#ig rather he's my first build a fox

[perrybearwaks]

MY SON IS HOME....

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian s2 ep1 Reactions Post That’s right I’m BACK

and none of you not even god himself can stop me from rambling about space cowboy dad and tiny green baby stuff for much longer than any sane person should 

the TL;DR is that I still love this show SO MUCH, beware a bunch of spoilers under the cut!

- costume design wise I LOVE how badly the armour fits Cobb Vanth

 especially when you get shots with him and Din side by side for contrast:

It’s not just that it’s clearly not made for him (it seems he’s a lot lankier and more wiry than Boba is), he simply doesn’t know how to wear it, and he doesn’t know how to take care of it, because he doesn’t know what it means. Remember when Din’s breastplate got bent completely out of shape by the mudhorn and he had it repaired to the best of his ability long before they even finished with the ship? That’s why he looks so grounded and natural in it and Vanth has sort of a clumsy Spiderman-in-his-first-home-made-costume air about him. (also Boba’s helmet has a beautiful heft and solidity to it in this, they make all the beskar have a Feel and weight to it, makes it feel important)  

I like that Vanth is taller than Din; everything that drives home that Din’s strength doesn’t come from being naturally physically imposing or impressive is a joy to me 

- Boba’s armour seems to be confirmed to be real beskar, which gives me so much hope that they’re doing something actually nuanced and interesting with Boba and Jango’s cultural identities as Mandalorians (whether they do consider themselves that or not, for example), unlike George Lucas’ inexplicable yet unbending stance of ‘They aren’t and never were lol get fucked Fetts’  

the way the triumphant heroic part of the mando music sputtered and died when the man himself showed up tho... uh-oh this might be bad news 

man but that’s a stunning and surprising way to introduce a well-known character divorced from what makes them so iconic, though, just from that I’m going to trust they know what they’re doing (AND they got temuera morrison back I’m so EXCITED!!!). without the armor there’s the face of someone who shared that face with literal millions and at the same time must be looking older than his father ever got to at this point, and that’s super interesting as a starting point to me. (I... guess there’s still a chance it’s a fakeout and that it’s actually another clone, but that would be such a letdown when they’ve already given us this haha) 

- an excellent [mando sighs] moment

this opening scene did a great job of re-summarizing him for the audience -- establishing again that he gives you one chance at dealing with him fairly and if you insist on continuing to be an asshole about it, you’re toast, the fact that his fighting style is so much about being able to tank blows rather than not getting hit in the first place, the horror movie monster mando setup as he stalked the dude down and strung him up, the Poetic Justice predicated on some very careful word choices, and most importantly “where I go, he goes”... all wonderful, I’m sure I’ll watch this scene back for fine details and better looks at the background characters many many times 

(word seems to have spread about him and the baby for real now, which makes me VERY nervous btw)

- Pulserifle’s back! Jetpack’s back! Razor Crest’s back! Grappling line’s back! PELLI’S BACK!!!!!! Tattooine... is also back *Finn voice* Why does everyone want to go back to Tattooine????

I really enjoyed the way they fleshed out and (for lack of a better word) humanized the sand people, though, if you are going back to this desert hellplanet again that is a worthy reason to do it 

- Din swearing :O!! and one of the less egregious star wars swears too, I’m fine with this

- in campaign star wars news: I guess there was sort of both a binbon and a jubna in this ep! what a time to be alive

- as usual I love the jawa. a bright spot in any day, just a bunch of lil goblin-y friends hanging out having the best time loving sparkly crystals and rescuing silver foxes.  

get in loser we’re going shopping

-  

I uh. Do you think. Hm. Is there maybe a metaphor here somewhere. Is there perhaps a hidden, one may say double, meaning, at play, right here, in this image? Who can say, it’s just niggling at me (there’s a very similar set of shots with Toro in season 1, but seemingly the show went ‘I fear we might have gone too subtle with it, let’s amp it up this time’ over the season break loool)

honestly though this dynamic really highlighted everything I love about the ways Din performs masculinity. It’s so much softer and more community/collaboration focused and more comfortable to be around than Vanth’s version -- and Vanth isn’t a bad dude by any stretch of the imagination, it’s not hard to see why he’s like that considering where he’s from, he’s just such a... man. The lone person who can protect this village! The only man who’s got what it takes! It’s all on his shoulders and no one else’s, so do exactly as he says or he’ll put a hole in you! (I think it’s telling that one of his first comments to Din is ‘I’m sure you call the shots wherever you’re from, but ‘round here, I’m the person who tell folks what to do’, because as we as the audience knows, Din very much does not call the shots of where he’s from lol) I guess it says some nice things about the tribe of Mandos Din is from that this is how he approaches things, and it says some good things about Vanth how quickly he comes around to this smarter and less confrontational/domineering style of doing things once he’s been exposed to it and sees how it works. it’s just neat

(it’s smart of Favreau to set his ~*lone gunslinger*~ character up like this, too, it makes him so much more interesting and versatile)   

- With the way Din says ‘a Mandalorian Armorer sent me on my path’ it does seem confirmed that’s the equivalent of a priest role or a sort of shaman -- I wonder if he knows the name of ‘The’ Armorer or if they take on the role as a whole identity 

- the sheer contrast between the two people who wanted Din to take his helmet off for them in this ep tho... wants Mando’s armour off for horrible awful reasons and got exactly what he deserved:

wants Mando’s armour off for entirely sympathetic and understandable, just culturally uninformed, thirsty thirsty reasons & also having drinks together:

 (the sort of... little lick over his bottom lip he does there? keep it in your pants vanth my GODjflsadf he’s a good dude tho he understands and respects the ‘no armour removal before marriage’ thing and backs down gracefully)

- This is a nuanced thing: I don’t think I actually ship it (not in a requited way from Din’s side, anyway, Vanth I’m 100% sure about lol), but the incredible potential for out-of-context-taking of “Take it off, or I will”/”...we doin’ this in front of the kid?” is uh astounding  

