#monopoly facts

[meowmeowmeowimacat]

Yesterday i learned (while making https://www.tumblr.com/meowmeowmeowimacat/744974633152004096/images-p2) that the cat piece in monopoly is named Hazel. Why doesn't any other piece have a name? Like the Scottie Dog?

[aardvaark]

the leverage team would have had a games night… once. everyone cheated so much and in such increasingly extreme ways that all mentions of monopoly are banned in their headquarters (this makes talking about marks who monopolize the market very confusing)

[hermitcraftx]

The problem with a lot of traffic life interpretations in my opinion is they don't understand character foils or don't employ them in their writing. Grian-Martyn and Scar-Ren are genuinely pretty good character foils for a series that is not really scripted or planned out like a book is. I could go on and on about how they parallel each other and the similarities between them. Even the smaller details between the four usually match up

leaving the rant in the tags so I don't have a huge block of text again ueueue

[lazycranberrydoodles]

woe mundane monopoly headcanons be upon ye

follow for more of modern au hua cheng’s outfits

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Big Telco’s fury over FCC plan to infuse telecoms policy with facts

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library on Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

Reality has a distinct anti-conservative bias, but conservatives have an answer: when the facts don't support your policies, just get different facts. Who needs evidence-based policy when you can have policy-based evidence?

Take gun violence. Conservatives tell us that "an armed society is a polite society," which means that the more guns you have, the less gun violence you'll experience. To prevent reality from unfairly staining this pristine ideological mind-palace with facts, conservatives passed the Dickey Amendment, which had the effect of banning the CDC from gathering stats on American gun-violence. No stats, no violence!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickey_Amendment

Policy-based evidence is at the core of so many cherished conservative beliefs, like the idea that queer people (and not youth pastors) are responsible for the sexual abuse of children, or the idea that minimum wages (and not monopolies) decrease jobs, or the idea that socialized medicine (and not private equity) leads to death panels:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

The Biden administration features a sizable cohort of effective regulators, whose job is to gather evidence and then make policy from it:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/23/getting-stuff-done/#praxis

Fortunately for conservatives, not every Biden agency is led by competent, honest brokers – the finance wing of the Dems got to foist some of their most ghoulish members upon the American people, including a no-fooling cheerleader for mass foreclosure:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/06/personnel-are-policy/#janice-eberly

And these same DINOs reached across the aisle to work with Republicans to keep some of the most competent, principled agency leaders from being seated, like the remarkable Gigi Sohn, targeted by a homophobic smear campaign funded by the telco industry, who feared her presence on the FCC:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/19/culture-war-bullshit-stole-your-broadband/

The telcos are old hands at this stuff. Long before the gun control debates, Ma Bell had figured out that a monopoly over Americans' telecoms was a license to print money, and they set to corrupting agencies from the FCC to the DoJ:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/14/jam-to-day/

Reality has a vicious anti-telco bias. Think of Net Neutrality, the idea that if you pay an ISP for internet service, they should make a best effort to deliver the data you request, rather than deliberately slowing down your connection in the hopes that you'll seek out data from the company's preferred partners, who've paid a bribe for "premium delivery."

This shouldn't even be up for debate. The idea that your ISP should prioritize its preferred data over your preferred data is as absurd as the idea that a taxi-driver should slow down your rides to any pizzeria except Domino's, which has paid it for "premium service." If your cabbie circled the block twice every time you asked for a ride to Massimo's Pizza, you'd be rightly pissed – and the cab company would be fined.

