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The Electric Reliability Council of Texas—the corporation at the center of the power grid failure that left millions of Texans with heat or power last month and dozens of deaths—is refusing to turn over records related to its preparation for and response to Winter Storm Uri. In a letter sent to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office last week, ERCOT argued that it’s not subject to state open records law because it isn’t a public agency and have asked the AG’s office to rule as such.

Paxton’s office didn’t respond to inquiries seeking a timeline for its decision on the ERCOT letter, but generally the office has 45 business days to make a ruling on requests.

Joe Larsen, a Houston-based attorney who sits on the board of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, an open records advocacy organization, says the refusal could spur a legal fight and possibly end up at the state Supreme Court’s doorstep. “There are going to be a bunch of people out there” seeking information from the electric grid operator, Larsen says. ERCOT’s oversize impact in everyday Texans’ lives, along with its central role in the blackouts and its outright refusal to comply with state open records law, could mean a hotly argued and closely followed legal case. 

In late February, the Observer submitted two public information requests to ERCOT related to the storm. One asked for emails and text messages from select ERCOT board members and top staffers before, during and after the polar vortex hit Texas. The second requested ERCOT’s communications with Vistra Energy, a Texas-based energy corporation company that claims it warned the grid operator of the impending danger days before the storm. The requests were intended to help answer questions about the disastrous power outage: How much warning did ERCOT have in advance of the storm and how did they prepare? How did ERCOT implement “rolling” blackouts across the state? And, ultimately, who’s to blame for the biggest power failure in the state’s history?

In its letter to Paxton’s office, ERCOT claims that it isn’t subject to state open records law because it already has a separate system for disseminating records that was set up by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The PUC is the state agency that oversees ERCOT. Attorneys with Hance Scarborough, the law firm representing ERCOT in its bid to withhold records, write that the nonprofit is under the “complete authority” of the PUC; therefore the PUC should get to decide which records are released, not the attorney general. Despite PUC and ERCOT’s arrangement, the PUC does not hold ERCOT’s records, and state law requires the request be made to the entity who holds the records. Only ERCOT holds ERCOT’s records; the PUC simply has the final say in what gets released. (The Observer has also filed a request under ERCOT’s separate records system.)

“These kinds of crazy structures are just not in the public interest,” says Adrian Shelley, director of the consumer rights group Public Citizen. “And if ERCOT is in part to blame for the recent disasters, then one would think that additional public oversight is in the public interest.”

ERCOT’s predecessor was formed in the 1930s by a group of utility companies for the express purpose of creating a grid independent of the federal government, says David Spence, a professor of business, government, and society at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law. “It was a funny little private organization just designed to avoid federal regulation,” he says. ERCOT came into its current form in 1970, but the nonprofit has still maintained its independence; after February’s deadly storm, ERCOT said it had “sovereign immunity” against lawsuits.

In Texas, anyone can ask a public agency for a record, and the agency has to comply or provide a reason why it won’t. If the agency refuses to hand over information, it will frequently ask the attorney general’s office for permission to withhold records. There are numerous legal loopholes that agencies employ to keep information out of the people’s hands and the list of exemptions grows after every legislative session. The AG, who has an office dedicated solely to open records, weighs any exemptions claimed by an agency and determines whether they have to give you what you asked for. Paxton’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

ERCOT did not respond to questions regarding the number of records requests it has fielded from good governance groups, industry analysts, news organizations, and regular people who want information on what happened during Winter Storm Uri. However, the nonprofit did email a list of the power generators that “had issues” during the storm to reporters on Thursday, along with the employment agreement between ERCOT and former President and CEO Bill Magness, who was fired last week. It wasn’t clear whether those disclosures were connected with ERCOT’s refusal to hand over other information.

The last notable open records case involving a nonprofit that serves traditional government functions was in 2015, when an economic development corporation called Greater Houston Partnership refused to turn over documents related to its activities. A requester wanted to know what the powerful business consortium that oversees the city’s economic development activities did with taxpayer money but the nonprofit fought the request all the way to the state Supreme Court. Justices eventually sided with the Greater Houston Partnership, but they also set a standard: If a significant portion of a nonprofit’s funding comes from the public, then the public gets access to its records. 

ERCOT argues this standard doesn’t apply. In its letter to Paxton, ERCOT admits that its funding stream of “system administration fees” could be considered public funds: “The system administration fee that funds ERCOT’s operations is collected pursuant to the State’s police power. Some requestors may therefore argue that ERCOT is a ‘governmental body’ because it ‘is supported in whole or in part by public funds,’” the letter reads. 

