Can he be any more obvious? Is there even one of his supporters who cringes when he transparently sucks up like this?
Former President Trump praised the judge overseeing his classified documents case as his legal team seeks a postponement of his trial in Florida.
Trump’s motion for a continuance of the trial, filed last Monday, awaits a decision by Judge Aileen Cannon, an appointee of the former president who presided over his initial challenge to the FBI search of his Florida home.
Asked on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News whether he believes the judge will grant the motion, Trump said he did not know.
“I know it’s a very highly respected judge. A very smart judge, and a very strong judge,” Trump said.
When host Maria Bartiromo noted that Trump appointed the judge in the case, Trump said, “I did, and I’m very proud to have appointed her.”
“But she’s very smart and very strong, and loves our country,” Trump said. “We need judges that love our country so they do the right thing.”
Rulings from Cannon substantially slowed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation into Trump over his handling of classified documents upon leaving the White House, in one instance barring prosecutors from using the classified documents they seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Cannon was twice overturned by a higher court, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which greenlit the DOJ’s use of the documents and disbanded the special master process.
This is too much. I think we know what he’ll do if she “betrays” him by following the law. I wait with bated breath to find out …
It’s going to be very interesting to see how this one plays out.
They no longer have any need or desire to be statesmen
And, as with everything else, it’s a long, slow evolution that’s been accelerated at warp speed by the presence of Donald Trump in American politics:
There are 26 Republican governors. Three of them showed up here this week at the annual summer meeting of the National Governors Association.
And of those three, one left after the first night, and another had little choice but to attend — his chairship of the group began at the conclusion of this year’s gathering.
Striding the Hard Rock Cafe casino stage like a megachurch pastor, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox used his maiden speech as NGA chair to implore his fellow governors to make the organization a model of robust yet civil debate.
“If we’re ever going to find our better angels again, it has to start with us setting the example of how to disagree better,” Cox said.
But it’s hard to do much disagreeing, or have a conversation at all, when nobody is listening: Fewer than a half-dozen governors were still in attendance for his remarks Friday, the session’s closing day, and they were all Democrats.
After more than a century of bringing together the nation’s governors, the NGA — long a wellspring of ideas, forum for best practices and platform for innovating policymaking — is at grave risk of falling victim to the silos plaguing most every other element of American politics.
That’s the bad news. The good news is if any governor can reverse or at least slow this trend, it’s Cox.
“A bipartisan organization in a partisan world is always going to struggle, there’s no question about that,” the earnest Utahan acknowledged in an interview before vowing to round up more Republicans for next summer’s meeting. “I’ll definitely be cajoling them next time.”
It won’t be easy.
Republicans and Democrats increasingly prefer to exist in separate political spheres rather than debate one another, let alone try to find consensus.
This sorting plays out on television, where right and left have their preferred cable networks and joint appearances between lawmakers or candidates on network shows are increasingly rare; it’s a way of life in Congress, where the parties have separate lunches and spend much of their free time raising money with their co-partisans; and of course, division is the mother’s milk of politics online, where algorithms push users toward the reinforcing content they crave.
Then there’s the fact that one of our two political parties has for seven years been in the grip of a demagogue who simultaneously benefits from and accelerates this polarization while driving Republicans further away from mainstream institutions.
Despite this descent, the NGA remained a vibrant if overshadowed bipartisan institution. I can recall attending the group’s summer meeting in 2017 and finding a robust turnout of governors from both parties.
At least for the chief executives, it was a storied association.
Besides the opportunities to learn from one another, and often poach a bit, the group’s meetings offered the governors attention from the media, business community and lobbyists that they couldn’t easily attract to Jefferson City or Montpelier. (Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke was thrilled to attend the meetings, he told people, because he knew the late Washington Post columnist David S. Broder would be in attendance.)
There’s the annual winter meeting in Washington, D.C., always paired with a White House dinner with the president, and the more casual and rotating summer conclave. Particularly for new governors or those with little national profile, these were must-attend events — a way to sell their state, their story and themselves.
Chairing the NGA offered even more visibility, luring ambitious governors like Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, Arkansas’s Bill Clinton and Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty to take control of the group and bolster their profile ahead of future presidential bids.
[…]
Republican participation has slowly tailed off, though. A few conservative states, like Florida and Texas, stopped participating in the association at all, no matter their governor.
Then, in the Trump years, some Republican governors stopped coming or sequestered themselves while in attendance because they didn’t want to face questions from the press about the president’s latest eruption. (The GOP executives needn’t have much worried this year — I didn’t see another national journalist, and there were few cameras besides C-SPAN.)
Since 2018, there’s been a turnover in states that has left both fewer Republican governors and fewer Republican governors of the sort who want to discuss best practices or share a soft-serve cone or bumper car on the boardwalk with their Democratic counterparts.
