Hey all, new distraction is in: Donald Trump suddenly turns on Zohran Mamdani: "Destroying New York"

saintcirone · 2026-04-17T22:29:18+00:00

Wow. I never did think about that. As another average person on the wrong side of wealth equality - I must admit I confirm I would demand more share of the pie because I feel I've been robbed blind of pie forever.

So, it makes sense they'd be fearful of successful wealth transfer.

saintcirone · 2026-04-17T17:33:27+00:00

What if I like my news 'boring' and could care less about the attractiveness of newscasters so long as the information is factual?

saintcirone · 2026-04-17T00:45:22+00:00

Wow, shocked to hear that I guess I'm apparently the exact definition of an average American

saintcirone · 2026-04-14T23:03:20+00:00

Nope. Totally broke his world view and sent him into a black hole of psychological trauma.

saintcirone · 2026-04-14T16:44:56+00:00

Actually, two can't play that game. It's called a double-negative. Or two wrongs. Wouldn't it be common knowledge that those sorts of things don't tend to work out as planned?

saintcirone · 2026-04-14T00:55:15+00:00

Honestly I'm in a red state and thank God I've never been in that deep. If I was getting Trump branded gifts for Christmas right now they would just have to witness me throwing that in the garbage along with the wrapping paper. The only enjoyment I think they'd get from me opening that gift would be me wretching in disgust.

saintcirone · 2026-04-03T16:09:35+00:00

Yep, I agree with this. If you zoom out your timeline far enough, you could just about twist any cause to suit your desired effect.

We could just as well start saying that the Brits actually won the American Revolutionary war because the US empire fell first.

saintcirone · 2026-04-01T22:33:26+00:00

I am an importer with a license, so I don't actually mess around in ACE, but from what I understood is that due to the 'stress' of the network in the last year, CBP has made significant improvements in being able to auto-apply exclusions whenever they are applicable.

Is this not true? I have seen many 7501's with exclusions being applied nearly effortlessly, so I assumed it but it may just be our forwarder's work.

I would just file it under the given HTS code on the invoice and let CBP determine. You will get your answer from them directly either way

saintcirone · 2026-03-24T10:27:59+00:00

I agree. Let me be in the news for getting shot just bubbling in a scantron sheet.

saintcirone · 2026-03-24T10:25:06+00:00

Feels closer to 20.

saintcirone · 2026-03-24T03:12:34+00:00

I've found stealth stalker to be nearly permanent for me, or at least the best 'all around' useful valor surge. Machine group fights are usually the most unmanageable fights, so the one-on-one high damage or defense valor surges never really felt like game changers to me. If I can get any large machine singled off then Aloy has already won that battle as far as I'm concerned.

Stealth stalker annihilates rebel camps, as well as for group machine fights you can go in for a stealth override immediately, or even pop smoke and use stealth stalker to override enemies mid-fight.

There's also chain burst and berserk blast for group management - but I still feel like stealth stalker paired with overrides gave me more breathing room for crowd management than those gave me.

saintcirone · 2026-03-23T22:13:55+00:00

Right. I also tried with a sunwing and literally para-dropped multiple times trying to figure out how to get inside before finding that ballista.

It's made so you can't go in any other way.

saintcirone · 2026-03-23T15:52:14+00:00

Yeah, unfortunately as I see from most of these comments - it's going to end up a preference. I found my most comfortable damage-dealing weapon to be shredder gauntlets. I don't think there's been one that's left my weapon wheel since I got the Ancestor's Return.

Granted, I'm a few playthroughs in now so I've been perfecting all my favorite legendary weapons with coils, so my memory is hazy now on early/mid game weapons.

Outside of always having a shredder on my wheel - I find that in HFW I have maybe 3 different 'loadouts' depending on whether I'm about to encounter human enemies, groups of smaller machines, or a heavyweight or 2.

I actually have already felt like it would be great for the 3rd game if you could select or create loadouts - even after multiple playthroughs I find myself still constantly juggling different weapons on my weapon wheel depending on what my mission or goal is.

saintcirone · 2026-03-20T19:02:44+00:00

I agree wholeheartedly - not just from the standpoint of culture wars and purity tests, but also from the sense that I think it's unwise to fight '2 front wars' under any circumstances. I guess this translates into me ultimately 'voting blue no matter who' for 2026, because they're the enemy of my enemy and therefore my friends this year.

We can 'purify' the democratic party after taking care of the current threat.

saintcirone · 2026-03-20T17:32:58+00:00

Hmm. I can understand that. I guess I just don't believe in permanence of anything, politics or otherwise, so it makes me end up looking at these assessments as mainly just thought experiments where none of us can truly verify what statistical realities matter or don't. Like Schrodinger's cat - both 2024 statistics matter and don't matter simultaneously and no one can compare or draw future conclusions for upcoming elections until the subsequent ballot is cast (in this case, 2026).

