With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Steelplaza]

Heck, If I won the lottery I would buy a controlling share in DC and hire half a dozen (or more, depends on budget) webcomic and fanfic writers. I would then require a bit more over-site to prevent stupid situations like "the rape of Ms. Marvel" still happen today (thankfully, not as bad as that was. How could they have thought "wake-up pregnant, mind control, and ride off into the sunset" was a good idea?)

I would also probably move to a more digital distribution method with a more limited distribution of "key" titles. Also, screw Diamond, with more limited titles we can distribute ourselves and get back into grocery and retail stores. Getting children into comics much younger. A COMIC FOR EVERY 5 YEAR OLD IS REQUIRED! I own the company, as long as the company makes $30,000/yr to pay me occasionally, I could keep going until the grave. (though, I would accept up to $150k, but only if the company made that much extra. Then much of it saved in-case of budget deficit in future).

EDIT: After reading the rest of the other comments. I had forgotten about DC retconning the retcon of the retcon. I might also freeze the canon. Give them a 'little' wiggle room, but make the writers live with the consequences.

Princess Diana never ages, but Superman could leave the hero work to his son, Batman has a number of people who could inherit the cowl. Green Lantern could just retire, ring will move on (do retired GL's keep their rings?). Make the teens grow-up and join the leauge. Find new creative characters instead of forcing the writers to work with pre-existing characters.

It would be hard, but it would be manageable.

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If I somehow had enough money to buy the rights to DC comics and all the characters, I would turn them free to Public Domain like they should have been decades ago. Instead of telling writers what they can and can't write, instead of imposing my vision on what the DC universe would be, I'd throw open the floodgates. Let anyone write whatever they want using the DC comic characters and concepts.

If a collective of writers wants to get together and establish a DC universe where Superman and Batman age and their are Consequences to everything, great! And if some other writers wants to write 30-year old Superman, they can do that too.

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th February
14:01 GMT -6

"Good afternoon, children!"

Lynne just blinks while my namesake smiles and waves. Lynne's friend.. Rock? Looks perturbed, while the rest of the class suddenly seems a good deal more excited about their Social Science lesson.

"Class." Understandably, most of the class don't look at their teacher. "This is Mister Grayven. Given the particular role he played in the events we're going to be covering, I thought you might like it if he gave the introductory lecture."

I nod. "It should provide you with a fascinating lesson on using biased sources." I smile at the man. "Thank you for inviting me, Mister Carls."

He nods, then steps back and takes a seat at the edge of the room.

"The subject of today's lecture-" I clap my hands together. "-is the British General Election. As I hope you know, there was a bit of an incident last year which resulted in virtually the entire British legislature being put in prison. What was left was barely enough to function, but they had to wait until things calmed down a bit before they could hold the election necessary to replace any of them."

"But let's start with the basics."

Ring, holographic display.

By your command.

"Britain is a constitutional monarchy. This means that it has a hereditary head of state, but that the powers of the ruler are constrained by law. The present monarch is Queen Elizabeth the Second, and she's been in the job since nineteen fifty two."

The holoprojector cycles through a variety of historical images of her, each adapted into three dimensions from various pieces of old footage.

"But whatever the technicalities, the queen doesn't actually run the country. That's done by the head of the government. Hands up everyone who knows who the present head of the British government is?"

Lynne's hand goes up at once, and the rest of the class appear willing to let her answer it.

"Yes Lynne, I know you know. Anyone else?"

Rock's hand rises and a few others tentatively follow up.

I point him out. "Rock?"

"Jasmine Abbott."

"Correct, well done." I replace the images of Queen Elizabeth with one of Mrs Abbott. "Someone else, how many female Prime Ministers Britain has had?" A girl at the back of the class raises her hand. "Yes?"

"Three."

"Well done. Now, the head of the British government is not directly elected. Rather, they're the leader of the political party which commands a majority in the House of Commons. Anyone know what that means?"

A few hands, and I pick a boy at random.

"They have to have more people in the… The House of Commons, than any other party?"

"That's usually how it works out, but strictly speaking no. A 'majority' means getting more people to vote for it than vote against it. In the British House of Commons, there is usually one party which has an absolute majority; that is to say, more than half of the total number of Members of Parliament are from one party. In that case their leader will be selected by the monarch as the head of the government. In the American context, that's a bit like the President being the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Representatives."

