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lumi-klovstad-games · 8 months

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"Any Path To Victory Will Do": The Ghestan Storm Legions

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war. In this galaxy beset by constant blood and battle, hallmarked by hellish conditions and a cold and unrelenting hostility to the very idea of civilization itself, the residents of one world in particular have risen to the challenge, and managed to do more than simply survive: they thrive.

It is not clear when or how the world of Ghestus Prime first came to be colonized by humanity, or if the world was more hospitable when it was. In the Age of Strife, Ghestus Prime became cut off from the rest of humanity by Warp Storms, and any knowledge of how people had come to be there was lost. The planet is a veritable hellscape, a harsh and unforgiving world like no other. The atmosphere has an exceptionally low oxygen content, and is full of gasses that are toxic to humans. Outside the shelter zones, the air is packed with thick radioactive dust by never-ending dust storms that have also significantly dimmed the effective output of Ghestus Prime’s sun, rendering conventional farming impossible. The dim sunlight provides little respite from the cold on Ghestus Prime’s surface, and much of the year is spent in sub-freezing conditions, with the warmest days only crossing into the mid-40’s on the Fahrenheit Scale. It is this comfort-forsaken world that has given rise to the Ghestan people, a highly resilient civilization of abhumans who have perfectly adapted to rise to their homeworld’s challenges, on societal, technological, and even biological levels. In the dim and the dark of Ghestus Prime’s surface, the Ghestan people became pale, with translucent skin and red eyes giving them a frightening visage. Their bodies have outstanding resilience to radiation and physical damage compared to mainline humans. However, due to their world’s peculiar atmosphere that the Ghestans have adapted to breathe normally, they require environmental masks when traveling off-world to breathe effectively, as a more Earth-like atmosphere has become almost toxic to them. On top of these challenges, the Ghestans had to contend with their world’s own natural disasters, deadly predators, and frequent raids by the Dark Eldar.

The Ghestans had little choice but to meet their challenges head on, and they developed a culture that prizes survival above all, as well as resourcefulness, adaptability, and brutal efficiency. Without the extra resources to enable slower, more democratic or bureaucratic systems, the Ghestans learned to value and cultivate charismatic and iron-willed leaders, favoring powerful and indomitable men of grand vision who by force of will and force of arms could unite the Ghestan people into pursuing common goals, and who would be adaptable in the face of ever-changing conditions. They adopted a strong martial tradition, and passed on to their children their most essential lesson: the wants of the individual are inconsequential when the survival of the whole is on the line. They learned to fight back against their assailants, and on the resource and advantage-starved world of Ghestus Prime, willingly refusing anything that could give your community an edge in the survival stakes simply wasn’t done. As the Ghestan people got better at killing Dark Eldar raiders, they began to salvage the Drukhari’s weapons, vehicles, and other technology, and set their finest minds to work in determining how this technology worked and how to integrate it into their own, all for the glory and survival of the Ghestan people.

The Ghestans have a long and proud history of association with the Imperial military, with the Ghestan Storm Legions only being the most modern incarnation, emerging in the late 38th Millennium. The seeds were planted far earlier, however, during the Great Crusade, when the God Emperor’s forces rediscovered Ghestus Prime, and brought it into compliance. The God Emperor was impressed by the Ghestan people’s will to survive, their courage, and their skill, and so offered them a place in his Imperium of Man. The God Emperor of Mankind was exactly the sort of leader the Ghestans valued, and they enthusiastically took up the banner of his Empire, sending forth professional armies to fight in his name, and to kill for his cause. The Ghestan Army Legions swiftly became famed for their unbreakable determination, their resilience, and their sheer adaptability in the face of harsh conditions, while they became equally feared and maligned for their ruthless pragmatism and cruel battlefield calculus. The Ghestan Army Legions fought alongside the Emperor’s Forces in countless campaigns, burning a trail of blood and glory across the galaxy in the name of the Emperor’s promised utopia to come. During the Great Crusade, they encountered many other Imperial factions, such as the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes, the keen minds of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their fellow soldiers in the Imperial Army, from all walks of life. Some of these factions grew to respect and admire the Ghestan soldiers for their accomplishments and abilities, while others distrusted or despised them outright for their history of integrating Drukhari technology into their own, as well as their callous disregard for civilian lives and those of non-Ghestan soldiers. Of the Space Marines, the Ghestans rapidly came to respect the Iron Warriors the best, as they saw in the Iron Warriors many of the same brutally efficient and calculating values that Ghestan culture instilled in all its children.

The Ghestan Armies were nearly broken during the Horus Heresy, when they were betrayed by one of their own: Lord Brigadier Lareas, who had secretly defected to Chaos. He led the bulk of the Ghestan troops into a trap on the planet of Odraustea, where they were ambushed by the Iron Warriors that they had once respected, along with a host of daemons. Lareas also sabotaged the Ghestan’s communications and supplies, leaving them isolated and vulnerable. The Ghestans fought valiantly, but suffered near-total casualties and losses before they were rescued by a host of Ultramarines. While Lareas’ heresy was exposed, and the Ghestans prosecuted their own brand of justice against the traitor, Lareas’ mission had still been a resounding success: the damage the Ghestans had suffered had been well beyond what was needed to remove their armies from the fight, and the battered survivors fell back to Ghestus Prime to ensure their people’s survival, just as Lareas had planned. The Odraustean Betrayal removed the Ghestan Armies from being an active participant in the Horus Heresy going forward, and the Ghestan people were left deeply shaken by Lareas' Judas-kiss.

