A Glibertarians Exclusive: Sweetheart, Part IV
Marshalltown, Iowa, August 1933.
Monday. One day off a week, and it’s over. Still… Maggie checked her hair in the bathroom mirror one last time, put on some lipstick, and jammed her sun hat down over her red hair. There. Ready to face another afternoon and evening pouring beer for Marshalltown, by God, Iowa. She smiled, thinking of the day before. I was lucky to find a guy like Paul. Lots of guys would have run away screaming after finding out about my family. The Family.
Still smiling, she walked across the tiny living room of her rented house. She opened the front door.
Standing there, looking at her, was a tall, thin man. He was on the far side of seventy but looked – and was – vigorous. His eyes were the gray of chipped flint; his expression may well have been carved from stone as well. He wore an expensive suit of Italian silk, his tie neatly knotted in a four-in-hand. A gold watch chain crossed his vest. Behind him stood two hulking brutes in cheap linen suits.
“Margarethe,” the old man said.
“Grandfather,” Maggie sighed.
“Come along,” John Gilliard said. “Enough of this, this… fantasy you have been living. You are coming home now, and there’s an end of it.”
“What if I say I’m not coming?”
Gilliard wasted no time. “I have no time for games,” he said. “You have a responsibility to your family, and I have important plans for you.” Gilliard turned to the two goons. “Take her. Put her in the car.”
Bulky as they were, the goons moved quickly. One grabbed Maggie and pulled her hands behind her back while the other expertly tied her wrists together. She shouted, but found a wadded rag stuffed in her mouth, secured with a handkerchief. Then one goon picked her up, slung her over his shoulder, and walked down the front walk, bundling her into the back seat of a shiny black Packard.
The Packard’s tires squealed on the pavement as the big car roared away.
When they reached the Gilliard home in Waterloo, a run-down old mansion that had once been impressive, the goons hustled Maggie out of the car. At Gilliard’s order, they carried Maggie upstairs, removed her bonds, and tossed her unceremoniously into a bedroom. “Stay heah,” one of them said, with a Brooklyn accent as thick as a wheel of cheese. “Mistuh Gilliard be in ta see ya in a bit.” He slammed the door; Maggie heard the lock click in place.
Maggie looked around. She rubbed her wrists; the cloth they had used to tie her hands had left marks. Paul will be coming into the billiard parlor for supper this afternoon, she remembered. He eats there every day now. And Mr. Schmidt will have noticed my not coming in by now. People will have noticed I’m missing.
Not that anyone can do anything. If Grandfather hasn’t already bought off every judge in Marshall County, I’ll eat my shoes.
She was still pacing the narrow room when the lock clicked, the door opened, and her grandfather walked in. “Sit down,” he ordered, pointing at the bed. He closed the door, moved a straight-backed wooden chair in front of it and sat down. “Sit down, I said,” he snapped.
Maggie sat. “You may as well tell me why you had your goons drag me back here.”
“I intend to.” Gilliard pulled a cigarette pack out of his jacket pocket, stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with a gold-plated lighter. He looked at her steadily. “You should have known better than to think I wouldn’t find you. That red hair, your… sunny disposition. People talk, you know, when a woman like you comes into a small town. And then you take a job, of all things, where anyone can just walk in and see you, standing behind a bar. A bar, for the love of Christ. What were you thinking?”
“I was happy there,” Maggie snarled.
“Damn your happiness,” Gilliard said. His eyes narrowed. “Damn that seedy little pool hall you were working in, and damn your big ape of a boyfriend, too. Oh, yes, I know about him. A newspaper man. Well, put it all behind you now.”
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m in the middle of settling a deal with one of the biggest Chicago families. One of those Sicilian organizations, make us look like small potatoes.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“You’re going to marry their top man’s younger son. Bonds of blood, Margarethe, the strongest bonds of all, and once that’s done, as one united family, we’ll control every speakeasy and bootlegger in the upper Midwest. And you’ll damn well do as you’re told. I’ll tolerate no more rebelliousness.”
“You can’t just force me to marry someone I don’t even know!”
