Kalistan

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Internal Investigation reveals gross corruption among Socialist Officers
Party Leadership resigns in Disgrace
Kaliburg Ananto
October 17, 5065


Interim Party Leader Annie Bjorksdattir addresses SP Internal Investigation results

Interim Party Leader Annie Bjorksdattir, SP Deputy from Luxon, released the findings of the SP's internal investigation into the corruption allegations. They confirm the findings of the Defense Ministry, and implicate a number of high ranking Regular Military Officers.

"The Party has agreed to cooperate with the Government in bringing these thieves to justice," said Bjorksdattir. "We are not at liberty to name names during the ongoing investigation, but once the charges become public, of course, the defendants will be named. Our investigation, however, reveals that the culprits are almost entirely associated with the Socialist Regular Officers' Association. There is evidence to suggest that this organization was a slush fund for the implicated members. Officers allegedly moved the money to offshore accounts where they owned homes, boats, cars and etc across the globe. The sum stolen by this group exceeds 300 billion Rubles last year alone."

Along with the revelations Bjorksdattir announced the resignation of the entire Socialist Party Leadership in the Deputy, to include former Premier Diego Perry. "We do not have evidence that Comrade Perry was involved in the corruption. But he has acknowledged that the Party Leadership and the former Government had failed to prevent the corruption and has taken responsibility. We have accepted the Comrades' resignations, and the Party has installed an interim leadership team to take us through the upcoming elections."

The Party has agreed to cooperate in all ongoign investigations, and will focus on preparing for the elections.

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Annie Bjorksdattir becomes New Party Speaker
Young leader hopes to return Party to Majority
Kaliburg Ananto
October 1, 5067


Annie Bjorksdattir of Luxon becomes Speaker of the Minority

Confirmed in her interim leadership position by acclaimation of the recent Annual Party Congress in Kaliburg, Luxon Deputy Agnethe "Annie" Bjorksdattir assumed the full time role of Socialist Party Speaker and Speaker of the Minority in the National Assembly. Bjorksdattir has been serving in this capacity for just over two years following the dramatic scandal that led to the incarceration of fourteen highranking officers and more than two dozen lower ranking officers for fraud, embezzlement, racketeering and betrayal of the Public Trust in the Socialist Officers Association scandal. The military fallout is not entirely resolved, but for the most part, due to the tenacity of the work between SP leadership and Defense Ministry investigators, more than 82 percent of the stolen funds have been returned to the treasury, and the remaining is due in restitution.

Bjorksdattir is a distant descendant of President Elga Bjorksdattir, who served as the President of the Republic and for whom Port Elga in Sulari is named. The current Bjorksdattir, 27, is a law student in Kaliburg, and is a member of the Ananto Yearly Meeting of Brethren. She is married to a fabricator who works at the National Ship Yards in Kaliburg, and has been a member of the Socialist Party of Kalistan since she was a teenager. She previously served as chairwoman for the Kaliburg Young Socialist League before being elected to represent Luxon in the 5063 elections. She was tapped to serve as Interim Leader in 5067 due to her high recommendations from the Ananto Socialist Party, and her lack of ties to the Republican Regular Military or Party Leadership.

Following her Interim appointment, Bjorksdattir hastily put together a new leadership team to replace the previous shadow government who were all forced to resign due to the scandal. The new shadow government consists of young deputies from across the Government, all but the Defense Shadow Minister and the Finance Shadow Minister who are Brethrenist. The return of the Brethrenists to Party domination was also a response to the pugilistic and corrupted nature of the Party previous to Bjorksdattir's appointment.

Bjorksdattir is in line to become Premier, should the Socialists ever regain the Majority. She stated in one of her rare public appearances that this is precisely what she intends to do: The country is a socialist Nation, Bjorksdattir said. She intends for Socialists to govern it.

We look forward to the promising career of Comrade Bjorksdattir.

