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burlybanner · 5 years ago

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Record (ScienceBrosWeek2019)

Summary: What’s it all about, Brucie? Disclaimer: This is different from my usual style and I’m not sure where this story is going. So I’m not sure when I’ll continue. But keep me honest; it’ll happen eventually.

Disclaimer forever: The longest chapter yet of the fic with no name. I’m only a few days behind, right? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unbeta’d.

Previously: Dust(1), Drip(2), Bitter(3), Merge(4), Pressure(5) ** Bruce had to promise himself, tell himself really, that the meeting wasn’t any different from other meetings with department heads or board members of SI. He’d been to those meetings. He didn’t like them, but he weathered through them.

Of course, none of those meetings included people staring him down with sidearms, either.

He didn’t feel that many in the room trusted him and he did not blame them. This was more for their benefit than his, anyway.

“Okay,” he’d told Tony before the meeting. Tony had time enough to trim his beard after his shower, and Bruce used the mirror to glare at him.

Tony briefly glanced at him before continuing to manscape his goatee. “Okay...what?”

“Do I have to spell it out--? I’m in, for whatever that means. I’m in.”

“Because...?”

Bruce scowled at him. “Fuck you, you manipulative bastard. Do I have to give a reason, or are you forcing that issue, too?”

“No. I’m not. It’s...” Tony turned off the trimmer with a sigh and wiped his hands down his beard, smoothing off the stray hairs. He flipped around and briefly fingered Bruce’s lapels. “I know I was manipulative. I get how mad you are. But I can’t bring you in if you’re not committed. They’d know. And not all of them are as easy going as Rhodey, or me. You need to know that; their identities are sacrosanct.”

Bruce nodded and sighed as he normally did when presented with the puzzles Tony Stark often gave him. But deep inside he already knew. He was committed because...

Well. He was fucked up beyond recognition, for one. And he was totally in love with Rhodey and Tony and didn’t want to lose them.

And maybe, just maybe, a smaller part of him knew about this? And didn’t care?

Maybe he’d been a supervillain all along.

“So they’ll shoot me first, ask questions later?”

The soulful look he received from Tony was worse than a verbal answer.

But sitting in their main conference room, Bruce felt in danger for the first time since arriving. He briefly caught codenames while they talked among themselves, effectively ignoring him. The one named ‘Bucky’ didn’t smile, and his hand easily rested on his thigh as if ready to shoot Bruce on command. The women didn’t seem much better; “Black Widow” and “Scarlet Witch” weren’t too happy with him. At least the other one, Captain Marvel (what kind of codename was that?) gave him a wry smile every few minutes. Some small comfort, he supposed.

He almost laughed out loud. The meeting hadn’t even started and he was already everyone’s target.

“Relax,” Tony murmured. He jumped when he felt Tony’s hand cup his thigh, but the squeeze helped ground him, once he got used to it. “Just listen. And yeah, don’t make too many sudden moves.”

Bruce shifted so he could glare at Tony. “That’s not funny.”

“Who said I was joking?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes, slipping into the chair at Bruce’s right. “Tony. Stop.”

“I mean, seriously? Can you honestly trust Manchurian Candidate over there?”

Before Bruce could ask about Tony’s nickname for Bucky, the most suave and imposing man Bruce’d ever seen glided into the room and loudly tossed a thick folder of papers on the conference table. “Gentlemen. Ladies. And...guest.” He grinned at Bruce, but Bruce found no comfort in his crocodile smile. It may have been the eye patch that made him most uncomfortable, but it could’ve been his threatening demeanor, too.

“For those of you who are not familiar,” and Bruce didn’t even need to look, to know who he meant, “I am Colonel Nicholas J. Fury, head of this little ragtag outfit known as SHIELD. So. Do I have everyone’s attention?”

Everyone, even Tony, sat a little straighter in their seats. “Good,” Fury said. “Then let me also remind everyone that this soiree is not to be recorded in any way, shape, or form per usual protocol. Please power down all recording devices at my mark...now.”

A few touched their jaws and wrists in a similar pattern he’d seen with Tony before. “All clear?”

Fury glanced at Tony, who gave a curt nod.

“All righty, then.” Fury suddenly looked at Bruce with his one good eye and Bruce squirmed, feeling that this moment was payback from the days he observed eukaryotes under a microscope. “Tony Stark has kindly brought one of his best science buds to grace us with his presence. Dr. Robert Banner--”

“Bruce,” Bruce immediately corrected. It was automatic on his tongue. He corrected anyone and everyone who called him by his given name, but this was the first time in living memory he remembered wincing after correcting someone. “I...sorry. I ah. I go by Bruce.”

“Ahhhh, well, forgive me. I stand corrected.” Some of the group chuckled, others gave Bruce a stern glare as if to explain, very clearly, that he was on thin ice. “Dr. Bruce Banner. Renowned medical doctor and nuclear physicist - or did I mess that up, too?”

Bruce cleared his throat and quickly shook his head. “That’s. Yes, sir. That is correct.”

“Perfect. Hate to think Stark kidnapped the wrong nuclear scientist.”

No one laughed, but some smirked. Bruce bristled at the idea of coming against his will, but he wouldn’t correct Fury again. Rhodey shot Bruce an apologetic smile, though, and he softly searched for Bruce’s hand beneath the table. Rhodey gave his hand a quick brush before his concentration returned to the group.

“With all of the introductions over and done, let’s get Dr. Banner here up to speed.” Fury sat at the head of the table and propped up his feet before giving the room a death glare. “Well, go ahead. Don’t all jump in at once.”

Clint, who was on Rhodey’s right, cleared his throat. He hunched forward, weaving his hands together in a casual, honest manner that Bruce appreciated. “Think of us as...equalizers, per se.”

“Good,” Fury encouraged. He waved his hand. “Pray, continue, Hawkeye. I like how this is goin’.”

Bruce kept a neutral expression, but his mind tripped over Clint’s code name. Maybe this was why he was lookout - because of his good eyes?

“So,” Clint sighed. “You’ve been around, Bruce. You’ve seen the news, even been in it sometimes. You know how the world works.”

Bruce shrugged. “I suppose.”

“A little more than the average Joe, I bet.” Clint traded glances with Tony, and Bruce wondered how much information Tony’d supplied, regarding his background. “And you’re...if I can be a little bold here. Do you subscribe to any particular political party?”

Bruce narrowed his eyes. This question got him in trouble at gatherings, all the time. “Democratic Socialist,” he said, a little unkindly. “Why?”

“Well,” Clint continued in his smooth baritone. “Do you think the US as you know it aligns with your values right now?”

“No. Of course not. But,” Bruce said, holding out for the argument. “That’s what elections are for. That’s what voicing your opinion is for. That’s what protests are for,” he said, a little louder because he heard a few groans around the table. “What? And ruling by force is better?” He was ready for them. Expected this argument really, wanted it all on the table. “Forcing people to choose is no better than dictatorship.”

“Bruce, I love your optimism, I really do. But,” Clint said, regarding everyone in range. “We’ve all seen it, all been through it. There is no way any government will treat its citizens as people, when money’s on the line. Whether you’re socialist or hardcore communist or a US Republican, everything comes down to the almighty dollar.

“Level with me,” Clint said, shifting so he could get a better look at Bruce. “When’s the last time you saw any organized group succeed without a monetary exchange? If money’s involved, someone’s in charge, whether you like it or not. And if someone’s on top, someone else isn’t, because whoever holds the purse strings rules the world. It’s that simple.”

“Is it? Nothing’s simple, Clint.”

“Dunno,” Clint said, falling back into his chair. “Prove me wrong.”

Bruce snorted. “Fine. The Jonbeel Mela in India, the Yanomami and Awa tribes in the Amazon, the Kula ring in Papau New Guinea--”

“But do those tribes control their respective nations?”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Bruce growled, pointing a finger at Clint. “You asked, and I gave a valid response. Prove me wrong.”

Fury threw back his head, laughing and clapping his hands with glee. “Love it. Love it.” He gestured to Tony and Rhodey. “Y’all picked a good one.”

“Besides,” Bruce said, ignoring Fury’s interruption. “ ‘Money’ to certain groups can be a barter system. Some have it, some don’t, but they barter for whatever else they need. They don’t care as long as their needs and their family’s needs are met.”

“Now, ain’t that the truth,” Fury snorted. He smiled a little and let his boots hit the floor. “So if everyone’s needs are met, and money is no longer on the table, do you think that’ll solve all the issues of mankind?”

“That’s...such a puerile question,” Bruce said, knowing how brave - and stupid - it was of him to say it to Fury’s face. “There are no easy answers. That’s why we have different rules of governments and systems. It’s why we govern differently.”

“Who decides, then?” Widow had entered the fray, now. Her accent reminded Bruce of Romanian winters. “Who gets to choose which governments thrive, and which don’t?”

“The people.”

“Ah, I see.” She muttered in Russian, under her breath. “You think the people can control nations effectively? The armies do. And armies are controlled by people with money!”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying every system governs well. But there is a type of barter. Protection, goods, and services in exchange for paying taxes.”

“And every red-blooded patriot gets equal protection, huh?” Fury’s smile turned a little cold. “We could go down this turn every minute of every day and don’t get me wrong, I love me some good ol’ fashioned politics like Mom used to make. But,” Fury held up a hand. “I’m sure you suspect that every altruistic organization, no matter how good intentioned, eventually becomes as corrupt as the next, a slave to the system it created. Someone has to lose, for someone else to win.”

Bruce had it with the argument and the double-speak, and frankly he was upset neither Rhodey nor Tony chimed in on his behalf. “So what? The answer is to execute the rich? Liberate the poor? Liberate them to...what, exactly? A life of looking over their shoulder, waiting for a bomb to obliterate their homelands? To starve? To have their children thrown into prisons and everyone to die from diseases that should’ve been cured fucking centuries ago?” His heart pounded in his throat. He glared at everyone, including Tony and Rhodey, feeling froth pooling at the corners of his lips. “How? How the fuck will you change it?”

“By creating an opportunity for it in the first place.”

