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

Alan Waldman :
TELEVISION | ‘Hustle’ is Brit series where lovable rascals con greedy, rich bastards

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

A fine cast, tricky plots, and snappy dialogue make this program a fun, compelling pleasure.

Hustle is a compelling pleasure.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | June 3, 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.]

Hustle is a lively British con-men-vs.-slimy-aristocrats series that ran for eight seasons and 48 episodes, from 2004 to 2014. Four series and 24 episodes air on Netflix, and many are free on YouTube, such as this one.

Hustle follows a group of con artists who specialize in “long cons” — extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but which return a higher reward than simple confidence tricks. First the “marks” think they are getting away with something, and then the tables are turned.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Alan Waldman, British Television, Criticism, Hustle, Rag Bloggers, Tony Jordan | Leave a comment

Steve Russell :
Use writing talent without losing it

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The acid test of good writing is how it sounds when read aloud. When you write like an artist, people would pay to hear your words recited.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | June 2, 2015

This goes out to young people who are articulate in the written form of English and therefore perhaps a dying breed. It was inspired when one of my editors hurled a really painful remark my way. He said I write like a lawyer.

A legal education will seriously bollix your writing. People think lawyers are trying to be too subtle, to make every word choice carry too much freight.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Creative Writing, English, Grammar, Rag Bloggers, Steve Russell, Writing Tips | 3 Comments

Jonah Raskin :
Stormy Weather: A Rag Blog interview with Bryan Burrough, author of ‘Days of Rage’

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

“The underground is not a place but a way of life. You can be underground most anywhere, from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Hermosa Beach, California.” — Bryan Burrough

Days of Rage is Bryan Burrough’s sixth book.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | June 1, 2015

Bryan Burroughs has probably written the book about America’s radical underground at least for our time. Researching Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence, he talked to dozens and dozens of people, read almost all the literature, and studied the salient documents.

Days of Rage is Burrough’s sixth book. Previous works include Public Enemies (2004) that was made into a gangster film with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger and Christian Bale as FBI agent Melvin Purvis.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, Books, Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage, Interview, Jonah Raskin, Marilyn Buck, Radical Activists, Rag Bloggers, Sixties, Weather Underground | 1 Comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO | The heartbreak of children behind bars

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

The children we have come to know during our regular visits to detention centers have now spent an enormous part of their short lives behind walls.

Political cartoon by Christopher Cardinale / San Antonio Current.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | May 30, 2015

This is the most recent in a continuum of reflections on the women and children refugees that the government obstinately continues to detain at Berks in Pennsylvania, and at Karnes and Dilley in Texas. Please note the use of the word “detained,” a gentler, softer word than imprison, incarcerate, jail, or oppress.

KARNES COUNTY, Texas — On the way home from the Karnes Family Detention Center recently, we were sharing some of what we had heard in our separate visits with different moms and their kids. Felicia’s Prius gets 51 miles to the gallon; it has been the perfect vehicle to transport a changing crew of visitors from Austin to the hundreds of women and children currently housed in GEO’s version of what a “nice” family detention center looks like.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Elaine J. Cohen, Family Detention, Immigrants' Rights, Karnes County Family Detention Center, Metro, Rag Bloggers | 2 Comments

Bob Simmons :
Elevators Reunion: (I Done Got) Levitation
at Psych Fest 2015

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

Like Icarus, the 13th Floor Elevators, a band that should have a special alcove in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, flew too close to the sun.

Tommy Hall of the 13th Floor Elevators at Levitation 2015. Photo by Bob Simmons / The Rag Blog.

Text and photos by Bob Simmons | The Rag Blog | May 22, 2015

Sitting in the shiny Airstream trailer looking at Tommy Hall and seeing him for the first time since 1968, in what, like 46 years? We are at the 2015 Reverberation “Psych Fest” in Austin, with its nearly 70 bands, 20,000 people, and one or two old hippies for use to compare and contrast. And who would do that better than Tommy, a walking talking true cultural artifact if there ever was one.

