Newsletter Ranting: Honesty, Delivered Brutally [Mad Marokai!]

[minionofmidas]

Give it a year.

[Vepres]

Newsletter Ranting

Telling it like it is. Angrily.

Alexander Shamilton:
October 19th, 2009

After the day's events it's probably best to remember just a few things. You can't trust anyone but yourself, and you certainly can't trust Hamilton.

In his short time here he's demonstrated nothing short of complete and utter opportunism. He has (Aside from shown his eerily extensive knowledge on past Atlasian events, dating back to June and beyond.) attempted to invade a region with zombies, including one who famously made around 30 posts in a 60 minute period, flip-flopped on a variety of issues, hopped regions to attempt a run for Senate (before aborting it), continued his recruitment of The 50's, among plenty other things.

How brazen are Shamilton's attempts are deception?

Let's take, for instance, his past criticism of Franzl. Franzl is hardly his favorite member, as he's said in public and private, so his comments in Franzl's presidential campaign thread were hardly a surprise, let's take a look:

I'm sure if elected you'll be acting President quite often. Franzl always seems to be disappearing.

This was simply criticism of Franzl's levels of activity. Fair enough, Hamilton just doesn't think Franzl is active enough to handle big responsibilit-

Someone nominate Franzl

Oh.

That's right everyone. Unless it wasn't clear from the link, Hamilton was publicly supporting Franzl for the position of PPT of the Senate, a time consuming job that requires alot of attention (in addition to counting from 1 to 10, not always easy, I tell you) and generally requires a very active member to hold the position. Hamilton doesn't think Franzl is active enough to open a White House thread, make a few comments now and again, and sign bills once in a blue moon, but Hamilton does think he's capable of running the entire Senate.

Let's not stop there, though! No no, let's move on to Hamilton on the issue of regional reform. At first, Hamilton was opposed, but as time went on, he began to brainstorm in progressively greater detail about how to change Senate elections. Discussing the issue with Meeker, Purple State, and others, Hamilton seemed to be legitimately brainstorming to solve a prob-

I'm starting to disagree that there is a serious problem. No more 5-4 victories. No more 8 candidate Presidential races. We have a competitive, active, stable, working system that is actually somewhat balanced. No need for "change."

Ah

Yes, at first he was opposed, then he was brainstorming, then he suddenly did a 180 and said that he doesn't think there's a problem, and that all these attempts at "change" were nothing more than a leftist attempt to grab power. Seriously. (Then, of course, later he signs the petition he previously opposed that he went on to support to some degree and then oppose again.)

What else is there? Well, aside from his flat-out lying about the attempts to recruit Swedish Cheese to the RPP to run on their ticket, in direct contradiction to Franzl's, mine, and Tmth's claims that he wasn't telling the truth, there's also his recent party hopping to the LNF.

This is more opportunism than lying, though no less shameful. He's slithering right into the LNF by wearing their clothes and mimicking their mannerisms. He doesn't have a place in the other parties at the moment, and his partnership with PiT for power, hopefully, fell through. He decided to go under another complete and utter face-lift, acting a differwent way, asserting completely different things, and it's disgusting.

One only has to browse random threads that Hamilton has maintained a presence in to realize his disgusting chameleon attitudes, this article only covers a fraction of it! Changing his positions on a whim, asserting two contradictory things (like his moronic claim that a candidate's platform and a candidate's actual positions being diametrically opposed to one another is A-Okay) flip-flopping, flat out lying, and attempts to blend in with whatever group suits his fancy, Hamilton simply cannot be trusted.

And neither can anyone who associates themselves with him.

I heard Keith Olbermann saying this as I read it

[Lief 🗽]

This paper is awesome.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I heard Keith Olbermann saying this as I read it

A huge compliment, thank you.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I actually 100% agree with Marokai.  When Hamilton first came on board, I warned the party that his short-term recruits would result in long-term problems.  The fact is, I was right but I don't hold it against my friends for accepting the new recruits.

I will issue a full statement later, but it looks like most of the true RPP members, meaning non-Hamilton zombies, will be joining up with SPC and his new party.

I apoligize to a lot of people here, including the editor of this publication, many in my own party, many in the JCP.  The new Hamilton thing made me go off the deep end trying to hold everything together.  Now that we are no longer chained down by Hamilton and his set of zombies, I hope that the left and right can work together in building a more active, fun Atlasia.  I think many can agree that the period before this zombie registration madness were some of the best we ever had.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I don't think I can join a Paleo-Libertarian party.

[Alexander Hamilton]

Again, even after leaving you guys still want to use me as a scapegoat. I don't want to go to war here.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Again, even after leaving you guys still want to use me as a scapegoat. I don't want to go to war here.

