Azul,

I have been trying to access La Tascaragnă Nouă.

Yours,

Garth Spencer
(Vancouver, Canada)

2 June 2024:
Minor Government Reform-A-X Advisory Opinions: During the last term there was opposition to allowing the Government's chief legal advisor, the Avocat-Xheneral, the ability to seek advice from the Judiciary. An eminent Talossan or two have agreed that the A-X, at the least, should have the ability to do so. I will be resubmitting this legislation as I believe it is an obvious role of the A-X. These common-sense fine-tuning reforms will be a hallmark of Open Society's participation in debates next term and we look forward to proposing them for public debate.

For voters, please feel free to review the Hopper debate on the previously proposed CpI Advisory Opinion Expansion Amendment. It appeared to have some multipartisan support.

First of all, my life outside of Talossa has been incredibly hectic in the past year, owing mainly to helping in taking care of my father, whom our family and with his voluntary blessing put into assisted living at least on 19 May of this year.  He is doing very well there, and I've moved into a friend's guest-room for six months to a year.

Hence the reason why today almost passed me by.

"A Nation Sundered" describes Mad King Ben in March 2004 accusing another Talossan citizen, Kane Cavier, of domestic violence, a charge I continue to believe to be utterly false, even if his long-ago record of petty crime to that point might give a different impression cosmetically.  I still believe Kane.

Ben by doing this wanted Kane out of Talossa, and he figured things would get so hot for Kane he would flee the country and the greater Talossan nation altogether.

Ben did succeed in driving Kane out of the country, but ten of us and more soon thereafter went with him to form the 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa.

Unfortunately, mistakes were made.  We never should have kicked everyone but us off of Wittenberg X.  Only Ben and Queen Amy needed to have been tossed out.  Had we done things that way, I think we would have gotten far more sympathy from far more people, but at this time, no-one was thinking with a clear head.

Moreover, talossa.com was in the hands of "one of us" and was redirected from the kingdom and to the Republic's new webspace. This should have been done with far more sensitivity, to be sure.  It is late, and I do not have the time to fully discuss that point other than to say we should have done something different with talossa.com

Both these mistakes affected innocent people, and for those mistakes, we have continually been sorry they occurred.

The colossal edifice of the history of the Republic vs. King John and so much else will be best told by others.  Moreover, even the Republic itself was anticlimactic.  When Ben falsely accused Kane of domestic violence online in a public forum, the situation became fully untenable, and "old Talossa" was irreparably damaged.

The healing of Talossa began on 1 June 2004, and it continues today.  In fits and starts, perhaps, but since Ben left, no Talossan has appeared with the same level of vindictive spite Ben Madison had toward those he didn't care for, even with his many, many good qualities both as a Talossan and as a person outside Talossa.

The 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa is a cautionary tale that ended miraculously with Reunision on 20 April 2012.  I still find it unbelievable so many of us "down south" came to the Kingdom who had never been in the kingdom before, and in my mind, Reunision was a nigh-on complete success.

May Talossa live on, and may it continue to be free, fun, and fair. - GV

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on June 01, 2024, 06:39:41 PMWell, if the Open Society is welcoming people with such a track record as new members with a "Yayyy", then surely the party becomes politically responsible for that record? I should emphasise that this doesn't just refer to your party - the Red/Green party, as the party of the outgoing Seneschal who also thought there was no problem with that way of dealing with TERPs, faces the same question.

I just realised that the haughty refusal to answer a simple question ("do you think that style of answering TERPs is appropriate, or don't you")... kind of answers the question in and of itself. It seems that we have to start all over again with the question of whether political differences in Talossa justify outright rudeness and hostility.

Ok, Miestra.

Well, if the Open Society is welcoming people with such a track record as new members with a "Yayyy", then surely the party becomes politically responsible for that record? I should emphasise that this doesn't just refer to your party - the Red/Green party, as the party of the outgoing Seneschal who also thought there was no problem with that way of dealing with TERPs, faces the same question.

I just realised that the haughty refusal to answer a simple question ("do you think that style of answering TERPs is appropriate, or don't you")... kind of answers the question in and of itself. It seems that we have to start all over again with the question of whether political differences in Talossa justify outright rudeness and hostility.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on June 01, 2024, 06:24:57 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on June 01, 2024, 04:42:54 PMWhether he was rude to you is something you should hash out with him directly.

Well, no. It's a question of how Ministers should react to Terpelaziuns. Decorum, honestly, respecting the opposition's role in seeking accountability, etc.

While Free Democrats were in government we got a whole lot of what we considered annoying and bad-faith TERPs, but I think we at least attempted to answer all of them and didn't say "it's a secret" or "I'll tell you later" to any of them - I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm remembering wrong.

I'd recommend taking that up with Mximo directly if you genuinely believe he was lacking in decorum or not respecting your role as the Opposition. Sorry to hear you were annoyed by some of those terps we sent your way though.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on June 01, 2024, 04:42:54 PMWhether he was rude to you is something you should hash out with him directly.

Well, no. It's a question of how Ministers should react to Terpelaziuns. Decorum, honesty, respecting the opposition's role in seeking accountability, etc.  If I refer to one Minister, it's because no other Minister in the previous two TNC governments has behaved this way.

While Free Democrats were in government we got a whole lot of what we considered annoying and bad-faith TERPs, but I think we at least attempted to answer all of them and didn't say "it's a secret" or "I'll tell you later" to any of them - I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm remembering wrong.

The standpoint where we won't condemn bad behaviour (even if we've railed against it ourselves) if our political allies do it is a menace to Talossa.

This holiday is passing by with a whisper sadly.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on June 01, 2024, 04:28:19 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on June 01, 2024, 03:43:39 PM

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on June 01, 2024, 03:37:58 PMDoes this mean that the OPEN party endorses the performance in office of the outgoing Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs? And his attitude to Terpelaziuns?

I really want to know more about the history between you and Mximo.

That's not an answer, but I'm happy to give some information. Here is some background.

The only other thing I can add is that he was once an MC for the ZRT (Republican predecessors of the Free Democrats); if I remember right, what happened is at the end of that Cosă term I called for volunteers for the next Party list, Mximo didn't respond for whatever reason, and, well, I didn't pursue the issue very hard for reasons detailed in the above link. You'd better believe he didn't take that well.

In general Mximo has a record of doing 180-degree political turns based on perceived personal slights, which seems to be a theme these days.

Now. I know that you've been a big fan of the power of Terpelaziuns to hold Ministers to account; and that you're not a big fan of inactive ministers, or Ministers who rudely dismiss polite questions; so I'll repeat my initial question.

I will repeat my answer from the Political Discussion thread, Miestra, since you've asked the question previously. Questions to or about Mximo seem to be a current theme of yours. The fact that there was not more progress on LOSS was regrettable. Whether he was rude to you is something you should hash out with him directly.