[ Reader Comments: Hollywood Strike to Limit AI is for You and Me
- We Are All Extras; DeSantis Using State Guard as Private Army; Negro
League, Baseball Integration, the Left; Hollywood Labor Films; War on
Women - Russia Says Give Birth Early;]
[[link removed]]

TIDBITS – JULY 20, 2023 – READER COMMENTS: HOLLYWOOD STRIKE TO
LIMIT AI IS FOR YOU AND ME – WE ARE ALL EXTRAS; DESANTIS USING STATE
GUARD AS PRIVATE ARMY; NEGRO LEAGUE, BASEBALL INTEGRATION THE LEFT;
HOLLYWOOD LABOR FILMS; ROBERT REICH; WAR ON WOMEN  
[[link removed]]


 

July 20, 2023
xxxxxx
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Reader Comments: Hollywood Strike to Limit AI is for You and Me -
We Are All Extras; DeSantis Using State Guard as Private Army; Negro
League, Baseball Integration, the Left; Hollywood Labor Films; War on
Women - Russia Says Give Birth Early; _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Shorts, AND cartoons - July 20,
2023, xxxxxx

 

* LITTLE BOXES, BIGGER BOXES, BIGLY BOXES MADE OF TRUMPY DUMP  --
 CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ
* UNITY
* RE: THE BUSINESSMEN BROKE HOLLYWOOD  (PETER DREIER)
* A UNION IS YOU  -- MEME  (USW LOCAL 9777)
* RE: STATE GUARD SET UP BY DESANTIS IS BEING TRAINED AS PERSONAL
MILITIA, VETERANS SAY  (DAVID BERGER; ELEANOR; ROBERT LAITE)
* MEAT AND GREAT  --  CARTOON BY ADAM ZYGLIS
* RE: RACISM AND RACE – THE JOHN ROBERTS TWO-STEP  (CHARLES
PATRICK LYNCH)
* NO CHOICE HERE  --  MIKE LUCKOVICH CARTOON
* RE: A HIGHWAY DESTROYED TULSA’S THRIVING BLACK WALL STREET –
NOW THERE’S HOPE IT COULD COME BACK  (ENRICO CAMPOMIZZI)
* RE: BIG OIL QUIETLY WALKS BACK ON CLIMATE PLEDGES AS GLOBAL HEAT
RECORDS TUMBLE  (MIKE LISTON)
* RE: ‘A STORY THAT DIDN’T USED TO BE TOLD’: THE RISE AND FALL
OF BASEBALL’S NEGRO LEAGUES  (VICTOR GROSSMAN)
* RE: THE WRITERS WHO WENT UNDERCOVER TO SHOW AMERICA ITS UGLY SIDE
 (PAUL GOTTLIEB; ELEANOR ROOSEVELT; LEONARD J. LEHRMAN)
* RE: HOLLYWOOD ON THE PICKET LINE – 5 UNSUNG FILMS THAT PUT
AMERICA’S UNION HISTORY ON THE SILVER SCREEN  (ETHAN YOUNG; ELEANOR
ROOSEVELT)

SHORTS:

* WE'RE ALL EXTRAS  (DAVID WEIR)

 

* WAR ON WOMEN  -  WOMEN SHOULD GIVE BIRTH EARLIER, AND NOT ENGAGE
IN A CAREER AND EDUCATION - MURASHKO, MINISTER OF HEALTH OF THE
RUSSIAN FEDERATION  (THE INSIDER)

RESOURCES:

* NEW BOOK - SOLIDARITY & CARE: DOMESTIC WORKER ACTIVISM IN NEW YORK
CITY  (TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS)

* ROBERT REICH - MY FINAL COURSE IS NOW ONLINE IN FULL  (INEQUALITY
MEDIA CIVIC ACTION)

* MEIN KRAMPF: PROJECT 2025  (DURT FIBO)

 

LITTLE BOXES, BIGGER BOXES, BIGLY BOXES MADE OF TRUMPY DUMP  --
 CARTOON BY LALO ALCARAZ

Lalo Alcaraz
July 19, 2023
pocho.com
[[link removed]]

 

UNITY

 

 

RE: THE BUSINESSMEN BROKE HOLLYWOOD
 

Blame the overpaid CEOs who cater to Wall Street overseers, not the
actors and writers, most of whom struggle to make ends meet.

