Nationalizing industries is actually a good idea in some cases, though - especially when it comes to vital utilities that should, at the very least, have a public option. Imagine how much better US telecom would be if a publicly-owned option was available that forced the private players to actually compete. Privatizing essential services like water, electricity and public transport has historically proven to be a terrible idea. Not everything makes sense for the free market to operate, there are services/industries that simply are too vulnerable to monopolization without government involvement.
But this particular idea feels... really sketchy. Trump has compared it to Bernie Sanders' proposal for a 50% tax on the stock of AI companies, but Sanders' tax proposal feels more sound than a stock holding.
Oh, and just to clarify why Trump replacing Thomas and Alito wouldn't make much difference for those who haven't obviously figured it out - they're already nakedly partisan toadies who nearly always vote for whatever Trump wants to begin with. While a Dem president replacing them would be great, Trump replacing them would just be maintaining the current state of the court.
Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh aren't great, but Barrett at least is uh, less crazy, and they're at least not entirely nakedly partisan. You can tell that Trump is furious that they're more independent than he wanted and that he wishes he put in justices who are straight up nakedly loyal to him.
For what it's worth, it's very unlikely that Trump will have the opportunity to reshape the makeup of the court. Roberts, Sotomayor and Kagan are too young and aren't going anywhere, and Trump already put in Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, with Biden putting in Jackson. At most you might see Alito or Thomas retire during the post-election period this year or in 2028 if the Democrats win back the senate in either case (and the presidency in 2028) in order to put toadies in those seats to maintain control over them, but that's it.
Here's hoping the Democrats gain control over the senate in 2026, or at least 2028. It's gonna be an uphill battle, but there is a decent chance it happens as the GOP is dragged down by their insane god-king.
On this, Vance is sadly correct on multiple fronts, while incorrect on others. A Watergate scandal today probably wouldn’t get as much attention as it did in the 70s, in large part due to the bifurcation of our news media into one traditional media wing and one plain propaganda wing for the proverbial right.
That's not a coincidence. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes created Fox News partly to ensure that a scandal like Watergate would never bring down another Republican president. Sadly, so far, it's worked.
TSKG have commented, actually. They've seen this outcome coming a mile away, as they noticed that industry lobbyists have had the ear of the EU Commission, and intend to basically bypass the Commission entirely and instead lobby to amend the Digital Services Act, as Stop Killing Games has significantly more support within the EU Parliament.
The EU Commission's approval is required for new legislation, but not for amending existing legislation. Ross Scott remarked that the Digital Services Act is a pretty suitable home for SGK's legislative goal, anyway.
There’s a very good reason that the trend over the past decade or so has been one of less exclusivity, not more. Getting games out there, particularly when you’re directly publishing a bunch of games because of that same studio sprawl we talked about earlier, is the most important thing for the bottom line.
None of the big three see it that way any more - if anything, that trend has reverted back to the old status quo. Sony is dropping PC releases for its singleplayer games, and now it's obvious that the new Xbox boss sees the multiplatform strategy as detrimental to hardware sales and is taking the division back to Xbox and PC only (and the latter only because they need to support gaming on Windows). Meanwhile, Nintendo has not budged an inch and considering it's arguably the most successful of the three, it really sees no reason to change that. The days of the console makers putting out multiplatform games is basically over.
Pelley was right to trash talk. He had a right to demand answers about the unjustified firing of his colleagues, which Bilton desperately tried to avoid while he and Forelle demanded civility out of him. Bilton didn't have the fucking balls to defend his boss or the previous firings, all he and Weiss could do was hide behind "civility" and "respect" (which really means "Pelley didn't unconditionally bow to authority like a good stooge should").
Zohran Mamdani once said that "For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty."
Also, another unattributed but insightful quote I've come across in relation to all of this: "Sometimes people use 'respect' to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”. And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”. And they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay."
