Blast from the past (well, future), Talossa 2038 part 1

This series of article is a fictional retrospective written in 2038 issues of Preßeu Zespenat for the 59th anniversary of the Kingdom. In this 2038 alternate future, Talossa is a rich sovereign country in a broken United State and incorporates not only the current 7 provinces in Milwaukee but also other sections of the East of the city. The story of Talossa 2038 will be explored over multiple issues of Preßeu Zespenat.

The following are extracts from a series of interviews conducted in 2022, 2025 and 2027 with David Swanson, former Milwaukee Alderman for district 3 and first mayor of the City of Talossa.

First, an interview from the August 2022 edition of Preßeu Zespenat:

I had been elected Alderman for district 3 which notably covers the province of Atatûrk and the UWM campus on a promise to revitalize the sector. After the decline of the number of students at the University (something which scared me as a UWM professor of politics) and the aging of the population, many of the houses were on the market for years before finding a buyer and often, only thanks to major reduction in prices.

I was Googling for news about one of the streets, honestly, I don’t even recall which, and I found this article in Preßeu Zespenat giving an overview of this street of the Kingdom of Talossa. I was sure I had the wrong one, perhaps Talossa was a tiny country in eastern Europe, but I quickly recognized the street as being the one in my district.

Puzzled, I investigated and thought that Talossa was a fringe separatist group like so many exist in these hard years but I quickly discovered it was just a community of people around the world trying to have fun in a hard time.

I lurked for a while and saw my first Cosa election. It was exciting, certainly a lot more than mine since I was unopposed. My son, Jimmy, applied for citizenship: he was excited that at 15 years he could vote and even joined the Cosa.

It’s only last June that I realized that I was spending almost more time reading Wittenberg with Jimmy than I was checking CNN, Facebook or other social media.

I joined as a prospective without saying who I was and it’s last week, once I was already a citizen that my position was known to the public of Talossa and that I quickly became a star. After all, I was the Alderman for the Milwaukee district covering the provinces of Atatûrk, Benito, Florencia, Vuode and the northern tip of Maritiimi-Maxhestic, of 5 of the 8 provinces!

No, I don’t plan to run for the Cosa, the Senate or do anything politically for now. My part-time Alderman position and my teacher union role already keep me busy on that side, but I will support my son. I think he will keep surprising you with his maturity. He’s been helping me at the office during the high school teacher strike…

And this is an extract of a press release from January 2025 by Alderman Swanson, published in multiple newspapers and medias, including Preßeu Zespenat:

The collapse of the US manufacturing capacity is a tragedy and an affront to the dignity of our nation. My city, Milwaukee, was particularly hit hard with drastic reductions in the employment level of many of our cherished institutions, including Wisconsin Bell, SC Johnson, Quad-Graphics and even beloved Harley-Davidson. Even Briggs & Stratton who had seen a dramatic rise in sales and number of employees had to cut back recently when one of their lines of lawnmower engines was recalled for excess pollution.

But what worries me the most is the decline of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, where I am also president of the teacher union. Due to massive cuts in the education budget by the state of Wisconsin, the University is not only struggling to attract out of state students but even in-state students from other counties, all while the number of houses seized by the city for tax failures or simply foreclosed in my district (#3) has skyrocketed. On my small street, more than half of the houses are for sale and no longer occupied.

As you may know, I have proposed a drastic plan to try to kill two birds with one stone: to use the seized homes for student and teacher housing at low cost rather than selling them at auction which only serves to further cause a drop in housing value in my district which further causes a reduction in total property taxes. The UWM and its student council have the ability to easily mortgage these houses and many non-permanent teachers unable to secure a home load due to precarious job security in these days would be able to pay an adequate rent leaving the UWM with a significant profit.

My plan, as you know, was rejected by the city of Milwaukee and as a result, I have no choice but to propose a secession of District 3 from the city of Milwaukee as allowed in the federal city rescue plan of 2021. The referendum will take place on Monday June 9th 2025 and only residents of District 3 will be allowed to vote, including student of UWM residing on campus.

The next few hectic months saw a rise in student activism and hope for many residents of the district to finally sell their home and as a result, the District #3 secession was approved by a wide 64.5% majority, with over an 80% participation rate.

The biggest surprise came when the naming committee approved new part-time Mayor Swanson’s name for the new city: the city of Talossa, with a significant surge of citizens from the student of UWM (the University didn’t change it’s name) to the micronation, especially from students of David Swanson.

Preßeu Zespenat once again published an article from David Swanson on the 2nd year anniversary of the creation of the city of Talossa, in June 2027, on the changes to the tiny Kingdom.

Apart from the massive increase in citizenship from students of UWM, I think the biggest change in the Kingdom of Talossa since the creation of the city of Talossa is the beginning of the repatriation of old cybercits citizens who moved to the city. As you know, the first to move was Txec Roibeard dal Nordselva whom I managed to get him to teach as UWM for the September 2025 session. Soon after, I convinced Alexandreu Davinescu to also teach at UWM, by offering him one of the houses for students as a reduced price for two years.

It didn’t take long for Talossan patriotism to rise in the halls of the campus with three respected teachers being pillars of the Kingdom. Within a year, more than half of the city council were citizens of the Kingdom (including Txex and Alexandreu) and a new ordinance was passed giving all citizens of the Kingdom who joined the Kingdom before creation of the city access to a low-rent house.

As you know, it was enough to get half of a dozen citizens to move to the city of Talossa thanks to the low rent cost and increase in job opportunities due to the end of the recession.

I am currently in talks with Ieremiac’h Ventrutx, former prime-minister of the Kingdom and father of the first dandelion to ever vote in an election of the Kingdom to have him move his family from Illinois to the nearby city of Talossa.

I do not know what the future of the city or the Kingdom of Talossa will hold, but rest assured that I am hopeful for the future.

More to read in July 2015’s issue of Preßeu Zespenat…