#movies about migrants

[immigrationlawyerphiladelphia]

Immigration Lawyer Northeast Philadelphia

Looking for powerful and thought-provoking Movies About Migrants And Immigration? Check out our law firm's top 10 recommendations for some eye-opening cinema.

#immigration lawyer #immigration lawyer northeastphiladelphia #movies #films #immigration #movies about migrants #law firm #top 10

[deep-sea-scholar]

Okay I need to rant about Glass Onion for several paragraphs

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Glass onion is phenomenal, and I personally enjoyed its themes more than the first Knives Out movie.

Now don’t get me wrong, Knives Out is arguably the better film, but its strengths lie in the complexity and brilliant execution of its core mystery.  It’s a fantastic self-contained story about a shitty rich family and the people they directly affect.  The members of the family range across the political spectrum and all express different ideologies, but the moment a migrant working-class woman has a legitimized shot at their inheritance they band together to prevent her from improving her life.  It's interesting commentary on how wealthy people can talk a big game about helping others and being good people, but ultimately fall morally short when such actions threaten what they feel they “rightfully deserve.” But that's arguably the limitation of the film as its focus is entirely on the interpersonal conflict between the Thrombey family and Marta.

Glass onion isn’t limited by that.

The entire thematic core of Glass Onion concerns the damage that the rich and powerful can do to the world if they aren’t supervised, criticized, or limited. 

Aside from our lovely detective Benoit Blanc, the murdered Andi Brand, and her twin sister Helen, all of the characters are shitty people that are damaging the world in a uniquely horrible way as a direct consequence of the unchecked power and wealth they wield.

To start we have Governor Claire Dubella.  Her success in her political career has relied almost entirely on monetary support and influence from the films big bad and Elon Musk/Jeff Bezos analogue Miles Bron. Her platform has good objectives, and she’s passionate about hard topics like climate change, but her ability to act is entirely limited by the influence Miles has on her.  If Miles wants her to do something, she feels like she has no choice but to, which results in her greenlighting an experimental powerplant that Miles wants built to advocate for his new fuel source.  It’s untested technology, it’s volatile and dangerous as fuck, and Claire feels like she has no choice but to go along with it because if she doesn’t Miles will withdraw support from her career, or worse, support her opponents.  She likens it to selling her soul, and it really is.  She willingly undermined the health of her constituents for the sake of saving her career, and the shitty part is that Miles only controls her because she lets him.  She could deny the power plant, or leave Miles, at any time, but she doesn’t because she perceives the personal risk as to great.  She is a politician that won’t stand up for the people she represents, and no one calls her out on it.

Next, we have Duke Cody, the Alpha male men’s rights streamer who is just like, the absolute worst person in this film.  His views and opinions are incredibly toxic, his actions and beliefs directly hurt the people he influences through the hurtful products he promotes, and thanks to Mile's wealth and influence both he and his terrible, terrible, terrible opinions have official backing and some form of legitimacy.  He’s almost the direct inverse of Claire, being someone who really shouldn’t have support, but is getting it anyway because he’s Mile’s friend.  And because Miles doesn’t care and is giving Duke support and helping him dodge legal trouble, he enables Dukes terrible opinions and lets them influence and hurt people.  

Then we have Birdie, my personal favorite of the disruptors.  She is a fashion designer, media star, and breathtakingly, beautifully, stupid. She’s not actively malicious like some of the other characters, but she is just so fundamentally incapable of thinking things through. When paired with her wealth and influence, this results in horrifying real-world consequences.  She has her iconic fashion line of sweatpants made at the most infamous sweatshop in Bangladesh not because she doesn’t care, but because she thought a sweatshop is just a shop where you make sweatpants.  She’s just very stupid, but at the very least has the decency to be aware of it.  She even decides to own up to her Bangladesh mistake of her own volition, independent of the plot.  The problem is that no one corrected for her, or guided her, or worked to influence her decisions.  Miles just cared about what her brands could do for him and was perfectly willing to throw her under the bus to preserve his image.

Last of the four Disruptors is Lionel Toussaint.  Not much to say about him actually, he’s fairly straightforward.  He works directly under Miles as a scientist and is a parallel for the people that want to have confidence in tech ‘pioneers’ like Elon Musk.  After all they’ve been successful, and things have worked out in the past, surely, we can give them leeway with new technology development.  But there’s a reason why technology is prototyped and tested, and that’s because things always go wrong, and you need to take time and care to figure out how to ensure new technology is safe.

Which leads us to this asshole.

Miles goddamn Mona Lisa Burning Bron.

The absolute, motherfucking, shithead moron directly responsible for everything bad that happens in this film.

I lied about Duke Cody because this absolute buffoon is the actually the worst person in this film.

He manipulates politicians into endangering their constituents for his own gain, he enables the absolute worst and most toxic people by giving them legitimate platforms, he promotes influencers without caring for what their unchecked actions result in, and he deludes the people that work for him and want to believe in him with self-assured delusion.  This man is arrogant, an indiscribable moron (worse than Birdie because at least she acknowledges her failings), dangerously delusional, obsessed with control, and most damning of all, unchecked.

