Personally, I think it favors established parties and makes it harder to grow a party.  I also think it's undemocratic to limit how many votes are counted for a party, and it's almost certainly inorganic for a statute to over-rule the Organic Law.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on Yesterday at 12:10:31 PMI'm trying to find someone reliable who feels comfortable in the legislature, and unfortunately have not found anyone.  We've grown so fast as a party that we're outstripping our legislative bench.

Surely more accurate to say "our vote has grown faster than our active membership"?

Which is precisely why the party list system is so important - to ensure parties are teams of active citizens rather than a "brand" behind a "leader".

Quote from: xpb on Yesterday at 09:18:18 PMI appreciate the research by Breneir - I will remove the SWOT and seek confirmation of info, then post to a beach umbrella as approved by l'Etats (working on an interactive map for that and homesteads). 

Later, if the Kingdom generates closer ties, then perhaps a consulate or embassy could be offered in the GTA, subject to discussion with one of those provinces, unless of course some other lands are appropriated for that purpose.

Looking forward to the next assignment. @xpb I would also reiterate my invitation for a representative for the Foreign Ministry to discuss this project on an episode of FT's Abbavilla Digest. The February edition is coming tomorrow but planning is underway for the March edition now.

I appreciate the research by Breneir - I will remove the SWOT and seek confirmation of info, then post to a beach umbrella as approved by l'Etats (working on an interactive map for that and homesteads). 

Later, if the Kingdom generates closer ties, then perhaps a consulate or embassy could be offered in the GTA, subject to discussion with one of those provinces, unless of course some other lands are appropriated for that purpose.

We received a goose egg in donations for the new and royally-patroned Royal Talossan Naval Relief Corps but with private matching backing of $100, the RTNRC now has $100 in the bank.

@Iason Taiwos As the RTNRC leader I wanted to get your thoughts on good organizations to make the organization's first donation. I think we had previously discussed cancer research as the focus of the first donation.

I am not sure about my availability tomorrow, so here's the immigration report.  February is shaping up pretty well.  Three rejected applications as incomplete; two for lack of social media verification, and one for lack of other info (although that one was also filled with slurs so to hell with that guy anyway).

For period: 1 February 2026 to 28 February 2026
----
Incomplete: 3
No Wittenberg: 11
In progress: 7
No petition: 0
Successful: 1
Total applications: 22

'Incomplete' refers to those applications which were not filled out correctly or completely, and which were returned with an explanation. 'No Wittenberg' refers to those applications which were complete, but in which the applicant did not go on to make an account on Wittenberg. 'In progress' refers to those applications from the period which were complete and in which the applicant is still being considered. 'No petition' refers to those applications which were complete and considered, but for which no petition was received. 'Successful' refers to naturalizations completed.


Looking back at January, now that those applications have been processed, we can see that it ended up being a very good month!

For period: 1 January 2026 to 31 January 2026
----
Incomplete: 3
No Wittenberg: 10
In progress: 4
No petition: 0
Successful: 4
Total applications: 21

'Incomplete' refers to those applications which were not filled out correctly or completely, and which were returned with an explanation. 'No Wittenberg' refers to those applications which were complete, but in which the applicant did not go on to make an account on Wittenberg. 'In progress' refers to those applications from the period which were complete and in which the applicant is still being considered. 'No petition' refers to those applications which were complete and considered, but for which no petition was received. 'Successful' refers to naturalizations completed.


Looking at the data, actually, it's interesting to see that we had a sharp concentration of four successful immigrants who applied during a single week: 17 Jan through 23 Jan!  Now here's something else astonishing... this is when I made just one post to Reddit to promote the country!  I haven't done it since, since I wanted to see if there'd be any similar pattern for other reasons.

Obvious caveats apply:

• This is just a one-off, and it's hard to say if it's not just a big coincidence.  We'll know more when we try other things.
• No one at all mentioned Reddit, so it would have to be a sort of trickle-down effect.
• This would be a surprising level of effect even if it was real, so we might not expect it to replicate.

Still, this is very good news... and it bodes well for the Progressive strategy of just trying some new stuff!  We'll keep exploring as we do other Reddit posts and some promotional videos, but I think we can say that this is a promising route to go down, even if it's too early to say anything else.

What are some of your favorite lines from science fiction?
Here are some of mine:

Our lives are not our own, but by God, we must behave as if they are. When I was young, what I did seemed too small to be of any consequence; but the shiver of dust, we are told, expands in time to the planet-sweeping storm. -Greg Bear, Moving Mars

No matter what I said they insisted on thinking of God as something outside themselves. Something that yearns to take every indolent moron to His breast and comfort him. The notion that the effort has to be their own...and that the trouble they are in is all their own doing...is one that they can't or won't entertain. -Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

I am all that I grok. -Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

Humor is the ovum of dissent. -Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

To be is to be perceived, and so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on apportioning themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future. -Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

Look at the pattern this seashell makes. The dappled whorl, curving inward to infinity. That's the shape of the universe itself. There's a constant pressure, pushing toward pattern. A tendency in matter to evolve into ever more complex forms. It's a kind of pattern gravity, a holy greening power we call viriditas, and it is the driving force in the cosmos. Life, you see. -Green Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson

Remarkably, I just noticed that "our lives are not our own" commonality in the Cloud Atlas and Moving Mars quotes which I read over twenty years apart.

Well, we can start with assigning 13 of them to His Grace, Duke John.  That brings him up to the legal limit of 20.

I'm trying to find someone reliable who feels comfortable in the legislature, and unfortunately have not found anyone.  We've grown so fast as a party that we're outstripping our legislative bench.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on February 25, 2026, 07:04:33 PMI would like to reclark the Broosking Swing Mitigation Amendment.

I have Opinions(tm) regarding how best to denote Lex.H.2.1.6.1 reconsideration votes such as this one on the Clark.

If it was up to me, my preferred way to deal with veto overrides and reconsiderations would be to introduce a separate one-liner resolution with the appropriate required majority, so as not to have duplicate bills with the same title and content on the books. However, clearly, this method is not supported by current law.

(EDIT: It should also be said that, in macronational parliaments, switching the author's vote to against is the trigger that makes them eligible to offer a reconsideration resolution - well, a motion technically - in the first place. This is why the law was written to be this way in Talossa as well, except we never made any provision for reconsideration resolutions.)

Precedent varies wildly, from Scribes marking bills as "take one/two" post-facto, to at least one former SoS putting the same bill with the same xxRZyy code in two different Clarks (not confusing at all), to recent practice allowing for a new bill with a new xxRZyy code, containing the old title and content (better, but still redundant).

I will probably just provisionally adopt this recent precedent but postfix "(Override)" and "(Reconsideration)" to the title as appropriate.