The Rag Blog | The Latest in News and Views from the Progressive Front

Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Lilyhammer’ is a quirky gangster-out-of-water dramedy set in
small-town Norway

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Springsteen sideman Steven Van Zandt produces and stars as a tough Mafioso hiding out with weird locals among the snowy fjords.

Steven Van Zandt is Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | November 17, 2015

[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.]

In several dozen columns over the past two years I have always reviewed excellent TV series and films from English-speaking lands (except for the exciting French cop series Spiral). Today is another wonderful exception to that rule: Lilyhammer, a Norwegian/American comedy/gangster series that’s 60% in English and 40% in subtitled Norwegian.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged Alan Waldman, Criticism, Lilyhammer, Norwegian Television, Rag Bloggers, Steven Van Zandt | Leave a comment

The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Walking the walk for immigrant families

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Alice Embree

Image from Workers Defense Project.

Action: Three-Day Pilgrimage for Immigrant Families
Event: Rally for Immigrant Rights
Date: Saturday, November 21, 2015
Time: Noon
Where: Across the street from the Governor’s Mansion
Address: 1106 Lavaca Street, Austin, Texas 78701
Admission: Public welcome

AUSTIN — A three-day Pilgrimage for Immigrant Families will culminate in a Rally for Immigrant Rights at noon, Saturday, November 21, 2015, across the street from the Texas Governor’s Mansion, 1106 Lavaca Street, in Austin. The rally will be joined by marchers coming from Taylor and Pflugerville, with a request that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott meet with immigrant families.

Speakers at the Saturday rally will include State Sen. Sylvia Garcia, union leaders from Education Austin and the Service Employees International Union, and members of the faith community. Kiko Villamizar and Cecilia and the Broken Hearts will provide music.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Family Detention, Greg Abbott, Immigrant Rights, Metro, Social Action, Workers Defense Project | Leave a comment

Carl Davidson :
My two cents on the Democratic forum hosted by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Maddow did a good job of posing open questions and trying to get decent answers.

Rachel meets Bernie. Photo by Chuck Burton / AP.

By Carl Davidson | The Rag Blog | November 10, 2015

Listen to Thorne Dreyer’s Nov. 6, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Carl Davidson, who helps us make some sense out of all the political madness, here:

As advertised, it was a forum not a debate. I’m talking about MSNBC host Rachel Maddow’s November 6 interviews in a South Carolina auditorium with Martin O’Malley, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton, in that order.

The event lasted two hours, with some 3,000 people in the room.
Unlike the GOP spectacle-debates, few sparks flew, no “gotcha” questions were posed, and no personal insults were hurled. And Maddow did a good job of posing open questions and trying to get decent answers. Only with Hillary did she seem to lose some control and allow herself to be put in a passive situation.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged 2016 Elections, Bernie Sanders, Carl Davidson, Democratic Forum, Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley, Podcast, Rachel Maddow, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO | Halloween at Hutto

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Alice Embree

It’s more trick than treat for the hunger strikers at this Texas immigrant family detention center.

Trick or treat: Immigrant women languish in this for-profit prison.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | November 5, 2015

As we sat in the waiting area of the Hutto “Residential” Center, an unexpected spectacle unfolded before the three of us who had come to visit. It was Halloween in Hutto.

Originally Peggy Morton and I had planned to take Maria Luisa, Field Organizer for the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), to Karnes, another family detention center in Texas, that morning. It was October 30, when thunder and torrents of rain poured down on the hill country.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged CCA, Elaine J. Cohen, Family Detention, Halloween, Hutto Hunger Strike, Hutto Prison, Immigration Detention, Metro, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

Ken Wachsberger :
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ’60s underground press. Part I: The ‘Barb’ reunion

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Alice Embree

That independent, noncorporate, grassroots outburst of countercultural participatory journalism is finally beginning to generate modern-day notice.

Eugene Schoenfeld aka “Dr. HIPpocrates,” author of the infamous sexuality and health column, “Dr. Hip,” with Barb 50th anniversary organizer Diana Stephens. Photo by John Jekabson, former Barb managing editor.

By Ken Wachsberger | The Rag Blog | November 5, 2015

[This is the first of a three-part series written for The Rag Blog by underground press historian Ken Wachsberger.]

