I really hope everything is okay with Dama Litz :(

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 15, 2022, 09:11:27 AM
If you believe the interviews from people like Ronald D Moore who were intimately involved in the creation and development Star Trek in the late 1990's, the original intent of Star Trek Voyager was to show the resilience of federation values in all the humanistic glory when ultimately challenged by being cut off from the resources and the superior numbers of the Federation in an area of space that was far more brutal and challenging. This is certainly where the series attempts to go for a brief while but it completely abandons this premise and its ongoing implications to its incredible detriment. Moore went on to run a strikingly similar premise in the Battlestar Galactica's 2004 reboot, a show that embraced this idea until its last 30 minutes. That is a different essay.

This is really interesting and I hadn't thought of this -- yeah, Voyager really could have been the brilliance that was early BSG.  Ragged and on the run, trying to balance their stated ideals with the practical constraints of their situation... good stuff.  Of course, BSG pretty much tanked once they started uncovering the final five, and the Starbuck thing was terrible, but the first few seasons are some of the best sci-fi that's ever been on television, comparable even to Farscape.  But the tension between Starfleet and Maquis only lasted a few episodes.  After that, it's hard to even guess at the point of Chakotay.  He just became the first of several "what do we do with them" characters, a list that included Neelix after the second season, Kes after the first few episodes, and Harry Kim right from the first second of the show.

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 15, 2022, 09:11:27 AMAdd to that after two or three seasons coming to the barrier that was Borg space, and after going ahead and adding Jeri Ryan as seven of nine (which was originally perceived as eye candy but was really one of the greatest narrative innovations of the show) having to backtrack and build a new federation out of all the societies they had encountered in order to take on the Borg. What an ultimate victory for federation and ultimately humanistic values that could have been.

The show just became the Borg Show after Seven arrived.  And that was fine, since she was an extremely interesting character for the same reasons that Data was interesting: she let the writers tell stories about humanity on a fairly blank slate, instead of as a culture clash.

I do like Voyager, though.  I rewatched it once, whereas I have never even been tempted to return to Enterprise.

Not anything more than Google turns up.  Why, do you have a copy of one of those animatronic characters from Showbiz Pizza?

I am grateful for all of the support.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on April 14, 2022, 09:27:50 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on April 14, 2022, 07:22:20 PM
Well, considering how you just voted for Breneir's bill

"Brenéir's bill" whose first draft was written by me, based on a proposal that was first raised at the last FreeDems convention ;D No offence to the Senator, but this was a cross-party initiative.

You're absolutely right, that was definitely a cross-party effort.  And it is delightful to read that post and see that it began with an acknowledgment that it really is important to let new citizens have an opportunity to jump right into the legislature and participate.  I'm glad you're listening.  Don't worry, I have a lot more ideas.  We'll get things gradually sorted.  The new Talossan Renaissance will keep on running if we just keep working and fixing things!

Folks, we really shouldn't be debating in this thread.  The SoS is gonna get mad.  Tric'hard, I'll PM you once we've worked out if we can help make this possible.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on April 14, 2022, 07:14:16 PM
On one level, you know precisely what I think of offering new citizens seats post-election; what I have always thought of it; the several legal reforms I've brought in to make it unnecessary and difficult.

On another level, Tric'hard is a valuable citizen and I did my best to offer him a place on the FreeDems list, but he declined. Surprised to see him change his mind, that's all.

The whole idea of giving free seats to new citizens is that they're unrepresented in the Cosa. But Tric'hard voted, so he is represented. I would heartily support him taking seats from whichever party he voted for.

Well, considering how you just voted for Breneir's bill last term which gives out the seats in this very thread, I sort of assumed that you'd seen the light.  It's pretty obvious that new citizens want to get involved as they get interested, here they are asking to get involved, and we should make it possible for all of them to do so.  But whatever, it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, he voted in secret, so there's no way to know for which party.  My party is discussing how we can make it possible for him to join the Cosa and have fun legislating and such, if he's interested.  If the FDT wants to join in and help, that would be wonderful.

Yes, I'll work up a better SVG of a bedpost in Inkscape if the applicant likes this approach, don't worry.  This is a baseball bat, but it's just a placeholder.

