Saturday, December 31, 2022

Links - 31st December 2022 (2 - Star Wars)

Boba Fett is dead: how Disney+ ruined Star Wars’ coolest character - "The Book of Boba Fett has resurrected the badass bounty hunter, only to destroy everything that once made him so great. It’s a fate worse than being eaten alive... In The Book of Boba Fett, the once-menacing freelancer has become a softie with a heart of gold. He has relinquished his title as a bounty hunter, become so curiously forgiving that he actually set free a Wookiee assassin just moments after it tried to murder him in his sleep, stroked a rancor behind its ear as if it were his oversized house cat and called a Tusken raider “mate”. It all started during an episode of The Mandalorian, in which Boba was properly reintroduced to audiences, where he spoke of his fear and disapproval of the Empire – one of his former and frequent clients. Within minutes, he was fighting for the light side for the very first time, having inexplicably been repositioned as a “good guy”. Or a guy with a moral compass, at least. Whatever he is now, he’s unrecognisable from the character that once fascinated Star Wars fans.  This is the same Boba who previously had no problem working for notorious choker Darth Vader and notorious chokee Jabba the Hutt."

The Book Of Boba Fett Represents The Best (And The Worst) Of Modern Star Wars - "The Fett of old is an individualistic, ruthless bounty hunter. While it's exciting to see him take center stage, it's disappointing that Disney is watering him down and turning him into a good-hearted freedom fighter instead of a morally gray cynic. The series also too often makes its reliance on existing iconography and characters apparent. Its re-vamp of the Tusken Raiders is a refreshing change of pace. Yet, introducing more Hutt characters, a Rancor, and a Wookie bounty hunter all feels overdone and lazy. Just like how the Star Wars sequel trilogy re-hashed popular elements from the original three films, The Book of Boba Fett continues to milk every familiar piece of Tatooine's iconography instead of introducing new characters and places.  When the series does add something new, its effectiveness is questionable. The most jarring new element is the biker gang and their multicolored speeder scooters, which are both laughable and not at all intimidating. This problem stems from the use of iconography that is too rooted in the real world, something Episode VIII: The Last Jedi also implemented in its infamous Canto Bight scene."

The Book Of Boba Fett's Scooter Chase Is The Worst Star Wars Has Been Since The Prequels - "In a somewhat on-the-nose reference to the vintage Vespas and Lambrettas favoured by the British mods of the 1960s, Mos Espa's Mods ride around on polished, dazzlingly colourful hover-scooters. They're even covered in mirrors, in the same way mods in the '60s would decorate their scooters with mirrors, badges, lights, spinners, and other chrome-plated embellishments to help them stand out from the crowd. It probably sounded better in the concept artists' heads. Harking back to Earth's past is nothing new in Star Wars, of course—whether it's Vader's samurai-inspired armour, Dexter Jettster's 1950s diner, or the fact the films are stuffed with references to George Lucas' love of California hot rod culture. Sometimes it definitely works. Vader's robes evoking a feudal Japanese lord is a nice piece of design. But in the case of that kitschy space diner, and The Book of Boba Fett's scooter-riding Mods, it just doesn't fit. In fact, all it does is pull me out of the illusion that this is a galaxy far, far away. The Mods themselves look like characters from a low budget movie adaptation of a YA novel, with some conspicuously plastic-looking robot parts glued to their faces. Also, for a scrappy, impoverished street gang forced to steal water simply to survive, they sure look well turned out—and seemingly have enough spare money to keep their scooters pristine, polished, and in perfect working order. Everything just feels off with them. From the moment they first appeared on screen I was like, nah. You've lost me here, Favreau. Anyway, whatever your opinion of the Mods, and whether you think they're a good fit for Star Wars or not, I think both sides of the debate can agree that the chase towards the end of the episode is awful. As the mayor of Mos Espa's cowardly majordomo flees in a speeder, the Mods spring to action, jumping on their scooters and chasing after him—at about five miles per hour. It's one of the most languid, low energy chase scenes I've seen... when Drash skims across a rooftop and lands on the fleeing majordomo's car, it's all floaty and weird—like a video game with poorly implemented physics. What should have been a thrilling ending left me wondering if I should even watch the next episode."
Worst since the sequels, rather

Has anyone noticed that Boba Fett is losing more and more armor pieces? And why is it like this? : StarWars

Boba Fett Episode 6 Review: From the Desert Comes a Stranger (or Two) - "there’s a curious lack of stakes to The Book of Boba Fett. Bane shoots Vanth in the shoulder, but the scene makes it clear that the wound is not fatal. Instead, Bane brutally and repeatedly shoots Vanth’s deputy dead, killing a minor character who lacks Vanth’s popularity and Olyphant’s star power. The climax then tries to escalate the stakes when the Pykes bomb the bar owned by Garsa Fwip (Jennifer Beals), but it all feels curiously passive.  Then again, this is how stakes work in The Book of Boba Fett. The show will eagerly kill off entire tribes or bars full of anonymous characters in the hopes of provoking an audience reaction, but it hesitates to kill off any individual character who might be marketable outside of the show itself. It is deeply frustrating and adds to the sense that The Book of Boba Fett is a show about watching its creators play with action figures while afraid of scuffing the paint work.   This is obvious in how the episode treats Luke Skywalker. Vanth was an actual character who was being used in service of the story being told and who was played by an actual performer. In contrast, Luke really does feel more like a prop. He is, in a very literal way, a living special effect more than an actual character. There is something depressingly mundane in how “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” treats Luke, while also allowing him to completely suck the air out of the episode around him... At one point, Luke shares a memory with Grogu, “I want to tell you about someone you remind me of a great deal.” “Yoda’s Theme” helpfully swells in the background, to stir the audience’s memory. “Do you remember back home?” Luke asks Grogu. “Would you like to remember? Let me help you remember.” He may as well be talking directly to the audience at home. It’s about evoking a half-forgotten memory... While the episode works hard to make sure that Luke is always in motion, the narrative itself seems almost afraid to actually do anything more than gaze at him in silent appreciation.   After all, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” brings together Luke and Ahsoka... this shared link between the two characters is reduced to a single line of dialogue, with Ahsoka noting that Luke is “so much like (his) father” before she presumably hops in her ship and flies off to launch her own Star Wars spin-off.  In this way, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” completes a process that really began with Solo: A Star Wars Story. It turns Star Wars into something mundane and generic. Even the appearance of the franchise’s original protagonist is no longer an event, but instead business as usual. There’s a creeping sense that The Book of Boba Fett isn’t really a story, but instead a television series-shaped holding repository for Star Wars content.   There is some small irony here. Even though Boba Fett only appears in a single scene, which is still more than he appeared in the episode immediately prior, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger” offers the most nuanced take on the bounty hunter of this self-titled series to date. Confronting Vanth, and trying to convince the Marshal to stand down, Cad Bane warns the law man, “Boba Fett is a cold-blooded killer who worked with the Empire.”  There is something compelling in that summary of Boba Fett, suggesting the shadows that haunt a character desperately seeking redemption. Unfortunately, a throwaway line from a guest character hints at a far more interesting show than The Book of Boba Fett has turned out to be."

Meme - "When you realise that Jar Jar earned Windu's respect in less than 2 days while Anakin couldn't earn it in 13 years"

Meme - "Have you ever removed your helmet?"
"I have"
"Then you are a Mandalorian no more."
"Alright, fuck y'all. I'm gonna go hang out with Boba Fett"
"And so then she said I wasn't a Mandalorian anymore!"
"You have the Darksaber, Bro. Tell her that SHE'S no longer a Mandalorian"

Meme - Palpatine: "Get help, you are no match for him, he is a Sith Lord."
Obi-Wan: "Sith Lords are our speciality, Darth Sidious"
Palpatine: "F*ck"
Dooku: "Yeah, I told them. Now you are tied to a chair in a room with three guys who really liked certain Qui-Gon Jinn, and don't take the Code too seriously."

Attack Of The Clones Has The Best Ending In Star Wars - "Attack of the Clones' Ending Reveals The Sith Have Already Won...
When viewers first heard mention of Obi-Wan Kenobi's heroism during the Clone Wars in the first Star Wars, they assumed they would tell a story of triumph - but this ending recasts them as a tragedy... "The shroud of the dark side has fallen," Master Yoda observes as he looks out at a sky colored the hue of Sith red. "Begun, the Clone War has." This ominous comment was, in part, explained by Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi; although set during a different era, it revealed a Jedi loses their ability to draw upon the Force when they are surrounded by pain, anguish, and suffering. This is why the Jedi were losing the ability to draw upon the Force, and would continue to do so as the Clone Wars raged across the galaxy. Their vision was becoming impaired by the dark side, and they would not see Palpatine's inevitable betrayal coming until it was too late... The final scene in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones is the marriage of Anakin and Padmé. At first glance there seems to be a strange discontinuity to this, for it feels an optimistic moment; but in truth, this is, as noted, the entire galaxy's shatterpoint. Attack of the Clones confirmed it is possible to leave the Jedi - Count Dooku himself was one of the Lost Twenty - and yet Anakin has not chosen to do so. Instead, he will live a life of hypocrisy, tied by two competing attachments; to Padmé, and to the Jedi. Anakin's marriage to Padmé will leave him vulnerable to the manipulation of the Sith, ultimately leading to his transformation into Darth Vader. So this is how the light dies; with a kiss. George Lucas played to his strengths with the last four scenes in Attack of the Clones' ending. He is no master at dialogue, but thankfully the film's ending doesn't involve too many conversations. Instead, the focus lies on stunning imagery, with every aspect of the various scenes working together to sum up the entire Clone Wars in a matter of moments. It's storytelling at its best, and Lucas is to be respected for pulling it off so well."