Miles Bron is a direct look at how too much unchecked power, wealth, and influence results in unmitigated disasters.  He doesn’t care about helping people, because he doesn’t take the time to make sure untested technology is safe for the public, handwaving legitimate concerns with denial and false assurance.  He doesn’t care about his friends, because he murders two of them the instant, they become a threat to his control.  He’s not smart, because all of his genius is the result of other people, he’s just skilled at advertising it as his own to get the credit.  All he cares about is doing what he wants and being in control, because his opinion and self-worth and legacy is more precious to him than any other thing in the world.  The man is a lie so absolute, so convoluted, and so stupidly straightforward that the slightest piece of truth will bring the facade of his existence crumbling down.  And it’s hard to acknowledge something like that in the real world because someone that successful being that malicious and dumb sounds incredibly stupid.  It’s an easy lie to buy because it’s more believable than how stupid the truth is.

Anyway, ultimately my conclusion is that we see a strikingly accurate portrayal of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in this film, and it was very cathartic seeing their hopes, ambitions, and house burn down around them.  Because billionaires like them are shithead morons that lie to and manipulate everyone, and their arrogant and harmful self-delusions compound through the people they manage to influence.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

#knives out #glass onion #benoit blanc #film #mystery film #movie review #elon musk #jeff bezos #Need a hard kick in the nuts #literary analysis #movies #netflix #eat the fucking rich #can't believe a murder mystery radicalized me #rambling

[ms-boogie-man]

Ahem…

Are you guys paying attention?

Has anyone noticed that the Biden admin is starting wars and sending troops and equipment all over the globe? Ukraine, Gaza, Taiwan, Iran, etc.

… and has anyone noticed that Biden has our borders wide open while his lapdogs, Alejandro Mayorkas and John Kirby, tell us the borders are entirely safe?

Every week, tens of thousands of military-aged males from all over the world are illegally entering our republic. They are given $3000-$5000 gift cards, cell fōns, and a ride to wherever they please. When they arrive in blue cities, they are going to be granted the right to vote, a place in our military, and some blue cities are even passing legislation to allow these criminal migrants to join law enforcement — fact. *remember the defund the police movement of 2020/2021?. **why is it antifa does not care about the rebuilding of the police force?… with foreign criminals, no less

Biden is also squaring off with the state of Texas… seemingly over the migrant issue Hint: it is not the migrant issue

Texas is the most powerful state in the union Texas is the biggest Texas has its own oil Texas is the most armed up

Are you paying attention yet?

I am not being snarky or demeaning here

I legit want to know if you are noticing all this

Movies like Netflix's Leave the World Behind, Civil War

Hard times create great men Great men create good times Good times make weak men Weak men make hard times

Angie/Maddie🦇❥✝︎🇺🇸

#fjb #Joe Biden is a weak man #here's yer sign yo #solo roba di angie #non solo roba da angie #vampire #born a witch #here i am #2a #1a

[whorejolras]

this has been sitting in my drafts for months and i'm finally posting it.

it's adding on from this post about Fantine and sex work in les mis. this post ended up being long and more about sex work than Fantine but it does come around i swear.

the way we discuss Fantine is very important, but why?

the way that we talk about Fantine and sex work in les mis - on tumblr, with our friends, in the brick club chat, in articles and in scholarly analysis - directly correlates with the way we treat modern day sex workers and the struggles we face today. notably, the fight for decriminalisation.

i'd argue that Fantine is the most famous of the "dead sex worker" trope. i'd argue she's one of the most famous fictional sex workers. she was just name dropped in the new mean girls movie. everyone knows the story of Fantine the "Miserable Dead Prostitute".

to many people, the book or musical is their first and often only point of reference for sex work, and informs how they treat real life sex workers. many of us interacting in fandom are or will soon be adults with jobs, you could be a childcare worker or a doctor or therapist or any role that makes you a mandatory reporter. and if you hold biases towards sex workers and your patient or the parent of the kid in your class is one, then what.

(you know i had a therapist tell me once that if i had any kids she would "be forced" to report me to the police for "child abuse" on the grounds of my job. that was discrimination and was illegal as i live in one of the four locations in the world with sex work both decriminalised and a protected attribute under discrimination law, but it still happened.)

how people think informs how they vote, and public opinion in turn impacts legislation that actively damages sex workers and puts them in real danger. (criminalisation, the nordic model, "legalisation" also known as licensing, instead of full decriminalisation).

here is a resource put together by NSWP, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects that covers terminology and legal frameworks. I recommend giving the whole thing a read, but if you just want to learn about the difference between the different legal models I'm talking about read from pages 12-14.

full decriminalisation is the safest best practice option for all sex workers. not the nordic model, not select legalisation, full decriminalisation for all workers including those who aren't "legal" citizens.

bringing this back to Fantine. when i search analysis of sex work/"prostitution" in les mis, this is the shit i find.

link 1 | link 2

i don't even know where to start on rebranding "oldest profession" to "oldest form of oppression" and "trafficked and forced into the industry" - the trafficking conflation is a common one. the majority of labour trafficking occurs in industries completely unrelated to sex work, with sex trafficking numbers being grossly overestimated. there are no true numbers because under criminalisation victim/survivors of sex trafficking can't safely seek help for fear of being criminalised. decriminalisation helps everyone.

