We're over sixteen months away from the next presidential election and yet the contenders currently soaking up attention are a real mess.
That's good news for Marianne Williamson. Means she could still turn her campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination around. We're not saying she will, we're just saying she could.
We've been noting -- before the press did (POLITICO has been especially covering her campaign) that she has control issues and trouble communicating appropriately with staff. She's also now lost not one but two campaign managers. It shouldn't be this difficult for her to carry out another little-chance-in-hell campaign for the nomination. She managed to do that, after all, in 2020 barely breaking a sweat.
So what's changed?
Her lackeys have convinced her that she has a real shot at the nomination. Krystal Ball especially has worked hard to pimp Marianne but scared off potential voters when she loudly hectored them to in that infamous grow-up-get-real-speech/attack.
Maybe it's time The Merry Mariannes got real. Their candidate is in serious trouble and needs to right her ship immediately before it capsizes.
Williamson is running a lousy campaign. Lousy. It's worse than what she did in 2019 and 2020 where she at least came off real and genuine. Who the hell is this Marianne?
Three still with the campaign spoke to us to try to explain what the problem is.
As they detail it, the problem is Marianne. Specifically, the problem is that she doesn't know who she is anymore.
For example, June's about to pass with Marianne never uttering the words "Happy Pride." Yes, that is a change from 2019's campaign. We're pulling these Pride Tweets from 2019 to the real time repost of them that went up at THE COMMON ILLS June 9, 2019 (we, Ava and C.I., write these media pieces here, C.I.'s solo site is THE COMMON ILLS):
There are five days left of Pride Month as we type this. Yet Marianne's offered not one damn Tweet the whole month. Go back and look at her June 2019 Tweets and you'll see many more than just the four noted above.
What's happened?
She styled herself -- and came to fame -- in the 90s with the hogwash of RETURN TO LOVE which deeply effected some -- not all -- gay men dying from AIDS. It's a given that Barbra Streisand owes her career to gay men because they were the ones applauding her and turning out for her long before she was a name. Though she's not keen on any of her fans, Barbra does usually trying to acknowledge and reach out to the core group that made her. Bette Davis could be a bit of a homophobe (some would argue 'But for her time . . .') and did not embrace gay men the way Joan Crawford did. But both actresses courted their gay fans and knew they owed a great deal to them. Currently, it appears Madonna would have no following at all were it not for the elder gays who have been with her from the start. So it's a bit strange to watch Marianne act as though she just saw someone she owes money to walk in the room whenever LGBTQ+ issues are raised.
At present, she's done 58 seconds on LGBTQ+ in a video -- after being asked about it. In May, she appeared before a college group, Student Democrats at Emory College, and was surprised to find them asking her about the issue:
After being asked about the U.S. House of Representatives’ decision to pass legislation on April 20 that would ban Transgender athletes from competing at schools that receive federal funding, the candidate said that such issues should be handled on a case-by-case basis.
“There are ways to scientifically
determine whether or not, in terms of hormones and muscle mass, it is a
fair contest,” Williamson said. “Whatever is a fair contest is what
should determine what happens in that school.”
That's pretty much it from Marianne -- there's one more, we're holding it for a moment -- which is a huge contrast to her earlier run. For example, in 2019, she was happy to speak to THE WASHINGTON BLADE -- one of the nation's leading LGBTQ+ periodicals. From that article:
“I’ve worked with thousands of people during that time, during the AIDS crisis, spiritual support groups, food, etcetera.,” Williamson said. “So actually, my activism on behalf of that community has been ongoing and began during the AIDS crisis, so my connection to that community has been strong and has been going on for a very long time.”
In the aftermath of racist tweets from President Trump and presiding over a rally in which supporters chanted “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Williamson likened the current administration to Nazi Germany before World War II.
Asked what aspect of the Trump administration’s anti-LGBT record bothers her the most, Williamson identified the transgender military ban, saying Trump “in many ways, leads the pack” in cultural attitudes against transgender people.
When the Blade asked Williamson why she thinks Vice President Mike Pence seems so uncomfortable with the idea of gay rights, she laughed and referenced rumors that Pence is himself gay without explicitly saying so.
“Well, there are all kinds of theories about that, aren’t there?” Williamson said. “Everyone can have their own — can have their own. I have no idea, but I have a sense that other people do.”