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Bjorksdattir looks forward to Socialists entering Government
Socialists to control Foreign, Defense, HSS, Science, and Environmental Ministries
Kaliburg, Ananto
November 5, 5068


Speaker of the SP Angie Bjorksdattir briefly discusses the prospect of Socialists joining the KP in Government

Recognizing the persistent status of the SP as the main minority, the President of the Republic has accepted the SP's request to add them to several posts in the Government of the Republic.

"We sent a letter to the President of the Republic," said Speaker of the SP, Agnethe Bjorksdattir, "requesting seats in the Government commensurate with our proportion of seats in the national Assembly. We invited the President to name Socialists to the seats of their choosing, and when the KP named a new Government, the Socialists moved from being the main opposition Party to the Minority Party. We look forward to picking up our roles in Government, and seek to enact an ambitious plan, focused on modernization of the Regular Force, and an affirmative Kalistani Tourism Campaign.

As the Socialist Party begins to improve its standing in positions of power, it tries to put the corruption scandal behind it. Voters are still not entirely ready to forgive the Ancient Party of Kalistani Institutionalism, given their roughly 40% showing in the previous elections, but the inclusion of Socialist Ministers in the Government seems to at least acknowledge the enduring support in the country of the Socialist Party in Kalistan. "Socialists in charge of the foreign and military ministries will ensure that our Party is able to help move the Republic into a more outward focus. Brethrenist Ministers in Defense will ensure that the homeguard doctrine remains in place. And we'd also like to explore new research opportunities into agricultural techniques to help improve land usage in the Republic with vertical farming and dry land farming practices where traditional agriculture may not be appropriate. The Socialist Ministers already have a lot to do."

The Bill has already passed the Assembly, and the Socialists have begun working on plans to present to the Assembly within a few months.

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Foreign Minister Ulysses to travel to Deltaria
"It's time to finish a deal we started years ago" says Ulysses
Kaliburg, Ananto
September 8, 5070


New Socialist Foreign Minister to conclude purchase of Deltarian Missile Destroyers

"Years ago, we were on the verge of purchasing 10 recently decommissioned Destroyers from Deltaria," said Kalistani Foreign Minister Troy Ulysses at a press brief yesterday in the Capital, "but unfortunately rampant corruption and gross government mismanagement of our predecessors led to that deal being put on the backburner. The state of the Regular Forces of Kalistan, already extremely inefficient due to age and neglect, nonetheless needs a major modernization effort, which Kalistan should be putting significant resources into."

The Foreign Minister is responding to a recent offer from the Deltarian Government to sell 15 of its decommissioned Udaloy Class Destroyers to Kalistan for a sum of 3.5 Billion KRB. "The Defense Ministry has earmarked 10 for replacement service on the Ananto Strait Northern and Southern Limits, and 5 for detail and deconstruction, so our engineers can begin producing Kalistani variants at the National Shipyard. The ultimate goal is of course self sufficiency in our Naval Procurement."

Ulysses was asked about political commitments that are rumored to accompany the transfer. "We would reiterate the words of the Previous President. We have made no agreement with regard to access of the Ananto Straits. That has been part of the discussion, but National Security Experts have expressed indifference to Deltarian military access to the Ananto Strait, which in any case would be purely symbolic for Deltaria, but would drag Kalistan closer to Deltaria's International positions in Artania and elsewhere. Kalistan wants no part of that, nor do we really need a powerful international patron to guarantee what we have successfully defended for hundreds of years."

The Foreign Minister was also keen to acknowledge that the last major Powers to challenge Kalistan in the Strait have long since recognized Kalistani control over that water, concomitant with guarantees of peaceful commercial transit, which Kalistan has not abrogated. "Powers such as Dorvik, Hutori, and even Lourenne have either explicitly or in fact recognized Kalistani Security concerns in the Straits. It is a matter of international fact at this point. We would encourage other Nations to follow suit in the Straits and refrain from attempting to crack them open for whatever their reasons are."

The foreign Minister also noted that he was at the opening stages of discussing military modernization with Dorvik. "Dorvik has recently reached out to the Republic to inquire about our government's position vis a vis various power plays in Artania. The Foreign Ministry Informed them that Kalistan takes no position with regard to the affairs of Artania, and opened the door for talks about military purchases, which Dorvik received receptively. Modernization is a priority of the SP in the Assembly and in the Government, and we aim to carry it out with the assistance of any and all partners across Terra."

