The Lotus Eaters

Hamilton, FD, Federated States, Terra Nova

Karl Schumann, the President of the Federated States, was livid. Those miserable fucking spics, he thought initially, then with more immediate practicality, How do I squirm out of this one?

By the time the first reporter was put through to the White House, the President of the United States had his answer. "Well, Dan, you see it was like this. We and the Balboans both had good cause to hit the drug lords. But they just weren't able to stand up to Santander if the Santanderns retaliated. So they did the job, with our tacit support. And we took the 'blame' because Santander can't hope to hurt us."

A more objective reporter might have pointed out that 'tacit support' really means no active opposition, even if one didn't oppose because one didn't know. However, with an election year coming up, few, if any, of the press would have done anything to hurt their candidate, not when he was expected to run against a 'rabid' conservative Federalist.