a Për of profound gratitude for his friendship and the privilege of knowing him in this life

Voting begins now and concludes at the end of voting for the March 2021 Clark.  I will Clark a similar resolution for the entire Ziu, but thought it appropriate after all to put this before us as our own body.  Thank you, all!

Senäts Resolution (February-March 2021) in Memory and Honor of John Carl Eiffler / Art Verbotten

WHEREAS John Carl Eiffler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - known to Talossans as 'Art Verbotten' - was in the Talossan community from at least 1980 onward and was active from the mid-1980s through ca. 2010.

WHEREAS he was an active citizen of the Kingdom of Talossa and later of the 2004-2012 Republic of Talossa and whose April 2004 renunciation of the Kingdom helped (along with Bill Cooper's renunciation the same night) throw the full light of clarity and truth on Ben Madison's vendetta against Kane Gruber,

WHEREAS his presence in Talossa was one of consistency, approachability, and a continual fount of wisdom,

WHEREAS he was called the 'Conscience of Talossa',

WHEREAS he was born 14 July 1964 and died on 10 January 2021, though the Kingdom did not hear of it until a fortnight afterward,

WHEREAS he was able to, in only a few gracious and pointed words, distill a conflict and put all sides in their places, seeing through everyone's b-s,

WHEREAS he was just plain cool and his loss is a profound one to the Talossan Kingdom community, the micronational community at-large, the Talossan expatriate community, and most of all to his family and friends outside of Talossa,

WHEREAS the Kingdom of Thord has left the building,

THEREFORE, the Senäts of Talossa extends its profound sympathies to Eiffler's family and friends as well as to R. Ben Madison, Ián U. Metáiriâ, and all the greater Talossan nation.

May John Carl Eiffler / Art Verbotten be remembered for his wisdom, wit, and for being a giant who walked among us.

Rest in peace, brother.

Proposed on 19 February 2021 by the entire Senäts of the Kingdom of Talossa, of which Eiffler had been a member on at least one occasion - Authored by Gödefrïu Válcadác'h, Fiôvâ

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on February 15, 2021, 02:05:10 PM

Quote from: GV on February 14, 2021, 11:38:55 PM
As to the ten years requirement, is this 'ten years since original naturalization with no break in citizenship'?  This will force us to do something Ben Madison never wanted to do: keep exact records as to who renounced and when and who returned and when.

I thought we already did that

QuoteOne can be a provincial executive and a Senator, as I was in Fiova 2017-2018, and possibly in my Maricopa days.  Do they get two votes (hope not) or is the conclave deprived of a vote?  Multiple office-holding of all permutations must be taken into account. ...There should be a mechanism to keep the eligible voters at an exact multiple of three.

Also, what would be your requirements to be monarch?

Taking this into account wouldn't be so hard; nobody gets more than one seat regardless of the number of ways they qualify. This would make the number of seats in the Convocation variable, but that's OK; a threshold for a 2/3 majority can be calculated regardless.

I would not make any requirements to be King; I trust the Convocation to get it right.

At least up to 2004, renunciation records were only retained if one having renounced did not make a return to Talossa.  Once a return to Talossa was made, the renunciation date was expunged as Ben always wanted to be magnanimous with things like that.

I would have the minimum age for monarch to be 30 years at the time of the 'demise' of the previous monarch (in whatever manner).

Quote from: Ian Plätschisch on February 14, 2021, 01:24:34 PM
Anyway, I've come up with a proposal to elect the King.

A convocation of the following people:
-Eight MCs, chosen by the parties in proportion to their Cosa seats (plus the Seneschal if not an MC or Senator)
-The eight Senators
-The Justices of the UC
-The eight provincial executives
-The eight officers of the Royal Civil Service
-All Talossans who have been a citizen for at least ten years

The King is elected from this group papal style; repeated single-preference votes until someone gets 2/3.

Apportioning the MCs will be a close thing with close decimals.

As to the ten years requirement, is this 'ten years since original naturalization with no break in citizenship'?  This will force us to do something Ben Madison never wanted to do: keep exact records as to who renounced and when and who returned and when.

One can be a provincial executive and a Senator, as I was in Fiova 2017-2018, and possibly in my Maricopa days.  Do they get two votes (hope not) or is the conclave deprived of a vote?  Multiple office-holding of all permutations must be taken into account.

This proposal seems to my mind in snowing Houston (yes, indeed) to be a good start, however.  There should be a mechanism to keep the eligible voters at an exact multiple of three.

Also, what would be your requirements to be monarch?

+1

This also, by implication at least, addresses what would need to be done should extra-Talossan crimes be tried in a Talossan court of law.  Well-done on this.