I will also say that the trafficking narrative is a racist xenophobic one used to target migrant workers, making them more vulnerable to higher rates of police violence, detention and deportation. if you want to get deeper into this I recommend reading Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers.

yet here we see the idea that most of (if not all) sex workers are trafficked or forced, a narrative that removes the agency of sex workers and obscures the reality of labour trafficking. in short, lies which serve to sensationalise and erase real lived experiences, provide publicly-sanctioned excuses for the heavy policing of marginalised communities, and helping no one.

i will quickly say here that you'll never meet anyone who fights as hard for sex trafficking survivors than sex workers and sex worker peer led organisations.

and in the second example, you see how even though they're saying sex work, (so they listened enough to know not to say "prostitute" anymore), but they're still sharing anti-sw beliefs like "selling the body/selling yourself", violent phrasing that denies us not only agency but connection to our bodies, autonomy, and consent.

this is something i'll talk about a lot more in the chapter analysis that i'll get around to finishing and posting one day: but fantine doesn't sell her body to sex work any more than she sells it to the textile factory. how is one form of physical labour "selling your body/yourself" and another isn't? at the end of the day, she still owns her body, just like when i leave a booking i still own my body, just like when i clocked out of my past civilian jobs i still owned my body. we sell labour, we sell services. not ourselves.

noting here that even when discussing exploitation and trafficking, phrasing it as "selling your body" is also gross, still removes the survivors agency and connection to their body, and shows that you're not really a safe ally to survivors at all.

these ideas, that i pulled from the first paragraphs of two of the first analyses of fantine i stumbled across, are the same ones that sex workers around the world argue against when lobbying for full decriminalisation. it's the arguments we have with law makers and councils and saviour organisations and our own families and friends.

i'll talk about this more later but look at how anne hathaway finished playing Fantine and then signed off on a letter and petition against full decriminalisation of sex work and advocated for the nordic model - ensuring that sex workers and trafficking victims alike would be more vulnerable to violent clients and policing.

ironically, the same thing Fantine faces.

so my whole roundabout point is it matters. the way we talk about characters like Fantine matter. this directly impacts how real people treat real sex workers. this directly impacts legislation that directly impacts the lives and safety of sex workers AND survivors of sex trafficking.

just in case i haven't said it enough the safest option for both parties is always complete and full decriminalisation btw 🫶🏻

all links in case they break (sorry for making it longer but i don't trust tumblr with links lol)

tumblr post:

NSWP terminology and legal models source:

screenshot 1:

screenshot 2:

Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers:

anne hathaway article:

#fantine #les mis #les miserables #les mis letters #lm letters #fantine analysis tag #lm letters sw analysis #sw in les mis #lm letters 1.5 #lm letters 1.5.10 #mine #sorry my capitalisation is all over the place #sorry for the wall of text

[a-punchline-on-duct-tape]

hello, @battleslippers brought up a pretty good point when it comes to desi!johnny cade, because what the fuck is he doing in oklahoma in the 1960’s anyway!

so now, i’m going to present possible reasons on why/how he even wound up here

a) immigrant johnny 🍅👎🏾🤬😤

is my least favorite, bcs it makes no sense for his character at all.

johnny immigrated with his family in 1965, and he was born and mostly raised in south asia

this one could be possible because there are recorded indian immigrants from this time (my sources are my family members)

i don’t like this one whatsoever because south asian lifestyles + culture are completely different, and his personality wouldn’t be anything alike to johnnys real one in the book/movie

b) east-india company 🥉

in the 1700’s, the east-india company brought indian servants to the colonies and they were recorded to be enslaved in mostly maryland and delaware. once slavery was abolished, they blended in with african-americans and were deemed as mulattoes. if this was the case, he could’ve wound up in oklahoma one way or another, so its defo not unrealistic

i can see this one being highly likely, but it was most likely mean johnny is of mixed descent (either mixed with african-american, latino, or native heritage) but i hc johnny to be mostly south asian, so think twice ab this one

c) indo-caribbean 🥈

between the years of 1838-1917 around 500k people living in colonial india were taken to the 13 colonies and the caribbean to be indentured slaves to farm sugar cane. this one could work because once these people were freed, johnnys parents/grandparents could’ve come to oklahoma and thats why hes there

this one im 50/50 about bcs it could also make johnny mixed and i dont really see it + the culture of indo-carribean people vs south asia is a little different

d) sikh migration 🏆 ⭐️🎖

in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, many sikh immigrants came to california. these people specifically came because of food shortages and drought issues. these people typically worked on railroads. as these migrants came to the us, they experienced a lot of discrimination and racism (ex/ bellingham riots) so its possible his family moved to oklahoma to escape it then had johnny

there was a bunch of more complicated history with this, but that history doesnt change the fact this explanation is possible

this ones personally my favorite, because it means johnny could be mostly south asian, he could be sikh, and he would most likely be punjabi which is exactly how i see him

(hope y’all appreciate this i spent like 30 min researching and writing this lmaoo)

(usual desi johnny tags @pumpkinsy0 @coquettejohnny btw if yall want me to stop tagging, just send a dm! i dont mind at all)

#the outsiders #theoutsiders #outsiders headcanons #desi johnny cade #johnny cade headcanons #the outsiders johnny #johnnycade #j. cade #johnny cade

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

New Rule: Whoa, Canada | Real Time with Bill Maher

And finally, New Rule. If we want to save our country, we should follow the advice good liberals have given for decades and learn from other countries.

Especially those beacons of progressivism like Canada, England, and Scandinavia, and I agree we should, as long as we're honest about the lessons we're learning. And as long as we're up to date on the current data. Such as, the unemployment rate in the US is 3.8 percent. And in Canada, it's 6.1. And of the 15 North American cities with the worst air pollution, 14 are in Canada.

I'm not citing these stats because I have it out for Canada. I love Canada, and its people, and always have, but I hate zombie lies. Zombie lies. That's when things change but what people say about them doesn't. Yes, for decades, places like Vancouver, and Amsterdam, and Stockholm seemed idyllic, because everything was free and all the energy we needed was produced by riding a bike to your job at the windmill. Canada was where all the treasured goals of liberalism worked perfectly. It was like NPR come to life but with poutine.

