The Daily Zeitgeist - UniTrend Auto Workers Union 4/23: NBA, UAW, UNRWA, Columbia University, Taylor Swift Typewriter, Mike Black

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

In this edition of UniTrend Auto Workers Union, Jack and Miles discuss some not-so-shocking losses in the NBA, the UAW's Volkswagen win in Chattanooga, the UN saying "that's cap" to Israel's UNRWA claims, the mass arrests made at Columbia University over pro-Palestinian protests, Taylor Swift's typewriter controversy, the millionaire LARPing as an unhoused person and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties

you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jess Costavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeart on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast presented by capital one founding partner of iheart women's sports hello the internet and welcome to this episode of the unite trend auto workers hey union uh my name is jack that over there oh that's miles miles holy shit yeah man man. The guy loves that voice. Really? I do that.

I mean, it's pretty cool. He it's he's like still learning to talk, but he will always do that back to me. If I go demon boy, he's like, I'm like, oh, shit. All right, man. You take after your old man. You'll be doing an Australian accent. No time. Yeah.

I was doing bits with my kids the other day. I was like, did my dad ever do like bits like voices and like just dumb shit yeah yeah i'm sure he did but um anyways you're like did my father do bits with me was my father a bit idiot um a bit idiot uh miles how are you doing i'm doing great i'm doing great we just had a fantastic recording with the one and only mr cold brew sorry to tease that out but that's all right i was there too so i don't it's yeah yeah yeah i just want i just want to let people know just want to let people know you're get ready prepare your safety gird your loins uh a gross phrase that

is i think people said though in history so i didn't just make it up if that weirded you out prepare your safety belts again. Gird your loins. A gross phrase that is, I think people said though in history. So I didn't just make it up if that weirded you out. What does that mean to gird your loins? Just means like, well, I know you're ready, right?

Gird yourself is like, you know, I always picture it as like, you know, flexing and getting into a crouch, like a giant wave is about to hit. Right, right,

right. But we're, we're also not doing great, Miles. I didn't realize that it's about tying your tunic up for battle. Okay. Gird your loins, boyo. Yeah, there's like a whole thing that's like how to gird your loins, and it's like a dude in a fucking tunic who's just like, yeah, man, wrap that shit around your balls because it's fighting time.

Yeah, yeah. You don't want that shit flapping around. Nope. We both had truly brutal losses in the NBA plot. We're not going to talk about it. I mean, it's fine because I've already accepted. I've already, I look,

I said this in multiple chats. I said this to Prop and Sophie Lichterman and other Laker fans I know when they were getting all turnt up for the performance that was happening in multiple chats. I said this to Prop and Sophie Lichterman and other Laker fans I know when they were getting all turnt up for the performance that was happening in game two. I said, bro, this season's over. I don't know. I don't care how much they're leading by. It ain't happening. Sure enough, we got

we both got matching dick kicks, as I said. We got matching. The Sixers got a fucked up ending to their game and the Lakers also had a fucked up ending to their game. Spider-Man meme with both of us pointing at each other while being kicked in the dick. The 76ers lost in brutal heartbreaking fashion. They were up like five with less than a minute to go and ended up losing it. Brunson had a terrible game and he's like,

let me just bring the game closer with this bouncy off the rim three and Dante DiVincenzo. To the Kawhi Leonard shot. Also, you're allowed to tackle people in the final minute of the game. Nobody told us that if they told us that we would have played differently.

Max was definitely confused after that. He was like, is there? Yeah, and then the Lakers were up 20 in the second half, and game winner. It was a difficult night of basketball.

Look, like I said in the other thread with Jabari and you, it's hard to watch if you have expectations. I expected that to happen, so I was like, yeah, here they go. Go ahead, do your thing, bro. And we want to bring Darvin Ham back? Okay, all right, all right.

