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Movie: Let the Fire Burn

Using archival news coverage and interviews, filmmaker Jason Osder tells the story of Philadelphia authorities firebombing a house occupied by MOVE, killing 11. Showing in NY and LA. More info.

Friday Nite Videos -- October 11, 2013

Portside
Shutdown: 'Not Some Damn Game'. Robert Johnson -- Crossroad. Our Story in Two Minutes. Pete Peterson's 'Grand Bargain' Hoax. Flashmob in Madrid Unemployment Office. Movie: Let the Fire Burn.

What Is

Tom Toles - Washington Post ucomics

The Interstate of the Future: Privatization or Innovation?

Ellen Dannin, Truthout News Analysis Truthout
We will, no doubt, be needing roads - urban, local and interstate - for the foreseeable future, despite their negative effects. The good news is that we are now heading toward a transportation ecosystem that is far more varied and useful. Rather than encouraging more cars, more trucks, more pollution, less interpersonal connection and more privatized space, people throughout the country are radically changing travel and interpersonal connection.

Ravitch a Texas-bred Paul Revere - Review of Diane Ravitch's "Reign of Error"

Mike Klonsky Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog
Definitely go out and buy Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to Americas Public Schools by Diane Ravitch. Reign of Error lays out step by step the relentless thirty year drive to either centralize the education of the young - on one hand - or divest it entirely into privatized hands on the other. Finally, the two sides have joined forces on a strategy that simultaneously does both. (Deborah Meier)

McDonald's Worker Arrested After Telling Company President She Can't Afford Shoes

David Edwards The Raw Story
"It's really hard for me to feed my two kids and struggle day to day,Do you think this is fair, that I have to be making $8.25 when I've worked for McDonald's for ten years?" (Nancy Salgado addressing McDonald's USA President Jeff Stratton's speech at the Union League Club of Chicago.)

The Chained CPI: A Zombie Benefit Cut Still Walks

Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times
The chained CPI has risen to walk among us again in the muttering and jawboning around the government shutdown/debt limit standoff and the search for an exit. We're hearing again about a "grand bargain" on the government deficit -- never mind that the deficit is falling, not rising.

The Future of Work - Three Reports

Miles Brundage, Glenn Gutmacher, Andrew McAfee
Two reports on a recent Oxford University study that predicts that nearly one-half of existing jobs in the United States will be replaced by robotic machines in the next generation. Plus, a video of a related lecture by an MIT economist who specializes in the impact of technology on employment.