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Jul. 2nd, 2018 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* "Indigenous Professor From B.C.-Alaska Border Nation Forced To Leave Canada:" https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/07/01/indigenous-professor-forced-to-leave-canada_a_23472142/?utm_hp_ref=ca-homepage
* "Mexico election: historic landslide victory for leftist Amlo:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/02/mexico-election-leftist-amlo-set-for-historic-landslide-victory
* "Rep. Jayapal: Trump doesn’t understand U.S. can’t exist in isolation:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/mexico-election-could-impact-trump-immigration-policy-1268034115748
* "Malcolm Nance talks Trump’s possible ‘strategic framework’ in new book:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/malcolm-nance-talks-trump-new-book-the-plot-to-destroy-america-1268038723799
* "Eric Boehlert: Too many in the press don’t hold Trump accountable:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/sarah-huckabee-sanders-restaurant-boot-sparks-civility-debate-1268043331675
* "Rep. Maxine Waters: Trump will not stop me:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/maxine-waters-to-trump-he-will-not-stop-me-1268046403654
* "Tiffany Cross: ICE was born out of 9/11:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-attacks-democrats-on-push-to-abolish-ice-1268038211609
* "Jacksonville,You Have A Trans Violence Problem:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/06/jacksonvilleyou-have-trans-violence.html
* I actually managed to do a ton of small but crucial things around the house today, most of them except the litters and fish tanks too small for even mental ticky boxen, but I feel like it's a win. I've had no spoons for anything but minimum survival stuff for me, plants, and beasts, so a bunch of things had to be back burnered. Tomorrow the scrum starts all over, but at least there was a day to rest and a day to catch up. In other news, I not only love Murderbot, but am terribly fond of Asshole Research Transport.
* "The Battle of Pelennor Fields - LOTR ReRead:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/battle-pelennor-fields-lotr-reread/
* I wish everyone had a chance to see this week's united Shades of America on the topic of Hawaii. It includes a lot of discussion of colonialism, interment camps, and a variety of forms of indigenous resistance. W. Kamau Bell also talks to a third gender person who really tied a lot of the threads together.
* Props to Animal Kingdom for going all out on the gay sex scene instead of just implying or doing a chaste kiss like most shows would have done. So basically there's this, Pose, and American Gods who refuse to desexualize their gay characters among the shows I watch. Let's hope it's a trend. Also, a huge special prize for Pose for their trans sex scenes, the likes of which I’ve seen literally nowhere else on TV.
* "Kel Protects Everybody in Page:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/kel-protects-everybody-in-page-2/
* ToS: Season 2 Rewatch:
- 2.15. The Trouble with Tribbles. Famous and instantly beloved. Let's see how it holds up. The Feds and the Klingons have competing claims to "Sherman's Planet." Whoever can develop it most efficiently gets to keep it. The opening scene features a lot of the Checkov claiming things as Russian that aren't Russian which remains one of the things he's best known for. I have been thinking a lot about how original Klingons were stand ins for the Russians and how much of this was really about the Cold War, since this season really hits that had just generally with the competition over unaligned planets and that small proxy war on the patriarchal low tech planet a few episodes ago. It all feels weirdly relivant, though not as relevant as the portion of TNG and DS9 where they discover the government has been heavily infiltrated by a hostile power that is manipulating their foreign and domestic policy to serve that hostile foreign power's interests instead of their own. *ahem* Anyway, I think it's interesting that an episode that heavily depends on Fed/Klingon rivalry starts with Chekhov's Russian chauvinism, and repeats the joke in later scenes.