Yeah, I try not to watch the Sixers games, and then you and Jabari are like, whoa, wow. Oh, golly. Wow, look at that. Yeah, you kept saying golly, so I turned it on, and then just got my heart ripped out of my rib cage it

was yeah see that's the fun part about watching as a neutral is you get to be invested in it like whereas i'm sure other people watch like it's like oh this could be interesting and i'm like yeah forget it but yeah if there were some moments some golly moments there were some golly all right uh let's talk about people that are winning Winning! Winners, unions right now Specifically the United Auto Workers Ratified their contracts with the Big three automakers in November We heard about that one, that was big

And then now they've also There was a recent win for the UAW at a Volkswagen plant In Tennessee and everyone's like Shut the fuck up don't give the labor movement any more fucking props i mean like for for them for it to be described as like historic and stuff it wasn't front page news it was buried somewhere you know in the recesses of the washington post or new york times um but you know despite the tepid response from the newspapers the governors of texas south

carolina alabama tennessee mississippi and georgia they collectively fired off this warning which was quote we want to keep good paying jobs and continue to grow the american auto manufacturing sector here a successful union unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks and that's what you're like growth for who yeah because how are you going to tell somebody who's working for wages that their their wages not growing is somehow growth yeah okay yeah the reason this is bad for big business is that you know these state governments are able to recruit like german automakers to the u.s by being like hey and we can treat our laborers like shit it's cool man yeah there's specifically a quote german workers don't

relish competing with cheaper foreign in this case united states labor yeah it's right and like they're like it's cool yeah man, man, ist cool, bro. You can absolutely take advantage of this labor force out here. But yeah, I think that's what is interesting about this case, right? Because again, like you said, these governors, they're kind of

having some ownership of this because of the amounts of subsidies that they give away to bring the foreign automakers here. And that's why this is a special case because there are unionized plants in the south and but this is a foreign plant and because of the strength of the unions in europe like these companies like volkswagen are just not as horny to go scorched earth with the union busting they're just like yeah man just like out there like it's a bad look like you try to stay neutral in this shit but the other thing is they've already teamed up with like Coke funded

entities to like make their States as hostile to unions as possible. There's there's this group called the American legislative exchange council or Alec. Um, and they, yeah, yeah. It's only good guys.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, Alec Baldwin. Good guy. Good guy. Good guy. Um,

but they've been banding about this bill called the taxpayer dollars protect workers act that bars that bars state subsidies to any business that recognizes a union. Oh, okay. So another way to put that is that they will pay people to ignore the fuck out of unionization drives. Right. And then you can get some state subsidies. So up next is a Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. If you read the New York Times, their labor reporters are sort of like,

I don't know, maybe something could happen. Probably not. Probably nothing to worry about here. But if you talk to United Auto Workers organizers, they are very confident that they are going to have the numbers to win. So I think the governor in Alabama has only one tactic in trying to convince workers to avoid unions. And it's essentially just saying, just make less money. It's like, oh, no?

Okay. But they're going to be the party talking to the working class, right? But who knows? Is that an option for companies to just ignore unions like unions just ignore it i i mean i think what they're doing is like it's mostly that they've the collection of union authorization cards is what the language that they're using so it's going to be the bills are probably going to be signed i think uh brian kemp and georgia is about to sign it um k ivy is about to sign it in alabama like like it's just so wild how like

these coke funded groups are like all right all these auto plants in the south we've got bills for all you governors to make this obviously the most hostile to workers as possible and pro-corporation as much as possible right right um all right well we'll keep an eye on that uh yeah maybe maybe the mainstream media might not but it's just weird how they don't want to keep fanning the momentum of the organized labor movement. Because they're like, oh, man, just don't let people know that this is a way to fucking have collective power. Yeah. All right. We have a couple updates on the UNRWA or the un relief works association that's the group that is you know

un workers who are trying to do like humanitarian aid that uh had israel basically say they are like terrorists yeah which seemed weird at the time yeah well and it was very interesting too because that allegation caused a lot of western nations you know colon settler other settler colonial nations be like well then we're pulling funding you said they're hamas well then no way and this was the main relief agency that was helping palestinian people so like this was very intentional to be like we're going to take away any sort of support mechanisms that exist for you well guess what the un conducted their own investigation and like specifically not about how many people were involved on october 7th

because that's a separate allegation but there was allegations of like militancy within the within this organization the un and multiple human rights organizations said they they could find no evidence that these people were like actively militant or had like ties to hamas and they said the israeli government specifically said this specifically in their report has not provided supporting evidence for this allegation at all as they were asking them we're like well we're doing an investigation like yeah we can't get that to you quite right yet we're still doing the investigation and while we are uh we feel like the best course of action is to act as though we have found evidence of yeah exactly and meanwhile you know there's the reports of like mass grave uh like this mass grave at a hospital in gaza

and the secretary of state like when asked about it he's like okay well yeah we'll we'll look into that as if we're talking about someone saying like the water cooler is fucking broken in the in the break room right like we're fucking like this is just what's so frustrating for so many onlookers like that is such a demonic response when most people understand now like the the U S has floor seats, their front row for this shit. And they're rah, rahing it and throwing their bills into the ring.