Canada was the Statue of Liberty with a low-maintenance haircut and cross-country skis. A giant idealized blue state with single-payer health care, gun control, and abortion on polite demand. Canada was where every woke White college kid, wearing pajama pants outdoors who'd had it up to here with America's racist patriarchy, dreamt of living someday. I mean, besides Gaza.

There's only one problem with thinking everything's better in Canada. It's not. Not anymore anyway. Last year, Canada added 1.3 million people, which is a lot in one year. The equivalent of the US adding 11 million migrants in one year. And now, they are experiencing a housing crisis even worse than ours. And we're sleeping in tents. The median price of a home here is 346 grand, in Canada, converted to US dollars, it's 487. If Barbie moved to Winnipeg, she wouldn't be able to afford her dream house and Ken would be working at Tim Hortons. And because of mortgage debt, Canada has the highest debt to GDP ratio of any G7 nation. I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad.

So does their vaunted health care system, which ranks dead last among high income countries in access to primary health care and ability to see a doctor in a day or two. And it's not for lack of spending. Of the 30 countries with universal coverage, Canada spends over 13 percent of its economy on it, which is a lot of money for free health care.

Look, I'm not saying Canada still isn't a great country. It is, but those aren't paradise numbers. If Canada was an apartment, the lead feature might be "America adjacent." And if America was a rental car, Canada would be "America or similar."

And again, honestly, Canada, I'm not saying any of this 'cause I enjoy it. I don't, 'cause I've always enjoyed you. But I need to cite you as a cautionary tale to help my country. And the moral of that tale is, "Yes, you can move too far left." And when you do, you wind up pushing the people in the middle to the right. At its worst, Canada is what American voters think happens when there's no one putting a check on extreme wokeness.

Like the saga of Canadian shop teacher, Kayla Lemieux, whose pronouns are she/her and those. Kayla is now back to being a guy named Kerry, but two years ago when "they" showed up to teach children, the progressive high school "they" taught at said that they-- They, the school, not the person. Really? You couldn't have found another word? We were using that one. Anyway, okay. They were committed to a safe environment for gender expression. Safe for who? What about the children? What about the equipment in that shop class?

You know, there was once a weirdo D-list movie producer in the '60s named Russ Meyer who made low-budget B movies like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! And Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Always featuring women who look like this. His movies played in porn houses and were featured in Hustler and Playboy. Okay, fine, but who says, "No, when it comes to huge, ridiculous tits, let's save that for the kids."

And this is why people vote for Trump. They say in politics, liberals are the gas pedal and conservatives are the brakes, and I'm generally with the gas pedal, but not if we're driving off a cliff.

On the trans issue, America is no ands, ifs, or buts about it, absolutely alone in the world now. An outlier country. Last month, England's National Health Service announced that there's "not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness" of puberty blockers for third graders, and that they were going to stop fumbling around with children's privates, because that's Prince Andrew's job.

So too with all the other good place countries in direct opposition to America's choice to affirm children's wishes on switching gender, no matter the age or psychiatric history. The Far Left, which always like to use, "Well, Europe does it." Yeah, no, that doesn't work on this one anymore.

Or on immigration. Sweden opened its borders to over a million and a half immigrants since 2010. And now 20 percent of its citizens are foreign-born and its education system is tanking, and it has Europe's highest rate of gangland killings. And one result is that the far-right parties are in the government now there for the first time.

To which liberals say, "Blaming immigrants for the rising crime rate is racist." Yeah, but is it true? Of course, it's true. It's not a coincidence. The quality of life went down after the Somali gangs started a drug turf war using hand grenades.

Calling it "racist" doesn't solve the problem. It hands future elections to someone who will solve the problem, and who, I promise, you're not going to like.

==

For the record, I've said literally all of this, including making the comparison of flying off a cliff if you rely entirely on the gas pedal. Just saying.

When Trump takes office again, and he will, people will act stunned and ask, "how could this have ever happened?"

#Bill Maher #Real Time with Bill Maher #immigration #gender ideology #medical scandal #Canada #Sweden #Somali gangs #medical corruption #religion is a mental illness

[djuvlipen]

There's a movie coming out next month in my country that is about a teacher (white European) teaching a young Romani delinquent how to read, which sounds like your typical social drama tbh, but then I looked up an interview with the filmmaker and he says "When I was researching for the film, I learned the Roma live off the grid and they can't fathom putting their children to school" huh! what! Roma don't live off the grid, Romani people are members of the same society everyone else lives in, we don't make up an inner society full of illiterate criminals. It is true that schooling is an issue with Romani people due to our social standing and economic struggles but you can't generalize a population of 15 million people that way. Then he says "but some associations do take care of them" by schooling them. Well guess what! I'm in one such association and that's such a poor way of looking at it. When my friend and I go volunteering (and that goes for everyone else in my association), we work with the parents of the kids because those parents do have the best interest of their children at heart, otherwise they wouldn't keep in touch with the association. It's not the association that takes care of the kids, it's the parents who take care of their children's education by relying on outside help when needed. Don't erase those parents. Later on, he says "I didn't want to make a political movie or a pro-migrant movie, so I chose to focus on Romani people because Roma are Europeans. If I had focused on Syrian people or on African people, it would have been much different. I wanted to talk about education, not integration." Except that migration politics have a lot to do with the situation of Roma in my country and the Romani actor he cast is a Romanian immigrant. This doesn't make sense. And at the end, he says "I didn't want to make a pro-Romani or an anti-Romani movie" why should people take position in favour or against the mere existence of a group of people? This is so tone deaf. I can't believe that movie is coming out, that man looks so unserious and his research seems so poor.

