“I love the Fourth of July…”
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You are cordially invited to spend $50,000 on a photo op with Mitt Romney and the Kochs, both of whom have more money than you ever will. Or, feel free to donate that money to get this movie made.
My friends and I took to the West Village of Manhattan at the intersection of Christopher Street and Gay Street to document the festivities at the Gay Pride Parade. We set up just a stone’s throw from the former Stonewall Inn, where a police riot in 1969 thrust the GLBT movement out of the shadows and into the American conscience. It may seem like a slow progress of acceptance, but sometimes the turning points in history seem so recent.
[Read more]
PAY 2 PLAY is proud to present, in association with Public Interest Pictures, this classic American tale of greed, excess, power and family.
The Koch Brothers: Godfathers of Greed pulls back the curtain on America’s most notorious family syndicate of convicted polluters and political distortion. Following revelations of the Koch Brothers secret political retreats entertaining billionaires, governors, and Supreme Court Justices, a coalition of protesters in Palm Springs sends the Koch Brothers into a frightened tizzy.
Featuring art, screenings, food from the legendary Blu Jam Cafe on Melrose, comedy, an exclusive exhibition of the Massive Monopoly Board that took over an intersection of Downtown on the May 1st actions.
Ground Floor Gallery, 433 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA (Spring between 4th & 5th st)
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES —
The climax of John Wellington Ennis’ upcoming documentary “Pay 2 Play” ends with the unveiling of a giant Monopoly board at the intersection of 6th Street and Broadway during last Tuesday’s May Day march in Downtown.
Ennis, 39, is quick to not take all the credit for the success of the work. It took street artist Teacher five days to fully realize and create Ennis’ idea for the piece.
Teacher is insanely handy and he just attacked it, Ennis said.
While exploring the “pay-to-play” system in politics, Ennis said he discovered that politicians weren’t only rewarding donors once in office, they were rewarding donors with government money. Money that belongs to the people, Ennis said.
But money isn’t the only problem with the system, he added.
“Besides the attack ads and tabloid TV news and negligent newspapers, you’ll see that there’s larger issues like redistricting and voter suppression and election fraud,” Ennis told Blogdowntown on May Day. “All of these things go into keeping the normal citizens’ voice from our political process.”
Ennis wanted to present the “really heavy, dry issue” of campaign finance in a way that would excite a younger generation. In 2009, Ennis began documenting political street artists like Alec Monopoly while addressing issues such as excessive campaign funding and its damaging effect on the democratic system.
He hopes his film will trigger a reaction and discussion from the public in the election year. The impact an individual can make cannot be discounted, he said.
Through his journey, Ennis has himself found a passion in street art. There’s blogs and documentaries, he said, but “sometimes you just got to get something out.”
A Kickstarter campaign was set up in hopes of raising $50,000 by July 1. Ennis said he expects to have the documentary completed in about 4 months.
Ohioans go to the polls tomorrow to decide on SB5, a bill passed by the Ohio legislature that intends to dissolve public employee unions. This law is similar to one that was enacted in Wisconsin earlier in the year, but it goes further, to include the dissolution of firefighters and police unions. The placement of this ballot measure to be able to vote down SB5 was achieved by a referendum submitted with over 300,000 signatures. Along with a referendum on whether Ohio will recognize any national healthcare legislation, this off-year election has shaped up to be a contentious one, with significant Get Out The Vote efforts on both sides.
Besides being a perennial swing state, Ohio itself is a bellwether for the national mindset and prognosticator for political trends. The presidential election of 2004 revealed rampant breakdowns in election administration by Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, disenfranchising thousands from voting in a close election. A subsequent investigation of the House Judiciary Committee led by Rep. John Conyers reported:
“We find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio.”
In the wake of the 2004 election meltdown, concerned citizens banded together to document the 2006 national elections, using the newly-launched YouTube for real-time reporting on voter intimidation, closed polling places, misinformation, long lines, or any other problems.
Reportedly Banksy left a new piece of art in support of the Occupy London movement.
The piece features the Monopoly Man with a five o’clock shadow and looking like he has fallen on rough times. The board pieces that can be seen from the include a light bulb and the kaiserrort.com. Perhaps our favorite part about this piece is the tagging and Tox bubble letters on the house.
Also dig how it utilized the Monopoly Man, whom we have come to enjoy seeing on the streets from LA’s own Alec Monopoly.
This is being reported as Banksy’s piece, although it has not yet been confirmed on Banksy’s website. (Sourced from the Banksy Forums)
***First pic from London Photographer Jason Reeve***
I guess what set me off on a course of independent political media was a combination of Bush I & Bush II, 13 years apart.
In high school, while I was immersed in journalism and theater, the Gulf War crystallized an understanding in me that there is a larger war machine in this country that outlasts sitting presidents, and that reality needed to be shared through mainstream entertainment somehow. That time also got me into organizing anti-war demonstrations, public speaking at events, and networking with activists.
