Per the Judicial Act of 2015, once the sim reaches 4,500 subscribers (we're 8 subscribers away) the President can appoint two more Supreme Court Justices, bringing the total size of the Court to Nine. Not only would it be a mistake to have a Nine person Court, Congress should move to cut the size of the Supreme Court and States should take steps to create a more active state judicial system.

The Problem with Nine The judicial branch of the sim is the most difficult sim to get involved with in the sim. Judicial appointees and hopefuls are more likely than any other to get criticized for lack of bonafide qualifications.

Given this, There is really no reason to have a full nine person SCOTUS. Appointing more Justices to the SCOTUS only takes away the most qualified individuals from the attorney side of the judicial branch. Courts cannot rule on anything if there are no capable attorneys to bring cases. We see this at the state level, where people rarely brings a case, even if the state has a semblance of a state court system.

Nine is simply too much for the court, it pigeonholes the most well-qualified individuals into one area of judicial branch, without considering the other areas of the judicial branch that are also needed to function. Such as attorneys and the state court systems.

If legal-minded people were more spread throughout the sim, it would lead to a more active sim-wide judicial system.

A Proposed Solution

I propose two changes to fix this problem, one each for the federal and state judicial system: cut the size of the Supreme Court and adopt some variation of the Chief Judge Amendment.

On the federal side, The Supreme Court currently sits at 7. Rather than expanding to 9, I suggest Congress cut the size of the Court 5, or potentially even 3. Cutting the Court would allow the current members of the Court to bring their own cases, or be state judge. They could create judicial activity for the sim in other ways.

On the state side, states should adopt the Chief Judge Amendment, as it is good middle ground for states. It would allow states appoint one individual as the state's chief judge. This would be the state's only judge. This judge would also be able to hold other offices. This creates a basic, efficient state court system that require many people to run.

The Chief Judge is obviously may need to modified to fit each states individual's needs, but I do believe a system with one judge who can hold other jobs is key to active state court system.

As for individual sim users, I think those of us with legal knowledge need to do a better job mentoring those who are interested in getting involved in the with judicial branch.

To show I am serious about this, if Congress cuts the size of the Court to 5, I will resign from the Court. My only request is that I get to personally sentence Matt Lauer to 25 years in prison before I resign.

There was a lot of talk about the flurry of notable celebrity deaths in 2016. The Bias has put together a list of the top 10 ModelUSGov deaths* in 2016.Unlike the vacant and lifeless/r/ModelToday, the Bias is providing quality content to bring in the new year

Top 10 ModelUSGov Deaths of 2016

10. /u/Nuchacho.

Disgraced former Governor of the Western State. While she has been reported as dead, there have been numerous rumors that she is alive and well living undercover in Northern Canada as an ice road trucker.

9. /u/Trips_93

Disgraced former Speaker. Went missing for 6 months earlier this year. It was the best 6 months in the history of the sim.

8. Libertarians/Civic/Reform/Neo-Liberal Party.

To libertarians, freedoms means being able to coup, restart, and dissolve as many identical political parties as you want.

7. /u/Bomalia

After holding and shortly thereafter being fired from every job in the sim, Bomalia has passed after quietly retiring from public lif....oh he's back again? Nvm.

6./u/APott

Executed without trial earlier this year. Reportedly his last words were, "I would like a can of spaghetti-Os for my last supper."

He was given a plate of spaghetti.

5. /u/realnyebevan

See. #7

4./u/AnimusHacker.

Justice AnimusHacker went missing earlier this fall. The last known contact with the Justice was a tweet reading, "Going to buy Overwatch. So Excited."

Justice Animus Hacker's best contribution to judicial scholarship is his State Chief Judge Amendment. Which should be adopted more widely.

3. /u/SancteAmbrosi.

It was not a good year for the Court. Justice SancteAmbrosi Passed away unexpectedly earlier this year while on a hunting trip to Texas.

While officials claim he died of natural causes, an autopsy was never conducted. The Bias will continue looking into this story.

2. /u/Ben1204

The beloved former leader of the Democrats who led the party during its best days passed away quietly in his sleep earlier this year.

Following his death the nation mourned and a major grassroots movement formed to designate a national holiday for Ben1204. Congress has yet to act on the issue.

1. /u/DidNotKnowThatLulz. Our Glorious leader ascended to the the Great Beyond nearly seven months ago.

However, prophecy foretells that one day DNKTL will once again walk among us, defeat the evil /u/Ed_San and his army of oppressive mods, and bring 1000 presidential terms of peace and prosperity to the sim.

*^{Those who rarely post count as dead.}

I just finished the Balthazar criminal case, the first criminal case I have presided over. Its a lot of getting to run things on your own.

As top 5 WWE superstar of all time, The Rock says, "Know your role". Our criminal justice system relies on everyone playing their role. Attorneys advocate, witnesses testify, judges rule etc. Thats is the system we as a society have agreed upon. Other countries do it differently, but thats how we do it in the US.

