Communick News

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won election Wednesday to the U.S. Senate representing Michigan, defeating Republican Mike Rogers. El-Sayed, a former public health official, will succeed Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is retiring. El-Sayed will be the country’s first Muslim senator.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/washington@lemmy.world/p/1064835/wa-voters-upholding-millionaires-tax-in-tuesday-vote

In Washington’s biggest tax fight in decades, voters were backing the state’s new high-earners income tax in Tuesday’s vote count, rejecting an initiative that would repeal it.

Initiative 645, the tax-repeal proposal, was trailing with 58% of voters opposed. The “no” vote was bolstered by a huge margin in Democrat-dominated King County, where 66.5% of voters were against I-645. It also trailed in Snohomish and Pierce counties.

If Tuesday’s result stands, it would mark a tectonic shift in Washington’s tax code, ending the state’s holdout status as one of a handful without an income tax — keeping in place what backers called the “millionaires tax” passed by the Legislature this year.

Courts will likely still have the last word on the tax as a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is pending.

Hundreds of thousands of ballots remain to be counted in the coming days.

The mood at the No on 645 campaign, at Seattle’s Reverie Ballroom, was upbeat as national results confirmed a good night for Democrats and liberal causes.

Speaking to the crowd, state Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, the prime architect of the tax, framed the historic vote as a long-sought win.

“For 93 years, we have been saddled with an anchor around our neck, with a tax system that is bad for working people, that’s bad for small businesses, that’s bad for just about everybody except for the 1%,” he said.

More in the article.

We gotta agree on one thing that old Reddit was peak. Like you can actually ask questions and get help. But it’s so heavily moderated now and I hate it. It shadow banned my accounts 3 times and had to create 3 accounts. And wdym that you need certain amount of karma to be able to post, like what if a new person just made account to ask for help and they can’t post cuz they’re new and don’t got enough of that bs karma. I hate that it’s not making internet a nice place.

So, I got fed and started looking for alternatives and found Lemmy. WHY DIDN’T I KNEW ABT THIS EARLIER. People here seem nicer than Reddit and no moderation stuff like Reddit and blaa blaa glazing.

So far I’m enjoying Lemmy. Also i wanted to asked but client for IOS. I tried Voyager, didn’t like the UI and that swipe feature (it’s good but just not my type). Rn using Mlem, the UI is nice but i can’t get used how the chat looks, I’m Reddit like chat. Is there any Client for IOS that got what i need?

Today’s game is 007 First Light. I had been holding out on this game because it had Denuevo. But I saw it was on sale and decided to do a double check. I guess they removed it back in July. I still wasn’t assured thought so I did some stuff and got ahold of a copy to test it out first before dipping into the 45$ it would cost me.

My first impressions are? Well first: Fuck this game is pretty. Midway through chapter 3 I suddenly got performance issues but in chapter 1 it was pretty and running well

My second impression is Holy shit this game is buggy. I haven’t played anything quite so buggy in recent times I think. It’s so fucking lucky I like the gameplay.

I will relent. Maybe there’s something going on with the way I’m playing and maybe there’s something else going on with Proton. But damn. So many issues. I’ve gotten:

• Clipped into the ground
• locked in the watch overlay
• locked in the watch overlay again
• thrown through a wall mid fight and fallen into the void.

It is only those 4, in the first 4ish chapters. But damn. When it bugged out it bugged out hard.

Now for the actually interesting part in my opinion. This game scratches all the right itches I had for a new Uncharted game. Like literally the only thing it’s missing is Nathan Drake. And he’s in retirement so fair enough.

But that opening had me nostalgic for the opening of Uncharted 4 all over again. And the combat and action pieces. It just gets me all hooked in the same way Uncharted did.

I was initially hesitant to play this because that’s a 50 Gb download on my slow ass internet, and I have almost no run in with the James Bond franchise. Literally the only other experience I have is Golden Eye 007 for the N64. Besides that, I know he likes martinis and women, and he has a laser wrist watch thing. That’s it. Despite the technical issues I might track down a used copy or just buy it on discount because I’m really enjoying it.

Aboard the driverless trains on the new Southwest Sydney metro line.

@fuckcars@lemmy.world #metro #train #trains #rail #railway #railways #Sydney #WesternSydney #NSW #Australia

cross-posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/us_politics@piefed.blahaj.zone/p/1064790/after-midterm-losses-trump-stares-down-the-specter-of-democratic-probes-and-the-ra

For Donald Trump, his party’s resounding midterm losses pave the way for investigations and potential impeachments that will put the Republican president on the defensive in his final two years in office.