After the rampant election fraud that transpired in the Ohio 2004 presidential election, I felt I had no choice but to do my small part to become the media. The miraculous new era of digital video and social media didn’t make citizen journalism possible, but mandatory. [Read more]
From RT International‘s coverage of Occupy Wall Street.
John Wellington Ennis, a filmmaker and contributor to the Huffington Post, believes that people have taken the only means left for them to express their discontent.
“When you go into protest and when you appear in public in support of a cause, you don’t know what ripples you are creating,” he said.
“I think the protesters are so united that it did not even need a common purpose to be stated,” he added. “There is such a common frustration, and there have been so many patient stages by the US people to wait for reform efforts.”
What is surprisingly unique about the Occupy Wall Street demonstration, and supporting actions across the country, is the broad immediate support without an immediately stated objective. With so little coverage and a yet unspecified goal, major unions lent their support, supportive occupations cropped up nationwide, and the numbers in Liberty Park are growing despite NYPD crackdowns.
Unlike anti-war marches, Tea Party gatherings, or other well-worn modes of protest, the notion of an in-person response to Wall Street’s unchecked looting of the economy apparently did not need much explaining. That is because many Americans have been living with painful awareness that their hardships in recent years are related in a myriad of ways to reckless trading, predatory loans, and manifold illegal banking practices, all perpetrated by the same executives still receiving multi-million dollar bonuses whose guilt is trumped by the notion that their companies are Too Big To Fail.
None of these many abuses by financial institutions collectively referred to as Wall Street are new information. It’s not like people just flooded the streets upon hearing that Bank of America is trying to tack on another surcharge, just after laying off over 50,000 employees, just after widespread manipulation of their loan business was deemed not criminal, by their own accord. (No, that move by B of A was just easy pickings for Democrats trying to remember their purpose.)
It’s not like Americans did not wait while the federal government negotiated good-faith interest-free loans to keep huge banks and firms afloat, at the price to taxpayers, many of whom were struggling to stay afloat themselves under variable interest or inflated mortgages foisted upon them by said financial giants. It’s not like financial regulations weren’t proposed to Congress, with larger reforms left by the wayside, and in the final decision by the Federal Reserve on the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank Finanical Act, credit card companies somehow get to charge more for debit swipes than they had even hoped. Bank lobbyists paid off, in more than one sense. [Read more]
Morley is the antithesis of street artists in Los Angeles. Where traditional taggers obscure their name in scrawled script only readable to their own, Morley prints big messages with his large bold lettering. Where most find it cool to be cryptic, Morley shares his wit in complete sentences. Where many street artists prefer anonymity or an empowered alter-ego, Morley includes a plain drawing of his unglamorous self writing each ironic aphorism. His humor veers from self-deprecating to sly, his insight ranges from soul searching to silly.
Morley is so un-street art, he walks around in broad daylight plastering his posters up in the busiest intersections. It was a privilege to document the artist at work, if only to be able to capture the meta moments of the artist putting up art of himself putting up his art.
In this short documentary, Morley explains how he uses hope and humor in efforts to lift the unsuspecting viewer.
Much of today’s street art is reflective of Andy Warhol’s signature style of celebrity iconography, stenciled composites, and above all, repetition of imagery. It is no wonder Warhol’s ideas, Sixties images, and commercial success have inspired young artists to take to the streets. So it is both intuitively astute and perfectly logical to see Andy Warhol’s stenciled visage appear across Los Angeles over the past year signed simply “Thank You, X.”
Thank You X intended his moniker to simply be “X,” the penultimate pseudonym of an anonymous artist. But as curious fans might not be able to Google “X” at their workplace without fear of reprisal, “Thank You X” has stuck as his nom de guerre. The image of Warhol used in X’s pieces is from a lesser-known photo taken by an assistant of Warhol’s to build his portfolio. The casual, unguarded spontaneity in this head shot of Warhol looking away suggests a genuine appreciation of a subject whose mind is often elsewhere. 
[Read more]
While Ohio public employees’ rights to bargain collectively are under siege, the Ohio Republican Party executed a perfect sleight of hand by disenfranchising nearly 900,000 Ohio voters. In the most vicious and direct attack on voting rights since Bull Connor ran amok in the deep South, Ohio House Republicans passed HB 159 that requires Ohio voters to produce one of four state photo IDs at the polls.
The only IDs that will be accepted in Ohio if this bill passes the overwhelming Republican State Senate are a U.S. passport, a U.S. military ID, an Ohio driver’s license, or an Ohio state ID. This is the most restrictive standard in the nation.
The Republican Party’s target is obvious. Studies indicate that 25% of African Americans nationwide do not have a government-issued photo ID, 18% of voters over age 65 do not have a photo ID, and 15% of voters with incomes under $35,000 lack the ID as well. Besides going after blacks, the elderly and the poor, the bill also sets its sights on college students. What do these people have in common? They tend to vote Democratic.
