Month: November 2020

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As we head into the third day of the American Idol Election Extravaganza, members of the Republican party are bitterly divided over how best to obstruct a free and fair election. It seems no one filled out the Doodle poll labeled “Coup planning meeting” and, well, here we are. The issue is votes, and whether they should be counted or not counted or counted but then uncounted or discounted with a coupon. Early on Wednesday, Fox News declared Vice President Joe Biden the winner of Arizona’s electoral votes, which is a real “the call is coming from inside the house” situation. Enraged by even the whiff of justice or fairness, Trump-supporting protestors descended up the Maricopa County Election Department where they started chanting “Count the votes” at a building where they were actually counting the votes, they had been counting the votes, and they would continue counting the votes. They stood outside a structure that was built for the sole purpose of collecting and then counting votes and they screamed “DO THE THING YOU DO! Or we’ll be mad!” Ah, democracy!

Meanwhile across town: as mail-in votes from largely Black areas started to be counted in Michigan and the numbers turned in Biden’s favor, another swarm of Trump supporters descended upon the Detroit Department of Elections screaming “Stop the count!” At that point, Biden was already ahead so stopping the count would have just given him the electoral votes he eventually earned outright at a faster pace. So, one could argue these ravening masses were just interested in efficiency.

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Other protests popped up around the country all of which features hoards of angry, largely white crowds storming government building, trying to disrupt and election, and somehow not getting pepper sprayed. It seems all the pepper spray was used up before the election on Black churches holding peaceful Get Out the Vote marches. Agh, the supply chain!

The goal of the protests are all ostensibly the same: figuring out how to give Trump the win. None of them seem to have grasped the easiest possible solution: getting more people to vote for Donald Trump than Joe Biden, particularly in swing states. I think it was on the agenda at the Coup Planning Meeting, but again, the Doodle poll was ignored. The thing is, the goal is the same but the methods are all cattywampus. Stop the count, don’t stop the count, put the count down flip it and reverse it. There are so many mixed-up messages here; who is their comms director, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?

Let’s take Maricopa County first. These people think that the minute State TV calls an election, everyone just throws down their ballots and starts singing “Can You Feel a Brand New Day”? Inaccurate! Yeah, it’s written in the Constitution: “when Steve Kornacki, hosting a one-person, 24-hour HIIT class in front of a map that looks like an underwhelming Price Is Right game, declares a predicted winner, every vote count shall stop and all American resources will be diverted to getting Steve hydrated.”

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I really wish these Trump voters would read just one book. Any book. Or not even a book, just an article on elections. A Wikipedia. I’m begging. I also know that I’m wasting my time. This is the equivalent of me standing outside my local library screaming “READ A BOOK!” The librarian pokes their head outside and shouts back “What do you think is going on in here, you big dummy?”

I am really obsessed with the totally misapplied energy these Arizonan Republicans are putting into their protests. Shouting “Start the count!” at a building where the count has not stopped is like me going to Olive Garden and shouting “THERE SHOULD BE NO LIMIT ON SALAD OR BREADSTICKS.” Are these dizzy cretins taking directions from Christopher Columbus because they are lost in the sauce. I’m just asking for a crumb of logic. Please. I’m starving. Like, if the count is not happening, how did the protesters know where to go? If no one is counting anywhere, they could conceivably gather wherever they want. “START THE COUNT IN THIS BOARDED UP SWEETGREEN!” Democracy can break out in the strangest places if you’re not careful.

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The aggressive anti-democracy action in Detroit and other cities was more cut and dry. When people say “stop counting votes” it’s a little harder to misunderstand their meaning. I guess they could get more specific about saying what they’re actually screaming in their hearts: “stop counting Black votes and the votes of people who ride bikes to work or recycle.” But it doesn’t really roll off the tongue. “Stop the count” is catchy, as in, specifically, it’s going to catch these hands.

Speaking of catching hands, Lou Dobbs and Rudy Giuliani, paragons of good decision-making, said Trump supporters should descend upon Philadelphia, another city where the margins are slim and the count is on-going. Have these people ever met a Philadelphian? You ever been cursed out by a Betsy Ross impersonator? In character? It’s a feature, not a bug. Giuliani thinks he can show up in Philly and intimidate anybody into doing anything when this is the city that threw snowballs at Santa Claus. And that was the nice option. Santa was like “What if you were good?” and Philly was like “What if you [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]?”