Bilton and Weiss hide behind civility and decorum and got mad that Pelley refused to roll over. "Respect" is earned, and Pelley reminded them they hadn't earned it, which is the most unforgivable sin in their eyes.
Using the hard-r word in 2026 is certainly a choice.
Also, blatant incorrect revisionist history aside, Pelley was right to trash talk. He had a right to demand answers about the unjustified firing of his colleagues, which Bilton desperately tried to avoid while he and Forelle demanded civility out of him. Bilton didn't have the fucking balls to defend his boss or the previous firings, all he and Weiss could do was hide behind "civility" and "respect" (which really means "Pelley didn't unconditionally bow to authority like a good stooge should").
If civility means rolling over, then fuck civility.
It's so very telling that Thomas' screed against progressives is such blatant projection. Also, he ignores that the constitution is a secular document with a defined separation of church and state.
Should Paramount executives stumble in execution to remain competitive and manage the debt load (and there’s very good evidence to suggest that’s already happening), all Netflix has to do is sit back, watch Paramount/Warner collapse, then buy it for half the price (or less) a few years from now.
According to certain reporting, yeah, that's basically what Netflix is planning on doing. They're expecting on the new merged entity to implode within a year or two and to snap up the remains on the cheap.
RFK is an interesting dilemma for the White House, because while clearly he's nothing but an albatross around the administration's neck for independent voters who the GOP are losing ahead of the midterms, he's also the face of the MAHA ("Make America Healthy Again") movement whom he mobilized to vote for Trump and dropped out of the presidential race in exchange for his current role. And as much as they're a bunch of idiot quacks, they're also just large enough a contingent of the voter base to raise a massive stink if their poster boy gets sacked.
The most straightforward solution is to just stuff all "placeholder" materials into a folder called "PLACEHOLDER" in your project, and then delete the folder when you're getting close to concluding development. This is especially useful with engines like Unreal, which will actively tell you if those assets are being referenced by anything so you can replace the references.
That being said, depending on the size of the project, that might require strict project management to ensure that team members are putting placeholder assets in the right place. And sometimes someone might get lazy and use AI generation without telling anyone, which can be frustrating.
For what it's worth, the Democrats probably will impeach after the midterms, especially if they regain control of the senate. But right now it'll likely not even get a floor vote. That's pretty much the reason why they haven't tried impeaching Trump a third time. The Jan 6th impeachment got the most senate votes for conviction in history, but possibly not as many as could be because McConnell punted the whole thing until the new congress when Trump was out of office anyway, making it easier for Republicans to justify voting for acquittal.
Unfortunately, the vote threshold to convict was set up at a time when many of the founding fathers had active disdain for the concept of political parties and the idea of today's hyper-partisanship was virtually unthinkable. The only time when it was really possible was during Nixon's tenure, only for him to resign willingly and get pardoned by his successor. Fox News was literally established in response to Watergate, by political operators who wanted to make sure that another Republican president would never be brought down in the same way again.
The US constitution and systems of government need major reforms. It would be difficult to enact, but trying and failing is better than not trying at all.
I think you're worrying a bit too much here. Trump was elected on the back of the inflation-driven anti-incumbent wave that destroyed multiple incumbent governments in elections around that time period, on top of Biden's advanced age, Harris having a limited time to establish herself in the public sphere as the Democrat candidate and her refusal to form a clean break from herself and Biden - rightly or wrongly, people perceived Biden as having not done nearly enough on inflation and cost of living issues. Trump has done literally nothing to deal with affordability issues, if anything he's only made things worse, and the electorate have noticed that in a big way.
The other thing to keep in mind that Trump has a cultural foothold few other people have, and a bizarre "charisma" that draws a specific type of voter that normally doesn't turn out for elections. When he's not on the ballot, the Republicans tend to do horribly (and they're already doing really badly in special elections). Trump literally can't run again, all of his potential successors have the charisma of a dead fish (the very idea of JD Vance running as the GOP nominee is hilarious, he has no fucking chance in hell), and Trump in his second term is now so unpopular already that anyone associated with his administration will have him as an albatross around their necks.