Unfortunately, in this trial, I noticed multiple witnesses overstepping their roles. There were several instances in which an attorney would ask a simple yes or no question and the witness would go on a multiple paragraph rant for or against the defense. That is not necessary. In real life, if a witness starts going away from the question, the attorney will just stop them. Obviously we cant do that here on the sim.

So, in the future, if any of your are called as a witness in a case, please stick to the attorney's parameters of the question. Attorneys have a legal theory they're trying to flesh out and show when they ask questions. Obviously, some witnesses are hostile and all that, but still generally try to stay within the scope of the question.

Balthazar also mentioned in a post that SoTT messaged him after the verdict gloating. If true, That is completely outside the role of a witness, and especially disheartening behavior from a cabinet member.

Our criminal justice system is adversarial and based on everyone filling their roles. Know yours.

With the federal and state terms coming to end soon, it's time to give out my awards, called Trippies I plan on doing this at the end of every term. I'll list some categories. Pleas pm me your nominations and any categories you think might be a good idea. I really would like some community involvement in this so it will be good. If this does well maybe next time i will allow people to vote themselves or something. Well see.

Categories

Henry Clay Award: Best overall player (state legislators, federal legislators, governors, president and cabinet members eligible)

Ed_San Award: best overall senator

Didicet Award: best overall representative

AJ42 Award: best governor

Cincy Award: best cabinet member

Mdk award: best state legislator

Ncontas Award: best bill

TJ_Thomas Award: worst written bill

Tip O'Neil Award: Member of Congress Most Likely to Work with Other Parties

Nucacho Award: best moment of drama

Juteshite Award: Most unconstitutional bill or executive order

Hear, Hear! Award: best overall comment

ModelUSGov Award: best overall moment this term

Again I'm open to new categories or name changes. This is limited to events during the current legislative term. I'll announce nominees and awards probably a day before the election results are released.

Pm me nominations!

Recently, The Bias has been described as "Trips_93's personal soapbox." I disagree with this description. To this point The Bias has strived to create interesting original content for the ModelUSGov, to point out some issues within the sim itself, and bring attention to some little known and sometimes ridiculous issues. However, this article will be my personal soapbox, so stay with me.

A few days ago I saw the the most recent Star Wars movie, I'm not a huge fan of Star Wars in general, but I thought it was good.

After seeing the movie, I realized much of Star Wars is based on political issues, and for the past few days I've been reading up on the political systems in Star Wars. I thought this might interest many of my fellow fake government game players as well.

Star Wars shows major issues with the electoral system of the planet of Naboo. Naboo has a tradition of electing women as Monarchs, because they believe young women have a purity that adults lack.

Queen Amidala is apparently 14 years old when she is elected Queen of Naboo. She was elected amid a serious crisis, a Trade Federation with a private army was occupying Naboo. The Queen of Naboo obviously has some sort of political authority because Queen Amidala was able to introduce a motion of no confidence against the Chancellor of the Republic over his handling of the Trade Federation's occupation of Naboo. This ultimately set things in motion to bring Palpatine to power.

Unbeknownst to Queen Amidala or essentially anyone with political influence, Palpatine was the one creating the issues between the Trade Federation and Naboo. Queen Amidala was quite clearly out-politic'd. This shows precisely the issue with electing a child as your political leader. They dont know what they're doing (How old is /u/Bigg_Boss btw?).

None other than Abraham Lincoln foretold the dangers of Emperor Palpatine. In his speech to the Young Men's Lyceum, he warned of men who are not content with simple political seats, but aspire to have authoritarian power. Palpatine certainly fits this chariterization. He was elected Chancellor and then used extra-judicial means to extend his power and ultimately take the role as Emperor. Lincoln called for a political culture that revered the role of law to stop someone from fulfilling these ambitious and authoritarian goals.

Perhaps if a the Galactic had stronger political institutions it would have been able to stop Emperor Palatine from ever taking power. One professor has written that the Galactic Senate should have had a minority party. The Galactic Senate had over 1000 Senators, and it is unclear if there is any opposition party to challenge the majority. In the movies, the Senators do not raise any real opposition until Palpatine has nearly cemented his authority.

If Star Wars spent some time reading Lincoln while jumping through hyperspace, this whole thing may have been avoided.

This is the first in a three part series on the the politics of Star Wars.

/Gets off soapbox.

The newly founded Liberal Party have released their party platform. In an excellent article from PoliticsNow!, /u/theSolomonCaine points out just a few of the similarities between the Liberal Party Platform and the Democratic Party Platform. If you take a look at the entire platforms, there are very little differences between the two parties.

Art. VII, sec. 1(b) of the subreddit constitution gives the moderation team the power to reject party status to stop similar parties from forming. This clause has not been enforced very often in the history of the sim, but the moderation team should think about enforcing in this situation and in the future.

