Alice Embree :
METRO | Demonstrators say ‘No’ to Trumpcare; Seven arrested outside Sen. Cornyn’s office

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Austin protesters vote with their feet against a bill that would be disastrous for health care and a bonanza for wealth care.

The Rag Blog‘s Alice Embree was one of seven arrested at the demonstration. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | July 12, 2017

AUSTIN — On Thursday, July 6, more than 200 Austinites told Texas Sen. John Cornyn to vote against the draconian Senate healthcare bill — officially titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) and unofficially known as Trumpcare.

Protestors filled the sidewalk at 221 West 6th Street, where Senator Cornyn has a 15th-floor office in the Chase Bank Tower. Seven people, including the author, were arrested for blocking the sidewalk in front of Cornyn’s office.
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Alice Embree :
METRO | Alice Kresensky Cunningham
(July 14, 1935 – June 23, 2017)

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

As part of a faith-based social justice ministry, Cris played a sustaining role for many movement activists and groups.

Cris Cunningham in the late 1960s. Photo by Alan Pogue /
The Rag Blog.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | July 10, 2017

AUSTIN — Cris Cunningham died on June 23, 2017, in Damariscotta, Maine, from complications of Parkinson’s. She was director of the University of Texas YMCA for many years, making that space available to The Rag for its office, to documentary photographer Alan Pogue for his darkroom, to the Birth Control Counseling Project started by women on the Rag staff, to the peer counseling project WomenSpace, and to other worthy causes.
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David P. Hamilton :
Emmanuel Macron, ‘centrist’ revolutionary

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

He combined social liberalism — covering all the identity politics bases — with neoliberal economics.

Election posters for Macron and Le Pen, La Clusaz, France. Photo by David r jenkins / Wikimedia Commons.

By David P. Hamilton | The Rag Blog | June 21, 2017

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron has totally changed the landscape of French politics. Previously, French politics was characterized by a right-left spectrum of several parties, two of which, Socialists on the left and Republicans in the right, contended for leadership. The center of this spectrum was relatively poorly represented. The only self-proclaimed centrist in the 2012 presidential election, Francois Bayrou, get only 9% of the vote.

The usual result of presidential elections was for the Socialists to run against the Republicans. These previously dominant parties remained relatively ideologically distinct. When they had to rule together, as when Socialist president Mitterrand was saddled with a rightest prime minister Chirac, it was considered an aberration.
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Chellis Glendinning :
Psychohistory in the Age of Trump

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Comparisons between Nazi Germany and Trump´s U.S.-in-process abound these days.

Trump salutes. Donald in Reno, Nevada, January 10, 2016.
Photo by Darron Birgenheier / Flickr.

By Chellis Glendinning | The Rag Blog | June 21, 2017

CHUQUISACA, Bolivia — As befits the times, I have been studying Nikolaus Wachsmann´s KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps and re-reading Uprooted Minds: Surviving the Politics of Terror in the Americas, by Nancy Caro Hollander.

As a resident of Bolivia, I’ve also had the chance to befriend Latin American activists who were jailed and tortured, or fled, during the dictatorships of the 1970s-’80s, including one man who was among very few to escape a massacre committed by the same battalion that years earlier had murdered Che Guevara (“Interview with a Revolutionary,” Wild Culture, 27 Nov 2016) and another who fled directly from being tortured, his jaw broken and blood soaking his shirt, to the airport to escape to Sweden.
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Lamar W. Hankins :
American culture: Appropriated, revised,
and invented

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

There is virtually no part of our culture that is not borrowed from somewhere else.

Woody Guthrie: “I steal from everyone.” Photo by Al Aumuller / New York World-Telegram and the Sun / Public Domain.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | June 20, 2017

To paraphrase something the musicologist Charles Seeger once said (as reported by his son Pete Seeger), “Plagiarism is basic to all culture.” He might as well have said, “Appropriation is basic to all culture.”

