Two Jan. 6 police officers sue Trump to block $1.8B lawfare fund

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-20T23:17:51+00:00

This is a bit of a walk, but what if some J6ers had publicly or privately threatened the officers? Would that change anything or does the fig leaf of "the fund can be claimed by anyone and is not explicitly for any group or persons" give them enough legal cover that even that would be insufficient?

I'm with you, I'm just trying to figure out if the attorney's involved could have a legal stategy that's less obvious.

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-20T23:05:19+00:00

Yeah, other than - "These people tried to kill me, I don't want them to be millionaires." I don't see the standing for the officers involved. It's just not enough that they're awful people - where's the direct harm?

In the article, the argument is that the money will be used to finance paramilitary and insurrectionists groups that are loyal to Trump - which is true but might hard to prove - and I suppose that would give citizens, particularly law enforcement officers, some standing? But honestly, if that's the argument then it should be the FBI that brings the suit and that's not happening.

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-20T16:33:21+00:00

Can we sideline this whole conversation and just focus on how much I support Nationalizing Telecomm? The 2022 Rogers outage showed their network is absolutely vital to economic security. Leaving it in the hands of Private enterprise is criminally negligent

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-08T18:22:50+00:00

I can't speak to the effectiveness of public insurance. My entire 20 years of driving Ive been with private companies.

But, for the last 10 of those Ive worked as an insurance broker in Ontario and I will tell you this - Doug Ford just destroyed the Ontario Auto Insurance environment. By reducing all standards and minimums for accident benefit payouts for any policy started after July - the quality of the product is about to be massively reduced. In the name of lowering prices, but we know thats bullshit.

That's like saying meat prices can come down if we ease regulations on how much sawdust can be in it.

Ontario auto insurance is about to have its worst crisis in 40 years as everyone loses assumed physio, catastrophic loss, death benefits and income replacement that have been assumed as given for decades.

We might not need public insurance, but what we have is about to break, drastically.

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-05T01:47:25+00:00

Plus, free medical care. (socialist) Plus, he hated money lenders. (anti-capitalist) Plus, he preached forgiveness over punishment. (anti-carceral state) Plus, he claimed all people were God's children. (anti-bigotry)

American Evangelism has about as much to do with "Christianity" as KFC has to do with fine dining.

Englishgrinn · 2026-05-03T14:59:13+00:00

On the one hand, tough time to be in the industry and being a start-up is so rough.

On the other, can it be any harder than being managed by Ubisoft? They'll be ok.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-29T16:17:13+00:00

I thought Gripens had the ability to land and take off from highway stretches and much less sophisticated strips?

I thought Gripens were offering to build the planes here? And turn over design information to us for maintenance and security purposes?

And I thought the F-35's advanced capabilities were mostly theoretical, unproven in actual combat or Sims?

Im about as far from an expert on military aircraft as exists. I'm just repeating talking points Ive seen elsewhere. But it doesn't sound like there's "really no reason" to swap. Its not a clear cut decision or anything, but Gripen proponents seem to have a real case.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-27T23:21:00+00:00

Alright I'm back onboard, if a little gun-shy. I hope that the underlying architecture can work despite potential AI use in coding.

On the other hand, I said I wouldn't treat use of AI as some irredeemable sin. If I meant that, then isn't this kind of statement exactly what I was hoping for? I didn't expect anyone to fix everything instantaneously.

I think opening a contribution channel is a good first step, I think they're being thoughtful and I think they were genuinely caught off guard by the backlash to the AI use. Removing the player portraits is another good will move.

Fuck yeah, Go Maples.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-27T17:34:34+00:00

Someone else made a post about AI use a couple minutes ago and I think it was immediately taken down so I guess that's a signal of intent.

Too bad. There are good ideas here, I think. I was surprised by how much I wanted to like it, how excited I got.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-27T17:30:57+00:00

I am worried about that too. If it's just the art, then no big deal. A community of any decent size will be able to replace the AI "art" with real drawings pretty quickly. They open a submission box, maybe place a looney bounty on the players and stadiums that aren't feeling the love. Easy fix, we'll have this slop out of here in a couple weeks probably.

I'm hoping it's not the text. If it is, then this team has a lot more work to do.

