News The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Rings of Power Season 2 Delves Into Dwarf-Rings & Gives Us a Fury Road-Inspired Rhûn Where’s Rhûn? Oh, back east. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 6, 2024 Credit: Amazon MGM Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Amazon MGM Studios Season Two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will, unsurprisingly, be all about the rings. And while J.R.R. Tolkien provided details on many of the 19 rings of power (and their master) in his writings, he didn’t delve much into the seven dwarven ones. The Rings of Power series is planning to fill that blank space in LOTR lore. “There are tantalizing hints in the source text that the dwarven rings didn’t really control the dwarves the way Sauron might’ve liked, but it did stoke their greed,” co-showrunner Patrick McKay told Entertainment Weekly. “That sent us down this rabbit hole of ‘What about Peter Mullan [who plays King Durin III] going mad as a villain in Khazad-dum in Season Two?’” He added, “The whole idea of doing a show in the Second Age was that it’s not a fixed target, there’s an enormous amount of room for creation and improv within a loose framework. The dwarven rings are a great example where it’s like, ‘What exactly did they do? How might that play on a father-son relationship?’” We’ll get to see what McKay and the rest of the creative team envisioned when the second season premieres later this month. We’ll also get to see their rendition of the deserts of Rhûn, where Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards), and Gandalf the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) are headed. In Tolkien’s writings, all we really know about Rhûn is that humans and elves were “born” there, that Sauron hides there for a while, and that two Blue Wizards traveled there while Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast were in Gondor (something that perhaps means that the Stranger is not Gandalf, though my lembas bread is still on Gandalf and the Stranger being one and the same). Co-showrunner J.D. Payne called Rhûn a “blank check” from Tolkien that allows the show to “go somewhere that’s never been depicted before.” And what inspired Payne and McKay for their take on Rhûn? “We’re huge admirers of Lawrence of Arabia, one of the greatest movies ever made, and we love Mad Max: Fury Road,” McKay told EW. “These are movies that are set in a vast desert landscape, but they make the desert feel beautiful. We’ve never seen deserts before in Lord of the Rings, so the idea to have a spice like that thrown into the mix was really exciting to us.” We’ll get to see that spice when Season Two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on Prime Video on August 29, 2024. [end-mark] The post <i>Rings of Power</i> Season 2 Delves Into Dwarf-Rings & Gives Us a <i>Fury Road</i>-Inspired Rhûn appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Historical Fantasy Read an Excerpt From Ava Reid’s Lady Macbeth A reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her. By Ava Reid | Published on August 6, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Lady Macbeth, a novel by Ava Reid reimagining Shakespeare’s Macbeth—out from Del Rey on August 13th. The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men. The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed. The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. She does not know this yet. But she will. He rises in silence and beckons her to follow. Roscille keeps her eyes mainly on the ground, but occasionally she looks up and sneaks glances at him, her husband. There is a scar lacing his throat, white and rigid, like a worm in an apple. It is not a clumsy by-blow. It cannot be anything but death, beaten back. He takes her down another narrow hallway, in the oppo­site direction of her chamber, then down a set of crumbling stairs to an even narrower corridor. The sound of the sea rises, and so does the sound of their footsteps, as if the floor is grow­ing thinner. At the end of this hallway is a door. Its iron grate withers with rust. “A husband and wife should have no secrets from each other,” Macbeth says. “And they should keep each other’s se­crets from the world.” Before Roscille can think of how to reply, he removes a key, tied to a leather thong around his neck. He fits it into the lock. The sea roars up at them, and then is curiously silent. Wood scrapes stone as he pushes the door open. Behind the door, blackness stretches out in all directions. It is not the barbarian blackness she first witnessed upon arriv­ing in Glammis, the bleak edge of civilization. This is an un­natural darkness, such that would confound the pope himself. The air blowing toward them is damp and cold, and although light slides through the threshold behind them, it halts very suddenly, the darkness a wall it cannot breach. Macbeth takes a step forward and there is a splashing sound. Water, he has stepped into water. Roscille blinks and blinks, but staring into the unchanging black makes her eyes gummy, as if with sleep. Is she supposed to follow? The air has a terrible weight, like the pressure at the deepest chasm of the ocean. Buy the Book Lady Macbeth Ava Reid Buy Book Lady Macbeth Ava Reid Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget And then: light. Filmy and indistinct, a single torches flares in the center of her vision. The reflection of the flame races along the dark water, in clever beams and quick flashes. The water has a serpent’s iridescent sheen. Her husband stands in the center of the room, which is really a cave, rock formations jutting outward from the walls at strange angles. He is as silent and still as the rock itself. The current judders around him. Three different cur­rents, all converging, sucking at the hem of his tartan. Three women stand in the water at a distance, backs hunched with age, hair scraggly and silver, each holding a sopping garment in her hands. Each woman slaps the water with her cloth, then wrings it out, then soaks it again. Submerges, lifts, submerges, forming her own tight, snarling whirlpool. Roscille stumbles backward and falls against the mold-slick wall. She makes a bleating sound of fear, of disbelief, which her husband does not seem to hear. Then she stands and crosses herself. But the act feels like mockery: She invokes the Holy Trin­ity, the Father the Son the Holy Spirit, as the three women advance toward her, their faces white as lightning. They are so thin under their own wet garments that each notch of their spines can be clearly seen. Their hair is so long that the ratty ends brush the water. “Buidseach,” Macbeth breathes. The world is cold smoke in the air. Witch. It is only then that Roscille sees the shackles around their bony wrists, and the long length of rusty chain that ties them all together. As they move, it drags against the cave floor. If they come any closer, they will strain their binds, and the metal will cut into their soggy flesh, which looks as though it would fall easily off their bones, like rot from a log. “Macbeth,” one