Grrl Power #849 – Diplomatic resistance
I don’t know if DARPA actually has field agents. I suspect they don’t, because it’s not really that kind of an agency. Someone mentioned that the CDC doesn’t have agents either. Most of their field personnel are probably doctors or some sort of coordinating administrator that liaises with FEMA and orders people to set up triage stations in high school auditoriums. But I thought it’d be funny to have some DARPA engineer get deputized to go out and try and wrangle some alien tech out of Deus.
Chancellor is one of those political titles that means whatever the country granting the title wants it to mean. It tends to have more economic responsibilities than diplomatic or military, but if the actual king of a nation is busy living in a mansion being a party boy, who’s to say what the Chancellor can and can’t do? Oh, right. The Chancellor. At least that’s what the constitution of Galtyn currently says. And who wrote the current Galytn constitution? You see where this is going.
Now obviously these agents didn’t just strike out on their own initiative. Their orders came from somewhere above them, but Deus is one of those guys who takes lunch with senators and deputy directors of things. He plays the political game on a bunch of levels. Having diplomatic immunity is just the cherry on top.
For the record, I’m not actually sure how the whole dual citizenship/diplomatic immunity thing would work. It’s probably like regular diplomatic immunity, but with slightly weaker “wax-off” powers.
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Bonus to DaveB, by the way for having the lightning bolts on the visor of Max’s cap. Mark of a field-grade officer. [Lt.Col]
Though if it’s supposed to be her USAF uniform, there should be two and clouds, but at least there’s something there.
Always liked my bus driver cap over my ice cream vendor one.
I suspect it’s an ARCHON uniform, which is probably based on the USAF uniform, but with changes. Which would be logical as IIRC they’re supposed to be a new branch on thier own, not part of an existing one. Usefully it also covers Dave for any inaccuracies ;)
Oh, I didn’t know that. I just thought it looked cool. :D
Yeah, I loved my bus driver cap when I was in the USAF, much more resistant to being blown off my head by a gentle breeze. Field Officers get two little thunderbolt clouds on the brim, General Officers get three. Had to make sure mine had the blank one.
Lovingly referred to as “Farts and Darts”.
Can we please move onto any other plotline then “Look how cool and powerful Deus is?”
The only thing worse is “Look how good Deus is at sex!” Which the comic also goes to way too often. It’s boring.
Not to me it’s not.
–DaveB
What we have here is an interstitial scene, the kind DaveB enjoys so much.
could be wrong, but mayhaps Mysterylegos is talking specifically about the interstitial scenes about Deus? that they drag on too long? this would allow for Deus’ character being somewhat of a damper on things in Mysterylegos’ opinion, or even going as far as being disinterested in interstitial scenes about bad guys in general (?)
I could see someone really having a preference to not see any material that humanizes a bad guy for instance…
the problem is Deus isn’t humanized by the scenes we see him in he’s deified in them.
Deus isn’t just good at sex, he’s I have the biggest dick in the world/so good at sex that even people that out right want to kill him fall at his feet to suck it. (with the little black book showing he’s had sex with things that would never have sex.) going so far that anvil who should be high enough up the ranks to know they are investigating Desu for illegal actively still tells Max to go out with him because “he’s hot and rich”
he isn’t just a good planner he’s super naturally always in the right place, knowing things that are are impossible to know with timing that even a time traveler would find hard to match. I mean lets just recap this for a second just to see how stupid it really is. he knew about Max past, had part of the geode that made her, not only knew of the secret magic vault but where to find it, knew just the right time to show up so not to set off the alarm but also already had what he needed to get around the traps. an lets not forget the fact Deus already new about the sky ripper/portal maker but already had a power plant made use it not just before he had his hands on but before it was even made.
heck he was making deal with off world aliens long before even even had access to space travel!
he knows everything, is best at everything and even when his plans are so stupid it hurts everyone get dumbed down so he looks smart. Deus’s problem is he’s an out right Mary sue of the highest caliber and that make any scene he’s in physically painful to get through.
It was stated that Deus didn’t know that the vault would be compromised, and more of just had a system set up that noticed that it was compromised. Likewise with the skyripper, he had the necromorph retrieve it from the wreckage, noticed that it was upgraded, and *then* had the power plant modified to be able to charge it. Remember there was the two month break in between him getting the skyripper and him setting up the portal.
look at your own post again
Deus somehow had a super secret supernatural vault that had its security system shut off bugged. on top of which he also always kept a truck load of bamboo sitting around on the off chance that someone would brake in for him which has never happened before in its existence?
nothing Mary sue about that….
as for your second point I’m not sure it refutes my point at all. nothing says he retrofired the tower to this purpose and the level of power it can make draws that into question. nor does it change the fact that Deus somehow reversed engineered a magic object to run on a completely different kind of energy. or how deus even know how to make it “Dial” rift
at the end Deus as a character makes no sense at all.
at this point i expect Deus is be one of the planet killing squids/elder races in disguise and not human at all as thats the only way to even get half way to a logical explanation of whats going on.
Maybe he’s a super, and his power is “Groundhog Day”.
Council members were selling out to Sciona, other members probably sell out to other people too.