Peter Dreier
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

A UNION IS YOU  -- MEME  (USW LOCAL 9777)

 

USW Local 9777
Post on Facebook
[[link removed]]

 

RE: STATE GUARD SET UP BY DESANTIS IS BEING TRAINED AS PERSONAL
MILITIA, VETERANS SAY
 

FASCISM BEFORE OUR EYES.

David Berger
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

How long is it going to take before people get wise to what's going on
here? Does he have to change the official state song to the Horst
Wessel Lied?

Eleanor

      =====

Is anyone surprised by this?

Robert Laite
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

MEAT AND GREAT  --  CARTOON BY ADAM ZYGLIS

 

Adam Zyglis
June 10, 2023
The Buffalo News
[[link removed]]

 

RE: RACISM AND RACE – THE JOHN ROBERTS TWO-STEP
 

We have rolled back Brown V. Education. It clearly stated that
separate but equal was not equal. We just ignore that,, what is
important is that kids go to school close to home. And of course
neighborhoods are still segregated. So, if you segregate housing, and
schools follow housing, you have segregated schools. But they are
still schools? What is equal opportunity anyway? Nothing much. See, a
very few black and brown kids make it, so the system works, right? Ah
who really cares anyway? Most white parents see their job as looking
after their kids, not the rest. And protecting them from gays and
trans. I met a young home schooled woman who said her dad was a public
school principle, but wanted to keep her away from the influences of
black culture. Uhh hunnh. And what do we call that? White parenting!!

Charles Patrick Lynch
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

NO CHOICE HERE  --  MIKE LUCKOVICH CARTOON

 

Mike Luckovich
July 9, 2023
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[[link removed]]

 

RE: A HIGHWAY DESTROYED TULSA’S THRIVING BLACK WALL STREET – NOW
THERE’S HOPE IT COULD COME BACK
 

Wouldn't want to tell the truth and change history

Enrico Campomizzi
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: BIG OIL QUIETLY WALKS BACK ON CLIMATE PLEDGES AS GLOBAL HEAT
RECORDS TUMBLE
 

Big Oil will be happy to poison the planet until their rocket ship to
escape the Planet Earth blows up at launch, they just can't help
themselves.

We have to control them,

Mike Liston

 

RE: ‘A STORY THAT DIDN’T USED TO BE TOLD’: THE RISE AND FALL OF
BASEBALL’S NEGRO LEAGUES
 

Any article about the breakthrough into lily-white Major League
baseball should headline the defining role of the Communist Party
newspaper "Daily Worker" and its sports editor Lester Rodney – which
fought hard on the issue for years and helped organize picket-lines
and demonstrations. And, with it hand in hand, the role of the great,
great Black singer and actor Paul Robeson. A top athlete in his youth
(twice named to the All-American football team) but also strong in
baseball, basketball, track and field, he carried the fight right into
the offices of the baseball managers.

On December 3 1943 Robeson headed a delegation of Black leaders which
finally got a promise by baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis
to end the bar on Black players. Jackie Robinson – in later years
– wrote gratefully of Robeson's role. But, since he was a committed
leftist, every effort  was made – very successfully – to bar
Robeson from film-making, stage acting, even concerts, worst of all in
the Joe-McCarthy-Era heyday from 1949 to 1958.

Part of the business of erasing his name and existence – in addition
to his world-famous singing, acting careers - from his all-out fight
for Black rights in the USA and against apartheid abroad was to
"forget" his leading role in breaking the bar on Black players in the
Major Leagues.

