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(Note: This is the edited text for Rampell’s introduction to the April 29 screening of Spartacus at the Academy Museum for The Hollywood Ten at 75 Film Series from April 13-30 commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist. A startling thing occurred during the Spartacus screening: As the first rebellion of the gladiators erupted, one of the warriors struck a Roman with a weapon and at that exact moment one could see the celluloid jump out of the projector’s sprockets and then watch the film literally burn. It seemed as if the gladiator’s mighty blow actually caused a remarkable, real life special effect, which literally brought the show to a halt and the houselights went on in the packed almost 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater in the Academy Museum’s Sphere Building. Stunned audience members were anxious that the screening would not be able to continue, but in that show biz tradition, the show must – and did – go on. Apparently, projectionists were able to splice the film together and viewers were able to watch the epic all the way to the end without any additional mishaps.

Though the United States remains a strong supporter of Israel, there are some indications that the supposed 'unbreakable bond' with Tel Aviv is faltering, though more in language than in deeds. 

 Following the provocative ‘Flag March’ on May 18, which is carried out annually by Israeli Jewish extremists in the Occupied Palestinian city of East Jerusalem, the US joined other countries around the world in condemning the racism displayed at the event. 

Well, if you thought the American Civil War ended back in 1865, you are apparently wrong. No less an authority than President Joe Biden, in a May 13th commencement speech to historically black Howard University’s graduates, told the overwhelmingly black students and their families that “The most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy. And I’m not saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU, I say it wherever I go.” Indeed, both Biden and his inert Attorney General Merrick Garland nee Garfinkel have delivered that same message on a number of occasions, but this was the first time it was employed in such a racially charged environment.

“Go back to where you came from.”

This is basic American politics – what I might call spiritual ignorance: a dismissal of refugees fleeing war, famine and poverty as global sludge, clogging up our way of life. So many media stories about the border – our border – begin with an unquestioned presumption. These aren’t individual humans fleeing hell and trying to reclaim their lives. They exist only en masse – basically, in the millions.

And they’re going to be nothing but trouble for us. Either they want to work for a living and, thus, claim American jobs, or they’re simply leeches, utterly without skills, simply in possession of their needs, which of course will drain our resources. Go back to where you came from!

Look what happened earlier this month, when New York City’s mayor bused a bunch of migrants out of town – oh, boohoo, too many for you, Mayor Adams? – to several hotels in Orange County, about 60 miles to the north. It just so happened, according to a bogus claim that made big news for a while, that in order for the migrants to get their living space, a bunch of homeless veterans, a.k.a, American heroes, had to be evicted.

Phoenix- Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ veto of the bipartisan bill HB2560 is a missed opportunity to present voters with essential election records that would have allowed them to verify the accuracy and legitimacy of the state’s elections.

The bill would have provided voters with four sets of data to confirm Arizona’s election results. The first two data sets would have allowed voters to see that only eligible and qualified voters cast a ballot. The third and fourth data sets would have allowed voters to compare a digital image of every paper ballot to the way that ballot’s votes were recorded in the final results  spreadsheet – essentially the starting and finish lines of the electronic counting process.

In her veto statement, Gov. Hobbs incorrectly claimed that publishing ballot images would threaten anonymity and privacy and add to the spread of mis- and dis-information.