening 'victory lap' to ensure all the songs rated 5-star deserve to be there.  So far so good.  The new entries fit in fine, they don't even seem weaker than the original crew.

As for the latest Choyoyu volume, it was brilliant, the only problem being it felt a little too short.  I wanted more accomplished given that there are only two volumes left before the ending.  I like how the heroes used their wits, not sheer strength, to overcome their enemy, and how unique the villains are compared to generic maou's of other series.

I feel a little stupid for buying Trinoline Genesis and Choyoyu when both were available to be pirated almost as quickly as their commercial releases, but what the heck, I can afford it, and sometimes I want to help out the industry.

I have a one-sided stance on Russia-Ukraine.  Obviously none of this would have happened if Ukraine hadn't launched a coup against the democratically elected Yakunovych in 2014.  If they had just waited for the next election cycle and won in a fair vote, neither Russia nor Ukraine's Russia-leaning provinces would have had any complaints.  But the coup started a chain reaction which is still reverberating to this day.  First the coup alienated the districts that had supported Yakunovych and felt cheated out of their legitimate government whom they had elected.  Then they decided democracy and elections no longer worked in Ukraine and turned to extra-legal means -- secession and in the case of Crimea integrating into Russia.  Then the coup-created government of Ukraine started cracking down on the secessionists and massacring them, which led to an even stronger counter-reaction and Russian intervention, and so on and so forth.

To this day the illegitimate government of Ukraine represses its Russian-speaking minority, attacks the separatists in Donetsk, and threatens the long-gone province of Crimea with violent reconquest.  With such badly behaving neighbors, who constantly threaten to invade and conquer your territory (Crimea), of course Russia would eventually get fed up and decide to put Ukraine down like the rabid dog it is once and for all.

America would not put up with Mexico constantly shelling Texas and threatening to invade and retake California either, regardless of whether you think America was 'in the right' when it came to the Mexican-American war.  Some things are settled history, there are no redos.  They lost and we won, and the land is ours now.

The only reason Ukraine even has a military today is because Russia, alongside the Donetsk separatists, who had them completely surrounded and militarily defeated, offered to spare them in return for the Minsk agreement, which promised peaceful and fair conduct towards the Russian provinces of Ukraine from here on.  Ukraine was happy to sign that agreement and rescue its military from certain destruction, but they have never fulfilled a single part of said treaty ever since.

I would like to see the final defeat of Ukraine's military and government, its wholesale destruction and slaughter, so that it can no longer threaten anyone ever again.  Not Donetsk, not Odessa, not Crimea, not Russia, nobody.  A new regime should be put in which promises never to attack or threaten to attack anyone and doesn't even have a military anymore.  This seems to be the only way to make it clear to the people in Kiev that their days of grandstanding and braggadocio are over, that they really did lose the war and they really are pathetic puppies yipping in the face of Russia's overwhelming military might.  Naturally this should include a guarantee that Ukraine doesn't join a military alliance and use its territory as a staging ground for foreign troops to threaten Russia or Russian minorities like the people of Donetsk either.

If Ukraine can't accede to these basic security guarantees for Crimea, Donetsk, Russia, Luhansk, etc. then they should be completely conquered and administered by Russia from here on.  Belligerent nations have no right to exist.  Just like how Israel took the territory of belligerents who insisted on attacking them over and over again to forever stop the violence coming from those quarters, Russia has the right to do the same to Ukraine.  Those who can't learn must be made to learn the consequences of their actions.

For that matter to this day Russia occupies formerly German and Japanese land because they were tired of getting attacked by them.  No one disputes Russia's rights to those territories and NATO isn't demanding the return of East Prussia.  Why is Ukraine somehow special and immune to the consequences of its foolish, aggressive actions?

Does anyone argue it's wrong for Serbia to have lost the territory of Kosovo after starting an aggressive ethnic cleansing of that province?  How can America argue that it's okay for Serbia to lose territory when it misbehaves but Ukraine's territory is sacrosanct?  It was the exact same situation!  A crackdown on a separatist minority!  And we bombed Serbia for it and applauded Ukraine.  Give me a break.

I expect Putin to invade Ukraine and I hope he does.  His is the side of justice.  He would be a liberator of all the Russian-speaking provinces of Ukraine who have been put through hell by the coup-government of Kiev.  I also expect NATO and Biden to do nothing, to make a series of limp-wristed gestures that have zero real-world effect on Russia, and for the west to be completely humiliated and defanged after the world sees it is all talk and no substance.  I expect shortly after that China, if it had any sense at all, would then go ahead and conquer Taiwan because obviously Biden doesn't have the guts to protect it either.  But who knows, China seems to be more patient and prudent than Russia.  Putin is more a man of action than Xi.

The worst thing that could happen is for Putin to back down after all his ultimatums and talk of 'countdowns.'  If it turns out that Putin is in fact a pussy who won't defend Crimea from Ukrainian belligerence, it's only a matter of time before NATO tries its luck, accepts Ukraine as an ally, and then goes to war to 'liberate' Crimea in a 'defensive war' against 'Russian aggression' which would qualify NATO's treaty obligations.  It's a ticking timer.  If you don't conquer Ukraine once and for all next they'll be invading you.  What better time to invade Ukraine than now, with a 79 year old dotard at the helm of the US military who already fled Afghanistan and abandoned it to the terrorists who did 9/11?  Putin should have invaded yesterday.  Every day this is prolonged Putin looks weaker and weaker, and the invasion of Russia in the future becomes more and more assured.

There are plenty of countries with essentially non-existent militaries.  Requiring Ukraine, who has shown they are too belligerent and reckless when allowed one, not to have one, is a small price to pay for all the world chaos they've created because they couldn't just wait, like everyone else, to unseat their unpopular president next election.  Do you think Biden is popular?  Everyone regrets he's in charge and every poll shows Trump would win if we could redo the election today.  Still, we don't act like petulant children and overthrow the elected president in a series of riots and street fights.  We wait patiently for the next election and challenge his unconstitutional mandates in the courts.  We behave like a civilized people.  That's all Russia ever asked of Ukraine.  If their civilization is simply too incompetent to reach this minimum floor of behavior then Ukraine as a nation shouldn't exist.  Let some adult administer them instead.  Russia, Poland, whoever.  Obviously Ukraine isn't up to the task.