Victor Grossman

 

RE: THE WRITERS WHO WENT UNDERCOVER TO SHOW AMERICA ITS UGLY SIDE

(posting on xxxxxx Culture
[[link removed]])
 

I'm afraid Samuel Freedman missed an important point in his discussion
of all those positive, above ground cultural instances of apparent
tolerance.

If you listen to Paul Robeson's version of "The House I Live In," you
will find a verse that speaks to "black and white together, that's
America to me."  That phrase is missing from Sinatra's version,
(although I understand that he had initially sung the original verse
but then someone had him remove it in a later version.)  The "Film"
version linked to Freedman's article, does not include this verse.

Funny how racism creeps into otherwise good liberal attitudes.

Paul Gottlieb

      =====

Carlson's books are still fascinating reading today, and follow in the
footsteps of John Spivak's pre-war exposes of American fascism. Both
of these authors also inform George Seldes' hard-nosed investigative
reporting about fascist domination of the American press during the
same era. Much of what they wrote was highly prescient -- this period
was the incubator in which the modern right-wing cult developed.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

Re "The House I Live In
[[link removed]]"
by Lewis Allan (pseudonym of Abel Meeropol) & Earl Robinson:

On Sep. 30, 1990 Helene Williams & I performed "The House I Live In"
the way Earl Robinson had sung it for us in Jan. 1989 at the People's
Voice Café.

It's posted here [[link removed]]

Years later, I wrote what I believe is the only arrangement of the
song for full chorus, and performed it with my Metropolitan
Philharmonic Chorus, here [[link removed]]: at Local
802, commemorating Robinson's centennial, with his son, clarinetist
Perry Robinson.

Leonard J. Lehrman
ljlehrman.artists-in-residence.com
[[link removed]]

 

RE: HOLLYWOOD ON THE PICKET LINE – 5 UNSUNG FILMS THAT PUT
AMERICA’S UNION HISTORY ON THE SILVER SCREEN

(posting on xxxxxx Culture
[[link removed]])
 

This list of labor films is missing the bold, significant _The Killing
Floor [[link removed]]_ (1984), directed by Bill
Duke. It depicts the social explosion in Chicago 1919 when the Great
Migration was confronted by a giant wave of industrial organizing and
strikes. The main character is shaped by the class struggle in two
different forms: striking unions and "the advancement" of African
Americans. Then comes the Race Riot.

Ethan Young
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

      =====

And let's not forget the 1937 Paramount newsreel of the Memorial Day
Massacre at Republic Steel that showed all the brutal details, but was
banned from exhibition for fear that it might show that ACAB.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

WE'RE ALL EXTRAS
 

by David Weir

post on Facebook [[link removed]]
July 17, 2023

The strike by writers and actors that is paralyzing Hollywood is about
money and benefits, of course, just like every strike in history has
been. But this one is also about a much bigger issue: artificial
intelligence.

The owners of the studios that control the industry want to use AI to
scan the images of all the little people in the background of movies
and TV shows during their one-time paid appearances and then use those
scanned images however and whenever they choose going forward.

This perfectly encapsulates the existential threat of AI overall. The
owners, who already have essentially all the power in the matter, do
not propose to even pay the extras the extra day rates or the
residuals (which are the equivalent of scraps of food) for using their
scanned images going forward.

This, as they say in negotiating parlance, is a red line. It is one of
those issues that must be fought for because so much is at stake here.
The writers and the actors are in the right; the owners are in the
wrong.

There is no ambiguity here. Extras must receive payments for every use
of their scanned image, just as when in the old days, they appeared in
multiple scenes.

Those on strike are representing all of the rest of us in the battle
over AI. Most of us will never be marquee actors or Hall of Fame
athletes or famous enough to be recognizable by our first name.

Most of us will only be “almost famous,” or famous for 15 seconds,
or appear once briefly in the background of some main feature, never
to be seen again.