Bruce’s rage subsided at the new voice in the corner. The blonde haired man with a look of quiet resolve nodded at Bruce. “I agree with you, Doctor Banner. We live in a world of assholes and cowards, and no one has the right to tell anyone how to live their lives. But.” The man leaned forward, cupping his hands as if in prayer. “What if you had the means to make sure everyone started on equal footing, and you had the means to keep that equal footing in play, for at least a decade? That everyone on earth - man, woman and child - had access to enough money to take care of themselves and their family, for a full decade? If you could triple their current salary? How they used the money would be up to them, for good and ill, and the money wouldn’t be unlimited. Just enough for a decade. But within that decade they’d be free to live in freedom, however they chose.”

“That...” Bruce rolled his lips. “That would help, I’m sure. But how many countries would destabilize? How would people eat? Get medical care? Hell, how many people would run themselves into the ground -”

“But how many would be elevated?”

Bruce shook his head. “There are too many factors. You can’t guarantee happiness. You can’t guarantee anything. I mean, wouldn’t crime go up? Would people try to get away with murder?”

“They do that now, Bruce,” Rhodey said quietly. He slowly rubbed Bruce’s knuckles, calming him. “Tony’s brilliant, you know? What we’ve discussed is creating something small enough to be life changing for a lot of people while balancing the status quo. We’re also gonna play peacekeeper, to make sure the assets don’t end up in the wrong hands.”

Swallowing, Bruce looked at all of them around the table. “In theory,” he murmured quietly. “Theoretically. But you’d have to control...well. Everything.”

“Exactly.” Tony was talking to him, his manic grin returning; the horrible Joker’s smile, a rictus grin. “Remember my AI, JARVIS?” Bruce nodded. “Well. The dirty bastard’s currently co-mingling with every satellite, bank, internet computer system, electronic device with smart technology, every downloadable app on the planet--you name it. Do you know,” Tony said, smirking, “how hackable every military on earth is? How very unprotected drones and vehicles and ships and launch codes are--? ‘Cause I do.”

“Jesus...”

“Everything is a-go. The people in this room, at this base, are the only people who’ll know. Once the message goes forth across the planet we’ll take care of the rest. Rogers’ group--” and Tony pointed to the man who’d spoken earlier “--will coordinate the North, Central and South American underground networks. T’Challa here will work the African continent and make sure our militias there are the only ones with ammunition. In fact, some weapons manufacturers are gonna be mighty low on funds and/or electricity for a long, long time.”

“You...you can’t control everything?” Bruce offered weakly. He felt tired. “What...about hospitals? People who depend on daily things that can’t be interrupted--”

“No problem. We thought of everything.”

Tony laid out SHIELD’s grand master plan to save the world, dizzying Bruce with its intricacies and implications. Bruce gathered they planned to implement a Robin Hood principle of rich-to-poor, but on a global scale. The insanely rich would become moderately rich or barely rich, while their funds raced across continents to poor countries around the world. And then SHIELD’s little militia ground troops would be dispatched across the planet, to make sure everyone did their part to maintain their new order. The rich would find their credit...obliterated. The poor would suddenly have their bills paid, with enough continual income to either work - or not - for ten years. Bullets would be in short supply, as every automatic weapon manufacturer would find their factories suddenly without power. And no matter how often stores tried raising prices to make more money off demand, prices would remain within measured limits.

People would still need goods and services, of course, but SHIELD had plants in every industry around the world, ready to tackle distribution. Effectively, they would be in control of all resources - shipping, aeronautics, buses, trains, automobiles, power grids, infrastructure, water, food, corporations, commerce, economics...every goddamn thing on the godforsaken planet. They held the purse strings of the world.

“I ah.” Bruce stood shakily. “I need...I need air.”

Tony shared a look with Rhodey, and they stood up with Bruce. “Meeting adjourned?” Tony asked.

Fury nodded. “If everything’s in place, I can’t see what else needs doing. JARVIS is your project, Stark; I say we let our ground troops know and kick it off at 0900 our time tomorrow. Deal?”

Everyone in the room nodded.

Bruce barely heard the scraping of chairs across the concrete floors or the murmured voices filing out. He felt, rather than saw, Tony and Rhodey come alongside him, grabbing his arms before he fell. His eidetic memory, the curse and comfort of his existence, had recorded all of their words, committed them to memory. And the onslaught of harrowing data and its implications overwhelmed his senses.

Knowing this, Rhodey and Tony helped him back to Tony’s room. He nodded when they silently asked if they could take off his suit and tuck him into bed. Then they took off their own clothes and cuddled him in the soft sheets and Bruce slowly shut his eyes, not sure if he was falling into a nightmare, or into heaven’s eternal rest.

#sciencebrosweek2019 #record #the longest yet #maybe I'll come up with a title after the last installment #at least an ending is in sight maybe #sciencebrosweek #@sciencebrosweek #tony stark #bruce banner #james rhodes #again the fic with no name #and now the end is near and #so I face the final curtain

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florrickandassociates · 7 years ago

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TGF Thoughts: 2x07-- Day 450

Recap under the cut!

Big things, of the secret variety, are happening at LG. The conference room’s walls are covered; NDAs are laid out on the table. There is also one big, comfy looking chair in the conference room, looking out of place amid all the standard office chairs.

Lucca’s the first to ask what’s going on. Marissa isn’t sure—it’s top secret; all she knows is that the partners’ schedules have all been cleared.

“Have you seen this?” Marissa changes the subject. “Chicago lawyer playing cards.” “What?” Lucca asks. “Most wanted playing cards. They already have the four dead lawyers,” Marissa explains. The website peddling these cards? Is in Comic Sans. Thank you, whoever made that choice. I’m guessing you did it intentionally and I appreciate it. It’s an alt-right website, Marissa says. “What are you doing looking at an alt-right website?” Maia asks. “I look at everything,” Marissa states. I don’t think it’s that weird! Weren’t they just on a case about belonging to radical groups online?

Lucca wants to know if any of the RBL lawyers are in there. Marissa says she’s going to order a deck and find out. Maia’s appalled at the thought of giving this group money (tbh I am too).

Maia asks what’s going on in the conference room, and Marissa shrugs and says, “The ways of the partners are mysterious to us mere mortals.” Have I mentioned that I love it when we can see the power structures at work? Because I do.

Marissa tries to get information out of Diane—even how long the meeting will last—but Diane doesn’t say anything.

Luckily for us, we’re viewers and not employees, so we get to know what’s happening. It’s an audition for the DNC’s business, conducted by Ruth Eastman. I didn’t expect to see Ruth back on the show, ever, after how badly the writers botched her season seven arc (so much promise squandered!) But here she is. And she’s used much more effectively in this episode.

While I’m thinking of it, the promo for this episode was in Russian, but nothing in the COTW (aside from a few mentions of collusion) is about Russia. So… was the entire promo a shout-out to the TGW/F/The Americans fans? It wouldn’t be the first time. And I’ll take it.

“We’re in a very peculiar time,” Ruth says. Diane laughs, because a good 25% of Diane’s dialogue these days is just laughter. Ruth isn’t bothered: she says laughing is the “only sane reaction these days.” Diane agrees wholeheartedly. “We’re living in a time of farce, not tragedy,” the writers have Ruth explain. (I phrase it like that because, come on, that’s exactly the point of this season’s tone.)

Ruth is there with an interesting opportunity: the DNC wants a plan to impeach 45 ready to go if a blue wave happens in November, and so they’re auditioning law firms to decide which arguments (and which lawyers) will be the most effective. For now, this all has to stay hush hush, lest voters get the idea that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for impeachment and get scared off.

After some build up, Ruth turns to write on a white board. The marker doesn’t work. “New!” she says, pleasantly, discarding it. She starts the build up again: “This is the question we want you to ponder and answer…” But the next marker doesn’t work either. “WELL, SHIT!” she says angrily, throwing the marker to the floor. This is the best thing Ruth has done on this show.

Carine, a woman on Ruth’s team, volunteers to get more markers. Ruth keeps going with her spiel.

Carine grabs the nearest employee, who happens to be Maia, and asks where the black markers are. They flirt/banter on their way to the supply closet, and Carine thinks Maia looks familiar. Maia deflects the question and shows Carine the markers (they only have pink and purple, because it’s funnier that way).

“Seriously, I know you from somewhere. Where?” Carine insists. Maia thinks for a minute. “Okay, so you know how we just had a little exchange back there and I made you smile, you made me smile?” “Yes, I remember.” “Well, remember that when I tell you who I am,” Maia says. I wonder how many times she’s used (or will use) that line.

“Are you a serial killer?” Carine jokes. “Oh, close. Maia Rindell,” Maia introduces herself. Hee.

Carine recognizes that name. Maia walks away to avoid prolonging the awkwardness, but Carine isn’t as put off as Maia assumes…

Meanwhile, Lucca is working on a case about a film shoot when she notices Francesca walking down the stairs. She excuses herself from a meeting, and her client assumes it’s because she has to pee. His pregnant wife always has to pee, so he feels it is his place to inquire about Lucca’s bathroom habits. No matter how many times Lucca says she doesn’t have to go to the bathroom, the client won’t believe her.

Maia greets Francesca. Lawyer, professional greeter, same diff.

Francesca has brought Lucca a present, and Lucca asks Maia to go deal with her client (“and tell him I’m not going to the bathroom”). I have a question! If Lucca could spot Francesca from the room she and the client were sitting in, can’t the client see that Lucca is by the stairs and not, in fact, in the bathroom? ANYWAY. Maia’s job in this episode consists of knowing where markers are kept, greeting visitors, and informing Lucca’s clients she’s not in the bathroom. Is… there no work for Maia to do? Should I be concerned about RBK’s future? Are they overstaffed?! WHY DOESN’T MAIA DO WORK?

“Very nice meeting you. I think your dad stole some of my husband’s money,” Francesca tells Maia. Ok, People Recognizing Maia is my new favorite running gag. “Sorry,” Maia apologizes. “That’s a good thing. He’s an asshole,” Francesca says, emphasizing asshole. She’s so fun.