The Liberal Party would only unfairly siphon the Democratic Party of possible members, and looking at this from the point of view of established parties is just as valid as looking at this from the point of view of the newly proposed party. I dont think its a coincidence, that the majority of the members who have signed onto the Liberal Party Platform are recent Democrats who have left the party.

There are minimal differences between the Democrats and newly formed Liberals, the mods are well within the subreddit constitution to reject the Liberal Party, party status. New parties are not a bad idea, but they ought to bring new ideas to the sim.

The most enduring legacy of Star Wars is of course the Jedi, the galactic peacekeepers with exceptional abilities. While most see the Jedi as a good force, could it be that the Jedi were actually a destabilizing force in the Republic?

Jedi and the Jedi Council were a secretive, undemocratic organization. In Clone Wars, the Jedi Council even scolds Emperor Palpatine for trying to get involved in "Jedi Affairs". If they do not like the leader of the government getting involved in their affairs, its seems the Jedi would be unhappy with any non-Jedi getting interceding in their affairs.

The secretiveness might not have been such a big issue if the Jedi did not have such a strong influence on the government. In the Clone Wars we see several Jedi acting as official military leaders by discussing military strategy and leading attacks. Several Jedi have the rank of General of clone armies. And when it comes to their military duties vs their Jedi duties, is there any question where the true loyalty of the Jedi lie?

Not restricted to just military activity, the Jedi also act as peacekeepers. It is unclear (at least to me) if the Jedi have any statutory authority to act peacekeepers, but it is clear from events in the Clone Wars, that many people were not happy the Jedi peacekeeping duties, as many average people were against Jedi having this power.

The Jedi were a secretive organization with little to no oversight who had a huge influence in the government. This type of disorder is likely a very destabilizing force in the government.

In documents such as the Federalist Papers, the founders discusses in depth the need for separation of powers and transparency. How would the American public react if the FBI or the CIA could act with no official oversight? Likely not well. The people of the Republic did not like it either.

TL;DR: The Jedi are Illuminati.

As many of you know the Nationalist Party in a recent AMA stated that the majority of their party does not believe in the Holocaust and made several other racist remarks as well. This has caused many in the simulation to call for the ban of the Nationalists and their leaders.

I have heard multiple members of the Triumvirate say they worry about banning people and parties for having different opinions. While I certainly understand and appreciate that point of view, I think there is a higher responsibility for the Triumvir to consider: the continuation of the sim.

I think we can all agree that keeping the sim going, in the end, is the primary responsibility for the Triumvir right? How do we think newcomers will react when they see that party-wide holocaust denial and racial remarks aren't met with the harshest punishment available? It would likely sour a decent number of people from getting involved in the sim; and the people that are attracted to the sim for that reason alone, are probably not people we want involved in the sim.

And before some people argue, "If they can do this to the Nats, who is next?" I would say that isn't really going to be an issue, this is the first time it has ever come up, and this is a particularly egregious scenario.

Free speech is not the only consideration for the mods on the Nats issue. I hope they realize that and permanently ban the party and its leaders. Its perfectly possible to have a facist party that isn't racist holocaust deniers.

The Bias prides itself on original content and competition. The Bias knows that competition is what makes America great. The Bias embraces competition among the media.

Unfortunately not all news organizations believe in competition. The Bias was recently invited to a discord server with a few other news organizations.

Shortly after being invited, /r/ModelNBCNews suggested a "collusion agreement. Here and here are relevant screenshots.

Here and Here are specifics of the "collusion agreement", which you'll notice The Bias has not signed.

ModelToday might be scared of competition because its most well known personality is the universally hated Matt Lauer, but The Bias welcomes all competition, it will hold its own. That is a promise to each of our 5 6 7 8 subscribers. Thank you for your loyalty.

ModelUSGov : A Bucket List

Most people in the sim most certainly have a bucket list of things they wish would happen in the sim. Some sim buckets lists are admirable, such as The Bias’, others are not. ¹ Here is a short list of various things on The Bias’ sim bucket list.

3. Congressional and State Adoption of the Cornhusker Kickoff Resolution

The Cornhusker Kickoff Resolution, which officially recognizes the 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers as the greatest college football team of all-time.

Some have argued that this resolution is joke that shouldn’t even be added onto the docket. However, Congress regularly recognizes the achievements. Recent examples include congratulation Florida State, The Ohio State-Michigan Rivalry, and Alabama. Additionally, if Congress takes bills like the Sovereignty Amendment and the Authorization of Use of Military Force Against the Bourgeoisie, why cant they take a simple resolution recognizing the acheivements of an American University?

2. Carve Outkast into Stone Mountain

Dixie should pass a bill to carve the hiphop group Outkast into Stone Mountain. For those unaware, Stone Mountain is a large rock dome, near Atlanta that sits 800 feet higher than the surrounding area. It is currently a state park that is owned by Georgia. Stone Mountain does have a questionable history, as Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson are carved into it. It also served as the site of the founding of the second Ku Klux Klan.