Most of us are extras.

That’s not to say we don’t matter. The show can’t go on without
us, or all of the other “little people” who handle the equipment,
the sets, the lighting, the sound, the security and countless other
details that make Hollywood and the rest of the real world work.

Perhaps no film displays the true value of extras more than the what
is probably the greatest movie of all time — “Casablanca.” In
its most memorable scene, the extras gather to sing a rousing version
of La Marseillaise.

What gives that scene its enduring power is that all of the extras
were European refugees from the Nazis then sweeping across Europe.
Most of them were Jews who had not only escaped from tyranny but also
from extermination.

But at the precise moment the film was made, America had not yet made
the decision whether to enter the fight against authoritarianism. So
in many ways, the extras were singing for their — and our — lives.

We need to remember that now, during this strike, because this
involves all of us. Once again, our survival hangs in the balance.

_[DAVID WEIR [[link removed](journalist)]
is a journalist, author, and co-founder and former Executive Director
of the Center for Investigative
[link removed]  He has written for
publications including The Economist, HotWired, L.A. Weekly, Mother
Jones, The Nation, New West, New York Magazine, The New York Times,
Rolling Stone, Salon.com, San Francisco Chronicle, and the San
Francisco Examiner.]_

 

WAR ON WOMEN  -  WOMEN SHOULD GIVE BIRTH EARLIER, AND NOT ENGAGE IN
A CAREER AND EDUCATION - MURASHKO, MINISTER OF HEALTH OF THE RUSSIAN
FEDERATION
 

The Insider [[link removed]]
July 18, 2023
 

At the plenary session of the State Duma, the Minister of Health of
the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko called on
[[link removed]] women
to give birth as early as possible, and not to engage in education and
career building:

“A belief has formed that a woman should first get an education,
make a career, and then only take care of childbearing. Then many
problems arise. A woman should understand that the sooner she gives
birth, the better.

According to Murashko, this should be explained to girls "from the
school bench", as well as engage in similar propaganda among young
women in the State Services. The minister believes that postponing
the birth of a child is a “perverse practice”, which allegedly
causes infertility and miscarriage. Therefore, Murashko considers it
necessary to tell a woman that the sooner she gives birth, “the
better for [her] own health, for the health of children and career, in
the long run.”

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Health said
[[link removed]] that by the end of the year it is
necessary to withdraw medical means of emergency termination of
pregnancy from free sale. He proposed to transfer these drugs to a
quantitative account.

RELATED ARTICLE

Means of emergency termination of pregnancy should be withdrawn from
free sale before the end of the year - head of the Ministry of Health
Murashko [[link removed]] 

_[THE INSIDER [[link removed]] is an online publication
specializing in investigative journalism, fact-checking and political
analytics. The edition of the publication is distributed around the
world. Chief editor - Andris Jansons._

_The Insider's content has received numerous international awards,
including the Council of Europe Innovation Award (2018), The European
Press Prize (2019), Free Media Award (2019) and many others.]_

 

NEW BOOK - SOLIDARITY & CARE: DOMESTIC WORKER ACTIVISM IN NEW YORK
CITY

 

Temple University Press
 
Solidarity & Care: Domestic Worker Activism in New York City
[[link removed]]
Alana Lee Glaser

Publication Date: July 28, 2023
204 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4"
Paper: 978-1-4399-2246-0 $24.95

How intersectional labor organizing and solidarity can effectively
protect workers in the domestic work sector and other industries

The members of the Domestic Workers United (DWU)
organization—immigrant women of color employed as nannies,
caregivers, and housekeepers in New York City—formed to fight for
dignity and respect and to “bring meaningful change” to their
work. Alana Lee Glaser examines the process of how these domestic
workers organized against precarity, isolation, and exploitation to
help pass the 2010 New York State Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, the
first labor law in the United States protecting in-home workers.

