California Tribal Casinos: Questions and Answers

does tribal casinos pay taxes

does tribal casinos pay taxes - win

Why NY and not just NYC would be a unique, interesting, and fun FO5 setting

To start, this should be a single player game. If Bethesda/Obsidian/MS can make it so I can play with 1 or 2 friends, I want that but understand it's not that simple.
So why it should be picked:
First, NY has an amazing history when it comes to Pre-Revolution, Revolution, the Civil War, and beyond. Major events like the battle at Saratoga (which is considered the turning point of the Revolution), the 1980 Miracle on Ice, and Woodstock (along with a whole lot more) all took place in upstate NY. So the rich history of the area is ripe for pro American stylizing and propaganda that gives FO it's unique take on American Atom-punk.
That along with more modern history of things like the Native Americans (The Oneidas) actually taking back their land and forming their own sovereign nation (basically they have their own gov. Pay no state taxes, and self govern with police, fire, and allow gambling which NY does not). So their modern government would not only be some great lore, but I honestly believe could be a basis for the main quest line. Things like their unique tribal leadership, philosophy, and gambling (hello 10 luck) could bring a very grey area to fallout that was kind of missed in FO3 + 4. Plus their mythology would make for a great weird scene that fallout has at least 1 of every game.
Also, for those who don't know, upstate NY is very country with major cities pocketed about. (Utica, Albany, Syracuse, etc). So if you liked NV style of wandering the wastes, or 3s style of city wandering, we've got both. Also, we've got two mountains areas, one in the Adirondacks and the Catskills are the other.
That said, one of the most important parts of fallout are the locations. Where can we go? For that I have a list:
Major locations:
Lake Placid Winter Olympics training facility - the winter olympics world be held in 2078 and if they still exist by then and to play into the game, LP could be the location of those games. Again, the miracle on ice where American Amateurs bested the Communist Russian Pros, was held there. The "Better dead than Red" sentiment would be full force. Not to mention one of a few great locations for a possible vault (80, in this case to house winter olympians). Plus, the weapons could be cool too. Hockey sticks, hockey skate blades on gloves, a goalie mask for armor, you name it.
Cooperstown Baseball HOF - Now when you think Americana, Baseball is one of your first thoughts, don't lie. Cooperstown is baseball central and very pretty. Another great place for pro-american styles and fun gear like baseball base mines, softball helmets (because fuck you "A League of Their Own" style pro-baseball league in FO sounds awesome), and of course bats and baseball grenades. Also a baseball Vault (Vault 4, 5, 7, or 9). Not my idea, but in this vault, there's 32 teams of mens and 32 teams of womens baseball (or coed teams, idk), all of whom are pro players. Vault tec test is simple, winner gets food and drinks, loser gets steroid infused food and drink (but they don't know it has steroids obviously). The idea is, test how good at baseball people can be if given monster amounts of steroids for generations. I'll make a separate post about this in detail if desired.
Canastota Boxing HOF - Another unique area for America. Canastota is pretty boring and empty, but for those of you old enough to remember Rocky when it came out, it basically revived Boxing as a major sport and also had a moment where America bested the Red Menace (Rocky IV). Maybe a spot for a vault or to learn unique unarmed moves. Pugilism Illustrated anyone?
Albany - NYs capital and an easy big city area along the Hudson. A great location for corporate greed, governmental corruption, and side quests. Can't say it'll be the focal point of the game since its very near the eastern border of it, but a good location for exploring and lore.
Buffalo/Niagara Falls - Ya ever gone over the falls in a barrel? Do ya want to? I think using Niagara Falls (which has an American and Canadian side, Canadas is the U-shaped famous one) as Fallouts first "Non-American" location would be fun. First, the falls are beautiful and are a major source of hydroelectric power. Second, in FO, America annexed canada, so it's technically still America! Third, right across the "border" are casinos! More gambling! Third and a half, it's another big city and buffalo is where the buffalo wing was invented (God bless buffalo wings). Besides the cool lore opportunity about the annexation and the city location, the falls could be a major location for the story if the main conflict was about powering the area, similar to NV.
Syracuse - NYs (literal) center city. The Salt City as it was formally known is a big city with some great old and new style. Again, not much about the city to say, but a great opportunity for corporate BS. The main attraction would be the Syracuse Dome (formerly the Carrier Dome). Due to its location and style, it's perfect as a central trading hub for the major cities and people. Think of Great Green Jewel style, people living, bars, shops, etc. BUT the really interesting part is what's right next to the Dome. SUNY ESF (Environmental Science and Forestry). This college is special because (A. I went there) it has very unique programs and with some future tech thrown in, could be a great location for a Fallout 3 Harold or NV vault 22-esq quest. The college already does experiments with major chemicals, evolution (FEV anyone?) and breeding plants for unique purposes. Again, I have a really cool idea for this area, but that can be a different post. Fun fact, ESF is actually working to bring back the North America Chestnut that went (nearly) extinct! Also, some asshole releases the fruit flies the genetics lab work with every year and it sucks.
NYC (Empire, 9/11 memorial, Statue of Liberty) - Yeah yeah, you can't have NY without the City, but frankly there's so much here to explore and deal with, I'd leave it to the pros to really do it justice.
Turning Stone Casino - Gambling, a hotel/restaurants like in NV, and a good spot for the main quest line.
Fort Stanwix - A real revolutionary war fort. HQ or major area for raiders. Safe, well protected and with plenty of history.
Fort Drum and Griffis Air Force Base: Two major bases that could be packed with guns, nukes, and power armor. Heavily guarded by turrets, robots, and security gates.
Main Quest:
Without too much detail, I figure your character will be hired to figure out the future of NY.
You'll be brought to the Turning Stone which is currently the HQ of the Oneida tribe. Your job would be to either work with the other tribes in the former Iroquois Confederation (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and Tuscarora [added later]). (Quick note: in my AU, some time after the bombs fell, the IC came to power because of their knowledge of living off the land and attempted to rebuild society. After some time rebuilding and establishing a post-war society, the tribes do the thing all humans do and bicker. Around 2200 the IC broke apart but the tribes retained power in their areas. They fight, trade, yadda yadda but no one is in control of everything.
Throughout your quest, it turns out that what is holding everyone back is a lack of power for things like lights and running water. Your job will be to determine where to get that power (Nuclear power plant in Oswego or the falls in Niagara?) And where to give it (one tribe? A few? Or all?). But that's not all, the tribes can't decide who should be in charge. One tribe wants to remain independent, don't help the outsiders and rebuild society in their image within NY, another wants to help others but would need to sacrifice their own people's safety and seclusion. Maybe another wants to be imperialist and expand their borders throughout America through way of force and fear while another agrees with taking land but wants it done through offers of protection for taxes. And each tribe has its own opinion on bringing the IC back together, staying separate, or taking over the tribes for themselves.
It's up to you character to decide who to help. Do you work hard to try and bring all tribes together under one banner or choose a side and execute their will as a paid mercenary/ambassador?
Other choices would be chaos by siding with raiders, or maybe a BOS path to take out all the tribes, idk, haven't thought it all out. Again, not a writer.
Mechanics:
So personally, I like the idea that if you choose to go with a single faction, there would a battle/war mechanic where you and an army (or alone if you really wanna try) take over and lay claim to areas similar to Nuka World where you fly the gangs flag. Nothing complicated, normal fallout fights, don't die and kill the leadehis troops to win.
Karma is back. You will garner good or bad rep with each tribe depending on what you do. I'd like an armor system like in NV but I can live without it.
There is an ending. Once you beat the game you can continue doing side quests for armoexperience/ammo but only for the tribes left in power. Occasional rebellions will rise up as random events that need to be put down.
Settlements are limited. Like skyrim, but a plot and build. No need to build one everywhere and you don't even need to do it if you don't want to.
Radio host? Gimme a Mr. New Vegas type guy. I don't want an eccentric 3-dog, I want a smoothed voiced person wishing me lady like luck.
Also, smarter AI.
Otherwise, typical FO mechanics. Weapons degrade, can upgrade weapons and armor, etc.
Main problems with NY:
No real borders to the south. Invisible walls would like be necessary which is stupid. Same to the East, but the Hudson could theoretically be used as a border if you put crazy strong mirelurks or something to kill the player if they tried to cross (or more invisible walls)
Don't want to disrespect the tribes. This is an issue with using each tribe as a possible faction. You're bound to piss off or disrespect one. So it'll be a task to make sure it's as limited as possible.
What to do with the city? It's a huge area that can be used for so much, but as a part of NY it's actually pretty seperated. It's a commercial hub now, but there's nothing there that would really be a reason to go down there. So do you make it one or do we just make it a glowing sea type area that's completely decimated from the bombs? That's my personal choice honestly, but it's a tough one to please as many as possible.
Conclusion: NY is rad.
I'll be taking questions as long as they do not involve Canadian trivia. Thank you.
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[S] Marooned: Marquesas (Complete)