Blue-state Republicans such as Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker have been replaced by Democrats, and many purple states have elected or reelected Democrats.
In some states, where new Republicans have taken office, governors like Nevada’s Joe Lombardo have appeared reluctant to participate in the NGA. At last month’s Western Governors Association conference in Colorado, Lombardo told people he thought the NGA was a Democratic-leaning group, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
A Lombardo representative said he didn’t come to the NGA because of scheduling issues, but he and other Republican governors almost always find time to attend events hosted by the Republican Governors Association, which is dedicated to electing the party’s governors.
Fittingly for this polarized moment, it’s the RGA that has become the preferred organization for most GOP governors. That’s why the winter gathering of governors is usually well-attended across party lines: In addition to the White House invite, there are always ancillary fundraising events in Washington that ensure donors and therefore a good turnout.
Now, to be sure: Natural disasters kept some governors away this year. Others found the Eastern Seaboard location (with no major airport nearby) forbidding, and there was also a dip in turnout from some Democratic governors, if not nearly as significant as with Republicans.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, told me he thought some Republicans stayed away for the same reason they did during Trump’s administration: “I don’t think they want you to ask them about the former president.”
Walz pointed out that the two governors staying for the conference didn’t need to worry about that: Cox has been clear about his distaste for Trump, and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt is already supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
But what I found alarming was the talk racing through the hallways of the Hard Rock (which, in a reminder that Trump can never be fully escaped, was formerly his Taj Mahal): The NGA’s summer meeting may come to an end, replaced by only regional meetings that would likely reflect the partisanship of the region. That may be a safer space, to borrow a phrase, but it would be tantamount to surrender, a concession that even with governors the partisan chasm is just too deep to sustain a national organization.
This all may sound like so much nostalgia for a bygone day. Yet many of the governors do stand apart from their counterparts in Congress for their seriousness of purpose, their executive leadership in the face of crisis and, yes, their willingness to forge coalitions across party lines.
“It’s one of the more unique organizations where folks across the aisle can find common ground,” as New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, the outgoing NGA chair, put it.
The Democrat Murphy and Republican Cox, who spent the last year as vice chair, offered an example of the productive work that can be done by the group, as they and their wives spent much of their time together addressing the country’s youth mental health crisis.
The paltry turnout here may prove ominous, or it may be altogether fitting for the “Disagree Better” initiative of Cox, who in the days before the conference toured Gettysburg, Independence Hall and Valley Forge.
The whole party is polluted. There is no saving it.
He’s a hard right establishment Republican. And it’s just not good enough. Why?
During the event, Carlson asked the former governor about his veto of the first-in-the-nation gender-affirming care ban for minors.
Hutchinson said at the time of his veto that he believes the law went too far and was an example of government overreach.
On Friday, the former governor said that he believes only two genders exist and he would not personally support a member of his family changing genders, but he does not think the government should be involved in the decision.
“There should not be any confusion on your gender. But if there is confusion, then parents ought to be the ones that guide the children,” he said. “That to me is a fundamental principle.”
Hutchinson added that he would have signed a bill that only banned gender-affirming surgery for minors because a parent should not be able to consent to that “permanent change.” But the Arkansas law, which went into effect after the state legislature overrode his veto, bans all forms of care, including surgery, puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy.
Carlson pushed back on Hutchinson’s position, questioning how gender-affirming care is treatment and arguing that a responsibility exists to prevent this.
Hutchinson reiterated his view and said he did not support an Obama-era policy that required schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity.
Carlson then cut Hutchinson off, asking about the distinction that Hutchinson was drawing and if he supports allowing children to change their gender but not be able to use a different bathroom. Hutchinson expressed frustration in a briefly tense moment.
“Let me finish what I said. Let me finish, if you don’t mind,” Hutchinson said.
He said the government should not be “pushing an agenda” in schools, which is what he opposes. He said parents and faith should guide these “difficult” decisions and the government should stay out.
You do not deviate from the hate, even a little bit.
Unless you are Trump , of course. He is not bound by any rules. He makes them up as he goes along.
Wait. The Insurrection Act? Where did that come from? Trump did amend that post later to say Espionage Act, but it appears that the Insurrection Act is on his mind. You have to wonder if maybe he’s gotten a target letter from the Special Council.
There is good reason for him to worry about that.
2. Image is from Select Committee Final Report.
The Select Committee also showed Hope Hicks text message exchange in hearing.👇
Among other things, this goes to former president Trump's foreknowledge and support for violence on January 6th. pic.twitter.com/eZbgh6rRFr
Jennifer Rubin looked at a new prospective prosecution memo which sees Donald Trump potentially facing some very serious charges based upon the public evidence. One of them is the likelihood of being charged under the Insurrection Act:
Building on a prior prosecution memo, a group of seven former prosecutors and defense attorneys — lawyers with decades of collective constitutional and criminal law experience — published at Just Security a voluminous updated memo giving their best estimate (and advice to Smith) as to what to expect.
