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News Transcripts

09/18/23

Good morning! It’s Monday, September 18th.

National cheeseburger day.

No thanks.

And now, the news.

 

UAW Strike Continues

-via AP News

It’s a hot labor summer, baybee and the United Auto Workers are entering into their first week of a historic strike that pits the big three automakers (GM, Ford, and Stellantis) against the CEOs. While they’re looking to make a few specific changes to their contract, their biggest one is this: hey. If the CEOs are have gotten a 40% raise in the last four years, the workers should as well.

Their last contract negotiation saw a 6% raise for the workers. And I don’t mean to brag about my math brain but, to break it down as simply as possible – 6 is actually significantly less than 40.

You’re welcome.

By the by, UAW has dropped their raise ask to 36% instead of 40%.

Now, that 40% that the CEOs have gotten is a little complicated, as it’s not “hey here’s 40% more money” but based on a combination of salary and stocks. But still, we’re talking about people like GM’s Mary Barra (who said “I don’t even know where that 40% number came from. 40? You said 40%? I don’t know her.)… Barra has gotten a 34% pay raise since she took the job in 2019. Her 2022 compensation package was worth almost $29 million.

Meanwhile, the median worker pay at GM was just about $80k in 2022.

So yeah, hot labor summer continues.

As a reminder, the podcast is pro-union. Union solidary all day every day.

Also as a reminder, these strikes could be over in an instant, and we could all go back to wondering when we’ll get that Ted Lasso Christmas Special (just me? Okay.) if these execs would just get over themselves. Workers deserve fair pay. It’s not a radical concept.

 

WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strike

-via Hollywood Reporter and NY Times (Bonus - Lorena’s Twitter)

In an effort to be fair (ugh), I have an update on a story I was all up in arms about last week. Thanks to the backlash, Drew Barrymore’s talk show will not return as originally announced last week.

Additionally, the show The Talk, which was set to start back up again today, will also hit pause during the strike.

Bill Maher will return to air – because he’s a scab and doesn’t support writers.

That’s the only explanation for scabbing. You don’t support the strike. And if you don’t support the strike, it means you don’t support writers and actors. So…

And look, I don’t know why all the anger went specifically to Drew and not to Bill Maher. A lot of it is probably just… society doesn’t like women. Also, Bill Maher has never tried to pretend to be a good dude who cares about what people think.

But here’s the thing… those shows, Drew Barrymore’s show, The Talk, any other shows that were quietly trying to get back up on the air and just hope no one noticed… those shows are now not going to go on the air specifically because of the backlash.

If you’re not in the WGA or SAG-AFTRA. If you’re not in the UAW. If you can’t make it to the picket lines but still want to support striking workers – this is how. Obviously not crossing a picket line is also vital but publicly supporting unions, and being vocal about the absurdity and selfishness of the CEOs that are prolonging these strikes, and not letting it go when people scab – that’s how we support workers.

And if you’re new to the world of supporting workers and unions, may I suggest checking out the work that Lorena is going? Not only is she California’s AFL-CIO leader, but she’s got a history of not only always supporting workers but making the information available to bring new people into supporting labor.

It was also her birthday on Saturday.

A link to her twitter account (I will never call it X – it’s dumb and it’s also incredibly weird that Elon is so obsessed with the letter. I really don’t get it. You made a letter your entire personality, congrats you absolute freak). Anyway, I put a link to her twitter account, where you can find great information.

 

F

-via NPR

Okay, obviously I want to keep talking about Lorena but I guess I should talk about other stuff too…

Hey! Let’s talk about bad men behaving badly.

First we’ve got Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone magazine. He wrote a book called The Masters, which included interviews with seven musicians. Amazing. How did he narrow it down? Because when you think about the founder of Rolling Stone, you’ve gotta think – this dude can talk to anyone! How on earth did he narrow down who he wanted to talk to for a book her called The Masters, which would presumably be longform conversations with some of the best musicians in history, right?

Welp. When asked why, with access to literally probably any living musician he wanted to talk to, he only interviewed white men, he said that Black and female musicians were not “articulate” enough to be included in the book.

Of Joni Mitchen he said, “You know, Joni was not a philosopher of rock 'n' roll. She didn't, in my mind, meet that test. Not by her work, not by other interviews she did."

Imagine hearing The Circle Game or Both Sides Now and thinking – eh. Not a philosopher of rock 'n' roll.

He has obviously been removed from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame board of directors.

Imagine only wanting to surround yourself with the philosophy of white men.

No thanks.

 

Russell Brand

-via NBC News

A bombshell piece of reporting from the UK’s Sunday Times is accusing former comedian Russell Brand of sexual assault against five women, one of whom was 16 at the time. The age of consent is 16 in the UK, but Brand was, at that time 31. So…

The UK police are aware of the allegations but haven’t received any reports. They’re urging anyone who may have been the victim of sexual assault, no matter how long ago, to come forward.

 

Ken Paxton Acquitted

-via Politico

And finally – Texas AG Ken Paxton, who was impeached in the state House in May after 16 articles of impeachment accused him of corruption and bribery (like, in the most blatant Trump-esque, “why even try and hide it?” way) is… back at work! Yeah… he was acquitted in the state Senate.

Didn’t even hardly show up for his trial. But uh… but he was acquitted.

And following that, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for a “full audit” of the House’s spending on the impeachment, which he said was a waste of “millions of taxpayer dollars.”

Don’t you worry though, this IS the same party, that on a national level, thinks they should impeach the actual president of the United States for the crime of having a son, not hiring that son for a job in the White House, and then, before he was even president and in fact when Biden had no government job at all, that son lying on a gun form so he could buy, but not use, a gun.

Meanwhile, in 2020 it came out that Paxton, who is married to a Texas state senator and acts like he’s a super Christian, had an affair with a woman who he then persuaded an Austin real estate developer to hire. That got found out because several of Paxton’s aides told the FBI they believed Paxton was using his office to help that real estate developer out. Later, eight of those aides were fired or quit, with four suing under Texas’ whistleblower law.

But sure. Acquitted.

Hey Texas – your voter turnout in 2022 was just 41.8%. You’re not a red state – you’re gerrymandered low turnout state. Babe! Turnout in 2024 and 2026 (when, fun fact, that AG spot will be on the ballot).

You deserve better.

 

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of… unions! Union workers. Strikers. Strike supporters. Lorena! Voters. All of it!

We stay unproud of scabs and bad people.

And I’m not afraid to say it. I am… so brave.

Seriously – AMPTP. If I find out your selfishness lost me a Ted Lasso Christmas Special… so help me. I will… I guess just being annoying about it forever.

But more than that… more than how much I just annoyed myself with all of that… because you’re better than a cheeseburger… I’m proud of you.

Kim Moffat