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Dallas Stars Are First Pro Franchise to Publicly Oppose Texas Bathroom Bill. Dallas welcomes all, and we welcome all, President Jim Lites said. Take notes, Jerry, though rumor is the bill is going down the toilet.

The Fight Over Dallas Confederate Statues Continues.During a small rally at Pioneer Park Cemetery yesterday, protestors calling for the removal of confederate monuments clashed with a group called Sons of Confederate Veterans (one of whom is named Festus Allcock, obviously).

Denton Assistant Principal: Alt-Right Nationalist or Idiot? An assistant principal at Rodgriguez Middle School, Eric Hauser, published a childrens book on August 1 in which Pepe the Frog and his friend Centipede overpower a bearded alligator named Alkah to restore law and order, and bring freedom back to Wishington Farm. Now, centipedes are a Trump thing, which Hauser doesnt deny, but he claims to have not known that Pepe is a meme appropriated by the alt-right. Thats a pretty tremendous feat of ignorance, because when I google Pepe the Frog, the first three things that come up are the memes listing on the Anti-Defamation League website, a Wikipedia page with a lengthy section about Pepes alt-right history, and an LA Times article titled How Pepe the Frog went from harmless to hate symbol.

Highland Park ISD Asks Residents If Teachers Can Park In Their Driveways. The middle schools underground parking lot is still under construction. But were talking about Highland Park, here. Why give up driveway space, when residents can just loan out their spare car lifts?

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Leading Off (8/11/17) - D Magazine

WASHINGTON (AFP) Silicon Valley is finding itself entrenched in battle with the far right over ground rules for the digital world, a conflict that mirrors the polarization of American politics in recent years.

The recent firing of a Google engineer for questioning the internet giants diversity efforts, which ignited a backlash from the alt-right and fueled charges of hypocrisy, is just one example.

Facebook has been accused of suppressing conservative voices and skewing information presented in its news feed. Twitter has banned accounts from far right activists for violating its terms on hate speech. Paypal refused to transmit donations to a group in Europe seeking to turn back refugees, claiming it does not support activities that promote hate or violence. And even Airbnb canceled accounts ahead of a white nationalist rally for promoting discrimination in violation of the terms of the home-sharing platform.

Activists on the extreme right have responded with an outcry against the tech giants and have begun migrating to alternatives for social networking and money transfers. The conflict has caught Silicon Valley off-guard, amid a political onslaught from critics as online platforms grow in importance.

A Donald Trump supporter holding a poster of Pepe the Frog, a symbol of the alt-right movement, at a campaign event in Bedford, New Hampshire, Sept. 29, 2016. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images/JTA)

In Silicon Valley, youve got a bunch of people who are interested in technology who would prefer to be apolitical, said Bob ODonnell, consultant for Technalysis Research. They are being dragged into these decisions and being put into a difficult spot.

ODonnell acknowledged that the big tech firms may allow bias to filter into their business operations because Silicon Valley and northern California are heavily Democratic and heavily focused on political correctness.

The flare-up of tensions come with the tech sector roiled by accusations of discrimination, sexual harassment and a lack of diversity despite the idealism espoused by its leaders.

Alan Rosenblatt, a digital strategist for left-leaning groups, said alt-right activists are frustrated because they have been unable to exploit online platforms as much as they would like.

It traces back to the whole fake news issue starting in the 2016 election campaign, Rosenblatt said.

Rosenblatt said social networks such as Facebook and Twitter were correctly working to crack down on disinformation, such as the erroneous report about a child sex ring in a Washington pizza restaurant in an effort to tarnish candidate Hillary Clinton.

It was appropriate, Rosenblatt argued, to suspend accounts pushing alt-right messaging that is either hateful or disinformation.

President Donald Trump, he argued, is the greatest enabler of the alt- right. He gives political coverage to their attacks on diversity and workplace fairness.

Tensions have flared at Google over the firing of engineer James Damore, who published a manifesto which claimed biological differences were a key factor in the low percentage of women in technology jobs.

This photo taken on December 28, 2016 in Vertou, western France, shows logos of US multinational technology company Google. (AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCE)

Google said Damores memo went too far in advancing harmful gender stereotypes but his dismissal fueled criticism that the tech giant was ignoring diverse viewpoints.

Damore said in an essay Friday that Google had become an echo chamber intolerant of open debate.

