GROUP 3
Ásgeir - Nýfallið regn - 3
Genesis - Dance on a Volcano - 2
The Beatles - All You Need Is Love - 1



GROUP 4
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill - 3
Porcupine Tree - The Sound of Muzak - 2
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (Opening Theme) - 1

Slightly over 24 hours left to vote on the current groups (in the other thread)!

Anyone has any suggestions re how to increase participation (esp for the voting)?

France Gall - Ella elle l'a

There are 18 spots left! Everyone now gets one additional nomination every 24 hours after their previous nomination(s)

Honestly I wanted to become a part of Talossa because it seemed fun. There's something kind of old school (keep in mind I'm a 2000s baby) about joining a forum like this, it reminds me of my older cousins who were using different website forums in 2005. I also think it's such a cool way to see a culture develop in real time and meet people from all over.

First things first. I agree that El Lexhatx E.5. gives too much discretion to the Immigration Minister to just "yoink" an immigration application at any time for any reason. I think the next Cosa should look at this topic again.

However, the Union of Free Reformists caucus decided to vote against 61RZ27 for the following reasons.

The established procedure of the Ministry of Immigration - which predates my own tenure of the role, and which was followed by my predecessor, now Senator from Cézembre - has been that an immigration application is not considered to be effective until the applicant has created a Wittenberg account, and obeyed the law in writing their application (eg. in giving evidence of their real identity, or under the new law, writing in English or Talossan). There is no recognition of this in the Clarked bill. As written, this would require Immigration to "process and post" immigration applications which are illegal and/or unserious.

Moreover, Baron Davinescu is very good, in other areas, about not wanting to pass laws which make more work for public officials without getting their input. In this case, however, he seemed to have no problems passing laws to give me, personally, a whole bunch of extra work without asking for my input. This seems to be because the whole motivation of this bill was to punish me, personally - for something he thought I might, potentially, do.

I have made a conscious decision in the current Cosa that no-one particularly wants to watch me butting heads with the Baron, and what's more, I just don't like doing it. So when he "goes off on one", as we say in the Antipodes, I find it easier just to ignore him if I don't have to engage. The argument which led up to this bill - the one where I expressed distaste about a particular citizenship application whose social media included some offensive material - included a lot of the Baron's usual party trick of accusing his political opponents of corruption, tyranny, even criminal behaviour unless he sees evidence otherwise. I'm old enough that at that point I just think, why bother engaging.

The Baron put the Public Process Bill in the Hopper at the height of his dudgeon on behalf of the said applicant (who, as it turned out, never followed through, so the whole thing was pointless). I made one snide comment, then more or less ignored it. I hoped he would calm down about it and it would go by the wayside; so I was disappointed that he took it to the CRL for the Sixth Clark. It was clearly too late by then to make further principled arguments against it. So, I just decided to lobby my party to vote against it.

It is also worth remembering in the last Clark of the 60th Cosa, the Ziu passed an Organic Law amendment over the strong objections of the Baron's party. The Baron mobilised and got that bill defeated by the people in referendum - and good on him for doing so. But he made a big to-do at the time about how the bill's sponsor, cxhn. Autófil, had just ignored the input of the bill's opponents. Well, sauce for the goose.

One reason why I've not been best pleased with the Chancery deciding to allow every party a mailer a week up to the election is that it opens the door for parties to bore potential voters senseless with rants about stuff that's not germane to their experience. But it's good that it's only one a week, because otherwise the Baron would have been blasting out his increasingly shrill communiqués on this issue (as posted on his party's forum) to the whole nation at a rate of one a day. I should tell the Baron that I just don't read stuff like that from him any more; and I doubt that a lot of other Talossans do, either. I'm not going to engage with a firehose of angry rhetoric when I don't have to; increasingly, it's clear that election campaigning on Witt does nothing.

So, this presumably well-intentioned bill went down to defeat because the Baron did not engage with me or my party respectfully in the leadup. As I keep telling the other, much worse, party leader, behaviour has consequences.

Once again: I don't know if I'll be in the next Ziu, but I assume the Union of Free Reformists will be pleased to work with the Progressive Alliance on reforming immigration applications to improve transparency and fairness, without making the job of Immigration Minister any more onerous than it is. The Baron will no doubt reply to this, but if it's a long, paragraph-by-paragraph "fisking", be warned I'm probably not going to read that either.

PS: I wrote this before I understood that the Baron has pledged to investigate and prosecute me after the fact if he gets into office. As mentioned above, I have acted at all times in accordance with what I have understood to be the law and the precedent of my predecessors in this role - and I'm pretty sure these threats of investigation won't apply to the Senator from Cézembre. But you had better believe that I would be renouncing my citizenship so fast my feet wouldn't touch the ground if Alexandreu somehow gets into power without resiling from such Trump-style threats, and he can then pass seven banishments on me in abstentia if he feels like it. Talossa can simply not function without the presumption of good faith, something which the Baron has always lacked with regard to his political opponents. The alternatives are noisy fights which everyone hates; passive resistance; or quitting.

Quote from: King Txec on October 22, 2025, 09:59:49 AMI found what might be a great alternative: https://catbox.moe/

-Txec R

I've started to switch to https://imgbb.com/

I'm afraid once alternatives get big, though, they'll have the same issue as Imgur in adhering to the new UK laws.

I found what might be a great alternative: https://catbox.moe/

-Txec R

Quote from: King Txec on October 22, 2025, 09:55:08 AMI should step out of this conversation as I don't want to be seen promoting a partisan point of view, my only concern was it appears that there is, on some level, whether true or not or simply because of my forced domicile in an authoritarian regime, a whiff of political retaliation. Apologies if this is not the case, but nowadays I think many of us see political whataboutism everywhere.

-Txec R

Of course, Your Majesty.  Let me say very clearly that I think you were speaking in good faith, and that you are a nonpartisan and excellent monarch.  I am proud to support you and serve in your Sabor.  Long may you reign!

I should step out of this conversation as I don't want to be seen promoting a partisan point of view, my only concern was it appears that there is, on some level, whether true or not or simply because of my forced domicile in an authoritarian regime, a whiff of political retaliation. Apologies if this is not the case, but nowadays I think many of us see political whataboutism everywhere.

-Txec R