Down below a fishing boat are 16 Americans who are about to be marooned in the middle of the Marquesas, part of Tahiti’s mystical islands. Thousands of miles from the nearest continent this will be their home for the next 39 days. But this time the game is different, these survivors will be given no food, absolutely no rations. Each tribe will leave this ship with only the barest of essentials, two machetes, two cooking pots, two empty water containers, one frying pan, one filet knife, and one magnifying glass. They’ll be left to fend for themselves using the resources of the land and their own survival skills. It is the ultimate challenge! 16 strangers forced to work together to create a new society while battling the elements and each other. They must learn to adapt of they’ll be voted out of the tribe. In the end only one will remain to claim the million dollar prize. 39 days, 16 people, one survivor! This is Marooned: Marquesas.
INTRO
The Cast
Maraamu Tribe:
Rotu Tribe:
THE SEASON
Episode 1: After the marooning the two tribes arrive at their beaches and instantly the game starts being played. At the Maraamu tribe Savvy wants nothing more than for there to be an all girls alliance that dominates the game so she approaches Jay, Kelsey, and Lela and asks them if they would like to form an all girls alliance. Every single one of them is fully on board with an all girls alliance and so it is officially formed. Meanwhile on the Rotu tribe Juliette wants to make an alliance. She is a therapist and knows how to get along with all different types of people so she decides to make an alliance with a group very different people. This alliance ends up being made up of her, Don, Ida, James, and Moz. They all agree to stick together until the end. At the immunity challenge Maraamu blows Rotu out of the water and wins immunity sending Rotu to the first tribal council of the season. Back at camp a majority of the people in Juliette’s alliance want to vote out Zina because they don’t think that she’s a particularly valuable member of the tribe but Juliette has formed a bond with Zina and doesn’t want her to go so she convinces her alliance to vote for Gregory instead and at tribal council in a 5-3 vote Gregory becomes the first person voted out of Marooned: Marquesas.
Episode 2: After the last tribal council Rotu starts becoming a bit concerned about how much control Juliette has over the tribe. At the immunity challenge Maraamu once again wins, sending Rotu back to tribal council. After the challenge Don is hungry and so he decides to climb up a coconut tree to get some coconuts. Right when he’s about to reach the top of the tree he slips and falls all the way down. He lands in a terrible position breaking both of his legs. The instant that the medics get there they know that there’s no way Don is going to be able to continue in the game so they put him in a stretcher and put that on a boat and take him away. Don has officially been medically evacuated.
Episode 3:>! After the medical evacuation everyone on the Rotu tribe is sad. Don was a great presence around camp and was always willing to put in work. Everyone is devastated to see him leave the game the way he did. At the immunity challenge Rotu is finally able to claim victory, sending Maraamu to their first tribal council. Back at camp everyone is annoyed by Savvy. She spends most of the day laying in the shelter and complaining about the elements and has hardly lifted a finger the entire time that she’s been here. For the guys on the Maraamu tribe the decision is easy, Savvy needs to go but for the girls on the Maraamu tribe the decision isn’t nearly that simple. They all want to vote out Savvy but if they vote out Savvy the girls on the tribe will be down in numbers ruining their shot at having an all girls alliance run the game. In the end the girls decide to go with the guys and vote out Savvy so at tribal council Savvy is blindsided in a 7-1 vote.!<
Episode 4: On day 10 everyone is shocked when they are told to drop their buffs because there’s a tribe swap. At the first immunity challenge as new tribes the new Maraamu tribe manages to win immunity. Back at the Rotu tribe there is an equal number of both original Rotu people and original Maraamu people but Imaan does not like Juliette at all and after having to take orders from her for the first 9 days on the original Rotu tribe where Juliette was in power Imaan is fed up with her so she decides to flip and work with the original Maraamu people to blindside Juliette but Lela is still wanting there to be an all girls alliance and knows that if Juliette gets voted out then there will be an equal number of guys and girls in the game and the guys will most likely be able to take control. In order to avoid that happening she decides to flip and just minutes before tribal council she whispers in Juliette and James’s ears telling them to vote for Shawn. At tribal council this causes a 3-3 tie between Juliette and Shawn. On the revote nobody changes their vote causing a rock draw. Luk ends up drawing the purple rock and is out of the game.
Episode 5: At the start of episode 5 we get a confessional from Juliette where she talks about how she doesn’t like the fact that she had to be saved by Lela in the last episode. She is worried that Lela is going to start telling people that Juliette is only in the game because of her and if that happens then it could hurt Juliette’s odds of getting jury votes. Because of this Juliette wants to take out Lela as soon as possible. At the immunity challenge Maraamu wins immunity. Back at camp Julliette decides to attempt to reunite the 3 original Rotu people on the tribe by pulling Imaan back into the alliance. Imaan ends up agreeing to stick with original Rotu giving Juliette the numbers once again. Lela realizes that Juliette no longer has any interest in working with her so she goes back to Shawn and the two of them decide to vote for James. Meanwhile the original Rotu people struggle to decide who to vote out. Juliette wants to vote out Lela for reasons mentioned at the start of the episode but Imann wants to vote out Shawn because she knows that they are about to merge and thinks that he will be more threatening after the merge. They are never able to reach an agreement and at tribal council this causes a 2-2-1 vote with Shawn getting one vote and James and Lela both getting 2. On the revote Imaan gives in and votes for Lela causing Lela to be voted out in a 2-1 vote.
Episode 6: At the immunity challenge Maraamu wins for the third time in a row. Back at camp it seems clear that the 3 original Rotu people are going to stick together and vote out Shawn but Shawn doesn’t give up and works to form a bond with Imaan. This causes Imaan to consider voting with Shawn and forcing a tie but at the end of the day Imaan is too scared of drawing rocks again to force a tie and at tribal council Shawn is voted out in a 3-1 vote.
Episode 7: After 19 days of competing against each other the two tribes come together and merge. After the merge all 6 of the original Rotu tribe members decide to stick together and pick off the original Maraamu tribe members. At the very first individual immunity challenge Imaan wins individual immunity. After the challenge the 6 original Rotu tribe members decide to vote out Vito because they think that he is sneaky and could be very difficult to vote out down the road if he manages to get a grip on the tribe. Kelsey and Jay see the writing on the wall and in an attempt to get in with the Rotu people they too write down VIto’s name at tribal council causing Vito to be voted out in a 8-2 vote.
Episode 8: After the last tribal council Kelsey knows that she will most likely be one of the next 3 to be voted out and starts brainstorming ideas for how she can stay in the game. At the immunity challenge Jay wins immunity. Back at camp Kelsey decides that her best shot at staying in the game is starting a rumor so she begins telling people that Imaan has been talking about flipping on the Rotu people. This causes Ida to get angry so she confronts Imaan. This confrontation quickly escalates into a fight and soon the two have decided to target each other. Ida is quickly able to get all the Rotu people (Aside from Imaan) on her side and they all agree to vote for Imaan. Imaan on the other hand knows that she won’t be able to convince anyone to vote for Ida because Ida has strong relationships with everyone on the tribe so she instead decides to target James at this pivotal tribal council and hopefully take out Ida at the next tribal council. She is easily able to convince all of the original Maraamu people to vote for James but needs to convince at least one more person to vote for James in order to stay in the game. She views Zina as the person most likely to flip on the Rotu people and tries to convince her to vote for James but at tribal council Zina decides to stick with Ida and the Rotu people causing Imaan to be voted out in a 5-4 vote.
Episode 9: After the last tribal council people once again start viewing Juliette as a big threat. R2 realizes that this is something he might be able to use to his advantage in order to save himself and the other Maraamu people. At the immunity challenge Kelsey wins immunity. After the immunity challenge the 6 people from the new Maraamu tribe (Ida, Jay, Kelsey, Moz, R2, and Zina) come together and decide to form a new alliance and take out Juliette and James but the plan is very messy and most people aren’t sure whether they are voting for Juliette or James which allows Juliette to step in and save herself by telling Kelsey, James, Jay, and Ida to vote for Moz about 20 minutes before tribal council. Because Kelsey, Jay, and Ida are still not sure if the new Maraamu people are voting for Juliette or James they decide that this is the safer plan to go with and at tribal council Moz is blindsided in a 5-2-1 vote.
Episode 10: After the last tribal council R2 realizes that if he really wants the new Maraamu people to work together he’s going to have to step into more of a leadership role and reveal more of his cards otherwise they will never be able to put together a coherent plan and work together. At the immunity challenge Ida wins immunity. Back at camp R2 meets will all of the new Maraamu people and tells them to vote for James at tonight’s tribal council. Every single one of the new Maraamu people are fully on board with this plan and at tribal council James is voted out.
Episode 11: After the last tribal council Juliette is clearly on the outs and her only shot at staying in the game seems to be winning immunity but at the immunity challenge Ida wins immunity again. The odds seem completely stacked against Juliette but she doesn’t want to give up so she has a talk with Kelsey during which she explains how she feels like R2 is running the game and will probably get to the end and win. The fact that people think that R2 is running the game doesn’t sit right with Kelsey because she thinks that she is running the game so she decides she wants to blindside R2. About half an hour before tribal council she goes to Ida and Jay and tells them to vote for R2 but neither Ida or Jay want to vote out R2 so they warn him. When R2 hears that he’s being targeted by Kelsey he decides that the best option for him is to blindside her so he gets Jay, Ida, and Zina on board with this plan and at tribal council Kelsey is blindsided in a 4-2 vote.
Episode 12: Another tribal council comes and goes and Juliette is still on the bottom but now she knows that there are ways for her to break the alliance so she is more confident that she will be able to survive than she was in the last episode. At the immunity challenge Zina wins immunity. Back at camp the clear target is Juliette. Juliette tries to warn the girls that R2 is a big threat to win the game but this time the girls don’t fall for it and at tribal council Juliette is unanimously voted out.
Finale Part 1: After listening to Juliette talk about what a big threat R2 is, the girls realize that he really is the biggest threat in the game and they all decide to work together to vote him out next. At the immunity challenge Ida wins her third individual immunity sealing R2’s fate and at tribal council R2 is voted out in a 3-1 vote.
Final Part 2: At the final immunity challenge Jay wins immunity securing herself a spot in the final 2. At tribal council Jay votes out Ida because Ida is a major threat to win the game.
Final Tribal council:>! At the final tribal council Jay reveals that her strategy the entire game was to fly under the radar so that she wasn’t a target. This strategy worked flawlessly and is the reason that she received 0 votes against her the entire game. The jury really respects this so in a 6-1 vote Jay becomes the winner of Marooned: Marquesas.!<
My Thoughts: I thought this was a good season. The cast was mostly good with the female side of the cast being especially fun to watch. There were a few good blindsides with the best one probably being the Kelsey blindside at the final 6. My favorite part of the season was when Lela risked her life in the game to save Juliette and Juliette turned right around and voted Lela out on the very next episode. Juliette is truly the ice queen of Marooned. Jay was not the most exciting winner of all time but she played a good game and came just one jury vote short of playing a perfect game. Ultimately I don’t think that this was the best season of Marooned so far but it was still a lot of fun to watch.
Potential All Stars:>! Juliette, R2, Kelsey, Jay, Moz, Vito!<
Potential Second Chancers: Savvy, Lela, Don, Ida, Imaan, Luk
Previous Seasons:
Borneo
The Australian Outback
Africa
Stay tuned for our next season Marooned: Thailand
I’d love to hear what you guys thought about the season in the comments
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Lost in the Sauce: March 22 - 28

Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater… or a global health crisis.
Figuring out how to divide the COVID-19 content from the “regular” news has been difficult because the pandemic is influencing all aspects of life. Some of the stories below involve the virus, but I chose to include them when it fits into one of the pre-established categories (like congress or immigration). The coronavirus-central post will be made again this Thursday-Friday; the sign up form now has an option to choose to receive an email when the coronavirus-focused roundup is posted.
House-keeping:
  1. How to support: If you enjoy my work, please consider becoming a patron. I do this to keep track and will never hide behind a paywall, but these projects take a lot of time and effort to create. Even a couple of dollars a month helps. Since someone asked a few weeks ago (thank you!), here's a PayPal option and Venmo.
  2. How to get notifications: If you’d like to be added to my newsletter, use this SIGNUP FORM and you’ll get these recaps in your inbox!
Let’s dig in!

MAIN COURSE

Congress passes stimulus

Last week started out with a Republican-crafted stimulus bill that was twice-blocked by Senate Democrats, who objected to the lax conditions of aid to corporations, too little funding for hospitals, and a $500 billion “slush fund” for big companies to be doled out by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin with no oversight.
Conservative-Democrat Joe Manchin (WV) even criticized the GOP bill:
“It fails our first responders, nurses, private physicians and all healthcare professionals. ... It fails our workers. It fails our small businesses… Instead, it is focused on providing billions of dollars to Wall Street and misses the mark on helping the West Virginians that have lost their jobs through no fault of their own.”
Through negotiations, Democrats shifted the bill in a more-worker friendly direction. The version that passed includes the following Democrat-added provisions: expanded unemployment benefits, $100 billion for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments, direct payments to Americans without a phase-in (ensuring low-income workers get the full amount), a ban on Trump and his children from receiving aid, and oversight on the “slush fund” (see next section for more info). Senate Democrats also managed to remove a provision that would have excluded nonprofits that receive Medicaid funding from the small-business grants.
Echoing sentiments expressed during debate on the previous coronavirus bill (the second, for those keeping track), Republican senators derided the $600 a week increase in unemployment payments as “incentivizing” workers to quit their jobs. Sens. Ben Sasse (Neb.), Rick Scott (Fla.), Tim Scott (S.C.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) delayed passage of the bill in order to force a vote on an amendment removing the extra unemployment funding. "This bill pays you more not to work than if you were working," Graham said. Fortunately for American workers, the amendment failed and the improved bill passed the Senate and the House.

The giveaways in the bill

While Senate Democrats were able to add worker-friendly provisions, the bill still required bipartisan support to pass the chamber and some corporate giveaways remained in the final version.
Politico:

Trump’s signing statement

While signing the latest coronavirus relief bill, the president also issued a signing statement undercutting the congressional oversight provision creating an inspector general to track how the administration distributes the $500 billion “slush fund” money.
The newly-created inspector general is legally required to audit loans and investments made through the fund and report to Congress his/her findings, including any refusal by the executive office to cooperate. In his signing statement, Trump wrote that his understanding of constitutional powers allows him to gag the special IG:
"I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [inspector general] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required" by Article II of the Constitution.
The signing statement further suggests that Trump does not have to comply with a provision requiring that agencies consult with Congress before it spends or reallocates certain funds: "These provisions are impermissible forms of congressional aggrandizement with respect to the execution of the laws," the statement reads.
While some have said that Congress fell short in this instance, one Democratic Senate aide told Politico that Congress built in multiple layers of oversight, including “a review of other inspectors general and a congressional review committee charged with overseeing Treasury and the Federal Reserve's efforts to implement the law.”
Legal experts have pointed out that a signing statement is “without legal effect.” But that ignores the fact that oversight is not equal to enforcement. The problem, in my opinion, isn’t that Congress won’t be notified of any abuses of power by Trump. The problem is that congressional Republicans and the judiciary have largely failed to hold him accountable and enforce our laws even after learning of his abuses.

Concerns about the IG

Another potential weakness in the oversight structure is the inspector general position itself. The special inspector general for pandemic recovery, known by the acronym S.I.G.P.R., is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. As we’ve seen from Trump’s previous nominees, particularly judicial, many unqualified individuals have been confirmed. The Democrats will not have the power to stop the president and Mitch McConnell from jamming through a loyalist to fill the SIGPR role.
Former inspector general at the Justice Department Michael Bromwich: “The signing statement threatens to undermine the authority and independence of this new IG. The Senate should extract a commitment from the nominee that Congress will be promptly notified of any Presidential/Administration interference or obstruction.”
You may recall that Trump has already proven that he’s willing to interfere with the legally-mandated work of an inspector general. When the Ukraine whistleblower filed a complaint last year, the IG of the Intelligence Community, Michael Atkinson, investigated and determined the complaint to be “urgent” and “credible.” Atkinson wrote a report and gave it to Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to hand over to Congress. However, the White House and DOJ interfered and instructed Maguire not to transmit the report to the Senate and House Intelligence Committees. Chairman Adam Schiff had to subpoena Maguire to turn over the report and testify before his committee.
Further, there are already five IG vacancies in agencies that have a critical role in responding to the pandemic. The Treasury itself has not had a permanent, Senate-confirmed IG for over eight months now, and Trump hasn’t nominated a replacement. The Treasury Dept. has taken a lead role in the coronavirus response, with Secretary Mnuchin handling most of the negotiating with Congress on Trump’s behalf. The fact that the lead agency doesn’t have IG oversight should be troublesome in itself; replicating the situation with a special IG doesn’t seem to be a promising solution.
UPDATE: The nation's inspectors general have appointed Glenn Fine, the Pentagon's acting IG, to lead the committee of IGs overseeing the coronavirus relief effort.
This is one of several oversight mechanisms built into the new law. They include:
A committee of IGs (now led by Fine), a new special IG (to be nominated by Trump), a congressional review panel (to be appointed by House/Senate leaders)

Direct payments

Included in the stimulus bill is a $1200 one-time direct payment for all Americans who made less than $75,000 in 2019 (less than $150,000 if couples filed jointly). More details can be found here. I have read that the Treasury will use 2018 information for those who have not filed yet this year, but I am not 100% sure that’ll happen.
Mnuchin has said that Americans can expect to receive the money within three weeks, but many experts expect that timetable to be pushed into late April. Additionally, that only applies to Americans who included direct deposit information on their 2019 tax returns. Those who did not include their bank’s information will have to be sent a physical check in the mail… which could take anywhere from two to four months.
Other options are being discussed, including partnering the Treasury Dept. with MasterCard and Visa to deliver prepaid debit cards. Venmo and Paypal are reportedly lobbying the government to be considered as a disbursement option.
Future payments?
House Speaker Pelosi is already planning another wave of direct payments to Americans, saying that the $1,200 is not enough to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic: “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of direct payments.” Republicans, meanwhile, are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach, using the next couple of weeks to measure the impact of the $2 trillion bill passed last week.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy: “What concerns me is when I listen to Nancy Pelosi talk about a fourth package now, it’s because she did not get out of things that she really wanted...I’m not sure you need a fourth package...Let’s let this work ... We have now given the resources to make and solve this problem. We don’t need to be crafting another bill right now.”
For the fourth legislative package, Democrats have said they would like to see increased food stamp benefits; increased coverage for coronavirus testing, visits to the doctor and treatment; more money for state and local governments, including Washington, D.C.; expanded family and medical leave; pension fixes; and stronger workplace protections.
Trump’s signature
Normally, a civil servant signs federal checks, like the direct payments Americans are set to receive. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Trump has told people that he wants his signature to appear on the stimulus checks.

THE SIDES

War on the poor continues

Amid the coronavirus crisis, Trump has defended his continued support of a Republican-led lawsuit to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which would result in 20 million Americans losing health insurance if successful. The Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in the case this fall. Contrasting with his position that the ACA is illegal, Trump is considering reopening enrollment on HealthCare.gov, allowing millions of uninsured individuals to get coverage before potentially incurring charges and fees related to COVID-19.
Joe Biden called on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the charge against the ACA, and President Trump to drop the lawsuit:
“At a time of national emergency, which is laying bare the existing vulnerabilities in our public health infrastructure, it is unconscionable that you are continuing to pursue a lawsuit designed to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance and protections under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the ban on insurers denying coverage or raising premiums due to pre-existing conditions.”
The Trump administration is also pushing forward with its plan to kick 700,000 people off federal food stamp assistance, known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). The USDA announced two weeks ago that the department will appeal Judge Beryl Howell’s recent decision that the USDA’s work mandate rule is “arbitrary and capricious."
Additionally: The Social Security Administration has no plans to slow down a rule change set for June that will limit disability benefits, the Department of Health and Human Services still intends to reduce automatic enrollment in health coverage, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will continue the process to enact a rule that would make it harder for renters to sue landlords for racial discrimination.

