[TTH] Growing up in America

Before we begin I wish to state here and now that I DO NOT speak for anyone except myself; I speak only as a 'pop gun' America Soldier of no consequence, I speak only as an insignificant but loyal American; I speak only as an American who believes in America First. As always I encourage each and everyone of you to get involved, but always remember to play your game and THINK FOR YOURSELF.





In my last article I mentioned that Secretary of Defense Senryaku reached out to me and supplied me information concerning the United States Armed Forces (USAF), he provided me with USAF Supply Structure and Platoon Requirements, which I spent some time reviewing and I must say what the USAF is offer Citizen Soldiers is above and beyond -in fact way too above and beyond.

USAF Supply Structure and Platoon Requirements

Must work in commune for Enderaggie, the job offer should be up at $1.05 on the market
The USAF provides a Q1 house weekly via cash donation (You will be sent enough money to buy a Q1 house) every Monday.
Work a minimum of 2x per day, but we allow people to miss days if Real Life comes up.
You may work as many times per day as you want.

All the above requirements are pretty much standard throughout the MU system in America and I image world wide, although it only takes a few minutes to log in, work, train and log out. The one non standard option is being able to work as much as a citizen can work each day, but when the pay is only 1.05 CC a click of which 15% goes to the 'meta government', who cares if they can work 20 times a day.

We pay salary each week for every work click over 14. This means that if you work 20 times in a week, 20 - 14 = 6, we pay you for 6 extra days of work.
Our pay is higher than the market wage and tax free, done through cash donations on a weekly basis.
In return for the 14 works that you do without payment, we will give you certain benefits depending on your platoon choice.

Totally non standard. Though most Communes set wages to the 'Minimum Wage' and then pay out the above Market Wages tax free weekly, it is not standard that you MUST work 14 days at 'Minimum Wage' before receiving that Above Market pay. Here I will point out that citizens are paid 1.05 - .1575 = 0.8925 per click or 12.495 CC  for those 14 days of work, however I will also point out BC does not issue supplies based on a citizen's work record. Also, since I do not know what that pay is I can not say if it is Above Market or not; what I can say is that the SFP offers 150 CC a day for 2 Daily Work Clicks. What this mean is that unless you are a tank and need the extra wellness a House supplies, all you will need is the one Work Click the Q1 House the SFP provides free of charge.

Soldiers in Reserves are eligible for DoDSEP gold, which means that they will receive gold for each time they work past the default 7, distributed every other week. So if you work 14 times (including the Q1 house we give you) then you can earn 7 gold in a week.
We suggest that you request as many weapons as you plan to use for the entire week if possible, so that you have to worry less about receiving the weapons you need to last you through the rest of the day.
Please do not request more than you plan to use.

Now this is where it is above the standard MU pay. Citizens who are in the 'Reserves' who work 2 clicks a day can earn 7 gold per week, Cowabunga; not even EZC when I was a member of their MFA paid that amount. I like the ability to request supplies for an entire week's worth of working, training and fighting; however what happens if on Monday I make a request for a week's worth of supplies and suddenly for RL reasons I have to spend a week away from the game? Would I be assailed for hoarding supplies, maybe even accused of using said supplies to start a program to supply other Americans?

If you have an infantry kit, you may enter the infantry, even if you do not meet the requirements.

This one I do not like at all, IMO anyone who can afford to spend RL money on this game can surely afford supplies on their own and has no need for supplies from the USAF.

This is a very good supply system and pays well, although I believe it could still be improved the DoDSEP is by far the best paying 'Training Program' of which I have knowledge; also I do not see any 'Platoon Requirements' -which I assume are standards set for joining each platoon/regiment. What I see here is American Citizen Soldiers having to earn their supplies, rather than the USAF earning the loyalty of its soldiers; a well armed American Citizen Militia wouldn't even require a Military Unit -just some loyalty shown by the 'meta government' towards American Citizens Soldiers. There is also no mention of Combat Orders (CO), which everyone knows pays only those with the highest strength levels in the Division for which they are set and are mostly set in D3/4. No mention of what happens once a Soldier leaves the 'Reserves' and is no longer eligible for DoDSEP, does the USAF help at all to maintain Training Contracts (TC). One thing I find very strange is that the only MU which benefits from Tax Revenue would encourage its Soldiers to avoid paying taxes, therefor leaving it up to the rest of America to foot the cost of running the National Military Unit.



Finally! Something I totally agree with is taking place in Public Congressional Proceedings, something I feel I can and which I can encourage the Socialist Freedom Party to get behind and push; the [Discussion] National Strength Training Program is a thread that every American Citizen Soldier needs to read and comment on. I seldom agree with my fellow rebel Arrden and almost never agree with my Political Enemy dmjohnston, but strangely enough I find myself in the same political bed with both these citizens. Bank Up 2 Strength Up (BU2SU) is an excellent program run by the Department of Citizen Affairs (DoCA) and it is a fabulous program for new Citizen Soldiers, it is based in game and not on some outside forum that a Citizen Soldier must join. Although I feel it uses Activity Indicators that are worthless -IRC and forum activity being the worst- I do agree with being a member of a -any- forum adds 0.01g a day (maybe even 0.01g per forum per day), being a member of a Party 0.01g a day, being a member of a MU 0.01 a day, and a MU Captain 0.05 a day. However paying a congress members 0.05 a day is a definite no, being a Congress Member should be about serving your country not the gold and no to activity on IRC paying 0.01 a day; anyone can sign on and sit in IRC all day -is that activity?

