Article
America! F*CK YEAH!
As I write this article, we're probably all celebrating our incredible, last-minute win against Portugal. I flew in from Israel to lay down some damage for our sixth winning round win and then stuck around to see us win 7/8 rounds. I can honestly say I've never been so psyched to see us win in this game, not even when we retook our regions or won the Canadian East Coast (or, rather, when Russia hardly put up a fight for High Iron and the UK gave us CEC).
And that's probably because the threat was so great, the chance of winning so slim, that it became a truly amazing win, something we could wave in the faces of naysayers (both foreign and domestic... you know who you are!). Whatever else happens in this war, we'll always have this day.
Indeed, it did get pretty dicey there for a while! But America didn't give up or give in!
Congress stood at the eve of war as our President explained to us why he thought we should go to war. It came down to two basic points: aiding our ally, the UK, in their war and possibly netting ourselves some Azores High Diamonds in the process. I hadn't really been paying attention to Congress that day, as I had some stuff going on in real life that took precedence, so by the time I stopped buy, there had already been some debate on the matter, the war had been proposed, and there were 10 Yes votes / 0 No votes on the matter.
I knew that if I'd voted No at that point, it would only draw out the matter for maybe another hour or two until someone else logged on to vote Yes and get this war started. Meanwhile, if I voted Yes, that would mean we could launch our attack that much sooner, giving Portugal less time to prepare. So I voted Yes, a vote that would lead to the dissolution of two alliances (the MPPs between us and Italy & between us and Spain) and our first European war (or at least the first one I'd seen). Europe, as those of you who watch foreign battles know, is a vicious battlefield filled with multi-million standoffs between juggernaut alliances, so... not gonna lie, it was kind of daunting!
But it's also exciting. With High Iron and High Grain under our belts, we're finally moving into the primary stage of war in this game. Whether we win or lose depends on each one of us doing our part in this war, so I hope you'll all join a military unit, get supplies on IRC, watch for updated Department of Defense orders, and use food/gifts for extra fights.
So what's been up in Congress? Well, there's been continued discussion of the Mentor Program, to be headed by the Department of Education (something also touched upon in
Khaled Ibrahim 's re-election article), expansion of the military (whether we can add to the already-full Army with a new Elite military unit and/or if we should start a formalized program to hand out gold to private military units), and defense infrastructure (particularly buying our own defense system company and/or continuing to buy from interested sellers at below-market rates).
We've also been working on passing a budget, which will finally be voted upon and passed into law today or tomorrow. We took a bit longer this time to come up with a budget because there were considerations over what extra things we should add (Elite MU, DS company), not to mention a war with Portugal on and the biggest enemy to progress ever: the weekend. Seriously, who wants to work on the weekend? Not the majority of Congress, I can tell you that! Though, despite it being the weekend, we did manage to vote to print and donate emergency Hell on Wheels (HoW) funds to help us win our first battle against Portugal.
Oh, we also signed a new MPP with Slovenia, mid-battle. They wanted to help and hopefully they'll prove to be a boon in this war. The only possible downside, as the President noted to Congress, is us getting pulled into the Balkan wars. But hey, we weren't going to turn down someone's offer of help, you know?
Congress has really whipped itself into shape these past two terms... using the in-game Treasury donation system to quickly get important messages out to all of Congress. With the upcoming revision of Congressional Operating Procedures by
Pfeiffer , it'll likely get easier to handle/less complex, too.
I'd like to finish up with some pre-war, more boring news. Feel free to skip it (if you've read any of this article at all, haha):
There was another discussion about how often we should donate. Though last term, we thought at least 2000 USD was a good number to have in the Treasury before donating, the discussion began with a suggestion of 2500 USD. It ended when the Secretary of Treasury showed up to tell us 10,000 USD would be fine. Of course, I didn't know this at the time, because I was too busy paying attention to real life to check the forums before prodding Congress into making a donation. This caused
Snowball the Dinosaur to make a sardonic comment in my direction referencing the thread, which I later checked. Such is life in Congress, heh.
It's not like that for the most part, though. Despite the presence of a few prickly pears, the majority of Congress still works together fairly well (which is a little surprising, considering some of the personalities we have in this term's Congress). Just goes to show you that the majority of Congress is more interested in meaningful discussions and getting stuff done than petty in-fighting.
Thanks to Speaker of the House
Pfeiffer nominating (and Congress approving) 
Wreckbeard as the new Director of the FBI, the FBI is finally in good enough shape for me to start using my citizenship approvals. This term, I used my only two citizenship approvals on these two-preapproved applicants:
LiamA657 - a UK citizen, thus a member of an allied country, who also happens to have an Irish name, which doesn't hurt, heh.
Yoyort - a Canadian citizen who is a member of the Golden Company, an MU that was itself approved for USA citizenship a couple of months back.
Lastly, I've donated my 5 Congressional gold to USA Org, to be added to our war chest.
Until next time, sAmerica,
~Astra
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Blog About Congress: Days 265-267 (13 years ago)
Next article:
[STATS] Top Damage - Azores Battle - Day 273 (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.