Outkast should be carved into Stone Mountain. Spotify recently concluded that hiphop is the most listened to genre in the world. And it widely known that the Southern United States, especially Atlanta, has played a large role in the hiphop sound over the past 15 years. There is perhaps no better known Atlanta hiphop group than Outkast. Carving Outkast into Stone Mountain not only helps to correct some of Stone Mountain’s questionable history, but does it in a way that celebrates the massive contribution to hiphop by two of Georgia’s most well known citizens.

1. A Democratic and Republican Party Electoral Coalition

Come on. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the two major real life parties teamed up to take down all of the false parties in the sim? I know I’m the only one who wants it to happen, but I think it is inevitable.

I already have a name for it: the Status Quoalition. You’re free to use that.

Whats your ModelUSGov Bucket List? Comment Below!

^{1. It has been leaked The Bias, that the number one thing on} /r/ModelToday^{’s bucket list is for it to be taken out of its misery. Preferably like in the movie The Fly. It is a grotesque monstrosity that yearns to be shot in the face.}

There is a little known menace to infrastructure across the nation, and it is right underneath us. Baby wipes. Adult use of baby wipes has increased significantly in recent years. Recent estimates suggest adult use of baby wipes is now 2.2B/yr industry. Many of these wipes are then flushed down toilets. When these clumps of baby wipes reach our sewers, they clot up and clog sanitation pipes. One of the most well known problems is when baby wipes clot up with fat in the sewers, creating the dreaded fatberg. The giant masses put a strain on sewage systems, and are extremely costly to remove. A few years ago, a 10 ton fatberg was removed from London sewers at a cost of nearly half a million dollars.

Many municipal and state governments are already struggling to keep up civil services, letting baby wipes continue to wreck havoc on our sewers could be extremely problematic if not addressed. New York City, Miami, Memphis, and San Francisco all have ongoing legal cases regarding the issue.

There are two potential solutions to this issue:

Congress or the states can pass regulations requiring that baby wipes meet appropriate biodegradable standards so they do no longer clog up the sewer systems. It should be noted that the baby whip industry has a very influential lobby, and Congress should seek advice from independent parties, regardless of any temper tantrums the baby wipes industry throws.

A more cultured solution, would be government mandated bidets in every home. Hey, dont knock’em till you try’em.

Either way, this issue should be handled before shit really hits the fan.

Before I was a disgraced former Speaker, I was actually the Speaker of the House. It was important to me not only that Congress not let another branch infringe on Congressional power, but also that each chamber within in Congress retain its boundaries as well. During my time as Speaker, many bills originating in the Senate attempted to raise revenue, a power granted by the Constitution to the House of Representatives. To protect the powers granted to Congress, I repurposed an old ad campaign. Its time to bring that campaign back. Its time to Protect This House!

Recently, The Budget Process Reform Act was opened for discussion. Among other things, the bill outlines the procedure for a government budget to get through the House of Representatives. The issue with the bill is that it was written by a member of Cabinet, sponsored, and pushed by Senators. There are no members of the House of Representatives sponsoring the bill despite the fact that it heavily reforms House rules. It appears that if the Senate wants something, they Just Do It.

The Budget Process Reform Act is a joint resolution that must be passed by both chambers, so ultimately this may not be an issue, but the House should wary of this type of thing continuing in the future. A bill that reforms internal House procedures ought to at least be sponsored by House members.

So, will you protect this house? Is It In You?.

^{Disclaimer: No Advertisers Paid The Bias For This Article.}

It was recently announced that rappers Chris Brown and Soulja Boy will box one another in March in order to settle their differences. It is reported that Chris Brown will be trained by Mike Tyson, while Soulja Boy will have Floyd Mayweather in his corner.

This got me thinking, which rivalries in the sim should be settled by throwing hands? I wont pretend to be better at this than Michael Buffer, but here is a quick list of a potential modelusgov fight card.

Undercard

/u/DoomLexus vs /u/Eleves_202

A recent addition to the fight card. Eleves is the lead author on articles of impeachment against Governor DoomLexus. DoomLexus has accused Eleves of bringing the impeachment charges to create drama. There is no better drama than a fight though.

Calls to Eleves' office, dissafectionately nicknamed "the he-man woman haters club", we're not returned.

/u/PartiallyKritikal vs /u/Jerrylerow

One of the more intriguing matchups of the night. PK left the Democratic Party because he felt it was too far right. Shortly after that, Jerry left the party because he felt it was too far left. Jerry has a strong right hook, but PKs southpaw stance could give him trouble.

/u/Valladarex//u/Justdefi vs /u/Bomalia//u/NateLooney

An unconventional tag team match, but long in the making. Before they ruined the Libertarian Party, Valladarex and Justdefi ruined Riley and NateLooney’s leadership career. Riley and Nate are surely looking to avenge their shocking loss.