In Lucca’s office, Francesca tells her that she’s given up drinking, except wine. Well. That’s… something, I guess?

Francesca’s gift is a stuffed dog that sings “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and claps its hands and waves its ears. It is adorable and grating. “For my grandchild,” Francesca says, touching Lucca’s stomach. Why do people just go and touch pregnant women’s stomachs without asking if they can? I have never understood this.

Over the course of this whole scene, the dog’s flapping ears are visible, at least in part. It is wonderful and distracting and the only thing that could make it more Good is if they were in an elevator.

Even rewatching this scene, with captions on, I cannot see anything other than the dog and its ears. I think Francesca is saying she wants to be in the baby’s life and Lucca’s saying she doesn’t want Francesca involved. But I don’t know. Because ears.

After Francesca leaves, Lucca immediately moves to discard the dog. Francesca doubles back and almost catches Lucca in the act, but the second she turns around again, Lucca shoves the dog in a drawer.

“People understand emoluments,” Adrian is saying when we return to the conference room. They do? By that name? ‘Cause I just had to spell-check that word (even though I know what it means). I’m joking, because I think what Adrian means is that people understand the idea behind it. Still, a weird sentence.

Julius is opposed to the whole idea. He thinks the Dems are starting with the goal and working backwards. Some other partner wants to go after collusion. And Diane wants to go for obstruction, because of the precedents. (And the fact that there are so many paths that could make a good case is why I disagree with Julius. Maybe they’re starting with the goal, but how much does that matter if there are many valid reasons for having that goal? But then, I guess Julius would take issue with my use of “valid”…)

Adrian is against what Andre (the other partner) wants to pursue: collusion. He thinks it has too many Russian names for the public to understand it. Adrian’s whole strategy here is to find the argument that will be the easiest to sell.

Diane is so fired up about this, and I love it. (I also think she’s making the best case.)

“He’s not above the law!!” Diane exclaims. Nobody’s above the law! (Sing it with me!)

Julius won’t quit with these silly arguments. Now he’s comparing Republicans wanting to impeach Obama to what’s going on here. I don’t think it’s just my political bias speaking when I say that’s ABSURD.

Julius’s whole thing is that 45 was voted into office so he shouldn’t be impeached and then removed from office. So… Julius is anti-the concept of impeachment? I think his argument is a little more nuanced than that and he’s making the better case: that impeachment isn’t a tool for political parties that didn’t get their way. I’ll spare y’all my half-informed political rants and instead make this point: I appreciate that even Julius’s points have some validity to them. Too often, this show simplifies these arguments or handles them poorly, and this episode… does a pretty good job.

Ruth steps out for a minute, and reminds RBL of their mission: to choose a strategy, something that will stick the way emails stuck to HRC. (Don’t remind me!! Those goddamn emails.)

With Ruth out of the room, Adrian tries to get Julius to stop losing them a client. Julius says he’ll play devil’s advocate. Then Adrian tries to get Liz to speak up. She’s been watching and taking everything in.

Ruth takes a call about “Barnsdale. Illinois 1st.” She asks Lucca if she can use some random office, and commandeers it before Lucca can respond. She picked a bad office to have a private conversation in, though, because it’s one of the ones with the angled glass walls. These offices—which I’ve been wondering about for WEEKS because they don’t seem the slightest bit private—have gaps in the windows and it seems like (and turns out to be the case that) someone in the hallway would be able to hear every word said inside of the office.

And it just so happens that Lucca overhears the exact conversation she needs to overhear: a Congressman up for reelection is being asked—well, more like told—by the DNC that he can’t run again because he’s a groper. Lucca recognizes what this means: it’s the district Colin was thinking of running in.

So Lucca does what all Good characters would do: distracts Colin at work with her presence until he forgets what he’s talking about, then walks away.

Colin’s first thought is that something happened with the genetic screening. Lucca says it’s not that; it’s about his mother. “I didn’t want to run; my parents wanted me to run,” Colin says when Lucca asks him about the Illinois 1st. “Oh, so you’re not running?” Lucca counters. And Colin? Can’t answer that definitively.

Colin says he won’t run if he has to campaign, but if all he has to do is get the support of the DNC, he’ll run. Uh huh.

Lucca’s fear is that she’s being used for political gain. It’ll look better if she and Colin are together. Colin tries to keep Lucca out of it, even going so far as to say Lucca can tell his mother to “fuck off,” but… you don’t have to watch the rest of the episode to understand that’s never going to happen.

Then Colin asks about the genetic testing. Lucca says, “Oh, everything’s… good.” Colin mentions a family history. Does anyone else feel like she might be hiding something here? This is a weird scene. She’s already said the baby’s fine, yet they have her double back for this conversation AND they mention Colin’s family history? It would not shock me if Lucca was waiting on some test results and keeping it to herself. But also, like, I have seen this show and it would surprise me even less if we never heard about this again.

I may have to take back what I just said about Julius, sadly. Diane makes the more nuanced point I extrapolated from Julius’s words and Julius tries to rebut it. So. Whatever. It’s in early scene cross-talk (you know, the lines that aren’t meant to make a point but are rather meant to show you that there’s heated debate, so you can jump in mid-scene and it won’t feel awkward), and I’ve heard weirder things (like Alicia explaining why we don’t need female politicians in 220, a line I don’t think I was supposed to notice because I was supposed to be paying attention to her poise and the ease of her answers) in early scene cross-talk.

This audition doesn’t seem to be going well. That’s when Liz speaks up. She starts talking about some evidence that came across her desk at the DOJ. At first, I thought the writers were trying to introduce new facts into their hypothetical, and I was disappointed. But that’s not what they’re up to. Instead, they’re having Liz tell an increasingly elaborate, and possibly not baseless (would ANY of you be surprised if pieces of evidence similar to the ones Liz invents actually existed?) story to prove her point. Liz is demonstrating that the story keeps changing. “You’re all missing the point! It’s not about choosing one charge or another for impeachment. It’s about everything. It’s about who he is. It’s about what the presidency is. Charging him with obstruction, that’s going by the old rules. And the new rules are these. ‘I have a tape.’ ‘Where’s the tape?’ ’15-year-old was raped, and I’ve got the evidence.’ ‘Where’s the evidence?’ ‘Same place as the tape.’”

Diane laughs. “My God, this is insane!” Julius replies.

“No, no no no. This is shameless,” Liz clarifies. “And impeachment has to be shameless, or else it’s gonna fail.”

“So. You lie,” Julius accuses.

“No, no no no no no. You just don’t back down,” Liz says. “But there is no tape!!” Julius says. “Uh-uh. That’s what you said. I didn’t say that,” Liz argues. God, that’s what reading the news today feels like. Like logic and facts are no longer persuasive.

“Listen. This isn’t about truth anymore. And it’s not about lying. It’s about who’s backtracking, and who’s attacking,” Liz concludes. I don’t know what to think, and I love that. Liz’s approach is outlandish. It’s also convincing. And it’s maddening. These things should be based on facts. And yet!

I love that I can agree with Liz and think her point is absurd/laughable at the same time. I love that the show is able to capture the way that laughable and strategic can be the same today. It’s super effective.

When Ruth leaves for the day, Adrian immediately begins talking down to Liz in front of all of the partners. “Liz. Liz, Liz, Liz, what the fuck are you doing?!” I do not like this side of Adrian, especially when Liz is (obviously) being strategic and novel.

And also effective! Ruth tells her colleagues at the DNC that “we might have something here.”

Aaaand, credits. Another female writer this week! She wrote an ep last season too. And she’s great: I spent 17 minutes convinced the Kings had written this one because she captured the tone and the big moments so well. Also, I just googled her (her name’s Tegan Shohet) and she has a really fucking impressive resume. She did her undergrad at Harvard, has a law degree from Yale, and she has another degree from Oxford.

Maia and Amy (hello, Amy!) are kissing at a bar after the credits end. They’re out on a double date with Marissa and Drew, the guy from the ricin scare. Drew has this look in his eyes like he’s on something. I don’t like it one bit.

He and Marissa start making out mid-conversation. It’s almost aggressive, and not like Amy and Maia’s kiss just moments ago. Part of that is, I think, that we’re supposed to see Amy and Maia as a bit passionless right now, but it also seems… weird. Something is up with this dude. I don’t trust him.

But I would rather watch him and Marissa making out than hear Amy and Maia state “facts” that screw up the timeline!!!!!!!!!!! LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU WITH YOUR “WE’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER FOR FOUR YEARS” BUSINESS WHEN I LITERALLY WATCHED YOU MEET AT MAIA’S 18TH BIRTHDAY PARTY; I’M BUSY WATCHING THIS AWFUL DUDE STICK HIS TOUNGE IN MARISSA’S MOUTH.

Drew also has no filter. Oh, and then he gets up at hits someone, claiming they took an upskirt of Marissa. But before that happens…

Amy and Maia are talking about getting married! And we didn’t get to see how they smoothed things over after 2x02? What a shock…

(Well, also, I feel like this ep pretty strongly suggests they didn’t really work through that.)

Seriously though, what the hell is Drew doing? What is his deal?

Marissa, who believes someone took an upskirt photo of her, reacts to Drew’s actions as though he’s a hero. She rewards him with a kiss. That makes Maia smile, because… I don’t really know. It makes Amy roll her eyes. Can we have Amy as a regular and not Maia?

“We need to toast your news!” Marissa says, making plans for the second consecutive weeknight. “Our news?” Amy wonders. OOOOOF. That relationship cannot be in a good place.

Maia seems kind of… turned on? By Drew and Marissa.

Amy doesn’t believe that the dude in the bar was actually trying to take an upskirt. Amy thinks Drew just wanted to hit someone. I agree with Amy here.

Amy then asks if they have to see them again. Maia says that Marissa’s a friend.

Amy tells Maia to talk to Marissa because people like Drew can be “dangerous in a relationship.” I had that same thought just from the way he was kissing her in public (it seemed quite possessive). And you know what I don’t need? For another investigator on this show to end up in an abusive relationship.

(That said, this is MILES better than any Kalinda/Nick bullshit.)

