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

Marilyn Katz :
It’s time to speak out for Gaza

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Why have American politicians and editorial boards been silent in the face of extreme violence?

10,000 rally for peace in Tel Aviv, August 16, 2014. Image from Counter Current News.

By Marilyn Katz | The Rag Blog | September 3, 2014

The latest seven-week war in Gaza is over. More than 2,000 people are dead — most of them civilians, 500 of them children. At least 10,000 people have been injured, and 500,000 are homeless. Yet there have been few words of criticism from our nation’s editorial boards or political leadership for these reprehensible, tragic events.

What has happened to us? Where is our sense of outrage at the deaths of thousands of innocents that we show when a single American, 200 airline passengers, or three Israeli youths are killed?
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Israel-Gaza Conflict, Israeli Peace Movement, Marilyn Katz, Palestinian Occupation, Public Opinion, Rag Bloggers, Terrorism | 1 Comment

Shepherd Bliss :
Neighbors come together to build the village

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Small-town Sebastopol, California, sets 10-day festival to ‘shape common spaces in a way that promotes beauty and community.’

Shaping the commons in Portland during Village Building Convergence. Image from Transition United States.

By Shepherd Bliss | The Rag Blog | September 3, 2014

SEBASTOPOL, California — Village Building Convergence (VBC) activists and their supporters from Cittaslow Sebastopol, Transition, the Grange, Permaculture Skills Center, and other groups recently packed the City Council meeting of small town Sebastopol in semi-rural Sonoma County, northern California. Testimony in support of VBC came from enthusiastic advocates from three-year-olds to 70-somethings.

The Village Building Convergence is “an annual collaboration and cross-pollination of neighbors, groups and civic partnerships” that involves citizens “coming together to shape their common spaces” with projects that “may take the shape of benches on corners, street painting projects, sharing kiosks, natural building projects and a multitude of other ways to inspire neighbors to gather in public spaces.”
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged California, Celebration, Commons, Community Building, Environment, Public Art, Public Spaces, Rag Bloggers, Sebastopol, Shepherd Bliss, Sustainability, Village Building Convergence | Leave a comment

METRO PODCAST | Thorne Dreyer : Broadus Spivey & Jesse Sublett hold forth on ‘Homer Maxey’s Texas Bank War’

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Rag Radio features the literary odd couple of lawyer Spivey and musician-writer Sublett and their true tale of West Texas legal chicanery, ‘Broke Not Broken.’

Broadus Spivey, left, and Jesse Sublett on Rag Radio at the KOOP studios in Austin, Texas, August 22, 2014. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | September 2, 2014

Joining us on Rag Radio are the literary odd couple — prominent attorney Broadus Spivey and musician and crime novelist Jesse Sublett — who together researched and penned Broke Not Broken: Homer Maxey’s Texas Bank War, the remarkable story of the record-breaking, precedent-setting legal battle between rancher Homer Maxey and the Citizens National Bank of Lubbock.

Broke Not Broken delivers what one reviewer calls “a tale of Giant-like proportions” and which, according to the Austin American-Statesman, includes “elements of sabotage, skullduggery, conflict of interest and judicial misconduct.” Not to mention “avaricious connivers,” turn-coat attorneys, courtroom theatrics, and even a dash of sexual intrigue.

Download the podcast of our August 22, 2014 Rag Radio interview with Broadus Spivey and Jesse Sublett here — or listen to it here:

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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Austin Attorneys, Austin Musicians, Broadus Spivey, Broke Not Broken, Homer Maxey, Interview, Jesse Sublett, Lubbock, Metro, Nonfiction, Podcast, Rag Radio, Texas Banking, Thorne Dreyer, True Crime | Leave a comment

Alan Waldman :
Britain’s ‘Bad Girls’ is a gripping, gritty gals-behind-bars series

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Strong English cast and writers make this popular prison series compelling television.

Bad Girls. Lots of them.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | September 1, 2014

[In his weekly 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 and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

I am very interested in the topic of female incarceration, and I write a blog article about it every third week at Humane Exposures. I loved both seasons of Netflix’s powerful women-in-prison drama Orange is the New Black, and a dozen or so years ago I watched and enjoyed the first riveting season of the dramatic British TV series, Bad Girls. Here’s the first part of an episode (and from it you can access the remaining parts).
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Alan Waldman, Bad Girls, British Television, Criticism, Prison Drama, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

METRO | Steve Russell : Voting for change

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

I guess my attitude towards elections could be taken as evidence that my purity has been compromised. Maybe the old cat has been belled.