Anyway, they get summoned to a Station in distress. The official in charge of Sherman's Planet Agricultural development apparently called the sector wide emergency to get guards to protect special high yield grain that is the only type that will grow on the planet and they think Klingon saboteurs are coming. They argue over whether it is a misuse of the priority one channel, but Spock gets Kirk to post the guards. They decide to do shore leave on the station since they are guarding the wheat and thus parked here anyway. This is when Uhura spots the shady interstellar trader, Cyrano Jones, trying to sell a trible in the station bar and is given one as a gift. Starfleet calls and puts Kirk personally in charge of the grain. Then the Klingons show up claiming shore leave rights under a treaty. Kirk says twelve at a time with one Fed guard to each Klingon. They posture a bit and Kirk finally catches up with the idea that protecting the grain is actually important to Fed strategic goals, an idea he'd been resisting. Uhura's trible has become a munch of tribles overnight. McCoy takes one down to study. She starts handing them out to crew who want them. Kirk goes back to blowing off the grain protection. Bones' tribles are reproducing quickly. Kirk forces Scotty to go on shore leave to watch the others. Cyrano Jones is trying to sell more tribles in the bar and neither tribles nor Klingons can stand each other. The market is already glutted with tribles and the barkeep has a ton of them. Scooty and Chekov are drinking and we get the third iteration of running joke of Chekov's Russian chauvinism. The Klingon loudly insults humans, Kirk in particular, and finally the Enterprise. Scotty holds Chekov back until the enterprise is insulted at which point, Scotty throws the first punch. During the ensuing brawl, Cyrano Jones steals drinks. Shore leave for both ships is cancelled. No one snitches, but Scotty admits to Kirk he did it. The humor in this scene holds up particularly well, as so little of the humor in other episodes managed to. Bones and Spock bicker as they study the tribles with Bones being particularly nasty. Tribles have infiltrated the bridge and are pretty much everywhere. Seriously, most of this episode is still funny, a rare thing in media a half century old. Bones does not seem to know the difference between bisexuality and hermaphroditic animals. Just saying. The confront Cyrano Jones about the extremely fast reproduction. the Administrator and his assistant accuse Cyrano Jones of being a Klingon agent. The tribles have made it into the food processing equipment on the Enterprise. They figure out the same could have happened to the grain on the station. The compartment is full of tribles of course. (I keep picturing the DS9 people in the compartment tossing tribles at Kirk, in one o their funnier moments). The tribbles are dead or dying; the grain was poisoned; and the trible response to Klingons unmasks the assistant as the saboteur. They make Jones clean up the station tribles. The enterprise tribles got beamed to the Klingon ship.
It really is refreshing to see one of these episodes still working reasonably well after all this time.
- TW: Rape.
2.16: The Gamesters of Triskelion. Kirk, Uhura, and Chekhov are meant to be doing a routine check of an automated science station, but are diverted by more of thosse annoying Godlike aliens that seem to infest space in Startrek. This time it's to a gladiator situation, where their phasors don't work, so they've basically brought fists to a knife fight. They get slave collars and are declared thralls. They try to escape and the obedience collars hurt them. They send another slave to rape Uhura and we can hear her screams and see her resisting in silhouette. They cut away to commercial and then a woman slave coming with food for Kirk, so... yeah. Chekhov is sent a woman with an androgynous voice to "train" him as well. There is a lot to unpack here regarding the sexual harassment and the way it seems to be played borderline for laughs. Like, yes they do seem to know this is sexual harassment and he's literally right next door to where Uhura is being raped, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if there isn't a bit of trans panic in the way this is designed, because Kirk reacts entirely differently to his more traditionally feminine "trainer," and Chekhov looks excited and interested until she speaks. There is long history of playing off trans feminine sexuality as a joke in our media and though this is an alien with an androgynous characteristic, I can' help but see the way this is played as amusing instead of the real horror of the assault on Uhura. I just... Ugh. Uhura seems fine when we next see her, so they showed a sexual assault and then no consequences at all. I really am loathing this one.
Kirk tries to educate his trainer about slavery and freedom before they head out for gladiator training. The Feds resist using another slave for target practice and get the pain again. I'm noticing that the target slave is the only black person here besides Uhura and they are going to replace him with her which brings up a whole host of other issues always present in ToS. Yes, I know the network wanted the show all white and how hard Roddenberry fought to have Uhura and Sulu both on cast and the shortage of background actors of colour just generally is not Roddenbury's fault, but still, because so much of the cast is white so much of the time the issue is always there. Combine that with an episode about slavery and the results are not great, especially with the rape scene and Uhura not seeming to react after. Anyway, Kirk takes her place. They tie his hands and he basically dodges and kicks his armed opponent. He chocks out his opponent, setting off a bidding war for the "Newcomers," and a round of betting as to how untrainable they are. They get the mark of their owner: colour coding on the collars rather than a brand. Kirk sets about seducing his Trainer with talk of love and freedom. he gets her to talk about their Masters and her collar starts killing her with pain. Kirk insists it's hi fault and they should punish him instead. The slave master and Kirk have a conversation that makes clear it doesn't understand compassion at all. The pain stops; the trainer is grateful as if Kirk hadn't put her at risk in the first place. They make out. It's her first experience of consent. She expresses distress and confusion, so he kisses her and then punches her unconscious. I really have no words. Kirk takes the keys and releases the others. Checkov has tied up his trainer; Uhura's rapist has gone to report her. The Overseer turns up to activate the pain collars.
