bolverk

I mostly agree, but your message should be directed at the asshats in this thread who've made identity bullshit grievances as their chief complaint instead of the lackluster (at best) writing.

Why would an attempt at some degree of balance alienate the core audience (let's state it plainly: white guys)? Are we so fragile that we can't stand to see other groups in lead roles also on the screen? By and large, no one can say with a straight face that we haven't always been, and likely always will be, overrepresented. To your point regarding tokenism, it only feels that way because representation remains unbalanced. Adding a character here or there that represents another group still doesn't achieve it. And, to state explicitly, that isn't on the "agenda". If it were, you'd see far fewer white guys in lead roles than we do now. Again, in the US, less than a third of the audience are white guys. As to the interspecies lesbian couple that had the twins, that may have well been in service to the story. We don't know yet, as their conception story hasn't been fully revealed. If it eventually isn't, then poor writing storytelling is the problem. And, yes, I am quite familiar with Campbell. Star Wars borrows from a long and ancient, near-universal storytelling tradition. As far as the box office goes, when the original film was released in 1977 (I saw it as a five-year-old in the theater), global movie distribution was a far different business when film was shipped in cans months after American release compared to today when movies/shows are digitedly distributed worldwide all at once. As such, Hollywood is much more dependent today on the global market where US audiences now commonly comprise only about a third of sales. To that extent, I'm perfectly comfortable with the business case. Finally, I'll make the case as a dad on Father's Day. It's my duty as the father of a gay kid (I'm certainly not the only on this site) to advocate that my child can see on occasion, no matter how rare, someone like that can also be seen in the Star Wars universe.

Just the opposite. I enjoy the entertainment for what it is: a sci-fi fantasy story. However, I do take bigotry (open or veiled) rather seriously.

Their "agenda" is to make money from a diverse, global audience. Most people like to see themselves represented on the screen. You'll likely make less money if your primary characters represent only five percent of the total audience. Hell, even in America, less than a third of the population is made up of white males of all ages, and the majority of the kids don't give a shit about these identity grievances. The smarter play is to diversify your cast, even if it hurts the feelings of a few butthurt middle-aged white guys (and at least one stupid Persian) who want to go back to a time when they called all the shots and didn't have to share their toys action figures. These people need to grow the fuck up and stop whinging like little tittybabies because, SHOCKING, there are now lesbians and fat dudes in space. Of the hundreds and hundreds of characters in all the Star Wars shows, how many of them have ever been represented? Hell, one of the witchy lesbians isn't even human, but no one seems to have a problem with interspecies procreation or consider that her lady parts might work differently in this fantasy galaxy. As a straight middle-aged white male myself, this is all I give a shit about. ⬇️⬇️⬇️ On the other hand, they seem to have failed at this part of making the show so far. Let's see if the overall story comes along. Hopefully, it gets better, but I'm not optimistic.

This dumb show's got 99 problems, and a fat Jedi, a dead white Jedi, women singing, and lesbians ain't none of 'em. If we're talking about REALISM, here's how I see it: On the real Earth, 4 out of every 10 people is overweight/obese. On the real Earth, 1 out of every 12 people is a white male. On the real Earth, 1 out of every 2 is female, and a helluva lot of them like to sing. On the real Earth, 1 out of every 32 people is gay. On the real Earth, that all translates to only about 1 out of every 20 people being a fit straight white human male. Yet, we, the 5 percent, somehow expect the majority of lead characters in a space opera sold to a diverse global audience to all look and act like us. Get REAL. None of that even takes into account that in this Star Wars galaxy, we've been introduced to a multitude of species from hundreds, if not thousands, of planets, each with its own sex parts, biology, cultures, and whatnot. In that fantasy universe where humanoids are pretty well represented, what's the REALISTIC percentage that should be expected to be a fit, straight white human male? Two, maybe three percent, if that. Of course, in the real world, I don't expect the composition of characters of an American-based show to reflect all that diversity or for a small percentage of them to be fit, straight white human males. I only point all this out to show what utterly fucking stupid these whiny crybabies are who complain about lame "identity" shit in a sci-fi fantasy world, expecting it to match their own imaginary (and false) "reality" of the world. Grow the fuck up. The galaxy doesn't revolve around your pathetic, stingy little fragile ego and its petty grievances unless, of course, you're the Emporer and can shoot blue lightning out of your fingertips.

The thing is, he's neither a doctor nor a rocket scientist.