The Foreign Minister is set to fly to Deltaria later this week to conclude the Destroyers' purchase.

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Alternica's Overkiller debuts at Number 1 on Hard Rock Album Charts
Thrasher's massive return to accompany Demons of Rock Summer Tour
Kaliburg Ananto
October 31, 5070


Overkiller, Alternica's Anti-War Concept Album, debuts at Number 1

Arguably the biggest band in hard Rock on the entire planet right now, Kaliburg's Alternica, released an anti-war record titled Overkiller, which debuted at Number 1 on the hard rock charts. The band has building a national and international following since the last album released in 5067 on KMI, Powermonger. Their new release represents a significant growth in the band's sound.

"The band's sound is finally polished," said critic Benny Starr.. "KMI has finally put some money behind this band in a major way. The record is clean, the band is stripped down and tight, the music is loud and fast, and the message resonates with millions of Kalistanis."

That message is one of opposition to war. Nearly all the songs feature hard hitting staccato rhythms that mean to mimic the sounds of a fierce battle. "We focused on drums and guitars that imitated artillery, machine gun fire and the loud chaos of an infantry charge," said Dave Crewes of the album. "The paired those sounds with the grisly details of violence and war. Our goal of course was to shock our audience into associating the brutality that we were singing about with war."

The song "Artillery" describes a village of noncombatants being bombarded by cannons. "We didn't pull punches," said Crewes. "When an artillery shell falls on your house and destroys everything within a fifty yard radius, sending molten metal shrapnel into the flesh of children, its a grisly scene. There's not much left when that's done." Similar songs talk how people blindly follow orders of leaders who will never themselves fight in a war, or how disposable soldiers are. Once song, "Friendly Fire" talks about the fog of war and how easy it is to kill one's own brother in a war.

"The Terran Sun is an anti Nuke song," said Crewes, "and is about the deadly destructive power of nuclear weaponry. We try to describe in graphic detail the effects of a bomb blast, from instant vaporization to terrible effects of radiation poisoning. At the end we ask, who are the real monsters? Of course the answer is those who possess nuclear weaponry in the first place."

Conservative groups were predictably outraged by this anti war record. "The lyrics themselves are so violent" said Todd Pelladin, preacher of the small evangelical Hosian Church Rock 40 in Vrassa. "I don't want my 12 children listening to this 'deth metal'." Jean Sorenson, mother of four school age children added "We can't let these pacifists infect the minds of our children. Sometimes we need war. Sometimes losses have to be tolerated. I don't like it, but sometimes it is necessary. And the way this band describes the honorable and ancient profession of warrior really is just unpatriotic."

Crewes is undaunted by the criticism. "We are just telling the truth: The horrifying truth. If we can change one mind about war, and the horrors and miseries of warmachines and nukes, maybe its worth it to bear the slings and arrows of 10 million ignorant warmonger conservatives."

The controversy once more fueled album sales, as advance releases of the lyrics went live three weeks before the album itself dropped. Underground radio stations across the Republic began reading lyrics on radio programs, prompting parent backlash, which of course fueled buzz for the record. When it was finally released, it instantly became the most purchased album in the Republic for that week, and remained in the number 1 spot for the last week. Alternica says they do not intend to release a single from the record, prefering instead for it to remain as a concept record.

You can listen to the song "MIC" is short for Military industrial Complex, here, and the whole album Overkiller from KMI on streaming services or on traditional media.

[Drax]

Kalistan Selling Oil to Kanjor

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=84&p=176930#p176853

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FM Announces failure of Deltarian Mission
Looks for new deals with Hutori
Kaliburg, Ananto
August 1, 5071


Deltarian sale of weaponry falls through; number of issues cited

The Foreign Minister, Troy Ulysses announced that the Deltarian Destroyer deal has ended inconclusively. "There were a number of issues from the gate," said Ulysses. "It's been nearly a decade since the deal was first proposed, and delayed inexplicably, which of course means that the proposed ships were drydocked and rusting this entire time. Naturally, the longer they sat out of service, the less value Kalistan would be receiving, and the more problems we would be accepting for the money we were prepared to spend."