20 years ago, the most underrated Star Wars movie changed canon forever - "If there’s one aspect of Attack of the Clones that was then — and still is — consistently lambasted, it’s how Padmé and Anakin’s romance lacks realism, or at the very least, chemistry. Anakin admits to murdering a bunch of Tusken Raiders, and Padmé later says she “truly, deeply” loves him. Anakin’s infamous remark about how he hates sand also comes from this movie, as do a few on-the-nose clunkers, like “I wish I could just wish my feelings away.”  However! George Lucas didn’t do this by accident. In the 2020 book The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, Lucas makes it clear he knew exactly what he was doing with the dialogue in Attack of the Clones. Behold, the maker in his own words: “Let’s face it, their dialgoue in that scene [by the fireplace] is pretty corny. It is presented very honestly, it isn’t tongue in cheek at all and it’s played to the hilt. But it is consistent, no only with the rest of the movie, but with the overall Star Wars style. Most people don’t understand the style of Star Wars. They don’t get that there is an underlying motif that is very much like a 1930s Western or Saturday matinee serial. It’s in the more romantic period of making movies and adventure films. And this film is even more of a melodrama than the others.”"
Plus you wouldn't expect two people with no dating experience removed from real life to be good at sweet talk

The Clone Wars: The Jedi Council's Most Boneheaded Decisions - "While Order 66 would have been a contrived plan to foresee, the fact that the Jedi knew about Dooku's involvement and still went on without investigating further is too egregious an error to ignore"

Lucasfilm Knowing Rise of Skywalker Was a Disaster Can Improve Star Wars - "In a new Vanity Fair article detailing Lucasfilm's upcoming plans for television projects on Disney+, it is outright stated that the reason Lucasfilm put all film projects on "hiatus" months before The Rise of Skywalker's release was that it was quickly realizing what a disaster it had on its hands.
Weird how they put the projects on hiatus before TROS came out. Almost as if they knew TLJ was the true disaster

What Does George Lucas Think of the Star Wars Sequels? - "While the initial reception for The Force Awakens was generally positive, Lucas felt differently. "They wanted to do a retro movie," he told Charlie Rose in a video interview for PBS. "I don't like that. Every movie, I worked very hard to make them different... I made them completely different — different planets, different spaceships to make it new." This was further confirmed by Bob Iger in his memoir The Ride of a Lifetime, in which the former Disney CEO elaborated on Lucas' disappointment with the film. After watching an early cut of the movie, Lucas had expressed to him that "there's nothing new" and that "there weren’t enough visual or technical leaps forward."... According to Ian McDiarmid, Lucas told him the Emperor was always meant to stay "absolutely dead" after the end of Return of the Jedi... Recent shows like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett have become huge hits for Disney, and Lucas himself has reportedly enjoyed the former. He even showed up on the set of Season 2, as seen on the behind-the-scenes featurette Disney Gallery, holding Grogu and sharing a few laughs with the crew"

Why the Term 'JEDI' Is Problematic for Describing Programs That Promote Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion - Scientific American - "JEDI stands for “justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.”... Through its connections to Star Wars, the name JEDI can inadvertently associate our justice work with stories and stereotypes that are a galaxy far, far away from the values of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. The question we must ask is whether the conversations started by these connections are the ones that we want to have... The Jedi are inappropriate mascots for social justice. Although they’re ostensibly heroes within the Star Wars universe, the Jedi are inappropriate symbols for justice work. They are a religious order of intergalactic police-monks, prone to (white) saviorism and toxically masculine approaches to conflict resolution (violent duels with phallic lightsabers, gaslighting by means of “Jedi mind tricks,” etc.). The Jedi are also an exclusionary cult, membership to which is partly predicated on the possession of heightened psychic and physical abilities (or “Force-sensitivity”). Strikingly, Force-wielding talents are narratively explained in Star Wars not merely in spiritual terms but also in ableist and eugenic ones...   Star Wars has a problematic cultural legacy. The space opera franchise has been critiqued for trafficking in injustices such as sexism, racism and ableism...   JEDI connects justice initiatives to corporate capital... Aligning justice work with Star Wars risks threatening inclusion and sense of belonging. While an overarching goal of JEDI initiatives is to promote inclusion, the term JEDI might make people feel excluded. Star Wars is popular but divisive... The abbreviation JEDI can distract from justice, equity, diversity and inclusion"
Wokeness ruins everything after all

Lucasfilm prepped Star Wars actress against 'racist' blowback for Obi-Wan role - "Moses Ingram is slated to play a Sith inquisitor character named Reva, who is on the hunt for Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi... In order to comply with Chinese authorities, Disney shrunk Boyega’s character on the "The Force Awakens" poster in December 2015."
Before release, they thought it was going to fail

After Endorsing Calling All White People Racist, Lucasfilm Prepped Actress Moses Ingram Against "Racist Backlash" To Her Obi-Wan Kenobi Character - "Ingram’s revelation that Lucasfilm believes their Star Wars fanbase is racist comes a little over a year after the company endorsed supporting calling all white people racist.  If you recall back in January 2021, Bounding Into Comics reported that newly hired Star Wars: The High Republic host Krystina Arielle had previously claimed that white people are racist.  In March 2020, Arielle tweeted “White people: f***ing stop it. Your racism won’t save you. Your ignorance is not an excuse.” In May 2020 she wrote, “White conservatives please stop invoking racism like you give a s***. You don’t. You just want to be able to say ‘what about’ when someone calls out 45 and his blatant racism.” In June 2020, she also wrote, “Just a reminder that White Women are just as complicit in the upholding and enforcing White Supremacy.” The official Star Wars account came out in support of Arielle, writing, “Our Star Wars community is one of hope and inclusivity. We do not stand for bullying and racism. We support Krystina Arielle.”... In the interview, the outlet cites the often repeated lies that John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran received racist fan harassment following their respective roles in the recent Disney’s Star Wars trilogy.  For years, the media blamed racist backlash for Kelly Marie Tran temporarily leaving social media despite the fact that the actress never claimed that the supposed online harassment was the reason she left social media in the first place.  Instead, they took comments she made in a letter to the New York Times about being a woman and a person of color and conflated that with the negative reaction fans had to the film The Last Jedi in order to discredit criticism of the movie.   John Boyega defended Kelly publicly but was never a target of negative backlash himself, as a matter of fact, people defended Boyega when he spoke out against the Disney owned property who he accused of sidelining black characters in the film and doing things such as removing his character from Chinese promotions of the movie in order to please the market and earn more money...   It’s also possible this could be all part of Lucasfilm’s tired marketing strategy, one they allegedly used to promote Star Wars: The High Republic.  Novelist and comic book creator Jon Del Arroz posited that calling Star Wars fans racist, as they did when fans were justifiably upset with Arielle’s comments, was actually part of their marketing strategy. Del Arroz explained, “This is just a marketing gimmick for Disney at the end of the day because there is no talk about The High Republic that is positive. Nobody is interested in the comics. Nobody is interested in the books. Nobody is interested in the show discussing the comics and books.”... Aside from claiming that Lucasfilm believes their own fans are racist, Ingram also explained how the Disney+ series will add some much-needed “diversity” to the world of Star Wars"
Calling out anti-white racism is bullying and racism

Meme - "I hire a minority actor
Make them the most cringy and unlikable character ever written
I claim ANY criticism of their character is racism deeply embedded in the fandom
The intense alienation makes it so that actor can never find work in Hollywood again"

Star Wars - Posts | Facebook - "There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist. We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist."
"What exactly makes her special? Lando, Greef, and Gideon are chop liver? Was there not adequate representation? Don't tell the Togrutas. They'd be pissed...  Sad to see Disney drive an incredible franchise in the ground."

Meme - "Damn this new Star Wars character sucks"
"It's because she's black and a woman, isn't it? You're definitely sexist + racist."
"What? How does that make me any of those? I just don't like her character, she's boring as hell. It has nothing to do with her race or gender."
"That's something a sexist/racist would say. We're gonna cancel you on twitter."

Meme - "In Darth Vader's death scene, you can hear blaster shots going off in the background. Luke is the only Rebel on Death Star 2, and the stormtroopers aren't shooting at him. The Death Star is getting ready to explode, and all the imperial troops are evacuating. So the only thing those blaster shots could be are stormtroopers killing each other for spots on the ships."

Meme - Twi'lek: "Babe, I told you the carpet matches the drapes"
Man: "(gagging) I thought you were talking about the color"

Meme - "Things may be tough now but theres always a light at the end of the tunnel.
The light at the end of the tunnel"

‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Episode 3 Recap: Path of the Jedi - "Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) asks, “Are we almost there?” He says he doesn’t know. She asks if he could use the Force to make them go faster. He says that’s not how the Force works. When she asks what it is like (and it’s very clear that she has a deep connection to the Force already, whether she knows it or), he asks if she’s ever been afraid of the dark. She says yes. He says the Force is like turning on a light. It makes you feel safe. What makes this whole exchange very funny is that it’s an old, grumpy Jedi, refusing to teach a young female Force-user how to properly weird her power after his earlier protégé goes bad. It’s almost exactly the set-up of “The Last Jedi,” a “Star Wars” movie that caused such outrage that angry nerds are still posting about it on the Internet to this day. Apparently, this scenario is okay for Obi-Wan but not for Luke. Got it."
This was very lame. In his zeal to get in a cheap jibe (obviously he's still bitter that fans didn't like a bad film even after so many years) he makes a nonsensical claim

Meme - ">Luke did I ever tell you had the chance to kill your father twice but I decided to let him alive so the citizens of the galactic empire has to suffer for decades >and he was a good friend"

Meme - "Who you become now, that is up to you"
"I'm Reva.. Reva Skywalker"

Meme - Trey the Explainer @Trey_Explainer: "Everybody talks about Obi Wan aging between movies. Nobody talks about my man Kit. The Clone Wars changed him."

Meme - "Luke during this time was an urban legend to the Empire. Remember by the end of Return of the Jedi, he was responsible for the destruction of two death stars. He was in a room with Darth Vader and the emperor. From the perspective of any witnesses, the emperor never made it out and he walked out with Darth Vader's dying defeated body. He is the only known living jedi left. This is what is going through Moff Gideon's head as he watches in terror as a cloaked force weilding figure with a light saber easily dismantles his army of Dark Troopers because he knows it could only be him."

