The Citizenship fee has become law over my objections as to one, the process outlined at the first session of Parliament in Vienna was not followed and two, the lack of sufficient consideration for those who do not have the  economic means to pay the 100 euro Citizenship fee.

Official notice below:

https://asgardia.space/en/news/citizenship-law-amended

If you hadn’t heard, Asgardia just reached the end of its first election that saw rise to passionate debates, inspirational platforms and innovative solutions to some of the biggest problems facing the nation.

The final voting period of the election is now closed and we’re on the cusp of making history and putting together our first ever Parliament and while there may have been some bumps along the way and some valuable lessons learnt, we’ve achieved something truly amazing.

What’s next?

Now that all the votes are in, there are still a few steps that will be required before our first parliament is fully formed and the process is expected to be concluded around the 31 ^st of March 2018 (06 April 0002).

Asgardia is taking the election process seriously and not only will the votes be counted by the Counting Commission , who will check the voting logfiles, but to further help ensure that all the votes that candidates have were gained fairly and legitimately, several independent companies have also been asked to analyse the votes.

Once each of the votes have been verified, candidates who met the requirements (including the mandatory donation) will be contacted individually and informed of their successful election and formally invited to an event in Vienna which will be the first meeting of Asgardian Parliament.

The event in Vienna is expected to be expenses paid to enable as many of the newly elected members of Parliament to attend as possible and will be attended by both press and other prominent figures with an interest in the space nation.

Once this event (which is expected to last several days) has concluded we will have the first Asgardian Parliament and it will be time for them to return home and start getting to work on building the nation, picking a government and putting laws into place.

Got questions?

If you want to know more about the elections or the election process, drop an eMail to Citizens@Asgardia.space

If you have not been to Asgardia.space this morning you will be greeted with the following announcement. Attached to it is the Preliminary List of Candidates.  This document shows the field of potential MPs narrowed to 94:

District 1, English (64 Seats): 38

District 2, Chinese (12 Seats): 1

District 3, Turkish (14 Seats): 13

District 4, Spanish (16 Seats): 6

District 5, Italian (7 Seats): 7

District 6, French (6 Seats): 6

District 7, Russian (6 Seats): 6

District 8, Arabic (3 Seats): 3

District 9, Portuguese (4 Seats): 2

District 10, German (3 Seats): 2

District 11, FARSI (1 Seat): 1

District 12, Hindi (3 Seats): 2

District 13, Others (11 Seats): 7

Total: 94

As anticipated the entire 150 seats of Parliament has not been filled and this list of 94 candidates may be cut down even further based on interviews (though not mentioned below) with the Central Electoral Commission and validation of votes and whether fraud was or was not found with any of the candidates. To my knowledge the order of the names on the list is random and having no implied preference.  And now the announcement:

“In accordance with Decree No 14 by the Head of Nation from 1 February 2018 (4 February 0002 by the Asgardian calendar) and Article 48 of the Constitution of Asgardia, the Asgardian parliamentary elections have concluded on 9 March 2018 (12 March 0002).

The preliminary list of candidates who have met the mandatory requirements in accordance with the previously published Central Electoral Commission (CEC) Regulations on the Final Round of the Parliamentary Elections is included in the attachment.

If any of your personal information is incorrectly reported on the preliminary list, candidates are asked to immediately write to elections@asgardia.space . They must put "Elections - correction" in the subject line.

Candidates who have submitted guarantee letters for payment of the registration fee must pay the said fee by 31 March 2018 (6 April 0002) to confirm their candidacy. In case of nonpayment of the registration fee by the stated date, the guarantee letter is voided.

During a two-week period, the Counting Commission will check the voting logfiles, confirm their legality, and the absence or determination of the occurrence of falsification during the election. The Counting Commission will present the results of its work to the CEC by 31 March 2018 (6 April 0002).

In accordance with Decree No 14 by the Head of Nation, the CEC will present the draft of Decree No 16 to the Head of Nation, "On the results of parliamentary elections of Asgardia."”

"Parliament Candidates, what can you do in five years to help Asgardia work towards a space station? How can we plan, research, and budget in the near future to lay a foundation which lets us grow towards a habitat in orbit or on the moon?"