The authors at Just Security consolidated the seven-part conspiracy the House select committee set out into three essential prongs. They explained the first prong: “Trump knew he lost the election but did not want to give up power, so he worked with his lawyers on a wide variety of schemes to change the outcome. Those schemes included creating fraudulent electoral certificates that were submitted to Congress, implicating statutes such as 18 U.S.C. § 371, which prohibits conspiracies to defraud the United States” and 18 U.S.C. §1001, which prohibits false statements to the government. Second, after the phony elector scheme failed, Trump tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to obstruct the joint session in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512. And third, when that too failed, “Trump went to his last resort: triggering an insurrection in the hope that it would throw Congress off course, delaying the transfer of power for the first time in American history. This implicated statutes such as 18 U.S.C. § 2383, which prohibits inciting an insurrection and giving aid or comfort to insurrectionists.”
Applying the first two statutes — fraud and obstruction of an official proceeding — to the facts should not be difficult; operating under a lower evidentiary threshold, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter already found that Trump and lawyer John Eastman “probably” violated those laws.” Since then, the authors pointed out, evidence concerning seven slates of phony electors procured with Trump’s direct knowledge has come to light. These slates were allegedly assembled “with the purpose that those electors be submitted to Congress and the National Archives, and that the false slates of electors were in fact submitted to Congress.” Fortunately, a parade of witnesses was left behind — ranging from Pence and his chief of staff and lawyer to former Trump campaign and White House staff to the electors themselves. If former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has “flipped,” Smith will have an even more compelling case.
The incitement charge might be trickier, given the difficulty in proving Trump’s intent to cause violence, First Amendment issues for his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the Ellipse, and the lack (so far) of definitive evidence connecting Trump to the militia groups. Given the gravity of the offense, the authors suggested proceeding but with a narrower approach based on Trump’s original call-out to his supporters, “his infamous 2:24 PM tweet targeting Pence and his 187 minutes of inaction in derogation of his affirmative duties while the riot raged.” Under a narrower approach, prosecutors could omit the speech on the Ellipse.
The authors concluded: “Based on all the available evidence, case law, and analogous historical precedent, Donald Trump’s combined support for the insurrectionists and inaction while the insurrection was ongoing seems to more than pass the bar to support charges under DOJ policy for engaging in the January 6, 2021, insurrection and providing support, aid, or comfort to the insurrectionists under the criminal insurrection statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2383.”
Because this statute has not been used since the Civil War (although several militia leaders were convicted under a related statute for seditious conspiracy), and because other, more easily provable charges are available, Smith might not want to charge this most serious crime. However, the authors made a persuasive case that if Attorney General Merrick Garland keeps his promise to follow the law and the facts, the charge would be unavoidable. Indeed, no charge better captures the essence of Trump’s alleged coup attempt. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and one of the co-authors of the Just Security memo, told me: “Smith can charge this case in a way that is straightforward but fully captures the use of deception, pressure, and ultimately violence to thwart the peaceful transfer of power in a way that pushed democracy in America to the brink.”
As for potential defenses, the authors found no legitimate claim of presidential immunity to commit crimes and no evidence that Trump acted in good faith. (“They all knew that Trump had lost the election in each of the states that submitted phony electoral certificates — and they knew the express purpose of submitting those electoral certificates was to overturn a lawful election. Indeed, the central plotters … expressly acknowledged that the scheme was unlawful.”) Likewise, a defense based on advice of counsel is not available when the lawyers themselves are alleged to be co-conspirators.
Even without knowing the grand jury testimony (especially from Pence) that remains secret, Smith’s case, as the authors at Just Security laid out, would be devastating. In digging out each nugget of information, piling one on top of another and applying them to the elements of the alleged crimes, the memo makes an overwhelming case for indictment on three easily comprehensible charges. It therefore is practically inconceivable Smith would fail to bring an indictment.
The Brevard County Republican Executive voted by a supermajority this week to call upon Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ban sale and distribution of Covid “and all related vaccines” in the state, Florida Today reported.
The nonbinding resolution also demanded that “Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody seize all remaining doses in the state for safety testing, ‘on behalf of the preservation of the human race,’ the resolution states,” the report said.
The resolution is part of a trend among GOP county officials in the state, and “closely mirrors” a measure advanced in February in Lee County. Last month a similar resolution was passed in Tampa Bay Hillsborough County, bringing the total to more than half a dozen counties, the outlet reported.
