Dirty Randy

[Dirty Randy @randyoffutt]

"We're doing stupid shit and having fuck loads of fun"

[daz @MetamateDaz]

I don't want "free healthcare."

I want universal healthcare, paid for by MY taxes, that covers everyone and leaves no one bankrupt, sick, or dead because they can't afford the
treatment.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world are immersed in extreme poverty. Yet, disproportionate wealth remains in the hands of a few. It is an unjust scenario, in the face of which we cannot fail to question ourselves and commit to change things. There is no lack of resources at the root of disparities, but the need to address solvable problems related to a more equitable distribution of wealth, to be achieved with moral sense and honesty.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

George Lucas built Star Wars as a Vietnam War protest film. The Rebels were the Vietcong (Vietnamese fighters who battled the US). The Empire was America. Emperor Palpatine was modeled on Richard Nixon.

He wrote it down. A note on his 1973 screenplay draft said: "a large technological empire going after a small group of freedom fighters." He meant the US in Vietnam.

Before Star Wars existed, Lucas was actually supposed to direct Apocalypse Now, the famous Vietnam War movie. He wanted to shoot it like a raw, on-the-ground war film. His buddy Francis Ford Coppola took the project instead. So in March 1976, both of them started shooting at the same time: Coppola in the Philippines making Apocalypse Now (a shoot so brutal it gave the lead actor a heart attack and nearly bankrupted Coppola), and Lucas in Tunisia making the same anti-war argument wrapped in spaceships. Walter Murch, who worked with both of them, later told Variety: "Star Wars was George's version of Apocalypse Now, rewritten in an otherworldly context."

The Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, those little teddy bears beating heavily armed Stormtroopers with sticks and jungle traps, were Lucas's version of Vietnamese fighters taking on the US military. He confirmed it on camera in an interview with James Cameron. When Cameron called the Rebels "terrorists," Lucas said: "When I did it they were Vietcong. That was the whole point." He also said in 2005 that Nixon "got me thinking about how democracies get turned into dictatorships, because the democracies aren't overthrown, they're given away." When his movie Revenge of the Sith came out that year during the Iraq War, conservative outlets called it anti-American. Lucas said the franchise had been political since 1973.

Now the money. Over 40 studios passed on Star Wars. Fox picked it up on an $11 million budget, mostly because they wanted Lucas for other projects. This weird space movie was just the price of keeping him around. Then Lucas cut his own directing salary from $500,000 to $150,000, and asked for the rights to make sequels and sell toys based on the characters. Fox was nearly broke. Selling toys based on movies was barely a concept in 1977. They handed it over.

In just the first two years, Star Wars toys moved $100 million in sales. The toymaker, a company called Kenner, had put up $100,000 to get started. Demand was so high that Kenner could not make the toys fast enough and had to sell empty boxes with a promise to mail the action figures later. The full franchise has pulled in around $46 billion since 1977, with the toys and merchandise making more money than the movies. Lucas held onto everything until 2012, then sold to Disney for $4.05 billion. Forbes puts his net worth today at over $5 billion.

An anti-war protest that 40 studios rejected, disguised as a space opera, shot on $11 million. Lucas took the pay cut. Took the toy rights nobody at Fox wanted. The toys ended up being worth more than all the Star Wars films combined.

[Dirty Randy @randyoffutt]

@Demetree0693 Everything bro

[Akira @Akir_a997]

But not the same resources

[Dan Carney @DanManCarney]

Little disappointing Michael B Jordan won best actor but the guy who played his brother didn’t even get nominated

[Danny Bloom🌷 @danzu72]

I worked for USAID when It was closed, these guys literally were firing senior Foreign Service Officers with 30 years of experience on the spot. These kids were drunk on power and a reckoning is coming. I will always be hot about this shit. I know for a fact we allowed children to die because of these snotty shits.

[Rachel Bitecofer 🗽🦆 @RachelBitecofer]

Losing the best of us to decisions made by the worst of us.

[Jamie Bonkiewicz @JamieBonkiewicz]

10/10. No notes.

[RoidedBalls🇹🇹 @Roidedballs]

Not old enough to have a beer but old enough to die for Israel.

[Ethical American @AmericanEthical]

(WATCH VIDEO) This guy does a good job reminding all #Americans which policies actually screwed this country up. #maga 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @JoshEakle]

Incredible.

If you’re keeping score in the political realignment, Democrats have now claimed:

> The First Amendment
> The Second Amendment
> The Fourth Amendment
> The flag
> Reagan, MLK, and Lincoln
> The American Revolution
> The Constitution itself

Republicans are left with:
> Trump
> Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex ring
> CBS

[Rebekah Jones @GeoRebekah]

Enjoying watching all the people eat crow who said he couldn't or wouldn't do all of these things to help regular people.

Universal child care? Done.
Holding slum lords accountable? Done.
Helping consumers? Done.

This is what it's like when progress is a PLAN and not just empty platitudes.

[Ounka @OunkaOnX]

Theo Vaughn confronts JD Vance on the genocide in Gaza

[Dan @leathergregory]

Obviously his husband has just been assassinated. Let him grieve in his own way.

[I Smoked A Predilection For Nipples @BlackKnight10k]

Worst possible time for you to be flirting with an 8 year old bro

[Washingtonian Problems @WashProbs]

MAGA: Yeah, get rid of Obamacare!

Also MAGA: Wait, what happened to the Affordable Care Act

[deedee megadoodoo @givemebudlight]

no posts in over 24 hours. rest now brother, we have the watch, we’ll see you in Valhalla.

[Kirg🇪🇸🇦🇷 #RonIsDead @KirgyC]

He has two wolves inside him one is super woke and the other one tells him to set homeless people on fire

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

Blatantly false, you dipshit.