#muller investigation

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

Soon...

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

In a win for the Justice Department, a federal judge on Friday blocked a May 24 deposition of former President Donald Trump in connection with a pair lawsuits filed by former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

The order from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson was in response to a Justice Department motion filed on Thursday urging her to reconsider an earlier ruling that said that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray could be deposed in the lawsuits, without specifying the order of depositions. Government attorneys argued that Wray's deposition, which has not been scheduled, could make Trump's unnecessary.

In her order Friday, Berman Jackson referred to her February ruling that Trump and Wray could be deposed for no more than two hours and limited to a “narrow set of topics” in lawsuits Strzok and Page brought against the Justice Department and the FBI in 2019.

"The Court is somewhat surprised to learn that since then, the parties have done nothing more than wrangle over the order of the two depositions," Berman Jackson wrote. "The government seems chagrined that the Court did not order that the deposition of the FBI Director be completed first, but it may recall that it was the Court’s view that it was Director Wray, the only current high-ranking public official in the group of proposed deponents, whose ongoing essential duties fell most squarely under the protection of the doctrine in question."

The doctrine referenced by the Judge says that the lower-ranking government official should be deposed first in case their responses make it unnecessary to interview the higher-ranking official.

The Judge also defended her earlier ruling.

"The Court’s ruling was appropriate in light of all of the facts, including the former President’s own public statements concerning his role in the firing of the plaintiff," Berman Jackson wrote.

Attorneys for Strzok, Page and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday night.

Strzok and Page were both removed from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after text messages that were critical of Trump became public in December 2017. As president, Trump often disparaged the two officials.

Page’s lawsuit alleges privacy violations, while Strzok argues that he was wrongfully terminated.

Strzok’s lawyers are seeking Trump’s deposition to determine whether he met with and directly pressured FBI and Justice Department officials to terminate Strzok or told any White House staff members to do so.

Page, who resigned as an FBI lawyer in May 2018, argues in her lawsuit that the text messages she exchanged with Strzok were unlawfully released and that attacks by Trump and his allies have harmed her reputation.

[leonsliga]

Is that Mats and Thomas on the left??

[filmnoirfoundation]

#TCMFF Day 4 morning screenings. Eddie Muller will introduce DOUBLE INDEMNITY with Fred MacMurray's daughter Kath MacMurrary, TCL Chinese Theatres IMAX, 9:00. Also for the criminally minded, MURDER, SHE SAID, the first of the Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford, TCL Multiplex, House 4, 9:15 Plus a repeat of THE BIG HEAT, Multiplex, House 6, 11:45.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944): Barbara Stanwyck—in a platinum blonde wig—plays Phyllis Dietrichson—the consummate femme fatale who lures insurance salesman and all-around chump Walter Neff (Fred McMurray) into a plot involving murder and insurance fraud. His friend, and insurance adjuster, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson) smells a rat. Nominated for seven Oscars: Best Actress in a Leading Role; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White; Best Director; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; Best Picture; Best Sound, Recording; and Best Writing, Screenplay. Dir. Billy Wilder

MURDER SHE SAID (1961): When nobody believes she witnessed a murder, Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) investigates herself along with her friend Jim Stringer, played by Rutherford’s husband Stinger Davis. Based on Agatha Christie’s "4:50 from Paddington". Trivia: Joan Dixon has a small part in the film and would go on to become the definitive Miss Marple in the BBC series that aired from 1984-1992. Dir. George Pollock

THE BIG HEAT (1953): In this seminal noir, a police detective (Glenn Ford) whose wife was killed by the mob teams with a gangster's moll (Gloria Grahame) to bring down a powerful racketeer (Alexander Scourby). Lee Marvin steals the film as Grahame’s abusive boyfriend and eventual object of her revenge. Dir. Fritz Lang

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Ideas for future Resident Evil games:

1) “Resident Evil Zero” remake that’s a collaboration between Capcom and Hazelight Studios (A Way Out, It Takes Two). The remake is a co-op game that emphasizes Rebecca and Billy’s teamwork in order to survive.

2) “Resident Evil Outbreak” remake that’s a collaboration between Capcom and Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, The Quarry, The Dark Pictures Anthology). So it’s a choice-based game in which you’re trying to save the 8 main characters, or die trying.

3) “Resident Evil 9” in which Jill Valentine is the main lead. The story revolves around Jill investigating The Connections, a crime syndicate involved in black market bioweapons. Carlos Oliveira makes a return as well, this time as a security contractor who is brought along by Jill. The twist in the game is that the main villain, the one in charge of The Connections, is Ozwell E. Spencer, who has somehow been resurrected after being killed by Albert Wesker.

4) “Resident Evil: The Missing Files”. A third-person shooter spin-off that specifically focuses on characters who haven’t been seen in years. For example, the game could have 4 campaigns whose lead characters are Billy Coen, Carlos Oliveira, Sheva Alomar, and Jake Muller.

5) “Resident Evil: Gun Survivor” remake but instead of being a light-gun shooter, it’s done in first-person. So, same format as RE7 and RE:Village. Nolan North voices Ark Thompson.

[bidotorg]

This month at Bi.org, we’re shining a spotlight on couples with serious “Bi Wife Energy.”

First popularized on TikTok, “Bi Wife Energy” has evolved from describing a straight guy giving off queer/ally vibes due to having a bi partner, to a broader sentiment of love, acceptance, and support within a relationship where one partner is bi.

Our featured couples include The Good Place’s Eleanor Shellstrop and Chidi Anagonye, the investigative couple Scully and Muller, Brooklyn 99’s Rosa Diaz and Pimento, and more!

[rabbitholeresearch]

The Diagnosis of Chris Redfield

It all began in the spring of 1998. Raccoon City had a case of cannibalistic murders and mysterious animal attacks, both on hikers and residents that lived near Raccoon Forest. The city’s police department guess a satanic cult of some kind, probably on narcotics of some kind, given the extent of the violent attacks. However, as the investigation continued, they guessed the base of operations for this cult was somewhere deep within Arklay Mountains, about northwest of the city. With public pressure, the RPD gave in to and put a specialized task force on the team known as the Special Tactics and Rescue Service, AKA S.T.A.R.S., led by Captain Albert Wesker.

