On Our "Virtual Route 66" This Week

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Coop Scoop: Meet Hollywood's Marie Antoinette The zillionaires who killed Hollywood want writers to pick up the tab JUL 18 Disney’s Bog Iger: Let Them Eat Cake July 18, 2023 By Marc Cooper The bespoke suits who have turned Hollywood into one big trash machine, filling theaters and streamers with literal reeking garbage aimed at 11 year old comic book readers, are not just happy making gigantic salaries, they also want to inflict some real pain on the writers and the actors who actually draw anybody in to their racket. The photo above is Disney boss Bob Iger who has managed to emerge as one of, if not the most, villainous face of studio management as the historic writers and actors strike is shutting down Tinseltown. Hey, not picking on good old Bob. Any of these guys who run any of the mega-studios are suitable stand-ins for vilification. Spin the wheel. I mean David Zaslav who now runs the Warner-HBO-Discovery outfit was named the most overpaid CEO in America last year. After all was said and done, after all the corners were cut, after all the spreadsheets were shuffled, after all the producers and writers got screwed on the “back end” of their deals, this putz walked away with…are you ready… $247 million in “compensation.” I repeat, $247 million. Zaslav is good at shooting his mouth off, but nowadays it’s Mr. Iger who has foot in mouth disease. Fancying himself as an enlightened contributor to society, Iger is much more a modern day Marie Antoinette, and taking home somewhere around $50 million a year, he’s had the temerity to tell the strikers they are not being “realistic.” As if the grown-ass man who pals with Mickey Mouse and Sleeping Beauty and makes more money, year after year, than some small towns take in annually, is living in the same world as the average studio worker who makes more like $75,000 a year. It’s you, Bob, who needs to get fucking real! (BTW, Hollywood is so crooked that the official "salaries” of dudes like Iger are in the $1-3 million range. But no industry in America is more skilled at cooking and juggling books than Hollywood so to that paltry couple of a million you have to add things like “stock options,” non-compensation compensation, expense accounts, swollen bonuses and, bingo, you have grown that “salary” by ten or twenty or a hundred fold. Hollywood learned these accounting tricks by historically and repeatedly fucking over producers and directors who are promised at time a percentage of profit after expenses. And ask any producer what the goniffs who run the studios drum up as “expenses” and at what level to make sure that back end pay out is anemic as possible. Hmmm? Like $39,000 a day for catering a cast and production crew of 50 people for three months straight? Iger has been arrogant enough to say recently that the actors and writers are “adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing that is quite frankly very disruptive and dangerous.” Disruptive? It was actors who insisted on streaming? Dangerous? WTF is Iger mumbling about? What…the WGA is now run by the Taliban? Whatever the failings of the Hollywood unions, the much bigger danger to all of us —at least mentally and morally— are the rich guys in the C-Suites who to quote CCR are all about me me me. Again, Iger is not alone in criminalizing his own employees and contractors. Nor is he necessarily the worst, if that can even be calculated. Another studio exec pinhead was quoted last week saying management strategy to break the strike was eviction and, presumably, starvation. His suggestions was “to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” The Atlantic’s Xochitl Gonzalez has a very fine piece on how the studio suits screwed themselves and now want to scapegoat the creative talent and why guys like Iger and Zaslav are indeed scared shitless — if not speechless. Hollywood’s CEOs are suffering. Not primarily from labor disputes or industry disruption or public-relations issues, but from vincible ignorance, which seems to be endemic in C-suites of all industries. Under pressure to deliver to Wall Street, too many CEOs have lost the plot of their own movie. They are not running companies to profitably deliver a good product, such as a book or a cup of coffee or, in this case, a movie or TV show. They are running companies to deliver good profit. The quality of their product has ceased to matter. If you doubt this, consider that when Emmy nominations were announced last week, the lions’ share went to HBO Max, a prestige platform that has ceased to exist by that name, because Warner Bros. Discovery took the streaming arm of the legacy brand and folded it into a messy app crowded with low-budget reality programs. We are in the upside-down. Streaming has already wrought havoc on writers and actors. Instead of residual checks, the creatives get to watch themselves every week, or binge a whole day, watching themselves 10-12-25 times in different episodes ad infinitum, often for one initial paycheck. There are no-name utility actors who made more in residuals from one TV episode five years ago than they made in a 5 season streamed series. And the writers? You know greedheads like Iger and Zaslav are wetting their pants, dreaming of the day when those pesky, overpaid, cranky and infinitely more intelligent writers can just be replaced by an intern with an AI chatbot. I mean, it is all about profit, isn’t it? Ain’t got much to do with enriching the The Culture nor making sure Mr. and Mrs. Writer don’t face evictions. I have to say, even at my ripe old age and my current excessive level of cynicism, this stuff really makes my head swim. Have we really become such an unequal society that these studio heads make tens of millions per year (for peddling trash) and we tolerate such craziness? Or just shrug our shoulders?   