Issue V, April 6,2013
Frattastan Elected TRR Delegate!
Bells rang out all over The Rejected Realms this week when Frattastan was announced the victor of The Rejected Realms delegate election. Frattastan defeated Abbey Anumia 10-6 in the week-long election, which saw a good turnout from The Rejected Realms citizenry. Fratt will be replacing Whamabama, who served as delegate for over a year. Whamabama's term saw a few notable cultural events and the start of this newspaper; we wish Whamabama the best in his future endeavors. Frattastan is only the eigth known delegate in TRR history (excluding invaders who held the delegacy for a matter of days), following Louldamin, Gres, MrNonchalant, Kandarin, Sedgistan, Guy, and Whamabama. We have high hopes for the term of this new delegate and wish him the best of luck in the upcoming months!
The North Pacific Shifts to the Right (Cont'd); Jamie Elected Delegate!
At the time of writing, The North's rightward shift can be plainly seen. The North Pacific's Vice Delegate, Evil Wolf mocks those who dare to criticize the actions of The North Pacific Army in the World Factbook Entry - linking bystanders to a forum post that the former Raider Commander childishly has entitled "Cormac annoyed TNP Miliary [sic] does stuff he doesn't like".
Although it is perfectly within the constitutional rights of Cormac Stark, in a democratic region, to criticize the actions of the military (and for that matter, very common), the Vice Delegate has taken the unprecedented action of mocking his citizen's legitimate criticism. Alternatively, you would be hard-pressed to see Durkadurkiranistan, Mallorea and Riva or Punk Reloaded being mocked in Evil Wolf's World Factbook Entry for expressing their annoyance at The North Pacific Army's (past) defender slant.
Cormac Stark was criticizing The North Pacific Army's decision to support the occupation of Warhammer 40000 by The Black Hawks -- which only passes the restrictions of The North Pacific Army Doctrine since The Black Hawks was the one leading the occupation, not The North Pacific Army (an interesting loophole). A vote to override the support mission in Warhammer 40000 failed 28-18 in The North Pacific Regional Assembly basically on the new voting lines of Raiderdom and Defenderdom present in The North -- with a few exceptions, including those who switched their votes to reflect the fact that the occupation was over before the vote concluded.
The reality is neutral regions are rarely "neutral", they simply shift between Defenderism and Raiderism through alienation and patronage. Childishly mocking a citizen on a World Factbook Entry for expressing an unpopular opinion is a simple, blatant form of alienation intended to make a citizen like Cormac Stark feel uncomfortable and more importantly, other citizens are supposed to feel uncomfortable expressing a similar opinion as him. Public humiliation is a common element of propaganda. In Orwell's Nineteen-Eighty-Four, citizens were given a "Two Minutes Hate" time to express their hatred of Emmanuel Goldstein. Being conditioned to laugh at the "enemy of the state" is the next best thing behind hating/ fearing them.
"Raiders like Blue Wolf insist upon tolerance for their views in the Feeders and Sinkers," Cormac Stark told The Rejected Times, "but when they achieve positions of power rarely do they practice the tolerance for other views that they demand for their own. What "independence" really means in the Feeders and Sinkers is a subtle endorsement of raiderism and erosion of the rights of defenders to participate in their communities".
Meanwhile, the signs of "Raidarchy" can be seen in the legal mechanisms of The North Pacific. All the court justices have a significant personal bias against defenders - Justice Punk Reloaded is a raiderist as partisan as Judge Scalia, meanwhile Chief Justice Abbey Anumia and Justice Sanctaria are notable "bi-gameplayers" who have been very critical of The United Defenders League after their messy departures. Attorney-General Gaspo (also known as "Griefy mcspamburger" - not kidding) is a staunch raiderist and Sovereign Confederation co-founder. This ultimately has turned the Court into a weapon against defenders and defender-leaning members of The North Pacific - since 2013, all cases that have gone to court have been against defenders and defender-leaning members: TNP v. Unibot, TNP v. Kogvuron, The North Pacific v. Grosseschnauzer, The North Pacific v. Eluvatar and The North Pacific v. Ravania.
The trend is startling: in nearly every case, the Attorney-General aims for an extremely harsh sentence to frame the defendant as an "enemy of state".