Lawmakers’ stock transactions

The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission are beginning to investigate stock transactions made ahead of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. CNN reports that the inquiry has already reached out to Senator Richard Burr for information. “Under insider trading laws, prosecutors would need to prove the lawmakers traded based on material non-public information they received in violation of a duty to keep it confidential,” a task that won’t be easy.
Sen. Burr is facing another consequence of his trades: Alan Jacobson, a shareholder in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, sued Burr for allegedly using private information to instruct a mass liquidation of his assets. Among the shares he sold were an up to $150,000 stake in Wyndham, whose stock suffered a market-value cut of more than two-thirds since mid-February.

Environmental rollbacks

Using the pandemic as cover, the Trump administration has begun to more aggressively roll back regulations meant to protect the environment. These are examples of what Naomi Klein dubbed “the shock doctrine”: the phenomenon wherein polluters and their government allies push through unpopular policy changes under the smokescreen of a public emergency.
On Thursday, the EPA announced (non-paywalled) an expansive relaxation of environmental laws and fines, exempting companies from consequences for pollution. Under the new rules, there are basically no rules. Companies are asked to “act responsibly” but are not required to report when their facilities discharge pollution into the air or water. Just five days before abandoning any pollution oversight, the oil industry’s largest trade group implored the administration for assistance, stating that social distancing measures caused a steep drop in demand for gasoline.
  • Monday morning update: In an interview with Fox News this morning, Trump said he was going to call Putin after the interview to discuss the Saudi-Russia oil fight. A consequence of this "battle" has been plummeting prices in the U.S. making it difficult for domestic companies (like shale extraction) to turn a profit. It's striking that the day after Dr. Fauci told Americans we can expect 100,000 to 200,000 deaths from COVID-19 (if we keep social distancing measures in place), Trump's first action is to talk to Fox News and his second action is to intervene in an international tiff on behalf of the oil and gas industry.
Gina McCarthy, who led the E.P.A. under the Obama administration, called the rollback “an open license to pollute.” Cynthia Giles, who headed the EPA enforcement division during the Obama administration, said “it is so far beyond any reasonable response I am just stunned.”
The EPA is also moving forward with a widely-opposed rule to limit the types of scientific studies used when crafting new regulations or revising current ones. Hidden behind claims of increased transparency, the rule would require disclosure of all raw data used in scientific studies. This would disqualify many fields of research that rely on personal health information from individuals that must be kept confidential. For example, studies that show air pollution causes premature deaths or a certain pesticide is linked to birth defects would be rejected under the proposed rule change.
Officials and scientists are calling upon the EPA to extend the time for comment on the regulatory changes, arguing that the public is unable to express their opinion while dealing with the pandemic.
“These rollbacks need and deserve the input of our public health community, but right now, they are rightfully focused on responding to the coronavirus,” said Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Other controversial decisions being made:
  • A former EPA official who worked on controversial policies returned as Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s chief of staff. Mandy Gunasekara helped write regulations to ease pollution controls for coal-fired power plants and vehicle emissions in her previous role as chief of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. In a recent interview, Gunasekara, who played a role in the decision to exit the Paris Climate Accord, pushed back on the more dire predictions of climate change, saying, “I don't think it is catastrophic.”
  • NYT: The plastic bag industry, battered by a wave of bans nationwide, is using the coronavirus crisis to try to block laws prohibiting single-use plastic. “We simply don’t want millions of Americans bringing germ-filled reusable bags into retail establishments putting the public and workers at risk,” an industry campaign that goes by the name Bag the Ban warned on Tuesday. (Also see The Guardian)
  • Kentucky, South Dakota, and West Virginia passed laws putting new criminal penalties on protests against fossil fuel infrastructure in just the past two weeks.
  • The Hill: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday that it will extend the amount of time that winter gasoline can be sold this year as producers have been facing lower demand due to the coronavirus. It will allow companies to sell the winter-grade gasoline through May 20, whereas companies would have previously been required to stop selling it by May 1 to protect air quality. “In responding to an international health crisis, the last thing the EPA should do is take steps that will worsen air quality and undermine the public’s health,” biofuels expert David DeGennaro said.
  • NYT: At the Interior Department, employees at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been under strict orders to complete the rule eliminating some protections for migratory birds within 30 days, according to two people with direct knowledge of the orders. The 45-day comment period on that rule ended on March 19.
  • WaPo: The Interior Department has received over 230 nominations for oil and gas leases covering more than 150,000 acres across southern Utah, a push that would bring drilling as close as a half-mile from some of the nation’s most famous protected sites, including Arches and Canyonlands National Parks… if all the fossil fuels buried in those sites was extracted and burned, it would translate into between 1 billion and 5.95 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide being released into the air. That upward measure is equal to half the annual carbon output of China

Court updates

Press freedom case
Southern District of New York District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled that a literary advocacy group’s lawsuit against Trump for allegedly violating the First Amendment can move forward. The group, PEN America, is pursuing claims that Trump “has used government power to retaliate against media coverage and reporters he dislikes.”
Schofield determined that PEN’s allegation that Trump made threats to chill free speech was valid, providing as an example the White House’s revocation of CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s press press corps credentials:
”The threats are lent credence by the fact that Defendant has acted on them before, by revoking Mr. Acosta’s credentials and barring reporters from particular press conferences. The Press Secretary indeed e-mailed the entire press corps to inform them of new rules of conduct and to warn of further consequences, citing the incident involving Mr. Acosta… These facts plausibly allege that a motivation for defendant’s actions is controlling and punishing speech he dislikes.”
Twitter case
The president suffered another First Amendment defeat last week when the full 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals declined to review a previous ruling that prevents Trump from blocking users on the Twitter account he uses to communicate with the public. Judge Barrington D. Parker, a Nixon-appointee, wrote: “Excluding people from an otherwise public forum such as this by blocking those who express views critical of a public official is, we concluded, unconstitutional.”
Trump-appointees Michael Parker and Richard Sullivan authored a dissent, arguing the free speech “does not include a right to post on other people’s personal social media accounts, even if those other people happen to be public officials.” Park warned that the ruling will allow the social media pages of public officials to be “overrun with harassment, trolling, and hate speech, which officials will be powerless to filter.”
Florida’s felon voting
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ripped into Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration for failing to come up with a process to determine which felons are genuinely unable to pay court-ordered fees and fines, which are otherwise required to be paid before having their voting rights restored.
“If the state is not going to fix it, I will,” Hinkle warned. He had given the state five months to come up with an administrative process for felons to prove they’re unable to pay financial obligations, but Florida officials did not do so. The case is set to be heard on April 28 (notwithstanding any coronavirus-related delays).

ICE, Jails, and COVID-19

ICE
One of the most overlooked populations with an increased risk of death from coronavirus are those in detention facilities, which keep people in close quarters with little sanitation or protective measures (including for staff).
Last week, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the federal government to “make continuous efforts” to release migrant children from detention centers across the country. Numerous advocacy groups asked for the release after reports that four children being held in New York had tested positive for the virus:
“The threat of irreparable injury to their health and safety is palpable,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said in their petition… both of the agencies operating migrant children detention facilities must by April 6 provide an accounting of their efforts to release those in custody… “Her order will undoubtedly speed up releases,” said Peter Schey, co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the court case.
On Tuesday, 13 immigrants held at ICE facilities in California filed a lawsuit demanding to be released because their health conditions make them particularly vulnerable to dying if infected by the coronavirus. An ACLU statement says the detainees are “confined in crowded and unsanitary conditions where social distancing is not possible.” The 13 individuals are all over the age of 50 and/or suffering from serious underlying medical issues like high blood pressure.
“From all the evidence we have seen, ICE is failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation to protect the health and safety of individuals in its custody. ICE should exercise its existing discretion to release people with serious medical conditions from detention for humanitarian reasons,” said William Freeman, senior counsel at the ACLU of Northern California.
Meanwhile, ICE is under fire for continuing to shuttle detainees across the country, with one even being forced to take nine different flights bouncing from Louisiana to Texas to New Jersey less than two weeks ago. That man is Dr. Sirous Asgari, a materials science and engineering professor from Iran, who was acquitted last year on federal charges of stealing trade secrets. The government lost its case against him, yet ICE has had him in indefinite detention since November.
Asgari, 59, told the Guardian that his Ice holding facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, had no basic cleaning practices in place and continued to bring in new detainees from across the country with no strategy to minimize the threat of Covid-19...Detainees have no hand sanitizer, and the facility is not regularly cleaning bathrooms or sleeping areas…Detainees lack access to masks… Detainees struggle to stay clean, and the facility has an awful stench.
Jails
State jails are making a better effort to release detained individuals, as both New York and New Jersey ordered a thousand people in each state be let out of jail. The order applied only to low-level offenders sentenced to less than a year in jail and those held on technical probation violations. In Los Angeles County, officials released over 1,700 people from its jails.
A judge in Alabama took similar steps last week, ordering roughly 500 people jailed for minor offenses to be released to lessen crowding in facilities. Unlike in New York and New Jersey, however, local officials reacted in an uproar, led in part by the state executive committee for the Alabama Republican Party and Assistant District Attorney C.J. Robinson. Using angry Facebook messages as the barometer of the community’s feelings, Robinson worked “frantically” to block inmates from being released.
  • Reuters: As of Saturday, at least 132 inmates and 104 staff at jails across New York City had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus… Since March 22, jails have reported 226 inmates and 131 staff with confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a Reuters survey of cities and counties that run America’s 20 largest jails. The numbers are almost certainly an undercount given the fast spread of the virus.

Tribe opposed by Trump loses land

On Wednesday, The Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs announced the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation would be "disestablished" and its land trust status removed. Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell called the move "cruel" and "unnecessary,” particularly coming in the midst of a pandemic crisis. Rep. Bill Keating (D-Mass.), who last year introduced legislation to protect the tribe's reservation as trust land in Massachusetts, said the order “is one of the most cruel and nonsensical acts I have seen since coming to Congress.”
The administration’s decision is especially suspicious as just last year Trump attacked the tribe’s plan to build a casino on its land, tweeting that allowing the construction would be “unfair” and treat Native Americans unequally. As a former casino owner, Trump has spent decades attacking Native American casinos as unfair competition. At a 1993 congressional hearing Trump said that tribal owners “don’t look like Indians to me” and claimed: “I might have more Indian blood than a lot of the so-called Indians that are trying to open up the reservations” to gambling.
More than his past history, however, Trump has current interests at play in the Mashpee Wampanoag’s planned casino: it would have competed for business with nearby Rhode Island casinos owned by Twin River Worldwide Holdings, whose president, George Papanier, was a finance executive at the Trump Plaza casino hotel in Atlantic City.
In the Mashpee case, Twin River, the operator of the two Rhode Island casinos, has hired Matthew Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a vocal Trump supporter, to lobby for it on the land issue. Schlapp’s wife, Mercedes, is director of strategic communications at the White House.
submitted by rusticgorilla to Keep_Track [link] [comments]

Do you trust reservation casinos?

The closest casino to me is the Harrah cherokee in North Carolina. It's a nice casino, but always packed. No free drinks and they generally have the worst configuration for each table. Blackjack pays 6 to 5 instead of 3 to 2, craps odds are 3x 4x 5x, and so on.
Those are annoying practices, but they aren't shadey. What does concern me, however, is that the casinos aren't subject to US law. I have read some articles about people winning big jackpots at slot machines only for the casino to tell them they won't get paid because the machine malfunctioned. I have also heard they tribal court basically sides with the casino in every meaningful case.
They also have surprise fees. My in laws go to cherokee sometimes and seem to hit small jackpots in slots all the time. They found out that the casino charges them a 30% tribal tax on their winnings. Thats a lot, and there is basically nothing you can do about it.
Does anyone gamble at tribal casinos regularly? What have your experiences been? Do you trust them, even though they answer to no one?
submitted by lilb1190 to gambling [link] [comments]