(anyone got the vibe Vanth sort of had something with the bartender too? no just me? well well)

- I was never really scared Din was actually dead or hurt b/c baby wasn’t scared and I figure he’d know lol, a very useful fear barometer 

- “What’s the plan?” “Take care of the child” “What are you gonna do?” “I don’t know, but wish me luck *yeets his new bro out of harm’s way before diving in head first himself*” fksdjhfkjlashdfkjsldahfkasldjhfskldajhfsadkjfh WHAT a summation of Din’s entire approach to battle & life, dad please you carry a not insignificant part of my heart around with you be careful 

(Also with the heavy implication that Boba was watching the whole thing... can you imagine him just looking on as Din throws himself down that gullet like a madman. There must have been some ‘o_-7 *headscratch headscratch* ???’ going on for him there)

it’s kind of sweet that din trusts vanth will take care of the baby if something happens though, they really bonded quickly huh 

- the sand people who kept willingly going over to the krayt dragon’s cave are honestly braver and more admirable than anyone else has ever been, I kept just shouting in anguish as they were gobbled up, they deserved better 

- can we talk about how clear it still is that Din’s just... lonely. When he thinks he’s found another Mando and he sounds almost reverent with relief... and then it gets odder and odder (’uh... drinks? I guess... does he have drinking straws with him or -- HE’S TAKING THE HELMET OFF???’ oh buddy)

I wonder if they’re building towards something about him realizing it doesn’t have to be Mandos for him to trust and bond with people longer term? Basically all the characters he’s met and we’ve watched him form attachments to and get help from are non-Mandos -- Kuiil :’^(, Cara, Omera, Cobb Vanth, IG-11 :^’’(, Greef Karga to a degree. Establishing so firmly what he’s looking for this early would be good setup for a ‘what a character thinks they want vs. what they need’ thing later on just on a writing level, anyway, Boba Fett could bring in some interesting points of view about Mandalorianness too   

- baby’s happy gurgles when he sees pelli!!!!!! din speaking sand people language and petting alligator doggies!!!!!!

- pedro pascal’s voice work remains an utter joy to me. din’s measured, earnest, occasionally slightly stilted way of talking is still so good, and then he does things like inserting some more... idk life is the wrong word but that more charged and dynamic tone he took on when he said (”I thought you weren’t a gambler”) “I’m not”. *chef kiss*

- if the pulse rifle’s stun is able to do that to a fuckn krayt dragon... that’s some serious shit din is carrying around with him lol (interestingly the actual shooty pew-pew part of it didn’t seem to do much to it, but then I guess he was shocking it from the inside out and not through thick hide, so idk)

- my only real complaints about this ep: Vanth’s backstory ran a bit long, and not enough baby & dad interaction. the concept art’s got me tho: 

 (din often wears his original/old armour in concept art still, incidentally, don’t know what that’s about)

awwwwwww

+ omfg ;______;

- this sand people person conscientiously brushing a bantha’s teeth... blessed

- Customary flame thrower report: there was a rare useful deployment of the flamethrower. Good job Mando’s flame thrower for furthering the field of diplomacy

ETA: I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO MENTION THIS: DIN BEING COMFORTABLE(ISH) AROUND DROIDS NOW!!!! GROWTH????!?! IG-11 WE MISS YOU??????????

[you-want-fuckign-cicadas]

Into The Abyss, part 2

yes, i already had this written

...yes, i’ll keep writing it. it’s been a fun thorn in my side so now i’m going to spam you every time i write a new chapter

yeah it’s gonna be sporadic

enjoy this ig

Felix belongs to @smoresthehalloweenqueen

more under the cut

Of  course there's a three-headed demon fox down here. Why wouldn't there be. Henry thinks to himself. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a demon clown down here.

Felix and Henry had split up when the demon fox started chasing them, both agreeing that it would be harder for it to catch them if they went in two different directions.

The good part about this is that it seems to be working. The bad part is that Henry is now hopelessly lost in the ink maze, and for some reason it seems to be getting bigger. Logically, he knows it's all in his head. Emotionally, he is internally flipping out and wishing that he hadn't wasted all his ammo on the demon fox.

Trudging onwards, he throws the ink hearts he collected to the side. He doesn't need them now. And he has a sneaking suspicion that “Alice” isn't as sincere as she acts.

Felix, on the other hand, is very sure that this is the worst day he has ever had in his entire life. First he got soaked by ink, then chased by a giant monster, then threatened by another version of Henry, and now he's running from a demon fox.

Quite literally.

The demon fox is behind him, screeching and making weird noises. When he and Henry split up, it chose to go after Felix. (Of course. Because everything here hates him, or that's the impression he gets, anyway.)

He stops abruptly at a split in the path. There are two ways to go. One is boarded up near the end, and the other has a vent entrance that looks like Felix could just barely reach it. Either way, he's going to be slowed down.

Taking a gamble, he goes to the vent. The gamble pays off, as – like he thought – he can reach the vent. He's inside of it before the demon fox gets to the split.

The vent is covered in ink and cobwebs. It's also very dark, and weirdly big for a vent. Felix can hear the air moving around, albeit very slowly. There's also a potted plant inside the vent, for reasons unknown to him. He moves a bit forward to touch it and see if it's alive.

Then he hears a loud clanging noise. Spinning around, he sees that the fox is trying to climb inside the vent. To his general horror and disbelief, it's already halfway inside, and is still screaming, so now his eardrums are dead.

Scrambling backwards, he knocks over the potted plant. “Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no. I don't want to die like this.” He carefully moves around the now-uprooted plant, not taking his eyes off the demon fox. Said demon fox is almost all the way in the vent and is now tugging on the last of its heads to get it inside. Luckily for Felix, it seems that the biggest head simply will not fit, giving him a window of opportunity.

He continues moving backward, eventually stopping because of a wall. The fox is still tugging on its bigger head. Growling, it glares at him, and then backs out of the vent. He thinks it says “don't think this is over,” but he's not sure, and he doesn't really want it to be talking to him, because that freaks him out more than it hunting him.

