The Stochastic Game

On the one hand, Dean Blundell is a controversial guy who has a big mouth and smells a bit too much of “bro nationalism”. On the other hand, his Canadian take on the US/Canada trade-war is quite entertaining.

Politically, this country has been a bar fight for a decade. That’s over. There is no Liberal or Conservative position on being annexed. Doug Ford, a Conservative premier, stood next to a Liberal prime minister this weekend and said he was glad Carney didn’t sign and promised to cut off electricity to the entire US eastern seaboard. David Eby in B.C. is already drawing up lists of ways his province can help Ottawa inflict pain. Canadians have done 22 billion in Damage to the US economy this year alone by pretending it simply doesn’t exist. The 2025 boycott of American goods never ended. It’s been a year and a half, and the shelves still have the little flags on the Canadian products. We are not a political coalition anymore. We’re a country, and countries with our history don’t negotiate the terms of their own disappearance.

Oil. Electricity into New England and New York. Potash that American farmers cannot plant without. Uranium. Aluminum for every F-35 and every beer can. Lumber for every house. Trump is fighting a two-front war, one against Iran with an oil reserve at a 44-year low, and one against the country that fills the reserve. The last man who tried a two-front war against people who wouldn’t quit had a bunker in Berlin.

25 August 2026 ∞

“How Canada can help Americans and defeat America”: this essay from Cory Doctorow goes into two of my favourite topics: fucking up DRM and other capitalist digital limitations on data and hardware ownership, and fucking up the US. Nice.

Trump's tariffs prove that this was a bad bargain. By voluntarily gluing its technological elbows to its sides, Canada made itself easy pickings for America's tech giants, who wiped out Canada's tech sector while making Canada geopolitically and economically dependent on – and vulnerable to – the US and its tech companies. Canada is long overdue for a reckoning with this blunder.

The best time to have made Canada digitally sovereign would have been before an American president announced his intention to annex Canada and began explicitly deploying America's tech companies to attack his geopolitical adversaries.

The second-best time is now.

By repealing Bill C-11 and legalizing reverse-engineering and modification of digital technology with consent of its users and in accordance with privacy, consumer and labour rights, Canada will gain a devastating counter to Trump's tariffs.

Not only will legalizing jailbreaking let Canadians get more out of their own property, it will turn America's tech trillions into Canada's tech billions – while making Canada digitally sovereign by facilitating the uncoupling of Canadian ministries, corporations, households, and devices from America's cloud. This is how Canada removes the digital kill switch it handed to America, a kill switch that can shut down its tractors, phones, and governments.

25 August 2026 ∞

“Sci-Fi Dystopian Film ‘Karn Evil 9’ Inspired By Prog Rock Anthem In Development”: Errr… why?

Also: “This is actually a story where AI might be our biggest ally”: Errr, again, WHY?

25 August 2026 ∞

It might be time for me to stop reading Daring Fireball. Gruber is turning out to be a gross tech-libertarian who sometimes says the most crazy things. Besides, it’s probably good to cut down on US voices in my media diet right now, especially those who make a career of defending big corps.

25 August 2026 ∞

More GURPS 4th Edition Revised info: Dr. Kromm and the rest of Steve Jackson Games have, as is often the case, posted a very well done FAQ page about it. The work that went into this book is beyond what you’d see from almost any other publisher.

A sample of page 345, comparing the original 4e and the revised 4e.

24 August 2026 ∞

If you’re curious about some of the changes in GURPS 4th Edition Revised, there’s an overview on the Ravens N’ Pennies blog!

24 August 2026 ∞

La BD de Boulet sur les IA (de)generatives est excellent… j’espere qu’il fera une version en Anglais bientot pour partager ca plus largement.

24 August 2026 ∞

Those last minute trade changes from the US were pretty crazy. Limits on how we trade with other countries, auto/steel tariffs lowered only partially, removal of Canadian content and French language rules on streaming platforms, etc. Basically the first step to annexation. Fuck the US.

24 August 2026 ∞

Looks like a majority of Canadians agree with Carney walking out of the US trade talks, which is good. Of course the CPC are a bunch of wankers (43% disagree). Weird to see SK disagree more than AB (19% vs 16%). Also most people think we’re not coming back.

Breakdown by province about how many people think Carney did the right thing. Varies between 85% (QC) and 65% (SK). As a whole, the country is at 76%.

Breakdown by party about whether Carney showed strength, or poor judgment. CPC is split 43%/43% on the topic. Other parties are mainly in favour of Carney.

23 August 2026 ∞

This widely shared Australian take on the recent breakdown in Canada/US trade talks is indeed very entertaining, but it’s wrong on one thing: Trump won’t lose the midterms. He’ll cheat or deploy troops to win. But maybe dealing with a full-blown nazi dictator will make our politics easier.

23 August 2026 ∞