[toxicshipsincorporated]

okay to explain the way that narrative literacy has....just degraded so far and how the "treat characters the way you treat humans" camp have exacerbated it.

I watched Blade Runner 2049 on a plane. I was a captive audience and that was the only way that I was ever gonna watch that film and I actually didn't hate it. And the part of the film that I really enjoyed and that was really engaging for me was the relationship between ryan goslings character and the lil hologram lady.

And in brief terms, I think their relationship was kind of a sticking point for me before watching? I didnt wanna see a sexy hologram fuck a white dude ya know? but it really surprised me with how that relationshp is played. at first, we are both endeared to their relationship while also being kind of....put off by it. There is something sweet about their stiltes conversation, the way it sounds rehearsed, part of a dialogue tree but then you remember WHY that is. Because she's a computer program, a product that he bought. You feel a little skeeved out by how this thing that has no choice acts like a lovesick girl and how gosling's character enjoys it. "why cant this dude date a real girl??? one that can leave his apartment if she wants. one that can say no. what kind of guy takes pleasure in this kind of relationship???" but the thing that I loved about this relationship is that you find out that gosling's character is a replicant. it reconfigures the whole relationship. it is no longer a relationship between a consumer and product but between two beings that are oppressed by a vicious system based on the whims of the rich and powerful. they are two equals trying desperately to offer each other comfort and relief from their shared and mirrored pain.

so what does that mean?

so many ppl I talked to who liked this movie, liked this relationship and this turn of the configuration of that relationship told me some variation of "makes you think about how we treat AI and fictional characters."

And like......No....NO it did not make me think about that at all. wtf???

It reminded me that there are human beings in the real world who are treated like tools, like products to be bought and sold. It reminded me that those in power, those in posession of great wealth have decided to dehumanize people and we as a society have followed suit (fast food workers, the homeless, ppl in sweatshops and factories, migrant farmhands etc.) choosing to enjoy the comforts of our privileged lives at the sacrifice of others' humanity.

And I think this is where a lot of ppl have been failed when it comes to fictional literacy. The point is not to do a 1:1 comparison. And like Blade Runner 2049 is not some kind of parable, ya know. If all you got from it was, ooo pretty colors and sad ryan gosling is sexy, then that's fine. But when you do choose to do analysis....like it needs to be informed by humanity towards like...humans....ya know? ppl are so quick to offer fictional characters, dolls, and tools etc. sympathy, empathy, humanity when we live in a world where actual human beings have their humanity ripped from them daily.

[renee561]

Ted Lasso Season One Recap

So this show has been on my to watch list thanks to @sarahtarth and @austennerdita2533 @heatherfield @asphodelandabsinthe and @mercurial-make-em-ups ALL have recommended the show to me in one form or another. It has been on the list unfortunately for years (looks at Sarah and Ashlee and Heather). But as @wauryd mentioned gambling is perhaps one avenue to get me to do something because I like being a person of my word.

Now that I've finished season 1, i wanted to share my thoughts instead of just my reactions.

Spoilers for those that haven't seen it yet

So starting simple, I want to talk about locations.

I thought the fact that it was set and filmed in a part of England that was not London was amazing! Like you see London alot in films and show and as a person that have friends in other parts of England and that thought Brighton was amazing that for them to showcase something different was amazing also Liverpool my beloved Beatles.

Producers take note you have a rich country, you can set it in other places for your modern settings!

Characters

Let me just say I love them all to some varying degrees, but I have to say...Ted is amazing and I love him so much!

Typically speaking, you do not get a guy that is genuinely nice and kind as a main character in modern shows and movies that doesn't seem fake, that doesn't somehow make you suspicious about if they're going to turn him into something else later on.

Plus he's just...relatable. He's an optimist and he's doesn't always understand, but the thing about him is he tries! He tries so hard 🥺 and he's only happy to help people, no matter how small he just wants to help.

Also I think we should all aspire to be more like Ted.

Continuing on to another character I love Rebecca. Woman is one of 3-4 women owners in a cut throat industry, who went through a horrific divorce with a douche bag of a man that has an over englated ego. GET FUCKED RUPERT!

But she's wounded, and she lashes out at Higgens (my soft boy) and herself and anyone really because she is trying to protect herself from being that hurt again.

But she learns to let go just a little, and she owns her shit (after a time and some pressure and some positive influences (keeley is that you). She is starting to learn to trust and love herself the way that Rupert never did.

I love her budding friendship with Ted, like the hugs and the just support even when she is trying to sabatoge him and the team.

The team.

MY BOYS!!! Babies all of them! (Except you Tartt you're on thin fucking ice)

Nate, nate, my beloved soft boy!! I love how he grows this season how with the confidence of Ted he is starting to come out of his shell.

Roy...Roy...dick, but at least you know it and is trying to figure it out and the way he is protective of the team <3 <3

Sam is precious and I want to just hug him. Like this boy is the sweetest and I would die for him.

Tartt is a fucking prick. He gets marginally better, and I'm hoping better as things go on, but yes keeley deserves so much better then you!

Keeley is amazing, she's strong and kind and a real stand up gal, I just want her happiness.also same keeley fucking same about Rebecca. (Renee is not straight)

The Plot

I don't get football/sports in general, I do love things that I don't fully get because that's out of my sphere of interests. But i love that it's different, that it's not the same plot as other things.

