The story of Operation Pacific Rimjob

[Kitteh]

The date: May 2013.
The location: The former Pacific region

Following the downfall of the infamous Wolfentoad, the Pacific region is in a state of disorder. The region was formerly a personal fiefdom of Mr Toad and his Liberal cronies, but like a snake without a head the legions of socks and zombies that controlled the regional apparatus have withered away; leaving a dysfunctional government and empty voter rolls.

Enter: Xahar, stage left

7:00 PM PST, May 20th, 2013: Former IDS resident Xahar, one of Her Highness Aliya Mustafina's most excellent servants, moves to the Pacific Region.

9:00 PM PST, May 20th: Xahar is appointed by President Marokai to oversee new elections in the region, including the recall of the inactive wolfenzombies in the regional government. Little does Atlasia know...

Meanwhile, in a [marijuana] smoke-filled room in a sketchy motel in San Jose, Atlasia's greatest masterminds, conspirators, legal manipulators and subversives are meeting...

"As we all know, the regions are a drain on Atlasia's dwindling activity. It is becoming more and more clear that Atlasia cannot continue to support our regions with their associated governments. Yet certain Atlasians who cannot tell the difference between this game and real life rally around the pointless banner of "regional rights" and block all attempts at reform through the 'conventional' channels. This situation is becoming dire. Fortunately, Xahar's appointment as election dictator of the Pacific and the state of inactivity and voter apathy in the region gives us an opportunity to rectify this, while also driving a stake through the heart of the Napoleon/Wolfentoad Liberal cabal. Gentleman (and Kitteh), I have a plan..."

...and with that, Operation Pacific Rimjob was born.


Chapter 1: A New Beginning

9:39 PM PST, May 20th: Within nine minutes of Xahar's appointment, IT BEGINS:

Seatown
Labor
Oregon

All of these choices suck except Matt Damon
Labor Party/Atlasian Imperialist Front/Movimiento Atlasiano para la Defensa de la Libertad Electoral
Nyman, DC

(re-registering with a non-joke name)

Comrade Kitteh
Labor Party/Atlasian Imperialist Front/Movimiento Atlasiano para la Defensa de la Libertad Electoral/Islamist Junta Boat
Nyman, DC

товарищ Котенок
Национальное движение «Алия Мустафина» - связан с Лейбористской партии, атлас империалистического фронта, атлас движения в защиту избирательных свободы, и исламистской лодке хунты
(опустить меня в качестве члена Национальное движение «Алия Мустафина»)
федеральный округ Колумбия

товарищ Котенок
Национальное движение «Алия Мустафина» - связан с Лейбористской партии, атлас империалистического фронта, атлас движения в защиту избирательных свободы, и исламистской лодке хунты
Калифорния

(I re-registered to California)

11:00 PST, May 20th: The first step, as mandated by President Marokai's executive order, was the recall of the inactive Pacific governor NVGonzalez.

This should be a simple, pro forma measure, but there are some who deeply oppose the overthrow of the old regime for obvious reasons. The forces of the wolfencabal launched a last-ditch attempt to preserve their power, using their typical tactic of bringing zombies and socks to the polls en masse to outvote legitimate voters. Unfortunately for them, the power of the Toad had waned greatly since his retreat from (obvious) activity in Atlasia. Wolf was only able to bring two (obvious) zombies to the polls, wan, who hadn't been active since May 6th before showing up magically to vote, and thrillr1111, who last posted on January 29th before voting. This crass attempt to stop the downfall of Their corrupt regime was sloppy and obvious. Not only was it obvious that the votes of wan and thrillr were extremely sketchy, thrillr wasn't even a registered citizen of Atlasia. After some investigation, the mods discovered that wan and thrillr were actually the same person, and both accounts were promptly banned for sockpuppetry.

Of course, the forces of the Rimjob were just sitting back and laughing during all of this, as it was clear that whoever would be made governor would be quickly sidelined and made irrelevant. The removal of two wolfenzombies only made our task even easier. We let the sooper cereal people think they had won this round, but they had no idea what was going to come...


Chapter 2: Sh1t Gets Real

11:00 PM PST, May 27th: After waiting for a week to give the new Rimjob registrants enough time that they were able to vote, Xahar opened up the second part of the destruction of the Old Regime; the recall of the Pacific Council. As with all parts of the Rimjob, the timing on this was exact and impeccable. The voting booth was opened exactly 27 seconds after yours truly became eligible to vote in Pacific elections.

