Writes Sophie Gilbert, in "Russell Brand Wasn’t an Anomaly/The former TV host and actor was a mascot, at best, for a media culture that routinely dehumanized and hypersexualized young women" (The Atlantic).
Gilbert links to a 5-star review of a new documentary, "Russell Brand: In Plain Sight review – so many red flags ignored for so long/From demeaning sexual remarks on radio to offering his assistant naked to Jimmy Savile, every disturbing detail of this cogent documentary makes it mind-boggling that these alleged abuses have taken so long to surface" (The Guardian). Excerpt:
Even in the best-case scenario for Brand – the one in which all these specific, independent accusations turn out to be false – we view him as a sleazy, sexist creep because he has told us.
“Don’t be afraid of your own sexuality,” we see him tell a guest on his chatshow, in a clip dug up by Dispatches. “Do be a bit afraid of mine though.” During an interview on Conan O’Brien’s US talkshow, Brand told the host: “You don’t wanna be around when the laughter stops.” One old standup routine, joking about enjoying “them blowjobs where mascara runs a little bit”, spookily echos the exact words of one of the programme’s allegations....
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99 comments:
If he does a comedy tour that rolls through my town I'll go see him.
YEah, I get it.
Someday we'll realize all this toxic masculinity has seeped into our culture, letting the male gaze defile us. We don't need mansplainers to tell us it's bad to constantly denigrate entire genders.
Let the finger wagging commence, with much 'tsk-ing'. It would appear the old '#Me Too' pogrom has not yet outlived its usefulness, although how much water it can hold will probably be a matter of party lines.
Ahem - now, about Hunter Biden and all those photographs on his laptop, which has been proven beyond all doubt to be a self-captured record of his activities, and not Russian propaganda.......
Men are routinely horndogs. Not news. Sexually attractive and charismatic men routinely take advantage of their natural advantages. Not news.
Women are routinely attracted to power and status, be it rock stars, movie stars, cults, or harems. "Casting couch" was a phrase 100 years before Brand came along. "Groupie" was a word many, many decades before Brand came along.
Why the shock now? Slow news day? Deflecting from his COVID critique?
Even in the best-case scenario for Brand – the one in which all these specific, independent accusations turn out to be false – we view him as a sleazy, sexist creep because he has told us.
Kick ass. Another female liberal joining the coordinated Russel Brand attack. It's a clever way to suppress free speech, without having to admit you're a totalitarian censor.
But, like the Rolling Stone post below, even if the accusations turn out to be false, the case against Russel Brand is still rock solid. Therefore he must be silenced!!
No more speaking out against Big Tech, Big Pharma, the Ukraine Proxy War...the poison vaccine....
Trump is dishonestly accused of admitting to sexual assault with his "grab 'em by the pussy" remark, but the truth (as every sensible person has known and every honest person has admitted from the start) is that he was making an astute (and accurate) observation about sex and fame.
Nobody complained about Brand's behavior because those women were willing to go along to be associated with a handsome famous man. Now they're not because he's no longer a left-wing darling.
One thing that gets conveniently forgotten about that time is, with few exceptions, EVERYONE was a willing participant. I was there for some of it. No coercion was necessary.
The regret 20 years later rings hollow. I've done things I regret. I don't try to punish the other people who were there with me then.
This may be the reason that Howard Stern has become very very woke.
Brand’s raptorial sexuality was his personality, his unique selling point, and for a very long time he was handsomely rewarded for it.
What exactly is supposed to be new here?
Many women are attracted to "raptorial sexuality"?
Men like Brand have always existed and have always been rewarded for their behavior with sexual favors and increased social status. From what I've read Brand has been better behaved than most of those guys. By the way, I wonder how often Brand encountered good looking airheads who were dumber than rocks but got their jobs because they were attractive and female?
Being a gentleman in the sexual arena is a fool's game. Having said that, I have never understood men driven by an insatiable need to rut. We have the choice and ability to not act like animals, we are reasoning beings.
So, basically, he was boorish and he hurt these women's feelings.
Well, then call it sexual assault ten years later and send him off to jail for thirty years, the bastard.
As a corollary to this kerfuffle, wait until this tatted-up generation starts regretting the art they had permanently emplaced on their bodies 20 years on. Will we sue all the tattoo artists? "I was drunk, he took advantage of me, then charged me money!"
