Sort of surprising how perfectly symmetrical things are, but I guess that makes sense if multiple teams were auto-drafted (mine was and obviously the computer-managed team was, that's at least two)

Unfortunately this weekend is quite busy for me

"Fraichetz dels punts, es non dels mürs."

These words -- "Build bridges, not walls" -- adorn the arms of His Majesty the King. Earlier this year, he mentioned to me that he wanted to help put them into action a little better to serve Talossa and encourage a more positive environment. In light of this fact, and in light of the fact that I've had a few citizens ask me who it is I can see myself working with in the next term, I see no reason not to lay out a few of my possible bridge-building intentions now.

Acknowledging that no party is anywhere near likely to get a majority -- as I mentioned at Coffee With the King on Saturday, it's almost a mathematical impossibility with five parties on the ballot -- coalition government is pretty much a given, so I may as well start with the groups I would be open to leading the URL in cooperation with in the next term.

• The PA: This probably surprises some of you given the fact that neither party is particularly keen on each other, but frankly, there is a good chance of a grand coalition being the outcome of this election. That can happen in democracy -- our German-Talossan citizens would know! There are, of course, some things I would expect out of such a partnership: respectful dialogue in private; no throwing people under the bus in public. Keeping our business honest, avoiding mischaracterization. Maintaining a decentralized model of Cabinet organization; many hands make light work! Respecting the continued neutrality of the justice system and the civil service. Agreement to pursue minor bipartisan reforms -- something along the lines of pro-democratic electoral reform, perhaps -- but also agreement not to bite off more than we can chew. Anything more specific than that, of course, will depend on what we know two weeks from tonight.
  
• Independent Green / Anarcho-Surrealist: Admittedly, there's not much I can say about @Garth Spencer 's platform, but I like his commitment to "keeping Talossa weird", so to speak. I think his lone campaign mailer thus far shows that he's an open-minded fellow that can find something positive in everyone else's platforms, and I respect that. Hard to put down any guidelines for cooperation at this point though, so we'll just see where the chips fall, I guess.

There are, of course, a few groups I can't see the URL agreeing to work with on points of principle:

• Green Party: I mean, this one is obvious. We've already pledged not to work with the Greens, and that's a promise we're going to keep. 'Nuff said there.
  
• In Defensa Traditionis: Don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to see new citizens getting involved in politics. Talossa's democracy is one of it's strongest suits -- which is exactly why we need to keep it that way. As Talossa's principled, pro-democracy party, the URL is simply too far from IDT ideologically to envision any possibility of cooperation, though I wish S:reu Maltezos well on his Glheþ-related pursuits and look forward to seeing him around the Cosa.

The contempt you have for the intelligence of voters is astounding.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on November 17, 2025, 05:36:30 PMSo are we confirming that "work with anyone" means anyone except the Sex Pest?

Don't even need to ask about Green Party voters, the contradiction is even more obvious. "Work with anyone" and "refuse to work with the Green Party" are mutually exclusive promises, which means one of the two overrides the other.

Not sure I've ever seen anyone break a campaign promise before the election ends, but there's a first time for everything I suppose.

Sad to see the Progressive Alliance is withdrawing from this agreement! Their more recent pledge to "work with anyone" appears to be taking precedence over their previous, more principled stand.

The pursuit of power at any cost is not a good look on them.

Quote1. Manager-less Team 1 4-1-0

Undefeated

Quote from: ProspectiveCitizenAndrew on November 15, 2025, 08:59:57 PMI am a vexillologist, and I would like to join the Royal Academy of Vexillology.

So! Once you are a citizen, I would recommend joining the College of Arms; from there, if you'd like to focus on the RAV, I'd be happy to have you join!

Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on November 15, 2025, 12:27:28 PMLooks like it was posted online about a year ago.

No disrespect to the Talossan presenting it. CBS 58 didn't really do a very good job. Feels like they were kinda making fun of us.

Not all publicity is good publicity.

I didn't get the feeling they were making fun of us, but it did definitely feel like very...mediocre journalism. Like they probably could have asked Ben if the graphics they were going to use were right, at least.

Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on November 15, 2025, 11:42:01 AMJust watched the piece that CBS 58 did about Talossa. When the reporter talked about our flag, the image shown was actually the flag of the Republic of Talossa. Haha!

To be honest, the piece wasn't that great.

You mean the piece that @Bentxamì Puntmasleu did a year or two ago? Yeah, I think they used the Republic's map, too.

Quote from: King Txec on November 15, 2025, 10:40:19 AMThank you to all the folks who came out! Sadly the meeting ended mid conversation since I don't pay the premium for Zoom! Ah well.

-Txec R

A few of us have actually hopped back in using your link above!

The Union of Free Reformists is pleased to endorse the candidacy of Sir @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP for the special Senäts election in Maritiimi-Maxhestic.

I'm glad you asked! We've had quite a few discussions about our goals over the past few weeks, but it's helpful to get it all in one place:

• Stand on Principle: When we say we'll do something, we mean it. When an issue is important enough that we say we definitely won't do something, we mean that, too. Other parties may break their promises before the election is even over, but the URL believes in being better than that and setting an example.
  
  
• Continued Success on Immigration: This term saw such a boom in immigration that Talossa finds itself with more citizens than it did when the term started. We saw a new one-month immigration record set in October that's almost double the previous record -- and that's compared to nearly the last seven years! A lot of this was due to the tireless efforts of Miestră Schivă in her role as Immigration Minister, making the changes necessary (including legislation where appropriate) needed to make immigration a less onerous process for applicants. We're going to continue "trimming fat" where appropriate, while also sponsoring legislation to make the process more impartial and transparent. Targeting an average rate of one citizen a month is a realistic goal (that's a goal we're guaranteed to exceed this term, by the way!), but using average rates is also a wise decision to prevent people from trying to light the country on fire again the next time we have a dry month.
  
  
• Mentorship for New Citizens: While the Immigration Ministry has quietly revived the TalossAssistant program, I think it might be more helpful to look at the other side of the coin: what do we do with new citizens once they've immigrated? And the answer, for many years now, has been...not much! I've already put up a few recommendations for new citizens that should prove helpful -- they were based on feedback from new citizens, after all -- and I think an optional mentor program for recent immigrants, a "Novice Network", if you will, would be a logical next step.
  
  
• Pro-Democratic Reform: As one well-respected Talossan recently put it: "everywhere else on Earth, ballot secrecy is considered a necessary condition for a proper democracy." Talossa does not, in fact, have true ballot secrecy. Our elections are more like those in North Korea or the former East Germany: you can vote publicly, or you can vote privately -- but your choice to vote privately is in and of itself public knowledge. This allows for a great deal of peer pressure when it comes to voting -- and it also allows pocket votes to simply copy and paste someone else's vote, which as you can see, makes certain votes look very suspect indeed. The URL supports protecting the secret ballot and mandatory party lists from other party's attempt to erase them, and believe that in the case of the former, stronger measures are needed. Ballot secrecy protects voters' freedom of conscience.
  
  
• Reforms in the Zouaves: Talossa's "military" has seen signs of life recently, and that's a good thing. The Zouaves are the most effective tool the Government has to promote cultural development, but they themselves need a bit of development too. I'd like to start with "exhibitions": creating "exhibitions" are how you get promoted in the Zouaves, and there are a lot of things that qualify! But in the time I've been a citizen, it doesn't seem like we've ever had a way to be sure you get credit for something! How can you know you're close to promotion if you don't know your work will count as an exhibition? Problems like these are ones I intend to help the Zouaves solve.
  
  
• Refreshed Visuals Nationwide: Talossa has quite a few talented artists. We've got talented web developers, wiki editors, the whole shebang. We need to use them better! It's not just the Zouaves that need a visual refresh, it's not just the website, it's...most things, really. The wiki's main page is cluttered with information. The website feels very dated, which is a problem that is deeper than content. Better visuals help to make us more appealing to people who are considering joining our community. Bringing the nation into alignment with what people expect on the internet in 2025 isn't a small task, to be perfectly level with you, but it presents a lot of opportunities for everyone to make their mark!
  
