Join the new world

So I used to play eRepublik about two years ago (I think) and I see they've added houses and air combat. The game hasn't been too user friendly in my experience. If I wasn't asking other people how things worked, I'd be pretty lost/frustrated/useless.

Anyway, last I remembered I believe Canada was owned by Spain or something which was pretty trippy. I was on a different account (which I basically lost by forgetting it's info) and had pretty recently became a congressman. I forgot which party I was with, but I definitively remember the American Freedom Alliance were just generally the bad guys. I think they either were foreigners on different accounts or something to that effect.

I didn't get fully immersed into the game due to my laptop breaking when I began to put some effort into finding out, so I don't really remember where the US stood in the world. I remember being part of a big ass alliance but still struggling. I think some states were taken over by Serbia if I'm not mistaken.

So because the quest article has incentivized me to, someone feel free to fill me in on what's going on now. Is there a good reason to keep playing this or is it basically dead? What's up eMuricans?