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Curtis Yarvin has been blogging about his dreams for almost twenty years, blogs called Unqualified Reservations and Gray Mirror, you can look them up if you want, and he calls it Dark Enlightenment (a name that teenagers could easily pick for their goth or black metal band). Companies existing as their own little kingdoms with their own laws, and them as kings. Cities run as companies, competing for citizens. The final Cyberpunk form of Guard Dog's beloved libertarianism. He blogged about how to turn the US into an autocracy and has inspired the neo-reactioary movement. He's a nutjob who has gone from defining castes of people in the US, arguing that South American immigrants are part of a caste where men are criminals and women on welfare, to giving them names from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (elves are the liberal ruling elite, hobbits are the middle class and dwarves the workers) and wants to replace the elves with dark elves (i.e. him and his ilk). Friends with J. D. Vance (who has publicly quoted the "works" of Yarvin and referenced Yarvin's idea of the Cathedral in speeches), even though he's been trying to distance himself from him, and backed by Peter Thiel. The same Peter Thiel who runs companies like Mithril and Palantir, because referencing Tolkien's body of work is fun. A nutjob who was invited to the inaugural gala of Mango Mussolini because by now he's an influencial figure among the alt-right / neo-reactionaries. You know, someone who wants to turn the United States into a monarchy, with ties to the vice president, in an administration where the president has posted and talked about himself as being the king on more than one occasion. Who said that voting for him would be the last time people need to vote. With people like Bruce still believing he's joking. The tech bros are, as Gromnir put it, vying for control. Absolute control. I mean, what can you do when you're so rich that you and your familiy will never want for anything for any forseeable future? Well, why not become king?

@Elerondyeah, we specific identified the tech bros feeling left out o' the decision making regarding government regulation o' ai as a motivation for choosing trump over harris, but the problem is they get everything else trump along with deregulation. trump is mercurial and is simultaneous trying to take control of the US economy. in 2024, the potential downside o' a trump Presidency for tech bros as he talked up tariffs, mass deportations and suggested he would overhaul the fed, shoulda' been enough to discourage people who were collective making more money under biden than any group o' people had ever made during a similar span o' time in the history o' the US. take him seriously but not literally. people have been saying that bit o' pith since 2015 and time and again trump shows us how it is a mistake to not take him literal even if he frequent tacos. so is 2025 and the tariffs were never gonna happen for reals is now happening and so too is mass deportations. contrary to trump claims, nobody in their right mind is making major US manufacturing investments 'cause o' endemic uncertainty caused by trump and we finally got a rate cut that trump wanted, but we got it 'cause signs is showing a serious weakening o' the economy. any foreign government which is willing to make a billion dollar investment in trump's sh!t coin gets favorable deals, which leads more uncertainty, and certainty was kinda the reason the dollar has been an effective reserve currency which is partial why we got market multipliers in the US which has been considerable better than europe or asian. yeah, the tech guys is building ai data centers at a break neck pace, data centers which create almost no new jobs for american workers, and certainty not for those rust belt folks who voted for trump, but simultaneous trump has cut federal investment in all kinda energy projects 'cause he hates windmills and solar, and is not as if by doing so trump made the fossil fuel guys happy 'cause trump is simultaneous working overtime to keep fuel prices low while also making energy production more expensive via his tariff shenanigans and mass deportations. the tech bros need vast new energy production and trump actions is making energy production more difficult and less lucrative, so... etc. yeah, the tech bros got deregulation o' ai and they exorcised lina khan, but on balance, are they more uncertain today compared to september o' 2024? am understanding why bankers and investors is ok with uncertainty 'cause they is making buckets o' money whether there is a massive shift up or down in the markets. am disappointed by the myopia o' the investor class, but we get it. converse, if during the biden years you were a tech bro who made more money than were previously imagined, why would the reality o' 2025 look like a win? HA! Good Fun!