You sure haven't acted that way.

[Alexander Hamilton]

Again, even after leaving you guys still want to use me as a scapegoat. I don't want to go to war here.

You sure haven't acted that way.

That was because I was in a particular group. I am now no longer associated with and am free to be myself. So I will reject these statements from the olds.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Newsletter Ranting

Telling it like it is. Angrily.

"Reform" does not mean pointless change.
October 27th, 2009

reform (plural reforms)

   1. Amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved; reformation; as, reform of elections; reform of government.


That is what reform is. Reform involves finding a problem, and changing it to something better, it's quite simple. It does not mean "Hey, see that? Let's change it!"

Unfortunately so many "game reform" advocates today forget this fact. I see many proposals, with, sadly, more along the way, and all of them (aside from the CoG proposal) have one big thing in common. They're all pointless. They're useless changes that aren't necessary, they fix a problem that doesn't exist.

The proposal to make all the Senate seats at-large and implementing a Council of Governors is, unlike the other proposals, a serious and reasonable idea to solve an actual problem that we face. Uncompetitive elections for regional Senate seats, unfair election tactics such as strategic registration, inactive Governors, etc. The proposal makes the Senate elections more fair, consistent, and competitive, while increasing activity for other regional elections and maintaining some form of regional representation, it's a triple-win!

It's important to keep this in mind, because there's a stark contrast between this proposal, and some of the others out there. This proposal actually targets a problem that exists, and seeks to implement a fair solution that will make everything better for us all. It prescribes the right cure for the disease.

These other solutions, though, target diseases of our imagination with useless medications. Let's start with the proposal I've termed "Rubber Band Voting."

Rubber Band Voting is a system proposed by Emperor Awesome (LNF member) that pointlessly changes the way we count votes to benefit centrists and stale-but-likable figures. The rationale, in his mind, is that we apparently shouldn't straight-up elect people with 50+1 (like, you know, a Democracy) but instead we should come to some sort of pointless broad consensus on who we just <3 with all our little heartz!

It's a stupid proposal, quite simply, for reasons I've already explained, so I don't need to go into them here a second time. But my point is that this is a needless change. It arbitrarily hurts those with top-support and benefits those that don't deserve to win first place. Why? Well, like so many reform advocates think, why not!?

If you want my personal opinion on the matter (and if you don't, why the hell are you reading this?) then I'll say that I really believe this is a system concocted to harm the JCP, and nothing more. MaxQue once told me not too long ago that the system was presented awhile back around a year ago to benefit a little old party called the Social Democratic Party. The members of the SDP included Al, Earl, Xahar, and at one point, Lewis, among others, all the usual LNF suspects. So really, all this "reform" proposal amounts to is a political change, designed to hurt the party in power. It should be treated as such.

Another proposal from Senator Jas (also, shocker, to be an LNF member) would pointlessly eliminate the Vice Presidency. Why? Well, why not?! This is another case of "reform for reform's sake" which solves no noticeable problem, with a solution that leads to a more complicated solution, essentially, just 'cause. Jas eventually goes on during the extensive senate debate on the matter to admit there's no real problem. What the hell!

Emperor Awesome also comes up with another stupid idea. Let's just annex Canada! Woohoo! Apparently, in fantasy land, we may as well annex the freaking world, since we can just declare annexation. This is pointless change for change's sake, and it's stunning that it has several people actually seriously entertaining the idea. Shame on all of you.

Let's get one thing clear:

REFORM MUST ACTUALLY SOLVE A PROBLEM, THAT IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF REFORM. THERE MUST BE A WRONG TO RIGHT, NOT JUST RANDOMLY CHANGING THINGS.

There are surely plenty more stupid ideas to come, and my personal belief is that, aside from the fact that they actually don't do anything to fix a problem since the problems almost never exist for what they want to change, these changes are directed at doing anything possible trying to throw a kink in the system, screwing it up to cause problems. These people are not reform advocates, for what they advocate is simply organizing chaos.

It is time that actual reform advocates, people like myself, Franzl, Meeker, Hash, all stand up an assert that true game reform involves targeting the real problems that we actually face, with solutions that have a real purpose. It is time we resist the forces of organized chaos.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Marokai, I think you make some good points in your most recent column. Either that, or I am just thankful it spared the PCP for once.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

You know what Marokai, on this issue, I agree with you 100 % There's no point in changing what works, just because we can.

[Meeker]

To defend Jas a tad, I think his point in proposing the amendment was more just to make a point. I haven't been following the debate too closely though.