The Ghestans are never a civilization to be counted out, however. They have survived and recovered from similar disasters before the Imperium, and the events of the Heresy and the Oudrastean Betrayal proved no different in that regard. Within scant centuries, they were eventually able to recover from the losses of the Heresy, and returned with pride and glory to Imperial service, albeit far more wary and cautious of allies and enemies alike. Their soldiers would face yet more challenges and temptations from the forces of Chaos, who tried to sway them with promises of power, glory, knowledge, and comfort. The new “Ghestan Storm Legions” resisted these temptations by keeping to their promised duty to the Emperor’s cause – a Ghestan promise made is not one to be broken – and remembering their obligations to their own people, and leaning on thousands of years of highly rigorous martial discipline to enforce control of themselves, up and down the chain of command.

On the war-torn world of Viyonlia, the 3rd Storm Legion's 20th Army faced a horde of Khornate cultists and daemons. They were surrounded by bloodshed and carnage, and felt the rage and bloodlust of the Blood God in their veins. They heard his voice in their minds, urging them to kill and slaughter for his glory. He promised them more power and renown if they joined his ranks and renounced their loyalty to the Emperor. The Storm Legions resisted Khorne’s temptation by remembering their duty and discipline, and by using their tactics and strategy to overcome the enemy’s brute force. Fighting with discipline, courage, skill, and a willingness to self-sacrifice for the good of the unit, they managed to break through the enemy lines and reach their objective, where they activated a powerful bomb that destroyed the Khornate forces and their portal to the Warp.

On Tocrides, the 7th Storm Legion's 667th Recon Division were sent to a hidden research facility where they discovered a cache of ancient and forbidden technology. They were fascinated by the devices and machines, and felt the curiosity and ambition of the Changer of Ways in their hearts. They saw his visions in their dreams, showing them the secrets and mysteries of the universe. He offered them more knowledge and wisdom if they joined his schemes and betrayed their comrades. The Storm Legions resisted Tzeentch’s temptation by holding to their pragmatism and caution, and by reminding themselves of the pain and horror suffered by their forefathers during the Horus Heresy on Odraustea as a result of Laraes’ treachery. They reported their findings to their superiors, and subsequently followed their orders to secure the facility. They managed to fend off an attack by Tzeentchian cultists and daemons, who tried to steal the technology and use it for their own ends, and finally, by then thoroughly wary of the visions and dreams they had endured, they ultimately destroyed the facility and its contents rather than bring them home to endanger their people.

During the Plague Wars against Mortarion, several Storm Legions were mobilized, and all were assigned to quarantine zones where they faced endless plagues of Nurgle’s diseases and toxins. They were exposed to decay and rot, and felt the pain and despair of the Plague God in their flesh. They smelled his stench in their nostrils, sapping their strength and willpower. He offered them more protection and comfort if they joined his embrace and accepted his gifts. It is recalled that not one Legion nor soldier fell to Chaos that day: for the Storm Legions resisted Nurgle’s temptation, struggling to the very last with all their famed strength and resilience, and by using their rebreathers and environmentally sealed armor as makeshift HAZMAT suits to withstand the plague. They also relied on each other, deepening fraternal ties between soldiers, with their comradery bolstering morale; through that, the same determination and endurance that had so impressed the God Emperor in the 30th Millennium now vexed the Plague Father in the 42nd. They held the line, and endured, bringing pride and glory to their forefathers, and in the end, it was the Plague Itself that broke before the Guard did.

In late M41, the 66th Storm Legion was infiltrated by a Slaaneshi spy who tried to seduce them with pleasure and pain, for a fallen Ghestan Storm Legion in the service of Slaanesh would be a powerful asset for the Prince of Excess. They were tempted by dreamlike visions full of whirlwind sensations of every stripe and hue, and felt the desire and excess of the Master of Sin in their souls. They heard his laughter in their ears, enticing them to indulge in their fantasies and passions. He offered them more satisfaction and rewards than they could imagine, if they joined his service and renounced their honor. The Legion resisted Slaanesh’s temptation by remembering their duty and purpose, and by using their balance and moderation to control their emotions, remembering that the wants of the individual are insignificant when the survival of the whole was on the line. They exposed the spy’s identity, and managed to capture him before he could carry out his plot, and tortured him for information via sensory deprivation regarding his cult’s activities before killing him quickly, bluntly. and abruptly with no experiences or sensations to savor: exactly the way a Slaaneshite fears most.