-NRH

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on April 14, 2022, 06:50:57 PM
Tric'hard, you honestly want to join the anti-government party? When the FreeDems asked you before the election whether you wanted to join the party list and win seats "the honest way", and you told us no?  :(

What exactly is dishonest about this?  He's not joining the party -- although he's more than welcome to! -- but rather just interested in serving the Cosa and I'm trying to help him make that happen.  He wasn't on anybody's list, but I don't see how that's a big deal.

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on April 14, 2022, 06:24:22 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on April 14, 2022, 06:22:47 PM

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on April 14, 2022, 05:38:36 PM

Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on April 14, 2022, 05:21:58 PM

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on April 14, 2022, 03:45:18 PM
Is there any sort of "grandfather" clause for those of us who became citizens just before the last election?

According to my reading and interpretation of Section 4.1 of the Organic Law, you would have had to become eligible to vote after the most recent election deadline. You became eligible to vote on May of 2021. Unfortunately you don't qualify for this new provision of law. A political party may give you seats if they so chose, however. There is provision in law for that.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you were hoping for.

It is the answer I expected. Honestly I'm probably not smart enough to hold a seat anyway LOL

If you would like to hold a seat, I bet the TNC can arrange that. Not like... a ton of seats. But everyone who wants to should get to participate in government. Are you interested?

Do I have to officially join the party first? Do I have to toe the party line or can I vote my conscience?

Well, hold on, if you're interested let me talk to my party and my party leader.  I can't just decide that, I'm afraid.

EDIT: We're going to chat about it -- give me a couple of days and I'll get back to you.  I doubt very much it will generally be a "toe the line" deal.

Okay, so here's Argent, a chief humetty Gules, two bedposts in saltire Azure.


-NRH

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on April 14, 2022, 05:38:36 PM

Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on April 14, 2022, 05:21:58 PM

Quote from: Tric'hard Lenxheir on April 14, 2022, 03:45:18 PM
Is there any sort of "grandfather" clause for those of us who became citizens just before the last election?

According to my reading and interpretation of Section 4.1 of the Organic Law, you would have had to become eligible to vote after the most recent election deadline. You became eligible to vote on May of 2021. Unfortunately you don't qualify for this new provision of law. A political party may give you seats if they so chose, however. There is provision in law for that.

Sorry if this isn't the answer you were hoping for.

It is the answer I expected. Honestly I'm probably not smart enough to hold a seat anyway LOL

If you would like to hold a seat, I bet the TNC can arrange that. Not like... a ton of seats. But everyone who wants to should get to participate in government. Are you interested?

My feedback on the last design:

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on March 11, 2022, 12:37:33 PM
While I never implemented this, when I reformed the Zuavs and created the current system, I imagined that their colours would be blue and red, in keeping with their Berber origin.  The French Zuoaves wore a stylized version of a traditional Berber costume, with blue jackets with red trim and red pants.  So blue with red trim would be my advice, but of course the current commander gets to set all of that policy (unless the MinDef overrules him).

The current award design -- as far as it goes -- has one silver bar awarded for PSC, two silver bars for PFC, one gold bar for SPC, and two gold bars for CPL.

Those would still be my color preferences, personally. I love the squirrel, crow, and crown motifs.

Very sharp! So now there's two competing new designs!

Quote from: Rt Hon. Mic'haglh Autófil on April 14, 2022, 10:14:53 AM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on April 14, 2022, 09:36:43 AM
New Citizen Rate - People who take the oath and become Talossans -- one of our most important indicators.  Until the past couple of months, it was a truly catastrophic flatline.  Hopefully we can keep the election-time surge going.
Application for Immigration Rate - Legitimate immigrants whose applications make it to the "post on Witt" stage.  It's a good proxy for our broad appeal and market reach, I think.

Regarding these last two, it would be interesting to keep track of the "success rate" of immigration -- that is, the percentage of applicants who actually earn citizenship. I don't know if it would necessarily be something to use as a performance metric for a government -- I think monitoring activity makes more sense there -- but if nothing else it might allow us to look at numbers and say "Oh, more applicants than usual actually got their citizenship in QX. Were we doing anything different around that time? Maybe it's something we should look into doing more regularly if it's something that catches people's interest."

Yes, I agree.  I have been urging the Government to begin keeping track of these sorts of things for a long time, like in this speech from eight months ago.  It could easily just be a simple spreadsheet on Drive -- that would allow it to be transcluded onto the website or easily linked from anywhere for public accessibility.  It would represent maybe five minutes' effort each month.