Here’s some verbiage from the resolution in Brevard County, according to Florida Today:
“Strong and credible evidence has recently been revealed that Covid-19 and Covid-19 injections are biological and technological weapons,” the Brevard draft resolution says, citing claims that have been disproven and disputed by respected medical groups.
“An enormous number of humans have died or been permanently disabled” by the vaccine, it says. “Government agencies, media and tech companies, and other corporations, have committed enormous fraud by claiming Covid-19 injections are safe and effective.”
Florida Today did add this disclaimer:
“The four-page resolution cites a mix of news and government sources, legitimate scientific papers — including a Swedish study, purported to show that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine alters human DNA, that its authors have said has been misinterpreted by vaccine critics — and fringe websites.”
It continues:
“The resolution includes references to data from a 2021 Pfizer study showing more than 1,200 deaths and 42,000 ‘adverse cases’ associated with the vaccine worldwide between December 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021, but fails to include other important context.”
The report notes that, “By March 1, 2021, more than 72 million doses of the vaccine had been administered and more than 48 million people vaccinated in the United States alone, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
“The CDC has acknowledged some complications have occurred with different versions of the shot, but says ‘severe reactions’ are rare and the benefits of vaccination ‘continue to outweigh any potential risks,’ according to its website,” the report states.
The New York Times COVID-19 tracker reported as of today that 67 percent of Brevard County residents – and 93 percent of its seniors – have received the primary vaccination against COVID-19.
DeSantis tells everyone within earshot that he wants to turn the United States into Florida. I don’t think we can afford to let him do that.
I’ve never forgotten the first time I encountered an essay by the late, great Molly Ivins. She described happenins inside the “Austin Funhouse,” a.k.a, the Texas state capitol where, pre-Viagra, overstimulated legislators often went to “fist city.”
In Michigan they hit lower, says Michigan Democrats’ state Senate Majority Whip Mallory McMorrow.
Because while the GOP state party is in shambles, Gov Rick Snyder (yes, that Rick Snyder) is aggressively raising money for state House Republicans. With only a two seat majority, we can’t afford to get distracted or we’ll lose all the progress we’ve made. https://t.co/9cbGHakR0R
“He kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door,” said Mark DeYoung, chairman of the Clare County Republican Party, before he got slammed into a chair and broke a rib. Police were involved.
L to R: Marianna Pecora, Victor Shi, Santiago Mayer, Ashwath Narayanan.
It’s happened before. The final, low-prestige panels of the Netroots Nation conference — late Saturday afternoon when people are already leaving — turn out to be the most interesting.
Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, many national news sources suggested that the youth would not turn out. In reality, the election saw the second-highest youth turnout in the last 30 years. Gen Z voted overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates. Without the youth vote, the “red wave” may have become a reality.
The Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade was the animating issue in 2022, as well as in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in 2023. While the youth vote has been increasing, 2022 was the first when over half of Gen Z could vote, the panel agreed. They predict even higher turnout in 2024.
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, 26, told a ballroom crowd earlier that Democrats must work to make Gen Z’s future a hopeful one of abundance, not retrenchment, if they want their engagement.
Campaigns now have to shift their perspective on the youth vote, not simply focus on voter history and voting propensity for which there has been, until recently, little data for Gen Z.
Best messenger to GenZ is another member of GenZ
To reach younger voters, campaigns must have young people in the campaigns empowered to do outreach to young people. It’s their future on the line.
That outreach cannot happen just in the last three months ahead of an election. That effort should include digital channels, of course, but also constant presence on campuses. The challenge there is the constant turnover in student populations. Candidates and officials should regularly visit college campuses, and even high schools in states where 17 year-olds can register if they’ll be 18 by Election Day.
Invest in youth content creators/influencers. There is an inherent level of trust among youth with youth. Give them information to distribute, then step out of the way; let them create the content. It’s what they do best. If they have a million followers, TRUST THEM to push out your information in way that’s most effective. (Even if the campaign doesn’t “get it.”)
Creativity and fun are the keys to reaching Gen Z. Voters of Tomorrow recounted distributing condoms on a Texas campus. They carried a QR code and a message: “Fuck Fascism”.
Finally, they suggested, invest in young content creators. Trust them to deliver. There needs to be an intergenerational infrastructure to support them. Young people should lead but they shouldn’t have to do it alone.
Gen Z does not care much about parties, the panel agreed. That’s evident in the data a colleague generated for independent voters (UNAfiliateds in NC) in NC for 2022. The green curve above represents UNA registration by age (18-100). The green bar graph below shows actual UNA voter turnout for 2022. The youth vote (below 45, for example) may be increasing, but it has plenty of room to grow. They tend to vote Democrat.
Our opponents know this. That’s why they work so hard to suppress it.
