Olivia
Online
Derek
@DBortles98
(He/him) Raiders fan.
Ohio, USA
Joined April 2014
136 Following
77 Followers
644 Posts
something i’ve realized watching all of this play out
a sandwich that jumps from $8 to $14 never goes back to $8. rent that climbs from $1,400 to $2,200 stays at $2,200 forever.
gas, groceries, insurance, all of it. prices only move in one direction
inflation becomes permanent the moment everyone accepts the new number.
and we always accept it because we have no other choice
then workers ask for raises just to survive the prices they had nothing to do with creating.
and suddenly they’re the problem. they’re “hurting the economy” by wanting to afford food
the economy for who exactly.
because whoever it’s working for it sure as hell isn’t us
Long post--sorry.
The fixation around physical media is a red herring.
People who obtained physical copies of Crimson Desert early weren't able to play it because the PS5 locked them out of playing it. You can look this up, multiple articles about the topic. Clearly physical media didn't save you then, and it won't save you when a licensing agreement expires and a game will no longer run on your software until you download an update that might remove features/content.
A good example of this is ironically Mixtape. Because the game has a large amount of licensed music, it's plausible that one of those contracts will expire and a patch will be pushed that removes a song from the game. If you don't download that patch, you will no longer be able to access or play the game.
Physical media isn't the holy grail, consumer rights and protections is. Why aren't we using Apple lighting cables and we are using USB-C instead? It's not because of Apple, it's because of the EU.
While PC players have more work-arounds for this issue, console players are at the mercy of updates they have no choice but to accept. Physical media won't save you from that.
The convenience of digital downloads should not be viewed as a forfeiture of consumer protections.
The reason why record labels still sell vinyls is because people still buy vinyls. While there are I'm sure some people who still purchase video games physically, I would guess that number is decreasing every year. If physical copies were popular, Gamestop would still have video games in it instead of Funko pops and tshirts.
I know this is the unpopular take to have. but you can't expect companies to keep making physical editions of games if not enough people are buying them.
My point with all of this is that a lot of peoples' concern and frustration comes from the lack of control they have over the media they "own". Physical media does not solve this problem when it's at the mercy of the software running the consoles/game launchers.
If you want to solve the problem, you should be supporting initiatives like Stop Killing Games @StopKilingGames.
BREAKING NEWS
Feds: Ohio is corrupt and has fraud
Ohio: we know. For decades. Time for a change.
Kevin Nash gave his strong thoughts on TKO messing with WWE creative.
“Levesque takes over and everybody loves the direction that he’s carrying the new WWE program into the Netflix era. Lo and behold, like every other business on earth, the f*cking guys above him that don’t have a f*cking clue besides get paid more decide to start sticking their dicks where they don’t need to. ‘We’re going to throw this guy in. Let’s put this guy in. How about him in the main event? We have a $500 million deal that this guy is locked into. While we’re at it, let’s make the arena look like NASCAR.’ It doesn’t take anything away from Paul Levesque, because Paul Levesque still knows what the f*ck he’s doing. If anybody out there thinks this might apply to them, how about leaving the f*cking company alone? Get your f*cking noses out of creative. Go f*ck yourselves. Let Paul run the f*cking company. If you guys want to cut the talent, don’t throw it in Paul’s lap and make him be the bad guy. Don’t tell him, ‘Give me six years of creative process and give it to me by Wednesday. If I don’t see a certain guys name on there, I’m going to cut it by 50%.’ How about just go f*ck yourself. How about you grow a set of balls, you walk in, and you tell them because UFC is bleeding through every tourniquet that they have, we’re going to cut people from WWE to stop the bleeding from the other company. UFC is hemorrhaging money, and WWE isn’t. How about we tell the truth? If something happens and Triple H is no longer at the helm because there is some type of power play, I hope you follow my lead because the minute they f*uck with him, I’ll have nothing to do with that product the rest of my life.”
(@KliqThisPodcast)
Theo Von: “I have a lot of discomfort with America's relationship with Israel.”
“I believe that group is, it just feels like a satanic regime. It feels like they just want to cause pain.”
“They don't even know where all the bodies from Gaza are and they've already moved on to other places that they are attacking and America is associated with their attacks.”
“I don't believe the Israeli leaders have any intention to stop that or they have any care for the American people.”
