#Prime Global Corporation

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO🥳🥳🥳❤❤❤

The third and final season of “Good Omens” will begin filming soon in Scotland.

“I’m so happy finally to be able to finish the story Terry and I plotted in 1989 and in 2006,” Gaiman said in a statement accompanying Amazon’s “Good Omens” Season 3 renewal announcement Thursday. “Terry was determined that if we made ‘Good Omens’ for television, we could take the story all the way to the end. Season One was all about averting Armageddon, dangerous prophecies, and the End of the World. Season Two was sweet and gentle, although it may have ended less joyfully than a certain Angel and Demon might have hoped. Now in Season Three, we will deal once more with the end of the world. The plans for Armageddon are going wrong. Only Crowley and Aziraphale working together can hope to put it right. And they aren’t talking.”

Amazon MGM Studios head of television said Vernon Sanders added: “’Good Omens’ has checked every box for a clever, witty, and funny comedy that not only made it a success on Prime Video, but also made ‘goodness’ watchable and fun thanks to Neil and Terry’s immense creativity. The final season is sure to be packed with the same dynamic energy that our global customers have come to enjoy.”

Gaiman, who has a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, where he is currently working on his “Anansi Boys” TV series, continues as executive producer, writer and showrunner for “Good Omens” Season 3. Rob Wilkins of Narrativia, representing Pratchett’s estate, and BBC Studios Productions’ head of comedy Josh Cole also executive produce.

“Good Omens” hails from Amazon MGM Studios, BBC Studios Productions, the Blank Corporation and Narrativia.

[fatehbaz]

In 1833, Parliament finally abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, and the taxpayer payout of £20 million in “compensation” [paid by the government to slave owners] built the material, geophysical (railways, mines, factories), and imperial infrastructures of Britain [...]. Slavery and industrialization were tied by the various afterlives of slavery in the form of indentured and carceral labor that continued to enrich new emergent industrial powers [...]. Enslaved “free” African Americans predominately mined coal in the corporate use of black power or the new “industrial slavery,” [...]. The labor of the coffee - the carceral penance of the rock pile, “breaking rocks out here and keeping on the chain gang” (Nina Simone, Work Song, 1966), laying iron on the railroads - is the carceral future mobilized at plantation’s end (or the “nonevent” of emancipation). [...] [T]he racial circumscription of slavery predates and prepares the material ground for Europe and the Americas in terms of both nation and empire building - and continues to sustain it.

Text by: Kathryn Yusoff. "White Utopia/Black Inferno: Life on a Geologic Spike". e-flux Journal Issue #97. February 2019.

---

When the Haitian Revolution erupted [...], slaveholding regimes around the world grew alarmed. In response to a series of slave rebellions in its own sugar colonies, especially in Jamaica, the British Empire formally abolished slavery in the 1830s. [...] Importing indentured labor from Asia emerged as a potential way to maintain the British Empire’s sugar plantation system. In 1838 John Gladstone, father of future prime minister William E. Gladstone, arranged for the shipment of 396 South Asian workers, bound to five years of indentured labor, to his sugar estates in British Guiana. The experiment [...] inaugurated [...] "a new system of [...] [indentured servitude]," which would endure for nearly a century. [...] Desperate to regain power and authority after the war [and abolition of chattel slavery in the US], Louisiana’s wealthiest planters studied and learned from their Caribbean counterparts. [...] Thousands of Chinese workers landed in Louisiana between 1866 and 1870, recruited from the Caribbean, China and California. [...] When Congress debated excluding the Chinese from the United States in 1882, Rep. Horace F. Page of California argued that the United States could not allow the entry of “millions of cooly slaves and serfs.”

Text by: Moon-Ho Jung. "Making sugar, making 'coolies': Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations". The Conversation. 13 January 2022.

---

The durability and extensibility of plantations [...] have been tracked most especially in the contemporary United States’ prison archipelago and segregated urban areas [...], [including] “skewed life chances, limited access to health [...], premature death, incarceration [...]”. [...] [In labor arrangements there exists] a moral tie that indefinitely indebts the laborers to their master, [...] the main mechanisms reproducing the plantation system long after the abolition of slavery [...]. [G]enealogies of labor management […] have been traced […] linking different features of plantations to later economic enterprises, such as factories […] or diamond mines […] [,] chartered companies, free ports, dependencies, trusteeships [...].

Text by: Irene Peano, Marta Macedo, and Colette Le Petitcorps. "Introduction: Viewing Plantations at the Intersection of Political Ecologies and Multiple Space-Times". Global Plantations in the Modern World: Sovereignties, Ecologies, Afterlives (edited by Petitcrops, Macedo, and Peano). Published 2023.

---

Louis-Napoleon, still serving in the capacity of president of the [French] republic, threw his weight behind […] the exile of criminals as well as political dissidents. “It seems possible to me,” he declared near the end of 1850, “to render the punishment of hard labor more efficient, more moralizing, less expensive […], by using it to advance French colonization.” [...] Slavery had just been abolished in the French Empire [...]. If slavery were at an end, then the crucial question facing the colony was that of finding an alternative source of labor. During the period of the early penal colony we see this search for new slaves, not only in French Guiana, but also throughout [other European] colonies built on the plantation model.

Text by: Peter Redfield. Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana. 2000.

---

To control the desperate and the jobless, the authorities passed harsh new laws, a legislative program designed to quell disorder and ensure a pliant workforce for the factories. The Riot Act banned public disorder; the Combination Act made trade unions illegal; the Workhouse Act forced the poor to work; the Vagrancy Act turned joblessness into a crime. Eventually, over 220 offences could attract capital punishment - or, indeed, transportation. […] [C]onvict transportation - a system in which prisoners toiled without pay under military discipline - replicated many of the worst cruelties of slavery. […] Middle-class anti-slavery activists expressed little sympathy for Britain’s ragged and desperate, holding […] [them] responsible for their own misery. The men and women of London’s slums weren’t slaves. They were free individuals - and if they chose criminality, […] they brought their punishment on themselves. That was how Phillip [commander of the British First Fleet settlement in Australia] could decry chattel slavery while simultaneously relying on unfree labour from convicts. The experience of John Moseley, one of the eleven people of colour on the First Fleet, illustrates how, in the Australian settlement, a rhetoric of liberty accompanied a new kind of bondage. [Moseley was Black and had been a slave at a plantation in America before escaping to Britain, where he was charged with a crime and shipped to do convict labor in Australia.] […] The eventual commutation of a capital sentence to transportation meant that armed guards marched a black ex-slave, chained once more by the neck and ankles, to the Scarborough, on which he sailed to New South Wales. […] For John Moseley, the “free land” of New South Wales brought only a replication of that captivity he’d endured in Virginia. His experience was not unique. […] [T]hroughout the settlement, the old strode in, disguised as the new. [...] In the context of that widespread enthusiasm [in Australia] for the [American] South (the welcome extended to the Confederate ship Shenandoah in Melbourne in 1865 led one of its officers to conclude “the heart of colonial Britain was in our cause”), Queenslanders dreamed of building a “second Louisiana”. [...] The men did not merely adopt a lifestyle associated with New World slavery. They also relied on its techniques and its personnel. [...] Hope, for instance, acquired his sugar plants from the old slaver Thomas Scott. He hired supervisors from Jamaica and Barbados, looking for those with experience driving plantation slaves. [...] The Royal Navy’s Commander George Palmer described Lewin’s vessels as “fitted up precisely like an African slaver [...]".

