Weekly Roundup

Government Issued Cool Nicknames

What happens when a state government uses oppressively heavy court cases to crush opposition, but then ones doing the actual work are entirely incompetent? Well,

Endeavorance

18 Jun 2026 — 8 min read

When Governments Come for Groups

Western governments have long used depictions of foreign nations going after their own citizens on bullshit legal charges to silence opposition, completely ignoring that it happens just as much here as it does anywhere else.

The silver lining is that at least when you are targeted by a Western government, you get a slick group nickname.

The Filton Four

The first of our new fancy titles belongs to a group of four activists in the UK who have been found to be terrorists in the eyes of the state.

Back in 2024, Charlotte Head, Leona Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, and Samuel Corner drove a van into a building to initiate a raid on a weapons manufacturing facility operated by an Israeli defense contractor.

Activists rushed the building to destroy weapons and drones intended for use in Israel's genocide in Gaza. Samuel Corner was also found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police officer. The others were found guilty of "criminal damage" to the facility, after previously being acquitted of other charges for aggravated burglary.

Here's the thing though: when the jury chose to convict the Filton Four, what they didn't know was that the judge overseeing the case had intentions to label the conviction as having "terrorist connections." Such a label turns a relatively tame (historically) protest against a foreign weapons manufacturer for a country actively committing genocide into "an act of terrorism."

Again, the jury didn't know. They were under the impression that they were convicting for criminal damage, which like, sure. They drove a car into a building. But now, those same charges mean that these four people will be labeled as terrorists henceforth in any institutional capacity, and they lose options for lower sentencing. The reasoning for the label, per the judge, is that the defendants were trying to "intimidate Israel" by destroying weapons.

The Filton Four sentences range from around 5 to 8 years in prison.

The four activists were with Palestine Action, an activist group which has been at the forefront of much of the UK's recent crackdown on free speech, with scenes of cops arresting peaceful protestors for simply holding a sign supporting the group. Palestine Action has been labeled a terrorist organization by the state with that label recently reaffirmed by the Court of Appeal. It now holds the same designation as groups like Hamas and al-Qaida.

Kier Starmer—the current Prime Minister—is deeply underwater in popularity right now, hovering around -46% favorability. This is certainly not helping his case.

The Broadview Six

Stateside, we've got our own Filton Four: The Broadview Six. For this, we're going to pick up the camera from England and pan over to Chicago, Illinois.

In September of 2025, after weeks of ongoing protests at ICE's Broadview Processing Center, an ICE officer attempted to drive a vehicle through the crowd of protestors outside of the facility, causing chaos which would ultimately result in federal indictments for six protestors, including then-congressional-candidate Kat Abugazaleh.

Here's the background as a refresher. Around that time, ICE was deep into "Operation Midway Blitz," one of their several plans to go to a city known for having a larger minority population so they can harass, kidnap, and kill people on the street.

In response to a surge of anonymous federal agents with military gear disappearing their neighbors, residents of Chicago decided to protest the situation.

Fast forward a bit and we've got a similar refrain: six people present at the "car-in-protestors" incident were indicted on federal conspiracy charges.

Cue months of legal expenditures for the six normal citizens that the Department of Justice was trying to crush, only for the efforts of the government to ultimately blow up in a truly spectacular fashion.

You might be wondering: "how the hell did they get indicted on federal conspiracy charges? Doesn't that require a Grand Jury to review the evidence? Who would indict over this?" — Congratulations! If you were wondering that, you have a normal, functional brain. Unlike the prosecutors who seemingly thought they would see a wonderful future career if they just lie to three separate Grand Juries in an attempt to get an indictment out of them, only to then try and cover that up in the transcripts.

Yeh.

The judge overseeing the case was never truly thrilled with the work of the prosecutors, and that boiled over when the judge read the unredacted transcripts to find a few true gems showing just how the Department of Justice works these days:

Mecklenburg (US Attorney): "Are you going to be able to listen with an open mind? Tell me the truth."

Juror: "I -- no."

Mecklenburg: "Okay. Then you have to go—"

Juror: "I heard this case like last week and I thought it was a crock of shit then and I still think it is."

or how about…

Mecklenburg: "If you still feel like you are operating from feelings that prevent you from deliberating fairly with your fellow Grand Jurors and from applying the facts — the law to the facts here, then tell your fellow Grand Jurors that you can't deliberate."

