Public Fuel and Power Act of 2014 (Final vote)

[Oakvale]

I resisted commenting on this nonsense for some time, in the misguided hope that the Senate would reject it out of hand. That inexplicably seems not to be the case. If this economic suicide passes it will be the final nail in the coffin of the credibility of the Senate as an institution as well as the individuals who voted in favour of it.

It's something of a running gag that a real-life Atlasia would make Zimbabwe look like a model of institutional and economic stability. Never has that been more clear than now. Unilaterally nationalising about a tenth of the economy with no apparent justification, let alone any apparent objective past tedious sloganeering about PRICE GOUGING (which I can only gather means 'making a profit') is, shall we say, economically risky. Better still, let's literally put said tenth of the economy in the hands of people selected at random. How many times do we think Atlasia wold have defaulted on its debt if this were in the real world? We'd need the largest bailout in history and make Greece look like a paragon of economic prudence. Please think about how insane this bill is before you vote.

It's baffling to me that the Labor Party is willing to be associated with this. I would have expected, of course, TNF to support this, and Alfred to vote in lockstep with TNF. But to see Senators like Tyrion and Bore voting in favour of this absurdity is shocking and disturbing. Some Senators seem set on destroying their reputations as competent legislators by putting their names to this disastrous piece of yellowed leftist dogma. Never has it been more obvious that "socialism" in 2014 is little more than a religion, and that its practitioners unthinkingly and unquestioningly carry out its divinely-ordained crusades and worship its articles of faith. I'm allergic to the phrase "workers' at this point.  In Atlasia, the Berlin Wall apparently never fell, and the lessons the world learned from the failure of socialism were quickly forgotten.

I can only hope that the members of the Senate see sense and reject this dangerous legislation. You're playing economic Russian Roulette, here, and the stakes are very high. If nothing else, please please read Deus, Nix and Duke's intelligent, sensible and important critiques - some of which were, disgustingly, ignored by footsoldiers in this dubious revolution - of this bill before you make your decision. I can only hope that if the worst happens the President will veto.

[Oakvale]

I find it perfectly reasonable that TNF is supporting this legislation. He is, as he has mentioned, a communist, and as such this is completely in line with his professed beliefs and ideals. The thing I find confusing is why the rest of the Labor Party's Senators seem intent on putting their names on such legislation. Particularly when many of those have responded with annoyance to the Federalist cliché of "all of Labor voting like TNF!!1".

[Oakvale]

Just as an addendum (since I am a sitting Supreme Court judge) I'd like to make it as clear as possible that my complaints are entirely a question of  personal and political opinion, and do not relate to any kind of constitutional or legal issue - indeed, you could presumably have guessed my position on this from my time in electoral politics.

[Oakvale]

Is this still going to be reintroduced, then?