The Foreign Minister also noted breech in diplomatic protocols, noting that nobody arrived at the Arrivals hub in Cachtice to greet the Kalistani delegation. "I wouldn't say we were deliberately snubbed," said the Foreign Minister of this diplomatic faux pas. "More like an oversight. We understand that we aren't really close to Deltaria, and perhaps not a priority for their government. That's fine. We waited a few hours, and turned around and headed home, to allow the Government of Deltaria to focus on their alliance with the theocratic dystopia in Luthori, and we resolved to look elsewhere." And finally, the Minister noted implicit political costs which may have accompanied the Deltarian deal that the Republic was unwilling to pay. "Access through the Strait should never have been on the table."

"We have already had informal conversations with our counterparts in Dorvik and Hutori concerning weapons sales. Hutori has expressed interest in having Kaliburg produce the Luxon II-Class Cruisers which we jointly modified from Hutorian 5100-Class designs for the Kingdom. We are also selling 15,000 barrels of KALNAPECO oil from the National Refinery Port Elga to Kanjor under the terms of the KALNAPECO Charter, and are looking for additional trade vectors. While it is a shame that Deltaria has been so reticent about selling its decommissioned military equipment to Kalistan, we will look forward to new sources for our modernization program."

As for now, discussions with Deltaria have broken off, and Kalistan goes back to square zero in naval modernization.

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Bjorksdattir proclaims early successes
Cruiser Sales bill looks likely to succeed while Lourenne Integration Treaty goes into ratification
Kaliburg, Ananto
August 22, 5072


Premier Apparent Speaker Agnethe Bjorksdattir looks forward to SP agenda finally moving forward

Speaker of the SP, and presumptive Premier of the Republic Agnethe Bjorksdattir visited the site of a high rise being built in Lolla to tout early successes for the SP following the election of the first socialist President in 10 years. “We come here, to the top of this building which represents the new Kalistan so that we can talk about a positive and optimistic future which includes Each and Every Kalistani, as well as our fraternal countries Hutori and Lourenne whom we’ve had long positive and beneficial relationships with through the years. Weve enjoyed peace and tranquity under KP administration following the chaos which resulted in the successful prosecution of 97 individuals, most of them SP members, for corruption, malfeasance and outright theft of public funds. The people are now ready for the Socialist Party and our coalition partners to lead the way forward to the next steps of a new Kalistani re-emergence.”

The FM, Troy Ulysses, who appeared with the Premier, talked about several initiatives of the Socialists in the National Assembly. “First, we welcome the eventual passage of the Cruiser sales bill to Hutori. This represents an opportunity for us to move closer to our long time friends. The 16 Luzon II cruisers which are being sold at a price of 3.5 billion KRB, are returning to the home of the 5100 cruiser which was the prototype of these designs. With this first transfer, future transfers are also being contemplated. Additionally it provides a motor for Kalistani modernization without having to raise new revenues.”

More importantly, the Speaker has advanced the Anantonese Ocean Integration Accord, creating a customs, travel, and investment union between Kalistan and Lourenne. “This Accord removes the last barriers to cross channel trade between Kalistan and Lourenne. Included in the agreement is free and unhindered movement of goods, services, and labor, but most importantly, Lourenne capital will be treated as Kalistani capital within the Republic and Vice versa. This will lead to the explosion of new investment opportunities for both nations and a dramatic potential uptick in the standard of living for the average Kalistani.”

When asked if Kalistan is abandoning zero growth, the Speaker was unequivocal. “The SP will never abandon zero growth. What this does is allow for investment primarily in sectors that Kalistani investors do not already possess an edge. This is about be bringing new products to our markets, new jobs to our shores and new opportunities for Kalistani investment abroad.”

