I'm Kaschovia, your newest, but ever-familiar, Minister of Communications. The start of this term has been a blur of roll calls, planning, and catching up where we left off from the end of last term, so getting this first issue out was a real challenge with the time frame we've had, especially since the re-opened election concluded a week later than the general election usually would have.

Nevertheless, we're determined to release high-quality content and keep the ball rolling into the next four months. The habit of releasing editions late is one that is hard to escape, but that's the aim with this edition. We'll be covering lots of topics, including the recent general election, a citizen survey, a review of the album “The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce),” and an in-depth analysis of the New West Conifer/Alcris merger. There’s something for everyone in this issue!

We’re welcoming another familiar face back into the Communications leadership fold this term in Halsoni, while Vapid, a rising star within the ministry, also joins as a deputy. The contributions of these two individuals to this edition and the ministry at large have been nothing short of incredible, so full praise goes to them.

I’m really excited to be back in this role this term, and I think we’re going to get some great work done over the next four or so months. The combination of skills needed to make our ministry work, from writing and editing, to designing and promoting, is simply incredible, so to all of the staff who continue to brave this gauntlet and help me create good content for The North Pacific, a massive thank you.

If you’re interested in joining the Ministry of Communications for this term to help out, feel free to contact me via DM or telegram. It is not nearly as demanding or difficult as it might seem, and we’re always on the lookout for new writers or broadcasters!

Finally, I hope you enjoy reading this edition as much as we enjoyed creating it. Here’s to a productive term ahead!

Cheers,

Kaschovia
Minister of Communications

After the option to reopen nominations was chosen by a vast majority of voters in the general election, where Blue Wolf II ran alone following the withdrawal of Comfed, the Re-Opened September 2024 Delegate Election has concluded. Picairn is the new Delegate-Elect of The North Pacific, beating Pallaith by three votes (47-44) in the second round of voting.

The other candidates, Blue Wolf II and Dreadton, both got three votes respectively and were eliminated in the first round. The race was forecast as close in previous election polling, especially after previous frontrunner Comfed abruptly withdrew their candidacy, but even still, proceedings were a lot more competitive than many initially thought they would be.

The re-opened election for Delegate closed after the general election began, so the Vice Delegate & Speaker were elected about a week prior to this conclusion. In the Vice Delegate election, Sil Dorsett won with 86.96% of the vote (60/69), beating Neptunian Military Administration who received 13.04% of the vote (9/69). In the Speaker election, Arawi won with 85.94% of the vote (55/64), beating Gridland Empire who received 14.06% of the vote (9/64).

A huge part of the leadup to this election was that, in spite of Delegate Simone Republic's completion of many campaign promises, he still suffered remarkably among potential voters, polling a lukewarm 2.1/5 mean approval on a TNN poll conducted in late July. This result was somewhat surprising, given his strong May first-round election performance of 48.4%, and subsequent second-round victory by 14 points.

Meanwhile, his cabinet ministers typically enjoyed high ratings, especially Picairn, who topped out the ratings at 4.4. Picairn's high rating can likely be attributed to then-recent North Pacific Army accomplishments in capturing the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators and Elba Island (read more).

A followup survey was conducted from August 23-29. Additional modifications were made to improve the quality of survey data and collection methods, including requiring a Google account in order to file a response and changing Likert scale questions from a 1-5 scale to a 1-7 scale, with 1 being “strongly disapprove” and 7 being “strongly approve”.

31 responses were received in total, though some respondents chose not to answer certain questions, meaning that the total number of responses varied from question to question. The first eleven questions asked respondents to, in order, rate the following on aforementioned Likert scale: The Delegate, the Vice Delegate, each Minister in the Delegate’s government, the Cabinet as a whole, and the Speaker. The next question asked voters to rank choices for the September Delegate election from the following choices: Simone Republic, Comfed, St George, and Blue Wolf II. A final question asked voters whether they would vote for Cloud or AraFuttio for Speaker.