It's illegal to do this? If so - why didn't they haul him off years ago?
Has anyone here seen “Get Him to the Greek” or “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”? In both movies Russel Brand plays a hypersexualized, over the top Rockstar. That was the whole schtick.
It’s almost like they are attacking the characters he played in these two movies. He admits publicly that he was extremely promiscuous during that time. He was at the height of his Hollywood fame. I’m sure it was there for the taking.
But this isn’t about Russel Brand being a sexual predator. This is a coordinated effort to silence and punish him for challenging the approved Big Brother narrative. There are plenty of liberal Sophie Gilberts out there willing to throw the necessary stones.
Brand had a brand. When he made money for the right people, many things were overlooked.
Don’t you have a “duh” tag?
It's standard comedy, the pick-on-the-girl act. The girl plays modesty and the guy plays innuendo.
It's explicitly exempt from sexual harassment rules.
Nowadays there's an endless stream of ex Imus newsladies complaining about what a bad man he was, each one the other half of the act.
When flight 370 disappeared and there was speculation how long the rescue beacon battery would last, they immediately asked the girl about how long batteries last.
You can fly under the radar as long as you go along with the system. Brand stopped doing that, and here he is getting a good old fashioned high-tech lynching for stuff that was adjudicated many years ago.
Let's do Hunter Biden next, shall we? Should he be flying on Air Force One, representing America at state dinners, etc, etc, after trafficking women, violating the Mann Act, transporting prostitutes across state lines, for example? Stuff we know he has done? Oh no! He is of the protected class, he is a regime insider, it's Brand who questions the wisdom of arming fascists in Kiev, who pointed out that the Canadian truckers actually represented a genuine workers' movement, and not fascism. It's brand who must be deplatformed.
"In Soviet Union, an inconvenient man is disappeared, in America, we only make him invisible."
Forgetting Sarah Marshall was a great movie. Brand was great in it. He was terrible in Death on the Nile. Probably because he lost touch with that character.
what about Howard Stern? He's still okay, right? I mean: He's STILL On the Reservation.
Isn't it FUNNY? that it's ONLY when people leave the reservation that we find out they were creeps?
“Brand had a brand. When he made money for the right people, many things were overlooked.“
That goes for all of those famous folks who don’t toe the liberal line.
Unreal.
Remember when Brand got fired from MTV for wearing a bin laden costume to work on 9/12/2001?
Never forget is what people said a little more than a week, but they have forgotten plenty when they all flock to defend Brand.
There are more than a few young women who “dehumanize” and “hypersexualize” themselves on a daily basis.
Let’s get to the facts.
So do we rummage around the pasts of the accusers to figure out if they were really just sleazy sluts/slags, and then declare them to be unclean? Because that seems to be the message.
Remember when we had cultural norms/taboos defining what men and women could say to one another? And remember when we wiped all those norms/taboos away, thinking it would be better for women?
Nah, me neither.
Who is next on the sexual predator hit list? It has to be RFK Jr. I'm sure like his father and uncle, he's had plenty of sex with a lot of women. Someone will soon come out of the woodwork.
Gotta silence that guy too...
Thank you again, Sexual Revolution. The gift that keeps on giving.
Is this why Howard Stern is being so obnoxiously woke lately?
What else explains how has he avoided this treatment?
I would like to point out that women who thought hyper sexualizing women wasn't really all that feminist were considered the rubes.
when the left want or need sex - including the sexualization of children - all OK.
When on the perceived not-left (or not towing the leftist narrative) sex is ---de-humanzing!
Got that. good.
Very Clintonesque, even an Obamacity. So, why aren't the "burdens"... uh, burdens of evidence being sequestered in darkness for progress? Why aren't femininist females normalizing that women and girls NOW take a knee? Pro-Choice religion (e.g. ethics).
