Communick News

Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert’s campaign said that it was “investigating some very unusual voting patterns,” as the MAGA congresswoman was on the brink of losing her reelection bid.

As Democrat Eileen Laubacher’s lead over Boebert grew slightly Thursday in the race to represent Colorado’s 4th District, Boebert’s campaign released a statement suggesting foul play. Scott Gessler, the attorney for the campaign, claimed that the votes had been “trending” in Boebert’s favor since election night, “consistently lowering the margin under one percentage point.”

“We are investigating some very unusual voting patterns and expect this election to head to a recount, one way or another,” Gessler continued.

As of Friday morning, Laubacher was still leading Boebert 48.75 percent to 47.94 percent, with 97 percent reporting. The two candidates had a margin of 3,069 votes, more than three times the automatic recount threshold of 921 votes. Boebert’s campaign could still choose to pay for a recount.

Dismantled an old bed and wanted to keep the nuts, bolts, screws and washers. Probably the first time in over 4 decades I've managed to reuse such a bag :)

Insane content censorship destroying people’s ability to make a living. Great one, UK.

Fox News anchor Jesse Watters warned that if Republicans cannot return to power in Texas, the GOP may never win the presidency again.

Watters said during his show Thursday night that Democrats’ sweeping wins in the midterm elections could be a death knell for Republicans’ chances of winning future presidential elections.

Democrats won all statewide elections on the ballot Tuesday, leaving Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as the only remaining GOP statewide official in the Lone Star State.

“They seize Texas and are on pace for the biggest midterm landslide since Watergate,” Watters said. “Now, if Texas stays blue, a Republican will never sniff the White House ever again.”

On Tuesday, Alabama residents voted on Constitutional Amendment 3 to amend the state constitution by requiring public schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance daily and allow "student-led prayer."​ The measure officially passed on Wednesday, with 63 percent of the vote, according to The New York Times.

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Canada plans to invest at least C$2.3 billion ($1.8 billion) over five years in military drones and counter-drone systems, according to its proposed 2026 federal budget, as Ottawa expands defense cooperation with Ukraine.

The funding would allow Canada’s Department of National Defense to accelerate the development, procurement, and deployment of unmanned systems and technologies designed to counter them.

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Canada and Ukraine also reached agreements on joint drone production, military assistance and air defense support.

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Without control of the White House, there is of course only so much Democrats can do with their newfound power. And in the context of the myriad horrors of the first half of President Donald Trump’s second term, talking about what the party “should” do next is roughly analogous to deciding which out-of-control forest fire to fight first: There is not enough water, there are lots of worthy candidates, and all of them are getting worse. 

One thing must be true, though: Whatever issues Democratic lawmakers choose to focus on—and, as the 2028 ideas primary gets underway, whatever ambitious ideas Democratic presidential hopefuls choose to support—the party must also have a plan for taking on the Supreme Court, which remains an existential threat to anything Democrats might hope to accomplish. Even if the party is fortunate enough to win a trifecta—the House, the Senate, and the White House—in 2028, things like a Green New Deal and Medicare for All and a new Voting Rights Act do not stand a chance before this six-justice conservative supermajority. Regrettably, what I wrote in 2020 is just as true today: If Congress passes any one of these proposals into law, the only real question is which justice ends up writing the opinion that kills it.

Background The original Matrix film, released in 1999, was a revolutionary action film in terms of combining Asian cinema inspired gunplay and kung fu together with cutting edge special effects, particularly the famed "bullet time" effect. With themes that resonate with the nascent late 90s internet and a plot that keeps you thinking, The Matrix was a cultural touchstone for many Western millennials. Of course, with financial success comes a demand for sequels, which was taken a step further by the franchise with the launch of a multimedia universe. 2003 was to be the big year, where two film sequels were released: The Matrix Reloaded in May followed by The Matrix Revolutions in November. If that wasn't enough of a media overload, there was also the anime anthology, Animatrix, and the subject of this post itself, the videogame Enter the Matrix, which was also released in May at the same time as The Matrix Reloaded. While the ambition is admirable, it's clear that the release date of the Enter the Matrix was driven by the requirements of the wider media franchise itself rather than when the game would be in a complete state.