  
• Continued Work with Other Micronations: One thing our Government pledged in this last term is more contact with the micronational community. While "you can lead other micronations to the Landing Pier, but you can't make them post" might be the important lesson learned, that leaves us with two conclusions moving forward: one, we should be very choosy about the nations we wish to try and form relations with, and two: the micronational community is perhaps most valuable when we focus on the organizations as opposed to individual nations. I've already proposed a Talossan Micronational Olympic Committee as the first way to do this, in order to utilize micronational competition for the same reasons macronations utilize the "big" Olympics: namely, publicity and soft power. Our steps into the micronational community have in fact borne fruit: at least one new citizen this term immigrated after we introduced Talossa to the wider micronational world, and they liked what they saw! The only way to make sure that isn't the last citizen we recruit from the community is to remain active in it.
  
  
• Realistic, Measurable Goals: A government that's promising to be all things to all people is a government that's going to leave a lot of people disappointed. It's one thing to talk a big game. It's another to deliver! Personally, I'd rather have a government say "hey, we'll be making incremental changes to X, Y, and Z" and then end up being able to do that and add in I and J too.
  
  
• Talossan Culture Kept in the Hands of the People: One of the big draws of a micronation like Talossa is that you can make of it what you want! Talossan culture is sort of vague, which is a massive strength, because it lets people be Talossan in the way they find most meaningful. Some have campaigned on giving the Government a leading role in defining our culture; we in the URL reject that approach as heavy-handed and narrow-minded.
  
  
• Keeping Power Decentralized: The more work you promise to do, the more big projects you pledge to do, the more helping hands you're going to need available. We've seen some parties promise a lot of pie-in-the-sky goals, while also promising to put a lot of roles on a small number of people. Government By Many Hats makes it easier to concentrate power, but it doesn't make it easier to actually accomplish much in the way of positive change.
  
  
• A Government Built on Honesty, Optimism, and Respect: We've seen some shocking displays of dishonesty in this campaign, which have been justified by the folks involved as doing "what [they] need to do to win." I don't stand for that sort of thing, the URL doesn't stand for that sort of thing, and I don't think Talossa should stand for it either. We don't believe in putting up false positivity as an election tactic, we don't insinuate or imply guilt or corruption where we know darn well there isn't any, and we don't stand for harassing or bullying people. These tactics certainly well may yield results in the short term, but they're dangerous for the country in the long term. We reject them, and we hope you do too.

Quote from: King Txec on November 14, 2025, 12:45:15 PMIt would be a shame for nothing to happen at all. Perhaps just a discussion with myself acting as a sort of referee?

-Txec R

I'm open to this. Something a little more laid-back, but still informative.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on November 13, 2025, 01:11:03 PMI have reason to believe that the moderators for this debate - former political allies or no - agree with Mic'haglh - that they thought they would be vetting the questions, that they did not expect the debate opponents to be trying to set the agenda themselves.

Sadly, it seems the situation remains as I said:

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on November 13, 2025, 12:46:33 AMBased on his most recent comments to me, he does not seem to understand this, thinking instead that I am upset about the content of his criticism, rather than the fact that providing it at all was not part of our terms.

I trust the moderators, as I stated above. If I didn't, I wouldn't have been open to them serving as moderators. What I don't like is being baited-and-switched, nor do I particularly respect the rules-lawyering, "well you didn't say I couldn't!" approach to agreements.

Listopäts XLVI / October 2025

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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/x6UsMBY4

Royal News
King Formally Dissolves Cosă
HM Txec issues a Writ of Dissolution, bringing the 61st Cosă session to an official end:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4475.0


Government News
Chancery Prepares Electoral Commission
Secretary of State Sir Lüc da Schir has formed the commission that will verify November's general election and the rules it will follow:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4426.0


General News
Zouaves Sees Promotions
Sir Ian Plätschisch, Captain of the Zouaves of the Royal Bodyguard, announced promotions for two members:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4410.0

Taiwos (Briefly) Takes Talossa to the Airwaves
Senator Iason Taiwos engages in a little impromptu Talossan propaganda on American radio frequencies -- more legitimate broadcasts to follow?
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4432.0

Puck Drops on Hockey League Season 2
Tric'hard Lenxheir brings the Talossan National Hockey Association back for a second season; all of last year's participants are joined by two new teams:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4420.0

TMT Special Continues
The special edition of the Talossan Music Top 20 rolls on with more categories of music and nominations therein:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4326.60
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4381.80


Immigration News
Five new citizens immigrated in October: Cameron McInnis, Jack Morrison, Ràed Al-Hasàn, Joseph Morris, and Mia Jaeger.