of them says. Hisses. The other two echo her: “Macbeth.” “Macbeth.” Roscille read this among the monk’s tomes: Duncane has written a treatise on witchcraft in Scotland. Witches exist; he has proven it. They kill swine and perform spells with their en­trails. They send storms to chase sailors to their watery graves. They turn men into mice, and women into serpents who swal­low them. They can hide in the skin of any woman, but they may be identified by their sharp teeth. Or by their silver hair. In Breizh, there is no such canonical accounting. The Duke would not waste his efforts on the creatures of hell, just as he does not waste it on the matters of heaven: Only rarely can he be persuaded to attend Mass. In Alba, the punishment for witchcraft is death. What is the punishment for keeping witches as prisoners? Macbeth casts his torch across the water. “I come to hear your prophecy. Tell me my fate.” Their eyes are milky white, with mortal blindness. Their noses are just notches in their faces. When the light catches them, their skin seems to sizzle, like oil in heat. “All hail Macbeth,” the first one rasps, “Thane of Glam­mis!” The other two clap in approval, chains jangling. Their damp, soft flesh slaps together. “All hail Macbeth,” cries the second, “Thane of Cawder!” And then, together: “All hail Macbeth! All hail Macbeth! All hail Macbeth!” They shout and shout, until their voices pile on top of one another, like heavy gouts of rain into the river, water upon black water. They shout until the words blur, their thin-lipped mouths open in bacchanalian glee, as if they are expecting wine to pour from the very air and down their throats. Perhaps Roscille should drink from it as well. Her plan, once merely callous, now made blasphemous, vulgar, truly evil, sanctified by these unholiest of creatures. Macbeth turns to her, his face gleaming in the torchlight. “You see,” he says. “My lust for blood will be rewarded. We leave for Cawder at dawn.” Excerpted from Lady Macbeth, copyright © 2024 by Ava Reid. The post Read an Excerpt From Ava Reid’s <i>Lady Macbeth</i> appeared first on Reactor.

While Kamala Harris lets the mystery of her VP pick hang in the air, we don’t need to wonder who’s already on her ticket: the mainstream media. Just when Americans thought they couldn’t be surprised by the press’ bias, Harris’ candidacy has turned them into outright liars, whose in-kind donation is a blanket cover-up for every unpopular policy she’s ever endorsed. And Republicans, who are used to running against the media, have to wonder: Will voters see through the scam? From defunding the police to banning fracking—even Harris’ assignment as border czar—the Left’s revisionist history has saturated news casts, network interviews, even fact-checkers. As National Review’s Noah Rothman bleakly put it, “The sense of euphoric inevitability that prevailed when Republicans gathered in Milwaukee for the party’s nominating convention is gone. … The Trump campaign has struggled to break into the Kamala Harris-dominated news cycle in a positive way. Republicans are resigned not just to a race against a tougher opponent but to an array of cultural and journalistic institutions acting with reckless disregard for their reputations to shield Harris from scrutiny. It’s all rather depressing.” Harris’ dubious record is being scrubbed clean by an army of media water-carriers, who insist that GovTrack’s most liberal senator in 2019 didn’t actually mean those things she said about “Medicare for All,” voting rights for felons, bans on offshore drilling, and gun control. In one of the more embarrassing displays, CNN’s Daniel Dale even claimed that “Harris was never made [President Joe] Biden’s ‘border czar,’” adding, “In reality, Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment.” “I know it’s a lie. You know it’s a lie. They know it’s a lie,” Becket Adams writes. “That they never bothered to correct this three-year-old ‘misconception’ until she became the presumptive Democratic nominee gives the game away. But the all-too-obvious timing of the thing is not stopping them from trying to revise her record anyway.” One of Biden’s most feckless Cabinet officials, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, tried to deny the same reality, insisting, “Let’s be very clear about this because there has been a lot of mischaracterization. She was not in charge of the border.” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., on MSNBC, was even more disingenuous, telling MSNBC, “She wasn’t the border czar, but, boy oh boy, did she do a great job at the border.” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., could only shake his head. They’re all “trying to rewrite history,” he told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday’s “This Week on the Hill.” “And you see all the left[ist] media doing this too. President Biden tapped Kamala Harris to be the border czar. She doesn’t have many jobs as vice president, and that’s one of the few things he gave her. The border is a mess. [She was told to] go figure it out. And she couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t even go down to the border for so long. She ignored this problem.” The Left is hoping everyone forgets that “she is for open borders,” Scalise insisted. “She’s been very vocal about wanting to legalize people who just roam into the country and giv[e] them free stuff. And by the way, it’s angering most people in America.” The media is “going to try to change history. Sorry,” the House leader said. “They’re not going to be able to get away with it.” And yet, as Rothman pointed out, “There is no pressure on the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to sit for interviews, hold press conferences, or even merely speak extemporaneously for more than a few sentences. Even what may be Harris’ foremost vulnerability—her inauthenticity—is presented as an asset.” His colleague, Rich Lowry, thinks this is the natural outgrowth of the press “elevat[ing] her from also-ran vice president to savior of the republic in the space of about 12 hours a couple of weekends ago.” Now, trusting that the press won’t challenge her on anything she says, Harris has the audacity to claim she’s the tough one on immigration. At an Atlanta rally, Biden’s vice president actually said, “I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week. Any day of the week, including, for example, on the issue of immigration. … Donald Trump,” she continued, “has been talking a big game about securing our border. But he does not walk the walk.” As Lowry bemoans, Harris’ “sociopathic dishonesty” on the border “has not been met with a flurry of fact checks, nor have editors been zealously adding the word ‘falsely’ in front of her claims. No, she’s flipping the script, and going on offense, and punching back.” So why not “try to get it to swallow an even more outlandishly implausible notion?” he wondered. But how long can Harris outrun the facts as troves of videos, sound bites, and speeches burn down the straw woman the press has built? “As we get closer to November,” Scalise