cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2040520

I quite liked it!

It felt like I was watching a great biopic and I liked some of the cinematography as well and the way they shot certain things.

But also, it felt a bit like a Guy Ritchie film with the film constantly cutting back and forth between different eras... which I sort-of liked but I can understand why others didn't like it and it has its limitations (not to mention: it's hard to do effectively).

The problem is that, unless you're a communist or a history buff, you won't always understand the references. There's a lot missing, even for a film that's 3 hours long. I don't mind the 3 hour duration. But people talked vaguely about shit or were kinda obscure with what they said. I will say that it captures the Cold War and Second Red Scare aspect well. But you won't, say, care who Stimson is unless you already know who Stimson is, so to speak.

I'm surprised that the communists are described and shown to be, more or less, sympathetic. Oppie says something about "appeasing the Soviets" but that's probably just fluff and we all know that he doesn't mean it (plus, he was likely a Communist Party USA member at one point anyway so, in a way, it doesn't matter what anti-communist thing he might say here and there because we know that it's bullshit). Does the audience know that? They probably sort-of do. I say "sort-of" because no doubt it'll go over other peoples' heads.

It definitely feels like Christopher Nolan made it... for himself, so to speak, in the way it just glosses over things that the audience could've probably got a primer on to begin with. Like, I felt like the director and the people behind the film really liked the subject matter but they still had to dumb it down in the end. They still had to do it all fast within a 3 hour framework.

It's amazing that none of the other characters besides, say, Teller (for example) have personalities. Well, certainly, Groves has a personality, Jean has a personality, but you can tell that, for example, Lomanwitz doesn't have much of a personality to begin with. Whatever his historical significance, the movie will gloss over it at times, and you can tell that, even when the movie references things from an hour previously (it is a bit tightly written), it's not... able to do so in a way that's always significant. I see what Nolan was trying to do by revisiting certain scenes and seeing it from a different angle. I like it. But it doesn't always work.

I understand that most MLs will hate this film. I've seen many that do.

But I went in not expecting that much in terms of accuracy and was pleasantly surprised by, well, other aspects of the film, including the Second Red Scare aspect.

Also, Kitty saying that she sees a difference between communism and Soviet communism was honestly a good answer. I liked it, but again, that's a theoretical debate that MLs sometimes have all the time (I don't believe that the Soviet model is the only model of socialism). I don't know. I just liked it. You can glean things from the dialogue of the movie... if you fill in the dots with what you already know (and use sub-titles all the while).

On another note: I don't mind "no-personality" characters per se (I've read A Song of Ice and Fire, for crying out loud, and I like it, but I'm doing a re-read and there are certainly third-party characters that come off as basically being there to enliven the scene, act as a go-between for certain characters, or expand the world). As bonkers as it might sound, I don't think every character (not even a secondary character) has to have an expanded backstory and personality so long as they're there to explain things and support the secondary characters or main characters... To give an A Song of Ice and Fire example, Robett Glover (a character from the books, not Game of Thrones) isn't going to be on the same level as, say, Jon Snow or Davos Seaworth. And I get that. But sometimes, it seems that even the secondary characters in the film Oppenheimer could've used a bit more oomph, a bit more presence, a bit more of the it quality (and, hell, sometimes the main characters too).

Again, interesting ideas.

Interesting way of doing things with the film.

But obviously, the film can't get a high score in all the things it's trying to do.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2039938

It's a long-form article so here's an excerpt of the first part:

---

Baltimore is often maligned as a shrinking city beset by crime and intractable poverty. But take a walk down President Street just south of Little Italy on a Friday night, and you will enter a world that appears far removed from the idea of a city that is terminally in decay.

Past the empty pavilions of the Inner Harbor and east of the city’s increasingly troubled downtown business district, a cluster of towering high-rises emerges from the harbor like a defiant mountain range of concrete.

A cobblestone boulevard leads to a European-style thoroughfare dotted with a dazzling array of upscale restaurants and outdoor dining patios. Lines of traffic spill onto the side streets as eager tourists vie for hard-to-find parking spots.

The outdoor bars and retail shops thrum with activity while the upscale Four Seasons Hotel sits astride panoramic views of the tranquil harbor. Stories of luxury condominiums extend into a swanky dance club, which perches atop the building like a palatial penthouse. An express elevator operated by a top hat-wearing attendant delivers partygoers to an often-packed dance floor.