The Republicans refuse to discuss an amendment that would have accepted a college student ID with a photo from their own state-funded university, including The Ohio State University, one of the nation’s largest institutions of higher education. [Read more]
by Alex Pareene | Salon
Ginni Thomas, longtime conservative activist and wife of silent Supreme Court Justice (and “national treasure”) Clarence Thomas, has a new job! She is… a journalist now, apparently.
She has been hired by Tucker Carlson’s “The Daily Caller,” a web magazine that seeks to answer the question, “will people read literally any bullshit at all if we call it ‘conservative’ and occasionally throw in some sexism and homophobia?” Thomas will be a “special correspondent” for the Caller, which means she will “interview key political and community leaders — from high-profile politicians to grassroots activists — with a focus on listening to those outside the Beltway.”
Thomas could use the work, I guess. Her Tea Party group asked her to take a backseat due to the constant negative publicity and scrutiny her presence and activities invited. (Like, for example, the fact that she was actively working to fight a law that her husband will probably eventually have to rule on, as a member of the Supreme Court. And also her husband just lied about her income on his financial disclosure forms, every year, because there was never any chance of any negative consequences for his actions, which is something of a pattern in his professional career.) So she quit and started a lobbying firm that didn’t do anything. As long as Thomas is kept busy she may be less likely to call people her husband sexually harassed years ago and ask for apologies. [Read more]
The small companies and public didn’t have a chance in the early rounds. Now it’s down to a few formidable corporate teams, the Cheat 16:
- General Electric made $10.3 billion in 2009, but received a $1.1 billion tax rebate.
- Forbes said about Bank of America in 2010: “How did they not pay any taxes on $4.4 billion in income?”
- Oil giant Exxon made a $45 billion profit in 2009, but paid no taxes in the United States.
- Citigroup had 4 quarters of billion-dollar profits in 2010, but paid no taxes.
- Wells Fargo made $12 billion but purchased Wachovia Bank to claim a $19 billion tax credit.
- Hewlett Packard’s U.S. income tax rate was 4.3% in 2008 and 2.3% in 2009.
- Verizon’s 10.5% tax rate, according to Forbes, is due to its partnership with Vodafone, the primary target in UK Uncut’s protests against tax evaders.
- Chevron’s tax rate was 1% in 2008.
- Boeing, which just won a $30 billion contract to build 179 airborne tankers, got $124 million back from the taxpayers in 2010.
- Over the past 5 years Amazon made $3.5 billion and paid taxes at the rate of 4.3%.
- Carnival Cruise Lines paid 1% in taxes on its $11.5 billion profit over the past 5 years.
- Koch Industries is not publicly traded, so their antics are kept private. But they benefit from taxpayer subsidies in ranching and logging. [Read more]
by ModernEsquire | Plunderbund
The Columbus Dispatch may have unknowingly reported the biggest political story of the year.
Kasich’s budget and the tough measures it calls for has virtually nothing to do with the projected $8 billion deficit (which most people are finally realizing is overstated.)
The Dispatch reports that most of what is going to be in Kasich’s budget has been planned by Kasich and his closest political allies as early as January 2008.
“Even if there weren’t an $8 billion deficit, we’d probably be proposing many of the same things.”—Gov. Kasich’s Policy Director Wayne Struble[Read more]
It’s a busy news day for Ohio’s governor, even if he wishes news didn’t exist.
John Kasich will deliver the highly anticipated budget for the state tomorrow, but he doesn’t want anyone to watch it. Kasich’s camp announced no TV cameras will be allowed to film the speech. Reporters will be allowed only pen, paper, and recorders, but only for the sake of accuracy, not to be broadcast. No confirmation that this was a compromise, and that initially he told reporters to, “Just try and remember stuff.”
Sound familiar? Like the inauguration incident where Kasich at first said reporters wouldn’t be permitted to attend the official swearing-in, only to double back later on? As the Dayton Daily News points out, Kasich thinks of government transparency like the crew from Jersey Shore thinks about condoms. [Read more]
On the heels of their 18-1, Democratic Senator-free vote to roll back collective bargaining rights for thousands of state workers, Republican leaders of the Wisconsin state Senate will head to a high-price fundraiser in their honor in DC.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel key players in the Wisconsin GOP will gather at the downtown DC headquarters of lobbying firm BGR Group March 16 for an event that donors “are asked to give at least $1,000 to the state Republican Party’s federal account” to attend.
It takes $1,000 to get you in the door, but “sponsors” are asked to pony up $2,500 and “hosts” 5,000. [Read more]
People who read DailyKos, and liberal media outlets in general, are fond of boasting how getting information from the sources we have chosen is like ‘getting the news early.’ Just today we see yet another example as WaPo decided to finally cover the HBGary controversy.
But I have a way of getting news that often times trounces the liberal blogosphere by weeks and even months when it comes to certain items. One of these issues that I got a jump on was the situation in Wisconsin.
Mind you I certainly had no specifics. While I knew about the high speed rail funding issue from getting the news early here on DK, I knew little about Scott Walker. But I certainly knew that something was going to happen regarding public employees. I knew this because my local newspaper often thrusts fringy conservative issues upon its readers. [Read more]