Compared to the survey results from July, it was clear that most of the cabinet who remained did not have significant changes in their approval ratings, most retaining slightly positive approval ratings with the notable exception of Minister of Home Affairs Skaraborg, whose approval ratings suffered slightly. This suggests that overall, The North Pacific tended to consider cabinet ministers to be doing good jobs, as is corroborated by the mean cabinet rating being slightly positive. Notably, Comfed and Halsoni appeared to enjoy the highest approval ratings for their positions, likely in part due to them replacing highly unpopular prior incumbents. Picairn, not in the run for Delegate at this stage, also held a comparably high approval rating as Minister of Defense as he did in the first poll. Meanwhile, Simone’s approval rating did not improve late into his term, despite his Cabinet’s relative popularity, carrying only a 2.8/7 approval rating. This was reflected in his poor hypothetical electoral performance. With only 10% of the first-round vote for the Delegate election, it became difficult to see a path to victory for Simone, even before nominations were re-opened.

Riding his high approval rating, Comfed was the clear favorite in the Delegate race, with 53% of the first-round vote in the hypothetical poll. With St George having asked to be in the survey but having noted he was not running, the margin by which Comfed was expected to win is likely higher than displayed, as the second choice for most St George voters was Comfed.

Additional charts on this poll can be found here, including specific results for each Likert scale question asked.

However, a significant complication occurred early in the morning of September 5: Comfed suddenly withdrew from the race, which left only one option (Blue Wolf II) for the Delegate election. Additional polling was conducted among citizens (n=35) by the Ministry of Communications in the immediate aftermath of Comfed's withdrawal.

The results indicated that it was highly likely that nominations would be reopened, though Blue Wolf II's performance over Abstain outpaces the No vote's performance over Yes to reopening nominations, suggesting that there was a significant portion of citizens who would vote for Blue Wolf II but desired competition in nominations.

For the third question, all potential candidates for Delegate known to have interest in the event of nominations reopening were included in the question. Results in this poll indicated a close race between Pallaith and Picairn, with Blue Wolf II still performing quite well, and minor candidates Dreadton and incumbent Simone Republic being eliminated early on. Simone Republic's poor performance in particular tracked with prior TNN polling, suggesting poor overall rating of his job performance.

(Additional charts describing Question 3 results can be found in the TNN article with these results here.)

It came to pass that this final poll was accurate in most of its predictions, including the reopening of nominations and the failure of Blue Wolf II to make a majority of voters. What was interesting was that when voting did reopen after the second nominations period, the election quickly stratified into a race between two first choices: Picairn and Pallaith. This was predicted to be the case in the final round, but both Picairn and Pallaith picked up several voters from other options Dreadton and Blue Wolf II as compared to the poll (each only receiving 3 votes in the reopened election’s first round). Picairn’s charisma and strong DM campaigns carried him over the finish line, with him flipping about a half dozen of Pallaith’s voters.

In spite of their close race, Pallaith and Picairn seemed to be on remarkably friendly terms in the immediate aftermath of the election, presenting a unified front for The North Pacific’s future. As Picairn settles into his first term as Delegate, it remains to be seen whether he can continue his high favorability ratings. For now, the spirits in the North Pacific are high and the region is once again at peace in the aftermath of a turbulent election.

The poll was posted in the #announcements channel with a ping for the citizens role, and was open from the 23rd of July to the 26th. Citizens were asked to rate their opinion of the following from 1 (Strongly Disapprove) to 5 (Strongly Approve): The Delegate, the Vice Delegate, each Minister in the Delegate’s government, and the Speaker. The incumbents mentioned were as of the 21st, when the survey was in initial stages of construction, in spite of the fact that by the time the survey began, two incumbents (Bobberino and AraFuttio) had resigned and have since been replaced (by Comfed and Halsoni, respectively).

The results (left), indicate that this choice was wise on their parts, and perhaps that replacement was a wise choice, given that they occupied the 3rd and 1st to last places respectively in the mean ratings. Other cabinet ministers enjoyed high ratings, especially Picairn, who topped out the ratings at 4.4. Picairn's high rating can likely be attributed to recent North Pacific Army accomplishments (read more) in capturing the Confederation of Corrupt Dictators and Elba Island.