How did Google, the company that hires the smartest people in the world, become so ideologically driven and intolerant of scientific debate and reasoned argument? he wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Elaine Ou, an engineer at a financial technology company, offered a similar comment in a column for Bloomberg: Silicon Valley wont solve its gender issues if political correctness shuts down every conversation.

In a sign of the fractious atmosphere, Google canceled a town hall meeting intended to air viewpoints on diversity, sexism and free speech, citing worker safety concerns.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a memo to staff that despite the cancellation he wants a frank, open discussion and that all of your voices and opinions matter.

Some analysts argue a small group of activists are trying to impose their will on the tech sector.

A small group of social terrorists have hijacked the rational discourse led by societys most accomplished, intelligent, and promising organizations, said a blog post by John Battelle, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and journalist.

Thomas Main, a political science professor at the City University of New Yorks Baruch College, said the latest developments reflect a realization that the internet may not be the utopia for political discourse that some had imagined.

In some ways the internet is an ideal speech situation, he said.

But extremist trolls, Main said, are polluting the environment and you need some gatekeeping function.

Main said the gatekeeping function is a big problem because we dont want government going in and its not clear if the digital companies are positioned to handle this.

Im searching for a better solution, he said.

ODonnell said social networks and other digital companies may end up splintering along political lines in the same manner as the media industry.

We may see over time an evolution where one social network is more left leaning and another is right leaning, he said. It has become so challenging to remain in the middle.

The rest is here:
Silicon Valley's accidental war with the far right - The Times of Israel

Director

Ben Safdie, Joshua Safdie

Cast

Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Pattinson, Barkhad Abdi

Like some of the best films about New York City, Good Time ably captures the constancy of movement at all hours of the night. Much of the films action takes place in half-empty hospitals and apartments and an amusement park after closing hours. Yet, in every case, somebody is still pulling a graveyard shift, getting high, looking out for their own, or just trying to get paid. That last bit is integral to Joshua and Ben Safdies harrowing single-night odyssey: were all hustling, in one way or another, all the time. Some are just a lot better at it than others.

Early on, it seems like Constantine Connie Nikas (Robert Pattinson) could be among the best. A straw-haired degenerate in an oversized hoodie, with wild eyes that exude canny survivalism and junkie panic in equal measures, Connie has bigger plans for himself and his brother, Nick (co-director Ben). An unnerving early sequence watches Nick, captured in the Safdies already-signature nauseating close-ups, as he attempts to work through a behavioral therapy session. Nick deals with some sort of neurological disability, but Connie refuses to allow his brother to be put through sessions that he finds both demeaning and upsetting to his brother. (For his part, Nicks difficulty with regard to even basic questions suggests that he absolutely should be getting more help than hes evidently had.) As Connie tells him, Its just you and me. Im your friend. Alright?

And then Connie and Nick don facial prosthetics and stage one of the more exhilarating bank robberies in recent cinematic history, made all the more so by the matter-of-fact staging with which its delivered. Good Time is a wandering film, and not all of its many digressions land. But the best ones, starting with the robbery and its screw-tightening aftermath, offer the kind of pure cinema capable of sending even the most jaded critics and audiences into fits of white-knuckle panic. Connie is simultaneously more shrewd than his wiry appearance would suggest and tragically over-convinced of his own genius. Soon an unexpected paint bag is triggered, Nick ends up in police custody and sent off to await trial on Rikers Island, and Connie is left to somehow obtain $10,000 for Nicks bail before things can get any worse.

Over the course of a night bathed in neon, pitch-darkness, and depravity, Connie encounters a number of fellow strays on his way to save Nick from the kind of hell that Connie himself has created for his brother. Good Time recalls the wearily hallucinatory qualities of other one-shot stories like Night on Earth and After Hours, but what the Safdies and co-screenwriter Ronald Bronstein accomplish here is a film of a distinctly filthy ilk. The Safdies exceptional 2015 feature Heaven Knows What displayed a similarly keen eye for the rituals of the day-at-a-time criminal, but where that film took a borderline anti-narrative approach to its travels alongside an unrepentant heroin addict, Good Time functions on more of a rail, albeit a ferocious one.

