By spocko, on March 26th, 2011 March 25, 1911 was, as Secretary of Labor Francis Perkins recalled, “the day the New Deal began.” Watch this moving video to see how far America has come yet how far the world still needs to go regarding workers rights.
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The thing that also gets me is what happened to the people who made it possible.
The company’s owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who survived the fire by fleeing to the building’s roof when the fire began, were indicted on charges of first and second degree manslaughter in mid-April; the pair’s trial began on December 4, 1911.[33] Max Steuer, counsel for the defendants, managed to destroy the credibility of one of the survivors, Kate Alterman, by asking her to repeat her testimony a number of times — which she did without altering key phrases. Steuer argued to the jury that Alterman and possibly other witnesses had memorized their statements, and might even have been told what to say by the prosecutors. The defense also stressed that the prosecution had failed to prove that the owners knew the exit doors were locked at the time in question. The jury acquitted the two men, but they lost . . . → Read More: March 25th 1911, the day the New Deal began
By spocko, on March 10th, 2011
Re: Your Brains
Music from Jonathon Coulton As someone whose brain has been very attractive to others I totally get where these guys are coming from. But as usually I don’t condone violence.
By spocko, on March 1st, 2011 David and Julie Koch photo from Dealbreaker.com
If you aren’t listening to the Jimmy Dore show you are really missing out.
It’s a smart and funny show that blows holes in all sorts of political and corporate nonsense.
Jimmy knows everybody and so lots of newsmakers call him and leave him messages.
My phone number is one digit off of Jimmy’s number and sometimes I get his calls. This week I got a call from David Koch.
David Koch Calls Jimmy Dore but gets Spocko by Accident.
David Koch Calls Jimmy Dore Gets Spocko by Accident low quality MP3
DAVID Koch, the 6-foot-6 billionaire from Kansas, is extremely proud of his lovely blond wife, Julia. “Did you know that I was just out of college when my future bride was only 6 weeks old?” Koch, 66, informed writer Gregory Speck at the American Ballet Theater gala on Monday. “Well, they say that even a blind hog sometimes finds a truffle.”
. . . → Read More: Koch Calls Dore Gets Spocko
By spocko, on February 27th, 2011 This just in from BLOOMINGTON, Ill.
2 men shot, wounded at central Ill. gun show
Two men have been injured in what officials say was an accidental shooting at a central Illinois gun show. AP, 12:15 p.m. CST, February 26, 2011. Read the rest here in the Chicago Tribune.
Every time there is a new shooting tragedy the spokespeople from the NRA have to create a response. I’ve heard enough of them to anticipate their verbiage. Here is my impression of an NRA supporter’s response. I think it will go a little like this:
“How come the media never report on all the guns shows where there are no shootings? Huh? One little mistake and suddenly it’s, ‘Oh we have to shut down all the guns shows, they are too dangerous.’ It was just a silly accident, get over it. It’s no worse than a forklift accident at a trade show.
I’ll bet this will trigger the Brady bunch to shut down all guns shows. What if they applied the same standard to car shows after someone was killed at a car show? They wouldn’t shut down all the car shows, would they?
. . . → Read More: 2 Shot at Gun Show. NRA Supporter’s Response.
By spocko, on February 25th, 2011 Envision the public employee union folks and their supporters dancing to this song. Maybe we can get Sharika to change the lyrics from “This time for Af ri ca.” to “This time for Wis con sin”
Flash mob Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) – Shakira in Piazza Duomo a Milano
By spocko, on February 23rd, 2011 Remember the Enron recording where two traders were joking about how they screwed the people of California and then “Grandma Millie” was trying to get her money back?
“Yeah, now she wants her f——g money back for all the power you’ve charged right up, jammed right up her a—— for f——g $250 a megawatt hour.”
— CBS News June 1, 2004
Every time I hear a quote from someone resenting what a great deal the public employees unions have I remember that quote. It reminds me of who we are not hearing from in this prearranged crisis in Wisconsin. We are not hearing the voices of the people who set up the financial crisis in the state.
Today Ian Murphy, editor of the Buffalo Beast, called Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, pretending to be billionaire industrialist and secretive conservative political activist David Koch. Koch (pronounced “coke”) is one of the big money people behind Walker. Walker’s office admits the call is real and for a brief period of time the media will be forced to move the focus of the story from unions and their supporters fighting Walker and conservatives.
In the call we got to hear how Walker sounds . . . → Read More: The Rich are Laughing at Us and the Tea Party People
By spocko, on February 16th, 2011 Right wing politicians and conservative pundits will publicly tell their supporters how much they love all guns and would never infringe on the rights of anyone to own any firearm or bring it anywhere. But when it comes down to their own lives their actions are clear. GLOCK BLOCK! “Keep guns away from me, even if my security people have to pry them out of my supporters hands at the doorway of the venue.” They actually listen to the people they pay to keep them safe–and that involves sane, rational gun control. . . . → Read More: Glock Block! No Civilian Guns at CPAC
By spocko, on February 13th, 2011
From OneMinuteGalactica. Be sure to check out more of his hilarious combinations of classic SF and instructional videos. h/t Cyriaque Lamar from io9.com
By spocko, on February 4th, 2011
If you have ever flown into Los Angeles at night you know how beautiful it can be. This video is of a landing at LAX International Airport via the SADDE Six Arrival. The song is “Los Angeles” by Sugarcult. The real time video was sped up to somewhere between Mach 1 and Mach 2.
video from surfbumhnl
UPDATE: I submitted this video to Boing Boing and it got picked up. Thanks Cory!
By spocko, on January 16th, 2011
I submitted this to Boing Boing after first seeing it at the great SF site io9.com. The Newbery is the most prestigious prize in children’s literature; “90-Second Newbery” is a competition to abridge a wonderful kids’ book into a 90-second video. Here’s the entry for Madeline L’Engle’s classic “A Wrinkle in Time.” Great work!
I got a thanks from Cory Doctorow for my submission (Thanks, Spocko, via Submitterator!) So I want to thank Annalee Newitz at io9 for first bringing it to my attention.
It is so nice to see joy in films. I love the credit sequence with the kids dancing to Telstar. I think that L’Engle herself would enjoy this, and hopefully she would approve of the line reading that I adored in this film.
“It’s the power of love!”
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