The statewide laws governing public information in Texas were created in the early 1970s partially to standardize records requests across the state. Before that, Texas had a piecemeal system with no overarching legislation regarding open records.

Larsen says that the separate set of records laws the PUC created for ERCOT runs afoul of the spirit of the Public Information Act. “This just can’t possibly fly where the PUC gets to set up its own parallel to the Public Information Act and gets to decide what its own exceptions are,” Larsen says.

Read more from the Observer:

• A Texas City Had a Bold New Climate Plan—Until a Gas Company Got Involved: The fossil fuel industry is using the same playbook to fight city climate plans around the country.
  

• Portraits of the Pandemic—Part Two: Last summer, we talked to nine Texans about their experiences with COVID-19. Now, we check back in with those folks—and hear from a few new ones—who have graciously shared their stories.

• Planned Parenthood Returns to Lubbock: In an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, state leaders have dismantled Texas’ reproductive health care safety net over the last decade. This fall, the provider reopened a clinic in a mostly rural, Republican part of the state.

The post ERCOT Is Refusing to Release Records On How it Prepared for the Winter Storm appeared first on The Texas Observer.

Dos.Zone is an interactive database of DOS games, many of which you can fire up and play right in the browser; see also the Internet Archive's MS-DOS software library.

This article contains spoilers for WandaVision.

Hello sky beam! After eight episodes of old TV pastiches, slow buildup and plenty of character examination, the final episode of Disney+'s WandaVision finally gave the audience the big punchy energy blast fight that we’ve come to expect after seeing dozens of Marvel and DC films. For those who had been hating the show so far, maybe it was a relief. For those who were enjoying how the series strayed from the norm… it’s probably a case of mixed feelings. Because what made the show such a delight was that it was so different from previous superhero outings, a feeling amplified by the way the show was delivered in weekly doses instead of all at once.

Streaming has changed how people watch TV, with so many now expecting a quick fix where they can watch everything at once and not have to wait to see cliffhangers. Want to see if Captain Picard survives being turned into a Borg? In my day you had to wait an entire summer for the answer; now you just wait for the next episode to load on Paramount+. Binging emerged because people started consuming old media via DVD collections and streaming services, rewatching old favorites like The Office for comfort and new favorites like Game of Thrones so they could be part of the conversation at work and online. Savoring the shows' individual components was never the point.

Marvel Studios

Netflix looked at these viewing patterns and decided that was how people preferred to watch series, releasing its original programming all in one big drop at 3am. And at first it worked, with people planning out their weekends around the new season of House of Cards or Orange is the New Black. It even reached a point where some people were taking Fridays off so they could see all of Daredevil or Luke Cage as soon as it arrived, often plowing through all 13 episodes before most people had even gotten up for work.

While some services like Peacock have followed Netflix’s lead, others still hew to a weekly release. Paramount+ does this with Star Trek, and Disney+ has been doing it with its big marquee originals like The Mandalorian and now WandaVision. Part of this decision is simply practical: if you stretch out the release of a show, you guarantee that subscribers stick around for several weeks, instead of binging everything over a weekend and cancelling their subscription until the next season drops. Of course, people can still do that now, but that means being the last to see the show and missing out on the initial watercooler talk.

Marvel Studios

In the case of WandaVision, it also means losing a lot of the impact. Not just in spoilers — though missing out on the buzz around "Agatha All Along" is a shame, because it’s just such a bop (and amusing meme). But in how each episode is constructed as a unique piece of art, utilizing different styles and focusing on different aspects of the sitcom format, even episode length. Dick Van Dyke was a consultant for the first installment — would we really have appreciated that fact as much if we immediately had eight more episodes after it to fill our thoughts?

Even once we left the sitcom style the last two episodes still felt unique, with last week’s functioning as an emotional tour de force about Wanda’s ongoing trauma and this week, as I said earlier, basically embracing a more action-packed fighting with energy blasts. But it still found ways to distinguish itself. There’s a discussion of the Ship of Theseus conundrum, and even a part that sort of wanders into zombie territory (Marvel Studios hasn’t really done horror before, so it was either a nice or very unpleasant surprise depending on your personal comfort levels).

Marvel Studios

Even as I sit here digesting what the episode means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I can’t help but think about how people who chose to wait will absorb the show. Taken as a whole, WandaVision really does operate like a Marvel film, albeit slightly longer. The first three episodes are the intro, then episode four shows us what’s really going on, then the plot really starts to take off from there before we roll into the big reveal at the end of episode six followed by the big emotional beats and climactic battle. Even last week’s episode, with Agatha taking Wanda on a stroll through her past reminded me of the flashbacks that Captain America, Iron Man and even Thor have had in their respective outings — just stretched out a bit, to give Wanda the characterization she so desperately lacked in the films.