Make 'Star Wars' Weird Again - "There is a moment near the start of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace that lets you in on what type of film you’re about to watch. In it, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (an anaesthetised Liam Neeson) and his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi (a spritely Ewan McGregor) are hiding from the Trade Federation, looking on as their droid army prepares to launch an invasion of the peaceful planet, Naboo. Obi-Wan turns to Qui-Gon with a twinkle in his eye and says: “You were right about one thing, master… the negotiations were short.” As far as quips go, it's an absolute groaner: tonally incongruous with what’s meant to be a terrifying discovery, and delivered in a way that bounces off Neeson’s dead eyes with a muffled splat. It is a moment that’s as odd as a nest of Gundarks is tense, one of many in a trilogy that’s packed full of dialogue, delivery and decisions that leave you thinking why on Endor you’d choose to do this like that.   It is everything that Star Wars should be, but won't be again: weird.   Where George Lucas’s films feel like a only child entertainingly introducing you to their favourite action figures one by one before putting them in the microwave, the Disney films and series – including Solo, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+ – feel like a 36-year-old ad exec bragging about how they’ve diversified their portfolio by investing in Funko Pops. Say what you want about the oft-maligned prequel trilogy, they are at least memorable. Lucas’s habit of spilling his unconscious neuroses into Star Wars’ every nook, cranny and gynocentric Sarlacc pit really bubbled over in the prequels, where he had had more time and control of this thing that had expanded beyond the bounds of franchise and out into the twinkling imaginations of two generations of fans and a forever altered cultural zeitgeist. Free of the cowardly bet-hedging of big studios, Lucas was able to make films that were resolutely his, and he has always been nothing if not a very weird little guy."
Maybe this is why the prequels are so memable

Meme - "We need to send the right Jedi to protect Senator Amidala"
Coleman Trebor: "I'll do it"
"No you're a literal dinosaur. You'll scare her"
"I can go Master"
"No, irresistible you are Obi Wan. Fall in love she will"
"Skywalker, your best pick up line tell us"
"I don't like sand. It's coarse, rough, irritating and it gets everywhere"
"The best you have that is. Send you we will, hopeless you are"

The Rise Of Skywalker Toys are Already on Clearance - YouTube - "Retailers clearly have little faith in Episode IX"
From Nov 2019, before the movie came out

Meme - "Don't make Star Wars political"
"1. Queer characters existing isn't political 2. Star WARS is literally in our name"
"Please explain number 2. What's your point?"
"the original star wars was an allegory of the Vietnam War"
"It absolutely was not, unless the Empire is the USA."
This is like saying crude Jack Neo movies' social commentary is the same as Star Trek's vision of a post scarcity future

Meme - "Ffs Disney. Censoring Leia's slave outfit by replacing it with the cold-weather costume from the PREVIOUS movie, is peak Disney. We wouldn't want some dirty man to find her hot, now would we?! These people will never be happy until all female characters wear burkas. #StarWars"

Meme - "Master, I'm calling to report that I've apprehended Maul and I'm heading back to Coruscant"
"Oh hi Snips. Hey, random question: What would you do if Master Windu and the Chancellor were battling to the death because he's a Sith and-"
"Anakin, What kind of a question is that? What did you do this time?!?"
"I did nothing, this is purely hypothetical. Now answer the question I'm running out of time."

Meme - "In a movie the heroes usually go from screen left screen right. But at the Battle of Geonosis the clones go from screen right to screen left. Foreshadowing their betrayal in Revenge of the Sith"

Mad haven — claudiajeancregg-concannon: ... - "#I’m still so amused that han’s idea of formal wear is “exactly the same shit but buttoned up above the clavicle”     #that’s his idea of getting dressed up     #luke is wearing his nice formal black and leia is statuesque with half a ton of braids on her head     #but han just….did up two or three buttons…     #mY LOSER SPACE SON"
"# can we also talk about the fact that Luke is wearing Han’s clothes. #which makes sense since his home was burned he didn’t bring a change of clothes # so this means Han put off wearing new threads to this thing and let Luke wear his only other good clothes #but what about you, Han #eh, it’s fine kid, I’ll just button up the collar."

Star Wars - Posts | Facebook - "Artist Jack Hughes celebrates LGBTQ+ History Month with a brilliant piece of art highlighting women of the Star Wars"
Is this saying all women are bi?

Meme - TomMorello @tmorello: "Yesterday I went into the Cantina at the new Star Wars land at Disneyland and the bartender leans over, sneakily gives me this, and whispers, "It's not often we get Resistance General in here: Thank you for your service." I almost cried."
*RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE T-SHIRT*

What Really Caused the James Smith Cree Nation Stabbings?

What Really Caused the James Smith Cree Nation Stabbings?

"Police found 10 dead and 18 wounded people on the reserve and in the nearby community of Weldon – all victims of a brutal series of knife attacks by Myles Sanderson. Many of those he killed were among the extended family of his partner Vanessa Burns; he also killed his brother Damien a day later. On Wednesday, one more fatality was added to the toll. After a high-speed police chase, Myles was caught and, according to the RCMP, subsequently went into “medical distress.” He was later pronounced dead, possibly due to a self-administered overdose of fentanyl. His rampage stands as one of Canada’s worst mass killings, and certainly the worst ever to take place on a native reserve. In her last public statement before her death, Queen Elizabeth II said “I mourn with all Canadians at this tragic time.”...

As residents in this close-knit community of 1,900 expressed disbelief and uncertainty about the tragedy, others much farther way claimed to know with greater precision what the massacre was really about, and what caused it. Outspoken Indigenous activist and Globe and Mail columnist Tanya Talaga dismissed those who addressed Sanderson’s addictions and violent behaviour and instead pointed the finger at everyone else. It was “the social fallout of residential schools and racist policies such as the Indian Act” that explained the tragedy, she wrote. “It is time for Canada to take responsibility” for the problems faced by aboriginal communities, particularly breaking up native families via the prison system, Talaga added. In other words, we’re all to blame.

This unwillingness to ascribe personal responsibility was echoed by Chief Wilton Littlechild, a former Conservative MP and commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In an interview with the CBC Littlechild said, “If you look at what’s behind each individual’s life choices…I’m sure you can trace it back to residential school history. If their parents didn’t go…there’s still that intergenerational trauma after for those that didn’t go.”

Winnipeg Free Press columnist and University of Manitoba professor Niigaan Sinclair went even further, arguing that native trauma (a word he used ten times in his short op-ed) caused by the rest of the country was the true cause of the murders. “All [Indigenous people] are residential school survivors in one shape or another, whether it be experiencing that nightmarish system first hand or intergenerationally…Too many times, this turns to violence,” Sinclair wrote. “What was perpetrated last week was a product of Canada’s history of mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. A genocide returned home.” As for a solution, Sinclair said it “will not be found in more police, jails or blaming First Nations.”  

All three elite Indigenous voices sought to indict Canada’s allegedly racist, colonial and genocidal past – and especially the Indian Residential School system – as the true guilty party in the James Smith Cree Nation killings. Any notion of individual responsibility on Sanderson’s part was waved away in favour of systemic arguments casting blame on the rest of society. This is not a new line of thinking. The notion that Indigenous Canadians should be treated differently – in general, more leniently – than offenders of other races for historical reasons has become firmly embedded in Canada’s justice system. In effect, they are considered victims as much as lawbreakers. And the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in Canada’s prisons is seen as conclusive evidence that much more must be done in this regard.

Yet after nearly three decades of such leniency and victimhood, the situation is not improving. Judging by the blood on the ground at the James Smith Cree Nation in September, it is getting worse. And it is law-abiding Indigenous Canadians who are paying the ultimate price. 

Parliament in 1996 amended the Criminal Code by inserting clause 718.2(e), which requires courts sentencing convicted criminals to consider “all available sanctions, other than imprisonment, that are reasonable in the circumstances and consistent with the harm done to victims or to the community with particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders.” (Emphasis added.) This measure’s specific goal was to reduce the number of Indigenous people in Canada’s prison system. At the time, aboriginal Canadians comprised approximately 2.7 percent of Canada’s overall population, but 15 percent of its prisoners.

Clause 718.2(e) came to play a central role in Canada’s justice system following the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 Gladue decision. The case is noteworthy for how it upends conventional stereotypes of gender-based violence as well as its profound influence on Canadian jurisprudence. Jamie Gladue was an Indigenous woman who suspected her common-law husband Reuven Beaver of having an affair with her sister. The situation came to a head during Gladue’s 19th birthday party in September 1995. After Beaver and her sister snuck away, Gladue exclaimed, “He’s going to get it. He’s really going to get it this time.” As the trial judge later noted, Gladue “was not afraid of [Beaver]; indeed, she was the aggressor.” When Beaver re-appeared a little while later, the five-months-pregnant Gladue grabbed a knife and chased him out of their apartment and down the hallway. Confronting him near her sister’s doorway, she then stabbed him in the heart. A neighbour afterwards heard her exclaim, “I got you, you f*****g bastard.”

After pleading guilty to manslaughter, Gladue was handed a three-year sentence. She appealed, claiming the trial judge did not sufficiently consider her aboriginal background, as required by clause 718.2(e). In its decision, the Supreme Court chose not to reduce Gladue’s sentence, noting her crime was a “particularly serious one.” (In fact, Gladue served a mere six months in prison and was out on parole a year before the Supreme Court even heard her case.) The court did, however, find the trial judge erred in not taking sufficient note of her status as an Indigenous offender living off-reserve.

As a result of this ruling, trial judges are now directed to request a pre-sentencing report that considers “the unique systemic or background factors which may have played a part in bringing the particular aboriginal offender before the courts; and the types of sentencing procedures and sanctions which may be appropriate in the circumstances for the offender because of his or her particular aboriginal heritage or connection.” This is known as a “Gladue report.” Factors commonly included are a history of cultural oppression, poverty, abuse and addiction as well as residential school attendance, either by the offender or their ancestors.

While the Gladue decision stated that the extra consideration for aboriginals should not automatically create leniency in sentencing, there seems little doubt such has become the de facto situation. Gladue reports have become a key component of the restorative justice movement, which focuses on “healing, reparation and reintegration” rather than overt punishment. Indigenous offenders now have a variety of preferential measures offered to them, including serving time in healing lodges rather than prison and what is called a “Section 84 community release.” These accommodations are unavailable to non-native offenders. And this preference for race-based sentencing procedures is expanding to other ethnicities. Nova Scotia judges can now request “cultural assessments” prior to sentencing black offenders that are strikingly similar to Gladue reports, a practice that could eventually expand across the country...