I’m going with “this is a guy who is absolutely obsessed with having control over just about everything in his life, and also kind of obsessed with Maxima… probably because shes the only lady he liked who didn’t fall all over him and didn’t care he’s a hot rich guy. The guy has his thumbs in a lot of political pies, he PROBABLY has them in a lot of super/council pies as well… and there’s NO reason to assume Dabbler was the only alien on the planet before the Alari showed up. There is probably a whole shadow network of nasty folks, a shadow council if you’d like, who could have given him a lot of information and/or sold him tech. and for goodness sake, DaveB is one guy, give him a break if there’s occasional breaks in reality to save time and effort. I’ve really enjoyed this arc, not for Deus but for the look into Maxima’s character, which we rarely see outside of her military/work life. Super Duper Badguys are kinda supposed to be overpowered right up until you find their weakness anyways, thats why they are scarier than normal baddies.
don’t get me wrong I’m not saying DaveB is a bad writer.
the rest of his character are fun and well done, they fit into the world will with logical flow in the story the problem is Deus alone. I even understand what DaveB was going for and where he went wrong.
Deus is meant to be a thanos/darksied type villain, an a literally cosmic reaching “magnificent bastard” as TV tropes would call him so good at being evil you have to love them. but there’s a reason these types of characters tend to be ageless god like aliens and not humans.
they had the time to make their power levels make sense.
let me brake it down a little.
the comic made it very clear the magic/alien side of the world is almost completely separate form the human side. few humans even understand they exist and even then they don’t interact with them on any real level and understand magic even less. this is a hard line that everyone follows to keep the world grounded and relatable, except Deus. he a human in his late 30’s early 40’s that seemingly single handedly uncovered all the secrets of both magic and Aliens that no other human has even scratched. (even the us government which has known about aliens and magic for over a 100 years knows next to nothing about them.)
there in lies the problem
DaveB is trying so hard make “magnificent bastard” he’s over shot the mark and landed smack dab in Mary sue land. Deus so far ahead because he doesn’t have to play by the same rules the rest of the characters do. instead of writing Deus smarter Daveb writer the other character dumber and so on. sure if Deus was some ancient alien with eons of knowledge pretending to be human could make some of what he’s doing make sense (not all but some)
but in the end Deus is an outlier, a character favored by the writer in away none of the other characters are
he has vale which is… god know what actually some sort of hyper powerful eldritch abomination or something like that which i wouldnt put beyond that the reason he knows soo much is maybe because vale explained him a bunch of stuff
also he is rich and powerful and that gets you some privilegues, we know for example that the US goverment has relationships with the council so maybe one congressman let something slip during one of their dinners, something that everyone else would have ignored but he decided to investigate further, we also know that several supers are in cahoots with the magical side of the world so maybe one of his mercenaries got a really good pay to explain it to him or something like that
hoestly it wouldnt be really dificult, he also seems to be kind of aa nerd taking into account his sword collection so maybe the grand story behind he knowing all of that is that he wanted to know if magic was real because he has been such a fan of lord of the rings since he was little and after spending a couple hundred million dollars he discovered that it is indeed real
also i like deus because he is this grand arch villain thanos or darkseid type without having the necesity of being some super powerful and ancient being or what not, he is just a very rich and powerful individual that is very smart and that is diferent and interesting
also we still dont know much of his backstory soo i would preserve my reservations until then
Deified, *GIGGLE!*.
Eh, he’s favoured, in that he’s a Dr Doom style character. Over other characters? He is a super villain. In a world where most of our characters have diverse super powers, he just has charisma, money and drive.He is flawed, his charisma and egotism is often on full display, he definitely didn’t manage to charm that interviewer, or consider that his “great at sex” credentials are somewhat biased. And there’s a lot of “once you figure out one thing, it leads to other things” in play.
The other characters are not dumber, they know he’s up to something. Unless you mean the random field agents and…well, they’re ineffectual, not dumb. But stuff like “this bamboo trick also works to beat the field”, complaining that he “happened” to have plants around?
He had been established to have found out about it and planned. That was the plan, so he had some around. Bamboo doesn’t exactly have a short lifespan, so keeping it around is pretty easy. The councils security was pretty well established at hardly being secure.
The real problem just seems to be that we don’t actually know that much about him, despite him getting so much screentime, and people are taking the explanations as more unexplained issues. Him having space tech, explains a lot of stuff he can do. How did he get the space tech?
Dr Doom gets by with ridiculous gadgets with “well, he’s a genius”. If anything, Deus is a lot more plausibly explained in the bits we do know, by having access to a bunch of space tech, and then using an entire well funded lab and such to research and develop and make more money. Individual suspension of disbelief may vary, but it seems like too many people are taking deus’s word as law, not a sign that he’s cocky, despite his assertions that he’s not.
There is nothing Deus supercapitalist powers can’t do. He have prepared for all possible problems in the future. Yes it’s boring.
we already know that isnt true, the fel invasion and maxima destroying their capital ship in a second seemed like he certainly didnt expected that and had to readjust his plans accordingly, also im sure making a deal to sell the US super advanced jets would be a little bit harder once the US has their own hyper advanced alien technology to research and study
Deus? Cool?? He’s an over-entitled idiot. Nothing cool about that. There are plenty of people with power and an overinflated ego who surround themselves with sycophants like Lorlara, but rarely are any of them ‘cool’. See for example any dictator you care to name, and a distressing number of democratically elected heads of state.
There’s a lot of people, including a number reading this comic, that think Deus is the epitome of humanity.
I second that emotion.
Speedo and the Cadillac’s.
I’m guessing there’s something implied in that sentence? I don’t know what is owned by a Cadillac, or someone named Cadillac.
I apologize for asking for clarification.
The Cadillacs were an American rock and roll and doo-wop group from Harlem, New York, active from 1953 to 1962. The group was noted for their 1955 hit “Speedoo”, written by Esther Navarro … From Wikipedia.
That’s… not as great as it sounds (although it does work for something like SmugD)
Oh no, I think Deus is terrible, but, like, this is America. Worship of the asshole businessman got a terrible president elected.
Clinton was a businessman? o_O
no, but other ones were. naming no names.