If a Marvel movie was broken up into segments, there’s a possibility that many viewers would feel disappointed by those. In the first Iron Man, Tony Stark doesn’t suit up until over a half hour into the film. And that’s only the prototype — the “real” suit doesn’t make its debut until an hour has passed and we’re halfway done with the movie. Iron Man 3 even flipped the script by starting Tony out in the suit and then stripping it away for a full hour in the middle. (Which is why the film is sometimes derided as boring, despite being one of my favorite Marvel flicks because of how it threw out the standard conventions.)

Marvel Studios

WandaVision is still using that overall structure, but now we had to wait a week between the major story beats. And yes, this is anecdotal, but a lot of the people I know who hate WandaVision… are the same ones who hated Iron Man 3. Had they been able to watch it all at once, maybe their initial disappointment would have faded once they got to the “pew pew pew” parts in episodes four and nine. Binging a show — or watching a movie — doesn’t give you a lot of time to think about the component parts, just the work as a whole. And if the end delivers what you want, you’re more likely to have a positive opinion of it.

However, WandaVision was a celebration of the art of television as much as it was a superhero story, and the intent was to get you to think about its ingredients and the craft that went into them — as well as the emotional beats they hit. Had I watched it all at once I’d only probably be focused right now on the questions we’re left with at the end — where did white Vision go, what do the Skrulls want with Monica and what happened to poor, poor Ralph — but instead I’m also aware of what each episode intended to accomplish. Taken as a whole, it probably would have made for a mediocre superhero movie. But as a series, it’s been a pretty great ride.

New guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can gather indoors in some circumstances but should keep wearing masks in public.

(Image credit: Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images)

In an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of two former students blocked from expressing religious opinions on campus. But Roberts protested keeping the case alive after the college caved.

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

This post, I had to fire someone and I feel like a failure , was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I’m in a position that I’ve never been in before. In 2018, I took on a really exciting role with a new company building a team from the ground up. I hired a handful of people, and got to work setting up the new team and really helping to grow a new business. This was a first for me, it was a challenge, and I loved it!

At the beginning of 2019, I hired Bob. Bob had more than 15 years of experience in the industry. His last position read almost word for word what I was looking for. He knocked the interview out of the park! He had a great personality, talked about how much he loved digging into things, and generally sold himself in a beautiful manner. Everyone who interviewed him was so excited.

Bob started at 9:00 on a Monday and completely disappeared at 3:45 that afternoon. I was in a meeting, and when I got out of the meeting everyone was looking for him. When he returned to work on Tuesday, I reiterated that because we are support staff, we are expected to be on shift from 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. Because we support people globally, I’ll actually work longer hours to support our overseas partners, and I pick up the weekend shifts because I’ve always hated managers who make their team work the weekends. Bob was unhappy that he could not leave the the office at 3:45 each day. He complained about the commute, and having to drive home in traffic. Unfortunately, we could make a no concessions and he agreed to work from 9-5. From that point on, he complained and moped around the office and people started talking to me and other staff members about how Bob constantly looked miserable. I spoke with him and I made as many concessions as I could, including letting him leave at 4:45 instead of 5. My boss also spoke with him, and during that meeting Bob said he loved the job!

Unfortunately in mid-2019, I got very sick. By September, I was forced to work from home 100% as I was going through multiple rounds of chemotherapy. Not once did I or my team miss a deadline. However, in mid-2020 when I finished up chemotherapy and moved on to radiation and surgery, my team had a long meeting with me without Bob: Apparently, as I was working from home, Bob had taken the opportunity to go back to leaving at 3:45 pm and disappearing throughout the course of the day, and it only became worse in early 2020 as we all went work-from-home. He was not responsive to emails, texts, or instant messages, and the staff was covering a large part of his work because they didn’t want to pile more on me while I was undergoing chemo.

In July 2020, with beating cancer on the horizon, I had a long conversation with Bob about what I had been told not only by my team but my other teams that interact with mine. Bob was defensive, he tried to gaslight me, he tried to blame his inability to work largely on the fact that I was not in the office to hold his hand (his words). This man with more than 15 years of experience in the industry had the audacity to tell me that he was an entry-level employee and that he required constant handholding, and that in no way shape or form had he ever indicated that he had experience with our work. I pulled his résumé with him, and we line by line went over what the job description was, what we had talked about in the job interview, what his training had been, and what his history was according to his résumé.

