[PoTus] Days One and Two: Odds and Ends

Day 2,786, 18:42 • Published in USA USA • by Tyler Bubblar



Greetings America! That was some election wasn’t it? It was the closest election I have seen since Largo and Molly squared off last year. I cannot thank those who supported me in my run for CP enough. Obviously with such a close finish every bit of effort was worth it. For those who voted for me; I thank you for placing your trust in me. I will do everything in my power to reward that trust. For those who did not vote for me; I hope that I can change your mind with what I believe will be a strong month. I obviously would have rather won that election with a little more comfortable of a margin. However, close elections are much more exciting and likely much better for the community than landslide results.





Day one kicked relatively early for me. I stayed up until server reset (2 AM my time) monitoring the results of the election. Once that time was reached I shot out a few messages, and posted some moderator requests for the Executive section of the eUSA forums. It was well after 3 AM when I finally set my tablet aside and went to sleep. Day one of a CP term was a bit easier during the Unity days. As it was obvious who would be the next President. Secretaries knew who or could easily find out who to send transition docs for their Departments and projects. As is now the first day is usually a bit chaotic with a flurry of chasing down Org logins, ensuring access is set for the right people, and just generally getting everyone on the right page.





By now everyone or at least almost everyone has read the article written by Gnilraps. It is Titled like it was written for Wooky Jack, but is actually for the most part addressed to me. Gnilraps and I do not know one another all that well. His tenure in the Feds came to an end about 6 weeks before mine began. More than a year ago now he destroyed me in not one but two Presidential Elections. Other than that we have been in Congress at the same time and served in multiple Cabinets at the National level. Even so I have to say I was disappointed to see this article. Gnilraps you have PDB access. These questions could have been asked via PM or even posed in the PDB. The questions asked of me I will answer and say a few words of my own about the situation. From there I will not be paying any more attention to this issue as I will consider it beyond resolved and really have many other projects and tasks that need my energies.

First Bubby + Ablar = Bubblar. I used to play World of Warcraft, early on in my play my two main characters were a night elf hunter (Bubby) and a human paladin (Ablar). I raided with both of those toons and the raiders started calling me Bubblar rather than keep which character I was playing straight. I was still very into WoW when I started playing eRepublik. I would imagine the rest of the name story can easily be surmised.

Question:
"What business does Wooky Jack have in your Cabinet?

I am serious about this. Believe me, I understand about pandering for votes to win an election. I get that, though one might wonder if this particular move won you ANY votes. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that not even Wooky himself voted for you. But I am not questioning the political move at all. In the grand scheme, it is understandable.”

Answer:
I am including two quotes from my Cabinet Article.

“ I also know from experience that picking players to be in your Cabinet for purely political reasons rarely works out.”

“I have tapped players of talent, quality, and skill from the top 6 Parties knowing that when the dust settles some of these groups just won’t vote for me.”


Wooky Jack for Education was not a politically expedient pick for my Cabinet. I said this multiple times in multiples ways during my campaign, but I will say it once more in a slightly different way. I did not select people for how they would help me to win office, but how they would help me after winning office. I learned all too well in my first match up with Gnilraps for President that no Cabinet picks will make up for the shortcomings of the person on the ballot. As such I do not vote pander. I would like to think it is because I have integrity, but that integrity is also boosted by the sure knowledge that it just does not work.

I have a fairly long history with Wooky Jack. We were Feds together for a very long time. We were founding members of the now mostly defunct Cool Kids Club. I have seen first hand the kind of energy, enthusiasm, and innovation he brings to a job. So I asked him, Nick Bergman (another former Fed I know well), and Tom Cauchon ( a former Fed I came to know working in the Media Department) along with Aramec to head up a domestic squad that would bring passion and superior media to their Departments. I held no illusions that these job offers would win me their votes or any other votes. As I have stated I wanted them because they were the best fit for what I envisioned the Domestic Programs needing.

Question:
What bothers me most is the thought that an established member of, and key player in, the anti-Congress movement is included in your Cabinet.