It’s a world unto itself, seemingly far removed from the David Simon-conjured Wire-fied landscape of a failed city beset by corruption, drug dealing, and over policing: An upscale bubble that offers a gleaming rebuke to the naysayers who deem Baltimore a dysfunctional city of a dwindling population and violent crime.

But it’s a success story that comes with a hefty, less obviously apparent, asterisk. Harbor East is, in some sense, a taxpayer-bolstered paradise.

Based on the findings of our nearly year-long investigation into how Harbor East came to be, this shining city within the city is a success story heavily dependent upon public subsidies to an extent that has not previously been reported. It is a waterfront oasis fueled by dozens of tax breaks and incentives, built and sustained by tens of millions of dollars in city money.

How these tax subsidies have both defined and transformed Harbor East is a story entangled in the city that surrounds it. As our ongoing investigation Tax Broke has revealed, it is a tale of how a community walled off from its affluent suburban neighbors turned to tax incentives to reverse years of decay and population loss. But it’s also an example of the secrecy that obscures the details of how much this policy costs and who it really benefits.

As this spreadsheet illustrates, records obtained by TRNN reveal that, between 2012 and 2022, Harbor East received roughly $115.8 million in tax relief from the city through various subsidies and incentives.

However, despite numerous Maryland Public Information Act requests, city officials would release only a limited range of data from 2013–2022 pertaining to Harbor East tax records. They also would not release separate tax bills regarding a series of PILOTs—payment in lieu of taxes—granted to buildings within the development, which led to additional tax savings for developers.

Still, what we were able to obtain paints a picture of a luxury development built upon a foundation of public subsidies.

The most lucrative of these incentives went to the Marriott Waterfront Hotel. To date, $57 million in property tax has been abated, part of a 25-year PILOT that requires a tax payment of $1 per year.

But the city has also granted tax relief to a variety of other buildings.

Roughly 75% of the additional Harbor East properties garnered subsidies worth approximately $58 million in just under a decade. The bulk of the tax breaks were PILOTs, given to at least seven properties comprising the waterfront development.

PILOTs offer fairly straightforward tax relief: Property taxes are phased in over time on a sliding scale, from a small percentage of the actual tax bill to a greater share of what would actually be owed. A ten-year PILOT, for example, might require the property to pay 5% of the entire tax bill for the first three years, then 20% for the next four, and, finally, 80% for the remaining two. But the city has been opaque about the tax savings from individual PILOTs, removing the data from online tax records and ignoring our requests for additional data.

But some properties were granted more than one tax break.

The pricey office tower built to house the Legg Mason investment firm benefited from both an Enterprise Zone credit and a PILOT. The subsidies were intended to maintain 600 jobs and keep the firm’s headquarters in the city.

Legg Mason was acquired by California-based investment firm Franklin Templeton in 2020. The name is currently off the building, but the subsidies remain. Records show the owners of the building have not been required to pay full city property tax since 2018.

In addition to the PILOTs, multiple other buildings within the same development also received Enterprise Zone tax credits and abatements under the Brownfields incentive program. Each forgives a percentage of property taxes ranging from 50% to 75% of the entire tax bill for five to ten years, depending on a variety of criteria.

The Enterprise Zone credit is designed to spur commercial development in poor neighborhoods but was expanded over time to include the entire city. The Brownfields credit incentivizes developers to remediate contaminated properties and offers a similarly generous 75% reduction in tax bills for five to ten years.

The Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences used a Brownfield credit to save roughly $10.6 million in taxes over the past decade. This incentive included nearly $6 million for the luxury condos that sit atop the hotel.

The $115 million figure does not paint a full picture of the taxpayer tab for Harbor East. The scope of our calculations is limited by the fact that many of the tax credits granted to these developments were in effect prior to 2013—records that were not available, according to city finance officials.

The lack of transparency is, in part, due to how the city bills properties that receive tax subsidies.

Special credits like Brownfields and Enterprise Zones are not detailed online. Instead, we had to ask the city for copies of the separate paper bills it mails annually to developers, which list the value of the credit. From the paper bills, we calculated the 10-year figure for taxes abated through Brownfields and Enterprise Zone tax credits that contribute to the $115 million taxpayer tab.

Even the taxes abated via PILOTs were challenging to calculate. The city told us tax bills for PILOTs are mailed separately from ordinary tax bills, including special credits. We asked for copies of the separate PILOT bills, but the city would not release them, again without explanation or response to our request.

To work around the lack of data, we obtained two decades’ worth of property assessments for all the parcels that comprise Harbor East. We used the value of the buildings to calculate the property taxes owed in any given year. Then, we applied the formulas outlined in council legislation, which authorized several of the Harbor East PILOTs to estimate the tax savings for a given PILOT to arrive at the approximate figure.

---

Anyone else live in Baltimore or Maryland?

What do you think of all this?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2035745

Quite surprising. Here's an excerpt from the interview:

---

As always, we appreciate your support in whatever form it takes. Now over 50 million freelancers participate in the gig economy in the United States, and in 2023 it was projected to generate $455 billion. Many freelance workers work white collar freelance contracts across a number of industries, most notably tech, media and other creative industries. According to one survey, over 50% of gig workers reported to have experienced wage theft at least once in their freelance career. And due to the nature of contingent gig work, it can be difficult to compel employers to pay their freelancers once the project has been completed. Oftentimes, freelancers are left in a lurch after working for weeks or months on a contract and to find themselves unable to reach employers who owe them payment sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. That’s where freelance isn’t free, comes in legislation aimed at protecting freelancers from nonpayment by unruly employers First passed in New York City in 2017.

Freelance isn’t Free. Legislation has helped freelancers recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices over the last seven years. Now backed by organizers at the National Writers Union and the Freelance Solidarity Project. Local and state governments are looking to enact their own freelance Isn’t Free Laws with me today to discuss all this are Eric Thurm and Keisha Dutes. Keisha TK Dutes is an audio producer and executive producer educator and on-air talent with experience spanning terrestrial radio online and podcasts since 2005. Her life and audio is all encompassing. Her most recent offering on NPR Life Kit is about how to mind your business, and currently she is helping people bring their podcasts to life via her company. Philo’s Future Media. TK also serves as a board member for the Association of Independents in Radio. Eric is the campaigns coordinator at the National Writers Union and member organizer with the Freelance Solidarity Project. Organizations that have advocated for freelance isn’t free legislation in places like New State and Illinois. Welcome to the show guys. Thanks so much for coming on this morning. Thanks for having us.

---

BTW, free-lancers count as "self-employed," right?

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2028473

Here's an excerpt from the article:

---

Cancer Survivor and Retiree Advocate/UFT member Sheila Zukowsky said she celebrated the day she turned 65 because it meant she could finally start claiming her traditional Medicare benefits.

“I didn’t like turning 65 — but I could finally go to the hospital that was around the corner from my house where everybody took my healthcare,” Zukowsky said. “There was no longer a problem — I got great treatment and I’m here to today. There’s no way they’re gonna take away our Medicare. No matter what they do — we’re gonna fight like hell against them.”

The private health insurance industry’s hard sell — with it promises of reduced up front costs, dental coverage, gym memberships and the like — has resulted in more than half of all Medicare eligible recipients in the country now being enrolled in a profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan.

Many of those recipients, however, now regret being taken in by the Medicare Advantage sales pitch — and feel trapped.

Even Mayor Adams jeered Medicare Advantage as a “bait and switch” before winning election and doing an abrupt about-face after taking office.

A great many Medicare eligible recipients also do not even realize that a privatized, profit-driven Medicare Advantage plan is not Medicare — something that privatization advocates are loath to admit.

The Save Medicare Act, reintroduced in the House last year, seeks to prohibit giant insurance companies from advertising their profit-driven plans as “Medicare.”

“Michael Mulgrew keeps saying Medicare Advantage is just Medicare Part C — that’s an absolute lie,” Retiree Advocate/UFT member Norm Scott said on Friday. “We know the difference. I’ve been on Medicare for 14 years — I love it. I’ve had no problems.”

Retiree Advocate/UFT member Sarah Shapiro said, “It’s difficult when you know the city is fighting against you,” but that “it’s really difficult when you know the people in our union leadership are fighting against the rank & file — and the retirees.”

Fellow Retiree Advocate/UFT member Bobby Greenberg’s work on national labor campaigns with the American Federation of Teachers goes back a half century. What’s needed, and what Retiree Advocate/UFT promises, he said is a return to authentic union culture centered on empowering the membership

“[Mulgrew] said this is the best plan we can get — he still says that. That plan died — it was killed by us,” Greenberg said. “We’re winning because the guns have shifted from us — to the working teachers. Now, it’s their healthcare being attacked…what we need is a different culture. We need a culture that welcomes the members.”