Well, I guess I’m the naive one. After all, the criminal coup-plotting former president goes into court today, the most important case in recent American history, and it will be overseen by an inexperienced air head who he recently appointed as a federal judge (though she had ZERO experience as any sort of judge). So, you tell me. Is that any more delusional, any more eye-watering aggravating, any more absurd, than these studio jokers raking home a million or thee million dollars a week bitching ou writers and actors who would like to be treated fairly? And, who by the way, are the actual base and foundation on which the fortunes of their overseers rest? Upside down world, indeed, Pluto. JUL 17 Ep. 3: The Corruption of Lindsey Graham Ad-Free Version Listen · 35M SPECIAL EDITION: UKRAINE Poland to bolster security on border with Belarus. Poland said it will send 500 police to shore up security at its border with Belarus to cope with rising numbers of migrants crossing as well as any potential threats after the Wagner group of mercenaries relocates to Belarus. Prigozhin appeals for public support as Wagner continues recruiting. Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin called on the Russian public to stand up for his paramilitaries as the group continued to recruit troops for the war in Ukraine, an apparent contradiction of the terms of a truce with the Kremlin. Ukraine defence minister: Main troop reserves yet to be used. Oleksiy Reznikov said the liberation of a group of villages under Russian occupation in recent weeks was not the ‘main event’ in Kyiv's planned counterattack, and that Ukraine's main troop reserves, as well as modern NATO tanks and armoured vehicles, have yet to be used in the operation. POLITICS Netanyahu sees upside to China's growing involvement in Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said in a classified briefing to Israeli lawmakers that China’s growing involvement in the Middle East "could be useful" because it "will compel" the U.S. to increase its engagement in the region. South Korea unveils sanctions on Russian nationals over North’s weapons programmes. The sanctions target Choi Chon Gon, a former South Korean national who acquired Russian citizenship, two companies Choi owns, and a North Korean who supported Choi. Choi is accused of helping North Korea’s illegal financial activities in violation of UN Security Council sanctions.  Sweden’s NATO bid could face delay beyond Vilnius summit. NATO allies have accelerated efforts to convince Turkey to lift its opposition to Sweden joining NATO. However, incidents like the burnt copy of the Koran outside Stockholm’s central mosque last Wednesday, condemned by Turkey, could further complicate Sweden’s NATO bid. Sierra Leone’s Julius Maado Bio wins a second term. Julius Maado Bio won a second term in office as President and his ruling party also, won 60% parliamentary seats. Political opponents are, however, demanding a rerun of the elections. Ethiopia appeals to BRICS member states to join. Ethiopia has asked to join the international bloc of emerging market states of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This follows Argentina, who received formal support from China to join the group last year. CONFLICT UN estimates Sudan violence will drive over 1M refugees out of the African country. Since mid-April, over 3,000 people have been killed, the country’s Health Ministry said. Violence has been acute in the capital and western Darfur region, where RSF and militias reported targeting non-Arab tribes. The UN reported around 2.5 million displaced people. Taiwan detects Russian warships near its waters. Ministry of National Defence stated that the Russian frigates had been seen “sailing from South to North in the waters off our eastern coast”. Taiwan has joined the US, Japan and South Korea in enacting wide-ranging sanctions against Russia following its invasion. United States blames Russia’s paramilitary Wagner group for end of MINUSMA’s mission in Mali. The United Nations reached a unanimous vote to end its peacekeeping mission in Mali and aims to withdraw its 15,000 armed personnel by the end of the year. The US, however, blames the Wagner group for its fallout with Mali, which has begun playing a significant role in Mali. Islamists from Syria active in Sudan conflict. Thousands of men who worked as intelligence operatives under former president Omar al-Bashir and have ties to his Islamist movement are fighting alongside the army in Sudan's war.  Some 5,000 people affected by fighting in Colombia's southwest. Combat between three Colombian armed groups in the country’s southwest has forced some 5,000 people either to flee or take refuge from the fighting, the government’s high peace commission. ECONOMICS Eurozone inflation falls again in June as energy prices tumble. Inflation in the 20 countries that share the Euro fell to 5.5% this month from 6.1% in May, chalking up its seventh decline in the last eight months. However, services were the only category where price growth picked up to 5.4% from 5.0%, demonstrating consumers’ continued resilience in the face of higher borrowing costs. Biden economic plan: Bidenomics. Biden’s two-year term as President has witnessed a sharp rebound from the COVID-19-induced recession, but noticed his public approval sag from elevated inflation. Bidenomics captures the Democratic president’s approach, contrasting with the tax-cutting ethos “Reaganomics”. Crisis-hit Pakistan strikes $3bn IMF bailout deal. Pakistan is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1947. Facing several external shocks, such as devastating floods in 2022 and an international commodity price spike in the wake of Russia’s war, Pakistan has been pushed to the brink. To help secure the deal, the country’s central bank raised interest rates to a record high of 22%. China, Russia pledge US$1.4 billion for lithium plants in Bolivia. China's Citic Guoan and Russia's Uranium One Group, both with strong state participation, will partner with Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) to install two lithium carbonate plants, President Luis Arce said at a public event. Saudi Arabia and Russia deepen oil cuts, spending prices