I appreciate that thank you.
“… democratically elected heads of state.” Like General Augusto Pinochet, of Chile.
Some of us have long memories of “democracy”.
I’m sure mine is much longer, than yours. :)
Almost certainly.
My problem is, I don’t know who to hate and curse: my Mom’s ancestors came across the ditch with William the Conqueror, and my Dad’s were Welsh Celts. So I guess I have no sympathy for Harold Godwinson’s Saxons. On the other hand, what we did to the Irish was and still is a crime against humanity. And my “people” are simply the worst xenophobes on the planet. Oh, for what it’s worth, “my people” — all those with ancestry in what is now England — includes (caucasian) Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders.
I think you have that horribly wrong.
Pinochet was not “democratically elected”. He took power in a vicious military coup against the elected government of Allende in 1974. This coup was successful only because of heavy backing from the CIA and the US government, who feared Allende’s left-wing government.
His seizure of power destroyed what had been a strong democracy in Chile. Read about it, and you will weep for US democracy, let alone Chile’s.
The self-described “strongest nation on Earth” feared Allende’s left-wing government?
And this same srong nation imposed the “Monroe Docrine” telling the Old World to stay out of the New? Such probity and sincerity!
We’re speaking of the cold war here, the war of pawn states. More accurately said leftist government cooperating with ussr.
It’s sad that the USA never bothered to look at the social status of Latin nations, including any assessment of the reason for Castro’s successful revolution in Cuba. However, they were not the only ones: Ernesto Guevara failed utterly to understand this.
The only way to so fundamentally change a State is to usurp some basic aspect of that society. Castro succeeded because the Church couldn’t be bothered — it was literally AWOL. Guevara couldn’t even get his acts off the ground because the Church — while not all-powerful — was at least present and providing a sympathetic ear.
Allende’s government was never a threat to the USA, and was far from being a Soviet asset. His people had too much to lose from going down the Cuban Road. But I guess that when Americans in the Land of the Free are forbidden to even learn about “Socialism”, then even — or especially? — an undernourished backyard State can be seen as a deadly threat.
I had a couple of current examples in mind.
And as others pointed out, Pinochet was definitely on the dictator side of the fence.
What about Mugabe? He was democratically (rigged) elected, and proceeded to fuck the country up back to the stone age
Ah, tribalism! Such beautiful barbarity, how can you not admire the man? No imperialism there!
Funny, I thought we got more “Look how powerful Max is”
However, the problem isn’t that’s it’s focused on Dues. It’s that, the comic is done two days a week, so any story line you don’t care for, will feel like it takes forever to get through. When if it was a published comic, this part of the story would be done with pretty quick to you.
max is meant to be a measuring stick not the hero so its okay to see how powerful she is
Tell me about it! Dues is every smug white guy EVER (including taking over POC countries “for their own good”). Every attempt to humanize him makes me hate him more. PLEASE, something else
Deus became a lot less annoying to me when I started assuming that he has a super power other than gobs of money: “Stupefy”. As in, his aura just sorta stuns people, makes it harder for them to think, makes it easier for them to give into instincts/physical urges, etc. It’s probably not going to end up being canon, but it helps me.
Otherwise, I just sort of lump him (and now his new assistant whose name I can’t be bothered to look up because she’s annoying and I hope she vanishes quickly) into the same category as the Caged Demonwolf in Empowered. A character that the author’s clearly very pleased with, and who can be good for the other characters to play off of, but whose pages I more or less skim/skip.
Agreed.
The answer to many questions (like dual citizenship and diplomatic immunity), may be found on the internet:
https://www.quora.com/Can-a-US-citizen-with-dual-citizenship-have-diplomatic-immunity-in-the-United-States-while-serving-as-a-foreign-ambassador
Do you believe everything you read, on the Internet?
I thought this was the case but I couldn’t find the source, I was sure it was an amendment to the constitution but it wasn’t unless I missed it.
Pretty sure what Deus is trying is impossible. A country does not just send someone and say they have diplomatic immunity. A diplomatic visa is issued by the US government at the request of the foreign country for that person. The US does not (and really, cannot) issue a visa to someone who is already a US citizen, since US citizens do not need visas to enter the country.
Not impossible. Diplomatic immunity is an agreement between states. Another state could request that you grant diplomatic immunity to one of your own citizens, and you could agree. The way this would work in a case of conflict would be the host state would revoke the immunity (declare the “diplomat” persona non grata), there’d be a time allowance for him to get out of the country. If he didn’t, then his citizenship would kick in and you wouldn’t legally be able to deport him, but he wouldn’t be a diplomat anymore and therefore wouldn’t enjoy any immunity.
The reason I think this is impossible for Deus is that immunity is an agreement between *states*, and the creation of Galatyn is enough of a violation of the rules that I don’t think the US can legally recognize it as a state even if for some incomprehensible reason it wanted to. It would probably have to recognize it as the legitimate government of the entirety of whatever pre-existing African state is was part of.
Likewise, diplomatic immunity isn’t full immunity (despite what movies would have you believe). It only lasts as long as the person is acting in good faith not to intentionally break the laws of their serving country. IE: The housing state can’t just arrest the person for an obscure law to punish their originating state. But, if the person with diplomatic immunity was actively breaking the law intentionally, such as shooting people or trying to set up crime rings (which they have been arrested for in the past), then the immunity fails.
It’s kind of like piercing the corporate veil, though. It sets a pretty high burden to overcome judicially speaking.
Unless you’re Anna Sacoolas and the US smuggles you out of the country rather than have you face charges for dangerous driving by killing a teenager while driving on the wrong side of the road. The US tends to treat the normal constraints of diplomatic immunity as optional where it’s concerned.
