General News Thread

[Historia]

found the right thread, but, anyway,

https://medium.com/@jonathan_hui/gan...s-4c9ecca35900


kinda old article (by modern tech standards) about GAN,


I found it pretty cool. And this:

Create Anime characters


Game development and animation production are expensive and hire many production artists for relatively routine tasks. GAN can auto-generate and colorize Anime characters.

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Just think if Type-Moon gets a hold of this technology, they could churn out even more Servants. Green Saber when.

[RoydGolden]

Mass-produced Servants. Literally Dullahan's worst nightmare. No seriously, the implications of that technology are pretty effed up when you think about it...

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Takeuchi acquires the Star Forge (circa 2019)

[RoydGolden]

This just in, Trump has declared a national state of emergency to muster funds for the southern border wall.

I suspect it'll get blocked, but given how much extraconstitutional power a state of emergency grants to the president it's still disturbing he's willing to go this far.

[AsGryffynn]

Mass-produced Servants. Literally Dullahan's worst nightmare. No seriously, the implications of that technology are pretty effed up when you think about it...

Someone is going to receive an envelop containing whatever Sergei and Julia touched if this ever takes bloody place.

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This just in, Trump has declared a national state of emergency to muster funds for the southern border wall.

I suspect it'll get blocked, but given how much extraconstitutional power a state of emergency grants to the president it's still disturbing he's willing to go this far.

Do they regularly get blocked?

I mean, he's just adding extra layers to the existing fence at this point. His prototypes are just glorified thick fences. I doubt there's much difference and I do prefer people not even trying to cross than doing so in hopes a flying eye sees them and notifies the authorities, because god knows what might happen in between.

And if you're scared of the power of these things, remember there are quite a few active and that countries in Western Europe have similar mechanisms that get thrown around all the damn time.

[Twelveseal]

The main complaints people bring up over the state of emergency have to do with this:

First, many people, including Congress if the budget they did agree to is any indication, don't consider this an emergency at all. Their consensus, though not a universal one, seems to be that it's not. Congress gave him what money they felt was appropriate for the project in accordance with their Constitutional responsibilities, and when it wasn't enough for his goals, the president essentially said that he doesn't need their approval or cooperation to control how the budget is spent or complete his own pet projects. This sets a really bad precedent that basically allows future presidents to do the exact same thing, overriding Congress to do what they want if Congress won't agree to what they're asking for and seizing the needed funds from other parts of the budget. It's basically the same sort of thing Republicans tend to rage at Obama for when it comes to DACA, except a National Emergency also allows for a huge number of other laws to be ignored. Keep in mind, for example, that Bush Jr. tried to use one to cut the pay of relief and reconstruction workers in Louisiana after hurricane Katrina, that it authorizes the government to seize personal property of legal citizens, or that one of the laws that a State of Emergency suspends for the government involves a prohibition on testing chemical and biological weapons on people without informing them and receiving their consent, among other things. There are well over a hundred pieces of legislation that this impacts. For those people so inclined to have such fears the government is out to get them as a major concern in their worldview. Prior to Trump going this route, there were quite a few people on both sides of the aisle that advised against it. It means that future presidents can sidestep Congress and force spending on whatever they want to, whether it's illegal immigration, gun control, global warming, etc...

What's being mentioned less is that the new border wall will cut through a combination of unused government land, conservation wildlife preserves, private properties, and Native American Reservations, three of which are likely to raise more than a few legal challenges. Considering that the last wall expansion was from a decade ago during the Bush administration, and the people who lost their land through imminent domain still haven't been paid their compensation for it, folks on the border are a bit mixed on this.

As it stands, it seems like the Republicans in Congress are just making noise in support of this in the hopes they can keep their voters, all while hoping the legal challenges kill the move as an unconstitutional violation of Congress's power of the purse. That way they get no blame for its failure and don't have to fight Trump over it, but the president doesn't gain the ability to tell Congress their position doesn't matter on any given issue and spend the money they set aside for other priorities as he sees fit.

[mAc Chaos]

It's just going to get blocked in court.

[Tobias]

If he did it right he actually has a pretty shot you know.

right in this case refers to making sure he didn’t hit any hard core liberals who would sue to screw him on eminent domain. Congress would actually likely lose their suit on standing. If they just run a line through and pop someone unwilling to take a paycheck and move, yeah, 2020 will be well into the rearview before ground gets broken.

EDIT: though if congress does manage to stymie him, it will likely be due to that little note he ad-libbed where he said “I don’t need to do this, this just makes it faster.”

i bet every lawyer he has immediately suffered a migraine knowing they were gonna have to fight that in front of a judge

[Twelveseal]

No kidding. He blew the whole justification for declaring it an emergency and stated he didn't have to take extreme measures in the first place.

[Mattias]

I remember reading somewhere that the intended funds are supposed to now come out of the disaster relief that's supposed to be helping Puerto Rico and California deal with their hurricane and wildfire issues.

[Iceblade44]

That would suck, I have family in Puerto Rico. If that would happen then my mother would probably get very pissed, sheesh

[RoydGolden]

I remember reading somewhere that the intended funds are supposed to now come out of the disaster relief that's supposed to be helping Puerto Rico and California deal with their hurricane and wildfire issues.

Incredible dick move if true. Like, that's almost cartoon villain level of terrible.

[SpoonyViking]

That's hardly new territory for Trump specifically or the office of president of the United States in general.

[RoydGolden]

That's hardly new territory for Trump specifically or the office of president of the United States in general.

Unfortunately not. While Trump is obviously terrible, focusing on him as uniquely and exceptionally bad can lead one to overlook how past presidents did very similar bad things, just with a politer veneer.

[Twelveseal]

Last I had heard, the disaster relief funds are safe. He's pulling roughly 8 billion out of a combination of funds allocated to fight drug crime and monies siezed from the same, plus some from the military's construction budget. Fwiw, even if you don't think the wall will be effective and that there are better uses for them, pulling anti-drug funds fits his justification for the emergency declaration in the first place. More concerning is the possibility that he'll tap the 3.6 billion he's eyeing from the military...

[Tobias]

Wasn’t that military budget the civilian reconstruction projects, otherwise known as the disaster relief projects? Or am I wrong on that

[Twelveseal]

Not entirely sure, tbh. I'd heard they were mostly for new projects, like a new facility of some sort in Kentucky, but it wouldn't surprise me if I'm wrong on it.

Edit: A cursory bit of research seems to suggest that what he's going after is more like a slush fund for whatever the DoD needs built rather than strictly disaster relief money. It seems like the Pentagon can more or less pick what planned projects they can short or drop so long as they come up with the money. This would be cash normally used to build or repair facilities on bases, housing for troops, contractors, and their families, etc... it doesn't sound like it's dedicated to a set purpose. Though, again, that's just what some quick digging suggests. An expert I am not.

[I3uster]

any comment on elliott abrams as special envoy for venezuela or am i gonna get the silent treatment like when i asked about why you guys need a wall

[Twelveseal]

Not really, at this point. I mean, while Trump has had it in for previous administration officials, his has clearly been heading back into neocon-style intervention, whether it's this growing mess with Venezuela or trying to drum up cash by selling nukes to the Saudis.

Give it a little, though. We'll here more, I'm sure.

[SeiKeo]

am i gonna get the silent treatment like when i asked about why you guys need a wall

No.