And the best is like, yeah, we'll look into that. And the, the double speak of like, well, you know, there's,

there's going to be repercussions or whatever. We're not seeing anything like that. And innocent people continue to die. So, uh, I don't know. I mean, I like to say do better,

um, but say do better um but do better because there's genocide happening um and then that also ties into this columbia university uh story so over the weekend there were you know like over a hundred pro-palestinian protesters were arrested on the campus of columbia university like the police cleared out this like encampment that the students had set up again, because they're saying, stop the genocide.

Um, right. And this was wild. The New York, the NYPD cleared him out. And the, this fucking response by the New York, New York police department was criticized by the NYPD.

The chief of police, John Chell stated that quote, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever. whatsoever and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner yeah that's tough when the NYPD is like you're kind of like fucking up here I don't see what the fuck that was all about and then again Monday uh we heard that they were moving classes to be held virtually um because there was like one group on campus that columbia's orthodox union uh jewish learning initiative said that students should stay home there was another group uh columbia and barnard hillel they said we don't see a reason for people

to stay off of campus like we have not assessed any danger to students there um but this like goes on again because now people are like the the media is doing this thing of conflating anti-genocide anti-apartheid pro-peace pro-palestinian non-violent protest with like like violent anti-semitism and it's true there are fucking bad actors and there are people who are completely taking this message the complete wrong way. I'm not saying that that's not happening. Yeah, there are anti there's anti-Semitism and like people using this as an opportunity to foster anti-Semitism online in reality for sure. There's also widespread Islamophobia that doesn't get mentioned by the mainstream media. At the same time. And again, but I think with Columbia specifically,

it's really important to understand they have like no one right now, like with that unfolding, the only people that were allowed on the campus of Columbia were people who had Columbia University IDs. So a lot of people are looking at protests that are happening just outside of the campus and saying this is part of the Columbia students protest, which has a different energy than the peaceful protests that were happening

on campus, like with the students. And I think that's like a, that's context that isn't really being provided much. And just something I've read from a lot of the criticism about the coverage of these protests. When again, like the other thing too, that they're also, these students are protesting was getting the the university to also divest quote from its financial holdings in firms that profit from israel's war and occupation in palestine um so it's just yeah there's it's it's just fucking mass confusion but more protests have popped up on other college campuses in solidarity we saw also at nyu there were the professors were like locking arms to protect the students and their ability to peacefully protest um so i it's it i

don't know i feel like we're seeing more of like a sea change slightly like in kind of like what we're seeing on like mainstream campuses or whatever but the the real changes need to happen with the u.s government and actually doing something rather than, I don't know, Joe Biden just like kissing his chances of being president. Goodbye. Yeah. All right. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult.

And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling, first-hand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration.

It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?

Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100 percent of the shots you never take?

Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. BPM 110, 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not.

What was that? You didn't figure it out? I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people.

There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. We're back.

Typewriter enthusiasts are a group of people. Tom Hanks is one. That's about as far as my knowledge of typewriter enthusiasts goes. Oh, yeah. That's right. He's like a collector, right? He's a typewriter collector. Yeah. And there was like a brief period he's a typewriter collector yeah and there was

like a brief period where i was like really into writing when i was young and i was like i should like start using a typewriter that oh you were that was you like hemingway with like a cigarette dangling from your lip yeah yeah exactly and then i got one and like that shit is so hard to type on oh my god i got like literally i got a sentence into my typewriter era and was like, well, this doesn't work at all for me. My pinky hurts. Yeah. But anyways, Taylor Swift's new album has had a lot of typewriter based imagery in its

promotion. There's a lyric reveal video and the music video for the song Fortnite in which she and Post Malone pound away at typewriters creating some kind of like swirly magical sex cloud thing. I know. Did the colors have to be so like gender heteronormative?

