Atlasian Star

[Mr. Reactionary]

Nobody is gung ho about going to war with North Korea and China beet lol, you don't even know what's going on

So how did you get into a war with North Korea? Tripped and fell into it?

A different President kicked the Hornets nest by attacking them first, failing to eliminate their nukes or military, then resigned in disgrace ... prompting China and Russia to team up and threaten war with Atlasia unless Atlasia passively allowed N Korea to conquer the South. After negotiations, China switched sides and is now leading the efforts to remove Un, disarm the nukes, and do the heavy lifting in transitioning N Korea into a western economy. Game God however set a deadline that if violated would likely lead to a nuclear exchange, so you had a lot of whining by the idealists about how Game God can't do that, muh give peace a chance, no war ever ever never ever, even as N Korea attacked Guam twice, shelled Seoul, crossed the 38th parallel, and you know ... nuclear exchange deadline. Now the people who dragged their feet for the sake of political posturing seem surprised Game God is sticking with his threats of repercussions.

[fhtagn]

Senators Siren, Scott and ZuWo are right, it is unacceptable to be forced by China to pay a fine and capitulate to their demands. This is a provocative and absurd move from Beijing.

(I applaud the GM and Deputy GM for their work on the storyline thus far, though)

I guess that means you haven't bothered to pay attention to the fact that there was a deadline to get the deal ratified (not that it wasn't already obvious how little you pay attention to Atlasia to begin with).

Paying a fine is significantly better than them pulling out of the deal and ending up at war with us. The Senate knew this was a deal that needed to be ratified quickly, and they chose to drag their feet anyway, even after numerous explanations that if this does not get done in time, there would be consequences.

I get that no one wanted this war, and as I've made clear, I did not want it either. But this is a case where a peaceful, non-military resolution does not exist, and a situation that was 100% our fault. We are in no position to be making demands when we are the cause of the problem in the first place.

But I guess it's better to put our egos above the lives of innocent people who would be affected by an even bigger war with a more powerful enemy than the one we were dealing with before.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Nobody is gung ho about going to war with North Korea and China beet lol, you don't even know what's going on

So how did you get into a war with North Korea? Tripped and fell into it?

A different President kicked the Hornets nest by attacking them first, failing to eliminate their nukes or military, then resigned in disgrace ... prompting China and Russia to team up and threaten war with Atlasia unless Atlasia passively allowed N Korea to conquer the South. After negotiations, China switched sides and is now leading the efforts to remove Un, disarm the nukes, and do the heavy lifting in transitioning N Korea into a western economy. Game God however set a deadline that if violated would likely lead to a nuclear exchange, so you had a lot of whining by the idealists about how Game God can't do that, muh give peace a chance, no war ever ever never ever, even as N Korea attacked Guam twice, shelled Seoul, crossed the 38th parallel, and you know ... nuclear exchange deadline. Now the people who dragged their feet for the sake of political posturing seem surprised Game God is sticking with his threats of repercussions.

Thank you for putting this so well.  Certain players are still pretending that ideology is more important than responding to the facts on the ground even under the threat of nuclear exchange. 

[Anna Komnene]

This idea that we dragged our feet is totally whack a doodle. The treaty was introduced in the Senate on September 25th and now the vote is finishing up on October 1. And like half of that time was literally the Senate's standard procedure for voting on things. If we didn't have debate, there wouldn't even be a timetable on the war resolution, which is an idea that seems to be pretty popular among literally everyone in congress. Seriously.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

This idea that we dragged our feet is totally whack a doodle. The treaty was introduced in the Senate on September 25th and now the vote is finishing up on October 1. And like half of that time was literally the Senate's standard procedure for voting on things. If we didn't have debate, there wouldn't even be a timetable on the war resolution, which is an idea that seems to be pretty popular among literally everyone in congress. Seriously.

Not to take sides but China feels Atlasia had plenty of time as the deal was agreed to on September 11th. Which means the Senate had 19 days to ratify the agreement.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=268533.msg5819985#msg5819985

[Anna Komnene]

Well I wasn't even in the Senate until September 18th, so, I can't really speak for what was going on with this issue before I was in the Senate, but I haven't seen any posts calling for the Senate to take up the treaty or anything. In fact I don't even see any posts in this thread about a deadline. I guess it must have been one of those mythical classified infos I keep hearing about. All I know is that when the Senate brought forward the treaty, we got it done within a week.

