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Khaled Ibrahim ) had, in fact, made a report to Congress before a modified budget was proposed by 
Leroy Combs . And yeah, I've also decided I'll start naming names, as it were, in the name of disclosure, not to single anyone out in particular.
Day 242 - May 4, 2012.
Technically, I should’ve re-proposed the budget today, during the morning. But you know why I didn’t? I’ll tell you why: A) I had two topics locked for violating forum protocol while trying to get the budget up yesterday. Not really feelin' the love on the third time being the charm. B) I started getting the impression that Congress wanted to delay the budget for that one offending budget item described in my last Congressional update, so they might as well get one more day if they really care that much. C) As previously stated, it wouldn't take effect until May 6th. D) It’s Avengers Day. Everyone deserves a day off, right? Also, I reminded them that anyone else could propose it if there were no further objections, just in case.
In spite of myself, I logged in today. I just had to see what was going on with my latest two articles. Addiction, thy name is eSim. But in any case, that's when I saw this: Law proposal: Deploy building: Do you agree to deploy Q2 Defense System in region Canada East Coast (Round 4)? 11 Yes, 0 No. Voting finished 48 minutes ago. Well, all righty then. Interestingly enough, and I've noticed this on other in-game proposals, some of the names on that list are some of the names I never see in Congress (thus far, at least) -- not even just checking the Private Congress board...
I won't call out anyone in particular, but I just wanted to comment on a trend where, if you looked at the in-game law proposals, you'd think a lot of these Congressmen are a lot more active than they actually are. I can only hope they'll at least show up on the forums to vote on the budget, whenever that gets re-proposed. It might also be worth noting that if we want inactive folks to actually show up for that vote, it'll require an in-game message, not a forum message -- because forum messages do no good if they're not actually checking the forums within that 24-hour voting period.
Goal for Day 242: There was no goal.
Goal for Day 243: Get back into this Congress thing, see what's up with the budget.
Day 243 - May 5, 2012.
Presidential Election Day!
The beginning of Day 243 was still Avengers Day in my time zone, so I didn't immediately check the boards, but I did hear that the May budget was back up for a vote... with the line I previously mentioned as being a source of much debate due to it being a "metagame job" line, not covering the actual in-game costs of anything like food for newbies or weapons for soldiers. The twist in
Leroy Combs 's version of the budget was that this line be made a one-time expenditure instead of a weekly cost, to amount to 10G (vs. the 24G spent on it last month). Since it's a one-time cost, it will be paid out before anyone in Congress has a chance to contest it, once the budget is passed.
Though I grumbled a bit at that kind of swift, sneaky manuever, I still went to the Vote topic in order to vote Yes on the budget, because the other 90% of the budget was still the money needed for the continued working of our government and I wasn't going to be the one to hold that up. To be clear for anyone in Congress reading, I think the Ambassador issue should've been tabled until we could have sufficent time to examine the issue, not tacked onto the regular budget so that it would have to be passed or risk the entirety of the budget not being ready for Sunday, May 6th. If you choose to think that's not sneaky, very well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion.
I had fought as hard as I could for us to pass a budget without a salary line for Ambassador Corps., at the very least until it could be properly evaluated from last month's trial month, but I've given up. Seriously, if Congress wants to pay the Ambassador Corps. just for doing their jobs (unlike the rest of us in government, who do their jobs for free), without at least taking time out to examine the pros and cons of how it went last month, then let them. I tried. Although I haven't expressly checked at the time of this writing, I can't seriously believe the Secretary of State made his report and everyone in Congress had ample chance to debate it in the mere singular day that I was gone for Avengers Day, but what can you do?
After I voted, I saw that
Abroham Lincoln had donated one cent to the Treasury as an alert to let everyone know to vote on the budget, complete with a URL in the alert. There had been previous talk of doing such for important matters and, putting my personal feelings aside, I certainly think it suceeded. I saw Yes votes on that budget from people who hadn't posted in Congress all term before that point.
Oh, and we had a rogue proposal today, presented by that previously mentioned super-late Congressman who never shows up on the private boards. I'm only pointing him out this time because he decided to do this rogue proposal, which already had 9 No votes on it before I showed up. I texted a Congressman friend to make sure it was illegitimate, then voted No on it myself. The only other Yes vote at the time is one of the two Congressmen who haven't even signed in to Congress . Not the most stellar examples of Congress. Just sayin'.
There were also two donation proposals up in-game for a vote. The USD one passed, but the Gold one was rejected, all before I checked in to see them. The Gold one was likely rejected because we need gold in the Treasury for MPPs (Mutual Protection Pacts) and such. Speaking of MPPs, our MPP with Sweden got renewed. Yay.
I logged in just to see that the donation-with-link-to-Congress-forums method had been employed again, but honestly couldn't be fussed to click it, since I'm in "trying not to stress out" mode. Besides, now that the budget's out of the way, there's nothing else in Congress that's so important it can't wait a couple of days. I just hope I'm not missing my chance to stop something terrible.
Goal for Day 243 not completed.
Goal for Day 244: Get back into this Congress thing, see what's up with the budget.
Days 244-258 - May 6-20, 2012.
It's no secret that I suddenly dropped off the Congressional radar completely. I could sit here and make excuses (health problems, work problems, etc.), but the fact of the matter is, if I'd really felt motivated to do so, I would've made time for Congress. I certainly hadn't planned on being this inactive for this long when I asked to be elected to Congress back on April 25th.
While it'd take too long for me to read everything I've missed in Congress and give you a rundown of that (and oh boy, there's been a ton), I can give you the broader strokes of the in-game alerts I've received during this time.
The aforementioned strategy of donating money to draw attention to a particular topic was employed many more times successfully by various Congressmen hoping to get the more inactive Congresscritters to pay attention to things they felt were important. This ranged from forum topics to in-game laws; to voting Yes on good things and No on bad things/mistakes. It was even used once to tell Congress to delay voting (and, later, to vote No) on a curious Colombian MPP proposal; not sure what happened there, but it was voted down , in any case.
A whole mess of defense systems, mainly Q3, were donated to the Treasury by folks and deployed by
Uncle Sam and Khaled Ibrahim during their Presidencies, mostly hoping to fortify our Canadian region, but occasionally being given out to other regions of the US as well.
Regular donations were made of USD to the national Org so that it could be used for government slush funds... I mean, budget line items. Conversely, the national Org donated Gold to the Treasury a few times, according to May's budget.
There was another rogue proposal, this time a print money proposal, and I don't know why.
Losan33 was the troublemaker this time. Thankfully, Congress was on the ball and there were no Yes votes this time around. There were some legitimate print money proposals too, likely to create funds for our actions in Canada and Russia in gaining regions.
Changes to taxes were made along the lines of a discussion I was a part of earlier, namely to raise the income tax from 8% to 10% across the board. Although I was initially skeptical of how good of a change it would be, in the end I was in favor of the resulting additional government revenue (to be used primarily to increase national military damage), though I don't think I was around for the actual vote. 10% is closer to the world standard for income tax anyway.
There was another tax change, after we got our Pacific Coast region back, to raise the import tax on Iron to 15%. We did the same thing with Grain when we acquired our Canadian region. It's basically to discourage importers and help local businesses now that we have our own High Grain and High Iron region.
To be continued in my next article, since I just hit the character limit!
Previous article:
Short Article About War on Canada (13 years ago)
Next article:
Blog About Congress, Days 250-259, Part 2. (13 years ago)
About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