Production Enter the Matrix is a third person 3D action game incorporating melee combat and shooting augmented by the "bullet time" system. The game includes a significant amount of cinematic footage that was shot concurrently with the Matrix sequels. The plot of the game ties in very closely with The Matrix Reloaded, which in game events expanding on scenes within the movie itself. The game even includes a teaser trailer for The Matrix Revolutions as part of its ending. The game has two selectable player characters: Niobe and Ghost. While each of them have slightly different melee movements, gameplay wise they seem indistinguishable. While the overall chapters are similar for both characters, each character has their own unique path through the levels with a few exceptions.

The menu UI is functional and leans heavily on the imagery of the Matrix franchise, from the green digital rain to the sound effects. The whole presentation plus the exclusive footage makes it feel like an integral part of the Matrix franchise, rather than the standard licensed game of the time where the license feels more like window dressing. The in game aspects itself are where the cracks start to appear. While the 3D environment tries to evoke real world locations, the basic geometry and texture work, especially in the latter levels, gives it a previous gen or low budget look. Character models have the early 6th gen console look, with the protagonists benefitting from the bulk of the effort. A lot of works seems to have gone into the animation to account for the various melee and gunplay moves for the protagonists, although animations still appear to be canned and not physics driven. Some particularly egregious examples of bad 3D models include vehicles with angular wheels.

Gameplay

The majority of the gameplay are third person combat sequences through linear levels. Health and Focus, the resource for bullet time, both regenerate on their own after a couple of seconds out of combat so there are almost no resource pickups except for health packs located sporadically throughout the maps. Shooting is similar to the original Tomb Raider games, where the character aims automatically at the nearest enemy, while melee is similar where initiating melee combat locks the camera into a more side on view with nearby enemies, and also seems to reduce or prevent enemies further away from shooting at you. I suppose that's one way indulge the fantasy of melee combat against armed opponents. Melee combat includes punches, kicks, and throws. There's also a disarm move, particularly handy for reducing the threat of armed enemies, while sneaking behind enemies also allows for an insta kill move. Counters are also possible although its only relevant during melee boss fights. There seems to be a lot of depth in the melee system, including light medium and heavy attacks, which depends on your direction inputs when fighting enemies.

Focus is the cornerstone of the combat system. Activating focus puts the world into slow motion allowing you to run quickly while dodging visible bullet trails to close the distance with enemies or giving more time to aim and shoot at various enemies. Jumping while using guns in focus mode also gives you cartwheeling or diving moves which seems to improve bullet evasion. Focus also improves your melee moves, making them less likely to be blocked and also allowing for more powerful focus specific moves. There also certain context specific moves, such as running on walls or wall kicks.

While the combat system is ambitious, it's clear that significantly more polish is needed. The biggest combat issue for me is hit registration. There's little visual feedback when the enemies get hit, apart from some canned animations which seem to get overridden when the enemies move to their next animation. Shooting in bullet time seems inconsistent, with many shots looking like they miss the target. Melee combat has the same issue, particular for melee boss fights where it's hard to tell when your hits are being blocked.

While there are a variety of guns, you'll mostly be sticking with the shotgun or automatic weapons once you get them from the enemies. Grenades are included but using them is inconsistent and potentially dangerous due to unpredictable bounces off level geometry.

The levels themselves are mostly unremarkable indoor areas, although there are certain rooms with columns that are clearly meant to evoke the iconic lobby firefight from the first movie. Progress through the levels are mostly linear, with a few switches to trigger or doors that unlock once an enemy opens them, but otherwise no puzzles or keys to collect. Certain levels require you to run way from pursuing Agents, since they're not beatable except for certain set pieces.

90% of the enemies in the games are armed cops. There's a level midway through the game with a focus on melee enemies, which allows the melee system to shine, but otherwise most of the game involves grinding through varieties of cops, from lightly armed pistol wielding guards to armored SWAT teams that require a lot of firepower to take down. In most instances, closing the distance with bullet time then disarming enemies seems to be the most effective combat tactic. Enemies with firearms do high damage, which encourages you to be evasive and use the Focus system. While there's some instant Focus regeneration if you manage to kill an enemy in melee, there's still a lot of waiting around needed at certain points to get your health and focus up for the next battle.

The game also has a couple of levels which involves either driving or shooting from the vehicle, depending on which character you choose. The latter can be annoying as the AI driver sometimes gets stuck in geometry.

The game has a checkpoint system, with long periods between checkpoints. On occasion it's possible to trigger a checkpoint at low health/focus that makes the next sequence more difficult, but otherwise it's a matter of looking for a safe spot to regenerate. There are no upgrades in the game, so there isn't much of a reason to replay once you've done both the Niobe and Ghost paths.

