GROUP 1
3 - Stromae - Formidable
2 - Pascal Obispo - Superflu
1 - Serge Gainsbourg - Vu de l'extérieur

GROUP 2
3 - France Gall - Ella elle l'a
2 - Christine and the Queens - Christine
1 - Jacques Brel - Le moribond

GROUP 3
3 - Desireless - Voyage Voyage
2 - Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Complainte pour Ste-Cathérine
1 - Indila - Love Story

Sir Marcel's registration has been added to the ballot. At this point I'm wondering if candidates would be amenable to me displaying on the ballot the provincial 50-words statements they provided, using the existing DB features? It would look like this: https://database.talossa.com/elections/november-2025-general-elections/preview/MM

@Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu

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.

KAJ - Bara Bada Bastu

19 spots left. We're already in the 1 per 24 hour phase for a couple days. Because we need to hurry up a bit I might tweak the rules soon to allow even more, but for now its still 1 per 24 hours (after the original two)

Apologies for the delay. Because of several delays Im not sure we'll be able to finish everything before the elections (I will post finals very soon), but if we do I guess the first step would be to increase the number of groups, so we'll do three this time.

2025 Talossan Music Top 20 Special Edition: Songs in French

Many thanks to everyone who nominated songs. Of course, people who did not are still very welcome to participate.

Give your top three songs 3, 2, and 1 points, respectively. You must give points to exactly three songs.

Voting will last 96 hours (4 days) or until there are at least three voters. The top two songs from each group advance to the Final.

GROUP 1
Stromae - Formidable
Pascal Obispo - Superflu
Stromae - Alors on danse
Gjon's Tears - Tout l'univers
Serge Gainsbourg - Vu de l'extérieur



GROUP 2
France Gall - Ella elle l'a
Christine and the Queens - Christine
Jacques Brel - Le moribond
Stromae - Papaoutai
Angèle ft. Roméo Elvis - Tout Oublier

GROUP 3
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Complainte pour Ste-Cathérine
Indila - Love Story
Noir Désir - Le vent nous portera
Noir Désir - L'homme pressé
Desireless - Voyage Voyage





Tiebreakers:
- Number of voters giving 3 points
- Number of voters giving 2 points
- 24-hour tiebreaker round
- Random chance

Tactical voting refers to either giving more points than you normally would to a song because it would make the difference between it going through or getting eliminated, or giving fewer points than you normally would to a song because it might kick a song you like even more out of the competition. This is hard to prevent, but my very strong request would be to not do it. Give points to the songs you believe deserve to go through, regardless of how others are voting. Doing otherwise reduces the value of votes that came before you, which is unfair to them. Remember that it's not a competition between voters, but a collective effort to make a nice list of songs we like. Thanks.

I did my best with all the links but there is always a chance some are broken or have a wrong version or bad audio quality. If a link is broken or you have a suggestion for a better link, please contact me or post the link in the thread. Officially, we are not voting on the YouTube link, but on the listed Artist + Title.

COMMENTARY ON THE PROGRESS OF THE GAME, THE RULES, WHAT SONGS YOU LIKE, ETC., IS VERY WELCOME.
[/quote]

Regular Zoom meetings with the Seneschal and His Majesty together is now leading, while "everyone gets a necklace of mysterious teeth" has fallen far behind.

I would like to run for Senator of Maritiimi-Maxhestic.

My legally required pro forma 50-word statement is as follows:
"Did you know that most micronationalists refer to Talossa in the past tense (believing that we somehow dissolved sometime in the '00s), and that those who don't still think there's two Talossas? We should continue reaching out to other naziunetăs, and not merely to remind them of our continued existence."

Okay, I think I have got my goaltenders the way they should be!  We'll see if I have better luck.