#Michael Hiltzik

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Students are massed peacefully on campus, making politically charged demands on university presidents. The police are summoned, leading to mass arrests and even to violence — and to the collapse of confidence in the administration. You may see the punchline coming: This picture isn’t drawn from USC and Columbia University of the present day, but Berkeley in 1964. The lessons should be obvious. Bringing police onto a college campus on the pretext of preserving or restoring “order” invariably makes things worse. It’s almost always inspired not by conditions on campus, but by partisan pressure on university administrators to act. Often it results in the ouster of the university presidents who condoned the police incursions, and sometimes even in the departure of the politicians whose fingerprints were on the orders. In other words, nobody wins. Perhaps in recognition of the astonishing ignorance of college administrators of their own responsibilities, the American Civil Liberties Union last week issued a succinct guide on how to fulfill their “legal obligations to combat discrimination and ... maintain order” without sacrificing the “principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission.” [...] The ACLU cautions that “inviting armed police into a campus protest environment, even a volatile one, can create unacceptable risks for all students and staff.” Its statement points to the history of excessive force wielded by law enforcement units against “communities of color, including Black, Brown, and immigrant students.... Arresting peaceful protestors is also likely to escalate, not calm, the tensions on campus — as events of the past week have made abundantly clear.” [...] The history of campus protests suggests that they generally appear more threatening and disruptive on the spot than they prove to be over time. Strong, “decisive” responses almost always backfire. [...] They don’t care a hoot about the “safety” of students, or about the rise of antisemitism nationally, or about hurtful rhetoric emanating from the tent colonies on campus, which they claim to be their concerns. Instead, they’re trying to exploit what appears to be a violent situation to pursue their larger campaign to demonize higher education — in fact, education generally — by softening it up for the imposition of right-wing, reactionary ideologies.

Michael Hiltzik at Los Angeles Times on the nationwide suppression of protests against Israel's genocide campaign on Gaza on college campuses by calling the cops to break them up (04.29.2024).

Michael Hiltzik's Los Angeles Times editorial on the campus protests against the Gaza Genocide is spot-on.

This quote is right-on: "Bringing police onto a college campus on the pretext of preserving or restoring “order” invariably makes things worse. It’s almost always inspired not by conditions on campus, but by partisan pressure on university administrators to act."

#Michael Hiltzik #Los Angeles Times #Editorials #College #Ceasefire NOW Protests #Israel/Hamas War Protests #Israel/Hamas War #Campus Protests #Gaza Genocide

[lenbryant]

(LATimes) Michael Hiltzik: The revival of network neutrality - Los Angeles Times

Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel shepherded a restoration of network neutrality at the FCC.

(Jonathan Newton / Pool)

In the midst of its battle to extinguish the Mendocino Complex wildfire in 2018, the Santa Clara County Fire Department discovered that its internet connection provider, Verizon, had throttled their data flow virtually down to zero, cutting off communications for firefighters in the field. One firefighter died in the blaze and four were injured.

Verizon refused to restore service until the fire department signed up for a new account that more than doubled its bill. 

That episode has long been Exhibit A in favor of restoring the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to regulate broadband internet service, which the FCC abdicated in 2017, during the Trump administration.

This is an industry that requires a lot of scrutiny.

— Craig Aaron, Free Press, on the internet service industry

Now that era is over. On Thursday, the FCC — now operating with a Democratic majority — reclaimed its regulatory oversight of broadband via an order that passed on party lines, 3-2.

The commission’s action could scarcely be more timely.

“Four years ago,” FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel observed Thursday as the commission prepared to vote, “the pandemic changed life as we know it. ... Much of work, school and healthcare migrated to the internet. ... It became clear that no matter who you are or where you live, you need broadband to have a fair shot at digital age success. It went from ‘nice to have’ to ‘need to have.’ ”

Yet the commission in 2017 had thrown away its own ability to supervise this essential service. By categorizing broadband services as “information services,” it relinquished its right to address consumer complaints about crummy service, or even collect data on outages. It couldn’t prevent big internet service providers such as Comcast from favoring their own content or websites over competitors by degrading the rivals’ signals when they reached their subscribers’ homes. 

“We fixed that today,” Rosenworcel said.

The issue the FCC addressed Thursday is most often viewed in the context of “network neutrality.” This core principle of the open internet means simply that internet service providers can’t discriminate among content providers trying to reach your home or business online — they can’t block websites or services, or degrade their signal, slow their traffic or, conversely, provide a better traffic lane for some rather than others.

The principle is important because their control of the information highways and byways gives ISPs tremendous power, especially if they control the last mile of access to end users, as do cable operators such as Comcast and telecommunications firms such as Verizon. If they use that power to favor their own content or content providers that pay them for a fast lane, it’s consumers who suffer. 

Net neutrality has been a partisan football for more than two decades, or ever since high-speed broadband connections began to supplant dial-up modems. 

In legal terms, the battle has been over the classification of broadband under the Communications Act of 1934 — as Title I “information services” or Title II “telecommunications.” The FCC has no jurisdiction over Title I services, but great authority over those classified by Title II as common carriers.

The key inflection point came in 2002, when a GOP-majority FCC under George W. Bush classified cable internet services as Title I. In effect, the commission stripped itself of its authority to regulate the nascent industry. (Then-FCC Chair Michael Powell subsequently became the chief Washington lobbyist for the cable industry, big surprise.)

Not until 2015 was the error rectified, at the urging of President Obama. Broadband was reclassified under Title II; then-FCC Chair Tom Wheeler was explicit about using the restored authority to enforce network neutrality. 

