Thank you for elaborating on the backstory, seems I did not know half of the past of the case.

Tried a short google but there was no old in depth information about the case back then.

All in all it is at least a strange thing that the people around him thought it was a good idea for him to attend the olympics and enabled him to do it.

I am not sure where you got the torture for days from, there was none of that mentioned in the case, nor what he was sentenced for.

This is a bit of an interesting conundrum …

Granted, I do not know the details of the crime for which he plead guilty and was sentenced. Was it a violent rape? Or was it a concensual get together but she was far to young and he was slapped hard for it? Now I don’t condone it either way but it might give nuance to how he feels about it.

On one side, he, and society overall see it as he served his sentence (not all of it but that is not his fault) and is rehabilitated, he made changes to his life after that and made sure he is not near minors alone again, now even has a family of his own.

But, I really think it’s wrong to think rehabilitation means you can stand on a podium for admiration, or be in a place that strives for excellence in rhe public eye.

This is where he and the people around him should have realized that, no, no matter how good he is in his sport, he should just not be a competitor in the olympics as a shining example of greatness.

Rehabilitation means to be allowed back into society, in a menial job out of view and not in a spotlight of any kind.

It is definitely not a full reset on your life and you can do whatever, thinking people mostly forgot what you did.

So the bullying boo’s are quite justified imo and he should have expected this backlash because he sought the spotlight and admiration for his greatness in sport. And it shows he thought it a deserved thing for his ego following the years of hardship he went through after making a big mistake when he was young.

“Oh don’t worry, he’s just on vacation and/or has business there, he’ll come back (after he sold other hidden US top secret information)”

Not so secret anymore after Trump sold the information…

Not sure what kind of morals those are, but they definitely do not belong to a truely civilized society.

I read the title, and it left me thinking it was about Ukrainian POWs returned from Russia without their organs, like I read about recently.

It seems the US does not even need such circumstances.

Utter depravity. I do not have other words for it anymore.

The result of the US elections are the tipping point either way for the whole world, and every country is awaiting what will happen.

One side drops the world in misery, from the full destruction of Ukraine and it’s people, to an intense war in the EU and the Koreas.Taiwan as a country will cease to exist, as will its chip production. Not to mention the deep scarring that will take place within the US itself where it will see the Constitution torn up. America First, but as a consequence it loses power and status everywhere else for years to come.

The other possibility is that starting in 2025 the current big worldwide conflicts will be resolved semi peacefully, a slow growth to more financial prosperity and equality sets in plus a number of billionaires will need to pay some of their taxes, but international treaties and trades will be reinforced.

I am really hoping for the latter, because if the outcome is the first, we’ll see a least a decade of chaos and economic downfall everywhere.

So, my choice is made, it will be better in 2025 <crosses fingers>

I try to avoid watching trailers these days but accidentally stumbled into this one… and beyond it plain showing too much it left me puzzled and disappointed.

This does not have the look and feel of a Ridley Scott movie, almost all the way through it left me wondering IS this the Gladiator 2 trailer or is it for something else?

What’s with the very bad placement of the rap music? Come on this does not fit at all. I can only hope the soundtrack for the actual movie will be leagues better.

I did not like ANY of the characters, besides the presentation being a jumble, no character stood out to where I’d think “oh I am interested in his story”.

All in all, originally I was looking out for this movie, but my interest dropped far after seeing this trailer, not the effect a trailer is supposed to have.

Don’t forget most trailers these days show the whole movie in a condensed form… The ones for comedies plain show all the big jokes like it’s not important.

The art of the good Teasers and Trailers died somewhere after the time the first two Star Wars Prequels came out.

Well this sounds a bit familiar…

Next step is adding a scoring system with penalties for certain behavior and it will be quite similar to the social system that is rolling out in China…

Pleasantly surprised he is mentioned in that way.

I stood near him on “conventions” a few times with some years in between and he is such a nasty person both while making phone calls and in the way he treats others/his staff.

Comes over as someone who can’t find any joy in the small things in his life and p*sses on everyone else because of it.