Colorful examples include Unibot being charged with two counts of fraud and a count of conspiracy for wearing The North Pacific's Coat of Arms as a national flag for less than sixty seconds or even more extreme, Eluvatar being charged with Treason, Sedition, Espionage and Election Fraud (later reduced to Treason and Espionage) for releasing logs that showed Evil Wolf intended to coup The North Pacific one year ago. This same citizen, Eluvatar, while defending himself against the charges of Treason and Espionage, was happily praised by Evil Wolf, of all people, for his loyalty to The North Pacific (even promoted to the rank of "Major") when Eluvatar reported, what Evil Wolf has come to refer to as, a case of "espionage" by The United Defenders League. Evil Wolf's tune on Eluvatar has conveniently changed depending upon the target of Eluvatar's fact-finding.
However, as these court cases develop, the usual trend of these cases has been for the Attorney-General to fail to defend his or her charges and simply wait for the case to be "Dismissed without Prejudice". Therefore the purpose of these cases is not to pursue justice but to intimidate, humiliate and exhaust defender-leaning members.
During the Special Election for The North Pacific's Delegate, Eluvatar proved to be a more popular candidate than had been expected and was the clear frontrunner - proof that a starved left-wing in the North will vote for any credible left-leaning candidate among a smorgasbord of "moderate" right-wing candidates regardless of their well-known history of inactivity and unreliability. Curiously, Evil Wolf waited till after Eluvatar was well ahead of him in votes before approaching the Court with a legal challenge that would eventually be upheld and would disqualify Eluvatar from running for Delegate.
With only two credible candidates, Evil Wolf and Jamie Anumia, left, the result was extremely predictable: Jamie Anumia defeated Evil Wolf, 22-12, in Runoff, by uniting the left, the centre and the centre-right's votes even more so that his predecessor, Mcmasterdonia (who had Tim-Opolis to split the far left). Whether Jamie Anumia really is a more "defender-friendly" delegate than Evil Wolf, or simply a continuation of The North's rightward drift remains to be seen, but defender-leaning members are optimistic.
"I think Jamie," explains Cormac to The Rejected Times, "while a raider, is more fair-minded than raiders like Blue Wolf who have always been pushing an agenda in TNP. Jamie has always been more about what's best for TNP than he has been about the old R/D arguments, so I'm hoping he won't deliberately push controversial and divisive agendas to advance raiding".
Commentary: Eluvatar in Potential Double Jeopardy; "Have we really sunk so low?" asks Flemingovia
Imagine that a loyal regional citizen who has been with your region for half a dozen years was charged with espionage and treason, because said defendant leaked IRC logs showing that the plaintiff intended to coup your region.
Sound like the butt of a bad joke? Well, not in The North Pacific. That's a summary of The North Pacific v. Eluvatar. Apparently, preventing the region from being couped by Blue Wolf is treasonous in The North Pacific - that's right, folks, Blue Wolf isn't on trial for being caught have tried to coup The North Pacific, Eluvatar is on trial for treason and espionage because he leaked the evidence that Blue Wolf was trying to do this. Hey, TNP? Italy is calling... it wants its legal system back.
Like every other farce of a case in The North Pacific, The North Pacific v. Eluvatar ended with a justice dismissing the case without prejudge after the prosecution failed to make any arguments.
Case closed, right?
Think again! Shortly thereafter an informal vote appeared in the Regional Assembly to refile charges against Eluvatar. How many do you think would go for such an insane proposition? 10% of the R.A.? 15%? Try 41.7%. The vote isn't in yet and Eluvatar is by no means safe.
Flemingovia, long-time citizen of TNP and apparently one of the few people with common sense left in The North, refused to vote after rhetorically asking, "Are we REALLY deciding criminal proceedings by populist polls nowadays? Have we really sunk so low?" I am sorry to inform Flemingovia that The North Pacific has in fact sunk to that new low.
Interview with Astarial
CEO Kogvuron recently sat down with SovCon Secretary General Astarial, who had some harsh words for this publication.
Kogvuron: Hello Astarial, and thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by The Rejected Times
Astarial: Thanks for having me!
Kogvuron: So, whose idea was SovCon?
Astarial: I can't really credit the idea to one person. We started out thinking of forming a new defending organization, but as we brought in more people that evolved into something more niche.