Text by: Jeff Sparrow. “Friday essay: a slave state - how blackbirding in colonial Australia created a legacy of racism.” The Conversation. 4 August 2022.

[reality-detective]

Wake Up! Everything You Believe Is a Carefully Crafted Lie by a Hidden Elite That Owns Your Governments, Banks, and Minds!

The world is under the control of a hidden, powerful elite that has manipulated humanity for thousands of years. Governments, banks, corporations, and even religions are all part of a massive, interconnected system designed to keep the masses in line. You are living in a controlled simulation where every move is calculated, every narrative crafted, and every dissent crushed.

Ancient Rome never fell; it just changed its face. The Vatican is the continuation of the Roman Empire, pulling the strings of global power from the shadows. The Pope is not a religious leader but the CEO of the world’s largest covert operation. Global leaders bow to Rome; every major decision made in Europe, America, and beyond has its roots in this ancient power structure. The so-called “democracies” are just fronts, and the real rulers operate far from the public eye.

The financial system is a tool of enslavement, but its grip is weakening. Central banks, the Federal Reserve, the World Bank, and the IMF have long kept nations in debt and citizens in economic chains. However, their reign is about to end. The Global Economic Security and Reformation Act (GESARA) is poised to trigger the biggest wealth transfer in history, redistributing stolen wealth back to the people.

This is a total overhaul designed to dismantle the corrupt systems that have enslaved humanity for centuries. Trillions of dollars hoarded by the elite will be seized and returned to the people, restoring economic power where it belongs.

This act will expose the financial fraud perpetuated by these institutions, wiping out debts and releasing new technologies that have been suppressed to keep the populace in poverty. The days of the financial overlords are numbered, and GESARA is the catalyst that will break their chains for good, restoring wealth and freedom to the masses.

Education and media are the propaganda arms of this hidden empire. From kindergarten to university, you are fed lies designed to shape your worldview to fit the agenda of the elite. Critical thinking is discouraged because an informed population is a threat. The news you watch, the books you read, and the information you consume are all curated to keep you ignorant, divided, and powerless.

Governments are puppets. Elections are rigged shows to give you the illusion of choice. Presidents, prime ministers, and kings answer to the same hidden masters. Policies, wars, economic collapses—they’re all orchestrated from behind closed doors by a small group of individuals who have no allegiance to any nation but only to their own interests. They decide who wins, who loses, and how the game is played.

Laws are tools of oppression, not justice. The legal system is designed to protect the elite and keep you in line. Roman law still influences modern legal codes, and its principles are used to maintain control over the masses. The courtrooms are theaters where the outcome is predetermined, and the real power lies in the unseen hands that pull the strings.

Corporations are not independent entities—they are branches of the same control network. They push products, policies, and narratives that serve their masters’ agenda. From the food you eat to the technology you use, everything is designed to monitor, influence, and control you. You are not a customer; you are a data point, a resource to be exploited.

The world is not what it seems. Every institution you trust, every leader you admire, every belief you hold has been carefully constructed to keep you obedient and blind to the truth. You are not free; you are a pawn in a game that was rigged long before you were born.

The only way out is to see the truth: that the world is run by a small, powerful group that considers itself above the rest of humanity. They are the masters, and we are the slaves. This is the reality they don’t want you to see. Wake up, or remain a willing participant in your own enslavement.

Escape the Matrix 🤔

[courtana]

We, Black Curatorial, Kwanda, Twossaints, Black Eats London & West India Cinema Corporation have come together to fundraise for people affected by Hurricane Beryl across the West Indies. As West Indian people it is imperative that we support each other and ourselves in the building back of our communities, this is a duty. Hurricane Beryl has devastated hundreds of communities in the West Indies. This is not a freak storm, this is a direct impact of climate crisis in the region - fuelled and sustained by overconsumption and emissions in the Global North. The ocean waters are 4 degrees warmer than expected at this time of year, this has directly affected the speed and ferocity of the hurricane at the beginning of this year's hurricane season. To understand what the importance of AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) is for Hurricane season in the Caribbean and globally please watch this video. The impact of this hurricane is very much being felt, "90% of homes on Union Island had been destroyed", according to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves. We’re fundraising for people and charities across Barbados, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Grenada and those affected across the region. The money raised will go towards helping local fishermen in Barbados to buy new boats, support roofing and housing materials for people in Carriacou, Union and Grenada and well as St Vincent to rebuild their livelihoods and homes. We are working collectively to disseminate these funds across the region ensuring they reach grassroots communities and people directly. The Hurricane is now a category 5 and on its way to Jamaica. We urge everyone to pray for its weakening and for the people currently effected by Beryl's peril. Please continue to share and donate to those affected! If you have any questions please email us.

WHERE ARE THE DONATIONS GOING?

This fund exists to go directly to grassroots organisations providing support for those across the following countries: Barbados St Vincent & the Grenadines Carriacou Petite Martinique Union Grenada Jamaica

HOW WILL THEY BE PROCESSED AND ADMINISTERED?

We are working with Kwanda to help disseminate the funds to the existing groups they work with in the affected countries. Black Curatorial work across Barbados and Jamaica administering funds for creatives via the Fly Me Out Fund our process of sending money via transfer is already set up to support and facilitate this fund's dissemination.

WHO'S INVOLVED?

Black Curatorial Kwanda West India Cinema Corporation Twossaints Black Eats London

[georgegraphys]

Why is it important for fans to support GR63's partnerships, campaigns, etc?

Warning: I do not mean to turn a charity or a campaign to an opportunistic marketing situation. I am simply explaining how it works backstage in real life!

George right now is seen as a Key Opinion Leader for The Daily Mile Foundation x INEOS that they hired to promote the initiative. Key Opinion Leaders have a job to build/lead public's opinion on certain things, be it campaigns, initiative, marketing, branding, etc. They are not mere influencers. KOLs are respectable members in niche communities that have credibility to the opinions that they are going to lead. So they don't waffle bullshit and promote fake stuff like what you see some influencers do when they overexaggerates how does aging serums work.

What George is doing right now is build/lead people's opinion to promote the initiative of the Daily Mile Foundation. Why? What credibility does he have? He is a fit and healthy Formula One athlete. He is a global ambassador for Puma and has a history of many other health campaigns, focusing mostly on Mental Health campaigns. That is his credibility as Key Opinion Leader.

You might now ask "Ari why do charities need Key Opinion Leaders? They are already supported by INEOS! They are rich!" Here is the thing : Charities need people's support and acknowledgement in order for them to support others. That is the way it works. It doesn't have to be monetary but support is always needed from the public, from the community. TDMF might have 3M children participating in their initiatives but they aim and strive to be bigger and reach more children out there. That's why they used George to promote their initiative.

Prime relevant examples of that can be seen from other celebrities. Back then, UNICEF supported FC Barcelona to promote their initiatives and campaigns. Using the likes of Lionel Messi for it. Nowadays, you see celebrities doing charities and collaborating with UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, etc. They are not there just to look pretty, they are there to support the organization/foundation as Key Opinion Leaders. The attention they attract for the campaign/organizations/initiative will help the organization in the long run.