I didn't read the article, but my feeling is that Sophie Gilbert lets herself off way too easily. At the time that Brand was at his most red assed, he was criticized by some people. Those were the kind of people who are now critical of kindergarten drag shows or, back then, gay marriages. Their criticism could be ignored. Back then Brand was a force for sexual liberation. Horny rock stars were not to be feared back then. The Puritans and sexual repression were the real evils that beset out society. I don't know anything about Sophie Gilbert or even her age, but my guess is that were she of age during Brand's peak horn years, she would have been supportive. Middle class morality is always the enemy for people like her....Brand is always searching for his inner messiah. After he stopped evangelizing for drugs and sex, he veering into radical Marixist politics. The media wasn't completely supportive, but it was part of his Byronic persona and they went along with it. The significant part of the story is not that Brand was a horn dog, but rather that only now when Brand's messiah complex has led him into forbidden areas are these stories coming to light.
Conservatives want to diminish what Brand is accused of, because he's changed his tune politically, but - if you remember what he was doing before he got to where he is now - being a "left-wing darling" meant a lot of talk about Cosmic Consciousness, making him another New Age grifter, and these charges par for the Maharishi-touched-Prudence course.
Take a knee, bare your breasts, nipples at forward attention, do the walk, the slut walk, rebel for social progress they were advised by their feminist guardians. That said, the sexes are complementary and equal in rights.
"...until he finds himself entering The Musk Zone."
How the FUCK does Howard Stern get a pass on all this?
Has anyone here every listened to his radio show, especially when he was in his heyday?
It was the most sexist, misogynist thing you will ever hear.
Oh, wait, Howard is now 'woke' in his own words. He is all-in on Covid nonsense and is eagerly looking forward to taking the new jab.
In other words, even if he's the world's worst human, he's a liberal.
Nothing to see here...
And yet the Left loved him.
Right up until he became inconvenient.
Just like HRC and Harvey Weinstein.
"...it’s best not to comfort themselves too soon with the idea that Brand was in any way an anomaly."
YouTube confirms: Jesse Eisenberg's interview with Romina Puga
I have a serious question though. Didn't feminism do away with the rules about how women should be treated? It's bad if you treat women as one of the guys and it's also bad if you're deferential and delicate.
Doesn't say much for all of Brand's associates if he was so bad for so long, and they are just now waking up.
But as we all know, this has nothing to do with then, and everything to do with now.
A few centuries ago in some parts of Europe, actors and entertainers were considered only slightly more respectable than outright prostitutes.
And anyone who has spent more than half an hour among the theater kids knows that there was wisdom in that view.
It sounds bad. Did people not go after him for so long because he was at the time a loud and proud leftie?
I always thought Brand was harassing and in your face regardless of issue. I also didn't like his wife for similar reasons. But all this "the warning signs were there" are crap innuendo. As Maybee notes, it is "toxic masculinity" which is clear sign of "rape"! Except it isn't, and his behavior was quite attractive to the left when he used his behavior to support their viewpoint. That he as toxic to the right back then, well that was great. Now they want to take what they loved about him at the time and use it against him. I still don't like the guy, but I'm not buying their bullshit.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
This may be the reason that Howard Stern has become very very woke.
The Stern show is one of the places that Brand's behavior was explicitly discussed, and Stern couldn't get enough. When he got engaged to Katy Perry (so sometime prior to 2010) they laughed and joked about Brand having staffers select women for him to hook up with after the show, how he slept with multiple women per day, etc., and Stern was delighted. If the problem is widespread, Stern absolutely was instrumental in spreading it.
The PC religious think that they can abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon evidence, and have her, too, and they are willing to share responsibility for the victims and collateral damage.
They don’t really give a shit about all that they just want to make sure he’s gone in an election year..
Russell Brand didn't create "a media culture that routinely dehumanized & hypersexualized young women".
The Left did. And then they get "righteous" about the cesspool they created.
If women would agree to act together, they could eliminate toxic masculinity, by agreeing to only have sex with their husbands, after marriage. As soon as men discovered that the toxic masculinity wasn’t a successful wooing strategy, they would stop it with the toxic masculinity.
Eva Marie writes, "This may be the reason that Howard Stern has become very very woke."
May be? The pope may be Catholic.
There ought to be an evocative name for this sort of "reform". Yeah... I hereby invent it.
(Tah-dah!)
The Howard Sterm Reformation©️. Tired of being a total shit and an absolute wanker but don't really desire a thorough-going moral reboot? Then try the Howard Stern Reformation©️. In spite of what those brown-nosed blue-stocking tell you, there's more than one bottomless pit of degradation. With the Howard Stern Reformation©️, you can crawl out of one pit and descend into another in one easy step. Now you're totally different but totally the same POS you always were.
