Johnny Hazard :
The Mexico City area has been hit by a
major ozone crisis

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

One reason: Mexico City’s 10 million people simply won’t give up their cars.

Mexico City smog

Photos from Yamile Requena.‎

By Johnny Hazard | The Rag Blog | March 20, 2015

Leer este artículo en español

MEXICO CITY — After a couple of days of unusually cold, windy, and rainy weather made pollution levels drop, Mexico City has faced an ozone alert since Sunday, March 13. The causes:

  • March is the beginning of the hot, dry season.
  • Leaders of the right-wing PAN political party won an injunction in July against Hoy no circula, the program that, for decades, forced certain cars to stay parked one day a week to reduce traffic and pollution. While the injunction really only forced changes in the program, city officials decided to cancel it almost completely, allowing more than 600,000 more cars per day on the road.

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Kate Braun :
The Spring Equinox falls on Palm Sunday
this year

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

The Zodiac begins its cycle as Lord Sun moves into Aries, sign of the Ram.

spring equinox 2013

Satellite image of the Earth at the spring equinox on March 20, 2013. Image from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) / LiveScience.com.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | March 19, 2016

The Vernal or Spring Equinox, also known as Ostara and Lady Day, falls on Sunday, March 20, 2016. This date is also International Astrology Day, and this year it is the date of Palm Sunday. The Zodiac begins its cycle as Lord Sun moves into Aries, sign of the Ram, a Cardinal Masculine Fire sign.

Use the colors pink, yellow, light green, and all pastels in your dress and decorations. Incorporate representations of eggs and rabbits as well as living plants into your decorations; Mother Earth is awakening from her winter’s nap and life begins anew. Clusters of wild flowers would also be appropriate for this season.
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Roger Baker :
METRO | Austin transportation follies: $4 billion on IH-35 is a fool’s game

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

Widening roads in cities like Austin only makes congestion worse as political pressure works against smart transportation planning.

IH-35 Traffic2

IH-35 near downtown Austin: the most congested road corridor in Texas. Image from CultureMap Austin.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | March 17, 2016

Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one. — Ludwig Wittgenstein

AUSTIN — Contrary to much public opinion, congestion in fast-growing cities like Austin cannot be relieved by expanding roadway capacity because existing congestion and latent demand soon shift and fill up the newly added capacity.

To make sense of why there is still such strong political support for expanding capacity on IH-35, we need to understand Texas road politics, as reflected in the Texas Department of Transportation’s history and current policies. Past and current attempts by TxDOT to build enough roads to deal with increasing demand have left TxDOT with more than $20 billion in debt, plus a backlog of unsustainable construction and road maintenance obligations, despite a policy in support of privatized toll roads.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | ‘War is Trauma’

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Alice Embree
Hanging Tree Poster IVAW sm

“Hanging Tree,” by Jeremy Bergren (Marine Veteran, North Carolina).

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | March 16, 2016

Event: War is Trauma Exhibition
Dates: Saturday, March 19, 2016, 1-4 p.m.
Where: First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin
Address: 4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
Admission: Free

AUSTIN —  An exhibition of the War is Trauma poster portfolio will mark the 13th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq Saturday, March 19, 2016, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin. Local members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance are hosting the exhibit.
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Marilyn Katz :
Stopping Trump: The Chicago model

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

Faced not with the threat of violence but lack of control of the message or the montage, Trump retreated.

Donald Trump Speaks

Donald Trump with mouth open. YouTube grab of video by Redsilverj / Creative Commons image.

By Marilyn Katz | The Rag Blog | March 15, 2016

CHICAGO — Congratulations to the people of Chicago — young and old, Black, Latino, Asian and White, Muslim, Christian and Jewish. They did what neither his competitors nor the Republican Party have been able to do — still the voice and the vitriol of Donald Trump.

The protestors, a loose amalgam of labor, women, immigration, students, and Black Lives Matter activists, didn’t do it through violence, or shouting. No dirty tricks — just the old fashioned way. They organized.

It all began early this week with an online petition to the University of Illinois-Chicago to deny Trump the use of the publicly-supported facility on the basis that the rally posed a threat to the security and safety of students. This tactic, in turn, led to two others. First, using their extensive email lists, they encouraged us to secure tickets through Eventbrite. It ensured that opponents of Trumps’ racist, anti-choice, anti-immigrant policies and statements could secure seats in the pavilion.
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Jimmy Lohman :
Trump rallies: The case for silent protest

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

This is not about ‘freedom of speech.’ It is about proper tactics for confronting an enormous evil.

Trump Rally Protest in Chicago sm

Chaos at Trump rally at UIC Pavilion, Chicago, March 11, 2016, after announcement that Donald Trump was postponing his appearance. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

By Jimmy Lohman | The Rag Blog | March 15, 2016

It is a mistake to shout down Trump and disrupt his rallies. Outside the rallies, anything goes: as we used to chant, “The streets belong to the people.” But inside, opposition to the horrific specter of Trumpism is best served by silent protest.

Trump is no longer just a “threat.” He has transformed the political landscape by galvanizing a massive national constituency that thrives on racial hatred, sham phobias, and nationalistic mania. Of course, confronting Trump’s neofascist tidal wave is a moral imperative, but his ascendancy also creates the opportunity for an even greater groundswell for a progressive forward-seeking alternative. The attractiveness of that alternative runs the risk of being undermined by protest actions that alienate the average American or in any way play into the aspiring Fuhrer’s hand.
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The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | ‘Living on the Hyphen’

Posted on March 14, 2016 by Alice Embree
Living on the Hyphen

Leng Wong’s Living on the Hyphen will be performed March 31-April 3, 2016, at Austin’s Long Center.