_Solidarity & Care _examines the political mobilization of diverse
care workers who joined together and supported one another through
education, protests, lobbying, and storytelling. Domestic work
activists used narrative and emotional appeals to build a coalition of
religious communities, employers of domestic workers, labor union
members, and politicians to first pass and then to enforce the new
law.

Through oral history interviews, as well as ethnographic observation
during DWU meetings and protest actions, Glaser chronicles how these
women fought (and continue to fight) to improve working conditions.
She also illustrates how they endure racism, punitive immigration
laws, on-the-job indignities, and unemployment that can result in
eviction and food insecurity.

The lessons from _Solidarity & Care _along with the DWU’s
precedent-setting legislative success have applications to workers
across industries.

_All royalties will go directly to the Domestic Workers United_

_Alana Lee Glaser is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at St. John's
University._

 

ROBERT REICH - MY FINAL COURSE IS NOW ONLINE IN FULL  (INEQUALITY
MEDIA CIVIC ACTION)

 

 

I would like to invite you to participate in an experience that is
very dear to me: teaching.

I have finished teaching my last class on Wealth and Poverty at UC
Berkeley, in fact, my last university class anywhere. And I WANT TO
SHARE THE ENTIRE COURSE WITH YOU, ALL 14 WEEKS, from the point of view
of a student in the auditorium, in a free series.

You’ll find all my lectures and slides, along with my stories and
(attempted) humor -- and you’ll see how my students respond to
interactive quizzes, puzzles, and role-playing scenarios. I’m also
posting a syllabus so you can do the key readings, should you wish.
But don’t worry, there are no exams, no grades, and no points off
for tardiness!

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS ALL 14 WEEKS OF CLASS! I DESIGNED THIS COURSE TO
EXPLORE A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF WHY INEQUALITIES OF INCOME AND
WEALTH HAVE WIDENED SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE LAST 40 YEARS IN THE UNITED
STATES, AND THE CONSEQUENCES.
[[link removed]]

[[link removed]]

Watch here
[[link removed]]

The reason I am posting my course in full is not just to inform (and
occasionally amuse) you, but also to arm you with the truth -- about
how the system works and doesn’t, where power is located and where
it’s lacking, and the myths and lies used by those who are blocking
positive social change -- so you can fight more effectively for the
common good.

LET ME BE CLEAR: WE CAN’T HAVE A DEMOCRACY THAT WORKS UNLESS PEOPLE
KNOW WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON! That’s why I’m also asking you to
post on social media and let your friends know about this
opportunity. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.

One of the themes that runs through the course is the intertwining of
wealth and power -- economics and politics -- and why such
inequalities are more extreme in the United States than in other rich
countries. While I DON’T BELIEVE _WEALTH_ IS A ZERO-SUM GAME in
which those at the top can only get richer if others grow poorer, I
DO BELIEVE THAT POWER IS A ZERO-SUM GAME. THE MORE POWER AT THE TOP,
THE LESS OF IT ELSEWHERE.

And because wealth can’t be separated from power, at a deeper level
the course examines who has been gaining power in America, who has
been losing it, and why.

WE ALSO DISCUSS MY DEFINITION OF MORAL LEADERSHIP: it’s not based
in natural ability, or having lots of followers, or holding high
public office. Rather, A TRUE LEADER IS ONE WHO HELPS PEOPLE DO THE
HARD WORK OF MAKING POSITIVE SOCIAL CHANGE.

To do the work, leaders must help people overcome “work avoidance”
-- in the forms of denial, escapism, scapegoating, and cynicism.
Fortunately, we draw inspiration from leaders who have fought against
all four, and as a result have made the world a better place.