Answer:

Let me start with once again I hate the manner in which this question was posed to me. Who does and does not get Executive access is up to my sole discretion at least for the next 30 days. In the future I will thank concerned members of Congress for allowing me to handle my cabinet as I will thank them for handling their business. I had already reached out to Wooky prior to this article’s publication to learn his intentions. On the 4th (when the liberation war in question was underway) I had a brief exchange with Wooky in which I came away thinking he would be throttling down his activity to a 2 clicking level. I was unable to confirm this with him at the time, but I was already making contingency plans in the event he was either unavailable or blacklisted.

Well he was not blacklisted, and he is still very willing to serve. I had already moved forward with tentative plans to make Jefferson Locke Secretary of Education when I learned Wooky Jack was expecting to go forward with plans to be SecEd. He has graciously accepted a Deputy in the Education spot and that is what we will be doing going forward. I cannot say this strongly enough. Wooky Jack is one of the best I have ever seen with new players. The challenge has always been to get new people involved, getting them linked up with assistance programs and the community we have built around this game. He is fantastic at outreach. That is why I asked him to help with Education and that is why I am pleased he will still be helping that Department in its goal to reach new players. As an aside: Wooky has had Cabinet level access to multiple Cabinets and has never once leaked information.





I have said now a couple of times I hate the way Gnil chose to go about this. Deepchill expressed a concern about this same issue in the PDB. Others have done the same via PM, IRC, and Skype. Publishing an article in such a public way is an attempt to put my ass in a sling. Between the proverbial rock and hard place. Going with public pressure before even attempting to make private overtures or learn more about the very circumstances pressure is brought to bear over seems like a less than ideal way of accomplishing something. I can think of few leaders who would react favorably to such a stunt. Objections to inclusions in my Cabinet are much better during the actual campaign. Granted the incident that sparked this occurred the day before the election limiting the time to ask questions or voice objection to near zero. I would like to take a moment to examine the liberation battle for a moment.

Much has been said about the Dictator law, the methodology around its passing, Gnilraps involvement in its passing, and of course the now obvious loopholes in the legislation. I will be clear in my stance on those who started and fought in the liberation war: it was the wrong move in my opinion. During the Civil Rights movement in the United States there were two kinds of movements. The non-violent, peaceful movement embodied and personified in Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and the counter racist violence of the Black Panther Party. Dr King and others worked to change public sentiment and opinion to then put pressure on the Government to strike down unfair laws, enforce laws of equality already on the books that were previously ignored, and of course pass new laws of equality. As I said I believe those who start and fight in unauthorized Liberation Wars are undermining like minded individuals who would work within the system to effect change.

My last thought on this issue of the Dictator law and Liberation Wars is to issue a challenge to Congress: it is well known now that the Dictator statute and even the later passed enforcement legislation to punish those who fight against the Dictatorship are flawed. It is illegal to fight in a Liberation war but according to the letter of the law not illegal to start one. It is illegal for a sitting CP/Dictator to ignore a vote of Congress but there is no clear penalty for doing so. My challenge to Congress is a simple one fix these flaws. Work together. Get it done.





You may have noticed there is a pending Natural Enemy on Spain. This is to provide the eUSA with entertainment, True Patriot damage, and support for our Portuguese Allies. If Congress affirms this campaign we will be getting started in less than 24 hours. This will not be the sum total of our military actions this month just a fun little beginning. More on that later stay tuned!



I would like to take a moment to give the many people who work in the executive a shout out. Transitioning as aforementioned can be a bit challenging, but for the most part it has been handled very well with few mishaps. I am very excited to see MrCarey my Chief of Staff already demonstrate that he was the right pick. He is very driven, organized, and detail oriented. eShades a first time Secretary of State has also stepped in admirably into a key position. The future is quite bright with fresh leaders like them in the mix. As a whole I am quite pleased with the team so far, and I am confident we have the right people in the right places.





I am pleased to announce that Scolbert has successfully revived the Daily Brief today. Every day a summary of the actions of the Cabinet will be posted in the public section of the Executive Boards. In recognition that not everyone will visit the eUSA Forums twice a week Scolbert will publish the summaries in game. I would encourage anyone with a question to either visit the Executive Boards and post the question in the daily summary or in a comment on the in game publications. The question can be for me or any other member of the administration. That is all I have for now eAmerica. I thank you for taking the time to read this and will be publishing again in a few days.