Good Time takes an episodic approach to Connies journey, and those episodes are consistently engaging, even as some of them occasionally threaten to leech away at the films breakneck momentum. One vignette involving a siege on a hospital leads to a remarkable gallows punchline. Connie finds a moment of respite with Crystal (Taliah Webster), an underage girl who recognizes Connies need for shelter as both suspicious and not worth causing too much trouble over. A security guard at that aforementioned theme park (Barkhad Abdi) finds himself with the severe misfortune of happening onto Connies barreling path. Some leave more of an impression than others; an encounter with a beaten parolee (Buddy Duress) leads to an onscreen digression so lengthy that it at once fits well within the films anything-goes rhythm and brings it to a near-complete halt. (Its nevertheless a damned funny few minutes of filmmaking, in a vacuum.) Connies frantic appeals to Corey (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a well-off but unreliable lover, feel equally at odds with the films central story, even if Leighs nervous performance serves as one of the films many deft methods of creating absolute unease.

The Safdies build a world of constant paranoia in every way, from the shaky handheld photography to the endless parade of strangers existing as possible would-be hazards. But the most exceptional method is the rattling, sumptuous score by Oneohtrix Point Never. That its easily the best compositional work to grace any 2017 film to date is secondary; this is one of those rare film scores that emerges as its own character, as integral to the success of Good Time as any of the films impressive performances. As the Safdies race from one stunning image to the next (a zoomed-out crane motif framing Connie as a constant rat in an overwhelming maze, a dark room lit solely by a grainy television), OPNs endless cycles of oppressive synths and dissonant electronic sounds conjure unease even in the most straightforward moments of respite. The score is a faithful mirror of Connies psyche, all panic and terror and fleeting instances of stoned, euphoric grandeur.

Good Time is a film of trembling anxiety, and while the score and the Safdies terrific direction both aid this, its Pattinsons outstanding performance that pins even the most outlandish occurrences to a deep sense of emotion. The actor, having long abandoned the days of stiff paycheck roles for increasingly ambitious fare, delivers a feral star turn that should more than silence any remaining skeptics. Like an animal, Connie simply reacts with an alarming lack of forethought, and Pattinson almost appears to be piecing each scene together as he goes along. But this is a meticulous performance; his slow crescendo of harrowing desperation builds to one lingering shot that builds a wealth of meaning out of the actors tightly framed visage, defining the entire film before it in a single image of Pattinsons face. In a world of near-anarchy, its Connie who holds it all together.

At one point in his journey, Connie asserts that something is happening to me tonight, and I feel like its deeply connected to my purpose. Its a purpose rife with drugs and exploitation and an inexplicable allusion to Pepe the Frog that will undoubtedly spur on many an addled debate in the coming weeks, but its a purpose that Connie pursues with alarming velocity. In its immersion in a world full of scrambling and sweat and constant alarm, Good Time observes something primal about the worlds that exist beneath the worlds in which so many other movies are made and viewed. Theres no time for thinking and even less for processing. You simply react until you cant any longer.

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Film Review: Good Time - Consequence of Sound (blog)

The highly decentralized alt-right movement has primarily been known as an online phenomenon. If the organizers behind this weekends Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia have it their way, that will soon begin to change.

Led byformer Daily Caller contributor Jason Kessler, a number of perpetually feuding far-right groups are rallying together to protest the citys decision to remove a monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Charlottesville is one of several cities across the American South that have chosen to relocate public memorials to the failed secessionist movement.

Among the right-wing groups and individuals that are coming together are the Traditionalist Worker Party, a neo-fascist political party that organizes within lower-income white communities; The Right Stuff, a podcast network for self-described fans of Adolf Hitler; Occidental Dissent, a neo-Confederate blog; AltRight.com, a website set up by white nationalist editor Richard Spencer; and Anthime Gionet, a former BuzzFeed writer who has since joined up with the alt-right.

Organizers of this weekends event are hoping to draw thousands of demonstrators, a much larger crowd than the small number of people who typically attend far-right political rallies and conferences, even ones that arenot sponsored by explicitly racist groups. In July, the Ku Klux Klan held a rally in Charlottesville thatattracted fewer than 50 participants,along with several hundred counter-protesters.

The difference this time may be the assistance of several old-school racist groups such asthe National Socialist Movement, an American Nazi political party as well asthe neo-ConfederateLeague of the South.

The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi blog that attracts a far larger audience than any of the organizations and individuals mentioned above is also getting involved. Typically, the sites owner, Andrew Anglin, has refrained from encouraging his readers to attend conferences and rallies. The Stormer has made an obvious exception in the case of Unite the Right, featuring manyposts urging fans to attend. Due to the sites infamous reputation, however, Kessler and other rally organizers are not publicizing the Stormers involvement.