He turns back around and sees that the vent didn't end, it just...turned. Realizing that the fox definitely can't follow him if he goes down the vent, Felix grins and does exactly that.

Meanwhile, with Henry, Henry is...well...angry. And also standing over the dead body of the Projectionist.

Or, rather, the body of Norman.

He'd just exited the maze (finally) when the Projectionist had spotted him, screeching at the top of its non-existent lungs. Panicking, he'd bashed the monster over the head once. It went down.

Then he did it again. And again.

He hates losing control of himself like that. It makes him feel like he's gone three steps backwards. Bad enough that he's got anger management problems without him also having this. But that's just his luck, isn't it?

Anyway, when he'd killed the thing, the projector had died with it. He could see into the mechanisms of the light-producing object. And what would be inside of it except Norman's head?

Indeed, the extremely angry, maul-y monster had been his old friend this entire time. Henry is torn between feeling happy that Norman is out of his misery, guilty that he just killed his friend, or angry at Joey for wrecking everything.

Anger wins out. He punches the wall, pretending it's Joey, and then immediately regrets it. He might be stubborn, but he can still get hurt, as he has just proven by getting about ten splinters in his hand. Shaking it only increases the amount of pain he is is. “Ffffffuck.”

An Edgar clone stares at him accusingly, as if to tell him that the studio is family-friendly. Just like Shawn used to. He automatically corrects himself. “Frick.”

The glare lessens, and then the Edgar clone comes to its senses and attacks Henry, who bats it into the wall with a vaguely irritated sigh. “I knew you'd remember that eventually.”

Felix is lost.

He knows he's lost because he's seen that same Boris plushie five times now. And he knows it's the same one because it's got a little heart drawn on it. He doesn't know who drew on it, but whoever it was really likes Boris.

As he wanders, he notices little things that seem...off. Bacon soup stacked up to form walls, several dismembered Bendy plushies, and one pristine Alice plushie all lean against one wall, and another wall sports an unreadable message written in ink. This all contributes to the fact that he knows he's lost, but can't quite seem to get out of this loop he's in.

It's almost like the studio is doing it. As soon as this thought crosses his mind, he disregards it. That's impossible. The studio is a building. It can't think for itself...right?

The thought nags him, though. Turning a corner, he sees a door that he swears wasn't there ten minutes ago. It's ajar, and behind it, he can see some lights and a shadow of...something. It almost looks like an angel, but without wings.

He opens the door, quietly, and sneaks in. There's a pane of glass. A tall Alice Angel-like figure is standing on the other side, facing away from him. The ever-glowing halo is imbedded in her head, and she seems to be humming. It's quite pretty. Despite her seeming fairly harmless, something tells Felix that he shouldn't catch her attention.

He carefully starts back for the door, accidentally knocking over a can of bacon soup. Alice (but...not Alice, so so horribly not Alice) turns around, and Felix almost falls over at the sight of her face. “Oh, my...a new one. I wonder how long this one will last?”

The door slams shut. Briefly, Felix wonders what Alice meant by “how long this one will last”, and then he sees nothing but black.

Henry looks up at the ceiling of Level K. He's resting here for a second, catching his breath. It's definitely not the safest place, but it's an okay place as long as he stays right here beside of these barrels and this now-shattered Bendy cutout.

In retrospect, that particular quest of “Alice”'s might not have been the best idea. It had ended quite badly for Henry. In fact, a lot of her quests had ended badly for Henry. Just another thing to add to the ever-growing list of Bad Things “Alice” Has Done.

He hears a thumping noise and darts behind a barrel. Not a moment too soon, as “Bendy” comes down the stairs at that moment. He looks around for a few eternities (actually just a few seconds, but still) and then leaves, just as slowly as he came in. Henry breathes out and then gets conked on the head.

As he flops to the ground, eyesight going dark, he hears a familiar voice. (One that shouldn't be here. He died...right?)

“Rest your head. It's time for bed.”

Henry has time to think Well, fuck before he passes out.

[completely monotone voice] oh no, henry

[slightly less monotone voice] oh no, felix

[back to monotone] oh no, norman

[monotone] oh fuck, it’s “alice”, come to wreck your goddamn day

“but wait!” i hear you cry. “sammy didn’t die in siast!”

well he did in this one

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x04: Details, Odds, and Ends

Hey Everyone! I said on Monday I wouldn't do a details post, because most of the details I saw I put in my original Analysis post. Buuuuttttt...my FB peeps, as usual, are geniuses and caught things I missed. So I'm going to talk about a few details they picked up on and then some odds and ends that I think are important to note after this episode. 

Details:

Remember how I said Carol asking Ezekiel if he's okay mirrors a convo Bethyl had? @getkath pointed out that Richonne also had it in 4x16. So each of our power couples have had that convo, and in each of these three cases it was before the romance actually went canon. Just saying.

From M-Nonny:

When Carol is in the building, she's listening to the Saviors argue. One of them is angry that the others aren't moving fast enough. Another says, "We're almost done. Jesus!" Yeah, how did I miss that one? Daryl's line: "Almost done." Let's hope and pray that means we're almost there! 

Then there's the "Jesus" thrown in, which is curse word, but still. AND they're loading weapons for the war. The weapons Rick and Daryl were searching for when they discovered Gracie. Kind of interesting. 

There are a lot of 3s around Carol and having specifically to do with the weapons/ammo. One of the saviors says "There's another THREE up at the Sanctuary, and then some." He says that while he loads the ammo into a hatchback car. So he's putting it in the trunk. 3 in the trunk? Perhaps it could be symbolic for Beth being at the Sanctuary? Carol tells the Saviors hiding behind the truck that they must only have 3 or 4 rounds left. 

Gunther says to Ezekiel, "You took you're shot. It's over." Callback to Coda, after someone took a shot that hit Beth, Officer Shepherd said, "It's over." Very interesting. I really like that connection!

Carol has an A on her paintball gear. 

