Tom Hayden :
The madness in Iraq and the comeback of the neocons

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The original blame for this disaster is on the Bush administration, but also on all those who succumbed to a Superpower Syndrome, which claimed we could redesign the Middle East.

IRAQ-UNREST-VOLUNTEERS

Iraqi tribesmen gather to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants. Photo from AFP / Getty Images.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | June 17, 2014

American activist anti-war networks are perfectly right in standing against renewed U.S. intervention in Iraq. So far Obama has been forced by events to send some 275 U.S. troops for embassy protection, while a decision on bombing is being mulled. The confused Congress needs to be called upon to be a counterweight against the hawks who want nothing more than to blame Obama instead of themselves for “losing” Iraq.

But there is far more to do. We are deep into the battle over memory.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Kate Braun :
Celebrate vitality, creativity, abundance at Summer Solstice

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

It starts a time of reflection, contemplation, and evaluation of where you are, what you have done, what has been left undone, and why.

soltice dolmens

Poulnabrone Dolmen at sunset, Burren, County Clare, Ireland. Image from Crossroads Dispatches.

By Kate Braun | The Rag Blog | June 17, 2014

“The sun appears to stop/And rest upon the blue”

Saturday, June 21, 2014, is the Summer Solstice, the longest day and shortest night of the year. The Goddess is now Matron, ripe with pregnancy. It is a time to celebrate vitality, creativity, health, and abundance.

Once again the Oak and Holly Kings engage in their ritual dance, reflecting the change of seasons. This is the beginning of the ascendency of the Holly King, the king of the waning year. It starts a time of reflection, contemplation, and evaluation of where you are, what you have done, what has been left undone, and why.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

METRO | Mariann G. Wizard : Fragmented planning in Southeast Austin? Or worse?

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

I can almost visualize oversized, faux luxurious, slapdash-built ‘mixed-use’ towers, perhaps rising already in blueprint form.

wizard sw

Four corners! Above is the southwest corner of E. Riverside and Grove Blvd. in Southeast Austin, courtesy of Google Maps. Photos inset in copy below are, from top, the southeast, northeast, and northwest corners. The lot on the northwest corner now sports a “For Sale” sign.

By Mariann G. Wizard | The Rag Blog | June 16, 2014

SOUTHEAST AUSTIN — More and more the City of Austin’s planning processes seem fragmented and uncoordinated. Maybe that’s because citizens aren’t seeing the big picture.

The intersection of E. Riverside Dr. and Grove Blvd. today quarters grassy hillocks, scattered mesquite trees, and wildflowers; that is, four vacant lots. Country Club Creek meanders nearby, on its way to the Colorado River. North lies an Austin Community College (ACC) campus; southward, Grove merges with southbound Montopolis St., crosses Hwy. 71/Ben White Blvd., and goes on beyond the Dove Springs neighborhood.
Continue reading →

Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
NBA: Playoffs-Oklahoma City Thunder at San Antonio Spurs
FRONT PAGE | David Hamilton says the San Antonio Spurs’ win over the Heat was a ‘symbolic victory for the left.’
Posted in Metro, RagBlurb | Leave a comment

Bob Feldman :
People’s History of Egypt, Epilogue/Update, Section 1, February-October 2013

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Millions of Egyptians take to the streets and military deposes Morsi; El-Sisi initiates brutal counterrevolution.

morsi supporters

Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi let their feelings be known, July 2013. Photo by AP.

By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | June 15, 2014

[With all the dramatic activity in Egypt, Bob Feldman’s Rag Blog “people’s history” series, “The Movement to Democratize Egypt,” could not be more timely. Also see Feldman’s “Hidden History of Texas” series on The Rag Blog.]

By June 2013, large numbers of people in Egypt felt that — as the secular left anti-imperialist Revolutionary Socialists group in Egypt noted in its July, 6, 2013 statement, then Egyptian president “Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood had betrayed the principles of the January 25, 2011 revolution and overthrown its goals.”
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
wizard sw
METRO | Mariann Wizard asks if planning in SE Austin is controlled by bickering special interests & if minority neighborhoods will be prey for the bulldozer?
Posted in RagBlog, RagBlurb | Leave a comment

Michael James :
Gifts from the Great Spirit, tripping in NOLA, leaping forward & following a rainbow, 1975-’77

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

As the rain poured down and we cradled ourselves in the palm of a giant southern oak, Katy and I shook hands and committed to giving this restaurant thing a try.

james 8 - heartland patio

Heartland Café patio, Chicago, September 1976. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | June 15, 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.]