The last time Trump tried to take on Philly it did not go well. Gritty clanked him on the head, kicked him back on to the Acela train, and scrawled “solidarity forever” across his face in Cheez Whiz. Stop the count? Boy, stop your shit.

We’re heading into our third day of election leaders doing what they swore to do to ensure a fair and free election and Donald Trump going “wait! Not like that.” It will be a while before we have a clear picture of what the electoral map looks like and there’s surely going to be at least one recount. So settle in, send Steve Kornacki a box of coconut water, and remember the words of the Count-stitution: don’t stop starting until you’ve started stopping. America! Or Else!

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On August 4th, Ferguson activist Cori Bush won her Democratic primary race in Missouri, defeating longtime representative William Lacy Clay. On November 3rd, she won her U.S. House race and will now become the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress. In June, she wrote the following op-ed for ELLE.com about why the nation needs to vote organizers into office:

I first showed up to a protest in Ferguson the day after Mike Brown was murdered by police officer Darren Wilson in 2014. At the time, I was working as a registered nurse managing a local community mental health clinic. My employer sent me to the apartment complex where Mike Brown was murdered to serve as a triage nurse and to assist with grief and trauma work. I was in disbelief at what I saw: Thousands of people were on the street. The police were dressed like they were ready to head into battle overseas. Police dogs were barking at protesters. There was rage and pain in the air. All this right in my neighborhood—my hair salon was on one side of the street, my nail salon on the other. Little did I know, I would end up coming back to protest for the next 400 days. We were simply compelled to action.

I never thought I would see the kind of state-sanctioned violence and hatred I’d learned about growing up with my own eyes. Yet, overnight, it had become my daily reality. More than 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, I saw regular, everyday people brutalized on the streets of Ferguson. I saw people arrested for what felt like no reason at all. I saw people beaten unconscious for the mere act of raising their voices in the name of justice for Black folks.

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One night at the protests, folks were crying out my name for medical help. I turned around just in time to catch an unconscious woman falling to the ground. I, along with six bystanders, carried her up the street to the line of police, decked out from head to toe in riot gear. I told them I was a nurse and suspected she was having a heart attack. I demanded they let us through the line to get to the paramedics who were behind them. They told me to drop her right there. They told me, “Let her go.” I refused.

The next thing I knew, my body was in the air—then on the ground. My vision went black, and I was stomped and kicked by steel-toed boots all over my body. Tear gas filled my lungs. I woke up bruised and with a gun held to my head. I was later told that after they stomped me, those police officers tear-gassed both myself and the woman I was trying to help directly.

Truth is, it was just an ordinary day in life during the Ferguson Uprising. Looking back, I’m grateful that, by that time in my life, almost every aspect of who I was had been touched by the legacy of Black organizers, from the Black Panther Party to Martin Luther King Jr. to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It turned out that having that living history inside me provided an endless well to draw upon. On the days when we had to pool our money to share a sandwich on the frontline; when the tear gas became more than I could physically bear; when the taunting, beatings, and gunshots just became too much, I continued to press on thinking of the brave warriors who came before.

That whole year, I could count on one hand the number of elected officials who showed up and demonstrated they cared about us. Most simply took a photo or two and were gone again within minutes. These were officials—public servants—who are paid to represent us, but they could hardly be bothered.

That taught us a lesson: When all of our so-called leaders desert us, we learn to lead ourselves. We learn that if we continue to vote the same people into office, they will simply continue to sign off on our destruction.

In Ferguson, everyday people stood up for what we believed to be right. We didn’t care that it was unpopular and dangerous. It’s what we needed to do. And that’s what’s needed in Congress. It’s why we need Black Lives Matter activists in Congress.

I first ran for Senate in 2016, and I did so without ever receiving any therapy for the PTSD I suffered due to the protests. Then just three weeks after I lost that 2016 primary election, I was violently raped. I thought that would be the end of my activism and political career, but I couldn’t stay away for long. Our community needed real leadership. I ended up jumping back in four months later to run for Congress in 2018. And now, I’m running for Congress again.

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Nothing about this work is easy, and being a woman makes it even harder. Most of the time, people care more about my clothing (they tell me to wear pantsuits instead of dresses); my body (they say my hips are too big); my hair (my braids are too unprofessional); my education, or my socio-economic status. But I wake up everyday knowing that this work isn’t about me.