Despite the flourishing of the Imperial Cult in the millennia after the Horus Heresy, the Ghestans have, with a small handful of individual exceptions, by and large never bought into the notion of the God Emperor as a literal deity. This is not the result of any great philosophizing on their part, but rather another expression of classical Ghestan pragmatism – they simply believe that on a world as harsh as theirs, one has more practical and immediate problems to solve than fussing over who’s a god and who’s not. Those who have taken up the Imperial Faith are tolerated, so long as their practice remains isolated and does not impede in their day to day duties. Most Ghestans remain staunchly areligious, which has brought them into conflict with factions like the Ecclesiarchy and the Inquisition. Likewise, their willingness to innovate scientifically and technologically, and even incorporate xenotech, has earned them the ire and hatred of the Adeptus Mechanicus, to which the Ghestan Legions have responded with an even more infuriating indifference as they devote themselves ever further to understanding, refining, and maintaining their crafts and sciences, refusing to give up any of their self-sufficiency to such backwards and counterproductive morons as those that make up the Mechanicus.

Outside the Empire, the Ghestans maintain their powerful hatred for the Drukhari, who have caused their people so much suffering over their history. Post Heresy, they also possess a deep-seated hatred of traitors, not only because of their betrayal on Oudrastea, but because Ghestan culture maintains that success is only possible when everyone pulls together towards the same end goal. As a result, in their eyes, Traitors are selfish hypocrites who, now isolated from their original group, cannot build or accomplish anything worthwhile, while also depriving their original community of the means to do the same. More recently, they have come to form a bitter rivalry with the forces of the T’au Empire, with the Ghestans maintaining that the T’au are no more virtuous than themselves, but hypocritically cover up their monstrous nature with constant babbling about “the Greater Good''. This has not stopped the ever-resourceful Ghestans from stealing or otherwise recovering T’au technology to be reverse-engineered and assimilated, recognizing the value in the T’au’s military innovations and actively working to integrate these into their own practices.

To the incredible fury of the Adeptus Mechanicus and great concern of the Inquisition, these efforts to reproduce xenos tech have borne much fruit over the years, and the modern Storm Legions represent the very latest in Ghestan battlefield innovations. Unlike other Imperial Guard Armies, their history of coming from an inhospitable death world has left the Ghestans in a perpetual state of scrappy desperation, and they will not willingly discard tools that could give them an advantage. This has led to them fielding one of the most technologically advanced armies in the Imperium. Of special interest to their engineers is the T’au mastery of energy weapons, though to their great frustration, they have not developed the capacity to recreate this technology yet. In order to conceal what they know others will accuse as heresy, the Ghestans take their time in recreating xenotech, all the better to disguise the process as natural innovation and engineering advancement that has resulted from classic Ghestan resourcefulness, though the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition strongly suspect the truth, though their efforts to prove such have been hamstrung by the essential nature of the Storm Legions to Roboute Guilliman’s Indomitus Crusade. Guilliman and several other high ranking individuals are aware of the true origins of Ghestan technological advancement, but have made repeated exceptions for the Storm Legions and their people, under the condition that the Ghestans know that the nail that sticks out too far WILL be hammered without mercy, which the Ghestans regard as a fair trade. It goes without saying that the Ghestans' technologically progressive policies might have been catastrophic for them had the Imperium (and Mars) not had significantly larger concerns almost constantly. The Adeptus Mechanicus has frequently been left frothing at the mouth as a result of interactions with Ghestan elements, with the two societies being more or less entirely anathema to each other, only barely cooperating at all by virtue of their shared duty to the Imperium of Man. Fortunately for them, Ghestan troop divisions remain very much an apple of the Astra Militarum's eye, and they are now regarded as even more favored, elite, and utterly indispensable in the eyes of the Departmento Munitorum after the fall of Cadia. Whatever accusations the Mechanicus may shriek in their direction, no Imperial Commander who is serious about winning has so far been willing to shoot their campaign in the foot by denying themselves of the results assured by Ghestan participation.

Ghestan innovation and reverse-engineering is not restricted purely to weapons and technology, but also has informed their fighting doctrines. Their first hand observation of the effectiveness of Drukhari raids has led to the Storm Legions adopting a doctrine called “Thunderbolt Warfare'', which emphasizes a combined arms force making rapid progression from one objective to the next as quickly and effectively as possible, striking the next objective before or just as news of the previous objective has reached the new lines, giving the enemy no time to prepare an organized defense. Where such efforts have been stymied or simply are not realistic expectations, the Storm Legions reveal their full battlefield powers as their army and vanguard forces meet and combine; the Storm Legions employ mixed unit tactics, special forces detachments, heavy armored divisions, and even possess their own air superiority force, all to shift their battlefield presence and capabilities in real time as the situation demands, making them very hard to pin down. In addition, their insight into xenotech has given them some of the finest infantry armor in the Imperium, falling short of power armor. This superior armor, combined with their natural resilience to serious injury, enables the Storm Legions to directly charge enemy lines, and survive or even shrug off injuries that would incapacitate or even kill normal or less well protected humans.