Judge Russell: Old belled cat? Photo by Ian Jones / The Telegraph.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | August 27, 2014

“Would you rather vote for what you want and not get it or vote for what you don’t want and get it?” — Ralph Nader

“In the end, the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don’t always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor.” — Julian Castro

[This essay by Judge Russell was inspired by and serves as a comradely rejoinder to Austin movement attorney Jim Simons’ recent Rag Blog article, “The 50-year lawyer: Defying the systems of power.”]

AUSTIN — I suppose there’s some biology behind the fact that, at my age, Mr. Castro makes a lot more sense than Mr. Nader. There comes a time when you know you’re not going to get there…but that’s not exactly my case.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged American Indians, Austin Activists, Austin Judges, Democratic Party, Electoral politics, Jim Simons, Lesser Evil, Metro, Obama Presidency, Radical Politics, Rag Bloggers, Steve Russell, The Rag | 3 Comments

Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte :
Ferguson: Living through the replay

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

We seem repeatedly surprised by the anger generated by educational inequity, vanished jobs, income disparities, lost affordable housing, and racial and ethnic profiling.

Police confront demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 18, 2014. Photo by Lucas Jackson / Reuters.

By Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte | The Rag Blog | August 26, 2014

Like many other Americans, I’ve followed events in Ferguson, Missouri, since Officer Darren Wilson gunned down unarmed 18-year old Michael Brown. So many visual accounts of that action brought back a lot of personal memories — most specifically of the 1992 reaction in Los Angeles when police who beat Rodney King III were acquitted of wrong doing in the near fatal attack

That was before cell phones made everyone a potential documentarian of police aggression. But there were video cameras and a nearby resident caught the action on tape through his apartment window. That film clip sparked local, national, and international outrage. So when the verdict came in, that outrage first ignited tempers and then Central Los Angeles as residents turned to protest that soon became violent.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged 1967 Race Riots, American History, American Society, Cultural Stereotypes, Ethnic Studies, Ferguson, Kerner Commision, Mainstream Media, Mercedes Lynn de Uriarte, New America Media, Racial Profiling, Rag Bloggers, Sixties, Texas Board of Education, UT School of Journalism | 3 Comments

Murray Polner :
SPORT | Former Dodger GM’s exile from baseball: Was justice done?

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Despite Al Campanis’ historic racist remark, he was a proud and honorable man who was mistreated by pro baseball’s self-righteous moral guardians.

Al Campanis interviewed by Ted Koppel on Nightline, April 15, 1987. Treatment of image from ABC archives.

By Murray Polner | The Rag Blog | August 26, 2014

I often think of Al Campanis, a true baseball old-timer I knew, who was drummed out of the game he so loved in 1987 because of his foolish remark on the ABC news show, Nightline, about black players lacking “the necessities” to be managers or front office executives.

He’d been a Montreal Royal shortstop in 1946, playing alongside Jackie Robinson at second base, had barnstormed off-season with a racially integrated squad, and was a Brooklyn Dodger scout who unearthed Roberto Clemente and Sandy Koufax. He reached the apex of his profession as General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and took them to four pennants and one World Series title. He even prevented a former black Dodger from killing himself.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Al Campanis, Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball, Murray Polner, Nightline, Racism, Rag Bloggers, Sports | 1 Comment

METRO PODCAST | Thorne Dreyer : Hip-hop duo Riders Against the Storm, Austin Band of the Year

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Austin’s acclaimed husband-and-wife hip-hoppers, Riders Against the Storm, performed on Rag Radio and rapped with us about their unique vision.

Riders Against the Storm on Rag Radio in the KOOP studios. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | August 24, 2014

Our guests on Rag Radio are the hip-duo, Riders Against the Storm, the reigning Austin Music Awards Band of the Year. We engage in a lively conversation with Chaka and Qi Dada and they perform three songs on the show. The husband-and-wife hip-hop duo, who have built a large and committed following since coming to Austin in December 2009, bring performance art, ceremony, and community-building to their unique work.

Download the podcast of our August 15, 2014, Rag Radio show featuring Riders Against the Storm, here — or listen to it here:

Rag Radio is a weekly hour-long syndicated radio program produced and hosted by long-time alternative journalist and Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer. The show is produced in the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas, and is first broadcast live on KOOP every Friday from 2-3 p.m. (CDT).

