🚨 Ep. 78, Don't Cry for Me Confederacy of Independent Systems, is here! 🚨

After a slight delay, our Star Wars VILLAINS episode is here! Each host chose a Star Wars villain we wanted to highlight (and may not have discussed enough before), from the High Republic to the Empire.

POINTS OF INTEREST: Axel Greylark is the Hunter Biden of Star Wars, Darth Dementia, Ventress is on the Toxic Gossip Train, Palpatine's Ukulele Apology, brewed Jar Jar, Darth Maul’s Retail Rage, Dooku’s Iron Lung, Marchion Ro misusing the term “generational trauma”, Marda Ro and Yaddle’s historic beef, Anakin “What’s His Bucket” Skywalker, nepo baby discourse, Count Visage, Dooku vs. Lucille Bluth, and Orson Krennic and Brierly Ronan on the Titanic submersible.

LISTEN NOW in your favorite podcast app!

this is the episode where we FINALLY compare count dooku to michelle visage. it took over TWO YEARS guys

The Spot and Disability

It's very interesting to me how ATSV told Spot's story. At a start he's handled as a joke in the movie. Even Miles and the audience with him laughed at the new villain in his introduction. I was personally disgusted when the bread goes across him. Also, the guy isn't good at being bad and stealing an ATM, so he can be considered as a joke.

But that left an irreparable emotional damage that shaped him permanently. It's hard to admit that we as an audience, and Miles did wrong laughing at his face about his new condition. We often mock him when it comes to the bagel joke, but he clearly suffered a lot, and lost it all after the accident. He was being mocked, rejected by everyone, even by his own friends and relatives. He lost his job and was forced to do illegal stuff to survive. These are actual motivations for a person to take the wrong path, and even more when you discover you have a power that could give you some advantage over the others.

All of his story is clearly simillar to what many disabled people live on a daily basis. Even in these modern days, where society supposedly is for everyone and everyone matters, disabled people are still rejected and disrespected, victims of bullying, mockery and exclusion. They don't get a chance to adapt to this world, not meant for them, and they miss so many opportunities of having a job, to form a family and go places adapted to their unique conditions. This world still needs to educate its people on respecting the disabled. That doesn't mean that disabled people are doomed to become villains, no! That would expand more the prejudices towards disabled people. But what most of Marvel villains, and more, Spider-Man villains, have in common is having an accident that left them disabled: Flint falling on a sand dispenser, Max on a pool of eels, affecting their entire lives. (Not to mention that Doctor Connors was already disabled when he recurred to a not so ethic way to recover his arm, turning him into a lizard-like humanoid)

And yeah, every Spider-Man has a similar (canon) event, they're bitten by radioactive spider. But rather to turn them on something horrible, they get attractively buffed, they got cool super powers, they become popular and loved by most people. But the others are treated as villains, and it's true, Spider-Man has to combat crime, and in the end, he shows mercy towards them. But in the end, most of the time their condition is treated as menacing and villanious. That's why No Way Home, brings a fresh vision on helping the villains to get cured or at least treated. (Although, that's not always realistically possible for disabled people, and most of them don't need to be cured or treated like their condition is bad for them)

But the movie leaves it clear it was a mistake to not take Spot's situation seriously. The man might've taken it chill at a start, but the more he was mistreated, the more he got resentful specially with Miles, considering him the source of all his disgraces, and more when the Super-Hero laughed at him. His power grew at the same time as his anger, and by the end of the movie, Miles admits it, he's his nemesys, they're mutual enemies now, and he's dangerous. If Spot was treated better from the start, with dignity and if he was given a second oportunity, support and optimum laboral conditions, maybe Spot would be now an ally.

How wrong we were, by taking him for granted...

I just learned Jansport is making adaptable bags for mobility devices and thought I should share

They even have audio descriptions

[ID: a screenshot of the mobile Jansport website. There is a banner that says 'free standard shipping.' Under the banner is a link that says 'for audio description video click here.' Under the link is an illustration of 4 different types of mobility devices, each with its own adaptable Jansport bag. End ID.]

Jansport is a little pricey but it isn't like the adaptable bags are any more expensive than their other stuff, which is nice to see too!

Oh this is sick

Jansport is pricey because it's the last bag you'll ever have to buy. Seriously, buy two Jansport bags, when one breaks you send it back to Jansport and they fix it and send it back to you. In the meantime you use the second bag.

people really be like "why is this character not behaving 100% effectively in line with their values and intentions while experiencing overwhelmingly strong emotions :/ so ooc" as if they themselves don't make 6 irrational emotionally fueled decisions before breakfast like everyone else

Silicon Valley’s ‘Startup Castle’ is looking for roommates, and the requirements are completely bonkers

good thing i listen to exactly one song with explicit lyrics every day

I’ve been saying this for a while but Startup Bro is the new and terrifying lovechild of the brogrammer and the business major and he is somehow even more self-centered and bigoted than either of them

No, no, guys, look closely.

This house is looking for extremely physically fit young men (No drugs, no makeup, no special diet, exercise 15 hrs a week) who are passive and docile (no protests, no music lyrics with swears) who, most of all, will not be missed if they disappear (very little social media presence, not rich enough to own expensive luxury items, no need to constantly be in contact with their parents over bills/gifts, few identifying markings like tattoos)

This is obviously an organ harvesting operation.

Actually it turned out that the guy who was running it wanted to create a quasi-paramilitary organization.

There were so many horror stories about the place in the news that the landlord evicted everyone.

(Gotta say, though, that I like the organ harvesting scheme better.)

