Office of Senator Joseph Cao

[Joseph Cao]

This is ridiculous. As a Lincolnite past, present, and future and an officeholder and citizen of our region, this is immensely ridiculous.

Setting everything else aside for the moment since it has seriously gotten under my skin, I will begin by saying that the blatant doublespeak of recent statements from the Lincoln regional government would make the CCP blush. Officeholders who disagree with you must be detained: for their own safety, of course. Laws are to be suspended until they can be hammered into place as you want them; all in the name of adjusting business, of course, of course. All the people support you as they always have and always will, of course – of course – of course! Entirely out of proportion for another General Court snoozefest.

Unless anyone cares to dress things up further (notwithstanding the immensity of this pig that no amount of lipstick application is going to wish away) the fact remains that an entire region is being wrenched off the tracks for the sake of livening things up. The issues with activity which Crane has brought up, although they do not constitute a particular case for or against his removal as Speaker, are hardly going to be fixed by his instigation of revolution or secession or whatever the beans on rice this is. The game will not become better because of this. On the contrary, the ignorance of all information contrary to one’s own belief is making a mockery of the game and will certainly kill it if the logical outcome of their thought process is followed.

Crane’s public delusions of grandeur in the AFG board are unconstitutional and illegitimate and should be condemned in no uncertain terms. Kaiser’s in the AFE board are neither (though their legitimacy is on awfully thin ice) but are nevertheless an insult to the people of this region who never asked for this. Yes, I will call these such with the full knowledge that this statement succeeds several tens of thousands of words’ worth of delusions of grandeur in this thread; at least my own delusions lie within the bounds of the Constitution and acceptable gameplay.

I read Transit’s statement and arguments with great interest and stand fully behind them, with one exception. It is not an entire region attempting to secede; it is two officeholders who have seemingly decided there's nothing better to do, whose prior statements and justifiable concerns regarding solutions to the game’s problems do not justify their move towards this National Security Lite. That needs to be made clear. That this is not a legitimate solution and will not fix a single problem that has led to our current situation also needs to be made crystal clear, and while we wait for the Governor and Speaker to come down off their sugar high I ask the rest of our region and our nation to come together and recognize that.

[Joseph Cao]

Just thought I’d update the thread title and also take this opportunity to commemorate being in congressional leadership once again / composing a noticeboard on mobile.

Any decisions made while PPT will be going here as per usual.

[Joseph Cao]

Crossposting this from the PPT thread.

Order of the President Pro-Tempore

To provide for consistent administration of the Senate and compliance with the rules of the chamber

I hereby appoint Senator Western Democrat as Deputy President Pro-Tempore of the Senate.

[Joseph Cao]

Happy New Year to all!

Slight PPT update is probably warranted here. I am, again, on mobile, and am also writing this from a bus stop with janky Internet, and most importantly I am no longer effervescing (if that is the right word) with enough energy drink to buzz through the more fiddly PPT tasks on mobile at the moment. I understand the President would like to get Yankee’s bill on the floor quickly, and that and the noticeboard and certifying the LT resolution and whatever other fiddly stuff is still outstanding will be done in good time, probably tonight when I get back. Just to let everyone know.

[Joseph Cao]

Back in civilization; Bloomington–Normal, Illinois

My very belated congratulations, first of all, to WD on ascending to the PPTship, and apologies that I wasn't able to hand it off in happier personal circumstances. I will hold off on any public commentary on the menial duties involved until such time as becomes necessary, but since this other decision was made right off the bat I think it's fair game for an unsolicited opinion.

Excluding the President of the Senate, we have only three constitutionally relevant positions in that body: the PPT, the Deputy PPT, and the Dean. It is to be expected that other positions as may be defined in the course of human events should be settled among the Senators themselves. While WD didn't break any rules in establishing and appointing an Opposition Leader, that decision was still – as the wise man said – very dumb. The Opposition Leader is supposed to lead the opposition and if the position was established at all, the choice to fill it ought to be up to the opposition as a body.

If the PPT is a member of the minority party, they are leading the opposition for all intents and purposes. If the PPT is a member of the majority party, they are less than unqualified to determine who should and shouldn't lead the minority. I don't think WD wanted to end up between tautology and gross overreach but that is where the Senate currently is vis-a-vis this position. Now, whether or not the position as currently defined is relevant in any way has not been touched on by WD, and ultimately we'll have to see what Spark makes of it. Right now there is nothing to see except WD's decision.

I am happy to go on the record about this: In the unlikely event I ever happen to become PPT again, I will not pick an opposition leader and plan to discontinue the PPT's role in determining the position. If Labor wants to pick an opposition leader they should get to do so themselves, and I respect them enough to make their own choice on what at the end of the day is an internal caucus matter.

[Joseph Cao]

snip

more snip

I won’t fault the President and PPT for doing a little grandstanding, they’re entitled to it on occasion, but so as not to clutter up Scott’s office threads with undue negativity I’ll move my thoughts here. And, in brief, those thoughts are that

• the authorizations bill was presented as an up-or-down vote in the original budget act, couched in those terms by the President, and at all points throughout consideration the entire Senate, including myself, has acted with that understanding;
• regarding the lack of debate around the bill: even if I thought they were permitted, I am hardly going to add in amendments to the effect of adding in stuff that the administration forgot – since as best as I could tell, after checking, they didn’t – or to strip stuff out, since I voted for nearly all of the original bills now authorized;
• to which I should also add that however people want to demagogue about voting down vaccinations and affordable childcare and Paflagonian aid and hate crimes reporting and whatnot, the fact remains that Federalist senators still wrote, sponsored, co-sponsored, heavily amended, supported, and ultimately voted for the vast majority of those bills, and to accuse Spark or me or whoever else for having no solutions when we wrote a fair chunk of those solutions is really a bit rich;
• if we want to get really anal about things, because I excel at that, the only Senator who contributed any debate this particular round was noted Laborite Yankee, who was also the only Senator to explain his vote.