@bluesandbeth pointed out that, with the line, "There's another three up at the Sanctuary, and then some," the "and then some" sticks out. Why add that? It really doesn't add any meaning to the sentence. Is there three, or more than that? Feels like it's hinting at something, but hard to say what. 

Abraham said something similar in S6. "Rick knows every fine grain of said shit, and then some." Makes sense when Abraham says it, but not so much when the Savior in 8x04 says it. If it's meant to be a callback to Abraham, why? Of course that was said in the finale of S5, and Abraham was a major Beth proxy. Just saying. 

@wdway caught that when Ezekiel talks to the crowd, Jerry is eating an apple in the background. (Apple theory). And guys, I gotta say, something is up with Jerry and Beth symbolism. Not sure what it means yet, but I'll illustrate. First there's this apple. And this is the second time we've seen this. The first time was in 7x16 when Aaron handed Jerry an apple after the battle. Aaron is a sometime proxy for Beth, but we can also clearly see a 76.  Episode 76 of the series is Heads Up. You know, the one where Glenn is revealed to be alive, and his dumpster death was a fake out? Makes me think Jerry will have something to do with Beth's reveal, but not sure what yet. I'll come back to Jerry. 

Remember the red drum of poison? I missed some things about it. 

@wdway noticed there's a diamond on it. Remember that Beth is the queen of diamonds (X). There's also an upside down 5 on it. (Think S5). But this is a super-cool connection. Remember that at Grady, when Beth and Dawn talk, they sit on red containers and there are lots of chemicals around them? I believe Beth was even mixing chemicals (probably for cleaning) when Dawn walked in.

Maybe we could even tie this to her doing the mopping? So they showed us all these chemicals at Grady, and now we're at a defunct chemical factory? That simply HAS to mean something. 

@wdway also made the excellent point that we see the tunnel, which is FG's title card, right? It looks all pretty and tranquil. But on closer inspection, there's poison in the water and things really aren't all that tranquil. In other words, things aren't really what they seem. 

You could say that about Grady too. Granted, pretty much from the second Dawn opened her mouth, we wanted to punch her in the face, but on the surface, it's a working hospital that saves people. But when you look closer, there were a lot of shady things going on there. Not such a great place after all. Kind of like this tunnel.

And of course we could apply that to Beth's "death" as well. Even the dutch camera angles are used in filming to show that not everything is as it seems. (X)

I said I’d come back to Jerry. I didn’t do a TTD post this week because I really didn’t see much TD stuff in the episode. There was one major thing I missed, though. They mentioned randomly that Jerry/Cooper Andrews has a wonderful singing voice.

Now, TD tends to pounce on anything musical, but this wasn’t about Beth and it didn’t really occur to me to read into it. But guess what? Just before bringing this up, Chris Hardwick said to Jerry (Cooper was on via satellite) that he’d probably be the last man standing. Seriously? That’s what Beth said to Daryl. And then directly after that they started talking about his lovely singing voice. (Which btw @Brynn_81 (IG) confirmed. She met him and heard him sing.)

See what I mean about Jerry maybe being involved in Beth’s return somehow? No idea how yet. Just saying that’s twice in this episode that I’m side-eyeing something around him. I was also thinking that that ax of his (which he lost this episode) is kind of reminiscent of something a woodsman or huntsman would use. And that character also figures in the Snow White legend. Thoughts?

I think that's it for details, but they give me hope!

Now for odds and ends:

I also wanted to talk about this: 

It's Melissa McBride's tweet from Sunday. (Thanks to @katkhaos for bringing it to my attention.) I've talked about the "tomorrow" theme before, so this immediately caught my FB group's eye. The tweet doesn't make tons of sense, and we're not sure what it means, but it's yet another thing that points to a shift coming between episodes 4 and 5. Gimple said after ep 4, things would get "acoustic." Let's hope that means what we're hoping for. 

Now, I'm not saying this Tweet has anything to do with Beth. But it suggests something big during or after this episode. And what happened with Carzekiel here? Well, Ezekiel is obviously going through some stuff, and as I said on Monday, this may lead to Carol leading for a bit. All I'm saying is that "tomorrow" seems to be coming, and that gives me hope. Can't wait to see how this all plays out. 

Finally, my good friend @brynn_81 (IG) posted this yesterday:

Just made my day, so with her permission, I thought I'd share! 

Also wanted to add that last night, Amber Dawn Fox (who played Officer Bello at Grady) followed me on Twitter. 

I don’t think it really had much to do with me. My friend @sparklepoodles tweeted that we needed Grady nation back on the show. Not only did Amber Dawn Fox retweet that, I think she just followed those who liked it, which I did. But I’m taking as a good sign that the Grady actors are still liking and following and retreating those who say they hope to see Grady on the show again, rather than denying that will happen.

Finally, I just wanted to reiterate one more time that there’s no reason to give up hope just because episode 4 wasn’t what we hoped it was. I know a lot of people are disappointed. You’re not alone. And a lot of that is my fault because I was gunning for episode 4. I was disappointed too. But remember that things are supposed to get acoustic AFTER episode 4, according to Gimple. And we have tons of things to hope for still.

I’ll put my thoughts together about the MSF and hopefully post them on Friday. Hopefully that will help. 

@thegloriouscollectorlady was talking about this in our group last night, and I heartily agree with everything she said. They’ve opened lots of new story lines this season (Gracie, for example). Until we see where it’s going, I’m not giving up hope. 

Daryl’s arc hasn’t been resolved. Quite the opposite. He’s in a worse place than he’s been since he was with Beth in S4. Until he either dies or something else restores his faith and humanity to him, I’m not giving up hope. 

Gimple said Daryl will find love. (Another reason among MANY to rest easy that he’s not dying yet.) Until he does, I’m not giving up hope. 

Many of you have asked about the logo being white, which I still believe is a resurrection thing. I simply don’t believe they would do such a huge symbol for one measly resurrection (Morales) that last all of 5 minutes. 

In fact, we have proof that they wouldn’t. If that were the case, we would have seen it when Sam from 4a showed up at Terminus. We didn’t. So until I see the rest of the season and figure out what this was all about, I’m not giving up hope.

