Join the new world

Table of Contents
1. Chairman's Message
2. The Dust Settles
3. An Interview with Phoenix Quinn
4. Franklin Stone's Corner
5. Poll Results

Well, this is it. The conclusion of the month. The conclusion of one helluva crazy month.

We accomplished a lot:

We're back in the #3 slot for membership.
We did our usual media blitz (4/5 Top 5 as of press time)
We gained levels, XP, rank points and strength
We donated gold, CC and other goodies to our newest members
We contributed to the massive BC commune overhaul, which is now in fine working order
And most importantly, we had fun.

Thank you all for your help and dedication this month. I don't know where the next month will take me.
As my fellow comrades know full well, I was blacklisted last week and my future among the community is unclear.

My account feels a bit like a boat with sails currently, maybe I just need some wind to catch.

Sincerely,
Tom Cauchon

The dust is settling after the revolution. A lot has been said about it- a lot is still to be said, I'm sure. I know that the game was more active in four days than I had seen it in the preceding four months. 24 SFP members have been pretend-banned from Congress, but that hasn't stopped us. We're the most active, most vibrant party and the only one that's accomplished anything in months. We did what we've set out to do- toppled the dictator that had blighted our democracy for quite some time. As we enjoy these 10 days of freedom, I think it only right we recognize those who've been targeted by the oligarchs for "silencing":


Now, there are other meta-consequences involved. Discussion abounds about launching a PTO against the SFP. The oligarchy wants to make sure their vicegrip is not threatened again! If any of those 24 is elected Chairman or sent to Congress, there is an "obligation to PTO" in place. Be prepared for that eventuality, as most of the SFP fought in the revolt. Friends in the BSP and other parties have voted against this mass blacklist, but there are not enough votes to prevent it.

So we sit at a crossroads. Do we cave to the oligarchs, refuse to run any of those 24 people, and wait out a blacklist so we can rejoin them playing their games? Do we continue on as a party and let the chips fall as they may? These questions and more we must mull over for the upcoming weeks. What we can not do is let fear rule our actions. We've got many contingencies in place in the event of a PTO, and should the worst happen and a PTO occur- we've been living under a national PTO for months now, and after the oligarchs reinstall their dictator we won't have a voice in Congress anyway. We'll adapt and overcome.

Stay strong, comrades! We knew going in this wouldn't be an easy fight. Round 1 is over, and there's a lot more of the fight to go.



BG: You’ve described the e-USA as a woman who talks into your ear. Was that your mother?

PQ: No, it wasn't my mother's voice that I heard, but rather the secrets whispered to me by a forbidden lover during an intimate moment.


BG: What have you lost over the course of your e-life?

PQ: I would say that I am the sum of all my failures. When I was young, I wanted to be a gymnast, but my balance was not great. Then I wanted to be a saint, but I could not do that because I have a number of sinful tendencies. After that I tried to be an e-artist. Now I paint with electronic words, mostly stolen ones.


BG: When you read that the famous e-literary critic Josh Whitehead said that you write like a woman, what was your response?

PQ: I did not laugh. Neither did I grunt. I took it as a just and honest eulogy.


BG: Is there such a thing as "writing like a man"?

PQ: The only important thing is to write honestly. I e-am the words that I e-speak. And if I give my words to you I give of myself.


BG: Is there an e-zeitgeist, an e-spirit of the e-age we inhabit?

PQ: The e-world today goes about like a blind person caught in the middle of gunfire.


BG: Is history the story of the rise and fall of empires? Or is there another view that you might suggest?

PQ: Many of the best stories do not end happily. And of course history itself never ends. It begins anew each day. When we think that it is saying goodbye to us it is really just saying "see you later".


BG: Was there a pivotal e-year for you? Or are pivotal times a nice fiction we tell ourselves?

PQ: Time makes fun of those who try to measure it. Yet time also understands our need to fix memories so that they won't just vanish like sand dunes in the wind.


BG: How do you see e-reality?

PQ: All reality is magical. Reality always has surprise and mysteries, though we are often blind and deaf to it. Writing helps us a little bit to capture its fullness.


BG: I think it was Osmany Ramon who once said that our age is defined by exile, refuge and displacement. What do you think of that?

PQ: The Dealer and his minions teach us that The Other is a threat, that our fellow players are a danger. We are all exiles as long as we accept the paradigm that the world is a battlefield. We can be compatriots of many people even if they are born far from our lands and their stories and songs are of other places and other times.


BG: Has some kind of e-Marxism or other religion or ideology helped or hindered you as a writer of the e-world epic?

PQ: I had a Christian infancy, a Marxist adolescence, a Buddhist adulthood and now that I am ancient, I am a non-committal anarcho-atheist. I have pored over both The Bible and Das Kapital, as well as the Tripitaka. I ought to be exhibited in an anthropology museum. Of course, all of of these influences are alive in me, but none of them own me.


BG: As you have aged have you come to feel that biology plays more of a role in life that you did as a young man?

PQ: Einstein said it takes many years to learn how to be young. That's what I am going about doing now.

Comrade Franklin Stone
Socialist Freedom Party


It has been said that running a government, especially one the size of the American Government you need easy ways to communicate; hence the use of such things as outside forums, IRC, Skype and even our own personal phones. The ego boost it must be to hear that message tone play 'Hail to the Chief' when someone from the virtual world needs your attention. Or to hear that ping on the IRC Channel when someone informs you some peon wrote about you in the Media, which BTW is quite dead. The one I love is when my message tone plays 'Sympathy for the Devil' and I find out another of our great and wonderful 'Meta Lords' has mailed in another Political Campaign.

During the Presidential Elections just past Wild Owl, who now resides in Romania, had the endorsement of 4 out of the 5 Top 5 parties; so he mailed in a campaign and sat back on his laurels to bask in his own radiance -he lost. Now the United States Workers Party (USWP) member who just recently announced his candidacy for Party President (PP) and who was a huge supporter of Wild Owl -a Dictator who mailed in his last Administration- is another Politician that mails it in; he can't even communicate enough to put out a Campaign Article that articulates what it is he will accomplish and yet in Congress demands it from others.

Instead he sings and displays skinny wenches that would blow away in a strong wind, he proclaims he'll do stuff when what he means is others will do stuff and I will take to credit for those achievements. Besides helping to Blacklist 24 Americans from Congress with no evidence, other than driving away active citizens from America, the eUSA Forums and more importantly Congress; what has he actually done? Other than running his mouth, throwing out idiotic one liners; just what -if any- actual work has he accomplished?

He instigated and then helped drive out the JCS and gave us the National Security Council (NSC), which is simply the JCS renamed and manned with citizens approved by that same minority 'Congressional Majority'. With his help all the citizens who stood against a Foreign Policy of Appeasement were drive out by that same minority 'Congressional Majority', now the eUSA lives on its knees behind a Defensive Dictator Shield; a shield which removes all in game Congressional Power and gives it to a minority 'Congressional Majority' that is out of touch with eRepublik. Why? Because they no longer play eRepublik, a fact of which they very proud.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I came here to play eRepublik. To those of you in the USWP who voted for Gnilraps, the SFP and for change; here is you chance to strike another blow for change. As a member of the USWP you can help bring change by simply voting for any candidate other than the one who recently announced his candidacy.

Strength & Honor

Poll Results:

This issue's poll question was "Who Shot First?" with possible answers Han Solo and Greedo.

The results are in!

With 67% percent of the vote, Greedo apparently shot first.

Next issue's poll question will be- Waffles or Pancakes?

Seriously though, Greedo shot first? I guess they all watched the re-releases...