Kogvuron: A defending organization? Now I'm a little disappointed that didn't happen
. How did you get involved?Astarial: Wham approached me in the fall about starting our own org, and I was interested. He showed me the stuff that already existed, like the charter, and we made a bunch of changes to fix it up, but the final structure is pretty close to the original design. As for defender org - we didn't feel that a pure defender org made much sense in the current climate. Defending as a strict ideology has a much more limited appeal than it did when I started playing the game. Today's regions are much more concerned with maintaining their independence, sovereignty, and identities and those concerns resonated with us as well.
Kogvuron: Who else was involved in the development of the organization?
Astarial: Well, Wham and I, of course
Kogvuron: Anyone else?
Astarial: We approached Tim and Cormac at first, to see about an Equilism-Spiritus foundation, but that fell by the wayside as we realized that pure defending wasn't our goal. After that, we brought in a number. Biyah and Gaspo are big names, of course, and currently sit on the executive council. Cormac and Madjack were brought in as well. Lord Ravenclaw too. NK and Dali contributed some ideas to our drafting process - I believe Dali was the author of the original charter. I don't remember when we brought in Nev and KK, but they were part as well. And we reached out to a few figures in other regions, to float the idea past them prior to our launch, but who didn't contribute to developing the idea.
Kogvuron: How do you think SovCon can benefit regions?
Astarial: I think SovCon offers a lot of benefits to our members. A huge one, of course, is mutual defense. If any of our members come under attack, the whole organization will stand in its defense. Not all members are likely to need this - Equilism, Unknown, and Gatesville are foundered regions, after all - but the unexpected can always happen and we'll be there if they do. We also offer improved cooperation on other matters. If our five members want to work together on a military operation, for example, our Military Secretary can act as a single point of contact between the commanders of different militaries, rather than members having to coordinate between five different people with five different schedules. This goes for other areas as well - cooperation on WA resolutions (drafting, understanding, repealing), internal security/intelligence work, and such. We've got a fair bit of talent in our org, and that talent is available to help our members in cases where the regions by themselves might not have those skills
Kogvuron: Is SovCon open to any regions who want to join?
Astarial: Yes and no. We don't have any particular requirements in terms of political/military stance in NS, so defender, raider, neutral, independent, and mixed regions are all welcome. In fact, we've got quite a mix of those currently. But at the same time, members need to align with the values of the organization as a whole and refrain from egregiously violating them - so I can say pretty definitively that GGR, for example, would be laughed out the door, and tag raiders would be scrutinized pretty heavily. But I think regions themselves have a pretty good idea of whether we'd be a good fit with them, so I don't anticipate many, if any, sincere applications that will simply be denied.
Kogvuron: How did the process of joining go in Equilism?
Astarial: It went better than my wildest expectations. I was anticipating some discussion of the goals of SovCon and the merits of joining, but everyone got wicked psyched as soon as the topic was posted. The whole government, including the founder, ended up unanimously in favor.
Kogvuron: In contrast, The Rejected Realms rejected SovCon membership almost unanimously. Were you disappointed by this?
Astarial: I was disappointed, yes. I really think we could have - still can, actually - do a lot for one another. TRR is, structurally, the GCR most vulnerable to invasion or coup, and SovCon's member regions command a significant number of WA nations. A guarantee of that amount of aid would allow TRR to hold off all a lot of attempts. But of course, TRR disagrees with my assessment - and that's okay. If minds change in the future - perhaps when we've been around a while, and people can see that the overhyped terror over us trying to coup all regions is simply hysterics, we'd absolutely welcome TRR with open arms. And if that doesn't happen, we'll still be there to aid it if its government is ever threatened.
Kogvuron: Were you surprised by such a resounding rejection?
Astarial: I'm not sure if I was surprised or not. I'm not a member of TRR, of course, so I can't say that I had (or have) a good feel for its pulse. And while on the one hand I expected the delegate's endorsement of the org to carry some sway, on the other hand there was a lot of negative propaganda being thrown around that I think colored some peoples' opinions.
Kogvuron: The Rejected Times has been critical of SovCon in recent issues. Are there any points in our articles that you would like to respond to?
Astarial: Yes, there are. I don't have any issue with criticism as such - having our actions critiqued is simply part of life. But there are many things that I think have appeared which are simply propaganda designed to make us look bad, most (if not all) of them written by a single (anonymous) author. I feel that this reflects poorly on The Rejected Times, as it tars the whole outlet with one person's extreme bias. For example, in the very first issue, SovCon is called a "get-active-quick" scheme, half-baked, derived from previous conflict-intense associations, a traveling magic show, disrespectful of soveriegnty, identity, and investment, run by deluded coupers, failed (a mere week after launching!), and scandalous - and ends with a glowing endorsement of a treaty between TNP, TSP and Osiris that has nothing to do with either TRR or SovCon.
