Organizing for reproductive justice :
METRO EVENT | Before Roe & Now: Panel Discussion on August 13

Posted on August 8, 2019 by Alice Embree

Event: Before Roe & Now
What: Panel Discussion
When: Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 7-8:30 p.m.
Where: IBEW Local 520
Address: 4818 E. Ben White Blvd., Suite 300, Austin, TX 78741
Sponsor: Austin DSA Feminist Action Committee
Admission: Free

AUSTIN — On Tuesday, August 13, 7-8:30 p.m., Austin’s Democratic Socialists of America Feminist Action Committee is sponsoring a panel discussion on Organizing for Reproductive Justice: Before Roe and Now. Panelists Alice Embree and Barbara Hines will focus on the movement that made Roe v. Wade a possibility. Younger activists from the Lilith Fund and Fund Texas Choice will discuss the organizing taking place now to defend abortion as a health care choice, and just as importantly defend all reproductive choice. The event is on Facebook.

The DSA Feminist Action Committee organizes around an Austin chapter priority of reproductive justice that includes work on reproductive education in schools, free period products, access to birth control, parental leave, universal child care, Medicare for all, and access to abortion as a health care choice.

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Steve Russell :
The 800 pound gorilla of 2020

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

All of my life, I now think I
underestimated racism.

Eight hundred pound gorilla. Fair use image.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | August 5, 2019

Nobody chooses their ethnicity was what I thought as a child from the very first time I was ridiculed for being Indian. I did not yet know about Oklahoma as Indian Territory, about the bogus treaties that were forced upon the Five Tribes and then violated to make half a state from Indian Territory in 1907.

When I got old enough to understand the historical raw deal, the story of Oklahoma Territory — the other half of the state — seemed somehow more pure and honest. The tribes on the reservations in Oklahoma Territory were mostly Plains Indians brought there at gunpoint after hot wars. The reservations were gussied up POW camps. There is just something about the moral bankruptcy of entering treaties you have no plans to honor that stuck in my throat before I ever considered studying law.
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Judy Gumbo Albert :
A ‘Yippie original’ remembers ‘Realist’ editor Paul Krassner

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Paul became what he called an ‘underground abortion referral service.’

From left, Stew Albert, Judy Gumbo Albert, and Paul Krassner.

By Judy Gumbo Albert | The Rag Blog | August 5, 2019

REMEMBERING PAUL KRASSNER

[Paul Krassner, legendary social satirist, editor of The Realist, and a founder of the Yippies, died July 21, 2019, in Desert Hot Springs, California, at the age of 87.]

I first met Paul at Anita and Abbie Hoffman’s apartment on St. Mark’s Place in April or May of 1968. I ingested Paul’s honey in Lincoln Park right before Yippies were gassed and beaten protesting the Vietnam War at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, and I was there for Paul’s abbreviated testimony at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial in 1969. Paul, my husband Stew, and I remained friends from then on, through Stew’s death in 2006 until today.

Of all the memories I have of Paul, perhaps the most vivid is of a conversation we had about 1962 — before he and I ever met. Paul told me how he helped women obtain abortions. He had written an article in The Realist about a sympathetic physician in Ashland, Pennsylvania, who provided abortion care to women. Abortion was illegal at the time. Paul did not publish the physician’s name.
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Anne Lewis :
STORY & VIDEO PODCAST | Asilo, terror, y el futuro #6: Nazis entre nosotros

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Basado en casos documentados por Jennifer Harbury…

Asylum, Terror, and the Future #6 Nazis among us based on case stories of Jennifer Harbury from Anne Lewis on Vimeo.

Por Anne Lewis | The Rag Blog | 4 de Agosto, 2019

Recuerdo el eslogan durante las protestas contra la guerra de Vietnam: “El fascismo es el imperialismo vuelto hacia adentro”. Supusimos que eso significaba que una vez que hubiéramos forzado el fin de la guerra (junto con los norvietnamitas), la clase dominante se volvería contra los trabajadores estadounidenses para

Ahora sabemos que es completamente posible tener tanto el fascismo como el imperialismo al mismo tiempo. El eslogan probablemente se basó en la definición de Lenin de imperialismo y fascismo como encarnado en el “capitalismo en descomposición”. También teníamos la ilusión de que el capitalismo colapsaría sobre sí mismo (tal vez ya en 1974) dándonos la oportunidad de construir un mundo mejor.
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Anne Lewis :
STORY & VIDEO PODCAST | Asylum, terror, and the future #6: Nazis among us

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Based on case stories by Jennifer Harbury…

Asylum, Terror, and the Future #6 Nazis among us based on case stories of Jennifer Harbury from Anne Lewis on Vimeo.

