Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes IV (Do not post Current Politics Here)

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The Spirit of New England is a higher-speed commuter train that offers daily transportation between the provinces of Long Island and Connecticut. The Spirit of New England is owned and operated by the New Haven Railroad, but is contracted by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, the Long Island Department of Transportation, and the Tri-City Metropolitan Transit Authority to offer its services every forty-five minutes during the weekdays. The service is extremely popular, offering higher priced, but quicker, travel from Connecticut to the Tri-City area. When purchased on a per-diem basis, the Spirit of New England costs double that of a fare on the NHRR's slower Shoreline Regional. One perk of travel on the Spirit of New England is that each train has a United States Border and Customs Control Agency agent onboard, who checks travel documents to enter the United States. Likewise, when the train enters Connecticut on the return trip, a New England Border Patrol officer will check the necessary documents.

The Spirit of New England also services Long Island, the terminus in Jamaica is Croydon County's most used rail station, where it connects with New England Rail's Long Island Line. Due to the terminus' location, most travelers on the Spirit of New England trains are those who live in Long Island and work in the City or County of Westchester.

The train offers the fastest travel into the Tri-City area, with an average travel time of one hour from New Haven Victoria Station to New York Grand Central terminal. The Spirit of New England has its own set of trackage that is not used by any other train, which allows it to operate independently of other trains delays. This provision actually violated United States federal law, until it was granted special dispensation in 1994 by Congress.

The New Haven Railroad had announced plans to modify and upgrade the tracks in Fairfield and Westchester Counties, hoping to reduce curves and increase speed enough to bring the average travel time down under forty-five minutes. This seemed to be an answer to the new High-Speed rail announcement from Amtrak that would allow for easier access to the Tri-City area from upstate New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. After the US Government backed down from the announcement following the election of businessman Jeffrey Skilling as President, NHRR also withdrew their plans for upgrades to the line, and instead opted to divert more resources to its Long Island Sound bridge project, causing the ire of many Tri-City politicians, and even causing a joint press conference with New York Governor John Katko and Connecticut Chief Minister Richard Blumenthal to express their disappointment over the NHRR's decision. Due to the NHRR not breaching the contract it holds, no action could be taken against them, although it did leave a black mark on the otherwise sterling reputation of the Spirit of New England.

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For my Nationstates country :rolleyes:
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I can only get so erect.

President Malarkey
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Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden Jr. (/ˈdʒoʊsᵻf rɒbᵻˈnɛt ˈbaɪdən/; November 20, 1942 – February 7, 2028) was an American politician who was the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2025 and 47th Vice President of the United States from 2009 to 2017, having been jointly elected twice with President Barack Obama. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware as a United States Senator from 1973 until becoming Vice President in 2009.
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WARNING: LOTS OF WORDS AHEAD
Biden was elected President in 2016 after defeating former Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders in the primaries. He then selected Senator Elizabeth Warren as his running mate. Biden and Warren went on to defeat New York businessman Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence of Indiana 332-200 (with 6 faithless electors) in the Electoral College. Biden immediately faced opposition from Congressional Republicans. The Republicans had a 51-49 majority in the Senate thanks to the appointment of Karyn Polito to fill the vacancy created by Vice President Warren. Biden managed to get President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, through the obstructionist Senate by threatening McConnell with an even more liberal nominee once the Massachusetts Senate seat was won. Garland was confirmed 67-33 by the Senate. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy defeated Polito in the 2017 special election.

Biden's first term was dominated by the potential of a crisis in Europe that began with the success of the Brexit vote and continued with the victory of FN in the French presidential election and the disputed results of the "Frexit" vote that resulted in widespread protesting in France. The victory of PVV in the Dutch general election also continued to threaten the fragile state of the European Union. Although "Nexit" failed, the May ministry finally initiating the formal process of Brexit and the French government's decision to go ahead with Frexit despite the unclear results of the referendum resulted in the Euro plummeting almost overnight. This resulted in the Panic of 2019.