Now cameras are being installed in the conference room.

Marissa clearly stayed out for several more hours after Maia and Amy headed home. She’s wearing sunglasses at her desk and can barely answer questions. That’s also a big warning sign. Marissa’s hungover at work. It’s not a pattern yet, but I’d hate to see it become one.

Lucca meets with some partners about her client, Lock. She wants to give them a heads-up, but it seems he’s already left the firm because of Lucca’s pregnancy. Well, he said her “mood swings,” but lol.

Even Liz, who’s very understanding, is inclined to believe the client. Every time Lucca tries to defend herself, someone tries to comfort her or calm her or tells her not to get upset. I love Cush’s delivery of the line, “I’m not getting upset…” because she says it with just a hint of confusion. She doesn’t sound upset (at least not unreasonably so). She sounds like someone who’s slowly realizing that no one will take her words seriously as long as she’s pregnant.

Every time Lucca tries to take action, the partners shut her down and offer to help. It’s just weird. I can’t speak to whether or not it’s realistic because I’ve never been pregnant, nor do I work at a law firm managed mostly by non-parents (or any sort of law firm, for that matter), but it feels like it’s realistic. It’s subtle and the partners are encouraging, but they are making assumptions about Lucca’s work performance and capabilities based on the fact she’s having a baby.

Ruth appears! RBL is now one of four! Naturally Adrian believes this is because of what he and Diane were saying, and not because of anything Liz said. He believes this so strongly he calls Liz aside to give her an order. “No more shit Liz, okay?” He says like she’s a child (a child with a potty-mouth, I guess). She calls him on it. “Adrian, when did you get the impression that you could order me around?” He denies it, and Liz goes STRAIGHT to talking about their marriage. The teacher who married his student for her ties in the legal world CONDESCENDED TO HER? I’m just shocked. (Lol no, this is how I have been picturing their marriage for a few weeks now.)

Adrian asks Liz again to get behind the obstruction charge (Diane’s idea) so they can seem united. She says she’ll consider it.

I wonder if the reason Adrian can’t see that Liz has a plan, and that her plan is working, is that he’s so used to underestimating her.

Adrian and even Julius get behind Diane’s plan. It’s so transparent that they’re trying to show they’re united. “Now, we may disagree, but we find consensus,” Adrian explains. LULZ.

As soon as Adrian says “consensus” and Julius echoes it, Diane announces she’s changed her mind and now sides with Liz. This surprises even Liz! Ooh, will we get more on the Diane/Liz tension?

“I’m tired of ‘when they go low, we go high.’ Fuck that! When they go low, we go lower. Impeachment isn’t just about the law. It’s about persuading people. And if it’s one thing that we’ve seen this past year, it’s that lies… persuade. Truth only takes you that far… and then you need lies.” Guys, I’m seriously terrified by how much I understand this. Even the fact that my first reaction upon hearing this was, “she has a point” and not, “what??? That’s a lie!” scares me. When TGW was airing, I wouldn’t have believed that Diane would ever say this. And I wouldn’t have believed that would be my reaction. But, then, I also wouldn’t have believed this country would elect Donald Trump. What I’m saying is that regardless of whether this is a good strategy or not, or if it’s morally sound, or hypocritical, the way that it’s not easy to dismiss or laugh at is… the point.

Julius calls this “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” “You’re just as bad as you’re accusing him of being,” he explains. ACCUSING? Come on, Julius. If you think the word “alleged” would need to be in a sentence that calls him a liar…

Anyway. Another thing I love about Diane’s speech is that it’s coming both from a character place AND a political place. The next part of her rant makes this point well: “I’m just done with being the adult in the room. I am done with being the compliant and sensible one. Standing stoically by while the other side picks my pockets, while the other side gerrymanders Democrats out of existence. A three million person majority and we lost the presidency. A Congress that keeps a Supreme Court justice from being seated because he was chosen by a Democratic president.”

(I am gonna keep going on this but LOL Julius what planet do you live on where that’s not what happened? FACTUALLY THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED.)

Diane has always been the adult in the room. That’s a role she’s fantastic at playing, and she loves it. And now she’s tired of it?! That can’t just be because of Trump. That’s what someone who lost her best friend, lost her husband, lost her money, lost her clout, watched her candidate lose an election, and, finally, felt and still feels like there’s a target on her back would say. Why should she be the one to hold things together when everything else is falling apart? What’s the point of acting like the rules still apply?

Julius says some nonsense about how if Diane really believes that, she’s lost all faith in the law. To which Diane replies that she has a gun in her desk “and I’m this close to taking to the streets.” That, my friends, is someone who is all of the things I said above, and also on drugs, would say. And somehow, that person is… Diane Lockhart.

(And weirdly, while I can’t say it’s necessarily the direction I want to see the writers take Diane, I can’t honestly say it’s out of character. Terrifying, right?)

IT DID NOT CATCH MY ATTENTION THE FIRST TIME THROUGH BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAIA IS DOING AT WORK? CHECKING TWITTER. (I mean, I check Twitter at work. I’m sure most people check their phones at work. You could catch the most productive employee on Twitter at work. But somehow we have endless amounts of time to show Maia not working and no time to show Maia working.)

Carine is back, to tell Maia about her own father. He was a disgraced senator, so she’s part of the “damaged offspring club” too. Hey, where are Zach and Grace? Is Zach still in Paris (lol) with his wife (hahahaha) writing his memoir (bwahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha)? How’s college treating Grace? ANYWAY. NOT THE POINT.

The point is that Carine and Maia are making a connection.

Also that in one scene, Maia manages to: Surf Twitter on her work laptop, flirt, and make plans to go drinking. Writers, come on. Throw me a bone. Give Maia work to do. (Two of these things are not her fault—Carine and Marissa come over to talk to her—but still!)

Marissa pops by to invite Maia to go out dancing at 10 pm on a work night. Maia turns it down initially, but then says maybe. What does she have to lose? She could show up hungover the next day and it wouldn’t matter. IT’S NOT LIKE SHE HAS ANY WORK TO DO!!!!!!

When Marissa leaves, she’s all “luv uuuuuu” (that is my approximation of the tone) and Maia quietly whispers back “love you.” Am I supposed to be getting the feeling that Maia’s crushing on Marissa? She also smiles a little after Marissa walks away.

“There’s a tweet I think you should see,” Maia informs Lucca. Lucca asks if it’s about work (of course it isn’t; that would require Maia to be working NO I WON’T STOP) and it’s about Colin’s campaign. Specifically, a horribly racist tweet about how he got a “black girl” pregnant (“hashtag Sally Hemmings”)

“So I’m a black girl. A black, pregnant, plantation girl,” Lucca responds. Maia is like “I don’t think it implies that” which, I mean, I buy Maia holding that opinion because it would mean she is super privileged, white, and didn’t pay attention in history class and you KNOW I would believe all of those things. But also, it’s a mean tweet that refers to Lucca as “a black girl.” Why would Maia even want to defend that?

Lucca’s TRENDING too. I wish Lucca would trend. Not for this. I mean publicity for the show.

Also trending is Earth Day. Wanna know something fun about Earth Day? It is in April. Specifically it’s April 22nd (which is a Sunday and the day of the next episode, but I will ignore that because it’s close enough and Earth Day could be trending in advance). Lucca is due in May. She is four months pregnant. WHAT MONTH IS IT, SHOW?

Maia accidentally kicks a drawer under Lucca’s desk and it begins to sing. “What is that?” she asks. “It’s a dog,” Lucca replies, as though that explains anything.

Lucca furiously begins to type—to Tweet! This is a bad idea. Has Twitter ever been a good idea on this show when it was controlled by anyone other than Eli or Marissa Gold? (No.)

Lucca (@lquinn) has fired off a reply tweet (“I’m the black woman having Colin Morello’s baby and my name is Lucca Quinn. Did Sally Hemmings have a law degree? #MoreLikeMichelle”) that is snarky and probably misguided, especially since it’s a trap laid by Colin’s campaign manager NotEli. (He isn’t getting a name.)

More bickering, verging on nervous breakdowns, are happening on the DNC live feed. The juiciest live feed since the NSA was listening to Alicia? Anyway.

“I’ve spend the last few months feeling fucking deranged! Like I’m living in some bad reality show! Going numb! All Trump, all the time! What’s real? What’s fake? Well, you know what? I just woke up,” Diane yells. And by yells, I mean yells. Damn.

Liz takes Ruth outside to try to get her to get Julius out of the audition. Liz always has some kind of plan.

Later, Adrian walks into Diane’s office, concerned. “I have never been more all right,” Diane says. U SURE? Did you just take a hit of something? Adrian asks how much of this is show and Diane is like, it’s a show!

Adrian wants to know about the gun in her desk. Yeah, I feel like that’s a valid concern, given that there is a GUN IN HIS WORKPLACE. Not only is that probably illegal but it’s also a hazard.

Marissa brings more bad news: the Chicago lawyer playing card deck, and we get to hear a few of the names in it. David Lee (IS ANYONE SURPRISED?). Patti Nyholm (Ditto). Laura Hellinger. WAIT WHAT? LAURA HELLINGER IS THE SWEETEST. (Can you tell I just rewatched season 4?) What is there to hate about Laura Hellinger!? Why bring her name, of all the names, into this?!

The partners decide to ignore it for now—why give it more attention?—but Adrian, Liz, and Diane are all in the deck. Damn.

Upon seeing her own face on a card, Diane says, “To answer your question, Adrian, yes, I have a gun in my desk.”

It’s at that moment Ruth interrupts to ask Julius not to join the RBL team for the remainder of the audition. Julius, after hearing he’s out, flips off the other partners. Professional. Though I can’t really criticize him, because it’s not like anyone else is being professional.

Maia tries to convince Amy to go to the dance club with her. Amy has a trial starting the next day and she doesn’t want to go, so it’s an impossible sell. Maia makes a bogus excuse: she thinks she should go so as not to be impolite. To Marissa. She sees. Marissa. Every. Day. She and Marissa are friends. It is not impolite to say no to going to a dance club at 10 pm on a work night with someone you went out with the night before. This is an excuse. Maia wants to go out; Amy doesn’t. So Maia’s looking for any reason she can find to go out.