I would guess that tech bros like that Trump and republicans don't look regulations for AI, except for their Chinese competitors. During Biden era OpenAI, Meta etc. tried to be proactive with regulation for AI research, but after Trump take office all talk about regulating AI has halted, giving tech companies free ability to break copyright and use people private information to teach their models, tech companies even push spy modules on computers to log how people are using their computers, use their data in cloud services and social media and feed that to learning data for their models. They are able to do lot of things that should be blocked by data protection, copyright and trademark laws and they clearly hope use this situation to make situation such that there is no point create regulations in future either, because all the information is already permanently pushed in the models and trying to remove that data would lead lot of things breaking because AI is pushed everywhere.

Haunted Hotel on Netflix. Warm recommend from me. Surprisingly fun watch.

am agreeing the US is embracing fascism with disappointing vigor and speed, but am simply noting that all too often people use "fascist" and "authoritarian" interchangeable... save that fascist feels worse, so is more pejorative? most o' us rolled our eyes when vol identified every group or action he disagreed with as nazi. all too often, people do something similar with the fascit label. dunno. regardless, am agreeing that the US is pretty deep into fascism at the moment. the following is kinda silly, but also illustrative valhalla? the commander in chief dodged the draft for chrissakes, but somehow we got this weird quasi-comic warrior culture being perpetuated by pete hegseth and... kash patel, the trump administration's living embodiment o' peter pettigrew. serious? add contempt/fear o' science, demonization o' trans people and minority groups, a s'posed "invasion" at the southern border, exploitation of outrage and grievance, as well as the deep state nonsense. etc. but again, is not difficult to make a fascist argument for almost any government organization or action... if you don't like 'em. am simply pointing out that identifying generic authoritarian behaviors and practices by a government doesn't genuine push the needle toward a result of fascism in any meaningful way. as for tech company's following the lure o' profit, we agree... mostly. during the biden years the tech companies were doing extreme well. profits were historic good. the US economy were the "envy of the world" and all that. sure, ordinary americans had struggles with inflation and cost of living concerns, but the tech bros were unaffected by such minutiae. one reason why bernie sanders and elizabeth warren were always outraged during the biden term is 'cause never had so few made so much money in such a short a period o' time, and those tech bro billionaires were paying proportional less in taxes than rich people had been required to pay for +80 years. converse, trump is an ignorant buffoon who doesn't care what happens to the economy as long as he personal gets rich. the tech guys knew before the election that tariffs were problematic and trump's current assault on the fed is not helping with investor confidence. mass deportations is necessarily gonna result in further inflation as well as a shrinking of the consumer and tax-paying base as well as creating severe impacts on specific industries such as agriculture and construction. the tech guys know that if the economy tanks, they will also suffer, but they nevertheless supported (and continue to support) erratic and ignorant as 'posed to the status quo, a status quo which were making them all fabulously rich. so, if profits were your most pressing concern, which bet made more sense, harris or trump? am gonna suggest that even more than profit, the tech guys is blinded by their need for control. there is a belief amongst the tech bros that if they have control, they will keep making money no matter what, so control and profit is necessarily intertwined, but if if they gotta make a choice 'tween the two, control wins. biden frequently cut the tech oligarchs outta the decision making 'round government regulation of ai and lina khan was kinda their nightmares given flesh. converse, the tech guys can get trump to respond to their phone calls and a shiny bauble and a performative genuflection is, they believe, gonna get them the results they desire. kleptorcacy and oligarchy ain't the same thing, but the tech oligarchs is betting that they are able to convince trump to enrich them too even if the recent conflict 'tween elon musk and donald trump should prove that they don't have legit control. regardless, if profits were genuine your most pressing concern, why would you f with the status quo o' the previous administration? HA! Good Fun! ps our biggest concern regarding the endemic misunderstanding o' fascism is that the only reason most maga folks, not to mention a considerable % o' the remaining general population, reflexive balk at being called fascist is 'cause they don't know what is fascism. w/o mention o' fascism, describe the kinda vague ideology being promoted by tucker carlson, bennie johnson and yeah, charlie kirk using the framework o' umberto eco's fourteen features. describe in glowing terms how tucker, unlike the mainstream media, recognizes the threat of trans people and immigrants, or how bennie johnson embraces a return o' masculinity. without mention o' fascism, use the fourteen features to describe the increasingly typical right-wing pundit and then see how many americans see such as problematic v. positive. when the el paso walmart shooting happened, we read the shooter's manifesto. in 2009, the manifesto woulda' sounded like the ranting o' a lunatic. in 2019, the manifesto's main points were familiar to anybody who followed tucker carlson. @Pidescois no doubt certain that fascism is unhealthy for a society, and history supports that conclusion, but am increasing of the opinion that fascism is only seen as pejorative by most maga types because they don't know what fascism is. pps am also gonna observe how most o' the media companies, law firms and universities who has capitulated were similar going mask off in the name of profits. as noted, the law firms who rolled over for tump were the firms who has big merger and acquisition portfolios. the current kerfuffle regarding jimmy kimmel happened 'cause the head o' the fcc intimated that he would kill a prospective merger deal 'tween sinclair and nexstar. earlier when cbs and abc caved to trump whims, it were also likely due to the fact they got big deals in the works which require fed approval to happen. universities caved as soon as trump went after their grants. etc. this trump administration has had difficulty avoiding tripping over their own feet even as the rough beast, its hour come at last, slouches toward bethlehem. even so, you gotta hand it to the project 2025 folks as they appeared to bet that all the big talk from lawyers, universities and others regarding rights and justice was just so much air and that if tested, people with the power to make a difference would choose their third vacation house as 'posed to remaining true to their espoused convictions. trump, is a psycopath, but am s'posing that is the source o' much o' his success. trump can smell weakness?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/19/pentagon-limits-access-journalists-00574227 Muh free speech as usual