The Storm Legions, unfortunately, are as harsh and unforgiving as the world they hail from. Those they tend to consider heroes, like their living legend, Radec Redblood – the so-called “Savior of Hive City Aloma”-- are often monsters willing to employ callous, machiavellian, cold-blooded, and inhumane tactics in order to achieve victory. Among the Storm Legions, Radec Redblood is a living legend, a hero of peerless repute, and the troops regard him like a demi-god, but he remains a highly controversial figure outside his Legions for his cold and calculating tactics at the Siege of Palonia. Palonia was a hive world that had the incredible misfortune to also be a Necron Tomb World. When the Tomb activated and the Necrons began slaughtering the populace and compromising the viability of Hive City Aloma, the "Second City" of Palonia, it was the 19th Storm Legions' 5th Army, under the command of Radec, who answered the call for help, but the Alomans may have preferred the Necrons in the end. A strong initial push by the Fifth was rebutted by a devastating Necron counterattack, ravaging the Fifth by targeting their most effective weapons for killing Necrons, and wiping out over 62% of the Fifth's soldiers and logistics personnel. Refusing to cede an inch of ground and desperate to turn the fight back in the Imperium's favor, Radec forcibly conscripted the remaining population of Hive City Aloma, armed them with substandard weapons, and began his war of attrition, trading civilian lives for the time he needed to be resupplied. The order was met with resistance from the civilian population at first, but Radec's firing squads, who promptly executed thousands of civilian objectors and deserters for heresy, proved to be as fearsome as the enemy Necrons to the Aloman citizens, if not more so. Millions more were mercilessly cut down by Radec's constant orders to send his new militia on suicide runs, which he neither hated or enjoyed, considering it no more or less than the brutal calculus necessary to accomplish his mission. Controversial as they were, the suicide missions met with strategic success, providing enough pressure to pin the Necrons in place while Radec waited for reinforcements and supplies. After several months, these finally arrived, and Radec then gave the order to use his new weapons and professional soldiers to turn the Necron positions into glass, finally eliminating the threat. In the end, his victory came at the cost of 88.3 million civilian lives, which Radec regarded as "acceptable sacrifices to prevent such a critical world from falling into the hands of the enemy", as well as retaining it for the Imperium’s continued use – new workers could always be found.

Radec would later justify his actions to detractors as fulfilling his mission to the letter: he was told to deny Hive City Aloma to the enemy, and if possible, preserve its facilities for further use by the Imperium. Ultimately, as he saw nothing in his orders stating the city needed to be fully inhabited, he only withheld from conscripting the most important and essential workers and laborers who would be the most difficult to replace. Even Lord Salazar Jomenga, the Imperial Governor ruling over the planet, was conscripted and forced to fight and die. When Jomenga tried to flex his nobleman's position, Radec icily replied "Noble blood is cheaper than tin, and even less useful." before handing the high lord a knife and a laspistol and sending him at the enemy. To this day, Radec Redblood, "The Savior Of Hive City Aloma" remains bitterly hated in the city he saved, his name seldom spoken aloud by the survivors, and with clear revulsion when it is. Meanwhile, to his men and at home on Ghestus Prime, Radec is regarded with an almost saintly reputation for his survival and victory against such impossible odds and determined enemies. Radec is hardly an outlier: Ghestan commanders have a well deserved reputation for employing such cruel, inhumane, or otherwise underhanded tactics to win, explained by the Storm Legion wisdom: “There is always a preferred path to victory, but the battlefield doesn’t care, and by battle’s end, any path to victory will do so long as you have the strength to walk it.”

The Ghestan Storm Legions remain some of the Empire’s most driven, talented soldiers, a testament to human tenacity, and in many ways embodying the most core values of the Imperium, though many of their detractors would be loath to admit it. Their people have endured some of the harshest conditions imaginable for over ten thousand years, and far from breaking them, it has only tempered them further at every step. They are a proud people, a pragmatic people, and their soldiers understand that victory only comes to those with the strength and the will to claim it, no matter the cost. Their current status is not precisely known, aside from taking part in some of the most bitter fighting of the Indomitus Crusade. Despite accusations of Heresy by some, the Ghestan Storm Legions remain steadfastly loyal to the Emperor, and his regent, Roboute Guilliman, for a Ghestan promise made is a promise kept. They have faced the temptations of Chaos, and remain unbowed. They have passed through fire and betrayal, and returned all the stronger for it.

As the Storm Legions call to rally on countless battlefields: “Unity brings Strength, Strength brings Victory!”

As long as the Storm Legions carry this certainty in their hearts, Ghestus Prime shall never break, and her soldiers shall never yield. Respect them or despise them as you will, for they care not. They will do what they must, as they have always done. They will fight for survival, for glory, and for the Emperor... and no force within or without the Imperium can stop them.