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | March 14, 2016

Event: ‘Living on the Hyphen’
Dates: Thursday-Sunday, March 31-April 3, 2016
Times: Thursday-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m
Where: Rollins Studio Theatre, The Long Center
Address: 701 West Riverside Drive, Austin, TX 78704
Admission: $50 premium, $35 general, $25 student/senior

AUSTIN — Living on the Hyphen, a multi-cultural, contemporary collaboration of Austin-based artists of Asian-descent, will take place at the Rollins Studio Theatre, March 31-April 3, 2016, at the Long Center in Austin.

The show, produced by Lucky Chaos Theater and Productions and Austin Dance India, is  directed by Austin’s Leng Wong, who describes the artistic vision this way: “Using the vehicle of humor and various performance art forms, I want to illuminate our commonality of being different.”
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Steve Russell :
The Donald Virus: ‘Who’s Gonna Build
Your Wall?’

Posted on March 10, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

This shoe was not cobbled to order for Mr. Trump. It just happens to fit his foot.

Who's gonna build your wall youtube grab crp

Screen grab from YouTube.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | March 11, 2016

I think it’s viral when several people who don’t know each other send it to you, right? Viral is understandable. I like the tune and the pictures are well chosen.

The accordion is in the style Mexicans call norteño, and it got my attention. The words sounded like the perfect rebuttal to the fear-mongering I’ve heard in this election season starting with the probable Republican nominee, who called Mexicans “rapists” at his announcement. But look at the date it was uploaded to YouTube. This shoe was not cobbled to order for Mr. Trump. It just happens to fit his foot.
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Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Cold Squad’ is first-class Canadian procedural with sharp female head

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

Vancouver is setting for smart 98 episodes in which hundreds of B.C. baddies get their comeuppance.

Julie Stewart in Cold Squad.

Julie Stewart in Cold Squad.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | March 9, 2016

[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.]

Cold Squad is a sharply written Canadian policier from Matt MacLeod (Rizzoli & Isles), Philip Keatley (The Beachcombers), Julia Keatley, and 22 other clever scribes in which old cases get reexamined and successfully solved. It’s set in crime-infested Vancouver, where other great cop series like Da Vinci’s Inquest and Intelligence are also situated.
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Cecilia Colomé :
¡Bienvenidos al siglo de la astronomía de ondas gravitacionales!

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Cecilia Colome

La detección de LIGO es la medición más precisa jamás realizada en la historia de la humanidad y marca cinco hitos para la física.

El sonido de dos agujeros negros colisionando. Imagen de ligo.caltech.edu.

Por Cecilia Colomé | The Rag Blog | 24 de febrero, 2016

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El 11 de febrero, 2016, la National Science Foundation en EE.UU. anunció la detección de ondas gravitacionales por el Observatorio del Interferómetro Láser de Ondas Gravitacionales (LIGO por sus siglas en inglés), un par de observatorios terrestres, uno en Livingston, Luisiana, y el otro en Hanford, Washington.

Fue un evento histórico que ha llevado a los astrónomos a llamar a este “el siglo de la astronomía de ondas gravitacionales.”

La detección de LIGO es la medición más precisa jamás realizada en la historia de la humanidad y marca cinco hitos para la física como la primera detección de:

  • ondas gravitacionales,
  • un agujero negro,
  • un sistema binario de agujeros negros,
  • la fusión de agujeros negros, y
  • un agujero negro girando.

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Michael James :
Parachute opens, sunflowers & stolen bikes, New Age networks, thinking about the champs, 1983

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

The big open field suddenly rushed closer and I hit the ground with a grateful, relieved, welcome thump and tumble.

James 28 - 1983 Summer, bike rack, sunflower, HC 2

Bike rack and sunflower at the Heartland Cafe. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | March 2, 2016

[In this series, Michael James is sharing images from his rich past, accompanied by reflections about — and inspired by — those images. These photos will be included in his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.]

During the late summer of 1983, I took my first and probably last leap out of an airplane. My friend Kim Cole initiated the adventure; it started with a drive to a small airstrip surrounded by cornfields near Bristol, Wisconsin. We joined a score of others donning white coveralls and paid very close attention to the instructor, Bud, as he introduced us to the details of our pending jumps from a small plane.
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Harry Targ :
Hillary Clinton and the declining
American empire

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Thorne Dreyer

The war against the Qaddafi regime that destroyed Libya’s social fabric was enthusiastically endorsed by Secretary of State Clinton.

Hillary Clinton London conf on Libya

Clinton at London meeting to discuss NATO military intervention in Libya, March 29, 2011. Image from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office / Open Government License / Wikimedia Commons.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | March 1, 2016

“I think President Obama made the right decision at the time. And the Libyan people had a free election the first time since 1951. And you know what, they voted for moderates, they voted with the hope of democracy. Because of the Arab Spring, because of a lot of things, there was turmoil to follow.” — Hillary Clinton quoted in Conor Freidersdorf, “Hillary Defends Her Failed War in Libya,” The Atlantic, October 14, 2015

“Nearly three and a half years after Libyan rebels and a NATO air campaign overthrew Muammar al-Qaddafi, the cohesive political entity known as Libya doesn’t exist.”  — Frederic Wehrey quoted in Conor Friedersdorf

 
Building an empire

In a recent book by distinguished diplomatic historian Lloyd Gardner (Three Kings: The Rise of an American Empire in the Middle East After World War II, The New Press, 2009), the author describes the last day of the historic Yalta Conference just before the end of World War II in which the leaders of the allied powers met: President Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
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