Shortly after STARS is put on the case, they send Team Bravo into the suspected hideout deep within said mountains in the mid-summer. Radio contact is lost. Alpha Team went in, finding out that Bravo was attacked, and fled into the mansion and split up.

And it’s here. It is here that young Chris Redfield’s life takes a turn for the worst. Without getting too into detail, he straight up is thrown from the world of a young cop who just had fun little shooting competitions with his friends, to a gritty, beefcake, boulder punching man who lost his memory at one point due to a concussion caused by a fake Ada Wong, regains those memories, and eventually finds the origins of Oswald Spencer’s research and destroys the origination of the Mold.

But that’s just it. How does he stay this cool, badass character that just shows up and sprays down zombies like it’s nothing? Well...he doesn’t. I think the leader of the Alpha team has severe PTSD.

Please note that this post will be talking about severe trauma from a psychiatric perspective so please, if you see or think anything might affect you, I beg you to turn away. This post will also have spoilers for the recent Resident Evil 8 game for those that haven’t played.

–

So let’s start by defining PTSD. According to the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD is and I quote: “A psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, or war/combat.”

Okay so at the very least, Chris Redfield is probably already a qualified patient. “Terrorist act”? Check. I would absolutely say that the events of Resident Evil 6 count as that. “War/Combat”? We saw that for the most part in RE5. “Natural Disaster?” Aaaaah. Maybe six or seven? That one’s kinda weird to be honest. But serious accident? Yes. Absolutely! Why? Because, referenced in Resident Evil 5, we see Jill Valentine, who is basically his sidekick/best friend from the very first game, and even survives on her own for a bit in Resident Evil 3, falls out of a window after attacking Albert Wesker who betrayed STARS and was infected with some form of the zombie virus. Chris presumed her death, only to find out she survived the fall through, ya know, video game logic, and was experimented on by Wesker.

Which honestly, I was surprised he didn’t come back too. I mean, in Resident Evil 5, his last hoorah is literally in a freaking volcano! What is up with that?! But his son, Jake Muller (who until RE6 didn’t even know who his dad was), appeared and I really expected Wesker to just pop up like “Hey son. I’m back with those smokes. Also, you’re immune to the C-Virus so congrats. My zombie body helped make you with your mom--” Alright that got too weird. ANYWAY.

We’re here because Chris, in all fairness, has trauma. But let’s try and figure this out. The A.P.A. states that PTSD symptoms, though they can vary in specificity, fall into four categories:

Intrusion

Avoidance

Alterations in cognition and mood

Alteration in arousal and reactivity

Now I will say I actually have PTSD of my own. Avoidance and Intrusion are absolutely symptoms I got through, as well as Cognition and Mood alterations when triggered.

Something I noticed is Chris definitely doesn’t avoid anything so we can go ahead and cross that off. Chris Redfield always dives in headfirst cuz well...he’s the American Boy. He’s the definition of charge in and be the American hero because human lives are at stake so the second one is crossed off.

Now the third one, Cognitions and Mood. This basically means important details of events aren’t remembered, everything’s kinda blurred, which results in detached behavior and Survivor’s Guilt. Now while Survivor’s Guilt is often a result of PTSD, it isn’t a form of PTSD. It’s just another symptom. It’s basically kinda like when you eat way, way too many blue gummy bears and then your poop is blue. It’s blue because of the gummy bears. If you didn’t have the Gummy Bear, you don’t have the blue poop. 

Fun fact, that’s an actual thing that happened to my dad one Easter, but I think it might’ve actually been jelly beans. I can’t really remember.

Survivor’s Guilt could very well be something Chris suffers from, dating all the way back to the Mansion Incident in the first Resident Evil. He was one of few people who survived that entire incident and what happened afterward? Did he take a mental health break? Nope! Chris takes on a mission in Europe, as seen in Resident Evil 2 when Claire is going to Raccoon City to try and find her brother. 

Now let’s think about this. Rather than rest and recover from this event, he proceeds to pursue his investigation of the Umbrella Corporation. Chris is treated at the hospital and, despite trying to report their findings to the police chief, Irons, STARS is ultimately shut down. Chris then reports everything he needs to the FBI and even assaults a fellow officer.

The RPD tells Chris he needs a break and he says he’s going to Europe for a “vacation” but this was just an excuse to get to Europe in order to enact his vengeance on Umbrella for all the Hell it caused his city and possibly even the world.

That’s nuts. I wish I could do that at my work and get away with it. Just fight someone on the shift and then go to Corporate armed with nothing but a fry basket, ready to take them out.

This leads me to that fourth category: Alterations in arousal and reactivity. This is defined as reckless or self-destructive behavior, angry outbursts, hypervigilance, and even trouble sleeping.

This is entirely reckless. I mean, I get it. Going rogue because this company is obviously evil and has a hand in bio-terrorism. Yeah. That’s fair. Let’s take them out. But if only it were that easy, as we can see throughout the franchise. Despite Umbrella BARELY hiding their attempts at world domination, as seen in RE6, no one really flinches. They’re somehow still in the running.

Having said that, in Resident Evil 4, three years after RE3, Leon actually says in the introduction that Umbrella was wiped out by the investigation. Without digging into this, I’m presuming this is because Jill managed to escape Raccoon City and was able to report her findings as one of five survivors, six if you count Ada Wong. Which does make me wonder how they’re still hanging around like a more gruesome Team Rocket.

And the last category is Intrusive. Now, this is where this unravels, actually. Intrusive is basically intrusive thoughts. Those little thoughts or images that flash through just enough to unsettle you and if you’re like me and have diagnosed OCD, then you play these thoughts over and over in your head.