[Хahar 🤔]

If you want my personal opinion on the matter (and if you don't, why the hell are you reading this?) then I'll say that I really believe this is a system concocted to harm the JCP, and nothing more. MaxQue once told me not too long ago that the system was presented awhile back around a year ago to benefit a little old party called the Social Democratic Party. The members of the SDP included Al, Earl, Xahar, and at one point, Lewis, among others, all the usual LNF suspects. So really, all this "reform" proposal amounts to is a political change, designed to hurt the party in power. It should be treated as such.

It's too bad you've resorted to lying. Condorcet was advanced after this election. For those of you who don't remember or weren't there and are interested in knowing the truth, this is what transpired:

For much of the election, RPP candidate SPC was apparently leading JCP candidate Bacon King. Had the election ended in that way, Bacon King would have been eliminated, and SDP candidate Lief would have been elected over SPC. When RPP members saw this, some invalidated their ballots (an old RPP tactic), so that Bacon King would proceed to the runoff instead of SPC. As more or less all of SPC's votes went to Bacon King, the net effect was that Bacon King was made the winner instead of Lief. Naturally, many Atlasians cried foul on this, and in an effort to find moral justification for their cause, certain RPP members advanced Condorcet as a replacement for IRV. The intent was to hurt the SDP, in favor of the JCP, with whom the RPP had an alliance of sorts at the time.

In addition, I recall that the membership rolls of the SDP included a certain Marokai Blue, and that its General Secretary was one MaxQue.

[Marokai Backbeat]

In fairness, Xahar, I was not around then and I was just repeating what Max told me. My points about that system still stand.

[Хahar 🤔]

Ah, yes, it's Max who's at fault then.

But Nick's proposals are certainly not political in inclination; even if they were, it would be the RPP that would be harmed.

[Marokai Backbeat]

To defend Jas a tad, I think his point in proposing the amendment was more just to make a point. I haven't been following the debate too closely though.

He introduced two amendments, one was serious (to eliminate the Vice Presidency) and another was obviously not serious, which added "Vice Senators" which I tried to strike from consideration but unfortunately we were forced to vote on, resulting in a 9-1 rejection. So the one I was referencing was meant genuinely from Jas.

[Hash]

Senator Hashemite will hold a speech/press conference on the topic of reform tonight. Or tomorrow. I'm tired.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

You've just advanced what is, effectively, a classic conservative argument (that is - conservative in the orginal sense of the political term). Fair enough - you're certainly entitled to that position. But I must take issue with the implication that we favour reform for reform's sake. Two points:

1. Many LNF members would disagree with the idea that things here are largely alright and in no need of reform. Discontent with the structure of the game as it is now and its political structure is the main reason for the relative success of the LNF - the party is not a pure joke; the joke has a point. You would obviously disagree with this viewpoint, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

2. the other argument for reform, beyond "the sky is falling in and we must do something", is improvement. Abolishing the VP (for example) is clearly not necessary, but doing so might improve the content of the game. This is the idea of reform as being a continual process motivated by a desire to improve institutions and processes and this is the approach that quite a few members of the LNF, certainly Jas, appear to have taken in the past.

[Marokai Backbeat]

1. Many LNF members would disagree with the idea that things here are largely alright and in no need of reform. Discontent with the structure of the game as it is now and its political structure is the main reason for the relative success of the LNF - the party is not a pure joke; the joke has a point. You would obviously disagree with this viewpoint, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.

I understand that many of you are unhappy with the game as it is, but beyond completely out of the blue ideas, you propose nothing to actually solve the problems you perceive. Sitting in your little group and making witticisms about the rest of Atlasia is not productive. The reason the LNF is seen as a joke party is because you never actually do anything, and when you do, it's something like "Let's abolish the government" or "Let's completely change the voting system."

I am a little upset that you say I'm happy with how things are. I'm certainly not, there's some things I'd change, but I wouldn't propose a radical solution to deal with simple problems. As Swedish Cheese once said, you don't burn your house down to deal with a mice problem.

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Ideas like "annex Canada" or "turn the voting system upside down" don't really solve anything, though. Even if I were to accept the idea that abolishing the Vice Presidency is arguable, which it's not, no one ever shows how things can "improve."

The whole argument still circles back to the fact that you must show how things are going wrong. For the most part, you and others in the LNF have failed to do this. Almost no one wants to abolish the Vice Presidency because it actually does have duties on it's own and does them well, but also because there's simply no reason to. Removing the VP, several of it's functions, and it's political role, does nothing to "improve" the system if it subtracts a great deal from the game.

I know you all have your views on the game, but ultimately all your complaints boil down to are trying to push whatever radical idea you have about Atlasia onto the rest of us and then complaining endlessly when people don't buy it.

