Just a geek who lives in Olympia, WA with my wife, son, and animals. In my free time I play board games, write fiction, and make stuff.
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The Ink That Bleeds: How to Play Immersive Journaling Games – A Conversation with Paul Czege

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There are many ways to play Solo Roleplaying games. A player can write responses to prompts in journal format, write or type a bulleted list, make collages, draw, doodle, create a graphic novel, or record responses digitally to name a few. There is no right or wrong way to play. However, what if there was a way to play solo rpg’s that offered the player… more? What if immersive journaling games showed you who you truly are and helped you build worlds you want to live in? Paul Czege of Half-Meme Press explores this process and more in his zine […]
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Establishment Democrats Are Going to Torpedo the 2026 Midterms | The New Republic

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There was a moment, around this time last year, when it felt like things might turn out OK for the Democrats. The party had a new nominee for president, Kamala Harris, and she was saying a lot of the right things. At a time when voters were clearly upset about affordability, Harris started off her campaign with talk of cracking down on price gouging, and other policies to rein in corporate corruption. By late summer, some journalists were asking questions such as, “The Populist Mantle Is Harris’s for the Taking: But Does She Want It?”

Alas, to our daily horror, she didn’t want that mantle. Her campaign pivoted away from economic populism and embraced the corporate-friendly centrism of Harris’s closest advisers. This shift was clear in her policy moves, like watering down her price-gouging crackdown and walking back proposals to tax the rich following pressure from her biggest donors, as well as in her rhetoric, as she curtailed earlier messaging on taking on corporate elites and went all in on a bipartisan theme of defending democracy. In October, Harris campaigned more often with Republican Liz Cheney than any other surrogate, and had more appearances with billionaire Mark Cuban than United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain.

And then she lost. She significantly underperformed with working-class voters compared to Joe Biden in 2020, and became the first Democratic presidential nominee in decades to receive more support from Americans in the top third of the income bracket than those in the bottom two-thirds. That is why there has been broad agreement—even David Brooks is in this camp—that if Democrats want to defeat MAGA Republicans, they need to stop embracing anodyne, corporate-approved messaging and start giving people something to vote for. If you don’t believe it, compare the current approval rating of the Democratic Party (-32) with that of Bernie Sanders (+11). That’s a 43-point difference.

Unfortunately, many members of the Democratic establishment remain firmly opposed to this hard-learned principle. The antipathy toward populism has been most apparent lately in the New York City mayoral race, where Zohran Mamdani remains unendorsed by leading Democrats despite winning the party’s nomination and facing off against two Democrats (who turned independent for the general election) who are now collaborating with Trump. But it’s in relation to the party’s top campaign apparatuses—the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee—that this refusal to learn the lessons of 2024 could be most catastrophic to the party’s prospects in next year’s midterm elections.

Because again and again, in must-win House and Senate races, rather than embracing candidates that are proving their capacity to spark grassroots Democratic enthusiasm and tap into the populist ferment of the American public, establishment leaders are working to tilt the scales in favor of exactly the kind of uninspiring corporatists that dug the party’s current hole.

We’re seeing this play out very clearly in the Senate race in Michigan. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, backed by Bernie Sanders, is a full-throated progressive populist (and an occasional TNR contributor). State Senator Mallory McMorrow is running as a D.C. outsider. Both are charismatic communicators and strong grassroots fundraisers; despite refusing to take corporate PAC money, they raised $1.8 million and $2.1 million, respectively, in the last quarter.

So naturally the Democratic establishment is pushing hard for a third candidate, with reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are privately encouraging donors to line up behind Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

Stevens is not charismatic in person. She is not an effective communicator online; her social media posts regularly get single-digit engagement. She’s not a strong fundraiser; she raised less than either McMorrow or El-Sayed, with just $1.3 million in new contributions last quarter, despite being the only candidate in the race taking money from corporations. And she’s taking a lot of it, with hundreds of thousands of dollars from nearly 100 different corporate PACs representing Wall Street (Goldman Sachs, the American Bankers Association); fossil fuels (Dupont, Dow, the American Chemistry Council); insurance (UnitedHealth, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield), utilities (Cox, Verizon, DTE); Big Tech (Google, Microsoft); retailers (Walmart, Home Depot); Big Sugar; and many, many others.

Unlike McMorrow and El-Sayed, who both oppose weapons shipments to Israel, Stevens is firmly in the pocket of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: She raised more money from AIPAC than she did in small-dollar unitemized contributions. This would be an electoral albatross in any state, given Americans’ nearly two-to-one opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. But in Michigan, the state with the largest number of Arab American voters, who famously abandoned Democrats in the last election, choosing Stevens is an even riskier bet. And yet, that’s exactly the bet that Democrats like Schumer and Gillibrand are seemingly making.