Maia also misses a crucial detail—that Amy’s trial starts tomorrow so there’s no reason to wish her good luck now. This seemed weird the first time through, but then I realized: Maia and Amy live together. And that’s the kind of comment you make to someone you’re not going to see for a little while.

Lock wants Lucca to be his lawyer again. Lucca suspects that Maia might have called him (no that would involve Maia taking initiative so it’s unlikely). But no. The answer is that he’s on Twitter. And that’s when Lucca realizes that she has power.

She shows up at Colin’s door. “I’m not gonna marry you. I’m not gonna pretend otherwise. I’m not gonna lie, I’m not gonna mislead, and I’m not gonna be the woman who stands by your side. I’m the mother of your child, a close friend of yours, and a registered voter in the 1st Congressional District of Illinois. You want my support, you’re gonna agree to my terms,” she demands.

She goes on: she will do one appearance a month, issue a statement, and do interviews. Damn. Colin didn’t even have to negotiate for that.

Francesca is also at Colin’s house. So is NotEli, whose first words to Lucca are “Wow, that’s pregnant.” Off to a great start!

NotEli’s name is Stephen Rankin-Hall. I will continue to call him NotEli.

Now we get some exposition about the campaign. We’re actually doing this. The writers wrote Alicia out and found a way to bring campaigns back.

More deliberations in the conference room. The DNC is watching in real time, and they’re missing the fire of the deliberations with Julius. Using all the coded language in the world, Ruth requests that RBL show their “more pugnacious attitude.”

As soon as she leaves, the partners prove they got the message loud and clear. “They want us to be street,” Liz says, with a trace of anger. No one’s thrilled about it, but they’re all willing to play along. “I will be the angry black woman,” Liz decides. “And you can be Black Lives Matter,” she says to Adrian. (He chuckles.) “What about me?” Diane wonders. “You keep us calmed. But we can’t be calmed. But you’re the white conscience,” Liz says. LOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOLLOL.

And back to the conference room they go, playing their roles perfectly until they’re screaming at each other about how fantastic Ta-Nehisi Coates is. It’s hilarious. And it piggy-backs off of the point the show made last week: there are certain roles that even (especially) those who call themselves progressives expect people to play based on their race. Diane’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown and she gets to be the conscience because she’s a classy white lady. Liz and Adrian have been strategic throughout all of this and they’re understood when they play up their anger in a very specific, stereotypical way.

(I don’t know that this strategy actually works in the context of the show, since we know that Liz and only Liz is chosen, and I’m going to guess her initial idea helped her more than this show. Even still. The firm is flat out told by the DNC that they will do better when they fit into an easy, familiar (racist) narrative.)

Liz and Adrian sit together in his office after their performance. “I never know how far is too far,” Adrian says. “At least you’ve reached a point in your life where you can admit it,” Liz says. That’s pointed.

Just want to take a moment to say I’m very happy with the addition of Liz. She’s fascinating, Audra’s fantastic, and I can tell so much about Liz from even the tiniest moments. Also, usually characters who are as sneaky as she is towards the other regulars come off as villains. That’s not how Liz comes off, and she was literally introduced as Alicia’s biggest rival and reintroduced as someone who made a move against Diane.

Maia invites Lucca out dancing. She’s going to turn it down anyway, but then Colin, Francesca, and NotEli show up and she has a good excuse not to go.

NotEli and Francesca want Colin and Lucca to get their story straight. “Look, we’re not expecting you to be the good little wife or girlfriend. That’s the old playbook. It stopped working in 2016,” NotEli says. Oh for fuck’s sake. You can’t just add the word “little” in there and distract me from the fact you are talking about Alicia.

But this line reminds me of two things that I’ve been thinking about lately. The first is that the Good Wife narrative really isn’t timely anymore. It certainly was in 2008. It even was in 2011 when I started watching. But now? Who cares? A dude abuses his office, and now, I think, the media is more likely to wonder about what woman is going to run for his seat than about whether or not his wife will stand by his side. Well, either that happens or absolutely nothing happens and millions of people think it’s perfectly okay to have a president who makes comments about “grabbing women by the pussy.” Either way: it’s not the narrative that fascinates people (or the media) today. And if you’re not caught in the middle of a scandal? It’s even less essential. “Family values” haven’t totally disappeared from politics by any means, but this isn’t 2008.

The other thing this line reminds me of is that, well, I fucking miss Alicia Florrick. It may be accurate to say that “the good little wife” is the old playbook. It’s been on the way out for a while now, so it’s only semi-accurate to say it stopped working in 2016. It is, however, accurate to say that The Good Wife ended in 2016. I like the idea of revisiting these themes, in a very different world, with a very different character. What I don’t like as much is that every time I see Lucca get pulled into situations that very, very few people would understand, I can’t help but want her to call up her close friend who’s lived through it. There are very few other moments when I long for Alicia to be on this show. And I still don’t, really, want her to make a guest appearance. But I want Lucca to have a friend. I want Lucca to have that friendship. And I can’t believe that Lucca and Alicia had a falling out, off screen, big enough that Lucca wouldn’t have reached out to Alicia for advice. If they’re not going to give me Alicia, can they at least stop teasing me?

(“Good little wife”? TEASE.)

Anyway I love how blunt Lucca is. For some reason, NotEli believes Lucca and Colin will be asked where their child was conceived, and he also believes this is a question they should answer. Colin starts to answer, saying things got intense when they were on opposite sides. Lucca jumps in and bluntly says, “So we worked through all that tension by fucking in the courthouse restroom.”

NotEli and Francesca stare at her and Francesca laughs, thinking (hoping) Lucca’s joking. But she’s not done. “It was a family restroom, so we locked the door,” she adds. NotEli says maybe they’ll have to massage this a little. Or you could, like, not talk about where you fucked?

And then the toy dog starts to sing, because of course. (It’s less effective this time.)

Now we’re at the club with Marissa and Maia. Maia’s theme song is playing. Seriously, just read these lyrics: “I clock out my 9:00 to 5:00. I’m ready for the weekend to bring me back to life. Don’t live to work, I work to live.” See?! It’s Maia’s song! Working normal hours (in a profession notorious for requiring long hours) and viewing a job as a chore and not something she’s passionate about!

MAIA IS SO AWKWARD, BUT SHE IS ALSO SO COMMITTED TO ACTUALLY TRYING TO DANCE.

(As you might expect, Marissa is not at all awkward.)

Carine appears at the bar when Maia goes to get a drink! They start talking about their fathers until Maia’s like, “Do you really want to talk about this?” and Carine says no. And then Maia says she wants to dance, so they start dancing. And they get pretty into it.

A little later in the evening, Maia and Marissa talk at a table. Marissa has her arm around Maia. “Am I boring?” Maia asks. You want me to answer that, Maia? You are, and it’s not because you have a stable relationship. I actually find that interesting. ANYWAY. In the world of the show, Maia is worried she’s boring because she’s in a long-term relationship.

Marissa calls Maia a “fucking ninja.”

“I feel like I’m cheating,” Maia worries. “You’re dancing. Or do you mean with me? Because I’m ready for anything,” Marissa responds. Is Marissa saying she’s bi? Or is she joking? Or just drunk? I feel like we may see more on this front. But maybe not.

Oh my God. I have accidentally paused the screen on the most awful drunk!Maia face and I’m not going to post it because I’m not cruel.

“What do you want?” Marissa asks. “I don’t know. Sometimes I want stability. Sometimes I don’t,” Maia answers. Hmmm. Much as I would love to see Maia in a committed relationship, what I would love even more is an arc where Maia, whose life had been very stable up until the scandal, realize that actually, maybe she doesn’t need to follow the easiest, most stable path. Maybe she’d rather be single, or with someone else, at this stage in her life. Wanting stability is a very Alicia thing. It doesn’t have to be a Maia thing, too.

(Nope, I will not turn this into a backdoor way to talk about Alicia and her priorities. I am tempted, but I will resist the temptation.)

Marissa just asks Maia wants right now and Maia says, “That’s the question.” Marissa tells her to go dance, but Maia decides to leave instead.

Maia also tells Marissa that Drew is “great.” I am on Amy’s side here…

Carine finds Maia outside and starts to say goodbye when… Maia kisses her. In the middle of the street. Carine kisses her back. And then they get in an Uber together and make out. Nice, Maia.

I don’t have strong feelings on Maia cheating, mostly because I am not sure I consider her a cheater for this. This behavior—and the behavior we’ll get to in a minute—is cheating. But… she’s cheating on someone she’s had doubts about, someone she barely wants to spend time with, someone who testified against her in court (??), and someone we’ve barely gotten to know. That’s not to say that cheating is justified if that’s the case. It’s not. My point is that I don’t know what Maia’s going to do next. If what she does next involves keeping this from Amy and acting like everything is normal, then yes, she is a cheater and ughhhhhh, Maia. But if this is really the final straw/a wake-up call that causes her to either work through her issues with Amy (including actually telling her she cheated) or break up with her, then it feels like less of a betrayal to me. I don’t know where I’m going with this. Moving on. I am sure I will have more thoughts, hopefully clearer and more fully formed ones, once the next episode (that addresses this plotline) airs.

Carine gets called into work, where she falls on the ground because she is drunk. They have to leave, but she wants to stay a few more days!

Ruth tells the name partners the DNC’s decision: they’re hiring a team of lawyers from various firms, and they just want Liz. “Like the Avengers,” Diane observes. Yes, you read that right. Diane made that observation. Diane Lockhart.

Adrian calls Liz “Wonder Woman” and Ruth corrects him that “That’s the Justice League.” Hee. Look at Diane and Ruth, knowing their superheroes better than I do! (Though I actually understood both of those references.)

Will Liz actually take the offer? I’m unsure. I don’t want anything that means less Liz, so I’m hoping either she doesn’t take it or she does but it doesn’t reduce her screentime.

Ruth tells her assistant to turn off the DNC cameras. But he can’t, because Maia and Carine are busy having sex, on camera, in the office. You’re such a good employee, Maia.

