Hugh Grady and Thorne Dreyer :
METRO | Remembering David MacBryde, philosopher, activist, and friend

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

A sweet man of peace, The Rag Blog’s David
MacBryde passed away in Berlin, Wednesday, September 9.

David MacBryde in Berlin

David MacBryde in Berlin. Photo courtesy of Connie Moreno.

AUSTIN — I lost a dear friend last Wednesday and The Rag Blog lost its “man in Berlin.” David MacBryde, a warm and funny man who played an important role in the struggle for peace and justice in ‘60s and ‘70s Austin — and was a contributor to Austin’s original underground newspaper, The Rag — died of cancer, September 9, 2015, in Berlin, where he had been living since 1981.

David, who had roots in the Quaker Church and continued his social activism through all his years in Germany, studied physics and mathematics at Yale and philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin. He was active with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Austin’s Armadillo Press, an IWW print shop. He was a UT shuttle bus driver and helped organize a militant drivers’ union.
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Michael Simmons :
Steve Earle: ‘Mississippi, It’s Time!’

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

With this song, son-of-the-South Earle aims to help convince the Magnolia State to eradicate the Confederate symbol from its flag.

Steve Earl & the Dukes sm

‘Mississippi: It’s Time‘ is Steve Earle’s passionate musical response to the Confederate flag controversy.

By Michael Simmons | The Rag Blog | September 16, 2015

“It’s largely about empathy,” says Steve Earle of his mandate as a songwriter. “The job is about empathy whether you’re writing love songs or political songs.” The musician, author, actor, and activist’s newest song hit iTunes on September 11 and it clearly shows how empathy can be the prime motivation for the political. Entitled “Mississippi, It’s Time,” it’s his response to the Confederate flag controversy that flared following the church massacre of nine black Americans in Charleston, South Carolina, in June.

After photos of the serial killer brandishing said flag surfaced, both Alabama and South Carolina removed it from statehouse grounds. The last holdout is Mississippi which incorporates it in the design of their state flag. Son-of-the-South Earle is aiming to help convince the Magnolia State to eradicate the offensive symbol.
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Johnny Hazard :
Mexico’s missing students: Report debunks
official account

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The report documents local, state, and federal participation in the many hours of violence against the students.

relatives of students

Relatives and friends of disappeared Mexican students shown waiting for release of human rights report. Photo by Omar Torres / Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.

By Johnny Hazard | The Rag Blog | September 14, 2015

MEXICO CITY — The long-awaited report of the Grupo Interdisciplinario de Estudios Independientes, formed under the auspices of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, was released on Sunday, September 6, almost a year after the atrocities of September 26 and 27, 2014.

It belies almost all of the assertions of the Mexican government, including the theory that the students were burned in a landfill in the city of Cocula, adjacent to Iguala, after local police turned them over to drug gang members. The report documents local, state, and federal participation in the many hours of violence against the students.
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Roger Baker :
METRO | Risky business in Central Texas: The toll road bond gamble

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Wall Street won’t insure the new CTRMA toll road debt at an affordable cost because of its high risk.

Graphic from Investopedia.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | September 14, 2015

AUSTIN — The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, or CTRMA, is a toll road agency that solicits and bundles money from various sources and uses it to build and operate toll roads in the Austin, Texas, area. The main purpose of this essay is to take a closer look at an under-reported aspect of the CTRMA’s toll road policy, their toll road debt and its potential local risk.

Is the CTRMA road bond debt arrangement likely to work out as a good investment, benefiting both those who hold the bonds as well as Austin area taxpayers? I believe the risk of bond default is unacceptable.
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Roger Baker :
METRO | Is cheaper driving here to stay?

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Gasoline may stay cheap until we burn through the current market glut in perhaps a year.

Texas shale oil bust. Image from CNN Money.

Texas shale oil bust. Image from CNN Money.