It’s fiftieth anniversary season for the countercultural underground press class of 1965 — time to celebrate because that was the year the East Village Other, the Berkeley Barb, The Paper, and the Fifth Estate appeared for the first time.

The next year, those four papers and the Los Angeles Free Press — founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin with inspiration from the recently invented offset printing process — together formed the Underground Press Syndicate (UPS), the first nationwide network of countercultural underground papers from this country, along with two British pacifist publications, Peace News and Sanity.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Alternative Media, Berkeley Barb, Counterculture, Ken Wachsberger, Rag Bloggers, Sixties, Underground Press, Underground Press Series | 6 Comments

Mike Davis :
Billionaires and super-storms

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Hurricane Patricia come ashore at Cuixmala where English robber-baron Sir James Goldsmith built his Xanadu, La Loma, as a refuge from the apocalypse.

Sir James Goldsmith’s La Loma on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.

By Mike Davis | The Rag Blog | October 26, 2015

Mike Davis wrote this as Hurricane Patricia, then a Category 5 storm of epic proportions, approached Mexico’s Pacific Coast bringing threat of massive destruction — before it petered out in anti-climax over the coastal mountains. The extent of damage to “eco-resort” Cuixmala remains undetermined.

While waiting, with trepidation, for the first reports of damage and mortality from Mexico, I can’t help but note the irony that the eye of the super-hurricane was reported to have come ashore at Cuixmala 60 miles north of Mazanillo where English robber-baron Sir James Goldsmith built his Xanadu, La Loma, in the 1980s as a refuge from the apocalypse that he believed was inevitable.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Anti-Communists, Cuixmala, Environmental Resorts, Hurricane Patricia, La Loma, Mexican Billionaires, Mike Davis, Rag Bloggers, Roberto Hernandez, Sir James Goldsmith | Leave a comment

James McEnteer :
Wall-to-wall deja voodoo

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Walls can’t stop ideas. A wall itself is an idea, or rather, an admission that the builder of the
wall has run out of ideas.

Mexico border fence: making good neighbors? Image courtesy of Human Rights Watch.org.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | October 27, 2015

QUITO, Ecuador — From the start of his presidential campaign Donald Trump has hyped his idea of a giant new wall along the Mexican border to keep out undesirables. Because, you know, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Trump has repeatedly emphasized that: “It’s going to be a real wall. Not a toy wall like we have now.”

Trump’s proposal is not merely a xenophobic waste of billions, it isn’t even original. In 1992, six national election cycles ago, Pat Buchanan, another Republican nativist, campaigned for the GOP presidential nomination with the same idea. Buchanan thought a fence, and maybe a ditch, along the border, would stop the flow of drugs and “illegal aliens” into the United States.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Border Wall, Donald Trump, James McEnteer, Rag Bloggers, World History | Leave a comment

Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | Deepa Iyer, Carmen Tafolla & Gregg Barrios, Margaret Randall, Michael Hurd, Ed Sanders, Atash, Jim Hightower, Richard Zelade

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

We discuss racial justice post-9/11 and African-American history in Texas, get the lowdown on Labor Day, visit with a beatnik legend, learn about Austin in the Jazz Age, and listen to classy world music and world class poetry.

Shady characters. Gregg Barrios with Thorne Dreyer at the KOOP studios, Oct. 16, 2015. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | October 27, 2015

The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows. 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.

∗ Racial Justice Activist Deepa Iyer, Author of ‘We Too Sing America’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our October 23, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Deepa Iyer here — or listen to it here:

∗ Texas Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla & Gregg Barrios, Prominent Poet, Playwright & Critic

Read the show description and download the podcast of our October 16, 2015 Rag Radio show with Carmen Tafolla and Gregg Barrios here — or listen to it here:

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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Atash, Carmen Tafolla, Deepa Iyer, Ed Sanders, Gregg Barrios, Interviews, Jim Hightower, Margaret Randall, Michael Hurd, Podcasts, Rag Radio, Richard Zelade, Thorne Dreyer, Tracey Schulz | Leave a comment

Aaron Schnautz :
METRO | ‘The Challenger’ is a newspaper published by Austin’s homeless

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Since they have no office, staff meetings are held under a giant oak tree in front of City Hall.