“I can. I will. The arrangements are already made.” Gilliard leaned forward in the chair. “And if you want your big newspaperman of a boyfriend to go on breathing, you’ll damn well better go through with it.” He sat back again, took another long drag on the cigarette. “You should have known better. A woman like you, in that… shithole. Oh, you probably think you had friends there. You probably think you fit in. But you should know you didn’t. You know that the people in that town talked about you behind your back. You know damn well.”
He stood up, kicked the chair to one side, and left. The lock clicked home behind him.
***
Marshalltown
Paul walked into the billiard parlor and was surprised to see old Herr Schmidt behind the bar.
“Maggie, today she to work doesn’t come,” the old man said. He was obviously worried; his slip into German grammar spoke to that. “It’s not like her. She is a good, reliable girl.”
“Oh, hell,” Paul said, remembering their conversation from the day before. “I’ll go to her house, she if she’s all right.”
He never noticed how quickly he walked, rolling his hip to lock the knee joint in his wooden leg, taking part of the weight on his cane, but moving faster than he had moved since Belleau Wood. It was about half a mile to Maggie’s rented house.
When he got there, the house stood open, the front door swinging in the mild breeze. Paul stumped up the path to the door and looked inside.
“Maggie?” he called. “Hon?”
He walked in.
There was a coffee cup sitting on the drainboard next to the sink. A half-loaf of bread was on the kitchen counter, a bread knife laying alongside.
He went in the bedroom, calling softly ahead: “Maggie?”
She wasn’t there. Her clothes were in the wardrobe; the bed was neatly made but rumpled at the bottom, as though someone had sat there to put their shoes on.
Shaking his head, Paul went outside.
“Are you looking for Maggie?” a querulous voice came from the porch of the house next door.
Paul walked slowly over to the edge of Maggie’s yard. “I am,” he said. “Have you seen her?”
An old, old woman emerged from the shadows of the porch’s overhang. “This morning,” she said. “Maggie is such a sweet girl. She’s a good neighbor. You’re the young man she went out with yesterday, aren’t you? Or was it last week?”
The old woman clearly wasn’t all there. “Please, ma’am,” Paul said urgently. “Where is Maggie?”
“She went away with some men this afternoon. One old man. I didn’t like the looks of him. Expensive suit. Two others. Big men. Bigger than you.”
Dammit, Paul realized. Only a day after she tells me about her family, too, and now her grandfather the gangster has come and taken her.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Paul said. “I think I know where Maggie is now.”
“I hope you find her.” The old woman retreated into the shadows. “Such a sweet girl.”
Thank Christ for nosey neighbors, Paul thought. OK, so I know where she is. Just have to think about how to get her out.
A sudden anger hit him. He dropped his cane and smote the air with sledgehammer fists, while tears of impotent rage ran down his face. A startled squawk from the porch next door brought him back.
“Sorry, ma’am,” he whispered. He picked up his cane and turned and walked slowly away.
***
You know you can make a name for yourself.
You can hear them tires squeal.
You could be known as the most beautiful woman.
Who ever crawled across cut glass to make a deal.
You know, news of you has come down the line.
Even before ya came in the door.
They say in your father’s house, there’s many a mansions.
Each one of them got a fireproof floor.
Snap out of it baby, people are jealous of you.
They smile to your face, but behind your back they hiss,
What’s a sweetheart like you doing in a dump like this?
Nice, things are heating up.
Right now, she’s thinking that she should have gone further away.
My money is on Paul.
Thanks, Animal! Excellent chapter!
I’m definitely getting the “you messed with the wrong hombre” vibe.
Local man becomes Rambo, film at 11.
Paul may also have people. We have to wait another week.
Thanks, Animal
Also a very special set of skills…
Once a Marine, always a Marine, or so I’ve heard.
Half the survivors of Belleau Wood are going to show up on Paul’s side by the end of this story.
Ackshually… for the full story, you’ll have to wait for Part Two, which I’m writing now, and will hopefully be scheduled after my next (completely different) five-part piece.
So we aren’t going to know how this story ends for…
/does some quick math
…umm…
…a long time!