Remembering Los Angeles as being hard hit by AIDS in the 1980s because it affected many people in the entertainment industry and LGBT people, Williamson became emotional and unable to speak when she reflected on the ravages of the disease.
“Those of us who did experience it, it imprints them,” Williamson said. “You’re imprinted with something. I can’t even talk about it now and not —“
Also in 2019, she appeared at the LGBTQ Presidential Forum and, when not rewriting history with regards to hogwash during the AIDS crisis -- she insisted she opposed "conversion therapy" and a ban on transgender persons serving in the US military and she insisted that, had she been Donald Trump when Ben Carson mocked and insulted transgender persons, she would have fired him as Secretary of HUD.
There are many, many more examples. So why is she so silent today?
The ACLU, for example, just noted this month:
We celebrate Pride this year in defiance of the almost 500 anti-LGBTQ bills pending or passed in state legislatures around the country. Unsurprisingly, these attacks are turning to the criminal legal system to enforce homophobia and transphobia:
- Bills that would criminalize health care providers and families of trans children for providing necessary and life-saving gender affirming care.
- Bills that would criminalize drag performances.
That was not happening in 2019 when Marianne could find her voice.
We were told at the start of last week that we were missing one moment where Marianne stood up. We were asked if we wanted talk about that because, we were told, it's why she's so silent now.
June 4th, her campaign published a column -- largely from an idea by Marianne herself -- entitled "Transgender Americans Are Americans." It was a brave stand and it left her reeling.
The person who fleshed out her idea into a column? Berated in front of everyone. Attacked for "risking" her campaign. Huh?
Marianne still hasn't read the full column -- which doesn't speak well for her as a candidate since any reporter can read it and might ask about what 'she' wrote -- but she did pour over the comments. And she's a bit of a dope, always has been. Which is how she failed to grasp that the majority of the negative comments are actually coming from just two transphobes -- one of whom, a man, claims he may not vote for her due to her support of transgender people but, elsewhere online, you'll learn that he was never going to vote for her and he hates all leftists. The other is a New Age woman who pulls out every sad trope you could expect other than blaming the transgendered for 'crimes' in past lives resulting in the 'karma' of being born in the wrong bodies this life. That nonsense, by the way, actually does exist. You can be vegan and New Age and also deeply homophobic and deeply racist -- even with all your healing crystals and your aligned chakras.
This sent Marianne reeling, we were told in a group conversation on Saturday.
She wasn't reeling from the transphobia being expressed. No, she was amazed that a 'Libertarian' had been supporting her. It proved, she insisted, that she had a wide base. She needed to cultivate them -- these right wingers -- and this is when she began berating the staffer who actually wrote the piece.
She's okay with the hate expressed against transgender people in the comments because, to her, the big news is that she can court the right-wing.
And that's why she's done nothing else for Pride Month.
Marianne sees her path to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination secured just as long as she can bring homophobic Libertarians into the Democratic Party's primaries and caucuses. Now some may say that the problem there is that there are Democratic Party primaries in some states that are closed -- meaning only declared Democrats can vote in them.
We'd say if you think that's the problem with her strategy and not the fact that she's abandoning core beliefs -- selling out an entire group of people she stood with just a few years ago -- then you're as pathetic as she's become.
Pathetic
Did someone say Chris Hedges?
Chris Hedges is running Cornel West's campaign to distract the American people. As we noted last time, it was Chris that got the presidential nomination for Cornel from The People's Party and that the original plan was that Chris would be Cornel's running mate; however, Eunice Wong (Chris' wife) said no to Chris running. The People's Party imploded the moment Cornel made his announcement because the mainstream press finally had a reason to write about the nut-jobs of that 'party' who are racists (or just believe in embracing racism) and who sexually harass women and who . . . You get the idea. To save his image, Cornel needed a new narrative. So Chris joined with Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka in trying to convince The Green Party to give Cornel their nomination for president. They said no. They said he could run for it, like anyone can, but they weren't giving it to him.
To distract the people, Chris and Cornel were dispatched to go the liars and the fools and the ones you know are too stupid to ask real questions. Which is how, for example, Cornel or "Cornell" as they spelled it, ended up on various YOUTUBE shows with him being portrayed as the nominee of The Green Party. One person, we're being kind, changed her headline after being called out at THE COMMON ILLS to make clear that despite what the interview portrayed he was not the nominee.
But would have been better if you could've grasped that reality on your own.