"But if no one party has an absolute majority, things get a bit awkward. Unlike in America -where there are essentially only two parties in top tier politics-. All together, who are they?"

"Republicans and Democrats." / "Democrats and.. Republicans."

"Good show. Unlike that, Britain has a number of other parties who can reliably get people elected to the House of Commons. If one party nearly has a majority, they have to try to make a deal with one of them for their support. And that's important, because until very recently if a government couldn't pass a major piece of legislation that immediately triggered a new General Election. Try imagining having a new election in America every time the party of the President lost a vote."

"That sort of government is called a 'coalition government'. The third type of government that can arise in Britain is a 'grand coalition'. That's when the country is faced with such a major crisis -like a World War- that everyone agrees that there's no way to do anything but manage that crisis, so everyone throws in together. Those don't happen at other times because the people involved will have such radically divergent political ideologies that they can't work on the same things."

"Last year, a few friends and I managed to make one happen anyway when so many MPs were arrested that there were barely enough MPs left to do all the jobs they need to do." I pause. "Ah, I forgot to mention: in Britain, the cabinet is comprised of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, who are also expected to do their day jobs at the same time. That's like if the President had to nominate his cabinet from amongst the Senators and Congressional Representatives, couldn't pick anyone else and they had to carry on representing their states in the House and the Senate while doing their new jobs."

That gets a few confused expressions.

"The original plan was to have an election within two months. But it turned out that that wasn't practical." A majority of the remaining MPs wanted a chance to get their parties in order first, not realising or.. not appreciating that it would be a wasted effort. "So they're doing it this month, instead." Which means that there's a chance that there might be a majority of independents, rather than the Reform majority I wanted. Ah well. I can't see anyone but Geoffrey being able to command anything like a majority.

"In a British General Election-" The hologram changes to a map of Britain with the constituency boundaries on display. "-each constituency elects an MP through simple majority voting. What does that mean?"

A few more hands. I point to a girl at the front.

"The one with the most votes wins."

"Correct. The winner in each constituency becomes the Member of Parliament for that constituency immediately. Unlike in the United States, where the President Elect has a few months to get up to speed before taking over and only a portion of Representatives are up for election each time, everything is up for grabs. In theory, every single MP could be new to the job. What alternatives are there to simple majority votes?"

Hands go up and I pick one.

"Electoral colleges?"

"Correct. In an electoral college, votes from voters decide who gets votes from the college. This system is used for Presidential Elections in the United States. For homework, I'm going to have you work out what fraction of an electoral college vote an actual vote from a voter is worth in each US state." A few students frown as they try to parse that instruction. "What other alternatives?"

Nothing for a moment, then Rock raises his hand. I nod.

"Single transferable vote."

I nod. "A remarkably sensible system with a marked resemblance to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. In a single transferable vote system-" The hologram shifts to show five columns of differing height. "-people vote for candidates in their order of preference. Once all of the first choice votes are tallied, the candidate with least is eliminated and their votes distributed to their second choice candidates."

The smallest column vanishes from the display, and the other four grow to differing degrees.

"And so on until one candidate has over half of the popular vote." Another column vanishes and another column grows significantly. "The French use something similar to elect their president: a two-round system where the winner and runner up of the first round compete against each other in the second, allowing people to shift their support from a candidate they actually like to one they could best tolerate."

"So, trick question: who elects the Prime Minister?"

Nothing for a few moments, then a hand is tentatively raised on the left.

"The party with the most Members of Parliament?"

"Ah, but remember: the cabinet have to be either Members of Parliament or Members of the House of Lords."

The hand-raiser realises that everyone is looking at him to work it out.

"So their constituency..? Unless they're a Lord? And their party?"

"And if there's no majority?"

"Ah… Other parties as well?"

"Yes, well done, I'll give you a gold star later. Now, who can name a British political party?"

 

[Ganurath]

Tories and Whigs!

 

[Simonbob]

Brexit!

Wait, their gone, now.

 

[RichardWhereat]

Scottish National Party.
No Candidate Deserves My Vote!
Citizens for Undead Rights and Equality.

Brexit!

Wait, their gone, now.

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Nope, still extant.

 

[anechoic]

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Lynne just blinks while my namesake smiles and waves. Lynne's friend.. Rock? Looks perturbed, while the rest of the class suddenly seems a good deal more excited about their Social Science lesson.

Click to shrink...