Notably, in spite of Delegate Simone Republic's completion of many campaign promises, he still suffers remarkably among potential voters, polling a lukewarm 2.1 mean approval. This is somewhat surprising, given his strong May first round election performance of 48.4%, and subsequent second round victory by 14.3 points. This could signify a trend towards growing discontent with the status quo, explaining why many specific ministers may do well given good job performance, but the buck stops with the Delegate even for unpopular decisions.

The full charts of each government official's approval rating are available in the magazine version of TNS.

More than this, the album is a tasteful example of how to grapple with both the psychological shadow and (often shallow) self-image as is defined by our interactions with society, and how the self can struggle to integrate these two competing forces within ourselves, yet how the definition of the self in fact requires such a struggle.

The album begins by setting the scene with “Renaissance”, where Eminem’s ‘image’ personality, Marshall (named after himself, Marshall Mathers III; also hence ‘M&M’) is heard spitting on a grave and then vents bitterly about how no one actually enjoys rap anymore, instead aiming to endlessly critique rap. This flows seamlessly into a flashback into the past in “Habits”, where Eminem’s other, more shadowy personality, Slim Shady (introduced in 1997 in the eponymous EP) mouths off about a variety of things intended to cause offense, meanwhile Marshall and the various refrains criticize him for having an addiction to offensiveness. Shady pushes back on this, including referencing South Park repeatedly, in order to diss them for being wokescolds.

Following this up with “Trouble”, Shady mocks Marshall for being feminine and concerned about being canceled, and re-introduces tropes Eminem has been known to offend for in the past (including the late Christopher Reeve). Shady then mocks Marshall further by singing “Brand New Dance”, an intentionally off-beat and boring track that aims to grate on Marshall’s nerves at the same time while mocking his overly polished style, suggesting that all Marshall’s music is good for is crappy, half-hearted dance tracks. In “Evil”, Shady recognizes that he is the dark part of himself that seeks to alienate him from everyone who’s brought him to where he is today. He discusses dissing Dr. Dre (the rapper who helped get him into the scene in the first place), letting down his daughter Hailie, and then launches into another offensive rant.

At this point, Shady comments to Marshall that the darkness and offensiveness is the only thing that put Marshall where he is today, in a position of wealth and privilege where he can afford to be concerned about offending people. Shady then follows this up with “Lucifer”, where he paints himself as the head of a satanic cult (even likening it to MAGA) where no one, not even his own mother, is safe from being lambasted. After this, Shady is chased by the ‘woke police’, led presumably by Marshall, whom Shady identifies as “The Antichrist”, perhaps in a reflection of his previously referring to himself as Lucifer, the progenitor of the Antichrist in many Christian traditions.

In “Fuel” and “Road Rage”, Shady appears to become inebriated, whether on his own offensiveness or something else entirely, and expresses to Marshall that he’s on the verge of cracking and it will really only take one event to completely send him off the deep end to a point where he simply doesn’t care what anyone thinks about what he does anymore. Marshall then argues with Shady about dyeing their hair, but Shady ultimately manages to silence Marshall and take over in time for the hit single of the album.

In context, “Houdini” is simply a back-and-forth between Shady being offensive and Marshall trying his best to do damage control, all the while Shady breaks free and insults essentially everyone and everything Marshall holds dear, including his manager Paul Rosenberg, Dr. Dre, other rappers, and his own kids. As the track comes to a close, it’s revealed that both Marshall and Shady co-released the album as Eminem, Marshall in order to cancel Shady, and Shady in order to ruin Marshall’s reputation. Neither is satisfied with this outcome, and in “Guilty Conscience 2”, they get into another back-and-forth, this time escalating higher than ever before. While Marshall criticizes Shady for being an immature coward, when Shady hits back that Marshall is an evil opportunist hypocrite, Marshall notably doesn’t fight back, choosing instead to simply give non-committal responses, followed by a final diss. This causes Shady to release Marshall from what are apparently zip tie bindings and challenge him to a fight. Marshall reaches for Shady’s gun and shoots and kills Shady while Shady begs for his life.

