Philip L. Russell :
2016: Another bad year for Mexico’s Peña Nieto

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

His presidency has been marked by corruption, social inequality, and broken promises.

Caricature of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto
by DonkeyHotey/ Flickr.

By Philip L. Russell | The Rag Blog | January 18, 2017

Philip Russell will join Thorne Dreyer on the syndicated Rag Radio program, Friday, January 20, 2017, to discuss this article and the Peña Nieto presidency. The show first airs on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin and is streamed live here.

Philip Russell writes about Mexico for The Rag Blog. This is the third in his series about the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto.

December 1, 2015, marked the half-way point of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s six-year term. At that time his approval rating stood at 39 percent — the lowest such rating for any Mexican president this century. As reported in the paper Reforma, during the following year his approval rating sunk to 24 percent as a result of his failure to address chronic problems as well as new aggravations.

According to the government’s own statistical agency, known by its acronym as INEGI, the Mexican public considers insecurity and criminality to be their country’s gravest problem. Peña Nieto, rather than making a dent in the social and economic problems which lead young people to join drug gangs, has continued his predecessor’s failed policy of combating trafficking by taking out kingpins.
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Glenn Scott :
METRO | On Saturday, January 21, women ‘to make a mighty sound’ in Austin

Posted on January 17, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

As many as 25,000 are expected for a Women’s march and rally at the Texas State Capitol.

notes from the resistance

By Glenn Scott | The Rag Blog | January 17, 2017

AUSTIN — Leaders of the Women’s March on Austin (#MarchOnAustin) predict that, on Saturday, January 21, our state and national leaders will hear “a mighty sound from thousands of women and allies standing up for their rights.”

That prediction is from rally coordinator Melissa Fiero.

(At the time of this posting, as many as 25,000 women and their supporters are  expected to participate.)

Participants are advised to assemble on the south lawn of the Capitol grounds at 11 a.m., with the one-and-a-half-mile march starting at noon. The march will weave around downtown Austin and return to the Capitol about an hour-and-a-half later for a rally. The march will be led by dignitaries and a professional drum corps
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Harry Targ :
Foreign policy: The elephant in the room

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

An undercurrent in the 2016 election was growing opposition to an activist United States economic/political/military role in the world.

Elephant in the room. Photo by Sam Hood, March 24, 1939. From the collection of the State Library of New South Wales.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | January 11, 2017

An empire in decline

United States global hegemony is coming to an end. The United States was the country that collaborated with the Soviet Union to defeat fascism in Europe and with Great Britain to crush Japanese militarism in Asia in 1945. The Soviet Union, the first Socialist state, suffered 27 million dead in the war to defeat the Nazis. Great Britain, the last great imperial power, was near the end of its global reach because of war and the rise of anti-colonial movements in Asia and Africa.

As the beneficiary of war-driven industrial growth and the development of a military-industrial complex unparalleled in world history, the United States was in a position in 1945 to construct a post-war international political and economic order based on huge banks and corporations. The United States created the international financial and trading system, imposed the dollar as the global currency, built military alliances to challenge the Socialist Bloc, and used its massive military might and capacity for economic penetration to infiltrate, subvert, and dominate most of the economic and political regimes across the globe.
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Allen Young :
My trip to the Rag Reunion

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Tapping my ‘nest egg,’ I traveled from rural Massachusetts to trendy Austin… and into the past.

Rag Reunion group shot, High Road on Dawson, Austin, Texas, Oct. 16, 2016. Alan Young, in khaki shorts, is seated in front row, next to last on right. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.

By Allen Young | The Rag Blog | January 11, 2017

Allen Young, our dear friend and colleague from the good old days, came all the way from rural Massachusetts to attend the 50th anniversary Rag Reunion and Public Celebration, a highly successful series of events that took place at multiple Austin venues from October 13-16, 2016. The Rag was an iconic underground newspaper, published in Austin from 1966-1977. A few of us from The Rag also worked with Allen at Liberation News Service (LNS) in New York. At the reunion, Allen Young led a panel on “The Underground Press and the Post-Stonewall Gay Movement.” We asked him to write something about his trip.