In fact, Pete Seeger spent a good deal of his 94 years learning music from a variety of cultures and teaching others the songs and tunes he encountered in his travels. Without Pete’s work, I may never have heard Cuban songs. Certainly, without his work and that of Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, and Frank Hamilton altering an old Negro spiritual, we might not have had what came to be called the anthem of the civil rights movement in this country, “We Shall Overcome,” which has been heard in other struggles around the world, such as in South Africa’s Soweto Township, in Tiananmen Square, and North Korea.
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Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | We talk politics, community, and resistance; discuss some important new books; enjoy some great live music… and much more!

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Our guests are Bill Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn; Rev. Jim Rigby & Glenn Smith; Corey Dolgon; Julia Mickenberg; Scott Braddock; Jonathan Tilove; Roy Casagranda; Powell St. John & Charlie Prichard; Gordon Lafer; Eddie Wilson & Jesse Sublett; Eliza Gilkyson; Bob Libal & Alice Embree; David Messier; Jim Hightower & Beverly Shaw.

Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn on Rag Radio. Photo by Carlos Lowry / The Rag Blog.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | June 20, 2017

The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows with host Thorne Dreyer. The syndicated Rag Radio program, produced in the studios of Austin’s cooperatively-run KOOP-FM, has an international audience and has become an influential platform for interviews with leading figures in politics, current events, literature, and cutting-edge culture.

♦ Bill Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn: ‘Demand the Impossible!’

Legendary activists and educators Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn are interviewed by Rag Radio host Thorne Dreyer and writer/activist Alice Embree. They discuss Bill’s new book, Demand the Impossible!: A Radical Manifesto, and how it addresses the problems we face at this dramatic juncture in history.  Vijay Prashad calls Bill Ayers “the philosopher of the revolutionary spirit,” and Angela Davis writes that Demand the Impossible! “is a book that should be read by everyone who believes that ‘another world is possible.'”

Read the full show description and download the podcast of our June 16, 2017 Rag Radio show with Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, here — or listen to it here:


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Roger Baker :
The emerging split within the U.S.
Democratic Party

Posted on June 20, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

The Perez wing, which is not hostile to Bernie Sanders, seems ready to discuss class oppression.

Tom Perez and Bernie Sanders at an April rally in Mesa, Arizona. Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | June 20, 2017

The Hill, which is widely read by Washington politicians and is rather centrist-liberal in character, reports on the split at the link just below.

This angry split within the Democratic Party is basically between the Hillary Clinton/Debbie Wasserman Schultz/corporate media wing of the Dems and, on the other side, the new DNC leadership wing led by Tom Perez, which is not openly hostile to Bernie Sanders (that would be hard, since Bernie is now the most popular US politician). The Perez wing seems to be ready to discuss class oppression issues, to some degree.
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James McEnteer :
Chained together in Hell: Manuel Noriega and George H.W. Bush

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

No one was blinder to the criminality of Noriega, who was on the CIA payroll, than George Herbert Walker Bush.

Two for the ages: Noriega and Bush. Images from Wikimedia Commons.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | June 19, 2017

QUITO, Ecuador — Manuel Noriega, former president of Panama, died in prison May 28 at 83 after decades in custody. What exactly was his crime? He was a monster who turned on his enabler: George Herbert Walker Bush. Though Bush, 92, is not yet technically dead, he and Noriega will soon be chained together in Hell for all eternity.

George H.W. Bush was born not merely into wealth and privilege but into the elite financial fraternity that built the modern American national security state. His father, Prescott, along with Allen and John Foster Dulles, invested heavily in Nazi Germany, before and after the rise of Hitler. Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the U.S. government seized the Union Banking Corporation for harboring millions in Nazi money. Prescott Bush was one of the bank’s six directors. Other companies Prescott was involved with also had their assets seized by the government.
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Steve Russell :
The downside to impeaching Trump

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Rogue’s Gallery: We should all look at the presidential bullpen in constitutional order.

Sweethearts! Would Pence be better? Photo by Steve Baker / Flickr.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | June 18, 2017

The investigations are scattered among the House, the Senate, and now a special prosecutor, and the rampant obstruction brings on periodic cases of Watergate déjà vu. It is becoming less and less likely that Donald J. Trump can keep the sticky stuff in the bottle. I think it’s probable that The Donald is guilty of impeachable offenses, but, like Watergate, it’s not so much the crime as the cover-up.