The first I can do is to recognize that no one person can achieve this goal.  The next is to understand that I am not a subject matter expert in the technologies that will get us into space.  I do have a technology background and work in the Information Technology field.  I believe some of my strongest contributions to this endeavor is my ability to build people and teams; level headiness is high-pressure situations.  I will work collaboratively with subject matter experts in the various specialties leading to the final goal.  I tend to be a realist.  The general road map to space habitation is as follows:

• Securing the financial future of Asgardia
• 
  
• Gaining recognition as an independent country
• 
  
• Acceptance as a member of the United Nations
• 
  
• Acquire the funding to develop the base or foundation technologies that will lead to space habitation
• 
  
• Acquire the technical expertise.
• 
  
• Developing the technology for long-term space habitation.  Alternately, you would only allow short-term stays until the technology catches up.

With respect to the technological and human factors we must overcome, please read the following article: https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/astronaut-scott-kelly-on-the-devastating-effects-of-a-year-in-space-20170922-gyn9iw.html

I have seen theories on how to create artificial gravity in space but neither NASA in the USA or Russia have actually put forth this technology.  We will also need to reduce the radiation exposure to earth levels.  We must overcome these two fundamental technologies for the safe habitation of space.

The following is my contribution to securing Asgardia’s financial future.  It is on piece of the puzzle but I believe it to have great potential:

https://asgardia.space/en/blog/24002-asgardia39s-financial-independencenbsp/

In my mind, this is all possible as long as we work together and not push the timeline due to arbitrary political goals.  Let space habitation happen only when the technology has been successfully developed.

“Asgardia.  One People And One Vision. Together We Can.”

https://asgardia.space/en/blog/22849-candidate-for-parliament/

Well, today is the day.1 March 2018.  The first day of final voting. 28 February 2018 was “technically” the last day of the primary elections.  Originally, you should have already paid the fee for running for office and created you profile and platform for office.  You also should have uploaded your CV/Resume and ID Card.

On 27 February 2018, CEC Publishes Regulations on Final Voting for Members of Parliament .  This document outlines the voting for the 1 to 9 March timeframe and the fee promissory letter.  This letter must be submitted during the 1 to 9 March time frame and must be paid by April 1 ^st .  Presumably the first Parliament of Asgardia will be announced/formed on 1 April 2018.  I will have commend the CEC as they have given candidates, on a case by case basis, the option to make payment arrangements beyond the 1 April 2018 date.

Also, there is a significant new but reasonable requirement contained in the document:

“An official statement that is not older than two weeks issued by respective authorities of the country of residence that he/she has no criminal record .”  Also, Agardia reserves the right to run an international criminal background check.

I believe we have really gotten to the point where the rubber is meeting the road and this shared dream of ours is about to take its first steps. There has been plenty of surprises along the way and as I write this there may be one or two more but we must keep our eyes on Dr. Ashurbeyli’s and our collective dream.  We must keep our heads high as this is something that has never been done.  We are not putting forth career [corrupt] politicians.  We are putting forth a Parliament of, for and by the people.  It is a truly idealistic and fresh new approach to governance.

We the Parliament have much work ahead of us but together we can!

“Asgardia.  One People and One Vision.  Together We Can.”

You can read my platform here: https://asgardia.space/en/user/6562/profile/view/

In light of Decree 15 we are discussing how to implement a self-sustaining economy for Asgardia. As stated in my platform I am not an economist but I will offer the following idea as a piece of the puzzle to financial self-sustainability.

I would like for us to explore becoming the next Amazon. I am sure at this point you are thinking I am out of my mind but please hear me out. Also we are brainstorming at this point.

My thought here is that instead of Asgardians buying items from Amazon and other places we can buy it from Asgardia. Implementing a sales tax that is lower than other countries to incentivize purchasing from Asgardia and also will inflow revenue of the taxes plus profit on products.

An alternate version of this plan is for Asgardia to enter into partnership with Amazon or other retailers. Asgardia would get a portion of the sales to Asgardians.

Also, is NGO Asgardia eligible for smile. Amazon.com? With this a portion of purchases are returned to Asgardia. It's a small amount but it's better than a poke in the eye and doable now maybe.

So what do you think of this idea?

In light of Decree 15 we are discussing how to implement a self-sustaining economy for Asgardia. As stated in my platform I am not an economist but I will offer the following idea as a piece of the puzzle to financial self-sustainability.

I would like for us to explore becoming the next Amazon. I am sure at this point you are thinking I am out of my mind but please hear me out. Also we are brainstorming at this point.