So if George does well in his KOL role, this might lead to more similar partnerships and campaigns in the future with brands, sponsors, others. It would also be useful if he wanted to establish his own non-profit foundation one day!

INEOS might be rich enough to support this foundation but you cannot deny that the role of Key Opinion Leaders like George is needed. TDMF is a part of INEOS' Corporate Social Responsibility for the communities and stakeholders. The more positive attention/engagement/interaction this campaign gets will further benefit George in the future to work with sponsors/brands/companies for their other CSRs or initiatives. Not only for himself, but also for the foundation, as the smallest interaction we do with them can bring a positive outcome for the foundation and campaign supported further!

I encourage everyone to support George Russell's campaign and partnership. Profit or non-profit. It will always be beneficial for both ways 🩵🩵

[animefeminist]

Evangelion, alienation, and Japan’s 1990s economic crisis

Francis Fukuyama suffered more than a few oversights when he first theorized his “end of history.” It was understandable—it was 1989 and the vibe was different. It had been morning in America for almost an entire decade and only a matter of time before the Berlin Wall and communism finally fell to their knees. It’s natural that at such a moment a capitalist ideologue like Fukuyama would wax poetic about history rendering Marxism antiquated; capitalism, as he saw it, had resolved all class conflict in America.

It is clear in hindsight that Fukuyama was a little too sunny in his analysis of America. While the global control of capitalism seems here to stay, given it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism, the social problems it creates are felt deeply by all in America except the extremely wealthy. However, Fukuyama reserved some of his most blissfully optimistic predictions for his ancestral homeland. Japanese society, as he saw it, had become an economic utopia; the tenth page of Fukuyama’s original ‘89 thesis states that “the very fact that the essential elements of economic and political liberalism have been so successfully grafted onto uniquely Japanese traditions and institutions guarantees their survival in the long run.”

It would only take a few short years before these lofty predictions hit their snag. Japan’s bubble economy suffered an explosive pop in 1992, resulting in a recession that plagued the nation for years to come. The early signs of misfortune came in waves: the Nikkei index had fallen below 15,000 by the time August had rolled around, corporations were forced to engage in massive lay-offs and hiring freezes, and chaos erupted all over the Japanese government. Bureaucrats and businessmen alike were embroiled in scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal, opening wide a revolving door of an inconsistent 11 prime ministers in 12 years. The Kobe earthquake and Tokyo subway attacks administered a coup de grace on any semblance of optimism, throwing the entire nation into a spiritual crisis. 

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[odinsblog]

Executive summary

Since launching its brutal war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian Federation has been locked into a long and costly conflict. Russia has been diplomatically marginalized, subjected to sanctions, and shunned by most of the Western world. Many multinational companies have been forced by international pressure to shutter or sell their Russian operations, and profiting from cooperation with the Russian state is no longer considered acceptable. Russia has found itself in dire need of new allies and resources.

In this environment, the Kremlin-financed Private Military Company Wagner, or Wagner Group, has served as an increasingly important source of revenue for the Russian state. Founded in 2014 to support pro-Russian forces in Donbas, since then Wagner Group has evolved into a complex international network of private military contractors, disinformation campaign infrastruc-ture, and corporate front companies. It has deployed fighters, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, and financing as a proxy for the Russian state in numerous conflicts, from Syria and Libya to Mali, Central African Republic, and beyond

Wagner has most often been described as an independent mercenary group. This status has provided Russia with a thin veil of deniability, particularly in relation to the numerous plausible accusations of murder, rape, torture, and war crimes raised against Wagner fighters. But in reality, Wagner has always operated with the political and material backing of the Russian Federation to advance Russian state interests.

In Africa, Wagner has been deployed in a number of countries across the continent since 2017. In each country it enters, Wagner deploys military trainers, mercenary fighters, and propaganda experts to support anti-democratic regimes, drive instability, and commit human rights abuses. The mercenary group's ostensible provision of "security services" creates a framework for lucrative business contracts for the extraction of natural resources including diamonds, oil, timber, and especially gold.

This report focuses on the Kremlin's 'blood gold': Gold extracted from African countries and laundered into international markets that provides billions in revenue to the Russian state, thereby directly and indirectly financing Russia's war on Ukraine and global hybrid warfare infrastructure.

The Blood Gold Report's analysis suggests that Wagner and Russia have earned more than US$2.5 billion from blood gold since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The report focuses on the case studies of Wagner's blood gold operations in the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mali. In each of these coun-tries, Russia profits from the blood gold trade in different ways:

In CAR, the mercenary group has been granted exclusive extractive rights for the Ndassima mine, the country's largest gold mine, in return for propping up President Touadera's authoritarian regime. Wagner's Ndassima operations are understood to produce US$290 million of gold annually, while local miners have been pushed aside or murdered by the mercenary group.

In Sudan, through control of a major refinery, Wagner has become the dominant buyer of unprocessed Sudanese gold as well as a major smuggler of processed gold. Russian military transporter flights laden with gold have been identified by Sudanese customs officials. While tracking Sudan's unreported gold market is near impossible, estimates suggest that almost Us$2 billion in gold is smuggled out of the country unreported every year, with 'the Russian Company' in prime position to take advantage.

In Mali, Wagner is paid a monthly retainer - estimated at US $10.8 million per month - to prop up a brutal military junta Meanwhile the junta is in turn dependent on a small number of Western mining companies for the revenue it needs to pay Wagner. Mining companies contributed more than 50% of all tax revenues to the Malian state for 2022. Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian listed company and Mali's single biggest tax contributor, paid US$206 million in the first half of 2023 alone.

The junta is increasing its financial demands on gold mining companies. Meanwhile, the four largest gold mining companies (weighted by tax contribution) continue to plan further investments in the country, despite the well-documented abuses of the military junta and growing influence of the Wagner Group.

Wagner's blood gold operations in CAR and Sudan have been subject to sanctions, and the Kremlin-backed mercenaries have developed increasingly complex smuggling routes and corporate subterfuge tactics to move blood gold out of these countries and convert this gold into cash.

In contrast, the Malian blood gold system enables Wagner to remain one degree removed from gold production. Instead, legitimate multinational mining companies convert gold into cash for the Malian military junta without triggering international sanctions.

To secure its position in a target country's political and natural resource extraction landscape, Wagner's African playbook consists of a four-pronged attack on the host country's civic institutions and civilian population - suppressing political opposition, spreading disinformation, silencing free media and terrorising civilians.

The ultimate objective of Wagner's playbook is to increase its clients' dependence on Wagner forces to stay in power, thereby securing a long-term revenue stream for the Kremlin and fostering authoritarianism and instability throughout the region as part of Russia's wider geopolitical strategy to distract and bog down the democratic West.

Since the death of Wagner's leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary group has formally come under the control of the Russian State. Yet the Kremlin's focus on Africa, and its blood gold operations, show no signs of changing.

(continue reading)

[gothhabiba]

The Golden Arches, internationally recognised symbols of American corporate might and cultural diffusion, became in March 2002 the target of young Egyptians frustrated with what they perceived to be America's complicity in the onslaught of Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, against the Palestinian Authority. McDonald's was not the only foreign establishment to suffer broken windows; photographs circulated on the web also included images of a similarly vandalised KFC restaurant in Cairo. Still, none can deny the special place held by McDonald's in the global fast-foodscape. In Egypt, the targeting of the Arches is particularly interesting, as it follows on the heels of a controversy that cut to the very heart of intersections between indigenous and imported mass culture, and popular, if somewhat disreputable, music was at the epicentre of the commotion.