The Panic, combined with old age and midterm losses, led Biden to privately tell Democrats that he would not be seeking re-election in 2020. It was already unlikely that the Democratic Party would win a fourth consecutive election and the worsening economic situation made Biden's chances low. In August 2019, Biden publicly announced he would not be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination in 2020. Many candidates emerged, yet even more decided not to run out of fear of losing. Of 9 major candidates, the three frontrunners were Ohio Governor Tim Ryan, Vice President Warren, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker. No candidate won a majority of delegates by the time of the convention, not even with the addition of superdelegates. After the several rounds of voting, the three frontrunners continued to battle for the nomination. At the end of night 2 and after the 59th round of voting, people began to tire. Former President Obama flew into Miami in advance of his night 3 speech and secretly began rallying delegates for President Biden. Obama then passed on the task to the President's son, Governor Beau Biden of Delaware, while he went to the President's hotel room and persuaded him to run again. On the 73rd ballot, the Delaware delegation announced that they were voting for the President. The Draft Biden movement quickly began to pick up steam, and Governor Ryan threw his support to the President. Biden came to the floor after the balloting to signal that he would accept the nomination. The next challenge was figuring out a winning strategy. The priority was to dissociate Biden with the vitriolic and damaging primary campaign, and for this reason, Vice President Warren was not renominated. Both Ryan and Booker expected to replace her on the ticket, but Biden privately told them that they were not being considered. Instead, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was selected to be Biden's running mate. After she accepted, Biden and Gillibrand went on to the general campaign to face their Republican opponent:

...
...

Donald J. Trump.

Yes. Donald Trump had been renominated by the Republican Party. This time his running mate was Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey. Trump crushed his primary opponents, winning 38 states, several of them being absolute majority victories. Trump's campaign was almost exactly the same as his 2016 campaign. He focused intensely on the economy. However, the worst was already over in the United States. The unemployment rate began to decline and inflation was corrected. Despite the continued flailing of the Euro, the American economy was mostly stabilized despite being in a weaker state than it was four years prior. Trump's chances looked significantly better than last time, with the candidate having learned what worked and didn't work. However, the Trump campaign was completely derailed by his arrest by the FBI in early October. FBI Director Preet Bharara maintained that the entire investigation had been conducted without the President's knowledge and insisted that he was in no way ordered or recommended to arrest the President's opponent. Trump was charged with several counts of tax related crimes. He was also connected to the rumors of Russian interference in the 2016 election, which were confirmed in a new statement by the FBI. After posting bail, Trump spent the month leading up to the election ranting about how Biden was abusing his power to delegitimize his opponent and unfairly win the election. This narrative did not play as Trump was in and out of courtrooms. Biden won a landslide victory over Trump of 398 electoral votes. Trump was eventually convicted on the tax charges.

In the aftermath of the election, Biden decided to pardon Trump and forced Director Bharara to resign for undermining the President's authority and creating the image of potential impropriety within the government.

Biden's second term was initially geared toward repairing the economy. The United States was also party to the Antwerp Accords, a massive international climate change agreement. The Accords were accepted in the United States thanks to the Democratic Senate majority. One of the key points of the economic recovery plan was the creation of a national railway. Contracts were to be awarded to Japanese companies for the construction of two high speed rail links, one from San Diego to Seattle and the other from Boston to Washington, D.C. The railways were also to be built by American workers. However, the railway, with the rest of the economic recovery plan, was completely wrecked by the sudden death of Russian President Vladimir Putin in April 2021. Prime Minister Medvedev became Acting President and elections were scheduled for May. However, a massive bombing attack on Moscow thrust the nation into chaos. Medvedev declared martial law, assumed the full presidency, and suspended the election. Rioting and protesting began immediately. People were shot in the streets. Medvedev was overthrown by the military by late May and martial law continued. It was at this point that full scale revolution broke out. Russia collapsed into chaos between various government groups, military factions, popular movements, and independence movements. The whole world was on edge.

In the United States, some called for intervention, but even more called for no involvement. However, a 109 page memo written by Energy Secretary Dan Reicher pointed out that Russia's nuclear arsenal was now completely up for grabs. In the week after the so-called Reicher Paper, leaders from the United States, Europe, and China were in constant meetings. The nature of these meetings remained highly secretive, even to members of the involved governments. It soon became obvious what the purpose was when Operation Midnight Marvel began. Allied forces entered Russia with the sole intention of securing Russian nuclear garrisons. As the name suggests, large parts of the operation were done overnight. The rest of the operation continued over the next three years. The United Nations also deployed peacekeepers to assist in Midnight Marvel.