Prodded a bit by Rag Funnel Thorne Dreyer, who left Texas briefly in the late 1960s to become my colleague at Liberation News Service (LNS) in New York City, I decided to spend a few hundred dollars of my paltry “nest egg” on a trip from my woodland home in Royalston, Massachusetts (pop. 1,200), to Austin for the 50th anniversary Rag Reunion and Public Celebration.

The last time I was in Austin was 1969 for a quarterly national meeting of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). I had no memory of that event, but I definitely had memories of The Rag. In recent years, I’ve been following The Rag Blog and have been aware of the radio show, too.
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Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | Dr. Neal Evans & Dr. Cecilia Colomé; Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree & Richard Croxdale; Pedro Gatos; Ed Ward; Bob ‘Daddy-O’ Wade & Jason Mellard; Jonathan Tilove & Glenn Smith

Posted on January 10, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

We search for extraterrestrials, ‘Celebrate The Rag’ at BookPeople, remember Fidel Castro, visit with a monumental sculptor, and discuss the ‘Resistible Rise of Donald J. Trump.’

Renowned astronomer Dr. Neal Evans and Austin astronomer Dr. Cecilia Colomé search for extraterrestrial life on Rag Radio. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | January 10, 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.

♦ ‘Celebrating The Rag’ Editors Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree & Richard Croxdale speak at BookPeople

Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, editors of the new book Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper, spoke, led a public discussion, and signed books at Austin’s Book People, January 5, 2017. The show was broadcast the next day on Rag Radio. Also appearing were artist Kerry Awn and photographer Alan Pogue. BookPeople is the largest independent bookstore in Texas. Celebrating The Rag tells the story of The Rag, the legendary underground newspaper published in Austin from 1966-1977.

Read the full show description and download the podcast of our Jan. 6, 2017 Rag Radio show with Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, here — or listen to it here:


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Mark McKim :
METRO | Protesta la toma de posesión de Trump en Austin

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Cecilia Colome

Únete a la marcha y manifestación de la Resistencia Unida, viernes 20 de enero, desde Auditorium Shores hasta el Capitolio.

notes from the resistance

Por Mark McKim | The Rag Blog | 9 de enero, 2017

Traducido del inglés por Cecilia Colomé

Leer este artículo en inglés

América enfrenta una crisis. Las promesas de campaña de Donald Trump amenazan a millones. Debemos reunirnos, protestar, organizarnos y apoyarnos los unos a otros.

El día de toma de posesión, nos reuniremos para protestar las políticas de miedo y odio de Donald Trump. Esta es una exhortación para reunirnos en apoyo de la justicia y dignidad de todos. Este es un llamado para entrar en acción para la defensa de los derechos humanos, de los inmigrantes, de reproducción, de nuestro medio ambiente, y buenos trabajos, como también de la justicia y seguridad en todas nuestras comunidades.
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Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘A Place to Call Home’ is good, soapy Aussie drama series

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Upper-class matriarch has prejudices that create conflict for her whole family in small-town ‘50s Oz.

Marta Dusseldorp stars in A Place to Call Home.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | January 9, 2017

[In his Rag Blog column, Alan Waldman reviews some of his favorite films and TV series that readers may have missed, including TV dramas, mysteries, and comedies from Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scotland. Most are available on DVD, Netflix and/or Netflix Instant Streaming, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

A Place to Call Home (2013-2016) is a smart though soapy Australian television drama set in rural New South Wales after the Second World War. It follows nurse Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), who has returned to Australia after 20 years abroad and ends up clashing with wealthy matriarch Elizabeth Bligh (Noni Hazlehurst) and becomes dramatically enmeshed with her family and neighbors.
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Ed Felien :
Rethinking our revolution: A proposal for a
rural strategy

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Tuition-free education, universal healthcare, and legalized pot are pieces of the puzzle.

2016 presidential election by county. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

By Ed Felien | The Rag Blog | January 9, 2017

MINNEAPOLIS — What happened?

Clinton lost Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. She almost lost Minnesota.

Why?