Additionally, twenty citizenship applications were received in October, from Cameron McInnis, Zeus Perez, Ashley Hoban, Emily Bowgren, Jack Morrison, Alexander Melto, Basil Sobczak, Ràed Al-Hasàn, Joseph Morris, Jonas Hersch, Max Maltezos, Mohamed Ouaouda, Phoenix Camarena, Mia Jaeger, Shilo Ouellette, Jason Drzewiecki, Aymen Messouci, Tong Mun Kit, Vincent Norton, and Adrián Suárez Pérez.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on November 05, 2025, 10:46:35 PMI will run as positive of a campaign as the truth allows me to run, but we do ourselves a grave disservice when we ignore uncomfortable truths in favor of a smiling facade.

Bart Simpson said it best. Over the past week, we have seen Baron Davinescu paint a fairly sunny picture of the debate between the two of us currently scheduled for this Saturday. But in this case, the "uncomfortable truth" is a much less rosy thing.

The Baron's own proposed rules regarding the debate seem fair enough, right? Each party was to put forth five questions for the other party's candidate to answer. The moderators -- King Txec and Sir Ian Platschich, fair men both -- were to vet the questions for fairness.

The questions submitted by the Baron went through the agreed-upon procedure pretty easily. His Majesty had a few that he wasn't sure of wording on; there were even a few questions that I could tell weren't quite factually accurate, but I figured I could correct the record as part of my answer. As a result, acceptable submissions were arrived at smoothly. I want to make clear that the issues surrounding the debate preparations have nothing to do with either His Majesty or Sir Ian.

The questions submitted by the URL were not subject to the agreed procedure. Of the five submitted, four quickly received negative feedback. That feedback was not from the King, and not from Sir Ian -- it was all from the Baron.* This presents a few big problems:

• Debate participants getting to edit the questions they themselves will answer turns the debate into a farce. Much like gerrymandering makes a mockery of democracy by allowing politicians to pick their voters instead of the other way around, the Baron being able to editorialize his questions into something more politically advantageous does a disservice to people who look to the debate for honest, accurate information.
  
  
• It taints the perceptions of the moderators. The idea was that the moderators would vet the questions on their own. Meddling in that process steers their reading of the questions in the direction the Baron wants it to go in. Would they have arrived at the same feedback themselves, without the undue influence? It's certainly possible, and I would happily deal with it were that the case, but now we won't know what their uninfluenced thoughts would have been, because the Baron's compulsion to get the first word prevented them from having their say.
  
  
• Most importantly: it fundamentally ignores the agreed terms. Based on his most recent comments to me, he does not seem to understand this, thinking instead that I am upset about the content of his criticism, rather than the fact that providing it at all was not part of our terms. He does not seem to understand why someone would have an issue with the entire overarching agreement being disrespected. The Baron was unable to set aside his own tendencies to spin and micromanage and nitpick long enough to let two other people read a list of questions. He was unable to set aside his own tendencies in order to live up to an agreement that was his own idea. Does he view his own proposals, his own word, his own honor and reputation as being worth so little? Is he simply unable to control his manipulative compulsions? Does the Baron simply not respect his own agreements because he does not respect the people he enters into them with? How can anyone know what to expect when they work with someone like that?

When I raised the issue earlier this week that the agreement was being blatantly ignored by the Baron in favor of trying to "work the refs", you'll note his immediate response was to misrepresent what I said as a criticism of the fairness of the moderators, followed by a "nah, everything's fine!" attitude. As I've already said, His Majesty and Sir Ian are absolutely not to blame here. And as I've pointed out, false positivity does us no good as a country.