Carine would know about the cameras, but I don’t think this is a set-up (I think she’s just drunk, though wouldn’t be shocked if it was a set-up). Maia wouldn’t know about the cameras, but for fuck’s sake, Maia, do you think you’re supposed to be having sex at the office? Oh, you know what? It’s Maia. She probably thinks that’s what offices are for.

(I so badly want to end my recap there, but also, this Trump impeachment Schoolhouse Rock style song is A++++++ and I’m not sure why it exists but I’m glad it does. It’s also by the same guy (Jonathan Coulson) who did all the BrainDead recap songs (if you did not watch BrainDead, you should) so I’m a very happy fan.)

(Omg, and the slow instrumental “If You’re Happy and You Know It” over the credits is great.)

#The Good Fight #TGFThoughts

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qttalkpdx-blog · 8 years ago

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This is Why Queers Protest by Grace Piper

I am sitting in the Cinebar in West Salem watching a $6.50 matinee of “Rogue One” on the day that Carrie Fisher died and I am feeling heavy, I am holding back tears throughout most of the movie, not just for Carrie, but for me too. I remember being young and my whole family gathering on the couch in piles and we would stuff the VHS in and watch in awe with a dialogue to follow. This is still common practice for us when we get together. Growing up, this made my first hero the bad ass herself, Leia Organa, who literally killed fascists, was a well trained activist and strategist, and really carried the rebellion (in my opinion more than Luke, but that’s a different article). As each new movie set comes out, we are presented with a femme doing the emotional labor of the movement (seriously though, Padme), as well as making the strides and helping us move on to restoring balance to the force (Thanks Jyn and probably Rey). I was inspired by their bravery, their tenacity, and most importantly, by their action. My youth connected me to Star Wars and to my activism. In watching “Rogue One,” I couldn’t help but cry because I could feel it, the way the film shows the growing fascist regime, the work they are doing to build the Death Star with the sole intent of destroying entire planets and wiping out entire groups of people-aliens-what have you. And I can’t help but feel like we are headed therein some way too.

This cold year has housed a number of protests, particularly in Portland as well as nationally, and worldwide. State sanctioned violence against marginalized people is still rising (Huffington post reported that over 250 black people have been killed by police officers in 2016), world wide, transgender people are being murdered (click here to read about it), basic rights like if you can use a bathroom are still in question, the DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) is being unlawfully built despite being condemned by the Obama Administration late last year. And this is just what we can see. We know that people are being crushed by a violent system of oppression, that people are dying because they don’t have access to resources to survive. In the past couple of years, I have personally participated in various protests. At one point in time I had on a date where we went to a #DisarmPSU protest and debriefed afterwards over chai in a dirty coffee shop. I am not at every protest, but I believe in the change that they can create and I am cautious to criticize the ways in which marginalized people deal with their anger. Following the election, following the deaths of innocent people, following the massacre in Orlando, so many of us have found one another and called for action by taking action. In doing so, I have personally been asked “what does protesting even actually do?” “but why do they have to be violent?” or simply “protesting never works.” I am personally exhausted with this (by that I mean tired of being tokenized as a vocal QTPoC), but putting it in writing, sorting it through analysis, is how I can bring it to light, the reasons why queers protest.

We are not represented in the dominant paradigm. There are less than 10 out queer or trans (like every single possible LGBTQIA+ identity) representatives in congress. There are 535 total representative in the House and the Senate and there are seriously less than 10 queer and trans reps. I applaud the bravery it takes to be there and I applaud the bravery it takes to be outed and remain a minority in government work. Even though I feel for these people and I have so much tenderness for our little bit of representation, how can this handful of people possibly put our needs out there and get it through? How can those few people get ⅔ of the congress to believe us? In terms of statistics, it is really not probable. (Special shout out to these trans women who ran for office this year, y’all are amazing.) When traditional forms of change don’t work, we have to make our own means of change. This is why we protest.

Protests are a place in which the work of femmes can be recognized. In the academy, in government, in traditional forms of change or creations of knowledge, masculinity and men are celebrated. In protests, women and femmes carry us (kind of like how I mention that stuff about Star Wars), and particularly trans femmes and women of color. Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, Storme DeLarverie, the women leading the Women’s March following inauguration day, Molala, literally any of these women, I could go on. This kind of representation does not happen in traditional forms of change because money can’t be made unless someone is exploited, because white supremacist patriarchy is not powerful unless someone is suppressed, even when femmes do the work, men are often finding ways to masquerade it as their own. Femmes carry our world’s emotional labor and then still are not allowed in public domain, but in protesting, it is their domain.

Protest are on the cutting edge of a radical and progressive politic and that pushes the mainstream movement. They spread the word to the crevices of your town, of your country. To clarify, when I am discussing radicals, I do not mean TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists), I mean, as Angela Davis says “grasping things at the root.” Radicals are think deeper and search for the source of problems and of oppression. Liberals and often mainstream democrats are searching for the bandaid fix for the problem (like how do we make more people profit from capitalism, rather than how do we find a system that does not exploit people to create profit). What I mean is that radicals are so indepth and thorough in the think and activism, that they pave the way for new knowledge. Even when that new way of thinking does not catch on right away, it does eventually, it get’s adopted and employed in general progressive thought over time. Radical ideas pull us forward immediately and eventually.

#FunFact protests and rallies work. Here is a casual list of 7 protests that worked that I thought of off the top of my head in less than 2 minutes. In all of these, marginalized people unified, organized, planned an action (rally, civil disobedience, protest), and it accomplished one of their goals. The thing about protests is that a goal can be to completely overthrow a system, it can be to create a policy change, and it can also be to spread a message. These people were loud and someone listened. I want to add that I include violent protests/riots in this list because they have been effective forms of activism. Like I said earlier, I am cautious to critique the ways in which marginalized people chose to voice their anger, such as through destruction of property, when mass amounts of people are being overtly and covertly murdered in a dominant paradigm of normalized violence and state sanctioned violence (like Banana Republic probably made it just fine with a cracked window, y’all).

There are people in our country and worldwide who feel completely isolated, invisible, or unheard. There are people who do not have a wealth of community to lean back on. There are people who rely on the internet or the news to find any source of support. If you were not aware, since the election of Donald Trump, calls and texts on all major suicide hotlines have reached all time highs, particularly for queer and trans people. As queer and trans people, we often feel scared, and it is recent events (also such as HB2), that are affecting our safety in a multidimensional way. I do not know everything about what is going on for these people, but I do know that having community and support can make a person feel safer. When I do not know what to do, I reach out for community, and the creation of rallies and protests can create a community among the people who are there, but I can’t help but hope there is someone who needed it sees it too on the news or online somewhere. I can’t help but hope that the rural queers, that the black and brown kids, that the children of immigrants, that anyone who is afraid can see that there are thousands of people there for them, that are rooting for them, that are fighting for them, that hear them. That is why I protest. I am scared, but I am still there, for me and for them.

Following watching “Rogue One,” my family went home and put in “A New Hope” and began playing card games. “A New Hope” is pretty immediate after “Rogue One” and leads us into the bravery and strength of taking down the Empire’s oppressive government system in the “Star Wars” universe. As I watched the badass Leia herself take Luke’s blaster following his terrible rescue, she shoots open the vent to the garbage chute, and says to Han, “somebody’s got to save our skins,” I got a text from a friend that said “be like Leia in 2017. Fight on the front lines. Strangle fascists with the chains they would have you wear. Be a motherfuckin’ general.”

Next month keep an eye out for a follow up to this article as I head out to Washington DC to participate in the Women’s March on Washington following the inauguration of Donald Trump.

This piece was written by Grace Piper, a QTPoC Portlander with an interest in cheese and education.

#qttalk pdx #qt talk #pdx #portland #queer #trans #lgbtq #lgbtqia #qtpoc #qtpoc writer #qpoc #qpoc writer #qwoc #qwoc writer #protesting #rally #boycott #civil dosobedience

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newsbiteswithjennysok · 5 years ago

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Aug 20, 2019

1. YouTube star PewDiePie has found his sweetie pie. The controversial influencer, known for his widely watched gaming videos and crass humor, married long-time girlfriend and fellow social media star Marzia Bisognin in a London ceremony on Monday — in what could be considered the royal wedding of YouTube.

“We are married!!! I’m the happiest I can be. I’m so lucky to share my life with this amazing woman,” the 29-year-old Swedish vlogger, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, wrote Tuesday on Instagram. The Italian influencer, 26, also posted tons of shots from the big day to her 6.2 million Instagram followers, revealing that their wedding marked the eighth anniversary of the day they met.

PewDiePie proposed in April 2018 while vacationing in Japan. At the wedding, PewDiePie wore an all-black suit while Bisognin, who has a following in fashion, wore an off-white long-sleeve dress featuring a lace bodice and tulle ballgown with a peplum.

PewDiePie is one of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars, earning an estimated $14.5 million a year, but has come under fire for posting several videos featuring anti-Semitic jokes or images related to Nazis in 2017. Despite being booted from YouTube’s Red platform, he still makes millions off the site, though he was bested as the most followed person on the platform after decades at the top spot earlier this year by an Indian music label. PewDiePie’s multi-channel network partner Maker Studios, a subsidiary of Disney, severed ties with him and the Google Preferred program also dropped him. Between them, the couple has 107 million YouTube subscribers, 24 million followers on Instagram and 22 million Twitter followers.

2. A business owner in California says she has been forced to relocate after 15 years because of the growing homelessness crisis in the state. Elizabeth Novak, who owns a hair salon in downtown Sacramento, posted a video on Twitter on Friday describing how she often finds people camping in tents across her front door. She told how the vagrancy epidemic gripping the state is affecting long-standing business owners and that her shop has been broken into and she has even been attacked. Novak, who has run her salon for 15 years, said in her social media message that she often has to clean-up urine, feces and used needles left by rough sleepers on her doorstep.

Addressing her concerns directly to Governor Gavin Newsom, she said in a heart-felt pleas for action: 'I want to know what are you going to do for us Californians? I've had a business in downtown Sacramento for 15 years - a successful business. I now have to leave my place of business, I have to close my shop.