By Anne Lewis | The Rag Blog | August 4, 2019

I remember the slogan during Vietnam anti-war protests, “Fascism is imperialism turned inwards.” We took that to mean that once we had forced an end to the war (along with the North Vietnamese), the ruling class would turn on U.S. workers for exploitation and profit instead of relatively privileging them.

We now know that it is entirely possible to have both fascism and imperialism at the same time. The slogan was probably based on Lenin’s definition of both imperialism and fascism as embodied in “decaying capitalism.” We also had the illusion that capitalism would collapse in on itself (perhaps as early as 1974) giving us the opportunity to build a better world.
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Bruce Melton :
Yosemite National Park: Climate Change is here, and it’s bad

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

We are documenting what no others are documenting.

Yosemite National Park, El Capitan, and bark beetle kill. Photo by Bruce Melton / The Rag Blog.

By Bruce Melton | The Rag Blog | July 31, 2019

Bruce Melton will discuss his recent environmental expedition to Yosemite National Park at Thorne Dreyer’s 74th Birthday Bash, a benefit for the New Journalism Project which takes place this Thursday, August 1, 6-9:30 p.m., at The High Road on Dawson. Bruce and his Climate Change Band will perform at the event, as will jazz singer Sarah Sharp.

As of 2017, 2.4 million trees have been killed by bark beetles in Yosemite National Park.

Some say it’s a natural occurrence, and it is. It happens every time our climate changes abruptly.

This story is a part of Climate Change Across America, an epic filmmaking effort to document the ongoing extreme impacts of climate change already happening across North America. This is our fifth year of production and we have driven 52,500 miles in our quest so far, from Brownsville to the North Slope of Alaska, short on money, camping almost always. (See Beach Report 2019, 2018 Photo Tour, 2018 Trip Log, 2018 Instagram, Permafrost 2018, Beach Report 2017, The Desert 2017, The Beetles 2016, and more at ClimateDiscovery.org.)
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Shepherd Bliss :
In praise of honeybees

Posted on July 30, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

We two-footeds can learn much from the winged honeybees.

“Life vs Monsanto,” gouache on paper. © Cecilia Colomé.

By Shepherd Bliss | The Rag Blog | July 30, 2019

SEBASTOPOL, California — I attended a honeybee gathering recently at a wild place in rural Sebastopol. During my nearly 30 years of organic farming here, I have usually had honeybee hives on my farm. The berries need their pollination.

We two-footeds can learn much from the winged honeybees, especially during this time of international crises. Such bees can help us at this time, which some describe as possibly the final days for humanity, as we move toward a possible exchange of nuclear weapons and the mounting climate change. Fortunately, people in Peru, Scotland, India, and elsewhere honor and pay tribute to honey bees.

“Bees are our family members,” one person at the gathering said. “We honor and pay tribute to this ancient ally of humans. They know the way,” bee whisper host Michael said. “Honeybees call us to awareness. If you are angry or aggressive, the bees feel it.” “How can we transform our anger?” Gary Pace, M.D. asked.
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Jonah Raskin :
Paul Krassner, 1932-2019: American satirist

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Krassner, who edited ‘The Realist,’ took up where Lenny Bruce left off.

Paul Krassner at City Lights Bookstore, 2009. Photo by Heidi De Vries / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | July 29, 2019

REMEMBERING PAUL KRASSNER

“He’s gone. Feel free to spread the word,” Michael Simmons said in an email that went out to a few dozen or so of the usual suspects, including Wavy Gravy, Judy Gumbo, Larry (Ratzo) Sloman, Jim Fouratt, Rex Weiner, Aron Kay, Kate Coleman, Jeffrey St. Clair, and Barbara Garson, some of whom had been Yippies, Zippies and their fellow travelers.

“He,” who was now gone at the age of 87, was Paul Krassner, who took up where Lenny Bruce left off, edited The Realist, helped found the Yippies, reinvigorated satire, defended free speech at every opportunity, and who lived at the end of his life in Desert Hot Springs, California, in part because of the climate and also because he could afford to live there.
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Anne Lewis :
STORY & VIDEO PODCAST | Asilo, terror, y el futuro #5: De militar a narcotroficante

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Basado en casos documentados por Jennifer Harbury…

Asilio, Terror, y el Futuro #5 De militar a narcotroficante. Basado en historias de casos de Jennifer Harbury from Anne Lewis on Vimeo.