warned, there are three issues that are “crystallizing everywhere you go. And No. 1—far and away—is the border. People want to get this border secured. It’s madness what’s going on at the border, and that comes up no matter what part of the country you’re in.” And as the stock market freefalls, images like Harris in 2023 saying she’s “very proud of Bidenomics” will be hard even for the magicians of the media to erase. As Scalise says, the second biggest issue on voters’ minds is “inflation, the cost of things.” And whatever part of the country you go into, they’re complaining about grocery prices. They’re complaining about gas prices and energy prices, [and] just cooling their home in the summer. I mean, these are problems that were created by the Biden-Harris administration. Everybody knows that. … [T]his is where Kamala Harris is going to have a real problem. She was with Joe Biden helping be the architect [of these policies]. Look, she was the deciding vote for the Inflation Reduction Act. She can’t run away from these things—the policies that created the inflation, that when you go to the grocery store, you’re paying 30% more than when Biden took office. Add that to the explosive situation in the Middle East, and frankly, the House’s second-in-command warned, “I don’t remember a time when America’s projected so much weakness to so many of our friends around the world. … You see what Russia did with Ukraine. You see what Iran, through their proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis—have done to Israel. And then, of course, you see what China is doing to allies like Taiwan. So all of our enemies are taking advantage of the weakness being projected.” How does this affect the Democrats’ replacement candidate? Well, as Scalise reminded people, “Kamala has really no record on the world stage, except for the Biden agenda. And the Biden-Harris agenda in foreign policy has been walking away from Israel, projecting weakness, and allowing our military to be more focused on wokeness, which is not the preparedness we need to deal with the threat that China and other countries pose. “So it’s a dangerous place right now, and we’re in a much more dangerous position because of the weakness projected by Harris and Biden. And I think that’s going to be a big factor knowing how strong President Trump was. [There were] no new wars when Donald Trump was president. Our friends knew that we had their back. And we did, by the way, have their back because we weren’t letting the bad guys run roughshod around the world.” So the Left’s strategy is simple: Change the subject. They really are going to be focused on how they can divide the American people between now and Nov. 5, because they don’t want the American people talking about the issues people care about. … And the reason that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden don’t want to talk about it is because those problems were created by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. The inflation, high energy prices, open border, all of those are self-created problems by the Biden-Harris ticket. And again, you go back four years ago, we did not have those problems. When it comes to Harris’ campaign, “They’re going to want to talk about abortion every day. They’re going to want to talk about mandating [electric vehicles], and Jan. 6. And the American people are saying, ‘Look, I’ve got real problems that you helped create. And I want to talk about those problems.’” Originally published by The Washington Stand The post Media Helps Reinvent Kamala Harris in Truth-Optional Campaign appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s record amid the 2020 George Floyd riots in Minneapolis has received renewed scrutiny after Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, selected him as her running mate. “Minnesota was ground zero for the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. Harris egged it on, and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, posted on X on Tuesday. Harris-Walz: most left-wing ticket in American history. Minnesota was ground zero for the BLM riots of 2020. Harris egged it on and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 6, 2024 Harris, then a senator from California who had suspended her presidential campaign, had touted the Black Lives Matter protests even after many of them descended into violent riots. “This is a movement, I’m telling you,” Harris told CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert in June 2020. “They’re not going to stop. And everyone, beware, because they’re not going to stop. They’re not going to stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not going to stop after Election Day. And that should be—everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.” News outlets such as the Associated Press claimed that Harris was referring to the protests, not the riots, but she did not draw a clear distinction at the time. Only in August did she finally explicitly condemn the riots. Harris also notably urged supporters to send money to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which posted bail for the rioters in Minnesota. (Fact-checkers later established that Harris never personally donated to the Freedom Fund herself, though she and others helped direct more than $40 million to the organization at the time.) If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota. https://t.co/t8LXowKIbw— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 1, 2020 A timeline of the riots in Minneapolis will help explain Walz’s record. The Minnesota-based Center for the American Experiment informed this timeline. Mayor Asks Walz for National Guard George Floyd died in police custody in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25, 2020. A jury later convicted of second-degree murder the police officer who kneeled over Floyd’s body during his death. Thousands of protesters took to the streets on the day after Floyd’s death, and some smashed windows. By Wednesday, May 27, rioters had looted stores, including a Target, and arsonists had set at least 30 fires, including a blaze that gutted a six-story affordable-housing apartment building still under construction. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, called Walz at 6:29 p.m. that evening, asking him to send in the National Guard, the Minneapolis Star Tribune later reported. “We expressed the seriousness of the situation. The urgency was clear,” Frey said. “He did not say yes. He said he would consider it.” “Frey insisted that he explicitly asked whether his verbal requests constituted a formal request, and the governor’s staff confirmed that they did,” the Star Tribune reported. “The governor’s office disputes that.” Yet the newspaper obtained records corroborating that Frey called the governor and that Frey later indicated that “Walz was hesitating.” At 9:11 p.m., then-Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo sent an email to Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington including an attachment requesting “assistance of the MN National Guard for immediate assistance with significant civil unrest occurring in the City of Minneapolis.” The document stated that the police department had “expended all available resources within our Department as well as all available law enforcement assistance from our neighboring jurisdictions.” Arradondo requested 600 National Guard soldiers, as well as vehicles. The mayor’s office sent another request for the National Guard at 10:55 a.m. on Thursday, May 28, noting “widespread looting and arson,” along with injuries sustained by protesters and first responders. Walz Activates the Guard Walz finally activated the National Guard at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, 18 hours after Frey asked him to do so. Walz’s spokesman, Teddy Tschann, said the governor needed more information to deploy the soldiers. “As a 24-year veteran of the Minnesota National Guard, Governor Walz knows how much planning goes into a successful mission,” Tschann said at the time. “That’s why he pushed the City of Minneapolis for details and a strategy. He ordered the Minnesota National Guard to start preparing Thursday morning, which allowed them to deploy to both St. Paul and Minneapolis that evening, per the Mayors’ requests.” Yet the National Guard did not arrive on scene that afternoon. As the Star Tribune reported, soldiers went to other locations, including the Capitol in St. Paul, but troops did not arrive at the south Minneapolis area of the Third Precinct—the site of the worst rioting—until almost 4 a.m. on Friday, May 29, by which time most rioters had left and the precinct had been burning for hours. National Guard Bureau spokesman Rob Perino said Walz was in charge of the timeline. “The governor’s office directs the National Guard to respond—when and where,” he said. “That’s how any state will tell you it goes.” On Friday morning, Walz shifted most of the blame to Frey, condemning his “abject failure” to handle the crisis. Then he revealed a potential reason why he delayed, in a statement that the Center for the American Experiment’s John Phelan and Tom Steward described as “validating anger towards the police.” “The very tools that we need to use to get control, to make sure that buildings aren’t burned and the rule of law collapses, are those very institutional tools that have led to that grief and pain,” he said. Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen, then adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard, explained that guardsmen had been mustered that evening and awaited orders, which he said should have come from Frey. Walz said he deferred to local officials, stressing his fears that the sight of the National Guard might further inflame the situation. Walz did accept some responsibility. “If the issue was the state should’ve moved faster, yeah, that is on me,” he admitted. A Broken Promise Walz promised that Friday night would be different. “There will be no lack of leadership, and there will be no lack of response on the table,” he said. The governor even said he would consider imposing martial law, and he declared an 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew for Minneapolis and St. Paul. Yet when the curfew arrived, no one attempted to enforce it, and the riots began again, with looting, arson, and general mayhem returning to the streets of Minneapolis. As a Japanese restaurant, a Wells Fargo bank, and an Office Depot—among others—burned, firefighters failed to reach them because the areas weren’t secure. Just before midnight and into early Saturday, May 30, hundreds of police officers, state troopers, and National Guard troops moved in, confronting rioters and ordering them to disperse. At 1:30 a.m., Walz and Frey held an emergency press conference, begging the rioters to go home. That Saturday morning, then-President Donald Trump threatened to send in the military in a show of strength. Finally, the National Guard mobilized in effective numbers. More than 1,000 additional citizen-soldiers and airmen joined the 700 who had been on duty the day before. By midday Saturday, the number reached 2,500 personnel. “The governor just announced the full mobilization of the Minnesota National Guard for the first time since World War II,” Jensen, the National Guard leader, said at the time. After four nights of violent riots, the National Guard finally restored relative order, suggesting that Walz could have prevented much of the destruction. Walz’s Mindset In October 2020, the Minnesota Senate’s Transportation and Judiciary and Public Safety committees released a report detailing the state government’s response to the riots. That report shone important light on the apparent mindset behind Walz’s delay, based on hearings the committee conducted. “There is philosophically an argument to be made that an armed presence on the ground in the midst of where we just had a police killing is seen as a catalyst,” Walz stated in the hearings. While he admitted that the catalyst had already occurred and more officers and troops should have been present since the city was already burning, he added that he had been trying to strike a balance between more law enforcement and appeasing the rioters. “The result was on the night of Friday, May 29, after his comments stating more officers and Minnesota National Guard were necessary, law enforcement was not out in full force that night to protect citizens,” the report states. Walz said that “deciding when to move and with what level of force was a delicate balance.” He stressed the importance of “understanding what the community needs, but not coming in heavy-handed with them.” When denouncing the violence and destruction in the riots, Walz’s office told staff that “[h]aving monitored social [media] of other electeds today, we need to be very careful with messaging like this as not to be tone-deaf or dismissive … or put property above people.” Review-of-Lawlessness-and-Government-Responses-to-Minnesotas-2020-RiotsDownload Dismissing the lawlessness and destruction as putting “property over people” featured in the Left’s responses to the riots suggested that bringing law and order would be counterproductive. Yet the riots claimed the lives of at least 26 people and resulted in more than $2 billion in paid insurance claims, becoming the most destructive riots in U.S. history. Walz, as governor of Minnesota during the riots, had a leadership position at ground zero. His delayed response arguably reveals his sympathies for the rioters and his willingness to shift responsibility to avoid blame. Walz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This article will be updated with any response. The post FLASHBACK: Tim Walz Let George Floyd Rioters Burn Minneapolis Before Calling in National Guard appeared first on The Daily Signal.