While my examples were more generic authoritarian than fascist, a significant portion of Eco's list already applies to a tee to current situation in the US. That said, at this point, differentiating between authoritarianism and fascism is at best an interesting rhetorical exercise, at worse a distraction. Also whether the situation now is better or worse than in the Lindberg days, is really not that important. More important is where American political institutions and discourse stand now compared to ten, twenty or forty years ago. I'd argue things are moving in the wrong direction and accelerated dramatically with Trump's accession this year. Regarding your disappointments, I wasn't really surprised myself with either media or tech companies capitulating to Trump. Tech companies especially weren't so much capitulating but rather going mask off in the name of profits. Not all of them are run by complete nutso Peter Thiel, but the Zuckerbergs and Bezos and Musks of the world are not that far removed from Thiel.

I suppose the next logical step is to explain the power structure underneath. this is where you slip the kids some Noam Chompsky on the dl. edit: I meant to quote Hurlshot as well, but it doesn’t wanna do it on my ipad

I would be glad if she's not the final boss. The final battle should be a huge insect or a horde of ants/bugs.

Oh yeah, it is pretty annoying to me as well. I still have "brain-muscle memory" from the old Microprose game for tactics used to clear landing/terror sites, and keep forgetting, about this mechanic, which leads to a lot of reloads