A GM I once worked for was fond of saying “everybody’s got two businesses…their own, and show biz” (usually under his breath after a meeting with one of our advertisers). It would be nice, but it is true that everybody can’t be a “star”…even for those whose only business is show biz. Take actors. This may be a difficult sell to the average working stiff, but not every person who acts for a living commands a 7-figure (or more) salary per-project; they’re living paycheck-to-paycheck like the rest of us.
In fact, out of the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, only around 2% make a living from acting jobs. As you are likely aware, this past Thursday SAG-AFTRA joined the members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines (the WGA has been on strike now for several months). The last time this confluence occurred was in 1960. And this time out, the issues at hand are more …complex:
SAG-AFTRA and the major studios remain at odds on a dizzying array of issues, as film and TV actors hit the picket lines Friday for the first time since 1980.
According to sources on both sides, the biggest sticking point is the union’s demand for 2% of the revenue generated by streaming shows. The two sides also remain far apart on basic increases in minimum rates, with the studios offering 5%, 4% and 3.5% across the three years of the contract, while the union is demanding 11%, 4% and 4%.
But that only scratches the surface. The parties are at odds on dozens of issues, only a handful of which have been publicly reported.
In some cases, the two sides don’t even agree on what the disagreements are. They engaged in a rare public back-and-forth Thursday over the use of artificial intelligence to replicate background actors.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s executive director, alleged that the studios want to pay an extra for one day of work to be scanned, and then reuse that likeness forever. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers hotly disputed that, saying that its proposal explicitly limits the reuse to the project for which the extra was hired.
The Variety article delves deeper into the complexities; the bottom line is that a settlement may take some time. In the meantime, major studio movie and television productions have essentially ground to a halt. This work stoppage has far-reaching consequence, especially when you consider the on-set technicians and post-production personnel involved, not to mention service industry workers like janitors and caterers who all depend on the Hollywood machine for their living.
One interesting sidebar is how the tandem strikes are affecting a place located about a 2-hour drive from where I live… “Hollywood North”:
Rare twin strikes by Hollywood actors and film and television writers are casting a pall over British Columbia’s creative industry, which has become a hub for American film and TV production.
Known as “Hollywood North,” the Canadian province and the city of Vancouver comprise one of the largest production centers in North America, with more than 50 animation studios alone, employing up to 88,000 people, according to a provincial agency. It generated an estimated C$3.6 billion in revenue ($2.7 billion) in 2022.
Hollywood actors on Friday joined writers on the picket lines for the first time in 63 years. The unionized workers are demanding higher compensation in an era when streaming of movies and TV shows has reduced royalties for working-class actors.
Film production in British Columbia is down to “a trickle,” said Gemma Martini, Chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and CEO of Martini Film Studios.
Creative BC, the government body responsible for promoting creative industries in the province, said in a statement it is “concerned for the workforce, companies, industry, and people.”
Since the 1990s, different levels of government have offered tax credits to the industry, adding to its appeal as a destination for movie production. Over the years, Vancouver, with its proximity to Los Angeles and prized locations, has emerged as an alternative hub for production and post-production activities, production executives said. […]
Reverberations that started on May 2 with the writers’ strike grew in British Columbia, where most productions have American components.
In a given week, British Columbia-based film location management company Location Fixer could have 15 active productions.
“Now,” said co-owner Synnove Godeseth, “we have zero.”
Godeseth estimates about 75% of her company’s business comes from U.S. productions. First the business was hit by the writers’ strike: “Because no scripts are being written, people aren’t coming to scout our locations.”
Now, the actors’ strike is taking a toll. Commercial shoots are helping – “that’s literally what’s keeping us afloat.”
Godeseth said she supports the striking workers “100%” and hopes for a swift resolution.
Among the productions in the UK that could be affected is Deadpool 3, starring Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, who were recently pictured suited and booted for their roles. The third installment of the Marvel antihero film franchise was due out in May 2024 but the strike could now change things. […]
Overseas productions, like Paramount’s Gladiator sequel, starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington, are also expected to be affected.
The new Gladiator is shooting in Morocco and Malta – but with plenty of British crews working on the production team.
The strike also affects promotional activity. Upcoming releases due to hold promotional events like press junkets and red-carpet premieres include Disney’s Haunted Mansion (released 28 July), a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (2 August), Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Agata Christie mystery A Haunting In Venice (15 September).
While writing for these projects is likely to be completed, the strike by performers will bring a stop to a large proportion of production work and cause havoc with scheduling. […]
Actors represented by SAG-AFTRA’s sister union, Equity, in the UK must continue to work as normal – the Hollywood strike does not apply to them.
Equity says “a performer joining the strike (or refusing to cross a picket line) in the UK will have no protection against being dismissed or sued for breach of contract by the producer”.
Even actors represented by both SAG-AFTRA and Equity may be required to work on projects being made in the UK, Equity said, due to UK employment laws.