higher. Shortly after the Saudi announcement of extending oil output cut, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow would cut its oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day in August. OPEC+ has already cut 3.6% of global demand, increasing oil prices, with Brent up 89 cents to $76.30 a barrel. DEVELOPMENT Volcano magma could help meet green economy’s demand for metal. Researchers found that metals could be extracted from magmatic brines while producing geothermal power simultaneously. Metals are super-concentrated in these brines and the hot fluids could produce geothermal power, potentially making the mining process carbon neutral. Indictment details plan to steal Samsung secrets for Foxconn China project. Former Samsung executive Choi Jinseog is accused of stealing secrets to help his new Foxconn client set up a chip factory in China in 2018. Prosecutors announced the indictment saying the theft caused more than $200 million in damages to Samsung Electronics, based on the estimated costs Samsung spent to develop the stolen data. China’s renewables installed a third of the world’s total wind and solar capacity. China will reach a total of 1,200GW of wind and solar energy by 2025, five years ahead of a government target, thanks to generous subsidies and low-cost supply chain. However, wind and solar ‘mega’ bases located in remote regions face stricter requirements. Botswana and De Beers Group of Companies agree to extend partnership. Botswana and De Beers have agreed to extend their partnership for another decade and the mining license shall remain valid until 2054. Botswana has renegotiated the deal to get a bigger share of the rough diamonds. Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records. The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea. SOCIAL Alef: This flying car just gained first-of-its-kind FAA certification. In a major milestone, California-based sustainable electric transportation company Alef Aeronautics has moved closer to launching its operations. The firm's Model A flying car has received special airworthiness certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), "marking the first time a vehicle of this nature has received legal approval to fly from the US Government," said a press statement. An unexpected doorway into the ear opens new possibilities for hearing restoration. Researchers have developed a new method to deliver drugs into the inner ear by harnessing the natural flow of fluids in the brain and employing a little understood backdoor into the cochlea. When combined to deliver a gene therapy that repairs inner ear hair cells, the researchers were able to restore hearing in deaf mice. Canadian wildfire smoke spreads, 100 million American under air-quality alerts. More than 100 million Americans were urged to limit prolonged outdoor activities and, if needed, wear a mask if they suffer from pulmonary or respiratory diseases. Chicago, Detroit, and Washington D.C. were recorded as having the poorest air among major cities on the planet. South Koreans become a year or two younger as traditional way of counting age scrapped. South Koreans became a year or two younger as new laws that require using only the international method of counting age took effect, replacing the country's traditional method. Moscow says 700,000 children from Ukraine conflict zones now in Russia. Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war and before Ukraine started its major counter offensive to regain occupied territories in the East and South in late August. July 18, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON JUL 19 “I approve this message.” Joe Biden’s Twitter account put that line over an ad using the words of Georgia Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Turning Points Action Conference speech from last weekend, in which she set out to tear down the president’s policies but ended up making him sound terrific.  The description she intended to be derogatory—that Biden “had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on”—was such an argument in Biden’s favor that the Biden-Harris campaign used it to advertise what the Democratic administration stands for: “[p]rograms to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, labor unions.” Generally, Biden and Harris have so far made the case for their reelection by meeting with voters in their home districts, emphasizing job growth and infrastructure investment in those districts, seemingly trying to demonstrate—without fanfare—that a well-run Democratic government can help ordinary Americans. But Greene’s misfire was just too good not to highlight. The programs she was denigrating are, in fact, enormously popular. Biden has generally stayed out of the headlines that involve the 2024 election, giving Republicans free rein to define themselves for the American people. That definition became clearer this morning, when former president Trump wrote on the right-wing Truth Social network that the Department of Justice’s special counsel Jack Smith has issued him a target letter associated with the investigation into the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A target letter usually means that prosecutors have enough evidence to charge someone with a crime. It offered Trump four days to appear before the grand jury to tell his side of the story, an offer Trump is expected to refuse.  Then, it is likely that he will be indicted. Trump reacted exactly as one would expect, called Smith “deranged,” and claiming his own legal troubles were political: an attempt on the part of President Biden to eliminate his chief 2024 rival. (There is no sign that Biden has touched the investigation, but of course Trump tried to eliminate Biden in 2020 by pushing Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden’s work with Ukrainian company Burisma.)  Trump harped on the idea that the investigation into his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election is “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT,” an accusation echoed by Trump loyalists Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Marjorie Taylor Greene, both of whom were also involved in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.  