After a few weeks of him badmouthing me, badmouthing the team, disappearing throughout the course of the day, taking random time off because his kid was sick, because his wife was out of work and she was depressed, and because he had emergencies at home, we had another conversation with him, me, my boss, and HR. We laid out the job description and his assignments, and we were very understanding about the sick kid, the depressed wife, the issues at home … let’s face it, 2020 was a dumpster fire. My own husband was out of work, my 17-year-old was doing her senior year in high school from home, it was a mess, we all acknowledge it and we made every effort to support our staff during the year from hell.

Over the next few weeks, Bob continued his downward spiral. Everything was a fight, every assignment wasn’t in his wheelhouse, everything that we needed to be done for the group he couldn’t do. It was just an absolute mess.

We spoke with legal, HR, individual attorneys, and at the end of the discussions we decided that we had no choice but to terminate him. However we wanted to give him one last chance to be the person we interviewed. So we put him on a six-week performance improvement plan. We outlined every piece of work that he needed to do. We outlined timelines, who he could go to for help, what he could do if he was running behind and needed assistance.

At the end of the six weeks, we reviewed all of our weekly meetings and the every-other-day meetings we had started during the improvement plan, and he blamed us. It was HR’s fault for hiring him when he clearly couldn’t do the job, it was my fault for getting sick (because I eat meat and sugar and according to him both cause cancer!), it was my boss’s fault for taking two weeks off when his wife gave birth. He just kept piling on the excuses.

At the end of the meeting, we ended up letting him go.

It’s the first time I’ve ever had to let anybody go. And honestly I think I’m more upset than he was! I feel like somehow I failed. I failed in interviewing him. I failed in not catching the fact that he wasn’t working, that he wasn’t pulling his weight in the department. I just feel like such a failure. How do I move on from this? I need to replace him, and all I keep thinking is I’m going to hire badly again.

Rationally I know that I didn’t do such a horrendous job. I hired six people for a new department, five of whom are still there. And yet that inkling in the back of my brain, I still feel like a failure. Is there an easy way to move on?

This is Bob’s fault, not yours. You bent over backwards to try to make things work with him! You gave him far more chances than you needed to.

Bob just sucked.

I don’t say that because he was bad at the job. Some people are bad at their jobs, and that doesn’t mean they suck. Bob sucks because he:
* Unilaterally decided he could significantly shorten his work hours without talking to anyone about it or clearing that first (not a normal assumption to make), moped and complained when he was told he couldn’t, and then started doing it again anyway as soon as you weren’t physically present to see it.
* Disappeared throughout the day and wouldn’t respond to emails, texts, or instant messages, while you were dealing with chemo
* Tried to blame his not doing his work on you not being there while you were having chemo
* Claimed to be an entry-level employee despite having 15 years of experience (and presumably having accepted a non-entry-level job)
* Claimed not to have the experience that was on his resume and that was discussed in his interview
* Badmouthed you (you! who had tried so hard to accommodate him) and others
* Blamed you for getting sick
* Blamed you for getting sick (that one has to be on there twice)

I’m hard pressed to think of how the case for firing Bob could be more clear-cut.

If you did anything wrong here, it’s that you were too accommodating with Bob, at the expense of others on your team and the organization itself.

You can’t be more invested in saving someone’s job than they are! And Bob wasn’t even trying to save his job. He had every opportunity to turn things around and didn’t. You were the one working hard to save this. He wasn’t.

Bob behaved like a jerk — to you, to your boss, to his coworkers. You had an obligation to them and to your organization to say no more.

Your obligation as a manager is not to make every person you hire work out at all costs. Hiring isn’t a perfect science; you will make mistakes. Some of them will be harder than Bob was — a person who is genuinely trying and still can’t cut it is more painful to let go than someone like Bob is, and it’s still something you will have to deal with as a manager at some point. It’s part of the job, and it will happen because we are humans hiring humans and you can’t predict with perfect accuracy how someone will mesh with a job, no matter how hard you both try. Sometimes hiring decisions are wrong.

Your obligations as a manager are to be as thorough and rigorous in hiring as you can be, to set clear and reasonable goals and expectations for people, to give clear and timely feedback, to address problems forthrightly when they crop up, and to give people reasonable chances to resolve those problems. It is not your obligation to make things work no matter what the cost, or when it’s clear someone is the wrong fit for the job. It is not your obligation to work harder than they are to make a situation work. To the contrary, your responsibilities to the rest of your team mean that you are obligated to recognize when something isn’t working out and be willing to move people out (kindly and fairly) when that’s the case.