For me there are plenty of other activity indicators, like 0.01g per article written, 0.05g for volunteering to run a government funded program. Maybe higher pay -0.02- for those who manage to fill the form out 7 days in a row, a different price -0.015- for getting 5 days in a row; but in the end paying out for one day if that is all the citizen managed to get done -a nice little reminder. This is a program aimed at new citizens, but could be a great way to build strong Division 1 and 2 soldiers; the need for such units being demonstrated by the USAF getting cock blocked in those Divisions and Division 3 by Chile. Another great way to gauge activity was suggested a few moons ago by George S. Patton Jr in his campaign article [AMP] eWest Point Military College + Patton 4 AMP PP, Military Classes could be tied to the DoCA's Question of the Day, parties could conduct Political Science Classes and teach their next Generation of Leaders and avoid citizens such as GrEnDeLi. From the information so far gathered concerning this program, it would seem that giving gold away like this has a 52% to 55% retention rate; hell that's batting over .500 or no?



Recently the Bear Cavalry went to Thailand seeking revenge for the Air Strike (AS) against New York last year on September 11, because we kicked their asses the Thai Minister of Education and member of the Mobile Infantry of Thailand mrle1982 opened a Civil War (CW) against the USA to overthrow Dictator Beach Bunny; who became the president of the United States when they won. The leaders of our 'meta government' did not even try to defend the Dictatorship due to the fact of an extremely high determination, which was 7+ in favor of the CW; in fact they actively encouraged American Citizen Soldiers not to fight with articles such as [USA] Do Not Fight The Coup! from Party President (PP) MazzyCat of the We The People (WTP) party.

First I find it repugnant that the 'meta government' -and the United States Armed Forces (USAF) who are paid 320,000 CC per month to defend the USA- wouldn't even try to defend the Dictator they installed, instead of simply fighting off a Civil War -that would not have had a 7+ determination to overcome- by opening Meals on Wheels (MoW) and Arm America (AA) to supply American Citizen Soldiers to defend Freedom in America; what...are they afraid no one would show up? Surely it would have been much cheaper to simply fight off a Conqueror and be done with it.

Second, it irked me to no end that they would not actively seek revenge on Thailand, did nothing for almost a year and then discourage defending America from attack by Thailand.  So now that the 'meta government' after having simply sat back and allowed the USA to be conquered, wishes to simply reinstall the Dictatorship they refused to even defend; reinstalling it without any discussion to find out if a Majority of Congress may now support repeal of Using the "Dictatorship" Module as a Defense Against Foreign Dictator.

Since the 'meta government' saw no reason to defend the Defensive Dictator and in fact actively encouraged American Citizen Soldiers not to fight against the Civil War, I feel it is time America stuck a wet finger in the air to determine which way the wind is currently blowing. In the 'Franklin Stone Mega Thread' the 'meta government' keeps shoving my post into on the General eRepublik Discussion sub forum I have voiced the opinion that Congress must first establish that a majority of Congress still supports the Defensive Dictator Law by first opening a '[Discussion] Support for Repealing the Dictator Law'.



There are many citizens -most of them 'meta government' leaders- who make statements like, 'This is a game and these are the mechanics we must play with and though in Real Life I would not support...' and then go on to try and explain why they choose to abuse one game mechanic or the other. In real life the 'mechanic' of 'Dictatorship', 'Totalitarianism' and 'Cronyism' exist, they are a available for use and abuse by any real life politicians and believe me those who make such statements as the one above would take full advantage of all of them if they could in Real Life. These are the same citizens who continually go around telling everyone how much eRepublik blows, that the game mechanics are lame and it is dying, yet they spend RL money to play eRepublik and then feel they own the game and have the right to impose their will on everyone else.

eRepublik is a 'Real Life Simulator', as citizens we create Avatars and Personas to play this game; it has always been and always will be my opinion that when anyone sits down to play they can not leave their real life self behind. No matter how hard someone tries in the end their real life opinions shine through the pretend BS they try to spout. As a citizen of America my watch words have always been 'Strength & Honor', two concepts that many in the 'meta government' do not believe in; they had neither the strength of character to defend the Dictatorship they installed nor the honor to seek revenge for an attack that used real life events to troll the USA. They do not believe the concepts of strength and honor can translate to eRepublik, not because they can't; but because they have neither in eRepublik or in real life.

While I wish to stress that I believe that the Congressional Sub Forums (including Private Congressional Proceedings) that are currently housed on the 'eUSA Forum' should be moved to a different more open and friendly forum, any American Citizen Soldier who wish to influence Congress will have to step down into the sewer with the rest of the sharks. What I am asking from American Citizen Soldiers is that you make your voices heard on the 'eUSA Forum'. I encourage every American Citizen Soldier to post in the General eRepublik Discussion subform and express your opinion, ask a question; hell even advertise your in game Newspapers. However, if you desire to take part in your government and you have the stomach to join the cluster bump that is 'Meta Congress' you MUST join the eUSA Forum where the The Legislative Branch of the 'meta government' is housed.

I encourage you to join the Revolution and get involved with your government. Join a political party and make your voice heard on their forums. Join a Military Unit and help defend America.

Strength & Honor.

Join the People's party the Socialist Freedom Party and help bring about change.
Join the People's forums, Socialist Freedom Party Forum and interact with our Community of Activist.
Join the Bear Cavalry and volunteer to fight for freedom across the World.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...
...it's 4:20 somewhere.


Comrade Franklin Stone
Bear Cavalry, 4th Regiment
Pontificator of Tin Hattery
Editor-In-Chief, The Tin Hat
Media Director, SFPOM
Socialist Freedom Party
Committee of Correspondence
C'est la vie, mon chéri....