Our lives became intertwined when I met Katy Hogan in October 1975 on the mezzanine at the Midland Hotel and shared a joint during a Holly Near concert. This was a good thing, one of the best things in my life. The Vietnam War was over. So, too, the rigorous day-to-day organizing and politics of life in Rising Up Angry was slowly coming to a close. I was exploring my next moves.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Alan Waldman :
‘Rake’ is an outrageous, bawdy, Australian legal thriller-comedy

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Richard Roxborough is a seriously flawed barrister who represents criminals accused of ridiculous crimes, ranging from cannibalism to cutting off a neighbor’s weenie with garden shears.

rake

Rake is an audacious Australian legal comedy-drama.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | June 10, 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 and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

Rake is a very clever and audacious Australian legal comedy-drama that ran for four seasons (2010-2014) Down Under. The first two seasons (16 episodes) are available on Netflix Instant streaming, including this one.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chellis Glendinning :
Celebrating the ‘Grito de Libertad’ in Bolivia

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Joining in the patriotic frenzy with Evo Morales, goose-stepping soldiers, lots of white paint… and, oh yes, the marching bands…

goose-steppin

Police marching band does a little goose-stepping on Independence Day in Sucre. Photo from La Razon.

By Chellis Glendinning | The Rag Blog | June 8, 2014

SUCRE, Bolivia — Independence Day in Sucre was the most electrifying day in the Andes since Cochabamba doctors — armed with rocks and in full white-coat-stethoscope regalia — hurled themselves into street battle against the police and the police hurled their computers into bonfires and burned down their own stations.

Preparation for the grand event celebrating the Grito de Libertad began weeks in advance when workers of this White City set up scaffolding for the annual re-whitening of the Casa de Libertad in Plaza 25 de mayo. The paint businesses on Avenida Jaime Mendoza then realized their raison d’être as every home-owning Sucreño within 10 blocks joined the effort to repaint their façades white.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jack A. Smith :
A left solution to climate change

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Climate deniers in Congress, exasperating as they are, constitute the farcical sideshow of a much bigger economic and political three-ring circus known as U.S.A. Inc.

green marx 2

System change, not climate change. Image from BostonSocialism.org.

By Jack A. Smith | The Rag Blog | June 8, 2014

Climate change is occurring with extreme rapidity. Recent news headlines warn us: “Earth Could Warm 11 Degrees by 2100,” “Western Antarctic Ice Sheet Is Collapsing,” and “Climate Change Risks Security and Wars” — and this is just the beginning.

Had extreme measures been inaugurated worldwide 20 years ago to sharply curtail reliance on fossil fuels, much of what we are now experiencing — unwelcome temperature change, dangerous storms, droughts, floods, etc. — would have been minimized. But to this day Washington is among the tiny minority of countries that have refused to ratify the basic UN document on climate change, the Kyoto Protocol.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer
growth monster
METRO | Roger Baker reports on “The rise and rise of Austin, Texas” – the suburban explosion & the ever-so-tenuous tech bubble.
Posted in RagBlog, RagBlurb | Leave a comment

Harry Targ :
Obama’s ‘glass is half-empty’ foreign policy

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

It is the non-military parts of the Obama speech that peace activists should mobilize around, weak as they are.

US President Barack Obama throws out the

President Obama: Pitching his foreign policy? Image from RealClearPolitics.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | June 8, 2014

President Obama has retrenched U.S. global engagement in a way that has shaken the confidence of many U.S. allies and encouraged some adversaries. That conclusion can be heard not just from Republican hawks but also from senior officials from Singapore to France and, more quietly, from some leading congressional Democrats. As he has so often in his political career, Mr. Obama has elected to respond to the critical consensus not by adjusting policy but rather by delivering a big speech — Washington Post editorial, May 28, 2014.

President Obama gave what was framed as a major foreign policy address to a West Point graduating class on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Many peace activists hoped for a forthright statement on the limits of U.S. power and expressions of humility about the correct role of the country in the world. They should be sorely disappointed.
Continue reading →

Posted in RagBlog | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments