James McAvoy reveals that Joaquin Phoenix almost starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘SPLIT’
“I think he ditched it 2 weeks before shooting. It was really last minute…”
(Source: https://t.co/w5R9P7SYQB)
Collecting my reserved books at the library: They're under the name Marriott.
Librarian: Oh, like the author!
Me: Huh?
Librarian: You know, the author - Zoë Marriott!
Me, blankly: This... has never happened to me before.
Librarian: All right. Can I have your library card?
James McAvoy reveals that Joaquin Phoenix was supposed to star in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘SPLIT’
“I think he ditched it two weeks before the shooting. It was really last minute…”
(https://t.co/qu2YKxVguj)
I wonder where they ate lunch the days before symptom onset? It might be worthwhile to trace the beef to the source as part of the investigation. Raw milk consumption is easier to rule out.
Nearly 30 years ago, Israeli sociologist Dan Rabinowitz published a book, Overlooking Nazareth, that argued Israel was a far more profoundly racist society than was widely understood.
His work has taken on a new relevance – and not just for Israelis – since 7 October.
Back in the 1990s, as now, outsiders assumed that Israel was divided between the religious and secular, the traditional and modern; between vulgar recent immigrants and more enlightened “veterans”.
Israelis often see their society split geographically too: between peripheral communities where popular racism flourishes, and a metropolitan centre around Tel Aviv where a sensitive, cultured liberalism predominates.
Rabinowitz tore this thesis to shreds. He took as his case study the small Jewish city of Nazareth Illit in northern Israel, renowned for its extreme right-wing politics, including support for the fascist movement of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Rabinowitz ascribed the city’s far-right politics chiefly to the fact that it had been built by the state on top of Nazareth, the largest community of Palestinians in Israel, specifically to contain, control and oppress its historic neighbour.
His argument was that the Jews of Nazareth Illit were not more racist than the Jews of Tel Aviv. They were simply far more exposed to an “Arab” presence. In fact, given the fact that few Jews wanted to live there, they were heavily outnumbered by their “Arab” neighbours. The state had placed them in a direct, confrontational competition with Nazareth for land and resources.
The Jews of Tel Aviv, by contrast, almost never came across an “Arab” unless it was in a servant’s role: as a waiter or a worker on a building site.
The difference, noted Rabinowitz, was that the Jews of Nazareth Illit were confronted with their own racism on a daily basis. They had rationalised and become easy with it. Jews in Tel Aviv, meanwhile, could pretend they were open-minded because their bigotry was never meaningfully tested.
Well, 7 October changed all that. The “liberals” of Tel Aviv were suddenly confronted by an unwelcome, avenging Palestinian presence inside their state. The “Arab” was no longer the oppressed, tame, servile one they were used to.
Unexpectedly, the Jews of Tel Aviv felt a space they believed to be exclusively theirs being invaded, just as the Jews of Nazareth Illit had felt for decades. And they responded in exactly the same way. They rationalised their inner fascist. Overnight, they became comfortable with genocide.
That sense of invasion extends beyond Israel, of course.
On 7 October, Hamas’s surprise assault wasn’t just an attack on Israel. The breakout by a small group of armed fighters from one of the largest and most heavily fortified prisons ever built was also a shocking assault on western elites’ complacency – their belief that the world order they had built by force to enrich themselves was permanent and inviolable.
7 October severely shook their confidence that the non-western world could be contained forever; that it must continue to do the West’s bidding, and that it would remain enslaved indefinitely.
Just as it has with Israelis, the Hamas attack quickly exposed the little fascist within the West’s political, media and religious elite, who had spent a lifetime pretending to be the guardians of a western civilising mission – one that was enlightened, humanitarian and liberal.
The act worked because the world was ordered in such a way that they could easily pretend to themselves and others that they stood against the barbarism of the Other.
The West’s colonialism was largely out of sight, devolved to globe-spanning, exploitative, environmentally destructive western corporations and a network of some 800 US overseas military bases, which were there to kick ass if this new arms-length economic imperialism encountered difficulties.
Whether intentionally or not, Hamas tore off the mask of that deception on 7 October. The pretence of an ideological rift between western leaders on the right and a supposed “left” evaporated overnight. They all belonged to the same war party; they all became devotees of the genocide party.
Read more from my latest article How the war on Gaza exposed Israeli and western fascism here: https://t.co/nZkTBj1PZ3
Described as “the most lethal fighter jet in the world”, every Israeli F-35 is made in part here in the UK.
I, alongside 36 MPs, have written to the government raising concerns about complicity in violations of international law by not suspending export licences for F-35 parts:
“a staff member asked winona ryder if she’d take a picture. to our delight, she not only agreed, but insisted on waiting until we gathered the rest of our team at hollywood toys and costumes, saying ‘i love it here, i want to do this’” 🤍
A Vermont Department of Children & Families worker & foster parent has been arrested for sexually assaulting a minor who was in DCF custody.
She sexually abused the child for years, gave the kid alcohol, & smoked weed with them.
Meet Sonja Herman.
Exactly what the US should have done with credit rating agencies who gave AAA ratings to subprime mortgage-backed securities before the 2008 financial crisis.
It's called accountability, a word we don't use much in relations with the finance industry in the West...
In this instance, according to the investigation, PWC "turned a blind eye" to and "even condoned" Evergrande's "financial fraud and fraudulent issuance of corporate bonds" (a $78-billion fraud!).
Not a Jill Stein fan like that, but this was the moment when Angela Rye showed us that she is a boule keyholder because this reaction was uncalled for. These are the negroes that stand in the way of any Black progress. They are happy with the status quo.
Jill Stein:
“I will end the genocide in Gaza”
“I will give black people #reparations”
“I will create multiple Black Wall Streets across the country”
“I will fight to end disproportionate police brutality against black people”
Angela Rye:
This is why I will defend our Posties until my dying breath.
A parcel dumped at an address a *long* way away, by Amazon, whilst insisting it had been personally handed to me. Their “customer service” couldn’t have cared less.
5 days later it shows up, because my postie had spotted it on a doorstep, recognised my name, and went out of his way to bring it to me. It’s time Royal Mail started treating these people with the respect they deserve.