Biden's handling of the Russian Civil War was highly praised at home and abroad for preventing a major threat to the world from emerging as well as limiting American risk. However, an unforeseen effect of the destabilization in the Russian sphere was an energy crisis. War meant Russia had ceased to export its large shares of oil and natural gas. The price of oil began to skyrocket. In the United States however, the Antwerp Accords combined with the stable flow of oil out of Iraq prevented serious damage. However, Europe suffered due to its heavy dependence on Russian oil. Terrorist groups began to emerge in Russia who simply sought control of the oil fields and natural gas areas to control the outward flow of these resources and profit off them. The Biden administration and the Chinese government both committed to fighting these so-called "oil gangs", but Europe found itself increasingly reliant on them.

By 2022, Russia was settling into four major factions: the military, the New Russian People's Front (the key revolutionary group), the ex-government, and the oil gangs. The military government, which had control of the remaining nuclear arsenal of Russia, decided to cooperate with China and the United States in exchange for aid. The Strategic Tripartite Arms Limitation and Warhead Acquisition Reduction Treaty (STALWART) was signed as a result of covert talks. However, many nuclear arms were "lost" during the dismantling process, being preserved in case the military government felt the need to use them to establish dominance. The military government also reneged on one of the key prerequisites of the agreement, that they would not interact with the oil gangs. These two factions found themselves increasingly co-dependent, especially since the oil gangs were led by and consisted of ex-military. STALWART was hailed as a major victory in the United States, as it disabled another perceived threat.

As the last years of the Biden presidency came into view, the President once again dedicated himself to the railway project, handing off almost all other responsibilities to Vice President Gillibrand. The final provisions for the railway were passed in early 2024, allowing Biden to announce the creation of the National Railway System in his final State of the Union. Another key event of 2024 was the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which were opened by the President in one of his increasingly rare public appearances. The President did not appear again until the day after the 2024 election, when Vice President Gillibrand was defeated by Nevada Governor Adam Laxalt. He also delivered a farewell address from the Oval Office. His final act as President was to give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to his predecessor, reciprocating the honor Obama did unto him 8 years prior.

Supreme Court nominees:
2017: Merrick Garland (succeeding Antonin Scalia)
2018: Mariano-Florentino Cuellar (succeeding Anthony Kennedy)
2019: Goodwin Liu (succeeding Ruth Bader Ginsburg)
2022: Cheryl Ann Krause (succeeding Stephen Breyer)

Joe Biden filled a staggering four Supreme Court vacancies. His four nominated justices joined with 2 Obama nominees to create a formidable bench of 6 liberal justices.

In his post-presidency, Biden spent most of his time with his family and the Obamas. He attended the opening of his Presidential Library in 2027, which coincided with the creation of the Joe Biden Foundation. Biden died on February 7, 2028, three days after his son Beau won the New Hampshire primary. The younger Biden suspended his campaign as a consequence. Biden was given a state funeral and was buried in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was eulogized by Presidents Obama and Laxalt.

"This is a big fucking deal." - Joe Biden

If only...
 
Make

Genesisim is not a religion....except when it is. Its a theory on cultural development, except when its a political tract. Its based on scientific fact, except when it steeped in magic and mysticism. It is everything and nothing, a mish-mash of ideals, concepts and practice; if it sounds like they've all been grouped together under one name out of lazyness, you'd be half right.
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Genesisim (after the Oldhome word “genesis”, which means roughly “the origin”), is a set of cultural/religious/political concepts based around a simple principle: be original. In context, that means developing social concepts that are not derivative of the Oldhome cultures that are dominant beyond the black star; In practice, it means just about anything.

Their are a few central concepts to Genesisim: Originalism, Cultralism, Anchors, The cradle and the Zero Year. Originalism is self explanatory: be original. “Cultralism” is the concept of creating “original” or new culture to allow for the evolution of human thought; the further away one's cultural surrounding are from the Oldhome “norm”, the less likely they are to rehash old concepts. The concept of “Anchors” deals with environmental factors that may “bottleneck” social development and push them towards Oldhome concepts; to avoid this, effort should be made to eliminate or avoid such Anchors wherever possible, least a new culture find itself caught heading down a familiar track.

The concepts of The Cradle and Zero Year are more controversial, and have the widest range of differing opinions. In the context of Genesisim, “The Cradle” is Oldhome, and the many cultures and peoples it created. “The Cradle gave birth to humanity, yet humanity cannot stay in the cradle forever”. In context, The Cradle is what Genesisim works to get away from, avoiding emulating the Oldhome cultures and making the same mistakes. How one goes about getting away from The Cradle is a point of contention: For some, it means avoiding Oldhome conventions, while making an effort to learn from their mistakes; for others, it means wiping the slate clean, eliminating all references and traces of Oldhome. Zero Year has similar contention: The Zero Year signifies the start of a Genesitic Culture. For some, this is simply when their culture was founded; for others, Zero Year means an effective “Reboot” of history.