Similar stories are playing out in the battle for the House. A prime example is California’s 22nd district, currently represented by GOP Congressman David Valadao, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in the country. This is a heavily Latino district that swung to Trump after Biden won it by 13 points in 2020. And Randy Villegas, who launched a campaign against Valadao earlier this year, would seem to be a perfect fit for it. A working-class educator and local elected official, Villegas is the son of Mexican immigrants, and speaks compellingly about the issues his community faces. Though he “hesitates to put any labels” (like progressive or leftist) on himself, he is clearly running as an economic populist. “I think we need to have candidates who are willing to say that they’re going to stand up against corporate greed, that they are going to stand against corruption in government, and that they are going to stand against billionaires that are controlling the strings right now,” he said in April. And he’s demonstrated his viability, raising a quarter of a million dollars in the last quarter without taking any corporate PAC money.

So how did the DCCC respond to Villegas’s momentum? By convincing State Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains—arguably California’s most conservative Democratic legislator, whose blatant shilling for the fossil fuel industry earned her the moniker “Big Oil Bains”—to get in the race. Bains announced her candidacy in mid-July, several months after the San Joaquin Valley Sun reported that the DCCC and some California House Democrats were recruiting her.

On paper, Bains has some strengths. In particular, she is a medical doctor, which provides a useful framing device for criticizing Valadao’s vote for the health care cuts in Trump’s murderous budget bill. But in a working-class district like CA-22, Bain’s record of protecting corporate profits over regular people could be a serious liability. She was the only California Democrat to vote “no” on a bill to curb price gouging in the oil industry. The Big Oil lobbying group Western States Petroleum Association, which opposed the bill, rewarded Bains with a max-out contribution a couple months after the vote. Bains was also the only Democrat to vote against a bill to hold oil companies accountable for finished oil wells they refuse to plug, and to vote against allocating $1.5 billion for wildfire prevention—just five months before wildfires would devastate Southern California. In a district with huge numbers of renters, she voted against increased protections for tenants.

So in a race that will be defined by whether Democrats can effectively attack the incumbent for raising costs on his working-class Latino constituents by voting for the Trump budget bill’s corporate handouts, the Democratic establishment is stepping in to block a working-class Latino candidate perfectly suited to making that case in favor of the California Democrat with perhaps the most obvious record of voting to let corporations raise costs on regular people.

This critique isn’t about ideology. It’s about winning. Like Harris and her advisers, the historically unpopular leaders of the Democratic Party are operating off a failed model that prioritizes a candidate’s approval by corporate interests over their ability to channel the populist frustrations being expressed by Americans across the political spectrum. By refusing to absorb the lessons of 2024, this establishment is now imperiling Democrats’ chances in 2026—and thereby threatening to condemn all of us to at least two more years of unchecked authoritarian rule.

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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Lesson

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Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Hollywood, call me. I can have this script done on a weekend.


Today's News:
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R.I.P. Tom Lehrer, mathematician and musical satirist

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Tom Lehrer, the renowned Cold War-era musical satirist whose jaunty and grim show tunes inspired generations, has died. Per Variety, Lehrer was found dead at his Cambridge, MA, home on July 26. He was 97.

Lehrer infiltrated the world of music from the ivory tower of academia. Born in New York City in 1928, Lehrer was a math prodigy. He entered Harvard at the age of 15 and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, magna cum laude, before his 20th birthday. He received his master’s in 1947 and went on to teach math at MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and UC Santa Cruz, where he remained for much of his career. After being drafted into the army in 1955, he served in the NSA. There, he made his first contribution to American society: The Jell-O shot. “We were having a Christmas party on the naval base where I was working in Washington, D.C. The rules said no alcoholic beverages were allowed,” Lehrer told San Francisco Weekly. “We wanted to have a little party, so this friend and I spent an evening experimenting with Jell-O. It wasn’t a beverage.”

Lehrer’s unassuming rule-bending served him well as a satirist who couched a sardonic worldview in upbeat show tunes. After some time on the nightclub circuit, where he delighted Isaac Asimov with songs about venereal disease, Lehrer recorded his first album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, for $15 in 1953. Mocking his alma mater, the Boy Scouts, and Confederate nostalgia, Lehrer established himself as a bespectacled firebrand with a wry smile who didn’t pull punches. He returned six years later with More Of Tom Lehrer, which included “Poisoning Pigeons In The Park” and “The Elements,” perhaps his most famous song. Parodying Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates Of Penzance tongue twister, “Major-General’s Song,” Lehrer’s “Elements” recounted all 102 chemical elements on the periodic table. It became a staple of elementary school science classes and popular culture. Yakko Warner used “The Elements” as the basis for “Yakko’s World,” an Animaniacs fan favorite that has found currency in social media memes. Daniel Radcliffe said a recitation of “The Elements” landed him the role of “Weird Al” in Weird.

Lehrer’s political engagement extended beyond the United States. While touring New Zealand in 1960, he criticized Prime Minister Walter Nash and the New Zealand Rugby Football Union for its racist exclusion of Māori players from a tour of apartheid South Africa. “When the team goes to South Africa, we all must act politely,” Lehrer sings in “Oh, Mr. Nash. “So to all their local problems, let’s be mute. It might be a friendly gesture as a token of affection if we brought along some Blacks for them to shoot.” Saying he was banned and threatened with arrest for his satire, Lehrer stopped touring in the early ’60s. He found work on the satirical news programs That Was The Week That Was and the BBC’s The Frost Report. Later, Lehrer wrote songs for The Electric Company. Though he retired from music, his legend grew, influencing Dr. Demento, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Randy Newman, and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. In 2012, his parody of “The Old Lamplighter,” entitled “The Old Dope Peddler,” was sampled by 2 Chainz for the track “Dope Peddler.” When asked permission to use the song, Lehrer reportedly responded, “I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?” In 2020, Lehrer put all his songs and lyrics in the public domain before relinquishing the copyrights to his songbook two years later.