Worried that might be an issue -- it should have been -- Cornell continued his outreach and ended up on BLACK POWER MEDIA where he was surprised to find real questions. White folks hadn't asked him a single real question. They just nodded and shucked and grinned with him. He was there way of signaling virtue and that's so much better, isn't it, than actually bringing on African-American voices to speak about issues -- or at least they think it is.
Pressed, Cornel spilled all the tea. Told everything about Chris Hedges and the whole backdoor dealing to grab a presidential nomination and how Chris was going to be his running mate and all these other details that never made it in to Chris' 'reporting' about Cornel's run or to Chris' media appearances (YOUTUBE) promoting Cornel's run.
Last week, Jill Stein officially joined the campaign.
She's convinced she can sell Cornel to the Greens and make him their nominee.
Really?
This is the woman who couldn't even get registered Greens to vote for her. And she's going to steer the nomination to Cornel? There's a Karen stepping forward every minute, usually dialing 911. And this is Jill's moment to sour in the sun and grasp just how unimportant and unliked she truly is.
Self-promotion and her trips to Russia made her the Green that people like Katie Halper wanted to speak to on their shows. She failed in her 2012 presidential run and in her 2016 presidential run. May she bring that same level of incompetence to Cornel's campain.
For now, Ajuma Baraka's largely working behind the scenes but deliberately avoiding the spotlight as he realizes that his links to 9/11 Truth and other controveries could harm Cornel's attempt to seize the presidential nomination. The two did manage to show up for an interview on BLACK POWER MEDIA with 'brother Kalonji.' Brother? Yeah, Ajamu was serving up the same garbage that Cornel does. Would have been nice if it had been a real interview but Jill was giggling and laughing and tossing her old crone hair around. She wanted to talk about medicine -- we need a big healing -- but she doesn't trot that snake oil out to the corporate media because they know she's a quack. There were jokes about Russia and there was nothing of value.
Kalonji? We don't know what to say here. You're a nice person but you don't get that an interview requires knowledge and work. Green Party right now? It's a war. It's a war over who's going to control it. And there were things said in that interview that sailed right over your head because you didn't know a damn thing about the party.
And most people don't. But when you've got Green liars who are butt hurt over 2020's nomination still and they want to bring up, for example, Dr Margaret Flowers? They're treading on a whole block of ice that you're going to slip on, land on your ass and look like a fool.
The Green Party has suffered a real blow of late and 2024 could kill it off completely. 2020 saw a bunch of butt hurt whining about the results of the convention. Excuse us, lying about the results of the convention. Dario Hunter, for example, was running for the presidential nomination of the party and then went on Cindy Sheehan's radio show where he accused Dr Flowers (and her late husband Kevin Zeese) of stealing the nomination from him and giving it to Howie Hawkins. Cindy, not the best interviewer herself, just nodded along and fed into garbage.
A real interviewer would have said, "So, Dario, you say it was stolen from you. Can you tell me how you worked to get the word out on your campaign?"
Or, better yet, "Howie Hawkins issued press releases several times every week as he ran for the nomination, he Tweeted non-stop and had an active social media presence. By contrast, you did nothing. There were whole weeks while you were 'campaigning' in which you didn't do a single Tweet. While he was doing video interviews, you weren't. You issued few press releases. Since you didn't have the money to mount a campaign in all 50 states -- or even the 48 of the mainland -- exactly how did you think word was going to get out on your campaign?"
It took a lot of nerve for Stein and Baraka (not "Barack" as one White YOUTUBER put as the title of their fawning video of him) to invoke Margaret Flowers' name considering their behind the scenes garbage pulled against both Kevin Zeese and his wife.
How do they get away with this? They get away it because no one pays attention to The Green Party.
That may seem harsh but it's true. There was a Green that we promoted up until around 2008. She wasn't a candidate. She was a blogger and she was a Green. We found her, honestly, facile. But we wanted to include all voices. So we'd work in a link here or there. And we'd exchange e-mails with her and try to encourage her to speak up. (She never would, and in 2008, would vote Democrat, promote Barack Obama and apparently never look back at life as she crossed over to ON THE NEUTERED SIDE.)
Speak up?
We're not Greens. We've never presented ourselves as Greens. But we've got a stronger body of work on The Green Party -- more positive, yes -- than Green bloggers from the '00s.