A half-breed Indian who made his tribe a multi-millionaire. Jim Hookipa

Seminoles have lived in Florida since ancient times. For more than 40 years, they fought for their freedom in countless skirmishes and 3 bloody wars. But the forces were unequal, and in 1858, after the Third Seminole War, almost the entire tribe was evicted from their native lands to distant Oklahoma. Only about 200 Indians escaped the General sad fate and disappeared into the vast tropical swamps of the Everglades, where they engaged in cattle breeding, somehow making ends meet, because there were few pastures, more swamps. There, under the protection of Panthers, alligators, and malaria, they felt comparatively safe.
In early 1944, in Florida, a Seminole Agnes Billy of the Bird clan had a boy born out of wedlock. My father was an Irishman, a cadet at the naval aviation school that was based near the reservation. In 1943, he went to war without even knowing about his girlfriend's pregnancy. Mother called son Chukie, which means "the one who was taken."The shamans of the tribe did not recognize the half-breed baby and decided to get rid of it, sentencing it to death. The boy was saved from death by his mother's friend, Potaki, who was also a half-breed.
The women raised a terrible cry, the neighbors ran, and Potaki publicly vowed that she would inform the police if anyone touched the baby.
Jim Hukipi and his mother lived very poorly, and when he was 9 years old, she died. The first orphan was sheltered by his mother's parents, but soon became them, and Hokie homeless. But his rescuer Potaki, who felt responsible for the teenager, took care of him and kicked him to school. Over time, it became difficult to cope with the boy and he was sent to the Haskell boarding school in Kansas, a special school where they tried to teach the Indians how to become white. A few years later, with grief in half, Jim received a school diploma and returned.
Strong, cunning, agile, tough, and a natural leader, he was created to become a Ranger for the U.S. army. The Vietnam war was breaking out, and that was where he belonged. The jungle was like the Everglades, but without alligators,and the war was like hunting. Jim distinguished himself very soon, he was promoted to Sergeant, appointed commander of the Department, and began to give tasks more and more complex. Capture languages, raids behind enemy lines, reconnaissance and other activities of the Rangers he liked. His group often went on a knife edge, but always returned without loss. The blood of his brave ancestors played a role, and Jim could feel ambushes, traps, mines, and poisonous snakes on his skin. It seemed that luck would never leave him, and his companions were ready to follow him into the fire and water.
After serving a full term in the Inferno, he had every right to go back, but signed up for another term. Ranger didn't want to leave his comrades, but he liked the risk. Again, RAID after RAID, task after task, and success after success. Jim soon became a master Sergeant and Deputy platoon commander. He would have been sent to officer courses, but he did not show any desire. After another successful RAID in 1968, he was given the highest award of a soldier, a vacation home. When Jim returned, he learned the terrible news that the platoon's luck had run out without him. Friends went on another task, but with them there was no "one who was taken away", and there was no one to smell the danger in time. The platoon was ambushed and only its name remained.
Something broke inside, and Jim blamed himself for the deaths of his comrades. "What am I fighting for? he thought, and couldn't find an answer. The fight was abruptly stopped, and the depression started in my head swarmed dark thoughts. After completing his term, he left the army and returned to the reservation. The boy Hukipi matured, matured, and adult beyond his years, he felt pain for his tribe, which
looked at new look. Beggars, reduced to despair and alcohol, living on handouts, without prospects and hope, and yet... such relatives. Jim remembered his skills as a Builder and started building Chiki, traditional Seminole homes. Hollywood did its job and the Indian theme became popular. Chukie decided on this play, saying: "This Chica can build only a true Indian. Everything else is nothing more than a fake."Very soon his Chicks appeared in parks, private clubs, and in the yards of the rich. Business quickly grew and he became one of the most successful members of the tribe (although the entire tribe was less than 1.5 thousand people).
Now it was possible to deal with public Affairs. The problem was obvious, the reservation was chosen by drug couriers as a transit point. Seaplanes loaded with cocaine from Central America regularly landed in the swamps, and from there the poison spread further. The former special forces officer decided: "we need to eliminate the root cause."He loaded a revolver, took a Winchester in the boat, and persuaded a couple of friends, also veterans of the Vietnam war, to go with him. Then from the marshes began to hear gunfire and explosions, but Hookie always came out unscathed. Very soon, the drug traffic through the reservation disappeared forever.
Hokie admired, began to be afraid, his voice on the tribal Council became very important and in 1979-m to year Hokie became the Supreme leader. Jim announced, " it's time for a change. We are Seminoles, we are a great tribe, and it is time for us to regain our greatness."
The chief received the tribe in a very deplorable state. But Hokie was a clear plan:"we Should open on the RES hall to play Bingo. If it goes well, we'll open a casino."He considered the situation and realized that he needed serious help. A friend told him about an old man-a pensioner who can help. This grandfather's name was Mayer Lansky.
Mayer Lansky was a well-known figure in the underworld. He was the brain of a huge underground Empire that controlled the Jewish and Italian mafia.
Hokie got a meeting with an old gangster.
Old Mayer was sitting at a table. He looked tired and listless.
"So I know why you came to me. Why do you need money? Lansky asked.
"I want to open a case."started Hookipa.
"You want to start a business and get rich."- with a grin said the pensioner.
The Indian understood that full frankness was needed with Meyer. Something leaped in his chest and he spoke, breaking into a low cry:
"Yes, I want to be rich, I won't deny it. Everyone wants it. But more than that, I want to finally get my tribe out of the shit we've been living in for more than 120 years. Do you know what it's like to live on a reservation? Live outside the line like animals? When people look down on you with disdain? I grew up on a chimpanzee farm, and I remember that tourists looked at me and the monkeys as curiosities. We live in bestiality, we have a beggar sitting on a beggar and driving beggars, and everyone is trying to somehow feed themselves. Land, freedom, and pride were taken from us, and in return they gave us alcohol and meager handouts. We have almost lost our language and our faith. From day to day, from year to year, from decade to decade, it's the same thing. We will soon stop being ourselves. You will not believe it, but many of us almost can not read and write. I am not the prophet Moses who brought you out of Egypt, but I love my little people. And I want, I really want to make it prosperous. And I will do it, no matter what it takes. I could, of course, succeed for myself by going somewhere else, but is it worthy of a man? If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, then why am I? And if not now, then? Do you understand me, Mr. Lansky???"
Mayer was no longer sprawled out. His hands were clenched into fists, his eyes glittered, and his face was tight with muscle. It seemed that the old bandit remembered something, something long forgotten, but painfully native. Hokie paused, and Lansky looked at him, breathing hard.
"I heard you. I understand you. the old man dropped it slowly. "I used to be myself... however, let's not talk about it.. Lansky sighed heavily.
"And how will you perform this miracle?"
"I want to open a bingo hall where people can play big. If it goes well, then open a casino. I think there will be a lot of demand."the chief replied.
"My boy, I understand you. Casinos in Florida. This is a pipe dream of my life. There are thousands of problems and pitfalls on the way, but the main ones are two. The first is this Catholic Church and Archbishop McCarthy himself, the head of the Catholic Church in Florida. The priests hold the "bingo for charity" market firmly in their tenacious hands. These bigots with a mind so Holy, and in fact, much worse than the gangsters from the East side, so I do know. They fill their pockets, buy real estate and jewelry, and if they allocated at least one percent of what they have for good deeds, they could feed all the world's hungry for 10 years. The second difficulty is that the bureaucrats will never be allowed to open a casino in Florida. It's easier to negotiate with the wall. If you knew how much money, time, and effort my friends and I spent on these stupid and stubborn donkeys in Tallahassee (the capital of Florida). These fools can't see past their noses. Oh, if I could open a casino in Florida, do you think I'd be interested in opening casinos in Las Vegas, Cuba, and the Bahamas? No, son, I really want to help you, but it's not possible."Mayer said sadly.
"Mr. Lansky, I know what you're capable of. If there is a wizard in the world, it is you. I understand that you didn't succeed, but I will open a bingo hall and a casino."
"My dear fellow, as soon as you open the doors, the police will come and close the shop. And you will lose in court."
"You see, I have two trumps that you and your friends didn't have. Listen."
And, carefully looking around, Hokie whispered something almost in my ear Lansky. Old Mayer's mouth dropped open in surprise.
"It can't be. My boy, are you sure? Is this really true?"what is it?" he asked.
- "Certainly. Why else would I come to you? However, your lawyers will be able to verify my words."Yes," said the chief.
- "Amusingly. Here is the deal, this is on our way. Yes... it's going to be a nice job, we'll RUB the nose of these bureaucrats."
Lansky had a mischievous smile on his face.
"So you will give money?"asked Hokie.
"Where did I get the money? I live on a modest pension. But I have a good friend, Jack Cooper, I think if I ask him very much, he will not refuse the loan. Perhaps I can persuade some of my friends to politely ask the Archbishop not to interfere with us. I also know a couple of lawyers who will agree to help us for a nominal amount. By the way, you will need a good adviser on a regular basis. I would suggest an old friend of mine, Stephen Wilden. He is a reliable man, by the way, also served two terms in Vietnam."- almost accidentally showed his awareness of the gangster.
"And to manage the casino itself, I have in mind a guy from a very good family, his name is James Weissman. A very competent young man, and his brother, Eugene, can also help with various minor difficulties. You're not going to object if the order will be watching very responsible and decent people? Lansky half-asked, half-pointed, and stared at Hukipi.
"Of course I won't! Agreed. I am very happy."the chief replied, and they shook hands.
Cooper did lend money to the Indians without complaint, and Wilden began to spend a surprising amount of time on the reservation. And the Weissman brothers gave up all their business altogether and began to focus solely on helping the Seminoles. And very soon a new building with a major bingo game opened on the reservation. And the amazing thing is that Archbishop McCarthy has not objected to bingo on the reservation and even good luck to Jim.
As Lansky predicted, the police showed up on the first day and arrested employees and managers. And of course the Seminoles sued, claiming they had every right to do anything on their land.
"This is not acceptable. What kind of arbitrariness? Your Honor, we must close this receptacle of Vice and sin."- officials groaned.
- "Really. The only place where gambling is allowed in the United States is Nevada. Do you have any arguments in your favor?"
"We have two, Your Honor."don't be embarrassed," said Jim Billy and his lawyers.
"First, look at the precedent. Russell and Elena Bryan, from the Chippewa tribe, lived quietly on a reservation in Minnesota. All of a sudden, the state sends them a property tax bill that they've never paid before. They challenged it, the case went to the Highest Court, and he decided that:
a) the state does not have the right to collect taxes on business or property on the reservation
b) the state has no right to regulate the business of Indians on their land. And the bingo hall is just the business on our land.
And second and foremost, Your Honor, we are not part of the United States at all. All Indian tribes surrendered to the U.S. government. Some earlier, some later, but all signed peace agreements and in fact admitted defeat. Everyone but us. We are the only tribe that has never surrendered to the palefaces. Our ancestors went to the Everglades, but they didn't give up. We are still at war with you. Since when does anyone have the right to dictate terms and indicate what to do to an undefeated opponent on their land?"
After hearing such arguments, the judge was forced to make a fair decision: - " the Seminoles should be left alone. Let them do what they want on their land, even play bingo, even open a casino. And neither the state nor the feds have the right to take a cent from their income."
And the money flowed to the reservation. Soon Jim opened a casino and the flow of money increased. The tribe paid its debts to Cooper ahead of time, though all the people recommended by Lansky remained in charge of the business. However, is it a pity some 47% of profits for good and honest people, especially if they are so good at helping business development. Moreover, they advised how to correctly open other casinos.
For example, in Tampa, they decided to build a large Parking lot, but it turned out that this place is an ancient burial of Seminoles.
"I will not allow the pale-faces to defile the graves of our ancestors. Or have you forgotten that we are still officially at war with you? If so, I'll remind you. We'll give You the fourth Seminole War. We lit the fires of combat and beat Tom-Toms" - shouted angrily Hokie.
- "Oops. We didn't even know. Forgive us. What do you want?"- the mayor's office asked, confused.
"Okay, so be it, build your Parking lot."- was replaced by anger at the mercy Hokie.
"Just give us a piece of land to bury our ancestors in another place, but still not far from the city."
"Ufff. That's all. You are welcome. This is a great place, right next to the highway and not far from the city. Just do everything culturally and organize a Museum. We will study you."- happily breathed out officials.
- "Perfectly. Agreed."grinned the leader .... the Seminoles built a second casino.
"Er, that's not what we agreed to."no!" yelled the bureaucrats.
- "So we are about the world, too, did not agree and the Tomahawks we are not buried" - wisely said Jukie.
"Where's the Museum??? Where is he? Keep your word!"
"Where? Yes, inside the casino. Come and take a look. the chief laughed.
And the stream of money became a full-flowing river. There was so much money that the Seminoles even bought a stake in a casino on St. Martin and started building more casinos in Florida. True, there were dirty rumors that almost disinterested Seminole assistants were taking cash out of hundreds of boxes in private planes to various offshore locations, but all curious people were shown documents that clearly said they were taking food for the needy, and ridiculous rumors were a shame to believe.
The leader gained strength and developed a stormy activity. Electric companies that laid their networks, gas companies that stretched their pipes, garbage processing companies that buried waste, and other companies that rented land from the Seminoles for a penny, received an unpleasant surprise.
"That's it, the freebie is over."said Hokie.
"Now you will pay a fair rent. Otherwise, you will all go away."
Jim knew perfectly well that companies that had buried pipes and networks worth tens of millions would not go anywhere and would accept all his terms. And the flow of money has become even greater.
For almost 22 years, Hukipi led his small tribe with an iron hand. He became the highest-paid employee in Florida. Hukipi established a system of dividends for each Seminole, created a special Fund that provides any absolutely free medical care to all members of the tribe, and established schools on the reservation where learning the native language and traditions was mandatory. Moreover, every Indian can now get an education at any University in the United States and does not have to pay a penny for it.
Money was invested in real estate, energy, tourism, securities, and of course ... in the new casino. Money brought money and the tribe grew rich before our eyes. The Indians had beautiful new homes and expensive cars. But everything ends sooner or later, the chief noticed that the Council of chiefs began to spend a lot of money on themselves. Each of the leaders spent unaccountable millions and did not even think to answer to the tribe. And when Hokie was outraged and decided to investigate, he was dismissed from the post of the Supreme leader.
As usual, the official reason was accusations of sexual harassment of a subordinate. Then he was accused of corruption and abuse of power. But the former chief sued and... won. As a result, the tribe paid him more than $600,000. He retired, started building his Chiki again, and lived happily ever after. But the tribe is mired in corruption and scandals, because big money brings big problems. And in 2011, Hukipi was elected chief again.
Hukipi broke up corrupt officials, stopped the vicious practice of paying minors ' money to parents who might have squandered it, put things in order in reporting, and invested in new projects. Surprisingly, without corruption, there was again extra money, which turned into additional dividends for the Indians. Now every adult Seminole, in addition to free medicine and education, receives $128,000 a year. And the money of minors now goes to a special trust so that every member of the tribe reaches the age of 18 is already a multi-millionaire.
In 2016, the year once again, the Council leaders decided to shift Jucie. It is visible it strongly interfered with a free life. Now Jim Hookipa on the deserved rest. He is only 73 years old and still full of strength and energy. Who knows, maybe the Seminoles will need a strong hand and wise advice again, and then "the one who was taken" will again become a leader and lead his tribe to new heights. It is not for nothing that the popular wisdom says: "a Herd of rams led by a lion is much stronger than a flock of lions led by a RAM."
More https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmYpavSD9aALIt_lhde2Ewg?view_as=subscriber
submitted by chapikla to u/chapikla [link] [comments]