That doesn’t mean firings should ever be easy. They’re not. Taking away someone’s income source is a big deal. That’s why you give clear feedback and warnings, and why you spell it out when someone’s job in jeopardy and give them time and support to fix the issues.

You did your part, but Bob didn’t do his.

You’re being very hard on yourself, so it’s worth asking: Would you be this hard on one of your staff members if they made a hiring mistake? I doubt you would — you sound like you’re quite generous with others. Extend that generosity to yourself too!

As for failing because you didn’t catch that Bob wasn’t pulling his weight: You were dealing with cancer and chemo. You expected Bob to behave like a responsible adult. Would it have been better if you’d checked in more often? Maybe. Are you to blame for Bob’s shirking his work because you didn’t check in enough while you were in crisis? No. Bob is.

When something goes wrong like this, it is useful to think about what lessons you can take from it. Looking back on Bob’s hiring process, were there warning signs at the time? Areas you didn’t probe into? References you didn’t check? If so, good — now you can incorporate those lessons for the future. And are there lessons from the rest of it — things you can decide you’d do differently next time? Maybe there are places where you should have moved faster. Maybe it would have gone differently if you’d deputized someone to act on the Bob issues in your absence. I don’t know all the details, but I’m sure there are lessons in there — drawing them out and carrying them forward is how you move on.

But please don’t let Bob mess with your mind like this. He tried to gaslight you while he was there; don’t let him keep doing it now that he’s gone.

null

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about raising the minimum wage, which hasn’t changed since 2009. I also haven’t changed since 2009, and why would I? My life is suh-weet! Who needs change? Not me! And certainly not America.

Every morning I wake up to the alarm on my RIM BlackBerry Storm, alerting me to the start of another bomb-ass day. Sure it’s not connected to anything because it no longer has technical support, but who needs their phone to have internet or the ability to call someone? I don’t!

I pull up Internet Explorer and check the showings for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. None. How about Avatar? None. The Blind Side? Still none? That’s surprising because that movie will forever be heartwarming and not at all problematic. Sidenote: someone should start a company that sells movie passes for one low monthly price because that seems like a salient and well-crafted business idea.

No worries, I’ll just pick something up from Blockbuster after work. Where do I work? Frickin’ Toys R Us! The happiest place on earth. My friends are like, “Dude, those closed.” And I’m like, “Uh, not in my heart.” Because the world will always need someone selling overpriced toys inside a physical retail location that is 30-40 minutes away from people’s houses. I sit in front of the shuttered store every day with toys I buy on Amazon (that’s gonna be a flash in the pan) and yell at people driving by that I have something to show their kids. So far, this hasn’t worked. But I have Hope! Like Obama, who is still my president, which is really the only thing that people agree with me about.

After a hard day of making $0 (I would KILL for $7.25 an hour), I slide into Paul Thomas Cruiser (what I named my PT Cruiser), blast “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas, and drive to my girlfriend’s house. She’s totally surprised to see me because, again, my phone doesn’t work and I gave her no heads up I was coming. I say, “Let’s order Papa John’s!” and she’s like, “Ew, no, that guy’s racist.” And I’m like, “This is the first I’m hearing about this,” and she says, “I can’t do this with you anymore. Get out of my house.” Now, I’m a pretty positive guy, but this hurts. Is it crazy to think I could find the kind of love Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy have? I also want to be with a woman who is beautiful and has super smart ideas about vaccines.

I head home to find my landlord, hammering an eviction notice on my door. What gives?! He says, “You paid $1,200 — rent is two grand.” I show him my lease, which clearly states the rent is $1,200. He says it’s from twelve years ago and “worthless.” I tell him no one making Seven Big Washingtons and One Tiny Washington an hour can pay 2K a month. He says that’s not his problem and I owe him $9,000 in back rent, and that I need to “give it to him.” I answer, “That’s what she said,” and he punches me in the face.

I pack up my stuff and drive to my parents’ house. My mom says, “This wouldn’t have happened if you had gotten a real job,” and I’m like, “I tried, but no one is hiring.” And my dad says, “That’s because there’s a pandemic and the economy is in the toilet,” and I’m like, “Pandemic? I think you mean Great Recession.” He says, “I can’t do this with you anymore. Get out of my house.”

I drive to a movie theater because, dang it, I’m still itching to see a flick! Since The Hangover isn’t playing, I order a ticket for Tom & Jerry. The cashier says, “That’s $12.” And I say, “No, just one ticket.” And she’s like, “Yeah, that’s $12.” And I’m like, “No, movie tickets are like seven bucks.” And she says, “Yeah, maybe in 2009.” And I’m like, “EXACTLY.” She gives me a strange look and says, “I can’t let you in without a mask anyway.”

