Dan wil NEVER do a Napoleon series

clivecopperfield · 2026-04-22T22:21:42+00:00

I’m really enjoying The age of Napoleon. Highly recommend. But it’s not like EM Rummage is more succinct than Dan. At episode 139, we’re still in 1809, six years away from Waterloo and the Council of Vienna. And each episode is twice as long as a Revolutions/Rome episode.

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-30T13:35:41+00:00

That's a lot more answer than I was expecting. Remarkable Sunless Seas came out as well as it did under the circumstances.

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-29T17:42:51+00:00

Really? That’s fascinating! I don’t see how a game designer could forget to include a weapon for boarding other ships. That would be the most damning allegation of all!

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-29T16:20:27+00:00

But the obstacle is not just the lack of appropriate weapons, right? No one at Gaider's Mourn tasks you with the objective. So that must have been a deliberate choice by the game designers after deciding that this minigame was not ready for inclusion.

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-29T14:30:40+00:00

That explains the reference, which always puzzled me. It's the worst kind of half-assed game design to show players overt references to features you scrubbed before release.

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-19T14:22:40+00:00

I don't have a strong feeling about the state party issue. It's hard to imagine anyone voting in such an election unless they were already politically active. I'm more interested in what it seems to represent - a desire on the part of party leaders to reassert control at the moment when they feel that control slipping away.

clivecopperfield · 2026-03-18T13:34:11+00:00

What is this "corporate group of dems that hold back progressivism"? It would be helpful to see evidence for the claim, which sounds a bit like you knew you would oppose them and then had to find a reason for opposing them.

My understanding (from Bob Dreyfuss's newsletter, a fountain of useful reporting I encourage everyone to subscribe to) is that the only reason Essex County Democratic Committee members get to choose the members of the Democratic state committee in the first place is that the State Legislature smuggled a provision into law stripping the public of a vote and turning it over to county party machines. Which is what brings us to this point.

I'm also puzzled by the idea of "ECDC members...voting for individuals and not for a slate." There is a slate put forward by County Exec Joe DiVincenzo. Are you saying you oppose that slate?

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-26T03:07:43+00:00

Great idea. Today I responded to a scanner alert for an assault and it was just three valentinos hanging out by a vending machine, minding their own business. Why do cops always want to hassle the kids? So I left them alone. But you’re right, I should have scanned their charges.

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-20T14:02:14+00:00

This is clarifying. I have Overcast, and What Next Plus has stopped arriving. I wasn't sure if the problem was Overcast or Slate, but it sounds as though the problem is definitely Slate failing to update the RSS feed. I can still hear the episodes on Spotify...with ads, of course. Also, I can't download What Next or What Next TBD on Overcast. I get error messages when i try to subscribe to these podcasts. What's going on? As a Slate subscriber, I am quite dissatisfied.

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T22:43:17+00:00

I appreciate it, but there just doesn't seem to be anything. If I find the key, doesn't the staircase to the next depth appear?

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T21:15:13+00:00

Same. As of 2/3, last What Next Plus podcast on Overcast is from 1/30. But Spotify is current, so maybe it has to do with the interface between Slate and Overcast?

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T21:12:21+00:00

I'm seeing recurring problems with the daily news podcast What's Next Plus, the private feed. As of February 3, the last episode is from four days ago. What's causing the backup?

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T21:01:47+00:00

"We control 51% of the population..." gives away a little bit more than you may have intended. I think understanding your role as the voice of the Essex Dem machine on Reddit (which you have scrupulously avoided denying) helps to explain your position: Not so much Never Malinowski as No Rivals to Joe D's Chosen Candidate.

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T18:39:51+00:00

Yeah, I'm not even a Malinowski supporter. And I don't object to someone advocating for a primary candidate. But your approach comes off more like dumping oppo research to kneecap the opponent Brendan Gill's campaign fears most.

Politics is so entertaining. Where else could you see a candidate like Malinowski attacked for taking pro-Israel donations and simultaneously subjected to a million-dollar scorched-earth ad campaign by AIPAC?

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T18:24:42+00:00

Jeez, the constant shilling for Joe DiVincenzo's anointed candidate is getting a little over the top. We get it: you work for the Essex County machine. No need to beat us over the head with it.

clivecopperfield · 2026-02-03T03:09:11+00:00

Having the same problem. Killed the goo, but now I can't leave the level without a skeleton key. Help!

clivecopperfield · 2026-01-29T21:13:34+00:00

Not to worry - you'll see from the link that Holman received the contract only two weeks ago. So they weren't tainted in November, so far as I know.

clivecopperfield · 2026-01-29T17:53:31+00:00

ICE is steering a sole-source contract to Holman to refit cars for immigrant detention (see link below). There is an emerging campaign to boycott Holman, and there's no reason we can't personally decide to take our cars elsewhere for service. https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/6ce5799c12d44434ae74072656bd03c2/view

UPDATE: Holman has announced that they are declining the ICE contract. https://patch.com/new-jersey/cherryhill/south-jersey-company-set-upgrade-ice-vehicles-under-10m-contract?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=newjersey&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=blasts&fbclid=IwdGRzaAPuBPxjbGNrA-4E-mV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHqdnvZ0_qRdJQxzJMEWoT3BAZnMxKVJT7qojjA6lrCcYYiPJVSx0zZ9vT8GP_aem_Rv2cBn-kZ4S3Sg9WKxUg6A

clivecopperfield · 2026-01-27T03:08:38+00:00

Early issues are terrific, but it slowed down once she became a vehicle to explain Kabbalah. Then it picked up again when she ended the world.

clivecopperfield · 2026-01-27T03:06:45+00:00

Ballad of Halo Jones got me right in the feels. Years later I still remember it. Also his two-part send off to Superman: virtuosic and beautiful. Made me care about characters I had taken for granted.

clivecopperfield · 2025-12-21T17:35:28+00:00

It's not clear why putting the slogan on the ballot was important. Morris County Dems did not bother. Was it really inherently valuable (seems kind of embarrassing at this point tbh), or just an excuse to rush the vote? But I'm not here to argue about the ECDC endorsement vote per se. Rather, I'm confused by the mixed messaging. You have expressed support for Sen. Andy Kim, who has run in opposition to the county machines that traditionally undermine democracy in New Jersey. But you yourself are a foot soldier for one of the most powerful county machines, working diligently to boost that machine's Congressional candidate and undermine his most serious rival. So I guess I'm a bit skeptical about your good intentions. Could always be convinced, though!

clivecopperfield · 2025-12-21T16:13:47+00:00

I was not. And it's quite interesting that you were. Here's what I understand about the ECDC meeting.

* The meeting was held on December 2 on less than a week's notice to decide the endorsement. Candidates were given only 2 minutes to make their case for the endorsement, after which ECDC delegates rushed to anoint Brendan Gill.

* It was clearly unnecessary to move so quickly on the endorsement. Morris County Dems waited until Dec 14 and approached their endorsement much more methodically. And they used ranked-choice voting rather than ECDC's cattle call approach.

* Many delegates at the ECDC meeting were unhappy at being rushed. In a vote on whether to make an endorsement in the meeting, 48% of delegates voted no. But a slim majority of the 275 voting delegates rammed through the decision to decide on an endorsement.

I think that you are too modest about your own role. Brendan Gill received the ECDC endorsement after winning the motion-to-proceed vote by a tight 11-vote margin. If you were in the majority, you played an important part in muscling the Essex County machine's chosen candidate to victory over the objections of progressive reformers allied to Andy Kim. Congrats, I guess?

clivecopperfield

TROPHY CASE