We need folks who don’t mind being unpopular as long as their communities’ needs are met. We need organizers and galvanizers. We need good leaders and great listeners. We need compassion and strength, effectiveness and accessibility. We must build coalitions and mobilize around issues using our voices, skills, talents—not high-contributing donors or lobbyists. We need activists in Congress—not just one, or two, or ten, but an entire generation of activists. We have been through so much. We can’t quit. We can’t slow down. Now is not the time for incremental change. Incremental change means more people will die.

As Black folks, we have been fighting for our lives on a daily basis ever since we were forcibly brought to America. That’s violence against us. In St. Louis, we’ve been fighting for our lives against some of the worst segregation in the country. That’s violence. We’ve had to fight to survive under Trump’s presidency and through the COVID-19 pandemic that has devastated the Black community more than any other. That’s more violence. The economic and health disparities we face have existed for far too long, with the same people in power tasked with closing those gaps. Now, we the people have decided to lead, advocate, educate, and empower. It’s not just Ferguson anymore. The whole world is taking to the streets. For this. For George Floyd. For Breonna Taylor. For Tony McDade. For Mike Brown. For Nina Pop. For us.

Cori Bush is running to represent Missouri’s 1st congressional district.

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Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, will make British royal history family today as the first member to vote in the U.S. presidential election. Newsweek was told by multiple sources that “the duchess is voting.”

One added that “I’m not going to get into methods or timing, but can confirm that the duchess is voting in this election.

Meghan, an American, and her husband Prince Harry now reside in Montecito, California after stepping back from their working senior royal family member roles this spring. The two implored Americans to vote in September during their Time 100 appearance. (In the U.K., while royal family members are not banned in writing legally from voting in British elections, they are expected not to in order to stay apolitical.)

Meghan also spoke to Marie Claire in its August voting feature about why she plans to vote in this election.

“I know what it’s like to have a voice and also what it’s like to feel voiceless,” she said. “I also know that so many men and women have put their lives on the line for us to be heard. And that opportunity, that fundamental right, is in our ability to exercise our right to vote and to make all of our voices heard. One of my favorite quotes, and one that my husband I have referred to often, is from Kate Sheppard, a leader in the suffragist movement in New Zealand, who said, ‘Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops’ That is why I vote.”

For more on resources on how to vote today, check out ELLE’s voter information hub here. 21 states offer Election Day registration so depending on where you live, it isn’t even too late to vote if you aren’t registered yet.

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Spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2 episode 1, “Chapter 9: The Marshal,” below.

This year was meant to see the arrival of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation, but never fear: The Mandalorian is here to deliver a replacement of sorts. The season 2 opener, “The Marshal,” a 45-minute episode set mostly on the desert planet Tatooine, is filled with nostalgia for the original Star Wars trilogy, including Jawas, Tusken Raiders, Krayt dragons, and Boba Fett, but much of these vintage elements owe their existence to Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi series.

Lucas never actually credited Herbert for the obvious inspiration, but the author was aware. He’s said to have claimed at least 37 similarities between the Star Wars franchise and his book about an intergalactic war with an evil emperor, a desert planet with nomadic people, beastly sandworms, a mystical order with powers, and a messianic young boy with a destiny to fulfill. Herbert even said of the original film’s 1979 release, “I’m going to try very hard not to sue.” He succeeded, which meant Lucas got away with his interpretation and the world of Star Wars expanded into a full universe.

The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, however, has done a far better job of paying homage to Dune in this season 2 opener than any of the live-action Star Wars outings so far, and subverts the negative portrayal of an infamous race in the process.

“The Marshal” opens with Mando (Pedro Pascal) and The Child, aka Baby Yoda, arriving at a seedy venue in what looks like an urban slum within a cyberpunk movie. They’re there to meet Abyssin gangster Gor Koresh (John Leguizamo), who bears more than a passing resemblance to Javier Bardem’s Bond villain Raoul Silva. Mando is after information regarding the whereabouts of other Mandalorians after Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) decimated his collective, The Tribe, at the end of season 1. Gor learns the hard way not to mess with our hero, and after taking out the criminal’s crew with some stunning hand-to-hand combat soundtracked by an ‘80s guitar riff, Mando and The Child head back to Tatooine to seek out a mysterious Mandalorian residing in the mining settlement of Mos Pelgo.