But that regulatory regime lasted only until 2017, when a reconstituted FCC, chaired by a former Verizon executive Ajit Pai, reclassified broadband again as Title I in deference to President Trump’s deregulatory campaign. The big ISPs would have geared up to take advantage of the new regime, had not California and other states stepped into the void by enacting their own net neutrality laws. 

A federal appeals court upheld California’s law, the most far-reaching of the state statutes, in 2022. And although the FCC’s action could theoretically preempt the state law, “what the FCC is doing is perfectly in line with what California did,” says Craig Aaron, co-CEO of the consumer advocacy organization Free Press. 

The key distinction, Aaron told me, is that the FCC’s initiative goes well beyond the issue of net neutrality — it establishes a single federal standard for broadband and reclaims its authority over the technology more generally, in ways that “safeguard national security, advance public safety, protect consumers and facilitate broadband deployment,” in the commission’s own words. 

Although Verizon’s actions in the 2018 wildfire case did not violate the net neutrality principle, for instance, the FCC’s restored regulatory authority might have enabled it to set forth rules governing the provision of services when public safety is at stake that might have prevented Verizon from throttling the Santa Clara Fire Department’s connection in the first place.

Until Thursday, the state laws functioned as bulwarks against net neutrality abuses by ISPs. “California helped discourage companies from trying things,” Aaron says. Indeed, provisions of the California law are explicit enough that state regulators haven’t had to bring a single enforcement case. “It’s been mostly prophylactic,” he says — “telling the industry what it can and can’t do. But it’s important to have set down the rules of the road.” 

None of this means that the partisan battle over broadband regulation is over. Both Republican FCC commissioners voted against the initiative Thursday. A recrudescence of Trumpism after the November election could bring a deregulation-minded GOP majority back into power at the FCC. 

Indeed, in a lengthy dissenting statement, Brendan Carr, one of the commission’s Republican members, repeated all the conventional conservative arguments presented to justify the repeal of network neutrality in 2017. Carr painted the 2015 restoration of net neutrality as a liberal plot — “a matter of civic religion for activists on the left.” 

He asserted that the FCC was then goaded into action by President Obama, who was outspoken on the need for reclassification and browbeat Wheeler into going along. Leftists, he said, “demand that the FCC go full-Title II whenever a Democrat is president.”

Carr also depicted network neutrality as a drag on profits and innovation in the broadband sector. “Broadband investment slowed down after the FCC imposed Title II in 2015,” he said, “and it picked up again after we restored Title 1 in 2017.”

Carr chose his time frame very carefully. Examine the longer period in which net neutrality has been debated at the FCC, and one finds that broadband investment crashed after a Republican-led FCC reclassified broadband as an information service in 2002, falling to $57 billion in 2003 from $111.5 billion in 2001. 

Investment did decline between 2015, when net neutrality rules were reinstated, and 2017, when they were rescinded — by a minuscule 0.8%. It hasn’t been especially robust since then — as of 2002 it was still running at only about 92% of what it had been two decades earlier. 

As the FCC observed in Thursday’s order, “regulation is but one of several factors that drive investment and innovation in the telecommunications and digital media markets.” 

The commission cited consumer demand and the arrival of new technologies, among others. Strong, consistent regulation, moreover, opens the path for new competitors with new ideas and innovations — and can bring prices down for users in the process.

The truth is that network neutrality has been heavily favored by the public, in part because examples of ISPs abusing their power were not hard to find. In 2007, Comcast was caught degrading traffic from the file-sharing service BitTorrent, which held contracts to distribute licensed content from Hollywood studios and other sources in direct competition with Comcast’s pay-TV business. 

In 2010, Santa Monica-based Tennis Channel complained to the FCC that Comcast kept it isolated on a little-watched sports tier while giving much better placement to the Golf Channel and Versus, two channels that compete with it for advertising, and which Comcast happened to own. The FCC sided with the Tennis Channel but was overruled by federal court.

Even barring a change at the White House, the need for vigilant enforcement will never go away; ISPs will always be looking for business models and manipulative practices that could challenge the FCC’s oversight capabilities, especially as cable and telecommunications companies consolidate into bigger and richer enterprises and combine content providers with their internet delivery services.

“This is an industry,” Aaron says, “that requires a lot of scrutiny.”

#long post #refrigerator magnet #michael hiltzik #net neutrality #internet #utility #fcc #better than four years ago #politics #republicans #internet is a utility

[intelligentchristianlady]

Long article, but if you are able to become pregnant, you probably need to read it.

#abortion #antiabortion #reproductive freedom #pro-choice #HIPAA #pharmacy #medical records #privacy #Michael Hiltzik