In terms of TV, Warner Bros Discovery previously boasted about the minimal disruption of the writers’ strike to HBO projects like House of the Dragon series, filming in the UK, because scripts were complete.
Nonetheless, the strike by performers who are members of SAG-AFTRA means many fully written screenplays are now likely to be left sitting unused.
Series two of the Game of Thrones TV spin-off, with Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy, could now face delays, as well as the second series of The Sandman, starring Tom Sturridge, and series four of Oscar-winner Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses.
It is believed side deals could be struck between guild performers and producers to enable certain projects to continue.
So many moving parts involved…here’s hoping this situation comes to a fair and equitable resolution. Meantime, in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA and WGA I am re-posting my 2022 Labor Day piece.
Raise your glass to the hard-working people Let’s drink to the uncounted heads Let’s think of the wavering millions who need leaders but get gamblers instead
-from “Salt of the Earth”, by Mick Jagger & Keith Richard
(Shame mode) Full disclosure. It had been so long since I had contemplated the true meaning of Labor Day, I had to refresh myself with a web search. Like many wage slaves, I simply view it as one of the 7 annual paid holidays offered by my employer (table scraps, really…relative to the other 254 weekdays I spend chained to a desk, slipping ever closer to the Abyss).
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
By the way, Labor Day isn’t the sole “creation of the labor movement”. Next time you’re in the break room, check out the posters with all that F.L.S.A. meta regarding workplace rights, minimum wage, et.al. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so flippant about my “table scraps”, eh?
I have curated a Top 10 list of films that inspire, enlighten, or just give food for thought in honor of this holiest of days for those who make an honest living (I know-we’re a dying breed). So put your feet up, cue up a movie, and raise a glass to yourself. You’ve earned it.
Blue Collar– Director Paul Schrader co-wrote this 1978 drama with his brother Leonard. Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto portray Motor City auto worker buddies tired of getting the short end of the stick from both their employer and their union. In a fit of drunken pique, they pull an ill-advised caper that gets them in trouble with both parties, ultimately putting friendship and loyalty to the test.
Akin to Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, Schrader subverts the standard “union good guy, company bad guy” trope with shades of gray, reminding us the road to Hell is sometimes paved with good intentions. Great score by Jack Nitzsche and Ry Cooder, with a memorable theme song featuring Captain Beefheart (“I’m jest a hard-woikin’, fucked-over man…”).
El Norte – Gregory Nava’s portrait of Guatemalan siblings who make their way to the U.S. after their father is killed by a government death squad will stay with you after credits roll. The two leads deliver naturalistic performances as a brother and sister who maintain optimism, despite fate and circumstance thwarting them at every turn. Claustrophobes be warned: a harrowing scene featuring an encounter with a rat colony during an underground border crossing is nightmare fuel. Do not expect a Hollywood ending; this is an unblinking look at the shameful exploitation of undocumented workers.
The Grapes of Wrath – John Ford’s powerful 1940 drama (adapted from John Steinbeck’s novel) is the quintessential film about the struggle of America’s salt of the earth during the Great Depression. Perhaps we can take comfort in the possibility that no matter how bad things get, Henry Fonda’s unforgettable embodiment of Tom Joad will “…be there, all around, in the dark.” Ford followed up with the Oscar-winning How Green Was My Valley (1941) another drama about a working class family (set in a Welsh mining town).
Harlan County, USA – Barbara Kopple’s award-winning film is not only an extraordinary document about an acrimonious coal miner’s strike in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1973, but is one of the best American documentaries ever made. Kopple’s film has everything that you look for in any great work of cinema: drama, conflict, suspense, and redemption. Kopple and crew are so deeply embedded that you may involuntarily duck during a harrowing scene where a company-hired thug fires a round directly toward the camera operator (it’s a wonder the filmmakers lived to tell this tale).
Made in Dagenham – Based on a true story, this 2011 film (directed by Nigel Cole and written by William Ivory) stars Sally Hawkins as Rita O’Grady, a working mum employed at the Dagenham, England Ford plant in 1968. She worked in a run-down, segregated section of the plant where 187 female machinists toiled away for a fraction of what male employees were paid; the company justified the inequity by classifying female workers as “unskilled labor”.
Encouraged by her empathetic shop steward (Bob Hoskins), the initially reticent Rita finds her “voice” and surprises family, co-workers and herself with a formidable ability to rally the troops and affect real change. An engaging ensemble piece with a standout supporting performance by Miranda Richardson as a government minister.
Matewan – This well-acted, handsomely mounted drama by John Sayles serves as a sobering reminder that much blood was spilled to lay the foundation for the labor laws we take for granted in the modern workplace. Based on a true story, it is set during the 1920s, in West Virginia. Chris Cooper plays an outsider labor organizer who becomes embroiled in a conflict between coal company thugs and fed up miners trying to unionize.