The optimistic tone of the young Socialist leader infused the questions reporters asked her in the interrogation that followed. The Soon to be Premier and the FM then took a tour around the high rise which is being produced with environmentally friendly materials, is ultra energy efficient and will house 50 families when it is completed. “We especially look forward to adopting Lourennes ideas on environmental economics. They are a leader in that field, and that conforms with the SP’s desire to promote environmentally conservationist policies.”

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LKG, longtime leaders in Open Source Gaming to Relaunch with MMPORPG "Democracy"
Significant private investment from both Hutori and Kalistani investors recapitalize gaming giant
Everai, Ananto
July 10, 5073


Democracy allows players to RP parties in RL Terran States

Have you ever wondered what actual decisions go into getting Parties elected to office? Think you can do a better job crafting legislation than the Parties in Power? Well, now you can thanks to a new open source launch from the venerable Hutori-Kalistani gaming company LKG, who were recently recapitalized and have now launched their first game in years. Lexington-Kalistani Group built a name for itself during the last century, including the record breaking release "Overland Trail" which has never went out of print and has taught generations of children about the adventure and challenges of being a pioneer.

In LKG's newest game, a massive multiplayer online RPG titled "Democracy" developers hired notable political scientists from both Kalistan and Hutori, including Dr. Phillipe Madison, Director and Professor of Political Theory from Vrassa District University. The game allows players to form Parties that they use to create and pass legislation in a simulated Terran political landscape. "You'd think this game would be boring and very technical," said Madison. "But the fact is, there is great interest in the process of elections and legislation in the Republic and abroad. We utilized extensive playtesting among professors and graduate students to finetune our elections model to accurately simulate the real thought processes used by legislative Parties in each country across Terra, as well as the decision making calculus used by actual voters who go to the polls on a normal basis." It would have been easy, said Dr. Madison, to just develop a very simple econometric algorithm that would have translated one or two vectors into election results, but, "that would have been both too simplistic, and completely inappropriate for a game that claims to model election and legislative mechanisms. It would demonstrate a good mastery over coding, but a complete lack of understand about political behavioralism. We opted instead for realism instead."

While the game, which operates in a persistent online state has received high marks for its playability. online social community, its in depth economic and war engines that allow players to see realtime results of their budgeting and conduct deep international diplomacy and even international wars, players were also skeptical about claims of accuracy in the various election models. One player, who identified himself as John and currently plays in the simulated Kalistan, claimed that the election model was "...broken. I mean: from everything I have learned, if you are a new Party, all you have to do is vote on a few bills in a way which allows you to tailor your Party's positions to exactly what the country says it wants regardless of what you say you actually believe, and you automatically get bonuses because you are a new Party. You can then easily claim a thin majority and totally change everything in the country to your liking with zero consequences. I was always under the impression that history and political memory doesn't actually matter at all: that is how it is in the real world, where voters reward Parties even if they completely alter the political universe everytime there is a new majority.

"But the developers must have added a bunch of hidden variables into the algorithm, because when I change Kalistan from a socialist libertarian utopia to a fascist police state in one term because I can, voters punish my Party and randomly vote me out of office. I see Parties do that all the time in the Real World, but in the game, I can't seem to radically depart from the established Millieu at all. Its like no matter what I try, I'd actually have to rule by brutal force and cancel all elections to keep my fascistic or capitalistic reforms in place the way I want to." When asked what party he plays, John says "I play the Liberty Party of Kalistan (LPoK). It's a hardcore fascist Party which employs my own specific variety of theocratic Paternalism to ensure that women can't get abortions and nobody is allowed to use drugs in Kalistan. Because if there is one thing I hate, it's the idea that drugged up women get to have abortions in the real world. That's intollerable."

Others complained about the speed of the game. Player Valerie, who has a party in Baltusia, said "Well, I can't figure out how time works in this game. We are used to elections every six days in Kalistan. I've been playing for five days and have only passed five days in the game when I should be two and a half years into my first term. I can speed up time in the game using the slider, but if I speed it up to normal, I very quickly lose control over popular opinion, which I've always been led to believe is completely static over centuries. Population too, for that matter."