I see a NOW HIRING sign on the window. Nice! I take an application and ask what it pays. “Minimum wage,” she says. “So if I worked here," I say, "it would take almost two hours to earn a ticket to Tom & Jerry?” And she’s like, “Not after taxes, nimrod.” Taxes! I’m like, “That doesn’t seem fair.” And she says, “I can’t do this with you anymore. Get out of my vestibule.”

I go back to Paul Thomas and stare out the windshield. I turn on the radio and Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb” is playing. I let the words wash over me. “There’s always gonna be another mountain.” I guess that mountain is Congress maintaining a dangerously low minimum wage to keep profits high for businesses. “Keep the faith, baby. It’s all about, it’s all about the climb.” True That.

New comic!
Today's News:

I don't know why this hedgehog is compelled to keep making pants when no in town actually wears them, but some artists are never truly understood.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Later it turns out that's just Jeff Bezos listening.

Today's News:

As our recent Greenhouse policy forum on broadband made abundantly clear, COVID is shining a very bright light on US broadband dysfunction. The high cost of service, spotty coverage, slow speeds, and high prices are all being felt acutely in an era where having a decent broadband connection is the pathway to education, employment, healthcare, and opportunity. And after 25 years of US apathy to its telecom monopoly problem, COVID-19 is applying pressure on lawmakers and regulators in an entirely new way to do something about the 42 million without broadband, the 83 million under a monopoly, and the tens of millions who simply can't afford service due to limited competition.

But it's not just high prices and spotty coverage that have proven to be an issue in the COVID era. In Kentucky, one of countless US states where local monopolies AT&T and Time Warner Cable (now Charter Spectrum) literally dictated state telecom policy for 25 years (with obvious results), a lack of broadband access is hampering the public's access to vaccines. Louisville, Kentucky high schoolers recently set up VaXConnect Kentucky to help seniors get access to their first and second shots. And they're finding themselves "surprised" to learn just how many people don't have access to a reliable, affordable connection:

"People are calling us and they only have landlines, and they don't have internet or a computer or an email," Beck says. "That's more common than I realized."

Granted part of the problem is monopolization and limited competition impacting broadband availability and price. But the other problem, long discussed here at Techdirt, is the fact that state and federal regulators have done a piss poor job accurately measuring broadband availability. In large part because giant incumbents like AT&T have fought tooth and nail against improving broadband mapping for the better part of thirty years. Mostly because once lawmakers and regulators get a better sense of monopolization's real impact, they might just get the crazy idea to do something about it.

In this case, our failures to seriously tackle monopolization and regulatory capture are having a very real human cost. And usually, it's the most vulnerable among us who are the first in line to feel the pain, something experts also discussed at length during our recent Greenhouse panel:

"About 27% of American adults over the age of 65 don't use the internet, according to the Pew Research Center. Pew also reported that a third of Black adults in the US lack home broadband. ABC News reported that the situation is even worse for seniors of color. Meanwhile the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people 65 and older, as well as members of racial and ethnic minority groups, are dying at disproportionate rates from COVID-19."

Having co-built DSLReports, I spent every day for fifteen years watching first hand how the broadband industry (and its various policy tendrils at think tanks, consultants, and lobbying shops) spent millions of dollars and countless man hours trying to convince the press, public, and regulators that the US broadband market was perfectly healthy and competitive, and in absolutely no need for reform or meaningful oversight. COVID has, in a very short amount of time, punched that self-serving, bad faith argument squarely in the jaw. Hopefully we learn something from the experience.

LEVEL 1:
DOG WHISTLE OVERVIEW

DUO THE OWL: Translate the following from Racist Dog Whistle to English:

Voter ID laws are important to avoid voter fraud.

Your Answer: Voter ID laws are important to ensure poor people and minorities don’t vote.

DUO: Correct!

Make America Great Again

Your Answer: Let’s go back to the days when we could be blatantly racist, sexist, and homophobic.

DUO: Amazing! Onto the next level. Translate the following from English to Racist Dog Whistle:

We don’t want minorities in our neighborhood.

Your Answer: We want to preserve single-family zoning.

DUO: Wow! You’re getting good at this!

I would like to go back to the days before the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation.

Your Answer: I support states’ rights.

DUO: Great!

I need a respectable way to justify my misogyny and homophobia.

Your Answer: I support family values.

