Crip Camp (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Crip Camp (2020): Documentary about a 1970s camp in the Catskills for disabled youth run by hippies. Fun, games, brotherhood and independence. What they learned at Camp Jened prepared them to fight the government for rights for the disabled, culminating in the ADA. Inspiring. B+

Random Thoughts: 200,000 Oklahomans Get Health Insurance

Tweets from July, 2020:

• 2020-07-01: 200,000 Oklahomans get health insurance...by ballot initiative. That means they overruled the Republican politicians who don't want the near-poor who can't afford health insurance to get it. Next, Oklahomans ought to elect representatives who share their values.
• 2020-07-01: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is the guy who said senior citizens would voluntarily lay down their lives to COVID-19 to prop up business profits. Patrick is a one-man death panel.
• 2020-07-01: One day closer to the election and there's no sign of a Trump pivot yet. Will he ride "White Power" all the way to November?
• 2020-07-01: Americans could learn from Bulgarians. "Russia Wants Bulgarians to Stop Painting Soviet Monuments To Look Like American Superheroes."

After the jump, more random thoughts.

Seberg (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Seberg (2020): Bio-pic of 1960s actress spied on by FBI to stop her from funding civil rights groups like Black Panthers. Out-of-control FBI; emotional breakdown of Seberg; too much story for 90 minutes. Pick one story. Show it, don't tell it. Good job by Kristen Stewart. C+

Talking Union

Talking Union

If you want higher wages, let me tell you what to do;
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you;
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
But if you all stick together, now, ‘twont be long.
You'll get shorter hours, better working conditions,
Vacations with pay, take your kids to the seashore.

Lyrics: Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, and Pete Seeger

Source: Talking Union.

I grew up in a union household. I'm a big supporter of collective bargaining rights, fair pay, good conditions, etc., etc. I believe that the free market, left to itself, will not deliver these things to workers. Billion dollar corporations simply wield too much power to expect any individual to be able to negotiate a fair deal. Unions help level the playing field. So, if I'm such a big union supporter, what's got me concerned with unions?

POTD: Ben Ezra Synagogue

From 2019 11 18 Old Cairo

Today's photo-of-the-day is of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. According to legend, it's located on the site where the baby Moses was found in a basket on the banks of the Nile River. "Egypt's Jewish community is at the end of a dramatic decline, from about 80,000 people in the 1920s to less than a dozen of Egyptian ancestry now residing in Cairo. Accordingly, the Ben Ezra Synagogue functions now as a tourist attraction and museum, rather than as a functioning congregation."