Pedophile Convict Liberty University A&M Law School What other qualifications does one need to be on 2024's 100 Worst People in America list?

The one and only review.

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It seems he's gotten access to PRONG HORN's Twitter feed.

It seems shark attacks are more frequent in the Mediterranean. So, if they could get the lunatics off those lovely beaches, that could be a workable solution.

Unlikely. Because even people on the right over there are mostly secular and don't buy into the Evangelical Protestant bullshit that the majority of those lunatic whites would bring with them.

Nothing is embarrassing for Trump; the man has no shame. This is especially true when the complicit media's cameras only point at the stage, not the audience.

Is there a statute of limitations on sex crimes with children in Texas? Isn't there a law against not reporting abuse? Is there a time limit on that? It seems to me everyone but the victim should get punished for this shit.

I don't know if you're a parent, but I hope you tell/told your kids to pick up their own trash at the park.

@BeardIP Against my better judgment (because I don't like supporting a website owned by a guy who literally promotes neo-Nazi accounts), I clicked on your Twitter source to see what it was all about. Seeing that Twitter recommends these shitheads when you go to it, you should conduct a thorough social media cleansing. Also, you should be deeply ashamed. Editing because I hadn't read the whole thread: If that's the shit your chat group friends are shoveling, dump them and get better friends.

You should stop looking at PRONG HORN's Twitter feed.

Pretty much. Just like here, the Right is driven by White grievance, and much of the Left is pissed their Centrist president isn't progressive enough. The biggest difference in our politics is the lack of fundamentalist crazies over there. Less than half have any sort of religious belief, and very few actually go to Mass, Mosque, or Temple. https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/7342918?sommaire=7344042

Dress to Kill was such an amazing stand-up routine.

To add to this largely accurate (BUT UNSOURCED) op/ed, National Rally is like our own far-right and is most popular among the poorly educated, rural, aging, and largely agricultural communes around France. Macron, a centrist, has been enacting a series of reforms on pensions and raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, both of which have been widely unpopular among the Right (old) and the Left (socialists), so this was indeed a "protest vote" against those policies, even though the EU Parliament has little to no sway over those particular domestic matters. There's the matter of EU-wide "green policies," such as limiting the amount of pesticides/herbicides along with expanding conservation areas, that have pissed off the rural agricultural areas. But, a lot of what makes the National Rally's particular brand of conservativism popular stems from racist and xenophobic sentiments you'd find in any old, rural, overwhelmingly white part of Texas, like Llano. Roughly 12% of French residents were born outside France (not much lower than the percentage for the US), and they're overwhelmingly Brown Arabs (Maghreb: Algeria, Morroco, Tunisia) or Black Africans (West & Central: Senegal, Mali, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon). It's largely the legacy of France inviting these populations in from former colonies to help rebuild France after WW2. So not only is there a relatively large foreign-born population, but there's also a well-established existing "foreign" population that's been poorly integrated and living there since the 1950s, many of whom reside in bad public housing and high-crime areas. If you've ever ridden the Metro in Paris, you'll quickly realize it's a very diverse city. According to the EU Parliament vote results, the Right was represented by three parties: Reconquête/Reconquest (veritable fascists: 5%), Rassemblement Nationale/National Rally (rooted in fascism: 31%), and Républicains/Republicans (standard-issue conservatives: 7%). Together, they comprised 44% of the EU election votes. Fortunately, the EU Parliament doesn't have a huge amount of power (it's mostly an institution run by technocrats and the heads of state of its various component nations). Still, we shouldn't be surprised to see some tempered support for Ukraine from France in the near future because of this election (investigations have shown the National Rally to have received funding from the Kremlin). Election results in map and percentages in spoiler. Bear in mind that they colored the map by the highest percentage, which is not the majority in most cases. So, it looks worse than it is. As Js1 noted above, the head of the Republicans broke his promise and wants to form a coalition with the two far-right parties for the upcoming snap national elections. Thus, there is a real threat that they'll have the largest share of seats in the National Assembly (lower house of Congress) if not an outright majority. In either case, that would likely mean Macron would be forced to appoint one of them to become Prime Minister (kind of equivalent to Speaker of the House but with more powers). Macron would still be the Head of State, controlling international affairs, but domestic policies, directed largely by the Prime Minister, would be under the influence of right-wingers who are not at all supportive of immigration and very questionable on the EU, NATO, and Ukraine. In this case, don't be surprised if you start hearing rumblings of a "Frexit." In response, the Left has formed its own coalition and is calling it the Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front), which echoes a similar one to the 1930s to fend off rising fascist sentiments in France prior to WW2, which eventually resulted in collaborationist Vichy France. As noted, Macron's domestic policies are deeply unpopular with the Left (pensions/retirement age), but his international policies (EU integration and Ukraine) are largely supported except for the Far Left. The domestic situation may cause the Center to collapse in France in the upcoming election, and it's doubtful the Left would form a coalition to run domestic affairs with Macron's party because of his unpopular reforms. It's all going to depend on turnout, I suppose. And, as noted in previous posts, turnout for EU elections is usually much lower than for national elections. So, fingers crossed. Today, in its cities, hundreds of thousands across France demonstrated against the right-wing coalition.