I love that it's about a migrant to a different country that has no idea about what's going on and yet is still trying his best. Putting his best foot forward and trying to help these boys be the best versions of themselves.

Especially as this is set in 2020, it is very inspiring, and I can't wait for more.

#Renee talks Ted Lasso Season 1 #Long Post #spoilers for ted lasso

[thewanderingzeppelin]

15 questions + 15 friends

Tagged by @afoolofhope

1. Are you named after anyone? My great-aunt

2. When was the last time you cried? A couple days ago? Life is sad right now.

3. Do you have kids? No :-(

4. What sports do you play/ have you played? Does croquet count?

5. Do you use sarcasm? Fluently.

6. What is the first thing you notice about people? Basic physical attributes, I guess... male/female, tall/short, skinny/fat. Then how happy they are.

7. What's your eye color? Green

8. Scary movies or happy endings? Team HEA forever.

9. Any talents? I'm pretty good at coming up with reasons I need an Excel spreadsheet and then making that Excel spreadsheet

10. Where were you born? Ohio

11. What are your hobbies? Besides Excel spreadsheets, reading, organizing my reading, blogging about reading, gardening, hiking, games, and gossiping with my sister about the rest of the family.

12. Do you have any pets? Yes, two border collies (Waylon and Paisley), a flock of lazy laying hens, and apparently we've also been adopted by a cat.

13. How tall are you? 5'6"

14. Favorite subject in school? So long ago. Apparently history, because that's still the one I study voluntarily.

15. Dream job? I like learning new skills and how things work. I'm a sort of migrant worker except without the migration haha

I don't actually have 15 mutuals around here but @fairytalesanddragons @ioannemos and @incoramsanctissimo are welcome to give it a go!!

#morning ramblings #haven't filled one of these out in like years haha

[aboardthescheherazade]

Part 2 to the Rastapopoulos timeline post. I call these two the "Ironic End" and the "Bad End":

Ironic end: After the events of Flight 714 to Sydney, an amnesiac traveller wakes up on the beach of a tropical island. The locals take him in, and they figure out just enough to know he's probably from the Mediterranean; maybe he fell off a migrant ship, but there haven't been any travelling worker ships in the area recently. Eventually, he puts together some kind of new name, and begins working at the docks to make a living. He's drawn to a handful of things - ships and new movies, mainly - but nothing clear ever comes through. He lives the last years of his life as a short-tempered but nice-enough port foreman who mostly keeps to himself outside of work. His coworkers in town mourn him, but over time, he just fades away into the rest of the island's history.

Bad end: Playing yet another role, and likely having gone through some degree of ego death, "Endaddine Akass" emerges in the tropics as a spiritual advisor and art collector. His "practices" are mostly just a mishmash of Christianity, Islam, Daoism, and Rastafarianism. He gets underground plastic surgery to subtly alter his face just enough to be able to appear in the media without someone recognizing mugshots from his "past life". Rastapopoulos has found a new way to worm his way into the public zeitgeist, and all it took was completely sacrificing his identity and his dignity. This design came about while talking with ProfCal...his Alph-Art version would take place during the late 1930s-early 40s, and it got me thinking about a period-accurate Endaddine Akass. I adapted a number of details from Herge's speculative design, most notably the faux third eye, and the sort-of Magen David at the top of his staff. I can tell it's not meant to outright signal Judaism; I see it as an example of 20th Century western esoterism's rampant cultural appropriation (i.e. he'd probably try to claim it's a hexagram symbolizing elements, or something), plus, it's regionally accurate: the Magen David is an important piece of iconography in Rastafarianism. It was a very new religion in the late 1930s, which would make Akass fairly predatory for stealing aspects of Rastafarian imagery. (We also considered him pretending to be White Jamaican, accent and all, which would go to show how far "Akass" is willing to humiliate his old self just to live as a debutante. Have you ever heard Steven Seagal pretend to be Jamaican? That's what we're dealing with here)

Regardless of the ending you choose to follow, I still tried to make either of them relatively within Herge's writing style. He was fond of using big finales, and themes of karma and turnabout, so I considered both of these when pondering Rastapopoulos's fate at the end of the Tintin series. (I have thought way too much about Rastapopoulos, I know. The shmuck haunts me like an awful poltergeist ^^;)

#drawings #hc #rastapopoulos

[locustheologicus]

Mother Frances Cabrini: The Saint of the Immigrants (and a model for those of us who serve the immigrant communities)

The National Endowment for the Humanities offers a wonderful resource on the life of St. Frances Cabrini, the first American Saint. The article goes into the depth of Mother Cabrini who is describes as “a woman fully Italian and fully American, a pragmatic and empathetic leader, and a remarkable humanitarian whose faith charged her tireless work for impoverished and marginalized immigrants.”

In 1889 she was commissioned by Pope Leo XIII, the author of Rerum Novarum, the famed encyclical which would give birth to Catholic social teaching, to go with her Italian community to America. Pope Leo XIII recognized the challenges that migrants faced in America and he wanted to make sure the Church was responding to their social and spiritual needs.

How sad and fraught with trouble is the state of those who yearly emigrate in bodies to America for the means of living is so well known to you that there is no need of us to speak of it at length. . . . It is, indeed, piteous that so many unhappy sons of Italy, driven by want to seek another land, should encounter ills greater than those from which they would fly. And it often happens that to the toils of every kind by which their physical life is wasted, is added the far more wretched ruin of their souls. – Pope Leo XIII

Evidently it was recognized that many of the American Catholic community shared in the anti-immigrant prejudice that the majority of America had for the Italian community at that time. She came to New York and saw the plight that the immigrants suffered as they were either neglected or abused from those who wanted to use them for cheap labor. 