Rock? Hmm... Sounds a little... Futuristic...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"The subject of today's lecture-" I clap my hands together. "-is the British General Election. As I hope you know, there was a bit of an incident last year which resulted in virtually the entire British legislature being put in prison. What was left was barely enough to function, but they had to wait until things calmed down a bit before they could hold the election necessary to replace any of them."

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Of course he's not mentioning why. Telling a bunch of twelve-year-olds (I think?) about demon worshippers might get awkward.

"Yes Lynne, I know you know. Anyone else?"

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Good to see no favorites here.

"Three."

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'Iron' Maggie, Mrs Abbot, and who? I'm not up on British political history, especially the DC version....

A few hands, and a pick a boy at random.

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A few hands, and I pick a boy at random.

That's like if the President had to nominate his cabinet from amongst the Senators and Congressional Representatives, couldn't pick anyone else and they had to carry on representing their states in the House and the Senate while doing their new jobs."

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That explains your earlier question about Cabinet positions... Americans get it marginally easier, don't they

"Correct. The winner in each constituency becomes the Member of Parliament for that constituency immediately. Unlike in the United States, where the President Elect has a few months to get up to speed before taking over and only a portion of Representatives are up for election each time, everything is up for grabs. In theory, every single MP could be new to the job. What alternatives are there to simple majority votes?"

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So, this new government might be a total shitshow... Good luck.

"And so on until one candidate has over half of the popular vote." Another column vanishes and another column grows significantly. "The French use something similar to elect their president; a two-round system where the winner and runner up of the first round compete against each other in the second, allowing people to shift their support from a candidate they actually like to one they could best tolerate."

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Sounds... Complicated. Bet those elections take a while.

"The party with the most Members of Parliament?"

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Wrong!

Fun stuff. Never thought a lecture on electoral mechanics could be so interesting. And when it's an eight-foot-plus superhero doing the explaining, I guess kids listen

Tories and Whigs!

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Hmm... Wonder how we could tie this to Walpole.

 

[Simonbob]

Scottish National Party.
No Candidate Deserves My Vote!

Nope, still extant.

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Yeah, I was thinking Ukip.

My mistake.

 

[SpaceJelly]

The only British political party I know of is the Gremloids.

 

[helios]

Now, who can name a British political party?"

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The Alien Supreme Overlord Domination party!

 

[Buggy123]

The Benevolent Alien Overlord party. Though, I think Grayven's waiting a bit to form that.

Edit: I got ninja'd by 15 seconds and I got the name wrong. 5 likes to the blazing sun right overhead.

 

[Vaermina]

6th February
14:01 GMT -6

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Does this count as modern day politics?

 

[DAT_NOOB]

This smells like a politics ban... although I suppose if it's fictional politics for a non-existent election...

however what year/grade/form is Lynne in? I didn't cover this kind of stuff surrounding national governments (in class) until the first year of university.

 

[RichardWhereat]

The only British political party I know of is the Gremloids.

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Oh yeah! Lord Buckethead!

 

[Buggy123]

Does this count as modern day politics?

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My understanding was that the ban mainly applies to discussion, a story containing it isn't quite as heavily scrutinized, especially if it's modern but alternate universe politics where there are new details like "half the government had to be torn out and replaced because they were sacrificing people to demons".

 

[Vaermina]

My understanding was that the ban mainly applies to discussion, a story containing it isn't quite as heavily scrutinized, especially if it's modern but alternate universe politics where there are new details like "half the government had to be torn out and replaced because they were sacrificing people to demons".

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Still seems like it's a bit too close to chance.

Especially with the posts after it going on about current real life politics...

 

[Mr Zoat]

A few hands, and a pick a boy at random.
A few hands, and I pick a boy at random.

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Thank you.

"And so on until one candidate has over half of the popular vote." Another column vanishes and another column grows significantly. "The French use something similar to elect their president; a two-round system where the winner and runner up of the first round compete against each other in the second, allowing people to shift their support from a candidate they actually like to one they could best tolerate."
Sounds... Complicated. Bet those elections take a while.

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Having an extra round adds a month or so to allow candidates to moderate their message and broaden their appeal. Single transferable vote used to be difficult, but now everything can be tallied by computer it only takes about as long as the other way.

The Alien Supreme Overlord Domination party!

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Not until the next election.

This smells like a politics ban... although I suppose if it's fictional politics for a non-existent election...

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Fictional politics, plus nothing Grayven's describing wasn't true twenty years ago.

however what year/grade/form is Lynne in? I didn't cover this kind of stuff surrounding national governments (in class) until the first year of university.