The low levels of activity in the Pacific made it easy for us to gain control over this election. All five candidates running were either explicitly a part of the Rimjob or to some degree supportive if not completely informed of what was going on. The only real threats came from the possibility of the Old Regime's forces sabotaging the recall and the write-in candidacy of Superique knocking out one of our core members. The former was impossible because Wolf's zombie armies had deteriorated to such a state that they could no longer really pose a threat, and the latter was neutralized through a carefully executed plan of strategic voting. By the time the voting booth closed on May 31st, we had won; the Rimjob coalition was clearly in control of the Pacific council.


continued...

[Kitteh]

Chapter 3: The Holding Period

Now in power, the Rimjob went into a period of stasis while a new constitution could be drafted. This was a difficult feat. First of all, there was no clear agreement on what the new constitution should look like. Originally, the plan had been for an outlandish constitution containing all kinds of socialistic language (including a guaranteed right to healthcare, housing, and income), Mideast-style clauses allowing voters from outside the region to vote through legal loopholes, and even a gender quota for the legislature (aka the "elect drj clause"). After a while, it was decided that this was too obvious and controversial. At least at first, we had to get this past the voters, after all. So we decided on a much more subtle approach: replacing Wolfstitution with a new temporary constitution that was basically a copypasta of the NE constitution with a few key changes; most importantly the ability to the legislature to pass amendments through a three-fifths majority without a public vote.

During this time period, the Rimjob alliance had to hold off other proposals that might derail our plans, such as an attempt by spamage to return to the Second Constitution. In order to create the impression of activity and prevent our plans from being discovered, Rimjob members proposed and supported a couple of legislative stalling items such as a proposal for universal childcare and the Repeal of the Shop at the Pacific Act.

Finally, this period came to a close with the proposal of the Fourth Constitution, the temporary measure that would allow us to deal the deathblow to the Pacific.


Chapter 4: The End

09:00 AM PST, June 14th: It was time for the regularly scheduled elections, still under the purview of Xahar. The Rimjob had scored a further coup in candidate recruitment with the departure of Progressive Realist and his replacement with Fuzzybigfoot, giving The Movement a majority in the legislature. Even better, Superique's senate candidacy reduced his chances of being elected to the legislature and prevented him from actively campaigning for Councillor. With all this, the election was basically a foregone conclusion.

Wanting to preempt any debate or objection to the new constitution, the Fourth Constitution amendment was passed quickly and unanimously through the assembly and then sent immediately to The People for ratification, at the same time as the council election. The Constitution was sold as a non-controversial, pro forma measure to replace the monstrosity that was Wolfstitution. Apparently, people actually bought this, and the Constitution was passed unanimously.

12:18 AM, June 19th, 2013 (D-DAY) After all this, it was finally over. The Deathstitution was passed in typical swift and neat Rimjob fashion. The final killing of the Pacific took a total of 1 minute and 39 seconds. And then it was done.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Chapter 5: ??

It remains to be seen where this will end. But one thing is definitely clear: returning to the status quo ante Rimjob is no longer possible. Love us or hate us, you have to admit that Operation Pacific Rimjob has done something that endless attempts through "traditional" channels hasn't: a major shakeup of the Atlasian scene, and a blow to the status quo.

As we remember this great victory for Atlasia, I have to say: I'm honestly mind-blown that this worked. From the very start, I was convinced this Operation would fail somehow. It's not like it was even a well-kept secret; at least a dozen people were in on it, I think, including presidential candidates and even some Federalists (I'll leave it to those involved whether they want to come out or stay in the closet, so to speak ;3). Didn't people notice something was up when there was a sudden influx of Movement and Labor people into the Pacific? Did people think a Movement based on two Russian Gymnasts would carry on business as usual with total control of an entire region? At any point, the votes were there to outvote the Rimjob coalition, yet nobody cared enough to stop us.

Congratulations, Atlasia. Hope you enjoy what we've given you.

[Lumine]

Fairly impressive, I must say. You have most definitely succeeded with your objective of shaking-up things in Atlasia and destroying whatever was left of Wolfentoad's legacy. And this game now has a truly magnificent drama to solve.

So... Who else would like to join/create an anti NM-AM coalition?

