Californians now have two tracks forward to achieve Single Payer Healthcare. SB\n770 requires the state of California to design a new, guaranteed, universal\nhealthcare system and address questions that people have about how it all works.\nYou can participate in speak outs about healthcare around the state, and write\nletters to your legislator about your experience with the healthcare system and\nwhat you want changed. Visit\nHealthy California Now to find out more about CalCare\nand how to make it happen. Written and Directed by Clifford J. Tasner, Produced\nby Clifford J. Tasner and Ricky de Laveaga, Cinematography and Editing by\nVincent Toto, Graphics by Ricky de Laveaga, Music by\nClifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:00:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/who-is-legal/","url":"https://artact.io/who-is-legal/","title":"Who Is and Isn’t “Legal”","content_html":"There has been a strong nativist streak in the United States for much of our\nhistory. In the mid-1800s, the Know-Nothing Party was created to stoke fears of\nthe Irish Catholics who had fled famine to come here. And a couple of decades\nlater, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed to protect America from the growing\n“yellow peril.”
\n\nMy grandparents, Eastern European Jews, fled waves of pogroms to come to the New\nWorld before WWI. They both came to Canada, because they each had family there,\nbut after finding very little work to sustain his growing family, my grandfather\nput his wife (pregnant with my mother) and their three children on a train bound\nfor New York City in 1926.
\nThey arrived in the US after passage of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which\nbanned immigrants from Asia and restricted immigrants from Eastern Europe and\nthe Mediterranean. It was enacted by White Protestant elected officials of\nNorthwestern European descent to curtail the huge wave of Italians, Greeks,\nSlavs and Jews that were coming here for a better life.
\nAnd so, my grandparents were undocumented immigrants (“illegals” in common\nparlance). My grandfather recalled looking for work and seeing signs that said,\n“No Jews Need Apply.” Eventually, he found work sewing ladies’ garments for long\nhours in a sweatshop. He became active with the Ladies Garment Workers Union. My\ngrandparents remained “illegal” here for 30 years. In 1956, families of soldiers\nwho served during WWII who were undocumented were granted an amnesty. My\ngrandparents had to go back to Montreal, where they’d lived when they first\narrived in North America, and then return to the US as citizens.
\nThe question of who is and who isn’t “legal” is always determined by those in\npower. Because the US considered Communist Cuba an enemy, if an anti-communist\nCuban could make it onto dry land (the “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” policy), they were\nwelcome, while El Salvadorans fleeing from a right-wing dictatorship that we\nsupported had to stay in the shadows.
\nVast numbers of Mexican peasants left their farms and fields after NAFTA\ndestroyed their livelihoods by allowing the import of cheap American corn. While\nAmerican corporations were allowed freedom of movement across the border so they\ncould build maquiladoras employing cheaper Mexican labor, Mexican laborers were\nnot accorded the same freedom of movement to seek better jobs here.
\nAs the grandson of undocumented immigrants, I’m thinking a lot about immigration\nin the wake of the repressive ICE raids being conducted against largely\nlaw-abiding, hard-working Latino immigrants here in Los Angeles, the city I\nlive in.
\nThe battle against these people isn’t just being waged in restaurants and Home\nDepot parking lots, it’s also being waged in language and messaging. During the\nThird Reich, German media portrayed Jews as a disease, as vermin that had to be\nexterminated. Donald Trump portrays undocumented immigrants of color as an\ninvasion of criminals.
\nHe highlights the anecdotal evidence of the infrequent undocumented person who\ncommits a heinous crime while ignoring the inconvenient truth that the\nundocumented are much less likely to commit crimes than the native\npopulation—these folks try to keep a low profile—getting into legal trouble\nmeans possible deportation. Trump’s audience of white nativists hears this and\nis sent into paroxysms of disgust and horror at the advancing menace.
\nBut here in LA, the undocumented among us are an essential part of our\ncommunities. These are the people who come and take the jobs that no one else\nwill take, and work for low wages, all to try to support impoverished families\nin their home countries or to feed their growing American families here. These\nare our friends, our colleagues. We are outraged at seeing these people show up\nfor scheduled immigration hearings only to be snatched up by ICE, taken from\ntheir families and deported, often not to their country of origin, but an El\nSalvadoran concentration camp that no one ever emerges from.
\nIf America is indeed being invaded, it is being invaded by an army of\nhard-working, law-abiding, disciplined people who bring so many rich gifts to\nour society as they strive for a better life. Every country should be so lucky\nto be invaded this way!
\n","date_published":"Sun, 15 Jun 2025 20:15:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/artact-xeo/","url":"https://artact.io/artact-xeo/","title":"Hello ArtAct.io 🧊","content_html":"Our website just got a whole lot cooler, thanks to open source 📖
\n\nWelcome to our new site powered by Xeo, my variant of\nSimple Blog by\nÓscar Otero, a clean and minimal blog theme for\nLume with support for tags and authors.
\nStay tuned, this is just the very beginning of what we have in store\nfor you.
\n","date_published":"Fri, 06 Jun 2025 15:15:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/homelessness-en/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/homelessness-en/","title":"Homelessness (English) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"English language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Homelessness. Produced\nand Scored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 13:14:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/homelessness-es/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/homelessness-es/","title":"Homelessness (Spanish) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"Spanish language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Homelessness. Produced\nand Scored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 13:13:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/corruption-en/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/corruption-en/","title":"Corruption (English) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"English language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Corruption. Produced and\nScored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 12:13:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/corruption-es/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/corruption-es/","title":"Corruption (Spanish) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"Spanish language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Corruption. Produced and\nScored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 12:12:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/pollution-en/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/pollution-en/","title":"Pollution (English) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"English language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Pollution. Produced and\nScored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 11:12:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/pollution-es/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/sandoval/pollution-es/","title":"Pollution (Spanish) - Danielle Sandoval","content_html":"Spanish language version of Sandoval campaign ad about Pollution. Produced and\nScored by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Sun, 06 Aug 2023 11:11:00 GMT"},{"id":"https://artact.io/videos/hca/single-payer-plans/","url":"https://artact.io/videos/hca/single-payer-plans/","title":"Single Payer Plans - Health Care for All - California","content_html":"For Health Care for All -\nCalifornia, this video counters insurance companies’ bogus claim that\nAmericans prefer private insurance plans. Single Payer Health Care means freedom\nfrom insurance companies. Directed by Hector Ceballos, Written by Clifford J.\nTasner, Produced by Clifford J. Tasner and Ricky de Laveaga, Cinematography by\nVincent Toto, Edited by Ricky de Laveaga, Music by Clifford J. Tasner
\n","date_published":"Tue, 21 Feb 2023 15:19:00 GMT"}]}