#I actually wrote this back in APRIL #I wanted to do something other than Space Marines #The goal was to adapt the Helghast from Killzone as an Imperial Guard faction #in the end I love what came out #they are evil by any objective measure we have irl #but I also can understand how they ended up that way; what winding and uncertain path brought them to what they are #& they are not wholly evil as they have several redeeming qualities:#they favor ingenuity + innovation + service + honor + honesty + possess a strong and incredibly loyal sense of community and brotherhood #and honestly given how cruel and barbaric the Imperium of Man actually is it's very likely that these guys are actually pretty average #one shudders to imagine #also yes they did in fact overcome the temptations of Chaos by being Very Good Fascists - this is not in any way an endorsement of fascism #like they also killed over 88 million of their fellow imperial citizens by flinging them against the enemy -- Stalingrad style #you should not be under any illusions that these are nice people who should be emulated. THEY ARE NOT.#these are people who can only be considered “good” within the context of their incredibly fucked up universe.#& even in that context they are deliberately meant to be controversial by invoking some of the worst crimes ever and dialing it up further #I should not have to write any of that disclaimer but the reading comprehension on this fucking website these days practically compels me #astra militarum #imperial guard #fanon #my OC stuff #my OCs #warhammer 40k #warhammer 40000 #wh40k

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obvious-labyrinth-blog · 7 years

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Part 2(a): Obstruction... Everyone’s Doing It?

obstructionism (n, ob·struc·tion·ism) - deliberate interference with the progress or business especially of a legislative body

In 2011, the talk was all about those “obstructionist Senate republicans” and now, in 2017, it’s all about those “obstructionist Senate democrats”... so which is it?

Simply, if they are in the minority party (which the Senate democrats are, at the moment), then they are being obstructive - it’s their right, and you could argue, their duty. Part 1 focused on the powers of the minority party in the Senate - largely powers that allow the disruption or slowing down of Senate proceedings - in other words, powers that are specifically created to obstruct.

But obstruction is more political than a simple definition. And if we want to discuss obstruction, we have to have a way to measure it and we have to have the context to understand it, so that is where we will start.

Filibusters and Why They Don’t Matter: The Rise of Cloture

People might say that the filibuster is a fine measure of obstruction in the Senate, but the filibuster is a tricky, undefined thing and as such, is difficult to qualify (or quantify); one could attempt to make the case that only long, meaningless talks on the Senate floor should be considered filibusters, but then one is leaving off the myriad other ways that filibusters, in some sense of the word, can occur - from invoking time-consuming procedural steps to withholding consent - on or off the Senate floor [1, 2]. Though many people have offered their differing perspective on how the filibuster should be defined, most definitions fall short in one way or another because a filibuster isn't so much an action as it is a matter of intent (and to that end, I personally agree with seeing it as a "refusal to allow a matter to come to a vote") [1, 2].

Filibusters may be difficult to define and track, but cloture isn't - there are plenty of ways to see how often cloture has been moved on since it became an option in the Senate back in 1917 [1, 3]. Though tempting, cloture shouldn't necessarily be confounded with the filibuster - filibusters can happen in the absence of cloture and cloture can happen in the absence of a filibuster [1]. If the filibuster is used by opponents to legislation, then cloture is the tool of the proponent - when invoked, it mandates an end to debate and almost always guarantees that the measure will face a final floor vote [1]. And though the presence of cloture alone doesn't necessarily mean the legislation/nominee was contentious, or that there were obstructionist methods at play, it is evidence of an extra step taken in the process of Senate confirmation, especially when something like a UC agreement could have been reached in its place [4].

To that end, I'm going to use cloture motions (specifically cloture motions on presidential nominees) through recent administrations to look at how the minority party has flexed their power to obstruct, delay or stop.

It’s Never That Simple: Recess Appointments

Presidents are allowed to appointment nominees, without Senate confirmation, to "vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate" [5, 6]. If a president were so inclined, he could use his recess appointment power to appoint controversial nominees without Senate approval (though these recess appointments do, of course, have to be confirmed by Senate at some point before the end of the next session of Congress, but this can realistically mean a recess appointment remains in the position for up to year (or longer) without Senate confirmation) [5, 6].

Senate Majorities - 107th-110th Congress

Here’s some important context information that I’m going to cite here, so I don’t have to keep returning to it:

Bush Administration Congress Majorities

107th Congress (01-02) - Republican Senate (until June 2001), Democratic Senate until January 2003)/Republican House 108th Congress (03-04) - Republican Senate/Republican House 109th Congress (05-06)- Republican Senate/Republican House 110th Congress (07-09)- Democratic Senate (by coalition)/Democratic House

The Bush Administration

First Cabinet • Bush started his presidency with a Republican-controlled Congress and one might be tempted to think that would be an easy start but Bush's first cabinet faced its fair share of opposition. His Attorney General nominee, John Ashcroft, was viewed as an "extreme right-winger" with highly controversial views on abortion, gun control and even the National Endowment for the Arts; his committee meetings lasted over 2 weeks and, though there was a promise that no filibuster would occur once his nomination reached the Senate floor, there was an entire day of debate devoted to his nomination [7, 8]. He was confirmed to his appointment by a vote of 58-42 [10]. Gale Norton, Bush's nominee for Secretary of the Interior, was purported to be an anti-environment extremist and many Democratic Senators felt strongly that she was an unqualified choice; she was confirmed with a vote of 75-25 [9, 10]. And Bush's original pick for Secretary of Labor, Linda Chavez, was embroiled in scandal about her employment of an undocumented immigrant and withdrew her name from the running entirely [11]. Despite the disputed nominees, Bush's cabinet was fully installed by the beginning of February 2001 - John Ashcroft was the last nominee to be confirmed, on 2/1/01 - and it took an average of 7 days for his nominees to move from their initial hearings to final floor confirmation [10].