The Abridged Biography of Mr. House, Part 1

Before writing here, I’ve read many debates over the factions in New Vegas. Although I’ve seen many good points, I also feel that Mr. Robert Edwin House is often grossly misunderstood – both by his supporters AND by his detractors. To assist, I’ve endeavoured to read up on all dialogue, letters and terminal entries concerning House, and from that write out a summarized biography with occasional insights into the man’s character. What you’ll read is by no means exhaustive (and I always enjoy new perspectives from others), but it IS going to be a fair bit of reading. I mean, seriously, this is the abridged biography of a 200+ year old man, not some low-effort meme post.
Grab yourself some biscuits and make some nice hot tea. Sit back, relax and enjoy at your own pace.
DISCLAIMER: A flaw of my writing style, especially when using this many words, is that I can appear all over the place at times. I'm trying to improve that. Feedback is appreciated, and I love answering questions should you have any. Don't panic if I don't respond quickly though, IRL is kinda hectic right now.
Anyways, where shall we begin? Oh, right.
To understand House, we must examine the context he inhabited Pre-War.
1) Family Matters
“Born June 25th, 2020, House was orphaned at an early age when his parents died in a freak accident (auto gyro, lightning). Though cheated of his inheritance, House attended the prestigious Institute in Massachusetts and founded RobCo Industries on his 22nd birthday. Within five years, it was one of the most profitable corporations on Earth.”
I have tried to find other texts to support the story Robert House gives of his early life (since we all know his obituary has more than a little embellishment in it), but haven’t found much, other than the eerie terminal logs in the H&H Tools Factory. The logs in general paint an objective picture of his half-brother Anthony House as a deranged man, ending with this noteworthy passage:
“It's worse than I feared. Henderson sent a 10-point memo outlining the benefits of mechanization and automation. As if I wouldn't know he's been plotting with my half-brother the entire time! I knew he was a weasel-dick traitor from the moment I laid eyes on him. Only one thing to do. One thing, and the company - my father's LEGACY - is safe forever. Cindy-Lou will bring him to me, and then I'll make an example. The Bastard will learn why you don't cross the House.”
and
“Jenny, What the hell is up with these guys? They've been coming after our market share like they've got something to prove. No, strike that, this feels personal. Did Mr. H. run over RobCo's dog or something? Alan”
With the above in mind, it is believable that Anthony House had cheated Robert House out of his inheritance, with the former viewing the latter as “The Bastard” (due to Robert being the younger half-brother) and thus undeserving of any part of the House family legacy. We can thus take the QUOTED part of House’s obituary above more or less at face value.
2) The end is nigh!
Now, years after raising a famous company from almost nothing, Mr. House deduced the occurrence of the Great War. By his own account, he first deduced this in 2065 – at this point in time, according to the Fallout Bible and Van Buren, Vault-Tech’s “Project Safehouse” had been in motion for over 11 years with the apparent goal being to shelter humanity in the event of a large-scale nuclear or bio-weapon holocaust. Europe and the Middle East were mutually ruined due to extended conflict and lack of resources. Heritage sites like the Grand Canyon were open to be mined. And the UN may-or-may-not-have been disbanded. Going by the GNN report in Fallout 2 the UN still had at least another (fairly ineffectual) 9 years left counting down from 2065. According to the Fallout Bible, it was already long dead. Either way, the world was in bad shape.
It’d be easy for us, at this point, to turn to Mr. House’s prediction and say something along the lines of “No kidding”. It seems obvious, from where we stand now in the Pre-War Fallout world, that there would be a nuclear Holocaust. And indeed, it was obvious. Even the Mormons were buying spots in Project Safehouse, if we are to believe Van Buren in that particular instance. What made House unique in his deduction, however, was knowing not only that the Atomic Holocaust WOULD happen no matter what (Vault-Tech’s plans were based more around general contingencies for any large-scale apocalypse), but he also knew precisely WHEN it would happen – the War only starting a day or so sooner than he expected.
As an aside, in light of the shambles the Pre-War world was in, one must wonder just how much it actually meant to be “one of the most profitable corporations on Earth”. Earth, at that point, was almost a wasteland already and House still built and sustained a thriving business. But I digress; we’re not yet worrying about how House could rebuild a wasteland. What we need to look at now is this – what did House do with his uniquely precise knowledge of the impending Apocalypse?
“I knew I couldn't ‘save the world,’ nor did I care to. But I could save Vegas, and in the process, perhaps, save mankind.”
And really, it is no wonder House did not care to save the world – there was barely anything left to save. The UN – an international force for peace – had either died or was rapidly weakening. The U.S. began setting its sights on annexing Canada. Entire forests were felled, Once-ler style, just as countries were felled to acquire them. Sure, people could build power armour, but only because the US military could no longer afford to fuel their tanks for sufficient mobility, and their “Mechanized Cavalry” needed something to take into battle. Even electricity is rationed after the fusion reactor of New York City almost went supercritical under the strain of providing for a 17 million+ strong population (Fallout Bible). And, despite all their troubles, America was still one of the best off countries in the world at this point (which makes you wonder how much worse it was in the others).
But whilst America carried on, Lonesome Road and Old World Blues show us that its values had changed, almost as if in a twisted homage to Heath Ledger’s Joker - “You see, their morals, their code, it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you. When the chips are down, these... these civilized people, they'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve." We see this theme echoed in the NCR and even the Followers of the Apocalypse, but we’ll get to that later.
The Pre-War world wasn’t some ideal Utopia that was only ruined by the tragedy of the bomb. It was already a desperate place, already a wasteland in many ways. There simply wasn’t enough left on Earth to provide for everyone (RIP Charlie Chaplin). And that’s why House could never hope to save everyone, let alone the planet they lived on. Anything he tried on that scale would be “too little, too late”.
3) Who Wants to Live Forever Anyways?
So…why did House choose to save Vegas?
Some say he did so in order to save himself. But if he truly wished to save himself, he could have been like Senator Todd Peterson, and built himself a private bunker within which to live out his days with whatever loved ones he may have had. Even if he wouldn’t be immortal, it’d still be a MUCH more comfortable way to spend his days. When it comes to the life he eventually chose, the Official Game Guide has this to say about House:
“He is emaciated to the point of being skeletal, bones visible under pale, translucent skin crisscrossed by faint blue blood vessels. House's command helmet is not detachable - we don't want to imply that the player could put it on and take his place. The helmet might be bolted right into his skull, like a "halo" used to stabilize severe neck injuries. Or it might not be a helmet at all, the top of Mr. House's skull having been removed and fitted with transistors and vacuum tubes.”
No, House did not endeavour to save himself. If anything, he condemned himself to a special kind of Hell. He was a man with the means to luxury, and yet sealed himself off from it, and almost all human experience the average man might take for granted (the smell of a flower, the touch of a woman, the feeling of a cool breeze on a Summer day)…forever. He mentions his longevity came with a cost. He was not kidding. If anything, he was understating.
Others instead compare House to Andrew Ryan, and say that he saved Vegas only so he could be the head amongst the wealthy and the elite. I must disagree here too – the tribals he later babysits were never elite in their own right by Pre-War standards before House’s intervention. Aside from being a superficial reference to Howard Hughes, House has very little in common with Ryan. Billions of US Dollars were at House’s disposal. If he really wished to be a leading figure amongst the elite, he would’ve built the Fallout equivalent of Rapture in the middle of the ocean ages ago. Or he would’ve built his own “Sierra Madre” to rival Sinclair. Or he would’ve ingratiated himself with the Enclave (who he did contract work for) or the Institute (where he studied), who could’ve used a man like him to lead their projects.
He did none of those things. He chose to save Vegas. Young, old, rich, poor, honest and crooked alike. And he chose to become immortal, despite the steep personal costs.
But why?
4) Long Term Investments
“Vegas is more than a city. It is the remedy to Mankind’s…derailment.”
And all of these resources would fall within range of his Securitron Network – at least once the Mk II upgrade arrives.
If we are to believe that Mr. House wished to establish colonies on new worlds as a solution to Earth’s resource problem regardless of whether the War happens first or not (and the Official Game Guide confirms House is interested in technological progress, at the very least), then it makes sense that House would choose Vegas – not because it is particularly important in itself (compared to other possible cities), but because it is the central location from which he could gain control of resources vital to the space program –renewable energy, REPCONN HQ, rocket test sites and seemingly limitless clean water for his employees. Still, as we find out later, House doesn’t let Vegas itself go to waste by any means…
The site chosen, House toiled over his defenses. He built a nuclear reactor under his casino with enough energy to power the Mojave. He built a life-support system to ensure his survival into the post-apocalypse, no matter the cost. He built Securitrons to protect his interests in the aftermath, and then built a factory/ storage facility for them under Fortification Hill – a mere stone’s throw from Hoover Dam - so that his army might never run out. Meanwhile, the brilliant Big MT scientist who would become Dr. 0 silently fumed in envy over House’s superior abilities in robotics.
Some may doubt that the Fort’s bunker was a factory. After all, House just calls it a “barracks”, which implies storage, right? Well, consider some barracks have recruitment offices – and in RTS style games, they’re often functionally the same building. Now what would the Securitron equivalent of a “recruitment office” be? Powering up the Fort Bunker causes distinct, repetitive hydraulic sounds, as if there were an assembly line moving. Does that sound like mere storage to you? No. You think he’d build an army with no way to replenish it?
“I'm surprised you can still underestimate me after everything you've seen.”
5) For Want of a Nail
But now, ironically after the above quote, we encounter House’s greatest failure. You see, House had everything set up, but it was still in BETA (insert Fallout76 Joke here). He commissioned the “Platinum Chip” to contain all the patches, software upgrades and override commands he could need for the foreseeable future. It was specially shaped so it could only be used on hardware he specified – no other company could hope to steal it or otherwise use it for their own purposes. The Chip was finished and scheduled to arrive a day before the predicted date of the war.
And then the War arrived a day early.
77 Warheads targeted Vegas. Mr. House, irrevocably entombed within his Life Chambers, readied Vegas’ defenses…
“I was in Mexico City when the bombs dropped. Even from there, we could see House's defensive rockets shooting down the incoming missiles.” -Raul Tejeda
And what House couldn’t shoot down, he hacked, deactivating warheads mid-air so they could never reach Vegas. But, because the Platinum Chip hadn’t arrived in time, the software remained a BETA - and would for another 204 years. Nine warheads managed to impact the Mojave.
*“When blaring civil defense sirens heralded mankind's doom on October 23rd, 2077, the citizens of Las Vegas bore witness to an astonishing spectacle. Huge laser cannons unfurled from secret housings in the roof of the Lucky 38 casino and Hoover Dam's intake towers and began spitting blasts of green fire into the sky, destroying warhead after warhead and sparing Las Vegas's urban center and the dam from direct hits. Citizens filled the streets and cheered. And then they died horribly from the lethal fallout that blew in from the dozens of warheads that detonated around Las Vegas.
Though Mr. House's missile defense grid performed admirably, the Great War was in actuality the day of his greatest setback.”*
House saved no-one that day. You were either in a Vault, or you were House, or you were dead.
Software bugs, compounded by the EMP from nuclear fallout, caused the defense action House put forward to result in multiple system crashes, forcing him to shut down his fully automated reactor before it melted down from faulty programming. Now without Hoover Dam (EMP) or his reactor, House’s life support relied on a very limited supply of emergency power. It was all he could do to restore his OS to an even less advanced -but more stable- build before passing out from shock.
6) Too Stubborn to Die
Now, the Courier is famous for rising from the grave to finish their quest - but House did it first. 61 years after the bombs dropped, House woke up. At this time, the Master (of Super Mutant army fame) was active and alive. Vault 15 – from which Shady Sands was built – hadn’t even opened yet. The majority of House’s Securitrons are offline, with only a handful of downgraded ones stationed in his casino. Raiders plagued the Wastes. And House’s own limited power supplies dwindled ever lower.
Now, he lived a full life. Raul notes how House was something of a superstar who dated all the beautiful women and made billions before the War, reaching the ripe age of 57 before the bombs fell. After losing almost everything in his gamble to try save Vegas, it’d be tempting for anyone in House’s position to give up, to shut down again and just…die. Instead…