In “Head Honcho”, Marshall wakes alone, and calls Paul, saying he had a weird dream his old self (Shady) took over again. Paul grunts and hangs up. The rest of the song discusses how Marshall is now the sole inheritor to Eminem’s rap empire, and all the wealth and fame that comes with it, yet the song sounds oddly melancholy and empty for what should be a victory for Marshall.

Meanwhile, from beyond the grave, Shady sings “Temporary”, apologizing to his daughter Hailie that he couldn’t be there for her, and that he loves her and hopes she’ll listen to this song to hang on during tough times. This is the first instance we see of Shady being more than the offensive and angry loner from earlier in the song. While he equivocates ultimately on showing utter remorse, his affection and care come through, and it’s clear he’s concerned how the detached and image-obsessed Marshall will treat her.

Right on cue with “Bad One”, Marshall continues onto a party, where he meets Dre and apologizes to him half-heartedly, then asks for forgiveness. Notably, Dre says nothing in return after Marshall asks for forgiveness, the genuine connection appearing to have been severed irrevocably. Indeed, the background of this song paints Marshall as a greedy and empty husk who merely wanted the connection with Dre to be revitalized to get him some more money and fame. This craze for power, fame, and money drives Marshall up a wall in “Tobey”, wherein he compares himself to Tobey Maguire’s Spiderman (except bitten by a GOAT, get it?) and asserts that he’s simply the best. Manically, nearing the end, he suggests he’s gone even more insane than Shady ever did. Clearly, Eminem’s very sense of self is disintegrating without Shady.

The conclusion to the album involves an apparently hoarse and undead Shady rising from his grave, and singing several bars from “Houdini” out of key and off-beat, before shuffling off. The album ends with the heartfelt “Somebody Save Me”, wherein Eminem, apparently once again whole, reflects on how while his addictions have made him feel more embodied and authentic, they’ve also caused him to miss out on the lives he’s cared about the most. As someone who’s struggled with addiction myself, I can’t help but feel how gut-wrenching this tension is, between feeling like everyday life is a drudge and you need a crutch to get through it, and yet knowing that whenever you do, you check out of the lives of those who need you the most, in spite of the fact that you feel like to be there for them, you need to be your most authentic self. Notably, there’s no happy ending here. Eminem, like all of us, will have to keep up the struggle, whatever our addiction is, and whatever ways we shield ourselves from our own authenticity.

Conclusion

Eminem has always been among the most relatable rappers for me. As a fellow Michigander (that’s someone from Michigan, for those from outside the US), I feel like I can understand so much of what Eminem talks about just by living as I do every day. This album knocks that relatability out of the ballpark. While at multiple points in the album, Eminem does comment on cancel culture and trans rights (often taking what are at first glance negative positions to the latter), it’s clear once deeper analysis is performed that this is done as a framing device and never in poor taste, as he has done in past decades with gay rights & third-wave feminist movements when they were still fledgling in the US. Eminem likes to use hot topics to communicate what he views as legitimate psychological struggles within his own mind. I like to view any statements he makes in this album, in other words, not as him being disrespectful or bigoted, but instead as him being authentic and open about how many of us negotiate a socially acceptable persona to present while still fundamentally struggling with many social issues.

Additionally, as previously mentioned, the focus on addiction as more than a solely wicked thing (which is not to say it isn’t bad) is refreshing. I wager that no one who’s been addicted to anything started for absolutely no reason, the addiction is always covering something up. In this case, it appears that Eminem is communicating that it’s how he copes with his lack of ability to fully communicate his feelings to those he loves. That’s heartbreaking, and is something I myself know full well.

For style, I give this album 9/10.
For lyricism, I give this album 10/10.
For message, I give this album 10/10.

I recommend you go give it a listen in full if you haven’t already, this review simply cannot do it justice.