'I just want to tell you what happens when I get to work. I have to clean up the poop and the pee off of my doorstep. I have to clean-up the syringes.

'I have to politely ask the people who I care for, I care for these people that are homeless, to move their tents of of the way of the door to my business.

'I have to fight off people who push their way into my shop who are homeless and on drugs because you won't arrest them for drug offenses. I have to apologize to my clients as to why they can't get into my door because there's someone asleep there and they are not getting the help they need.'

At the beginning of the impassioned clip Novak says has been repeatedly sending videos, emails and tweets as well as numerous calls to Newsom in a bid to get a response.

Novak also slammed the Democrat governor's 'liberal ideology' as 'not working' and criticized him for 'sitting in his million dollar home and not having to look at what we have to look at'.

She added in the video: 'I talk to the police officers, they told me to contact you [Newsom]. They want to do something and they can't, you changed the laws.

'So I want to know what you're going to do for us, the ones that are unhappy? You want to make us a sanctuary state, you want to make it comfortable for everybody except for the people that work hard and have tried their hardest to get along in life and now we have to change that because of your laws.'

Novak's Twitter account is now private, but it was viewed around 25,000 times.

Yesterday Novak told Fox & Friends that she was going to have to relocate her business because of how bad the situation had become.

'A lot of people asked why go directly to the governor, why take it to that level and I think it's an SOS for all small business owners. And not just business owners, but employees in the downtown area.

'When I come into work I'm never sure what I'm going to walk into. I've been broken into, I've had my glass broken. I clean up human excrement off of my doorstep every week, cups of urine, things like that.'

She added: 'A lot of people are saying it's a housing issue - it's a drug issue.'

3. Colton Haynes is looking back in an effort to help others move forward.The 31-year-old actor, who has been candid about his battles with depression and substance abuse, shared a series of images Monday from his hospitalization a year ago, in an effort to help others relate and recover.

'I get immense joy when someone comes up to me & says that my willingness to open up about depression, anxiety, alcoholism, & addiction has helped them in some way,' said Haynes. 'I’m posting these photos to let y’all in on my truth. I’m so grateful to be where I am now ... but man these times were dark. I’m a human being with flaws just like you. If ur in the middle of the dark times...I promise you it doesn’t have to last forever.'

Haynes told Attitude magazine in March that the hospitalization came after a week of heavy boozing while locked in a room at the Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria. He said when he 'was found' he was heavily bruised, unable to walk, had multiple seizures, lost partial vision temporarily and 'ended up in 5150 psyche hold.'In a series of five images in his post Monday, the Teen Wolf actor was seen in a hospital bed fitted with heart monitors. In other selfies Haynes shared from the time frame, he stared into the camera while in a plane and at a residence.

Haynes made it clear he was concerned with keeping it real on the social media site, as he said he 'no longer [wants] to project a curated life.

'Worrying about what time to post on social media so I can maximize my likes or being mad at myself that I don’t look the same way I did when I was addicted to pills is a complete waste of why I was put on this earth,' he said. 'I don’t want worrying about if I look hot or not on Instagram to be my legacy.'

He continued: 'I don’t want to skirt around the truth to please other people or to gain economic success. I have far more important things to say than what magazine I just shot for or what tv show I’m a part of (Although I’m very thankful I still get to do what I love).'

The Andale, Kansas native told Attitude that he'd entered rehab for four months last year, and had six months sobriety under his belt at the time.

'I got so heavily involved with drugs and alcohol to mask the amount of pain I was feeling that I couldn't even make some decisions for myself,' he said. 'I was drowning in my own s***.'

Haynes told the publication that his 'downward spiral' into drug abuse began three years ago, and was complicated by a series of major life events that transpired in the time frame. The actor married Kardashian family florist Jeff Leatham in October of 2017 only to split less than a year later, and his mother Dana Haynes died in March of 2018.

4. Jada Pinkett Smith opened up about her life, marriage and her new Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk in a new interview. The 47 year old actress revealed in a new interview with The Guardian that she knew she wasn't going to be a traditional wife when she married Will Smith. She also spoke about her new Facebook Watch series was inspired by talks with three friends, Salma Hayek, Pauletta Washington (Denzel Washington's wife) and Ruby Dee.

'I knew that I was not built for conventional marriage,' the actress began. 'Even the word 'wife': it's a golden cage, swallow the key.'

'Even before I was married, I was like, "That'll kill me." And it damn near did! So why wouldn't you share what you've been through, when you see that other people are out there, trying to figure this crap out?'

'We decided to make it public because it's part of the healing. I feel like if we don't have real understanding about it, I don't know if interpersonal relationships are possible,' she continued.

She clarified that she loves her husband, her 'life partner,' adding she could not have asked for a better one.

'But I can assure you that some of the most powerful women in the world feel caged and tied, because of the sacrifices they have to make to be in that position, she said.

'So I wanted to talk about how we really feel about marriage. How do we really feel about different, unconventional relationships? How do we really feel about raising children? Honestly,' she said, which lead to Red Table Talk being born.

Smith launched her series Red Table Talk in May 2018 on the Facebook Watch streaming platform, and there was quickly an order for additional episodes.

The second season premiered in May 2019, which reportedly is comprised of 20 episodes, featuring Jada and her mother Adrienne sitting around the table with various guests.

Pinkett Smith added that she did pitch Red Table Talk to conventional TV networks and streaming services, but revealed she went with Facebook because they offered the most flexibility.

'The others all wanted to add a dancing bear to it. So many dancing bears, when I just wanted us sitting around a table,' Smith began.

'And the other reason I couldn’t go to mainstream TV is that Willow is not built for that kind of conventional set-up. She can’t be there every episode – she’s a little butterfly,' she said.

'Something comes up and she says, "Ma I got to go to the mountains for a week," and I got to let her go. That’s part of her mental health, she needs freedom. You’ve just got to let her fly.'

5. 90 Day Fiance star Ashley Martson has officially moved on from troublesome Jay Smith with Christian Estrada. Christian is currently on Bachelor in Paradise but his search for love must not have completed since he went on a date with Ashley. Over the weekend, the two went to the most magical place on earth, Disney World, for a super fun date. Will there be more dates in the future for this cross-over reality television couple?

Before he started dating 90 Day Fiance’s Ashley Martson, Christian Estrada was searching for love on this season of Bachelor in Paradise. This week on the show, Christian and Jordan Kimball get into a huge fight, seemingly over Nicole Lopez-Alvar. The fight quickly turns physical when Jordan actually picks up Christian and throws him to the ground. Watch Bachelor in Paradise Monday and Tuesday at 8 on ABC to see their fight play out.

Most 90 Day Fiance fans were relieved when Ashley Martson kicked Jay Smith to the curb. He had been unfaithful to her and was seeing another woman behind her back. But it wasn’t the first time Jay Smith had been caught cheating on her. His bad behavior was going on three days after he and Ashley got married.

Ashley caught him using a dating app of all things. It was hard for her to give up on their relationship, but Jay pushed her to the edge and she filed for divorce in April 2019. Although she had previously filed in January and withdrew it, this time was for real. Jay Smith was even bailed out of jail by another girl, Kayla Ann O’Brien, that started a GoFundMe to raise the money. Jay and Kayla are rumored to be separated because Jay cheated on her.

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captainblogger100posts · 6 years ago

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Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side http://www.nature-business.com/nature-in-a-mississippi-restaurant-two-americas-coexist-side-by-side/

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Lovetta Green stayed away from President Trump’s rally last week because she dislikes him so much. “When he gets up to talk, I just change the TV,” she said.CreditCreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. — Crystal Walls and Lovetta Green have the easy warmth that comes with working together 23 years, Ms. Walls as a waitress and Ms. Green in the kitchen of the restaurant where everyone in town seems to gather.

They share a fierce loyalty to Dale’s restaurant, its signature chicken and dressing dish, and to the late owner, Dale Graham, who used to slip Ms. Green money to buy her children birthday presents when she was short.

But they agree on virtually nothing about politics, side by side in their separate Americas in the city where President Trump lit into Christine Blasey Ford and the #MeToo movement last week, to cheers from the crowd.

Ms. Walls, 60, who is white, was there with her 16-year-old grandson, rapt. Ms. Green, 45, who is black, stayed away from a president she dislikes so much that she grabs the remote whenever he appears on television.

“I don’t like everything to do with him,” Ms. Green said. “The way he was womanizing, talking bad toward women, I can’t respect him as a president. When he gets up to talk, I just change the TV. From the gate, he just struck me wrong.”

Ms. Walls’s verdict on the rally: “It was pretty awesome.” And on the #MeToo movement: “Any woman can say anything. You know as well as I do, they bring it on themselves, to get up the ladder, to destroy somebody they don’t care for. I think it’s something that should be kept personal. Sure there’s a lot of bad guys in this world doing a lot of things they shouldn’t have been.”

On cable news and social media, hurling insults across the political divide has become the background noise of American life. But in Southaven, a more intimate and constrained dynamic is playing out. Here two friends do not have the luxury of sealing themselves off from those with opposing views. They navigate their differences as part of their daily shifts.

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Crystal Walls attended Mr. Trump’s rally with her grandson and agreed with his criticism of Chrstine Blasey Ford.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

Their lives intersect even as their politics do not. When Ms. Green got her job at Dale’s, Ms. Walls had already been there 23 years, having started at the age of 14 working a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. The two women lived as children within a few miles of each other in Whitehaven, just across the Tennessee border. (When she was 7, Ms. Walls moved to Nesbit, Miss., just nine miles from Southaven.) They both spent years raising their children as single parents. They commiserate about crime and watch their grandchildren like hawks.

It took a while for them to open up to each other about politics, but that reticence is long gone.

“We can talk about it but sometimes it gets heated and we have to bring ourselves down to reality,” Ms. Green said. “Somebody might have to come out of the office and say, ‘What the heck is going on?’”