[Dereich]

Fairly impressive, I must say. You have most definitely succeeded with your objective of shaking-up things in Atlasia and destroying whatever was left of Wolfentoad's legacy. And this game now has a truly magnificent drama to solve.

So... Who else would like to join/create an anti NM-AM coalition?

No need. NM-AM have no real power outside the zealous fanaticism their belief in young gymnasts give them. Just make the game interesting and they'll be outvoted every time.

[Poirot]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

It looked like a small group wanted to take control of the region or have influence. Is Spamage leave of absence a simple coincidence? Has he been abducted? Are you asking for a ransom?

I publically disagreed with the state of anarchy thing (not sure it applied to the situation). It was declared upon the return of the President, seemed like a quick decision to make. Also because of the choice of the election administrator I have wondered if the president was lobbied to make the decision. Did someone asked that Xahar be named administrator? If there was lobbying did you make the situtation sound very bad to convince him to declare anarchy? In the same constitutional article about anarchy power it was written that governor or judge can open the voting booth. If someone pushed for anarchy was the President shown all of the constitutional article (not just the anarchy part but who can open voting booth)

It looks important to have control of voting booth for a long time. Did the President chose the length of time for the election administrator himself or someone suggested it? What would have happened to the plan if there was no anarchy and election administrator declared?

Is having Oakvale has a judge part of the plan? 

[Kitteh]

Is Spamage leave of absence a simple coincidence? Has he been abducted? Are you asking for a ransom?

A simple coincidence. The Fourth Constitution did not give the governor power to veto amendments, so regardless of whether or not he was here the outcome would have been the same. The Governor's position was really irrelevant to this whole Operation, which is why we didn't even try to take it over.

What would have happened to the plan if there was no anarchy and election administrator declared?

The state of anarchy was what caused the recall of the Governor and the Council, which was what opened up this opportunity in the first place. I suppose if that hadn't happened we could have started a citizen's recall instead (I'm not quite familiar with what the process for that was under Wolfstitution).

Is having Oakvale has a judge part of the plan? 

Nope. In fact he ceased to be a judge on the passage of the fourth constitution.

[Sec. of State Superique]

Fairly impressive, I must say. You have most definitely succeeded with your objective of shaking-up things in Atlasia and destroying whatever was left of Wolfentoad's legacy. And this game now has a truly magnificent drama to solve.

So... Who else would like to join/create an anti NM-AM coalition?

I could participate on that. NM-AM sucess was definitely tons of good luck! I hope that they are happy after trolling Atlasia once more!

[Sec. of State Superique]

We can put the blame on Marokai !

[Poirot]

I guess Xahar was named administrator in good faith if the plan started only after his nomination.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

We can't even trust our future leaders!

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

See, guys? The Atlasian left is the best political movement.

[Hash]

The hatred towards Mustafinism-Komovism here is disgusting. Of course, any radical challenge to the turno pacifico and the status-quo, as we have seen here, throws the political caste into a frenzy and gets them on their high horses.

[Lumine]

That would be right if such radical changes were a positive thing, but blowing up a whole region to create some drama is... hardly positive, I'd say. Those matters aside, the thing I dislike the most about this is the fact that you're all forcing the Federal Government to intervene and dissolve the Pacific so your whole point about "centralism" has a precedent and becomes valid to the eyes of the so called "establishment".

[Hash]

Saying these changes are not positive is a subjective opinion, not an objective fact.

[Lumine]

Sure, it's my opinion, but I honestly don't think political anarchy can be really justified, and since the current Pacific state of anarchy is a fact, for me it comes as something inherently negative.

[Adam Griffin]

That would be right if such radical changes were a positive thing, but blowing up a whole region to create some drama is... hardly positive, I'd say. Those matters aside, the thing I dislike the most about this is the fact that you're all forcing the Federal Government to intervene and dissolve the Pacific so your whole point about "centralism" has a precedent and becomes valid to the eyes of the so called "establishment".

It could be (quite) successfully argued that the 5-region model is an utter failure. In my year or so here, there have never been more than 3 "healthy regions" at any one time; while at one point it appeared all five regions were making great strides, the reality is those were bubbles created by various efforts of "inflation" between multiple factions.

The Pacific - despite having more pronounced problems as of late - has always been a bastard region that was barely capable of sustaining itself in the best of times. Regional legislatures did not exist until 2008 IIRC, so it's not as if this model should be considered as the one and final solution for Atlasia. Hell, Hashemite was in the first regional Assembly in the ME.