Pepe [the Frog] memes are all fine and good, but if we really want to turn the heads of the idealist youth and win them over to our side, we need to get out in the streets, and we need to do it bigly,Benjamin Garland, one of the blogs authors, wrote last week, referring to the cartoon characterwhich has been adopted by far right online activists.

Next stop: Charlottesville, VA. Final stop: Auschwitz, Garland added.

Its unclear how many people will actually show up for the event. Charlottesville officials appear to be expecting a larger number of protesters and counter-protesters than the 400 people specified in the permit the city had originally authorized. On Monday, the city told Kessler, the principal organizer of Unite the Right, that he would have to move his rally from Emancipation Park formerly called Lee Park, and the site of the disputed statue to McIntire Park, a larger facility.

Kessler has refused the citys order on the grounds that his event is about protesting the removal of the Lee statue and therefore must not be relocated. He has vowed to hold the rally at its original time and place. On Wednesday, the ACLU of Virginia announced that it and the Rutherford Institute would represent Kessler in a legal challenge to the citys ruling.

At the very least, the city must explain in more than just generalities its reasons for concluding that the demonstration cannot safely be held in Emancipation Park,Claire Guthrie Gastaaga, executive director of ACLU Foundation of Virginia and John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, wrote ina joint letterto Charlottesville officials.

Otherwise, it appears that the citys revocation of the permit is based only upon public opposition to the message of the demonstration, which would constitute a violation of the organizers fundamental First Amendment rights.

Some left-wing groups have criticized the ACLU for its position. In an email to Salon, an anonymous activist associated with the anti-fascist website Its Going Down condemned the civil liberties group.

Liberals mobilizing to defend fascists on free speech grounds increases interest in their views by conferring legitimacy on them, the representative wrote. This plays directly into fascist organizing goals, allowing them to drive a wedge between their opponents using free speech as a smokescreen. By tolerating racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia, so-called free speech advocates are complicit in the acts of terror fascist organizing makes possible.

Critics of the event will hosttheir own gatheringson Friday and Saturday, including local religious organizations, the University of Virginia, and the Charlottesville chapter of Black Lives Matter. With several rally speakers encouraging their followers to bring concealed carry firearms, city officials are warning residents that the event may turn violent.

With large crowds of individuals with strongly held and potentially opposing beliefs, there is also the potential for conflict, the citys communications director, Miriam Dickler, said. Those who live and work in the area of these events should exercise their best judgment on the day of the rally and should avoid the area if they have concerns.

In a statement to students and staff, University of Virginia president Teresa A. Sullivan urged opponents of the neo-fascist rallyto stay away:

I urge students and all UVA community members to avoid the August 12 rally and avoid physical confrontation generally. There is a credible risk of violence at this event, and your safety is my foremost concern.

Moreover, to approach the rally and confront the activists would only satisfy their craving for spectacle. They believe that your counter-protest helps their cause. One advocate of the rally said, We should aim to draw the SJWs [social justice warriors] out in Charlottesville and create a massive polarizing spectacle in order to draw as huge a contrast as possible. They will reveal themselves to be violent, intolerant, opposed to free speech, the insane enforcers of political correctness, etc. The organizers of the rally want confrontation; do not gratify their desire.

The Unite the Right rally may not see large-scale violence, however, since Virginia law prohibits the wearing of masks in public. Oftentimes, when provisions of this nature are enforced by police in conjunction with controversial political rallies, opposing sides do not engage in violent activities. The states National Guard said it will be monitoring the situation and rapidly respond if requested by local law enforcement.

The eventhas not exactly achieved its objective of unifying all of the far rights disparate elements. Michael Madden, the owner of a popular Facebook page calledConfederate Keepers charged Kessler with obsessing about race instead of history:

The Confederate Keepers will not be at the rally on Aug. 12th. We do not agree with Jason using our heritage to spread his hate. We are about love and spreading education on the war for southern independence. He is using Gen Robert E Lees monument at LEE PARK because he knows he will get media attention. Yes he has the right to free speech, but that doesnt mean our southern heritage groups need to stand next to a known hate group. I highly condemn this rally as should everyone else. Ive watched Jason for some time now and he talks about the statues maybe two mins then bashes other races. People of all races fought for the south. That statue and the Confederate battle flag is not just white heritage but black, Indian, Spanish, etc. Ive had a few debates on this subject. I agree move it out of Lee Park because hate has no room in our heritage. My ancestors fought beside blacks, Spanish, Indians, etc. They fought for a free south, smaller government and states rights. To the ones showing up, I wonder what youre gonna do when he turns his subject to hate on your race? This rally shouldnt happen!