Yes this sounds like a very convoluted way to go about things, but I am not sure if it was the actual verdict that is so badly constructed that it demands this or that Google gives itself and everyone else a lot of unnecessary pain.

Samsung also does auto updates etc and co-exists with the play store on samsung phones (granted, it lives within their android skin), even updates some Google play store (installed) apps, so I am not sure what or where the issue is/lies.

But now Google wants app stores within app stores within app stores as a solution?

Well one small step would be to stop selling or dealing with subcontractors, will not fix it but does add an extra hurdle to things.

Technical issues? Go on-site to where the machine is supposed to be … have your own technicians look at the machines on site and report back.

But I guess those costs put pressure on the profits of the company.

There is also Finland, which has around 34 guns per 100 inhabitants, amongst the highest of the western world. It has a cun culture of defense (against its untrustworthy Russian neighbor), hunting and sports. But there is strict registration and regulation. Though they can buy just about any type of gun, there is no open carry “for funsies”. Carrying/transporting the guns requires an immediate purpose and must be held, unloaded, in a case or pouch. (I am not Finnish so correct me if I am wrong)

I have a bit of a feeling it’s in the US a thing of “He has a gun, so I want a gun” that reinforces itself, and after a while gets people careless since it’s a fairly common thing.

In the UK there was a study where forbidding handheld guns, mainly pistols, did see a sharp decline in gun related crime but they did not banish it completely.

I don’t know the numbers but in the US it seems pistols make it easier to act upon one’s mental state … have a tiff with your neighbor? Go to his door with a gun on your belt. A car just cut you off? Explode in rage, pull up next to him/her on a traffic light and swing your pistol around, try doing that with a non automatic hunting rifle.

“To prevent future misuse of these client-lawyer documents I order them all destroyed forthwith”

I will not be suprised if they rule him immune in that very specific case, under his excuse that he was “defending democracy with the information he had at that time”.

It blocks full immunity for everything and gives Trump a free pass, the SC will retain power, and the US saves a little bit of face, on paper, in legitimizing the jan 6 troubles.

People have hope and heart for Star Wars … hope that got rekindled by a spark here and there like Andor and The Mandalorian’s early seasons. So the fans get pulled back in.

But soon after Disney brings pain again, and it is always on purpose, usually from very bad writing that should not have seen the green light, and lousy planning.

Granted there was toxicity and yes the level greatly increased when the sequels came out. But a lot of it was instigated by Disney, they started to spout the nonsense of “The Force Is Female” and “Star Wars has no strong women”, no one previously claimed the force to have a gender, or declared Leia a whimpering lass. But this was the Disney that promised a new hope for Star Wars when it was bought, and a conclusion to the story the “later” generation of fans were hoping for, to see how their old heroes had fared, after perhaps reading all the books the hopes were high. And it was all thrown in a puddle of mud and stomped on on purpose by Disney. The heroes were willfully destroyed, in movies that had no production planning and lousy writing. This is what made the mouthier fans angry.

On top of that Disney’s media output was only making it worse, and, as was later proven, a lot of the negativity some actors perceived was pushed on them by the media, not the fans (both John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran said as much, Gina Carano’s story falls in the same category, Disney attacked her through social media bots or so it is said), yet the blame landed firmly and only on toxic fans. Disney’s opening toxicity was always waved off.

Anyone daring to comment on the sexist remarks of the force being female or Rey being a Mary Sue was immediately stamped as toxic.

And for just about every tv show there was a remark or two from Disney far ahead of the release of the show that got the fans raging, Andor was just about the exception, that one had a lot of radio silence.

In all, I as a fan am bummed out there was/is toxicity, but I can’t swallow it no more that legit, polite, grievances and criticism are being cast off as being toxic and the Disney product is beyond reproach and can only be revered.

The Acolyte has shown cringely bad writing so far, from episode 1 to 3 it’s only gone downhill, and I think people should be allowed to comment on that, if it turns out to be the next Shakespeare at the end, well the first 3 definitely never will be.