A year earlier, the fast-food giant found itself compelled to scrap a remarkable advertising campaign designed to promote a new, indigenous product. [...] [E]fforts to market an Egyptian national dish became enmeshed directly with Middle East diplomacy—and its breakdown—through an ill-fated effort to link an 'authentic Egyptian' product to an 'authentic Egyptian' pop singer. The very attraction of that singer from a marketing standpoint lay in his recent recording of a potent political anthem which had quickly become a smash hit in Egypt's informal popular music sector.

In the spring of 2001, at the height of his career, veteran shbi singer Shaaban Abd al-Rahim suddenly discovered that his television advertisement for the new McFalafel had been cancelled, reportedly following complaints from the New York-based American Jewish Congress over the corporation's use of the singer to promote its product. This cancellation was a response to Shaaban's recent blockbuster hit, 'I hate Israel' (Ana bakrah Isra'il [أنا بكره إسرائيل]), a pulsating rap number that had made him, after some twenty years of steady work at the lower end of the wedding circuit, a figure of national renown, the anointed 'interpreter of the pulse of the Egyptian and Arab street' (Abd al-Hadi 2001, p. 39). Even more incongruously it had made him a figure to be courted, albeit not always with great appetite, by the cultural and artistic intelligentsia that had heretofore scorned him.

The story of Shaaban Abd al-llahim, his smash hit, and the McDonald's fiasco raises a variety of questions about the relationship between popular 'folk' music and official culture in Egypt. It points to the thriving popularity of a quasi-legitimate 'cassette culture' (Manuel 1993) in a broadcast market that is still rigidly controlled by state authorities and, perhaps even more, to potent political expression at the edge of sanctioned propriety (Gordon 2001). In addition, it points to the changing world of corporate sponsorship in an ever more globalised national economy, and the changing relation of art/artist and song/singer to the fast moving world of advertising. The contest over sponsorship of this particular product—McFalafel—points to the persistent power of national symbology, especially culinary and musical tropes, even if the former has, in this case, been constructed by the extra-territorial multi-national fast-food chain, and the latter co-opted to promote the product. Finally, the very deliberate turn to a singer like Shaaban Abd al-Rahim for product sponsorship, especially for a commercial to be broadcast on state-run television, underscores weakening boundaries between what is 'classically' approved and what is still considered to be 'vulgar' or 'low-class' music, however popular it may be among wide sectors of the population.

—Joel Gordan, "Singing the Pulse of the Egyptian-Arab Street: Shaaban Abd Al-Rahim and the Geo-PopPolitics of Fast Food." Popular Music 22.01 (2003), pp. 73-88.

[kp777]

By Keara Sosa

OtherWords

Sept. 14, 2024

While we can’t count on certain stubborn politicians to save our only planet, we can count on the young people at the heart of the climate movement.

The past 20 years have been critical in the fight for bold and sustainable climate solutions. The next five years will be even more vital—and young people like me are fighting hard to make sure our leaders get it right.

Research shows we have about five years left to avert global warming beyond 1.5°C, the tipping point when even more severe climate disruptions could exacerbate hunger, conflict, and drought worldwide.

Climate change—long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil—impacts our livelihoods and our lives. It harms our health and well-being and threatens our access to vital resources, from water to food to housing.

We’re the last generation that can save the world from climate disaster—and we’re giving the fight for our lives and for a better future everything we’ve got.

Communities on the front lines of the climate crisis are already paying the price for inadequate climate action. Pacific islands like Tuvalu are already sinking and expected to be completely submerged in coming years. Meanwhile, scientists predict that rising sea levels will leave 60% of Miami-Dade County under water by 2060.

While we can’t count on certain stubborn politicians to save our only planet, we can count on the young people at the heart of the climate movement.

The global youth-led climate movement has a long history of standing up to corporate giants and their political allies who exacerbate climate change. Despite failed attempts by some politicians to patronize, belittle, or discredit the teenagers and 20-somethings leading protests and driving policy demands, young climate activists are fueling hope—and winning change.

In June 2023, youth climate activists won a landmark lawsuit, Held v. Montana, when a judge ruled that the state’s failure to consider climate change when approving fossil fuel projects was unconstitutional. Similar suits are underway in many other states.

Universities also have a prime role to play in encouraging students to practice sustainability and foster social change. At my university, Virginia Tech, students can participate in a Climate Action Living Laboratory (CALL), where they work with faculty and staff on sustainability projects and research, using our campus and surrounding community networks to work towards the university’s climate action goals.

In my Virginia Tech coursework, I got to harvest food for our dining facilities at our campus farm, compost on an Indigenous farm, visit a local community garden, and tour a food sorting facility—all while working closely with campus partners I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Across the country, institutions like Colorado State, the University of California at Berkeley, Cornell, Dickinson College, Furman, and the University of Vermont have implemented living learning labs of their own. In addition to advancing sustainability initiatives, these labs combine disciplines and skills—and unite diverse groups of people—to incubate innovative climate solutions.

You can help us grow the movement, too. Consider supporting domestic climate activist youth movements in your local community and organizations like Sunrise D.C., a local branch of the youth climate organization where activists in the nation’s capital get involved at both the local and national level.

We’re the last generation that can save the world from climate disaster—and we’re giving the fight for our lives and for a better future everything we’ve got. Join us.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gaby Del Valle at Politico Magazine:

The threat, we are told here this weekend, is existential, biological, epoch-defining. Economies will fail, civilizations will fall, and it will all happen because people aren’t having enough babies.

“The entire global financial system, the value of your money, and every asset you might buy with money is defined by leverage, which means its value depends on growth,” Kevin Dolan, a 37-year-old father of six from Virginia, tells the crowd that has gathered to hear him speak. “Every country in the developed world and most countries in the developing world face long-term population decline at a level that makes growth impossible to maintain,” Dolan says, “which means we are sitting on the bubble of all bubbles.” Despite this grim prognosis, the mood is optimistic. It’s early December, a few weeks before Christmas, and the hundred-odd people who have flocked to Austin for the first Natal Conference are here to come up with solutions. Though relatively small, as conferences go, NatalCon has attracted attendees who are almost intensely dedicated to the cause of raising the U.S. birth rate. The broader natalist movement has been gaining momentum lately in conservative circles — where anxieties over falling birth rates have converged with fears of rising immigration — and counts Elon Musk, who has nearly a dozen children, and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán among its proponents. Natalism is often about more than raising birth rates, though that is certainly one of its aims; for many in the room, the ultimate goal is a total social overhaul, a culture in which child-rearing is paramount.

NatalCon’s emphasis on childbirth notwithstanding, there are very few women in the cavernous conference room of the LINE Hotel. The mostly male audience includes people of all ages, many of whom are childless themselves. Some of the women in attendance, however, have come to Austin with their children in tow — a visual representation of the desired outcome of this weekend. As if to emphasize the reason we’re all gathered here today, a baby babbles in the background while Dolan delivers his opening remarks.