The mascara joke is the same sort of joke that Patrice O'Neal made about choking noises.
When is Howard Sterns turn?? Or is that why he claims to now be WOKE?
How new is the documentary? Curious timing.
While I certainly have no love for Russell Brand , Althouseblog using the Guardian as as a source for the accusations against him is a mistake.
Thr Guardian's Moiria Donnegan is a certified liar and libelous spewer of false rape accusations.
The world doesn't need any more Sabrina Erdelys (except to brain-damaged Jann Werner)
The one quality that we all have in common is hypocrisy. It's the universal constant. If any of these stories had come to light a few years back during Brand's Holy Marxist phase, many here, including me, would have been more than happy to join in the cancellation rally. They didn't come to light then, and that's the point. Why are they discovered and condemned at this moment in time. The timing is indeed suspicious....The allegations against Brand are far more credible than those against Kavanaugh but that's not the point. The point is--Why now?.....I think sexual exploitation is far more pervasive in the news and entertainment industries than in politics or even outlaw motorcycle gangs. People like Sophie Gilbert like to point fingers at us, but she should be pointing a hitchhiker's thumb at herself. She went along for the ride.....How can a man like Harvey Weinstein sexually assault some of the most formidable, wealthy, and well connected women in America over a period of decades without the connivance and acquiescence of the news and entertainment industries? Is there similar connivance for all these stories branding Brand? Why doesn't Sophie Gilbert examine or even raise this question?
Hmmm. Hunter Biden is now a renowned artist.
He's a public figure because of his art. (See his profile in NYT)
Why aren't we telling people to not buy his art?
He's done some horrific things to prostitutes, made them cry, etc.
Funny who gets cancelled and who gets feted.
The distinction between "merely boorish" and "rape!" is literally political. See, e.g., Bill Clinton at Epstein's Pedo Island vs. Trump's ridiculous lingerie model verdict. From that view, the only real crime Brand (or Trump) committed was switching -- however ephemerally-- their political allegiance.
Seems to me one could encounter all of these comments attributed to Brand with teachers in our public school systems and public libraries and no one would bat an eye. Just a nod of the head perhaps and a "ruh, ruh" Uncle Joe. BTW, has anyone attacking Brand mentioned that there's a nice picture of a 16 y.o. Dr. Jill, the babysitter, comfortably sitting in Uncle Joe's lap? Has anyone mentioned Joe's propensity for showering with his daughter, and then attacked Brand? No, I thought so.... Sounds like Brand got over the target and someone directed the media to smear him.
The question is not whether Brand was an exemplary human being. The question is whether he had nonconsensual sex with any of four specific women. And no, Althouse, having a second X chromosome does not give one permission to retroactively withdraw consent.
Jesus, if a flakey, anti science zealot and alt right charlatan can’t finger blast children willy nilly, I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
- MAGAt Cultist
Eva Marie said...
"This may be the reason that Howard Stern has become very very woke."
I suspect that he might just be delaying the enviable. At some point, they'll cancel him for the way that he treated women. (If he's lucky, he won't be cancelled until after he's dead.) The same thing can be said for Jimmy Kimmel. (Unless he figures out a way to destroy every copy of The Man Show in existence.)
As for Russel Brand not being an anomaly, I don't know about that. He is an extremely unique character. (With many disturbing character flaws.)
we have numerous incidents of a president doing it.......with kids.
Shhhhh!
The cure for dehumanized and hypersexualized young women is more convents. That is assuming we can satisfy the enormous demand they will exhibit.
Even in the best-case scenario for Brand – the one in which all these specific, independent accusations turn out to be false – we view him as a sleazy, sexist creep
Except you did not view him that way until he also became politically repugnant to you. It is not the sexual sleaze that bothers you, because you fine with it. But now that his politics changed, the sexual sleaze looks like a good weapon for you to pick up and use.
"From demeaning sexual remarks on radio to offering his assistant naked to Jimmy Savile, every disturbing detail of this cogent documentary makes it mind-boggling that these alleged abuses have taken so long to surface"
Oh, the humanity! BadThink and BadSpeak! Off with his head!