My thoughts run to our many immigrants who arrive annually on the shores of the Atlantic, moving into the already overcrowded cities of the East, and there they encounter many difficulties and meager wages. In our small sphere we are helping to solve important social problems, in every State and every city where our houses are opened. In these homes, we receive the orphans, the sick, the poor: thousands of children are instructed, not only that, but the good that is done is immense, through contact with the people who facilitate our institutions. – Mother Cabrini

Her community went to the poorest immigrant communities in New York. Her Missionary Sisters went to communities where allegedly the police feared to go. The social injustices of the late 1800′s was daunting. In 1890, one year after Mother Cabrini came to New York, Jacob Riis published  “How the Other Half Lives,” documenting the intense squalor where immigrants lived in New York City.

Mother Cabrini did not let this stop her. Her goal was not to solve the political issue but to respond to the needs they encountered.

What we as women cannot do on a large scale to help solve grave social ills is being done in our small sphere of influence in every state and city where we have opened houses. In them we shelter and care for orphans, the sick and the poor. – Mother Cabrini

The movie that is about to come out tells the story of Mother Cabrini and the courage she had to organize institutional responses to the plight of the immigrant. Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters set up schools, orphanages, and hospitals. In the end, they opened sixty-seven institutions in nine countries, on three continents. The movie depicts the challenges she faces throughout American society including the pressure from the political system and the local Catholic Church. A local church that walks a fine line between the prophetic Gospel values on one side and corruptive influences of local politics on the other. Mother Cabrini’s story has much to offer us as we respond to the current immigrant crisis that once again befalls our great city. Once again we have some Catholics and political conservatives that either promote an anti-immigrant position or are to timid to support the new arrivals. But we also have other Catholics who, in the spirit of Mother Cabrini, champion the social teachings of the Church that began under Pope Leo XIII and continue with Pope Francis.  

With immigrants, take this path of integration into society. It is not a work of charity to leave immigrants where they are. No. Charity involves taking them and integrating them, with education, with job placement, with all these things. - Pope Francis

The work of Catholic Charities has been to promote the values of our social  tradition and to follow the powerful model of saints like Mother Cabrini. Mother Frances Cabrini teaches us how to recognize the preferential option for the poor and struggle to promote the dignity of all people, especially those who are socially marginalized. In the movie you can hear her prophetically yelling “we are all human beings, we are all the same,” to the powers that be in the New York City. This is a central principle of Catholic social teaching that needs to be enforced now just as it needed to be heard then. 

It is worth remembering that in order to respond to these challenges Mother Cabrini surrounded herself with prayer. This was necessary so the God could guide her and keep her centered on these values as she responded to the deep social challenges that the migrant community, and those who served them, encountered.   

Fortify me with the grace of Your Holy Spirit and give Your peace to my soul that I may be free from all needless anxiety and worry. Help me to desire always that which is pleasing and acceptable to You so that Your will may be my will. – Mother Cabrini

Here is a one page biography on Mother Frances Cabrini to download. It includes the following prayer of intercession:

Good and loving God, Thank you for the beautiful example of your servant, Frances Cabrini. Help her life to inspire us to listen to your call, persevere in working for the poor, and tirelessly put others before ourselves. Bless the poor and the immigrants around us and those who work for them. Strengthen the efforts of all the saints striving on your earth today. Amen.

#youtube #cabrini

[peridot-tears]

I'm actually FASCINATED by the role of New York gangs in AC: Rogue. To me, a born-and-raised NYer, gangs are a recent development going back to the 1850s because frankly, that's as far as our oral histories usually trace; that's the earliest major wave of immigration. Most old New York families don't go further back.

The gangs weren't completely wiped out until the 90s, and by "wiped out," I mean they still exist, but the end result of government crackdown was that they no longer operate in the open the way they used to, and their methods of operation have changed. In the 1950s-80s, they extorted money via racketeering (what you see in movies when a gang member comes to a business and offers "protection" in exchange for money; reject it, and the member and his goons destroy your business or threaten your life) and had shootouts on the streets. Nowadays, it's more likely to be money laundering.

Needless to say, we can say with full confidence and a sense of black-and-white morality, that gangs are Bad, because of how much violence they encourage within the community.

BUT, there are certain things that aren't as black-and-white, because gangs usually exist to fill the needs of a society that the "legal" methods cannot meet. You feel powerless? You band together and intimidate other people, even if it becomes violent. Isn't that how Jacob formed the Rooks?

I want to sidebar about a great example of gangs filling unmet needs in what are shitty, harmful methods that would not be met at all otherwise: Human trafficking.

I'm not defending human trafficking by any means, but I would like to examine the conditions under which people are trafficked, their role in NYC, and the deeper implications in AC Rogue.

We know that smugglers are exploitative. The smugglers who lead North Koreans across the border into China and Mexicans into the United States demand huge sums of money from migrants (let's use "migrants" in this case since we're covering a lot of different groups who leave their homes for different reasons). These migrants pay this exorbitant amount to take a journey that they might not even live to see the end of.

However, we can understand that people who decide to take such a journey usually feel that this chance for a different life is better than staying in their current conditions. And that they are so desperate or at the end of their rope that this may be the best and only option. There is no other way to guarantee leaving for a better place.