Meanwhile Spock, Scotty, and Bones are trying to figure out WTF. Bones is alternating insults and hysteria like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Spock is going at it rationally and methodically like an adult trying to solve a problem. Spock finds a lead and Bones yells insults because Spock orders the ship to go see if they are there. Spock persists searching using logic despite objections by Bones and Scotty. Spock keeps patiently explaining his reasoning as if to children; they keep hysterically demanding Spock turn around to search where they know Kirk, Checkov, and Uhura are not. He eventually has to point out he is in command and asks if they are planning to mutiny. Bones goes with racist insults; Scotty falls in line and does his job. Spock finds them; he and Bones plan beam down, but the Slave masters freeze the controls. Kirk bates the slave masters into showing themselves. Its three coor coded brains in jars. Gladiator fights doesn't seem like an intellectual persuits. Kirk calls them on their bullshit. They plan to make the destruction of the ship look like an accident. Kirk pricks their pride and offers a wager. If the Feds win they have to let the Enterprise and the thralls go, and must educate the former enslaved people. He kills one opponent, gets a third to kill the second, but throws the third onto the yellow and they replace him with the woman he seduced betrayed. She surrenders after it becomes clear neither will kill the other. They free the enslaved people. She wants to go to the stars; he blows her off with talk of education and a kiss.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is doing a fundraiser for legal defense of refugee children in ICE detention. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/deliver-them-from-the-hands-of-the-wicked/
* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/
* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border
This has a call script to help you talk your Republican Senator into voting for the Keep Families Together Act: http://rockinhamburger.tumblr.com/post/175022988673/captacorn-marvelsmostwanted-heres-a-call
* How to help Rohingya refugees: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/asia/rohingya-aid-myanmar-bangladesh.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=50784086&te=1&_r=0
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Have something you want to tell your congress Critters? Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com
* "Mexico election: historic landslide victory for leftist Amlo:" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/02/mexico-election-leftist-amlo-set-for-historic-landslide-victory
* "Rep. Jayapal: Trump doesn’t understand U.S. can’t exist in isolation:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/mexico-election-could-impact-trump-immigration-policy-1268034115748
* "Malcolm Nance talks Trump’s possible ‘strategic framework’ in new book:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/malcolm-nance-talks-trump-new-book-the-plot-to-destroy-america-1268038723799
* "Eric Boehlert: Too many in the press don’t hold Trump accountable:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/sarah-huckabee-sanders-restaurant-boot-sparks-civility-debate-1268043331675
* "Rep. Maxine Waters: Trump will not stop me:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/maxine-waters-to-trump-he-will-not-stop-me-1268046403654
* "Tiffany Cross: ICE was born out of 9/11:" http://www.msnbc.com/am-joy/watch/trump-attacks-democrats-on-push-to-abolish-ice-1268038211609
* "Jacksonville,You Have A Trans Violence Problem:" http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2018/06/jacksonvilleyou-have-trans-violence.html
* I actually managed to do a ton of small but crucial things around the house today, most of them except the litters and fish tanks too small for even mental ticky boxen, but I feel like it's a win. I've had no spoons for anything but minimum survival stuff for me, plants, and beasts, so a bunch of things had to be back burnered. Tomorrow the scrum starts all over, but at least there was a day to rest and a day to catch up. In other news, I not only love Murderbot, but am terribly fond of Asshole Research Transport.
* "The Battle of Pelennor Fields - LOTR ReRead:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/battle-pelennor-fields-lotr-reread/
* I wish everyone had a chance to see this week's united Shades of America on the topic of Hawaii. It includes a lot of discussion of colonialism, interment camps, and a variety of forms of indigenous resistance. W. Kamau Bell also talks to a third gender person who really tied a lot of the threads together.
* Props to Animal Kingdom for going all out on the gay sex scene instead of just implying or doing a chaste kiss like most shows would have done. So basically there's this, Pose, and American Gods who refuse to desexualize their gay characters among the shows I watch. Let's hope it's a trend. Also, a huge special prize for Pose for their trans sex scenes, the likes of which I’ve seen literally nowhere else on TV.