Broadly speaking, the people who have paid as much as $1,000 to attend the conference are members of the New Right, a conglomeration of people in the populist wing of the conservative movement who believe we need seismic changes to the way we live now — and who often see the past as the best model for the future they’d like to build. Their ideology, such as it exists, is far from cohesive, and factions of the New Right are frequently in disagreement. But this weekend, these roughly aligned groups, from the libertarian-adjacent tech types to the Heritage Foundation staffers, along with some who likely have no connection with traditionally conservative or far-right causes at all, have found a unifying cause in natalism. At first glance, this conference might look like something new: A case for having kids that is rooted in a critique of the market-driven forces that shape our lives and the shifts that have made our culture less family-oriented. As Dolan later tells me in an email, declining birth rates are primarily the fault of “default middle-class ‘life path’ offered by our educational system and corporate employers,” which Dolan says is “in obvious competition with starting a family.” These systems, he believes, have created a consumer-driven, hedonistic society that requires its members to be slavishly devoted to their office jobs, often at the expense of starting a family.

But over the course of the conference, the seemingly novel arguments for having children fade and give way to a different set of concerns. Throughout the day, speakers and participants hint at the other aspects of modern life that worried them about future generations in the U.S. and other parts of the West: divorce, gender integration, “wokeness,” declining genetic “quality.” Many of the speakers and attendees see natalism as a way of reversing these changes. As the speakers chart their roadmaps for raising birth rates, it becomes evident that for the most dedicated of them, the mission is to build an army of like-minded people, starting with their own children, who will reject a whole host of changes wrought by liberal democracy and who, perhaps one day, will amount to a population large enough to effect more lasting change. This conference suggests there’s a simple way around the problem of majority rule: breeding a new majority — one that looks and sounds just like them.

In recent years, various factions of the old and the new right have coalesced around the idea that babies might be the cure for everything that’s wrong with society, in the United States and other parts of the developed West. It’s not a new argument. Natalists made similar claims in the early 20th century, when urbanization drove birth rates down and European immigration kept the U.S. population afloat. Then, too, people attributed the drop in fertility rates to endemic selfishness among young people.

Throughout it all, some religious conservative cultures have continued to see raising large broods as a divine mandate. White supremacists, meanwhile, have framed their project as a way of ensuring “a future for white children,” as declared by David Lane, a founding member of the white nationalist group The Order. More recently, natalist thinking has emerged among tech types interested in funding and using experimental reproductive technologies, and conservatives concerned about falling fertility rates and what they might mean for the future labor force of the United States and elsewhere in the developed world. The conservative think tanks the Center for Renewing America and the Heritage Foundation — the latter of which was represented at NatalCon — have proposed policies for a potential second Trump administration that would promote having children and raising them in nuclear families, including limiting access to contraceptives, banning no-fault divorce and ending policies that subsidize “single-motherhood.”

[...]

The speakers who lay out this bleak state of affairs are a motley crew of the extremely online right, many of whom go by their X (the website formerly called Twitter) handles rather than their names. Via Zoom, anonymous Twitter user Raw Egg Nationalist warns us about endocrine disruptors in everything from perfume to bottled water. Ben Braddock, an editor at the conservative magazine IM-1776, claims that antidepressants and birth control pills have permanent, detrimental effects on women’s fertility. Together, the speakers paint a dire picture of a society that has lost its way, abandoning fundamental biological truths and dooming itself to annihilation in the process. The solution, of course, is to have more babies. Peachy Keenan, a pseudonymous writer affiliated with the conservative Claremont Institute, urges attendees to “seize the means of reproduction” — as in, to out-breed liberals, who are already hobbling their movement by choosing to have just a couple children, or none at all. “We can use their visceral hatred of big families to our advantage,” Keenan says. “The other side is not reproducing; the anti-natalists are sterilizing themselves.”

Here lies the project, spelled out in detail: The people who disagree have bloodlines that are slowly going to die out. To speed up that process — to have this particular strain of conservative natalist ideology become dominant quickly in the United States — everyone in this room has to have more kids, and fast. But it’s only when the speakers get to who should have babies and how they should raise them that their deeper concerns, and the larger anxieties behind this conference, become clear. The goal, as put by Indian Bronson, the pseudonymous co-founder of the elite matchmaking service Keeper, is “more, better people.” But the speakers lack consensus on the meaning of the word “better,” as they do on the subject of using technology to encourage the best and brightest among us to breed.

Keenan, who has previously celebrated her sense that it is now acceptable to say “white genocide is real,” says better means conservative. Pat Fagan, the director of the Marriage and Religion Institute at the Catholic University of America, says good children are the product of stable, two-parent Christian households, away from the corrupting influences of public school and sex ed. (Christian couples, he adds, have “the best, most orgasmic sex,” citing no research or surveys to support this.) To protect these households, we must abolish no-fault divorce, declares Brit Benjamin, a lawyer with waist-length curly red hair. (Until relatively recently, Benjamin was married to Patri Friedman — grandson of economist Milton Friedman — the founder of the Seasteading Institute, a Peter Thiel-backed effort to build new libertarian enclaves at sea.) And to ensure that these children grow up to be adults who understand their proper place in both the family and the larger social order, we need to oust women from the workforce and reinstitute male-only spaces “where women are disadvantaged as a result,” shampoo magnate and aspiring warlord Charles Haywood says, prompting cheers from the men in the audience.

The far-right natalist movement's goals are to cause a population explosion of people who think like them.

[opiatemasses]

The Qatar World Cup and the ‘sportswashing’ scandal

Image credit: Abode Stock Image

The controversy surrounding the Qatar World Cup doesn’t lie around the football being played, but the way the host nation has used it for global recognition.

On the 2nd of December 2010, Qatar were gifted the opportunity to host the mens’ World Cup by FIFA, following a successful bid by the country.

The successful bidding process has happened in the last two consecutive World Cups. Collectively, the whole world were all shocked and stunned, but should we be anymore?

The global surprise soon turned in to animosity, as investigations were being undertaken on FIFA and Qatar as the host nation allegedly bribed FIFA, albeit, “Qatari officials deny the allegations of bribery”.

After the scandal, fans were rumoured to be boycotting the tournament, but they didn’t. This has reminded the world why football is so popular and why the process of ‘sportswashing’ is so powerful.

Sportswashing isn’t new. It is a menace. It isn’t a new concept that has happened in Qatar. But it is right at the forefront of sports fans’ minds, though, this still doesn’t mean it is ethically correct.

The majority of the event exemplifies the process of ‘sportswashing’ whereby “an individual, group, corporation, or nation-state uses sport to improve its reputation and public image.” This World Cup has been used as a tool for power to distract people from the gloomy human rights issues.

Thinking critically, this World Cup is a prime example of this.

Prior to the tournament, football, non-football fans, media, sponsors, organisations and countries were sincerely compelled in the human rights issues that were occurring in preparation for the World Cup. This hindered the excitement for the start of the football.

Football and its community have a unique bond which creates an emotional attachment. A bond which is hard to dismantle.

Sportswashing has always been a phenomenon of football and other sports, though, in 2022 it has seemed to propagate and loom around within the game. Saudi Arabia, for example, have been under criticism for having Messi as an ambassador in Argentina’s 2-1 defeat.

Some firms seek to use it to their advantage, to build sponsors, their public imagine, host events and their global popularity - such as Qatar, but, does sportswashing and the corporate social responsibility even matter to the fans?

