#but idk if that's real or something from dnc

[scionshtola]

i was doing a dungeon with trust right now trying to figure out why y'shtola was Last on the aggro table and when i looked at her she was standing by the boss, not casting and hitting it with her staff

[drdemonprince]

One thing that pisses me off about the project 2025 discourse is how painfully obvious it is that these people aren’t in any kind of community with southerners because this shit has been happening on the state level for over a decade. I’m from Texas where there aren’t gubernatorial term limits and governor Abbott would 10000% be considered a far right dictator if Texas was its own country. And this is all without the delusion that the DNC gives a single fuck about us. Even when Abbott or one of these governors do something illegal (like take over one of the biggest school districts in the country HISD to basically crystallize the school to prison pipeline or withhold disaster relief funds from cities with dem mayors who don’t suck his dick hard enough) the DOJ will give them a slap on the wrist and nobody intervenes. And when they do it’s to dump millions to keep actual progressives from getting into office.

Southern leftists are some of the best organizers around, even on the fucking electoral level my congressman is a socialist and we have a bunch of mutual friends in the Texas leftist organizing scene. And yeah fuck electoralism but if Texas can elect pro Palestinian socialists what’s everyone else’s excuse to keep pushing this lesser evil bullshit. Making the reality of political tyranny but also razor sharp organizing totally disappear from conversations about project 2025 does everything to obscure the real political reality and potential of this country. We have people on the ground already dealing with the worst case scenario for everything: abortion, trans healthcare, trans panic, censorship, immigration human rights abuses, constant threats of mass deportation, incredibly dangerous prison conditions, climate change, unionizing in the most legally hostile environments in the country. Idk it’s like….i wish people could really grasp this. It’s already been here. And that sucks but it also means……….any person can get involved in the resistance infrastructure that already exists.

fucking YES!! I love you for this anon. Thanks for the message.

[presidentkamala]

Been getting progressively emotionally hungover from the DNC idk how im going to make it thru tomorrow lmao

I remain baffled by the pundit response - OF COURSE the DNC is "self-indulgent" the audience is DEMS and the goal is to energize the base for the home stretch of the election!!! Like wtf its not a battleground stump speech. Also criticisms of the speakers for their breadth and diversity?????? Like not every speaker is For You so obviously you'll hear some messaging that doesnt "land" BIG TENT BABEY!!! Anyone who isnt a hardcore Politics Watcher is going to be seeing this through clips and tik toks hopefully targeting the messaging that works for THEM which i think is a genius strategy. And ZERO mention of the roll call or the testimonials from REAL PEOPLE which is fascinating bc those were so completely transcendant and affecting.

Also another huge suck on my dick to podsa for having the gall to be snippy about bidenworld sharing how pissed they are w the media like wow you guys have zero self awareness!!

And before we go into night 4, im donating, im volunteering, i still don't feel too hot about our chances but you know what at least we're here to lay it all on the table!!!! This will NOT be 2016 for many reasons but the biggest one for me is that i will be forever haunted by not doing more then and i couldnt do much in 2020 bc of covid. But in 2024 I'm ready to drive down to west virginia and doorknock like i signed up to volunteer in clarksburg and winchester and i hope that all the Posters and Podcasters DO SOMETHING besides flapping their gums this year

[tammog]

Do you live in a bizarro world?

Kamala did not try to be "centrist". She actively courted Republican voters by trying to be the Republican Party with a different paint job. She wanted genocide in Palestine. She wanted immigrants to be criminalized and MORE people to die during border crossings. She wasn't "Centrist", unless you want to call her that to point out how much she kissed fascist ass while being absolutely ineffectual in how I would use the word "centrist": Derogatorily.

But even aside from her policy her campaign was absolute ass. She started with huge momentum and then turned around 180 to instantly kill it.

Her campaign sent Bill fucking Clinton to Michigan Arab communities to tell them how Israel has a right to shoot missiles at children.

They basically relied on having people actually on the left held hostage - "It's me or Trump", true enough - while then also doing everything to look as much as the Republicans as possible to get Republican votes somehow. IDK why Republicans would vote for watered down Republicans over the real ones, OR how people on the left would NOT lose motivation to vote for her if she tries to be as much as the other guy as she possibly can, so this was a clearly losing strategy in both directions, AS STAFFERS TOLD PEOPLE, AS ANALYSTS WARNED HER AND THE OTHER CAMPAIGN LEADERS, as everyone on the left kept telling people.

And now after the election, an election that she lost because 15 million people just did not show up to vote, in large part because she tried to make herself seem as bad as possible while relying on the fact that people would try to vote for her to avert something worse, who gets the blame?

Not the fascist-maxxing DNC campaign, not even the voter suppression I heard being talked about so much before, but people on the left, minorities, and the fucking Palestinians BEING MURDERED AS YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM despite them not even being in the same country or being able to vote.

So many posts of liberals - derogatory, again - being gleeful that even if they are going to have it bad, Palestinians are going to die. Posts from liberals hoping that minorities get deported. Posts from liberals wishing queer people death because they have deluded themselves into thinking that all these groups made their sports team lose and everything would be fine and dandy if Harris had won.

Look in a mirror. Look at all the things Harris did. Ask yourself if you truly think she did ANYTHING right.

And if you think she did everything right, why don't you go sign up for the GOP or the KKK, they seem to be more your place.

[nikkoliferous]

Sorry to interrupt this riveting Loki Dickscourse...

I was wondering if you could share some points about why Biden isn't a good person. It seems like he's close to a win now, but whilst everyone is going gooey eyed over him, he isn't gives me bad vibes. I tried looking online but couldn't find much at all. Then I thought of you, so if you feel like to, could you maybe list a few articles or something idk. I'm pretty clueless here, all I know is that Biden is Not It.

Ooh boy. So, however bad you’re guessing Biden is, he is almost certainly worse. I actually started a post that’s still in my drafts of all the reasons I could never vote for him. I never posted it because it was already so close to the election by the time I started compiling it and because it just didn’t feel worth the “you’re helping Trump!!!” headache that I’ve already gotten so much of over the past year. But it was basically a huge masterpost of articles about how horrible Biden’s record actually is.