[fhtagn]

This idea that we dragged our feet is totally whack a doodle. The treaty was introduced in the Senate on September 25th and now the vote is finishing up on October 1. And like half of that time was literally the Senate's standard procedure for voting on things. If we didn't have debate, there wouldn't even be a timetable on the war resolution, which is an idea that seems to be pretty popular among literally everyone in congress. Seriously.

It should also be noted that you made an issue about advancing this because of the Draft Restriction Amendment, which wasn't even relevant to the deal anyway. China asked for 30k troops, not enough to trigger us to reinstate the draft.

(This is not to say I disagree with the Draft Resolution Amendment, because I completely support it. I'm simply stating it had nothing to do with the deal)

[Lumine]

Senators Siren, Scott and ZuWo are right, it is unacceptable to be forced by China to pay a fine and capitulate to their demands. This is a provocative and absurd move from Beijing.

(I applaud the GM and Deputy GM for their work on the storyline thus far, though)

I guess that means you haven't bothered to pay attention to the fact that there was a deadline to get the deal ratified (not that it wasn't already obvious how little you pay attention to Atlasia to begin with).

Stay classy, Madam President.

I'm well aware of the situation surrounding the deal, and I don't think the dissenting voices (which include both people who oppose the war and people who support it) are acting out of their egos, so I'm not sure what you intend to do with personal attacks on half the Senate.

It's a godawful deal. We're told it was the best the Administration could do, but considering the proposition is to cripple our nuclear arsenal and economy and abandon our allies in Asia to hang on future conflicts, I think the Senate had a right to debate its merits and the evident problems its ratification would bring to Atlasia.

And furthermore, the Senate has a right to stand strong against an arbitrary, unfair fine when we're already being extorted by China in such a degree. As a realist I would have given an Aye vote to the treaty (a very reluctant Aye, but an Aye nonetheless), but what we're ceding to China is already too much, and we're asked to go even further in a most unreasonable manner.

(Future suggestion: I've seen people doubting info which has been assured is real before of intelligence the Administration or the NSC has. Much info needs to remain secret, of course, but perhaps the Administration could consider briefing the Senators in private of relevant info for discussions such as this?)

[Anna Komnene]

This idea that we dragged our feet is totally whack a doodle. The treaty was introduced in the Senate on September 25th and now the vote is finishing up on October 1. And like half of that time was literally the Senate's standard procedure for voting on things. If we didn't have debate, there wouldn't even be a timetable on the war resolution, which is an idea that seems to be pretty popular among literally everyone in congress. Seriously.

It should also be noted that you made an issue about advancing this because of the Draft Restriction Amendment, which wasn't even relevant to the deal anyway. China asked for 30k troops, not enough to trigger us to reinstate the draft.

(This is not to say I disagree with the Draft Resolution Amendment, because I completely support it. I'm simply stating it had nothing to do with the deal)

So? It added like 2 days of discussion, and it encouraged congress to actually get that done now instead of sometime next century. Before we added a timetable to the bill, there was no guarantees that the war wouldn't get worse and need to be extended. And really, there still isn't any guarantee of that since Congress could always pass a new bill to extend it. I think that whenever we're in a major war, the draft is always relevant. Atlasians deserve to have their say on that with everything going on.

[fhtagn]

Senators Siren, Scott and ZuWo are right, it is unacceptable to be forced by China to pay a fine and capitulate to their demands. This is a provocative and absurd move from Beijing.

(I applaud the GM and Deputy GM for their work on the storyline thus far, though)

I guess that means you haven't bothered to pay attention to the fact that there was a deadline to get the deal ratified (not that it wasn't already obvious how little you pay attention to Atlasia to begin with).

Stay classy, Madam President.

I'm well aware of the situation surrounding the deal, and I don't think the dissenting voices (which include both people who oppose the war and people who support it) are acting out of their egos, so I'm not sure what you intend to do with personal attacks on half the Senate.