Despite nearly 30 years of effort, however, the Gladue era must surely be regarded as a failure... the incarceration rate for Indigenous people was still eight times higher than for the rest of the population. In his most recent report, Correctional Investigator of Canada Ivan Zinger reveals that Indigenous inmates account for a staggering 32 percent of total prisoners in custody – double the percentage when clause 718.2(e) was added in 1996...

Despite more than a quarter-century of policies explicitly meant to keep Indigenous people out of jail, nothing has improved. Says Zinger, “Overrepresentation of Indigenous people in correctional settings remains one of Canada’s most pressing human rights issues, and is evidence of public policy failures over successive decades as no government has been able to stop or reverse this trend.” Curiously, no one seems prepared to consider that the source of this ongoing problem might be found in the policies of the Gladue era itself...
 
Anyone who has followed the rise of critical race theory will spot the embedded logical flaw. Not everyone is equally likely to commit a crime, especially a violent one. 

There is very little Canadian data connecting race to criminal behaviour in a statistically valid way. But analogous evidence from the United States offers an interesting perspective on claims of criminality and overincarceration...

Men, for example, comprise 49 percent of the U.S. population but make up 77 percent of identified offenders in the DOJ survey. With respect to race, whites make up 61 percent of the population and only 52 percent of offenders. Asians make up 7 percent of the American population but a mere 1 percent of violent offenders. Blacks, whose political advocates frequently claim are victimized by the criminal justice system, make up 12 percent of the population but 29 percent of offenders. If a particular group is committing more crimes, it makes sense that they will also comprise a greater percentage of the criminal justice system, including in prison...

A recent Statistics Canada study on Indigenous victimization reveals that native children are far more likely than other Canadian children to have experienced violence at the hands of an adult, to have been sexually assaulted or to have had their basic needs unmet. Twice as many native Canadians as non-natives say they were unloved or unwanted by their parents. One-third of all Indigenous respondents report they’ve witnessed a parent act violently towards another adult. Indigenous adults are also more than twice as likely to be the victims of intimate partner violence as non-Indigenous Canadians. Further, a mountain of evidence illustrates how childhood adversity or maltreatment can lead to criminal or antisocial behaviour in adulthood. All Canadians have an interest in breaking this terrible cycle. But treating violent adult native offenders more leniently than others is not likely to be an effective solution.

Regarding O’Bonsawin’s allegations of a link between colonialism and criminality, international evidence suggests not. A 2019 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime compares Singapore, which has the world’s lowest rate of intentional homicide, with Jamaica, which has the second-highest. Both had long histories as British colonies. Clearly colonialism cannot explain the difference in outcomes...
What holds true for countries applies to individuals as well. After the killings in James Smith Cree Nation, resident Warren Burns, a relative of Vanessa Burns, discussed Myles Sanderson’s upbringing with the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. “He grew up in the same environment that most of us did,” Burns said. “But the choices he eventually made were different.” A close look into Sanderson’s short and violent life points to the fatal consequences of the restorative justice movement’s preference for collective victimization over an emphasis on personal choices and individual responsibility...
 
Prior to his killing spree, Sanderson had been charged with 125 crimes. Among these charges were two attempted murders and 18 assaults...
 
At the time of his death, Myles was serving a four-year, four-month, 19-day federal sentence for his many acts of violence throughout 2018. In August 2021, however, he received “statutory release” from prison. That is, he had served two-thirds of his sentence and was automatically eligible to serve the rest of his time in the community, under certain conditions. One of those conditions was that he not contact Vanessa Burns. Once released, however, he promptly moved back in with her in Saskatoon. Burns was complicit in this lie, but when Sanderson began to beat her again, she reported him to his parole officer. After this deception was discovered, Sanderson was reincarcerated in November 2021 – what was called a “suspension” of his automatic statutory release. Early this year, he again came before the Parole Board requesting release. 
 
The board’s decision, dated February 1, 2022 and signed by Parole Board member Betty Ann Pottruff, is replete with warning signs about Sanderson’s apparently uncontrollable tendency for violence. A Violence Risk Appraisal Guide placed him in the “high risk” category and assessed a 55 percent probability that he would return to violent crime within seven years of being released. He was also considered a “high risk” under a separate Spousal Assault Risk Assessment. His parole supervisor further testified that the risk of letting Sanderson out of prison “was no longer manageable in the community.”...
 
Pottruff’s 10-page report lays bare Sanderson’s constant record of violence towards his spouse and others, as well as his habitual disregard for any restrictions placed on him by the parole system. It offers ample and well-grounded reasons for his continued detention. And it makes clear that everything he had done or not done (including his failure to hold a job) was within the realm of his own conscious choices. The only contrary evidence lay in Sanderson’s background report, with all the exculpatory information familiar to Gladue reports...
 
After listening to Sanderson’s claims of recommitting to sobriety and reconnecting with his Indigenous culture through a healing lodge program – and in spite of the mountain of countervailing information regarding his record, personal temperament and habits – Pottruff concluded, “It is the Board’s opinion that you will not present an undue risk to society if released on statutory release and that your release will contribute to the protection of society by facilitating reintegration into society as a law-abiding citizen.” (Emphasis added.)...
 
Despite the Parole Board’s directive that he was to have “no contact with V.B.,” Sanderson went back to living with her. And he quickly returned to his pattern of domestic abuse. Within a few months Burns had once again reported on his parole breach and he was then listed as “unlawfully at large.” The tempestuous relationship of Sanderson and Burns remains one of the greatest puzzles of the entire affair. As she explained to Global News, after breaking off their relationship, she still agreed to drive Sanderson the 200 km from Saskatoon to the James Smith Cree Nation on several occasions so he and his brother could sell cocaine to residents. Her last trip was on September 2; it ended when Myles tried to choke her in her own car. Only after Damien intervened was she able to escape and return to Saskatoon. Myles and Damien stayed on the reserve over the weekend. Two days later, the killings began, resulting in 11 deaths, including Damien and Vanessa’s father Earl; her mother Joyce was hospitalized with numerous stab wounds. 
 
Given the ultimate result, the February decision by Pottruff can be considered compelling evidence of the failings of the Gladue era. Clearly Sanderson did present a grave risk to society. Most significantly, to anyone living in James Smith Cree Nation. 
 
The Canadian Criminal Code recognizes several key principles in sentencing. The first two: to denounce and deter... the denunciation and deterrence effects are clearly weakened if the courts hand out lighter sentences on account of the race of offenders, or their alleged history. And allowing criminals to leave prison early in an effort to arbitrarily correct prison population statistics undermines the crucial protection factor. Myles Sanderson offers ample evidence of failure on all counts. His behaviour was neither denounced nor deterred, and the rest of society was not protected.

The details of Sanderson’s murder spree reveal how simplistic it is to blame institutional or historical causes for individual crimes. He never attended a residential school and was not directly affected by any colonial-era policies. Rather, he grew up at a time when the assimilation of Indigenous people into mainstream Canadian society had been explicitly rejected and the justice system was doing all it could to keep Indigenous offenders out of prison. He was the repeated beneficiary of numerous restorative justice innovations meant to address the alleged “overincarceration” problem, including Gladue reports and healing lodges. Despite ample evidence of his incorrigible criminal behaviour and penchant for violence, however, the personal aspects of Sanderson’s case file were outpointed by systemic factors such as the “intergenerational impacts of residential schools.”

Now, even after having witnessed the bloody results of Sanderson’s release, many native activists are still claiming “native trauma” is the root cause of the tragedy. As University of Calgary professor emeritus of political science Tom Flanagan pointed out in a recent study for Dorchester Review, there is no methodologically-sound basis for making any claims about the intergenerational effects of residential school attendance. Beyond this troubling lack of evidence, such a sweeping assertion also robs Indigenous people of basic human agency, since it assumes they lack the ability to determine their own fate on their own terms – even the basic self-control to refrain from killing their own relatives...
 
According to James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University:

“Socially or psychologically isolated, mass murderers lack emotional support and encouragement from confidants. Moreover, they have no one around to help provide a much-needed reality check on their warped perception of constantly being the victim of injustice. Tending to externalize blame, they seek to punish those whom they hold responsible for their miserable life.”

If we accept Fox’s expert opinion that mass murderers lash out at those they blame, it seems significant that Sanderson did not attack the Canadian government, the RCMP, the Catholic Church or any other institutions or individuals representing Canada’s allegedly long history of colonialism and systemic racism. Rather, he brutally attacked his own community, including many members of his family and that of his common-law partner Vanessa Burns. His rampage was highly personal. Had Burns stayed with her parents on that fateful weekend, she would almost certainly have become his 12th victim – and perhaps their children as well would have been added to the awful toll. All of which serves as a sad reminder that a preponderance of the violence suffered by Indigenous people in Canada, particularly by women, comes by the hand of other Indigenous people. A criminal justice system that is deliberately lenient towards native offenders thus puts native communities at greater risk. It seems a grim irony.

Setting Sanderson free from prison despite all the convincing evidence regarding his individual tendencies towards violence and his habitual disregard for the law was part of a decades-long campaign by the federal government to address Indigenous conditions. Such policies are clearly not improving the condition for Indigenous people. In fact, they are increasing the quantum of Indigenous suffering. If Sanderson had been required to serve the full length of his sentence – if his parole board hearing had accepted the plain evidence before it rather than relying on sloppy reasoning about systemic factors – he wouldn’t have been able to commit these horrific crimes. He would’ve still been in prison. Eleven murders could have been averted.

What caused the killings at James Smith Cree Nation wasn’t centuries-old trauma. It was a criminal justice system that puts Indigenous communities at risk by failing to sentence violent criminals appropriately and then releasing them too soon."

Links - 31st December 2022 (1 - Women)

Meme - "I'm Not Sure if I Want to Be a Step Dad or a Son in Law"

Meme - "Millions of porn sites but he asked for your nudes. Be grateful"

Meme - "Using different chargers destroys the charging port and it becomes loose."
"this isn't about chargers"
"If a 20 inch 8 pound virus can come out that port I don't think you need to worry about chargers."
"But the same one don't? That logic is flawed."