Put simply, can't you play nicely with all the other kids at least once in awhile? (I say this because you and others in the LNF seem to want what you want and nothing else. You don't seem to care what is working, what others want, or about the repercussions of your ideas, you will settle for nothing less than your vision on your terms, regardless of whether or not the system is or isn't broken.)

[Vepres]

I like your style, very fun read

That said, I agree that a CoG is a good proposal (ignore my conflict of interest for second ) for the reasons Marokai stated. Another interesting one is that the upper house is made of one member from each region. Each region decides how they'd be selected/retained.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I understand that many of you are unhappy with the game as it is, but beyond completely out of the blue ideas, you propose nothing to actually solve the problems you perceive.

But we are in no position to implement any ideas. While our members don't seem to like the idea of doing the sort of things needed to change that situation. So there's no harm in thinking outside "normal" politics. If a few ideas are utterly crazy, so what?

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An argument exists that Atlasia is inherently "not productive".

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We never do anything because we are in no position to do anything. We are outside the bounds of the political mainstream now and have no interest in entering it in its current state.

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I wrote no such thing.

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Neither would you respond by papering over suspected mouseholes.

But, as I wrote, there's a difference of perception here. You simply do not see things in the way that we do. Which is fair enough. But don't criticise us for not looking at things through your eyes.

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On the issue of the Vice Presidency, it's possible to argue that it is an essentially useless office that only exists in the game because it exists in the government system that the game was originally, if loosely, based on. And, therefore, that it should be abolished. It is certainly odd that we did away with various cabinet posts but not the VP. The problem of ties in the Senate is easily dealt with (increase the number of Senators to an odd number and give the PPT's vote more weight in the event of a tie) and the issue of succession and continuity of executive authority is not, to put it mildly, as much of an issue here as it might be in a country with nuclear weapons. Even so, it's possible to set things up so that that's not a problem as well - the PPT or a designated cabinet member could become Acting President until elections for a new President, which could easily be held at short notice. These would be relatively minor constitutional changes, though due to the insanity of our amendments procedure would never have a chance of being adopted... and would probably never get a fair hearing in public, either.

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This is not so if we reject the conservative notion of reform.

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Do they?

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Perhaps we do not want to conform to society's accepted norms.

[ilikeverin]

The reason the LNF is seen as a joke party is because you never actually do anything, and when you do, it's something like "Let's abolish the government" or "Let's completely change the voting system."

I have no idea what you're talking about with the latter (well, I do recall proposing some ridiculous voting systems while ilikeverin of the Midwest and around the foundation of Atlasia, but, uh, that's before your time, youngin' ), and with the former, though, yes, abolition of regions is a good objective, I, for one, support the abolition of regional senate seats in favor of at-large seats.  But that's a rather dull idea, and dull ideas get floated here all the time; what's the point in raising the issue if someone else has already?

Edit: Oh, yes, and the most recently proposed constitutional amendment seems like a pretty good example of "reform for the sake of reform", but it wasn't spearheaded by the LNF

[Devilman88]

I agree that we need reform, that is why I talked about this back a few days ago, but no one seemed to like it.

Why not reduce the regions to three? And have 7 at-large senate seats, split in two election cycle. Cycle A: would elected three Senators every three months starting with January(Jan, April, July, Oct). Cycle B: would elected four Senators every three months starting with February(Feb, May, August, Nov). Then you have your Regional Senate Seats every three months starting with March(March, June, Sept, Dec). Then your President race would be every four months starting with January(Jan, May, September)

So it would look like this:

Jan: President Race, Class A Senate Seat elections
Feb: Class B Senate Seat elections
March: Regional Senate Seat races
April: Class A Senate Seat elections
May: President Race, Class B Senate seat elections
June: Regional Senate seat races
July: Class A Senate Seat elections
Aug: Class B Senate Seat elections
Sept: President Race, Regional Senate Seat races
Oct: Class A Senate Seat elections
Nov: Class B Senate Seat elections
Dec: Regional Senate Seat races.

A map like this would be good:




Purple Region:
Total members: 67 people

Party Percentage:
PCP: 33% (22)
JCP: 27% (18)
DA: 16% (11)
LNF: 9% (6)
Other: 15% (10)

Yellow Region
Total Members: 55 people

Party Percentage:
PCP: 27% (15)
JCP: 38% (21)
DA: 9% (5)
LNF: 7 (4)
Other: 18% (10)

Blue Region
Total Members: 45 people

Party Percentage:
PCP: 31% (14)
JCP: 33% (15)
DA: 2% (1)
LNF: 7% (3)
Other: 27% (12)

[Јas]

To defend Jas a tad, I think his point in proposing the amendment was more just to make a point. I haven't been following the debate too closely though.