Okay but the grounds they want Deus for is the weapon potential of being able to create new supers.
How is that breaking a US law?
I mean Russian got atomic weapons, I don’t think we arrested the ambassadors.
the law braking happen when the invisible body grads threatened a us officer in public. max is well within her rights to turn the body grads into a fine paste on the side walk
Trick is that ‘threat’ is very ambiguous. Seriously “I can think of several reasons he should not be detained.’ Could be his lawyer and not a bodyguard.
“But, if the person with diplomatic immunity was actively breaking the law intentionally, such as shooting people or trying to set up crime rings (which they have been arrested for in the past), then the immunity fails.”
No, it doesn’t just “fail”, at least not automatically. A diplomat e.g. shooting people can be temporarily detained to prevent immediate harm but they cannot be prosecuted without the consent of the sending country. The host country can ask the sending country to revoke the immunity thus allowing prosecution or the sending country might want to themselves prosecute their intransigent diplomat. But if the sending country declines to do neither, the host country cannot do much except declare the diplomat a persona non grata thus effectively deporting them.
There are of course exceptions. https://youtu.be/SiXNUaSjXRY
Galytn was created by Indigine Senior more than a decade ago. During the last decade or so, a US billionaire has been set on building them up from abject poverty, probably primarily so that his outsourcing didn’t come out a decade later as him exploiting people in a third world country. Getting them recognized would have been a priority issue. And, honestly, the US has been fairly quick to recognize countries that are in war zones but have declared an interest in removing themselves from that war, such as Galytn has done.
The US government is able to recognize whatever countries it wants, with whatever land it wants. We recognized Taiwan, for example, despite it being clearly within territory China claimed, because we wanted an ally who was really close to China, and Taiwan wanted an ally who was a super power. That’s a bit different of a situation, because Taiwan was less of an area of conquest formerly owned by another country, and more of an area remaining to the losing side of a civil war. I vaguely recall other instances of our recognizing new countries relatively quickly in an attempt to stabilize regions, but they’re more removed as I haven’t had close personal contact with anyone from them.
more or less right, when the Communist revolution took over the mainland, the legitimate government of China
retreated to Taiwan and the United States continued to recognize them as the Lawful government and refused to acknowledge Mao’s regime.
They kept their seat in the United Nations into the early 80s I believe until the general membership decided
to finally acknowledge the Communists as the legitimate government of the mainland.
Unfortunately they also bowed to China’s demand that theirs be the only seat in the assembly
and Taiwan got kicked out.
The US does not recognize Taiwan… the diplomatic status of Taiwan is complicated because most countries, including the US, also do not want to overtly piss off the PRC [which recognizing Taiwan would do].
But you’re right that there’s no “real” obstacle to the US recognizing any country it wants to, as it does recognize South Sudan, East Timor, Kosovo, etc. The question is more of what countries [whether immediate neighbors that it claims territory from, or those countries’ allies, or global superpowers whose position on the chessboard is better without them] *oppose* the would-be state, and whether the US wants to recognize it more than it wants to not piss off those countries.
If I recall correctly: In this continuity, in GPverse, Galytn -is- a country recognized by the world that simply was in decline before Deus stepped in. What I mean to say is Galytn’s existence wasn’t contingent upon Deus, and it was established and recognized far before he got there, he just took out the most recent despot in power and appointed the son as puppet, and shaped things up (massively for the better apparently.)
It is impossible, because no country would allow it. They could allow it, but it would also be pointless to allow it, as they could drop it at any time and then detain them, losing the whole point of the diplomatic immunity.
However, Dues being extremely rich may be a factor, however, I’d still wager, him being rich and high levels of the government wanting him, his level of wealth wouldn’t be a factor in anything.
Ironically someone threatening a government agent is grounds for detaining them.
Maybe we’ll finally get some interplay between Maxima and Vale because of that.
The effectiveness of this would be dependent upon how well, Max can get a hand on someone like Vale, and also, telling someone that you’re capable of giving reasons they should or shouldn’t do something is not QUITE the same as giving any of those reasons, so probably not QUITE a threat – I think Max should wait a bit longer before acting, but…
Oh, I don’t expect them to fight anytime soon. It’s just that they’ve never even been shown interacting at all so far.
Yeah, in an ordinary situation, that last panel was basically overplaying the hand. Since she’s clearly super/supernatural, it essentially forces Max to detain both of them for at least questioning.
Diplomatic immunity also wouldn’t actually work here. You can’t have diplomatic immunity in your home country, and the country you’re in has to actually have a diplomatic immunity treaty with the country they’re in, and isn’t a blanket protection from all laws. Otherwise, ISIS would have just granted diplomatic immunity to a bunch of terrorists who could walk around the US with machine guns mowing people down and not being able to be arrested (it doesn’t actually work like that).
Basically, instead of these last few panels seeming like “Oh my god, Dues is so in control” its ended up “Wow, Dues seems like a 4 year old that thinks they’ve figured everything out but have no idea what the hell their talking about”
‘Screw the rules, I have money.’ ~ Kaiba
“ISIS would have just granted diplomatic immunity to a bunch of terrorist”
wut? Name a western nation or even the UN that rcognized ISIS as a sovereign. Recognition is by the hos country not foreign one; this is why diplomats have to present credentials to SecSTate in Foggy Bottom.
And yes dual citizen can have diplomatic immunity, This means they can’t be held unless they are a threat to others, they can be “removed” from a situation for their own “safety”.
When a diplomat marries a local and get his immunity extended to his kid(s), this situation occurs. And at the first signs of abuse the US tell their country that Ambassador X & family are no longer welcome here.