Loose Vagina: What Causes This, How to Tighten Up, and More - "It is not possible to have a loose vagina because vaginas are elastic and meant to stretch. Your vagina can become slightly looser with age or childbirth, but won’t necessarily be “loose.”  When it comes to the vagina, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions. Some people, for example, believe that vaginas can lose their elasticity and become loose forever. That’s not actually true, though... Your vagina may become slightly looser as you age or have children, but overall, the muscles expand and retract just like an accordion or a rubber band... Only two things can affect your vagina’s elasticity: age and childbirth. Frequent sex — or lack thereof — won’t cause your vagina to lose its stretch.  Over time, childbirth and age could potentially cause a slight, natural loosening of your vagina. Women who’ve had more than one vaginal birth are more likely to have weakened vaginal muscles. However, aging can cause your vagina to stretch slightly, regardless of whether you’ve had children. You may begin to see a change in your vagina’s elasticity starting in your 40s. That’s because your estrogen levels will begin to drop as you enter the perimenopausal stage."

What Happens to Your Vagina When You Stop Having Sex? - "“The vagina is an elastic tube,” says Salena Zanotti, MD, an OB/GYN at Avon Pointe Family Health Center in Avon, Ohio. If it hasn’t been used in some time, then it may get a little tighter... Unlike their premenopausal counterparts, Dr. Zanotti says postmenopausal women have a higher chance of experiencing a more permanent loss of vaginal elasticity after a prolonged period without sex. That’s because their bodies produce less estrogen, which can lead to a loss of elasticity and lubrication in the vagina.“It’s really hard to get [the vagina] to stretch out again after menopause,” Dr. Zanotti says. In the case of postmenopausal women who are looking to maintain a certain level of vaginal elasticity, the phrase “use it or lose it” may apply. The good news is that there are plenty of personal lubricants you can use, in addition to gentle stimulation, that can help combat vaginal dryness... Because most women experience a slight tightening of the vagina after a prolonged period of abstinence, Dr. Zanotti says that “The first few times you have intercourse after an absence, it’s going to be a little bit uncomfortable.”...   Even though your sex drive is unlikely to change while you’re abstaining from sex, you may notice an uptick in your libido if you become sexually active again.  “Having a new partner is exciting enough that it stimulates your libido,” Dr. Zanotti says. “A lot of couples who have been together for a long time can get into a rut. When you have been abstinent for a little while and you have the excitement of a new partner, that can [increase libido again].”"
The "myth" is a myth, apparently

Meme - "ONLYFANS ASSISTANT
Looking for someone who knows how OnlyFans and Unfiltrd works but are not running a page of their own.
- JOB DESCRIPTION:
* Explicit/Adult Content Creator looking for a posting assistant who take content from Dropbox, Google Photos gallery and/or Drive to schedule 5 posts per day per page plus mass DMs on 3 pages with captions that would be something I'd say You will also be Chatting with males on OnlyFans and Unfiltrd. You will also be sending guys 18+ videos of myself, which will get them to buy my content. Must also manage my social media (instagram & Twitter) for advertising and to create 'eye- catching visuals and captions'
- JOB REQUIREMENTS:
- Must have experience Chatting with 18+ Males
- Experience in adult sales is NEEDED
- Must have experience Using Social Media Apps
- Must be FLUENT in in English
- Must have a reliable computer or laptop and Android or Iphone
- WORKING HOURS SALARY:
Work any days or time you want as long as the week's posts get scheduled on time and have reached each weeks minimum sales goal.
20% of all the net revenue and sales you generate.
Pay is weekly with bonuses for helping hit goals
- EXTRA INFORMATION:
You will be 100% safe as the videos and photos you will be sending are gonna be of myself who You will be pretending to be. Your identity is 100% safe!
Bonus: Earn extra if you are willing to edit and upload both Tiktoks & Youtube Videos (not required)"

The Sugar Babies of Stanford University - "Why are elite co-eds turning to TikTok and Snapchat to connect with lonely men who pay for their attention?... When one thinks of sugar daddies and sugar babies, the image of a wealthy older man and a young guileless girl comes to mind. Maybe we think of a man with salt-and-pepper hair and a gold Rolex. Maybe he has an ex-wife with a yacht somewhere, or grandkids who summer with him in the Hamptons. And maybe the girl in this scenario comes from more humble circumstances. She is a college student with, perhaps, a nice family who can’t afford her tuition (or phone bill or car payments or whatever). Maybe she’s an aspiring actress whose sugar daddy funds her LA lifestyle when waitressing doesn’t cut it. You get the picture. It’s a scene from Pretty Woman and the woman is somehow innocent, if not quite the hooker with the heart of gold. But while this image still sometimes maps to reality, the norm is changing.  We never think of girls at elite universities with high-paying career prospects “sugar-babying” for a taxi driver or night-shift factory worker from a flyover state. Yet at Stanford, this was exactly the case. It also reflects a broader change in the sexual dynamics of American culture. Sites like OnlyFans, popular among the “pay to see me naked” subset of gig workers, have entered the mainstream in recent years as millions of young women and men turn to it for supplemental income, or to chase full careers. Over 170 million others subscribe as “customers.” Celebrities like Bella Thorne and YouTube’s Corinna Kopf, the most well-known and highly-paid OnlyFans creators, overshadow the reality for the vast majority for whom getting nude for strangers nets an average of only about $151 a month and 21 subscribers. But focusing on OnlyFans alone ignores the vaster, far more commonplace, and socially acceptable enterprise of TikTok thirst traps... both OnlyFans and TikTok thirst traps have something in common: a personal touch that draws in viewers — and money... Though neither Cassie nor Lainey set out to be sugar babies (their word for what they did), they had the foresight to set strict boundaries. Their sugar-babying consisted of sexting, sexual voice recordings, and some suggestive but clothed Snapchats. They say there were no nudes, no phone calls, no meetups. They didn’t publicize where they attended school, but people found out anyway and sent the above-mentioned gifts... They did not actually need the money they were making from sugar-babying. Their parents paid their tuition and healthcare. Cassie paid for her own phone bill, and both Cassie and Lainey, like most twenty-one-year-olds, funded their own social lives. But prior to her social media fame Cassie afforded these expenses by tutoring a few hours a week. As school and social life demanded more of her time, she cut down her tutoring hours, and as her sugar-babying brought in more money she cut tutoring down more.  Lainey put it simply: “Less work, more money. Passive income stream.”... When I spoke to other students at Stanford about the sugar baby phenomenon, a few raised eyebrows at potential “safety concerns.” This is, of course, the only objection to sex work you are allowed to have as a good progressive feminist on a college campus... While the girls come out more or less unscathed, what about the men?... David worked the night shift at a car manufacturing plant, and he was always broke. He could only pay the girls on Fridays when he got his paycheck. Despite this, he consistently spent quite a bit of money for Lainey to send feet pics (only the bottom of the feet!), and — crucially — to tell him he was a loser, his dick was small, and “send me money.” The mismatch between his income and his spending worried the girls enough that they considered intervening, but ultimately decided there was not much they could do to help. There were many others along the same lines, and their situations, including their relationships with the girls, told the same rather sad story. The men were searching for a personal, intimate relationship with a woman. The best they could do, however, was this strange online transaction. Porn or even OnlyFans would probably be easier than finding random pretty girls on social media to sext, if the sexual aspect were the only thing that mattered. But it’s clearly not. It’s the personalization that makes Cassie and Lainey worth the money. In this way, the men in this story seem to use them as a self-medication for the dire situation many working class American men find themselves in today. While college-educated and upper-class Americans still enjoy relatively stable marriages, poor and, increasingly, working class Americans “face rising rates of family instability, single parenthood, and life-long singleness.”... Women marry up, not down, so bachelorhood and divorce is prevalent for these men. Such circumstances lead men to a life of unemployment, dysfunction, and loneliness. More and more, this leads to other mental health and substance abuse issues. But they’re still men. This makes them invisible.   Women, meanwhile, have had a century of success... Cassie and Lainey’s experience is a microcosm of the broader cultural changes in America over the past few decades. American men, especially working class men, have been left behind with little hope for the “American dream” of a good family and stable job, income, and community. Rather, they self-medicate with drugs, alcohol, porn, and the pseudo-personal relationships offered by girls like Cassie and Lainey. Although the girls seem to be doing well while the men suffer, the girls describe the constant objectification with some queasiness. But both sides, the girls and the men paying them, benefit from the objectification of the other, at least on the surface — the girls, by profiting from the man’s isolation and dire circumstances, and the men, by sexualizing the girls. One perhaps is not worse than the other, but neither is worth celebrating."

Whistle away, boys! Amanda Holden says she LIKES receiving compliments from builders - "The Britain’s Got Talent judge, 51, said she enjoys being ‘tooted at’ and receiving comments about her appearance – and doesn’t care if it is sexist... Miss Holden previously complained about wolf-whistling theatregoers when she played Princess Fiona in Shrek the Musical in the West End.  ‘There’s wolf-whistling through the show,’ she told The Sun in 2011. ‘I literally think, “I’m coming down those steps and I’m going to take you out”. People think they’re hilarious.’"
Disrupting a show is obviously different

Meme - "Careful out there folks, it's bee season. The wife stayed overnight at her friends house and got stung multiple times. She's resting in bed now, the wee pet *hickeys/lovebites*"

Meme - babytino @ababytino: "Sex with men is rarely enjoyable."
Based Oracle @BasedTomas: "Gay dudes seem to be having a blast so maybe its not a men problem"

Breast firmness is of greater importance for women's attractiveness than breast size - "Both men and women preferred breasts of average or slightly above-average size and high or extreme firmness. Glandular ptosis was as important for attractiveness as breast size, but true ptosis was of much greater importance. Men preferred slightly bigger breasts than women."

Meme - Catherine @jardinsecret888: "*pops hip* noooo stop looking at me"

Meme - "Average ukrainian woman in her early 20's: *attractive*
Average american woman in her early 20's: *unattractive*"

Meme - "Russian roulette on Tinder
Jaimie, 24
8 km away
*3 pretty, slim women & 1 fat woman*"

Love, Kids, Pranks and Parents: Protective - FML - "Today, while at the store with my mom and baby brother, a guy started to talk to me. Just as he went to give me his number, my mom handed me my brother and said, "Here's your son, your AA meeting's in an hour, let's go." FML"

Meme - "A BITTER WOMAN SAYS, "ALL MEN ARE THE SAME". A wise woman decides to stop choosing the same kind of men."