Mossad has been surveilling, hacking, bugging, smearing, and threatening the ICC's prosecutors (including family members) for the ICC since 2015. The first article is from today. The other two (IN SPOILERS) are from late May and reveal extensive details of the Guardian's investigation into Bibi's efforts to cover up and avoid accountability for his war crimes. The third article is the most comprehensive. ICC must be allowed to carry out work ‘without intimidation’, say 93 member states Joint statement of support for international criminal court issued following revelations of Israeli interference The international criminal court must be allowed to carry out its work “without intimidation”, a group of 93 states has said in a significant public intervention intended to reinforce support for the judicial body. In a joint statement issued late on Friday, the large group of ICC member states vowed to defend the institution and “preserve its integrity from any political interference and pressure against the court, its officials and those cooperating with it”. The show of unity for the court and its staff comes in the wake of revelations published by the Guardian about efforts by Israel and its intelligence agencies to undermine, influence and intimidate the court as part of a nine-year campaign of surveillance and espionage. [BELOW IN SPOILERS] It also follows recent warnings by the office of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that it has been subjected to “several forms of threats” and hostile intelligence activity apparently intended to interfere with and improperly influence the prosecutor’s work. Last month, Khan announced that he has filed applications for arrest warrants against senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he alleged had been committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, is the first time an ICC prosecutor has taken such action against the leaders of a close western ally. The move provoked a fierce response from Israel and its allies in the US. The statement supporting the ICC was drafted by five of the court’s member states – Belgium, Chile, Jordan, Senegal and Slovenia – and is understood to have been presented to the rest of the court’s state parties last week for their endorsement. A diplomatic source familiar with the effort said the disclosures about Israeli intelligence operations against the court had been “really eye-opening for a lot of diplomats” and “made some realise that it’s time to put out some sort of statement from the states that belong to the court responding to what has now come to light”. However, they said the statement was also a response to other recent forms of hostile activity against the ICC, such as a cyber attack last year, and came as the prosecutor is conducting an investigation into senior Russian political and military figures allegedly involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. “The court is going after some very powerful people, not just in the Palestine investigation, and it’s time to send a message that the states parties are there to defend it,” the source said. Longtime ICC observers said it was notable that major western powers such as Germany, France, Canada and the UK had supported the statement, which called on “all states to ensure full cooperation with the court for it to carry out its important mandate”. They also pointed to the large number of endorsing states – 93 of the ICC’s 124 members – and noted that previous statements rallying around the court had not garnered as much support. “This is a unique moment of international solidarity, with 93 ICC states parties standing up for global justice and accountability for mass atrocities”, Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights’s representative to the ICC, said. “They are collectively opposing the egregious threats to the court from powerful countries including Israel, the United States and Russia, and strongly rejecting their efforts to manipulate the rule of law for political gains,” she added. The third section of this, ‘Threats and manipulation,’ provides the most details. This is the meat of the Gaurdian's investigation. It's very long but provides all the details. Their efforts were (are) systematic and widespread, and of course, Trump was happy to get involved when he was president.

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Many of y'all probably already know this, but Sukhoi is responsible for the Su-57 AND they're working on the Su-75. Also, this is the second time they've had a fire this year. From Wikipedia (yeah, I know): Sukhoi is also working on what is to be Russia's fifth-generation stealth fighter, the Sukhoi Su-57. The maiden flight took place on the 29 January 2010. ***** In June 2023 patents for a new design of a single engine Su-75 stealth fighter were filed, given the codename checkmate the design work has taken 3 years and test aircraft are under construction.[19] On 23 February 2024, smoke was seen emerging from a building located on the site of Sukhoi Design Bureau's headquarters in Moscow.