From the dead-thread technical legitimacy is a basis for leadership and a comment or two about shrinking the bureaucracy (and firing the incompetent)
Lorenzo Warby has been expounding on our status strategies, one of which is competence, but there are a couple of others that are just as likely to be effective in capturing status. That’s what we see now with a Harvard diploma – it is a symbol not of competence, nor even of education, but of social affiliation. You become part of the right people.
The problem with any bureaucratic environment is that there are no measures of competence, so the system can’t filter people on that basis. I think you can see where that is going to go. The challenge with shrinking the bureaucracy is that those who have a stake in it, who’s livelihoods depend on it, are going to be far more vociferous in defense of the status quo than you are ever going to be in casting them out.
The Harvard status symbol is in danger. If woke and “not white male” are your top criteria, the stink of the carcass has to rub off on graduates at some point.
None of the top schools have been taking SAT scores since COVID. They have returned to an entirely subjective admissions process. Actually, it is probably better to be a minority from a bad school who is the top student than it is to be an elite white dude from an elite school where all the kids are college bound.
On the “sound of Freedom” front, they are up to $125 million on a $15 million budget.
Also of note…. It has yet to have an international release. That $124 million is all domestic. Most movies are getting 30% of their take from the US market and 70% from overseas.
So Indiana Jones (released just days earlier) is at $160 million domestic… Barely any more than Sound of Freedom, despite a budget of $300 million.
That is a huge success for this small film. You would think the film industry press would be gushing about such a triumph. Theaters are in trouble. There is a strike, attendance is down anyway. Hollywood has been making shite…. Yet there isn’t a chorus of praise for the little engine that could, drawing new audiences to the theater.
Gotta tow that lion. I suppose.
Disney sat on the movie for three or four years before finally selling it to a small distributer.
There are so many angles for great stories about this film. I am surprised “I hate these MAGA Q-anon guys!” Is the only one they are running with.
Rotten tomatoes had 3 top critic reviews after 1 week. 2 were negative and only talked about politics. Now, after the 3rd weekend we are up to 6 top critic reviews. Still only 33% positive… With politics driving the negative reviews. In fact, a couple of those 4 negative reviewers didn’t seem to have even watched the film.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of verified ticket purchasers have reviewed it. It vacillates between 99% and 100% positive with the audience.
Even the critics who are included at Rottentomatoes but are not “top critics” are at 75% positive.
I wonder how the pressure to boycott a movie like this works?
Before Taibbi I would have assumed they are all just a bunch of like-minded folk… Maybe sharing a mailing list like journo-list.
Post Taibbi? I would bet the enforcement mechanism is a lot more powerful and direct.
Same as Fauci. Lots of critics giving it pristine scores, sucking on that Fauci cock. Audience, by the thousands, panned it as crap. Finally Rotten Tomatoes stepped in. I think you are not allowed to post any more audience scores.
Yep. Critics still at 86%, audience is at 2%.
Adam Carrolla has a bretty good bit about this. He has made a few small movies and has seen political bias hit his reviews (despite the lack of politics in the movies).
Sometimes the split is natural. Critics don’t like comedy. So audiences will like comedies more than critics. Audiences don’t like highbrow art cinema.. critics love that crap. So the split will go the other way.
But lately, more often than not, politics drives it.
Examples:
She Hulk is at 77% with all critics, 32% with the audience.
Captain Marvel is 79%/45%
Ghostbusters 2016 is at 80% with top critics…. A shocking 49% with the audience. I am going to pretend that the positive reviews are bot driven… It is less painful than believing half the world thought that was good.
I believe Fauci is the most extreme example out there. I had no idea that it was ever going to poll that wide. 84 point gap between audience and critics.
51% are women, so the positive review number seems legitimate.
I’m always amused when the Rotten Tomatoes critic scores are upside down from the punters. It’s usually based on something other than whether the movie is interesting/entertaining.
With politics driving the negative reviews.
One would think that being anti-child trafficking would not be a political issue.
Principals, not principles
The Left has completely lost the plot. They call everyone else reactionary, but once again, they’re projecting.
The subject matter hits too close to home for many in Hollywood.
