Warren proposes new New Deal

Bill Knight column for Sept. 27, 28 or 29, 2018

            After November’s election, if the GOP retains control of the U.S. Senate, a ground-breaking proposal from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will probably be killed. But if voters elect a Democratic majority, the nation could get "a new New Deal."

            The original New Deal helped bring about Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act, the former providing for old-age assistance and the latter letting workers unionize without fear of losing their jobs. Together, they've helped some 85 percent of seniors (railroad workers, immigrants, and some government employees don’t receive Social Security benefits), and permitted about one-third of U.S. workers to join unions by the 1950s. Contributing to common prosperity, they were keys to developing the middle class.

            The health and stability of the middle and working classes have eroded in recent decades, even as the wealth and annual incomes of corporate CEOs and the 1% have skyrocketed.

            “Before ‘shareholder value maximization’ ideology took hold, wages and productivity grew at roughly the same rate,” Warren said. “But since the early 1980s, real wages have stagnated even as productivity has continued to rise. Workers aren’t getting what they’ve earned.”

            So last month she took a step toward restoring the economic standing of working and middle-class families by introducing the Accountable Capitalism Act, which would change U.S. corporations from entities that focus almost exclusively on maximizing shareholder value to enterprises with the mission to benefit all corporate stakeholders, from stockholders and workers to vendors, customers and communities.

            Its main reforms would move big corporations' charters from states to the federal level, where charters could be revoked; prohibit political expenditures by corporations without a 75-percent approval by boards of directors and shareholders; and require corporations to have 40 percent of its boards elected by employees.

            That last component mimics the “co-determination” business philosophy in Germany, where companies’ boards must be made up of half owner representatives and half worker representatives.

            “There’s a fundamental problem with our economy,” Warren said. “For decades, American workers have helped create record corporate profits but have seen their wages hardly budge. To fix this problem we need to end the harmful corporate obsession with maximizing shareholder returns at all costs, which has sucked trillions of dollars away from workers and necessary long-term investments.”

            Later, writing in the Wall Street Journal, Warren said, “Because the wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. households own 84 percent of American-held shares, the obsession with maximizing shareholder returns effectively means America’s biggest companies have dedicated themselves to making the rich even richer. For the past 30 years we have put the American stamp of approval on giant corporations, even as they have ignored the interests of all but a tiny slice of Americans. We should insist on a new deal.

            “Workers aren’t getting what they’ve earned.”

            In the past, there was a bipartisan consensus that corporations had responsibilities to workers and communities as well as stockholders. Today, shareholders extract more funds from corporations than the businesses devote either to investment in their operations or pay increases for workers, according to economist William Lazonick of the University of Massachusetts/Lowell.

            There is optimism.

            Harold Meyerson, editor of The American Prospect, said, “If and when this becomes a battle for public support, it’s a fight she can win. Even as many working-class Trump supporters voted against ‘Right To Work’ in Missouri, many working-class Trump supporters all across the country would support giving workers more say over corporate decisions.”

            And journalist Yves Smith, who worked in finance for more than 30 years, said, “Even if Warren’s bill merely winds up pressuring corporate executives and fomenting debate on ‘what are corporations for and whose interest should they serve?’ that would be a very salutary development.

            “Forcing them to be accountable to the communities in which they live is long overdue,” she continued. “And contrary to what lobbyists will lead you to believe, forcing them out of their tunnel-vision, local maximum focus will be good for investors too.”

Remakes need not be lousy

Bill Knight column for Sept. 24, 25 or 26, 2018

            As this is written, box office numbers are good for the remake of "Predator" but not yet reported for the new "Star is Born" (much less reaction to TV remakes of "Magnum, P.I.," "Cagney & Lacy," etc.), but for decades, Hollywood remakes could be embarrassing or inspiring.

            Film fans often ask: Are studios out of ideas? Is this done mostly for commercial reasons – to attract ready-made audiences? Is some respectful director paying homage to a predecessor while putting a fresh spin on a story? Sometimes, filmmakers might've thought they could do better than an original, or maybe movie executives couldn't think of a script better than something that already existed, so new versions of old screenplays were made.

            There have been hundreds of remakes, which can be good (like this column, a rewritten/recycled piece from my 2003 book "Video Almanac"!). A dozen come to mind besides the Top 10 below: "Bedazzled," "Cape Fear," "The Fly," "The Front Page," "Homeward Bound," "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," "King Kong," "Planet of the Apes," "Scarface," "The Thing," "True Grit," and "War of the Worlds."

            These 10 gems really stand out:

            "The Birdcage" (1996). Robin Williams and Nathan Lane star in director Mike Nichols' Americanized and hilarious remake of 1978's "La Cage aux Folles." Hank Azaria, Gene Hackman, Dianne Wiest and Christine Baranski co-star.

            "Father of the Bride" (1991). Remaking the excellent Spencer Tracy/Elizabeth Taylor romp must have been daunting, but filmmaker Charles Stryer succeeded, largely because of stars Steve Martin, Diane Keaton and Martin Short.

            "Heaven Can Wait" (1978). Warren Beatty directed and starred in this modernization of an oft-made fantasy of a man persuading Paradise to let him return to Earth after a mistaken/premature death ("Here Comes Mr. Jordan" [1941], "Heaven Can Wait" [1943], "Angel on My Shoulder" [1946], "Stairway to Heaven" [1946], etc.). This version's stellar cast includes Dyan Cannon, Julie Christie, Buck Henry, James Mason and Jack Warden.

