The Phospholipid Bilayer of Tripod II is a colossal, genial nation, ruled by Carey Weed with an iron fist, and notable for its state-planned economy, compulsory vegetarianism, and prohibition of alcohol. The compassionate, cynical, humorless population of 2.753 billion Tripodlians are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich. In their personal lives, however, citizens are relatively unoppressed; it remains to be seen whether this is because the government genuinely cares about its people, or if it hasn't gotten around to stamping out civil rights yet.

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, corrupt, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Administration, Environment, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of a jar by the door. The average income tax rate is 95.4%.

The frighteningly efficient Tripodlian economy, worth 295 trillion Synonyms a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. The industrial sector, which is highly specialized, is led by the Book Publishing industry, with significant contributions from Basket Weaving and Tourism. Average income is an impressive 107,455 Synonyms, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Spies caught red-handed are served cocktails on their first-class flights home, it is mandatory to learn evolution in schools, Carey Weed is too busy listening to praise to get any work done, and the nation's space program is doxxing the planet. Crime is totally unknown. Tripod II's national animal is the Scone, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Electoral Carnage.

Tripod II is ranked 15,434^th in the world and 54^th in The Region That Has No Big Banks for Most Cultured, scoring 96 on the Snufflebottom-Wiggendum Pentatonic Scale.