Actually it would work. Deus could have immunity as a foreign dignitary from Galytn, asuming the US agreed to it. It is not something normally done though. Normally with dual citizenships they renounce the citizenship of the country they are being posted to. They don’t have to but the host country has the right to refuse them.
Diplomatic immunity is just a negotiated treaty, and anything can be negotiated.
no country allows directly threatening the host countries officers to be part of the “immunity” in no shape or form is that last panel okay.
Not likely to work: https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-citizen-serving-as-foreign-diplomat-can-face-trial-judge-1273901
BTW, I think the general principle is that if you’re a citizen of a certain country, prosecuting you would always be considered this country’s internal business, regardless of your status in other countries. There are exceptions when two countries agree to recognise each other’s citizenship in addition to their own one; those are, to my knowledge, extremely rare and I doubt US would have such an agreement with Galytn.
Puerto Rico and American Samoa are the only two regions that do this with the US.
Also you can get diplo immunity on conditional basis. As a courier between embassies when traveling to foreign countries.
Dual Citizens have to cede authority to local govt where they hold dual citizenship. He’s a natural born US citizen then guess what. All laws are applicable to the smug idiot. He just is a credentialed criminal at that point. Gatlyn probably could pressure someone in State to get charges dropped in exchange for (illegal) personal gifts or future trade benefits. But he’s subject to all US laws and codicils . Same as he is to Gatlyn’s laws.
What the black covered passport gives him is something to smack and distract ignorant govt officials with. (NEver screw with anyone with a black passport/diplomatic immunity.)
What it does not do (the Diplo Immunity) is give you carte blanche in your home country. Those with dual citizenship know this and can be screwed from both ends.
Unless US gives Deus diplo immunity abroad, all he has is DI where Gatlyn has embassies and such agreements. FEW VERY FEW Govts in Africa are stable and organized enough to get DI. The UN will not issue such or recognize such until certain criteria are met (And bribes. It’s always bribes with the UN).
There has to be an embassy and legaly binding exchange of ambassadors etc.
There’s no way for Deus to be a US ambassador to Gatlyn while holding office in Gatlyn and dual citizenship, nor can he legally be ambassador from Gatlyn at Gatlyn’s embassy.
He’d have to cede US citizenship first. Pay the fees and renounce and surrender all rights. He’s not stupid. He wouldn’t do that.
All Deus’s DC allows him is a legal fall back position and in certain functions to speak for Gatlyn. IT also means what he earns in Gatlyn is between his host country and himself. He can abuse the fuck out of that. And for the most part the US will allow it. BUT the IRS will gnash its teeth and seek to go after other US based assets.
There’s a shitload of paperwork to legally transfer control/authority of his companies to Gatlyn too, not enough because of taxes. (that they can offshore but still be based in US for legal reasons). If he moved company HQ to Gatlyn he’d lose EVERY Govt Contract he had and risk all future ones.
Instead he could Lease parts of his company to Gatlyn citizens to operate in US and then expand in Gatlyn. Gatlyn might consider them domestic, but US law would consider the whole US based and a portion international. The international portions could not effect any deals or contracts with US govt, lest the whole be affected by seizure laws and FCC SEC crapola…
It’s a game of semantics punctuated with a lead pipe.
It’s more of a distraction, the diplo immunity, than a shield.
Minor crimes are usually omitted from prosecution in those cases (even hit n run felonies – see Arab consulate, turkish, UAE etc for examples. They hit and run pedestrians all the time)
What Deus has is a minor God complex, super backing, MONEY – above and beyond FU money, and political connections out the ying yang. (guarantee Arc Light is scanning those Pols closely for any shadow or stain) plus he has a DC w/Gatlyn who gave him an official title and diplo credentials. Might mean more where he’s not a US citizen. He’s still subject to all US agreements with each and every foreign state as a US citizen regardless of his DC or Diplo. creds.
It is too early for there to be laws saying “US citizens must hand over alien tech” (and Halo would be affected by that), much less “US citizens must say what they know about supers”.
What we’re seeing is the US would like to know and is attempting to apply pressure.
If the USA did make that law, and Sydney and others were affected, then knowing that Galytn doesn’t do that… defecting becomes a good idea. How do you have high per capita supers? Decent rights are offered by you only.
Funnily enough the CDC does indeed have agents. They *are* doctors, epidemiologists and other experts that have the skills needed to track and treat disease, but since their main goal is to investigate how disease disseminates through a population they are basically detectives and are officially called the “Epidemic Intelligence Service”
The CDC does indeed have field agents. We met a few of them right after my mother passed away. They never found the source of what she got though, and nobody else ever got it, so… eventually they closed the file and quit coming around.
That’s… disturbing. I’ve met a couple of EIS agents and they have been quite amazing, some of the best doctors i’ve met, so them not being able to track the source of something freaks me out a bit…
Sorry for your loss, i can only hope whatever your mother got did not cause her pain.
As I understand it, and as others have noted, Deus cannot claim both dual citizenship, and the foreign goverment position that grants him diplomatic immunity. It’s actually treason for a US citizen to accept a position in a foreign government.
Also, diplomatic immunity doesn’t protect anyone from charges of murder, espionage, piracy, etc, fomenting a religious war, abuse public trust, or violating rules of public welfare (ie, health and disease laws).
“Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
You got it backward; being found guilty of treason prevents you from holding office in the U.S.
Your quote seems to imply that you’re both right.
Killjoy’s claim can be found in “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them *or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason”
Your claim comes from: “and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Your interpretation requires all foreign governments to be considered “enemies”. That’s… interesting.
Smoutwortel plays Civilization with “Always War” turned on.
Like Hanoi Jane ,Jane Fonda because her father and her were both rich, she escaped it.