            "The King and I" (1955). The classic musical starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr was a fine remake of 1946's "Anna and the King of Siam," featuring music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein. “Hello, Young Lovers” and “Getting to Know You” are two of the great songs, and Rita Moreno co-stars.

            "The Mummy" (1999). Maybe only loosely a remake since so many films have derived from the 1932 Boris Karloff monster movie, this is close enough – and good enough -- for a new generation. Brendan Fraser stars, with Rachel Weisz, plus John Hannah and Arnold Vosloo.

            "The Nutty Professor" (1996). Eddie Murphy can be a genius showing his inventiveness and talent on the big screen, as evidenced in this side-splitting remake of Jerry Lewis’s 1963 comedy (itself a different take on the Jekyll and Hyde tale). Besides Murphy, in and out of a fat suit, it features Jada Pinckett Smith, Larry Miller and James Coburn.

            "Ocean's 11 (2001). Slicker (and possibly cooler) than the Rat Pack’s 1960 version, this heist picture stars George Clooney as a likeable gangster who recruits a group of criminal associates to rob three Las Vegas casinos. Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh also cast Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Carl Reiner, Bernie Mack and more talents.

            "A Place in the Sun" (1951). Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor are a love triangle in this remake of Paramount’s 1931 "An American Tragedy," an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s novel. A foreboding sense of tragedy and doom permeates the proceedings, produced and directed by George Stevens. Raymond Burr is featured.

            "Shaft" (2000). Technically, this update is a remake and a sequel, since Samuel L. Jackson stars as the nephew of the original Shaft (Richard Roundtree, returning here). Directed by John Singleton, it co-stars Christian Bale and Vanessa Williams, with supporting roles from Busta Rhymes and Pat Hingle.

            "The Untouchables" (1987). Filmmaker Brian De Palma controlled his knack for hyperbole in this stylish, affectionate remake/expansion of TV's version of Prohibition-era gangbuster Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner). Sean Connery, in one of his best performances, co-stars; Andy Garcia and Charles Martin Smith are excellent as G-Men; and Robert DeNiro has a memorable bit part as Al Capone.

Voting dangers include ‘all-American’ efforts

Bill Knight column for 9-20, 21 or 22, 2018

            While many people’s attention is on some hostile foreign power interfering with the November election, a campaign to exclude qualified U.S. citizens from voting quietly continues.

            It’s not Russia; it’s Republicans – at least, extremists in the GOP, think tanks and the Supreme Court.

            On the heels of widespread partisan redistricting, other obstacles to the right to vote include delays at precincts with considerable minority or poor households (caused by too-few election judges, etc.), or reducing early voting. And in November, 23 states will have new rules like proving citizenship.

            Millions could be affected in the upcoming election, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. which calls another obstacle, voter purges, “one of the biggest threats to the ballot in 2018.”

            Brennan Deputy Director Myrna Perez said, “Purges have increased particularly in a handful of largely southern states which were freed from oversight by the Supreme Court’s landmark 2013 decision in ‘Shelby County v. Holder.’ Before, areas around the country with histories of racial discrimination in voting were prohibited from making election changes without first showing that the change would not make minority voters worse off, or that the change was not enacted with that purpose.”

            No more.

            In June the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision OK’d Ohio’s controversial voter-purge law, blocking thousands of eligible voters from casting ballots. Later that month, the same 5-4 lineup of Republican-appointed Justices upheld Texas legislative districts that a lower court said discriminated against Hispanics.

            Chief Justice John Roberts’ conservative bloc has shown they think states should be free to determine their own voting maps and election practices regardless of concerns about or evidence of bias.

            Meanwhile, between the federal elections of 2014 and 2016, almost 16 million people were removed from the rolls – almost 4 million more than were purged between 2006 and 2008, Brennan said.

            Ohio alone reportedly removed 2 million voters between 2011-2016.

            “Ohio claims 1.5 million voters (20 percent of its registered voters!) have relocated from their precinct or the state,” according to investigative reporter Greg Palast, author of “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election.”

            Ohio voters who have skipped just one election may be asked via postcard whether they've moved. Voters whose postcards are undeliverable or not returned, and who fail to vote in the next four years, are then purged.

            “We cannot tell how many of those individuals were wrongly kicked off the voter rolls,” Perez said/ "There are legitimate reasons that names get deleted in order to help keep voter rolls up-to-date. Individuals can be removed when they pass away or move, for example. But some states and jurisdictions are using bad information.

            “The problem with voter purges is that they can happen behind closed doors with the stroke of a keyboard, and most of the time people don’t find out about it until it is too late,” she added.

            Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted the June ruling's majority, writing that the Supreme Court is “ultimately sanctioning the very purging that Congress expressly sought to protect against.”

            The decision wipes out the rights of “minority, low-income, disabled, homeless and veteran voters," she continued. “Our democracy rests on the ability of all individuals, regardless of race, income or status, to exercise their right to vote."

            Palast has filed a demand to get the list of voter names purged from registration records in the Ohio situation to do a check on the validity of the state’s action.

            “It’s really simple,” he said. “Ask the voter. Call them up, knock on their door: ‘Mr. Webster, have you moved to Virginia?’ ”

            For its part, the Brennan Center suggests three actions: register to vote and check that all information is up to date; make sure local officials have adequate, accurate resources, such as paper backups of electronic ballots and trained poll workers; and cast ballots.