TFG–TOES dispute

TFG–TOES dispute
Date	December 2020 – May 2021
Location	Cupertino Alliance
Caused by	• Disputes surrounding the January 2021 Chair election  • Mutual distrust
Methods	Civil disturbance
Resulted in	• Superior Judge ousted through no confidence motion.  • January 2021 election result prematurely declared following the withdrawal of the Hamilton-Valentinus campaign.  • Reconciliation of parties, and cessation of factionalism in Cupertino Alliance politics.  • Cooperation between parties within the Constantia Pact.
Parties
The Fun Gang Tough Organisation of Elite Stuff

The TFG–TOES dispute was a civil dispute within the Cupertino Alliance between two social groups, namely The Fun Gang and the Tough Organisation of Elite Stuff. The date of the dispute is generally agreed to be between December 2020 – May 2021, and originated in the discord surrounding the January chair election.

The dispute marked a rise in factionalism and toxicity within the Cupertino Alliance, that would only cease and reverse upon the reconciliation of the two communities in May 2021. During the dispute, the Superior Judge was ousted by a no confidence motion, and the Chair of the Board faced two proposed motions of no confidence that ultimately never materialised. Chairman Jayden Lycon was expelled from the delegation of the Fifth Aenderian Republic, pending the procedures of the infamous Fisher & Wiucki-Dunswed v. Superior Judge proceedings, spearheaded by Ikonian delegate Abrams Wiucki-Dunswed.

Background

The Tough Organisation of Elite Stuff was a satirical social club founded in December 2019, founded jointly by Leah Cohen, Leon Montan and Zabëlle Skye. The group had acquired a divisive reputation in 2020, through it's involvement in the 2020 MicroWiki@Discord administrative protests and the TOES-Almendria War. The Fun Gang was another social club, founded in October 2020 by Daniel Hamilton and Zabëlle Skye.

The core of the dispute originated in the lead up to the January Chair election, which was rife with political scandals involving allegations of corruption, leaks of polling information to campaigning groups and allegations of biased conduct from cabinet officials.

Dispute

From 26 – 30 November 2020, Roscoe Statistics conducted a poll to determine which electoral candidate was likely to win the election. On 14 December 2020, Chair of the Board Jayden Lycon revealed that Daniel Hamilton had leaked his vote to the Hamilton-Valentinus campaign team , leading to the polls seizure by the Cupertino Electoral Supervisory Commission and the strict rules regarding polling were enacted by the Superior Judge.

Following the incident, the election began to take a heated turn, with both campaigns issuing inflammatory rhetoric that led onlookers to comment on what they felt to be 'toxic behaviour' and 'petty insults'.

On 1 January, Hamilton accused Acting Superior Judge James Bornstein of violating the Judicial Impartiality Act by publicly endorsing the Ross-Xia Campaign.

In accordance with the Judicial Impartiality Act, I have found that Superior Judge James B is in clear violation of the aforementioned act. He has continued to show political bias and support towards the Ross-Xia Campaign, thus violating Article 1 of the act, which reads:

Prohibit members of the superior judicial organ, namely Superior Judge and Associate Justices from obtaining membership or contributing to political factions within the Cupertino Alliance.

Jamez's endorsement of Ross-Xia and continued support is very clearly "contributing to political factions". This poses a great concern as the Superior Judge is supposed to be running the election for the specific fact that they must have impartiality, and it is unfortunate that this isn't the case in this scenario.

— Daniel Hamilton

Alleged campaigning

Bornstein countered the accusations, declaring the the legislation did not prohibited political endorsements. On 3 January, Bornstein was removed from the Hamilton-Valentinus campaign server by Sertor Valentinus for what he believed to be pro-Ross campaigning in the server. Bornstein re-entered the server, demanding re-entry to monitor the campaign. The incident escalated when Bornstein stated "I was just banned from the Hamilton server. I stated an objective fact. The campaign violated the privacy of our Chair. They have refused to allow alliance admin or judicial individuals to supervise campaign chats. The Ross campaign has done the opposite" in the Cupertino Alliance server.

On 4 January, the Hamilton-Valentinus campaign dropped out of the race, citing mental health concerns surrounding the toxic environment of the electoral campaign.

On the same day, Fifth Aenderian Republic delegate Nicholas Fisher was suspended from the alliance due to repeated complaints with regards to heavy anti-semitic rhetoric. Abrams Wiucki-Dunswed, delegate for the Kingdom of Ikonia, would spearhead a legal effort to reverse the suspension– supported by several members of The Fun Gang. According to Wiucki-Dunswed, the suspension was in violation of the Cupertino Alliance charter.

Despite being named the defendant in the pending trial, Bornstein used their office to dismiss the trial. In an amicus briefing penned by Christina Nowell, she stated that this was a "clear failure to uphold the law and a false dismissal of the case".

As shown by Plaintiff, the Defendant of the Cupertino Alliance informed him that he would not be properly upholding his own duties as the Judge of the Superior Court by instead stating that he would not see the case. Amici sees this as a clear failure to uphold the law and a false dismissal of the case. Amici sees this attempt to dismiss the case improperly as both a negligent action by Defendant and an attack on the roots of justice and legal jurisprudence. The actions of Defendant in not only this case of his seeming attempt to dismiss it has been abhorrent, he furthermore denied to issue Plaintiff the form for a lawsuit when it was brought up, showing Defendant’s willingness to go against even the Charter’s legal codes and values.

— Christina I & II

On 16 January, several TFG-aligned delegates called for a vote of no confidence against Bornstein during the 56th Session. Though the vote would later pass with a majority, Bornstein resigned all positions in the Cupertino Alliance prematurely.

Though the rhetoric had died down, the two communities would continue to snipe each other through January and February. During the Noted Project, Cole Baird wrote 'TOES>TFG' on the official document, attracting criticism from TFG Delegates. In March, Cristian Dobrev began leaking information from the TOES discord, revealing that TOES delegates believed that TFG controlled the MicroWiki@Discord administration, and that the United Defense and Cooperation Treaty Community was originally known as 'CUMPACT' as a parody of the Constantia Pact. Chair of the Constantia Pact Liam Alexander pledged to resolve and ease the tensions between the groups, though was later accused of breaking said pledge several times.

A discord server was created primarily for mediation between the two groups. From March onwards, relations between the two groups began to grow less hostile, though inter-group factionalism with regards to Cupertino Alliance politics would linger, and occasional disputes would occur.

Whilst there is no definite date marking the end of the dispute, it is generally accepted to be either April or May 2021.

Outcome

Following the dispute, the two groups had normalised relations. The remainder of Simon Reeve's term as Chair of the Board was largely civil, and would later be acclaimed.

In the latter half of 2021, the communities began to politically unify and solidify their bonds during the efforts to launch a vote of no confidence against Varuna Sriraya through the Save the Alliance group. The group would begin to push and front several changes to the alliance in late-2021 with regards to LGBT-affairs, such as the ban on Montediszamble Convention signatories acquiring membership, and the establishment of an LGBTQ Association. Several nations typically associated with the TOES Sector begun to acquire membership in the Constantia Pact following the political unification.

See also

• 2021 Aenderian crisis
• CONPACT Bloc