Meme - Scrawny guy: "You think girls will like me for my personality?"
Hunky guy: "Of course bro, just be yourself! Always works for me"

Meme - "Vicky 40
Accountant
14 miles away
About Me
Looking for someone to make babies with. Running out of time and I cant afford it on my own. I want to be bare foot and pregnant while cooking your dinner in lingerie. Old fashioned values. Not looking for a hook up. Would love to be in better shape. Need help finding a good place to start."

Meme - "Girls: Ugh, she's wearing the same dress as me
Boys: These guys don't know each other. They literally sat together just because they were both wearing stripes. The blue guy walked in and stopped and was like “Yo! Stripes!” And the red guy started nodding and was like “striiiiiiiipes""

Meme - "I want a man who-"
"Keep in mind that you're thirty with two kids, no degree and on welfare... go on"

Meme - "My hair extentions look so real. #NewProfilePic"
"God has given you everything except my number."
"And i'm grateful to God for that."
"GOD knows I deserve better."

Meme - "I'm so horny now"
"Tomorrow can't get here soon enough"
"Right?!
I hope you like garlic
I hope you love garlic"
"I do love garlic
What're you making? :D"
"Um, well, I've been eating a lot of it and I can smell it when I sweat and when I urinate, so, I think my vagina is going to taste like garlic."

Katie Quackenbush: Outrage as Nashville singer avoids jail time for shooting homeless man - "An aspiring singer has stunningly avoided jail time after shooting an unarmed man experiencing homelessness twice during an argument about where her Porsche was parked in Nashville.  Katie Quackenbush, 32, who’s also known on stage as Katie Layne, was given 11 months and 29 days of probation on Thursday by a judge who also decided she would be able to serve her time in her home state of Texas... The 32-year-old mother of four made a tearful statement at her sentencing, where she both offered an apology to Gerald Melton, the man she shot in 2017, and explained how she was already facing punishment doled out by her community.  “Millions of people were making fun of me online,” she said at the hearing. “I was convicted by the community before trial,” she added, highlighting how she’s had difficulty securing jobs, applying for colleges and has even been on the receiving end of death threats from strangers.”... For Mr Melton, that day left far more than an emotional scar as he had to undergo at least three surgeries to repair his injuries... Neither she nor the passenger with her reported the shooting to police, instead choosing to drive to Taco Bell. Police only responded to the shooting when Mr Melton placed a call himself... the 32-year-old expressed her deep regret for the incident and her lawyer argued that she’s shown initiative to rebuild herself in the years since the shooting, citing her enrolment in college, her aspirations to become a lawyer one day and creating a stable home for her four young children."

Meme - "A 26 year old woman posted her tinder statistics on Reddit. 37 sexual partners in half a year. I'm at a loss for words.
26 yrs old
gender: female
on Tinder for 188 days
Your Tinder Insights
You swiped 15094 times
582 right swipes
301 matches
171 chats
54 dates
0 relationships
37 casual sex
17 no spark
0 marriages"

Attractive women get better grades — unless school’s online: study | The Star - "Pretty privilege is real, according to a new study on university students — or at least it was, until COVID-19 levelled the playing field.  A recent paper published in peer-reviewed journal Economics Letters found men and women in certain university courses got better grades the more physically attractive they were — but when learning shifted online during the pandemic, the report found women lost their edge while men retained it. Study author Adrian Mehic, a fifth-year PhD student at Sweden’s Lund University, said his paper was the first to analyze the impact of virtual learning on the “beauty premium,” or the advantage gained from being physically attractive.  That said, there have been plenty of other research into the boons of attractiveness. For example, pretty people are often more confident, satisfied with their lives and reportedly less likely to engage in criminal activities... As expected, Mehic found attractiveness positively correlated with better grades in nonquantitative courses like business or the humanities, which rely more on student-teacher interaction. The effect was not present in quantitative courses like math and physics... “These findings suggest that the return to facial beauty is likely to be primarily due to discrimination for females, and the result of a productive trait for males”... he believed attractiveness in men could lead to boosts in confidence and perseverance, resulting in greater productivity overall. On the other hand, the beauty premium for women may stem from discrimination on the part of the instructors... “the effect was clearly stronger in courses that are taught by men … But there is some evidence that the female teachers discriminated against or gave the attractive females better grades as well”... when classes went online, women perceived as less attractive overall saw a slight boost in grades"
Damn male privilege!

Meme - "microwave oven 1300w"
"Is this still availatole?"
"Yes"
"Hi. I saw the post abaut the free microwave and want it. I'm a single mom and need it for my kids."
"Ok, well it's still available so just let me know whan you want to pick it up and I'll have it ready."
"I can't pick it up because of my kids, can you deliver it to me?"
"No, sorry.."
"Well if I come get it will you give me something else to make it worth my time? Another kitchen alliance like a mixer, but just if it's made by kitchen aid and not cheap or broke or damaged"
"No, but I'll take half off the asking price for the microwave."
"HUH? YOU SAID ITS FREE AND HALD OFF NOTHING IS STILL NOTHING!"
"That was sorta my point. If you want it, come get it. Otherwise, don't. It's all the same to me."
"NO YOURE DISHONEST AND TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME & MY KIDS"

Meme - "Katelyn, 20. 28 hours left to message
she/her
About me: just looking to find someone brave enough to hold a conversation or someone who even has the balls to message first. since that's too scary for a lot of people on here lol"
Too bad she doesn't know how Bumble works

Meme - "My boyfriend hasn't posted on Instagram since a pic of a cheeseburger since 2016 and he said if I want to make it on the grid I have to make him feel the way that cheeseburger did"

Meme - "-you haven't said a word since I took my jacket off, are you alright?""

Meme - "Wendy 43
Artist
Gerrit Rietveld Academie
Lives in Rotterdam
14 miles away
About me: Just looking for a man here that is between 1.80 and 1.87 tall, has a great physique, has nice straight white teeth, good hair, is vegan, has bachelor and masters degree. !s kind, humble, easy going, assertive, chivalrous, romantic, down to earth, straight forward, can tell great stories, is outgoing and also loves solitude. Has an entrepreneurial mindset, is decisive, empathic and cool-headed. Is a single heterosexual and loves intimacy and great sex. Does not have any allergies nor kids."

Meme - "My kids and I are a package deal"
"Well I don't want the combo, just the sandwich"

Meme - "Leah, 21
University of Guelph
4057 miles away
I'm dying so you don't have to worry about a long term commitment"

Meme - Rihanna's Uterus @ChiChi_knows: "Men are really bad at reading signs and hints."
Sam. @_JackN4Tweetz_: "You a grown ass woman with a mouth though."

Meme - "Ever wonder why girls don't go to the bathroom alone? Well
*acrobatic move with 2 girls to hover piss*
CAN A GIRL PLEASE DENY OR CONFIRM THIS"

Audi-driving beautician clocked speeding TWENTY TIMES in two months - she has SIXTY SIX points, but has been allowed to keep her licence - "Mum-to-be Georgia Elisabeth Carney, 30, was stung by speed cameras multiple times on the M62 between junctions 11 and 12, where the speed limit had changed from 70mph to 50mph.  In the space of two months last summer, she was caught travelling in excess of the 50mph limit 20 times - twice at 80mph.   At Manchester Magistrates' Court, Carney - who puts on beauty courses at salons - said a driving ban would cause her exceptional hardship because she wouldn't be able to carry all her gear on public transport.  Carney, from Widnes in Cheshire, also claimed her mum would suffer if she was banned from the road as she is the named guarantor on her rented flat - and the named contact in relation to her leased Audi... The court heard the bulk of the summonses arrived at the same time"

Meme - aubreymarcus: "Every year @fitforservice is in Sedona, @stefanossifandos and @christinehassler guide us through a process where the men bow at the feet of the women present. We bow for the thousands of years of disrespect and oppression of the feminine. We bow for our own unconscious participation in a system which has advantaged men. We bow for our own lapses and failures to acknowledge the divine feminine, within and without. After a few minutes with our heads at their feet, the women start to weep. And then the tears flood into our own eyes, as we realize how"

Men's Humor on Twitter - "Don't try to understand women. Women understand women and they hate each other. #Truth"

Meme - "Women talking about everyday problems, they face: *Jennifer Walters being upset over minor shit*
Men talking about everyday problems, they face: *Luis joking about his real problems*"

Danielle on Twitter - "WHAT DO BOYS EVEN FIND ATTRACTIVE ABOUT BOOBS THEY ARE LITERALLY BALLS OF FAT ON MY CHEST IF YOU CAN LOVE ME FOR THE FAT ON MY CHEST WHY CANT YOU LOVE ME FOR THE FAT ON MY STOMACH YOU PIECE OF SHIT"

Meme - Isabella Maria DeLuca @I...: "No, I don't have OnlyFans. I'm someone's future wife."
Mara Lynn (Columbus, OH)..: "Lol a misogynistic woman? interesting. Hopefully he appreciates your "purity""
Isabella Maria DeLuca @lsabellaMDeLuca: "Sorry. We can't all be hoes, Mara."
If you don't want to objectify yourself, you're a misogynist. How empowering.