DUO: Excellent! Let’s try something harder now. Translate the following from Racist Dog Whistle to English:

Real Americans don’t want their neighborhoods turning into San Francisco.

Your Answer: LGBTQs don’t belong in this country.

DUO: Great work!

The US should get more immigrants from Norway.

Your Answer: If we are going to accept immigrants, let’s make sure they’re white.

DUO: Impressive! Next, you have two seconds to provide as many dog-whistle definitions of “Democrat” as you can. Go!

Your Answers:
Socialist
Unamerican
Freedom-hater
Elitist
Job killer
Snowflake
Looney leftist
Coming for your guns

DUO: Wow. That is certainly an exhaustive list. You are doing really well! It’s time to increase the difficulty. Translate the following from Racist Dog Whistle to English:

I don’t know anything about David Duke or the KKK.

Your Answer: I have plausible deniability of my racism.

DUO: You’ve answered every question correctly so far! Nice job!

Tax cuts for the rich will pay for themselves through high economic growth.

Your Answer: Tax cuts for the rich will cause an enormous budget deficit, but that will only be cause for concern while a democrat is president. The deficit will then be used as an excuse to cut social programs.

DUO: Correct, but oddly specific.

I support religious freedom.

Your Answer: I quote scripture out of context to justify discriminating against people that I think are icky.

DUO: Are you sure you aren’t already fluent? You have unlocked our next level.

LEVEL 2:
HOW WOULD A RIGHT-WING POLITICIAN
HANDLE THESE QUESTIONS FROM THE PRESS?

What should the Republican party do to attract black voters?

Your Answer: The American people don’t care about these “gotcha” questions. They care about jobs and the economy.

DUO: You sidestepped the question beautifully. Excellent!

Are you concerned that President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud contributed to the heated political climate that led to the January 6 attack on the Capitol?

Your Answer: The American people don’t care about partisan politics. They care about jobs and the economy.

DUO: Perfect! The “jobs and economy” line can be used any time you want to redirect the narrative. You have mastered Level 2 in record time! Amazing work! At this point, you may be exhausted by the mental gymnastics required to think this way. However, to graduate with Duo Honors, consider taking a deep dive into topics we’ve only scratched the surface of:

• Why Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression, and the Electoral College are Important for Free and Fair Elections
• Why Discussions About Racism Are Racist
• The War on Christmas – It’s Worse Than You Think!

Become a Patron!

How dare you unfollow me on the twitters!

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
This is actually a test to see if you have the emotional compartmentalization necessary to work in telemarketing.

Today's News:

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

The NASA rover traversed some 21 feet of terrain this week, in its first test drive since landing on the red planet. It also captured photos of its touchdown site and the wheel tracks it left behind.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Here's Rex Viper's second song... "Nintendo Power of Love"!!! It's a Back to the Future medley, combining Huey Lewis' Power of Love (from the movie) and a faster version of the song (from the NES game.)

Check out http://rexviper.com to grab our songs!!

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/0MkADoxTSnQkNeP02Cbhwx
Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/rex-viper/1556322876
iHeartRadio - https://www.iheart.com/artist/rex-viper-35872846/
Bandcamp - https://rexviper.bandcamp.com/
Deezer - https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/125099522

Check out our first music video for Mighty Wings and Hadoukens:
https://youtu.be/QgksfOYP0SI

Music Video Edited by James Rolfe https://twitter.com/cinemassacre

Crew and Location Shooting:
Antonio Piluso https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRdNg4DiJJosJdwG_-_zJw
Justin Silverman http://justysilverman.com/

Newt Wallen as Marty McFly
https://www.instagram.com/newtwallen/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/stillnewtwallen?lang=en

Marty McFly deep fake by Monzi (MagicOfBarca)
https://www.youtube.com/user/momessi100/
https://www.instagram.com/magicofbarca/

Hula-hoop Girl - Crystal Quin https://twitter.com/CrystalQuin
Bully - Antonio Piluso https://twitter.com/HacktheMovies
Glass Holder 1 - Bryan Donoghue https://twitter.com/DumDum0076
Glass Holder 2 - Frank Stone

----
Rex Viper Band Members:

Vocals by James Harding from Villainest
http://villainest.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/villainest

Lead Guitar and Mixing by Epic Game Music
http://www.youtube.com/epicgamemusic
https://twitter.com/epicgamemusic

Bass by Squarepainter
https://www.youtube.com/user/squarepainter
https://twitter.com/Squarepainter