Retiree Advocate/UFT Jonathan Halabi said the Retired Teachers Chapter had two critical jobs to do under Mulgrew and Murphy’s watch: protect pensions and healthcare. But they have failed at both.

“Medicare Advantage, Aetna, Alliance — that’s not protecting our healthcare,” Halal said. “That’s Mulgrew, Murphy, Mayor Adams, and the MLC endangering our healthcare…who knows what they have in store four our pensions? Reitrees will vote for the team that will protect our healthcare and our pensions.”

---

I still feel that this article from this point-of-view isn't telling us everything and I get the feeling that it's not simply a matter of the typical "rank-and-file versus corrupt union leadership" story, but we'll see.

I haven't really seen the union leaders quoted here.

But I could be wrong; I just feel that the article isn't really giving us the full story.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2027287

As a Turk, I approve.

But of course, the Turkish republic should be replaced with a socialist one. Strengthen democracy and continue the movement for it. Fight for reforms, but also revolution. And create dual power as well.

And of course, the Kurdish nationalist movement should be appeased and given their wants and needs and what they demand.

That is all I have to say on that matter.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2027186

Turkey is going wild over this as well.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2026687

I know the person that made this article on Twitter.

Good stuff.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2026007

Excerpt:

---

A movie “based on” the life of a real person is a tricky proposition, especially when that person is already the subject of much historical study. How can the ambiguities, contradictions, ironies, paradoxes, and other complexities—not to mention sheer unknowability—of a person be fitted into narrative coherence? Entertainment, story, spectacle, and celebrity/star power have often taken precedence over historically verifiable facts.

A “biographical picture” or biopic is supposed to be distinct from a documentary. Documentaries purport to be nonfictional, but they may include dramatized recreations. Biopics are fictional but purport to avowedly dramatize real lives, or at least parts of lives. Do an internet search for “biopic lawsuits” to get a taste of the resulting controversies, going back to, at least, Lawrence of Arabia (1962)—individuals and relatives have taken serious exception to their cinematic portrayals.

Just as the movie version of a classic novel may be a bad way of studying for an English literature exam, biopics may not be the best biographical sources. This is not to suggest that these can’t be good movies. Last year’s Napoleon isn’t a good example, as it’s made with what seems complete contempt for biography and history. Oppenheimer is a better example: it’s relatively accurate. Critics have generally been affirmative. The box office has been especially boffo. Thirteen Academy Award nominations, including for all the major awards, highlight the industry’s own approval.

Oppenheimer is a rich, complex, impressive entertainment that whets the appetite for more: more biography, more history. I doubt I was the only one wondering about Lewis Strauss (pronounced “straws”), who is played by Robert Downey Jr. Luckily, there’s a much more about Oppenheimer and his times to dig into.

If you haven’t seen the movie, this is your SPOILER ALERT. Of course, history is nothing but spoilers, giving real impetus to the proverb “forewarned is forearmed”…

An iconic twentieth-century figure celebrated and damned as the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–67) has often been described as a Hamlet-like enigma torn between his pride and guilt over the A-bomb, his celebrity, and his governmental humiliation. This clearly presents a challenge to historians, biographers, and dramatists.

---

I had heard about this from other CPUSA members, but wasn't sure.

Article says so at the end.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/2020230

Best Marxist YouTuber.

Some anti-China stuff, but it's to be expected. I'm used to it.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1987995

An excerpt from the article:

---

Gone are the days when former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz could argue that the company’s upstart barista network would be no more than a blip in the coffee behemoth’s history.

On Tuesday, Starbucks Workers United (SBWU)’s parent union and Starbucks announced that they had reached a “foundational framework” for substantive negotiations over a range of issues.

“The fight is worth fighting for. This victory alone proves that no workplace is out of reach for organizing,” fired former Starbucks barista Alicia Flores of Portland, Oregon told In These Times, speaking in a personal capacity.

The two sides hope the agreement will form the basis for contract talks at nearly 400 union shops, the resolution of ongoing litigation, and an agreement over rules governing future organizing at Starbucks locations. While the publicly announced details of the agreement include few specifics and even fewer guarantees, the barista network has won at least the potential for negotiations over a first master contract.

“This agreement…is a very, very big deal,” said Dave Kamper, Senior Strategist at the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute. “Starbucks Workers United has shown that determined workers, willing to use all the tools of worker power at their disposal…can bring companies to the bargaining table.”