* "Kel Protects Everybody in Page:" https://www.thefandomentals.com/kel-protects-everybody-in-page-2/
* ToS: Season 2 Rewatch:
- 2.15. The Trouble with Tribbles. Famous and instantly beloved. Let's see how it holds up. The Feds and the Klingons have competing claims to "Sherman's Planet." Whoever can develop it most efficiently gets to keep it. The opening scene features a lot of the Checkov claiming things as Russian that aren't Russian which remains one of the things he's best known for. I have been thinking a lot about how original Klingons were stand ins for the Russians and how much of this was really about the Cold War, since this season really hits that had just generally with the competition over unaligned planets and that small proxy war on the patriarchal low tech planet a few episodes ago. It all feels weirdly relivant, though not as relevant as the portion of TNG and DS9 where they discover the government has been heavily infiltrated by a hostile power that is manipulating their foreign and domestic policy to serve that hostile foreign power's interests instead of their own. *ahem* Anyway, I think it's interesting that an episode that heavily depends on Fed/Klingon rivalry starts with Chekhov's Russian chauvinism, and repeats the joke in later scenes.
Anyway, they get summoned to a Station in distress. The official in charge of Sherman's Planet Agricultural development apparently called the sector wide emergency to get guards to protect special high yield grain that is the only type that will grow on the planet and they think Klingon saboteurs are coming. They argue over whether it is a misuse of the priority one channel, but Spock gets Kirk to post the guards. They decide to do shore leave on the station since they are guarding the wheat and thus parked here anyway. This is when Uhura spots the shady interstellar trader, Cyrano Jones, trying to sell a trible in the station bar and is given one as a gift. Starfleet calls and puts Kirk personally in charge of the grain. Then the Klingons show up claiming shore leave rights under a treaty. Kirk says twelve at a time with one Fed guard to each Klingon. They posture a bit and Kirk finally catches up with the idea that protecting the grain is actually important to Fed strategic goals, an idea he'd been resisting. Uhura's trible has become a munch of tribles overnight. McCoy takes one down to study. She starts handing them out to crew who want them. Kirk goes back to blowing off the grain protection. Bones' tribles are reproducing quickly. Kirk forces Scotty to go on shore leave to watch the others. Cyrano Jones is trying to sell more tribles in the bar and neither tribles nor Klingons can stand each other. The market is already glutted with tribles and the barkeep has a ton of them. Scooty and Chekov are drinking and we get the third iteration of running joke of Chekov's Russian chauvinism. The Klingon loudly insults humans, Kirk in particular, and finally the Enterprise. Scotty holds Chekov back until the enterprise is insulted at which point, Scotty throws the first punch. During the ensuing brawl, Cyrano Jones steals drinks. Shore leave for both ships is cancelled. No one snitches, but Scotty admits to Kirk he did it. The humor in this scene holds up particularly well, as so little of the humor in other episodes managed to. Bones and Spock bicker as they study the tribles with Bones being particularly nasty. Tribles have infiltrated the bridge and are pretty much everywhere. Seriously, most of this episode is still funny, a rare thing in media a half century old. Bones does not seem to know the difference between bisexuality and hermaphroditic animals. Just saying. The confront Cyrano Jones about the extremely fast reproduction. the Administrator and his assistant accuse Cyrano Jones of being a Klingon agent. The tribles have made it into the food processing equipment on the Enterprise. They figure out the same could have happened to the grain on the station. The compartment is full of tribles of course. (I keep picturing the DS9 people in the compartment tossing tribles at Kirk, in one o their funnier moments). The tribbles are dead or dying; the grain was poisoned; and the trible response to Klingons unmasks the assistant as the saboteur. They make Jones clean up the station tribles. The enterprise tribles got beamed to the Klingon ship.
It really is refreshing to see one of these episodes still working reasonably well after all this time.
- TW: Rape.
2.16: The Gamesters of Triskelion. Kirk, Uhura, and Chekhov are meant to be doing a routine check of an automated science station, but are diverted by more of thosse annoying Godlike aliens that seem to infest space in Startrek. This time it's to a gladiator situation, where their phasors don't work, so they've basically brought fists to a knife fight. They get slave collars and are declared thralls. They try to escape and the obedience collars hurt them. They send another slave to rape Uhura and we can hear her screams and see her resisting in silhouette. They cut away to commercial and then a woman slave coming with food for Kirk, so... yeah. Chekhov is sent a woman with an androgynous voice to "train" him as well. There is a lot to unpack here regarding the sexual harassment and the way it seems to be played borderline for laughs. Like, yes they do seem to know this is sexual harassment and he's literally right next door to where Uhura is being raped, but at the same time I can't help but wonder if there isn't a bit of trans panic in the way this is designed, because Kirk reacts entirely differently to his more traditionally feminine "trainer," and Chekhov looks excited and interested until she speaks. There is long history of playing off trans feminine sexuality as a joke in our media and though this is an alien with an androgynous characteristic, I can' help but see the way this is played as amusing instead of the real horror of the assault on Uhura. I just... Ugh. Uhura seems fine when we next see her, so they showed a sexual assault and then no consequences at all. I really am loathing this one.