It’s like you want to go to the park. Okay, great, the park is outside. Nice. The outside is where people are. People aren’t that great, in my perspective. Bad people exist. Bad people like to hurt people. I’m a people that could be hurt by a bad person. Because of that, I can’t go to the park now. 

It’s like being stuck in a loop that wants you to be sad. Like, thank you brain. I just wanted to get stuck in the baby swing but now I’m going to sit on my phone and scroll through TikTok and be sad.

Intrusive thoughts are what had me curious. The intrusive category is actually where most people are commonly confused about what PTSD is as this is where we find that flashbacks fall into. A great example of a flashback in Resident Evil is actually in the fifth game. This is where Jill Valentine doesn’t really become Chris’ partner. We learn that during the last bout, they had against Wesker is where she’d fallen out the window as I mentioned earlier. This is explained in a flashback.

That’s interesting to me. Yes, from a storytelling perspective, it makes sense, but Chris remembers such vivid details, even Wesker’s eyes glowing.

But what’s interesting is, this event, in particular, seemed to affect Chris the most. Despite that his sister has been kidnapped by people affiliated with both Umbrella and Wesker, Jill’s “death” shook him up the most, which is fair. His best friend and partner throughout the entire thing, someone he shared his trauma with and even started the BSAA with was just gone. No even a body. Three months and nothing was found before she was declared dead. He dove into his work head-on, taking every mission he could!

This is why he takes deaths so personally. This is also shown in Resident Evil 6 when Piers, a young soldier who looked up to Chris and helped find him after he lost his memory after an incident with a fake Ada Wong, is infected with the zombie virus, he holds onto his humanity in order to save Chris, but ultimately does die in the underwater lab facility, supposedly by water pressure before losing his mind to the virus.

The former Alpha Team consisted of the following:

Chris Redfield

Albert Wesker

Barry Burton

Brad Vickers

Jill Valentine

Joseph Frost

All members of the original team that infiltrated the Spencer Mansion in RE1. Let’s go ahead and cross some people off.

Wesker? Dead as of Resident Evil 5. Good. Stay dead. You suck! You’re like the Capcom version of Ganondorf, just stay dead, dude!

Burton?  Alive, but hasn’t appeared in a main RE game since the first.

Vickers? Dead as of the third installment of the game. He was the pilot who sacrificed himself after being bitten during the attempted escape from Nemesis in Raccoon City before the place was blown sky-high. You actually see him later again in the third game attacking the cop you meet in the second Resident Evil, interestingly enough, but what’s sad really is that he still has some semblance of his humanity and ends up groaning out the cop’s name before attacking and infecting that man. Poor guy. Really was just a poor soul.

Moving on. Jill Valentine? Still alive and definitely kicking but she’s become more of an iconic character for the movies. So from a lore perspective, as of the end of 5, she is no longer in the main series that we’ve seen. Mostly just referenced. This might change however later on as I do believe there will be a ninth installment coming soon if not already in the works as of writing this.

Frost? Dead. He was actually the first to die as soon as they touched down at Spencer Mansion, by zombie-dogs, no less. He stood no chance.

That means, of the original team, Chris is the only one still active. This means that he is the most trained to handle situations from a tactical perspective, but not an emotional one.

I mean, we see him really weighing the whole situation in Resident Evil 8. He’s seen smoking a cigarette, clearly stressed out and tired of dealing with everything, despite creating an Anti-Umbrella team called Blue Umbrella. Yeah. Not that creative, my guy. But he’s tired of hearing and seeing people die which...is fair.

I’d say he does have PTSD and it is Survivor’s Guilt.

Yes, he and his team are ready to die, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s losing people he’s had long nights with, sharing beer, shooting pool, busting bad scientists with, and he still loses them.

In the military, a soldier doesn’t fear his own death but the death of his comrades.

Survivor’s Guilt is really just a terrible thing. I’d say actually several characters in the Resident Evil franchise have this, including poor Mia Winters!

Chris might have it but uses it to his advantage. He uses the knowledge he’s gained from staying alive in an attempt to help others stay alive and ultimately bring down the Umbrella Coorporation.

Ultimately, Chris Redfield seems to be wanting to make up for the lives lost to this organization.

Research links:

Coping with survivor’s guilt: https://artherapyinternational.org/blog/traumatic-events-coping-with-survivors-guilt-afterwards/

What is PTSD?  https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd

Chris Redfield Bio https://residentevil.fandom.com/wiki/Chris_Redfield#Biography

Symptoms of Survivor’s Guilty: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325578#symptoms

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Neo-Nazi groups multiply in a more conservative Brazil

Last November, just hours before a social gathering for Haitian immigrants in the town of Itajai in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, event organizer Andrea Muller received a chilling message.

"Cancel the Haiti exhibition or we will commit a massacre," read the subject line of the email, seen by Reuters.

"Santa Catarina is a land of WHITE PEOPLE, FOR WHITE PEOPLE," the anonymous sender wrote, signing off with the Nazi salute "SIEG HEIL."

Ultimately, the event went ahead without any problems and with police present. Yet the email, which police in Santa Catarina are still investigating, is indicative of a small but rising number of cases of neo-Nazism in Brazil that have increased as far-right politics flourished during former President Jair Bolsonaro's 2019-2023 term.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, was widely criticized for his long-standing defense of Brazil's military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, his anti-democratic attacks on the country's voting system in last year's election and policies that critics say endangered the country's indigenous peoples.

Brazil's Federal Police said the number of investigations opened into alleged incitement of neo-Nazism had jumped since 2019, with a "significant increase" this year.

Continue reading.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Is Mike Johnson a "man of modest means"? Not so much, it seems. When newly minted Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked on Fox News last week about why he had never reported having a bank account, Johnson didn’t offer an explanation. Instead, he hammered the point that, as “a man of modest means,” he understood the plight of normal Americans. “I can relate to everybody else,” Johnson told Fox News Sunday’s Shannon Bream. “We can relate to every hard-working American family,” the Louisiana Republican continued. “That’s who we are.” A thorough review of Johnson’s financial situation, however, shows economic circumstances that hardly anyone can relate to—let alone most Americans.