Meme - ZutawskiFactsDaily @GumbyFa...: "isn't this just conversation"
eilidh @beauvoirbaddie: "told a guy i was talking to on hinge that i'm into philosophy and want to do graduate studies and he was like oh you should read sapiens by yuval noah harari"
Holly McKenna @HollyLMckenna: "I would like one day where a woman can express something she enjoys and a man doesn't go 'OH HAVE YOU THIS' like some kind of primal display of mating superiority"
"Guys well intentioned men recommended me some Reddit tier book so I'm the victim"
"Dude totally, I hate it when a prospective parter shares or relates to my interests, so domineering"

Study Finds 100% Of Men Would Eat Any Fruit Given To Them By A Naked Woman | Babylon Bee

Meme - "You think the hate can get to me. I watch my boyfriend rail other girls while I'm pregnant with his baby"

Meme - Alex Kaschuta: "This is the new Call of Duty, no more country flags, only orifice preference flags. This one is simply called: "Progress""

League of Legends Team Siren Disbands: Valuable Lessons Learned - "Team Siren, the infamous all-female League of Legends team with aspirations of making it to the top of the professional gaming world, was recently confirmed to have disbanded after having only lived together for less than a month. The team was comprised of five of some of the top-ranked (Platinum & Diamond level) Solo Queue women on the North American server: A Little Jenny (Mid), Christina (AD Carry), ilysuiteheart (Jungle), Solvanas (Support), and Yoonie (Top). These ladies had all played together for 5 months prior to moving into their gaming house, and were by no means unfamiliar with the League of Legends scene. With a desire to "empower women" in the world of eSports, the team was strongly determined and committed to winning. So, what exactly went wrong?... Team Siren was essentially trying to prove that an all-female League of Legends team could compete on the same level, as "equals," as any all-male team in the professional gaming world... The team's leader, A Little Jenny, created a negative environment for the team with her poor attitude. Considering League of Legends is a game that requires great communication and teamwork, a negative attitude (especially from your leader) can bring down the entire team.  But, that's not to say the entire team was any better. Team Siren's leader was certainly not the only one who displayed unprofessional behavior as witnessed in a team match between Team Siren and Team OmgRankedFives, featuring Challengers HotshotGG and WildTurtle. Team Siren literally trash-talked the opposing team during the entire match with what could technically be considered harassment (and still lost). For a team that aimed to become professional, the lack of maturity and unprofessional behavior within the in-game chat alone shows that this team lacked more than just skill to make it to the top... The main issue was NOT just creating an all-female team, it was the emphasis of gender alone as the main factor in driving the fame of this team forward and the attitude along with this physical factor. In being female (and disregarding actual talent), Team Siren felt entitled in taking on the professional world of gaming without actually having to work their way up from the bottom like every other professional team... Serious female players should take the game seriously, and by that, I mean that streams should be professional at all times! It's hard to take a female gamer's stream seriously when the webcam's primary focus is on your revealing chest and not your face (or even your gameplay for that matter). As much as you may want to attract guys with your sex appeal, you will not be taken seriously as a professional gamer if you don't fix this little mistake first. No boobs, no ditzy behavior, and no bitchy attitude. You need to be intelligent and informative about the game because that's a lot more enjoyable to watch. You are only going to be a target of harassment in your stream's chatbox if you aren't acting professional on purpose."
So much for that

Friday, December 30, 2022

Links - 30th December 2022 (2 - Voting in the US)

StoneToss - Posts | Facebook - "Movies: "ID Please"
DMV: "ID Please"
TSA: "ID Please"
Voting booth:"

National Review comes out against democracy, explicitly. - "In the last week-plus, the nominally intellectual right-wing publication National Review has run three separate articles arguing that voting shouldn’t be easier to do, because if it is, stupid, ill-informed people will do too much of it"
This is hilarious, given the left's talk of epistocracy and mocking of "populism" (especially as embodied by Trump and Brexit) and wanting to "deprogram" Trump voters
Not to mention the mischevous misrepresentation - both the first and third article are against compulsory (or quasi-compulsory) voting - which is a serious argument in political philosophy, the first and second articles talk about ensuring only legitimate votes count, the second article is mostly about depriving convicted felons of voting rights and promoting voter ID to make voting sacred as it's supposed to be, and the third article also promotes considered, deliberative voting. Of course on Facebook the commenters swallowed the fake news and raged against their straw man

Jim Crow comparison to Georgia vote law vexes Blacks - "Linking Georgia’s newly signed elections law to the segregationist Jim Crow system is not only inaccurate, it’s an affront to Black Americans, as far as Michael Lancaster is concerned.  His forebears were among those who labored under the racist system designed to prevent Black suffrage and enforce segregation in public facilities, transportation and education in the Deep South in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “A civil debate about voting rights is an important conversation to have, but comparing Georgia’s election reform legislation to Jim Crow is insulting to my Black ancestors who suffered through those dehumanizing segregation laws,” said Mr. Lancaster, Georgia state director of the Frederick Douglass Foundation.  As Democrats increasingly brandish the Jim Crow comparison in the fight over state and national election laws, critics — including Black conservatives — are challenging the narrative, saying it trivializes the era’s horrific abuses by likening them to standard identification requirements used for everything from boarding an airplane to buying beer.  “Comparing absentee ballot changes and ID requirements to banning Black people from restaurants and drinking fountains is absurd,” Mr. Lancaster said in an email.  Wilfred Reilly, associate political science professor at Kentucky State University, a historically Black college, said the “Jim Crow claim passes through ‘nonsensical’ into offensiveness.” The Georgia Election Integrity Act expands voting hours but also requires identification for absentee voting, prohibits handing out food and drinks for voters within 150 feet of polling entrances and bans the mobile-voting buses used during last year’s pandemic.  “I’ve read the Georgia bill, and it’s a fairly standard voting law, which attempts to respond to concerns (justified or not) on the right about election integrity, while also taking practical steps to add voting machines and reduce wait times,” Mr. Reilly said. “Whether you approve or disapprove of the law, comparing this sort of thing to lynching or mandated racial segregation, which is what Jim Crow was, is beyond bizarre.” The food-and-drink stipulation is not unique: Other states, including New York, have such limits to “prevent electioneering, such as community or church leaders handing out chilled bottles of ‘Donald Trump’ iced tea,” said Mr. Reilly... 75% of voters supported voter-identification requirements, including 69% of Black voters, a higher level of support than Democrats, who were 60% in favor... “The idea that Black residents and voters of Georgia can’t cope with the ID requirement is racist, and the facts prove that they’re wrong,” Mr. von Spakovsky said. “The law has been in effect for 10 years, and if you look at the turnout numbers for Georgia elections since the ID law was in place — not only did the turnout of Black voters and Hispanic voters not go down, it increased dramatically.”  Mr. Brooker agreed that studies about voter turnout show that “voter suppression laws … are not very effective.”  Even so, “Republicans must think it’s effective, or they wouldn’t be doing it, and the Democrats must think it’s effective, or they wouldn’t be fighting it so hard,” Mr. Brooker said. “I’m not saying they’re right, but that’s what they believe.”"
Of course, the left will call these blacks House Niggers
Maybe Republicans are for and Democrats are against "voter suppression laws" because they're not really avout "voter suppression"

73% of Blacks Say Photo I.D. Voter Requirement Needed to Ensure Fair Elections - "73% of Black voters and 81% of other Non-White voters say requiring a photo I.D. is necessary to ensure fair and secure elections... three times as many Black voters support (73%) as oppose (24%) requiring a photo I.D. and, for other Non-White voters, support (81%) is more than six times greater than opposition (13%). Among White voters, the requirement is favored 74%-19%... Rasmussen also asked the following question to gauge support for boycotts against states that require voters to provide identification... More voters (50%) said they oppose such boycotts than voiced approval (37%)... 69% of those who said that voter identification is not necessary to ensure fair and secure elections also said they support boycotts of states that impose I.D. requirements. Other groups voicing strong support for boycotts include self-described liberals (52%) and those earning more than $200,000 a year (53%).  Rasmussen's findings are supported by those of a national survey of U.S. voters conducted by the Honest Election Project, which revealed that 77% support voter I.D. requirements, including strong majorities of Blacks (64%) and Hispanics (78%). This survey also found that 64% of voters "want to strengthen voting safeguards to prevent fraud, rather than eliminate them to make voting 'easier.'""

Georgia voting: Fact-checking claims about the new election law - "President Biden has said: "What I'm worried about is how un-American this whole initiative is. It's sick. Deciding that you're going to end voting at five o'clock when working people are just getting off work."  But it's not the case that voting has to finish at 5pm.  The law allows counties to set voting hours anywhere between 7am and 7pm, as was the case previously... Drop boxes allow voters to submit their ballots early into locked containers, rather than relying on sending them in via post or standing in long lines on election day.  Democrats say the new law reduces the number of these boxes, making it harder to vote.  There will be fewer in forthcoming elections, but this needs to be put in context.  Prior to the 2020 election, drop boxes weren't used in Georgia. They were brought in as part of emergency Covid action... One of the most controversial elements of the bill initially proposed by Republicans was the elimination of Sunday early voting.  Sunday voting is especially important for black worshippers in Georgia - a strongly Democratic voting bloc - with church goers often encouraged to vote after Sunday services, with initiatives known as "souls to the polls". Democrat Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, said: "Republicans recently passed a bill to eliminate early voting on Sunday."  But this element of the bill wasn't passed, and Republicans backtracked following criticism."

YouTube reinstates professor’s video that mocked criticism of voter ID and Georgia’s election integrity bill - "YouTube reinstated a video by Canadian Professor Gad Saad that mocked criticism of voter ID laws.  The video, called “Voter Photo ID Has Sent Me Into Hiding,” showed Saad sitting in darkness and listing a variety of services that require photo ID, such as buying alcohol or entering a nightclub or obtaining a driver license.  He said there were “13 trillion” other examples of when voter ID is required and said he “just found out” that Georgia was “setting up concentration camps” because the state also planned to require photo IDs for mail-in ballots. The video apparently upset someone at YouTube, which removed the video on either April 4 or 5, after it said the Concordia University marketing professor violated “Community Standards.” The Big Tech company said that the video broke its policy against “glorifying or inciting acts of violence.”"

Leftist armed militia members show up outside Georgia State Capitol - ""Masked, helmeted private militia carrying AK47s and AR15s showed up today at the State Capitol. You have not heard about it because the gunmen are radical leftists. Imagine the news coverage if one of them was wearing a MAGA cap," the post made by former US Senator David Schafer reads."
It's only wrong when the right does it. Time to memory hole the hysteria about armed protests against lockdown - until it's convenient to resurrect it

Stacey Abrams Brags About Lack of Signature Verification in Georgia - "Stacey Abrams, the failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate (who still hasn’t conceded her 2018 defeat to Brian Kemp)... couldn’t help patting herself on the back for getting rid of exact-match signature verification on ballots—a provision meant to verify that the voters who cast the ballots are actually the individuals they claim to be."