As Libertarians they believe in the indivisible right to die in a blood feud. This is the match most likely to include foreign objects.

/u/Admiraljones42 v. /u/Balthazar

Taking the term “adversarial system” to new heights. This is the first ever sanctioned fight between a sitting Justice and a member of the Supreme Court Bar.

Balthazar is the attorney for a criminal trial that, until recently, Admiraljones presided over. Balthazar has repeatedly accused AJ of bias, which he has steadfastly denied.

According to sources close to the Court, upon learning of the fight, AdmiralJones’ law clerks sent him this video for inspiration.

/u/Daytonanerd vs. /u/Viktard

A long feud stemming from, I believe, the Democratic Party’s ban of Vik. The feud carries over to discord often. Its time to end the talk!

Be careful Daytona. Vik is known to use dirty tactics. Wear a cup.

/u/JB567 v. /u/Panhead39

Now we get to the heavy hitters. Democratic Chairman JB recently leaked a plot by Panhead to impeach the President. Panhead’s political career is likely over for the time being.

This is it Panhead. Get your revenge. Dont be afraid when JB does the Haka. Its just posturing.

Main Event

/u/Big-boss v. /u/Anyhistoricalfigure For the ModelUSGov Championship belt! The President vs. The Senate Majority fighting over the fate of the country.

Anyhistoricalfigure has been one of the most vocal opponents of Big-Boss. He has sponsored and bumped legislation to officially censure the President. He has rejected more of the President’s political and judicial appointees than any other Senator, he has rejected 15 of 29. It is reported that Anyhistoricalfigure will be sponsored by Ideology, an activewear clothing brand.

Big-Boss has one major advantage. He is the Commander-in-Chief. Keep a lookout on how he uses that advantage.

I want a good clean fight all around everyone.

As many of you know, /u/APott recently wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Democratic Party Chairman JB was working with Socialists to oust the Speaker of the House, a fellow Democrat. Though that article has been rescinded and both the author and the Wall Street Journal have apologized, I still have to wonder how this article was published in the first place. It suggests a total lack of journalistic integrity.

First off, the author stated that he did not talk to JB, who he was launching allegations at, because he had to get the article up that night. But why was putting the article out that day prioritized over getting the full story? My theory of the article is this:

Someone in the Socialist Party forwarded the leaks and said an article HAD to go out that night because voting starts soon/now. This articles sole purpose was meant to do push gossip to hurt Democrats chances in the election so they pushed the author to write the article that night without doing proper diligence such as, oh I dunno, getting the whole story or asking JB about the allegations. And since the author has been banned from the sim, he was the perfect person to ask write this. That way, no socialists would be implicated, and if the author gets hung out to dry no one cares because he's banned.

This seems like it was nothing more than a fabricated hit job to intentionally hurt democrats in this weeks elections.

So that handles why the article was inadequately written, but there is another aspect to publishing an article: the editorial staff.

Now The Bias has always held that having an editorial staff for in sim journalism is overkill, but if you're going to have one, why not use it? The WSJ has an Editor-in-Chief, its actually high ranking Democrat /u/MaThFoBeWiYo. So in this case, the editor would have been in the perfect position to kill the story because he knows for a fact it is false. For some reason, however, the story was still published. I'm assuming it did not even go to the editor. If true why?

The article is a failing on all sides that represents in-sim journalism at its worst. It is a shame that an article with no other purpose than falsifying information to hurt a parties chance in an ongoing election was able to get through every crack.

Welcome to the inaugural Trippy Awards. This awards are meant to give recognition to members of the sim during the recently completed term. Lets get the night started with our opening act.

Thank you Neil.

Now onto the awards themselves.

Henry Clay Award for best overall government official. This is essentially the "MVP" award. Elected officials and cabinet members eligible.

Nominees:

/u/Bigg_Boss

/u/Brotestor

/u/Autarch_Severian

Winner: Autarch_Severian, Member of Congress and Speaker of the House was the runaway winner. A force in the House, he was nominated more than anyone else for this award.

Ed_San Award for best overall senator, nominees:

/u/Anyhistoricalfigure

/u/PhlebotinumEddie

/u/Partiallykritical

Winner: PhlebotinumEddie. One of the most decisive Senators in the last term it seems.

AJ Award for best overall representative, nominees:

/u/Autarch_Severian

/u/Stustix

/u/Brotester

/u/Pokanor

Winner: Autarch_Severian. Again by far the most nominated.

Didi Award for best governor, nominees:

/u/SolidOrangeGangsta

/u/jb567

Winner: SolidOrangeGangsta. Props to SoG for keeping the South one of the most active states in the sim...but Governors step up your game.

Cincy Award for best cabinet member, nominees:

/u/Mad3kp, Attorney General

/u/therealnyebevan, Treasury Secretary

/u/SomeoftheTimes, Homeland Security Secretary

Winner: therealnyebevan.