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Trump Media & Technology Group also known as “TMTG” and the company behind the Truth Social platform, has ventured into linear TV streaming for Android devices. The launch, which comes on the heels of the introduction of TV streaming on the web version of Truth Social, allows Android users to enjoy TV streaming directly on the Truth Social app without needing to update their applications. Accessing the feature is streamlined and user-friendly; users just need to click on a TV-shaped Truth+ streaming icon. Streaming content can be viewed as stand-alone channels or in its own Picture-in-Picture (PiP) window, giving users the convenience of browsing through the social media platform while engaging with the streaming content. With this introduction, Devin Nunes, TMTG CEO, expressed satisfaction with the pace of the TV streaming rollout. He added, “The addition of streaming to Android devices is another step toward our goal of creating an uncancellable home for free speech and family-friendly TV content.” The move to launch streaming on Android is a planned progression of TMTG’s phased streaming platform, Truth+. The launch signifies the company’s continued commitment to rigorous stress-testing of its service. Next on the company’s drawing board is TV streaming for iOS users on Truth Social, which will necessitate an app update. Future phases of this rollout are expected to see the integration of highly advanced features, such as instant catch-up TV for any broadcast in the past week, a marketplace, subscription and on-demand video, an interactive two-week electronic guide, and network DVR. TMTG’s plan to diversify its streaming offerings aligns with its strategic vision. The company anticipates expanding its streaming options, with a focus on news and family-friendly programming. Progression of the rollout will allow TMTG to continue stress and beta testing the technology, taking user feedback into account and making improvements before officially declaring the testing phase concluded and the rollout complete. They are also working toward securing a perpetual licensing deal for their new custom-built content delivery network which will enable streaming technology built on their own servers, routers, and software stack. TMTG expects full control over its tech delivery stack, making the service impervious to censorship by Big Tech corporations. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post From Social to TV: Truth Social Launches Streaming Feature appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

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Kansas Newspaper Raid Case Drawing to a Close

Sandwiched between several odes to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after VP Kamala Harris announced him as her running mate, NBC chief political analyst Chuck Todd conceded on MSNBC’s Tuesday installment of Andrea Mitchell Reports that his selection at the expense of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro raised a “yellow flag” about progressives’ ability to bully Harris. First, Todd had to get in the obligatory praise, “Look, I like to say, you know, sometimes people speak Washington and sometimes people speak American. Tim Walz speaks American, you know? He’s not going to tell you about his subcommittee chair, he’s not going to tell you about—I have a feeling he won’t talk about the Veterans Committee, he’ll talk about just helping veterans and things like that. So, in that sense, it strikes me that's what Harris is looking for.”     The fact that Shapiro is Jewish and doesn’t have patience for Hamas sycophants on college campuses led far-left Democrats to oppose him being Harris’s number two, which was not lost on Todd, “but it does tell me, I’m wondering, I have a yellow flag in my head going, ‘huh, if you squeal loud enough, she hears and responds.’ You know, there's going to be people that will come away from this experience thinking, ‘huh, the progressive backlash is what got her off of Shapiro or what got her off of Kelly.’” Todd spared Harris a red flag because, “In fairness, maybe they didn't vet either. Okay, that's also a possibility when all is said and done, but on substance, I can't help but have that takeaway.” Later in the segment USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page returned to MSNBC’s regular scheduled programming by alluding to the idea that Walz was the one who came up with the attack line that Republicans are “weird,” “You now, if the Democrats lose Pennsylvania and then lose the presidency as a result, there’ll be a lot of second-guessing about this decision. On the other hand, Tim Walz is the opposite of weird. Like in a dictionary, if you had ‘weird’ and ‘ant-weird,’ you’d have Tim Walz’s picture there as a high school coach and its history teacher, and a guy that seems as normal as can be.  If Walz is supposed to be the guy who ensures progressives don’t abandon Harris, it wouldn’t make much sense for Republicans to find him appealing, but that didn’t stop Page from trying to wish cast his bipartisan credentials into existence, “maybe in hindsight that'll turn out to be a great decision if Tim Walz is appealing to rural Americans and gets some swing and even Republican votes maybe they wouldn't have gotten with Shapiro on the ticket.” So, Walz is meant to shore up progressive support, but Shapiro wouldn’t appeal to Republicans? How does that make sense? Here is a transcript for the August 6 show: MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 8/6/2024 12:08 PM ET CHUCK TODD: Look, I like to say, you know, sometimes people speak Washington and sometimes people speak American. Tim Walz speaks American, you know? He’s not going to tell you about his subcommittee chair, he’s not going to tell you about—I have a feeling he won’t talk about the Veterans Committee, he’ll talk about just helping veterans and things like that. So, in that sense, it strikes me that's what Harris is looking for, but it does tell me, I’m wondering, I have a yellow flag in my head going, “huh, if you squeal loud enough, she hears and responds.” You know, there's going to be people that will come away from this experience thinking, “huh, the progressive backlash is what got her off of Shapiro or what got her off of Kelly.” In fairness, maybe they didn't vet either. Okay, that's also a possibility when all is said and done, but on substance, I can't help but have that takeaway. … SUSAN PAGE: You now, if the Democrats lose Pennsylvania and then lose the presidency as a result, there’ll be a lot of second-guessing about this decision. On the other hand, Tim Walz is the opposite of weird. Like in a dictionary, if you had “weird” and “ant-weird,” you’d have Tim Walz’s picture there as a high school coach and its history teacher, and a guy that seems as normal as can be. I also wonder if Vice President Harris was affected by her own difficult relationship, fractious with Joe Biden— ANDREA MITCHELL: Absolutely. PAGE: — in the early years of their presidency, of their administration and that she didn't want that and maybe in hindsight that'll turn out to be a great decision if Tim Walz is appealing to rural Americans and gets some swing and even Republican votes maybe they wouldn't have gotten with Shapiro on the ticket, so remains to be seen, but I think often you are fighting the last war and that was for Kamala Harris the last war.