I am awash in remembrance of what it was like all those years ago when the 13th Floor Elevators were encouraging their fans to “let it happen to you.” As a student at UT in the 60s I admit gladly that I was one of those who decided to indeed let it happen, in fact, to work actively to make it happen to me and anyone else who would listen. “Proselytizing ‘R Us,” some cynics might have said. But hey, if it worked for the Beatles, Jimi, and everyone in Golden Gate Park, why not for us? Pass the sacrament Jack. Just put the little Janis blotter stamp on your tongue and let nature take its course.
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Posted in Rag Bloggers, RagBlog | Tagged 13th Floor Elevators, Austin History, Austin Music, Bob Simmons, Elevators Reunion, LSD, Psych Fest, Psychedelic Drugs, Psychedelic Rock, Rag Bloggers, Rock and Roll, Roky Erickson, Sixties, Tommy Hall | 7 Comments

Thorne Dreyer :
RAG RADIO PODCASTS | Interviews with Burt Neuborne, Rev. Jim Rigby, Jesse Sublett, Barbara Hines, and Professor Dumpster

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

On these podcasts we discuss the first amendment, religion in a secular society, organized crime in ’60s Austin, immigrant rights and family detention, and sustainability through performance art!

Author and musician Jesse Sublett in the studios of KOOP Radio in Austin, Texas, April 24, 2015. Photo by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interviews by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | May 22, 2014

Rag Radio has an international audience and has become an influential platform for interviews with leading figures in politics, current events, literature, and cutting-edge culture. The following podcasts are from recent Rag Radio shows that have not previously been posted to The Rag Blog.

∗First Amendment Scholar Burt Neuborne, Author of ‘Madison’s Music’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our May 8, 2015 Rag Radio show with Burt Neuborne here — or listen to it here:

∗Rev Jim Rigby on ‘The Role of Religion in a Secular State’

Read the show description and download the podcast of our May 1, 2015 Rag Radio interview with Rev. Jim Rigby here — or listen to it here:

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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Barbara Hines, Burt Neuborne, Interviews, Jeff Wilson, Jesse Sublett, Jim Rigby, KOOP Radio, Podcasts, Professor Dumpster, Rag Bloggers, Rag Radio, Thorne Dreyer | Leave a comment

Lamar W. Hankins :
Move to Amend vs. the Supreme Court

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

We must put corporations in their place and acknowledge that money is a commodity, not speech.

Image from Move to Amend.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | May 19, 2015

For five years, ever since the illogical and corporatist Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which reaffirmed that corporations have the personal rights of citizens and held that money is speech, I have wanted to find an effective way to correct the damage those five Supreme Court Justices did to our system of government and our Constitution.

Recently, I found what I was looking for. I heard David Cobb speak about the the slow rise of corporate rights in this country — rights that are mistaken, but threaten to overcome the Constitutional framework devised by James Madison and others in 1787 and ratified in 1789. Corporations were once granted limited privileges, which have morphed into nearly unlimited rights conferred by an extremist judiciary that disregards the foundations of our democratic republic — a republic created by real people, not artificial entities.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Citizens United, Corporate Personhood, David Cobb, Lamar W. Hankins, Rag Bloggers, Supreme Court, U.S. Constitution | 2 Comments

Beverly Baker Moore :
METRO EVENT | Wake Up*Dead Men

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Alice Embree

Bruce Jackson will be joined by the ‘San Antonio Four’ at La Peña’s opening of his Texas prison photography retrospective.

Cummins Prison Farm, 1975. Photo by Bruce Jackson, whose retrospective is opening at Austin’s La Peña Gallery.

By Beverly Baker Moore | The Rag Blog | May 18, 2015

Event: ‘Wake*Up, Dead Men: A Retrospective of Bruce Jackson’s Prison Farm Photography and Film Work, 1965-1975’
Opening Reception: Friday, June 5, 2015, 6-8 p.m.
Exhibit: June 5-30, 2015
Where: La Peña Gallery
Address: 227 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701
Gallery hours: Mon-Fri, 8-5 p.m.; Sat, 8-3 p.m.
Cost: Free

AUSTIN — “Wake*Up Dead Men,” a retrospective of Bruce Jackson’s Texas Prison Farm Photography, 1965-1975, opens with a public reception on Friday, June 5, 2015. 6-8 p.m., at Austin’s La Peña Gallery. Jackson is an American folklorist, documentary filmmaker, writer, and photographer.

