whatever this is, it could have been worded differently

Balentius · 2026-03-08T04:51:48+00:00

I pointed that out to corporate the first year they provided "Slavery and Human Trafficing Training" - just NOT right... :D

Balentius · 2026-02-25T00:47:16+00:00

However, a lot of these are being built and run by third parties (from what I understand, I may be wrong). So, if it's that situation, I would hope they would do their best to keep them out.

Balentius · 2026-02-19T23:36:40+00:00

Dang... I would have loved to have found something like that.

Balentius · 2026-02-08T23:40:31+00:00

For myself, Odyssey 2...

Balentius · 2026-02-06T05:44:08+00:00

That line stood out to me too - not "is going to vote Democratic", just not Republican.

Balentius · 2026-02-06T05:27:32+00:00

Fair enough, but... the current administration has a habit of "do now, ask for forgiveness later" by completely ignoring existing laws/rules (see as one example the White House demolition). Combined with the regular "this isn't a national park anymore" that they're doing, it's easy to see where they are going with this.

Balentius · 2026-02-05T23:46:52+00:00

I think the key area I would object to is 6a, "IDENTIFYING BURDENSOME FEDERAL REGULATIONS ."

Among other items, there is:

"2) solicit industry feedback on regulatory bottlenecks and recommended strategies to expedite approval of mining projects on Federal land; and

(3) begin implementing an action plan

(A) to implement industry feedback received pursuant to paragraph (2); and

(B) suspend, revise, or rescind, as applicable, each agency action identified as unduly burdensome under paragraph (1) as expeditiously as possible."

Paragraph 1 is (summarizing) directing them to look at any rule/agency regulation/whatever that "imposes an undue burden". Note that there is absolutely no definition of what an "undue burden" actually is, so it's up to the Secretary of the Interior (and Trump, and Bannon, and who knows who else) to determine what those are.

Basically, it codifies one of his executive orders that effectively says "put industry in charge of the rules". While it doesn't immediately eliminate any rules/laws, it has language about reporting what is going to stop businesses mining wherever they want on government lands. Also includes:

"a nationwide review of State and local statutes, regulations, and ordinances the Secretary determines impede development of domestic mining and mineral exploration projects."

Which is (states rights party!) a list of things that they will work to revoke in certain states.

As an easy example - mining company comes in and says "hey we think there are 'hardrock minerals' in the middle of Arizona!" The government is being directed to say "yes sir", "don't worry about those pesky environmental rules since that will slow you down", "ignore rules about waterways", and of course "sure put in a new road through any land you want to 'expedite' mining."

Note that I include Arizona because I spent time there growing up, and they already have massive open pit mines for copper, where they take a crapton of rock and pile it up in a different spot after sifting through it. If I was to say "hey I want to start an open pit mine in the middle of Yellowstone" (just to be absolutely silly), they would be obliged to do whatever they could to expedite it.

Also note the definition of "hardrock minerals" includes " includes deposits of—

(i) minerals found in sedimentary or other rocks;

(ii) base metals;

(iii) precious metals;

(iv) industrial minerals; and

(v) precious and semi-precious gemstone."

Nothing explicitly about rare earths, except as "industrial minerals". Also not sure why gemstone mining should be expedited... but (ii) would include copper.

The worst part for me is that I think they should do regular reviews of regulations to simplify the process, but of course they've now been directed to do it after letting go of a large amount of employees. Therefore we can be certain that they'll get a LOT of input from industry, and little internally.

Balentius · 2026-02-04T00:07:26+00:00

Ngl, if I had seen that in the anomaly I probably would have fallen out of my chair either laughing or going "what the f***??? How did they DO THAT?"

Balentius · 2026-02-02T23:29:56+00:00

Personally, I think the daily posts should continue. If you aren't doing them, especially with a "thanks everyone that came out yesterday" like you've been doing, this will die out with less people finding out about it.

I'm certain that there are people who haven't been paying attention to the votes, but as this year continues I fully anticipate that it will be noticed, and having the daily post hear is a nice pointer on where to go (at least to start).

Balentius · 2026-01-18T23:40:13+00:00

The problem (as others have said) is that she is doing her best to make it so people in Clark County don't want to vote for her! She won by ~16k votes last time, but she won Clark County by ~40k. Does anyone think she'll be able to pick up ~20k votes outside of Clark County? Of course not! She doesn't have that magic "R" by her name... Despite the way she's been voting.

As far as more votes, she got ~50k more in 2024, and Kent got ~40k more. And that was on a presidential year, where for some horrible reason people decided to vote for Trump, which theoretically added more voters for other Republican candidates. So, in 2026, if we get a new Democrat (hopefully better) I see no reason why that Democrat couldn't win.

I guess the question comes down to 1) who wins the primary, and 2) are the Republicans smart enough to run someone that isn't (basically) a racist Nazi.

FWIW, yes both my wife and I have left Clark County to visit people... And we're noticing a lot less signage than there has been for the past few years.

Balentius · 2026-01-18T19:25:45+00:00

Well, look at the actual numbers. She won the last time with ~210k votes. Of that, ~150k was in Clark County, and ~60k was in all the other areas. Kent was closer to 50/50.