I don't believe for one minute anyone who brings allegations to the front from YEARS ago. Eff 'em.
I also don't care if he was a jerk in his behavior. So many are. Many have recorded their jerk behavior, including perhaps statutory rape and incest, on their smartphone cameras and stored the files on their laptops.
Did they break the law? The young lady in the Brand case was past the age of consent in her country. Now she sees a way to maybe get some money. She got the shaft in more ways than one and now wants compensation. Ruined mascara wasn't enough.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
They are going after Brand simply because he left the Liberal Plantation. Watch his interview/talk with Jordan Peterson. I read his book on addiction. Didn't know much about him really until the past year or so.
So he was a drug addicted womanizer when he was considered to be on the left. He's since cleaned himself up and is better behaved and now is considered "right wing". Sounds like a nice redemption arc.
On the other hand…if we are to dismiss these women as having accepted the deal, then don’t we have to recognize that Brand accepted the deal as well? It was ok so long as he was useful. Now he’s no longer useful.
Ceack.
Remember Kavenaugh? Yeah. I'm going to give this devil the benefit of the law if only for mine own sake.
The TeaBagHag want's to cut his throat right now regardless of the law.
I find the timing of this "outrage"...... curious.
So the BBC is also dropping old Brand content, and UK government officials are writing Rumble to them to block Brand’s content. We need to remind all these people claiming moral superiority that they have decided to forego the concept of due process. Once that is gone, anyone’s livelihood and freedom can be lost with just an accusation. And these people writing letters have just provided evidence of violating someone’s rights. Maybe they want to reconsider actions.
BBC dropping Brand re-runs. Just like our TV stations dropped vintage Roseanne and Cosby.
After a brief hiatus, both are back on the air.
Rusty said...
"Ceack.
Remember Kavenaugh?"
Yeah - and I see what's happening - but he was still low-hanging fruit. But Scientology's Danny Msterson just got 30 years. Remember Jim Carrey's transformation before his girlfriend turned up dead? The guy Oprah was promoting just got 118 years for rape. Bill Clinton still has THREE rapes to answer for.
It just all looks different using a New Age filter.
By the way, I am a firm "innocent until proven guilty" guy: Russell Brand deserves every benefit of the doubt - but evidence is still evidence.
Good old Howard also went full-on black face, so he's got that going for him.
Shorter Tea Bag Hag -
Take your big government Vaccine! He's guilty!
Leland's Posts - all of them - for the win.
Hunter Biden's sexual adventures - all A-OK!
Rusty, my lad, not everyone wants to cut throats.
Some of our engines don’t run on a blend of hatred, resentment and spite; that’s MAGAt fuel.
The that I find curious is that as soon as someone starts spouting batshit crazy, qanon flavored drivel, the right embraces them and absolves them of any sin.
during the 2000s
"2000s" looks so awkward and wrong, and yet it's still better than the alternatives (oughts, zips, zeros, etc.)...
I find the timing of this "outrage"...... curious.
I find it explanatory :)
TeaBagHag - Explain why everything (everything) the leftist hivemind find disagreement with - is "Q Annon?
HBtpfH, sure.
Qannon is absurd, I agree but it’s just the most extreme example of the right’s susceptibility to conspiracy horseshit. I think it represents the kind of unmoored thinking and proud ignorance that characterizes today’s mainstream conservative movement.
I could use any of other vendors of resentment and paranoia, that feed public stupidity : infowars, Newsmax, Breitbart, Fox News but I chose Q because it’s the most extreme example. Low hanging fruit, if you will.
Thanks for asking.
So the BBC is also dropping old Brand content,:
Thus the he BBC is a government agency in charge of deleting history that the current government finds distasteful. In their words we must not change only the preset, but the past.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
"Hunter Biden's sexual adventures - all A-OK!"
Not true- I'm totally in favor of taking away Hunter's Youtube show.
HELP! (I Need Somebody) HELP! (Not Just Anybody)
There’s a whole lotta projection in that teabaghag moniker.
Russel Brand had..... sex. Sex is only celebrated if your are Cardi B... or a leftist gay sex book sitting on the 5th grade public school library shelf.
Tea Bag Hag - so again - anything not properly leftist ... is Q.
Thanks for your answer.
The fuming, incoherent rants of teabaghag suggests we have a new, even more deranged version of Inga.