The Daily Beast looked at a variety of records related to Johnson’s finances stretching back more than a decade. And that review not only undercuts Johnson’s suggestions of relatability; it also reveals irregularities in his financial disclosures and public statements about his professional life, finances, and biography. A number of these findings also appear in a new ethics complaint from left-leaning nonprofit and transparency advocacy group End Citizens United. That complaint, which was filed with the House Ethics Committee on Monday, lays out multiple potential violations in Johnson’s financial disclosures, including undisclosed gifts and blind spots in his spouse’s income. The Daily Beast has uncovered other inconsistencies about her income, along with new irregularities regarding the source and timing of Johnson’s own earnings as a lawyer for right-wing causes. He has also filed contradictory financial statements about those earnings. Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, provided a statement calling it “laughable” that Johnson doesn’t report any savings or retirement accounts, alleging the new Speaker’s murky disclosures are “clearly violating federal laws.”

“The American people deserve to know whether the Speaker of the House has financial conflicts of interests, but Speaker Johnson is clearly violating federal laws by hiding critical information from the public,” Muller said. “It’s laughable to believe that the person leading government funding negotiations doesn’t have a reportable savings or retirement account. But beyond his own potential financial mismanagement, failing to disclose travel and his spouse’s sources of income is against the law and the Office of Congressional Ethics must investigate and hold him accountable.”

[bombsquad9]

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝗼 𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞

Hello! I am Ro, and I am 18-21 year old trans man. I write for many fandoms (which shall be listed below). This is indeed my second account, I deleted my last one because I needed to refresh everything (feed, posts, etc). I will try to post frequently, and if I do not then please be patient with me, because it probably means burn out or poor mental health. I also have a new Wattpad account, which the username is also bombsquad09 (it will also be linked below, along with a tag list). Every fandom and character within will be in alphabetical order. Some of the fandoms I do write for will not be listed, and that is due to me not taking requests for those specific fandoms. Thank you!

𝐅𝐚𝐧𝐝𝗼𝗺𝐬:

✞Apex Legends

—> Character(s): Catalyst, Caustic, Fuse, Horizon, Loba, Mirage, Octane, Revenant, Seer, Valkyrie, Wattson.

✞Fallout 4

—> Character(s): Cait, Codsworth, Deacon, John Hancock, Nick Valentine, Porter Gage, Preston Garvey, Robert MacCready.

✞House of Ashes

—> Character(s): Eric King, Jason Kolchek, Joey Gomez, Nick Kay, Rachel King, Salim Othman.

✞Mortal Kombat

—> Character(s): Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Noob Saibot.

✞Resident Evil

—> Character(s): Ada Wong, Alcina Dimitrescu, Albert Wesker, Ashley Graham, Carlos Oliveira, Chris Redfield, Claire Redfield, Ethan Winters, Finn Macauley, Jake Muller, Jill Valentine, Karl Heisenberg, Leon Kennedy, Luis Sera, Nikolai Zinoviev, Piers Nivans, Sherry Birkin.

✞The Quarry

—> Character(s): Abigail Blyg, Dylan Lenivy, Emma Mountebank, Jacob Custos, Kaitlyn Ka, Max Brinly, Nick Furcillo, Ryan Erzahler.

✞Tomb Raider

—> Character(s): Lara Croft

✞Until Dawn

—> Character(s): Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley, Emily Davis, Jessica Riley, Joshua Washington, Matthew Taylor, Mike Monroe, Sam Giddings.

𝐑𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬:

✞Transphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism, Fetishizing, etc will not be tolerated. If you do anything related to any of those topics you will be blocked from my account.

✞Do NOT request things such as pedophilia, rape, zoophilia, etc . If anything you are requesting is like that you will be blocked from my account.

✞If you send hate in my anonymous inbox then you shall be ignored, and your message will be deleted. If you're going to be hatefully, don't be a pussy and hide behind an anon.

✞Minor shall interact with anything that is not labeled 18+/MDNI/smut. I can't stop you, nor am I going to carry out an investigation to find out if you're 18+. If you're a minor and you interact and see something you don't like; THATS NOT MY FAULT.

𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝗺:

⚠︎︎Requests are currently open⚠︎︎

✞If you are requesting please be specific about what you want. This includes characters, setting, whether it's ship/xreader/headcanons, and other criteria you want. I can't make it what you want if you don't tell me.

✞I will write smut, fluff, and angst. Headcanons, ships, x readers, preferences, etc are all acceptable within reason.

—> When it comes to smut I will write quite a bit, even somewhat darker themes (Again; I draw the line at things like rape). I may not be good due to having lack of practice from where I didn't write for awhile, my apologies.

—> When it comes to angst, I will write almost anything. I will write (TW) suicide, self harm, alcoholism and other addicts, etc. Though, I won't write EDs or anything related. Similarly to smut, it may not be good due to lack of practice, my apologies.

—> Anything out of reason would be minor x adult in a pedophilic/romantic way, human x animal (no, this does not include monsters) in a zoophilic/romantic way, etc.

✞Be patient, I will want to take my time on requests for various reasons. Sometimes I need breaks, sometimes I don't have any ideas, sometimes I will have writing sprees. It depends on the minute, so again, be patient. If you complain about how long it takes your request will be deleted and ignored.

✞If you want to be tagged for any specific character(s), then put your username in an orderly fashion on the Google doc that I will have linked below.

✞I will mostly write m!reader (AMAB and AFAB), but if you do want f!reader or gn!reader just let me know in your request, and I will do. If you do not specify I will either do m!reader or gn!reader by default. The only exception to this is if it is a lesbian/sapphic character.

✞ Any requested content will be Tumblr exclusives! Anything that is requested on my Wattpad will be Wattpad exclusive.