Sayles delivers a compelling narrative, rich in characterizations and steeped in verisimilitude (beautifully shot by Haskell Wexler). Fine ensemble work from a top notch cast that includes David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, James Earl Jones, Joe Grifasi, Jane Alexander, Gordon Clapp, and Will Oldham. The film is also notable for its well-curated Americana soundtrack.
Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 masterpiece about man vs. automation has aged well. This probably has everything to do with his embodiment of the Everyman. Although referred to as his “last silent film”, it’s not 100% so. A bit of (sung) gibberish aside, there’s no dialogue, but Chaplin finds ingenious ways to work in lines (via technological devices). In fact, his use of sound effects in this film is unparalleled, particularly in a classic sequence where Chaplin, a hapless assembly line worker, literally ends up “part of the machine”. Paulette Goddard (then Mrs. Chaplin) is on board for the pathos. Brilliant, hilarious and prescient.
Norma Rae – Martin Ritt’s 1979 film about a minimum-wage textile worker (Sally Field) turned union activist helped launch what I refer to as the “Whistle-blowing Working Mom” genre (Silkwood, Erin Brockovich, etc).
Field gives an outstanding performance (and deservedly picked up a Best Actress Oscar) as the eponymous heroine who gets fired up by a passionate labor organizer from NYC (Ron Leibman, in his best role). Inspiring and empowering, bolstered by a fine screenplay (by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr.) and a great supporting cast that includes Beau Bridges, Pat Hingle and Barbara Baxley.
On the Waterfront – “It wuz you, Chahlee.” The betrayal! And the pain. It’s all there on Marlon Brando’s face as he delivers one of the most oft-quoted monologues in cinema history. Brando leads an exemplary cast that includes Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Eva Marie Saint in this absorbing portrait of a New York dock worker who takes a virtual one-man stand against a powerful and corrupt union official. The trifecta of Brando’s iconic performance, Elia Kazan’s direction, and Budd Schulberg’s well-constructed screenplay adds up to one of the finest American social dramas of the 1950s.
Roger and Me – While our favorite lib’rul agitprop director has made a number of films addressing the travails of wage slaves and ever-appalling indifference of the corporate masters who grow fat off their labors, Michael Moore’s low-budget 1989 debut film remains his best (and is on the list of the top 25 highest-grossing docs of all time).
Moore may have not been the only resident of Flint, Michigan scratching his head over GM’s local plant shutdown in the midst of record profits for the company, but he was the one with the chutzpah (and a camera crew) to make a beeline straight to the top to demand an explanation. His target? GM’s chairman, Roger Smith. Does he bag him? Watch it and find out. An insightful portrait of working class America that, like most of his subsequent films, can be at once harrowing and hilarious, yet hopeful and humanistic.
The evangelicals seem to love his agenda more than the Republicans running for office:
One by one, Republican presidential hopefuls took the stage at this year’s Family Leadership Conference for one of their biggest opportunities so far in this cycle: The chance — without Donald Trump in attendance stealing the show — to win over religious conservatives in Iowa, a state increasingly seen as key to having a shot at winning the nomination.
And one by one, they were met with Tucker Carlson, who repeatedly turned to his favorite topics.
Mike Pence sparred with Carlson on January 6 and Ukraine, with the conversation getting noticeably tense as the former Fox News host repeatedly pressed him over claims that the Ukrainian government “has arrested priests.”
“I just told you I asked the religious leader in Kyiv if it was happening. You asked me if I raised the issue and I did,” Pence replied after one lengthy back and forth about Ukraine. During another portion of the conversation, when Carlson suggested Pence is more concerned for Ukraine than American cities, the former vice president pushed back, noting he’d “heard the routine from you before.”
Much of his conversation also focused on January 6, where Pence declined to describe the riot as an “insurrection,” a word Carlson derided on his former Fox News show, but rather opted to call it a “riot.”
Tim Scott was pressed about Carlson’s idea that Mexico is more dangerous than Russia, and dodged when asked if he supports sending cluster munitions to Ukraine (arguing instead that it wouldn’t be an issue if he were in the Oval Office.)
Asa Hutchinson perhaps fared worst of all: He spent much of his time in front of the roughly 2,000 attendees trying to defend his decision to veto a bill that would have barred surgeries and hormone therapy for transgender minors. At one point during that interview, Hutchinson tried to pivot, telling him that he hoped they’d “be able to talk about some issues.”
“Well, this is one of the biggest issues in the country,” Carlson replied to applause.
For some candidates, the opportunity to sit down with one of the most influential commentators in conservative politics proved to be a blessing: After the event, several attendees who spoke with Semafor singled out Vivek Ramaswamy as the candidate who impressed them most throughout the day by directly answering Carlson’s questions.