The same reason “The Chris Hanson Story” never got made?
I beg to differ
Wow.. I didn’t realize the boondocks was so adult.
+ I like ya, and I want ya
That’s impressive. I understand it is only in a limited number of theaters. A columnist in today’s paper noted that not one movie theater in Philadelphia had shown it, and inquiries as to why were not answered.
“I hate making money…”
Also…. This third weekend it did $7 million on Saturday and on Sunday…. The same as it did on the first Saturday and Sunday. It was up to $9 million in the second weekend.
So it has really good word of mouth. Holding steady for 3 weeks like that. Not really the type of movie you expect to do that… also in the face of a coordinated negative campaign.. Presumably a large chunk of the progressive left that are avoiding this because of politics would be the natural audience for a film about exploiting children.
I am seeing Facebook posts from friends telling people to go see it. These are all generally very liberal people. So, they have apparently not received the proper marching orders.
Local restaurant group (known for paleo, keto, vegetarian, etc. menu options) had an e-mail sent out that would give any guest a gift card if they showed their ticket stub for Sound of Freedom.
Interestingly, even the Wikipedia page is mostly positive. It notes that the film does not mention Q-Anon conspiracies. The page does include a note that the author of a book about Q-Anon declares the film is marketed to the Q-Anon community and that Caviezel is part of that community (any truth in that?).
I suspect that the negative stuff is part of the problem that comes from a polarized society, i.e, “since QAnon markets conspiracy theory about child sex exploitation, I must oppose this film because otherwise I agree with everything QAnon says.”
In contrast to that approach, I liked Wikipedia including this:
“Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a positive review, writing, ‘Let’s assume that, like me, you’re not a right-wing fundamentalist conspiracy theorist looking for a dark, faith-based suspense film to see over the holiday weekend… Even then, you needn’t hold extreme beliefs to experience Sound of Freedom as a compelling movie that shines an authentic light on one of the crucial criminal horrors of our time, one that Hollywood has mostly shied away from.'”
Caviezel is definitely over there at least Q adjacent. Probably more of just a fundamentalist christian political activist.
But he is an actor. He didn’t write the thing. He didn’t direct it.
That is like criticizing End Game for being a woke piece of democrat propaganda because people like Ruffalo and Larson and Evans are in it.
Interesting…
Mission impossible is up to $120 million after 2 weeks….. But the last weekend their per-screen take was half of what Sound of a freedom made.
Mission impossible got a million less on Sunday than Sound of Freedom
A huge blockbuster.. big star… Great reviews…. $6 million on Sunday. 4th place behind the two big openings and Sound of Freedom (in its third week).
The magnitude of the journalistic malfeasance is impressive here.
Again, this thing cost $15 million and was abandoned by Disney. I am sure they spent more training Tom Cruise to jump motorcycles off of cliffs for that stunt in Mission Impossible. Surely this is an exciting story if you are a filmmaker.
We cannot save the world by playing by the rules,” she told journalists after hearing the verdict, vowing she would “definitely not” back down.
When I break the law, it’s because I am a righteous social justice warrior, and it is the good thing to do.
When you break the laws, it’s because you’re a fascist, and you belong in solitary confinement waiting for some future trial to happen.
Judge: “For every additional word you speak, I add one zero to your fines.”
She looks happier getting manhandled by two big guys than I’ve ever seen her.
Smug is the word for that look
She needs to be locked in a cell with no heat or cooling; no running water or toile; just a bucket to shit in.
Conditions she wishes for the rest of humanity?
yes
So a park in SF is like solitary confinement?
You’re not going to like the result when the folks outside of your cult decide not to play by the rules, Greta.
Also, those are some jaunty police uniforms.
It’s the hats. So stylish.
Elon Musk Rebrands Twitter As ‘X’ After CEO Rejects His First Choice ’69Boobies420′
Is that really satire?
“calm and reasonable” is what adds the farcical layer. That is the giveaway that it is an over-the-top satire and not a simple fact.
Well, when stuff like this is happening, quite possibly not.
The guy’s name was Whitey. He was practically asking for it.
Cripes!
They do know that every word of that is a lie, right?
