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For most of the approximately 70 million Americans who receive benefits, Social Security has operated like a well-oiled machine, as it has for most of the 90 years of its existence.

In Chicago, Boystown — with its mix of cocktail lounges, gay bars, nightclubs, parades and drag brunches — has become a well-oiled machine for queer culture in the city.

And still, Democrats and other progressives could hardly be credited with running a cohesive, well-oiled resistance movement.

As for the Lively and Baldoni lawsuits, it's not clear how these will play out - but the very fact that it has so unusually spilled into the public domain is a reminder of how well-oiled the Hollywood publicity machine is the rest of the time.

Even with Francis confined to the Gemelli hospital, the well-oiled Vatican cogs continue to turn.