Back when Ajit Pai was Trump's FCC chairman, he made killing Net Neutrality his top priority. But regulators aren't allowed to act without evidence, so Pai had to seek out as much policy-based evidence as he could. To that end, Pai allowed millions of obviously fake comments to be entered into the docket (comments from dead people, one million comments from @pornhub.com address, comments from sitting Senators who disavowed them, etc). Then Pai actively – and illegally – obstructed the NY Attorney General's investigation into the fraud:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/06/boogeration/#pais-lies

The pursuit of policy-based evidence is greatly aided by the absence of real evidence. If you're gonna fill the docket with made-up nonsense, it helps if there's no truthful stuff in there to get in the way. To that end, the FCC has systematically avoided collecting data on American broadband delivery, collecting as little objective data as possible:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/26/pandemic-profiteers/#flying-blind

This willful ignorance was a huge boon to the telcos, who demanded billions in fed subsidies for "underserved areas" and then just blew it on anything they felt like – like the $45 billion of public money they wasted on obsolete copper wiring for rural "broadband" expansion under Trump:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/27/all-broadband-politics-are-local/

Like other cherished conservative delusions, the unsupportable fantasy that private industry is better at rolling out broadband is hugely consequential. Before the pandemic, this meant that America – the birthplace of the internet – had the slowest, most expensive internet service of any G8 country. During the lockdown, broadband deserts meant that millions of poor and rural Americans were cut off from employment, education, health care and family:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/12/ajit-pai/#pai

Pai's response was to commit another $8 billion in public funds to broadband expansion, but without any idea of where the broadband deserts were – just handing more money over to monopoly telcos to spend as they see fit, with zero accountability:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/26/pandemic-profiteers/#flying-blind

All that changed after the 2020 election. Pai was removed from office (and immediately blocked me on Twitter) (oh, diddums), and his successor, Biden FCC chair Jessic Rosenworcel, started gathering evidence, soliciting your broadband complaints:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/23/parliament-of-landlords/#fcc

And even better, your broadband speed measurements:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/14/for-sale-green-indulgences/#fly-my-pretties

All that evidence spurred Congress to act. In 2021, Congress ordered the FCC to investigate and punish discrimination in internet service provision, "based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin":

https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ58/PLAW-117publ58.pdf

In other words, Congress ordered the FCC to crack down on "digital redlining." That's when historic patterns of underinvestment in majority Black neighborhoods and other underserved communities create broadband deserts, where internet service is slower and more expensive than service literally across the street:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/10/flicc/#digital-divide

FCC Chair Rosenworcel has published the agency's plan for fulfilling this obligation. It's pretty straightforward: they're going to collect data on pricing, speed and other key service factors, and punish companies that practice discrimination:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/preventing-digital-discrimination-broadband-internet-access

This has provoked howls of protests from the ISP cartel, their lobbying org, and their Republican pals on the FCC. Writing for Ars Technica, Jon Brodkin rounds up a selection of these objections:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/11/internet-providers-say-the-fcc-should-not-investigate-broadband-prices/

There's GOP FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, with a Steve Bannon-seque condemnation of "the administrative state [taking] effective control of all Internet services and infrastructure in the US. He's especially pissed that the FCC is going to regulate big landlords who force all their tenants to get slow, expensive from ISPs who offer kickbacks to landlords:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/carr-opposes-bidens-internet-plan

The response from telco lobbyists NCTA is particularly, nakedly absurd: they demand that the FCC exempt price from consideration of whether an ISP is practicing discrimination, calling prices a "non-technical aspect of broadband service":

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/110897268295/1

I mean, sure – it's easy to prove that an ISP doesn't discriminate against customers if you don't ask how much they charge! "Sure, you live in a historically underserved neighborhood, but technically we'll give you a 100mb fiber connection, provided you give us $20m to install it."