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭/𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐋𝐢𝐬𝐭/𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝:

✞Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/BombSquad09?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=link&utm_content=share_profile&utm_campaign=invitefriends&wp_page=home&wp_uname=BombSquad09

✞Masterlists: Pending...

✞Tag List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ZsBcfr3GOyd3p2r2iJaf_jtLlpnMWjzOPIAstF6b2I/edit

✞Upcoming Works: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10_Oqn6twstO545rBCmSJLUgCBclezaJ4jLroZdUnh0c/edit

⚠︎︎This post was last updated: 4/20/24⚠︎︎

[multi-muse-transect]

Resident Evil Revised TV Series Idea.

The show should be told American Horror Story like meaning its gonna be anthology-ish based with stories bouncing back with returning characters.

Season 1’s cast is Jessica Henwick as Jill Valentine, Kellan Lutz or Sebastian Stan as Chris Redfield, Antony Starr as Albert Wesker, David Harbour as Barry Burton, Charlie Hunam as Richard Aiken, Jack Quad as Brad Vickers and Erin Moriarty as Rebecca Chambers.

Season 1 is an adaptation of RE1 taking creative liberties from the remake and original. The one difference is that Brad’s helicopter is hit by crows leading him to nearly crash and fly away, this results in a subplot of Brad returning to HQ and finds dirt on Irons before returning.

Season 2 has a different set of characters and a bigger budget with Hailee Steinfeld as Claire Redfield, Mason Dye as Leon S. Kennedy, Sadie Sink as Sherry Birkin, Elizabeth Olsen or Laurie Holden as Annette Birkin, Karen Fukuhara as Ada Wong, Temura Morrison as HUNK and Jason Issacs or Paul Bethany as William Birkin. Takes influence from the RE2 Remake.

Season 3 is an adaptation of RE3 Nemesis mixed with the remake. Jill is the same, Oscar Isaac plays Carlos Oliveira, Jonathan Adams as Tyrell Patrick, Tom Wlaschiha as Mikhail, and Michael Fassbender as Nicholai Zinoviev.

Season 4 adapts a story from the Umbrella Chronicles which is the fall of Umbrella and also Code Veronica Jamie Campbell as Alfred Ashford and Natalie Dormer as Alexia Ashford. Also Tye Simpkins as Steve Burnside.

Season 5 adapts the story of Leon and Krauser (John Cena or Frank Grillo) with Jenny Ortega as Manuela Hidalgo.

Season 6 is an adaptation of Resident Evil 4 with Mason Dye reprising his role as Leon and Cena or Grillo as Krauser alongside Fukuhara as Ada while newcomers Ashley Graham and Luis Sera are played by Natalia Dyer and Diego Luna with Javier Bardem as Saddler. A couple of unknowns for Mendez and Salazar.

Season 7 adapts Resident Evil Revelations with Jason Momoa as Parker Luciani, Kit Harrington as Raymond Vester and Alexandra Daddario as Jessica Sherawat.

Season 8 is an adaptation of RE5 but it’s more in line with the original draft albeit the mind controlled Jill part is there. Danai Guerera is Sheva Alomar, Daniel Kaluuya as Josh Stone, Jesse Plemons as Richardo Irving and Monica Belucci as Excella Gionne.

Season 9 adapts Resident Evil 6 with most of the cast returning and a better written Jake Muller played by Wyatt Russell and has been reimagined as a BSAA soldier instead of a mercenary who teams up with Sherry Birkin played by Billie Lourde with Liam Hemsworth playing Piers Nivans and Jill tagging along. Also Simmons is changed from instead of being a member of a secret society, he was just trying to cause global bio terror attacks to promote the his own agendas of a better secured world with Carla Radames being a rogue operative and an ally of Ada’s. Temura Morrison returns as HUNK and is Ada’s partner.

Season 10 is Resident Evil Revelations 2 with Emily VanCamp as Alex Wesker with Harbour reprising his role as Barry Burton, Millie Bobby Brown as Moira Burton, and an unknown actress for Natalia. Steinfeld returns as Claire too.

Season 11 adapted Resident Evil 7 fully with Joe Keery or Chris Hemsworth as Ethan Winters (to make the plot sound more sensical, Ethan is a private investigator and a former RPD cop), Emilia Clarke is Mia Winters, Michael Rooker is Jack Baker, Toni Colette as Marguerite Baker, Rooney Mara as Zoe Baker and Aaron Paul as Lucas Baker with Stan returning as Chris.

Season 12 is an RE8 adaptation with Cate Blanchett or Gwendolie Christie as Lady Dimitrescu (CGI), Eva Greene as Donna Beneviento, Nicholas Cage as Karl Heisenberg, Stellan Skarsgard as Salvatore Moreau, and Emily Blunt as Mother Miranda. Hound Wolf squad consists of Jill, Chris, Barry and Rebecca.

[mulcenary]

𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗄 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝖼𝗋𝖺𝗓𝗒 𝖽𝗈𝖾𝗌𝗇'𝗍 𝗋𝗎𝗇 𝗂𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖿𝖺𝗆𝗂𝗅𝗒 ? 𝗍𝗁𝖺𝗍 𝗇𝗈𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝗈𝖿 𝗐𝗁𝗈 𝗆𝗒 𝖿𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗐𝖺𝗌 𝖽𝗂𝖽𝗇'𝗍 𝗌𝗈𝗆𝖾𝗁𝗈𝗐 𝗀𝖾𝗍 𝗉𝖺𝗌𝗌𝖾𝖽 𝖽𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝗈𝗇 𝗍𝗈 𝗆𝖾 ?