Second Cabinet • Bush's second cabinet faced an a little more backlash from the democrats that made up the Senate's minority in 2005. Condoleezza Rice, nom'd for Secretary of State, faced criticism for her advocacy for the Iraq war and the vague answers she provided in her hearings, while Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General nominee, drew intense critique for his views on prisoner interrogation techniques and torture - Rice’s case took 8 days to move from committee to Senate floor, while Gonzales took 28 [10, 12, 13]. His first nominee for the recently established Department of Homeland Security, Bernard Kerik, abruptly withdrew his name after history of his employment of an undocumented immigrant was discovered (and he was later mired in further controversy) - causing some to say that Kerik had been nominated before he had been vetted (which is not a great look for someone that is meant to be in charge of Homeland Security, of all departments) [14]. But Bush faced his biggest pushback in 2006, for his Secretary to the Interior nominee, Dirk Kempthorne - the second cabinet nominee in history to be subjected to a filibuster [15]. Kempthorne, thought to be relatively middle-of-the-road policy wise (and therefore a safe pick), was filibustered by 2 senators for his oil drilling policies [15, 16]. Cloture was invoked and Kempthorne was confirmed by voice vote. Despite the debate over these nominees, it still only took an average of 12 days for his nominees to move from their initial hearings to confirmation [10].

Recess Appointments • Bush used his executive recess appointment powers 171 times while he was in office, 95 of which resulted in eventual Senate confirmation [17]. But as his recess appointments grew more contentious, he found himself locked in an increasingly difficult battle with the Senate that culminated in the Senate refusing to recess at all, essentially eliminating his ability to make recess appointments altogether [18, 19, 20, 21]. Bush, through heavy Senate Democrat opposition, pushed through U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. nominee John Bolton in August 2005 [21]. Suspicious of Bush trying to use his executive power to appoint more contested nominees, the 110th Senate went into pro forma sessions near the end of 2007 and used them throughout 2008 to prevent Bush from making any further recess appointments until his tenure ended [22, 23].

Cooler Heads Prevail?: How the Nuclear Option Was (Almost) Avoided

Judicial Nominations • If Bush's cabinet nominees made it through the confirmation process relatively unscathed, the same cannot be said for a number of his judicial appointment nominations while he was in office [1, 26]. Though it could be contested that Bush did not start the all-out war on the horizon for judicial nominees, the Bush Administration did face a great deal of opposition for its noms throughout their 4 congresses; there were claims that he was trying to stack the federal judiciary with conservative jurists or "trying to create the most ideological bench in the history of the nation" and this is where the Senate Democrats truly flexed their minority power muscles [24, 25, 26]. Senate Democrats used minority powers and related tactics to delay hearings (or not hold them at all), withhold committee votes, and debate nominees at length [24]. Senate Republicans made statements that the Democratic obstruction was responsible for the “deterioration of the judicial confirmation process,” while Democrats voiced concern that Republicans “broke with tradition in brushing aside the objections of the nominees' home-state senators” (senatorial courtesy) and had all but brought this upon themselves [25].

As previously discussed, it can be misleading to read too much into a proposed cloture motion for a number of reasons, but as an example of the bipartisan deadlock that the Senate was experiencing over these nominees, consider the following: cloture was filed over Miguel Estrada's nomination 7 times and over Priscilla Owen's nomination 4 times… the overwhelming average is once [1]. The Senate GOP wanted these nominees confirmed badly, and Senate Dems used every opportunity to prevent appointments from happening.

In 2005, during the 109th Congress, at the arguable height of the deadlock, Senate Republicans cited the actions of Senate Democrats as obstruction and threatened to invoke the "nuclear option" [1, 26]. There was a bipartisan effort from the "Gang of 14" to find a solution other than the "nuclear option" and they ultimately agreed to drop the filibustering efforts on 3 candidates (out of the 7 contested nominees at the time) and to not block future nominees unless there were "extraordinary circumstances" [1, 24]. There were, however, still a number of blocked nominees after the "nuclear option" was avoided - time ran out for the Senate to consider contested nominees and they were returned to the White House to be re-nominated once Senate reconvened after the 2006 election period [24, 27]. After the election, Bush had lost his Republican majority in the Senate and the contested nominees that had been returned and then re-nominated lost all chance of being confirmed by a friendly Senate [24, 27]. The 110th Congress, a Democratic majority, confirmed few Bush nominees [24].

Through his entire term, cloture motions were presented on 38 Bush nominees; cloture was invoked 14 times, rejected 13 times and withdrawn or vitiated 11 times [1]. Of these 38 contested nominees, 24 were successfully confirmed by the Senate [1].