It's a godawful deal. We're told it was the best the Administration could do, but considering the proposition is to cripple our nuclear arsenal and economy and abandon our allies in Asia to hang on future conflicts, I think the Senate had a right to debate its merits and the evident problems its ratification would bring to Atlasia.

And furthermore, the Senate has a right to stand strong against an arbitrary, unfair fine when we're already being extorted by China in such a degree. As a realist I would have given an Aye vote to the treaty (a very reluctant Aye, but an Aye nonetheless), but what we're ceding to China is already too much, and we're asked to go even further in a most unreasonable manner.

(Future suggestion: I've seen people doubting info which has been assured is real before of intelligence the Administration or the NSC has. Much info needs to remain secret, of course, but perhaps the Administration could consider briefing the Senators in private of relevant info for discussions such as this?)

A 35% reduction would not "cripple" our arsenal, nor would it even come close, and to suggest that is incredibly ill-informed. We would still have plenty of nukes to destroy the world many times over, not that it is even remotely a good idea.

As for your further suggestion, Senator Siren was informed of the possibility of what would happen should the Senate not ratify this deal, including the deadline, when her (as well as other members of Congress) were invited to an NSC meeting to brief them on what the situation was. So for her to suggest that we didn't give her that information when logs prove otherwise is either an outright lie, or she simply wasn't paying attention.

I am working with the NSC and the GM currently to work out a deal on the penalty for not ratifying the deal within the time frame, and once that is reached, that information will be readily available for those who want to continue questioning what is going on. Whether or not they choose to pay attention is up to them.

[Mr. Reactionary]

but considering the proposition is to cripple our nuclear arsenal

lolwut

This basically just entails us switching from a triad to a dyad by phasing out bombers, while not keeping some of our ICBMs on instant kill mode. We still have our subs which are hands down the most important part of our nuclear weapons capacity.

[Kingpoleon]

Instead of a fine, I'd suggest that Atlasia pledge three billion dollars to every billion dollars the Chinese invest in rebuilding North Korea. This would be effectively/indirectly a one billion dollar fine.

[fhtagn]

At the risk of this getting reported and removed (not really sure if this crosses the line or not, but in case anyone wants to doubt what I'm saying that Siren was indeed informed):

Note: Some stuff omitted due to not being relevant to the purpose of this post, as well as not relevant to the China deal in general, but the full logs from this exchange can be made available upon request should anyone wish to see them. This has also been posted with the GM's knowledge and verification that none of the information being shared is classified

02:06:59: <Sirena> hi
02:07:19: <NCY1689> Hey sirena
02:07:28: <NCY1689> Fhtagn, again from the top
02:07:58: <NCY1689> Also if Scott could wake up that would be a big help
02:08:07: <fhtagn> 20:48   NCY1689   Anyway 20:49   NCY1689   The deal before the SEnate is with China was a last offer before WW3 type situation 20:49   NCY1689   it isn't perfect but it got China as an ally instead of an enemy 20:49   NCY1689   The War declaration is suppose to be aimed at fulfilling that deal
02:08:25: <NCY1689> The deal was suppose to be introduced first
02:08:35: <fhtagn> oh whoooops
02:08:35: <NCY1689> but in the rush to get everything on the floor
02:08:39: <NCY1689> it didn't happen
02:08:45: <NCY1689> The war declaration came down first
02:08:52: <fhtagn> sorry I thought you meant mention the deal again here
02:09:01: <NCY1689> the war declaration is limited explicility only to the mission as outlined in the deal
02:11:20: <fhtagn> we explored all other peaceful options, numerous times offering deals that RL China would easily take because they can't afford to go to war with us 20:57   fhtagn   if RL logic applied, this deal wouldn't have happened 20:57   fhtagn   but this isn't RL
02:11:32: <Sirena> I'm not saying I would never support the resolution, although I'd have to think about it. I'm just saying that I want the draft restriction amendment passed first.
02:11:44: <NCY1689> The Draft Restriction amendment will be up soon
02:11:51: <NCY1689> once PiT gets on
02:12:19: <NCY1689> There are about 7 bills that need to be dealt with from prior Senates (2 from 6th and 5 from 7th)
02:12:28: <NCY1689> The Draft Restriction is the first from the 7th
02:12:36: <NCY1689> and will be move up
02:12:59: <Sirena> That's good to hear