House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) also echoed the accusation that the target letter is a sign of political “weaponization” of government, prompting Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) to respond: “As Speaker, you are expected to uphold the rule of law. A target letter does not reveal what evidence the grand jury saw, nor what all the charges might be. Attacking a potential indictment before seeing the evidence and charges is irresponsible.” But if Trump received the target letter on Sunday, why did he complain about it only today?  That delay might have had something to do with another legal issue: today’s hearing about the national security documents case, overseen by Judge Aileen Cannon. One of the issues to be discussed at that hearing was setting a date for the trial. The Department of Justice wants to go to trial in December; Trump wants to delay it until after the 2024 election.  MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin noted that today’s target letter changes the calculations for the documents trial because no matter what Cannon decides, it seems likely that Trump will face another federal trial in Washington, D.C., over the events surrounding January 6, 2021. The Washington, D.C., trials for those involved in the events of January 6, 2021, have moved forward with few delays. This week’s bad legal news for Trump did not end there.  On Friday of last week, Trump’s lawyers tried to stop Georgia’s probe into his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state. They asked the court to disqualify Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, who has been investigating that attempt, and to stop Willis from using any of the material gathered by the grand jury investigating the case. Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected his petition, allowing the probe to go forward. Then, today, Michigan’s attorney general Dana Nessel charged sixteen fake electors who signed fake certificates claiming that Trump had won Michigan’s electoral votes in 2020 with felonies: forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, election law forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, publishing a counterfeit record, and conspiring to publish a counterfeit record.  The sixteen Republicans met in the basement of the state Republican Party’s headquarters and signed fake documents claiming that they were the state’s legitimate electors and that Trump had won the state. Their actions were part of a plan to claim that the electoral votes of certain states were “contested,” allowing then–vice president Mike Pence to reject the votes of those states and throw the election to Trump.  The fake electors attested they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America for the state of Michigan,” Nessel said. “That was a lie. They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it.” “The false electors' actions undermine the public's faith in the integrity of our elections and not only violated the spirit of the laws enshrining and defending our democracy, but we believe also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan and peaceably transfer power in America,” Nessel said. “This plan, to reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy, was fraudulent and legally baseless.” Text messages at the time show that the sixteen were “all asked to keep silent [so] as to not draw attention to what the other states were doing similar to ours!” One of those charged was former co-chair of the state Republican committee, Meshawn Maddock, who called the charges “political persecution.”    Legal analyst Renato Mariotti noted that the charges against the sixteen fake electors send a powerful message for those at the state level who might consider abetting Trump in the future. Those fake electors aren’t part of Trump’s inner circle who might get some kind of a reward for their trouble. They are just party operatives who are facing an expensive, stressful, and humiliating experience that could lead to hefty fines or imprisonment. Their example might well make others think carefully before they sign on to similar plans. Josh Marshall pointed out in Talking Points Memo today that the lines of the 2024 election are coming clearer. Trump’s many legal troubles simply strengthen the loyalty of his base, making his nomination for the Republican presidential candidacy even more likely. But voters in the general election are unlikely to rally to someone facing multiple indictments in several different cases, especially ones related to the attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, which horrified most Americans.  The Republican Party is now “handcuffed to Donald Trump,” Marshall writes.  President Biden’s policy of focusing on his job while letting the Republicans define themselves might be a smart strategy. — Notes: https://www.rawstory.com/georgia-supreme-court-rejects-trump/ https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/14/politics/donald-trump-fani-willis-georgia-grand-jury/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/politics/michigan-fake-electors https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/michigan-attorney-general-charges-false-electors-efforts-overturn-2020-rcna94838 https://www.michigan.gov/ag/-/media/Project/Websites/AG/releases/2023/July/Final-Affidavit-July-18-2023.pdf https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michigan-ag-hits-16-fake-electors-with-felony-charges https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-full-2024-picture-finally-comes-into-view Twitter: joebiden/status/1681424737384435713 RonFilipkowski/status/1681325293779275778 AWeissmann_/status/1681305658187223040 lawofruby/status/1681313655558914049 tedlieu/status/1681312292464660482 renato_mariotti/status/1681466573754703874 kyledcheney/status/1681405181211074560