Explain that to the President of Somalia. He isn’t even the first US Citizen to be elected president of a foreign country. If they come in conflict with the US they would be required to relinquish their US Citizenship. Keep in mind, at this time Galytin isn’t at war with the USA.
The Conventions on diplomats says they are expected (but not actually required) to be citizens of the sending country. It says that if they are not citizens of the sending country, OR are citizens of the receiving country then the receiving country must consent to their appointment and can revoke that consent at any time.
So its perfectly possible for Deus to have diplomatic immunity within the US; he just needs to have used his influence (possibly from that “private security” he just got through talking about) to get that consent from a person with the relevant authority. Galytn is a recognized country in this universe and he’s (ostensibly) not the leader (ie- not self-appointed) so he has the veneer of legitimacy to his position, which gives other countries a pretext to do business with him.
It is amazing how often I see someone say, “It’s actually treason to”, on the Internet, followed by something that doesn’t meet the definition of treason as defined in the U.S. Constitution. There are lots of things people believe to be treason that simply aren’t.
Start with loss of citizenship, I’ll double-check on the actual literal treason part and cite later if found.
https://fam.state.gov/FAM/07FAM/07FAM1280.html
What Deus is REALLY saying here is, “You don’t want to push this, because if you do, it gets messy, and you know that you’re on flimsy legal ground to begin with.”
Technically, yes, they could arrest him, deny his diplomatic immunity, and any use of force to resist the effort would be at BEST more criminality on Deus’s part (subjecting his financial holdings to some serious problems) and potentially a legitimate international incident (probably, in fact, if he has to call on his hard power in the form of “officially Galatyn supers who he happens to all have on his payroll”). And interfering with his US holdings would inconvenience very powerful US people in government, which, while potentially a sign of corruption, is still a reality.
It actually is nice to see so many agencies responding semi-autonomously, too, though; it’s a sign that they have management on the ball. They might not be doing it the best way possible, but it is responsible to be asserting their authorities in appropriate ways…and the fact they’re all engaging in a comedic pile-up is reassuring in a “checks and balances” sort of way. STill concerning, because they’re all technically Executive Branch, and that’s a different but similar problem…but it’s nice to see.
The “you people are stupid” part is that they didn’t contact Maxima upon seeing she was present with him and try to coordinate through her. First Responder rules, people!
Is the Galtyn king being that uninvolved? I got the impression he was actually interested in his nation’s well-being, so while I don’t doubt that Chancellor Deus has all this power and authority, I would expect the figurehead to also be at least in the governing council, maybe working as Deus’s unofficial right hand man in learning to run the nation successfully.
Deus doesn’t want to be king; he wants to be emperor. The local king being ready and able to take full local responsibility would be ideal for him, if said king is a good man who has the best interests of his nation – or at least enlightened self-interest regarding his nation’s success – at heart.
Notice someone in a short skirt flying at the surprise POWER snap by Maxima?
We missed the OBVIOUS question we should be asking.
Was Loralana wearing anything UNDER that skirt…
“We missed the OBVIOUS question we should be asking.
Was Loralana wearing anything UNDER that skirt…”
This question will be answered in the porn version of the story, if our dear author ever gets back to doing porn. In the meantime we will have to content ourselves with his previous work in this area.
I was unaware such “previous work” existed…
We-e-e-lll, a similar question was posed by Blonk in the previous comic, regarding the “compromising orientation”…
But yes, it would be very humorous to see a follow-up to Lorlara’s current predicament :)
Lorlara has had it explained to her that it would be a major faux pas and an embarrassment to her Lord Deus if someone should look up her skirt while flying and get a look at her panties. So to avoid any undergarment related improprieties she proactively eliminated the possibility by simply not wearing any.
Oh, well played!
Nothing ominous about that last panel…. At all.
So, let’s talk about Deus and his country’s ‘highest amount of supers per capita”.
He recruits a lot of them from other places. The Parking Lot Battle did have something to do with him. It wasn’t a highly populated place. That by itself would increase the per capita- importing supers into a sparsely populated area. Plus killing at least a few of the ones already there.
“The Parking Lot Battle did have something to do with him.
Where did you get that from.?
Well, at least two individuals involve were on retainer with SmugD, you honestly believe he doesn’t keep tabs on all his flunkies?
…and you “KNOW “this how?
Know what? That Vektor and his girlfriend were (are) on SmugD’s books? Opal was released from her cell because she works for SmugD (and she was the one to let him into the Vault), and Vektor was seen during the murder of the former King of Galtyn (possibly may be mistaken about that one)
I think he recruited them after the Parking Lot Fight.
As I recall, they’re more like recurrent-contract freelancers than permanent-payroll staff. Note how Deus reacted to meeting Cthilia in the Vault: not surprise that an employee was moonlighting for the potential opposition, but recognition from previous jobs satisfactorily carried out. Employing Supers as contractors for specific jobs lets Deus put together a customised team for each individual job without the expense of keeping many on (a suitably Super) salary, as well as leaving the Supers free to pursue other jobs or interests when Deus doesn’t have a need that suits their skills.
From https://www.fredlaw.com/news__media/2015/12/16/1079/diplomatic_protection_of_dual_nationals/
–Dual citizenship, however, can create some issues when an individual seeks diplomatic protection. The general principle governing diplomatic protection of dual nationals is set forth by article 4 of the 1930 Hague Convention: “a State may not afford diplomatic protection to one of its nationals against a State whose nationality such person also possesses.”–
So, basically, Deus’s diplomatic immunity expressly *doesn’t* work in the U.S. so long as he claims citizenship there. If he doesn’t want to be subject to U.S. laws, he can’t also claim to be a citizen.