02:42:32: <NCY1689> Fhtagn did you get my PM
02:43:00: <Sirena> But then I couldn't make a glorious speech in whcih I got to use the phrase "deeply disturbing"
02:43:28: <fhtagn> yes yankee
02:44:12: <fhtagn> Sirena, I truly do understand your concerns. but what you are not understanding is the fact that if we do not do this, China will absolutely make sure we regret this
02:44:33: <fhtagn> we can't use what would happen in real life to judge how this plays out
02:45:01: <fhtagn> our people's safety gets put in serious jeopardy if we shut it down
02:45:13: <NCY1689> Our agreement doesn't provide for occupation, just the defeat of the NK leadership
02:45:29: <NCY1689> China will handle that and will insist we leave
02:45:59: <NCY1689> I highly doubt they want us poking their noses into the situation
02:47:00: <pit1> Public Service Act has passed
02:47:05: <Sirena> I don't know the transitioning part sounds a lot like occupation
02:47:23: <fhtagn> it's China we are talking about
02:47:28: <fhtagn> they will not want us to stay in NK
02:47:44: <fhtagn> 02:09:54: <fhtagn> so just out of curiosity 02:10:04: <fhtagn> what happens if we try to get congressional approval for the China deal 02:10:07: <fhtagn> and it fails 02:12:40: <AZ> well then we go back to the drawing board 02:12:56: <AZ> China may make other demands 02:13:19: <AZ> but remember if you relent on anything then the deal is off
02:47:54: <LouisvilleThunder> China might want us to stay in NK
02:48:03: <fhtagn> no, they will not
02:48:06: <LouisvilleThunder> Because it will weaken our country
02:48:19: <fhtagn> China doesn't want us that close to their border
02:48:30: <LouisvilleThunder> And give china more power amd prosperity compared to us
02:48:46: <NCY1689> The best out for for this agreement
02:48:50: <NCY1689> is the trade portion
02:48:59: <NCY1689> If we can start exporting a ton of crap to China
02:49:03: <NCY1689> they will reneg
02:49:12: <Sirena> I feel like I'm not sure if I'm operating with all the info. Like I see that China said they would support NK but I don't see them saying that they would declare war on us if we leave
02:49:32: <LouisvilleThunder> But our own goods are too expensive to compete with theirs
02:49:39: <fhtagn> 02:14:12: <AZ> such as push new sanctions and possible war
02:49:55: <NCY1689> At the very least we lose little in the arrangement trade wise
02:49:59: <NCY1689> We are already flooded
02:50:04: <NCY1689> with chinese products
02:50:11: <NCY1689> they have the run of our markets
02:50:20: <LouisvilleThunder> For many years
02:50:20: <NCY1689> there are competive industries that are shut out of China thoguh
02:50:30: <Sirena> I mean. if you have Scott and Henry on board, it will probably pass anyway
02:50:33: <NCY1689> So there are not barriers from us
02:50:45: <NCY1689> The barriers are on our entry
02:50:54: <fhtagn> "China also would like sit dead an iron out a deadline on getting the treaty passed. Ideally the treaty would be ratified by the end of the month.China has stated that it will consider withdrawing from the current deal if Atlasia does not start acting on their end of the treaty. "
02:52:15: <LouisvilleThunder> Why should we kiss up and appease china
02:52:34: <LouisvilleThunder> Why cant we find some leverage to use against china for once
02:52:48: <pit1> we had leverage over China
02:52:55: <pit1> when they tried to muscle us
02:53:05: <pit1> and we clearly stood to suffer less
02:53:24: <LouisvilleThunder> ?
02:53:53: <fhtagn> We had more to work with before Goldwater decided to strike NK
02:54:01: <pit1> when the story first broke, China adopted an aggressive stance with us
02:54:17: <fhtagn> we are now at the point where we don't get to act like we call the shots