The economics model also troubles one player. "I actually have to figure out budgeting to earmark where my money is going," said Jeff, who plays in the island nation of Keymon. "I have all these ministries demanding money from me. Like, I want to have ten Aircraft carriers, but I have to actually find money for those. It turns out they are very expensive not only to build but to maintain: significantly higher than my whole GNP. I would have to tax people at 100 percent for 15 years to build even one, and then, its not even as simple as just writing in the newspaper that I built one. I actually have to do research or buy technology from other countries, and if I haven't built the infrastructure in my country to build one, I can't seem to figure out how to make it happen anyway. Just writing it in the newspaper doesn't seem to work like it does in the real world."

Complaints about realism aside, the game has a very vibrant and respectful community, where players encourage one another and have a lot of fun talking to each other online. "I thought the forums and the social media around this game would be very sarcastic and petty," said Deborah from Sulari, who plays in the simulated version of Saridan. "But surprisingly, the players themselves don't spend all their time memeing fascist symbols or anime or talking about vulgar sh-t all the time. Instead, they actually plan out RPs in advance, and then tell vibrant and believable stories, without doing completely unbelievable things arbitrarily. I never believed that this was possible, but I've found the players are really friendly toward one another, welcoming of new players, helpful to the mods, who themselves get along with one another and players, and offer each other lots of interactions on their RPs. It's a really great community, and I think I will play this game for a really long time."

There are already thousands of players actively playing and RPing in "Democracy" and developers have promised to continue to actively develop and promote this game. "No, this is a game we are going to put significant time and energy into maintaining," said LKG project Lead Walter Lawrence. "We aren't going to drop this game for nothing. One of the best things about the forums is that it allows actual players to make suggestions where we can improve, and we can take those suggestions and evaluate them. I actually enjoy hearing from players about how I can improve this game, and have already gotten a lot of good suggestions from users that we are implementing. And having a dedicated team on this project will allow us to make virtually instant implementation of changes and improvements. I see DC (LKG's abbreviation for the game) lasting for a very long time and evolving as more people play it and offer their input and we work hard to add new features to the game."

Reviews for "Democracy" are strong, with an overall aggregate of 8.6 of 10 in 462 reviews both domestically and internationally. While the game is currently still in early release, and should still be considered in beta testing, LKG reports that the game is "very close to 1.0". More than 3,000 players are playing daily, with more expected to join after full release of the game.

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Premier of the Republic agrees to Snap Elections
Dissolution of KP seen as "not unexpected"
Kaliburg Ananto
November 1, 5073


Premier of the Republic Bjorksdattir Agrees to Snap Elections following dissolution of KP

Premier of the Republic Bjorksdattir agreed to snap elections following the vacating of more than 1/3 of the seats of the National Assembly as the KP went defunct.

"The collapse of the Kalistani Party was not unexpected," said Premier Bjorksdattir. "They have showed up to vote on bills, but have not proposed much new legislation in years, and have not exercised much power that their Leader of the Minority Status permitted them. As a result, important legislation was not passed, and the people who lived in Legislative districts belonging to KP deputies were unrepresented."

The Premier pointed to standing tradition in support of the special election. "Kalistani tradition dictates that when more than 1/3 of the seats of the Assembly go vacant, a new election should be called to fill the vacant seats." When asked if this posed a threat for the Premier's Government, Bjorksdattir was circumspect. "I'm not entirely sure which way KP's former voters will go. It is entirely possible that they will go to the Folksparty, and then the SP will lose power. We'll have to see how the votes turn out. We do expect the President to remain in place though, so with luck, there will not be a lot of turn over, but Kalistani voters can be fickle and unpredictable, so we'll have to see."

The Premier is hopeful that the Anatonese Integration Accord with Lourenne will pass after the election. "Both of the Current Parties in the Legislature supported the bill the first time it was up for a vote," said Bjorksdattir, "so, we hope we can raise the votes for it the second time."

Election results are currently being tallied and are expected to be released publicly by the 10th.

Update: Tally is complete, The SP retains a small majority in the Assembly and Bjorksdattir will retain the Premiership. A new Government Bill is not expected.