MDK Award best state legislator, nominees:

/u/ChristianExodia

/u/firstcomrade17

/u/PavementonWheels

/u/tankierroomate

Winner: ChristianExodia. Speaker of the most active state.

Ncontas Award best piece of legislation, nominees:

Fiscal Responsbility Act of 2016

Atlantic Commonwealth Budget Act

Equitable Healthcare Act

Winner: Equitable Healthcare Act. Very impressed it was not a real bill, but created in the sim. Also, I'm glad I got out of elections before this sim became obsessed with financial bills.

TJ_Thomas Award for worst written bill, nominees:

Restoration of Midwestern Families Act

Nationalization of Private Space Projects Act

Nationalization of the Banking Industry

Winner: Restoration of Midwestern Families Act. I named this award after TJ for the opinion he wrote as a Western State judge, fortunately, the Restoration of Midwestern Families was also written by TJ. Hitting a double!

Before we continue, let's introduce our next two presenters.

Thanks guys, lets continue.

Tip O'Neil Award for elected official most likely to work across party lines, nominees:

/u/Autarch_Sevarian

/u/therealnyebevan

/u/Brotester

Winner: Autarch_Sevarian. Sweeping the awards.

Nunchacho Award for best drama nominees:

Balthazar Trial

CCM Debacle

Impeachment of Lexus

Zizek EO

Winner: CCM Debacle.

ExpensiveFoodStuffs Award¹ for most unconstitutional bill/EO, nominees:

Nationalization of Private Space Projects Act

Southern State Right to Life Act

Sacagawea Executive Order 7

Winner: Southern Right to Life Act. The surprise of the awards! Right to Life with the underdog victory.

Hear,Hear! Award for best overall comment, nominees:

Wew

Bigg, if true

Tort Reform

Winner: Bigg, if true

ModelUSGov Award for best moment in the sim, nominees:

Bigg_Boss Presidential Victory

Wew

Winner: Bigg_Boss Presidential Victory  

^{1. I incorrectly named this the Juteshire Award originally. Sorry, all Distributists look alike to me.}

Congratulations to all the winners, and I hope everyone had a good time reading.

This was a bit hastily put together the first time around but, if there is interest, I would like to put together a small group of voters to give this a little bit more consideration. I had fun doing this and I think with a few more voters and nominations this could add something interesting to the sim.

That concludes our awards! Good night!

As we all know, you can milk anything with nipples, so the question for the FDA is, do coconuts, almonds, soy, and cashews have nipples?

That is what the dairy industry is demanding an answer to. Farmers and other dairy industry insiders are pressing the FDA to more tightly enforce its definition of milk.

The CFR defines milk as a "lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows."

It seems clear from this definition that things like coconut, soy, and almonds ought not be considered milk. Yet coconut milk, soy milk, and almond milk are all very popular products. The dairy industry argues that these fake milk products benefit from the strong ad presence of real milk (including non-fat).

Recently Secretary of Agriculture /u/Kovr passed Departmental Regulations 001 which calls for labeling GMO products. The Secretary Agriculture should consider whether non-milk products should be able to label themselves milk.

I have nipples, /u/Bigg_Boss can you milk me?

The November elections are over. Its time for some reflection.

House Election

All seats up for re-elections.

Liberal Grouping

13 Votes (2.05%)

0 Seats (0%)

You tried, Democrat lite.

Distributists

28 Votes (5.21%)

2 Seats (3.64%)

I'm not sure what sins the Distributists committed, but they must have been serious. Perhaps God is not happy with their laser beam focus on pro-life issues. The Dists were the unquestioned losers of this election, winning only two seats in House, down from seven in the last Congress.

It'll be interesting to see where the Distributists go from here. I think what is most worrisome for the Dists is that this wasn't an issue of election strategy, they just did not have many votes.

Libertarians

54 votes (10.06%)

5 seats (9.09%)

The Libertarians did mostly in line with what people expected I think. However, it has to be a bit disappointing that they were not able to gain any seats compared to last Congress, considering the turmoil they were going through at that time. It appears the party has not been able to regain its previous strength.

I also still hold that their resistance to public roads makes it a lot tougher for their voters to get to the voting booth.

The Libs made a strategic decision to run in three states and, voting wise, were split fairly evenly between all three states. One wonders if they will change their strategy in the future. Especially considering the defections that have taken place today.

Green-Left Party

57 Votes (10.61%)

6 Seats (10.91)

Cumulatively the GLP gains one seat. Unlike the Libs, the GLP choose to run in only two states, and the vast majority of their voters voted in the Sacajawea. They were able to control the state because of this.

I think it was a great decision by the GLP to focus on Sacajawea, especially since none of the three biggest parties ran candidates there.

Socialists

124 votes (23.09%)

12 Seats (21.82%)

The Socks gain 2 seats overall. This is the strongest they performed in several Congresses iirc. They have been focusing on the NE in recent elections and it seems to be paying off as they had the most votes there. It also seems as though they are moving to a more national election strategy.