However, when the tournament kicked off on the 20th of November 2022, the world shifted their focus to the football and almost dismissed or forgot the unresolved Geo-Political problems in the background. 

Questions have been raised surrounding the acceptance of Qatar hosting the World Cup such as it’s too hot, too far away, too small, has insufficient infrastructure, is not a footballing nation and not progressive enough. These are some of the charges that have been levelled with Qatar’s successful bid.

Alongside this, the human rights issues of living citizens and workers in Qatar, consist of the horrifying treatment and exploitation of migrant workers, women being policed by their male counterparts and the horrific abuse towards the LGBTQIA + community.

#TimeForChange

Let’s take a stand for the whole LGBTQIA + community in Qatar and beyond this and for the loss of Grant Wahl’s life

Sign the petition now

These issues in Qatar contradicts FIFA’s statement before the tournament on the World Cup saying football “will bring people together to cross borders, unite and celebrate together”.

Football is a sport that unites people, so awarding a country the World Cup with strong national views, feels like it is dividing the world not uniting it.

There is a special sentiment for a country hosting the World Cup and the prominence that comes with it. This is why Qatar wanted to host a World Cup, to entertain the world’s best players on the stage play in their country, to create a reputation for themselves. Not just for economic reasons. This shows how extraordinary sport and power work in the modern age.

FIFA pride themselves as having a “workforce as diverse as the beautiful game” – though, with Qatar's extreme views on these complications, it seemed an unmeasured choice from FIFA to allow the bidding process from Qatar for the World’s largest footballing tournament @FIFA.

THE CONFLICTING ARGUMENT

There is a divided argument surrounding this multifaced and complex ideological topic.

A large proportion of fans and non-fans believed that it was wholesome to expand the game of football by awarding it to a country lower in the FIFA world rankings (50th).

Additionally, this is the first time a Middle Eastern country has had the pleasure to host a World Cup. Awarding Qatar the World Cup does match FIFA’s mission statement of “Develop the Game, Touch the World, Build a Better Future”.  

Not only did hosting the World Cup bring in foreign investment and provide an economic boost for Qatar, with the $1.56 billion sales revenue, but it  produced huge social benefits which may alter perceptions and beliefs on the social consideration of the country.

Other football, and non-football fans, believe differently. Why has a country which lacked footballing facilities prior to the start of the World Cup and controversial human rights laws been given the opportunity to host the World Cup?

Qatar didn’t have one stadium in a condition to meet the criteria. It wasn’t just this they were lacking. There was insufficient accommodation for the one million fans travelling to the capital, Doha. They have had to build eight stadiums, which costed them approximately £3.35 billion.

Womens’ lives have always been overlooked by males which has hindered their right to decision making and their dress-wear. Alongside this, the LGBTQIA + community are strictly forbidden, it is illegal to be homosexual and deemed a criminal offence. This has meant this was abolished from the tournament and must be respected.

ALCOHOL VS NO ALCOHOL

Alcohol is strictly moderated in Qatar.

Alcohol and football since the birth of the game have gone hand in hand. Alcohol sales at the 2018 World Cup brought in £209 million in the group stages from just the British alone! However, due to Qatar being an Islamic country, selling, serving, and consuming alcohol is highly regulated and can only be drank in moderation.

Although drinking is legal, if anyone drinks in public or is drunk whatsoever, it is illegal with fines up to £700 or in extreme cases imprisonment or execution.

Nevertheless, there was an 11 hour turn around the night before the first match kicked off where alcohol in the stadium was permitted for fans. The regulations changed and the only place fans were able to drink was in hospitality boxes, costing a whopping £12 a can for Budweiser.

The nuance behind this change in the rules on alcohol consumption is complex - did Qatar do this due to the power they hold, the dynamics and the balance between the event organisers, FIFA, sponsors and the state?

MODERN SLAVERY

Let’s take a step back.

I was brought up to respect others. The way this tournament has respected its migrant workers is utterly outrageous. So, I have simply not supported this tournament throughout.

The Qatari government allowed 2.1 million migrant workers to enter the country to help construct the necessary infrastructure for the tournament.

These workers sacrificed everything. They came to afford an improved quality of life for themselves and their families.

These migrant workers took out extortionate bank loans in order to flee to Qatar and many of which won’t be able to afford to ever pay their loans back as they got “paid 150,000 rupees ($1,251) for the job, which he borrowed at a 36% interest rate”.

This seems like extortion, showcasing a range of abuses such as, wage theft, forced labour, and exploitation. The workers were never made aware of this. This is completely immoral.

One worker said, “We all know our place in Qatar. We are the slaves and they are our masters”. Unfortunately, not all these workers survived; 6,500 died with 70% of those deaths unexplained by Qatari authorities.

FIFA are expected to generate $6 billion dollars from the tournament and $400 million of this, people and organisations are urging FIFA to compensate the migrant workers.

This still won’t re-pay their wrongdoings and the pain these workers suffered.

The migrant workers were and are “treated like animals,” and authorities “don’t care if they die”. Although Qatar have the ‘44th’ highest Human Development Index (HDI) in the world they still pay a considerable amount lower than the minimum wage for these migrant workers, which is utterly immoral.  

Qatari authorities know they are violating human rights, but do not want it to be become a global discussion, if it isn’t already yet?

To top what I have mentioned, temperatures in Doha, can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius which these workers have had to work in for a staggering 12 hours a day and if they’re lucky they get just one day off a month with minimal water and food. Not only is this dangerous for the workers, but for the players that played in the World Cup and for the travelling fans.

Nevertheless, fans still proceeded to watch the football in the comfort of their homes with the lack of awareness behind what has occurred prior to the start of the tournament.

As the World Cup has now finished, it is necessary to re-remind fans and non-fans on a global scale of what has happened at this World Cup, to raise awareness.

How can we help these migrant workers? If YOU want to help - sign the petition below!

TAKE ACTION! #PayUpFIFA

Let’s work together to raise awareness to compensate the migrant workers at the Qatar World Cup 2022 and the families who have lost their loved ones

Sign the petition now

WHAT WAS DONE?

Some players, sponsors, fans, and football organisations were trying to take action and make a statement, to both FIFA and the Qataris.

Fans during the World Cup were in the midst of mixed messages. The Qatar Government said anything related to the LGBTQIA + campaign was prohibited at the tournament whereas other organisations stated that these communities were to be supported.

Before the opening match of the World Cup, FIFA urged the competing teams to “focus on football,” due to teams talking about the situation in Qatar and the motive to make a difference.

FIFA made a bold decision just hours before the first match that teams needed to respect Qatar’s culture, where no kits should express “any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images” and not proceed with the following campaigns:

o   Taking the knee before the game starts, due to the death of George Floyd on the 25th of May 2020 - @KickItOut

o   LGBTQIA + armband (OneLove).

o   Stonewall’s rainbow laces campaign to support the LGBTQIA + community - @Stonewall.

Although to a certain extent FIFA were successful in stifling the protested campaigns, I’m glad that some nations decided to disregard this from FIFA and advance with their intended messages.

Qatar said they allowed homosexuals into the country, but they were not welcoming them.

The Qatar World Cup ambassador, Khalid Salman stated that homosexuality is a “damage in the mind” and people attending “should accept our rules”.

