Oh my, completely forgot this memorable holiday. At the time I was an ex-citizen, having been blackballed by King Ben (completely unconstiutional, of course) for being a "troublemaker" (which meant that I was a peacemaker and not a warmonger). A couple of days before the event, I was tipped off that something would happen on June 1, and lo and behold! A revolution! I joined the Republic at once.

Ah, those were glorious days. However, the Kingdom was more exotic to Americans, being a monarchy, and outperformed us in the long run when it came to immigration. A pity.

Voted in ElectionBuddy.

Alas, we used to, but we no longer have. And no need for apologies, even though the TSF&WS was never dissolved, it doesn't mean it has been active in any meaningful way. Anyhow, you are its glorious leader now.

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 10, 2022, 04:34:11 PM
My apologies!  Does the society have a dedicated message board, or web presence?

Quote from: anglatzara on April 10, 2022, 02:26:28 PM

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 10, 2022, 11:22:18 AM
Talossan Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Whiskey Society (TSFFWS) is here by re-established.

What do you mean, "re-established"? We never went away! I hereby hand over the reins to you. What's the whisky of the week? I'm OK with the added "fantasy", but please remove the "e" from whisky!

Blessings,

Ián

Quote from: Antonio Montagnha, Ed. D. on April 10, 2022, 11:22:18 AM
Talossan Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Whiskey Society (TSFFWS) is here by re-established.

What do you mean, "re-established"? We never went away! I hereby hand over the reins to you. What's the whisky of the week? I'm OK with the added "fantasy", but please remove the "e" from whisky!

Blessings,

Ián

As fate would have it, on April 20 I would be unable to participate because I am hosting a traveller from the GTA - not a citizen himself, but he is at least an acquaintance of an Old Growther.

Congratulations to the winners (and to be honest, 30 votes isn't bad for the FreeDems, considering the circumstances). And special congrats to the PDR, who stood for election for the first time and ended up becoming the kingmaker of this election!

You will always be Talossan, Audrey, whether you are a citizen or not.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on August 21, 2021, 06:10:52 PM
... and the NPW delegation to the Cosă just abstained on this bill that the Party promised to vote for.

I just give up on Talossan politics, as long as there's no way for a party to be put out of the Cosă in an election. There is just nothing to stop people making agreements and then just tearing them up without reason, logic, or explanation. You can't make multi-party deals in such circumstances and therefore doing anything "important" is impossible.

Which is why we desperately need to downsize the Cosa.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 19, 2021, 07:32:24 PM
@anglatzara , any thoughts?  @GV ?

No thoughts or comments. I have given you all I have and I have no clues about how to retrieve stuff that's still missing.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 10, 2021, 07:06:59 AM

Quote from: anglatzara on June 10, 2021, 04:40:26 AM
So I have zipped up what I have - and it's a jumble of things, though more proclamations, newspapers and photos etc than actual records. And it's completely unsorted, so it's more archaeology than history. I'll send y'all the link, AD & GV.

Thank you so much!  Some of the correspondence stuff in here is fascinating, as are the laws, and so much of it is new to me.  Excellent!

I don't think there's more correspondence than a letter I sent to King John (sadly ignored by him) and one I sent to a prospective citizen, unless you found something I didn't see. I do of course have tons of correspondence saved away, but going through all that and sorting out the non-personal stuff would take forever, so I'm not giving that to anyone.

So I have zipped up what I have - and it's a jumble of things, though more proclamations, newspapers and photos etc than actual records. And it's completely unsorted, so it's more archaeology than history. I'll send y'all the link, AD & GV.

I have some folders scattered on various hard disks, with citizen lists, versions of the Constitution etc. I will sift through it, delete personal details like birth dates, addresses etc, and see if I can get a zip over to you.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on May 25, 2021, 11:18:08 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 25, 2021, 11:08:01 PM
This makes new citizen engagement critically important, perhaps more than anything else.  But we never, ever seem to focus on it.  The focus is usually on some big touchy reform that everyone fights over, while the real problem gets the attention (or lack thereof) of the less-active ministers.

In fact: short shameful confession here, that one of the reasons I stepped aside from party leadership was because I knew that I didn't have a master plan for new-citizen-engagement, so I should give way to others to take the lead on that.

I think what is needed is some kind of interesting, easy-to-engage-in, ongoing project tailored to prospective citizens, that catch them and involve them. I'm not sure what that project could be, but I think an activity trumps just conversation.

How can I not throw my support behind this? (Answer: I cannot.)

Enthusiastically micked!

To me, anything that retains a King as the head of state but introduces a working democratic way of electing/sacking them, is a compromise. Whether it's a compromise that benefits that Monarchists or the Republicans, is a different matter.

I think it's an absolutely vital compromise for Talossa. I've been a Talossan for 23 years, and I've seen the ills of having a non-elected head of state, many times, in different forms. I will never agree that it is a good idea to have a King for life, even if there is a theoretical (but not practical) way of getting rid of him/her/them.

However, I have also been a proud citizen of the Talossan republic, and I firmly believe that the choice of having a republic instead of a monarchy seriously harmed our immigration. For some stupid reason, especially Americans seem to think that Royalty are so exciting and sexy, that they are attracted to them like flies to a honeypot. So let the monarchy be our honeypot. That, and having an apolitical high-prestige citizen on the tallest stool in the Talossan kitchen, are the two main good points with having a King. Let's keep them, but make the King answerable to the nation.

Remember -- and this is vital -- discussing and tinkering with the constitution and the nature of Talossa are Talossa's life blood. Nothing should be exempt from discussing. No legislation should be set in stone. If the die-hard republicans want to take this compromise and like Fianna Fáil in Ireland use it as a stepping stone to a full-fledged republic, let them try. I will argue against them, but I will relish the discussions. To claim that a piece of legislation is the end of the road is very un-Talossan and outright harmful to our political life.