Although he can just renounce his US citizenship, which would have no effect on his company. Also the UN had the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in 1963. The website you referred to (which is accurate btw, nice work), did seem to miss that there were later agreements after 1930, to which the US is a signatory.
But long story short, the idea of being subject to US Laws is a moot point here, since they are not arresting him, and have no grounds to arrest him anyway. It’s mostly posturing.
To be fair, that was about a minute of internet research on the subject.
It’s posturing until someone tries to force the issue. Assaulting an officer (or even just threatening to assault an officer) is pretty serious in and of itself, and that’s just for regular police. I can only imagine the mess that would result from assaulting/threatening a federal agent. (Yes, I am aware that there are limits to even federal authority. I’m also aware that resulting court proceedings would pretty much be all about who stepped over what line first and if the feds can finger Deus or his employees as having crossed a line first, that’s very bad for him.)
One can only hope Maxima is able to keep either side from escalating.
The unexpected part of that wording is that apparently if some third country, say Venezuela, wanted to send Deus to the US as a diplomat, they could obtain Diplomatic Immunity for him. Because he’s a citizen of both Galtyn and the US, Galtyn is the only country that CAN’T get him Diplomatic Immunity in the United States.
“Calm down?! I am wearing SUNGLASSES AT NIGHT! You know who does that? No-talent douchebags!”
“I wear my sunglasses at night, so I can, so I can/watch you weave and breathe your story line.”
Actually he’s right. He would have diplomatic immunity. If he wants to renounce his american citizenship, which isn’t actually a big deal for him to do. Although otherwise, a dual citizen of the US and another country does not qualify as a foreign national, and that might be a problem for claiming diplomatic immunity. Although there’s still wiggle room to argue that he can (see below). Most of the time the agencies would not open that bag of hornets though.
Most of this is set out in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1966. According to the VCCR, a person with dual citizenship (when it’s the US citizenship and another country’s citizenship) is not recognized as a foreign national. It’s less clear on whether they can claim diplomatic immunity though, since there are multiple levels of immunity that the home country can grant to a consular officer or to a diplomatic agent. Diplomatic agents get the highest levels of immunity, and it even extends to people who are not diplomats, and to people who might retain dual citizenship if those people are family members of the diplomat. This is somewhat more common than a dual citizen diplomatic agent or consular officer, since very the children of a diplomatic may wind up getting dual citizenship status.
Unfortunately I’m not exceptionally well versed in international law except as it pertains to intellectual property and basic stuff like extradition, so that’s about the limit for me. It’s probable that Deus probably has written agreements made between the US Department of State and Galytin’s government though, judging from what he said.
Here’s a brief summary of the Convention rules, of which the US was a signatory:
https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_2_1963.pdf
Different agencies also have expanded versions of this on what they can do re: diplomats and consular officers.
I’d be wary of defending Deus by assuming he’s thought of every possibility and knows exactly what he’s doing.
He’s been caught off guard before. And as smart as he is he isn’t infallible and I expect the blatant intimidation here won’t go well for him in the next page.
You know who else was a chancellor? Hitler
You know who else breathed oxygen? Hitler!
Your point is pointless.
“I have diplomatic immunity.”
“We do not recognize your government.”
“Well… shit.”
Now as a US citizen, he would have constitutional protections under the 4th, but that also goes so far. (Please note that we have no idea who is president ATM. I’m hoping it’s President ‘Not Trump’.) But worse case, the DHS can say ‘Hey, you’re a member of a state which is suspected of sponsoring terrorism against the United States and your life becomes complicated.
“I have an army of lawyers!”
“We have deemed your association with aliens and supers to be an unparalleled flight risk.”
I really want Deus to either trip up or the story to move on. He’s pretty much a Mary Sue at this point and I get that there’s ‘depth’ there, and I suspect that towards the end he’ll mean to be a good guy, but at the moment I’m pretty done with him.
Considering the comic started in 2010 and in-comic only about three months of time have passed, I think it’s safe to say Obama is still president.
Obama was expliocitly shown as president two months ago. So unless that changed in two months…
Since Deus has a super that creates portals in his employ he is unlikely to remain in custody for long no matter what BS the government lawyers spin up.
So, I know Deus has a lot of supers working for him, but I’m guessing that’s Vale whispering in the agent’s ear – the lipstick color matches, and we know she has shapeshifting powers, at the very least.
I would guess that it’s not Vale, based on the shape of the lips and chin… But Dave’s not the most consistent in that respect. She’s also not mentioned in the “Who’s Who?”, which means we’re at least not meant to be certain that it’s Vale at this point.
Wait, when did Valyeur ever shift shape? o_O
She can leave her skinsuit and then is nothing but a kind of vapor with eyes. So, it could be her. If it is, she alone would be reason enough why attempting to detain D is a bad idea.
Oh right, forgot that time she
stolefound the object Archon was looking forExcept Archon wasn’t looking for it specifically, they were looking for Sciona. They knew she’d attacked Cooter, and reasonably inferred that she’d taken the ripper, but in the aftermath of the portal explosion they assumed it was buried under a ton of rock and don’t seem to have missed it much.
Vale just picked it up out of the adjoining valley, but presumably Archon at least has an intern wandering around the mountain with a mystic metal detector or something.
Archon were still looking for it, even if they ‘assumed’ it was buried
And that’s twice that SmugD knew about something the federal agents were looking for and didn’t inform them
Regardless of Deus’ diplomatic status what really protects him here is what he said about being rich and political inconvenience for the officers’ management. We in the United States have the best politicians that money can buy, and Deus is likely to have purchased quite a few of them.