We're the ones calling out Amy Goodman for devoting a week each presidential year -- a week of shows -- to the Democratic Party's convention and to the Republican Party's convention. During that week -- which usually sees the one hour daily show expanded to two hours -- they get non-stop coverage. Now The Green Party also has a national convention. If they're lucky, Amy Goodman devotes one paragraph to them in headlines on the Monday after the convention. One paragraph.
Sad but true -- and in fairness to Amy, that one paragraph is often more than any other left outlet -- print, online, radio, YOUTUBE, etc -- offers.
So it's easy for a Dario or a Jill to lie and get away with it.
Which is why you should be questioning the hype machine. What the hell has Cornel ever done to rate any kind of coverage? Nothing.
But for some reason, the YOUTUBERS who have ignored The Green Party are suddenly obsessed with him and promoting him like crazy. Where was that attention when Will Lehman was running to be the president of the UAW and when Will was raising real issues about union leadership betraying the workers?
Katie Halper, THE VANGUARD, DUE DISSIDENCE, Jimmy Dore, THE CONVO COUCH, USEFUL IDIOTS, et al, not one of them -- not one damn one -- bothered to mention Will, let alone invite him on as a guest.
Cornel's useless and a waste of time. And you know that because these same people -- who claim to care about workers -- couldn't be bothered with Will Lehman but can't stop shoving Cornel down your throat.
For a Green Party candidate, this hype is unparalleled.
And that's your first clue that he's not going to accomplish anything. Emma Goldman famously pointed out, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." And if a candidate had a chance of changing anything, they'd bury them. They'd bury them and ignore them, the way these YOUTUBERS ignored Will Lehman.
Cornel showed up on ALJAZEERA last week where they flattered him and pretended he had a campaign with actual plans. Grasp that if a snowball survives in hell and Cornel somehow manages to become president, he's going to need to learn on the job how to do the job. He's never held elected office. So he needs to come in prepared which means actual plans. He has none. He sloganeers while pretending that speechifying is the same as planning. He didn't do the kind of pandering he did on THE CONVO COUCH where he suddenly became open to anti-vax and open to COVID being created in a Chinese laboratory and all the other things those hosts believe in. But he was still pandering. And he got away with it. ALJAZEERA gave him over 23 minutes of time and he couldn't come up with a single plan.
He seems to try to argue that plans aren't needed, that he's like a jazz musician -- see Joseph Kishore's report for WSWS -- but of politics.
That analogy does not work on any level. But let's keep it to the simplest level. Jazz musician's do not make it up as they go along. They may riff and they may improvise but this is around an existing musical plan -- known as a "song." We don't expect Cornel to grasp that because while we actually can play jazz, Cornel studied the violin and that's really not an instrument that people clamor for in a jazz combo. Cornel learned to play by rote and was supposedly very good at marches and classical pieces in high school. He had no flair or exceptional talent. And we think that kind of describes his politics which seems to boil down to repeating everything Bernie said in 2016 and 2019 but adding "brother" and "sister" and "crack pipe" and "Tony! Toni! Tone!" to it. For Cornel, that passes as improv.
As bad as Cornel is, he could be worse, he could be his puppet master Chris Hedges.
Chris remains a part of the campaign while pretending to the media that he's just an observer. And the media let's him get away with that.
From Friday's "Iraq snapshot:"
Briahana Joy Gray. You know her. She's a co-host of RISING. Remember them? Remember when two of the hosts went to town on transgender people and it was left to Olayemi Olurin to call them out? Now when Katie Halper got dropped (for calling out the inhumane treatment of Palestinians), Bri-Bri wondered if she should leave-leave. But, hey, she's happy to sit right next to Robbie and giggle each day never being bothered by his (continued) transphobic remarks. So that tells you about Bri-Bri. She was the press secretary on Bernie Sanders' last campaign. Some might think she'd have a career but no Democratic Party candidate will touch her. Has to do with the end of Sanders campaign.
So yesterday, she's giggling with Chris Hedges. She's lying with him too -- and maybe we'll cover at THIRD -- because that's what they do, they stroke each other and lie for each other and pretend for each other and in their tiny bubble they appear to have influence as a result.