Since ABC’s The View was in between seasons, the Cackling Coven didn’t have a televised outlet to spew their gooey praise for Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick for running mate. Since their vanity couldn’t be satiated by a camera, they had to settle for posting their hot takes lauding Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) on X. Fake Republican Ana Navarro admitted she knew next to nothing about Walz but pledged her undying loyalty to the new Democratic Party ticket anyway. “I don’t know much about #TimWalz. As long as he hasn’t shot a puppy, stabbed a dead bear cub or attacked cat owners, and there are no rumors about him and a porn star or furniture, I’m good with him,” she proclaimed.   I don’t know much about #TimWalz. As long as he hasn’t shot a puppy, stabbed a dead bear cub or attacked cat owners, and there are no rumors about him and a porn star or furniture, I’m good with him. — Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) August 6, 2024   Navarro would be well served to check her cultish behavior. Walz was on record praising the kind of socialism she fled from when she immigrated from Nicaragua. “One person’s socialism is another person's neighborliness,” he touted. He also showed how little he cared about border security when he suggested that he would invest in a company that would make ladders taller than Trump’s border wall. Friday moderator Joy Behar had arguably the most cringe take. “These two will bring smarts and fun back. Enough with the non laughing [sic], angry, crowd,” she boasted, accompanied with grainy photos of both Harris and Walz.   These two will bring smarts and fun back. Enough with the non laughing, angry, crowd. pic.twitter.com/UKm4npEQkc — Joy Behar (@JoyVBehar) August 6, 2024   Moderator Whoopi Goldberg had deactivated her account long ago, Sara Haines hadn’t been active since the beginning of the year, and Sunny Hostin had only posted about a dog rescue group as of publication. As for faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin, she was the only one to provide a kind of rolling reaction to the pick. In a now-deleted post, her initial take announced her thoughts with one word: “Disappointing.” Her second response was to call it “An extraordinary missed opportunity” that Harris didn’t go with Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. “The progressive mob came for Josh Shapiro & a lot of it was gross & simply thinly veiled antisemitism,” she lamented. “But he has a bright future ahead because the VAST majority of this country supports Israel, stands w/our Jewish friends, & would love to see a Jewish VP &or POTUS someday.” In another post, she added: “The mini focus groups of my TL: progressives are cheering Walz, moderates & disillusioned R’s are disappointed.” Over time, she started posting some good things about Walz in a pros and cons list:   Pros of Tim Walz: -strong midwestern messenger. -executive experience as a governor -likely an effective surrogate in critical swing states of MI & WI -flipped a swing seat in Congress Cons: -seen as very progressive on guns & Gaza -not viewed as a moderating force on the… — Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) August 6, 2024   “Tim Waltz served in the Army National Guard. He’ll debate JD Vance who served in the Marines,” she noted. “Last cycle no one on the ticket served in the military. This time there are veterans on the bottom of both tickets.”