[ 𝖺𝗋𝖼𝗁𝗂𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝗇𝖺𝗎𝗑 & 𝖼𝗂𝗌 𝗆𝖺𝗇 & 𝗁𝖾 / 𝗁𝗂𝗆 ]. / / 𝚄𝙽𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝙲𝙲𝙴𝚂𝚂 𝚃𝙾 𝙲𝙰𝚂𝙴 𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴 ’1992’, subject: 𝐉𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑. according to our records, they are 𝗍𝗐𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗒 𝗇𝗂𝗇𝖾 years of age and their last known status of employment is 𝗆𝖾𝗋𝖼𝖾𝗇𝖺𝗋𝗒. our sources in the field have described their behavior as 𝖺𝗋𝗋𝗈𝗀𝖺𝗇𝗍, but assure us they have the potential to be 𝖺𝖽𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖺𝖻𝗅𝖾. we've observed they seem to have a personal attachment to 𝗇𝗈𝗍𝖾 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝗅𝖺𝗍𝖾 𝗆𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋, though our research on 𝗃𝖺𝗄𝖾 has only just begun.

⌗ 𝙽𝙰𝚅𝙸𝙶𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽 ⁝ 𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝖺𝗋𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾, 𝗂𝗇𝗌𝗉𝗈, 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝖾𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗍𝗂𝗈𝗇𝗌, 𝗐𝖺𝗇𝗍𝖾𝖽.

𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄: jake muller. 𝐀𝐆𝐄: 29. 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑: cis man. 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒: he / him. 𝐒𝐄𝐗𝐔𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘: bisexual. 𝐎𝐂𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: mercenary. 𝐏𝐎𝐁: edonia. 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒: mother deceased. father albert wesker, deceased. 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌: archie renaux. 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: 6 ft 3.

↛ jake was born in a single parent household, after his mother, who'd been spending time in the united states, returned to her home country upon falling pregnant with albert wesker's child. she would bring him up constantly reminding him to show his father respect and clearly still thought fondly of the man, though jake always privately regarded him as the dead - beat that ran out on them and couldn't begin to understand her loyalty to a ghost.

↛ his mother was chronically ill and he did the best he could to take care of her, as she did with him. sometime in the early 2000's, she fell extremely ill and jake sought out quick means to support her and their arrears. that came in the line of mercenary work, where he started with the edonian liberation army. only in hopes of affording better care. completely unskilled and unqualified, he was quickly drilled by an instructor to teach him not only to fight, but to trust and support his unit. sadly, poor and barely able to keep up with the costs of daily living, his mother fell to her sickness. the last thing she left him was a note that read: 'i love you, jake. i'm so sorry to have to leave you like this. please forgive me. and please, don't hate your father. i'm sure he loves you and is thinking about you, and i know you two will find each other someday. stay strong..'

↛ he traveled all across the world. by 2009, he was operating with the same unit in south america when it was wiped out by an ambush. he survived by fighting them off hand to hand combat. eventually, it was discovered that the ambush occurred because the trainer sold them out. from that point forward, he lost his faith and trust in others, and for the next three years built up a reputation in not caring for the ideologies of those he fought for. working for various paramilitaries, his lack of conviction became more and more known.

↛ he'd grown to feel like he was alone in the world, and his heart was now hardened. his only concern was for money, even though he no longer had a pressing need for it.

𝐫𝐞𝟔 ↛ 2012. unaware of it, he was being investigated by both the us government and  the family, an american - based organization involved in bioweapons development. the family sought to capture him to serve as a test - subject for c - virus research in using his antibodies to naturally select mutant strains that could be superior while the us government sought after him as his antibodies were crucial in vaccine research. he would eventually meet sherry and strike a $50 million dollar deal for the us, but they would be captured later and experimented on in lanshiang for six long months. long story short, they escaped and helped stop both simmons and carla from unleashing another virus onto the world.

↛ in the aftermath, he lowered his cost to $50 dollars only because of sherry. his connection to albert wesker was promised by the government to be kept confidential because they realized that knowledge could very well push the world to the brink again. he resumed his mercenary lifestyle, living in his version of peace when this year, he'd been ambushed not once, but twice by knowers of his father's identity. that coupled with the recent small outbreaks of a new virus in america has him suspicious enough to reunite with a few friendly faces in buffalo.

↛ he very much appears to be the same jake to those who don't know him well enough, or to those he won't let know him. at first glance, he's cold, callous, provocative, too sure of himself and taunting, simply because he still hasn't learned how to trust people completely. he has his small, small, barely noticeable circle of people that are able to be exposed to a softer side of him that does care, he's just super selective for who and what he cares for. though he's become more inclined to help.  his favored attacks such as upward palm thrust and downward piercing kick are identical to those used previously by his father. more so, he's also a talent in playing the piano and has the ability to learn foreign languages by only listening.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Two progressive groups want the Federal Election Commission to investigate Fox Corp. and former President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign for breaking campaign finance laws.

On Friday, End Citizens United PAC filed a complaint with the FEC arguing that Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch broke the law when he shared Joe Biden's campaign ad and debate strategy with Trump adviser Jared Kushner.

The exchange of confidential information was first made public this week in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox News and the Fox Corp. According to a filing citing Murdoch's sworn deposition, the Fox boss admitted to providing a preview of the ads with Kushner before they were public, as well as sharing Biden's debate strategy during the 2020 campaign.

End Citizens United PAC, a group that pushes for campaign finance reform, shared a copy of its complaint exclusively with NBC News. According to the group, the maximum penalty is five years prison time and fines of 200% of the value of the contribution.

“Fox Corporation’s blatant and cavalier act is a prohibited corporate contribution. The commission must immediately investigate,” wrote End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller.

The filing said the Trump campaign also broke the law by not disclosing the in-kind contribution. Neither Fox Corp. nor the Trump campaign immediately returned requests for comment.

Media Matters for America also filed an FEC complaint Friday against the two entities, alleging that Fox made "illegal corporate in-kind contribution."

Dominion has sued Fox News and Fox Corp. for $1.6 billion, arguing it defamed the voting systems manufacturer by knowingly broadcasting baseless fraud claims about its election equipment. Fox News has defended its coverage and criticized the defamation suit as "baseless."