In an effort for this not to win first place for the longest/most boring thing you’ve read this week, I decided to stop here - but I’m coming back with Pt 2(b) very soon where we’re going to look at Obama’s cabinet nominations, his recess appointments and we’ll see if he fared any better than Bush when it came to other executive/judicial nominees (hint: he didn’t... he definitely didn’t).

Navigation: Part 1 - Part 2a (this!) - Part 2b - Part 3

[1] https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL32878.pdf

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/05/15/how-we-count-senate-filibusters-and-why-it-matters/?utm_term=.0565c56a33f0

[3] https://www.senate.gov/reference/clotureCounts.htm

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2013/11/12/what-senate-cloture-votes-tell-us-about-obstruction/?utm_term=.99b5230017b1

[5] https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/3d313cc2-9515-4533-b1f0-3f762cd09007.pdf

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recess_appointment

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jan/14/usa.comment

[8] http://edition.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/31/ashcroft.debate.01/index.html

[9] http://edition.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/stories/01/29/norton.confirmation.02/index.html

[10] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yx1i6xEgAZCKg2-moEnqv5lO_9gKg3XqnVcminrll6E/edit#gid=0

[11] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20010109/aponline172303_000.htm

[12] http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/20/nation/na-cabinet20

[13] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/01/politics/senate-rift-deep-in-debate-over-attorney-general-nominee.html?_r=0

[14] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56247-2004Dec10.html

[15] http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/13/news/la-pn-hagel-senate-filibuster-20130213

[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/08/washington/bushs-interior-nominee-comfort-in-consensus.html

[17] https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33310.pdf

[18] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/washington/21recess.html

[19] http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jan/12/news/mn-22187

[20] http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/19/senate.reid/

[21] http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jul/30/nation/na-bolton30

[22] http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-now/2007/12/reid-calls-for-pro-forma-sessions-clears-dozens-of-executive-appointments-004783

[23] http://www.politico.com/story/2008/05/pro-forma-sessions-block-bush-010596

[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_judicial_appointment_controversies

[25] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6017-2004Jul22.html

[26] http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ed-judges8-2009feb08-story.html

[27] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/15/AR2006111501396.html

#filibuster #cloture #obstruction #republican #democrat #senate #recess appointments #judicial #executive #bush

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arcadeidea · 4 years

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Death Race [1976]

(Content warning: Vehicular homicide.)

Cliche when it comes to the game is to sensibly chuckle at the quaint moral outrage that made it infamous: all this over some crudely-drawn stick figures! This condescending ahistorical reaction doesn't just sell short humanity's ability to read abstraction and process media, and thus really the medium of video games as a whole, even the ones with Good Graphics, but Death Race in particular. Death Race is ooky-spooky, a power that I think has only been accentuated with time as its graphics age and it gets removed from the hustle and bustle of an arcade. It feels downright haunted. Something is wrong, not with its morality so much as it feels jarringly like it shouldn't exist in playable form. It should be an urban legend like Polybius, or a creepypasta like sonic.exe, or a plot point in a horror movie like the cursed TV broadcast in Halloween III [1982].

The sound design is perhaps the most vital part of evoking this atmosphere. There's a constant low hum straight out of Eraserhead [1977], which clashes with the mid-range overtones provided by the car engine's revving when you move. The high end is filled out with the piercing cry of distress that follows every thud as you ram into people, littering the playing field with the cross-marked graves of innocence and persecution. These pedestrians are absolutely defenseless against the grill of your automobile, and they scramble around frantically changing directions at random, so terrified out of clear thinking are they. This time, it's not the game world that is hostile: it's YOU. You're the villain, animate raw malice in car form, the Heavy Metal cabinet depicting the driver character as nothing shy of the gleeful Angel of Death that you will become for the low price of a quarter and your eternal soul. It's Hatred [2015] [1976], stripped of all pretension. There's not a win state, only a score and a time limit. It's engrossing and addictive and emotionally-involving and and even cathartic. There's a fanmade port out I recommend, keep in mind though that it changes the graphics a bit, such as replacing the stick figure sprites with something that looks more like gremlins, and I'm not sure if the original had its wraparound canvas or not.

It's known that Death Race is a quick-and-dirty reskin of Exidy's earlier Demolition Derby game in the face of business dealings gone awry, but they could have made it a game about, I don't know, garbage pick-up or animal control or something. Completely abstract blocks. It would have been just as much fun, the tank-control game mechanics here are tight but operating them is suitably challenging enough to engage, and every run is fresh. Instead, they put together a horror game where you are a spree killer. Bold! They backpedalled from this precipice of tastelessness, with the concept that the pedestrians you ruthlessly mow down aren't human beings, but they're gremlins, and you are the literal (not metaphorical) Grim Reaper, helpfully sending them back home. Oh, how nice! How completely vacated of any punch at all. It's a paper-thin veil, basically a condescending lie, that asks us to believe ass-covering newspaper quotes and one word on the cabinet over what is plainly obvious to everyone who looks at the game. (The concept of the gremlin, this archetypical post-hoc justification of virtual murder, could come in handy for us later down the line, say, in most any video game with aliens or demons or Nazis.) Before the controversy, Exidy even took out ads that trumpeted precisely how devoid it was of context: "Death Race 98 is what the player wants it to be: mobsters in the 30's, commandos in the 40's, dragsters in the 50's, hells angels in the 60's, street racers in the 70's."