Kogvuron: Which specific part of that statement do you contend?
Astarial: I object to the entire list of accusations that were flung out, without any hint of proof, simply to smear an organization because the author doesn't like it. If we're half-baked: prove it. If we're a magic show: prove it. If we, completely contrary to our own stated positions, don't respect sovereignty or regional identity: prove it. Simply hurling mud to see what sticks is unprofessional, and The Rejected Times owes its audience better, and should demand better of its writing staff. Moving on to the second issue, what appears to be the same author attempts to spin the newly signed treaty between TEP and UDL as a blow against SovCon, inaccurately spinning TEP has having voted against signing SovCon's charter and completely ignoring the fact that the two are separate issues in TEP. With, again, the same absurd nonsense that SovCon is simply The Empire repackaged for new and different kinds of doom. This sort of drivel is fear-mongering, plain and simple. It belongs in a tabloid, not a serious news outlet.
Kogvuron: Do you contend the statement that SovCon has a large population of ex-feeder/sinker coupers?
Astarial: Of course it would be absurd to deny that some of our members have been involved in such activities in the past - some of them more than once. But I firmly believe that eternal damnation and ostracization ought to be reserved for those who commit truly egregious acts, and that people deserve the chance to grow beyond their pasts. I'd also point out that many of these people hold trusted positions in their home regions, and some have even been welcomed into the regions they once overthrew. To quote The West Wing: "Vengeance is not Jewish." I would, however, contest that it is "many"
Kogvuron: I suppose that depends on your definition of many. Have any potential SovCon members expressed worries about their safety due to the past history of some of your membership?
Astarial: Several people have brought up that history in an attempt to paint the entire organization as untrustworthy (often while ignoring large swaths of history), or to advocate for ostracizing the rest of the org as long as those individuals are members, but I have not personally seen instances of a region itself concerned that SovCon will somehow infiltrate, overthrow, or otherwise wrest control from its legitimate government. Rather, that sort of sentiment seems to be limited to hyperbole from certain individuals based on bias, not facts. Let me amend that a little - the loudest, most frequent, and most visible instances are as described. I have seen, in some regions, questions raised by citizens or government officials as to whether and how some individuals' pasts might be reflected in the organization. "Couper", after all, strikes fear into the heart of many a GCR native. These questions are ones we can, and do, engage in dialogue around in order to reassure their askers. But - to tie this into the previous paragraph - they also do not, from what I can tell, represent the overall position of the potential member region.
Kogvuron: Do you envision more regions joining SovCon in the future, or do you think it will stay as a fairly small organization?
Astarial: We're definitely looking to grow, and I think we're quite likely to expand over the coming weeks and months.
Kogvuron: Are you currently in touch with any regions regarding membership in the Confederation?
Astarial: Yeah, we've got some dialogue going in a few places - for example, the East Pacific, whom we've worked with on a few military missions.
Kogvuron: This is the same TEP who just rejected the idea of joining SovCon?
Astarial: That's not exactly what happened. TEP hosted a discussion on their forum, which then stalled due to the delegate's capture by matters of RL(tm) and (I believe) their election cycle. We expected it would be formally picked up once Todd returned, and indeed, as soon as he saw that it had gone to a vote without him, he sought to reopen the topic. I'm not sure how that vote came to pass, exactly, but it was not the final and resounding opposition it was spun as. Our goal is really to develop a relationship with TEP and its budding military. If its citizens decide that membership in SovCon is right for them - great! I certainly have no objection, and think we could benefit one another a great deal. If not, we still want to be able to cooperate with one another in matters where we have mutual self-interest.
Kogvuron: I personally, and probably some others, were a bit confused by the charter. Does SovCon seek to protect the sovereignty of solely its members, or of all regions in NationStates?
Astarial: Our primary concern is our own members - if a member region and a non-member region were to both come under attack at the same time, we would always prioritize the member region. Now, if we could secure our member and also provide some bodies to help the other, we would do our best to do that as well. When our members are not under attack, we seek to protect the sovereignty of non-member regions who will it. That is, we do not consider, for example, detagging, to be an activity for us to engage in. Not only is it handled perfectly adequately by the FRA and UDL, we do not believe that spraying graffiti on an inactive region constitutes a noteworthy violation of that region's sovereignty - as the two or three nations in that region are perfectly capable of taking care of it themselves but simply choose not to. What we're concerned about is the destruction of established communities through griefing raids, where the natives wish to regain control of their region but are unable to do so. So long as the natives care, then so do we.