[leonsliga]

From Coman's interview:

Sind Sie unter Tuchel weiter Mitglied im Mannschaftsrat?

Meistens. Manu Neuer, Muller und Jo Kimmich sind fest dabei, außerdem hilft auch die Meinung von anderen Spielern wie Matthijs de Ligt, Leon Goretzka oder Serge Gnabry. Wir sprechen immer für alle.

I don't know German, but the translator says "Meistens" it's something like "in most cases". Strange answer, it doesn't say yes, if I understood correctly. He calls Leon's name along with Gnabry and De Ligt, although they are not on the team's council. Perhaps Tuchel will remove council, because he does not need it. It's good that Leon is still the 4th captain, Tuchel can't take it away from him.

That is a very bizarrely vague answer from Coman, and I may not know German either (at least not much), but the good news is that we’ve received an update in this investigation :)

This came out a while ago (the perils of me responding to asks late 😵), but it was posted after the Coman interview. If this is true, it implies what we were hoping: that Leon is still very much on the team council. And I’m so glad Leon remains one of the captains; he’s proven time and time again what a great leader he can be 💜

[filmnoirfoundation]

Two more introductions for FNF prez Eddie Muller today at #TCMFF, THE KILLERS, 6:30 pm TCL Chinese Theatres, House 6 & 12 ANGRY MEN, 9:45 pm with guest Ed Begley, Jr., Hollywood Legion Theater. THE KILLERS (1946): Expanded from the Hemmingway short story, two professional killers come to a small town looking for The Swede (Burt Lancaster). An insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) unravels the tangled skein of events that led up to the hit. Ava Gardner plays Kitty, the woman who led the Swede to his doom. Dir. Robert Siodmak Film notes from TCM:

12 ANGRY MEN (1957) After closing arguments in the case of an abused, lower-income teen accused of killing his father, the jurors assemble to determine their verdict. Most are in a hurry to convict the kid and get on with their lives, but one hold-out (Henry Fonda) questions whether the prosecution made its case. As the hours drag on, the often-heated deliberations reveal as much about the mostly unnamed jurors’ personal agendas as they do about the case at hand. One of the most impressive low-budget films ever made, 12 Angry Men was shot in just 17 days in New York City. Lumet kept the schedule tight by meticulously rehearsing his cast and planning out each of the film’s 365 takes with cinematographer Boris Kaufman. It helped that Lumet and Fonda—with his first and only credit as a movie producer—filled the cast with stage-trained actors, including Martin Balsam, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Jack Warden, and Ed Begley. Though the film was a box-office disappointment, it earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture (for Fonda and Rose), Director, and Adapted Screenplay, along with top prizes from the Berlin Film Festival and the Writers Guild. Dir. Sidney Lumet

[ozimac]

Perception & Attention

Amodal Completion & Illusory Perception in Birds and Primates, Fujita et al. (2012)

Reaction-time Explorations of Visual Perception, Attention, and Decision in Pigeons, Blough (2012)

Experimental Divergences in the Visual Cognition of Birds and Mammals, Qadri & Cook (2015)

The article "Amodal completion & illusory perception in birds and primate" by Fujita et al. (2012) explores the perceptual processes of nonhuman animals, emphasizing the importance of understanding their cognitive abilities. It discusses the role of perception in providing information for higher cognitive processes and highlights potential evolutionary constraints that shape species-specific perceptual characteristics. 

The study involves experiments with pigeons and primates, investigating their responses to completion tasks and visual illusions. Pigeons have even been observed to have difficulty completing ecologically relevant stimuli, which proves the relevance of using ecologically meaningful stimuli, such as seeds and artifacts, in testing pigeons' completion abilities not necessary (e.g., Ushitani & Fujita, 2005). Another question that arises is if pigeons lack a visual perceptual system to complete an image at all, or do they just decline the completed image. Fujita & Ushitani (2005) developed a task to test pure perception, not just completion, where they trained pigeons to find and peck a punched red diamond among complete diamonds. Then put white square next to diamond with a small gap. Finally, tested pigeons with punched diamonds that had a white square filling the punched part using reaction time as a measure of perceived confidence in their choice. Their results found that this was easy for pigeons (with shorter RTs!), but difficult for humans (longer RTs)! Which, to me, suggests employment of an exclusionary process, and with the authors concluding that it seems as if completion seems to be the last resort of pigeons, whereas it is the first choice for other species tested. Further exploration questions whether pigeons lack an early perceptual system for completion or if they choose not to complete images. Other experiments, including investigation of the Ponzo illusion and Muller-Lyer illusion, reveal that pigeons exhibit biases towards expected illusions, though individual variations exist. The article concludes by emphasizing the concept of "umwelt," highlighting differences in sensory processes among species and suggesting that a species' visual perceptual system is tuned to its own ecological niche in the wild.

-

The chapter "Reaction-time Explorations of Visual Perception, Attention, and Decision in Pigeons" by Blough (2012)* aims to highlight the utility of reaction times (RTs) in unraveling psychological processes in pigeons during their interactions with the environment. The experiments primarily involve discrimination tasks with computer-generated stimuli, and the emphasis is on using RTs as a key behavioral measure. The introduction underscores the unique properties of RTs, serving as a valuable measure to understand the duration of processes underlying discriminative responses.

Throughout the chapter, the author explores manipulations of sensory, perception, attention, and incentive variables. The chapter highlights the connection between research conducted on pigeons and studies involving humans, enhancing our comprehensive understanding of these subjects across both species. Specifically, citing that pigeons “like to search”, which like the article above, tells me that there has to be some sort of exclusionary process (e.g., choice by exclusion) that is integral to pigeons’ survival in their ecological niche. Various other topics, such as inhibitory interactions between rods and cones, search processes, display size, and similarity, are discussed. In terms of attention, Blough (1991) found pigeons’ search RTs were shorter after a run of trials with the same target letter than during equivalent sequences in which alterative targets appeared in random order. Perhaps, expectancy makes a perceptual object stand out in the same way that a distinctive feature does. Expectation and priming could be a remedy. The chapter explores the distinction between serial and parallel processing in pigeons, noting similarities and differences with humans.