I didn't realize that was the season finale. Ah well, show is still great

you are describing authoritarianism more than fascism, but such confusion ain't your fault as the definition o' fascism is a gestalt o' somewhat related qualities and factors which exist to greater or lesser degrees in various real world examples of fascism. given the admitted fuzzy descriptor o' fascism, you end up with kinda a dual problem as 1) almost nobody genuine knows what fascism means, and 2) it is not difficult to legitimize pounding any square peg you don't like into the fascist round hole. if you don't like cops, the catholic church or no-smoking areas, then is all too common you will see those entities, organizations and regulations as fascist. authoritarian + more-than-just-bad = fascist? am not suggesting @Pidescois doing such, but am sure you have noticed such behavior. that said, the current US embrace of authoritarianism is bordering on axiomatic. for crying out loud, even the trump campaign distanced itself from project 2025 during the run up to the election in part because even the folks at fox recognized the proposed blueprint was overtly embracing authoritarian methodology to achieve extreme goals... were a franco christmas list for chrissakes. the pushback against project 2025 complaints from the right was not that project 2025 were a legit approach to government reform but rather that libs were using the mad scribblings o' a fringe group to unjust paint trump as a wannabee dictator. we are eight months into this Presidency and something like 47% o' project 2025 goals has been implemented. fascism? if you were attempting to plot where the US is on a fascist graph or spectrum, am willing to concede that due to the challenging nature o' the fascist definition, there is uncertainty in definitive identifying nascent fascist regimes sans equivocation. nevertheless, 2025 US has gotta be worse than 1930s and charles lindbergh, yes? ... am disappointed by the tech companies, media organizations and even universities as they capitulate at the first sign o' trump displeasure. few law firms have fought back against trump, although every one who has done so won in court. those firms with any kinda mergers and acquisitions portfolio has too often displayed humiliating, if predictable, cowardice. am not at all shocked by the craven servility o' Congressional republicans. also, we fully anticipated that +1/3 o' the country would cheer on trump as he indulged his most salient personality attributes: greed, vanity, pettiness, ignorance, cruelty. most o' this freaking mess is what we has warned 'bout all too often, although am gonna admit we were genuine dumbfounded by the blatant grift of the proposed tik tok deal... and cecot caught us complete off guard. is september 2025 and we keep waiting for some kinda pushback from ordinary americans. trump loyalists will stick with the President no matter what, but the majority o' americans ain't hardcore maga. there is some encouraging signs that the mass deportations and ending protected status for venezuelan asylum seekers is having an impact on those admitted diverse latino voters who flipped from democrat to republican in the recent election, but the problem is that while they no longer trust trump, am doubtful they are more enamored with "godless" democrats in 2025 than they was in 2024. still, if all those latinos just don't vote, it would help democrats in the midterms. will it take some unspecific level o' inflation/stagflation to finally motivate americans to protest en masse, 'cause masked ice agents mistaken brutalizing american citizens hasn't. sending the national guard to american cities? meh. trump and elon's colossal failed promise of $2 trillion in dodge savings? tax cuts for billionaires leading to rural hospital shutdowns? trump's sh!t coin shennanigans? the epstein files? what? joe manchin is doing a book tour. kamala harris also released a book. what we learned via reporting o' the books (is no way in hell we read either offering) is that the only thing democrats and republicans can agree on in 2025 is that democrats suck. anywho, we bring up manchin specific 'cause we saw him recent on a podcast (to sell his book) and among other topics, he explained why west virginians keep voting republican in spite o' the fact republicans has now controlled the state for years and the economic situation in west virginia has gotten noticeable worse-- what would it take for a demcorat to win in west virgina? manchin conceded that the democrat brand is too toxic in west virginia for any democrat to win, regardless o' economic policies or promises. is tribal/social/community which has west virginians reject democrats, and it ain't so much democrat economic policies which is the problem. the people of west virginia won't vote democrat 'cause they see democrats as habitual "mainstreaming" behaviors west virginains don't approve. democrat values is repugnant, so west virginians will vote against democrats regardless o' economic interests. let that sink in when trying to predict future election outcomes. HA! Good Fun!

Yes, something I didn’t like about FiraXCOM was how pod activation was the most important mechanic on the game. You can go through a mission and not get a single shot aimed at you, or you can make last move in your turn, unveil one or two extra tiles and have a new pod or two take a shot at your squad.

I'm still at episode 11... now I'm not sure I want to watch episode 12 Besides Dandadan season 2, I think I mentioned I started watching Secrets of the Silent Witch. A show that is about as 180 degrees opposite from Dandadan as you can get, but who cares? I enjoy it

