lol roasted. sorry bucko but you just got pwned.

“Aw shit… I left this stew in here overnight, its going to be lit.”

Its also renfare season in our area, and we love going to the renfare.

In total, between 2019 and 2020, “IRI issued 11 advocacy grants to artists, musicians, performers or organizations that created 225 art products addressing political and social issues,” which it claimed were “viewed nearly 400,000 times.” Additionally, the Institute bragged that it “supported three civil society organizations (CSOs) from LGBTI, Bihari and ethnic communities to train 77 activists and engage 326 citizens to develop 43 specific policy demands,” which were apparently “proposed before 65 government officials.”

Between October and December of 2020, the IRI hosted three separate “transgender dance performances” across the country. Per the report, “the goal of the performance was to build self-esteem in the transgender community and raise awareness on transgender issues among the local community and government officials.” At the final performance, in Dhaka City, the US Embassy sent its “deputy consul general and deputy director of the Office for Democracy, Rights and Governance” to participate.

Finally, the IRI also carried out “community-specific quantitative and qualitative research,” which included “three focus group reports” and what it called “the largest published survey of LGBTI people in Bangladesh.”

In sum: “IRI’s program raised public awareness on social and political issues in Bangladesh and supported the public to challenge the status quo, which ultimately aims for power shift [sic] inside Bangladesh.”

In the US, Republican Party politicians have traditionally scorned government support for visual artists, transgender dancers, and rappers. But when an opportunity to install a more US-friendly government arose, the GOP’s in-house regime change organ eagerly transformed its domestic cultural enemies into political foot soldiers.

This is incredible. This is such a prime and opaque example of Rainbow Imperialism. It’s like this example was cooked up in a lab. Here you have, the most vile supporters of the erasure of queer life in America doing queer activism in Bangladesh, funding queer artists and organizations to bring awareness to queer struggles within Bangladesh, for the explicit goal of creating political unrest in the country so that its leadership can be removed and replaced with a Compradore Dictator.

If this was an organization being run by the Democratic Party, you would be hard-pressed to get any liberal to look at this critically. All they would see is their chosen saviors doing savior shit in Bangladesh. They would conclude that the change in leadership is justifiable because they’re “saving” queer people.

So how do they square this circle now? How do you reconcile the notion that the GOP is doing Trans Rights in Bangladesh to topple the government, but also trying to genocide Trans people through stochastic terror campaigns here in the homeland? What could the conclusion be for these liberals?

It was probably ironicly.

There was a line of Mario themed flash cards for teaching kids all kinds of stuff in the early 90s, I think. In the card about Mao, they depicted him like the image above.

These corporate ghouls need to be thrown into a river. This is so fucking tragic, cruel, and sadistic. My father works in a metal shop not unlike a place like this. They would do the same fucking thing to him im sure of it. There is to justice in this country. Death to America!

Great podcast, can’t recommend it enough.

Yeah turns out of you make something tall and out of plywood so I’d weighs nothing, they’re a massive tipping hazard. Make the same thing but it weights like 100lbs it’s going to be way less likely to tip.

PT Cruiser

That is scary. We have some cheep ikea stuff and made sure to anchor it. I think we watched a video about IKEA getting sued for killing kids with their furniture, which is the only reason they include anchors at all. So it was in my head when we were buying the stuff.

Lol probably has a highly accurate and detailed replica of some Midwestern train rail and station from his youth in his basement.

Uncle Grandpa sounds like a hoot. I’d love to tell him I got my ADHD diagnosis at 28 because the school systems and my parents thought I was just a lazy shithead. Just to see how that conversation unfolds.

Welcome aboard!

I tried to explain this feeling to a therapist once and they didn’t understand. Imagine never having to think about issues of the day. Just gliding through life with a “it is what it is” attitude. Imagine never having to source your claims, and having an endless army of “normal people” lined up behind you to shout down the truth. Imagine a world built for you, that you never question, never doubt, and never feel betrayed by. Imagine only seeing justice and retribution where there is injustice and ruthless genocide. Just imagine how much simpler your life would be if bad guys were bad, and good guys were good, just like you were always told.

OK I need some advice. I got a notification for a earlier time too see my new GP, it’s tomorrow in the afternoon. However, I have a follow-up with my current GP for that morning. I don’t like my current GP…

I could go to both or cancel the early appointment and just go to the new GP.

The new GP thinks they’re just doing an intake though.

The old GP might want to do blood work if I had to guess.

I also need to have my medical records faxed over to the new GP which I haven’t done yet.

I’m leaning towards going to both and telling the front desk at the old GP to fax my records over to the new GP and cancel my future appointments on my way out. I’d get two opinions they way I think.

Thoughts?

Basically, and she was a CPUSA member I think.

I’m feeling better but I am having some abdomen discomfort. It’s mild though, and I really only notice it at the end of the day. Like I’ve been doing crunches. But my legs feel like that too. Hard to know if its because of my inactivity catching up with me or something else.

Thanks for checking in on me!

There are a lot of classics that people will say, like “Measure of a Man”, “Drum Head”, “The Inner Light”, and these are great episodes, but one of my all-time favorite episodes is “Far Beyond the Stars” from DS9, Season 6, Episode 13.

It takes that classic trope in StarTrek, where the crew end up in a different time and place, usually in Earth’s history, and really pushes it. Instead, all these characters are new, just played by the same actors. They’re not Ben Sisko, they’re not Quark, they are Benny Russell, they are Herbert Rossoff.

It’s like the writers found a cheat code for the show, that allowed them to write an episode for an entirely different show, within the confines of DS9 and let all these wonderful actors really shine. The plot of the episode deals heavily with racism, with representation, and the struggles Benny Russell goes through as a black man in 1950s America. It is a powerful episode. It’s just good sci-fi writing through and through. I could say a lot about it, but maybe I’ll let Armin Shimerman talk about it:

ARMIN SHIMERMAN: “‘Far beyond the Stars’ is my favorite episode of DS9. It is not just good Star Trek, but the best of Science Fiction, powerfully combining fantasy with social commentary. Racism is bred in the bone of American culture. Even in the 21st century, we all need to be reminded of the scars and tragedies that plague left on our national conscience, so that we and future generations never forget its ugliness. It was brilliantly conceived by Marc Zicree, brilliantly written by Ira Behr and the staff, and most brilliantly directed by Avery Brooks. I especially remember Avery giving an Emmy-deserving performance as he broke down over the crushing of Ben’s dreams. I had tears in my eyes as I watched off camera. I know many of the Niner fans did the same. Non-Star Trek fans often sneer at our franchise’s frothy and light entertainment. ‘Oh yes,’ they say, ‘you pose some interesting questions; but to what end?’ I always suggest watching this episode to rebut the inanity of ‘To what end?’

Brooks’s performance as Benny in this episode is so incredible, that every time I watch it, I’m brought to tears. It is so tragic, and so intense, and so masterfully performed, that it always leaves me in awe. They get these people, with such raw, incredible talent, to play space soldiers in this generally jaunty, regularly campy, SCIFI action drama show, and every so often they lay a script in front of them that allows their full skill set to be revealed, creating these incredibly impactful peaces of media.

“Far Beyond the Stars” Is not just the best episode of Star Trek ever produced, it is, in my opinion, one of the best episodes of television ever produced.