Tired of Cornel West's clowning yet? Greens are already grumbling about him being in the race. And that was before Chris started his latest nonsense:
Now the Green -- I've had a long relationship with the Greens. It can be pretty dysfunctional as well. It's got to really open its doors to a whole new generation of activists -- whether they do that or not, I don't know because it's -- some of these Green Parties are just a collection of like old cranks --
Bri interrupts to giggle and play with hair, smooth it out on both sides -- it should remind you of the following scene in ABOUT LAST NIGHT.
While she flirts, he finishes with "who want to put their name on the ballot to be governor or something."
So this is Chris Hedges. An old crank himself. Unless you just want to call him a prig. And the fact that he lied on the front page of THE NEW YORK TIMES in an article 'reporting' Iraq was linked to 9/11 -- it was not linked, the story was garbage fed to Chrissy. It was the first one to start that lie. But that doesn't deter Chrissy or Bri-Bri.
So what he's doing is making fun of the Green Party. He's mocking them. And that should be enough. He's the one who got Conrel the People's Party nomination and he and Cornel were supposed to run as a ticket but Chris' wife said no. Chris then spent his time trying to strong arm the Green Party into gifting Cornel the nomination. That did not happen and he's been a pissy little priss ever since.
But when he's knocking the Green Party, you may not be getting the back story.
"Rage Against The War Machine." Remember that pathetic nonsense. Small turn out. That surprised them. Because who wouldn't want to be onstage with a convicted pedophile like Scott Ritter and who wouldn't want to be among the many racists invited to the event and the homophobes?
Turns out most people didn't want to be. And, in fact, the Green Party had to release a statement about that nonsense because lies were being spread that they were a part of the group. They were not.
Chrissy Hedges was. He spoke there. He'll do anything for attention. With that in mind, again, this is what he said to Bri:
Now the Green -- I've had a long relationship with the Greens. It can be pretty dysfunctional as well. It's got to really open its doors to a whole new generation of activists -- whether they do that or not, I don't know because it's -- some of these Green Parties are just a collection of like old cranks --
Yep, he's trashing the party -- as Cornel's spokesperson -- and he's also complaining about the fact that the Green Party actually has ethics and doesn't get on stage with registered sex offenders and Nazis and other hate merchants. Chrissy thinks they need to get with the program.
So he insults the Greens. And Bri-Bri finds it hilarious.
Because she's not a journalist. She's a hack and a really dumb idiot.
Let's pretend you have your own YOUTUBE show -- you could, Bri proves anyone can -- and you have a guest come on to promote someone trying to capture The Green Party's nomination. Don't you think after they insulted the party, you would ask them about that? You would probe that? Maybe note that it's probably not helping Cornel if his media guy is attacking the party.
How about this. What if, as the interview went on, he revealed that his 2020 run for Congress -- which lasted maybe a day before he bowed out, wasn't a real run? What if he said, "I wasn't going to mount a real campaign?" Would you just. as Bri-Bri did, continue to giggle and smile at him while nodding along like either a lobotomized idiot or the most desperate whore in the world? Shouldn't you get to the point and say, "You announced a run and yet you never planned to mount a real campaign? If we were dumb enough to believe you back then, why should we be dumb enough to believe you now about Cornel?"
Bri-Bri was too impressed with the empty suit Cornel and blathered idiotically on about how The Green Party was "finally getting someone who has a lot of culture traction, name recognition." First off, stop wetting your panties, Bri-Bri, he's not the party's nominee yet. Second, Ralph Nader. He was the 2000 candidate and he was then -- and is now -- more famous than Cornel could ever hope to be. Ralph was a house hold name. His work for consumer rights made him that. His seventies credits include THE TODAY SHOW, THE DAVID FROST SHOW, THE DICK CAVETT SHOW, DONAHUE, KIDS ARE PEOPLE TOO, THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON (guested three times), THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW -- that's just the 70s and it's not all of the shows he appeared upon. He also wasn't looked down on for being an egghead. No, he spoke to the people, he did not lecture them and was not an egghead like Cornel.
Ralph also wasn't a punchline. Cornel's spent most of his career being a punchline.
Bri-Bri's a dumb idiot who gets dumber every day. How she manages to live that down, we have no idea. Most idiots like that would have long ago rushed for the shadows and not returned.
But like the Jessica Simpson of the faux political set, Bri-Bri just keeps coming back, basically saying, "Watch to see what idiotic thing I'm going to say next!" Somehow she always manages to top herself when it comes to stupidity. And she did chatting up Chris Hedges. She referred to The Green Party as "old hippies from the previous generation." She's not been to a Green Party convention. She's not looked at the stats that explain The Green Party has more likely support from people 24 and under. She doesn't know a damn thing.