Take their sparring about President Trump’s comments about Dr. Blasey’s testimony. They agreed they couldn’t understand why women had waited so long to confront men they accused of assault, whether in the case of Bill Cosby or Brett M. Kavanaugh. And they both drew a distinction between rape and attempted rape.

Ms. Walls said her own daughter was raped, beaten and left unconscious in a motel about 20 years ago. That led her to be more skeptical of Dr. Blasey’s account of continuing trauma and gaps in memory, as well as any explanation that post-traumatic stress disorder might be to blame.

“PTSD, c’mon, get real,” she said. “Maybe she needs to talk to some servicemen that really understand PTSD. It’s not that I don’t understand rape, big time. But if it affects you that bad, which it did my daughter, you go to counseling, whatever you need to do. My daughter’s gone on just fine with her life.”

So when President Trump launched into an imitation of Dr. Blasey’s testimony, Ms. Walls found herself laughing along, if a bit guiltily. Ms. Green countered that when Dr. Blasey first testified, President Trump had told aides he thought she came across as sincere. Then he turned on her at the rally.

“And he got up there and they say he mocked her when he was at the center, that just doesn’t sit well with me,” she said. “That means you are flip-flopping on their side. As the president, you shouldn’t have mocked her, period, even though Kavanaugh is going up for judge.”

Ms. Walls: “Even though what he said was true.”

Ms. Green: “Shut up, C. Quit it. See, this is how we get started.”

But even as they square off, they are careful with each other, reaching out to pat an arm or clutch a hand, sometimes even backing down a bit. Ms. Walls told her friend that she agreed it was unseemly for a president to act that way. “He should have been quiet, showed a little bit more integrity,” she said. “But I did laugh, and I agreed, and it sounded from that crowd like everyone agreed.”

DeSoto County, where Southaven is located, voted overwhelmingly for Mr. Trump, 66 percent to 31 percent for Hillary Clinton. It was a small hamlet until the 1970s, when the suburban population expanded as courts ordered busing in nearby Memphis. An explosion of Memphis-based freight services like FedEx and Southaven’s highly-regarded public schools drew more families, black and white. Now Southaven is the third-largest city in Mississippi. It’s a place of pleasant, if often treeless, subdivisions and large strip malls, with no central downtown. Dale’s, which opened in 1966, stands out for its bright pink exterior and is one place friends can find each other, along with church and school.

Southaven is 71 percent white and 22 percent black, according to the 2010 census. Because most of its housing was developed after the 1970s, neighborhoods are generally integrated, and so are schools. But political loyalties appear starkly divided by race — nearly every white person interviewed in the area backed Mr. Trump, and every black person opposed him.

Candy Jordan, a black office administrator, blames the president for incidents of racial hostility that she had never experienced before his election. She said her daughters’ friend was called a racial epithet by an elderly neighbor who accused the teenager of ruining her flower bed. “There’s a difference between following a person and following what’s right,” she said.

By contrast, Jill Gregory, who is raising three children in the nearby town of Olive Branch and is white, said, “Trump is the only president that’s been elected and he doesn’t have any other interest than serving the American people.”

And so it went at Dale’s, despite the evident affection of the staff for each other. Ms. Green said all the Trump supporters she knew were white, prompting an uneasy rejoinder from Melissa Thomas, the general manager. “What does that mean?” said Ms. Thomas, herself a fervent Trump backer. Last week, she and her daughter, Ms. Gregory, had made sure to be at the rally site by 6:30 a.m., nine hours before it was scheduled to start.

The day after the rally was particularly trying, as Ms. Green listened to the exuberant waves of co-workers and patrons who had attended.

“Just like y’all were tired of me talking about Obama when he was in it, I’m tired about y’all talking about what you did yesterday,” she said she told them. “And I walked out from the whole conversation.”

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Melissa Thomas, a manager at Dale’s restaurant in Southaven, Miss., checked on customers during the lunch rush on Sunday.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

Later she said she realized she may have been too harsh — after all, seeing a president was part of history. But that didn’t change Ms. Green’s opinion of Mr. Trump, despite the argument of Ms. Thomas, the general manager, that he was improving the economy.

“We got more money in our checks,” Ms. Thomas told her.

Ms. Green was having none of it. “Do I? How do you know? You’re the boss lady. Really? We don’t see a change.”

Ms. Green and Ms. Walls differ on almost everything Mr. Trump has done — the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, even his posture toward North Korea.

But the two women cannot afford the rage that has consumed partisans these past weeks. They do not want to torpedo an affection that has deepened over the years. And so they were more modulated in their views when they were together than when they spoke separately.

“We can get into some throwdowns, but five minutes later we’re talking like we’re best friends,” Ms. Walls said.

For all her ardent conservatism, Ms. Walls has her own qualms about Mr. Trump. “I got to wait and see how he finishes this before I decide if I vote for him again,” she said. “He’s a loose cannon in a lot of other ways.”

But she is unyielding in her belief that the confirmation battle was a Democratic ploy to block a conservative justice. That has made her more determined to vote Republican in the midterm elections next month. Ms. Green is equally certain she’ll vote Democratic and that the country would be better off with a different president.

As the two women talked, Ms. Thomas drifted in and out, circling the room asking customers how they liked their heaping plates of food. The manager works seven days at week at Dale’s, which just won the “Spirit of Main Street” award from the chamber of commerce. “I cried,” she said.

Thinking back over the confirmation battle, listening to Ms. Green and Ms. Walls joke and joust, she allowed herself a plaintive question. It was about the country as much as the chatter at Dale’s: “How can we both hear the same thing and get something totally different out of it?”

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/trump-kavanaugh-mississippi-.html |

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side, in 2018-10-08 17:40:58

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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blogcompetnetall · 6 years ago

Text

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side

Nature

Image

Crystal Walls attended Mr. Trump’s rally with her grandson and agreed with his criticism of Chrstine Blasey Ford.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

It took a while for them to open up to each other about politics, but that reticence is long gone.

Ms. Walls: “Even though what he said was true.”

Ms. Green: “Shut up, C. Quit it. See, this is how we get started.”

The day after the rally was particularly trying, as Ms. Green listened to the exuberant waves of co-workers and patrons who had attended.

Image

Melissa Thomas, a manager at Dale’s restaurant in Southaven, Miss., checked on customers during the lunch rush on Sunday.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

“We got more money in our checks,” Ms. Thomas told her.

Ms. Green was having none of it. “Do I? How do you know? You’re the boss lady. Really? We don’t see a change.”

Ms. Green and Ms. Walls differ on almost everything Mr. Trump has done — the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, even his posture toward North Korea.

“We can get into some throwdowns, but five minutes later we’re talking like we’re best friends,” Ms. Walls said.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/trump-kavanaugh-mississippi-.html |

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side, in 2018-10-08 17:40:58

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

blogwonderwebsites · 6 years ago

Text

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side

Nature

Image

Crystal Walls attended Mr. Trump’s rally with her grandson and agreed with his criticism of Chrstine Blasey Ford.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

It took a while for them to open up to each other about politics, but that reticence is long gone.

Ms. Walls: “Even though what he said was true.”

Ms. Green: “Shut up, C. Quit it. See, this is how we get started.”

The day after the rally was particularly trying, as Ms. Green listened to the exuberant waves of co-workers and patrons who had attended.

Image

Melissa Thomas, a manager at Dale’s restaurant in Southaven, Miss., checked on customers during the lunch rush on Sunday.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

“We got more money in our checks,” Ms. Thomas told her.

Ms. Green was having none of it. “Do I? How do you know? You’re the boss lady. Really? We don’t see a change.”

Ms. Green and Ms. Walls differ on almost everything Mr. Trump has done — the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, even his posture toward North Korea.

“We can get into some throwdowns, but five minutes later we’re talking like we’re best friends,” Ms. Walls said.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/trump-kavanaugh-mississippi-.html |

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side, in 2018-10-08 17:40:58

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

computacionalblog · 6 years ago

Text

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side

Nature

Image

Crystal Walls attended Mr. Trump’s rally with her grandson and agreed with his criticism of Chrstine Blasey Ford.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

It took a while for them to open up to each other about politics, but that reticence is long gone.

Ms. Walls: “Even though what he said was true.”

Ms. Green: “Shut up, C. Quit it. See, this is how we get started.”

The day after the rally was particularly trying, as Ms. Green listened to the exuberant waves of co-workers and patrons who had attended.

Image

Melissa Thomas, a manager at Dale’s restaurant in Southaven, Miss., checked on customers during the lunch rush on Sunday.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

“We got more money in our checks,” Ms. Thomas told her.

Ms. Green was having none of it. “Do I? How do you know? You’re the boss lady. Really? We don’t see a change.”

Ms. Green and Ms. Walls differ on almost everything Mr. Trump has done — the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, even his posture toward North Korea.

“We can get into some throwdowns, but five minutes later we’re talking like we’re best friends,” Ms. Walls said.

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/politics/trump-kavanaugh-mississippi-.html |

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side, in 2018-10-08 17:40:58

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

internetbasic9 · 6 years ago

Text

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side

Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side Nature In a Mississippi Restaurant, Two Americas Coexist Side by Side https://ift.tt/2NtWomE

Nature

Image

Crystal Walls attended Mr. Trump’s rally with her grandson and agreed with his criticism of Chrstine Blasey Ford.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

It took a while for them to open up to each other about politics, but that reticence is long gone.

Ms. Walls: “Even though what he said was true.”

Ms. Green: “Shut up, C. Quit it. See, this is how we get started.”

The day after the rally was particularly trying, as Ms. Green listened to the exuberant waves of co-workers and patrons who had attended.

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Melissa Thomas, a manager at Dale’s restaurant in Southaven, Miss., checked on customers during the lunch rush on Sunday.CreditAndrea Morales for The New York Times

“We got more money in our checks,” Ms. Thomas told her.

Ms. Green was having none of it. “Do I? How do you know? You’re the boss lady. Really? We don’t see a change.”

Ms. Green and Ms. Walls differ on almost everything Mr. Trump has done — the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, even his posture toward North Korea.

“We can get into some throwdowns, but five minutes later we’re talking like we’re best friends,” Ms. Walls said.