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/there-is-no-other/

There Is No Other

The mother sitting across from me at the lunch table sighed when I asked about her daughter.  “She’s thinking about moving to Pennsylvania.  Since she works from home, she can live anywhere.  Rural Pennsylvania seems to be the one place where houses are affordable. “ The dilemma is common. Several of my friends with well-educated children between the ages of 20-35 continue to provide shelter for their offspring. The American dream is a hard slog for younger generations, I’m sorry to say.  Nor am I happy about the state of the planet they are inheriting.   If we older Americans had anticipated climate change, we might have purchased fewer gas-guzzling cars.   Or, maybe not.  Our species has a penchant for choosing present gratification over making plans for the future.  Even so, some of us might have girded our loins to fight climate change sooner. What I ponder at present is whether the older generation is cheating those who have followed. If so, society might rightly adopt the Inuit practice of leaving the frail elderly to die on ice floats.  Fortunately, Michael Hiltzik, writing for the L.A. Times doesn’t think old folks are to blame for the state of the economy. Social Security and Medicare aren’t the oft-cited reasons the young have fewer possibilities.      Most seniors, he reminds us, paid for their Social Security benefits during their productive years. Only the working poor receive more from the agency than their lifetime contributions. Even so, few wish to punish people who struggled all their lives on slave wages. And, as a benefit to all, we should remember that for decades the U. S. government has borrowed from the insurance fund to satisfy other debts. The elderly do receive government assistance to pay for prescription drugs. The tab would be less if Congress allowed Medicare to negotiate with Big Pharma.  Hiltzik points to Joe Biden’s success in reducing the cost of diabetes medication once Congress granted him a waiver. Any perceived schism between youth and age is a false one, the author proclaims. America has more than enough resources to meet all the social needs of all generations. A shortfall exists because of the tax cuts enacted by Republicans for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy.   To support his claim, people remark that in the Dwight D. Eisenhower years, taxes on the rich could reach 91% of income.  However, they forget much of this money was never collected. Scott Greenberg of the Tax Foundation writes that tax laws have long enabled tax avoidance. …the existence of the 91 percent bracket did not necessarily lead to significantly higher revenue collections from the top 1 percent.  As proof, who over the age of 50 has forgotten businesswoman Leona Helmsley’s words? Only the little people pay taxes.  Or, Donald Trump’s brag that he was too smart to pay taxes? Whether Hiltzik’s point about our economics is right or wrong, few deny the super-rich exercise an undue influence over the  government. Elon Musk’s money allows him to imagine he can engage in discussions with Vladimir Putin over the conduct of the Ukraine war. In 1953 multimillionaire Lewis Stauss fed Robert Oppenheimer to the lions when the scientist opposed the construction of the hydrogen bomb. (“The Fallout of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s Story Lingers, an interview with Kai Bird, Concerned Scientist, Volume 23, Fall, 2023, pg. 13.)  Dr. Anthony Fauci’s treatment at the hands of Donald Trump is a recent victim of the same abuse.   Even so, money doesn’t buy happiness.  One Indian philosopher warns most often money buys burnout. (“Groovy.” By Mickey Rapkin, Town&Country, Dec. 2023-Jan 2024, pg. 141.)  Another warns, When you have exhausted everything outside the only way to go is in. (Ibid, pg. 140) Those who take that path of introspection enter a tulgy wood of doubt and shadows. If they finish the journey they may come to realize life has nothing to do with acquisitions. Life is about mergers. When we see an individual not as a competitor but as an extension of ourselves, the way a wave is an extension of the ocean, we stumble upon a moment when a glimpse of universal harmony is possible.   

#affordable housing #are the young suffering because of elderly needs? #Climate change #Donald Trump #drop in diabetes medication cost #Dwight D. Eisenhower #Elon Musk #govt & big Pharma #J. Robert Oppenheimer #Kai Bird #Leona Helm #Lewis Strauss #Michael Hiltzik #Mickey Rapkin #Scott Greenberg #Social Security and Medicare costs #Tax Foundation #the rich don't pay taxes #Vladimir Putin #young people forced to live with parents

[averycanadianfilm]

The first judgment levied on the youthful William Bradford Shockley was a dour one. It came from his father, a mining engineer descended from John Alden of the Mayflower, who in 1910, shortly after the child’s birth in London, described him in a letter as “no world-beater.”... “Anger is about the only emotion he displays, with a little love at times,” read another of his father’s letters, unearthed in the Stanford archives by the authors of “Crystal Fire,” a 1997 book about the birth of the transistor age.

MICHAEL A. HILTZIK

#MICHAEL A. HILTZIK #William Shockley

[portraitofadumbassonfire]

Scream (1996) dir. Wes Craven, American Psycho (2000) dir. Mary Harron, Funny Games (2007) dir. Michael Haneke, Pearl (2022) dir. Ti West, Stoker (2013) dir. Park Chan-Wok, Midsommar (2019) dir. Ari Aster, Sleepaway Camp (1983) dir. Robert Hiltzik /// Swarm (2023) cr. Janine Nabers & Donald Glover

(@wakandamama inspired the last photo)

#what I'm saying is if you're a bey stan and love horror all 7 episodes hit different #swarm #horror #horroredit #swarm 2023 #dominique fishback #tw blood #american psycho #funny games #pearl #mia goth #christian bale #scream #wes craven #web weaving #parallels #swarm spoilers #janine nabers #donald glover #userrobin #usertaf

[dear-indies]

full list of biden letter 2:

Aaron Bay-Schuck Aaron Sorkin Adam & Jackie Sandler Adam Goodman Adam Levine Alan Grubman Alex Aja Alex Edelman Alexandra Shiva Ali Wentworth Alison Statter Allan Loeb Alona Tal Amy Chozick Amy Pascal Amy Schumer Amy Sherman Palladino Andrew Singer Andy Cohen Angela Robinson Anthony Russo Antonio Campos Ari Dayan Ari Greenburg Arik Kneller Aron Coleite Ashley Levinson Asif Satchu Aubrey Plaza Barbara Hershey Barry Diller Barry Levinson Barry Rosenstein Beau Flynn Behati Prinsloo Bella Thorne Ben Stiller Ben Turner Ben Winston Ben Younger Billy Crystal Blair Kohan Bob Odenkirk Bobbi Brown Bobby Kotick Brad Falchuk Brad Slater Bradley Cooper Bradley Fischer Brett Gelman Brian Grazer Bridget Everett Brooke Shields Bruna Papandrea Cameron Curtis Casey Neistat Cazzie David