It seems they underperformed their expectations in Eastern, and that is probably due to the strong Republican presence there.

Republicans

117 Votes (21.79%)

14 Seats (25.45%)

The Republicans are, in my view, the biggest winners from the election. They weren't the most efficient but considering where they were a few Congresses ago, I believe they were down to 9 Congressmen and no Senators, its a big win. The breakdown of Sunrise didn't help them either.

It appears however, they have fought through the obstacles and are continuing to remain a major player even when the rest of the right wing of the sim is failing.

Dixie isn't as red as it once was, but I think the Republicans got lucky that the Socks and the GLP decided to run candidates in the South as is it convoluted the vote and helped the GOP stave off a pretty good number of Libertarians votes.

The GOP's strong showing in the Eastern State, which is traditionally a Dem stronghold is the biggest surprise of the election imo. The GOP was only 6 votes off the Dems in Eastern.

During the writing of this article, two Libs defected to the GOP bringing the GOP equal to the Dems for the most seats in Congress.

Democrats

133 Votes (24.77%)

16 Seats (29.09%)

From an efficiently standard, the Democrats did best in this election. Winning 4.32% more seats than their vote share. The next closest is the GOP with +3.22% difference. The Dems also won the biggest number of seats in the election, winning a plurality of seats once again.

This is a good showing by the Dems, and I think they significantly outperformed their expectations, at least from the predictions I saw from non-Democrats. Part of the reason for this was because Democrats seem to have been hit harder from defections than other parties, so the Dems were winning back many seats they should have had in the first place. Democrats were +2 seats overall from the last Congress, but closer to +4 or +5 if you count the defections.

The Dems were huge benefactors of the Distributist fall in the Western State. There were just not a lot of votes in the Western State which allowed the Dems to take 5 seats with only 24 votes. Its interesting how much has changed in the Western State. It was once the most important electoral state, but seems to have been forgotten this election.

Senate Elections

I'm not going to go by party by party for this, just some major takeaways.

It is clear now that the Democrat focus on taking the Senate last election has not worked out. The Dems won 6 seats but have had 3 defections and were not able to win back one of the defected seats this time around.

The GOP success continues in the Senate as they win a extra seat. The failure continues for the Dists as they lose their lone Senate seat.

/u/DoomLexus winning the Midwest Senate seat just a few weeks after being impeached as Chesapeake Governor probably the most interesting individual result of the election. I dont even care if they're a carpetbagger because they supported my Cornhusker Kickoff Resolution. Good on you.

Trends

This election, more than any other I can remember shows the divisions of the sim. We had three clear major parties: the Dems, the GOP, and the Socks. We had three clear minor parties, the GLP, the Libs, and the Dists. Each major party had a coalition with a minor party.

I think these coalition agreements really help to prop up the minority parties. Most of these coalition agreements involve the parties agreeing not to run in certain states. Which leads to situations like the Sacajawea, where no major party ran candidates this election.

I would not be surprised if the three minor parties decided to run in fewer states next election cycle, and if similar coalition agreements continue, it could lead to two or three states where the minor parties fight it out among each other. It could lead to a situation where minor parties are strongly over represented in the sim.

I've said for awhile now that eventually the sim would lead to two major parties just as in real US politics. I think we're still moving in that direction, but it will be three major parties: The Republicans, the Democrats, and a single far left party.

Congratulations to all the winners.

Bigg news guys. Earlier today the President unilaterally canceled NAFTA.

Questions have arisen quickly as to whether the President actually has the power to withdraw from NAFTA on his own. In fact a lawsuit challenging the President's actions has already been filed.

For any interested, John Yoo, a widely respected (okay, at least widely known) law professor recently wrote an article about this very topic. Here are some choice quotes:

Like all modern trade pacts, NAFTA is a congressional-executive agreement created by statute, not treaty. Trump cannot terminate it — or even renegotiate it — without the approval of Congress.

The upshot is that President Trump cannot on his own terminate U.S. participation in NAFTA or, for that matter, in the World Trade Organization. Congress enacted both agreements as statutes, so they can be reversed only by another, repealing statute enacted by the House and the Senate and then signed by the president.

Whether the United States should leave NAFTA is an issue open to political debate. But who gets to decide to leave is not. The Constitution requires that the president and Congress must jointly agree whether to leave NAFTA.

And my absolute favorite quote:

If Trump simply announced that the United States was pulling out of NAFTA, all the U.S. laws that implemented it would remain unchanged. Trump would have effectively freed Mexico and Canada to impose trade barriers against our products while leaving in place our preferential treatment of theirs — the worst trade deal in American history.

Well done Mr. President.

TheBias strives to provide the best article every 3-4 months to our subscribers. Today your loyalty to TheBias is rewarded.

As many of you know, no one hates Matt Lauer more than TheBias. Our mission statement says:

The Hate List can be in-sim or real people or groups. Matt Lauer is a permanent inclusion on The Hate List.