I'm not exaggerating when I say that 2028 may end up being a shoe-in for the Democrats - even the worst viable candidate would trounce anyone the Republicans might nominate. Hell, it might be the best possible opportunity for someone like AOC to take a shot at it. And that's not even getting into how much the Democrats can do if they have the senate alongside a Dem president post-2028, which would likely mean the death of the filibuster, establishing DC as a state, major voting reforms that Biden couldn't pass because of Manchin and Sinema, Medicare-For-All (or even just a public option), etc.
It should be noted that nobody wants to watch Fox News Lite when the real thing is right there. It's partly why CBS and CNN's viewership is already in the toilet.
I wouldn't be surprised if the big cable news players eventually just end up being Fox News and MS NOW. Nowadays only Fox News, CNN and MS NOW are actually treated as notable players when it comes to reporting on ratings from my cursory check, CBS isn't even on the radar anymore.
Yeah, it looks like someone high up at the DOJ (probably Pam Bondi herself) thought Trump would get mad if he found out and ordered the lawyers to walk back the dismissal. Not surprising.
His argument that AI tools have gotten better feels hollow when he's an AI evangelist who is actively ignoring that LLMs still regularly hallucinate, and even coding LLMs are basically useless for anything more complex than boilerplate code.
The AI industry has a problem in that people just don't want to pay for their products, either because what's free is enough or they don't see the value in the paid subscriptions. No wonder the evangelists are desperately trying to hype this tech up as much as possible, but it's a fool's errand, considering the ridiculous amount of investment going into the industry but with barely any actual revenue made from it.
I just want to see the bubble burst already.
For what it's worth, Persona was only an experimental provider specifically for the UK. Discord have said that they plan only to use on-device age verification methods that do not send identifying information off-device. Said verification methods will probably be easy to foil, but eh.
I guarantee they would be singing a different tune if Pretti had been black. When the Black Panthers asserted their right to bear arms in public, the NRA supported gun control.
It's less "congress" that's the problem and more the Republicans. The Democrats know this is completely insane. They'd try to impeach Trump again in a heartbeat if they had control of both houses. But the Republicans? They're either deep in the sauce, are afraid of being primaried, or are terrified of being targeted by Trump's insane base who have proven they are willing to murder people seen as Trump's enemies.
It's complete lunacy, but the Republicans have been utterly captured by a president who is losing his marbles in real time but has a stranglehold on the party's base. This is another reason why a two-party "big tent" system sucks for everyone who isn't rich as balls.
Nationalizing industries is actually a good idea in some cases, though - especially when it comes to vital utilities that should, at the very least, have a public option. Imagine how much better US telecom would be if a publicly-owned option was available that forced the private players to actually compete. Privatizing essential services like water, electricity and public transport has historically proven to be a terrible idea. Not everything makes sense for the free market to operate, there are services/industries that simply are too vulnerable to monopolization without government involvement. But this particular idea feels... really sketchy. Trump has compared it to Bernie Sanders' proposal for a 50% tax on the stock of AI companies, but Sanders' tax proposal feels more sound than a stock holding.
Oh, and just to clarify why Trump replacing Thomas and Alito wouldn't make much difference for those who haven't obviously figured it out - they're already nakedly partisan toadies who nearly always vote for whatever Trump wants to begin with. While a Dem president replacing them would be great, Trump replacing them would just be maintaining the current state of the court. Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh aren't great, but Barrett at least is uh, less crazy, and they're at least not entirely nakedly partisan. You can tell that Trump is furious that they're more independent than he wanted and that he wishes he put in justices who are straight up nakedly loyal to him.