The half-hearted feints at narrative recontextualization are completely dominated, not even by the work itself, but by the then-very-well-known grindhouse film Death Race 2000 [1975], on which it was transparently modeled (continuing the trend of games looking up to movies.) Death Race 2000 was not a horror experience, but an exploitation film, squarely focused on delivering slapstick carnage and bare skin, which was very common in the 1970s USA. It didn't flinch from its premise, where the state gamifies wanton murder, especially those it deems undesirable, like the elderly or any women, who are worth more points for killing. Critics and fans alike could clearly see such a state of affairs as depicted in the film was a satirical and comedic extension of everyday evaluations of the value of human lives. People in the film more or less up and say that the vaunted "American tradition" is but a churning engine of death and automobile worship. The controversy was over if the social commentary was but a feint, an excuse for the immoral spectacle that perhaps was inexcusable; if it was too high-minded or under-emphasized and ended up going over the heads of the literal elementary schoolers sneaking into the R-rated movie, which was very common in the 1970s USA. This familiar line of suspicion (across eras and political lines) demands satire be broad, easily-distinguished, and single-dimensionally didactic enough for a 9-year-old to grasp, even if (in a given particular instance) underestimated children are not around nor invoked. It doesn’t sound much like satire to me — it sounds more like uncut paranoia about irony, ambiguity, open questions, and interpretation as the refuge of evil.

It's hard to argue that Death Race [1976] was intended as a deft satire, but it's almost inarguable that it was meant as provocative, transgressive, and tongue-in-cheek, which for most purposes is the same thing. Keep in mind how it fits in with its arcade brethren as much as it sticks out. Last time we were in the arcade, Atari was trying out the idea that video games could be sexy, but skipping ahead to 1976, familiar notions have set in: Video games are for children. Simultaneously though, it's not as though Death Race was the first violent video game, not by a long shot — video games in the arcade circa 76 are already largely violent-themed, when not directly imitating big brother Sports and other traditional games. There's the war-themed Tank [1974], the grandparent of Counter-Strike [1999], or Sea Wolf [1976], or the western-themed Gun Fight [1975], about which one arcade proprietor had this to say:

"...that's the tradition of the Great American West, having a shootout, a duel, in the street. But deliberately running people down — that isn't an American tradition at all." [Tuscon Daily Citizen, January 14, 1977]

All too true! Intentionally mowing down pedestrians just isn't part of any American cultural tradition. That's what makes it safe. For Death Race to influence kids in the very literal way hypothesized by some at the time including professional psychiatrists, a (one-in-a-million) child who played Death Race and/or saw the film at age 9 would need to hold on to that idea, which gets its potency and appeal from its abhorrent aberrance, as what is in fact good and normal, all the way through their driver's test at age 18, in direct contradiction of every other stimulus surrounding them, like seeing thousands of real life people model non-homicidal driving. This kind of thinking from the alleged Moral Majority was dominant for about 30 years, despite being cuckoo bananas. Gamer culture is, to this day, quite noticeably and understandably once-bitten-twice-shy about talking about the possible negative effects or aspects of media because of it.

The perhaps accidental echo of the "American tradition" that the movie Death Race 2000 spoke of so glowingly is very telling. War is certainly American tradition — why, Tank came out right at the tail end of the Vietnam War! Gun Fight, like The Oregon Trail [1971], also depicts American tradition through the lens of the western! Violence in the name of justice or warfare is not just excusable, but downright wholesome and patriotic. Nevermind that colonial expansion and war are just as much displays of wanton violence against the groups who don't have as much capability with violent force as you that just happen to have been lent institutional legitimacy by the state in a way that Death Races haven't yet. (I do actually like westerns, believe it or not, but one should not mistake them for anything but a flight of complete fantasy.) What's missing from this trenchant media analysis is not just any notion of the comparable death tolls of intentional vehicular homicide versus wars and genocide, but any real concept of hegemony, the normalization of ideas. Kids aren't constantly inundated from all angles with talk of how cool and good it is to kill strangers with your car, but entire industries and large chunks of the population and culture that aren't even being paid off are committed to convincing kids and generally everyone that war is good and normal, worldwide.

Death Race is conspicuous among its peers only in its failure to provide any adequate justification, any way for your opposition to fight back on a level & fair playing field. Maybe they knew what they were doing, maybe they just honestly didn't see this difference. In succeeding as a work and as a commercial proposition, it lays bare the truth that nobody comes to the arcade to model moral behavior. That despite the pretense and illusion, violence is all ultimately just as senseless and abhorrent and and perverse and primal in a warzone as it is in in a parking lot. This is why Death Race must be singled out as both an immoral aberration and a damnation on its whole medium, as a cause of violence and sickness and not a symptom or illustration. To do anything else would be to concede to its implicit indictment, or, you know, to maybe just chill out a little bit, both of which are equally unthinkable.

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