My thought here is that instead of Asgardians buying items from Amazon and other places we can buy it from Asgardia. Implementing a sales tax that is lower than other countries to incentivize purchasing from Asgardia and also will inflow revenue of the taxes plus profit on products.

An alternate version of this plan is for Asgardia to enter into partnership with Amazon or other retailers. Asgardia would get a portion of the sales to Asgardians.

Also, is NGO Asgardia eligible for smile. Amazon.com? With this a portion of purchases are returned to Asgardia. It's a small amount but it's better than a poke in the eye and doable now maybe.

So what do you think of this idea?

I want to ask the question about your family's reaction to you embracing Asgardia?  My wife thinks I am crazy and this weekend when I was filling out the paperwork to renew my passport so that if elected to parliament I can travel to Vienna, Austria.  Her mom asked she is going with me to which my wife quipped, "No, somebody has to be here to contact the State Department when my husband gets kidnapped."  I responded, "well, you are my emergency contact with the State Department."

She has also admonished our kids to not mention to their classmates that daddy is running for parliament.

On a more serious note, I have explained to her the vision behind Asgardia.  She still thinks the whole idea of Asgardia is crazy talk even though she passively supports me in that she does not try to interfere with me pursuing this "dream."  She see that this idea is important to me and out of love she lets me pursue the dream.

So my question for you the reader, how has your family responded to your pursuit of this dream of Asgardia?  Are they supporting you, indifferent or actively trying to get you to stop?  What do you think it will take for them to see it as real?  Will the first Parliament meeting in Vienna be enough or will it take recognition by another country?  What do you think?

Greetings Asgardia, please visit the link below to view my platform video:

https://youtu.be/GxkljBi_olY

Please visit my candidate office to learn more and please consider voting for me:

https://asgardia.space/en/user/6562/profile/view/

Today I am touching on the topic of the media and how they have woefully failed democracies around the world and in particularly my beloved homeland the United States.

In the article THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN A DEMOCRACY by George A. Krimsky he quotes Thomas Jefferson:

"If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

He then goes on to say, "The implication of those words is that self-governance is more essential than governance itself.  Not so absurd, perhaps, if you had just fought a war against an oppressive government."

The wisdom of Thomas Jefferson is as important today as it was then.  The role of our media is to objectively and in a non-partisan manner keep the government in check by reporting the facts without bias or slant to the people so that the people can decide on what to do...ostensibly via free speech, peaceful free expression and the ballot box.

Here in America our press has utterly defiled themselves by 90 percent acting as the media wing of the Democrat Party and the other 10 percent acting as the media wing of the Republican Party.  Both sides are wrong and have failed the people because they refuse to report just the facts without prejudice and/or slant.  As the media goes so does the society they control through TV, Print, Radio and Online Media.  The media is polarized and American society reflects this same polarization.  It appears that party affiliation is more important that being American.

Mr. Krimsky also states:

“A self-governing society, by definition, needs to make its own decisions. It cannot do that without hard information, leavened with an open exchange of views. Abraham Lincoln articulated this concept most succinctly when he said: "Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe."”

The American Media, and I suspect the media in other free societies, too often in today’s climate ignores the facts in favor of pushing their own agenda be it liberalism or conservatism.  Some of the disturbing traits of this media that I see are:

•    Describing one side as intolerant while given their side a pass on their intolerance

•    Not fact check or reporting questionable information as facts

•    Reporting minorities acting a certain way as rioting but when the dominate race engage in the same behavior it is reported as reverie

•    Reporting embarrassing facts that are not relevant to the public discussion for the sole purpose of discrediting and/or humiliating the target

I call on and challenge our future Asgardian Media to hold to the fundamental principles to reporting the fact and nothing but the facts.  I challenge my fellow Asgardian Citizens to not allow the polarization of the media as we see within the world today.  I will step out on to thin ice and state that the one obligation that government should place on the free press is that it only report the facts and let the people decide what to do with those facts.  The media cannot favor one side over the other.  It must be a neutral and dispassionate guardian of the government on behalf of the people of Asgardia.

If we allow the Asgardian Media to act in the same manner as the media of the earth nations are conducting themselves we will soon follow them into the same pit of division and polarization.

What say you? Lets have a discussion.

Candidate for Parliament:

https://asgardia.space/en/user/6562/profile/view/