Charles Roven Chelsea Handler Chloe Fineman Chris Fischer Chris Jericho Chris Rock Christian Carino Cindi Berger Claire Coffee Colleen Camp Constance Wu Courteney Cox Craig Silverstein Dame Maureen Lipman Dan Aloni Dan Rosenweig Dana Goldberg Dana Klein Daniel Palladino Danielle Bernstein Danny Cohen Danny Strong Daphne Kastner David Alan Grier David Baddiel David Bernad David Chang David Ellison David Geffen David Gilmour & David Goodman David Joseph David Kohan David Lowery David Oyelowo David Schwimmer Dawn Porter Dean Cain Deborah Lee Furness Deborah Snyder Debra Messing Diane Von Furstenberg Donny Deutsch Doug Liman Douglas Chabbott Eddy Kitsis Edgar Ramirez Eli Roth Elisabeth Shue Elizabeth Himelstein Embeth Davidtz Emma Seligman Emmanuelle Chriqui Eric Andre Erik Feig Erin Foster Eugene Levy Evan Jonigkeit Evan Winiker Ewan McGregor Francis Benhamou Francis Lawrence Fred Raskin Gabe Turner Gail Berman Gal Gadot Gary Barber Gene Stupinski Genevieve Angelson Gideon Raff Gina Gershon Grant Singer Greg Berlanti Guy Nattiv Guy Oseary Gwyneth Paltrow Hannah Fidell Hannah Graf Harlan Coben Harold Brown Harvey Keitel Henrietta Conrad Henry Winkler Holland Taylor Howard Gordon Iain Morris Imran Ahmed Inbar Lavi Isla Fisher Jack Black Jackie Sandler Jake Graf Jake Kasdan James Brolin James Corden Jamie Ray Newman Jaron Varsano Jason Biggs & Jenny Mollen Biggs Jason Blum Jason Fuchs Jason Reitman Jason Segel Jason Sudeikis JD Lifshitz Jeff Goldblum Jeff Rake Jen Joel Jeremy Piven Jerry Seinfeld Jesse Itzler Jesse Plemons Jesse Sisgold Jessica Biel Jessica Elbaum Jessica Seinfeld Jill Littman Jimmy Carr Jody Gerson

Joe Hipps Joe Quinn Joe Russo Joe Tippett Joel Fields Joey King John Landgraf John Slattery Jon Bernthal Jon Glickman Jon Hamm Jon Liebman Jonathan Baruch Jonathan Groff Jonathan Marc Sherman Jonathan Ross Jonathan Steinberg Jonathan Tisch Jonathan Tropper Jordan Peele Josh Brolin Josh Charles Josh Goldstine Josh Greenstein Josh Grode Judd Apatow Judge Judy Sheindlin Julia Garner Julia Lester Julianna Margulies Julie Greenwald Julie Rudd Juliette Lewis Justin Theroux Justin Timberlake Karen Pollock Karlie Kloss Katy Perry Kelley Lynch Kevin Kane Kevin Zegers Kirsten Dunst Kitao Sakurai KJ Steinberg Kristen Schaal Kristin Chenoweth Lana Del Rey Laura Dern Laura Pradelska Lauren Schuker Blum Laurence Mark Laurie David Lea Michele Lee Eisenberg Leo Pearlman Leslie Siebert Liev Schreiber Limor Gott Lina Esco Liz Garbus Lizanne Rosenstein Lizzie Tisch Lorraine Schwartz Lynn Harris Lyor Cohen Madonna Mandana Dayani Mara Buxbaum Marc Webb Marco Perego Maria Dizzia Mark Feuerstein Mark Foster Mark Scheinberg Mark Shedletsky Martin Short Mary Elizabeth Winstead Mathew Rosengart Matt Lucas Matt Miller Matthew Bronfman Matthew Hiltzik Matthew Weiner Matti Leshem Max Mutchnik Maya Lasry Meaghan Oppenheimer Melissa Zukerman Michael Aloni Michael Ellenberg Michael Green Michael Rapino Michael Rappaport Michael Weber Michelle Williams Mike Medavoy Mila Kunis Mimi Leder Modi Wiczyk Molly Shannon Nancy Josephson Natasha Leggero

Neil Blair Neil Druckmann Nicola Peltz Nicole Avant Nina Jacobson Noa Kirel Noa Tishby Noah Oppenheim Noah Schnapp Noreena Hertz Odeya Rush Olivia Wilde Oran Zegman Orlando Bloom Pasha Kovalev Pattie LuPone Paul & Julie Rudd Paul Haas Paul Pflug Peter Traugott Polly Sampson Rachel Riley Rafi Marmor Ram Bergman Raphael Margulies Rebecca Angelo Rebecca Mall Regina Spektor Reinaldo Marcus Green Rich Statter Richard Jenkins Richard Kind Rick Hoffman Rick Rosen Rita Ora Rob Rinder Robert Newman Roger Birnbaum Roger Green Rosie O’Donnell Ross Duffer Ryan Feldman Sacha Baron Cohen Sam Levinson Sam Trammell Sara Foster Sarah Baker Sarah Bremner Sarah Cooper Sarah Paulson Sarah Treem Scott Braun Scott Braun Scott Neustadter Scott Tenley Sean Combs Seth Meyers Seth Oster Shannon Watts Shari Redstone Sharon Jackson Sharon Stone Shauna Perlman Shawn Levy Sheila Nevins Shira Haas Simon Sebag Montefiore Simon Tikhman Skylar Astin Stacey Snider Stephen Fry Steve Agee Steve Rifkind Sting & Trudie Styler Susanna Felleman Susie Arons Taika Waititi Thomas Kail Tiffany Haddish Todd Lieberman Todd Moscowitz Todd Waldman Tom Freston Tom Werner Tomer Capone Tracy Ann Oberman Trudie Styler Tyler James Williams Tyler Perry Vanessa Bayer Veronica Grazer Veronica Smiley Whitney Wolfe Herd

Will Ferrell Will Graham Yamanieka Saunders Yariv Milchan Ynon Kreiz Zack Snyder Zoe Saldana Zoey Deutch Zosia Mamet

#fc help #rph #rpt #banned fc #zionist fc

[kp777]

By Jessica Corbett

Common Dreams

Nov. 2, 2023

Social Security Works said that the new House speaker's "NUMBER ONE priority is to cut our earned benefits behind closed doors."

When Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives elected Louisiana Congressman Mike Johnson as speaker last week, critics quickly sounded the alarm about his previous calls to cut trillions of dollars from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—and the GOP leader triggered a fresh wave of fears on Thursday with related comments to a Capitol Hill journalist.

NBC News' Sahil Kapur reported on social media that Johnson "says he pitched a debt commission to Senate Republicans yesterday and 'the idea was met with great enthusiasm.' He says it will be bipartisan and bicameral. He says he wants 'very thoughtful people' in both parties to lead it. He wants this 'immediately.'"

In response to Johnson's remarks—which echoed his first speech as speaker—the Alliance for Retired Americans wrote, "Translation: They're eager to begin gutting Social Security behind closed doors."

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla)—who led the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)—celebrated Johnson's rise as a win for the far-right. He declared last week that "MAGA is ascendant," referring to the "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan of former President Donald Trump, who is the GOP front-runner for 2024.

Critics of the new speaker have similarly framed his election as a display of the far-right's hold on the Republican Party, and are even calling him "MAGA Mike," including in response to his comments Thursday.

"A week into his tenure, MAGA Mike Johnson is ALREADY calling for closed-door cuts to the Social Security and Medicare benefits American workers have earned through decades of hard work," warned Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Social Security Works said that "MAGA Mike Johnson's NUMBER ONE priority is to cut our earned benefits behind closed doors."

"The White House has rightfully called this type of commission a 'death panel' for Social Security and Medicare," the group noted. "HANDS OFF!"

Back in February, long before McCarthy struck a deal with President Joe Biden to suspend the country's debt ceiling, Republicans in Congress and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) were floating the idea of a commission, and White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said that "the American people want more jobs and lower costs, not a death panel for Medicare and Social Security."

As Republican lawmakers have continued to pursue the idea, others have embraced the "death panel" description.

After Johnson's mention of the commission in his speech last week, Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik wrote:

On the whole, Johnson's approach to social safety net programs comes right out of the GOP library of lies about the programs' finances and their effect on the federal budget. "The reality is, they're headed towards bankruptcy," he said in his July 2022 C-SPAN appearance. "In just a few number of years, Social Security goes belly up. So does Medicare, Medicaid, all of these big-spending programs because we're drowning in debt." The idea that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are going "bankrupt" is standard Republican hogwash. So is the idea that Social Security will go "belly up" in some number of years—even if Congress sits on its hands, the program will still have enough revenue to cover three-quarters of the benefits due.

"The notion that those programs are drivers of the federal debt is also a bog-standard GOP talking point," Hiltzik added. "A far more significant portion of the federal budget deficit is the lavish tax cut that Johnson's party gifted to corporations and the wealthy in 2017, a $1.5-trillion giveaway from which the U.S. economy received no significant gain."

Most House Republicans and a dozen Democrats on Thursday evening voted to pass a bill that would deliver on Biden's request for $14.3 billion to help Israel wage war on Gaza—which experts are condemning as genocide—and cut Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding.

Analysts and Democrats in Congress have warned that the IRS cut would hamper the agency's ability to crack down on wealthy tax cheats, bolstered by the Congressional Budget Office finding Wednesday that the measure would reduce federal revenues by $26.8 billion and add $12.5 billion to the deficit over the next decade.

Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who opposed the bill and is among the few Democrats demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, said that "the only thing crueler than sending $14 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars for weapons that will result in the deaths of thousands more innocent Palestinian children in Gaza is exploiting that war—exploiting the death of over 1,400 Israeli mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, and hundreds more hostages—to help corporate CEOs and billionaire donors cheat on their taxes."

#social security #mike johnson #republicans #irs

[are-they-z]