“I would negotiate the deal that ends the Ukraine war — freeze the current lines of control, yes, that means giving part of the Donbas region to Russia,” Ramaswamy said at one point. “I would make a hard commitment that NATO never admits Ukraine to NATO.”
Nikki Haley, who was largely saved from Carlson’s Ukraine probing, also impressed those watching the cattle call. She pledged to “keep fighting” against voting practices she felt were unfair, like certain uses of mail-in ballots, and cited “irregularities” in the 2020 election, but made clear she did not believe Trump won.
“Do I think that changed the results of the election? No,” she said. “I think President Biden ended up winning the election, but I think at the end of the day it showed we’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of election integrity.”
Ron DeSantis, who wrapped up the evening, was pressed on his changing answers on Ukraine — he said onstage he wanted a “sustainable peace” and opposed “open-ended conflict” — and asked about whether he’d sign Florida’s six-week abortion ban on a national level.
“I’m proud to have been a pro-life governor and I will be a pro-life president, so I mean, of course I want to sign pro-life legislation,” he said.
Carlson’s style grated on some campaigns and observers, who felt he fixated on his own obsessions rather than topics more tailored to an evangelical audience. A Pence advisor told Semafor that they’d prepped the former vice president on both January 6 and Ukraine, but ultimately felt it was somewhat unfortunate that those were the two major topics in front of an audience of religious and social conservatives.
But the former Fox host also repeatedly made news by dropping the typically deferential style from other cattle calls and prodding candidates directly on some of the most sensitive questions with the party’s populist base.
“Tucker was amazing. He was on fire. His questions were incredibly provocative, but important — they were the right ones,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, said. “I would be willing to bet that if you had done a straw poll at the end of this and included Tucker’s name in it, he would be top one or two as a presidential candidate.”
Not all attendees loved Carlson’s choice of questions: One couple said they weren’t as focused on Ukraine topics as he seemed to be.
“I think it’s a waste of time to ask a non-person, who can’t do anything about it, what they would do about it,” Scott Steelman, an Iowa voter in attendance, said. “I mean, Tucker Carlson has an issue with it, and he’s making it an issue.”
Carlson is a terrible blight on this country, right up there with Trump. He’s totally motivated by money and will do and say anything to get it. (I don’t believe that’s true of all right wing “influencers” by the way. But for this guy — money is everything.)
Trump decided to stay in Florida for the Turning Points Action conference where these other candidates are being ripped for failing to appear. He’s playing a completely different game.
Back in 2004 I recall a lot of complaints when the Dean campaign had a lot of young out-of-state volunteers coming in to Iowa to canvass for their guy. They wore orange wool hats and t-shirts, making them stand out in a crowd, and the locals were not impressed. It was, I thought, a lesson learned by everyone.
With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.
Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him.“And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potentialrisk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
Unlike traditional presidential field organizing — which is run by an official campaign and driven largely by volunteers — the Never Back Down effort is staffed with an army of paid workers, many of whom have responded to advertisements that offer positions for $20 to $22 an hour. Trained in Iowa during an eight-day class, some come out of the system with polished pitches, as true believers. Others are just there for a job.
“After learning of the incident, we investigated and terminated the individual,” said Kate Roberts, the national field director of Never Back Down, in a statement. “Our field program is having thousands and thousands of incredible conversations around the country every day. This individual’s behavior is counter to the standards taught in our training and is not tolerated.”
[…]
“I can say one thing DeSantis has going for him over Trump is youcoming out here and talking to me. We’ve never had anyone come to our door like this before,” reads one of the voter quotes provided by the group.
But some Trump supporters who talked to The Post say they disapproved of the interactions. This is true even in cases, as in one door-knock in Marion, Iowa, also recorded on a Ring doorbell camera, where the canvasser presented a professional and enthusiastic case for DeSantis.
“I thought it was off-putting that he was from out of state,” said Geralyn Jones, the Marion resident who supports Trump and spoke with the canvasser. “If you are going to be endorsing or knocking, you need to be from here. I didn’t understand why DeSantis of all people could not get other people on the ground.”
Mike Hogan, a Trump supporter in Nashua, N.H., said he found a Never Back Down door knocker on his front porch in late May, shortly after DeSantis announced his campaign. The young man, dressed in the organization’s apparel, had ripped hems on his jeans and what he called “skater shoes,” and did not even knock on his door, he said.
“He was just standing there, which was weird. I said, ‘Can I help you?’” Hogan said,before adding that the canvasser said something and walked away. “He was not saying anything. He was just texting. He would not look up.”
Maybe it will pay off in the long run. But it isn’t showing up in the polls which have DeSantis sinking precipitously.
It seems as if he’s determined to spend hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing strategies that have long been abandoned or which almost never pay off. What a leader.