Kogvuron: So, you are basically a less-defender, more-political version of the FRA with better connections?
Astarial: I'd liken us more to the ADN than the FRA - I seem to recall a kerfuffle a little while back where a foundered region was being griefed in the founder's absence, and FRA was unwilling or unable to deploy because, strictly speaking, the region did *have* a founder. We would never allow that to happen to one of our member regions. Oh, and we also raid.
Kogvuron: Do you raid regions who are not fascist or do you specifically target fascist regions during your invasions?
Astarial: It's not fascist, specifically, that we target - it's extremist. This includes nazis, white supremacists, forum destroyers, and the like - people nearly everyone can agree are just not acceptable - as well as groups who try to force their not-otherwise-objectionable ideology on others.
Kogvuron: So you would target communist regions as well?
Astarial: Or capitalist, or democratic, or monarchial, or fluffy-bunny-glitter. If someone is forcing their ideology on other regions, that's a problem, no matter what the ideology is.
Kogvuron: Last question. Who designed the SovCon flag? It looks quite nice.
Astarial: I did! And thank you!
Kogvuron: Thank you for being here and good luck with SovCon in the future.
TSP Great Council Continues
On March 12, the South Pacific listened to calls for a Great Council from Belschaft, Minister of Security and supporters Hileville, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Carta, Former Delegate. The Great Council is a method for the South Pacific to look at all of its laws at one setting. This allows for mass changes to be made in one large session of the Assembly. The Great Council is open to all nations of the South Pacific not just those who have obtained citizenship.
Immediately the Great Council got under way with a heated discussion on whether or not the South Pacific Army (SPA) is needed. The discussion quickly turned to should the SPA be raider or defender. Unibot, Citizen and Chief of the Band of the United Defenders League made a rare appearance to make a case for the SPA going strictly defender. This rather long argument for a defender army quickly faced the opposition of multiple TSP Citizens. The discussion then turned towards the differences between a "neutral" and "independent" army with a few calls for the SPA to go raider only. Cerian Quilor, a notable raider also stopped by to make a case against Unibot's argument. The discussion ultimately ended in a consensus to keep an "independent" army that could raid and defend whenever it pleases.
A major Charter rewrite was undertaken by Hileville. The proposed Charter simplifies the laws of TSP and introduces a more streamlined system for keeping track of laws and calls for a Bill of Rights to be created. Although the Charter is almost complete a huge hold up has been the Judicial System which tends to me a major focus of every Great Council. While TSP isn't like its close ally The North Pacific when it comes to using the Courts, discussions on the overall need of a Judicial system haven't progressed. Members of the Great Council are advocating to eliminate a standing Justice who has only been used a handful of times over the last two years. While discussion is still ongoing some members just don't see the point. Tsunamy, a returning citizen and creator of the original TSP forums, stated that this discussion has been ongoing since the inception of the Coalition government.
In the coming weeks we will see the final products that come out of the Great Council and they will for sure show a more streamlined Charter and Code of Laws.
Krulltopia Approval Ratings Disappointing
The City Formerly Known as Francograd, The Pacific
The latest government approval ratings were released yesterday by the Pacific News Network and the numbers were quite disappointing for the authoritarian democratic regime government, with Delegate Krulltopia only receiving the approval of 98% of his minions loyal followers. These numbers are a historical low for Krulltopia, and represent a strong drop from the days when the tyrants beloved leaders of the New Pacific Order received high marks, the record belonging to Francos Spain, who received an outstanding 178% approval rating.
One citizen, standing behind a giant banner with Krulltopia's face on it, was outraged by the results. "Our Supreme Leader must not stand for these insults!" he said, while attempting to ignore the gun that was being poked into his back. "I love the Supreme Lea... I'm sorry, I can't say that with a straight face. Wait. No... No!" Krulltopia has promised severe consequences for anyone who disapproved of his rule. "If you don't like our government, Krull will terminate your interests and the WA!" he said.
In other news, Gates the God was fired as the Pacifican speechwriter.
*Credit to The Onion for the basic idea
Political Cartoons