Supporters of #NoHostageLeftBehind Open Letter to Joe Biden - Part 2/2

Gabe Turner

Gail Berman

Gary Barber

Genevieve Angelson

Gideon Raff

Grant Singer

Greg Berlanti

Guy Nattiv

Hannah Fidell

Hannah Graf

Harlan Coben

Harold Brown

Henrietta Conrad

Howard Gordon

Iain Morris

Imran Ahmed

Inbar Lavi

Jackie Sandler

Jake Graf

Jake Kasdan

Jamie Ray Newman

Jaron Varsano

Jason Fuchs

Jason Biggs & Jenny Mollen Biggs

Jason Segel

JD Lifshitz

Jeff Rake

Jen Joel

Jeremy Piven

Jesse Itzler

Jesse Sisgold

Jill Littman

Jody Gerson

Joe Hipps

Joe Quinn

Joe Russo

Joe Tippett

Joel Fields

John Landgraf

Jon Bernthal

Jon Glickman

Jon Liebman

Jonathan Baruch

Jonathan Groff

Jonathan Tropper

Jonathan Marc Sherman

Jonathan Steinberg

Jonathan Tisch

Josh Goldstine

Josh Greenstein

Josh Grode

Julia Lester

Julie Greenwald

Karen Pollock

Kelley Lynch

Kevin Kane

Kevin Zegers

Kitao Sakurai

KJ Steinberg

Laura Pradelska

Lauren Schuker Blum

Laurence Mark

Laurie David

Lee Eisenberg

Leslie Siebert

Leo Pearlman

Limor Gott

Lina Esco

Liz Garbus

Lizanne Rosenstein

Lizzie Tisch

Lorraine Schwartz

Lynn Harris

Lyor Cohen

Mandana Dayani

Maria Dizzia

Mara Buxbaum

Marc Webb

Marco Perego

Mark Feuerstein

Mark Shedletsky

Mark Scheinberg

Mathew Rosengart

Matt Lucas

Matt Miller

Matthew Bronfman

Matthew Hiltzik

Matti Leshem

Dame Maureen Lipman

Max Mutchnik

Maya Lasry

Meaghan Oppenheimer

Melissa Zukerman

Michael Ellenberg

Michael Aloni

Michael Green

Michael Rapino

Michael Weber

Mike Medavoy

Mimi Leder

Modi Wiczyk

Nancy Josephson

Natasha Leggero

Neil Blair

Neil Druckmann

Nicole Avant

Nina Jacobson

Noa Kirel

Noah Oppenheim

Noreena Hertz

Odeya Rush

Oran Zegman

Pasha Kovalev

Paul Haas

Paul Pflug

Peter Traugott

Rachel Riley

Rafi Marmor

Ram Bergman

Raphael Margulies

Rebecca Angelo

Rebecca Mall

Reinaldo Marcus Green

Rich Statter

Richard Kind

Rick Hoffman

Rick Rosen

Robert Newman

Rob Rinder

Roger Birnbaum

Roger Green

Rosie O'Donnell

Ryan Feldman

Sam Trammell

Sarah Baker

Sarah Bremner

Sarah Treem

Scott Tenley

Seth Oster

Scott Braun

Scott Neustadter

Shannon Watts

Shari Redstone

Sharon Jackson

Shauna Perlman

Shawn Levy

Sheila Nevins

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Simon Tikhman

Skylar Astin

Stacey Snider

Stephen Fry

Steve Agee

Steve Rifkind

Susanna Felleman

Susie Arons

Todd Lieberman

Todd Moscowitz

Todd Waldman

Tom Freston

Tom Werner

Tomer Capone

Tracy Ann Oberman

Trudie Styler

Tyler James Williams

Vanessa Bayer

Veronica Grazer

Veronica Smiley

Whitney Wolfe Herd

Will Graham

Yamanieka Saunders

Yariv Milchan

Ynon Kreiz

#palestine #palestinian genocide #gaza #celebs #apartheid #propaganda

[morganarchived]

an absolute list of films i’d like to watch (so far)

thanks to the Letterboxd community for always recommending the most unhinged pieces ever

Gummo, Harmony Korine (1997)

Hard Candy, David Slade (2005)

House, Nobuhiko Obayashi (1977)

Ichi the Killer, Takashi Miike (2001)

Kids, Larry Clark (1995)

Léon: The Professional, Luc Besson (1994)

Oldboy, Park Chan-wook (2003)

Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Leone, (1984)

Fantastic Planet, René Laloux (1973)

Punch Drunk-Love, Paul Thomas Anderson (2002)

[REC], Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza (2007)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Jim Sharman (1975)

Shock Treatment, Jim Sharman (1981)

Sleepaway Camp, Robert Hiltzik (1983)

The Warriors, Walter Hill (1979)

Videodrome, David Cronenberg (1983)

Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese (1976)

The Ninth Configuration, William Peter Blatty (1980)

Flowers for Algernon, Jeff Bleckner (2000)

Mona Lisa, Neil Jordan (1986)

The Machinist, Brad Anderson (2004)

Miller’s Crossing, Joel Coen (1990)

Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola (1979)

The Farewell, Lulu Wang (2019)

Trash Humpers, Harmony Korine (2009)

Pixote, Héctor Babenco (1980)

Julien Donkey-Boy, Harmony Korine (1999)

Last Night, Don McKellar (1998)

Duck Butter, Miguel Arteta (2018)

Stalker, Andrei Tarkovsky (1979)

The Pianist, Roman Polanski (2002)

Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino (1992)

Blue Velvet, David Lynch (1986)

At Eternity’s Gate, Julian Schnabel (2018)

Birdman, Alejandro González Iñárritu (2014)

Climax, Gaspar Noé (2018)

Shirkers, Sandi Tan (2018)

A Ghost Story, David Lowery (2017)

Carol, Todd Haynes (2015)

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, Hayao Miyazaki (1979)

Baby Driver, Edgar Wright (2017)

The Revenant, Alejandro González Iñárritu (2015)

She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee (1986)

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, Macon Blair (2017)

It Comes at Night, Trey Edward Shults (2017)

Buster’s Mal Heart, Sarah Adina Smith (2016)

Cam, Daniel Goldhaber (2018)

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski, Irek Dobrowolski (2018)

I Think We’re Alone Now, Reed Morano (2018)

Skins, Eduardo Casanova (2017)

The Fundamentals of Caring, Rob Burnett (2016)

About Time, Richard Curtis (2013)

The Bad Batch, Ana Lily Amirpour (2016)

The Highwaymen, John Lee Hancock (2019)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Martin McDonagh (2017)

Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone (1994)

XX, Karyn Kusama & Jovanka Vuckovic & Roxanne Benjamin & St. Vincent (2017)

Cargo, Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke (2017)

Residue, Alex Garcia Lopez (2015)

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, Griffin Dunne (2017)

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, Joe Piscatella (2017)

Chasing Trane, John Scheinfeld (2016)

Tallulah, Siân Heder (2016)

Expedition Happiness, Felix Starck & Selima Taibi (2017)

Bottom of the World, Richard Sears (2017)

Super Dark Times, Kevin Phillips (2017)

Notes on Blindness, Pete Middleton & James Spinney (2016)

Newness, Drake Doremus (2017)

ReMastered: The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, Kelly Duane de la Vega (2019)