It’s gonna be way, way more than you’ll ever want to read for the rest of your life, but I’m just gonna paste those links here and you can pick and choose which ones you want to read. Not to overwhelm you, but think of it like an anti-Biden buffet. I definitely don’t expect you to feel like going through them all, because it’s... a lot. 💀

Environmental Justice

Joe Biden Touts Endorsement From the Guy Who Poisoned Flint, Michigan

Joe Biden’s Sketchy Climate Record

Joe Biden Tells Climate Activist To Vote For Someone Else

Biden: ‘I Am Not Banning Fracking’

Foreign Policy

Joe Biden Championed The Iraq War

Joe Biden’s Iraq Problem

Let’s Be Real: President Biden Would Probably Be More Hawkish Than Trump

Biden Says Stay in Mideast, Increase Military Spending

Obama’s Far Right Foreign Policy

Obama’s Dumbest Plan Yet

Yemen: The Graveyard of the Obama Doctrine

America Dropped 26,171 Bombs in 2016

Libyan Slave Trade: Is Obama to Blame?

Joe Biden Supports Unelected Juan Guaidó in Venezuela, Says U.S. Should Keep Sanctions Against Cuba

Air Force Veteran Confronts Joe Biden For Enabling Iraq War

Yes, Trump Is An American Monster, But So Is Biden

Corruption

‘Middle Class’ Joe Biden Has A Corruption Problem

Joe Biden Serves Wall Street, Not Main Street

Joe Biden To Rich Donors: ‘Nothing Would Fundamentally Change’ If He’s Elected

Super PAC Backing ‘Middle-Class Joe’ Is Led by Lobbyists, Corporate Consultants, and Democratic Fundraisers

Biden Inc.: How ‘Middle Class' Joe’s Family Cashed In On The Family Name

Healthcare

Bidencare System Will Kill 125,000 Through Uninsurance

Biden Suggests He Would Veto Medicare For All Over Its Price Tag

Biden Open To Cutting Social Security And Medicare

Dems Begin Signaling A Post-Election Surrender On Health Care

Democrats’ Big Coronavirus Idea Is to, Uh, Subsidize Health Insurers?

Crime & Punishment

Joe Biden's 1993 Crime Bill Speech Is Worse Than You Think

Biden Repeatedly Pushed ‘Police Officer’s Bill of Rights’

As Calls to Defund the Police Grow Louder, Joe Biden Wants to Give Them More Money

Civil Liberties

The Many Times Joe Biden Took Credit For Writing The PATRIOT Act

Nearly 500 Former National Security Officials Formally Back Biden

Obama Wins The Right To Detain People With No Habeas Review

Obama Administration Has Declared War On Whistleblowers

Biden Campaign Lashes Out At Facebook Over Lack Of Censorship

Immigration & Race

Joe Biden's Terrible Record on Immigration Should Haunt His Campaign

Fact-Checking Biden On The Use Of Cages For Immigrants

The Deportation Machine Obama Built for President Trump

Biden Under Fire for Telling Immigrant Rights Activist Demanding End to Deportations to 'Vote for Trump'

Biden Campaign Doesn’t Consider Latinos ‘Part Of Their Path To Victory’

Joe Biden Can't Stop Praising Vicious Segregationists

Joe Biden Didn’t Just Praise Segregationists, He Also Spent Years Fighting Busing

Joe Biden’s Stunningly Racist Answer on the Legacy of Slavery Has Been Overlooked

Joe Biden Has Repeatedly Let African Americans Down

How Obama Destroyed Black Wealth

Joe Biden’s Record On Racial Integration Is Indefensible

Joe Biden: Everybody’s Chum

Biden Backtracks Comments Contrasting Diversity In Black And Latino Communities

Joe Biden Has Built a Career on Betraying Black Voters

Everything Else

Joe Biden’s Campaign Is Making It Very Clear: They Will Push Austerity in the White House

Joe Biden’s Role In Creating The Student Debt Crisis

Biden: ‘No New Taxes On Those Who Make $400k Or Less’

When Joe Biden Voted to Let States Overturn Roe v. Wade

Obama’s Fiscal ‘Grand Bargain’ Is A Great Betrayal of America’s Most Vulnerable

Joe Biden Keeps Lying — But You Won’t Hear It From Liberal Media

The Obama Years, In No Particular Order

All the Times Joe Biden Has Been Accused Of Behaving Inappropriately With Women

Biden's Decency Is Being Greatly Exaggerated

We Need To Talk About Joe Biden’s Cognitive Decline

Joe Biden's Fundamentally Wrong View Of Politics

The Democrats’ DNC Plans Show They Aren’t Even Pretending Anymore

The Treason Of The Ruling Class

I could probably list even more? But, well... you get the idea. I trust since the election is over now, people won’t feel the need to come in here all pissy at me for showing who Biden really is.

[ianenjoyer]

Hi, the voting storyline was stupid and absolutely tone deaf, which makes it a little scary how accurately it predicted the 2020 election. Trump (and other influential pro-Trump figures) really did ask people to go to the polling places and “watch for fraud” aka scare minorities away from voting, which actually happened in some places (though thank God it did get shut down). As well as the fact that comprehensive voter suppression of minorities on behalf of the DNC led to the nomination and election of a white man accused of sexual assault (although don’t get me wrong, he’s still worlds better than Trump). When Shameless actually gets something right about the real world that’s when you know that the real world is FUCKED.

Anyways, sorry for my unsolicited rant in you inbox, I just love politics.

please never apologize for ranting in my inbox! i love talking about politics too even though it stresses me out lol

and yes you’re 100% right! it was actually really true to life in terms of voter suppression and the way that politicians get power in our country which is so fucking scary. i just hated that it was protrayed as a comedy instead of, you know, a terrifying thing that happens in the real world and is actively harmful to real people.

i would have no issue with them doing political commentary if they knew how to do it right and without making light of it. like the fact that frank recruited nazis to get a sexual predator elected in office could have been really interesting commentary on the nature of politicians in our country and the real danger that people like terry pose but instead it was just played for laughs and then kinda never mentioned again??? i think the fact that they had their main character doing these things instead of just like some random side character who would face consequences for their actions and not be humanized by the show was the first issue with this

idk i just don’t think shameless should keep trying to tackle issues like this because, whatever there intent is (i honestly have no idea what it is) i think they’re doing more harm than good by trivializing important issues. like you and i (and anybody with critical thinking) look at it and understand what’s messed up about that storyline and what real-world implications it has but i think there’s a population of their fan base that doesn’t look at things like that which uhhh kinda scares me bc these storylines could be seen as normalizing this kind of stuff instead of critiquing it (which is true of all of their more problematic storylines)

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 4x06-- The Gang Offends Everyone

Thoughts under the cut. 

Another long episode, yay! But it’s a minute shorter than 3x04, so I feel slightly better about it. 

Lucca bought herself a Birkin bag with a portion of her poker winnings. Clearly she knows it’s a status symbol, but the second she realizes people are noticing it, she’s slightly embarrassed. Or maybe I’m reading this wrong. I think she wanted to impress everyone and show off and then started feeling uncomfortable. I am a little shocked she decided to take it to work.

Tbh I don’t think I would notice if someone carried a Birkin bag into my office.

Marissa knows a lot about Birkins, which tracks. As she says, she was raised around rich people. I would bet ELI knows about Birkins and the types of stitching too. 

Landau is back with an absolutely ridiculous idea: Running Adrian for President in 2024. Landau mentions that this year we started with a diverse field of candidates but “no candidate of color went the distance.” I know what he means but could he maybe phrase it in a way that doesn’t make it sound like it’s the candidate's fault? Also, question, what is running Adrian as a candidate early on going to do other than create more noise in the field and prevent people from unifying behind one candidate? 

(And, surely, there are more qualified people to run than Adrian Boseman, but this is TV and I will be quiet about this.)

As far as I can tell, this plot is about forcing Adrian into a new realm where optics matter more than money, thus forcing Adrian/the audience to confront a lot of the choices Adrian tends to make. 

They want him to stay on the stage until Iowa so black voters can “see themselves up there.” So it’s almost like their plan is to pick a moderately convincing candidate they know will lose in order to appease black voters??? What’s the point, to say they care but not enough to find a candidate who could actually win? Maybe I’m being too cynical. Or maybe it’s because it involves a fictional character that I’m so critical.

That said, the way Landau/the DNC have been written on this show? They CLEARLY are not supposed to actually understand black voters.

Just… don’t turn into season 7 of TGW, show. Peter running for president was such a poorly executed idea. 

I can’t tell if this plan would be to run someone in 2024 no matter what (meaning if Biden doesn’t seek a second term or if we have to deal with 4 more years of 45) or if it’s contingent upon 45 being reelected. If the latter, then that means that Adrian, in his own self-interest, would.... Want 45 to get reelected? Odd thought.

Adrian promises he won’t tell anyone and shakes on it. He immediately tells Liz.

I love how Diane’s name is on the letterhead but she is almost never looped into conversations like this. This is more personal than professional so it obviously makes sense that Liz would be the one he confides in, but it happens more generally too. 

Liz kind of mocks the idea of Adrian being the future of the party, and Adrian accuses her of being jealous. “What are your positions?” Liz wants to know. Good question. Adrian jokes that Liz could be his policy adviser, and Liz reminds him she brought the DNC in to begin with, used to work in government, and knows how to pronounce Kamala Harris’ name. All fair points. Adrian is definitely the more charismatic of the two (and he’s been on Cable News-- he went viral in the universe of the show AND in the real world for it!) but charisma is the kind of thing that matters far more than it should in politics. 

“Are you saying former prosecutors are unelectable, or just black female former prosecutors?” Liz attacks. IMO Adrian hasn’t really thought about it and is just parroting what the DNC said. And this is why Liz would be better at the job than Adrian, but it will never matter because no one is ever going to ask someone like Liz when they could ask someone like Adrian. Which is, I think, Liz’s point: she’s not jealous so much as she is incredulous at how this opportunity just appeared out of nowhere for Adrian when he has no experience, no policies, and no stances. Liz has all three (maybe not policies, but I bet she knows where she would stand if she needed to make policies) but no one is asking her to run.

“Would it kill them to recruit a woman every once in a while?” Liz wonders after Adrian’s gone. Precisely. I don’t think Liz wants this for herself-- but when she sees it go to Adrian, she sees how it’s not going to any of the other qualified black women who want it more than Adrian. 

Adrian goes to see his client, a swimmer, and says they’re changing strategies because of the politics. This may very well have been his plan for a while, but putting this scene right after the other two definitely makes it feel like Adrian is doing this for his own image.

I feel like most TGF characters are motivated by some combination of power and stability. Diane and Adrian want to have power, so they compromise on their principles to get ahead or make their position as prestigious as possible. Liz (who is actually a bit like her former rival Alicia in this!) compromises on her principles when it means not getting into fights that aren’t worth it or jeopardizing job security; Lucca is usually the same way and doesn’t wade into controversies. I have lots of thoughts on this I will probably come back to as the episode goes on and we see more from Liz.

This is one of the more case heavy TGF episodes, and it’s one of the more interesting, layered cases they’ve done. An aspiring Olympic swimmer has just missed the mark for going to the Olympics. As far as I can tell the underlying issue is that the meet was rescheduled from 2019 (normal timeline) to 2020 to let another swimmer have more time to prepare. I can’t tell if the timing ceases to matter once they switch strategies (right now they’re arguing it’s racial descrimination) or if it’s just forgotten as the episode progresses. Seems to me like that’s where their case is the best-- if they moved the date to advantage one swimmer, for any reason, that’s a pretty bad look.