Genesisim has its origins, ironically, on Oldhome; According to legend, it originated in habitats orbiting the homeworld of humanity. The early history of Genesisim is not well known, with only myth and legend to go off; what is know, is that Genesisim was at the centre of a devastating war, and was subsequently pushed underground, stamped out where ever it was found, only for the idea to be carried beyond the black star in the minds of the colonists.

In the early days, Genesitic cultures tended to developed away from the large colonial centres, growing in regions and environments that lacked the “Anchors” that might curb original development. Living and working in conditions and situations distant than what was found on Oldhome spurred the development of new social constructs to deal with them, and with it, new cultural concepts, beliefs and ideals. While never able to directly compete with the Oldhome influenced majority, Genesitic culture grew and thrived in the remote wilderness of the stars.

Over thousands of years of development, several “archetypes” in Genesitic cultures have been identified, grouped according to their “adherence” to the original theories. The first broad archetype is known as “Traditional” Genesisim, and closely follows the original ideal of “burning the cradle”, creating new societies whole cloth, without Oldhome influence. Traditionalist are further separated into many different “thoughts,” such as Prime Cultralists, who strive to develop and implement fully formed societies from the get go; Evolutionary Cultralists, who reduce their societies to a base level and allow them to evolve naturally; Pragmatics, who use the lessons of Oldhome to better develop their original societies; and Charismatics, who base their societies on trying to emulate an “ideal” individual.

The second broad arch-types are the so called “Heretics”: individuals and societies that mostly follow the Genesitic ideals, but are not willing to totally give up on Oldhome or are willing to use and develop Oldhome concepts for their own purposes. They include Recombiants, who pick and choose the best traits and practices from different cultures to develop their own; Resurectionists, who look to develop cultures based on extinct ones; and the “Fantastic” group, who base their societies on ones found in ancient fiction.

The final archetype, and perhaps the most infamous, is Imperial Genesisim. The Universal Culture, developed by the immortals to “unite” their vast empire, was forced onto billions throughout the stars, replacing both Genesitic and Oldhome cultures alike. Imperial Genesisim defined itself from Traditional and Heretical Genesisim due to its relationship with history: while other Genesitic cultures will at least acknowledge the Oldhome once existed(and at the most, pretend history started with them), Imperial Genesisim seeks to literally rewrite history, replacing Oldhome with the ideals of the immortals. Imperial Genesisim was fluid, prone to sudden changes one the whims of the Immortal elite.

Today, Genesisim continues to exist, still mainly at the fringes of society. With the fading of the Universal Culture in the wake of the fall of the Southern Cross Empire, many older Genesitic cultures have returned, while new ones have sprung up. Although the success of Genesisim in the “mainstream” has been limited, Genesisim has managed to gain majority footholds in many areas, such as the Freefaller and Eva cultures, who are dominate on many Trade cyclers an deep space habitats.

With the expansion of the Humunity into deeper and deeper regions of unexplored space, the isolating factors of distance will likely spur the rise of more Genesitic cultures. Who knows what will develop, out their on the fringe, beyond the black star?
 
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Jeffery Keith "Jeff" Skilling is and American politician who served as 42nd President of the United States from 2005 to 2013. He is noted as being the first President who issued a Presidential Pardon to himself shortly after the 2008 Presidential Election for his role in the bankruptcy of Enron, which caused economic panic and started the Great Recession of 2008-2015. He is known as being the most unpopular President in American history, with an average approval rating of 11% during his second term. His lowest approval rating was in late March of 2014 when he proclaimed "Who gives a flying fuck about Enron? Stop asking why you sonva bitch, I outta have you thrown out of here you fuckin' bum" during a press conference in which he was asked about his role at Enron. Polls taken after show that only 2% of the country approved of his job performance. His highest post-pardon approval rating was only 37%.

His Presidency was marked by economic mismanagement, poor foreign policy, and a belligerent administration towards reporters and politicians alike. Despite his second term troubles, Skilling was an extremely popular figure with the religious right and college-educated persons, and his coalition was able to get him elected twice despite his poor performance with the working class, who mostly support the Social Labor Party.