I’D ALSO LIKE TO MAKE A SPECIAL NOTE: THE POSTED VIDEOS INCLUDE THE
FINAL CLASS OF THE COURSE WHICH IS ALSO THE LAST CLASS I WILL EVER
TEACH OF ANY COURSE. IF YOU VIEW JUST ONE CLASS, I HOPE IT'S CLASS 14.
[[link removed]] I
summarize the main points of the course, give a short history of the
struggle for social justice in America, and talk about how my students
(including you) can make a difference in the future.

WHETHER IN THE PHYSICAL CLASSROOM OR ONLINE, MY GOAL HAS ALWAYS BEEN
TO GROW A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO SPREADING THE TRUTH
AND CONTRIBUTING TO A BETTER WORLD. WHICH IS WHY I’M HERE, AND
PRESUMABLY WHY YOU ARE TOO.

At last, we come to my wishes for you, and all of my students, as I
share in the final class:

_May your days be filled with wonder
May your lives be filled with meaning
May your work be filled with joy_
_May you live long, and powerful, lives_

See you in class,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

Inequality Media Civic Action
[[link removed]]  
P.O. BOX 9323
Berkeley, CA 94709

 

MEIN KRAMPF: PROJECT 2025
 

Durt Fibo
July 20, 2023
Der Koolschrank [[link removed]]

The recent revelations of a potential Trump-led typhoon of vengeance,
concentration of power, and uprooting of all people, departments or
legalities standing in his way came to us through journalists Maggie
Haberman, Jonathan Swan and Charlie Savage, who published their
warnings based on extensive interactions with Trump’s associates.
Combined, the cautions and threats predict a perfect storm that would
wipe out existing laws and structures and leave behind its devastation
one autocrat in charge of what had once been a democratic republic.

Although the reports (and subsequent reactions) have summoned forth
the word “dictatorship,” these prognostications are not solely
based on analyzing the psychopathology of the tempestuous creature
known as Donald J. Trump. The transformation of the USA is actually
the goal, laid out in a shiny strategy paper composed by the Heritage
Foundation, and meant to be applicable to any politician who happens
to become selected to unleash the big one. It is -in its PR-conscious
version- available to all readers and is titled “Project 2025”
after its comprehensive purpose as “a playbook of actions to be
taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick
relief to Americans suffering from the Left’s devastating
policies.”

While the written strategy whips up the vision for a thousand-year
Republican-party Reich from coast to coast, the Heritage
Foundation’s president Kevin D. Roberts justifies this inversion of
law and logic thusly: “The notion of independent federal agencies or
federal employees who don’t answer to the president violates the
very foundation of our democratic republic.”

In order to spare myself a line-by-line refutation of the Project’s
dangerous logical fallacies, I invite all United States citizens to
see for themselves the complete war plan, at least as it is nicely
present for public digestion. It can all be found right here:
 

[[link removed]]

[link removed]

Durt Fibo
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

* Reader Comments
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* SCOTUS
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[[link removed]]
* Racism
[[link removed]]
* Trump Indictment
[[link removed]]
* Hollywood Strikes
[[link removed]]
* SAG-AFTRA
[[link removed]]
* WGA Writers Strike
[[link removed]]
* AI
[[link removed]]
* artificial intelligence
[[link removed]]
* streaming
[[link removed]]
* extras
[[link removed]]
* Ron DeSantis
[[link removed]]
* Private armies
[[link removed]]
* Negro Leagues
[[link removed]]
* jim crow
[[link removed]]
* segregation
[[link removed]]
* baseball
[[link removed]]
* Paul Robeson
[[link removed]]
* 1940s
[[link removed]]
* labor films
[[link removed]]
* war on women
[[link removed]]
* Russia
[[link removed]]
* domestic workers
[[link removed]]
* Robert Reich
[[link removed]]
* wealth
[[link removed]]
* wealth inequality
[[link removed]]
* poverty
[[link removed]]
* class
[[link removed]]
* Social Change
[[link removed]]
* Project 2025
[[link removed]]
* Heritage Foundation
[[link removed]]
* Cartoons
[[link removed]]
* resources
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