Chuck Todd's leaving MEET THE PRESS or maybe he's already gone. Either way, good riddance. But we bring that up because of USEFUL IDIOTS. The show now stars Katie Halper and Aaron Matte. And it really has outlived its purpose. They think they're cute each Monday tellings us how they suffer through the Sunday chat & chews "so you don't have to." Yeah, they stole that from bloggers. In the '00s, you had plenty of them saying that. It's tired. And that focus -- like Chuck Todd -- needs to retire. They don't offer anything of value. They're not smart enough to wing it and they won't do the work required to raise their intelligence. So what they offer each Monday is their own gas bagging about the gas bagging that took place on Sunday.
This is the reality of too many YOUTUBERS including Bri-Bri. They gasbag and that's all they do. Facts don't matter. She serves up false stereotypes while pretending that's she's doing something needed and important. Honey, you're a whore and you're a really dumb whore.
To THE VANGUARD boys, Bri is god. To them and others we quote Demi Moore in THE BUTCHER'S WIFE, "Well you ought to get out more."
Because she's right up there with Rachel Maddow when it comes to exaggerated praise for her supposed intelligence. She's spewing on about "the younger, Bernie-esque energy" and how Greens need to summon that. Huh? In the end there was none. For brief moments, it appeared the were momentum from Bernie's supporters. But in the end, where were they?
Bri should know that better than anyone. Not only was she part of that campaign but she she tried to rally the energy after Bernie dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden, Bernie publicly rebuked her.
Do you remember a mob of support going Bri-Bri's way? No, just members of the YOUTUBE circle-jerk.
Serial plagiarist Chris Hedges had the brains to not reply when Bri-Bri started talking about Green Party members "white-knuckling it" (yes, she was trying to paint them as a White party) and refusing to let new blood in. If only this stupid woman spent as much time doing research as she did doing her eye make up, she might be able to talk for five minutes without being a complete freak show embarrassment.
Chrissy did say, "You can't ask people to come into an organization and immediately be part of a hierarchy." That's exactly what a political party is. But what Chris wants is for People's Party members to invade The Green Party and take it over to give Cornel the nomination.
Greens need to be paying attention. No one's waring you what's taking place. And it didn't start today. This has been going on for weeks. Within The Green Party, they're talking about it -- including to us. But this needs to be all over the internet. Cornel failed with The People's Party and now the goal is to hijack The Green Party and bend it towards the right-wing.
For that to work it's going to take a lot of whoring from a lot of whores. Bri's up for the job as evidenced by this nonsense:
Briahana Joy Gray: I've heard you were asked in an interview if you were going to be part of Cornel West's campaign --
Chris Hedges laughs.
Briahana Joy Gray (Con't): -- and you said something along the lines of "I'm trying not to be!" but you're getting sucked in! What's the status of that now?
Chris Hedges: Well Cornel's a friend of mine over many, many years so I'm definitely sucked in.
He's been a part of the campaign since before Cornel announced it and dirty whore Bri-Bri knows that. She's conning you and working a grift and you're a damn fool if you fall for it.
We're the ones who said, "Hold on a minute" back when everyone was convinced that all we had to do was get rid of the gasbags. We're the ones who said, cut off Cokie Roberts head and watch a dozen and a half bloggers sprout up in her place saying the exact crap that they called her out for.
And that really is how it's gone.
Reality for Katie Halper and Aaron Matte, Chuck Todd didn't start out wanting to whore. He thought he had ethics and he thought he was going to be able to change things. Little by little, day by day, he got co-opted and corrupted. Just like the two of you. Since you are your own bosses, unlike Chuck, you do have the opportunity to get back to where you started when ethics actually mattered to you. If they still do, maybe stop turning every headache of your friend Matt Transphobe Taibbi into a segment? Maybe grasp that the world doesn't revolve around Matt and that there are serious issues out there -- including the war on LGBTQ+ members, the one you ignore. Maybe grasp that you've become what you used to mock and the only thing sadder than that is you appearing not to have noticed. Sixteen months away from a presidential election and you could make a difference. You won't do that by avoiding reality or by cooing to your guests (friends). That's exactly how Chuck Todd wound up a joke, stop thinking this film somehow ends differently for you.