If you, like me, are not a lawyer, just know this: ya can't do that. It became glaringly obvious that the attorneys who were seeking the indictment coerced the Grand Jury resulting in an indictment of six people who then had to pay out of pocket for legal defense.

Since this revelation, it's been a pretty nonstop train wreck for the government's people. The judge overseeing the case has started proceedings to determine if the government should face sanctions over the ethical misconduct. The defendants motioned for their legal expenses to be covered—an amount totaling over a million dollars. It also opens the DOJ up to further legal scrutiny: the defendants are seeking to reveal communications between high ranking DOJ members regarding the case.

All of this is still early on. Not a whole lot has actually clapped back on the prosecutors yet, aside from the very public exposure of their actions. To quote Kat, "That's not a happy ending, it's just an ending. It's not justice, but it is a win."

And Now, Introducing…

As I was writing this section, it came out that we've got a new addition to the "people charged over virtually nothing in an attempt to chill opposition" fad, the Minneapolis 15.

15 residents of Minneapolis have been indicted over alleged "Antifa membership" and, again, conspiracy—the charge that can basically apply to anything that the prosecutors don't like people doing, regardless of morality or legality.

The 15 people in question are linked to "Antifa" (which, reminder, is not an organization) by way of a group called Direct Action Minnesota. The US government—who has the world's largest military budget and a masked police force equipped with military gear—alleges that the group is known for "aggressive use of shields against law enforcement" and "rapid mobilization against law enforcement actions."

Wowee, throw 'em in the brig, I guess?

This is very new, but with the current whirlwind around the Broadview Six, it's gonna be a mess.

A Memorandum for the Ages

I made a quick video about this earlier this week, but as a recap: we're waiting to see what happens with a possible "Memorandum of Understanding" between the US and Iran regarding the ongoing war.

It's not really a peace treaty. It's instead more like a sort of vibes-based written agreement to outline the outline of the future talks. So. I mean. It's something!

The details of the deal have been slowly leaking out of places, and at time of writing I don't have a full picture right in front of me, but here's what we know, in general, about the plan:

Immediate ceasefire across all fronts, including Lebanon (we'll get to that in a sec)
US ends their naval blockade of Hormuz immediately upon signing
Iran de-mines the strait to allow maritime traffic to return to normal within 30 days of signing
Iran promises it will "never" make nuclear weapons
Iran keeps their uranium stockpile for the time being
US promises to not further sanction Iran for the time being
US wants Iran to reduce their uranium stockpile, but no agreement there yet
US will immediately give crude oil export waivers to Iran
Around $12 billion of frozen Iranian assets (out of a total of $24 billion) will be returned to Iran
- US officials maintain there are stipulations
A $300 billion redevelopment package for Iran (with fairly opaque financing at the moment)

It reads like an absolute capitulation by the United States government, largely because it is. But like, what else are we supposed to expect here? This was a disaster of a decision from the drop, never had anywhere near an actual explanation, and had virtually no domestic support. There isn't anything for us to gain from attacking Iran because the "threat" wasn't real to begin with.

This memorandum is expected to be signed on Friday, but the future of the plan is still up in the air, given that Israel is vehemently against the idea of stopping their efforts in Lebanon, Gaza, Iran, and other locations which are critical to their ongoing Greater Israel Project to expand their borders in the region. It is unclear what will happen if the MOU is signed but Israel continues their habit of bombing the people they signed a peace deal with.

Ubisoft? More like U B wasting taxpayer money

Hey, so, stop giving private megacorporations huge tax incentives to build offices in your municipality.

Ubisoft, the publisher for Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (and some other games since then) is closing offices left and right recently, citing that they're working to fix their financial situation. They would like for people to ignore the recent €1.16 Billion investment from Chinese video game giant Tencent.

Anyway, back in January, Ubisoft shut down an office in Halifax a month after the employees there voted to unionize. Ubisoft had received nearly a billion CAD in subsidies to build offices in Canada, sparking ire from workers unions.

Just a week ago, they closed a handful of other studios, including another Canadian one, this time in Manitoba. 65 Canadian jobs cut, despite having promised to increase headcount at the office to 300.

Ultimately, it's nothing new. Famously, Amazon had their whole "HQ2" bidding war where cities fell over themselves to be the one that Jeffy B chose to build his new Big Boy Building. It ended up causing a mess for the politicians involved, and Amazon backed out of half their plans.

So, like, stop it. 👍