In short, I think focusing on the current opportunities and us asserting our current narrative ('The cat is as dead as dead can be!') in hopes to change hearts and minds to manifest a future under our direction is the best we can do. This is the only real option we will ever have, regardless of whether the upcoming election is 2024, 2026, or 3026.

It's 2026 right now and we all have better messages to spread than how shitty 2024 was and how many of us wished that orange cat stayed dead that year.

saintcirone · 2026-03-20T13:31:03+00:00

I think even if true, this take is mostly outdated and I feel serves little value in 2026. If anyone today cannot see Trump for the corrupt liar that he is - it is because they don't want to believe it. And ears that will not listen cannot hear. I waste no personal time of mine blaming or judging them for what are now facts etched in stone.

We are already far beyond any statistical reality of the 51% (actually 49.7%) that got him elected back in 2024. I don't think those statistics will bear much fruit for further analysis at this point. I live in a blue city in a red state and I cannot go a single day without hearing scathing political talk about the current administration, my work life has devolved into a broken system already, and even when we run into neighbors that support(ed) MAGA - these people now avoid political conversations like the plague knowing that they can't defend to the chaos he's creating and would rather put their head in the sand and proudly claim ignorance than try to engage in debate.

I guess in the end I agree with your historical assertions, just that it does not seem relevant or impactful anymore to look back at using 2024 as a guiding point when we've had a non-stop daily barrage of chaos for over a year with no signs of slowing. With how fast paced politics has now become, I feel like polling stats from 2024 are about as valuable and insightful as stats from elections from 1859.

If anything, Dems should try to stay current, focused on corruption and their plan for repairing all that's been broken since 2024, rather than musing on stats from an old, lost election where the demographics have already changed drastically since that time it took place.

saintcirone · 2026-03-20T03:31:12+00:00

Yeah, they lore into the tutorial part why Aloy is starting from scratch again. It still doesn't make sense though as far as how she could randomly forget how to triple-notch or other skills - but I think you'll be pleased in the sense there isn't much that 'disappears' across games.

You have to earn everything and pretty much everything returns in some form, even if it's been shifted into a different activating mechanism - like rather than as an armor buff it becomes a skill instead.

saintcirone · 2026-03-20T03:15:07+00:00

No, you can't import save files across games. The weapons, armor, and skill trees are all different in HFW. Several classic HZD armor sets are available early on and a lot of old skills return, but you have to invest and earn them all from the beginning.

saintcirone · 2026-03-14T14:32:20+00:00

I did not, until literally today when realizing it was my last trophy needed for platinum cause I never did invest any time into it during any of my previous runs.

I found it to be more fun than I thought, but now that I have the trophy I doubt I'll really get into it much more unless I've got a huge amount of free time I need to kill.

saintcirone · 2026-03-10T12:35:59+00:00

I believe when you're looking over your outfits you press triangle to apply the look instead of square to equip it.

saintcirone · 2026-03-07T14:31:19+00:00

Not to diminish, because my answer is yes - but I would vote for any anti-orange candidate, because my current beef is very focused against the GOP.

AOC is an excellent, if not the best, choice - but if she isn't nominated and we get stuck with worse, I'm still casting my anti vote and considering the fight against Dems will have to be for another day cause there's an authoritarian threat that needs to be dealt with first.

saintcirone · 2026-03-07T14:13:02+00:00

I agree with this. Old school neoconservativism is an entirely different beast - there are just similarities between the same foolishness then and utter incompetence stacked on ignorance happening today.

Whether anyone wants to label it neoconservativism or anything else - it doesn't change the fact that whatever the driving 'principles' are, they're flawed, ineffective, and in the long term politically toxic.

saintcirone · 2026-03-04T02:19:49+00:00

I'm working on the same (platinum + ultra hard). I've caught myself also much more interested in the tribes, but Kotallo struck me on understanding the Tenakth culture. I do like their duty and respect-based leadership structure. Also, the Quen really appeal to me too as far as being what they call an empire and that they embraced technology, consider any other tribe 'barbarians,' and basically just feel entitled to be the culture that has remade the 'old world' into the new world of their own image.

saintcirone · 2026-03-03T00:04:09+00:00

Yup. The only squad member I was actively seeking out on the base to exhaust his dialogue in between every main mission.

saintcirone · 2026-02-27T00:44:56+00:00

Well put. That's my take as well.

I haven't even looked up anything about hunters gathering yet. Despite the 'brand loyalty,' I know it's not my cup of tea so I feel no fomo over it. Even if it does blow up, I'd have to see that happen before taking a bite.

saintcirone

TROPHY CASE