And if none of that works for ya, just go back to our core arguments that still haven’t been resolved. The opening credits flash, which contains what we’re pretty sure is Daryl’s arm. No way it’s a general representation of Grady. The dialogue foreshadows, which we’ve proved over and over again are thing. “I am strong.” “I’m getting out. Just like Noah.” I was thinking about Sasha last night and her final arc. Remember that in 5x10, with the sunrise, Maggie told her, “you’re gonna make it. We both will.”

Did that mean Sasha would never die? Obviously not. But she wasn’t dying right then. She survived another 2.5 seasons, and when she did die, we saw the end of her arc with the same sunset. Nothing remotely like that happened with Beth after she proclaimed that she, too, would survive. There were four element that were part of that sunrise in 5x10. Sasha, Maggie, Aaron (who represents Alexandria at large) and the music box. Only one of those arcs, Sasha’s has ended. The other three are still going.

And then there’s Morgan. Remember the Sugar Plum Fairy song. I’ll be watching Morgan closely when we see him again. I don’t think that will be this episode, so yet another reason not to give up hope yet. What if we don’t see him until the MSF? That would mirror his appearance after Coda. Again, I’ll put up thoughts/predictions about the MSF in a few days.

My point is that I don’t blame people for being disappointed. I was too. But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to give up. Not remotely.

That's it for today, peeps. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Special thanks to the peeps named above and the rest of my FB group for their insights.

[womenofcolor15]

THE YBF PODCAST: LisaRaye On Turning Down 'Real Housewives,' Mistresses, Women Who Give Up The Goods For Free, & What Really Went Down With Stacey Dash

We finally got to catch up with LisaRaye McCoy!  The living legend herself shared her unapologetic opinion on several topics that may ruffle some feathers. And that's why we love her.

Find out what she dished to Natasha about dealing with mistresses, women who give it away for free on social media, what really went down before and after that on set fight with Stacey Dash, and turning down a "Real Housewives" gig for her legitimate career, inside...

You may have met LisaRaye McCoy as “Diamond” in the cult classic, Player’s Club, but these days she’s busy being a boss, a mother, a grandmother and daughter all while building her empire to remain a household name.

          View this post on Instagram

                  Happy Easter from my fresh face fam... @babybellarae and @kaimorae #LifeRocks #BringYoOwnColor

A post shared by LisaRaye McCoy (@thereallraye1) on Apr 21, 2019 at 5:03pm PDT

  Right now, she’s on lockdown at home with her mother, daughter and granddaughter, but she’s loving every minute of being with her family during theses trying times. Living in sunny Los Angeles, she’s blessed to have a home where four generations of her family can live comfortably under one roof. And while she’s making sure her family is straight, she’s also making sure her coins are straight as well. Most recently, she released a new mattresses line and has other projects coming down the pipeline.

The 52-year-old actress has reached a point in her career where she’s not doing anything she doesn’t want to. And she told Natasha all about it in a new YBF Podcast episode.

“I am in full control of me and my career and I don’t want to have to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m in full control of me and my career,” she told Natasha in the new podcast episode.

The YBF actress is currently starring in UMC’s “A House Divided” and one thing her character talks about in the series is…mistresses. A topic LisaRaye is all too familiar with.

“I have a lot of experience [in life]. I’m not the age that I am and not have my share of stories,” she said.

If you’ve been living under a rock and aren’t up on tea, LisaRaye divorced her former husband, ex-Premier Michael Misick, after she found out he was cheating on her. She has been very vocal about her former “All Of Us” co-star Duane Martin playing a part in bringing mistresses into their marriage.

LisaRaye has been in every situation with a man you can imagine, but those experiences have shaped her into who she is today.

“I’ve had all kinds of scenarios. And from those different experiences, it makes me the woman I am now. It makes me live the way I live now. I’ll say this, I don’t have those problems [now],” she shared.

Thankfully she recognized the bullsh*t and decided to leave rather than stay in a toxic situation and that’s commendable.

As she became a big name in Hollywood, the “sex symbol” label was given to her after her role in the iconic stripper film, Player’s Club. So, it wasn’t a surprise to see her on the cover of a magazine in something scantily clad. However, she always kept it classy. These days, the rules have changed. Women are quick to show their “ass”ets and more for free on social media. LisaRaye dropped some gems for the ladies who are quick to show it all (and only show it all) to the masses.

“Stop taking your clothes off and don’t be a part of the casting couch,” she said. “When you think about a real sex symbol - that’s deemed a sex symbol - it’s not because you saw her in complete nudity. It’s because it was something about her that was sexy without her taking her clothes off. When you see her fully dressed, you imagine what she looks like. If you just giving it to them on the ‘Gram, then it ain’t nothing to imagine and nothing to see once you get in that situation. So, stop it. Stop giving them the goods for FREE!”

She continued:

“If you doing it, do it for a check! Not for the damn Instagram! Dare to be different. Bring your sexy in a whole different way to stand out,” she said.

Not even mad at this.

Switching gears, LisaRaye opened up about what really went down between her and Stacey Dash on the set of “Single Ladies.” The two actresses constantly clashed on set, and one day tensions boiled over that resulted in Stacey pointing her finger in LisaRaye’s face. And sis wasn’t having it.

“When that night happened and she flipped out, I don’t believe it was personal at all,” she explained. “I don’t believe she was just coming after me because she’s really not that kind of person. She just got it twisted and f*cked up real quick. She felt like she could talk to me in a way of which I was just going to sit down is the only thing I can think of.”

“I could have torn her head off,” she said.

Oop!

LisaRaye said she’s not fighting on set and she’s def not fighting on television – i.e. reality TV.

She revealed she was approached about doing "Real Housewives" seven years ago, but she declined.

“I politely gave them the ‘No Thank You.’ I actually have a legitimate career,” she explained.

She then explained why she would never do reality television.

“I’m really not a fan of reality TV right now,” she shared. “It’s so much buffoonery and so much negativity that I’m shocked at the shi* that they show."