“Immediately he began using his Securitron robots to search out human settlements…”
From this point onwards (until his determinant acquisition of the Dam) House is forced to make choices most of us don’t even have to consider. Everyone has to worry about their budget for the month. Some of us have to worry about their budget for the year…or a company’s or even country’s budget for a similar period - maybe 5 or 10 years, in some cases. House has chosen to worry about the World’s “budget” (fiscal or otherwise) over the course of…forever, because no one else alive is as acutely aware of the global resource shortage as House, who lived through multiple wars caused by it, culminating in that big famous one that almost ended the world.
“For years, I played a miser with my emergency power supply. I began to run out of reserves around the time I woke the first batch of Securitrons”.
Of course, House had his own budgets to worry about. It was not long after sending out his forces to find other humans that his power supply began to dip dangerously low. Realizing the costs of waking up his robots after the first batch forced House to play very carefully – after all, he couldn’t enact his plans to revitalize the global economy if he died now, could he? He sent his mechanical agents out, quietly hiring prospectors to find his beloved Chip – with no personnel or infrastructure to reproduce it, he had to find it…before he shut off forever.
Beyond that, he ran silently, keeping his “electrical bill” as low as possible, hoping the Chip would find him in time. As it turns out, the NCR got to him first.
If you ever wondered why House did not try to personally civilize Vegas, introduce sustainable agriculture and grant free schooling before NCR showed up, it’s because doing those things would require him to take a very active role in life outside the Lucky 38, and doing that, with his power reserves as they were, would have been fatal for him (to say nothing of the mutants, raiders, etc). This is the weakest he has ever been since his half-brother swindled him.
But I digress. The NCR is on the horizon…as was the Legion.
7) I Called Dibs 2 Centuries Ago
Suddenly, things moved very quickly. For years after the Wastes were repopulated, (what passed for) peace and order in Nevada was maintained by the vigilante Desert Rangers, who allowed themselves to be absorbed into the NCR in 2271, in exchange for help against Caesar. A year later, the Mojave Outpost as we see it –under NCR- came to be, the Mojave south of the Vegas area having been pacified earlier under the leadership of then-General Kimball. Then, Kimball achieving Presidency, Hoover Dam fell under their grip.
In the span of 2274 House engaged his final power reserves in a last-ditch effort to secure his future (and, by proxy and from his perspective, the future of Mankind). Beatrix Russel and the King describe Pre-House Vegas as a place where everyone got by, but the truth is less-than-spotless; according to the FNVOGG, tribes fought amongst the ruins – Slither Kin, Boot Riders, Great Khans, and many other smaller or more mysterious groups. Using Securitrons as his intermediaries, Mr. House enlisted the help of all who were both willing and capable of aiding him, playing on their self-interest and need to survive by promising (and delivering) them resources and power. But whilst you can teach tribals to fight your enemies and socialize with your allies, you can’t turn them into a competent team of technical specialists – not in the time available. And he’d need educated men and women to truly restore the glamour of his New Vegas.
And that’s where Vault 21 came in. After uncooperative tribes like the Great Khans were pushed off the areas around the Strip, House made an offer to this community, who had previously lived in peace as chaos raged above them. The offer was simple: help rebuild Vegas…or not. Most chose the second option, but a small group of Vault residents decided to gain support on House’s behalf, eventually achieving a consensus: they would work for House, and opened their doors to him. They soon found themselves aiding House’s tribals in building a massive wall sheltering both the Strip and Freeside from the rest of Vegas. Vault 21’s lower levels were salvaged of useful technology to aid in construction…and then (infamously) filled with concrete to ensure future, less innocent visitors to the Vault couldn’t use it to breach the Lucky 38’s sub-levels or Vegas’ defenses. At the request of its more agoraphobic residents, House spared Vault 21’s top levels, transforming it into a hotel for them to run. With the Vegas Strip being far larger – more casinos, more housing, more everything – in lore, art and cutscenes compared to in-game, it is plausible to believe the displaced Vault Dwellers were rehoused on the Strip itself; as relatively well educated individuals, they’d be invaluable in House’s endeavours – of the three we met, we know one became House’s top sign artist, one became a hotel manager and one voluntarily left Vegas to be a travelling doctor before retiring in Goodsprings (we know because he eventually returned to marry his sweetheart, who still lived not far from the Vault she came from).
Whilst not yet open for business by any means, House had managed to turn a ruin plagued with tribal conflicts into a citadel presided over by Three Families. The NCR arrived in force, expecting just another wasted city picked over by warring raiders…and instead found a fortress in the wastes…and surprisingly, one that not only wasn’t hostile to them, but outright welcomed them…providing certain concessions were made…
With the threat of the Legion just on the horizon, NCR were faced with an offer they could not refuse – they would be allowed to set up an embassy and police force on the Strip, as well as a military base in Outer Vegas so long as they provided 5% of the Dam’s power output to Vegas (which they would need to do to make use of their embassy and base anyways) and allow their citizens and soldiers on leave to enjoy House’s amenities at their own discretion. Sounds pretty reasonable, doesn’t it? NCR agreed to the terms, implicitly legitimizing the sovereignty of New Vegas under House. Power flowed to the Strip and House, who had to suffer multiple power outages, whose salves and meds almost curdled because of this, whose life was literally tied to that of his battery…could finally breathe easy, now having more (electrical) power than he knew what to do with.
8) But why didn’t House…?
You may be asking “Why didn’t House instead provide his resources to the NCR, allowing them to push the tribals out of Vegas and restore it that way, possibly becoming a prominent citizen in the process?”
House’s detractors often refer to his compulsive need for control, and control is precisely why House would rather recruit tribals to work for him than try to merge with something larger. But why does House want that control?
I’d argue it isn’t due to a compulsive need for it – his leadership is extremely hands-off. To understand why House wants to remain in control, rather than admit subservience to a larger civilization, we need to look back to Pre-War America and that Joker quote we put down earlier.
NCR is, in many ways, similar to Pre-War US. It was founded on lofty ideals. And when resources became scarce? They abandoned their ideals and annexed whatever and whoever they wanted to get more resources until the globe was almost depleted and -BOOM! So far, NCR is just at the “annexing” stage (not that they have nukes anyways), but the globe is about as depleted as it was 200 years ago.
Chief Hanlon speaks of the overconsumption and mismanagement of water in their territories, Doctor Hildern predicts a famine after a decade of population growth. Supporting this, the intro-cutscene for the game outright states NCR’s expansion is influenced by a lack of resources for their growing populace. NCR’s current population as a nation…around 700 000. Compare that to Johannesburg’s (which is just one city) population of 900 000+. Compare that to the 39 million+ strong population of real life California today. And NCR is the largest unified population on the continent. And they’re running out of resources already. By modern IRL standards, the population that Earth (or at least, America) can sustain in the Post-War Fallout universe is absolutely tiny. Even the possible savior we find within Big MT’s matter replicators is in question, with the substantially wealthy Sinclair being driven almost into debt just to fund the creation a few according to the terminal in the Y-0 Lab, and very few having been found outside the Sierra Madre despite Dean’s claims. Of course, perhaps that could change with time and resources directed towards further development, but until then… (As it stands, Pre-War US couldn’t/ didn’t make them economically viable to produce before the Great War started). If even the Followers of the Apocalypse are willing to commit murder over water at this juncture (White Wash), imagine how things would be later down the line. There aren’t infinite resources in the Fallout world – just too few people to deplete what is left…yet.
No one is as painfully aware of the resource shortage as House. Maybe others of his intellect will rise up in the NCR, but like him in Pre-War US, they won’t detect the issue until it’s too late to properly solve it. Not wanting to gamble on the multi-headed NCR following his advice forever, he instead puts on an appearance of having power, ensuring full control over his enterprises. This is why House doesn’t bid for NCR citizenship.
He’s seen what happens to Democracies when the going gets truly desperate – how they corrupt into oligarchies blinded by greed or desperation. Rather than watch that happen again, he chooses to become an autocrat in a long-term venture for the good of Mankind – after all (as we’ve stated before), he has little reason to continue living for himself.
9) The Nature of the Strip
“A fool and his money are soon parted.” – Proverbs, 21:20, King James Bible
Strip away the gambling amenities, and what is left? A luxury resort, a fine-dining restaurant, an art gallery, a theatre, bars, hotels, a brothel and a gentleman’s club.
For want of a nail, House cannot access the powerful amenities around Vegas, but he’s made the best of the city itself. Early on, access between the Strip and Freeside was unrestricted (according to the FNVOGG) – Securitrons thoroughly patrolled both areas and just about everybody there was living relatively well.
For those of you familiar with casinos, you know they pull every trick in the book – the smiling staff, the bright lights, the music, and the colours – in order to subtly entice you to make a wager. For those who’ve only visited casinos to partake in their collection of arcades, restaurants, cinemas or theatres, you know all those psychological prompts to “pay to watch people flip paper squares”, as Follows-Chalk likes to say, are entirely ignorable.
For a man like House, the Strip exists to collect money (a.k.a. the power to requisition resources) from those who do not know how to spend it and redistribute it into the hands of those working towards his ends (maintenance aside, recovering his Chip – which is still invaluable despite the power from Hoover Dam - is becoming a tad expensive, after all). It also exists as a place of culture and relaxation for more responsible visitors. For many others, however, the Strip has become a beacon of hope.
Enthusiastic entertainers finally had a place to permanently employ their gifts. Those who were unfortunate in life but otherwise hard-working made livings as Street Vendors on the Strip, earning far more than they could anywhere else even after taking House’s Franchisee taxes into account. And formerly inter-warring tribals were finally living in peace, operating lavish casinos semi-independently in return for making and enforcing certain agreements with House (notably, cannibalism carries the death penalty).
10) The Separation from Freeside
Around two years BEFORE the game started, or 2 years AFTER the First Battle of Hoover Dam, House began to wall Freeside off from the Strip. Whether it was due to being overwhelmed by too many people trying to spend money they didn’t actually have, or due to a security issue, House decided to pull his Securitron forces and loyal employees off of Freeside to concentrate on the Strip, with admittance becoming more exclusive. You either:
a) possessed a passport indicating you were trusted to visit the Strip
b) had enough money on you to prove you were a tourist who could afford to enjoy the Strip’s services (there is no entry tax or fee – just a credit check to ensure you aren’t going to just indebt yourself within 5 seconds of visiting)
c) have to stay in Freeside or go home
d) were an NCR soldier or VIP on leave
OR
e) tried to break past a cordon of armed robots whilst ignoring their instructions to stop and turn around, earning yourself a Darwin Award (of course, NCR troops will also kill you if you try to use “their” Monorail under similar circumstances, only they won’t wait for you to break past them).
But despite the new checkpoint, a woman from North Vegas – who previously could barely afford to eat – found good, steady work on the Strip as a salesperson. Street performers like the Lonesome Drifter or Billy Knight were admitted in without a peep. Although it’s true that the Strip’s services cater to the rich, the people it truly looks after are the hard working and enthusiastic (Billy Knight isn’t an exceptional comedian, but he clearly loves his work and that was clearly enough). Remember that no one local to Vegas was rich before House came back –since his resurrection he has been an employer of the willing and the able, and that hasn’t changed. Vegas puts on a big show for wealthy consumers, but it’s people like Billy Knight or the woman from North Vegas who come out ahead.
But, of course, not everyone liked the idea of working for House. Perhaps, more tragically, they decided too late to find employment as all staff slots were filled. Regardless, Freeside, with most of its more capable now residing on the Strip, and the Securitons no longer protecting it, degenerated back into lawlessness and became a hive of scum and villainy. It is from these conditions that a man calling himself the King rallied various dispossessed former tribals of all colours into a new tribe of his own. But we’ll return to him later…
We never find out for certain why House shut out Freeside. The Locals will blame the droves of NCR squatters around Vegas (for just about everything), but we’ll likely never know for certain beyond plausible speculations.
submitted by DarthAdjutor to fnv [link] [comments]