The most glaring example of this in my mind is Sister Ping, who smuggled people into New York from her native province in China for years. She ran one of the biggest operations in the city; people died under her charge after paying basically what would have been a year's salary in the US. And yet, when Sister Ping passed, people flooded the streets of Chinatown to pay their respects. Because she granted them passage to the United States.

So yes. These things are bad, but people do end up using gang "services" because they could not acquire what they need otherwise.

But enough about Old New York. What about Old, Old New York? Like 1750s New York?

AC Rogue is not about the nuances of gang culture, so Hope Jensen's operations in New York outside of smuggling and experimenting on poison are pretty nebulous. Shay is supposed to be the complicated "hero" -- I would generously say anti-hero -- of Rogue who seeks to right the wrongs committed by Assassins. So he's presented as being in the right for crippling her supposed (we never get an actual confirmation, and Shay at this point only expects the worst out of the Assassins after their fuck-ups) plan to release poison gas on New York.

Poison gas aside, because of Shay's perspective, we are introduced to the gangs as criminals who extorted the Finnegans, but I wonder what other operations they ran? Were they also smuggling people into the city? Was Hope extorting businesses? Did she put money back into the city in other ways, ways we didn't see because we're looking at it through Shay's perspective? What were the needs that Old Old New York society that the gangs needed to fill?

We're arguably the hero for putting down criminals because of Shay and Monro, but I wonder if the formation of the Rooks in Syndicate would have looked very different if I were playing as a bystander or Assassin defector.

And morality debate aside, I'm very, very excited to look deeper into the Old Old New York gangs. They're like. The Grandfather of the Grandfather of the Godfather of the Modern NYC.

#long post #cw human trafficking #ac rogue #shay patrick cormac #shay cormac #shay #ac shay #assassins creed #assassin's creed #hope jensen #tears falling like peridots

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Where is the country-destroying migrant surge that was supposed to come after Title 42 ended? Why has no one taken your guns? Why isn't Hillary Clinton locked up? So many questions.

By Rex Huppke

Last I checked, there are approximately 3,756 Republicans running for the GOP presidential nomination, and the vast majority of them – particularly the Donalds Trump and the Rons DeSantis of the world – want voters to know they should be terrified.

Terrified of what, you ask? Oh, I dunno. Socialism. Marxism. “Radical” teachers. Mickey Mouse. Drag queens. “Others.” Pretty much everything, it seems. All the fears. (I’d add spiders to that list, but that’s just me, a liberal scaredy cat.)

Fearmongering is a tried-and-true Republican Party tradition and with the 2024 election cycle about to kick into full gear, it’s mongering season.

REPUBLICAN FEARMONGERING, AND SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT WHY FEARS ARE NEVER REALIZED

So I have a suggestion for GOP voters, from the MAGA loyalists to the (three remaining) moderates to everyone in between. The first GOP presidential debate will be Aug. 23 in Milwaukee. At that event, you should demand answers to the following fear-related questions:

Why is “her” – the Hillary Clinton character in the “Lock her up!” chant – not locked up? Former President Donald Trump was supposed to do that, yet “her” walks free.

Why haven't we been literally invaded by umpteen South American migrant caravans?

Where is the country-destroying migrant surge that was supposed to come after Title 42 ended?

Why aren’t there violent MS-13 gang members on every street corner?

Why haven't the tyrannical Democrats taken our guns?

Why hasn’t Obamacare been repealed?

Where is the GOP health care plan? (Coming in two weeks, I’m sure of it!)

Why, with godless, devious Democrat Joe Biden as President, are Americans still allowed to say “Merry Christmas”?

Why did the COVID-19 vaccines work? Why did they not contain tracking chips that allow the government to monitor us?

Why has the economy not collapsed and why has the American way of life not been destroyed?

Why is there not, as Michigan gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon promised in 2022 before not becoming Governor, “a drag queen in every classroom, indoctrinating our children”?

Why haven’t drag shows turned all Americans into drag queens?

YEARS OF FEAR, WITH SO FEW RESULTS – IT'S ALMOST AS IF THEY'RE MANIPULATING VOTERS

Why are America’s big cities not actually dystopian hellscapes?

Why is the murder rate declining when we’ve been told repeatedly that crime is spiraling out of control?

How come our children are able to watch Disney movies without turning gay?

Why are Americans still allowed to speak English?

Why are we still able to hold dear all the things we hold dear?

I WAS SPECIFICALLY PROMISED WIDESPREAD SOCIALISM. WHAT THE HECK?

Why has nobody come to confiscate our guns? We have actual buckets filled with guns in the basement and bullets everywhere and not a single damn Democrat has come to rip them from our hands, cold and dead or otherwise.

Why has virtually everything a Republican candidate or Fox News talking head ever said to instill fear in our hearts wound up being either total nonsense or, at best, an almost bizarre overexaggeration of a relatively minor issue?

Why has America not been transformed into a socialist wasteland?

Why, for the last time, do we still have all of our guns?

You deserve answers to these questions, my Republican friends. Because often, in this big and confusing world of ours, there are inescapable signs that suggest you’re being lied to.

Learning to spot them is an important life skill. Off you go.

#us politics #news #republicans #conservatives #conservatives be like #republicans be like #libertarians #libertarians be like #lolbertarians #op eds #Rex Huppke #republican lies #culture wars #migrant caravans #title 42 #hillary clinton #Obamacare #president joe biden #war on Christmas #COVID-19 vaccines #drag queen show #drag queens #socialism #democratic socialism #gun control #disney #murder rates #economy #english language #usa today