As a grandmother, a mother and a mature woman she said she’s not about that reality life because ish can get real and she’ll end up with a lawsuit on her hands.

“I’m just like - that’s how you would treat your friend? I can’t be in a scene like that because then it would turn real for me and then it would be no more scenes because I would tear that mutha up and I’d be sued.”

"I’m too old for certain sh*t and I refuse to showcase that kind of stuff on TV being a grown, respectable woman,” she explained.

Perfect explanation. We wouldn’t want to see her on reality TV with all of its shenanigans, but she did say she's super supportive of her girl Garcelle Beauvais doing her thing as the first black cast member on "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."

          View this post on Instagram

                  We here. @msvfox and @tasha4realsmith #LifeRocks #panafricanfilmfestival #ABFF

A post shared by LisaRaye McCoy (@thereallraye1) on Feb 22, 2020 at 7:44pm PST

  LisaRaye said there are a few actresses she calls friends, including Vivica A. Fox, Tichina Arnold and she reuniting with Tisha Campbell after she divorced Duane Martin.

Listen to all the tea LisaRaye spilled during our YBF Podcast below!

Check out LisaRaye on "A House Divided" which airs Thursdays on UMC!

Subscribe to The YBF Podcast on any platform you get your podcasts!

Photo: LisaRaye's IG

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/05/21/lisaraye-on-why-she%E2%80%99s-over-mistresses-schools-women-who-give-up-the-goods-for-free-what-r

[bountyofbeads]

PLEASE read and share these two articles regarding the madness we are seeing with Trump and the New (Russian) GOP.

"The belief that Trump is the victim of a vast and ongoing conspiracy is a crucial element of the president’s enduring appeal to his supporters. If the allegations against the president are all completely false, then his supporters can continue to back him with a clear conscience, because anything and everything negative they hear about the president must be false. The consistency of that message is more important than the actual details, which frequently end up contradicting complex explanations for the president’s innocence that are often incongruous with each other, such as the insistence that Robert Mueller’s investigation was a “total exoneration” of the president, but also “total bullshit.”"🔥🔥🔥🔥

THE ‘RUSSIA HOAX’ IS A HOAX

A report by the Department of Justice inspector general debunks the claims that the investigation into political interference by the Kremlin was a left-wing conspiracy to depose the president.

By Adam Serwer | Published Dec 10, 2019 11:50 AM ET | The Atlantic | Posted December 10, 2019 |

The IG report knocked down the various claims that Trump and his allies have made, one by one. The report confirmed that the Russia investigation originated, as has been previously reported, with the Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos bragging to an Australian diplomat about Russia possessing “dirt” on Hillary Clinton, which the IG determined “was sufficient to predicate the investigation.” The widespread conservative belief that the investigation began because of the dubious claims in the Steele dossier was false. “Steele’s reports played no role” in the opening of the Russia investigation, the report found, because FBI officials were not “aware of Steele’s election reporting until weeks later.”

If you are following mainstream news outlets, you know that in 2016, Donald Trump benefited from a Russian hacking and disinformation campaign designed to help him get elected, even as he sought permission from the Russian government to build a hotel in Moscow. You know that he deflected blame from Russia for that campaign, even as he sought to benefit from it politically. You know that shortly after the election, Trump told Russian officials in the Oval Office that he didn’t mind their efforts on his behalf, inviting further interference. And you know that while those acts may not have amounted to criminal conspiracy, the president’s insistence that there was “no collusion” flies in the face of established facts.

If you are ensconced in the pro-Trump-propaganda universe of Fox News and its spawn, you know something different. You know that the Russia investigation was a “hoax” developed by the “deep state” and the media, an attempt by a fifth column within the FBI to engage in a “coup,” a conspiracy, a frame job, “nothing less than the attempted overthrow of the U.S. government.” Any evidence of wrongdoing by the president, in this universe, has been manufactured by Trump’s shadowy and powerful enemies—George Soros, liberals in the FBI, Barack Obama.

The belief that Trump is the victim of a vast and ongoing conspiracy is a crucial element of the president’s enduring appeal to his supporters. If the allegations against the president are all completely false, then his supporters can continue to back him with a clear conscience, because anything and everything negative they hear about the president must be false. The consistency of that message is more important than the actual details, which frequently end up contradicting complex explanations for the president’s innocence that are often incongruous with each other, such as the insistence that Robert Mueller’s investigation was a “total exoneration” of the president, but also “total bullshit.”

The Department of Justice inspector general’s probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, which was released Monday, found no evidence that any of the Trump conspiracy theories surrounding the origin of the investigation are true. The investigation was not launched on Obama’s orders, it was not an effort by pro–Hillary Clinton FBI agents to prevent Trump from getting elected, and it was not predicated on the existence of opposition research gathered by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The president’s defenders have taken to referring to the entire investigation as “the Russia hoax,” insisting that the entire investigation was an effort by “persons within the FBI and Barack Obama’s Justice Department” who “worked improperly to help elect Clinton and defeat Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.” But the IG report shows that the “Russia hoax” defense is itself a hoax, and a highly successful one, aimed at reassuring Trump supporters who might otherwise be troubled by the president’s behavior.

The inconsistencies and contradictions of the “Russia hoax” narrative appear not to trouble the president’s supporters. Rather, as George Orwell wrote in 1944, “For quite long periods, at any rate, people can remain undisturbed by obvious lies, either because they simply forget what is said from day to day or because they are under such a constant propaganda bombardment that they become anaesthetized to the whole business.” The numbness to every new Trump revelation, no matter how shocking, is in part a product of the president’s success in fatiguing anyone who might be interested in what the facts are.

Republicans’ claim that the investigation began because the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to obtain permission to surveil the former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was false. The IG also “did not find any records” that Joseph Mifsud, the professor who told Papadopoulos the Russians had obtained “dirt” on Clinton, was an FBI informant sent to entrap him. The former FBI agent Peter Strzok and the former FBI attorney Lisa Page, who shared anti-Trump sentiments over text and have become key villains in the Trumpist narrative of a “coup,” never had the power to do what has been attributed to them. The IG report notes that Page “did not play a role in the decision to open” the Russia investigation, and that Strzok was “was not the sole, or even the highest-level, decision maker as to any of those matters.”