Though he retired from music, Lehrer remained a keen observer of the political world. In 2000, responding to questions about his musical retirement, he told The New York Times, “Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”



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Opal: "With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years." — Bluesky

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opalescentopal.bsky.social

did:plc:wn5sx5neaortppmdqj5gnksn

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

2025-07-27T21:01:20.404Z

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Sneak Peek: New Airo Trains Coming to Amtrak Cascades in 2026

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The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) this week provided railfans with a glimpse of the future of Amtrak Cascades, providing the first photos of the new “Airo” trainsets coming off the line as they head to Colorado for testing. Set to go into service along the Cascades corridor between Vancouver, B.C. and Eugene, Oregon by next year, these eight new trains will be the first to be delivered as part of a larger, nationwide order of 83 trainsets.

The new trains include a suite of features intended to increase passenger comfort and accessibility and will be welcome replacements for Cascades riders. This spring, the majority of the Cascades fleet was pulled from service after the discovery of widespread corrosion within the aging Horizons cars, with older Amfleet I cars dispatched cross-country to fill in. While all of the seven daily round trips on the Cascades schedule were quickly restored, the smaller trains mean passenger capacity has been more constrained than before.

The shiny new cars heading off the line of Siemen’s Sacramento factory are headed to Colorado for testing. (WSDOT)

Along with a fully revamped cafe car, the Airo trains come with more ergonomic seats, dedicated power outlets, USB-C charging ports, and adjustable cup holders. New or improved accessibility features include integrated boarding equipment and inductive hearing technology to assist with onboard announcements. The restrooms on trains will come with touchless controls to improve sanitation.

Cascades riders have been clamoring for the new trainsets ever since Amtrak revealed preview renderings in 2022, as the manufacturer — Siemens — ramped up work.

The new cafe car may be the flashiest part of the new Airo cars, with mood lighting and sleek fixtures. (WSDOT)

The $7.3 billion national purchase order for new Amtrak trains was largely funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). That federal cash infusion also funded nearly $300 million in upgrades to Amtrak’s SoDo rail yard, just south Seattle’s King Street Station — a project that the incoming Trump Administration tried to take credit for with a new sign along a SoDo street. When complete, the new maintenance facility will handle the new Airo trains, and will be able to accommodate future expansion of the Cascades fleet.

The new business class cabins on the Airo trains look to be extra luxurious, with extra legroom along with comfy ergonomic seats. (WSDOT)

While the new cars will provide significantly improved fuel efficiency, the Airo cars are not expected to dramatically improve travel times, with most of the current Cascades corridor limited to 79 miles per hour under current federal regulations — partly a reaction to a deadly 2017 derailment during the maiden voyage under a higher speed limit. Despite the fact that the new Siemens trains can achieve a top speed of 125 mph, that’s unlikely to be realized without significant track improvements, which would have to be negotiated with BNSF, which owns much of the right-of-way.

Having to negotiate with BSNF for use of the corridor remains a main reason that Amtrak Cascades boasts incredibly poor performance when it comes to staying on time. The most recent performance report released by WSDOT, from 2024, showed on-time performance had once again slipped below the 50% mark after a brief increase to 55% in 2023.

In 2024, on-time performance on Amtrak Cascades slipped below 50%, largely due freight interference. (WSDOT)

Earlier this year, the Washington State Legislature signaled an interest in exploring upgrades to the Amtrak Cascades routes, with the passage of House Bill 1837. Signed by Governor Bob Ferguson in May, that law sets an on-time performance benchmark of 88% and a goal of providing 14 daily round trips between Seattle and Portland, double the current number. Goals to improve train speed, however, were removed from the bill after concerns were raised by Republican lawmakers about creating an unfunded mandate.

Despite the relatively ambitious targets, the state likely won’t achieve its vision for Amtrak Cascades without federal help, and there’s considerable doubt about future federal funding levels for Amtrak. Earlier this month, a U.S. Senate committee approved an appropriations bill that included a 35% cut to freight and passenger rail compared to the amount authorized in the BIL. Congress is beginning to weigh a sequel to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but the momentum — at least under Republican leadership — seems to be away from rail investments.

As that debate plays out, the new Airo trainsets are coming, and Cascades riders will be able to tout riding them before railfans in other areas of the country. Whether a foretaste of a feast to come or crumbs before a famine, their arrival on Pacific Northwest tracks will mark the beginning of a new era.

The post Sneak Peek: New Airo Trains Coming to Amtrak Cascades in 2026 first appeared on The Urbanist.

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pawnstorm
36 days ago
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Excited for the new trainsets. It will be interesting to see what sort of progress Washington can make on improving service without the federal government, though.
Olympia, WA
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