This is a profoundly stupid demand, but that didn't stop the wireless lobbying org CTIA from chiming in with the same talking points, demanding that the FCC drop plans to collect data on "pricing, deposits, discounts, and data caps," evaluation of price is unnecessary in the competitive wireless marketplace":

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1107735021925/1

Individual cartel members weighed in as well, with AT&T and Verizon threatening to sue over the rules, joined by yet another lobbying group, USTelecom:

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1103655327582/1

The next step in this playbook is whipping up the low-information base by calling this "socialism" and mobilizing some of the worst-served, most-gouged people in America to shoot themselves in the face (again), to own the libs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/15/useful-idiotsuseful-idiots/#unrequited-love

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/10/digital-redlining/#stop-confusing-the-issue-with-relevant-facts

Image: Japanexperterna.se (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/japanexperterna/15251188384/

CC BY-SA 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

--

Mike Mozart (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/14325839070/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/14325905568/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/14489390566/

www.ccPixs.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/86530412@N02/8210762750/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[dapper-nahrwhale]

Seeing Shrek on Disney plus is something that makes my stomach sink in a pit oh it's not how it's supposed to be. Shrek is a satirical parody mocking Disney and Disney owns it now... I'm so tired of playing monopoly can we do something else please

[oifaaa]

did you know theres a monopolys cheaters edition with an ultimate cheater mode

batfam

I did know it was the edition we had in our uni house but I also know the bats would absolutely hate it - you can not convince the most annoying people about the rules would enjoy a game were cheating is in the rules

[kineticpenguin]

One funny but also infuriating thing about the progression of time is that like, okay, you might be able to see why car manufacturers fought against safety regulations back in the day (for example), because these guys had basically been accustomed to being able to build and design their cars with whatever constraints they chose (because they felt this would make the most money), and now suddenly someone's telling them "no actually your cars need to not be deathtraps. That's a thing I am legally requiring you to design around." You figure, eh, I see why you'd be mad about that but it had to happen.

And then people argue for degregulation, saying we went too far, and that we're actually making people less safe and can't compete in the global economy, and you're like, "okay yeah, sure, maybe we didn't figure it all out decades ago, let's vote for these neoliberal free market guys"

And then all of a sudden Boeing airliners aren't the safest in the industry anymore, they're suicidal

Nope business executives are just the same thoughtless "line go up no matter what" dumbasses every fucking year every fucking decade every fucking century

[crowley-exploder]

ME WHEN ME-

NO WAY ... SPN CAT PINS... CHECKED AND THESE ARE SO CUTE ACTUALLY Crowley as a british shorthair is on point .

[blockmenobsessedperson]

I’m still stuck in the Desert guys. 😔😔 I’m actually slightly proud of this one for once though! I also made one that looks like a Watcher and a Vex’s arm to match these two but that one kinda looks like doo doo so I’m not gonna post it here.

(Grian on the left Scar on the right. The two bracelets on Grian’s arm are from Scar(the green one) and Taurtis(the blue one). Scar, of course, has a red bracelet with Grian’s feather.)

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Our government is not trying to protect us from disinformation. They’re trying to maintain a monopoly on it.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/fake-news/its-also-disinformation-when-our-government-does-it

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[mayonaizs]

monopoly x mcdonalds old man yaoi.

monopoly x mcdonalds old woman yuri.

[bananahkim]

@wingstobetorn Them playing a monopoly-ish board game together(Julia does NOT understand how she plays it)

[bogkeep]

complaining about gender clinic again

mid-may: coincidentally finds out that the gender clinic offers [resource] they never informed me or nearly anyone else about, gets help from one of the nurses to order [resource] except she's going to send me more info over email first :)

(late july: my GP can also order [resource] for me and does so, it's different than the one i ordered through gender clinic because i wasn't sure if gender clinic was going to send me the [resource i ordered] or not. GP order goes through immediately)

early august, back from travelling: well i haven't received any emails nor word about [resource] so i'll shoot them a message

mid-august: well i haven't received any replies to my message so i'll call them even though their call times are a scarce two hours every weekday. i'm told they'll call me back over the week

this monday: over a week has passed and i received no call. i will call them again! the lady on the phone says i should contact the regional centre because that's where they send [resource orders] :) and if i don't want to do that i should call [different number that has call times only twice a week]

today: "hello special gender clinic number i really want a follow up about this thing one of your nurses promised but i have been completely unable to get a single word about despite contacting you multiple times"

"oh no!! i see you sent us a message weeks ago and nobody answered it! this isn't supposed to happen!"