Like we saw on ABC and NBC, Tuesday morning’s CBS News Special Report heralded Vice President Kamala Harris’s pick of Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) as her 2024 running mate, calling him an “amiable” “centrist” with a “scrappy” but “easygoing” demeanor. On top of that, he was even seen as dreamy given he’s equally “comfortable talking in a t-shirt and a baseball cap as he is talking in a suit as he is talking in a tuxedo.” Senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang went first in boasting of Walz as “very popular” and “has a voting record on the issues that really lines up with Harris” and ensured there was “no abortion [ban] under his watch” and “passed a massive police reform package.” Jiang also trumpeted how Walz embodied “the power of one word” in political messaging with Walz allegedly coining the term “weird” to describe Republicans. CBS Mornings co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King repeatedly went to former Harris aide-turned-CBS News contributor Ashley Etienne to sing Harris’s praises (even though, like many who work for Harris, never stick around long). Etienne laughably said Walz “rallied his state and moved his state through incredibly tough times” and, in a dig at Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) (since she couldn’t say he wasn’t picked because he’s Jewish), said Walz “can speak to [voters] on their level about issues that matter most to them in a way that I think Shapiro and the others could not.” “I know him, as you put earlier, to be very scrappy...I will tell you he’s incredibly funny. He’s, you know, direct — well, you know, plain spoken and I think that’ll jive very well with the Vice President and her personality,” she added. In response, King gushed that he’s someone people will appreciate since they “like” those who are “plain speaking without being mean. If that’s the case, then why does he think, for example, half the country is “weird” and a bunch of “fascists”? Chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa was also enthralled, calling Walz “fun” and possessing “wit” who will be able to serve as Harris’s “attack dog” and “do it with a smile.” Costa later boasted of “centrist” Walz as someone “who seems amiable, easy-going, can crack a joke, talks about hot dish up in Minnesota, that famous dish they love to do — the casserole, can talk about fishing, but he’s also someone, it must be noted, who politically is well liked by progressives”: Walz a “centrist” and cooks casseroles. CBS’s Robert @CostaReports: He seems “like kind of a centrist Midwesterner in persona...” pic.twitter.com/z3qBDf5ivj — Brent Baker ?? ?? (@BrentHBaker) August 6, 2024 King showed how she felt about Walz: CBS's Gayle King on Tim Walz: “I’m telling you, there seems to be a lot of — there’s something appealing about a guy for people who say it is comfortable talking in a t-shirt and a baseball cap as he is talking in a suit as he is talking in a tuxedo.” pic.twitter.com/LM3uYz8yO9 — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 6, 2024 King let Etienne close things out by promoting Walz under the false notion that Republicans want to ban IVF (click “expand”): ETIENNE: Well, I think there’s one little tidbit we should be aware of and that both his children were conceived via IVF. So, the campaign is saying that he’s going to lean into the reproductive rights fight with the Vice President. This is the year of the woman. This is an advantage that she has over Donald Trump, and he’s going to be an active player, leaning into this issue as — as well. And so, to have a man with this level of conviction and his personal story lean in on this issue is going to be interesting to see on the campaign trail. But they think that he will be an asset when it comes to conveying that message to women, the threat that Donald Trump and Vance pose to their reproductive rights and other rights. KING: I — when you joined us on the broadcast earlier, you said this would be personal for Vice President Harris. This is someone you know well. So, if you could just take us behind the curtain a little bit, personally feelings — how — what do you think that it really — when she went to bed last night, and she woke up this morning, what do you think her first thought was when she woke up and said, Tim Walz is the guy for me? ETIENNE: I think it’s — I think it’s two things that, one, he’s proven that he can win tough races. And secondly, he’s got a deep compassion and conviction for the American people and the plight of the American people and he’s seen it on every end of the political — in every end of the political realm and field, so I think those were the things that probably took her over the edge. To see the relevant transcript from August 6, click “expand.” CBS News Special Report August 6, 2024 9:17 a.m. Eastern WEIJIA JIANG: He is very popular, and he has a voting record on the issues that really lines up with Harris. After George Floyd was killed in his state, he passed a massive police reform package. He said there would be no abortion under his watch in 2022. And, on economics, he said the Democrats really need messaging and to make it more clear. And, Gayle, let’s talk about messaging for a minute and the power of one word. In the early days that Vice President Harris was going to become the likely nominee, we were not talking about Tim Walz. And then, he went on television and one word — he said Republicans were weird and then he gained a lot of attention and his profile soared, and it never really stopped. And again, today, we can report that he will be joining vice president Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket and they will be stumping together in a matter of hours in Philadelphia. GAYLE KING: Weijia Jiang, you raise a really good point. Two weeks ago, we were not talking about Tim Walz but here we are this morning. (....) 9:19 a.m. Eastern ASHLEY ETIENNE: I think the breath of Walz’s experiences is probably what persuaded her most. I mean, being a military veteran, former teacher to a chairman in Congress to an executive governor who rallied his state and moved his state through incredibly tough times, I think makes him incredibly appealing to her and will provide her with this broad perspective that I think she needs, which is, you know, what are the challenging facing the American people, how do we implement legislation and rally congress around it and get it done on the ground in these states? So, I think he’s good for her for that reason and then also, what was just mentioned, the fact that he’s won in these very tough districts, in these tough red-leaning districts, I think, gives him and her — the ticket — a leg up when it comes to going into those areas where the one and two percent — those independent and disaffected Republicans are. He can speak to them on their level about issues that matter most to them in a way that I think Shapiro and the others could not. That’s going to be value add for her going into the next race when it’s going to be decided on the margins. (....) 