This was not a situation unique for either region. New West Indies had itself absorbed Evergreen Conifer in April of 2020 while Alcris had negotiated mergers with Laraniem and Mithra in the year preceding the Miyadakan Proposal. All of these merger decisions were driven by the draw of integrating into a larger more active community, of trading regional sovereignty for the assurance of a sustainable playerbase. The governments of NWI, Laraniem and Mithra all specifically pointed to regional survival and concerns about declining activity when explaining the decision to their regional inhabitants. For this reason, the Miyadakan Proposal largely focused on efforts to ensure the continuation of a distinct New West Indies heritage (including its Evergreen Conifer component) within the region of Alcris, with three of the six clauses of the proposal reflecting this cultural emphasis. Most notable was the sixth clause which specifically bound the Alcrisian government to "ensure the conservation of the NWI and Conifer flags."

By the end of July 2023, the citizen bodies of both Alcris and NWI had resoundingly approved the merger proposal. There was no gameside fanfare, no NS Gameplay forum announcement (Alcris did not have a forum thread and NWI’s had long been in disuse), just a 20-30 odd nation bounce for Alcris and some assorted goodbye and well-wishing messages on the NWI's Regional Message Board. There is a sense somewhat of a tree falling in a forest and no one being around to hear when events like these happen on the roleplay side of NS. After all, this was already the fourth combined merger involving these two regions so why should NS at large stand up and take notice of this one?

Flash Forward

Until the start of this month of August 2024, there likely would have been no answer to that question. It was then that the New West Indies citizens remaining in Alcris unilaterally declared the termination of the merger between the two regions. A dispatch titled A New Dawn, signed by 14 New West Indies/Evergreen Conifer citizens, charged the Alcrisian government with a lack of interest "in the preservation of New West Indian and Coniferan cultures", again presenting regional preservation as the driving force of their decision. The consequences of this withdrawal from Alcris would multiply to an unforeseen level and expose not just their commitment to cultural preservation as empty but also that the existence of a large active community, used as a lure in all of their merger negotiations, was nearly entirely fraudulent.

Within ten days of the announcement from what was now the region New West Conifer, a short message and link to a Substack article was posted to Alcris's RMB. In the message the poster, His Excellency (Danyo), stated: "I can now announce that I have been independently working on an investigation on credible allegations that Founder [of Alcris] and Community Councillor Averra has ran an extensive network of alt accounts, including Council Chairman Wintermoore, Foreign Councillor Caliane, and Security Councillor Myeon." The investigation results published in the linked Substack article went far beyond the four councillors named in the original post, going as far as identifying at minimum 35 alt accounts used by Averra to maintain essentially dictatorial control over a region that by its own constitution is declared as "sovereign and democratic" and advertised as being "based on the principles of direct democracy" in its WFE and Master Dispatch. Not only is the scale of 35 accounts notable - Alcris only had about 100 nations in the region during July 2024, with 35 nations representing an even larger percentage of citizens - but the length of time of the purported fraud stretching over two years puts it on a level that almost exceeds comprehension.

Democratic People’s Republic of Alcris

The alt accounts identified by His Excellency (Danyo) allowed Averra an effective veto over any item presented to Alcris's Council by controlling at all times between August 2022 and 2024 a minimum of two seats on the Council (which varied over this period having between five and eight seats). The two seats were specifically targeted to allow quorum prevention at will, as under Section 3.5.2 of the Alcrisian Constitution: "In case of two or more abstentions during a vote, a quorum is not reached and the bill does not enter into force." This was achieved through gratuitous ballot stuffing with His Excellency (Danyo)’s report revealing two-thirds of the most recent election’s ballots to have been cast by accounts identified as Averra's alts. Alcris's judiciary was also not spared with Danyo alleging that "until the appointment of Gelezia J [one of the signatories to the New West Conifer founding dispatch] in April 2024, Averra had secretly authored every judicial opinion" through various alt accounts, including rulings on criminal prosecutions that Averra had themselves initiated.