"one would think"

(and then she actually emailed me!!!!! yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS TIME IT BETTER GO THROUGH I SWEAR TO GOD.)

[musical-chick-13]

The problem is. When I go, "Oh, this system is bullshit" and try to live outside it. My choices are still defined by that system. And that makes me feel really weird.

[radiokathryn-if]

Hola amigo (amiga). It’s me again. I’m in class, slaving away my life and with my newfound brain juices, I decided to spend it on something worthwhile like expanding your own brain juices.

The ROs decided to play Monopoly (because that’s where brain power works more effectively). Who loves it, who hates it, how do they play, and who ultimately wins against one another? Also, have a good day (or night depending on when this is.)

Hello friend! Just for you and your slaving brain power, I shall gift you with a little bonus!──long answer! +I just finished cooking(&eating) supper so it has indeed been a good night lmao, I hope you have one too! ++I may have way too much fun trivia about monopoly just rattling around in my head, so I apologise if I start rambling! +++also! I'm acting as if they're all playing together... which would never happen but is still fun to think about!

Which little mascot token thing do they choose/get/fight for/end up with?──in 1972 there was only: the shoe, the hat, the dog, the iron, the car and the boat... so I've added more such as the thimble, the lantern (retired in 1950) and the rocking horse (retired 1950)

NATE──is picky and also very narcissistic, he has to pick first and he always gets the dog (a yorkshire terrier!) because it's "objectively the best one" no one really objects because they don't want to deal with his whining.

EVA──she always gets the lantern. when she's not at the table to claim it first, it's gets set aside for her. unlike with Nate, everyone else lets her have it because she simply asks nicely. Eva just thinks it's pretty─she calls it her good luck charm! (she has a nice winning streak!)

MICA──does not care for their token at all, and is usually the last to gain it, often getting the one no one went for or wanted... which mostly ends up being the iron... Mica thinks it's rad though so they don't mind!

DETECTIVE HAN──doesn't really play board games and is subsequently a bit slow to the battle royale of the token picking... they end up with the shoe because it's only of the only two left and they'd rather not pick the iron...

JOSÉ──they're not going down without a fight! they are pretty competitive, especially when it comes to board or card games─curtesy of their many siblings─and they will bargain for the token of their choosing... which is the the thimble... but they usually lose out to Ji Han, in which they fight Fauve for the boat!

JI HAN──he wins the thimble from José but he only goes for the thimble if the the plane is gone and considering its the one token lost to the void, well...

FAUVE──she watches José and Ji Han fight it out for the thimble with glee and then when José sets their sights on her and the boat its quickly wiped away... she knows when to take her losses and resigns the boat to them after she can feel a ten minute debate forming, leaving her with the car!

JACKSON──used to picking last when playing board games, though most times Cilly just gives him a token she seems fit... he'd end up with the hat (a top hat!) because even though he doesn't particularly care, he's still quicker than Mica or Detective Han to scoop up one of his favourites!

???──they like most of the tokens and are usually the first to pick, in actuality, they're the one who set aside the lantern for Eva and make the dog easy to see for Nate to claim 'first' after which they swoop in and collect the rocking horse! much like Eva, the token is a bit of a good luck charm for them─the only time they've ever gone bankrupt was when they were playing with the boat instead!

actual game play! who loves it, who hates it, who's winner and who's a sore sore loser baby?

Nate says he likes monopoly but he is quick to change his mind as soon as he loses his money... honestly, if he didn't fixate on the money side of things and strategise like i know he can he'd probably give Eva, ??? and Ji Han a run for their money! (sore sore loser, losing loser baby, sore loser baby)

Like most things outside of her personal life, Eva stays winning. She loves strategy games and she's very good at interpersonal tactics (and she doesn't get greedy or blind sided by fake money.) She's on a winning streak... but there are a couple that give her a run for her money! (somehow she always manages to get one or both dark blue's on her first circle of the board...)