“High crimes and misdemeanors” are on their face broader than felonies, as Bill Clinton found out. In many states, Clinton’s perjury would not have been a felony because it did not touch a material issue in an official proceeding. If Congress were not dominated by Republicans, it would be possible (legal) to impeach Trump on the ground that he’s an inveterate liar in public matters who brings disrepute to the office.
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Richard Croxdale :
METRO | San Marcos’s limited minimum wage law has gotten little attention

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

The law, in force since last November, applies only to businesses seeking economic incentives.

Hays County Courthouse in San Marcos, Texas. Image from
Wikimedia Commons.

By Richard Croxdale | The Rag Blog | June 12, 2017

SAN MARCOS, Texas — $15 an hour x 40 hours a week = $600 a week before deductions, or $31,200 a year before deductions.

In February 2016, the city council of San Marcos, Texas, passed a law that sets a $15/hour wage as the minimum that a business can pay if it expects to get economic incentives from the City of San Marcos. The law became active this past November, and it is unique — there is no other law of this kind in Texas.

The legislation has received scant attention. The national Fight for $15 movement was not aware of the law and did not participate in the advocacy for it. Fight for $15 is focused on specific companies and broader statewide and nationwide initiatives. For example, in June, the group supported a San Marcos Wendy’s workers strike over the lack of air conditioning in the restaurant.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Bill Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn present a ‘Radical Manifesto’ June 21 in Austin

Posted on June 10, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Ayers and Dohrn will speak and Bill will sign his new book, ‘Demand the Impossible.’

Event: Demand the impossible!
What: Booksigning and discussion
Who: Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
When: Wednesday, June 21, 2017, 6-8 p.m.
Where: High Road on Dawson
Address: 700 Dawson Rd., Austin 78704
Telephone: 512-442-8535
Sponsors: New Journalism Project and Austin chapter, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will be Thorne Dreyer‘s guests on Rag Radio Friday, June 16, 2-3 p.m. The syndicated Rag Radio program is broadcast live on K00P 91.7 FM in Austin and can be streamed at KOOP and at Radio Free America. Find other outlets at the Rag Radio page.

AUSTIN — Legendary activists and educators Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn will speak and lead a discussion in Austin, Wednesday, June 21, 2017, from 6-8 p.m., at The High Road on Dawson. Bill will sign copies of his new book, Demand the Impossible: A Radical Manifesto, which will be available for purchase. The event is open to the public.

There will be free snacks, and drinks can be purchased at the High Road’s full bar. The talk is sponsored by the New Journalism Project, publisher of The Rag Blog and sponsor of Rag Radio, and the Austin chapter of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). A $5 donation is suggested.
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Harry Targ :
The political time of day: Neoliberalism, resistance, and a left yearning to grow

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Progressives today must mobilize against Trumpism while articulating an alternative
political and economic analysis.

Trump time: slightly askew. Image from m01229 / Flickr.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | May 30, 2017

The rift within the Democratic Party was on full display at the California Democratic Party Convention on May 19 in Sacramento, California. Progressives joined members of National Nurses United, protesting the Democratic Party establishment’s refusal to support [a] single payer health care system. Rather than follow through with Democratic rhetoric that health care is a human right, establishment Democrats have responded to voters by scolding and attacking them.
— Michael Sainato, “Tom Perez Bombs Speech, California Dem Chair Tells Protesters ‘Shut the F* Up,’” Observer, May 20, 2017.

The new Trump administration is embroiled in a series of crises, with new ones emerging on almost a daily basis. The president is bombastic, ill-informed, and narcissistic. In response to his critics he engages in dangerous and unconventional efforts to transform the dominant narrative about his incompetence. He has authorized ruthless bombings in Syria and Afghanistan and threatened war against enemies such as North Korea.

More recently, in his diplomatic trip to the Middle East and Europe, he has reached a deal to sell $110 billion in weaponry to a Saudi Arabian regime which supports terrorism throughout the Middle East and a devastating bombing campaign against Yemen. And at home he has appointed cabinet members and advisors with long histories of white supremacy and anti-Semitism (almost in defiance of accepted minimal qualifications for public office).
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