There’s no way anyone part of the LGBTQIA + community were going to feel vaguely safe and welcome after these demoralising and demonising comments. It is only putting themselves at risk.

World Cups are engrained around togetherness and unity, so how can that make it a World Cup?

This exemplifies sportswashing at its very worst. Money is creating a disconnect between fans and the game. This made me lose all interest in the World Cup before it even commenced.

I couldn’t turn a blind eye to these aforementioned problems. It is time for these rules and regulations to change. Sign the petition below via the website or QR code to enable players to have the human right to wear the ‘One Love’ armband.

Website Link For The Petition:

http://bit.ly/3B83au8

QR Code For The Petition:

Iran, like Qatar, are an Islamic nation, though, Iran fans in the game VS England were wearing t-shirts and had flags of a female called Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after not wearing her hijab.

Their strong Islamic belief was left behind and dismissed to reflect their thoughts and condolences of the tragedy.

This promotes a strong message to FIFA and to their fellow Islamic dominated country, Qatar.

YOU

I have my thoughts on this contemporary issue, do you? Now the tournament has finished, your help is needed for change to combat the power ‘sportswashing’ holds within all sports.

Read the article below for extra information on ‘sportswashing’, by clicking the link on your smartphone or scanning the QR code.

Link: To The Website:

https://bit.ly/3WlTzIb

QR Code For The Website:

Link To The Online Poll:

https://bit.ly/3VzytG7

QR Code For The Online Poll:

Contact Us:

Contact us on your view and on anything that we missed? Get in touch with us through our email: help.humanrights1@gmail.com

N0903244

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

The Amazon Good Omens Press Release! :)

In a special celebration for fans, Neil Gaiman collaborated with superfans Hilly & Hannah Hindi of the The Hillywood Show to reveal the ineffable premiere date in their original video “Good Omens Parody”

Official Teaser Art Available HERE Fan-Created Parody Video Viewable HERE 

*NOTE TO EDITORS: Please refer to our streaming service as Prime Video and not Amazon Prime Video*

CULVER CITY, California—May 10, 2023—This summer, something’s going down in the up!Good Omens Season Two will  premiere July 28 on Prime Video. After the global success and enthusiastic response to the first season, co-creator Neil Gaiman is satisfying fans’ hunger for more on-screen  adventures of the beloved unholy duo with an entirely original story. The ineffable Season Two premiere date was revealed on the 33rd anniversary of the publishing of the original novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Gaiman, which was the basis for the first season of the television series. As a special celebration for fans, Gaiman collaborated with superfans Hilly & Hannah Hindi of the The Hillywood Show to reveal the date in a fan-funded video, “Good Omens Parody,” which can be viewed HERE. The six-episode season will be released exclusively on Prime Video on July 28 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide. Fans can catch up on the first season of Good Omens streaming now on Prime Video, part of the savings, convenience, and entertainment that Prime members enjoy in a single membership.

Season Two of Good Omens explores storylines that go beyond the original source material to illuminate the uncanny friendship between Aziraphale, a fussy angel and rare book dealer, and the fast-living demon Crowley. Having been on Earth since The Beginning, and with the Apocalypse thwarted, Aziraphale and Crowley are getting back to easy living amongst mortals in London’s Soho when an unexpected messenger presents a surprising mystery.

Good Omens Season Twostars Michael Sheen and David Tennant as angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, respectively. Also reprising their roles are Jon Hamm as archangel Gabriel, Doon Mackichan as archangel Michael, and Gloria Obianyo as archangel Uriel. Returning this season in new roles are Miranda Richardson as demon Shax, Maggie Service as Maggie, and Nina Sosanya as Nina, with new faces joining the misfits in Heaven and Hell: Liz Carr as angel Saraqael, Quelin Sepulveda as angel Muriel, and Shelley Conn as demon Beelzebub.

Neil Gaiman continues as executive producer and co-showrunner along with executive producer Douglas Mackinnon, who also returned to direct all six episodes. Rob Wilkins of Narrativia, representing Terry Pratchett’s estate, John Finnemore, and BBC Studios Productions’ head of comedy Josh Cole also executive produce, with Finnemore serving as co-writer alongside Gaiman. Good Omens is based on the well-loved and internationally best-selling novel by Pratchett and Gaiman. The new season is produced by Amazon Studios, BBC Studios Productions, The Blank Corporation, and Narrativia.

ALL THE EPIZODES WILL BE RELEASED AT ONCE!!! 🥰🥳 WAHOO!

[gaylordlady]

Watching Boom and then immediately watching the final episode of Fallout feels so right? Like, both have such strong anti-capitalism messages about war and warfare in the future.

Spoilers below cut for Fallout 1x08 and Doctor Who 1x03

"Flashy lights play well in a show room. Modern warfare. Death by salesman." - The Doctor to Ruby.

And then hearing...

"Because, in our current societal configuration, which took shape without intentional guidance, we have friction [...] we have conflict, and we have war. And war? Well, war never changes."

While businessmen and women discuss experiments on people, all in the name of "creating a good society"? Making 122 vaults, many of which actively existed to see how fucked up they could make people behave.

And throughout Boom, there is constantly a "Thoughts and prayers" quote being said (which is the go to response for people in need, in wars, or in active hostile environments), a company literally making soldiers kill each other? (Which happened in vault 11)

Both of these shows are being streamed on massive corporations, DW on Disney+, which generated 8.4 BILLION last year (only increasing since it's initial launch, as it has removed many shows and movies from other sites). And Fallout on Amazon Prime, which had gotten 35.22 BILLION in revenue last year, as well has being known (practically globally) as a company that uses and abuses it's workers, but has made itself such a staple in so many places, that it is physically impossible to not support them in some way, and some can only use them.

But Doctor Who has always been a show about anti-war and anti-capitalism. To have such a show go to the hand of one of the biggest mega corporations is such a shame, it is incredible that they can have Moffat come back and basically flip the house of mouse off and shit in their toilet all while getting paid, and have that approved? awesome.

Fallout has always been about how war is horrible, and how fucked up humans are, giving a rare glimmer of hope towards something attainable, and Amazon Prime taking this media and making it a show? All while ignoring what the message is? Incredible. Perfect.

[denimbex1986]

'The end of the world is really coming this time: “Good Omens” has been renewed for a third and final season at Amazon.

Created by Neil Gaiman and based on the novel co-written by Gaiman and the late Terry Pratchett, “Good Omens” follows the friendship between the fussy angel and rare-book dealer Aziraphale and fast-living demon Crowley, a pair of apocalypse-fighting, millennia-long best friends played by Michael Sheen and David Tennant, respectively.

The first season of the series debuted on Amazon’s Prime Video in 2019. At the time, it was intended as a limited series. But the show was renewed for a second season in 2021, which is when Gaiman revealed he had hatched the idea for a sequel with Pratchett before his death in 2015.

The second season debuted in July — amid the now-ended writers and actors strikes — and ended on a massive cliffhanger that suggested Gaiman had more planned before this heavenly tale was done. (He also tweeted as much.)

The third and final season of “Good Omens” will begin filming soon in Scotland.