The URL's most recent campaign mailer described me as "[a] man who can – calmly – stand up and say NO. No to the Talossa of dirty politics, no to the politics of harassment." This is one of those times where standing up for yourself becomes necessary, because frankly, I don't appreciate being rugpulled. When I enter into an agreement, I expect that I'm not going to be the only one abiding by it, or the only one even trying to. I'm not mad, I'm just really disappointed that he thinks this kind of behavior isn't a problem.

There's more to come from the URL regarding our positive program for the country. There's more to go over about our plans to continue our nation's optimistic track and plan for sustainable growth. But I can't just stand here and take it. I respect myself, I respect my fellow Free Reformists, and I respect the voters too much to allow us to simply be jerked around by the leader of the PA. The big remaining questions, of course, are: how do you make a situation like this fair again? Can you just magically start following your own proposed terms partway through and expect it to work out? Where do we go from here?

In the interest of problem-solving, I have an idea for a solution: make this a "town hall" style affair. We can keep the time, the location (though a shift to Discord may allow people to watch live? Just a thought), the main difference is that the questions will be crowdsourced through @King Txec , if he's willing. They can be directed to myself, to the Baron, or to both of us to answer in random order. The format switch may render the rebuttal period unnecessary, but I'm open to thoughts there.

You there! Congrats on your Talossan citizenship, the Best Thing Money Can't Buy^TM! Now that you've got it, you might find yourself asking "now what?"

You're new, so you may not know that the URL has governed on a platform of "quality over quantity" when it comes to immigration -- and after we've applied a few reforms to the process, we've managed both quality and quantity! After consulting with some of our newer citizens (whose fresh ideas have a home in our party), may I present some Helpful Hints for New Citizens from the Union of Free Reformists:

• Translate your name! If you haven't already done so, head on over to the Talossan Names board and see how your name translates into our national language. Assuming you didn't request a deed poll name, you'll want to translate your actual name into our national language to feel more like the Talossan you are.
  
  
• Request a coat of arms! All Talossans are eligible for a grant of arms, and the only way to get one is by requesting one from the College of Arms. The College is home to some rather skilled artists, and I'm not just referring to myself!
  
  
• Check out your provincial board! Some provinces are more active than others. If your new province is active, great! Why not jump in and see what's going on? If it's not -- who's to say you can't change that? One active citizen can accomplish quite a bit in their province if they want. It's also a nice way to get experience with Talossan politics, which brings me to:
  
  
• Claim your seat in the Cosă! If you become a citizen during the middle of a Cosă session, you're eligible to claim a free seat. You don't even have to run for office! It's a good way to dip your foot into the political waters without having to dive in head-first. (The Cosă isn't in session right now, but this is still something I'd strongly recommend new immigrants take advantage of when it is!)
  
  
• Join one organization. You wanted to become a Talossan for a reason. What drew you here? Whatever it was, start there! Maybe you want to get into Talossan politics? Join one of our political parties! Maybe heraldry's your thing? Apply to join the College of Arms! You could join the Zouaves, or join a club dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and smooth drink, or...lots of things! You don't have to do everything at once -- trust me -- but choose your starting point for your Talossan story. Talossa is what you make of it -- so make it what you want!
  
  

There's one more thing I'd recommend: vote! You lose your citizenship if you go two years without voting, so the best way to make sure you keep it is to exercise the most important democratic duty of citizenship. Make your voice known! If I were in your shoes, I know who I would choose.

Ah, fantasy hockey. Where you can be glad your NHL team slapped down one of their biggest rivals, but you know you have two guys from said rival on your roster, and those negative points are going to hurt.

The duality of man fan.

Quote from: King Txec on November 10, 2025, 02:14:21 PMI'm trying to weigh in but Google Docs are always conflicting with my work Google account. I'm doing my best though (even though getting them in the correct orange highlight is not fun on a phone haha)

-Txec R

For our part, we'd certainly want to help make things easier for His Majesty, but to do that we need to make sure that the debate prep process isn't poisoned by "working the refs", and instead just let the moderators do their jobs.