Rhythm Guitar by James Rolfe
https://twitter.com/cinemassacre

Drums by Jeff Worton
https://www.instagram.com/duke_pukem

Keytar by Kieran Fallon
https://www.twitch.tv/kieeeeern
https://twitter.com/Kieeeeern

Backing Vocals & Management by Justin Silverman
http://justysilverman.com/

#PowerofLove #Cinemassacre #JamesRolfe #Backtothefuture

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

“White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday defended President Biden calling the decision of two GOP governors to lift mask mandates as ‘Neanderthal thinking’ after some conservatives took offense to the criticism.” – The Hill, 3/4/21

Look, this is nothing new. We’re used to it. There’s a long history here. We let you modern Homo sapiens romanticize our culture for your kids’ entertainment (Croods), appropriate our hard-earned achievements (controlling FIRE!), and relegate us to history as uncivilized brutes who lack intelligence and language (take a bow, H.G. Wells). But comparing us to someone like Texas Governor Greg Abbott is a step too far, Mr. President. You just crossed the line we drew in the sand, or more accurately, etched into the ice with our hand-crafted tools.

To describe the lifting of mask mandates as “Neanderthal thinking” is misleading and, quite frankly, insulting. It’s true that we didn’t have modern-day essentials like vegetable spiralizers and Pelotons, but we were never willfully ignorant. Is this a good time to mention the wind turbines?

See, contrary to popular belief, stupidity didn’t kill us. We probably died from a lack of immunity to new diseases, or as a result of climate change. Now, are we still the morons in this scenario? Because if you people are so intellectually superior, in the 40,000 intervening years, why haven’t you learned anything, like, gee, I don’t know, how not to flirt with extinction?

You should have known better, Mr. President. If you did your research into Neanderthal culture, you’d realize we never advocated for the removal of protective coverings. Are you kidding? Fur pelts saved us from literally freezing our balls off. And everything was definitely not “fine.” We died before the age of thirty, endured physical hardship and the pissing rain, frequently got mauled by vengeful hyenas, and had a limited choice of loungewear. So, please, if you insist on using us as comparisons, then at least provide some context.

Yes, it’s true our homes were primitive. But what we lacked in kitchen islands and feature walls, we made up for in social progress. Our remains attest to the fact we looked after our elders and the sick. Modern humans debate whether we had our own language. Of course we did! How else do you think we warned each other not to eat that poisonous twig?

But you know what we didn’t have a term for? Pre-existing conditions. Had Greg Abbott lived among us, he’d be pushing the most vulnerable out the cave door and leaving them to the mercy of the wolves, shouting, “We’re 100% back in business!”

And if we lived among you — God forbid — do you know what we’d be doing? This radical thing called “listening.” Scientists have only recently discovered that we had this innate capacity. You people do too, apparently, although if Greg Abbott is anything to go by, then there is very little evidence to support this theory.

So, in the future, Mr. President, please refrain from this casual use of false equivalencies. Leave that to the GOP.

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Best Westphalian Sovereignty joke all week.

Today's News:

New Cyanide and Happiness Comic

Sure hope you like puns

You can now download shareware and freeware versions for the systems listed below.  The shareware versions include 2 complete levels.  The only features removed from those game is SNES controller support, and the cheat-code. The C128 and Amiga versions also remove the ability to see robots on the map. (but the map itself still works)  A PDF manual is included in the ZIP file.  The ones listed as “full version”  are the complete game for free on those platforms. You can download them here:

Attack of the Petscii Robots Shareware Downloads

• PET Robots Shareware
• C64 Robots Shareware
• C64 REU Robots-Shareware
• Plus/4 Robots Shareware
• C128 Robots Shareware
• Amiga Robots Shareware
• Sega Genesis Robots-Shareware
• Atari 7800 Shareware
• Super Nintendo Shareware
• MS-DOS Shareware
• Oric-1 / Atmos (Full Version)
• Enterprise 128 (Full Version)
• Picomite MMBasic (Full Version)
• Commander X16 (Full Version)
• Nintendo 3DS (Full Version)
• TI-84 Plus CE Graphing Calculator (full version)
• Tic-80 Tiny Computer (full version)
• Commodore VIC-20 Version 1.2 (full version)

Quarx Shareware Downloads:

• Commodore 64
• Commodore PET (full version)
• Tandy Color Computer 3
• Tandy Color Computer 1/2 (full version)
• Dragon 32/64 (64K) (full version)
• Apple IIe / IIc / Iigs / Laser128

Buy complete versions here:

https://www.the8bitguy.com/product-category/games/

The post Shareware Downloads appeared first on The 8-Bit Guy.

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