03:12:12: <Sirena> Whether or not its part of the deal is besides the point. I'm saying that if we're commiting to a potentially large scale war (and it always could end up like that even we say we want it to be limited) that Atlasians should be able to have their say on the draft amendment. That's why its relevant
03:12:24: <LouisvilleThunder> ^
03:12:55: <scott> Oh, all right
03:13:02: <LouisvilleThunder> Yeah the GM might decide to cause an insurgency
03:13:11: <LouisvilleThunder> Iraq style
03:13:15: <LouisvilleThunder> In NK
03:13:44: <fhtagn> 21:49   fhtagn   can you please confirm for me what sort of situation we would be looking at if we cannot get the Senate to ratify the agreement with China? 22:04   AZ   Well then China is expected to withdraw from their deal which means sanctions on Atlas 22:05   AZ   at the very least a withdrawal from the Korean war
03:13:58: <fhtagn> 22:05   AZ   and possibly China supplying weapons to North Korea radical groups 22:06   AZ   Fhtagn 22:06   fhtagn   thank you 22:06   fhtagn   would it be okay if I shared this information in #NSC 22:06   fhtagn   which currently also includes leaders from the Senate?
03:14:12: <fhtagn> 22:09   AZ   Yes and China also would likely become uncooperative and potentially hostile towards Atlasia and the west in the future which may increase the chances of future conflicts
03:14:13: <NCY1689> PiT1, Scott, Fhtagn, move to #AtlasianCongress so we can fix the backlog issue separate from the war sh**t
03:16:44: <Sirena> Jbrase asked me to do this draft thing for him ages ago and I won't rest until I see it actually go to a vote



It was made very clear both publicly and privately, by myself and others present in the NSC meetings, that inaction on this had consequences. To say that the Senate was not informed of what stalling on the deal would mean is completely false.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Update Atlasia federal government agrees to pay $1000,000,000 instead of fine
The Atlasia federal government in an agreement with the Chinese government will make a $1000,000,000 donation to help the victims of the  Korean War in lieu of a fine. Half the money donated will go to help supplying food and medical supplies to wounded Chinese soldiers. The other half will go to helping North Korean refugees.

[Anna Komnene]

Not getting into my opinion of that being posted, I'd like to point out there there was no mention of nuclear threats by China nor any ironclad deadline, only statements that "ideally they would like it ironed out by the end of the month" and that they would like to see it getting worked on. I was also told at some point, I think during the Senate debates, that there was info we weren't allowed to know. All things that the Senate did. And by the way, I feel like the Senate having started the vote before the deadline was passed is actually a pretty good argument in favor the Senate beating the deadline. Because the main reason why votes last for 3 days is because people live in different time zones and have lives, etc.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I would like to note that before this "deadline" arrived, the deal already had enough votes for ratification in the Senate.  When bills have enough support in the Senate, members are given 24 hours to change their vote after at least 24 hours has already lapsed.  This is how the Senate has operated for a long time.  The deal was complete and the necessary votes were already there, so for China to jeopardize its standing with the Republic by imposing arbitrary fines over a procedural issue would be extremely reckless of them.  (So reckless that I'd say it's downright unrealistic...)

As for donating to victims of the Korean War, while I am not against doing that in principle, Atlasia simply cannot allow itself to be blacklisted by other nations - China especially.  This would set a precedent from which we would never recover.  So while I am sympathetic to helping victims of this war as well as refugees, I would oppose any legislation in the Senate that further compromises our nation's sovereignty.

[fhtagn]

I would like to note that before this "deadline" arrived, the deal already had enough votes for ratification in the Senate.  When bills have enough votes in the Senate, members are given 24 hours to change their vote.  This is how the Senate has operated for a long time.  The deal was complete and the necessary votes were already there, so for China to jeopardize its standing with the Republic by imposing arbitrary fines over a procedural issue would be extremely reckless of them.  (So reckless that I'd say it's downright unrealistic...)

As for donating to victims of the Korean War, while I am not against doing that in principle, Atlasia simply cannot allow itself to be blacklisted by other nations - China especially.  This would set a precedent from which we would never recover.  So while I am sympathetic to helping victims of this war as well as refugees, I would oppose any legislation in the Senate that further compromises our nation's sovereignty.