Por Anne Lewis | The Rag Blog | 28 de Julio, 2019

Cuando la gente dice que el huyo forzado y actual de trabajadores y familias, el uso de la fuerza militar, los campos de concentración, la denegación de entrada para los refugiados, el arrebatamiento de niños de los brazos de sus madres y padres son nuevos en la Administración de Trump, tienen poca comprensión de nuestra historia. Es fácil encontrar ejemplos de todo esto – basados en la creencia de que la América es racialmente blanca, ética y políticamente superior a otras naciones y pueblos, tanto dentro como fuera de nuestras fronteras nacionales.

Este podcast explora con Jennifer Harbury por qué tantos refugiados huyen de América Central a pesar de que conocen muy bien el peligro del viaje con secuestro, violación y tormento físico, y el potencial de tortura, encarcelamiento y deportación a través de nuestra frontera.
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Anne Lewis :
STORY & VIDEO PODCAST | Asylum, terror, and the future #5: From military officer to drug lord

Posted on July 27, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Based on case stories by Jennifer Harbury…

Asylum, Terror, and the Future #5 from military officer to drug lord Based on case stories of Jennifer Harbury from Anne Lewis on Vimeo.

By Anne Lewis | The Rag Blog | July 27, 2019

When people say that the current removals of workers and families, use of military force, concentration camps, denial of entrance for refugees, snatching of children from the arms of their mothers and fathers are new under the Trump Administration, they have little understanding of our history. It’s easy to find examples of all of these — based in the pervasive belief that white America is racially, ethically, and politically superior to other nations and peoples, both within our national boundaries and without.

This podcast explores with Jennifer Harbury why it is that so many refugees flee from Central America even though they know full well the danger of the journey with kidnapping, rape, and physical torment, and the potential for torture, imprisonment, and deportation across our border.

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Ivan Koop Kuper :
A candid portrait of Daniel DeWitt
Thomas, Part 1

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

The making of the 13th Floor Elevators’ album, ‘Easter Everywhere.’

The Elevators’ Danny Thomas (below, on drums) and
Stacy Sutherland.

By Ivan Koop Kuper | The Rag Blog | July 24, 2019

HOUSTON — Danny Thomas, a former drummer-turned-author and a native son of North Carolina, celebrated his 71st birthday last January 15 in his hometown of Charlotte. Thomas, now semi-retired, is at that point in his life where he can stop and reflect back on the turbulent times of his youth and the happenstance chain of events that placed him on a fast-paced, roller coaster ride of both musical and chemical experimentation.

The direction of Thomas’ life would be one of transformation when he accepted the position as the replacement drummer of the Texas psych-rock band known as the 13th Floor Elevators.

Daniel DeWitt Thomas was born into a very old aristocratic East Coast family. His father’s “Pennsylvania Dutch” roots can not only be traced back to pre-Revolutionary War America, but his family was among the first settlers in the Carolinas. His mother’s family lineage equals that of her husband’s and can be linked to the original founding fathers of New Amsterdam, later to be renamed The City of New York by the British.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Thorne Dreyer’s Birthday Bash August 1 is NJP, ‘Rag Blog’ benefit

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Thorne Dreyer

Event features jazz singer Sarah Sharp and Bruce Melton’s Climate Change Band.

Event: Thorne Dreyer’s 74th Birthday Bash
What: Benefit for New Journalism Project
When: Thursday, August 1, 2019, 6-9:30 p.m.
Where: The High Road on Dawson
Address: 700 Dawson Rd., Austin, TX 78704
Phone: 512-442-8535
Bands: Jazz vocalist Sarah Sharp; Climate Change Band
Admission: $10 Suggested Donation

AUSTIN — Thorne Dreyer’s 74th Birthday Bash is Thursday, August 1, 6-9:30 p.m., at the High Road on Dawson, 700 Dawson Road in Austin. Featured performers are jazz vocalist Sarah Sharp and Bruce Melton’s Climate Change Band.

The event benefits the New Journalism Project, a Texas 501(c)(3) nonprofit. NJP publishes The Rag Blog, sponsors Rag Radio, and publishes NJP Books. The event is open to the public with a $10 suggested donation. Cash Bar, pizza, birthday cake, books, t-shirts, and Hawaiian shirts will be available.

Anne Lewis will give a brief report on the border situation, Bruce Melton will discuss his recent Yosemite Park environmental expedition, and Alice Embree will talk about the NJP book project, and there will be some poetry reading.

Thorne Dreyer, a pioneering ‘60s underground journalist and longtime Austin activist, is editor of The Rag Blog, host of Rag Radio, and an editor at NJP Publishing.

See the Facebook Event Page.

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