Averra has flatly denied the accusations on all counts with short posts on Alcris's Discord and RMB. Their statement on the RMB emphasizes that "We [Alcris] are a worldbuilding project at heart, so there isn’t really any reason to have puppets", a line echoed in their Discord posting. Even with the evidence gathered by His Excellency (Danyo) aside, the response by Averra rings incredibly hollow in its refutation. For one, as examined in the three mergers Alcris negotiated in the last two years, the presence of Alcris as a larger, more active region that could represent a safe haven from NS obscurity was likely the single motivating factor that pushed New West Indies, Mithra and Laraniem to accept the merger at all. By filling Alcris with their own alt accounts and actively using them in the roleplay and regional government, Averra was knowingly fabricating a false impression as a much more populous and dynamic region. Secondly, Alcris had an active regional government, far more than a typical roleplay region. In the last year, Alcris achieved in-game embassies with GCRs like Lazarus and The South Pacific, and larger UCRs like The Region That Has No Big Banks, Forest and Conch Kingdom. Alcris also had a combined 16 judicial reviews and criminal tribunals between July and December 2023, which as established previously often involved Averra acting as both judge and prosecutor. The Legal Code of Alcris includes 49 different acts passed in 2023 based on the dates included in the published Legal Code. This combination of judicial and legislative activity would be an inspiration to even the most active fully government-focused region and is certainly not indicative of a region that offers no incentive for utilizing alt accounts as Averra claimed.

The fallout from the allegations was swift. Nineteen embassies have been withdrawn including from most of the major regions, Alcris was password-protected and the nations Averra and Wintermoore departed for the Graveyard region where nations go to CTE. A joint statement on Alcris's Discord by the three founders, Averra, Wintermoore and Caliane (both also alleged alt accounts of Averra) mentioned the "false allegations levied against many in our group" and stated that "we are ending Alcris's connection with NationStates as a community."

His Excellency (Danyo)

Harkening back to the trigger of these explosive allegations, the merger termination by New West Conifer, there is no mention of concerns regarding Averran control of Alcris, just the cultural issues and the merger treaty obligations not being respected. So how did this go from a non-issue to a region-ending event? The answer lies with Danyo whom The North Star reached out to for comment on how the investigation into Averra and Alcris began. Danyo initially accepted the proffered explanation by New West Conifer of cultural rights and claimed to not be surprised by the outcome having at one point written "an amicus brief in favour of a petitioner who filed a judicial review on this topic [cultural rights around the continued use of the former NWI and Conifer flags]" from their position as a longtime friend through their participation in NWI and Evergreen Conifer embassy region, Communist Cartel. However, upon further corresponding with members of the newly split-off region, continued references to "what was then an unsubstantiated rumour that a lot of members in Alcris were Averra alts" inspired the entirely independent and lengthy investigation. Readers are very much encouraged to read the full Substack article published by Danyo, especially regarding the process by which Averra alts were identified.

How To Puppet Proof Your Citizenship (and How Not To)

The alleged fraud was able to be perpetrated due to a unique pathway to citizenship in Alcris. There are four paths to citizenship in Alcris but it is Path B that is the likely method used in this situation. Path B is granted to any non-WA nation that has a sponsor who is a citizen for a period longer than a year and must verify to the Interior Councillor that they are not a puppet. Through this pathway, Averra could sponsor any number of puppet nations through using their already granted citizen nations as a sponsor. Since the only check on puppet nations is if they verify themselves as a puppet or not, there is effectively no check on puppet status in Alcris and a very clear path to citizenship for an unlimited number of puppets.

Ensuring each citizen is a distinct individual is therefore an essential prerequisite to preventing the sort of usurpation of democracy alleged to have occurred in Alcris. Most regions will do this by mandating WA membership for citizenship, effectively outsourcing this screening of puppet citizens to the NS mods as they crack down on WA multiing. Here in The North Pacific, this issue of duplicated citizenship is taken extremely seriously and as a result have included in the citizenship process not only a Speaker and Vice Delegate check to ascertain the suitability of a candidate for citizenship but also an Admin check of the applicants' IPs and potential duplicative forum accounts to catch and prevent any individual from gaining a multitude of votes and exercising any undemocratic control over our institutions.