It also discusses search asymmetry, examining the role of distinctive features and potential influences of experience on search behaviors. Attention, expectation, and search RTs are investigated, with evidence supporting attentional influences on pigeon search RTs. Attention becomes a focus, with evidence supporting two attentional influences on pigeon search RTs, used to compare the pigeon's search-image with a recognition-controlling representation. The chapter concludes by developing complex models of discriminative processes using RT distributions. Models include a mixture of response types, a two-component model for visual-search RTs, and a random-walk model based on reward and stimulus similarity variations. The findings contribute to understanding pigeon discriminative processes, with implications for related processes in other species, including humans. Some results surpass comparable human work (e.g., assymetry in Blough & Blough, 1997), some align, and others suggest intriguing differences in visual information processing between humans and pigeons. Overall, the chapter provides a comprehensive exploration of visual perception, attention, and decision processes in pigeons through a measure of reaction time.

-

The article "Experimental Divergences in the Visual Cognition of Birds and Mammals" by Qadri & Cook (2015) again, explores visual cognition in birds, particularly pigeons, and compares it to human visual cognition. The introduction highlights the evolutionary divergence in diurnal and nocturnal pathways between birds and mammals, leading to distinct nervous system structures for visually guided behavior. Despite the smaller avian brain, pigeons serve as a model for understanding visual cognition, presenting both similarities that rival and differences with human visual behavior.

One significant difference highlighted is pigeons' propensity to attend to smaller local features rather than grasping the larger global form, possibly linked to their ecological needs for searching in dense environments. The article discusses various experimental findings, such as search asymmetry, vertices and edges processing, glass patterns, and perceptual completion, revealing discrepancies and divergences in perceptual behaviors across species. Pigeons exhibit complexities in processing lines, edges, and object completion, often showing resistance to perceptual completion tasks.

It also delves into potential explanations for these differences, including attentional mechanisms, stimulus size, feature weighting, and the ecological relevance of completing separated objects (e.g., Watanabe & Furuya, 1997; Aust & Huber, 2006; Ushitani & Fujita, 2005). The analysis suggests that pigeons may process spatially extended and disconnected information differently from humans, potentially due to limitations in connective or grouping processes. The ecological context of pigeons is considered, questioning whether completing separated objects is crucial in their natural environment at all. 

My thoughts

All three articles touch on the same things, with considerable overlap. All three articles revolve around studies or experiments related to the visual perception and cognition of animals. They involve investigations into how different species, such as birds (pigeons specifically) and primates process visual stimuli, make perceptual decisions, and exhibit behaviors related to visual cognition. The studies explore aspects like amodal completion, illusions, reaction times, attention, and decision-making processes. While each work has its specific focus, they all explore visual cognition in animals from various perspectives and using different experimental approaches.

Throughout the three articles, my current particular interest lies within visual perceptual completion and occlusion. Naturally, it is difficult to replicate a 3D image, or concept (i.e., food), on a 2D space, and furthermore, reflect some sort of depth perception on it. That is, unless subjects are given targeted depth perception training. To just display images on a screen without this training could lead to a number of interpretations: e.g., a “partially occluded” image of a star by a rectangle the same color as the background for example could merely be representative of a new shape, some sort of asymmetrical object with multiple vertices. Even if the occluder was a different color than the background, it could still be seen as an entirely new object, just with this new shape as a feature of it. This could be achieved through a number of ways. 

Engaging in mental imagery through occlusion not only relies on working memory and attention, possibly influenced by long-term memory of the stimulus, but also involves a sense of object permanence. The concept of object permanence becomes complex in a 2D space, where partially occluded images might be perceived as entirely new to birds rather than as the same object covered (object unity). To address this, priming birds with a potentially occluded stimulus during training could be explored as a means to prompt them to mentally imagine it during testing.

In comparing humans' capacity for mental imagery with pigeons, humans have received extensive training through various life experiences which leads them to have a more developed depth perception. This is evident in our ability to distinguish between landscape, midground, and forefront elements in any form of art medium, aided by experiences like viewing paintings and developing depth perception through real-life exposures. In contrast, pigeons are primarily exposed to 2-dimensional shapes, posing depth perception as a challenge. Perhaps, pigeons may benefit from prior depth perception training to show evidence of understanding occlusion on the 2D space. This training could involve introducing moving occluders over static objects to simulate dimensions in the 2D space - an approach I plan on exploring.

Paralleling occlusion literature with rats (e.g., Fast & Blaisdell, 2011; Gonzalez et al., 2022), which demonstrate mental imagery in a 3D space where they can touch and interact with objects, occlusion experiments with birds are presented stimuli solely in a 2D space. Thus, there is a need for exploring potential methods to enhance pigeons' depth perception training, suggesting the possibility of a moving occluder to introduce dimensions in the 2D space that could perhaps facilitate mental imagery.

On another note, I do think there are issues with the MTS (matching-to-sample) procedure, particularly when studying occlusion or the aforementioned illusions, as suggested in the Fujita et al. (2012) paper. Similar to challenges observed in symmetry studies, there's ambiguity in interpreting results because it remains uncertain whether birds are genuinely matching to the sample (e.g., choosing a “long line” comparison when presented with a “long line” sample) at test and were relying on habitual responses during training, (e.g., when A, pick B). An alternative approach could incorporate use of a reward contingency, akin to the procedure employed in our lab's rat mental imagery experiments. This reward contingency, previously utilized in Fujita (2001) for investigating line length estimation, moves away from interpreting MTS information and instead involves inferences from a distinct type of outcome, which could lead to cleaner data and provide a more insightful understanding of how birds categorize and perceive stimuli.

* Chapter from Zentall, T. R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2012). The Oxford handbook of Comparative Cognition. Oxford U. Press.