By Roger Baker | The Rag Blog | September 14, 2015

[This article was written as a companion piece to Roger Baker’s Rag Blog article, “Risky business in Central Texas: The toll road bond gamble.”]

AUSTIN — We are now seeing declining growth and a deflationary economic contraction globally. In fact, the current $40-plus a barrel oil price is by itself good proof of that. The global collapse in the price of oil shows that with global supply remaining roughly constant over time at about 95 million barrels per day. The current low oil price, together with a price slump in other industrial commodities like iron ore, is really an indication of a broad and deep contraction in the global economy, much like 2008-2009.

The Texas shale drilling industry was supposed to keep us driving normally forever, or at least until the economy could recover enough so we could afford to make a transition to electric cars, right? Everyone connected to Wall Street and its financial followers with any media influence were saying that only about a year ago. Then the global oil price gradually collapsed from over $100 a barrel in mid-2014, down to its current price of about $45.
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Alice Embree :
METRO EVENT | The ‘New Greek Tragedy’ is focus of panel in Austin

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Alice Embree
Greek Tragedy

The new Greek tragedy.

Event: “A New Greek Tragedy? Inequality, Human Rights and Democracy”
What: Panel discussion
Date: Monday, September 28, 2015
Time: 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Where: Sheffield Room (TNH 2.111), University of Texas School of Law
Address: 727 E Dean Keeton St, Austin, TX 78705
Admission: Free

AUSTIN — A colloquium on Inequality and Human Rights will focus on the Greek economic crisis from 4-6 p.m. on Monday, September 28, in the Sheffield Room of the University of Texas Law School. It is sponsored by the Bernard and Audre Rappoport Center for Human Rights and Justice and features University of Texas professor James Galbraith and Georgetown law professors Alvaro Santos and Philomila Tsoukala.
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Alice Embree :
METRO EVENT | New documentary about the Black Panthers screens in Austin

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Alice Embree

black pantherBy Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | September 14, 2015

Event: “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”
What: Film showing
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Marchesa Hall and Theatre
Address: 6406 North IH35 #3100, Austin, Texas 78752
Admission: $10 General Admission

AUSTIN — The Austin Film Society will present “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” as part of its documentary series at the Marchesa, 6406 North IH35 #3100, on Wednesday, September 30, at 7:30 p.m.

Director Stanley Nelson relies on interviews and archival footage to bring the story of the Black Panther Party to life. Nelson’s previous work documented Jonestown: The Life and Death of People’s Temple and Freedom Riders.

Formed as a party of self-defense against police brutality, the Black Panthers became a militant voice for transformation. Their 10-point program is still a model for racial and community justice, and their story is particularly important in the age of Black Lives Matter.

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Debra Keefer Ramage :
Here and there: Bernie Sanders and
Jeremy Corbyn

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The British press laughed off Labour’s Corbyn, just as pundits here have deemed Sanders ‘unelectable.’

Jeremy Corbin sm crop

The British Labour Party’s Jeremy Corbyn. Image from The Independent.

By Debra Keefer Ramage | The Rag Blog | September 10, 2015

UPDATE: Socialist Jeremy Corbyn, the “loony leftist” assumed by his detractors to be “unelectable,” was chosen leader of the British Labour Party on September 12, 2015, with nearly 60% of the vote, a victory greater than the mandate given to Tony Blair in 1994.

MINNEAPOLIS — Over here, we have the Bernie Sanders phenomenon. Sanders, a “self-avowed” democratic socialist, has somehow managed to make a pact with the Democratic party, which has allowed him to operate in an inside-outside strategy and gain seniority and clout in the U.S. Senate.

This was a feat in and of itself. Now he is making a bid for the Presidency, and the Democrats are accepting him as a party insider. Probably when it all started, the leadership thought he hadn’t much of a chance, and since he had kept his part of the bargain and only troubled the Republicans, why not let a rumpled, but vaguely charismatic septuagenarian have one last fling?
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James McEnteer :
Blasts from the past in Buenos Aires

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Omnipresence of Beatles offers counterpoint to hall of horrors at Museum of Memory and Human Rights.

museum of memory

The Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Buenos Aires.

