CitizenVectron

Photo appears to be a white guy. Apparently had a rifle of some kind a few holes ahead, and USSS fired on him. He dropped the gun and surrendered.

Okay finally caught up! My thoughts, condensed:

• I thought Season 1 was fantastic. Would give it a 9/10
  • I particularly loved how slow it was, which I know was a complaint that others had
• The weakest parts of Season 2 have been the Southland stuff, mainly because it's trying to put some action and fast-paced stuff in to pad episodes
• The best parts of Season 2 have been the Elvish and Dwarfish stuff. They've done a great job of making Sauron a schemer
• Harfoot stuff seems a bit weaker this season (I loved their stuff in S1)
• Numenor stuff seems good
  • Isildur was badly cast, I think, especially considering the role he's going to play. He's too much of a punk kid

Overall I'd rate this season 7/10 so far, but only because the most-recent episode (5) was so great. Episodes 3 and 4 in particular were quite weak, imo. 2 and 5 have been the best.

I think with this season I've also noticed the visual quality go down. Things seem to be "cleaner," if that makes sense, and the sets (especially for the Southland and Harfoot stuff) seem to be very obviously on a soundstage for much of the time. You can just tell when there are exactly 20-30 extras and the physical set stretches 50-60 feet and then it's just dead expanse of whatever they are in (forest, desert, etc). Season 1 had a bit of this, but was better. 

Overall I am hopeful for this season, especially after the most-recent episode, but I do think they could have cut basically the entire Southland plot and shaved an episode. Could have solved it with a single 15-minute scene of Arondir finding Isildur on his way north, and explaining how he left the Southlanders safe in a village. We didn't need to see Theo again, especially after Bronwyn's actress left.

Oh, also, Adar's new actor isn't nearly as good as the previous one. I feel for him as Adar was a standout in S1, but it's not even close to the same level.

The MSM really needs to cover how Trump and Vance's language is directly causing these threats:

It continues, expanding from schools to hospitals:

I am 100% onboard with the Harris campaign eschewing traditional media companies. Just look at this shit:

Fact check: Harris campaign social media account has repeatedly deceived with misleading edits and captions | CNN Politics

WWW.CNN.COM

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A social media account run by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has been repeatedly deceptive.

Yet they won't outright say the same for Trump's statements, where he lies in 100% of his statements and interviews.

New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: After debate, Harris surges to 5-point lead over Trump among registered voters in head-to-head matchup

WWW.YAHOO.COM

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A new poll conducted after the Sept. 10 A new poll, one of the first conducted after the Sept. 10 debate, shows Harris (50%) surging to a five-point lead over Trump (45%) among registered voters in a head-to-head match-up.

4-point lead with LVs.

Importantly:

Quote

And Harris is flipping independents as well. Before Tuesday’s debate, Harris trailed Trump by 9 points (35% to 44%) with that crucial bloc; she now leads by 10 (47% to 37%).

6 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

 

Same thing happened in 22' when republicans thought they were in for a wave year only get have it completely fizzle out election day.

Yeah, someone put the work in and averaged out only the credible pollsters, and things look much better for Harris than 538 or Nate Silver would suggest.

Yeah I can't see the images on mobile, either. No big deal.

1 hour ago, Brick said:

In the scenario that Trump loses the popular vote, but wins the electoral college, how much do Democrats push for the electoral college to be dismantled the next time they have the White House? Why didn't Biden push for it, or was there no point because there wouldn't be enough support from the House and Senate? 

Nothing happens. If somehow turnout in California and NY was 95% and Harris beat Trump by 15% in the national vote (but he won EC), then he's the President. There's nothing that can be done because the interstate popular vote compact requires non-Democrat states to join...and obviously the GOP won't go for that. The US system is stuck the way it is. IMO the only actual solution is:

• Increase the size of the electoral college by massively increasing the size of the House of Representatives to 1,000+

This gives more (and proper) weight to the larger states and makes the results closer to the actual national vote. However I don't think that will ever happen, either.