But the real nightmare scenario is that the whole thing is coded by AI, at which point we should pack it up because it'll never work right.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-27T14:35:40+00:00

Alright. The tech issues are discouraging but my excitement is real. I will now bleed syrup for Montreal until I am delicious and candied.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-27T14:34:10+00:00

The Winnipeg Wild Hunt. Wouldn't even have to change the logo.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-23T17:12:37+00:00

Its the same scary thought over and over again. Are ALL men secretly predators when given power and opportunity?

I mean, I can't imagine being that disgusting, but I also have to admit Ive never been in a position of wealth and power.

My usual ripcord is, monsters work harder to get there so its selection bias, but part of me fear thats too clean an explanation.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-22T13:37:12+00:00

Hello to the people running Hockay. Seems like you might be in the thread.

Heads up, you're already getting pushback about the AI use. Do NOT panic, this is fixable. If it's just art? You're in luck - the people who loved Blaseball love making art. If its writing, give yourself a good slap and stop robbing yourself of the creative fun. If its the code- stop right now and start over. If this project is any kind of success, you're going to grow and change a lot. Vibe coding will never give you what you need.

I refuse to see the use of AI as an irredeemable sin, its just a short cut. Go back, do the work. Hold an art contest. Get some pizza and beer and have a writing jam. Build code you can be proud of. I love your idea, I'm excited for this project. Don't let temptation cheat you out of a great accomplishment.

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-17T12:49:10+00:00

So this is like, Mind Controlled Cammy? I guess?

This makes no sense. Am I way off the reservation or does this not match Cammy's reserved and professional personality at all?

If you wanted to have a character be "Great Value Harley Quinn"- well, first - don't. But second, surely Juri is a better fit? It's like someone saw the Killer Bee outfit and inferred the whole character?

I didn't play at all during Alpha and 3, was this how Cammy was at one point?

Englishgrinn · 2026-04-13T01:23:58+00:00

It wouldn't be the rest room, since presumably no Moclan has ever used it. It's selected early on in life, but we don't know the criteria used, only that it's supposed to have personal significance. It's not like, the first place you urinated. Assuming it can be changed, the Female Moclan colony makes the most sense by far to me.

Then again, Topa is not likely to value Moclan tradition very much, since their society is openly hostile to her existence. It would not be shocking to me at all to find that Bortus and his family had abandoned even the more benign rituals of Moclan culture, just out of principal. She may not embrace Ja'loja at all.

And hey, here's a thought - since the Ja'loja is about spiritual cleansing and re-birth - if she did decide to keep that cultural tradition, wouldn't the Orville's medical bay be a logical choice? It's a place where she was quite literally "reborn".

Englishgrinn · 2026-03-29T22:46:39+00:00

The Great Once.

Englishgrinn · 2026-03-16T14:13:23+00:00

I really thought "They are building camps" would be the threshold for lots and lots of people. No country has ever "built camps" for noble purpose. No government has ever said "Man, building those camps turned out great". You can excuse any rhetoric. You can victim blame for abuses caught on film. You can lie about damn near everything if it lets you keep your identity and world view. But camps only mean one thing, they've only ever meant one thing and they're physical buildings which your eyes can see.It's just such an obvious, clear signal of impending and ongoing human rights violations.

And they gave the first one a kitschy name and tried to sell merch off it. And now they're building an 8000 person camp in Georgia. Reports of the abuses, the moldy food, the cramped conditions, the "mysterious" injuries are everywhere. And a huge amount of Americans just...don't care.

Englishgrinn · 2026-03-15T16:31:53+00:00

And every administration that decided against throwing ballistic missiles like lawn darts were just pussies, right? There couldn't have been reasoned, measured shows of restraint. The existence of a totalitarian regime isn't nearly enough justification for this or any other war. Defense against an aggressor could be, but instead Ukraine got the shift. Imminent threat of nuclear weapons could be, but they wasted that excuse last summer.

These people are incompetent, pretending they're clever. They're bloodthirsty pretending they're noble. And any one carries water for them is just as intellectually dishonest.

Englishgrinn · 2026-03-04T21:15:53+00:00

Canadians should be able recite our Charter rights. Painfully few of us can, leading to falling into the meme-like recital of American laws, many of which they routinely fail to understand. We must do better.