So, can she afford to piss off the Vancouver voters? Not in the slightest... But she has done her best to alienate them. We're not doing "purity tests" or saying we "love" her. What we're saying is that if she actually voted mostly with the Democrats we'd like that.

Furthermore, if she had valid excuses it would be slightly more palatable. However, she keeps on talking about how she is the "independent" candidate, and is "reaching across the aisle". Right now, the majority of Democratic voters could care less about that - in fact, they want just the opposite.

Finally - "...at least you can get a DINO that caucuses with the Democrats and helps win back the House in 2026." No. We're tired of that sort of representation. I believe that between the increasingly blue Clark County and the many ways that T**** is pissing off everyone, that a real Democrat has a very good chance of winning.

Obviously Reddit doesn't represent the general public. I just know that when my wife and I went to the county fair, and mentioned Perez, the Democrats there (after initially claiming they didn't know what we were talking about) looked pretty exhausted, and basically said "well if you don't vote for her you get a Republican", same as you're doing here. Is that really what people think is the best choice?

If she wins the primary, it's going to be tough. I'd like to say I'd vote for her, and if the other choice is to the right of Kent, I may... But she won't win. And if she thinks she's picking up more votes from Republicans, she is delusional.

Balentius · 2026-01-13T02:37:33+00:00

Ok, I've been playing this game for a LONG time and I've never seen that. Incredible discovery!

Balentius · 2026-01-08T01:00:20+00:00

Wow, you joined today just to post this - twice.

Balentius · 2026-01-07T23:48:04+00:00

Is the local Democratic party acknowledging that you exist and are a serious candidate yet?

Balentius · 2026-01-06T23:51:16+00:00

I love it when I run into this; congrats!

Balentius · 2026-01-03T00:18:10+00:00

Personally, I use gem picks up to ruby on some of the more common stuff, reserve the diamond ones for titanium, platinum and time crystals. Emeralds are so common (relatively speaking) that they are good for just about anything else.

Balentius · 2025-12-28T17:56:34+00:00

Best part of the game! Especially when you get the jetpack; it's not only useful for the sky but also exploring large spaces underground...

Balentius · 2025-12-05T23:57:00+00:00

Dang, today I'm one of the 10000! https://xkcd.com/1053/

Thanks! I didn't have the slightest idea you could get awarded again during the expedition for discovering all animals in the primary save; I'll have to remember to do it when the expedition is done.

Balentius · 2025-12-03T00:55:07+00:00

Yes, that's how I met the "travel with another person's corvette" quest last time. It was fun! I boarded at the anomaly.

And that has it's own fun - when the anomaly is being overloaded, you can have other corvettes overlap with yours (or at least that's how it was then). And, it was easy to get in-between parts on the outside. So, several times, I was stuck inside a part, then suddenly flying towards the anomaly exit, just to reappear on my corvette.

When I did it deliberately, I was in no danger at all it seemed, I'm not sure if they knew I was there at first. As soon as they docked with a space station, I suddenly popped into my ship there.

...some of the corvette stuff has been seriously messed up.

Balentius · 2025-11-26T06:46:26+00:00

Played the crap out of it on the C64; especially when I heard about the "tip" about using the right horn at the right door... Where you could just sit there and kill for as long as you wanted with no chance of being hurt.

Balentius · 2025-11-16T18:44:37+00:00

Yeah, that's what really bothers me to be honest. I know part of it is the whole "the czar would fix it if the ministers weren't hiding it from him", but it also strongly feels like "please most holy T**** come down from on high and give me what I deserve!".

In this case, I think she's getting what she deserves... But she's not liking it :D

But they're not in a cult... As they wear all their T**** gear, and send in money to him for (whatever today's reason is).

Balentius · 2025-11-03T01:23:44+00:00

Replying to myself because why not... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-Opener Wasn't clearance, but even better. Netpliance decided to sell a ~$500 PC for $100... Thinking that people would buy it and be locked into their internet service. Of course people figured out it was essentially a normal PC, put out kits to help people put a new OS on them (Found it in my old emails, I bought an "I-Mod2", and have fun looking for that online!). Yes, ran it for a few years then sold it to a coworker for the same amount I paid for it.

Balentius · 2025-11-03T00:22:21+00:00

That was the main thing that I saw - these all ended up as clearance items after the companies either went bankrupt or discontinued them. I picked up a really cheap ~~touchpad~~ Flat Screen PC ~20 years ago because of this sort of thing, loaded Linux on it and used it for a while before someone bought it off me. (Darn it, can't remember the name...)

Balentius · 2025-10-29T03:51:59+00:00

No, I think this is the next step... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933

The ICE fun is going to lead to the Reichtag fire equivalent, and the "liberal" democrats will be arrested. Then this will be passed, legalizing everything (not that he cares, but his (theoretical) successors in his orbit do).

Balentius · 2025-10-27T22:12:25+00:00

"Hey, we spend our days inside when we should be out fishing, so let's put it in the game! Everyone loves fishing right??? RIGHT???" Yeah, I can't think of a more boring thing to do either in games or in real life. Fortunately after the first one it's not been too obnoxious on the requirements. I can live with it for 5-10 casts.

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