He was known for his contempt of the Commonwealth of New England, refusing to visit the country once during his Presidency, and implementing highly unpopular travel restrictions to New England that he was forced to back down from after domestic, international, and economic pressure forced him to back down. He also refused to sit down and meet any New England Prime Minister more than once, despite the closely intertwined relationship the two counties have, being each other's largest trading partner.

Skilling was elected on the minor Republican Party ticket, which had been seeing a resurgence after the National-Republican split in early 1990s. His Presidency was a death kneel for the party, and most members returned to the National Party as the Republican Party collapsed.

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The Cabinet of President Jeffrey Skilling is considered to be one of the most corrupt and right-wing administrations in US History. The changes made by the Skilling Administration were vast and far-reaching. Most politicians in the United States today pledge to overturn the majority of the damage done by this group of people. The cabinet has a record eight people (Richard Cheney, Andrew Fastow, Bernard Madoff, Karl Rove, Allen West, Joe Barton, Richard Anderson, and Dick Armey) who have been indicted for their actions during the administration, with all but one being sent to jail (Richard Cheney).

The Federal Bureaucracy was wrecked during the Skilling Administration, with the Department of Education almost abolished and running with a skeleton crew after 2011. The Department of Energy became focused on oil and gas contracts, while ignoring renewable energy resources. After the departure of John McCain from Veteran Affairs, the department quickly became one of the most inept in the government, and has the unenviable record of nearly thirty-five veteran suicides each day. Almost all of the money appropriated to the department was either embezzled or wasted.

The United States was considered an embarrassment on the world stage during Skilling's administration. Only a handful of officials were considered competent enough to run their departments, and only one, Donald Trump, was carried forward into the administration of Janet Yellen. Trump was one of the few people who professionally managed his department, which garnered him praise from the Social Labor Party, despite him crossing the aisle and accepting the position in Skilling's cabinet.

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New York Senator Hillary Clinton seemed poised to win the Democratic Primaries with ease, her only 'credible' competition being former vice presidential contender John Edwards. With Edwards being forced out in the wake of a marital scandal, it seemed unlikely that anyone could challenge the former First Lady. At least that was the prevailing thinking until Representative Dennis Kucinich gave the party a collective heart attack and won over a dozen contests and millions of votes before being forced out of the race. Kucinich, running on an outsider message and platform reminiscent of Bill Bradley's 2000 campaign, managed to stay relevant until it became a mathematical impossibility for him to clinch the nomination.

Eschewing Kucinich as a running mate to mend fences, Clinton settled on the uncontroversial Evan Bayh of Indiana to round out the ticket.Clinton's general election campaign focused on 'New Democratic' economics, opposition to President Bush's stance on gay rights, and the controversial Iraq War. Though effective lines of attack, the Defense of Marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell Act were hallmarks of the former Clinton Administration and Hillary Clinton herself was hampered by her support for the Iraq War. Much like in 2004, the Republicans painted the Democratic nominee as a 'serial flip-flopper'. John McCain, Senator form Arizona, was by contrast a 'reliable maverick', someone who 'stuck to his guns' even if it meant conveniently breaking with the unpopular Bush Administration. McCain had narrowed his shortlist down to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Illinois Senator Peter Fitzgerald before choosing the later once Clinton secured the nomination and it became clear that the women's vote was out of reach.

The general election favored Clinton, McCain was attempting to run away from his own party afterall. But at the same time, Kucinich Democrats were running away from their nominee in equal numbers. While Kucinich himself stumped furiously for the Democratic ticket, liberals within the Democratic Party were just as much disgusted with their candidate's hawkishness as evangelical Republicans were with McCain's maverick stances. During the debates McCain stressed 'proven leadership at home and abroad', an allusion to the (then perceived) stability of the economy and the 'success' of the troop surge in Iraq. Clinton found it difficult to attack McCain on these issues given her close ties to business and pro-war votes but managed to land several body blows when the focus shifted to Bush's unpopularity. Polls going into the election had Clinton up by two percentage points...

It's amazing what 2016 has done. Before the election almost every single electionbox on this site featuring Clinton had her defeating some kind of Republican challenger. She was unstoppable. Now that she's lost, it seems as though every future use of her will be her blowing an almost universally guaranteed victory.

Stunning.
 
...Why is John McCain the Senator from New Mexico? Also why is Obama's previous office listed as Governor of Illinois (2010-2017, which should start either 2007 or 2011) when he's Feingolds VP (2009-2017)? That's like three things I noticed in a few seconds.

Oh, whoops.... I didn't even notice those errors.
 
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