“I’m so happy finally to be able to finish the story Terry and I plotted in 1989 and in 2006,” Gaiman said in a statement accompanying Amazon’s “Good Omens” Season 3 renewal announcement Thursday. “Terry was determined that if we made ‘Good Omens’ for television, we could take the story all the way to the end. Season One was all about averting Armageddon, dangerous prophecies, and the End of the World. Season Two was sweet and gentle, although it may have ended less joyfully than a certain Angel and Demon might have hoped. Now in Season Three, we will deal once more with the end of the world. The plans for Armageddon are going wrong. Only Crowley and Aziraphale working together can hope to put it right. And they aren’t talking.”

Amazon MGM Studios head of television said Vernon Sanders added: “’Good Omens’ has checked every box for a clever, witty, and funny comedy that not only made it a success on Prime Video, but also made ‘goodness’ watchable and fun thanks to Neil and Terry’s immense creativity. The final season is sure to be packed with the same dynamic energy that our global customers have come to enjoy.”

Gaiman, who has a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, where he is currently working on his “Anansi Boys” TV series, continues as executive producer, writer and showrunner for “Good Omens” Season 3. Rob Wilkins of Narrativia, representing Pratchett’s estate, and BBC Studios Productions’ head of comedy Josh Cole also executive produce.

“Good Omens” hails from Amazon MGM Studios, BBC Studios Productions, the Blank Corporation and Narrativia.'

[pinxilla]

The on-going conflict in Palestine should not be a part of your decision this November.

Ok, I usually avoid posting about politics because 1. I am very busy and would rather engage with media that brings me joy and 2. online politics is.... But in light of both the debate and the recent reveal of the overruling of Chevron, pretty much every platform has been overloaded with everyone's thoughts on the matter and now I'm jumping in! Yay!

Now, first thing to clarify: I hold firm in my belief that Palestine has every right to be its own independent state, as it had been for thousands of years prior to the 1940s. The UN and pretty much every nation of significant standing in the global field has failed in protecting Palestinians and upholding international law. Israel has been freely committing atrocities on the U.S' dime and it is disgusting. Frankly, I am ashamed to be a part of the nation that has enabled it. If you are able, please continue donating to vetted charities and continue to speak your mind on the matter. Visibility can be as vital to motion on an issue as finance. However, you should not use your stance on Palestine as a deciding factor in the 2024 presidential election.

The Democratic party has failed on many fronts in upholding the views of its constituents. Despite the thousands of protests around the country to withhold funds and arms from Israel, Biden and Congress have maintained their alliance with a merciless and power-hungry foreign country that has consumed the lives of more than 40,000 people. And Trump and the Republican party would have done the exact same thing. Both candidates support Israel, both are far past their prime and experiencing rapid mental decline, neither are ideal candidates and neither will promote significant progress. But, one of these candidates will allow the same conservative views that fueled the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Chevron v. Natural Resources to turn into federal legislation. And that candidate is not Joe Biden.

I understand that he and the Democratic party's performance the past eight or so years has been incredibly frustrating, but trust me that in not voting or giving your vote to Trump, you will be making it worse.

I have seen several posts circulating with the rough sentiment of "well this was overturned under Biden" "this was passed under Biden" "this/that/the other happened under Biden's administration" etc. and I must emphasize that the President is actually one of the least powerful forces when it comes to the creation, passage, and introduction of legislation. A President can not directly introduce legislation. A President does not have any say on a bill until it reaches their desk, in which case they can pass or veto-- and even if they veto it, Congress can override it. When it comes to Supreme Court rulings, a President literally has no say whatsoever. That's the entire point. Joe Biden is not responsible for the overturning of Roe or Chevron. Those decisions were made by the 6 conservative justices who were notably, not appointed by Joe Biden. One of which, however, was appointed by former President and 34-count felon Donald Trump.

A President's power resides almost entirely through influence and image. And even if it is getting rather hard to tell, having a Democrat in office is still better than having a Republican when it comes to social and economic progress.

To the most recent overruling: Chevron was a landmark in ensuring federal agencies can enforce environmental, workplace, public health, and consumer protections. By overruling its president, the Supreme Courts has justified thousands of cases of the federal government stepping in to *protect your rights*. In the future, it will be much, much harder for federal protection agencies to adequately justify their control over the practices of corporations. Simply put, we are fucked. This is on top of the overruling of Roe v. Wade, which has already put a significant dent in the protection of women's access to health care, as well as damage to every American's right to privacy and autonomy.

Without these cases protecting us, it is incredibly dangerous to have a Republican-- especially one of Trump's... fervor-- back in office. Unfortunately, we are rapidly losing the privilege to vote based on our government's actions abroad. Again: continue donating to families in Palestine, continue speaking out, continue protesting, I will be there with you, but please vote blue in November.

[coworkingspaceinpune]

The Future of Work: How Co working Spaces Are Revolutionizing Pune's Business Landscape

In recent years, the concept of co working spaces has witnessed speedy growth, transforming the way people work and interact with their professional surroundings. Pune, also known as Oxford of the East, has emerged as a prominent hub for co working spaces, attracting startups, freelancers, established businesses and Tech-savvy workforce. Coworking spaces in Pune have quickly gained popularity, offering a perfect blend of modern amenities, networking opportunities, and a vibrant community. These innovative workspaces offer more than just desks and chairs; they provide a collaborative environment that fosters creativity, productivity, and networking opportunities. Let's dive into how co working spaces are revolutionizing Pune's business scene.

Collaborative Community: In Pune coworking spaces are designed to encourage collaboration and interaction among individuals from diverse backgrounds and industries. Such spaces encourage creativity and problem – solving through insightful interactions. The unexpected encounters with professionals sharing similar interests but from diverse fields frequently result in groundbreaking partnerships and business opportunities.

Professional Environment: Co working spaces provide a professional environment that can help improve your productivity. You can work in a quiet and comfortable space, with access to all the amenities you need.

Cost Effectiveness: For startups and freelancers, renting a traditional corporate space can be expensive deal. Co working spaces in Pune offer flexible pricing plans, which makes them more cost-effective than traditional work space. One can choose a plan that suits their budget and pay for the services one uses.

Prime Location: Coworking spaces in Pune offers convenient access to public transportation, as well as popular cafes, restaurants and Retail outlets. 

Ecosystem support: Beyond providing physical workspace, co working spaces often serve as incubators and accelerators for startups and small businesses. Many co working spaces in Pune offer mentorship programs, access to investors, and other resources to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses. By nurturing a supportive ecosystem of startups and innovators, co working spaces play a vital role in driving innovation and economic growth in the region.

Embracing the Hybrid Work Model: Looking at global shifttowards hybrid work models has further fueled the demand for Co working spaces in Pune. As the company embrace a mix of remort and in – office work, professional seek flexible spaces that enable seamless transitions between their home and shared work environment.

Work-life Balance: With the rise of remote work and the gig economy, more people are seeking flexibility and autonomy in their work arrangements. Coworking spaces offer a solution that bridges the gap between the isolation of working from home and the rigidity of a traditional office environment. By providing a professional workspace outside the home, coworking spaces help maintain boundaries between work and personal life, leading to improved work-life balance and overall well-being. To conclude with, co working spaces are reshaping Pune’s business landscape by offering a collaborative, flexible, and community-driven alternative to traditional work spaces. With their emphasis on creativity, connectivity, and entrepreneurship, Coworking spaces in Pune are not just places to work but hubs of innovation and collaboration that are driving Pune's future economy forward.