We can put the blame on Marokai !

Nope, for the reason Poirot mentioned:

I guess Xahar was named administrator in good faith if the plan started only after his nomination.

[Donerail]

Well. I'll be reading the IDS revisions a bit closer now.

[Lumine]

That would be right if such radical changes were a positive thing, but blowing up a whole region to create some drama is... hardly positive, I'd say. Those matters aside, the thing I dislike the most about this is the fact that you're all forcing the Federal Government to intervene and dissolve the Pacific so your whole point about "centralism" has a precedent and becomes valid to the eyes of the so called "establishment".

It could be (quite) successfully argued that the 5-region model is an utter failure. In my year or so here, there have never been more than 3 "healthy regions" at any one time; while at one point it appeared all five regions were making great strides, the reality is those were bubbles created by various efforts of "inflation" between multiple factions.

The Pacific - despite having more pronounced problems as of late - has always been a bastard region that was barely capable of sustaining itself in the best of times. Regional legislatures did not exist until 2008 IIRC, so it's not as if this model should be considered as the one and final solution for Atlasia. Hell, Hashemite was in the first regional Assembly in the ME.

We can put the blame on Marokai !

Nope, for the reason Poirot mentioned:

I guess Xahar was named administrator in good faith if the plan started only after his nomination.

Agreed, and our current model does suffer from a lack of activity and several other problems. While we could also argue about the merits of federalism and centralism (and centralism does have several convincing points), my point is that, even if you're tired of talking about solutions instead of taking immediate action, giving a death blow to a region and destroying it's government is not the best way of bringing change.

[Paul Kemp]

R U IN MY FANTASYLAND MESSIN WIT MY REJUNS???

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

That would be right if such radical changes were a positive thing, but blowing up a whole region to create some drama is... hardly positive, I'd say. Those matters aside, the thing I dislike the most about this is the fact that you're all forcing the Federal Government to intervene and dissolve the Pacific so your whole point about "centralism" has a precedent and becomes valid to the eyes of the so called "establishment".

It could be (quite) successfully argued that the 5-region model is an utter failure. In my year or so here, there have never been more than 3 "healthy regions" at any one time; while at one point it appeared all five regions were making great strides, the reality is those were bubbles created by various efforts of "inflation" between multiple factions.

The Pacific - despite having more pronounced problems as of late - has always been a bastard region that was barely capable of sustaining itself in the best of times. Regional legislatures did not exist until 2008 IIRC, so it's not as if this model should be considered as the one and final solution for Atlasia. Hell, Hashemite was in the first regional Assembly in the ME.

We tried to consolidate the regions into four or three but it ran into the ground because there were too many moving parts and no one could agree to who got what states, not because of "Regionalist Obstruction" or anything of the like.

The Pacific has been that way because it has never had real political competition in the past five or six years. It was always about personality. Pro-Wolfentoad left versus the Anti-Wolfentoad left, which is little different from the days when it was Bgwah versus Xahar. Nobody gives a crap about who hates who and carrying out a years old grudge, anymore then people really had much interest in the Wolftentoad business save for cleaning up the mess and getting rid of his bunch of socks and zombies.

As for Assemblies there was a time when they actually thought to have boosted the level of activity in a region largely because of that experience that the Mideast had in that first year or so. Purple State came out of there, Tmth and many others as well. There was thus a legitimate basis to say "hey, lets try and replicate that". It certainly seemed more appealing then what was happening in the Pacific and Midwest at that time. The Pacifc was a one trick pony led by Bgwah with a tiny vocal opposition from SDP until it merged into the JCP, while the Midwest was a multi-year dictatorship run by ILV.

When I see this, I don't see a Revolution, I see a restoration of old practices or I should say old desired practices. A small game dominated by an exclusive clique with a funky name and theme, with a radical in your face gov't structure that isn't conducive to bring anybody in or welcome new people, more or less to encourage activity. Yet they have the audacity to lecture us about "ruling classes" and "power structures". It is basically being led by the same people with some newer faces of like political mind to replace those who have left. When I came here they were much closer to being the ruling class or the power structure then any kind of Revolutionaries. They were displaced when the game expanded and became dominated by the JCP and RPP political machines, and they were forced to operate within that structures as a result, and they hated it.