Paddleton, Alexandre Lehmann (2019)

Juanita, Clark Johnson (2019)

Temple, Michael Barrett (2017)

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, Bob Hercules & Rita Coburn Whack (2016)

P, Paul Spurrier (2005)

I Am Happiness on Earth, Julián Hernández (2014)

Carrie Pilby, Susan Johnson (2016)

Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses, David Stubbs (2015)

I Called Him Morgan, Kasper Collin (2016)

A Family Affair, Tom Fassaert (2015)

Q, Sanjeev Gupta (2017)

Boyhood, Richard Linklater (2014)

Thelma & Louise, Ridley Scott (1991)

Brick, Rian Johnson (2005)

The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson (2001)

Moonlight, Barry Jenkins (2016)

Mulholland Drive, David Lynch (2001)

Solaris, Andrei Tarkovsky (1972)

Lake Mungo, Joel Anderson (2008)

War of the Worlds, Steven Spielberg (2005)

Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Shinya Tsukamoto (1989)

Mady, Panos Cosmatos (2018)

Raw, Julia Ducournau (2016)

The Neon Demon, Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)

The Love Witch, Anna Biller (2016)

Tusk, Kevin Smith (2014)

Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky (2010)

A Serbian Film, Srđan Spasojević (2010)

Antichrist, Lars von Trier (2009)

Paprika, Satoshi Kon (2006)

Audition, Takashi Miike (1999)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Terry Gilliam (1998)

Perfect Blue, Satoshi Kon (1997)

Suspiria, Dario Argento (1977)

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini (1975)

Irreversible, Gaspar Noé (2002)

Teeth, Mitchell Lichtenstein (2007)

Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood, Hideshi Hino (1985)

I Stand Alone, Gaspar Noé (1998)

Begotten, E. Elias Merhige (1989)

Dekalog, Krzysztof Kieślowski (1989)

Dancer in the Dark, Lars von Trier (2000)

Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda (2018)

Honey Boy, Alma Har’el (2019)

The Inner Scar, Philippe Garrel (1972)

The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook (2016)

Funny Games, Michael Haneke (1997)

$9.99, Tatia Rosenthal (2008)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Ana Lily Amirpour (2014)

In The Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai (2000)

Stranger Than Paradise, Jim Jarmusch (1984)

Quadrophenia, Franc Roddam (1979)

Blow-Up, Michaelangelo Antonioni (1966)

Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee (1989)

Christiane F., Uli Edel (1981)

Grey Gardens, Albert Maysles & David Maysles & Muffie Meyer & Ellen Hovde (1975)

The Tribe, Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi (2014)

Uncut Gems, Josh Safdie & Benny Safdie (2019)

Persona, Ingmar Bergman (1966)

Wild Strawberries, Ingmar Bergman (1957)

The Silence, Ingmar Bergman (1963)

Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma (2019)

The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers (2019)

Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell (2020)

The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer, Masaki Kobayashi (1961)

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, Jonas Mekas (2000)

X, Ti West (2022)

Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan (2022)

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Tom Gormican (2022)

The Conversation, Francis Ford Coppola (1974)

Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell Live, Aaron Craig & Alex Craig (2017)

La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz (1995)

My Life as a Zucchini, Claude Barras (2016)

The Wolf House, Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña (2018)

Come and See, Elem Klimov (1985)

Noisy Requiem, Yoshihiko Matsui (1988)

Eyes Without a Face, Georges Franju (1960)

Angel’s Egg, Mamoru Oshii (1985)

Dogville, Lars von Trier (2003)

Pink Flamingos, John Waters (1972)

Are you lost in the world like me?, Steve Cutts (2016)

[ebookporn]

Which lasts longer, an e-book or a physical book? | Michael Hiltzik

by Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times

The internet engineer and entrepreneur Brewster Kahle took a shot at the book publishing industry a few weeks ago by pointing out something well known to technologists but unappreciated by the general public: that e-books and other digital artifacts have shorter life spans than the physical items.

“Our paper books have lasted hundreds of years on our shelves and are still readable,” Kahle observed in a post on the website of the Internet Archive, the invaluable historical repository of old web pages and other digital artifacts that he founded in 1996. “Without active maintenance, we will be lucky if our digital books last a decade.”

It may be misleading to say that Kahle took a shot at the publishers. More accurately, he took another shot at them. That’s because for more than two years Kahle has been embroiled in a bitter court fight with the industry over his effort to make digital copies of copyrighted books and lend them out for free.

Kahle says he’s just doing what public libraries do. The publishers who have sued the Internet Archive in federal court in New York — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — have a different take.

They say the Archive is engaged in “willful digital piracy on an industrial scale.” (HarperCollins is my book publisher.)

What’s really happening here is that everyone involved — publishers, online distributors, authors and readers — is trying to come to terms with the capacity of digital technology to overthrow the traditional models of printing, selling and buying readable content.

READ MORE

#ebooks #ereaders #copyright #librarians #booksellers #digital publishing #Internet Archive

[palmtreepalmtree]

I don't expect anyone outside of Los Angeles to read the whole annotated transcript of the leaked audio from the private city council members' meeting provided by the LA Times. First of all, it's behind a paywall. Secondly, it's fucking long. But this note from Michael Hiltzik just fucking sums it up so well:

Whether you love, detest or are on the fence about the late Mike Davis, it’s worth noting that in his first book about L.A., the classic “City of Quartz,” he made the point that L.A. had gone from “the most WASPish of big cities in 1960" to one with “more polyethnic diversity than New York, with a huge ... working class of Latinos.”