The web forum /pol/ hosted on 4chan (which is even more popular than the Daily Stormer) has been divided on the event, with many posters criticizing it as a trick by law enforcement officials into getting anonymous extremists to reveal their identities. Others have argued that local police will allow left-wing activists to engage in acts of assault without repercussions.

Let me guess, the Cops will be disarmed too or given meme weapons just so the lefties can cause damage with out fear of retaliation, one 4chan poster wrote.

Posters on the /pol/ spin-off hosted on 8chan have generally dismissed the rally as a phony effort to make money from gullible right-wingers. Others on the board have argued that taking white nationalist activism public before it has become more popular would attract dangerousattention from federal law enforcement and from liberals.

The whole premise behind the Unite the Right rally is fucking idiotic. You know what happens when you Unite the Right? You give the left a clear enemy to rally themselves with, an 8chan /pol/ poster wrote on Tuesday.

Since much of the pro-white memes have come from /pol/, be it [4chan] or this /pol/, leftists have not been able to fight back since we are anonymous. There was no clear enemy for them.

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Alt-right shindig: Neo-fascists plan giant rally to support Confederate flag what could go wrong? - Salon

The filmmakers behind the Pattinson-starring thriller discuss Pattinson's weird gifting habits, the laws they broke on set, and the state of bank robbery in 2017.

The first thing you notice about the Safdie brothers is that they are gung-ho. Formally credited on their various projects as Joshua and Ben Safdieand gregariously introducing themselves to everyone in the room as Josh and Bennyour GQ shoot has barely begun when Josh hops onto his brothers shoulders for a series of goofy photos. "He has amazing lower-body strength," laughs Josh as they grin for the camera.

And you cant help but think: These cheery, friendly young dudes are the filmmakers behind two of the decades most harrowing cinematic portraits of New York City? The Safdie brothers are best known for their 2014 drama Heaven Knows What, which was famously derived from the real-life experiences of star Arielle Holmes, a homeless heroin addict whom the Safdie brothers met while working on a still-unreleased passion project about Manhattans Diamond District. (They swear its their next project.)

Good Time, the Safdie brothers latest, shares Heaven Knows Whats interest in the impoverished side of New York City rarely explored in modern-day cinema. But it trades the gauzy, impressionistic structure of Heaven Knows What for the trappings of a white-knuckle thriller, and casts Robert Pattinsonan honest-to-god movie starin the lead role. (You can read our GQ cover story with Robert Pattinson here.)

In Good Time, Pattinson plays Connie Nikas, a blue-collar criminal grinding it out in New York City. When a bank robbery goes wrong, and his intellectually disabled brother (played by Benny Safdie) ends up in prison, Connie desperately scrambles to scrape together enough money to bust him out. Its a sympathetic story built around a consistently unsympathetic protagonist, and its hard to overstate how good Pattinson is in the role. Imagine a Drive that has no interest in making its violent, amoral protagonist look cool, or a heist movie about how much it sucks to be a criminal.

After several projects together (including the essential sports documentary Lenny Cooke), the Safdie brothers have worked out a brisk, economical division of labor. Josh wrote Good Time with longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein. Benny costars. And both Josh and Benny are credited as directors. Conflicts are minimal and easily resolved. "Thats the beauty of working with someone youve known literally your whole life. Someone youve had bloody fights with," says Josh. "I can be very blunt."

And with their highest-profile to date arriving in theaters on Friday, the Safdie brothers have no interested in slowing down. "I dont think theres such a thing as 'work as hard as you can.' I think you can work harder," says Josh. "Always. With this movie, in particular, we worked very hard."

Joshua: Rob Pattinson just reached out to us and said, "Heywhatever youre doing next, I want to be a part of it." His initial impetus to reach out to us came from just a photo still, on the internet, from Heaven Knows What. He felt this kind of inner, innate connection to his purpose.

Ben: He said he would do catering for us. He didnt say, "I need to be the star of a movie."

Joshua: We met with him. I wasnt interested in using him as a cameo or a supporting player. He has the face of a star. He doesnt want to be a star; he just is one. And thats the best type.

Ben: The goal, for Rob, was to disappear. He said, "I want to disappear. Thats why I want to work with you guys. I dont want people to watch saying, 'Oh, thats Rob Pattinson.'" And when people watch the movie, they go, 'Oh, my God. Is that Rob Pattinson?'"