They have abandoned the politics of policy and have abandoned discourse on such policy issues because there is little else to be accomplished for people of such politics, thus they can't see anything to gain from further participation in such. The problem with that it is the surest path to oblivion in a political elections game. If they want to disband Atlasia for one reason or another then my recommendation would be to just leave instead of nuking it for those that still care about it.

Is that what it is all about? Get what you want and then shut it down? 

That would be right if such radical changes were a positive thing, but blowing up a whole region to create some drama is... hardly positive, I'd say. Those matters aside, the thing I dislike the most about this is the fact that you're all forcing the Federal Government to intervene and dissolve the Pacific so your whole point about "centralism" has a precedent and becomes valid to the eyes of the so called "establishment".

Well if the ball is really in our court, then we shall see about that.

R U IN MY FANTASYLAND MESSIN WIT MY REJUNS???

So first impressions are really correct. Good to know.

[Paul Kemp]

R U IN MY FANTASYLAND MESSIN WIT MY REJUNS???

So first impressions are really correct. Good to know.

I'd know what those were but your post was tl;dr, as the kids say.

[Хahar 🤔]

Thank you for chronicling this, drj. Your services to the cause will not be forgotten.

As for some of the points that have been brought up in this thread, spamage's absence is indeed a coincidence. As far as I know, he is not yet aware of the abolition of his position. The one thing I felt bad about as the final step of this plan was put into action was the fact that it would mean pulling the rug out from under him, but as Adam pointed out, Omar Little put it best. With regard to Marokai, he was not a part of this plan; don't blame him.

For those complaining that a region was tragically destroyed, consider the reason this whole plan was able to work in the first place. All these supporters of Pacific Rimjob took up offices in the Pacific because there was literally nobody else to do it. Outside of our plotters, the Pacific at the time of its demise had only three citizens active in regional politics: Superique, spamage, and 20RP12. Three people is not enough for a region. Three people is not enough for anything.

When I took the job of election administrator in the Pacific a month ago, the idea of the plan had already formed, but it was nothing more than an idea. In the nearly six years I've been in Atlasia, I've had plenty of crazy ideas, but they've all failed because somebody was there to say no. If the Pacific had recovered and begun to gain some semblance of activity after the recall of NVGonzalez, then the plan wouldn't have worked. It would have taken just a few people acting in good faith to block this, even if they were unaware of the plan. But that never happened. Nobody was there to say no.

[ilikeverin]

the Midwest was a multi-year dictatorship run by ILV.

I do most humbly beg pardon!  You forgot the words "democratically-elected".  It was a democratically-elected dictatorship.  Including a democratic proclamation of my position as Governor-for-Life.

The Midwest was also one of the most active regions for the first couple years of my tenure of office, so I think these sorts of issues are independent of whether regional politics are "personality-based", as I generally agree the Pacific and Midwest have been, or "politics-based".  I actually don't know what the latter is, because (as I've argued in the past when trying to put forward the abolition of regions) no one ever pays any attention whatsoever to what's happening outside their region.  I mean, that much is immediately obvious.  The Midwest has quietly done exactly what everyone has been telling us to do for years (e.g., created an elected legislature), has a thriving and healthy political class in power, and still no one moves here.  What's that about?!

[Sec. of State Superique]

I was recalled for gods sake! How would I say no? Anyway, I wish people could make the Pacfic Region but now it seems that the region is pretty inactive. Although I would hate seeing my region die, I think it's more than time to build another Regional Government. (With 4 Regions) No IDS, Mideast annexation, though.

[Хahar 🤔]

I was recalled for gods sake! How would I say no? Anyway, I wish people could make the Pacfic Region but now it seems that the region is pretty inactive. Although I would hate seeing my region die, I think it's more than time to build another Regional Government. (With 4 Regions) No IDS, Mideast annexation, though.

That was a figure of speech more than it was meant literally; you were one of the three active Pacific citizens whom I listed. Unfortunately for the region, there weren't more people like you.

[Dereich]

I was recalled for gods sake! How would I say no? Anyway, I wish people could make the Pacfic Region but now it seems that the region is pretty inactive. Although I would hate seeing my region die, I think it's more than time to build another Regional Government. (With 4 Regions) No IDS, Mideast annexation, though.

What are you saying? I don't think there are any plans to create new regions wholesale. Probably the most likely thing is the Pacific being divided by the other regions, not recreated in some form.