Yeah, yeah. Hers are blue and hers are pink. It's a boy. Yeah. And that's how you know those things were fucking because they wanted to make it clear that it's blue wave and pink wave yeah but fans even noticed that the typewriter used in the video contained a secret message because it had no number one key she's had songs that are like you could have been the one you know so this is implying that she has lost her one uh or no one else is ever going to be the one thank you yeah uh yeah except in reality that's how all typewriters were made because

people just used lowercase l's for ones uh to save space and reduce costs because you typewriters were like, you know, you paid by the key. It's a straight line, man. You need one. You got two. You got two ways you can do that. But yeah, I don't know. Paranoid typewriter hobbyists are worried that Taylor Swift's endorsement will lead to an influx of Taylor Swift fans buying old typewriters, which will drive up the cost. I don't think so, guys.

I think you're all right. Get the lyrics to the title song of the album. Like, make fun of... Like, this is literally the lyrics. You left your typewriter at my apartment straight from the tortured poet's department. I think some things I never say, like, who uses typewriters anyway?

She's just fucking roasting you for using a type uses typewriters anyway. Damn, Jack. She's just fucking roasting you. Just fucking. For using a typewriter. Dude, that's you, bro. You were tortured poets department. I was tortured poets department. Yeah.

But for someone, like I was not tortured enough. Right. For someone to stick with it after realizing like, oh, we just have computers that are way better and like typing on this shit sucks.

Right, right, right. It's so hard. Yeah, I was not tortured enough. Yeah, that's like someone who's like, I only do daguerreotype photography. It's like, okay, we get it, man. You could alter a digital image, but you want everybody to stay still while you use your phosphorus flash bar. That's right. to stay still while you use your phosphorus flash bar that's right it does make it cool i like the sound of typewriters i just can't uh be bothered to actually do the do the work of powering them remember word processors word i yeah i'm like i'm typing on one right now no but like the all-in-one machines because like my mom when she was was writing for a Japanese magazine and stuff,

I remember she would always bring this heavy-ass word processor. I'm like, what the fuck is that? And I was like, are there games on there? She's like, get the fuck away from this thing. This is my job. And I'm like, oh, yeah. It's a serious work. I mean, that's all we had.

We had like a whole-ass computer. We had like an office desk chair that you could roll around on and a whole ass computer that was only used it like basically only had microsoft word on it that was right well and then ski free there's ski free would be on their mind sweeper solitaire yeah i never we never i never tried to install ski free at home that was some school shit though dude when you set that fucking tree on fire by jumping over it that was sick ah was that the one where the yeti would come out he would come out yeah yeah that part let's see a millionaire went homeless as a social experiment with the goal of making 1 million dollars in 12 months and he did this guy fucking goon he fucking he's like i'm going so i'm i'm putting myself into debt

i'm losing all my money and guess what i'm gonna get to a million bucks and he's like starts off talking about how he has no home he's like larping as like a working person basically it's kind of fucking obviously offensive um but then like eventually like he started having health issues and he's like guys it's just there's no way to do this like when started having health issues and he's like guys it's just there's no way to do this like when you have health issues and like health it's not fair it's not fair it's just not fair i'm not gonna actually this is like it's not fair to do this so i'm not doing it anymore like and he pulled the plug on it fortunately nobody in real world none of the unhoused people that he saw and were like yeah right no way i'm giving them money if i was them i would

simply get a high-paying job and save a million dollars uh those people fortunately never have health problems and that drive them into debt yeah exactly yeah so but like so it's not cheating you know what i mean like it's just like it's just like not fair like i don't know i just i play the game on hard mode and i should i should have been a little bit more realistic about what my skill level was. Those people should just say actually I'm not playing anymore and go back to having millions of dollars.

I actually wasn't playing. But yeah. This was my point the whole time was to show that it's impossible. But the stress got to me man of not having money oh i did it oh buddy anyways those are some of the things that are trending on this tuesday april 23rd we are back tomorrow with a whole ass episode of the show

until then be kind to each other be kind kind to yourselves, get the vaccine, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,

like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.