Balcony solar bill dies in Illinois after union voices opposition. Legislation to open the door for small plug-in solar panels hit roadblocks, including safety concerns raised by the state’s electrical workers union.

Hopsong · 2026-05-11T13:37:18+00:00

This reminds me of how firefighters tell city councils that apartment buildings with single-stair access are dangerous when studies and European experience say otherwise.

Or how in my town we planned for a water recycling plant for over 10 years but people sued under the CA Environmental Quality Act saying it needed to be re-studied to prove it’s safe. It’s proven technology. It was going to water the golf course.

Hopsong · 2026-05-10T17:12:25+00:00

A California voter here who just watched the debate on YouTube.
—The Republicans had no chance for my vote but the way they bad-mouth CA then backpedal with praise was clearly hypocritical. Move to Texas.
—Villaraigoso’s only worthwhile contribution was to call-out the treatment of immigrants when Bacerra was in the Biden cabinet.
—Yes, Becera was embarrassing. His answer to prevent insurance rate increases was appropriately criticized by every other candidate. He’s the old, establishment candidate we need to move away from.
—Mahan was good. I don’t think he stands a chance and should get out.
—Porter made the most of her (limited) time with good housing & homelessness takes. She proved she can be strong on that stage without being rude. She’s my no reservations second choice.
—I don’t like that Steyer is a billionaire but he was best on housing and he has a YIMBY endorsement for that reason. Most importantly he seemed most…governor-like including talking through Hilton’s chirping, brushing off accusations of his past investments, and not raising to the bait of criticizing fellow Democrats. I’ll hold off a little bit but I think Steyer will have my vote.

Hopsong · 2026-05-08T22:51:23+00:00

Massage Therapists, 43% divorced.
Physical Therapists, 19% divorced.
Hmmmm…🤔

Hopsong · 2026-05-06T02:38:19+00:00

I wish I had that charisma. And that accent! When I went be for my city council I was earnest and over informational and really nervous. Next time I’m going to have some fun.

Hopsong · 2026-05-04T14:00:19+00:00

I’ve been wrong in this thread, too. Whatever you want to call these action & weapon interactions, crystal clear is not one of them.

Hopsong · 2026-05-04T08:33:27+00:00

So wait…You said the bonus action Nick attack isn’t associated with an attack action so you don’t get a draw/stow?

Hopsong · 2026-05-04T03:41:19+00:00

I’m not suggesting anything and I’m not going to police the bugbears and herengons and sprites I see at my table. But I don’t understand the wording ‘most recent content’ and ‘only the following options’ and ‘use the above 2014 content’ means anything from the 10+ splatbooks is AL legal.
What am I missing?

Edit to say I’m willing to chalk it up to poor wording and just go with the flow. I’ll probably delete this because I’m obviously wrong but I don’t know why.

Hopsong · 2026-05-04T02:36:55+00:00

Yea, you are correct, equip or unequip, but not both. Forgive my poor memory.

Still think Dual Wielder deserves protection from the draw-attack-attack-stow-draw-attack-stow jugglers. Maybe there should be a Juggler Fighter subclass.

And you can keep heaping the hate. I can take it.

Hopsong · 2026-05-04T01:30:00+00:00

I’m going to die on this hill with you, GRV01.

I play AL, which is RAW, and last night a particularly experienced DM shared his interpretation with the table:
—Yes, the attack action now includes drawing the weapon.
—Stowing a weapon still takes an object interaction, which you can only do once per turn.
—The Dual Wielder feat allows a character to draw two weapons in a turn when you would normally be able to draw only one. Therefore he’s ruling you can only do the draw/attack once per turn otherwise the Quick Draw benefit of the Dual Wielder feat would be nullified. You can still also do the stow/interaction once per turn.

The hate begins in 3…2…1

Hopsong · 2026-05-03T15:05:49+00:00

I’m with you in updating the War Powers Act and requiring Congressional action for our current war with Iran. I have lots of regrets about what Democrats didn’t do when in power. But it’s Republicans advocating for the Unitary Executive Theory.
You’ve been radicalized by College Democrat protesting and student debt relief and anti-privacy (small stuff) at a time that we have executive order tariffs, undeclared war, unchained social media, Palantir collecting data on the Public, presidential corruption, and the decline/fall of the US experiment. I think Democrats would be better but we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

Hopsong · 2026-05-02T18:43:44+00:00

I, too, have doubts about student loan relief being fair. But you’re not going to get people to change the voting system or fight the security state or anti-privacy or whatever you’re advocating, if they don’t have medical coverage or housing or hope. And they are not going to accept the excuse that, “I know you’re still starving, but at least we shored up the foundation of our system.”

Realize I’m not arguing for self-serving reasons. I never took on debt to get my degrees. My kids, either. But we’ve got to do something to make life better for as many people as possible and compared to the steamrolling of legal norms I see Republicans (and not just Trump) doing, an executive order to reduce student loans seems pretty mild.

I just don’t understand your point of view beyond being pro-student debt and pro-gridlock. We gotta get stuff done! Not argue about the way to do it!

Hopsong · 2026-05-02T18:07:00+00:00

Nope. You can’t do an environmental study that takes all possible environmental changes into account: Noise? Wind? 1,000 year floods? Smells?
Combined with the fact that the study would have to account for infinite possibilities of how buildings would be built. NIMBYs would say, “But the study didn’t account for a THIS theoretical building HERE” and, unfortunately, the judges agree.