Bruce Jackson will be joined at the June 5 reception by the San Antonio Four — four women convicted in a 1994 child sexual abuse case who are now seeking exoneration in Texas courts — and several Texas prison exonorees. They will share their perspectives on prison reform initiatives.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged American Photographers, Beverly Baker Moore, Bruce Jackson, La Peña Gallery, Metro, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

Elaine J. Cohen :
METRO | Hundreds gather in Dilley, Texas, in fight to #EndFamilyDetention

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

ICE’s ‘South Texas Family Residential Center,’ run by CCA, is the largest such facility in the country.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | May 13, 2015

DILLEY, Texas — I’ve been hearing about Dilley, Texas, for years. My friend, Andy, is from there. He told stories of this small town in the middle of nowhere (but very close to the border) and the escapades of his group of artist/outsider friends and how they survived growing up there.

Then last year those of us in the immigrant rights/end detention circles started hearing about the property in Dilley owned by Red McCombs, a “man camp” for the oil and gas workers who had been working there for many years. Extracting and polluting, taking out and leaving filth in the air and water.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Dilley, Dilley Immigrant Detention Center, Elaine J. Cohen, Family Detention, Immigrant Detention, Immigrants' Rights, Metro, Rag Bloggers, Social Action, South Texas Family Residential Center | 1 Comment

The Rag Blog :
METRO EVENT |Author Smadar Lavie speaks on the Israeli elections and the Mizrahi predicament

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Alice Embree

By The Rag Blog | The Rag Blog | May 12, 2015

What: Smadar Lavie discusses her book, ‘Wrapped in the
Flag of Israel’
Date: Sunday, May 24, 2015
Time: 4-6 p.m.
Where: Resistencia Bookstore
Address: 4926 E. Cesar Chavez, Unit C1, Austin, TX 78702
Admission: Free

AUSTIN – – Austin Jewish Voice for Peace is hosting a talk by Professor Smadar Lavie, author of Wrapped in the Flag of Israel, at Resistencia Bookstore on Sunday, May 24, 2015, from 4-6 p.m. Lavie is a Mizrahi feminist leader, Palestinian-solidarity activist, and scholar. She will speak on Gaza 2014, the recent Israeli elections, and the Israeli Mizrahi predicament.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Jewish Voice for Peace, Metro, Misrahi, Palestinian Jews, Palistinian Solidarity, Resistencia Books, Smadar Lavie | Leave a comment

Michael James :
The beach house, south to Mexico, and a
rainbow victory, 1983

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

From this tiny spot on the edge of the earth I ventured out into the world, seeking adventures and trying to make Mother Earth a better place.

Beach house interior with thumb piano, Hank Williams,and an empty bottle of Cerveza Victoria from Nicaragua. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | May 12, 2015

[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.]

The “beach house” was my bachelor pad on the edge of the earth, a secluded hideaway crib with a close-to-nature vibe. In the early ’80s I lived in this space, situated near the end of the Loyola Avenue alley at the edge of the Great Lake Michigan. During my years there I did some growing up; by the end of the decade I had grown beyond it.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Chicago, Electoral politics, Harold Washington, Memoir, Michael James, Pictures from the Long Haul, Rag Bloggers, Travel, Water Sports | 2 Comments

Tom Hayden :
There may be an alternative to Obama’s pro-corporate trade deal

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Thorne Dreyer

It seems unlikely, but should Obama decide to extricate himself from an inconvenient initiative, here’s a way out.

Protest at TPP negotiations in New York on January 26, 2015 Photo by Cindy Trinh; Puppet by Elliot Crown. Image from Systemic Disorder.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | May 10, 2014

President Obama’s recent progressive initiatives — pursuing diplomacy with Iran, opening relations with Cuba, protecting undocumented immigrants, lifting the federal minimum wage, extending Medicaid benefits to millions of uninsured Americans, imposing tough regulations on coal — are facing furious Republican opposition on every front. That’s why it’s peculiar that he persists in pushing pro-corporate trade agreements over the objections of a majority of Democrats, unions, and environmentalists.

The Trans-Pacific and Trans-Atlantic trade agreements (TPP and TTIP) are being negotiated in secrecy, presumably because they include elements of a corporate agenda that would be rejected if ever debated in public, according to the expert opinion of Lori Wallach of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged China, Global New Deal, Obama Foreign Policy, Rag Bloggers, Tom Hayden, Trade Policies, Trans-Pacific Partnership | Leave a comment