When people were interviewed they said she and the Democratic Party were not speaking to them. Trump talked to the people who were hurting from lack of jobs and from small town economic collapse. He spoke their language. He lied to them. But he was reaching them, and the Democratic Party was sadly out of touch with their reality.
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James McEnteer :
Why Ecuador is choosing to sabotage its
top universities

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Above all, it is a move by Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa to consolidate his power.

President Rafael Correa, November 15, 2012. Image from Cancillería del Ecuador / Flickr / Creative Commons.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | January 9, 2017

QUITO, Ecuador — On December 13, Ecuador’s National Assembly passed a law compromising the independence of its public universities. The mandate, in this small country, where everything is personal, is aimed specifically at the two institutions of higher learning that offer only post-graduate degrees: Andina University and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, aka FLACSO.

The new law relieves those universities of critical financial decisions, ceding that power to the National Secretariat of Higher Education, Science and Technology. Instead of university faculty and administrators choosing how best to deploy funds for research and allocate student aid, those decisions will be left to ministry bureaucrats.
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Mark McKim :
METRO | Protest the Trump inauguration
in Austin

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

Join the One Resistance Rally and Protest Friday, January 20, from Auditorium Shores to the Capitol.

notes from the resistance

By Mark McKim | The Rag Blog | January 8, 2017

America faces a crisis. Donald Trump’s campaign promises threaten millions. We must rally, protest, organize, and support one another.

On Inauguration Day, we will gather to protest Donald Trump’s politics of fear and hate. This is a call to action to rally for justice and dignity for all. We’re rallying for civil rights, immigrants’ rights, reproductive rights, our environment, and good jobs, as well as justice and safety in all of our communities.
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Alice Embree :
METRO | Mourn, then organize

Posted on January 8, 2017 by Alice Embree

notes from the resistance

Street art in Madison, Wisconsin. Image from USB / Twitter / Creative Commons.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | January 8, 2017

AUSTIN — In 1915, when Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organizer Joe Hill was awaiting execution before a Utah firing squad, he wrote the following to his fellow Wobbly, Bill Haywood: “Don’t waste any time mourning — organize!”

“Don’t mourn, organize,” became a rallying cry whenever a leader died or the movement suffered a major defeat. Perhaps better advice today would be, “Mourn, then organize.”

We are experiencing a time of resistance and increased mobilization in Austin, and we need to organize networks of solidarity. With the tagline on The Rag Blog, “Notes from the Resistance,” we hope to accommodate brief dispatches on events, links to community calendars, and announcements of upcoming actions.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | ‘Celebrating The Rag’
at BookPeople

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Thorne Dreyer

The editors of the acclaimed new book about Austin’s iconic underground newspaper speak and sign books on Thursday, January 5.

Thorne Dreyer, left, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, editors of Celebrating The Rag, will appear at Book People, January 5, 2017.

UPDATE: The event at BookPeople was a tremendous success, with an enthusiastic overflow crowd. Celebrating The Rag editors Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale spoke, led discussion, and signed books. Artist Kerry Awn and photographer Alan Pogue also offered some memories and joined in the signing. The event was rebroadcast on Rag Radio. Listen to it here.

Celebrating The Rag at BookPeople, Friday, January 6, 2017. Photo by Alan Pogue / The Rag Blog.

SECOND CHANCE: There will be another event, this one at the Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe St., Austin, from 2-4 p.m., Sunday, February 19. Dreyer, Embree, and Croxdale will speak and Glenn Scott will introduce a partial screening of People’s History in Texas’ documentary film about The Rag. It will be free and open to the public.

Event: ‘Celebrating the Rag’
What: Discussion and Booksigning
Who: Editors Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, Richard Croxdale
When: Thursday, Jan. 5, 2017, 7 p.m.
Where: BookPeople
Address: 603 N. Lamar Blvd., Austin TX 78703
Phone: 512-472-5050
Cost: Free and open to the public

AUSTIN — Thorne Dreyer, Alice Embree, and Richard Croxdale, editors of the new book, Celebrating The Rag: Austin’s Iconic Underground Newspaper, will speak and sign books at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar in Austin, on Thursday, January 5, 2017, at 7 p.m.

Copies of Celebrating The Rag will be available for purchase at the event.
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