Actors Vow To Boycott Georgia And Only Film In The Xinjiang Region Of China | The Babylon Bee - "Hundreds of Hollywood actors have come forward, vowing to boycott filming in Georgia in favor of places that actually respect human rights and whose values align with theirs, such as the Xinjiang region of China...  “After intense reading on Twitter, I’ve learned that in China, there are NO voter ID laws. And guess what, you dumb Republicans – there has never been a single recorded case of fraud! Until Georgia can be a little more like China, we need to do the right thing and make Georgians suffer.”"

John Robson: Companies would be right to boycott Georgia, if they had a leg to stand on - "It’s curious since the left was long so wary of business in politics as to embrace conspiracy theories about corporate influence on everything from the 1973 coup in Chile to climate change and election finance. But suddenly when it’s going their way, they’re jubilant... too often, for the left, any issue they favour is a vast moral imperative comparable to the civil rights struggle in the 1950s and ’60s. Indeed, too often any issue they favour is the civil rights struggle of the ’50s and ’60s, with a corresponding mean streak toward anyone who does not share their views in agonizing detail... Thus the trendy corporate boycott of Georgia over tightened voting rules must be justified on moral grounds or not at all. Including truth, which is where things get awkward.  For instance, Major League Baseball (MLB) is moving its all-star game to Colorado. But Colorado has similar voting rules to Georgia (like Canada) and the league must know it. So MLB’s decision looks cynical, especially given that it’s not boycotting airlines for requiring photo ID before boarding a plane. And if voting fraud is rare in America, it only makes Georgia’s new laws unnecessary, not harmful or evil.   Which brings us full circle. If these companies are aware that nothing sinister is going on in Georgia but consider it good business to pretend otherwise, for fear of their customers or a shrill vocal minority of staff, they might be wrong narrowly, as I suspect major league sports will one day regret calling their customers bigots. But the real problem is allowing greed, or cowardice, to override morality."

Priceless: MLB is moving its All-Star Game to Colorado ... where they ALREADY HAVE voter ID laws and it's much less diverse than Atlanta. #WokeLogic

MLB Expanding Presence in China While Pulling Out of Atlanta - "Major League Baseball faces increased public outrage on Monday after observers noted that the league pulled its All-Star Game from Georgia 24 hours after inking a deal with streaming service Tencent, a Chinese company close to the Communist Party... “Your sports league might be a little too woke if it will freely do business with Communists in China and Cuba, but boycotts a U.S. state that wants people to show an I.D. to vote.,” Sen. Paul tweeted on Saturday."

MLB's Denver Field Named after Founder of Heritage Foundation & MSLF - "Major League Baseball’s Coors Field in Denver is named after a founder of the Heritage Foundation, Joseph Coors, the former president of Coors Brewing Company, who died in 2003 after setting up a legal foundation that challenged part of the Voting Rights Act."

Watch these white libs expose their own ACTUAL racism while trying to describe why voter-ID laws are racist

Georgetown Students Support Voting Reform Proposal, Then Find Out It's Georgia's Law - "Students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. expressed support for voting reform when asked what they thought about specific measures taken to ensure election integrity — then they found out the reforms are from Georgia’s new voting law... “We’re from Georgia, so there’s a lot of voter suppression in Georgia, and I think that there needs to be a lot more freedom and accessibility towards polls and extending hours,” said one student being interviewed with her friend.  “The, like, original system was created because, like, they thought the populace was, like, too dumb,” said another student... “Yeah, I mean, making sure that people aren’t casting more than one vote, that sounds kind of common sense to me,” said one student... when Smith asked the students, “what if I told you that this actually was the Georgia voting bill?” the students appeared shocked.  And when asked if the legislation sounds like “Jim Crow on steroids,” one student said, “no, I guess not.”  President Joe Biden has described Georgia’s election integrity bill as “Jim Crow on steroids.”  One student, however, maintained that the concept of voter identification is “classist.”  “A poll came out that showed 70 percent of black Americans do support voter ID,” Smith countered. “A lot of people are calling it ‘Jim Crow,’ suppression — but the majority of black Americans actually support it.”  “Okay, I don’t,” the student replied.   Georgia’s new election integrity legislation has sparked outrage among left-wing activists, who consider the legislation an attack on minorities, suggesting that members of the black community cannot figure out how to acquire a photo ID, among other bizarre assumptions."

Candace Owens on Twitter/a> - "Remember guys: mandating voter ID is unattainable and racist but mandating vaccine ID cards? Not a problem."
Considering that you will use voter ID a lot less frequently, and that covid vaccines are mainly to protect you and aren't so effective at "protecting" others from transmission, this is an especially salient point

Dan Crenshaw on Twitter - "Never forget the woke corporations and sports leagues that believe you’re too stupid to get an ID to vote."

Texas GOP official calls for an 'election integrity brigade' to monitor diverse precincts
Leaked video reveals a GOP plan to intimidate Black and brown voters in Houston - "the Republican Party in Harris County — which contains Houston and is the third most-populous county in the nation — is planning to organize what is described as an "Election Integrity Brigade" of thousands of pro-GOP election workers and poll watchers."
It's telling that liberals are upset at having election monitors. It's as if they don't believe their own assertions about there being no fraud

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "The balanced power is shifting within the United States. Activists are using the threat of boycott to corral corporations into financially punishing states whose politicians oppose the activist’s agendas.  On Saturday, over 100 major corporation executives attended an online meeting to strategize against states that pass voting laws the activists disagree with. Perhaps this doesn’t bother you because the goal matches your own, but this is a sidestepping of the democratic process within each state. The corporations are using economic force to override the will of the people in these states. If the laws are unwanted by the citizens, the politicians will be voted out of office. If the laws are illegal, they will be thrown out by the judiciary. The corporations are not a fourth branch of government."

Coca-Cola required ID in 2020 shareholder meeting, but slams Georgia for voter ID law - "“At the entrance to the meeting, we will verify your registration and request to see your admission ticket and a valid form of photo identification, such as a driver’s license or passport,” the company wrote in reference to its 2020 annual meeting of shareholders, held before the coronavirus pandemic.  Georgia’s new voting law requires a drivers’ license or state ID number be listed to submit an absentee ballot to vote, among other new reforms. The state already required ID to vote in person. It had previously relied on signature matching to verify ballots."

It’s time for Canada to make election day a holiday
Weird. We're told that it's not a holiday in the US due to voter suppression and white supremacy

POLL: Majority of Dems, Non-White Voters Support Voter ID Laws - "62 percent of Democrats said they support requiring photo ID, while the number rose to 87 percent among Independents and 91 percent among Republicans.  Additionally, 84 percent of non-white respondents said they supported requiring photo ID, along with 77 percent of white respondents"
Damn non-white white supremacists!

What Was That About Voter Suppression? - WSJ - "‘We have classic voter suppression,” declared Kamala Harris last fall, and Democrats keep making the charge. Yet new Census voting data show these claims are as meritless as Donald Trump’s that the election was stolen.  Census figures released Thursday show that turnout in 2020 reached a near-historic high for a presidential election, with 66.8% of voting-age citizens casting ballots—0.9 percentage-points shy of the 1992 record...   Notably, GOP states with stricter voting rules didn’t experience significantly lower minority turnout. Black turnout was highest in Maryland (75.3%) followed by Mississippi (72.8%) and lowest in Massachusetts (36.4%). Liberals have lambasted Georgia for “purging” voters and restricting ballot access. But Georgia had a smaller black-white voting gap than Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia and California—all states controlled by Democrats. The states with the biggest black-white voting gaps? Massachusetts, Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado. Three allow same-day voter registration (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Colorado), according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Good luck trying to discern a link between a state’s voting rules, partisan control and minority turnout. Perhaps no state has done more to make it easier to vote than California. It allows same-day registration, ballot harvesting and out-of-precinct voting. Arizona doesn’t allow any of these practices, yet it had higher turnout among all minority groups and smaller voting disparities with whites than California... Democrats know their complaints are false, but they repeat them to energize apathetic voters. The top reasons Americans gave for not voting last fall: Not interested (17.6%), did not like candidates/campaign issues (14.5%), too busy/conflicting schedule (13.1%) and forgot (13%). Few cited an inconvenient polling place (2.6%) or registration problems (4.9%). Differences across racial groups were small.   Myriad factors including the candidates, a person’s political and civic engagement as well as education are bigger determinants of voting than the ease of casting a ballot. Cynicism fed by politicians of both parties may also disillusion would-be voters. The good news is that most voters don’t see voter suppression—and their turnout proves it."

Stacey Abrams on GOP efforts to target voting: 'It is a redux of Jim Crow in a suit and tie'
Stacey Abrams and Democrats’ evolution on voter ID - The Washington Post

Rep. Clyburn’s false claim that ‘no Democrat’ has opposed voter ID laws - The Washington Post - "In 2019, he tweeted a video with these words: “55 years ago, the 24th Amendment was ratified, eliminating poll taxes. Yet we are still seeing evidence of poll taxes today in the form of voter ID laws. In a democracy such as ours, we must not have any impediments to voting.”  In the video, he outlined his view that laws that require purchasing an ID would be a form of poll tax. (As we noted, voter IDs are free in South Carolina.)  In 2020, Clyburn tweeted: “Long voting lines. Closed polling locations. Voter ID laws. They’re all voter suppression.”... We repeatedly sought an explanation for Clyburn’s pretzel-twisting, via email and phone, from his communication director, Hope Derrick, over a 24-hour period. We also tweeted that she had not answered requests for comment. But she and her deputy did not respond to our queries... A Monmouth University poll in June found that 80 percent of Americans (including 62 percent of Democrats) support requiring voters to show photo identification... Clyburn is trying to have his cake and eat it, too. He routinely decries “voter ID” laws, but at the same time he insisted on Fox News that he has never opposed such laws — and that every Democrat has supported them. In reality, he appears to be against many types of voter ID laws — ones that require photos, or a fee for a photo or which favor one voting group over another.  In other words, he’s playing word games. He supposedly is for voter identification but against most of the voter ID laws being adopted by states... The fact that his spokeswoman will not explain what he meant suggests that his staff knows he ended up with an untenable talking point. You cannot claim one day that voter ID is a new kind of poll tax and then, on another day, say every Democrat is for voter ID."