You had been approached about congressional action that needed to be taken (more than once) well before you brought it to the floor. There were numerous times where multiple messages had to be sent to even get a response, and I ended up having to draft the resolution myself well after the discussion we had on it privately had taken place because no action was taken. This was something that should have easily been taken care of well before the end of the month.

So this is absolutely an instance where the Senate (or at the very least you) had dropped the ball on not getting this ratified by the time China requested completion. It was made very clear (as seen in the logs) that China would make additional demands if this isn't taken care of, and the agreement on the donation rather than a fine is a very fair deal considering how much they've contributed to the war already, and the sacrifices being made while we are still waiting for approval to hold up our end of the agreement.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

I would like to note that before this "deadline" arrived, the deal already had enough votes for ratification in the Senate.  When bills have enough votes in the Senate, members are given 24 hours to change their vote.  This is how the Senate has operated for a long time.  The deal was complete and the necessary votes were already there, so for China to jeopardize its standing with the Republic by imposing arbitrary fines over a procedural issue would be extremely reckless of them.  (So reckless that I'd say it's downright unrealistic...)

As for donating to victims of the Korean War, while I am not against doing that in principle, Atlasia simply cannot allow itself to be blacklisted by other nations - China especially.  This would set a precedent from which we would never recover.  So while I am sympathetic to helping victims of this war as well as refugees, I would oppose any legislation in the Senate that further compromises our nation's sovereignty.

You had been approached about congressional action that needed to be taken (more than once) well before you brought it to the floor. There were numerous times where multiple messages had to be sent to even get a response, and I ended up having to draft the resolution myself well after the discussion we had on it privately had taken place because no action was taken. This was something that should have easily been taken care of well before the end of the month.

So this is absolutely an instance where the Senate (or at the very least you) had dropped the ball on not getting this ratified by the time China requested completion. It was made very clear (as seen in the logs) that China would make additional demands if this isn't taken care of, and the agreement on the donation rather than a fine is a very fair deal considering how much they've contributed to the war already, and the sacrifices being made while we are still waiting for approval to hold up our end of the agreement.

That deal/resolution should have been written by the administration in the first place.  No one in the Senate was present for negotiations, so why would that be on us?  In fact, at one point I even asked (in the IRC) if the deal was already in text form.  That was never answered, but I figured that was in the administration's hands.

If you and the GM intend on using fake stories in a game to try to intimidate people, be my guest.  I don't think it will win you many favors.

[fhtagn]

I would like to note that before this "deadline" arrived, the deal already had enough votes for ratification in the Senate.  When bills have enough votes in the Senate, members are given 24 hours to change their vote.  This is how the Senate has operated for a long time.  The deal was complete and the necessary votes were already there, so for China to jeopardize its standing with the Republic by imposing arbitrary fines over a procedural issue would be extremely reckless of them.  (So reckless that I'd say it's downright unrealistic...)

As for donating to victims of the Korean War, while I am not against doing that in principle, Atlasia simply cannot allow itself to be blacklisted by other nations - China especially.  This would set a precedent from which we would never recover.  So while I am sympathetic to helping victims of this war as well as refugees, I would oppose any legislation in the Senate that further compromises our nation's sovereignty.

You had been approached about congressional action that needed to be taken (more than once) well before you brought it to the floor. There were numerous times where multiple messages had to be sent to even get a response, and I ended up having to draft the resolution myself well after the discussion we had on it privately had taken place because no action was taken. This was something that should have easily been taken care of well before the end of the month.

So this is absolutely an instance where the Senate (or at the very least you) had dropped the ball on not getting this ratified by the time China requested completion. It was made very clear (as seen in the logs) that China would make additional demands if this isn't taken care of, and the agreement on the donation rather than a fine is a very fair deal considering how much they've contributed to the war already, and the sacrifices being made while we are still waiting for approval to hold up our end of the agreement.