The 50 Worldbuilding prompts by u/Mansardian for "Twilight of Adventure"

Edit: added the questions.
Question 1: Suppose I'm transported to the most pleasant place in your world; where would I go for lodging, and what should I order off the menu?
Best place to lodge is in Draconia. It has a nice rustic charm to the entire city and the dragons there are super hospitable, they'd gladly lend a room for the night. It's quite dangerous though so you'd need to be ready for anything. Best thing to eat there is in Azure's Grill. The honey-lamb spit roast is to kill for, has a unique charm to it since it's cooked with dragon fire.
Question 2: Wandering through one of your world's cities, a thief steals my wallet. I report the incident to a local authority. Who would they be, and what will (Or won't) they do about my stolen wallet?
Say you're wandering through Canterlot, the city guard would handle your stolen wallet. They'd ask you to identify the cutie mark the thief in question had and then cross reference with their big book of cutie marks till they find a person they can trace. Ponies without them are very, very distrusted because they're like individuals without a serial number. Just don't piss the guards off, otherwise they might get a little happy with their saps.
Question 3: I dive to the bottom of the sea. What wonders, treasures and curiosities will I find on the seabed?
You'd need a Water Solarian to give you enough breath to get you that deep (and they give you water breathing for a minutes by kiss). What you find are the wrecks of various artifacts from long forgotten times, as well as various warships, some of which do not even resemble contemporary wooden ship designs, and look more like modern naval vessels, implying someone dominated the planet of Equis before the current races did.
Question 4: Now stuck in your world, I would like to continue my studies. What university, academy or similar institution would I want to apply for? (Bonus question: Where would I actually end up studying?)
Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns is THE school to study at. They have universities that are as old as the country itself. Granted you are much more likely to end up studying at cheaper university, Rockhammer Collegiate is the only university that is free as it was established by the local heroes to make post-secondary more accessible.
Question 5: What strange beliefs do your peoples have about places lying beyond the known world? (Here be dragons!)
For strange beliefs, There was a massive earthquake detected in Equestria, triangulated to the Barrier peaks eons ago. No one knows why it happened, theories range from evil mage to "A warship from the stars above." The latter was confirmed to be true as the heroes from Rockhammer went on an expedition there on their quest to defeat Balsam the Eternal.
One that hasn't been solved yet was the conundrum of what happened to the various heroes, or why they're returning. Most people speculate it's the Princess' punishment for not having enough friendship.
Question 6: Pets and mounts. Which are some of the interesting ones your world has? (Bonus question: For what are they used?)
Well, since they're mostly ponies, they don't have a lot of mounts. Hydras and Wyverns are the only ones used, and they're mainly to fulfill the roles of heavy and light cavalry respectively. designed to destroy front lines with their sheer size and regeneration or hit and runs of beats sweeping down from the flanks, devilishly hard to kill, even with the advancing firearms.
Question 7: Days, Weeks, Months, Years. How are they measured and what are they called?
for player's sakes, I use the standard Gregorian calendar. current year is 1598 AC (After Celestia), Year 0 was when Celestia was born.
Question 8: Can you give me the synopsis of one of your people's cultural/national epics? (The foundational myths.)
The creation myth of the ponies goes like this. Long ago, when they were still horses running in herds from predators, 3 ponies, known to history as Firefly, Ibis and Runner, got lost from the herd, they were all starving and needed to find a way back. They find a Zap Apple tree that was just barely in season. It only had 1 apple. Firefly and Ibis were fighting over who needed the apple more, each arguing for themselves, getting nowhere. When they needed to sleep, Runner woke up in the night and split the apple evenly before disappearing into the night. When Firefly and Ibis woke up, they decided to eat the apple halves. When it blessed them with knowledge to know true from false, they understood the sacrifice Runner made, and vowed to tell their herds about this plant, determined to never, ever let Runner's memory go to waste.
Question 9: What do your common folk do for fun? (Bonus question: What does the elite think about this?)
The only races that have any time for leisure that is worth talking about are the dragons in Draconia, it tends to be dancing in an elegant manner with one another. The dragons do this as it's an opportunity to show off the various gems or battle trophies they have been able to harvest from the mine and it's monsters, a very dangerous proposition.
Question 10: Can you tell me a tale that is fictional within your world?
"A call denied" Is about a community of ponies who abandoned their desire for friendship, seeing it as an immoral constraint, and that ponies should simply let one another live their lives how they see fit, as it's not the moral imperative for others to care. It preaches objectivist values, which are considered to be the polar opposite of friendship.
Question 11: I want to travel from one edge of the known world to the other. How do I go about this, and is it possible?
buy a Wyvern. After this, simply fly from one edge to another, you will need to make the occasional stop, but this isn't so hard as it's simply a single continent at the moment. If you're particularly brave though, some have tried venturing over, no one has returned to sucessfully chart it, at it's very taxing for a Wyvern to fly that far.
Question 12: Can you give me an example (or more) of differences in morality between people in our world and inhabitants of yours?
An example of differing morality are Gnolls. They are carnivorous hunter-gatherers who were very recently uplifted with contemporary technology. When they ended up eating a few ponies, Equestria was appalled to their core, as to them, it was tantamount to cannibalism. As the few killings rose, Equestria gave a call to arms, calling it "The final solution to the Gnollish problem." They called it off after nearly 200 years of trying, but with absolutely no apology from Celestia, seen as a paragon of morality by equestrians, the Gnolls are still bitter.
It's sad to see genocide is a genuinely sane response sometimes, but it's even sadder when the victims doing the "wrong" in question never had much choice to begin with. It's hard for me as the GM to say who's right (as it's the example I give of my primary gripe with the alignemnt system.)
Question 13: Zoos, Waterparks, Amusementparks. Do you have any equivalent?
Zoos, Water parks and amusement parks. The griffons have a zoo, full of creatures that aren't from the material plane of Equestria that were incredibly hard to detain, and The expedition to the Barrier Peaks revealed that the ship the Solarians crashed to Equis in had an amusement park built into it, but I haven't made a water park yet as it is seen as a waste of water and the technology doesn't exist yet.
Question 14: What's the biggest, most beloved celebration of the year?
Hearth's warming eve, telling the story of how the 3 races of pony united before Celestia was born. The 3 races faced an everlasting winter, the elders and their aides traveled to Canterlot thinking they would be the first to form a new society. When they discovered they didn't, the winter hit Equestria and the leaders froze with hatred, the only thing that saved the day was the aides coming together as friends, causing the winter to subside. It is considered as universal a holiday as Cristmas is in our world, a time to stay home from work and be with your family and friends.
Question 15: What's the latest fashion and/or what type of clothing never goes out of style?
The Gnoll dagger tribe, the only one of the 3 Gnoll tribes that switched to agriculture after their uplifting, have actually made great strides in fashion, using gears with various shapes as ornate necklaces, the aesthetic quality being the spikes on the gear, the tribe has even started making their own simply for fashion purposes, with no engineering benefit whatsoever.
Question 16: Can you tell me about the itinerant folk of your world? (Bonus: Why do they travel?)
The itinerant folk are usually blank-flanks who are looking to find their talent in some way that isn't in their own hometown, Griffon mercenaries who are refugees from their tyrannical government but only know war, Gnolls who simply want to learn about Equines to try and understand how to make amends with the ponies or single mothers who are pregnant and need the money travel to Draconia to sell some of their milk for dragon cheese production
Question 17: It's late at night and I'm hungry, what food venues are still open?
Plenty of griffons who are half owl have inherited the same circadian rhythm. Meaning you might have some luck with a griffon restaurant if you're hungry at 3 am.
Question 18: Which arts are most appreciated in your world?
Magic shows from plenty of unicorns. They cast various tricks to demosntrate the capacity of their magic, as the sky is the limit. The dragons have similar artistic demonstrations with the various ways they can blow their flamed, sometimes teaming up with unicorn troupes to add to the company with magic AND fire.
Question 19: Can you tell me about your world's seven (or other number) wonders?
There are 2 major wonders. The first is the crater is the crashed ship in the Barrier Peaks. Not even the occupants remember how it got from Equestria, the Ark was on autopilot the entire time. The second is the Canterlot watchtower. Built on the peak of the Canterlot mountains, you can literally see Equestria from that one spot over the horizon. Bottles of cloud strapped around the muzzle are the only way to walk up to the peak and observe this magnificent view.
Question 20: What's the closest your world has been to wholesale destruction? (Apocalypse)
Apocalypse. That one's actually around the corner. Basically, with Balsam the eternal's plans involving assassinating the 4 princesses, If he were to succeed, would risk to destroy the tenuous unite the ponies have. Of course, if he succeeds but the heroes still end up killing him, the resulting tensions caused by the death of the princesses mortal forms cause a world war. And since heroes with powers are becoming even more common than they were originally, mercenaries are gonna be hired, mercenaries will turn into marauders, and what would've probably remained a war without heroes or Solarians, turns into a fiasco risking the very collapse of society on the continent itself.
Question 21: Can you give the lyrics for a song from your world? (Alternative if you have no lyrics written: Can you tell me the meaning of one of your world's songs?)
The song in question is "Heart of Courage" by 2 steps from hell. It's a gnoll song from the Warlock tribe. It was written during the total war against the Equestrians, as a reminder that no matter how bleak the odds seem, there is always hope around the corner. As of the present, it is considered a tribute to Balsam the Eternal, who the gnolls view as that light around the corner, even if he is secretly using them for his own nefarious goals.
Question 22: How many people roam your world, and who do you count as 'people' ?
The continent of Equestria boasts a population of 200 million, 32% are Griffons, 44% are ponies, 14% are Dragons, and 10% are Gnolls. Changelings are not considered people, just another nuisance in the draconian mines.
Question 23: Can you tell me a little something about your world's organized crime?
There's a gang of pegasi called the Cloudsdale brotherhood. They run underground sword fighting rings within the city, but their most profitable operation is done by the boss himself, Straight Haste. His son was born into the life and is notoriously ungrateful, so when his son, Shadow Haste, found a black jack game with an exploitable trick (allowing a Ace-9 split, thanks to Cloudsdale's gambling laws, this is a pretty straightforward hustle that my dad did in real life to a game that was still in testing, pulled home 10,000$), Straight Haste dug up some incriminating evidence on the casino boss to make sure it stays that way.
Question 24: I look above, what do I see? (What colour is the sky, what do the clouds look like, how many moons, can I see the stars?)
You see a standard starry night and sunny sky, you also see pegasi and dragons flying about, as well as cloudsdale, whose position is dependent on the season of Equestria as they are responsible for the weather, similar technology is currently being tested for airships as a possible counter measure to wyverns by the Griffons should they face Equestria again in battle.
Question 25: What are the boundaries of what is magically possible?
The raw power of the alicorns is the only real magical limit of what is possible. It would take the entire essence of everypony in Equestria (including Discord) to be evenly matched against them, so Balsam's plan is contingent on getting the Solarian Ark ship running and crashing it into the castle as fast as he can, likely destroying Canterlot in the process as the ship is made out of an alien alloy and Caneterlot is built into the side of a castle.
Question 26: Disease shaped our world, so what role have plagues and the like played in your world?
Diseases. Now, diseases have been responsible for the accessibility of magic, but since anything anyone could ever need to cure their ails is in the bottle of a potion, doctors have a lot fewer jobs available and often turn to brigandry in order to make ends meet back home in Equestria and the Griffon kingdom. In the Griffon kingdom specfically, because the Archpriest of the Order of Kindness is a leper, leprosy is considered an omen a particular griffon will live a short but fulfilling life, and in the griffon tongue, translates literally as "The burning flash", in reference to the proverb "The star that burned half as long, burned twice as bright".
Question 27: Can you give me some insults specific to your world?
Birdbrain is the N-word to the griffons. Blank-flank is simply a pretty childish insult by ponies. Gnollic faith is an insult to someone who seems shifty used by ponies. Bare face is an insult dragons use against ponies and griffons.
Question 28: What's the most valuable material in your world, and how is it used?
Dragon wood is a material from Draconia, it evolved from trees that needed to become fire resistant, and thus became part metal, since the dragons were breathing fire constantly, they are watered with lakes of lava and are used in the most prestigious of weapons as it is incredibly durable and insanely difficult to shape.
Question 29: What will be served for a typical breakfast?
daily breakfast is warm cereal and a tall glass of milk for ponies of lower class, a fruit platter for equestrian nobility. Eggs cooked in a wide variety of ways for Gryphic slaves. Various cuts of belly meat for Gryphic nobility, such as bacon, beef tenderloin and lamb breast, all cut into thin strips and presented in an elegant manner. Draconian people of all class, as it's a meritocracy, tends to simply be a stein of mead.
Question 30: Where do people get the news? (Do they have an established media system, or is it word of mouth, or... ?)
The town crier in various cities reads the newspaper aloud. They're all written in the common tongue so the people can understand it and verify the government is being open. In Draconia it is the town Elder's job to deliver the news to the tribe at the end of the week in a massive conference but only to the leadership, the leadership then disseminate it from word of mouth. The griffons have no written language and simply use courtroom sketch style artwork as a guide and describe the detail in question, this also allows the government to censor what they please as very few can double check. The gnolls simply go via word of mouth.
Question 31: From the christian cross to the nike icon, our world is filled with recognisable symbols. What are your world's most widespread symbols?
The cutiemarks of the princesses of Equestria. The griffon claw mark as a symbol for the griffon race as a whole in another powerful one. The Dragons have adopted the dragon wood trees as their national symbol, given the rarity of them even inside the kingdom and their price mean they are seen as very powerful symbols all across the globe.
Question 32: How much of a career can a writer have in your world?
In Equestria, that depends on the cutie mark of the writer. very few become one, but anyone with the mark is bound to do something great with their lives in their own special way, In Draconia, they tend to export dragons who can write as scribes, since dragons can send messages by burning them up, basically making them telegrams but without the morse code.
Question 33: I am in search of work. Where could, would and should I apply?
Farms and blacksmiths would be your best bet. If you're a newcomer, you're more likely to be working in a blacksmith as it's considered the most sanitary job if you take the right precautions, so it's where people with unknown medical history or actively ill end up working.
Question 34: I take a big shovel and start digging, what do I see? (Colour and substance of the ground. Worms, insects, other creatures, etcetera.)
You find a lot of standard dirt in Equestria, you're mostly gonna be shoveling snow in Gryphus until you hit permafrost, and in Draconia, you'll mostly find the most fertile soil ever, consisting of mostly ash, thanks to the copious amounts of volcanoes. If you dig hard enough you might even find a city in Draconia. Gnoll lands tend to be either sandstone or simply sand. Even water if you're lucky.
Question 35: I'm reading through the history books. Which names am I sure to come across?
Balsam the Eternal is bound to come up a lot. considering he tried to start a civil war in Equestria, many people wrote about him across all 4 races. Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and Cadence are bound to come up alot in books covering geopolitical history, while Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are going to come up in a lot more folktales, especially in Gryphus.
Question 36: Is it possible to enhance your body through means other than hitting the gym and eating well? (bio-augmentations, cybernetic implants, magical enhancements, or…?)
Absolutely, Cyber augs exist and are becoming popular thanks to one of the heroes of Rockhammer named Havlore, who is extensively modified to compensate for a number of birth defects and wishes to start a society of his own. Taking inspiration from "A call denied".
Question 37: How is public sanitation taken care of? (Bathhouses, hot springs, sewage, public toilets, sewage disposal?)
Urine in collected in tanks in villages, and the pegasi collect it and treat it with various potions to repurpose it into rainwater, sometimes they get sloppy, hence patches of yellow snow, as well as equines using the manure for fertilizer. Griffons on the other hand have downright abysmal public sanitation and haven't worked out a system yet. Dragons, being impervious to flame, simply build their lavatories into puddles of lava, any "contaminants" are burned up or create rock.
As for self hygiene, ponies use buckets of water, Gryphons use a sauna to heat their homes and thus use the hot water as a bath for scrubbing. Dragons once again use lava and loofas made from cooled igneous rock (derived from urine in the lava that caused it to cool) as loofahs for exfoliating their scales and scrubbing.
Question 38: Can you explain one of your world's sports to me?
The most common sport in Draconia is a lacrosse variant, it trains discipline with a glaive and is a lot more violent. Full contact, especially with the net and your body is permitted and even encouraged, but so is team work.
Question 39: Can you tell me about your world's boogie man?
Gnolls warn their pups about Adlets. While they are in fact Gnoll kind's direct ancestor (like Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens), they are often feared as unpredictable and preying on lazy and incompetent younglings, due to their unknown nature and similar predatory behaviours, with the occasional alleged sighting of an Adlet keeping the myths alive.
Question 40: Can you describe the architectural styles of you world? (high/low, peaked/rounded, ornate/modest, open/closed etcetera)
Equestria tends to be very rustic style wooden homes with thatched roofs, except for Canterlot which tends to build everything like it's a medieval castle. The griffonns tend to have a lot of rock homes and shaped in diverging added buildings, like trees. Dragons have very brutalist architecutre but have very beautiful masonry in their cities, the cities simply follow the caverns they find.
Question 41: Can you give me a linguistic overview of your world? (Language families, broad distribution, intelligibility, lingua franca, trade language, etcetera.)
there are 4 language families: Gryphic, Equestian, Draconic, and Gnollish. Most people know Equestrian as the Lingua Franca, especially the griffons who need to write things down. Gryphus' history is simply in the oral tradition, and Draconic is only spoken in inter-tribal discourse in Draconia. It is however, the basis of the Changeling language, which is a mishmash of Equestrian and Draconic.
Question 42: What are your world's superstitions? (Bonus: Where do these beliefs come from?)
I'm actually gonna need help on superstitions.
Question 43: Can you give me the descriptions of some of your world's cheeses?
In Equestria, blue cheeses are very popular as refrigeration technology does not exist, only way to preserve food is to bottle it like wine. In Gryphus, the cheese there are fresh cheeses as they can be preserved outside in the snow most of the year. In Draconia, cheese is a very alien substance to them as they are reptilian and don't have livestock, all their food is either imported or hunted from monster in the mine. yet the few ponies who travel there, if they are mares and are expecting, sometimes provide their own milk which dragons pay high prices for, not knowing any better. The cheeses made are hard, aged for years and is fit only for an Elder.
Question 44: What does an average household look like? (Is it a modern nuclear family, or a multigenerational feudal household? Do pets live inside?)
The households tend to be multi-generational in the griffon kingdom as each family adds a room to the house to make it a big and mighty tree. Some very old families have massive homes. Equines and dragons tend to be based on the nuclear family.
Question 45: How are children treated in your world? (Until what age are they considered to be kids? Are children allowed to work? Can they vote? Are they considered people or property? Do daycares and schools exist? Has the concept of teenageyoung adult been introduced in your world?)
Griffons consider their fledglings kids until they can fly, at which point they are considered capable of making their own decisions. Ponies until they get their cutie marks and have a direction in life. Dragons, adult hood is proven and granted when ready. Public schools are nonexistant except for Equestia, and even then it's quite rare. Most kids tend to be homeschooled.
Question 46: What do people in your world value most in a leader? (Strength? Kindness? Rationality?)
Griffons, it's strength and piety to their order's patron element, Gryphus is in fact a theocratic oligarchy. In Equestria, it tends to be age that is the most valued trait, hierarchies often divided merely by who is older. In Draconia, it's by wisdom, Elders name a successor to be considered for when they die, and if the village agrees, the individual is crowned leader, as it's a responsibility that is earned and must be endured for many, many human lifetimes.
Question 47: What are some common names in your world? (Bonus: Why are they popular?)
Haven't thought about common names. Names tend to be attributes about an individual, somehow related to their talent or their parents.
Question 48: Is magic regulated in any way? (By the government, academia, religion, vigilantes, or…?)
Magic is suppressed in Equestria, but only mildly, at most you need a permit for anything beyond tricks and levitation, which is part of registration at CSGU. In Gryphus and Draconia, it is not regulated at all and is in fact encouraged. Gryphus specifically however conscripts all magic users into one of the orders that the conscript seems best suited to.
Question 49: What is taken for granted in our world, that is desired in your world?
Self determination. Sure you may take it for granted that you have free willin the real world, but Equestrians are often assigned a very specific destiny, sometimes ones they don't even want, simply because their cutie mark appeared in a very specific way. Thus they want to be able to forge their own destinies, sometimes even go out on adventures
Question 50: I’ve spent quite some time in your world by now, and would like to settle down. How do I obtain a house?
In Equestria, get the tools and Get to work. In Gryphus, marry into someone's family. In Draconia, you must offer a tribute to the village elder as a sign of trust. Give him something of value to you, and he will give you a home.
submitted by Riothegod1 to worldbuilding [link] [comments]