If facts are uncomfortable to the collective hivemind obedient narrative liar-left - they just yell "Conspiracy nut!" or "Q!" or "Russian Disinformation!~"...
FBI lost count of how many paid informants were at Capitol on Jan. 6, and later performed audit to figure out exact number: ex-official
It seems one purpose of promoting transgressive antisocial amorality among the left is to have the evidence available to punish anyone at any time for their past transgressive antisocial amorality.
The death spiral of feces down a flushed commode has nothing on leftist autophagy. Let the circle be unbroken!
TeaBagHag said...
"Rusty, my lad, not everyone wants to cut throats.
Some of our engines don’t run on a blend of hatred, resentment and spite; that’s MAGAt fuel.
The that I find curious is that as soon as someone starts spouting batshit crazy, qanon flavored drivel, the right embraces them and absolves them of any sin."
Your own words condemn you.I'm sure in some universe somewhere you're considered intelligent. Just not in this one.
"... that KIMMEL relentlessly harassed women he worked with, sexualizing and dehumanizing them on air, and then belittling them to the public when they objected." Based on The Man Show, this is equally true, so what's the difference? You could substitute STERN, also.
Always amusing when pussy hat wearing,Russian prostitutes peeing on bed believers, collusion believers, nobody knows what Mueller knows, accuse the other side of being susceptible.
I looked up Sophie Gilbert. I doubt that even Brand at his horndoggiest would have gone after her.
Even assuming Brand's sexual conduct was problematic that is not why he is being attacked NOW. He is being attacked based on his public questioning of governing, corporate, academic and media policies NOW. Although I don't know much about Brand, my understanding is that there is Brand 1.0 and Brand 2.0. Brand 1.0 was someone with a lot of problems -- sex, drugs, alcohol. Brand 2.0 is post treatment for all of these things. Brand 1.0 was tolerated; Brand 2.0 is not. Brand 2.0 doesn't defend Brand 1.0. Brand 2.0 is being "non-personed" because of what he says now, even though they are using Brand 1.0 to justify it.
The Important Russell Brand Detail that “Innocent Until Proven Guilty“ People Are Missing (No Pasarán)
"As Utah's Jim Ballard joins the conservatives accused by — anonymous — women of sexual harassment, an important detail with regards to Russell (@rustyrockets) Brand that at least some “innocent until proven guilty“ people seem to be missing:
The extreme sexualization that we have gone through since the Left came to power in the 1960s along with — this is much rarely mentioned — the Left’s concurrent weaponization of its (unarguably pleasurable) consequences
Society has become highly sexualized, including in high school, and now, even at a younger age (drag queen shows, anyone?), and then we wonder that women and men alike, not to mention boys and girls alike (as mentioned, below the age of 16), start engaging in this pursuit of pleasure
Then, the height of hypocrisy:
The left's Drama Queens for whom it used to be a melodrama that sex wasn't open and free, now start using the loosening of morals as another melodrama, although of course only or mainly against conservatives
In the Left's worldview, Deserving Dreamers (male or female) constantly need to be defended against or join the fight against Despicable Deplorables. (Update: Cheers for the Instalinks, Ed Driscoll and Sarah Hoyt…)
Thus, #metoo was basically a weapon against Donald Trump — even though the #left knew it would invariably have to sacrifice some foot soldiers (a movie producer, a senator, etc) in the process. Later, it was Judge Kavanaugh…
Insofar as none of these females filed any accusations within a year — or even within 10 years — of the occurrences, I consider Russell Brand nothing but innocent.
Or, if you prefer, I consider @rustyrockets as guilty as the (unarmed) January 6 protesters who got 20+ years for exercising their right to protest, and that in spite of the fact that some of them weren’t even in Washington DC that day, let alone at the… protest (!)"
More at the link...
The timing of the, long past, outrage is.... curious.
And does any of those prove he raped anyone? Bill Cosby didn’t do any of that. Harvey Weinstein wasn’t the least bit funny. They both raped. Howard Stern and Jimmy Kimble were horrifying to women on their shows - did either of them rape?
I’ll consider this a coordinated hit job on Brand until there’s some real evidence. And I’d also say that Brand criticism are right over the sensitive target since he’s taking so much flack.
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