How is it possible that this dude who played Bree’s sex addict boyfriend on Desperate Housewives and was on The Americans and a few other NYC filmed shows is only just now showing up on TGW/F!?!? 

Memo 618 leads Diane and Julius to compare what they know. Julius explains what spooked him; Diane explains the Visitor. In the middle of all this, Marissa interrupts to share the news of Lucca’s new bag-- heh. 

I assume the middle 3 numbers of Visitor’s phone number are blank because the writers wanted to use the fact they couldn’t print an actual number to add MYSTERY! Citing the bible, Julius decides to call Visitor to get more information.

Marissa brings Liz around to see the Birkin. Something weird about the name partner coming in to admire something one of her employees owns, no? Lucca’s hidden the bag but shows it off. Liz is mesmerized by the bag (my guess is even if she had the money she’d never consider buying one-- she says it’s a good investment but idk how much she means that) and Lucca’s really embarrassed to keep explaining why she spent 20k on a bag.

Marissa wonders if Bianca bought it for Lucca. “Jesus, you are a one woman surveillance state,” Lucca says to Marissa after Marissa confesses she’s looked up the price of the bag. She is a natural investigator, yes.

Lucca explains she bought it with the poker winnings, and Marissa calculates that Lucca must have won a lot if she was willing to spend 20k on something inessential. Marissa starts her guess low-- 200k. She finally gets the number out of Lucca (or at least the range it’s in) and tells Lucca she needs to talk to David Lee about taxes and accounting. 

On the one hand, very glad to see Marissa is knowledgeable about this. On the other hand, Lucca and David Lee are both family law department heads, so the implication that David Lee knows the ins and outs of gambling laws as pertain to St. Lucia while Lucca doesn’t know that winnings are taxable. I’m fine with David Lee being better at this than Lucca-- he’s a slimeball and has more experience-- but Lucca shouldn’t have to be told this. And this is the second time this season we’ve seen something similar happen.

(Another reason I’m fine with David Lee being better at the job than Lucca in general: we have seen time and time again that DLee isn’t just good, he is worth compromising the mission of your firm to have on board. So as great as Lucca is, not sure we’ve seen any evidence she is THAT good at this point in her career!)

The racism angle doesn’t work in court because the opposition brings in the argument Adrian was going to go with originally: the swimmer who beat Adrian’s client’s time is trans. Now if he wants to represent his client, Adrian has to be on record saying someone trans shouldn’t be able to compete as the gender they identify with. 

This is one of the more interesting approaches TGF could’ve taken to deal with trans rights, so it’s also one of the more interesting cases they’ve done in a while. This is one of very very few places where there could be a compelling case to look at sex assigned at birth instead of identity. So the writers focus on that, all the while acknowledging that even raising this question is pretty fraught. 

“Okay. From race to trans. Let’s go,” the judge says as we head into the credits. P sure that is not the right language to use but also VERY certain this judge has not fully wrapped his head around the concept of people being trans yet. 

Awww, using a Fountains of Wayne song over the credits is a really nice Adam Schlesinger tribute.The song doesn’t go super well with the credits but this is such a nice gesture I don’t care. 

Something else I like about this tribute is that it dates this episode. The reference might not be as easy to get in a few years, but since the characters can’t address COVID-19 (since all this was filmed pre-pandemic), this is going to be one of the only in-show ways to contextualize these episodes. (I would not be surprised if there is some sort of reference next week, and I am holding out hope for some sort of animated video or epilogue song (like the end of BrainDead))

This episode was written and directed by women! 

Adrian for some reason demands Liz-- and not any of the other black female lawyers at his firm-- join his case. This makes sense if we assume that the default state of RBL name partners is “doing what they please when they please because actual work is for associates and bigger cases are for STRL”. Otherwise it seems like a huge waste of resources. 

Liz immediately understands the optics are important in the case but also to the DNC. 

Adrian goes to talk to Charlotte about the DNC, and his timing is awkward… she wants to move in with him! (I didn’t realize his secret gf was that serious!) But Adrian is worried that since Charlotte is corrupt, she’ll be an issue for his campaign. Here is a thought: don’t take an opportunity that will invite scrutiny into your life but ultimately not lead to any type of lasting success unless literally all you care about is power? Adrian can say no! Of course, if he doesn’t want to say no… there’s his answer to all the dilemmas.

Charlotte understands this better than Adrian does. He promises her “issues” won’t impact his campaign, but he’s gotta know that’s complete bullshit, right? Her issues would absolutely disqualify him. He swears there will be no impact but… LOL. I don’t think he gets to be the one to swear there will be no impact. 

Lucca and David Lee’s meeting, in which David Lee is the right mix of professional and scheming, reminds me so heavily of the great scenes where he handles Alicia’s inquiries about divorce. David Lee was overused in late season TGW but this is reminiscent of him at his best. I’m glad that TGF is using him appropriately.

Here’s something stupid: Lucca spent $20k of the money BEFORE SHE HAD THE MONEY IN HER POSESSION. David Lee realizes the problem immediately. Lucca, astonishingly, doesn’t. Lucca is not an idiot. 

Adrian successfully gets Liz to join him on the case. Case stuff happens.

Julius and Visitor have lunch. Visitor tries to get Julius to play along. Julius continues to resist, then Diane appears. Visitor isn’t scared and threatens Julius and Diane. How else was this going to go? 

Marissa and Jay tail Visitor (this is slightly less ridiculous than the 5x10 Kalinda car chase, but only slightly) and lose him… but find Rachel Dratch, who was also trailing Visitor! Interesting.

Adrian asks Landau about his relationship with Charlotte, without any specifics. Landau gives the obvious response: “Get rid of her. Do it now.” Adrian is like, why? And Landau says “You said there was corruption there.” Yes. This is pretty damn obvious. Also this ends one of two ways: Adrian dumps her and the DNC thing proceeds, or he doesn’t dump her and then the DNC dumps him the second they do some investigative research. 

