A Word from the Seneschal

[Þon Txoteu É. Davinescu, O.SPM]

Azul,
I wanted to take a quick moment to once again thank Dame Meistra and Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselva for their assistance over the past few months as I struggled with multiple personal crises. Since some in the political halls think it's perfectly fine to go after people... good, hard working citizens... who have busted their backsides while I did my best to advise from a far, I wanted to share with you exactly what I've dealt with since November.

Numerous Multimillion dollar projects I had to personally address, requiring me to dedicate obnoxious amounts of time securing said projects

My daughters school has had multiple COVID scares, requiring me to stay at home from work off and on for nearly two weeks

The company I had worked for and in three months secured $4.7 million in contracts let me go on December 31st, and as the sole earner in my family... threw my family in chaos

10 days after losing my job and insurance, I contracted COVID and had to spend a week & a half in quarantine away from my children... significantly damaging my mental health and resulted in me returning to receiving mental health services

I started a new job that, while FREAKING AWESOME, has kept me incredibly busy

Three weeks out of four, snow & ice shut down my city and job for two to three days a week... putting me further behind at work.

And last week, my partner's grandmother died of COVID

To say I have dealt with a TON over the past five months is an understatement... plus on top of that, I have not heard from @King John since he approved the Speech from the Throne on August 12th, 2021!

When it comes down to it, life kinda blew up in my face as PM and I'm thankful for the good Doctor and Dame Meistra for holding down the fort... doing their best as I was damn near taken completely out of service by extra-Talossan issues. They've done a wonderful job with limited resources and everyone in the Kingdom owes them thanks.

You have an issue with this Cabinet, the reality is the buck stops with me. You come to me to complain, don't come after Meistra for doing her damn job! I get so sick and tired of people attacking those that are doing work for the Government... the nastiness seen on these boards IS THE REASON immigration is slagging. Who in their right mind willingly comes into a place where everyone is just ugly to each other?!

We are ONE NATION and we need to start acting like it!

I finally have my life back and I can't wait to get back to work making Talossa better! I look forward to serving the good people of Maricopa in the Senate and collaboration with the new Cabinet under Dame Meistra!

Cheers to you all!

Your Faithful Servant,
Gen. Txoteu Davinescu, O.SPM
Seneschal of Talossa

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I'm sorry to hear that so much has been difficult for you.  It certainly makes sense that you were unable to really address your duties, and I hope that things are better from here on out.  But it's crazy to argue that the buck stops with you and that therefore criticism of your party or its leaders is invalid.

This nation came close to dying this past term.  For weeks at a time, no one said anything.  We had one new immigrant all of last year, and zero the year before that.  Up until this past month, that was the first new active immigrant in years.  The Government did almost nothing except pass laws to re-order things.  That wasn't new: things had been getting this bad for years, and I warned of these problems in a speech a month after the election.  But over the course of the term, the issue of inactivity became even more acute.  There were almost no discussions or conversations.  Events and ideas would sometimes be announced, only to slump to nothing. 

The Free Democrats did a bad job this past term, in other words.

It's not unfair to point that out.  It's not unfair to argue that it's evidence to voters that the Free Democrats shouldn't get another term.  You don't own the government, even though your party's led it for years.  It belongs to the people.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

And yet, Talossa is right now more active than it's been in a long, long time...

Quite interesting to see the outlines of the famous "nasty personalised campaign" here. Everyone else in the outgoing FreeDems cabinet gets sympathy and a free pass; the dehumanising insults and contempt are heaped upon the one person in the outgoing cabinet who held it all together, because... well, reasons that they won't actually admit to. Txoteu's words aren't going to be used against him in Talossan Nasty Congress mailouts.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

But more seriously, I want to have a look at this:

The Government did almost nothing except pass laws to re-order things.

What the good Baron is doing here is simply dismissing the outgoing Government's very successful legislative programme. What we're being told is that passing laws is insignificant and unworthy - not nearly as worthy as, for example, publishing a cookbook. But I don't know. I think outgoing Túischac'h has said that for him, the Cosa/Ziu is supposed to be the centrepiece of Talossan activity. And certainly that's all that Talossa was, for most of its history. Most of the "cultural stuff" was just King Robert I's weird obsessions. Ordinary Talossans were only really involved when it came to Clark time. I think it's shameful and poor to dismiss the centrality of "passing laws" to Talossanity.

(Although - given the likelihood of the Free Democrats retaining a Senäts majority in the next term - any TNC-led majority would be unable to unilaterally legislate at the best of times. So, best to declare "sour grapes" about passing laws, in advance?)