Davis was hinting at the potential to develop that diversity into a functional, vibrant coalition that would make L.A. “the most dynamic center of ethnic family capitalism on the planet.” My late colleague Jim Flanigan detected the same potential in his coverage of ethnic entrepreneurial communities, especially the Korean community.

Instead, what we see and hear is the fragmentation of what could have been a powerful force. Instead of coming together, these four see ethnic politics as a zero-sum game. That’s the tragedy of this meeting, isn’t it?

#anyhow #this continues to be a fucking bummer #this transcript is worse than i expected #it's not just the casual bigotry #it's the normalization of this us vs. them politics #in the highest echelons of city power #but that could just be my privilege at work #since i don't experience city politics as a person of color #everything in politics is money

[docrotten]

13 SLASHER FILMS THAT INSPIRED SCREAM and HORROR NEWS OF THE WEEK

This week on HNR, movie news of the week and the top 13 Slasher Films that influenced the SCREAM franchise . All this, and more, coming up next…Join your host Doc Rotten are the scariest, goriest, bloodiest co-hosts on the 'Net: Dave Dreher, the lead news writer at Gruesome Magazine, and Crystal Cleveland, the Livin6dead6irl.

HORROR MOVIE NEWS

Jamie Lee Curtis dedicates Oscar win for Best Supporting Actress in Everything Everywhere All At Once to "Hundreds" including Genre Fans! Source: Deadline

Alicia Witt and Blair Underwood join Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe for Osgood Perkins' next feature, Longlegs.

Warner Bros. is courting Jenna Ortega for Beetlejuice 2. Source: Hollywood Reporter

TOP 13 SLASHERS THAT INFLUENCED SCREAM (Chronologically)

Norman Bates (1960, Psycho)

d. Alfred Hitchcock

a. Anthony Perkins

Billy (1974, Black Christmas)

d. Bob Clark

a. Albert J. Dunk (uncredited)

Leatherface (1974, Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

d. Tobe Hooper

a. Gunnar Hansen

Michael Myers (1978, Halloween)

d. John Carpenter

a. Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace

Curt Duncan (1979, When a Stranger Calls)

d. Fred Walton

a. Tony Beckley

Mrs. Pamela Voorhees / Jason Voorhees (1980, Friday the 13th)

d. Sean S. Cunningham

a. Betsy Palmer and Ari Lehman

Frank Zito (1980, Maniac)

d. William Lustig

a. Joe Spinell

Cropsy (1981, The Burning)

d. Tony Maylam

a. Lou David

The Miner / Harry Warden (1981, My Bloody Valentine)

d. George Mihalka

a. Peter Cowper

Russ Thorn (1982, The Slumber Party Massacre)

d. Amy Holden Jones

a. Michael Villella

Angela Baker (1983, Sleepaway Camp)

d. Robert Hiltzik

a. Felissa Rose

Freddy Krueger (1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street)

d. Wes Craven

a. Robert Englund

Charles Lee Ray / Chucky (1988, Child's Play)

d. Tom Holland

a. Brad Douriff

Check out this episode!

[in-sightpublishing]

Ask A Genius 894: Hype on Self-Driving Cars

Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/02/05 [Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: All right, this is an article from today’s LA Times, January 5th, 2024: Calling out the hype around AI, self-driving cars by Michael Hiltzik, and it’s an article about this guy named Rodney Brooks, who started Roomba and claims…

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[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 894: Hype on Self-Driving Cars

[Recording Start]  Rick Rosner: All right, this is an article from today’s LA Times, January 5th, 2024: Calling out the hype around AI, self-driving cars by Michael Hiltzik, and it’s an article about this guy named Rodney Brooks, who started Roomba and claims to have built more robots than anybody else and it’s Rodney Brooks’s sixth annual predictions scorecard. He looks at various tech areas…

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#ai #art #artificial-intelligence #blogging #books #cancer #chatgpt #Consciousness #covid #covid-19 #depression #diet #donald-trump #education #fiction #fitness #food #free will #health #inspiration #life #mental-health #news #nutrition #openai #philosophy #photography #poem #poetry #politics

[bloodyfairy83]

"Sleepaway Camp" (1983) di Robert Hiltzik

Angela Baker dopo aver perso la sua famiglia in un tragico incidente sul lago, va a vivere con la zia Martha e il cuginetto Ricky. 8 anni dopo l'incidente i due cugini vanno a trascorrere le vacanze estive a Camp Arawak. Qui Angela, dal carattere chiuso e introverso verrà spesso bullizzata dagli altri ragazzini presenti al campo, mentre si susseguiranno una serie di delitti irrisolti.

Cult anni '80 che si ispira al capostipite "Venerdì 13", ma con un budget molto più scarso. Questo slasher purtroppo inedito in Italia meriterebbe più notorietà. Non si discosta molto da pellicole dello stesso genere ma quello che rende Sleepaway camp inquietante e morboso è sicuramente la caratterizzazione di Angela Baker, la sua apatia, i suoi sguardi freddi e distaccati verso quei bulli che non fanno altro che deriderla e trattarla male. I delitti in fondo non sono poi così efferati rispetto ad altri slasher, nonostante siano comunque di grande impatto, ma quello che più conta è sapere cosa nasconde la protagonista, e ci verrà rivelato in uno tra i finali più scioccanti e inaspettati mai visti in un horror. Ancora oggi devo ammettere che l'ultima sequenza del film mi mette i brividi. In seguito vennero anche realizzati dei sequel: Sleepaway Camp II nel 1988 e Sleepaway Camp III nel 1989, entrambi girati da Michael A. Simpson. Solo nel 2003 Richard Hiltzik, il regista dell' originale girerà Return to Sleepaway Camp, dove dopo tanti anni ritroveremo l'attrice del primo film: Felissa Rose.

#sleepaway camp #horror