1. Starting the game When the game begins and we wake up, the task “Do IT for BURG. L” is already displayed. That feels off — we just woke up, like come on! Instead, display the task “Explore your surroundings” once the player gets out of bed. After that, dialogue: “Dr. Tully ran off with BURG. L’s head” followed by “I have to find them and save BURG. L.” This is where “Do IT for BURG. L” should appear alongside “Explore your surroundings.” --- 2. Combat evaluation The dialogue says “Your combat skills will be evaluated,” followed by “But what criteria are we being evaluated on?” — only for us to face two lawn mites. There’s even a line saying “You survived, good.” Well of course we did, it was just two enemies. Make it more engaging: spawn five lawn mites scattered around the area — 2 on the left, 2 on the right, and 1 in the center. That feels like a real test. Also change the "Received opponents to "Start". --- 3. Character dialogue Different characters have different perspectives about being tiny again, but their dialogue feels flat. Each character’s lines could be fleshed out more to really express their unique take and improve immersion. --- 4. Ant behavior The distance when the ants eat player's food is way off, make it closer. --- ADDITIONAL IMMERSION IMPROVEMENTS Multiplayer scaling: In multiplayer, the “you survived, good” dialogue doesn’t land when there are only two mites. Also if more players are present, spawn stronger and more enemies. Better yet, redesign the training room to be bigger. Instead of pressing a “Receive Opponents” button, make it so that when a player steps into the training zone (marked with a glowing floor border), enemies spawn automatically. A new line for Sloane could explain this mechanic, letting players know stepping inside starts the training. Death mechanic idea: When you die, imagine waking up on the back of an ant (or other insect). To break free, you’d have to mash buttons quickly while the character delivers some dialogue. This might be too complex to add now, but it could be a feature idea for Grounded 3.

This definitely isn't the end of the story, and the stranger probably won't be the final boss. I don't think the stranger is supposed to feel intimidating, but instead like a teen who is losing it. There have been so many hints in her dialogue to suggest she is the fifth teen; I'll be surprised if that's not the case. To me, she always seemed childish with her banter and threats, and seems like she's on the brink from all of the trauma she's had to face. I'm 90% sure it has been confirmed that she is at least a teen, and I'm positive she was in the yard during the first game (proven from certain dialogue). I wouldn't expect too much of her or her pet wolf spider.

I have recently begun an umpteen playing of DeadFire. When I received the Family Feud quest, I went to Ezzali, asked if she wanted to negotiate, went to the Valeri, and got both of them to agree to terms, which completed the quest. I did not question the fiddling son, pasha (?), the carousing ratouille (?), etc because I never received the Sinking Feeling quest. The only rewards I received were the weapons (Duskfall and Luxury); I never got the sails and hull upgrades.

So let me run through your post and trim it down to what actually has any bearing on the issue you are posting about: PC specs: Windows 11, Intel i9-13900kf, 64GB (speed) RAM, 4GB SSD drives (x2 {Model of SSD and raid 0?}) plus legacy HDD's(game on which drive?), Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB NETWORK: I have all Gigabit hardware to the telephone pole. Plenty of speed. Latency usually stays below 30-40. (Just say what NIC and what internet package & provide speedtest.net result) Game: Grounded 2 from XBox Gamepass (not Steam). My kids also acquired the game from Gamepass. Within about 10 minutes of joining their session on their Xbox series X with my PC, I CTD. Joining with my Xbox S has no issues. ____________________________________________________________ Now, here's what I suspect could be your issue if you've already tried uninstalling, and reinstalling your game on your primary SSD. It is unlikely to be internet speed at fault. More likely is jitter on your connection. Speedtest.net will test for jitter and provide the average jitter.

It's basically impossible. Susan Collins will be vulnerable in Maine and Thom Thillis is retiring in North Carolina: those two are the best pick-up opportunities for Democrats. After that, it gets a lot more dicey, with seats in Ohio, Texas, Alaska, Iowa, Nebraska, and Florida being the most likely to flip. I say "most likely to flip" but of course, none of them are actually likely to flip. In contrast, Democrats will be defending competitive seats in both Georgia and Michigan, and somewhat competitive seats in Minnesota and New Hampshire. There's a long time between now and the election, though: if the economy explodes even more between now and then, Democrats may have a hurricane storming behind them...or perhaps we might not have elections at all. I don't think anyone can really predict what will happen to the Republican Party once Trump goes...especially not knowing exactly where the party will be before he goes. Like other cults of personality, he's the linchpin that holds it all together, and history has numerous examples of both implosions and of someone successfully being able to fill the void...and while I don't see any obvious candidates for who could do it, the opportunity will certainly present itself.