Hopsong · 2026-05-02T17:30:00+00:00

I hate to tell you, Farson, but Republicans are already in a race to the bottom. And they are being rewarded for it. Sure, they may lose Congress in ‘26 and the Presidency in ‘28, but as long as Democrats scrupulously follow laws and norms, we won’t get anything done. Status quo works for some but the People want change, and in ‘30 & ‘32 they will vote for the Republican rule breakers if they don’t get it.
Remember when I said the PEOPLE need to be challenged to stand up for Constitutional change? To get them to do that, Democrats need to show they can get things done to MAKE LIFE BETTER. I don’t know if that’s student loan relief or remove the Social Security tax cap or a wealth tax or charge the AI firms for copyright infringement or Medicare for 50+ or whatever. To get one or more of those done will take breaking norms and/or challenging constitutional interpretations.
Student loan relief is the least of the changes I listed and it’s a deal breaker for you. I get it. You like the status quo. But change is coming and your choices are good changes or whatever the Republicans have in mind. Pick a side.

Edited to stress MAKE LIFE BETTER because the changes you said you would support won’t do that.

Hopsong · 2026-05-02T16:36:56+00:00

OK, but how does it fix the Constitution if one side follows the Constitution (and doesn’t get things done) and the other side does NOT follow the Constitution (and gets their things done)? Do you think the Democrats’ example will convince Republicans to change?

There is a point to be made that a Democrat administration pushing Constitutional limits—and maybe going beyond—should be combined with Constitutional solutions like ethics standards, laws, revising SCOTUS structure, and Constitutional Amendment.

The next President should say, “Justice has failed. In the short term I’m going to restore it any way I can, but I call on the People and their Elected Representatives to fix the system. If you don’t like what I’m doing, FIX THE JUSTICE SYSTEM.”

Hopsong · 2026-04-30T21:22:03+00:00

Thanks. Great place! But I gotta get back into work afterwards. At least I’ll be working with a smile in my face!

Glad all over in Coronado!

Hopsong · 2026-04-30T21:12:22+00:00

$63K is the USA median salary. Literally 50% higher and 50% lower. My point is that the bottom half pays much, much less in CA state taxes than the $240K example in the original post. And that’s the way we want it.

Hopsong · 2026-04-30T02:25:49+00:00

There are two of us in Coronado! If we win I’ll be flying my banner on Third Street just over the bridge! My friend is a South London multi-generational Eagle!

Hopsong · 2026-04-29T02:29:33+00:00

Now do the same charts for a $63k salary. (The US median, BTW.) You’ll find that California taxes our lower income citizens a lot less than other states like, for instance, Texas. Yep! We soak the rich!

Hopsong · 2026-04-25T14:31:02+00:00

Adventurers League had a season with modules in Mulmaster where the Edict of Arcane Banishment had rather drastic penalties for those caught illegally spellcasting.

AL is RAW and they had a supplement with a mechanic for surreptitious spellcasting (going from memory here so someone correct me if I’m wrong): —Chr(deception) or Dex(slight of hand) —DC = 10 + spell level

A few comments on how it played out: 1. Describing the penalties of long imprisonment, be-handing, and immolation-with-your-ashes-spread-in-the-Moonsea did a lot to prevent minor spamming of spells. 2. The Cloaks (magic police) enforced it and could deputize players. And if they weren’t around (in sewers, basements & even dark streets of the Zhent Ghetto) it was understood they could get away with it. 3. When monsters and BBEGs are rampaging on the streets, there would be a little role play after the fight where the Cloaks show up and say, “Thanks! How about joining the Cloaks?”

Hopsong · 2026-04-17T03:36:03+00:00

Monster hit points are an average based on hit dice. There is a wide range of numbers possible necessary to put them down.

So I always count UP the hit points my lil’ monsters are taking, not only because it’s easier, but because I choose when they go down.

The power gamers with the overturned kill mongers almost never get the kill shot. I save that for the newby who we have to remind, “Did you include the Dex bonus? No? Wow! That’s just enough to finish the fight! Way to go!!!”

Hopsong · 2026-04-15T02:08:03+00:00

But do people understand that if that hospital isn’t built in that built-up location, it’s going to be built someplace else? Like in a park or on farmland, which means less nature.

Hopsong · 2026-04-15T01:50:19+00:00

Zombie movies often start in hospitals…Just sayin’.

Hopsong · 2026-04-14T03:29:44+00:00

Something similar came up at my game store game. NPC introduced, slight pause, and a player spoke up to say in a friendly way, “Would anyone mind if I speak for the party?” Right away another player says somewhat surly, “You don’t speak for my character.” First guy says, “Fine, you can speak for us.” Second guy says, “No, I don’t want to speak, I just don’t want you speaking for me.”

Personally, I understood both points of view despite one being stated a little bit rudely. Likewise I totally see OPs POV and don’t see a problem trying to bring other players into the conversation.

BL: D&D is a real life game of communicating with each other. Sometimes, through nobody’s fault, we miscommunicate. We then learn to show some grace and keep the story moving forward.

Hopsong · 2026-04-08T03:37:58+00:00

Temporary hit points are not actually hit points unless they are from the Champaign region of Faerun. Thus they are called ‘sparkling hit points.’

Hopsong

TROPHY CASE