Starbucks also announced that, as a measure of good faith, it will provide credit card tipping and other benefits to union stores that it has provided to nonunion stores since May 2022.

Some SBWU members were reluctant to speak to In These Times about the framework. But those who did open up were enthusiastic.

“I’m excited for the gang at SBWU to bargain a fair contract and to hopefully get reinstated as a fired worker,” said Flores.

Similarly, barista James Greene of the Pittsburgh area, also speaking in a personal capacity, said that he is “encouraged by the company’s [message]” and hopes “we can negotiate in good faith soon.”

---

A milestone battle and victory for Starbucks Workers United!

Read the rest of the article through the link up top (which also talks about labor and the anti-Zionist movement in the USA).

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1976670

Check it out. Also:

---

“George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.” These were the words of famed rapper Kanye West during the 2005 nationally televised telethon benefit for victims of Hurricane Katrina. In this notorious quote, Kanye expressed a popular conception of the Bush administration for a whole generation of people. How is it then, that less than 15 years later the same Kanye West — son of a Black Panther who had previously made commentary on racism in the U.S. — would go on a national tour professing his love for Hitler? Even more recently, beloved star in the Black community, Nicki Minaj, cozied up to Ben Shapiro after rapper Megan Thee Stallion blasted her for misogynoir. Both of these instances illustrate the right’s newfound investment in popular culture in response to young people, people of color and the LGBTQ community’s increasing acceptance of socialism.

---

Kanye was the son of a Black Panther?! Holy shit...

Anyway:

It's only a few paragraphs long and is for a pre-convention discussion (since CPUSA is in discussion period for our democratic process).

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1971306

Damn, this was a record for me.

It was a rally and march for Palestine at the city nearby.

@Othello@hexbear.net might know about it, but I don't think they're here now (I'm just tagging in case they are).

Ask me about it if you want, but right now I'm "venting" about something positive; I'm really proud of myself for keeping up the pressure regarding Gaza and helping to do that.

Definitely join an org or activist group if you can.

That's all. Cheers!

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1968230

Pretty expected, to be honest.

Especially now that Joe Sims is in and not John Bachtell.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1967643

20 minutes or so.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1967517

It's just 10 minutes, but very enlightening.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1962122

Subscribe, comment, like, etc.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1958803

The article argues that some federal government intervention earlier during WWII jump-started the tech innovations we saw from the 1950s to 1970s.

It also talks about how the Internet seems to be the only really new game-changing innovation since the 80s and seeks to explain why this is the case.

Among other things, of course, such as the nature of "tech clusters" such as Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1941627

Just found out about this an hour ago.

Holy shit, this is good, and it's Marxist writers' group too.

We need more stuff like this.

@muad_dibber@lemmygrad.ml Thought you might be interested in this, old friend (since you're the only other person I know right now besides myself that knew BayArea415, at least online).

But anyway, on another note, I'm glad that the PatSoc infiltration attempts were sorted out, otherwise the content would just be a repeat of Haz's trash ideas lol

Glad they're experimenting with a writing and literature group; very early in its initial phase, from what I know.

It's a pity that one of the people didn't get a chance to finish his own fictional work and had to stop at the beginning before it got to the crux or point of it all.

Anyway, enjoy, y'all.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1934744

Check it out.

It's like China is just that one country (aside from the Khmer Rouge) that every ML (aside from Dengists like us) agrees to hate on.

Fellow Traveler and leftypol uploaded videos criticizing them, the Shining Path hung up literal dogs to protest them, Maoists go all insane saying that it's some red fash social-imperialist nation because (insert nato propaganda here). And Hoxhaists claim that China was never socialist and that the only socialist nation ever was USSR before Khrushchev and almighty holy Albania.

What is it that makes China so controversial even among MLs? I get that it's not perfect and every AES state has their Ls, but jesus.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1904493

Good discussion and a long one too. Nearly an hour. I felt Ben was a good guest too. And of course, there's Justine Medina as well.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1863958

The book is this one:

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1856459

How to Be a Good Communist

Written/Published: July 1939

Source: Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi, Volume I

First Published: Foreign Languages Press

---

I'm reading this for the first time, btw, based on something I heard online. Someone also recommended it to me and said Liu Shaoqi was underrated.

Definitely giving this a go.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/1852949

I talked about this video in this post here.

It really helped me. I mean, this was a godsend (except for the jump-scare near the beginning). I would heartily recommend it to people who struggle with productivity either way.