I don't know if this has happened for anyone else but since the first launch of grounded 2 Pete's head with grow a second meshed face with no eyes but eye sockets on the back of his head. It is only visible for the person playing Pete if you are in multiplayer.

First, YES I've went through all the suggested check lists and read multiple web sites and forums on similar issues. YES my PC has more than enough horsepower. YES I went through my network settings. PC specs: 13th gen CPU, 3.0GHz, i9-13900kf, 64GB installed Ram, 4GB SSD drives (x2) plus legacy HHD's, Win 11, 420 liquid cooler, 1000w PSU. GPU: Radeon RX 7600 XT with 16GB onboard RAM. Not top notch by any means, but it gets the job done. NETWORK: I have all Gigabit hardware to the telephone pole. Plenty of speed. Latency usually stays below 30-40. Game: Grounded 2 from XBox Gamepass (not Steam). My kids also acquired the game from Gamepass. Here's the issue: I play Grounded 2 on my PC. My kids play it on their XBox(s) series X. When they host, I can join them no problem and play anywhere from a few minutes to as long as 10 min and then for no reason the game will kick me. The exact same thing will happen to them if I host. I've checked everything I could think of. I even uninstalled my antivirus program to make sure it wasn't port-scanning, blocking, etc. YES I looked through my router and other network settings. Since I can join my kids game (and vise-versa), I can assume my network is configured correctly otherwise it wouldn't allow me to connect and play even though it's briefly. Now the fun part: This EXACT same problem happens when we play ARK Ascension. After briefly playing, it will kick me. So... Is this an Unreal engine issue? What's the common denominator here? What am I missing? Also fun note: if I join them using my XBox S, we can all play with zero issues. So any ideas? Please help while I still have some hair left!

I'm pretty sure the last phase of Grand Mother Silk has some patterns that cannot be avoided. She sometimes throws her blades at you from beyond the screen while you have to track spikes on the ground or falling debris, and they're way too fast to dodge without seeing them being launched. Other than that, was okay-ish for a "final" boss fight, but of an uninspired Radiance knockoff. Onwards to act three, after I get rid of the curse, that is.

Yea my black ant is doing it and it’s annoying cause it causes wild aphids to run away when I try to tame them

Maybe values of deflection you have to achieve if you want to get to 100% misses (enemies' attacks against you) - against certain enemies (megabosses?) I assume?

I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE. The amount of cringe and mediocrity with the final boss/ending is outrageously unacceptable. First, the cutscene transition from boss battle gameplay { " your true selves " }. - It's glitchy, frame delay, FPS drop. | Remove the oval distortion effect too, think of something immersive. Secondly, here's the cringe part, the boss dialogue is outrageously³ cringe. - The voice acting feels like the VA is about to cry. Come on! This is the final battle, it's supposed to make us feel anxious, scared, intimidated. | The dialogue really needs some changing, or maybe an entire rework. Lastly, { " you might have potential " } the boss flees and lets us fight a spider bandit. - the boss is just standing there watching, soullessly. This sh* really breaks immersion, like come on, dude, w*#. | At the very least, add some movement, dialogue, just please², think of something immersive. ____________________________________________ ADDITIONAL IMPROVEMENTS • When the boss is half health, she will perform her fleeing animation. - add some huge knockback to the player. | Get knocked or dodge it. • The spider's name, `BANDIT` really?, you might want to change that. • Masked stranger ---> Stranger • After you beat the spider bandit, the game stops for 1s, proceeds to fade out. | I don't know if I'm asking for too much, or I just want the game to be immersive = good. - what if, yeah, let's have a 1s stop, but the screen doesn't fade out. So from the spider pov, it proceeds to zoom to the boss with omnidirectional angle. To clarify, it zooms from wherever you killed the spider. : this suggestion might be hard to implement, so just think of this as an upgrade that will make the game better, but not likely to happen. THE FATE OF THIS FEEDBACK IS FOR YOUR TEAM TO DECIDE.