By James McEnteer | The Rag Blog | September 9, 2015

QUITO, Ecuador — On a visit to Buenos Aires last month, it took a few days to register: they were everywhere. Their music poured out of cafes and record stores in Palermo and San Telmo. Posters of their faces, individually or together, appeared in store windows and on walls in various styles, from photos of their early mop top days to elaborate psychedelic images of their later, bushier incarnations.

Like all great music, the best of the Beatles brings back the spirit of the era in which it originated, even as it offers fresh pleasures in the present moment. From “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Norwegian Wood,” to “When I’m Sixty-Four” to “Let It Be,” Beatles music has traveled far and well. Evocative of long-gone times and places, their songs of innocence and experience also transcend any context, appealing to many who have never heard them before.
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Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Whitechapel’ is a harrowing Brit cop series inspired by notorious historical crimes

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Copycat killers test the mettle of Brit thesps Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis & quirky Steve Pemberton.

white chapel

From left: Davis, Penry-Jones and Pemberton

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | September 6, 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.]

Whitechapel is a British TV drama series in which detectives in London’s Whitechapel district in 2008 deal with murders which replicate historical crimes. The first series depicts the search for a modern copycat killer replicating the murders of Jack the Ripper.

Four series of 18 episodes have aired in the U.K. from 2008 to 2013, and Netflix has the first three-episode series. Here, from YouTube, is a two-part episode from Season 4: Part 1 and Part 2.
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Thorne Dreyer :
METRO | Don Quixote’s Bouldin Creek walkabout

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Jim stood blocking the demolition for more than two hours before the police came, cuffed him, and took him to the county jail.

Retherford busted

James Retherford is arrested after blocking demolition of house in Bouldin Creek.  Photo by Cynthia Bloom / The Rag Blog.

By Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | September 3, 2015

AUSTIN — The enemy wasn’t quite Megatron (more like “The Claw of Death”), but it was definitely man against massive machine in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood of South Austin when James Retherford faced off against a giant hydraulic excavator in a futile attempt to save a house on Dawson Road he and many of his neighbors believe should have been preserved for its historic value.

Graphic designer and community activist Retherford was taking his neighborhood walkabout on Friday afternoon, August 14, when he came upon the mechanical implement of destruction taking aim at a mid-1920s-era stone house, one of several on the block that were built by local lawyer, engineer, and architect Nicholas Dawson and his two sisters, Mollie and Nannie, who were Austin public education pioneers.
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Alice Embree :
BOOKS | ‘Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary’

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Margaret Randall, bringing a poet’s voice to her work, gives human dimensions to the heroes of the Cuban revolution.

haydee santamaria 2

By Alice Embree | The Rag Blog | September 1, 2015

Leer este artículo en español

853px-Rag_radio2Listen to the Rag Radio podcast of our interview with Margaret Randall. The author, Alice Embree, joins Thorne Dreyer in this interview. This show originally aired Friday, Oct. 2, 2015, 2-3 p.m. (CT), on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin. Find all podcasts and more about Rag Radio here.

[Haydée Santamarîa, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression by Margaret Randall (August 2015: Duke University Press); Paperback; 248 pp; $23.95; Hardcover; 248 pp; $84.95]

Margaret Randall’s newest book is an homage to Cuban revolutionary Haydée Santamaría. It is the story of a woman with a sixth-grade education raised on a provincial sugar plantation. Haydée defied traditional gender roles as she came of age in the early fifties and participated in every aspect of the Cuban struggle.

She joined her brother, Abel, in Havana, and was there at the time of Fulgencio Batista’s coup. In the apartment Haydee and her brother shared, a group of young insurgents gathered to imagine and plan the overthrow of the dictatorship. The group included Haydée’s fiancé and the bearded lawyer Fidel Castro.
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