Technical Note

I played the PS2 version emulated on an Android handheld, so it's possible that certain effects could be more visible on a big screen, but otherwise the game runs fine in ARMSX2. There are some bugs here and there with enemies sometimes getting stuck, but nothing game breaking.

The biggest issue with the PS2 version are the awkward controls. The game is from the era where twin stick 3D controls were still not settled, so it uses the left stick for forward, backwards, and turning, while the triggers are bound to strafing. While it works, it has not aged well.

Conclusion

The elephant in the room for Enter the Matrix is the existence of Max Payne, the 2001 third person shooter which pretty much got bullet time gun play perfect right out of the gate. While Max Payne is more of a conventional third person shooter where you have to actually aim, the crisp gameplay sells the bullet time fantasy far better than Enter the Matrix. Of course, Enter the Matrix also has the whole melee combat system as well, but the shooting and melee system here don't feel seamlessly integrated.

Overall given its uneven gameplay and very weak level design, it's at the bottom tier of mid games.

4/10 Some cool moments but otherwise a janky relic of a bygone era

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China has exponentially expanded its network of illegal overseas police stations, to “extend its tentacles” across a web of new community associations, according to a report by international human rights group Safeguard Defenders.

In its latest report, the Spanish non-governmental organization (NGO) identifies nearly 1,250 overseas Chinese associations which they say are fronts for suspected police centres in 91 countries.

“That network is being used to watch the diaspora. To watch what they do, what they say and to essentially police them,” says Laura Harth, Safeguard Defender’s China director in an interview with CTV News.

The new figures are also a 12-fold increase from the NGO’s findings four years earlier.

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The report, A Formula for Repression, asserts that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is exporting “its domestic system of surveillance and control to Chinese diaspora communities around the world.”

China has more than 60 million citizens living abroad.

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Safeguard Defenders says the associations are run by overseas party operatives under the direction of Beijing’s United Front Workers Department (UFWD).

President Xi Jinping calls the UFWD a “magic weapon” for monitoring and controlling its citizens, no matter where they live.

Safeguard was able to identify 1,247 community hubs that had acknowledged they were “liaison points” to Chinese police and prosecutor websites and in publications.

The NGO says any association connected to the UFWD can be mobilized to participate in its mass surveillance program.

China says it has “tens of thousands” of UFWD affiliated organizations around the world.

Instead of being chastened by the past exposure of its illegal activities, Harth, the report’s lead researcher, says China has gotten better at covering its tracks.

“They’ve learned their lesson. The public security bureaus were maybe a bit too enthusiastic. They (previously) put their own logos on walls and doors. Now post 2022, they’re more careful about (not) naming the exact associations they’re working with.”

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Researchers say that more than 10 police forces from five provinces in China are working through a vast network of Chinese Federation hubs on foreign soil.

The hubs are marketed as a place for the diaspora to connect culturally and foster business and tourism ties with various provinces and cities in China.

Safeguard Defenders lists the names of 80 regional associations linked to Chinese law enforcement. In 2022, it only found four associations that had set up police stations.

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Safeguard’s report claims that at least 18 Chinese overseas associations are participating as police monitoring stations in Canada. These associations may have multiple sub-branches in one city.

In 2022, the NGO revealed five illegal police locations in Canada.

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New Democratic Party MP, Jenny Kwan calls the allegations troubling.

“If true, it suggests that existing government responses have not been sufficient to deter these illegal activities,” Kwan wrote in an open letter addressed to Canada’s public safety minister.

“Canada must close the legal gaps, investigate these operations and ensure that people in our communities can speak, organize and exercise their democratic rights without coercion, intimidation or fear.”

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree represents a riding in Scarborough, Ont., with a high population of ethnic Chinese constituents. He’s cautioning against jumping to conclusions.

“I can say that foreign interference of any sort is unacceptable. It’s something that we will not tolerate. With respect to these specific allegations – they are allegations and have not been investigated,” Anandasangaree said.

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Fear in ethnic communities

In Canada, the RCMP says it has investigated five alleged Chinese police stations in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. However, no charges were laid.

Uyghur-Canadian Rukiye Turdush, the executive director for Center for East Turkistan National Interest, calls the massive spike in China’s overseas police stations “shocking and scary,” but not a surprise.

She has organized protests against China’s violation of human rights in Xinjiang and says she has seen firsthand how the UFWD is suppressing dissent.

Turdush, says fellow Uyghur activists who received visas to visit relatives in China were pressured to sign documents stating support for Chinese national law.