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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Austin Music Awards, Austin Musicians, Chaka, Hip Hop, Interview, Metro, Podcast, Qi Dada, Rag Bloggers, Rag Radio, RAS, Riders Against the Storm, Thorne Dreyer | Leave a comment

Harry Targ :
The forms of violence and the meanings
of Ferguson

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

From police violence to economic despair, to lack of political representation, to cultural rationales for state violence, the basic characteristics of American society are uncovered.

The militarization of police in Ferguson, Missouri. Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | August 21, 2014

In addressing violence, researchers, educators, journalists, and religious leaders have usually concentrated on its most visible forms: murder and war. The central features of such violence include physical assault and killing. In our own day terrorism has joined war as the most popular common subject for study.

Over the years, peace educators have developed intellectual tools to uncover more diverse meanings of violence, their differences and their connections. Structural violence has been distinguished from direct violence. Researchers continue to analyze direct violence, physical assault and killing, but also study structural violence, the various forms of human suffering that take more time, impose pain and suffering on populations, and are perpetuated by leading institutions and relationships in society.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged American Society, Ferguson, Harry Targ, Michael Brown, Police Violence, Poverty, Racism, Rag Bloggers, Violence | 2 Comments

Steve Russell :
The third time in Iraq is not the charm

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The do-nothing Congress has to date done nothing. In better and more rational times there would already be a roaring debate.

Coming or going? Last U.S. soldiers leave Iraq in December 2011. Photo by Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | August 20, 2014

In my clearest memory of Iraq War I, I was in a graduate school dorm at the University of Nevada, where the rooms had no televisions. Just about every student I knew in Reno was gathered in the lounge down the hall for most of the night around a communal TV. Ten p.m. in Reno was 8 a.m. in Baghdad and the son of one of my fellow students was commanding a flight in an early wave of the air war.

In my clearest memory of Iraq War II, I was chatting on line with my son in a FOB north of Baghdad, when the light fixture behind him started gyrating and the screen shook.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Beheadings, Genocide, Iraq War, ISIS, Kurds, Peshmerga, Rag Bloggers, Steve Russell, Terrorism, U.S. Foreign Policy, Yazidis | 4 Comments

Ron Jacobs :
BOOKS | The pacification that never ends

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Patrick Cockburn looks at the non-state forces in the region, who they are backed by, the motives of those backers. and the sectarian desires of the jihadis.

The book addresses the reemergence of Sunni fundamentalist militancy.

By Ron Jacobs | The Rag Blog | August 19, 2014

[The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the Failures of the Global War on Terror by Patrick Cockburn (October 2014: OR Books); Paperback; 150 pp.; $15.00.]

The sense of déjà vu in Iraq is not imaginary. With U.S. bombers attacking positions held by Sunni militants and a client Iraqi government apparently unable to fight on its own, the detritus of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is creating what could end up being the third phase of direct U.S. involvement in at the bloody sinkhole it did plenty to create.

The air strikes and special operations undertaken by the U.S. have a greater likelihood of dragging the U.S. further into this war than they do of furthering a long term solution. The Islamic State (IS or ISIL) fighters are the progeny of Washington’s bloody mischief in the region. They are even using weapons provided by the CIA to rebel forces in Syria, of which IS is but one element. Like Afghanistan’s Taliban in 2003, IS could very likely gain strength once U.S. forces engage its fighters.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Books, Iraq War, ISIS, Islamic Fundamentalism, Middle East, Militant Islam, Patrick Cockburn, Rag Bloggers, Ron Jacobs, The Jihadis Return, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Imperialism, War on Terror | 1 Comment

Michael James :
Stepping into America to see family, comrades & friends, then a return to Mexico, 1976-’78

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

After opening the Heartland Café in 1976, trips bolstered my positive outlook about life, and probably kept me sane.

My grandma Anne and my grother Beau, Dinner at the family home, Westport, Connecticut, December 1976. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | August 19, 2014

[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.]

I like to travel. I like leaving Chicago — and I love coming home to the Windy City of Big Shoulders. I call Chicago the “Heartland Capitol, a sometime Paradise.”

My Dad was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, but grew up in Chicago. The city’s wonderfulness was ingrained in my consciousness early on. I’ve been in and out of my beloved city since December 1942, when I was almost a year old and first came to the place the Potawatomi called the land of wild onions.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Chicago, Heartland Cafe, Memoir, Mexico, Michael James, New Orleans, Pictures from the Long Haul, Rag Bloggers, SDS, Travel, Yucatan | 1 Comment