That deal/resolution should have been written by the administration in the first place.  No one in the Senate was present for negotiations, so why would that be on us?  In fact, at one point I even asked (in the IRC) if the deal was already in text form.  That was never answered, but I figured that was in the administration's hands.

If you and the GM intend on using fake stories in a game to try to intimidate people, be my guest.  I don't think it will win you many favors.

I don't think someone who has no idea how the Game Moderator's role works really has any room to talk (and trust me, there's logs of that, too)

[Pragmatic Conservative]

I would like to note that before this "deadline" arrived, the deal already had enough votes for ratification in the Senate.  When bills have enough votes in the Senate, members are given 24 hours to change their vote.  This is how the Senate has operated for a long time.  The deal was complete and the necessary votes were already there, so for China to jeopardize its standing with the Republic by imposing arbitrary fines over a procedural issue would be extremely reckless of them.  (So reckless that I'd say it's downright unrealistic...)

As for donating to victims of the Korean War, while I am not against doing that in principle, Atlasia simply cannot allow itself to be blacklisted by other nations - China especially.  This would set a precedent from which we would never recover.  So while I am sympathetic to helping victims of this war as well as refugees, I would oppose any legislation in the Senate that further compromises our nation's sovereignty.

You had been approached about congressional action that needed to be taken (more than once) well before you brought it to the floor. There were numerous times where multiple messages had to be sent to even get a response, and I ended up having to draft the resolution myself well after the discussion we had on it privately had taken place because no action was taken. This was something that should have easily been taken care of well before the end of the month.

So this is absolutely an instance where the Senate (or at the very least you) had dropped the ball on not getting this ratified by the time China requested completion. It was made very clear (as seen in the logs) that China would make additional demands if this isn't taken care of, and the agreement on the donation rather than a fine is a very fair deal considering how much they've contributed to the war already, and the sacrifices being made while we are still waiting for approval to hold up our end of the agreement.

That deal/resolution should have been written by the administration in the first place.  No one in the Senate was present for negotiations, so why would that be on us?  In fact, at one point I even asked (in the IRC) if the deal was already in text form.  That was never answered, but I figured that was in the administration's hands.

If you and the GM intend on using fake stories in a game to try to intimidate people, be my guest.  I don't think it will win you many favors.

Not sure what involvement I have  with fake stories. I have no intention in intimidating anyone;people can do what they want; their actions will just have consequences. I also certainly have played no role with what anyone else writes.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

If you and the GM intend on using fake stories in a game to try to intimidate people, be my guest.  I don't think it will win you many favors.

Scott, Reality Check! THIS WHOLE THING IS FAKE. You are a fake Senator, I am a fake representative, everything here is fake, because it is a game!

The stories are part of the game. Quit trying to resist it, and the GM and just accept it. It was always suppose to be like this or similar to this. Dynamic and consequential.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

International News
October 1st Korean War Update
The last few days of the Koran war have seen 10 Atlasian military officials including a base commander for treason, another twist in the ongoing Chinese-Atlasian agreement and several more critical battles.

-10 individuals including base commander Shane Staler based out of Guam have been arrested for treason. These individuals are accused to have strategically colluded with North Korean troops as well as selling artillery and military planes well below cost. The full list of charges can be found here https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=273971.0

-While China is believed to be glad that the Atlasia senate has ratified the most recent treaty between the two countries, most government officials are believed to be frustrated over the significant time it took from  when the treaty was signed to when it was ratified. China is hopeful that the Atlasia federal government is able to make the agreed to $1000,000,000 humanitarian donation within the next 10 days. China is believed to be fully prepared to walk away from the bargaining table if the senate blocks the agreed to donation.

-Chinese fighter jets have destroyed another North Korean nuclear weapon brining the countries estimated total down to just 2 nuclear bombs and one hydrogen bomb left.
 

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

[ZuWo]

While, as I made clear, I don't support us paying any penalty imposed on us by a foreign power, I'd advise against calling this and similar stories "fake". We might not like their content but the GM and the Deputy GM are doing brilliant work. Thanks to this storyline Atlasia has become more exciting again.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Thanks to this storyline Atlasia has become more exciting again.

Game Moderator AZ: Making Atlasia Exciting Again!!!