Landing on the desert planet, the pair are reunited with mechanic Peli Motto (Amy Sedaris), and we are all Peli when she squeals in excitement at seeing Baby Yoda again. She and her droids get to work fixing up Mando’s ship while the two borrow a speeder to locate Mos Pelgo. Upon arrival, viewers are greeted with the first blast from the past: The town’s Marshal wearing Boba Fett’s armor. It was assumed Fett had perished in Return of the Jedi after falling into the deadly pit of Sarlacc, but the final moments of this episode prove that was not the case (more on that later). Fett’s armor ended up in the possession of the Jawa, a scavenger people, and they sold it to the Marshal, a human named Cobb Vanth.

Disney

Timothy Olyphant couldn’t be more suited for the space western world of The Mandalorian, delivering exactly the right amount of rugged swagger one would expect from the star of Justified and Deadwood. Cobb became the town’s protector after the Empire fell and the local Mining Collective turned Mos Pelgo into a slave camp. In Fett’s armor, Cobb takes out the new oppressors and maintains order thanks to the deadly reputation of the warrior race who wears it.

But only Mandalorians are meant to wear their Beskar armor, so Mando is obliged to take it from Cobb. However, when a Krayt dragon turns up and eats one of the town’s Bantha, a hairy mammoth-looking mammal, the two forget a stand-off and strike up a bargain instead: Cobb will return the armor if Mando helps kill the Krayt. Fans will remember that Obi-Wan Kenobi used the call of a Krayt dragon to scare off the Tusken Raiders in A New Hope, so it is rather fitting that Favreau brought back the Sand People for this episode, and pretty amazing that he ameliorates the negative characterization Lucas gave them.

The Star Wars creator famously used Tunisia as a backdrop for Tatooine (the set remains there to this day) and claims he based the Tuskens on the Bedouins, a nomadic Arab people who lived in the region—much like the Berbers who served as an influence on the depiction of the Fremen in Dune. The similarities between the Tusken Raiders and the desert-dwelling people of Arrakis in Herbert’s novel are pretty clear: They both wear head-to-toe clothing to survive the harsh desert climate and are resistant to outside colonizers taking the planet’s natural resources (water in Star Wars; water and spice in Dune). They have a strong sense of community and shared mystical beliefs, are knowledgeable about the colossal worm-like beasts (Krayt dragons in Star Wars/sandworms in Dune) that inhabit the dunes, and are brutal in combat.

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But while Herbert is somewhat empathetic in his portrayal of the Fremen and their struggle—Dune dismantles the very idea of saviors, heroes, and villains that Star Wars props up—Lucas’s series painted his Sand People as merely xenophobic savages. Their language is made up of grunts and growls and their cinematic appearances are defined by ferocious hostility. Tuskens knock Luke unconscious to steal from him in A New Hope, and in the prequel series, a group kidnaps and tortures Anakin’s mother, doubling down on the perception that they are soulless killers and giving Anakin an excuse to turn to the Dark Side. The Sand People were certainly not a welcome appropriation of Arab and North African culture to those of that heritage, and though in other Star Wars media they’ve been given more backstory and nuance, it’s a welcome sight to see Favreau’s humanization of them in live-action form.

It started in The Mandalorian season 1, during the episode “The Gunslinger.” The scene depicts the Tusken Raiders as reasonable when Mando barters for safe passage; he uses their dialect and sign language and gives them binoculars as payment. In “The Marshal,” Mando, Cobb, and Baby Yoda encounter a group and again, our hero communicates using their language and convinces them to join the fight against the Krayt dragon. Cobb doesn’t trust them because they attacked his village, but their hostility wasn’t because they are senselessly brutal—rather, they were defending the water they believed the miners were stealing. Mando’s defense of the Tusken Raiders is important because it contextualizes their ways of life. “They are brutal and so is the dune sea,” he says. “They are raiders, this is true, but they also keep their word.”

The mention of “dune” here seems like a knowing nod to the novel, as does the episode’s sandworm storyline depicting people of different backgrounds teaming up for a cause. By portraying the Tusken Raiders as more enlightened beings than the savages of Lucas’s films, Favreau shows a better understanding of what Herbert was trying to do with the Fremen, and a respect for the nomadic North Afridan people upon which both Dune and Star Wars‘ fictional races are based.

By the episode’s end, the Raiders, Mando, Cobb, and the villagers form an alliance to destroy the Krayt and a peace treaty is made between the former rivals. And as Mando heads off with The Child and Fett’s armor, the legend who used to wear it looks down on the scene ominously before walking off into the distance. Where he’s going is yet to be determined, but it sure is good to see Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett again. Until next week…

Watch The Mandalorian on Disney+

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