Every Sunday Challenger staffers gather to discuss stories for next week’s issue. Photo by Aaron Schnautz / The Rag Blog.

By Aaron Schnautz | The Rag Blog | October 26, 2015

AUSTIN — At the corner of Guadalupe and Cesar Chavez streets in downtown Austin, there is a giant oak tree in front of City Hall that offers a shady resting place — and a place to watch the bustling city spring to life. Hundreds of cars, including a number of shiny Porsches and BMWs, pass by, many with the windows down and the music up. Joggers aim for the paths along Lady Bird Lake and impatiently wait for the traffic lights to change. Families pop in and out of the nearby boutiques.

But this oak tree isn’t just a great vantage point to watch Austin and its citizens, it also provides something else: Every Sunday afternoon it becomes a meeting place for people publishing a special newspaper — one produced by Austin’s homeless population.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Aaron Schnautz, Alternative Media, Austin Homeless, Journalism, Metro, Rag Bloggers, The Austin Advocate, The Challenger Newspaper, Valerie Romness | 3 Comments

The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT | Remi Kanazi, Palestinian-American poet and human rights activist

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Alice Embree

Event: A Night with Remi Kanazi
What: Poetry and conversation
Date: Friday, October 30, 2015
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Where: ART 1.102 in the School of Art, UT-Austin
Address: San Jacinto and 23rd Street, Austin 78712
Admission: Free and open to the public

Event: Houston Solidarity Action
What: Demonstration
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2015
Time: 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Where: General Consulate of Israel
Address: 24 Greenway Plaza, Houston 77046
Admission: Public welcome

AUSTIN — Remi Kanazi, Palestinian-American poet and human rights activist, will read poetry from his new book, Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up From Brooklyn to Palestine, at 6:30 p.m., Friday, October 30, 2015, in the auditorium of the UT-Austin School of Art (ART 1.102), at the corner of San Jacinto and 23rd Street.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Houston Demonstration, Metro, Palestinian Solidarity, Poetry Reading, Remi Kanazi, UT-Austin | Leave a comment

Mike Klonsky :
Obama’s choice for Education Secretary worse than Arne Duncan!

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

John King’s top-down imposition of corporate-style reform policies has led to a revolt among parents and teachers in New York.

Teacher and parent groups in New York have demanded State Education Commissioner John King Jr.’s resignation. Photo from Education News.

By Mike Klonsky | The Rag Blog | October 26, 2015

“Throughout his term in New York, John King was notorious for his complete disconnect from parents, teachers, and school officials. Our only hope is that this bizarre move by the White House will have the same effect across the country, spreading the Opt Out movement to every corner of the nation.” — NYSAPE

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama’s choice of John King to succeed Education Secretary Arne Duncan couldn’t have been worse. Why did he do it? It’s hard to find a more reactionary and divisive thinker or practitioner than King in all of Obama’s realm.

As New York’s Education Commissioner, King’s top-down imposition of corporate-style reform policies, including Common Core testing mania, has led to a revolt among parents and teachers. If anyone deserves major credit for sparking the growing parent opt-out movement which has now spread nationwide and represents the biggest single threat to Obama’s own ed policies, it is King.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Arne Duncan, Common Core, Educational Reform, John King, Mike Klonsky, Public Education, Rag Bloggers, Secretary of Education, Standardized Testing | Leave a comment

Lamar W. Hankins :
We must act on Islamic State genocide

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Alice Embree

There should be little doubt that the Islamic State has committed genocide; its leaders regularly admit to that continuing war crime.

Islamic State fighter.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | October 25, 2015

“This is genocide.” Every time I read those words, I hear them in the solemn and sonorous voice of Edward R. Murrow, who began his World War II broadcasts from England with “This is London.” But what I am referring to here are the massive killings by the Islamic State of Kurds, Shias, Sufis, Christians, Yazidis, children, journalists, those deemed guilty of apostasy, women who do not submit to being raped, and many others whom the Islamic State considers infidels or pagans.

Because the nature of most of these groups was discussed thoroughly by Steve Russell in a Rag Blog article last year, I recommend looking at what he wrote then if you have questions about who they are.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Genocide, ISIS, Islamic State, Lamar W. Hankins, Radical Islamists, Rag Bloggers, United Nations, War Crimes | 3 Comments