As PSS said, the favour award succeeds. There is no requirement that
fingers be pointed to award favours. That said, this is an enormous abuse
of official power; V.J. Rada has shown emself unfit to be entrusted with
the power of an office. Moreover, e deserves to have the profits of this
scam taken from em.
As e points out, an attainder cannot act fast enough to deny em a win. As
far as I can tell, there are three ways to defeat eir scam. First, another
officer authorized to issue favours violates the rules as well, in order to
award sufficient countervailing favours to prevent V.J. Rada from
sufficiently disrupting the game state (in particular by amassing balloons
to gain significant voting power). Second, we could ratify it out of
existence by proposal.
I have strong distate for ratification, so that is a last resort to me.
Thus, I think the correct solution here is to have another officer issue
illegal favours to a number of people, each of whom influences politicians
sufficiently such that V.J. Rada cannot become an advisor, and agrees not
to use eir power. Then we pass a proposal absolving the officer of
responsibility. This, however, requires more officers to break the law,
which I am also loathe to do.
There is one alternate approach, however, that avoids doing anything
outright illegal. It is incredibly harsh---I'm using it as a last
resort---and if we go this route then it should absolutely be undone
quickly by proposal, but I'm going to set it in motion now so that it can
be finalized in time to prevent V.J. Rada from winning. If Agora does not
agree on implementing it, then we can go with the other approach.
First off, an error in the FLR (which I will correct afterward). PSS
mis-applied the effects of Proposal 7918, so the correct text of Rule 2160
is as follows:
{{{
A rule which purports to allow a person (a deputy) to perform an
action via normal deputisation or special deputisation for an
office thereby allows them to perform the action as if e held the
office, as long as
1. it would be POSSIBLE for the deputy to perform the action,
other than by deputisation, if e held the office, and
2. the deputy, when performing the action, announces that e
is doing so by the appropriate form of deputisation.
Only this rule may allow normal deputisation. Any rule may allow
special deputisation.
A player CAN perform an action as if e held a particular office,
via normal deputisation, if all of the following are true:
1. The rules require the holder of that office, by virtue of
holding that office, to perform the action. This requirement is
fulfilled by the deputy performing the action.
2. Either (i) A time limit by which the rules require the action
to be performed has expired or (ii) the office is vacant.
3. Either (i) the office is vacant; or (ii) the aforementioned
time limit expired more than fourteen days ago; or (iii) the
deputy announced between two and fourteen days earlier that e
intended to deputise for that office for the purposes of the
particular action.
When a player deputises via normal deputisation for an elected
office, e becomes the holder of that office.
}}}
Thus, although the FLR does not indicate this, it is in fact possible to
deputise for a vacant office before any time limits have expired. I Point
my Finger at myself, alleging that I violated the rules by sending this
message (even though I didn't). I deputise for Referee to declare this
Finger-Pointing to be Shenanigans.
Now that I hold the office of Referee (and preventing it from being
reclaimed by someone who can abuse it), I issue a Dive Cabinet Order,
issuing a Black Card to V.J. Rada for betraying the good faith placed in em
as an officer by Agora. Agora deliberately voted to give officers
significant, game-disrupting power in maintenance of a complex mechanical
system, and so this abuse is one of the greatest contempts of the rules
that can possibly be committed. In particular, V.J. Rada is set to win as a
result of these violations, which would be horrifically unjust, and a Black
Card is the only available punishment which will deny em eir victory.
Now, the above may seem IMPOSSIBLE, as Rule 2507 says that Black Cards
cannot be issued to players. However, it does not contain a claim of
precedence over other rules in this regard, and Rule 2451 authorizes me to
award any card to any player, using Dive. Given the lack of relevant
precedence claims in either rule, by Rule 1030, the rule with the lowest ID
number prevails. Thus, it is POSSIBLE for me to award a Black Card and the
precedence clause in Rule 2451 makes it LEGAL for me to do so.
I intend, with Agoran Consent, to Slam the Door on V.J. Rada. As far as I
can tell, this will prevent em from taking actions defined by rules of
power 2 or less, including winning the game by Balloons. I don't think it
affects higher-powered rules, so I am confident e can still vote.
If V.J. Rada is willing to destroy all of eir Favours rather than use them,
then I will object to and not resolve the above intent, and I will
personally consider the matter closed.
Proposal: Re-opening the Door (AI=2, pend=shinies)
{{{
Amend Rule "2507" by inserting "unless a proposal terminates this effect
sooner, " after "After the Door is Slammed at a person, ".
Unless V.J. Rada destroyed all favours e owned at the time of this
proposal's submission, without spending them for any action or game effect:
Destroy all of V.J. Rada's Favour and Balloons. Set all of V.J. Rada's
Influence switches to 0. For each Politician whose Advisor is V.J. Rada,
set eir Advisor to none.
For every player to whom V.J. Rada has transferred a Favour, or in whose
possession V.J. Rada created a Favour since this proposal was submitted,
unless that player destroyed those Favours without spending them for any
action or game effect:
Destroy all of eir Favour and Balloons. Set all of eir Influence switches
to 0. For each Politician whose Advisor is that player, set eir Advisor to
none.
Terminate the effect of the Door being Slammed at V.J. Rada.
}}}
H. Promotor, I request expedited distribution of this proposal so that we
can rescind any punishments as soon as possible.
-Alexis