The ever unbothered Mica could honestly care less about monopoly──that is to say that they get surprisingly intense around two thirds in! Something about monopoly specifically ignites the competitive fire under them. They're strangely protective of the train stations and the utilities. They always somehow end up going bankrupt though, and sell out to Eva or Ji Han (or ???) depending on who can give them the most appealing sales pitch... Mica just likes hearing what they'll come up with!

Detective Han is a baby at playing board games... that aren't chess or checkers that is. The first time they play they're too caught up in the rules to realise all the spaces are slowly being taken up. The next time they buy every space they land on and were the first to go bankrupt so quickly in a while! They're a bit of a rules lawyer but have since mellowed out to enjoying the game without getting worked up about losing.

José is competitive and they love a classic board game. Playing with their siblings, they're known to be one of the winners more often than not... playing with the other ROs? That's a whole different ball park─a whole different weight category! Especially with brilliant players like Eva, Ji Han and ??? (when they're in the mood to win)! José can admit when they're out of their depth but that doesn't mean they aren't going to go down without a fight. They're the most... involved player, often propositioning places or money with literally anyone if they can see it coming out advantageous for them. (Not many of their propositions are accepted, though some are for the sheer audacity and the entertainment value they bring!)

As opposed to his older sibling, Ji Han is actully quite well versed in the ways of the game... Given that he's only played it while half drunk in university halls at 3 in the morning while they wait out for a 5am lecture... playing it with the rest of the ROs is only a little different. (that and he plays with a clear mind and thus remembers the rules and can get into the manipulation tactics!) He's won almost as many times as Eva has, and it's usually the two of them as the final two! He's a gracious loser, even if he's a bit of a show off winner (that's mainly spurned on by Eva's taunting and the final overcoming of her as an opponent.)

Fauve has a competitive streak in her, but it's mainly for bragging rights. She actively tries hard to beat at the very least José and then sets her sights on Ji Han. (The sexual tension between them when she does is quite, palpable... if the teasing barbs and lingering looks are anything to go by) She has yet to win over Eva though and is hedging her bets on a team up with The Trio as a means to an end. (She loves the bragging rights... is winning bragging rights over Eva in monopoly of all things super important? Yes. She already reigns supreme in Uno, this is the next step in her bragging rights empire!! She's up for the challenge!)

Jackson is an easygoing run of the mill average player. He's used to going easy at these kinds of games since most of his experience playing them is with his daughter and her friends... That being said, Jackson is an excellent banker! He's very strict about the money, especially after they found out that Nate was sneaking money when he would designate himself as banker! He bankrupts quite early, but his heart nor his pride is hurt by it, he takes losing like a winner!

Secret mastermind, ???. They're actively the best at playing the game however, they don't have the competitive flare or heart to actively secure more than third place. However, when ??? is in a competitive mood, or a mischievous mood (or just wanting to impress a certain MC or Eva) then all the cards are down and all the bets are off!

bonus round! common team ups!

Eva and ??? are unstoppable when they're both playing together and playing to win! Not that a team up trio of Ji Han, Fauve and José won't give them a run for their money. Nate refuses to team up with any of them, not like they're dropping everything to offer. Mica is a lone island of overconfidence and chilled cockyness... (MC over their shoulder like an angel(or devil) during a poker game...) In a shocking turn of events, Detective Han and Jackson team up as Rules Lawyer and Banker after they declare bankruptcy and are kind of terrorfying to defy... which leads to people trying to loophole their way through the game and providing many moments of laughter inducing entertainment!

lmao i started this at like 8pm... it's taken me like 8 hours to finish and if that doesn't tell you what my mental states been like then idk what will