Bartimaeus

I'm looking through my history, but did not find anything. Found mentions of the FCC wanting to make it so states couldn't come up with their own net neutrality laws, but not much about municipal internet. Either something that was just thrown out there as an idea, fake news, or I'm misremembering, I guess. There goes my career in journalism... Well, at least in quarter-decent publications, anyways.

Well, I started rooting for the Chargers because I thought the Chiefs were pretty much donezo and wouldn't do anything in the playoffs, and of course, the Chargers immediately fall off a cliff in their most important game of the season. I guess I just shouldn't root for AFCW teams anymore, since it seems like they all immediately die when I do (going back to last year with the Raiders...).

Well, I don't like Metroidvania games with only rare exception is my excuse.

checkmate, monopolists

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/95151-politics-thread-silicon-valley-edition/ ?

In addition to repealing net neutrality today, the FCC has also started the process on repealing the 39% TV market cap. Essentially, there is currently a rule that prevents one person or company from controlling or buying up too much of the market, which is currently set to 39%.

Zoraptor kind of already pointed out why you can't: too much infrastructure is owned by our ISPs, which makes it virtually impossible for new companies to enter already controlled markets as the cost to enter the market is so incredibly high, unlike in New Zealand. Also as Zoraptor more or less said previously, a little regulation and a lot of competition is usually pretty good, no competition and a lot of regulation is worse, but no regulation and no competition is horrible. Naturally, the FCC also wants to make municipal internet illegal, which is probably the only thing that has a chance at creating any competition for these companies on a national scale.

Huh, I think I posted the link to that exact site like a week ago. Yep.

I tend to like Scottish accents. I'm neutral towards most English (or British, whatever) accents, though I hate "commercial" English accents - anytime the voice-over in an American commercial has a British accent, that's the one I'm talking about. For some reason, companies think having the most outrageously pompous-sounding Brits talk down to us is a good idea.

Ah. Well, I honestly think you are incapable of understanding much and conversate from disingenuous positions. I guess Ill have to take a pass.

That's crazy high, even considering the circumstances. Hope you and your GP can figure something out.

In this political climate, I don't think conservative America would even entertain the idea of making all candidates submit to physical and mental tests. Maybe physical, but definitely not mental...and I kind of have my own misgivings about the latter, too. I think most people have mental issues of some kind - some more serious that can interfere with doing your job and your life in general, and some much less so. If the results of these tests were revealed to the public, both sides would just weaponize them against each other, and eventually the political parties would just try to find candidates who'll get a totally clean bill of health - or candidates who can at least fake their way through. So much of mental health diagnostics require the subject to answer honestly with the intent of getting the correct diagnosis: I don't want to encourage even more liars and sociopaths to pursue our highest offices than we already do. And if you don't reveal the results publicly, what's the purpose of screening? Would you give psychologists the power to unilaterally eliminate candidates for reasons they won't divulge? No, I just don't think most people would go for that - I think even many liberals and progressives would probably take issue to that.

I don't think that's entirely true - keyword being "entirely". The voting splits suggested that white turnout was horrible - but what whites did vote voted for him (instead of the Dem) at about the same percentage as normal. That happened almost certainly because of the controversy (especially when the large write-in count was almost certainly because of what would've been Republican voters deciding he was not worth their vote). On the other hand, yes, black voters had great turnout (saying that America was better when slavery was still around probably wasn't the wisest choice of words, as indirectly as he said it), and a little over 95% of all black voters went for Jones. Plainly saying America would be better without the 13th amendment seems pretty direct to me. Where did he "plainly say" that? As far as I know, he said all of the amendments after the 10th. There are sixteen other amendments after the 10th besides the 13th, so I think that's indirect, even though it (and other similar amendments like the 15th and 19th) are probably what he was getting at. The guy's undoubtedly a monster for this reason and many others...which is why I don't feel it's necessary to stretch the truth here.

I don't think that's entirely true - keyword being "entirely". The voting splits suggested that white turnout was horrible - but what whites did vote voted for him (instead of the Dem) at about the same percentage as normal. That happened almost certainly because of the controversy (especially when the large write-in count was almost certainly because of what would've been Republican voters deciding he was not worth their vote). On the other hand, yes, black voters had great turnout (saying that America was better when slavery was still around probably wasn't the wisest choice of words, as indirectly as he said it), and a little over 95% of all black voters went for Jones.

Seems like NYT has all but called it for Jones now at >95% chance of winning. Almost all of the heavily conservative-leaning precincts have been counted, and he's behind by a full point with more liberal-leaning areas to go. I hope it goes up to where they're projecting, around 3 points. (e): The AP has officially called it for Doug Jones. Congratulations, Democrats. (e): Seems like he won't get as high as the previous 3, looks like it'll be more like 1-1.5.

We all know how political projections go these days. Especially ones with major controversies that make voters difficult to judge. Five Thirty Eight is very slightly leaning Moore, while NYT continues to favor Jones by a little more than 538's leaning. (e): NYT is now leaning Jones mildly more than before, and 538, though initially favoring Moore at the start of the race, has swung to Jones. (e): Looking more and more like Jones will win. NYT has Jones at almost 85% with 86% of precincts reporting.

The New York Times is actually expecting Moore to lose right this moment. Though the current results favor Moore, it seems that's because the precincts that have reported so far were expected to lean towards him. So I guess we'll wait and see. https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/alabama-senate-special-election-roy-moore-doug-jones

Looking like it'll be a glorious victory for the Grand Old Predators!

​but you have left 4 dead 2 in there

​Why's that a negative? I wish literally every game had that option, especially for replays. Or did you typo and mean to say "can't"?

Yeah, I never understood the whole "this is a super choice-driven game where your decisions have serious consequences" warning that Life Is Strange did at the beginning of every chapter. It just wasn't really true. I guess it's just a part of marketing, because advertising the game as merely being a somewhat interactive but utterly linear movie-game would make it seem kind of dull, even though that's pretty much exactly what it is (and is pretty good at it, too).

Cowboys are in a pretty impossible position. Sort of like the Packers right now, but with worse tiebreakers. We need some things to go right for us in addition to needing to win out to get to the playoffs, but you guys are going to need virtually everything to go right to get in.

Well, the most complete team that is not the Patriots just lost their QB for the season. Wentz was also the only guy that was competing with Tom Brady for MVP. Time for that old "the MVP doesn't win the Super Bowl" streak to finally be broken.

That reminds me of how completely horrible and cringey the narrative and characters were in that game. Too bad, given the singleplayer campaign really was actually pretty decent otherwise.

It took about four miracles, but the Packers beat the Browns. We'll likely see Rodgers return for at least one game next week. Even if we win out, the playoffs are a long shot...but it is a chance.