For what it's worth, it's very unlikely that Trump will have the opportunity to reshape the makeup of the court. Roberts, Sotomayor and Kagan are too young and aren't going anywhere, and Trump already put in Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, with Biden putting in Jackson. At most you might see Alito or Thomas retire during the post-election period this year or in 2028 if the Democrats win back the senate in either case (and the presidency in 2028) in order to put toadies in those seats to maintain control over them, but that's it. Here's hoping the Democrats gain control over the senate in 2026, or at least 2028. It's gonna be an uphill battle, but there is a decent chance it happens as the GOP is dragged down by their insane god-king.
TSKG have commented, actually. They've seen this outcome coming a mile away, as they noticed that industry lobbyists have had the ear of the EU Commission, and intend to basically bypass the Commission entirely and instead lobby to amend the Digital Services Act, as Stop Killing Games has significantly more support within the EU Parliament. The EU Commission's approval is required for new legislation, but not for amending existing legislation. Ross Scott remarked that the Digital Services Act is a pretty suitable home for SGK's legislative goal, anyway.
Pelley was right to trash talk. He had a right to demand answers about the unjustified firing of his colleagues, which Bilton desperately tried to avoid while he and Forelle demanded civility out of him. Bilton didn't have the fucking balls to defend his boss or the previous firings, all he and Weiss could do was hide behind "civility" and "respect" (which really means "Pelley didn't unconditionally bow to authority like a good stooge should"). Zohran Mamdani once said that "For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask agendas of cruelty." Also, another unattributed but insightful quote I've come across in relation to all of this: "Sometimes people use 'respect' to mean “treating someone like a person” and sometimes they use “respect” to mean “treating someone like an authority”. And sometimes people who are used to being treated like an authority say “if you won’t respect me I won’t respect you” and they mean “if you won’t treat me like an authority I won’t treat you like a person”. And they think they’re being fair but they aren’t, and it’s not okay." Bilton and Weiss hide behind civility and decorum and got mad that Pelley refused to roll over. "Respect" is earned, and Pelley reminded them they hadn't earned it, which is the most unforgivable sin in their eyes.
Using the hard-r word in 2026 is certainly a choice. Also, blatant incorrect revisionist history aside, Pelley was right to trash talk. He had a right to demand answers about the unjustified firing of his colleagues, which Bilton desperately tried to avoid while he and Forelle demanded civility out of him. Bilton didn't have the fucking balls to defend his boss or the previous firings, all he and Weiss could do was hide behind "civility" and "respect" (which really means "Pelley didn't unconditionally bow to authority like a good stooge should"). If civility means rolling over, then fuck civility.
It's so very telling that Thomas' screed against progressives is such blatant projection. Also, he ignores that the constitution is a secular document with a defined separation of church and state.
RFK is an interesting dilemma for the White House, because while clearly he's nothing but an albatross around the administration's neck for independent voters who the GOP are losing ahead of the midterms, he's also the face of the MAHA ("Make America Healthy Again") movement whom he mobilized to vote for Trump and dropped out of the presidential race in exchange for his current role. And as much as they're a bunch of idiot quacks, they're also just large enough a contingent of the voter base to raise a massive stink if their poster boy gets sacked.
The most straightforward solution is to just stuff all "placeholder" materials into a folder called "PLACEHOLDER" in your project, and then delete the folder when you're getting close to concluding development. This is especially useful with engines like Unreal, which will actively tell you if those assets are being referenced by anything so you can replace the references. That being said, depending on the size of the project, that might require strict project management to ensure that team members are putting placeholder assets in the right place. And sometimes someone might get lazy and use AI generation without telling anyone, which can be frustrating.
For what it's worth, the Democrats probably will impeach after the midterms, especially if they regain control of the senate. But right now it'll likely not even get a floor vote. That's pretty much the reason why they haven't tried impeaching Trump a third time. The Jan 6th impeachment got the most senate votes for conviction in history, but possibly not as many as could be because McConnell punted the whole thing until the new congress when Trump was out of office anyway, making it easier for Republicans to justify voting for acquittal. Unfortunately, the vote threshold to convict was set up at a time when many of the founding fathers had active disdain for the concept of political parties and the idea of today's hyper-partisanship was virtually unthinkable. The only time when it was really possible was during Nixon's tenure, only for him to resign willingly and get pardoned by his successor. Fox News was literally established in response to Watergate, by political operators who wanted to make sure that another Republican president would never be brought down in the same way again. The US constitution and systems of government need major reforms. It would be difficult to enact, but trying and failing is better than not trying at all.