I suppose someone needs to demand that LeBron get banned from the NBA the next time he does that. Maybe that would do it.
It’s amazing how they buy into that stupidity and then turn around and fret about misinformation.
So they tacitly admit they know it’s bullshit, but yet yet they still won’t back down.
Have to give credit to SPLC – they know to never admit they wrong or apologize.
But experts say
How many stolen bases is that?
it’s a grand slam.
According to the newspaper, Whitney was fired after a team photo showed him displaying what’s commonly understood to be the “OK” hand signal,
Uh huh…
a gesture that’s been increasingly used by white supremacists in recent years.
I guess that settles it. “Ok” is practically a swastika.
Probably not. I would be far more likely to sign up for “69Boobies420” than X.
From that page:
For those wondering about the new Barbie movie:
Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” ends with an ingenious final joke. Margot Robbie’s eponymous doll has become human and appears to be walking into a job interview, when it’s revealed that she’s actually at a doctor’s office. “I’m here to see my gynecologist,” Barbie says with a huge smile, despite not having any genitals (which is joked about earlier in the film). The movie then cuts to black.
“With this film, it was important for me that everything operated on at least two levels,” Gerwig told USA Today about crafting that final line. “I knew I wanted to end on a mic drop kind of joke, but I also find it very emotional.
This is what constitutes funny these days.
What is the mike drop?
Is it a trans joke? I don’t get it.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/afc2129e-fbab-4967-81af-beb90d0dc9cd
LOL…bonus funny because they originally cast Amy Schumer as Barbie.
Also…. Part of the story for me is that I anticipated it being really good. Margot Robbie is always good, even in really bad movies. With the combo of “Wolf of Wall Street” eye candy and Harley Quinn physicality and humor… Her Barbie looked to be awesome.
Instead… A director who thinks “girls can do anything” is resonant in 2023… And that it requires “and boys shouldn’t be allowed to do anything at all” in order for that to happen. Ugh.
I had hoped that Robbie’s participation indicated a worthwhile movie. But, not to be.
Don’t count it our yet. People are going to see it for Ken’s story arc, as I have been told. See article:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1683319808245334016.html
Even if you dislike the movie, the article is a rood read.
I’m not the kind of guy that goes to a bad movie just to cheer about how bad it is.
But yes, the Drinker said Ken was the real protagonist and that Barbie is the antagonist.
I will see it when I can rent it for $5 on Amazon.
Bro supposedly went to go protest it. I have to ask him about how it went when he gets back.
He had to be the first glib to go and see it.
https://youtu.be/f-lg9Bs2Wkg
IT’S IRONIC
You dipshits just don’t understand hipster humor.
I’d post the obligatory link, but never mind.
Sounds anti-trans. Cancel that bitch.
Maybe the joke is that she grew a pair of balls. Not so much of a mic drop. More like a ball drop.
The Anti-Defamation League lists it among the symbols used by hate groups, and the Southern Poverty Law Center says it’s commonly deployed by white nationalists and internet trolls.
Mocking the righteous is a mortal sin.
When I break the law, it’s because I am a righteous social justice warrior, and it is the good thing to do.
Of course; and she should be rewarded, not punished. None of that “I regret that I have but one life to give” nonsense.
“There is no place for racism, homophobia, misogyny, or discrimination of any kind in our sport and world and D.C. United do not tolerate any acts of this nature,” the team said in a statement.
Pussies.
What a gay fag.
I initially read that as “gay frog”.
There is no racial bigotry here!
The article was paywalled, but I think the video is open.
For Sound of Freedom, just anecdotally, when I was in line for MI tix, the three groups ahead of me were getting SoF tix. Which was scheduled just a bit later so the timing wasn’t odd, but all three groups were spanish-speaking hispanics. So I suspect spanish language media and/or the Church is what’s propelling a lot of this, but Western media knows nothing about that segment generally. Also a lot of Catholics know Caviezel from Passion of the Christ (and may also know he’s personally hardcore Catholic), so that may be a draw of its own.
Off to Des Moines (and later Fort Dodge)
Let me know if anyone needs some corn.