The results shift the center of gravity closer to Capitol Hill, where Democrats will be angling to check Trump’s power after two years of acquiescence from congressional Republicans. It not only resurfaces a dynamic from his first term in office, when House Democrats took power in Trump’s first midterms and ultimately impeached him twice, but with control as well of the Senate, Democrats can now stymie Trump’s nominations to Cabinet posts and lifetime federal judgeships.

Trump had all but guaranteed the results would be seen as a referendum on himself by repeatedly urging voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” as he went into primarily conservative states to shore up Republican candidates and warned of a Washington where Democrats were in power.

But the results showed how voters rejected Trump’s handpicked candidates while airing widespread concerns about high costs in the wake of his war against Iran and his punishing tariff policy.

Trump tried to shift the blame away from himself during a Fox News interview that aired early Wednesday, saying Democrats “did a good job” in their campaigns and faulting GOP candidates for their losses. “I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said.

The results leave Trump — who watched returns at the White House with his advisers and members of his Cabinet — with dramatically diminished political capital at home and abroad.

Much more in the article.

• German startup Stark Defence plans to launch a 24-meter uncrewed surface vessel next year to guard undersea cables and track Russia's shadow fleet in European waters.
• The Vanta 24 can carry up to 50 metric tons, including weapons like missiles and cannons, and travel more than 40 miles per hour without a crew onboard.
• Stark's new ship is designed to be deployed within months at a cost that is a thousandth of the price of a manned frigate, which takes years to produce.

...

German startup Stark Defence plans to launch a 24-meter uncrewed surface vessel next year, marking an expansion beyond small drones to more closely resemble an established defense contractor.

The Berlin-based company’s new ship is designed to guard undersea cables and track Russia’s shadow fleet in European waters, Stark’s Chief Executive Officer Uwe Horstmann announced at Bloomberg Tech London on Tuesday.

“Those are systems that cost a thousandth of the price of a manned frigate, which takes years to produce,” Horstmann said. Stark’s maritime vessel “can be deployed within months, so there is a big speed element.”

...

Archived (removepaywall.com)

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/12275670

Moscow’s Department of Information Technology has been installing a covert software module on interactive classroom panels across the city’s schools, allowing officials to remotely switch on built-in microphones and record lessons without warning. A Moscow school employee published a technical breakdown of the code on GitHub; Mediazona independently analysed the software package and confirmed the findings.

...

According to the author, neither school staff nor pupils have been officially informed that the panels record audio without alerting users, although some teachers may have heard about the practice through rumors.

A source in Moscow’s school system told Mediazona that interactive whiteboards aren’t the only classroom devices recording audio. Laptops from the “Mostech” ecosystem have the same capability.

According to the source, every piece of equipment is assigned to a specific classroom and a specific staff member, and the system automatically logs who is being recorded and when. The original plan was to have AI analyse the recordings, but the results so far have been poor, so the system will be retrained with human input.

...

Archived

Moscow’s Department of Information Technology has been installing a covert software module on interactive classroom panels across the city’s schools, allowing officials to remotely switch on built-in microphones and record lessons without warning. A Moscow school employee published a technical breakdown of the code on GitHub; Mediazona independently analysed the software package and confirmed the findings.

...

According to the author, neither school staff nor pupils have been officially informed that the panels record audio without alerting users, although some teachers may have heard about the practice through rumors.

A source in Moscow’s school system told Mediazona that interactive whiteboards aren’t the only classroom devices recording audio. Laptops from the “Mostech” ecosystem have the same capability.

According to the source, every piece of equipment is assigned to a specific classroom and a specific staff member, and the system automatically logs who is being recorded and when. The original plan was to have AI analyse the recordings, but the results so far have been poor, so the system will be retrained with human input.

...

Archived

In all the other good news, I missed this fun bit!

He reminds me so much of the way Obama speaks.

They don't post very often, but when they do, it's worth it.

Bumfritter!

The 3dfx Voodoo wasn’t the first 3D card, or the most complete. It was the first that made games feel smooth. Four years later, Nvidia bought what was left of the company. What went wrong? #Voodoo #Gaming

The Democrats have retaken control of the US House of Representatives as a “blue wave” of opposition to Donald Trump swept the party’s candidates to victory in congressional districts across the country.

A string of wins in Republican districts across North Carolina, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and New Jersey saw the party pass the 218 threshold needed to win a majority in the 435-member chamber, the minimum goal in achieving its aim of reining in Donald Trump’s presidential power.