There is another point, and that is Point Two of the Free Democrats programme for this term - cutting red-and-green tape. I predict that - without a veritable bonfire of legislative restrictions on Government activity this term - the next Government will find itself in the same trap as the outgoing one did, simply being unable to do stuff because the legislative requirements for "doing stuff" are far too onerous. I get the feeling the TNC leader thinks he can "hereby order", Trump-style, members of the Royal Civil Service to do his bidding. If, ¡xhuvardì!, he should have the top job in a month or two, I predict tantrums when he realises that you just can't do that in Talossa, and that doing stuff legally is very complicated.

It's just irresponsible to deride legislative activity, is my point.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

You're running for a fourth term as Seneschal, and this prior term has been so disastrous that you and your party have made like seven apology speeches, collectively.  If you don't understand why that might lead to some criticism during your re-election campaign, then there might be larger problems at work here.

What the good Baron is doing here is simply dismissing the outgoing Government's very successful legislative programme. What we're being told is that passing laws is insignificant and unworthy - not nearly as worthy as, for example, publishing a cookbook. But I don't know. I think outgoing Túischac'h has said that for him, the Cosa/Ziu is supposed to be the centrepiece of Talossan activity. And certainly that's all that Talossa was, for most of its history. Most of the "cultural stuff" was just King Robert I's weird obsessions. Ordinary Talossans were only really involved when it came to Clark time. I think it's shameful and poor to dismiss the centrality of "passing laws" to Talossanity.

Yes, you guys have been passing laws very successfully.  But we don't need a very well-legislated graveyard.  And also, how can regulations have been the problem if you've had such success in changing them?

There is another point, and that is Point Two of the Free Democrats programme for this term - cutting red-and-green tape. I predict that - without a veritable bonfire of legislative restrictions on Government activity this term - the next Government will find itself in the same trap as the outgoing one did, simply being unable to do stuff because the legislative requirements for "doing stuff" are far too onerous.

You've been making this excuse a lot.  I'm not sure it holds up to any scrutiny.

The Free Democrats promised to do a bunch of things when they took office.  Very few of them happened.  Some of the ones that did happen, like the redesign of ID cards or the New Citizen's Information packet, happened just because citizens started trying to work around their own do-nothing Government.  Could you tell us which restrictions you're talking about?  What needs to go in the "bonfire?"

Which restrictions prevented the Government from running any sort of advertising campaign?  This seems like a pretty obvious priority... what "red-and-green tape" got in the way of making this actually happen?

Which restrictions prevented the Government from creating any kind of memorial, including the promised stamp, for Art Verbotten?

Which restrictions prevented the Government from firing inactive ministers, as repeatedly and explicitly promised?

Which restrictions prevented the Government from being honest about the Seneschal's inactivity?  The guy was understandably unable to do his job, so why did the Government explicitly keep announcing that he was still very active and busily running things?

Which restrictions prevented the Government from relaunching TalossaWare?  Not even flags can be purchased right now, nor anything else.

Which restrictions prevented the Government from reforming or moving on from the database?  I don't think there were even any attempts to find a Talossan (or non-Talossan) who could devise a replacement.

Which restrictions prevented the Government from doing anything at all with the Zuavs, as promised?

Which restrictions prevented the Government from using the Talossan Job Centre at all?  Which restrictions prevented the Government investigation and appointment of a registered agent for Talossa?  Which restrictions prevented the Government from creating new learning materials for our language?  Which restrictions prevented the Government from creating tournaments, gaming streams, a "battle of the bands", or online quizzes?  Working more on their official state history?  Creating a formal military awards structure?  Reviving BHAID?  Setting up a Landing Pier?  Creating ambassadors?  Raising funds for charity in the GTA?

I think some of these things were good ideas, and some were not.  But they're all things that this Government promised to do, yet they never happened.  And I don't think the problem was any sort of "red-and-green tape."

The problem is that you tried to take a step back this past term, since you said you wanted to see if the Free Democrats were a "real political party or just a Miestra Schiva fan club."  That didn't work.  So you basically had to do most things yourself, and you're just one person, and you mostly focused on remaking the laws the way you want.

[Ian Plätschisch]

Which restrictions prevented the Government from creating any kind of memorial, including the promised stamp, for Art Verbotten?

The Patriot Points program did not raise enough money for us to think that producing the stamp was prudent at this time.

So if I understand S;reu Perþonest correctly, about 50 usd was raised in stamp sales/donations last year.

On what basis does the government think it is realistic that 200 dollars will be raised this term (noting that a cosa term is less than a year)?

Also, what is the government's plan regarding the stamps now that it turns out 50 dollars for stamps may not be feasible?

Depending on the amount of donations received, we may deem it worthwhile to request the extra money for the full run of stamps, or we may decide now is not the right time to purchase that many stamps.