Alicia is in Lucca’s phone contacts!!!!!! (Maia’s ex, Amy, and Barbara Kolstad are too BUT LET ME HAVE THIS AND PRETEND IT’S SPECIAL.). 

Bianca calls, or maybe Lucca calls (this makes no sense because Lucca says hello first and it says incoming call from Bianca, but we see Lucca scroll through her contacts and Bianca asks what’s up). Bianca wants to do a celebration dinner, on Lucca. Lucca, knowing the power differential, can’t say no. 

Case stuff happens! Liz hates being on the wrong side and refuses to do a redirect!

Ugh the judge misgenders the swimmer. Ugh. 

A bunch of associates present Adrian and Liz with a petition to drop the case because they are on the wrong side. Good for them! 

Adrian says they’re not being hateful, it’s just a strategy. Sure. A strategy that, if successful, will set dangerous precedents. 

Adrian explains he’s actually just defending their client. As always, I don’t find this excuse satisfactory. Do you really need the business of this one swimmer? Is it worth being the one to essentially fight against trans rights? I feel like the answer to that is pretty clear. 

This case may be one of the more interesting ways to discuss if/when sex assigned at birth matters, but when it comes to whether or not Adrian/Liz have to be the ones fighting to count a trans woman as a man… that answer is way, way more clear cut. They absolutely do not need to take part in this. 

I appreciate that Liz is unhappy with this strategy and wants no part of it and admits that the associates/assistants are right. Liz also understands that this is generational and Adrian is like “Liz, I’ve won awards from covering every one of the letters LGBT” in his condescending tone. Liz, correctly, calls him out on basically trotting out the equivalent of “I have a black friend”.

Liz suggests reframing the case and leaving out the “anti-trans tone”. Adrian says “Not if we lose, Liz. Now this is not about politics. This is about rules. Are the Olympic rules fair, or are they not? That’s all.” Man, his tone is so insufferable sometimes. He always seems like he’s belittling whoever he’s talking to. He is also completely wrong here. And, as Liz points out, that’s never all.

Lucca and Bianca have dinner and Lucca still says nothing and still gets stuck with the $3,000 bill. I feel like the firm could probably pay for that as client maintenance? 

Charlotte lists out all the things she’s received as payouts. Some are small-- tickets to the bulls after an endorsement, a friends and family discount at Neiman Marcus after a zoning issue (seems pretty illegal), a speaking engagement for a judge after a favorable ruling… got a Mercedes with no money down… and she fucking bought shares in a tech stock before the IPO was announced. Well those last two seem like trouble. Any of these are potential problems, something involving stock and tech and IPOs? ANYTHING involving her getting nice things like Neiman Marcus discounts and a Mercedes? Those may be smaller scale but people would LOVE to hate on that. So she’s corrupt as fuck. No way out of this. OH ALSO SHE WAS TIPPED OFF ON WHEN TO SELL THE STOCK. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. And this is just what she admits to Adrian.

I wonder if this would trouble Adrian if he weren’t in the running for the presidency.

Adrian asks about 618. Charlotte says it won’t be a problem “because it’s the solution”. ?????? 

I have never understood this relationship and I continue to not understand this relationship.

Case stuff happens.

I’m not sure how Liz’s new strategy is any less anti-trans. She isn’t either, so she gives up mid sentence and sits down, telling Adrian “You want this, you do it.” That’s kind of like taking a stand? I know Liz isn’t going to rock the boat that much, not in the middle of court, but like, how much does standing up for what you believe in matter if all you’re doing is saying you won’t personally do something without fighting further? Liz gets as much of a say here as Adrian and the third person who would get a say is Diane (well, and STRL but shhh) and Diane would 100% take Liz’s side. So how much credit can I really give Liz? 

Does anyone really think someone would just decide to be trans to get a competitive advantage?!?!?! Jesus. That’s wild. 

Diane goes to talk to Rachel Dratch (Linda, here). Even though Jay and Marissa found Linda’s address they didn’t bother to look at her occupation?? She’s a court stenographer and she recognizes Diane.

She knows all about Memo 618 and shares her knowledge with Diane. 

Who is behind it? The Office of Legal Counsel.

How does she know this? Well, there’s a handy TGF short (YAY!!!!!!) to explain.

I love the little joke about how they won’t ever mention censorship in China in the song. Haaaaah.

The Secret Law in the song is so friggin’ cute. I love it. 

The explainer songs that explain largely unfamiliar, complicated topics are the best. And it’s perfect to deploy one here, since this is one of the most crucial concepts of the season and something that most viewers are going to WANT an explanation of. Like, I don’t need an explanation of Downton Abbey or whatever some of the lesser songs of last year were-- but I do want answers about Memo 618.

Is there a good article about some of the real cases of this happening? I assume in most cases Memo 618 is just a stand-in for whatever legal-sounding bullshit was in real memos that secretly shaped the US, but I’d be curious to read more about how this works. 

Linda gives Diane a few examples, like one about FDR and the Japanese internment camps (I did find an article from The Atlantic about an OLC memo from the same time, but not sure if it’s the one being referenced.) I am just going to assume that “M. 618” close up they show is faked. As I said, Memo 618 is more about putting a name to the idea that powerful people can author documents that shape the world but go unquestioned. I don’t think the point is that it was literally this same memo… just the same sort of bullshit.

The “Torture Memos” are another example. I appreciate the show telling me where to look for more information. There’s a ton of info around this.

I don’t believe this lip reader stuff but also don’t care.

And finally this circles back to the claim in 2019 that a president can’t be indicted. Is it a law? Nope, a memo from 1973. This is real and fascinating. 

I think the show’s approach is REALLY working here. It trusts that I can separate fiction (the lip reading, Memo 618) from fact (the spirit of Memo 618, what it means to have an entity that can make its own rules without oversight) and gives me the reference points I need if I want to dig further. It’s a satisfying way to pay off their mystery, and very much in keeping with the spirit of the show.

Linda basically explains Memo 618 as a placeholder for a law. Justify now, create the law later. Yikes.