The IG report also determined that “the FBI had an authorized purpose when it opened [the Russia investigation] to obtain information about, or protect against, a national security threat or federal crime, even though the investigation also had the potential to impact constitutionally protected activity.” Moreover, the IG found “no evidence” that “political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions” to investigate Trump advisers with ties to Russia.

There is, in short, no “deep state” anti-Trump conspiracy, no network of perfidious liberals in the FBI seeking to take down Trump. There is, however, voluminous evidence of reprehensible behavior by the president, first taking advantage of a foreign attack on the 2016 election for personal and political profit, seeking to obstruct the investigation into that interference, and then falsely concocting an elaborate conspiracy theory to avoid accountability for his actions.

Nevertheless, there are important systemic problems with the FBI and the way that the U.S. government approves invasive surveillance techniques on American citizens. The report notes that while the FBI had a sufficient factual predicate for opening the investigation, that is because the FBI and the Department of Justice must meet a “low threshold” for justifying such an investigation. In addition, while the IG report found no evidence that “political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page,” the IG did determine that the Page FISA application was “inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation,” which misled the court as to the credibility of the FBI’s evidence when seeking authority to surveil Page.

Liberals may be tempted to dismiss such findings as unimportant. But federal investigations are incredibly invasive, and having a stricter standard for the circumstances under which an investigation can be opened would help ensure that this authority is not abused; the Clinton Foundation investigation began—and this is no joke—with an anti-Hillary book paid for by the former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. If the FBI is making errors in seeking permission to surveil current or former advisers to a presidential campaign, the most politically sensitive kind of investigation, it suggests that there are many more flawed applications to be found in operations where the investigations are not nearly so delicate. The process for seeking permission to spy on American citizens suspected of being foreign agents should be more adversarial than it is, if only to keep the government honest.

Republicans however, do not seem at all interested in the actual legal and policy concerns the report raises. Rather, they are following the lead of the president and his attorney general, William Barr, in mischaracterizing the report’s findings. “This was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow—and a lot of people were in on it,” Trump declared, while Barr insisted, in a more lawyerly fashion, “The Inspector General’s report now makes clear that the FBI launched an intrusive investigation of a U.S. presidential campaign on the thinnest of suspicions that, in my view, were insufficient to justify the steps taken.”

Both of these statements contradict the report itself, which found no political bias behind the opening of the Russia investigation. Barr’s statement is a matter of opinion, which expresses his monarchical belief that Trump was above the law even before he became president. But whether Barr personally feels the evidence was sufficient to open an investigation, the IG determined that by FBI and DOJ standards, it was.

Trumpists will now pin their hopes on Barr’s handpicked investigator, U.S. Attorney John Durham, to provide some shred of evidence for Trump’s “deep state” conspiracy. After investigations failed to produce justification for an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, whose actions helped put Trump in office prior to Trump firing him over the Russia investigation, or his deputy, Andrew McCabe, whose disclosures to the media harmed Clinton rather than Trump, and following two IG reports that found no evidence that the Russia investigation was the product of political bias, Durham will be under a tremendous amount of pressure from Barr to indict one of the president’s chosen enemies, if only to have a scapegoat to feed the right-wing propaganda machine and deter federal law enforcement from ever looking into criminal activity by the president or his allies again.

So the “Russia hoax” hoax continues, abetted by the sheer volume of conservative commentators and commentary capable of ignoring the text of the document and the weight of evidence, in favor of expressing obsequious loyalty to the president. By yelling falsehoods loudly enough, they hope to exhaust anyone with the ambition to determine the truth of the matter. And it might be working.

🎅🎄🦌🌲⛄🎄🎅🌲🦌🌲⛄🎄🎅🌲

The Russification of the Republican Party

GOP lawmakers used to oppose the president’s embrace of Putin and the Kremlin. Not anymore.

By RONALD BROWNSTEIN | Published December 5, 2019 | The Atlantic | Posted December 10, 2019 |

Just how far will Republicans go in following President Donald Trump’s embrace of Russia? An answer may be crystallizing as the GOP mobilizes its defense of the president against impeachment.

Both congressional Republicans and conservative commentators are defending Trump from impeachment partly by accusing Ukraine of intervening against him in the 2016 presidential election—despite repeated warnings from national-security and intelligence officials that those claims are not only baseless, but advance Vladimir Putin’s goal of discrediting Ukraine.

Earlier in Trump’s presidency, many Republicans sought to distance themselves from his warm tone toward Putin. But just this week alone, a number of Republican lawmakers, the official House Republican report rebutting impeachment, and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson have repeated Kremlin lines on Ukraine.

This flurry of GOP rhetoric comes as Democrats are raising alarm about the Republican-controlled Senate’s refusal to take action on the DETER Act, a bipartisan bill that would impose sanctions on Russia if it interferes again in 2020.

Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the act’s sponsor, has been unsuccessfully pressing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to attach the bill to a defense-authorization bill now in conference between the House and Senate, which would ensure its passage.

“Nobody has provided any substantive justification for opposing this measure,” Van Hollen told me in an interview. “All the testimony has been supportive of the DETER Act. And yet when you get behind closed doors, it’s not that anyone says they are opposed to it; they just won’t engage. McConnell would like to see this defeated without any of his fingerprints on it, but his fingerprints are there because he has refused to engage.”

Against the backdrop of Trump’s rhetorical warmth toward Putin, congressional Republicans have produced a mixed record on Russia. In 2017, virtually all Republicans joined with Democrats to pass legislation that prevented Trump from unwinding sanctions on Russia that former President Barack Obama imposed after the Kremlin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Most House Republicans also voted earlier this year to block the administration from ending sanctions against the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. And many congressional Republicans loudly criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria earlier this year, which was widely viewed as benefiting Russia’s position in the region.