Excellent. Tangentially related via the airline industry, Air Canada pilots are set to strike on the 18th:

Air Canada says it hasn't cancelled flights Friday over pilot talks, but some operations affected | CBC News

WWW.CBC.CA

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Air Canada says some operations will start to be affected as time is running out before a potential shutdown due to a labour dispute with its pilots, but the airline noted it hadn't cancelled any flights on Friday in anticipation of a strike.

They are the largest carrier in Canada by far.

4 minutes ago, CastletonSnob said:

Vance is now saying that Haitian immigrants have HIV.

 

The Trump campaign is just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks at this point.

I'll do you one better:

In his rambling press conference about the destruction of California, Trump just announced that he will do large deportations of Haitians out of Springfield, he will send them back to Venezuela. 

National poll* by RMG Research

🔵Harris: 51% [+1]
🔴Trump: 47% [-1]

[+/- change vs 9/3-5]
——
Trends
Aug. 14 - Trump +2
Aug. 22 - TIE
Aug. 28 - Harris +3
Sept. 5 - Harris +2
Sept. 12 - Harris +4
—
*Two thirds of the survey interviews were conducted AFTER Tuesday's debate
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#60 (2.3/3.0) | 2,756 LV | 9/9-12 | ±1.9%

FDA approves Apple AirPods Pro 2 to be used as hearing aids

WWW.CBSNEWS.COM

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Tech giant's latest AirPods will soon function as hearing aids for people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

Fantastic news. This is directly because of the Biden administration helping to break the hearing aid cartel.

Quote

The FDA on Thursday authorized a piece of software called Hearing Aid Feature (HAF) that will allow Apple AirPods Pro 2 ear buds and other compatible Apple AirPods Pro devices to function as hearing aids when paired with an iOS 18-compatible iPhone or iPad. It's the first time the FDA has authorized an over-the-counter hearing aid software, the agency said.

 

Apple AirPods Pro 2 retail for $249, which is far less than the thousands of dollars other models of OTC hearing aids can cost.

49 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

I'm worried this stupid Haitian immigrant thing works for Trump

Perhaps. I hope the people who already foam at the mouth about immigrants are voting for Trump already. He needs to keep in mind there are 500,000 voting members of the Haitian community in Florida. I don't think Harris will win Florida, but no need to make enemies of entire ethnicities. 

37 minutes ago, ort said:

 

I've read multiple reports that crime rates in Springfield are not up and that there was no noticeable increase in crime due to the Haitian immigrants.

It's pretty well understood that first generation immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the general population.

Cool!

I'm sure the media will give this as much national attention as Biden being slower at speaking.

25 minutes ago, Comet said:

GOP-ran Ohio must really fucking suck 

Conservative governments always make people's lives worse, and that is why they increasingly need larger and more extreme scapegoats to keep people's attention occupied.

I guess they are going full-out on "dirty, sick, criminal immigrants" message. 

7 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

Who was choosing hard drives for long term storage? That's crazy. Like actually mind blowing. And these people were shipping hard drives to Iron Mountain as if they had the shelf life of tape? What? Who made these choices? Especially in the 90s. Drives then were even more much more expensive per GB and not really that much faster. Someone back then chose a more fragile and more expensive tech and not really that much faster tech to archive stuff to? Why?

Someone made a lot of money.

Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying

ARSTECHNICA.COM

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The music industry traded tape for hard drives and got a hard-earned lesson.

They moved from tape to HDD and then never replaced the HDDs. The backups failed, as well.

GOP civil war intensifies:

'We know you're gay': Laura Loomer uses childish taunt as Lindsey Graham calls her 'toxic' - Raw Story

WWW.RAWSTORY.COM

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) isn't the only Republican trying to get former President Donald Trump to disassociate himself from MAGA activist Laura Loomer.Andrew Desiderio of Punchbowl News reported Thursday that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he believes ...

You can't draw conclusions from a single poll, but it's a single data point that is better than otherwise!