Why Fallout New Vegas is Neoliberal Part 3: Family Matters

Why Fallout New Vegas is Neoliberal: Other Parts
Spinoff Series: Why FNV is Expansionary
Author's Note
Welcome back to Mr. Sosig’s Ivory Tower Overanalysis of popular media. In the pursuit of e t h i c s i n g a m i n g j o u r n a l i s m I have provided links above in sequence to the two prior parts of this series, which focused on an introduction and the currencies of Fallout New Vegas, as well as the sister series for this. The sister series, “Why Fallout New Vegas is Expansionary”, is basically just me messing around during expansionary not writing these essays but instead writing nonsense about some of the less serious things that appear in the universe.
So, my fellow gamergaters, fuck EA and let’s get right into our first faction analysis: The Vegas Families.
The Plight of Carl Winslow
Family matters are a rough thing to look at, and it is through the sitcom program Family Matters that we gain understanding of how the dynamics of the modern American family change as its members age and create new relationships. Policeman Carl Winslow of the show, who resembles Ben Bernanke only because he has a moustache and beard because apparently that’s the qualifications that Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air had to meet, represents Mr. House, the ruler of Vegas. House looks down from his ivory Lucky 38 tower and oversees the families below, laying down laws and trying to organize them into little squabbling territories within casinos. Steve Erkle is our protagonist, our player character, as evidenced by the line “did I do that?” which your character says whenever you break something like a prostitution ring in Gomorrah.
Oh Shit
The Omertas, whose name sounds like “Oh shit” in French, are in charge of Gomorrah and all of the prostitution rings that it boasts. Their original name was the Slither Kin, and their ruthless tactics of drugging and imprisoning travelers made them one of Mr. Houses favored candidates for restoring Las Vegas to greatness. This nomadic life of crime that they led has translated over to New Vegas, where the Omertas embody the most corrupt and disgusting components of the capitalist system.
We understand from Smith that greed that regulates itself is good. In the pursuit of wealth, an economic actor would undertake actions that would bring the most benefit to them, and some of these benefits could be brought by providing superior services, lower prices, or even charitable giving. However, not all capitalist systems are ideal systems. The Jevonsian notion that capitalists are inherently benevolent, that they act to benefit others rather than themselves, is a farce. The Omertas represent the worst kind of greed-led capitalism in that their greed has manifested itself both in their official business and the ‘parallel economy’: the black market.
In a post-apocalyptic society there will be crime, and the Omertas thrive off of crime. While they may dress well in a style that is reminiscent of 1920’s gangsters, these boys are ruthless and will stop at nothing to get as many caps as possible. While other capitalists may find themselves at home in Smith’s world of capitalism with some moral standards, these are the thieves and brigands that Mandeville cherishes. Certainly, the Omertas and their Gomorrah1 Casino do contribute to the overall well-being of Vegas. Their casino boasts entertainment, fabulous courtyards, and food and drink, but their illicit selling of drugs and flesh bring their contributions to society into question.
It is one thing to appeal to the tastes of the consumer, it is another to exploit them. The Omertas not only work incredibly hard to addict their clients to their wares, but also their employees so that their girls can live in a state of practical slavery. The Omertas take a cut from each of the prostitutes, but do their damnedest as well to make sure that the money that is left over is spent on Gomorrah’s alcohol and drugs.
Furthermore, we can see that the Omertas have greed that knows no bounds in that they are constantly conspiring against one another. They are a classic mafia crime family, but their leadership is also collaborating with Caesar’s Legion in an attempt to bring down the Las Vegas Strip. In translation: these capitalists pursue greed to the extent that they will ally themselves with a totalitarian invader2 in an attempt to eliminate all other competition on the strip to maximize their revenues. The Omertas are quite literally planning a hostile takeover not of a corporation, but an entire society that they will strip bare of wealth and promptly run as a monopoly3. In short, the Omertas are the worst kind of capitalists that you can find in any market system. They aren’t in it for short run production or long run gains. These guys are just raiders who want to take what already exists, split it up, and resell it at a profit while also taking power as they do so with questionable ‘benefit’ to society.
The People’s Republic of Matthew Perry
No these guys aren’t actually communists. In fact, they aren’t even led by Matthew Perry. They’re just led by a guy voiced by him.
In terms of values, the Chairmen are the polar opposites of the Omertas. Their faction came not from the kind of raiding and enslaving lifestyle that the Slither Kin had, but rather they lived one of honor as warriors and use that code to determine how they select leaders and engage in diplomatic relations4. While the Omertas are constantly positioning themselves in secret to manipulate each other and seize power, the Chairmen strongly advise against this kind of behavior.
This disagreement in values between the Omertas and Chairmen, and as we will later see the White Gloves as well, has led the faction to behave in a rather paranoid manner. The chairmen are elitists who believe that their competition are all savage snobs who never were really ‘rehabilitated’ by Mr. House when their tribes were brought to the Strip, and they assume that their honor and suits entitle them to be of the highest esteem of the Three Families. It should also be noted that unlike the Omertas, the Chairmen are unwilling to cooperate with Caesar’s Legion at all as they dislike the idea of losing their culture by having to assimilate into one.
Let’s also take a look at Benny, the leader of the Chairmen, before we start analyzing this faction for political themes. Benny is the guy who shot your character in the head, so obviously you are meant to have a vendetta against him. However, this personal vendetta was more the result of a necessary evil for Benny to commit than some kind of intentionally malicious act. While the rest of the Chairmen advise against treachery, Benny is more ambitious than his peers. He sees Mr. House as a totalitarian ruler who will use his people and the other families as tools until they have fulfilled their use. Benny’s role as the lieutenant of House prior to his theft of the chip indicates that he is not some kind of impulsive brute like the Omertas, but more of a calculated and calm individual.
If Benny is not killed when confronted at the Chairmen casino, the Tops, he will flee with the Platinum Chip to The Fort, where Mr. House’s Securitron Army is located. He will be captured by the Legion and imprisoned there, and when confronted by the Courier will implore them to pursue an ‘independent Vegas’.
The Chairmen are indicative of a rather intriguing phenomena in our modern society in which they engage in behavior that, while dishonorable or illegal, is generally celebrated because it is for the ‘greater good’. As we will see in later essays, Mr. House is not exactly an individual who should be celebrated as a dear and fair leader, and the fact that the Chairmen seek to usurp him isn’t exactly an awful thing. The methods and ruthlessness of Benny however are meant to make us, as the player, feel as though what he is doing is wrong because we personally have skin in the game and disagree with it. We can compare this kind of ambitious, treacherous rise to power like we are witnessing in Zimbabwe or even in Syria. We recognize that there is violence there, that lives are lost, and that many of the individuals seeking to gain independence from their current government are reprehensible, but we can sympathize with their desire to gain independence and autonomy from an oppressive regime.
If we look at how the Chairmen perceive themselves, we can see that they are intentionally written to be the most palatable of the three Vegas families because they represent many traditionally Western values. No, I am not saying that running around in Gecko5 skins is a Western thing, that’s just what furries do. I am saying that the ambition of the chairmen and their perception of themselves as the true pinnacle of society and owners of its future is the kind of snobbery and elitism that tends to be held by both many (nationalistic) Westerners and basically everybody on this subreddit (the smugness and elitism part I mean, having the ivory tower lodged firmly up your ass feels good). We as a society tend to celebrate ambition and the desire to manifest one’s wishes by attaining power, and to be perfectly honest we’re also accustomed to doing some awful things in order to get what we want. As a result the Chairmen, while the first faction in the game that will ever wrong the player, is one of the ones that we also may have the most sympathy for.
Prepare for Your Colonoscopy: The White Glove Society
They run the Ultra Luxe. Their staff have names like Phillipe, Mortimer, and fucking Chauncey.
This faction is New Vegas High Society. Their casino only has table games, as the one-armed-bandits are too crass to be present. The employees all walk around wearing white masks, carrying dress canes, and wearing formal clothes as if they are working in some kind of gala. There is an art gallery in the building, coupled with a luxury restaurant and a cocktail bar. Everything about this faction absolutely screeches “elite” and “wealth”. It’s like Gatsby, but without the party.
The food is one of the White Glove’s most esteemed contributions to Vegas. Their steaks are cooked from Brahmin, but instead of being seasoned in an oven or grilled, they actually have dudes in their basement with flamethrowers that roast the Brahmin loins while they are hanging from the ceiling.
Of course, something is rotten in the state of the Ultra Luxe, and that would be the fact that just like Gatsby, they cannot “escape their past”. The White Gloves were once a tribal group like the other two families, but their main shtick wasn’t rape and murder or a warrior code, but rather being a bunch of cannibals6.
I encourage you to read that footnote above because it will make what I say next sound much more reasonable. The White Gloves are the noble landlord class because they have absolutely no inclination to engage in any kinds of real labor. Certainly they engage in services like cleaning, bussing tables, providing drinks, and all other restaurant functions, but their prim and proper demeanor paint them as a faction that is ‘pure’ and ‘above’ the brutality of the Omertas or the ‘wannabe’ Chairmen. This is all compensation and an attempt to atone for their past, which is not widely known, but at the same time there are still many among their ranks who wish that they could continue to eat human flesh. In fact, they actually kidnap the son of a wealthy Brahmin baron from NCR and consider murdering him and feeding him to their clientele, and it is the job of the player character to decide what action to take.
The stark contrast between the presentation of the White Gloves and the secrets they hide, from their kidnappings and assassinations to their cannibalism, is illustrative of some of the “old money” wealth that we see today. While cannibalism is certainly a heinous and extreme crime, we should recognize that not all families who have had wealth for generations in the United States have achieved it through sound means. The enslavement of Africans, the usage of Irish indentured servants, and the exploitation and relocation of Native Americans are but some of the worst acts that some of America’s wealthiest have had their ancestors engage in in order to attain the level of wealth and esteem they have now. Certainly these elites will wear their masks and trot with their canes carrying an air of being proper, but they will be haunted by the knowledge that their wealth and status have not-so-honorable beginnings, and they will do their damnedest to conceal that fact.
Footnotes
1: Gomorrah of course being the biblical city destroyed because its inhabitants were sinners, although fun fact the primary sin that is mentioned in the Old Testament is that their men were sleeping with one another gasp.
2: There is a whole lot more that the Legion does and a whole lot more about them, but I’m saving them for a later essay. Just know that the Legion aren’t exactly friends of Vegas.
3: I should also add that this Caesar-Omerta alliance also involves the embezzlement and pilfering of weapons from NCR shipments that are being held in the basement of the Casino so that the literal hostile takeover can commence. Not only do these guys not pay taxes to NCR, but they also steal from them as well.
4: Interestingly their original name was the “Boot Riders” when they were still nomadic tribals. While they like honor and diplomacy they were by no means pacifistic, and this name almost sounds like some kind of motorcycle gang.
5: This is actually interesting. The Boot Riders were originally going to be called the Gecko tribe, which doesn’t make much sense considering most tribals wear gecko skins for their clothing anyways, and there was already a town called Gecko in previous games. I hypothesize that this was going to be a reference to Gordon Gekko of the film Wall Street (played by Michael Douglas), who gives the famous “greed is good” monologue in the film when justifying hostile takeovers. We see in the behavior of the Chairmen that a hostile takeover is exactly what their leadership is interested in when it comes to dealing with House.
6: I really like looking at the cut content for New Vegas because it’s chock full of references to real world events and pop culture. The White Gloves were originally going to be called the Sawneys. This name used to be a nickname for Scots given by the English, and appears in an English folk story about the Sawney Clan, led by Alexander “Sawney” Bean. This clan, which in the tale numbered about 48 strong, was responsible for the murder and cannibalism of hundreds of individuals until King James VI of Scotland (eventually James I) ordered them all to be captured. The motivation for engaging in cannibalism was that they were lazy and did not actually want to work, and it should also be noted that they were an incredibly incestuous bunch. The men of the Sawney clan had their genitalia, hands, and feet cut off and were left to bleed out while the women and children watched. When the men had all bled out, the women and children were then burned alive. Prior to the discovery and capture of the Sawneys however, the town of Givran was so confused by the disappearances that they framed and lynched several individuals in a witch hunt to try and stop this from happening. The parallels between this story and the “proper” White Gloves are very strong.
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does tribal casinos pay taxes video

If the Indian (Native American) casino, nightclub, business, whatever, is on tribal land, then there is no facility to collect any taxes. Tribal lands and reservations are like completely foreign... Tribes don’t pay taxes on casino income, but employees and winners do Image Credit: newsroom.mohegansun.com There’s a bit of confusion around Native American casinos and tax. They own and operate more than two dozen casinos, which together made $1.6 billion in gross revenue in 2009. That’s a 478 percent increase since 2000. Not one dime of the revenue goes to taxes. In fact, the state is prohibited by federal law from taxing any aspect of tribal gaming. Some tribal businesses make limited payments to local ... Native Americans are U.S. citizens, and unlike their tribes, individuals are subject to federal income taxes. Even exempt tribal income can be taxed when distributed to individual members of the ... While these casinos are often exempt from federal taxes, Native Americans employed by the casinos must pay federal income taxes on their earnings. If the tribes transfer or distribute any of their gaming revenues to tribe members, these “ per capita ” payments are subject to federal income tax, as well. While many tribes operate casinos and pay revenue to their members, the majority of taxable tribal casino revenue is paid by the few most populous tribes. Most tribal members will receive many other types of grants and benefits from their tribes, including scholarships, stipends for living expenses, and even help with buying a home. With the massive success of tribal mega-resort casinos like Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort, people might get the idea that all Native Americans are rich thanks to tribal gaming. But after sorting through a long laundry list of regulations, administrative salaries, and strict profit distribution rules, not many come out with a windfall of cash. How Tribal Casinos Were Legalized In the 1970s ... UPDATE: S.L. 2015-262 now excludes from local property taxes all property sited on land held in trust for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, effective for the 2016 tax year and beyond. Gambling is a big business in North Carolina, and it’s about to get bigger. With more than 1,100 hotel rooms, 3,800 slot machines, […] Tribal members living on reservations, for example, are not subject to state income tax, and tribal casinos do not pay the corporate income tax. Regarding the sales and use tax, tribes are generally expected to collect taxes on purchases made by nontribal members for consumption or use off of reservations. Although these casinos are often exempt from federal taxes, Native Americans employed in the casinos must pay federal taxes on winnings. If tribes transfer or distribute a portion of their gambling income to tribal members, these "per capita" payments are also subject to federal income tax.

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