But at the same time, the Republican-controlled Senate allowed the Trump administration to go ahead with lifting sanctions against Deripaska in January. Democrats also grouse that Senate Republicans have looked the other way as Trump has failed to fully implement the sanctions legislation passed in 2017. And Senate GOP leaders have blocked action on the two bipartisan bills targeting Russia, the DETER Act and the broader Defending American Security From Kremlin Aggression Act.

Impeachment is now providing a new test case to measure how far Trump has steered congressional Republicans toward greater accommodation of Russia.

This new front opened when Representative Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, repeatedly insisted during last month’s impeachment hearings that Ukraine had meddled in the 2016 election against Trump. That drew a stern rebuke from one witness asked to testify, the former Trump National Security Council adviser Fiona Hill, who warned that congressional Republicans were spreading “a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”

But Hill’s words have not stopped Republicans from reprising those arguments. In late November, Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana claimed during a television interview that Ukraine, not Russia, might have hacked the Democratic National Committee’s computers in 2016. After retreating from that claim, he went on Meet the Press on Sunday and equated public criticism of Trump by some Ukrainian officials with Russia’s systematic interference campaign in 2016.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, during its investigation of 2016 election meddling, found no evidence of Ukrainian interference. But when asked about Kennedy’s comments this week, Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s chairman, came closer to endorsing rather than repudiating them.

“Every elected official in the Ukraine was for Hillary Clinton,” Burr told NBC. “Is that very different than the Russians being for Donald Trump?” Burr went on to liken Russia’s massive intelligence and hacking campaign to occasional public comments by Ukrainian officials critical of Trump. “The president can say that they meddled because they had a preference, the elected officials,” Burr said. Other Republican senators, including John Barrasso of Wyoming, offered similar arguments this week.

The report released on Monday by House Republicans likewise blurred the difference. “Publicly available—and irrefutable—evidence shows how senior Ukrainian government officials sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in opposition to President Trump’s candidacy,” the report insisted.

Tucker Carlson took these arguments to new heights on his show Monday night, not only minimizing Russian involvement in 2016 but questioning why the U.S. was opposing its incursion into Ukraine at all. “I think we should probably take the side of Russia if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine,” Carlson insisted.

No leading congressional Republicans have yet gone so far. But Republican foreign-policy experts are still worried about the attempts by GOP leaders to defend Trump by disparaging Ukraine.

“For starters, you end up validating the Kremlin line which they have been peddling since 2016: Yes, something happened, but it was because Ukraine did it and not us,” says Richard Fontaine, who runs the nonpartisan Center for a New American Security and was the top foreign-policy adviser to the late Senator John McCain of Arizona. “It’s one thing if Putin says these things, or if Kremlin spokespeople say these things; people, I hope, will take it with a gigantic mountain of salt. But when you have U.S. elected leaders saying these things, it gives it a significant dose of credibility, and that’s not a good thing.”

David Hale, an undersecretary in Trump’s own State Department, expressed that concern at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. When asked about the national-security ramifications of the rhetoric, Hale said pointedly, “It does not serve our interests.”

The accusations against Ukraine have drawn forceful pushback this week from Democrats, but only a few Republicans—most directly Senator Mitt Romney of Utah—have openly condemned them. “What you are seeing unfortunately is Republicans wanting to just adopt and parrot the Trump talking points, which also coincide with the Putin talking points,” Van Hollen said.

The big question now is how much of the GOP’s shifting tone on Russia reflects a lasting change, versus a temporary alignment with Trump or a tactical maneuver in the impeachment struggle.

Under Trump, the two party’s coalitions have unquestionably switched places on Russia. Through the early part of this century, more Republican than Democratic voters typically expressed negative views toward Russia. But since Trump’s election in 2016, Republicans have been more likely than Democrats to express a positive view about Russia.

Even before Trump’s election, some social conservatives lauded Putin as a defender of conservative social values and a potential partner in the fight against Islamic extremism, as Steve Bannon, Trump’s former top campaign aide and White House adviser, did in a 2014 speech. But the big movement in the GOP, according to polls, came after Trump started touting the potential benefits of closer relations with Putin—and questioning whether Russia actually interfered in 2016. In a poll by the Chicago Council released last February, just over half of Republican voters said the U.S. should seek a cooperative relationship with Russia, while nearly two-thirds of Democrats said America should mostly seek to contain Moscow. Among Republicans younger than 45, three-fifths wanted the U.S. to pursue a friendlier relationship with Russia.

Still, while more Republicans than Democrats now express positive opinions about Russia, even a large chunk of Republican voters express unfavorable views about Moscow and Putin, surveys have found. That encourages some GOP foreign-policy experts to believe the party’s flirtation with Russia may not outlast Trump.

Peter Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who served as a National Security Council aide to President George W. Bush, told me Trump’s accommodation of Russia is unlikely to precipitate any sort of lasting change. He argued that there is still enough skepticism in the party about Trump’s policy toward Russia—and the country’s international role more broadly—that the president risks eruptions of discontent that force him to retreat, like those he confronted over his withdrawal from Syria. Even inside the administration, he noted, most foreign-policy experts remain dubious of Putin, which helps explain why the administration’s actions toward Russia have sometimes been tougher than Trump’s accommodating rhetoric.

“No one knows for sure, including the president,” how far he can push the party, Feaver said. “The president is wandering around a mine field and doesn’t always know when he is going to step on a mine.”

That may be true. But the willingness of more congressional Republicans to amplify widely discredited arguments against Ukraine—despite repeated warnings from conservative national-security professionals that they are advancing Russian propaganda in the process—suggests that their tolerance for Trump’s repositioning of the party on Russia is only growing.

As Fontaine told me, historically, “one of the reasons people were attracted to the Republicans was because they were the party skeptical of the regime in Moscow.” That’s one more Republican tradition Trump has tossed onto the ash heap of history.

🎅🎄🦌🌲⛄🎄🎅🌲🦌🌲⛄🎄🎅🌲