“If we don't speak up now our children won't have the chance to speak up…either by law or worse.”
@RNGingy Best of luck gingy! Your style and jokes compliment other streamers excellently, hoping everything is safe and taken care of soon!
Tim Dillon: “This is one of the bleakest periods I’ve ever lived through.”
“You’re more alone.”
“You have less hope.”
“We’re in multiple wars.”
“And it’s the most technologically advanced time that we have.”
“But in order to enjoy it, you have to be a sociopath.”
“You have to be unbothered by seeing a 2-year-old that Israel lit on fire, and you have to swipe without thinking about it and go right to DoorDash.”
“We are all being trained to be sociopaths.”
“No one believes life is better than it was in 2010.”
“People had a social life.”
“Young people felt more hope about the future.”
“They haven’t been fully sucked into phones.”
“People aren’t quite addicted to rage yet. Social media hasn’t programmed our minds.”
“People can still go on a date and talk to a woman.”
“They don’t have to goon for eight hours in their room and then read about Hitler.”
“Nobody looks at 2010 and goes, whoa, that time sucked.”
“None of these advancements make anyone’s life better.”
“The Palantir thing is that everybody’s gonna join the military.”
“We’re all gonna fight a bunch of wars.”
“We’re gonna make the country safe, but we’re gonna do it in a way that takes away all of your personal autonomy and freedom.”
“As soon as you’re 18 years old, you’ll be in the military and you’re gonna fight who we want you to fight.”
“The jobs available are gonna be the ones we tell you that you qualify for.”
@TimJDillon
I have two stacks on my desk. The left stack is financial disclosure forms from members of Congress. The right stack is waivers for members who filed their financial disclosures late.
The right stack is always taller.
On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN.
I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS.
The soldier's name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881.
He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it "the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts."
I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes.
The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200.
I waived it.
I waive most of them. In 2021, fifty-four members of Congress and senior staff violated the reporting rules. The fines were minimal. Most were waived. I have a form for the waiver. The form has a box that says "Reason." I write "administrative delay." In ethics, "administrative delay" means the member's office forgot and then remembered when a reporter called. My approval rate is one hundred percent. In any other field, that number would trigger an audit. In mine, it is called thoroughness.
Let me show you what I processed this year.
January. A senator on the Armed Services Committee sold defense contractor shares worth $1.2 million. Three days later, his committee received a classified briefing that the Iran campaign had exceeded its projected cost by 340%. The stock dropped 8%. He filed the disclosure sixty-one days late. I calculated the fine. $200. His chief of staff asked if it could be waived. He did not ask what the senator traded on. Nobody asks that. The form does not have a field for it. I waived the fine. The senator's portfolio returned 23.4% in 2025. The S&P 500 returned 16.8%.
February. A representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee bought pharmaceutical stocks worth $400,000. Two weeks later, her committee advanced a bill that would extend patent exclusivity for the exact drug class she purchased. The stocks rose 14%. She filed on time. There was no fine. There was no investigation. There was nothing to investigate because buying stocks in companies regulated by your own committee is not illegal. It is legal. The STOCK Act made it legal by making it disclosed. In Congress, disclosed means legal. In my office, legal means filed.
March. A member whose spouse manages a portfolio worth $9.2 million reported forty-three separate transactions in a single quarter. Twelve of them were in sectors directly affected by legislation the member co-sponsored. The timing on eight of those twelve was within a two-week window of committee action. I logged all forty-three. None were flagged. We do not flag. We file.
I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again.
In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not.
I want to tell you about the soldier again.
He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in.
In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on:
Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee.
Defense appropriations they voted on.
Trade policy they negotiated.
Pandemic response measures they drafted.
Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public.
None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012.
Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases.
My daughter asked me once what happens when someone breaks the rules. I told her we write it down. She asked what happens after that. I said it depends. She was nine. She is twenty now. It does not depend. Nothing happens after that.
The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop.
She announced her retirement last year. No investigation was opened. No disclosure was flagged. Her filings were on time. In my office, on time means compliant. Compliant means closed.
I want to tell you about the fine.