Case stuff happens! There is a very odd last minute twist here in which the RBL client loses (yay!) but then another teammate is intersex so they try to disqualify her instead??? Wtf? Did we need this?

David Lee has sushi with Bianca and pushes Bianca to get Lucca her money. Bianca had no idea her friends never paid up (did Bianca not pay her share?) and Bianca, who CAN hassle her friends about this, gets on the phone immediately. There’s a funny montage of David Lee being confused by sushi while Bianca gets Lucca her money. 

Bianca asks Lucca why she didn’t tell her she hadn’t been paid! I’m glad to see Bianca cares, but I totally get Lucca’s hesitation. She explains she’s uncomfortable talking about her own money because it feels wrong. Huh, wasn’t she literally always talking about money on TGW? 

Lucca says she’s not sure she can get over this and be friends with Bianca. Because it’s not just money to people who don’t have it. I fully understand this discomfort. I haven’t ever befriended a billionaire, but I get it. I do want Lucca to have a friend though! I think if they’re just candid about this and don’t always do expensive things (and they sever the fact that Lucca is an employee…) they could still be friends! 

OOOH this Piper Vega looks familiar bc her sister is Alexandra Daddario. They have the same eyes.

The RBL client gets to go to the Olympics. Yay? Why did we get this instead of follow-up on the associates’ petition.

Lucca thanks David Lee and he reminds her that he gets money for managing her money. Fair point. But I think he’s got more of a soft spot for her than he cares to admit. Is managing a million and a half really going to help him that much? I imagine he deals with far bigger fortunes on a daily basis. 

Adrian says he took care of his issue, which hopefully means he broke up with Charlotte? He’s all in on the DNC.

Like, I want Adrian to be happy but Charlotte has seemed like a corrupt sexy plot device in every episode??? She makes me actively uncomfortable bc she comes across as a sex object AND ALSO a bad person?? So if they break up… good? 

Lucca arrives home to find a gift on her bed… lots of money. Is this how this arc ends or is there more (/was there going to be more without a pandemic?)

I do NOT like the zoomed out shot of Lucca that ends the episode. She is in such an awkward position on the bed???? It looks like a crime scene??? 

Season finale is up next. I’m sure it’s gonna be weird. And what a title it has.

[lieutenantcupcake]

I never did my usual survey thing at the beginning of 2020 so I’ll never know how 2019 was. Whoops. I guess here’s the one for the last year, for posterity.

1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before? Earned a graduate degree. Experience a pandemic.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I have no idea. I don’t think I made any. This year I wanna be more creative, but only in ways that will make me happy.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Jonathan and his wife had a bb.

4. Did anyone close to you die? No.

5. What countries did you visit? lol

6. What would you like to have in 2021 that you lacked in 2020? I’d like my confidence back. I don’t think I had realized that I’d gained some in my first two years of grad school until my new advisor kinda made me lose it all.

7. What date from 2020 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? March 131st. j/k Time wasn’t real so idk maybe Halloween when Sarah, Elizabeth, and I had a tea party in a historic cemetery and then watched RHPS on Sarah’s porch and ate Pho.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? MFA, I guess. Though it felt/feels fake because graduation and celebrations didn’t happen.

9. What was your biggest failure? Letting shit get to me. To be fair tho, not letting shit affect me probably would have been unhealthy. Basically my thesis was fucking depressing as shit and not fun and I’m really glad I got to wing the last few months of grad school because of the pandemic (but I’d would rather have had a completely shitty time the whole time without the pandemic).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A new computer.

14. Where did most of your money go? Rent. Fuck landlords.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? When it looked like Bernie was going to do well in the primaries before the DNC fucked everything up for him. Again. Getting into a relationship?????

16. What song will always remind you of 2020? Idk probably something from Punisher.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

17. Thinner or fatter? Fatter?

18. Richer or poorer? Poorer

19. What do you wish you’d done more of? Telling people to fuck off.

20. What do you wish you’d done less of? Overthinking

21. How will you be spending Christmas? I got to be at my parent’s house after quarantining for over two weeks, so that was nice.

22. Did you fall in love in 2020? Too soon to say, but it’s something.

23.  What was your best costume of the year? Probably Nadja from What We Do in the Shadows. I also liked my mostly closet Harley Quinn costume.

24. What was your favorite TV program? DS9! I watched all of it over the end of 2019/beginning of 2020, and tried to watch all Star Trek, which was really fun.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Probably some politicians. I definitely dislike a lot of people I didn’t before.

26. What was the best book you read? I read like 2/3rds of one book this year lol.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? I guess Phoebe Bridgers? Or was it discovering that I actually liked Taylor Swift with Folklore?

28. What did you want and get? A cute boy who likes me?

29. What did you want and not get? To actually see that cute boy irl. I guess technically we saw each other like Jan 2nd or 3rd last year, but that barely counts.

30. What was your favorite film of this year? I really enjoyed Birds of Prey. I’m bad at watching movies on my own. Oh wait, I def saw Parasite last Feb, so I’m changing my answer to that.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 33. Heather, Kenny, and I had drinks and ordered appetizer combos from BDubs and Applebapple. For a quarantine birthday, it was pretty good.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not having a global pandemic? The DNC not fucking Bernie? But besides that, my thesis not being a clusterfuck.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2020? Goth athletic wear. Not enough tracksuits for health goth tho.

34. What kept you sane? Heather. Playing 430 hours of Destiny 2.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Went on another Hugh Dancy kick, but that’s about it.

36. What political issue stirred you the most? I worked for the Bernie data entry team which was really fun and did some text banking too. After he suspended his campaign I kinda gave up on politics, but still went to every BLM protest/march in Athens.