I think you're worrying a bit too much here. Trump was elected on the back of the inflation-driven anti-incumbent wave that destroyed multiple incumbent governments in elections around that time period, on top of Biden's advanced age, Harris having a limited time to establish herself in the public sphere as the Democrat candidate and her refusal to form a clean break from herself and Biden - rightly or wrongly, people perceived Biden as having not done nearly enough on inflation and cost of living issues. Trump has done literally nothing to deal with affordability issues, if anything he's only made things worse, and the electorate have noticed that in a big way. The other thing to keep in mind that Trump has a cultural foothold few other people have, and a bizarre "charisma" that draws a specific type of voter that normally doesn't turn out for elections. When he's not on the ballot, the Republicans tend to do horribly (and they're already doing really badly in special elections). Trump literally can't run again, all of his potential successors have the charisma of a dead fish (the very idea of JD Vance running as the GOP nominee is hilarious, he has no fucking chance in hell), and Trump in his second term is now so unpopular already that anyone associated with his administration will have him as an albatross around their necks. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 2028 may end up being a shoe-in for the Democrats - even the worst viable candidate would trounce anyone the Republicans might nominate. Hell, it might be the best possible opportunity for someone like AOC to take a shot at it. And that's not even getting into how much the Democrats can do if they have the senate alongside a Dem president post-2028, which would likely mean the death of the filibuster, establishing DC as a state, major voting reforms that Biden couldn't pass because of Manchin and Sinema, Medicare-For-All (or even just a public option), etc.
It should be noted that nobody wants to watch Fox News Lite when the real thing is right there. It's partly why CBS and CNN's viewership is already in the toilet. I wouldn't be surprised if the big cable news players eventually just end up being Fox News and MS NOW. Nowadays only Fox News, CNN and MS NOW are actually treated as notable players when it comes to reporting on ratings from my cursory check, CBS isn't even on the radar anymore.
Yeah, it looks like someone high up at the DOJ (probably Pam Bondi herself) thought Trump would get mad if he found out and ordered the lawyers to walk back the dismissal. Not surprising.
His argument that AI tools have gotten better feels hollow when he's an AI evangelist who is actively ignoring that LLMs still regularly hallucinate, and even coding LLMs are basically useless for anything more complex than boilerplate code. The AI industry has a problem in that people just don't want to pay for their products, either because what's free is enough or they don't see the value in the paid subscriptions. No wonder the evangelists are desperately trying to hype this tech up as much as possible, but it's a fool's errand, considering the ridiculous amount of investment going into the industry but with barely any actual revenue made from it. I just want to see the bubble burst already.
For what it's worth, Persona was only an experimental provider specifically for the UK. Discord have said that they plan only to use on-device age verification methods that do not send identifying information off-device. Said verification methods will probably be easy to foil, but eh.
I guarantee they would be singing a different tune if Pretti had been black. When the Black Panthers asserted their right to bear arms in public, the NRA supported gun control.
It's less "congress" that's the problem and more the Republicans. The Democrats know this is completely insane. They'd try to impeach Trump again in a heartbeat if they had control of both houses. But the Republicans? They're either deep in the sauce, are afraid of being primaried, or are terrified of being targeted by Trump's insane base who have proven they are willing to murder people seen as Trump's enemies. It's complete lunacy, but the Republicans have been utterly captured by a president who is losing his marbles in real time but has a stranglehold on the party's base. This is another reason why a two-party "big tent" system sucks for everyone who isn't rich as balls.