Kirk tries to educate his trainer about slavery and freedom before they head out for gladiator training. The Feds resist using another slave for target practice and get the pain again. I'm noticing that the target slave is the only black person here besides Uhura and they are going to replace him with her which brings up a whole host of other issues always present in ToS. Yes, I know the network wanted the show all white and how hard Roddenberry fought to have Uhura and Sulu both on cast and the shortage of background actors of colour just generally is not Roddenbury's fault, but still, because so much of the cast is white so much of the time the issue is always there. Combine that with an episode about slavery and the results are not great, especially with the rape scene and Uhura not seeming to react after. Anyway, Kirk takes her place. They tie his hands and he basically dodges and kicks his armed opponent. He chocks out his opponent, setting off a bidding war for the "Newcomers," and a round of betting as to how untrainable they are. They get the mark of their owner: colour coding on the collars rather than a brand. Kirk sets about seducing his Trainer with talk of love and freedom. he gets her to talk about their Masters and her collar starts killing her with pain. Kirk insists it's hi fault and they should punish him instead. The slave master and Kirk have a conversation that makes clear it doesn't understand compassion at all. The pain stops; the trainer is grateful as if Kirk hadn't put her at risk in the first place. They make out. It's her first experience of consent. She expresses distress and confusion, so he kisses her and then punches her unconscious. I really have no words. Kirk takes the keys and releases the others. Checkov has tied up his trainer; Uhura's rapist has gone to report her. The Overseer turns up to activate the pain collars.
Meanwhile Spock, Scotty, and Bones are trying to figure out WTF. Bones is alternating insults and hysteria like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Spock is going at it rationally and methodically like an adult trying to solve a problem. Spock finds a lead and Bones yells insults because Spock orders the ship to go see if they are there. Spock persists searching using logic despite objections by Bones and Scotty. Spock keeps patiently explaining his reasoning as if to children; they keep hysterically demanding Spock turn around to search where they know Kirk, Checkov, and Uhura are not. He eventually has to point out he is in command and asks if they are planning to mutiny. Bones goes with racist insults; Scotty falls in line and does his job. Spock finds them; he and Bones plan beam down, but the Slave masters freeze the controls. Kirk bates the slave masters into showing themselves. Its three coor coded brains in jars. Gladiator fights doesn't seem like an intellectual persuits. Kirk calls them on their bullshit. They plan to make the destruction of the ship look like an accident. Kirk pricks their pride and offers a wager. If the Feds win they have to let the Enterprise and the thralls go, and must educate the former enslaved people. He kills one opponent, gets a third to kill the second, but throws the third onto the yellow and they replace him with the woman he seduced betrayed. She surrenders after it becomes clear neither will kill the other. They free the enslaved people. She wants to go to the stars; he blows her off with talk of education and a kiss.
*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.
* Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab is doing a fundraiser for legal defense of refugee children in ICE detention. https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/activism/deliver-them-from-the-hands-of-the-wicked/
* Want to contribute directly to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services fund? "Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services:" https://www.raicestexas.org/
* Support Kids at the Border: http://brigdh.tumblr.com/post/175022384240/support-the-kids-at-the-border
This has a call script to help you talk your Republican Senator into voting for the Keep Families Together Act: http://rockinhamburger.tumblr.com/post/175022988673/captacorn-marvelsmostwanted-heres-a-call
* How to help Rohingya refugees: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/asia/rohingya-aid-myanmar-bangladesh.html?emc=edit_nn_20171012&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=50784086&te=1&_r=0
* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey
* Have something you want to tell your congress Critters? Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.
* This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/
* Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/
* This is a cool person and the swimsuits are being made from an ethical source. LGBTQIA+ swimsuits: https://www.etsy.com/shop/NerdyKeppie?ref=l2-shopheader-name§ion_id=24021616
* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion
* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1925021.html
* Want Game of Thrones without the creepy? We need new players. We are very inclusive. "Game of Bones MUSH:" gobmush.wikidot.com