37. Who did you miss? Literally everyone I know. Especially Bianca.

38. Who was the best new person you met? Didn’t do a lot of meeting people this year. I enjoyed the brief period of time before my internship shut down with my supervisor. I ran an errand with him at one point and his car started playing a podcast he was listening to previously and it was William and Alaska from Drag Race and I was like 👀

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I've been running around in circles Pretending to be myself Why would somebody do this on purpose When they could do something else? Drowning out the morning birds With the same three songs over and over I wish I wrote it, but I didn't so I learn the words Hum along 'til the feeling's gone forever

[misplacedangeleno]

Degrassi Next Class Season 4 Reaction Post

Hi guys. I know I’ve been absent, but I really needed to come out of “hiatus” to share my feelings about DNC Season 4. I’m coming up on 30 at the end of the month and this season moved me more than any fiction has in the past couple years. So perhaps it’s fitting to write a sort of farewell to characters who’ve been with me since my mid-twenties. I know we all have a tendency to sort of insert ourselves into fiction, but this...was something else. Cheesy? Maybe.

 Saad // Belgium storyline

===================

I mean honestly the fact that a show, especially a show for teens, is using the words: Syria, Istanbul, ISIS, refugee, at all is mind blowing to me. And unlike most television willing to broach the issue, DNC is actually humanizing its characters who have been touched by war. I feel like far too often, we’d rather just pretend everything is fine and half of an entire country’s population hasn’t been displaced. Half a million people haven’t been killed. I’ll be the first to admit I often do.

As some of you may know, I live in Istanbul and up until very recently, was working as a journalist. A majority of our energy was spent focusing on the Syrian refugee crisis and the country’s civil war. We live at the border of the war and yes, we take in more Syrian refugees than any other country in the world, but many are shoved into camps in the middle of nowhere or living in big cities, begging on the streets. There’s no infrastructure to handle them and most can’t move westward. Add to that the low-key security issues in the country (About 20 significant terror attacks in two years + an attempted coup. Hey-o!)

But even at our news station, when a terror attack hit Europe, versus somewhere in the Middle East, Africa, or even Turkey, we’d spend days dissecting it. But then, then, we’d run packages similar to Saad’s speech posing the question, Why doesn’t anyone care when it happens to brown people? Do people just expect brown people will be blown up? I agree with the sentiment, but when we, as the “brown” media perpetuate it? Internalised hate turned into greed.

We can’t normalise death, but I don’t think more Facebook flag filters are the answer, because there could never be enough to encompass the death and destruction occurring every day. The “Western” lack of interest in death in the Middle East does nothing but perpetuate the cycle of terror. I’ve seen Anti-Western sentiment grow after every terror attack in this country and I believe part of it can be attributed to the blase attitude shown by “Western” media toward “brown” death.

What does this have to do with Degrassi? I think they’ve done a pretty remarkable job tempering reality with what Canada [and the pre-Trump US] looks like on the surface. Canada is at an interesting crossroads in that it has one of the best policies for refugees in the world, but it’s far from perfect (not that anything can be). And there are Lolas and there are people like the asshat who ripped off Goldi’s hijab.  Teenagers People have never been kind so it’s no surprise that people were suspicious of Saad. It was disturbing and heartbreaking, but never surprising, to watch his story. Also not surprising: Goldi’s foray into respectability politics.

Being welcomed into a “free society” is more than being given a chance to live. Yes, newcomers are given the freedom to worship as they chose (or not). And I am in no way undervaluing that. It’s a fundamental human right. People need to be welcomed, folded into the fabric, not made to feel like they must be grateful, or always apologizing for people who don’t speak for them. Or you know, in the case of Goldi, reminding people that they’re Canadian by birth.

Goldi // Winston

===============

The Muslim voices on DNC are strong, clear, and super diverse- just like- wait for it- people in real life.

I especially love Goldi’s relationship with Winston and how she tries to reconcile her personal morals to her feelings, desires, and the world around her. I was pleased with the show for never judging her or making her decisions “wrong.” We could see how big her decision to hold Winston’s hand was and it wasn’t played for laughs. Likewise, he didn’t push her, was always respectful of the boundaries of their friendship/flirtation. Checking that the dessert was halal, that it was OK for them to be alone together, etc. Of course, he blundered: Maybe you should just take it off. That felt as realistic as the sweetness, as did the fact that he did physically fight the guy. Goldi’s guilt about the whole thing felt spot on. Her father’s reaction felt right for the moment and character DNC created.

Bisexual !!!11!!!

==============

*I’m totally down with people who don’t label themselves. This is about a general TV problem and more so, this specific character*

How is it that after 30 years on this planet...every time I hear a character on television say the words I am bisexual, I still feel like something has opened up inside and I can finally exhale?

I do have to laugh, though, having read that post going around about imagining the classroom diversity exercise through a third party’s perspective. On one hand, I completely agree. On another, the attitude is part of why Miles has struggled. He can’t- and should never- deny the amazing privilege he has in his life. But he is bisexual, dammit, and we are real, and we are discriminated against, and we deserve validation, and acknowledgment of the fact that it puts us at high risk, even if we’re rich, white, Canadian men. // rant over.

Miles’s rejection to the “diversity” spot was a great segue into a total acceptance of himself. Aside from one throwaway line to Maya in season 14, we’ve never seen any outward acknowledgement that he has any issues with his sexuality. But he’s never put a label on it, nor has he referenced acting on it, or being aware of it, before Tristan. He was instantly cool with Tristan being gay and didn’t seem to mind helping Zoë figure herself out. But sometimes when we label something, it becomes real. It feels like no take-backs.

Miles finally admitting that he did, in fact, struggle with his identity, and wasn’t just someone “not into labels,” made me want to cry. This acknowledgement rounds out his entire story arc in a way leaving him as someone who loves the person, not the gender wouldn’t. IMHO. It seems to confirm a lot of head canon. And it seems like something that had been planned, rather than just fanservice. But what do I know?

=============================

So. I’ll miss these characters.

That’s it. I think. <3

P.S.

Hijab moments: There are now just random extras in hijab (though why it took Syrian refugees for this to happen, idk). Also Goldi wrapping a loose scarf around her head to Facetime Winston.