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Lynne is 12. However, she has skipped grades due to already knowing a lot due to g-gnome programming.

 

[Buggy123]

Still seems like it's a bit too close to chance.

Especially with the posts after it going on about current real life politics...

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It isn't. And admins usually only pay mind to that sort of stuff if its especially flammable, and no one's burnt anything down over this post yet. Saying "so and so" is the prime minister of New Zealand or w/e won't get you in trouble, starting a flame war over a current U.S. president will.

Something like the British B-word is probably somewhere in the middle; I don't think there are quite enough Brits around here to really get things going. And this isn't even about that, so i'm not gonna be holding my breath here.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

Fictional politics, plus nothing Grayven's describing wasn't true twenty years ago.

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I will trust your judgment

Lynne is 12. However, she has skipped grades due to already knowing a lot due to g-gnome programming.

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This doesn't answer my question since I'd be very surprised if she was a first-year uni student.
although maybe my School focused less on government than this fictional one.

 

[Mquz]

It isn't modern politics, since it was this way for 30 + years.

 

[Mastigos2]

Now, who can name a British political party?"

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Ooooh oooh I know this one! It's whoever fills out the paperwork to register the party.

 

[Simonbob]

My understanding was that the ban mainly applies to discussion, a story containing it isn't quite as heavily scrutinized, especially if it's modern but alternate universe politics where there are new details like "half the government had to be torn out and replaced because they were sacrificing people to demons".

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'Looks confused' Doesn't the current Brit Govenment do that?

 

[Buggy123]

'Looks confused' Doesn't the current Brit Govenment do that?

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Well, yeah, duh. Everyone does. That's the initiation ritual for any up-and-coming politician, no matter the country.

But everyone puts their own little spin on it; the Brits drown their sacrifice in fine tea, which is actually a real pain because most demons don't like working around water. Something about it interfering with hellfire, I dunno.

 

[Cuchulin]

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

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Which is my favorite political party anywhere.

 

[Ngamer11]

Mr Zoat, I've been wondering, how did the Justice League react to Paul and Zatanna's report on the situation on Earth -14 as well as their actions? I can't imagine they were impressed, but they must have at least seen that it was the lesser of two evils. Also, have they implemented any new defenses to prevent what Olympia did from working again?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Mr Zoat, I've been wondering, how did the Justice League react to Paul and Zatanna's report on the situation on Earth -14 as well as their actions? I can't imagine they were impressed, but they must have at least seen that it was the lesser of two evils. Also, have they implemented any new defenses to prevent what Olympia did from working again?

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While Justice Legaue members are a bit quicker to read the SI's reports these days, the League as a body hasn't met to have a discussion yet. It's only been a day, after all.

 

[Mquz]

Well, yeah, duh. Everyone does. That's the initiation ritual for any up-and-coming politician, no matter the country.

But everyone puts their own little spin on it; the Brits drown their sacrifice in fine tea, which is actually a real pain because most demons don't like working around water. Something about it interfering with hellfire, I dunno.

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Ah, you forget tea is itself historically a symbol of imperialistic trade and therefore is potentially unholy.
Tea is the Devil's Water.

 

[Sceptic]

especially if it's modern but alternate universe politics where there are new details like "half the government had to be torn out and replaced because they were sacrificing people to demons".

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As if the current-

'Looks confused' Doesn't the current Brit Govenment do that?

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Damn it!

Also, not provably.

Saying "so and so" is the prime minister of New Zealand or w/e won't get you in trouble

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That's because nobody cares. And odds are that nobody would even notice if you were wrong.

 

[Mquz]

As if the current-
Damn it!

Also, not provably.

That's because nobody cares. And odds are that nobody would even notice if you were wrong.

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The only unfortunate implication I can see so far, is that Boris Johnson being mayor of London is confirmed as canon in OL universe, and since he is the new UK prime Minister as of yesterday, fairly unpopular, and famously pro no-deal BREXIT, implying he might be a devil worshipper could get problematic.

 

[Lord Ernest]

I think we should avoid mentioning specific events about current politics, just in case, because they aren't really relevant to the current fictional political situation in Grayven's UK. At this point the political landscape of Grayven's UK is worse than the wasteland of Fallout (I think) so until Grayven puts more focus on that, which doesn't seem necessary since the Red Lantern (can't recall his name) is taking care of it, we don't need to care about it.