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Author Archives: Thorne Dreyer
ALLEN YOUNG / BOOK REVIEW / The Trees are Speaking
By Allen Young / The Rag Blog / December 3, 2025 “The Trees Are Speaking: Dispatches from the Salmon Forest,” by Lynda Mapes, University of Washington Press, 2024. Well, we all know that trees cannot talk. But we also know … Continue reading
Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog
Tagged Allen Young, Author, Book Review, Ecology, Environment, Lynda Mapes, Trees are Speaking
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THORNE DREYER / JOURNALISM / Central to the new Rag’s voice is to retain the levity of the original
By Thorne Dreyer / The Rag Blog / December 1, 2025 Since editors Ava Hosseini and Kira Small — with the help of managing editor Grant Lindberg — started their seemingly modest endeavor to resurrect the underground newspaper, The Rag, that … Continue reading
SUSAN VAN HAITSMA / HISTORY / CodePink: Austin’s history is alive at the Austin History Center
CodePink Austin at “I Miss America” pageant in Million Musicans March, March 17, 2007. Photo by Jim Turpin. By Susan Van Haitsma / The Rag Blog / November 27, 2025 AUSTIN — With the current U.S. administration trying to excise … Continue reading
LAMAR HANKINS / COMMENTARY / Norman Finkelstein explains the Israel-Gaza conflict
By Lamar Hankins / The Rag Blog / November 13, 2025 Norman Finkelstein was born in New York City in 1953, a son of Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. His mother grew up in Warsaw and survived the Warsaw … Continue reading
JOSHUA BROWN / LIFE DURING WARTIME SPECIAL / Remembering Dick Cheney
Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog
Tagged Cartoon, Dick Cheney, Iraq War, Joshua Brown, Life During Wartime, Rag Bloggers, Vice President
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HENRY MECREDY / REMEMBRANCE / Gavan Duffy was a scholar with a sense of humor
By Henry Mecredy / The Rag Blog / September 25, 2025 Gavan Duffy was born December 8, 1949, in Massachusetts. He passed away in Syracuse, New York, on September 6, 2025. He graduated from the University of Houston and taught political … Continue reading
Posted in RagBlog
Tagged Gavan Duffy, Henry Mecredy, Peace Movement, Rag Bloggers, Remembrance, Scholar, Space City!, The Rag, The Rag Blog
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LAMAR HANKINS / COMMENTARY / The death and life of Charlie Kirk
Charlie Kirk. Creative Commons image. By Lamar Hankins / The Rag Blog / September 21, 2025 It should be axiomatic to any freedom-loving person that no one should be harmed for their beliefs, views, or opinions. Yet our country, the … Continue reading
MICHAEL MEEROPOL / POLITICAL COMMENTARY / Virtually everything the Trump Administration has done to ramp up deportations has been illegal
Honk for Trump Vance. Photo by Thomas Hawk / Flickr/ Creative Commons. By Michael Meeropol / The Rag Blog / September 16, 2025 The following is an expanded version of a commentary delivered by Michael Meeropol, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Western New … Continue reading
PAUL BUHLE / RADICAL COMICS / Anti-facism, partisan comics
By Paul Buhle / Special to The Rag Blog / August 28, 2025 The understandable fear of an American-style fascism will remind European readers and comics fans that their seemingly all-powerful but culturally backward cousins are slow to understand the … Continue reading
MARTIN MURRAY / CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE / Lt. Burt Gerding and I
Photo by Belmer Wright published in Austin’s underground paper, The Rag, January 15, 1968. By Martin Murray / The Rag Blog / August 19, 2025 Lt. Burt Gerding served in the Austin Police Department (APD) in the Criminal Intelligence Division from … Continue reading
Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog
Tagged Austin 'Red Squad', Austin Police Department, Burt Gerding, Burt Gerding Papers, Criminal Intelligence, Dirty Tricks, Espionage, Martin Murray, Police Informants, Sarah Clark, SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, The Rag Blog, University of Texas
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MICHAEL MEEROPOL / COMMENTARY / Sleeping Giant: Thoughts on the results of the November 4 elections
Image from Pix4Free.org. By Michael Meeropol / The Rag Blog / November 18, 2025 The following is an expanded version of a commentary delivered over WAMC-FM on November 7, 2025, by Michael Meeropol, Professor Emeritus of Economics at Western New … Continue reading →