Such a random and small thing, but there was a scene where Saad was chopping up cucumber and tomatoes and it was such an amazing touch. Small, but so, so, accurate. Kudos. Season was filled with them. Another was Rasha commenting about the horror of her ex not removing her shoes upon entering the house!

Connecting Lola’s parents fleeing Argentina to Saad fleeing Syria? Brava!

For all that Ms. Grell is up in everyone’s business and noticing that Yael is binding their breasts, you’d think she’d be checking in with Saad and the other refugees, though? I mean they’re all so worried about him being radicalized and a terrorist and yet aren’t doing mental health check-ins. Ridiculous.

Yay! A genderqueer/fluid character!

I don’t think Hunter has an obligation to stay with Yael. He likes girls. They’re not a girl. Hunter does, however, have an obligation not to be an asshole.

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

Prast I feel like shit the with the entire refugee thing going on and all the comparison to Hitler. I'm Jewish yet as soon as I saw just how much Zionism played to my sec of it (my rabbi has had a bunch of dumb sermons jerking of about how great Israel is and how we need to SUPPORT IT NOW) I've just felt...apathetic about whats going on. Like wow Trump didn't reference Jews in the holocaust speech but is gonna move the embassy he hates jews SOO much. And now with the bans, like fuck man

man i wrote a fat 1 hour long response to this but i lost it all right as i was about to post it

fuuuuck

yeah i feel you on the apathy thing

The outrage over the holocaust speech is manufactured. While theres alot to be outraged about, expect outrage over trump for even so much as a sneeze in the wrong direction.

i mean, im not apathetic entirely, but im like GEE, WELL, WHO WOULDA THUNK THAT THIS COULD HAPPENNNnnnNnnNnN in a fairly sardonic manner after bush-era executive powers were expanded if not preserved by OBama - and no one cared to say or do anytrhing about it besides anarchists and libertarians becuase they could trust a smiling democrat to have all that power and not abuse it. Even if he expanded NSA spying and made his nobel peace prize award into a farce by instigating wars, fueling the rise of ISIS and bombing the shit out of foreign countries and killing yemeni civilians at weddings..

And then a democrat majority senate lowered the bar for legislation to go through, creating a virtual slip-n-slide for republicans to leisurely get all their shit through, because fuck having foresight or caution.

A little over three years ago, Senator Mitch McConnell stood on the Senate floor and issued a warning to the Democrats who then controlled the majority.

“I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, you’ll regret this,” McConnell, then the minority leader, told them. “And you may regret it a lot sooner than you think.”

At the urging of Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrats had just voted along strict party lines to change the rules of the Senate, deploying what had become known in Washington as “the nuclear option.” McConnell and his Republican colleagues were furious. Under the new rules, presidential nominees for all executive-branch position—including the Cabinet—and judicial vacancies below the Supreme Court could advance with a simple majority of 51 votes. The rules for legislation were untouched, but the 60-vote threshold for overcoming a filibuster on nearly all nominations was dead.

As Donald Trump prepares to assume the presidency this afternoon flanked by Republican majorities in Congress, McConnell’s warning is looking more and more prescient. Trump may win Senate confirmation of his entire Cabinet, and while Democrats will oppose many of his nominees, it was their vote in November 2013 that helped pave the way for their success.

Democrats: “I wish congress and the senate wasn’t so slow and full of checks and balances that hold up new legislation”

*Monkey Paw Finger Retracts*

and the cherry on top of that was hillary clinton, a nominee no one wanted, made backroom deals to ensure she was the Democrat pick for Presidency in 2016, such as installing her 2008 campaign co-chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz as the new DNC chairwoman in 2011 in exchange for the previous chairperson, Tim Kaine to step down and be given the privilege of being her Vice President select. If you were confused why Kaine was chosen for that, there you go.

and that doesnt go into how Clinton was so smug and sure of her landslide victory, that she didnt bother campaigning at ALL at the level Sanders or Trump did. Hell, she didn’t even visit Wisconsin and that Blue state swung red for Trump last November along with many other economically depressed rust belt states desperate for someone to care about them.

And the DNC strategized using their media connections to lift up “pied piper” outsiders like donald trump to help destablize and undermine standard republican shoe-ins like Jeb Bush. Look how that went. And with a little help from wikileaks, all of this backfired into the current situation we have today.

And poor bernie. Those historic protest marches since Trump’s inauguration wouldve been greeaaattttt after bernie got fucked out of the nomination. Hell, it wouldve been great in 2012 when Ron Paul was fucked out of the GOP nomination, but no one cares about lolbertarians. However, they have the last laugh, their outrage over the corrupt RNC proceedings of Romney’s nomination transformed their “fuck it all, burn the whole system down” into unabashed support for authoritarians like Donald Trump, simply for the gratification of seeing the establishment Republicans panic and lose grasp of their own party.

But i feel my attitude over it all is really insufferable. Because i feel often my ranting into the ether pains my followers, when yea, no amount of shitposting would have changed much. Most people are actually pretty powerless, certainly those who read my shit or feel anxious, shocked and terrified.

But to that, i try to lay blame on liberal or corporate media for glossing over and ignoring the ills of Obama’s administration and helping create this delusion of the left being on the “right side of history” with smug liberal broadcasting like John Oliver’s “cmon, its 2015″ rhetoric. And yet, in 2017, it seems it’s actually the right wing who are indeed on the right side of history. And that’s why 2016 was the “WORST YEAR EVERRR” becuase peoples media fed delusions of eternal progressive destiny became so far removed from the reality on the ground that people’s collective bubbles of ignorance popped.

Not because they are dumb, but because they trusted media that regular omits shit that doesnt fit the media’s desired narrative

otehrwise, wihtout all that, most people couldve seen the writing on the wall and probably couldve organized and done something about it.

No amount of my posting of the left or really most people losing touch with the real narrative could have prevented that.

or something

idk

i wrote a better thing and this is thje best i can recollect of that.

now im at least a little positive because people, most people, are FINALLY engaged with the world around them and i wait to see what happens now.