“They come back and they’re scared …They hide and can no longer come to my organization.”

The activist is also concerned that her organization has been infiltrated by CCP operatives to launch attacks on the leadership and spy on members.

“That’s how China is dividing the community. We don’t trust each other and we don’t feel safe,” Turdush said.

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Canada-China police co-operation agreement

Safeguard Defender’s new data comes 11 months after Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a new police co-operation agreement with President Xi.

In January, the two leaders committed the RCMP and China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) to increased co-operation in combating corruption and transnational crimes such as telecommunications fraud, cyberfraud and the trafficking of illegal synthetic drugs.

The prime minister has refused to release the text of the agreement despite calls from the Conservatives and the NDP to do so.

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Canada does not have an extradition treaty with China, but Michael Kovrig, senior advisor for the International Crisis Group, says the agreement implies that the RCMP and the MPS are co-equal policing organizations that follow similar norms and behaviours.

“That’s simply not the case. The RCMP is not setting up fake police stations to influence Canadians abroad. It’s not involved in subversive activities in foreign countries. We should be calling for the agreement to be released. We need transparency and accountability.”

Wayne Gretzky says he backs Canada’s decision to bar Russia from the upcoming world junior hockey championship in Alberta.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said earlier this week Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be permitted to represent their countries on Canadian soil while the war in Ukraine continues.

The decision came after the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Russia must be reinstated to international hockey competition, starting with the world juniors. Russian and Belarusian teams have been banned since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a Friday ceremony hosted by Upper Deck to rename the Hockey Hall of Fame’s resource centre in honour of his late father, Gretzky said he understands the position Carney has taken.

The Great One praised Carney for making his position clear, saying “good for him” before adding, “I think a lot of the players and the people of Canada feel the same way.”

The world juniors are scheduled to run from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 in Edmonton and Red Deer.

The first oil tankers scheduled to deliver Russian diesel to the US under a deal between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have changed course and are no longer heading toward the US coast. It spells the end of an agreement announced with great fanfare before the midterms.

Sorry I need to schitzo post to get my thoughts out there, but here’s how i’m seeing things:

First:

I believe russian oligarchs have infiltrated south dakota 

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/irs-investigating-sanctioned-russian-oligarchs-use-of-south-dakota-trusts-agent-says/ 

Second: 

Thune (senate minority leader now lol) went to Moscow July 4 2018, around the time of the rise of MAGA 

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/395719-gop-senators-visited-moscow-on-july-4/ 

then Ukraine bombs the yandex data center and bot traffic goes down 🇺🇦(Slava Ukraini)

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/russian-disinformation-bot-traffic-nearly-eliminated-overnight-after-ukraine-drone-strikes-cripple-multiple-of-russias-google-data-centers-ukraine-intensifies-bombing-of-yandex-data-centers-in-response-to-moscows-strikes-on-kyiv-data-centers 

Musks throttles starlink as a reaction

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/report-says-musk-not-trump-ordered-starlink-throttling-that-blindsided-ukraine/ 

Musks post like count plummets on twitter

https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-musk-engagement-shrivels-destruction-russian-bot-farm 

Now we finally have a blue tsunami

https://www.npr.org/2026/11/03/g-s1-149526/2026-midterms-congress-balance-of-power

Other things of note: Steve Bannon was a bot farmer for WOW pretty sure Epstein and him were messing with bot farms

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Prime Minister Mark Carney has taken advantage of an oil revenue windfall to include tens of billions of dollars in new spending in his second federal budget, which focuses on building national sovereignty and addressing the high cost of living.

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The budget - titled Masters of Our Destiny - lays the groundwork for a Canada that is less reliant on the US for trade. It also aims to tackle the stubborn affordability crisis by promising billions to end homelessness and build new housing.

The C$142bn in new spending over the next five years is thanks to better than expected revenues from oil prices bolstered by the Iran War.

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One of the largest line items in Carney's second budget is an C$11.2bn commitment over the next four years to combat homelessness.

This includes funding for supportive housing, mental health and addictions treatment.

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The government will also boost a grocery benefit that is available to low-and-modest income Canadians, which is estimated to provide C$2,570 for a family of four within one year.

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There are signs that Canadians are struggling to make ends meet. Average hourly wages have not kept up with inflation, according to Statistics Canada. Food bank usage has hit record highs.

The average price of a home in Canada has dropped around 22% in recent years, mostly due to a clamp down on immigration. But houses are still too expensive for many in Canada's major cities - namely Toronto and Vancouver.

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