9:20 a.m. Eastern ETIENNE: So, I — I can imagine he’s overwhelmed with excited but I know him, as you put earlier, to be very scrappy. And so, I can imagine he’s ready to get in and get dirty and push back in all kinds of ways. I don’t know that they had a really good solid relationship before this process started, but neither did she with Biden and neither did Obama with Biden. So, I don’t think that’s a really deciding factor. But I will tell you he’s incredibly funny. He’s, you know, direct — well, you know, plain spoken and I think that’ll jive very well with the Vice President and her personality. KING: Yeah, I think people like plain speaking without being mean. Thank you very much, Ashley. And we can say, Tim Walz, apparently a very good neighbor. He’s got a very nice lawn. Let’s go now to Roberta Costa — let’s go now to Robert Costa because, Robert, people say it doesn’t make a ton of electoral sense. What’s your take on that and why she picked Governor Walz? ROBERT COSTA: Good to be with you, Gayle. In the eyes of many top Democrats close to Vice President Harris, it may not make sense electorally if you were just speaking about a map, but to top Democrats, it does make political sense because they see in Governor Walz someone who can fill the void left by President Biden. President Biden was close to organized labor in this country. He was able to go to the industrial Midwest — I was there with him — and talk to union members and say, you have to stick with the Democrats. Don’t listen to former President Trump. I’m one of you. Let’s stick together as traditional Democrats. And Tim Walz, as the Minnesota governor, has built a record, but he’s also built a relationship with labor and other key constituencies inside the Democratic Party. And so, he’s going to help Harris rebuild that Biden-Harris coalition ahead November, along with all of the personal characteristics he does bring to the race. As Ashley said and as Weijia so ably reported, he has a personality, he has an ability to have a bit of fun, some wit, and he doesn’t mind taking a shot at the GOP. And often, your role as VP is to be the attack dog that can do it with a smile. (....) 9:24 a.m. Eastern KING: But it’s also interesting too, though, Nancy, because he was considered a dark horse. I think that’s what’s fascinating to many people. It seemed to have boiled down to, if you believe what you were hearing in the media, that it boiled down to Mark Kelly and Josh Shapiro, then over the last week we started hearing the name more and more about Tim Walz. What do you make of that, how he appeared, to some, coming out of nowhere, and it’s like running a race and, all of a sudden, he’s ahead of the pack? NANCY CORDES:: What I make of it was that all these people were having to, you know, go from a standing start. And, remember a few weeks ago, we were not even thinking about any of these people being a running mate because we thought that Kamala Harris would be the running mate to President Biden. Suddenly when that changed, yes, Pete Buttigieg, probably better known to a national audience, Josh Shapiro somebody who has been talked about as a person with presidential ambitions. They had the early edge because people knew about them. But Walz proved over the course of a couple weeks that he had really great communication ability. He had a way of making the case that some of the other top contenders didn’t and that could come in handy — not even necessarily in Minnesota, where Democrats haven’t lost a presidential race since 1972 — but in other Midwestern states, certainly like Wisconsin and Michigan, which are big battleground states this year. KING: I’m telling you, there seems to be a lot of — there’s something appealing about a guy for people who say it is comfortable talking in a t-shirt and a baseball cap as he is talking in a suit as he is talking in a tuxedo. I know we gotta go, but can we go back to Bob Costa for just a second? Because, Bob, do you think this was an attempt to satisfy the more liberal wing of the party? What are — what are your thoughts on that? COSTA: It’s fascinating, Gayle, politically, because you look at Governor Tim Walz and, if you have — if you know nothing about him, you see a guy who seems amiable, easy-going, can crack a joke, talks about hot dish up in Minnesota, that famous dish they love to do — the casserole, can talk about fishing, but he’s also someone, it must be noted, who politically is well liked by progressives in the House of Representatives, where he once served. Pramila Jayapal, who’s the leader of the Progressive Caucus, one of the key progressives in the House, she’s been a key stakeholder for him in recent days, saying I’d love to see Tim Walz on ticket. So had former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She’s been advocate for him, kind of winking in recent days that she’d love to see a former House colleague land on the ticket. When you have Pramila Jayapal and Nancy Pelosi both being boosters for your vice presidential candidacy, that says a lot, that even though you may seem like kind of a centrist Midwesterner in persona, politically he touches a lot of bases. (....) 9:27 a.m. Eastern KING: What do you think Tim Walz’s assignment will be in this campaign? ETIENNE: Well, I think there’s one little tidbit we should be aware of and that both his children were conceived via IVF. So, the campaign is saying that he’s going to lean into the reproductive rights fight with the Vice President. This is the year of the woman. This is an advantage that she has over Donald Trump, and he’s going to be an active player, leaning into this issue as — as well. And so, to have a man with this level of conviction and his personal story lean in on this issue is going to be interesting to see on the campaign trail. But they think that he will be an asset when it comes to conveying that message to women, the threat that Donald Trump and Vance pose to their reproductive rights and other rights. KING: I — when you joined us on the broadcast earlier, you said this would be personal for Vice President Harris. This is someone you know well. So, if you could just take us behind the curtain a little bit, personally feelings — how — what do you think that it really — when she went to bed last night, and she woke up this morning, what do you think her first thought was when she woke up and said, Tim Walz is the guy for me? ETIENNE: I think it’s — I think it’s two things that, one, he’s proven that he can win tough races. And secondly, he’s got a deep compassion and conviction for the American people and the plight of the American people and he’s seen it on every end of the political — in every end of the political realm and field, so I think those were the things that probably took her over the edge. KING: All right, well, Ashley, thank you so much. ETIENNE: Alright, Thank you. KING: Thank you, Bob and Nancy Cordes. Democrats will soon have a presidential ticket 13 days before their convention in Chicago and 13 weeks before the presidential election. So, recap, Tim Walz has been in office for five and a half years. He is the current chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. He was also in office during the crisis that followed the murder by police of George Floyd. And he will be the running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris. We have been waiting for the last 48 hours about who it was going to be. Now, we know. Get used to it, people. Harris/Walz is the ticket.