$200. That is the maximum penalty for violating the STOCK Act's disclosure requirements. $200 for a member of Congress whose portfolio gained $4.7 million in a single quarter. I calculated what $200 represents as a percentage of $4.7 million. It is 0.004%. I could not find a comparison that made it meaningful. It is less than the price of the parking pass in the Rayburn garage. It is less than lunch at the members' dining room if you order the crab cakes, which I am told are excellent though I eat at my desk.
Since 2012, thirty-one bills have been introduced to restrict congressional trading. I keep a list. The list is longer than the STOCK Act itself.
On March 5th, 2026, a representative from Michigan introduced the thirty-second. He called it the "No Getting Rich in Congress Act." The bill would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and their spouses from trading individual stocks, cryptocurrency, futures, and commodities while in office.
The bill was referred to committee. The committee has not scheduled a hearing. The committee is chaired by a member whose spouse executed $2.1 million in trades last year.
The bill will be reviewed. In my office, reviewed means read. Read means acknowledged. Acknowledged means a status has been assigned. A status is the absence of an action that has been given a name so it looks like one.
The soldier used classified information to make $409,881 on a prediction market. He has been charged with five federal crimes. The Department of Justice announced the case on the same day I processed three disclosures from members who traded on committee knowledge worth a combined $3.8 million.
The difference between the soldier and the members is not what they did. It is the building they did it in. He did it from Fort Bragg. They did it from the Capitol. He used a prediction market. They used the New York Stock Exchange. He bet on a military operation. They bet on the legislation they write.
He did not write the law. They did. They wrote the STOCK Act. Then they funded its enforcement at zero dollars. Then they set its maximum penalty at $200. Then they gave my office the authority to waive it. Then they traded $635 million.
The soldier flew to Caracas. He breached a compound. He put his body between a mission and a bullet. The people who ordered the operation were in a building with a credenza and sparkling water. They did not go to Caracas. They went to their brokerage accounts. The soldier made $409,881 and is now in federal custody. The people who knew what he was going to do before he did it made more and filed less. His prosecution is not a failure of the system. It is the system. One conviction per decade, at the lowest level, so the briefing slides can say enforcement exists. The $409,881 is not the crime. It is the cost of making $635 million look supervised.
In my field, we call this self-regulation.
The soldier's Polymarket account has been frozen. His military career is over. He will spend years in federal prison. My office will process every congressional disclosure filed this year. Every trade logged. Every $200 fine calculated and waived. The system is immaculate.
Fourteen years. Zero prosecutions. $635 million a year. A 16,930% return.
I have not leaked a document. I have not filed a complaint. I have not deviated from the process one single time. The process was written by the people whose forms I process.
As long as the disclosures go up and the cases don't, my performance review says I am meeting expectations.
My lanyard still says ETHICS. In eleven years, nobody has asked me to define the word.
If it’s not already clear to every WWE fan, TKO is not interested in preserving professional wrestling, it’s tradition, its mystique or its heritage. They are not even pretending to care about its core audience or the die-hard fans that have supported WWE for decades. They are interested in one thing, and one thing only. Preserving their own bank accounts at any and all costs.
This is like a forlorn fantasy thinking about back in the olden times, you could get on Xbox Live and stream Netflix as a shared account with your friends to watch a movie together online, with full text and voice chat, emotes etc. -- and only 1 person had to have netflix for it to work iirc.
It's crazy. 6th gen may well have been a hallucination considering how backwards we've gone.
WWE insider news be like:
Immensely better plan scrapped for Mania weekend, horrible no good idea placed instead.
PWInsider
WM 39 (Night 1): 1 hour 57 minutes
WM 40 (Night 1): 2 hours 4 minutes
WM 41 (Night 1): 1 hour 45 minutes
WM42 (Night 1): 1 HOUR 24 MINUTES
Look at the the regression over the past couple of years, TKO got too comfortable.
#WrestleMania
@MrSantiZap Scrap WWE as a whole and take any good talent/writers to AEW or TNA to keep wrestling alive. TKO is killing entertainment. And #AdMania is proof this was the nail in the coffin for any PLEs to carry any meaning.
The whole point of having two nights of #Wrestlemania was to give matches time to breathe without having 6 hour long shows.
Yet somehow we're getting shorter matches?
Btw, a LITERAL Speed Match on NXT was just as long as 4 of the matches on WrestleMania night 1
It’s safe to say Wrestlemania 42 Night 1 was a complete disaster 😒😕
#Wrestlemania
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