“It would have been better to have found out this was an organ harvesting scheme” is not a sentiment I expected to see today, and yet.

real

want your favorite author to update but don’t want to be too pushy in their comment section?

here’s 5 things you can do to encourage them:

I think we should bring back that thing everyone did in 2014 where you badly photoshop two characters from entirely different media together to look like they’re in love. This is my proposal for doc ock x glados please consider

not gonna say it again

this was ghost written by a disgruntled vampire

how are you 27 talking about Harry Potter why don't you try substance abuse

Unpopular opinion: not everything that makes you uncomfortable is bad. Sometimes discomfort means your worldview is being challenged. It’s okay to sit with discomfort and think about where it’s coming from.

#Frankly some of you need to be uncomfortable more often#Me too probably idk

Anyway here's some additions from the Maasai and Kikuyu, two grassy plain-dwelling groups from Eastern Africa that I think count as unfuckwithable

Feel like Poland should be included since we're literally called "people of the fields" according to the etymology of Poland.

Also look at her GO

I’m Métis, here’s some of ours! You’ll notice it looks remarkably similar to the above.

We also have some less intricate clothing (if it looks a bit Victorian to you - that’s pretty much the right era for most of this!)

Can’t believe no one’s done it yet I will be the person to add the cowboys: Latin American focus.

Here is the Chilean huaso:

Gauchos, from primarily Argentina where they’re a large national symbol close to the level of cowboys in the US. Also gauchos are in Uruguay.  Their pants are called bombachas and the other garment wrapped around them are called chiripas.  They work in grasslands called pampas, known for being really fertile:

While they’re not as dressed up as the others or have as prominent of a culture, for a broader Latin American cowboy context, I feel like also adding llaneros, who are from Colombia and Venezuela, in the llanos region, a type of tropical grassland similar to the pampas, hence the name llanero. Pampas get annual flooding and these guys would go barefoot a lot, and you can see that the stirrup on the horse’s saddle is really different than what you’re probably used to seeing, to accommodate for that, which is what I want to point out as an aspect of plains cultures developing clothing/accessories/tools to suit the environment. 

Cowboy culture happened wherever Spanish colonial influence and grassland biomes came together.  They differ based on the grasslands having different climates (ex tropical in South America), and the local indigenous influence (ex, backtracking to gauchos, they would use this tool called bolas to catch animals, which were basically two balls tied to a string that you threw and it spun around an animals legs, and were an indigenous invention):

I would love to keep posting cowboy dress lol but will stick to the post’s theme of grassland of course.  

Adding to the post, I, hereby, present people of Kalash and Chitral:

Chitral means ‘field’ in the native language Khowar. Both Chitralis and people of Kalash are known to be indigenous people of Asia.

Margot Robbie Looks for 'Barbie' press tour // Styling based from original Barbie dolls by Andrew Mukamal

The union busting firms are scared

As a fine dining cook, I found work in a union workplace around a year ago. My 40 hours a week are guaranteed except for Jan/feb/mar when there’s not enough customers, I get paid almost twice what I did at any other restaurant, if I work overtime, (more than 8 hours in one day, or more than 40 in a week), I actually get overtime pay, (and it’s 1.5x my normal rate!). I get holiday pay, and in addition I get to either bank or pay out my holidays if I work those days, (either a paid day off when I want it, in addition to the holiday pay, or I get paid an add’l 8 hours at 1.5x that week). I also get two floating holidays, 4 paid random sick days, 2 paid family sick days, and 4 paid “doctor’s note” sick days, (paid out by our health insurance), as well as general allowance to take as many unpaid sick days as I want without worrying for my job security. (I’ve been told that taking multiple months off is where we start to be concerned about abuse, so if I want to do that, I can go through our leave of absence procedures instead, where I’m allowed three 2-week periods a year generally for whatever reason I want, (If my manager wants to disagree, he has to get the union president’s approval), and after that it’s up to my manager to decide if he’ll accept them). I get two weeks of paid vacation time a year, and an add’l week per year for every 5 years I work there. We get our legally mandated breaks, which, I know that sounds like a low bar, but taking anything other than a smoke break in a kitchen?!?! Unheard of! I get two 15′s and a lunch every shift! I get to sitdown and rest my legs and not get flak for it! I get a bonus at the end of the year, there’s official procedures for if my manager isn’t happy with me or wants to get rid of me, (three meetings, during which my union representative has to be present), (and getting rid of my classification doesn’t work, there’s rules for how someone ‘bumps’ other people if classifications are gotten rid of), and severance pay for when full-time employees that are downsized out of the company, there’s a pension plan, like . . . Guys, I have a 40-page handbook which details all of the rights my union has won me, and believe me, I’ve never had any of these at any prior workplace. And you know what my union dues are? $4 a paycheck. Of course I’m going to pay my union dues for all of those benefits.

Reblogging for this incredibly thorough explanation of what it's like to actually have a contract in place at a union workplace. I reblog a fair number of posts about how people should organize, but if you're like me, you might not know exactly what that can get you until you've actually gone through the process. Every contract is different because you bargain for what makes sense for your particular workplace, and every few years you re-negotiate with the employer to improve things in the next contract, but some things (like the right to have union representation when you talk to your boss about leave or discipline) are universal.

It's worth every penny of your dues, I promise.

Can we please make the deep sea the next cool desirable “final frontier” pretty please. I want Elon Musk to design a horrible Tesla Brand submarine and go down to map the Mariana’s Trench for commercial development and watch it crumple like a tin can the second it reaches 200 meters

a love so nice its echoed in dreams!!

i’m kind of like one of those little crusty-eyed white dogs but a girl 

how do you infinite scroller webcomic people DO IT

just painted an onion on a cutting board and i think it’s the peak of my artistic career

look at her…

she gets stronger!

the full painting is finally complete!

This is giving me emotions that I myself do not fully understand

Maybe you're just tearing up because someone has been cutting onions