I think deus is planning to not take over the world bu unite it under one command structure.
honestly that would be the stupid plot in the fing world
what does it take to unit the world being a murderous, lying, cheating, thieving, back stabbing monster who’s all about greed and who plans only work because the writer sidesteps all normal human reacts.
the real hero of the story, chosen by god level tech for being a good person that helps others, she doesn’t matter its the Mary sue villain that does everything wrong thats the true hero…
yeah no thinaks
Wow it looks like Sydney’s comic books have been good for Maxima. She just learned a trick used by both zoom and Professor Zoom. I don’t think Hulk has done it yet it but he could
One of the Hulk’s signature moves is slapping his hands together to produce a concussion wave roughly equal to a hand grenade, only without shrapnel. Did it all the time in the comics.
I’m requiring to the snap used by Professor Zoom and Zoom. Pretty much every gamma powered person and Marvel has at one point or another perform the Thunderclap which the Hulk’s D&D create including She Hulk , doc Samson , Hulk’s other various forms Red Hulk and the list goes on. Heck in a crossover crime did the Thunderclap he was walk through it by Professor Hulk. Superman did the Thunderclap to disperse and tornado in the comics where he and Jay Garrick were working well with each other I believe that Abracadabra took control of Wally West in that one.
Ok first in panel 5 uncredited speaking part is clearly planning on explaining how diplomatic immunity wouldn’t work so even if Dave doesn’t know his characters do. Secondly did a super human in service to a foreign nation just threaten a federal employee on US soil? That could be bad.
Is anyone else getting sick of Deus? Can we just shoot him, dump the body in an alley, and forget he ever existed as we move on with the comic and characters that don’t feel more and more like a badly written self-insert Mary Sue every time he shows up?
His character is easily the worst part about the comic at this point.
Yes there are other people that dislike Deus, no we don’t have the option of killing a fictional character. Go read page one of the comments to find more people who dislike him.
And yet there are also those of us that feel that Deus is a perfectly viable antagonist. This story has one author, which is a damned good thing. Nothing more boring than a story written by a committee.
You seem to be implying that authors should ignore any and all criticism.
DavidB has a lot of good characters, Deus is not one of them; at best he’s a character that would work better with less screen time; there is definitely far too much “and look at how smart and badass Deus is, he’s so sexy and rich and nobody can touch him because money, even the heroes want set each other up with him lol”
Albert Einstein said “World War IV would be fought with sticks and stones.”
Twenty soldiers were killed from fighting, on Monday, between nuclear armed nations!
Is it possible the world is going to the dogs?
Perhaps it was fought with soccer balls.
In a similar vein, Tom Lehrer suggests that WW III will take about an hour and a half, but at least it will finally bring us all together.
Do we have a URL to go with the “finally bring us all together” bit?
We Will All Go Together When We Go – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frAEmhqdLFs
For the record, most of the nations that started WWI thought it would be over in a week or so. Their new weapons were so terrible, so horrifying, that the enemy would have no choice but to fold up and die. They thought it would be the last war ever, and finally lead to a united Europe, possibly a united world.
They were all wrong. So, so wrong.
Man, I only *just last week* learned what Keystone Cops are/were/is from a Moviebob episode, talk about timing!
They were from, the era, of Silent Movies.
Yes, I know, I only learned just last week.
You would think someone as “smart” as SmugD would know that feds don’t wear sunglasses because of the sun
But I know a bloke in Deus’ position would find it hard to not take the piss out of an annoyance.
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Your sales pitch might be more effective if you didn’t have typos in it. So much for being a professional writer.
The link isn’t even to do with writing, it’s a spam-bot
Didn’t know Spam was a Filipino dish, I always thought Spam was thoroughly British.
Is the previously invisible lady a part of Galytn’s much-talked-about army of supers?
Just a geek tangent, wouldn’t Maxima’s finger snap be more like the supersonic crack of a rifle?
I would think so; There’s just not enough air immediately around your fingers to do more than that.
It’s either Rule of Cool, or Rule of Comic. I’m going with Rule of Cool Comic, ‘cos the upshot (eewwww… did I say THAT?) could be quite funny.
I assume Lorlara has zero chill and is doing a Sydney, Deus is leaning way from the loud sound or playing up because of course he would, everyone else is just shocked. There, physics satisfied.
I’ll tell you a few agencies that do have Armed field agents that you would not think would. The EPA, got ride around with one of those guys one time. FDA, had a farmer tell me about a visit from one of those guys, and strangely the Department of Education, you know those 13-year-olds can get downright surly at times.
you forgot the Department of Energy. though those agents have one job, and zero sense of humor. which is not unexpected.
DOE has been told unless you can exsplain how people can let off energy blasts then let the rest of the alphabet deal with it (this is a guess)
I suppose it depends on if one would consider an employee (witting or unwitting) of one of DARPA’s various shell companies a field agent or not.
Darpa has people who investigate but dont have “agents” same w cdc I’m actually surprised there isn’t a secret service officer there though they actually are a branch of law enforcement attached to Homeland now although originally they were part of the Treasury Department
From personal experience: the FDA *does* have field agents, and (at least for our review and final approval) arrive dressed in full military-style dress uniforms. Like Maxima’s, though without the cloak – full gold braid, epaulets, lanyard, the lot.
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Something that bothers me is that Deus probably can’t be a foreign Chancellor while also a US citizen. The constitution prohibits titles of nobility and I believe getting one revokes your citizenship. (Title of nobility means being an officer of a foreign power, rather than anything specific)
Nope sorry that clause is for US officials, natural born citizens can not have their citizenship revoked.
Meghan Markle is the most recent example.
/court rulings also back this up so it’s not going to happen if you were born here.