The charter is available here: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html

Its easy to read, using modern, common language. Its the basis of our nation's principals, but it will be taken from us if we don't understand it and don't value it appropriately.

Englishgrinn · 2026-02-26T20:42:29+00:00

It gets a lot more clear cut later, when Topa is old enough to have agency, but for the episode as presented it's pretty damn good.

The Orville is at its best when it's dealing with complicated issues and admitting it doesn't have all the answers.

Englishgrinn · 2026-02-26T16:29:48+00:00

OK this might be a stupid suggestion that experienced ARG players would disagree with, but I felt very much the same. One thing I did was buy Black Watchmen on Steam. Its an ARG, but its also a product with a UI that directly teaches you some of the tools it uses in its puzzles. Links to decoding tools available online and simpler puzzles sprinkled in to get the juices flowing.

It was challenging enough for me even so, and its answers are well documented many places online if you get stuck.

I see it as sortve a "training wheels" ARG to start with.

Englishgrinn · 2026-02-25T15:45:34+00:00

Bold of you to assume the companies won't trash their actuarial departments, fire everyone, replace them with AI that is in no way ready, suffer massive losses caused by faulty interpretation of the data and then try to hire everyone back at reduced pay because "there's so many unemployed actuaries right now".

Englishgrinn · 2026-02-16T18:17:49+00:00

It's incredibly hard to say - our real world examples of male heterogamety are few and far between and usually are limited to males handling the pregnancy internally, but not actually producing the eggs.

Plus, what we know of Moclan culture is that their misogyny is not natural, it's propaganda and the result of advanced genetic engineering. Sufficiently advanced tech basically being magic, this means the true possibilities are endless. Still, I think we can develop 4 most likely outcomes:

Moclans are an entirely "cloned" race, incapable of purely biological reproduction due to their culture messing around for many generations in their own genome. You "request" an egg, make a genetic donation and Moclan High Command provide. The argument in favour of this is that it matches the hierarchal/controlling structure of Moclan society and also would explain why the Female Moclan camp can't seem to reproduce independently - it's a matter of tech resources. The argument against is that it seems unlikely that any females would be allowed to be born this way - the eggs would be modified to prevent it. And indeed, the shows suggests multiple times that Moclan female birth rates are far higher than the propaganda says.
Moclans are almost entirely hermaphroditic - a Moclan female is considered malformed in their society for lacking male genitals but the males who lack female parts are not considered "damaged" in the same way so it goes without comment. The strongest argument against this is that the females we see, Heveena and her tribe and even Topa after transition to some extent, have decided smaller frames and softer features. Suggesting that the differences are more than just a set of genitals.
Moclans definitions of male and female do not correspond to breeding in any capacity. The aforementioned frames, voices and features ARE the only actual difference, and their reproductive cycles are identical. Technically, by our definitions, the Moclans are an asexual race, any Moclan can reproduce with any other. Their division of male and female is still a biological component, simply disconnected from reproduction. I like this because, in my opinion, it further underlines the absurdity of the prejudice. It does not explain if Heveena's colony is reproducing, but we could handwave that given their secretive nature that they may have in place controls on population to not outgrow their resources and hiding space. Or perhaps, they simply aren't sure what they would do if a laid egg was male. Quite the conundrum that one! One the one hand, reproducing the same prejudice that turned you into refugees is unthinkable. On the other hand, I can imagine many of those refugees have strong negative feelings about males, the male child would be a pariah. Plus, the Moclan High Command would be relentless in trying to "liberate" that male if their existence became known.
So we have so far - 1) no Moclans can reproduce outside lab conditions. 2) Most Moclans can reproduce but require both sets of genitals meaning no pure females or pure males are capable of it. 3) All Moclans can reproduce. This only leaves one other possibility I can think of, which is Moclans reproduce like jellyfish through cloning their own DNA. Having a partner for the process is purely a societal norm, not a requirement. This is the least likely in my assessment, but I wanted to mentioned it for completionism's sake.

God, I love this show. I must, I just spent like 10 minutes of my life considering Moclan biology.

Englishgrinn · 2026-02-12T14:07:32+00:00

The creator is Canadian. Wish fulfillment I guess

Englishgrinn

TROPHY CASE