Joshua: [During the opening scene], this movie star comes in and throws the door openalmost like he did to our lives. "Hey. Lets get moving." And then, literally, the movie doesnt stop.

Joshua: Theres no good reason to rob a bank. Its the most romantic idea, to go and rob a bank. And the fact that people do rob banks, in 2017, is an example of life imitating art. In most bank robberies, you see people run away with two or three thousand dollars, because there are policies now: "Ill give you the money thats in the till, but thats it."

Ben: You can be in a bank and not even know its being robbed.

Joshua: Banks realize that if they get an insurance policy, they can write off two or three thousand-dollar losses, and its much cheaper than getting a full-time armed guard. Thats why you dont see armed guards in banks anymore.

Ben: Nate Silver did a whole thing: "Is it a viable living to rob banks?" He broke it down, hour-by-hour: Rob a bank, or work at McDonalds? And in the end, it was basically the same. The math just doesnt add up.

Joshua: We originally cast Eric Roberts [to play a bail bondsman]. We shot it, and edited it, and realized, "HeyI dont think this unbelievably expositional scene can survive the artifice of a movie star." So we cast an actual bail bondsman. And he improvised one line while on the phone. In his mind, hes getting details from the court, and he goes, "Lovely." Theres no one on the other line! Only an actual bail bondsman could do that part. And that masks the exposition thats happening.

Ben: When the bondsman dials a number, it needs to look like muscle memory.

Joshua: In Heaven Knows What, Arielle Holmes had a whole life she could pull from at any moment. Her preparation was her life. Thats why people work with nonprofessional actors. With a professional actor, we take that conceptbut now we have to build an entire life for you to have within you. Almost trick you into becoming another person. So for Rob specifically, we wrote an insane character biography, starting minute one of birth, and literally minutes before his entrance into the movie.

Josh: Rob was on Howard Stern. He was probably a little flustered. And he put out an impression of us that sounded like insanity. Like hed been thrown to the Tasmanian Devil. He thinks we induce mania and chaos into our set. We dont induce anything! I mean, we do but we dont want chaos.

Ben: There was one day when we didnt have a permit to shoot a shot when Rob was running away. We had permits for the street, but not permits to drive in the street, with a car driving alongside him. But we were like, "Ugh, we need this shot."

Josh: And were working with union guys who are like, "We cant do this." But we can.

Ben: So we grab the monitor, and stand in the middle of street, and were blocking all the traffic.

Josh: It was like three blocks of traffic just honking their horns.

"The way he performed that running the look on his face pure fear."

Ben: And Rob takes off and runs, and we got the shot. We got three shots! We did it, we got it, we moved on, and that was the end of it. Great day! And then we read Rob saying, "God, these guys. They just block traffic. Risk their lives!"

Josh: We werent risking our lives. Nobody was going to hit us. Having 20 cars laying on their horns does actually induce a certain level of chaos. But we were like, we had to get this. No fucking up. All he had to do was run.

Ben: For us, it was a practical thingbut for Rob, it added this energy.

Josh: The way he performed that running the look on his face pure fear.

Josh: That was a complete coincidence. We wrote "SpongeBob SquarePants," and Nickelodeon was like, "Get out of here."

Ben: At the time [we filmed Good Time], Pepe was like, a funny meme.

Josh: We had cartoonist friends that knew [Pepe creator] Matt Furie, and he was like, "Yeah, sure, sounds great." And its not until were editing the movie that the campaign takes holdand Trump is tweeting out Pepe the Frog. And the ADL is saying that Pepe the Frog is a hate symbol. I wrote to Matt Furie and said, "This is crazy," and he said, "Yeah, its destroying me."

Josh: Its still in the box. I live in a rental. I told my landlord, "Hey, I got this toilet," and had to explain what this toilet was. He was very confused about why I wanted a new toilet, because they recently installed a very nice toilet. So the new toilet is still in the boxconceptually, next to my unopened bottle of Prosecco and my unlit Cuban cigar. Which Ill celebrate with. When I die.

Ben: Hes going to be buried on the toilet, drinking the Prosecco, smoking the Cuban cigar.

Josh: Im definitely going out like Elvis. Ive read entire books on the can. Novellas. The only side effects are hemorrhoids.

Ben: And those are just a pain in the ass.

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The Safdie Brothers Swear Good Time Didn't Almost Turn Robert Pattinson Into Roadkill - GQ Magazine