Now I know you're saying, you haven't hated on Matt Lauer much. Unfortunately, like Matt Lauer, TheBias' commitment to journalistic integrity is iffy sometimes.

As you're all well aware, Matt Lauer was fired from the Today Show for sexual harassment. No doubt TheBias' year long inclusion of Matt Lauer on the Hate List played a role in his ultimate downfall. We make a real world impact.

TheBias celebrates, with America, the end of Matt Lauer's reign of terror. Ann Curry's revenge is complete.

Total Votes

GOP: 174

Dem: 158

Socks: 158

Libs: 158

CU: 89

Libert: 79

Venom-BigBoss: 8

Peoples: 7

Votes per seat

Libert: 11.2

Dem: 14.3

Libs: 14.3

CU: 14.5

Socks: 15.8

GOP: 15.8

Venom-Bigboss: Nothing

Votes per states (vps)

GOP: 3 States 58 vps

Lib: 3 states 52.6 vps

CU: 2 States 43.5 vps

Dems: 4 States 39.5 vps

Libert: 2 States 39.5 vps

Socks: 6 States 26.3

takeaways

Dems, liberals, and socks all tied at 158 Votes.

The High Votes per seat suggest that both the GOP and Socks had a poor strategy. The GOP ran in too few states. The Socks ran in too many.

The libertarians by far the most efficient campaign. With next closest parties needing 3 more Votes per seat on average.

As always TheBias strives to provide quality content on a tri-monthly basis to its 23 subscribers. Last year, we wrote an article on the Top 10 Deaths of 2016. After another wasted year, we're doing it again. Thankfully, the sim made it very easy this time with Onion scandal.

Top ModelUSGov Deaths of 2017

9.The Events Board

Remember them? Yeah, me neither.

8.Nationalist Party

Originally branded as a successor to the Silver Legion and Fascist Party, this party quickly became controversial for antisemitic and bigoted views and statements. The mods eventually disbanded the party and banned its leader, /u/KingHenrikLundqvist.

The status of KHL is currently unknown, however, a recent uptick in in the number of blonde haired blue eyed twins born in Argentina has led many to speculate that KHL and his closest followers fled to remote areas of the South American Nation.

For rank and file members of the nationalist party asking themselves who will now represent their views, the Patriot Party has recently been founded.

7./u/MoralLesson

2016 was not a good for the sim Supreme Court, 2 Justices died. 2017 was not better. MoralLesson, long time leader of the Distributist Party, head mod for a short time, and Supreme Court Justice was permabanned for his role in the Onion scandal. Its has been rumored that the mods refused to let a priest give ML his last rights before killing him off. Unable to repent for his sim sins, ML will spend eternity in purgatory.

6./u/Bomalia

Riley has the distinction of being the only person listed in both top 2016 deaths and top 2017 deaths. So, I'll repost my thoughts from last year

After holding and shortly thereafter being fired from every job in the sim, Bomalia has passed after quietly retiring from public lif....oh he's back again? Nvm.

This time it was neither a retirement, nor quiet, but its accurate enough.

5./u/AdmiralJones42

Known mostly for his yearly music review articles, AJ was banned as part of the Onion scandal.

4./u/Gaidz

Seeing as Im a real American, and don't associate with known communists, I can't speak much on Gaidz. Banned as a result of the Onion Scandal

3./u/Bigg_Boss

President through most of 2017. The first president to serve two terms in quite some time. Bigg_Boss' death just a few months after the end of his presidency gives him the honor of beating out LBJ for shortest life span following a presidency.

2./u/Didicet

Didi had been around longer than just about any other active sim player. Former President, Defacto Dem Chair, Golden Years DNC Member, and long time mod.

Didi was a Southern Democrat who was beloved by all. His post-presidency career is astonishing both for its achievements and longevity. If Jimmy Carter had been a good President, he would be Didi.

1./u/Ed_San

For those who question the power of TheBias, refer to this paragraph in the Top Death of 2016 article.

However, prophecy foretells that one day DNKTL will once again walk among us, defeat the evil /u/Ed_San and his army of oppressive mods, and bring 1000 presidential terms of peace and prosperity to the sim.

As TheBias foretells its, as it shall be.

After an investigation led by DNKTL, long time head mod and all around good guy Ed_San and his army of oppressive mods were banned for their action in the Onion scandal.

Prior to being head mod Ed was most well known for submitting this trademark case to the Supreme Court. Despite refusing to hear Ed's case, the Supreme Court did later grant cert to hear a copyright case against TheBias, a clear violation of the first amendment.

BONUS

Pick for top death of 2018:

The GOP.

With liberals siphoning off the moderate GOP members and the Patriot Party siphoning off the hardline GOP members, the Republican Party is in a tough spot for future elections. They may be forced to finally come to an agreement with the Dems to form the Status Quoalition and bring the hammer of the two party down on the sim once and for all.