Quote from: Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on February 03, 2021, 12:06:33 PM
It would be an abrogation of my duty as Regent, appointed to act in His Majesty's stead in his absence, if I failed to warn that I could not in good faith approve a bill which would eject His Majesty from the throne immediately, and which would further adopt a drastic new change in government on the basis of a 1.5% majority in a midterm referendum.  I feel very strongly that King John would certainly veto any bill which dethroned him, and accordingly I will veto such a bill in his name, if put to it.

Is John in poor health?  Is John in the midst of a real-life crisis?

If 'yes' is the answer to either of these questions, the tone of this discussion rightly changes.

Until we hear otherwise, it has been established the King is good health and is crisis-free.  Therefore, I can rant.

54RZ28 did away with the hereditary aspect of the monarchy.  That amendment was ratified by the people through referendum ending in August 2020 by a 2-1 margin.

On 3 August 2020, the King logged onto Wittenberg for the last time for two months, having not appointed a regent. 

In September 2020, I made a phone call to the King for the specific purpose of welfare-checking to make sure his health was fine.  His health was fine, and he was crisis-free.

In October 2020, Alexander Davinescu, whom the King knew full well to be competent as well as the most offensive person to the non-monarchists he could have put in that post, appointed him Regent for an indefinite term.

According to his [John's] Witt profile: Last Active: Witt XIV 14 October 2020, 16:52:41

What if I as a Senator decided to go incommunicado?  When I was PM, I was incommunicado for one week, and the whole country was up in arms.

Yet, the King chooses to be incommunicado for *months* at a time, is established to be healthy and crisis-free, and no-one bats an eye.

Is this acceptable conduct from a Talossan Head of State?

It is no coincidence the King went AWOL on 3 August 2021, at about the same time the referendum to take away his ability to name his royal heir was stripped from him.

This ability to name his heir was taken away from him and future monarchs because the prospect of hundreds of years of royal veto-power by an unelected string of monarchs (after John) was rightly found unacceptable to a majority of Talossans. 

By way of 54RZ28 the question was put to the people.  By way of a subsequent referendum, the people answered.

Talossa has made it clear it wants to retain the monarchy.  I personally have no problem with that. 

But monarchist Talossa wants a monarchy with power.  Fine.  Does this mean an endless string of unelected monarchs with power, then?  Is that what the conservative Talossa of 2005-present wants? 

Monarchy in the past has been the warlord taking castles and putting a crown on his head.  For Talossa, Elizabeth II gave the world a new model of how monarchy should be, but one which may not outlast her (that means you, Charles).

An election at the end of each term-limited reign along with a reign being limited in time does two things: it keeps monarchs from reigning too long (unless the people wish it), and it keeps the monarchs on their toes.  Want another seven years on the Throne?  Don't be incommunicado for months at a time, then.

The old-style form of life-term, long-term, hereditary monarchy simply does not work with human nature.  Sir Winston was right: democracy is the worst form of government save for all the others.

The 2017 Organic Law makes it very difficult to throw out a bad monarch.  With an elected monarchy, we throw the bum (not John) out straightaway.

Why can't we have the benefits of election along with the tradition of monarchy, Alexander?  What's wrong with that?

I would also suggest if someone does not receive broad support, the UCort, Speaker, OppLeader, Mencei, and DepPM should be a Council of Regency (presided by the Sr Justice as a first among equals) for one year and then hold an election again.

Should there be no monarch selected again, that council keeps reigning with monarchial elections held each year until a new monarch is selected.

I would suggest 'broad support' meaning 67% of all eligible voters in the first round of an election consisting of no more then two people.

Wonderful issue as always.  Thanks for all your work on this and for Talossa.

GV, Oraclâ magazine

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on February 01, 2021, 04:01:47 PM

• Put his picture on a Talossan stamp
• A grove of memorial trees
• The first entry in a Talossan Online Hall of Remembrance

Any other ideas?

Whatever we do will set a precedent for how we deal with the future deaths of other Talossan titans.  May those events be many years away.

These three ideas are highly appropriate.

55RZ18 - Për

GV, Fiôvâ

Azul, and thanks, all, for continued near-perfect voting attendance for this Cosâ as of the January 2021 Clark (3rd of this term).  Happy Valentine's Day!

GV, Mencei

https://freedems.proboards.com/thread/112/freedems-convention-2021-thread-welcome

All are welcome to attend - and vote FreeDems!

GV, Party Secretary

I have left some words on Eiffler's online 'guest-book'.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/john-eiffler-obituary?pid=197544328

Malaysia.

No need to be pedantic.