A supermajority of the bills included in the authorization bill were written by four people, the only four to write multiple bills among those under consideration. I respect the President enough to know that as one of them, he is aware that the legislative process extends beyond a single authorization bill that he and WD are placing at the centre of a narrative.

[Joseph Cao]

   

Image credits: Visit Champaign County and AllRecipes

The good folks of Illinois know my predilections toward both food and STEM, and as a reminder of both of those I've just received for Pi Day a shipment of locally made pies from small business owners in Champaign, Cook, Peoria, and Whiteside Counties, including our very own state and regional symbol the pumpkin pie.

Feel free to drop by my office today to sample some of the Great Lakes' finest! Some of them will be reserved for former VP Battista and Senator OSR, both of whom I understand are also celebrating their birthdays today.

[Joseph Cao]

Well I guess we’re here again. WD, I wish you well and all that, but you and Ishan really do have comically bad timing on these matters. Would that there were better circumstances for those involved in either case.

Once this unexpected weekend load of work blows over I will be getting the interim noticeboard and stuff up, plus whoever wants to be Deputy for the week. Taking applications in PMs.

[Joseph Cao]

Shortest PPT or DPPT tenure in recent memory, probably.

Order of the President Pro-Tempore

To provide for consistent administration of the Senate and compliance with the rules of the chamber

I hereby appoint Senator Weatherboy as Deputy President Pro-Tempore of the Senate for the remainder of the 108th session.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Thank you, Senator.

[Joseph Cao]

Somebody has to make sure the coming influx of Frémontian refugees is taken care of, assuming the Governor and the other Governor aren’t already.

[Joseph Cao]

First things first, renewing this:

Order of the President Pro-Tempore

To provide for consistent administration of the Senate and compliance with the rules of the chamber

I hereby reappoint Senator Weatherboy as Deputy President Pro-Tempore of the Senate.

[Joseph Cao]

Second things second, now that there actually is an elected PPT in, getting to the queue:

Order of the President Pro-Tempore

Using my power as Senate President Pro-Tempore, I have removed the following bills from the Senate queue:

Ending Democracy Act
A Resolution Expressing Support for the Liberation of Kansas
Victory of the People Act
Articles of Impeachment Against CalamityBlue

Senators have the right to challenge these decisions within the next 72 hours.

[Joseph Cao]

I’ll be offline for RL stuff this weekend until Monday morning, potentially later, so I am tasking the Deputy with this opportunity to do his best Larry Wilson impression and liven up the nursing home that the Senate has been for the past week. Consider this an official LOA notice with some heavy layers of trying to be funny.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

I'll do my best, Senator.

[Joseph Cao]

Nice to be back on the Capitol, I have to say. Will update as events warrant!

[Joseph Cao]

It's been a frantic week on my end but I anticipate getting back to something more like a normal schedule shortly. To anyone who attempted to contact me on Discord in the past week: tough luck lol.


In any case it is June 4th. This will not be a day for carnivals; we remember it to preserve its rightful place in history, not just for ourselves but on behalf of those who cannot. The communities of fellow abroads have organized various forms of commemoration this evening, and I invite my fellow Atlasians to join me at your nearest vigil tonight and go on to put in the FP work to match it over the other 364 days of the year.

[
Associated Press

[Joseph Cao]

Dragging this back out as the staff have very kindly given it a spring cleaning. Currently working very hard for the Atlasian people and eager to let everyone know about it soon!

[Joseph Cao]

The FY2024 federal budget has been submitted and is open for debate!

As unofficial chair of the Budget Committee (current membership: me and the slowly decaying corpses of Encke and Blairite, RIP FFs) I'm happy to report we are running a surplus for the second year in a row. Only three budgets since the reintroduction of the practice have had a surplus, the initial one which Yankee spearheaded and the two most recent ones which I wrote – leadership in action that I'm proud to be a part of. Here's to more of it!

[Joseph Cao]

Advocacy on the budget was slightly delayed, by the way, my apologies on that. I was invited to officiate a festival celebrating communities along the Illinois River, where they're holding a festival of sorts at different points – Hennepin, Ottawa, Peru, Peoria, La Grange, and Grafton off the top of my head – with initiatives to educate and mobilize action on taking care of our local ecosystems and community histories. Very good stuff from some of the Downstate's best folks.

[Joseph Cao]

As per the title. I have what I suppose could be considered a work trip, such as those are in this field, and while I may pop in if urgent business is required it's probably better to keep offline for a few days.

I will do my best to recover from the mathing as soon as humanly possible.

[Joseph Cao]

Took another unplanned LOA because my lungs decided December was a good time to give out. My apologies.

Feeling well enough to get back to Senate business, which I will go do now, and the campaign thread should be out in a little while more.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Took another unplanned LOA because my lungs decided December was a good time to give out. My apologies.

Feeling well enough to get back to Senate business, which I will go do now, and the campaign thread should be out in a little while more.

Best of luck.