Robert Jensen :
‘Declaring victory wherever we can’

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

An interview with Cynthia Kaufman on her book, ‘Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope’

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Cynthia Kaufman.

By Robert Jensen | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2014

[Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope by Cynthia Kaufman (2013: Lexington Books); Paperback; 200 pp; $32.99.]

I’m fond of books that don’t claim to have The Answer but instead are useful guides in our search for answers.

Such a volume is Cynthia Kaufman’s Getting Past Capitalism: History, Vision, Hope, which expresses in clear, concise language thoughts that likely have been bumping around in the minds of many of us who reject capitalism. The book is particularly powerful because of its modesty; Kaufman promises no new grand theory and instead offers insights that we all can use in our daily lives.
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Lamar W. Hankins :
Pete Seeger: A life that enriched ‘you and me’

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The world has been diminished by his passing, just as it was enriched by his life.

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Pete Seeger with Bruce Springsteen at Obama inaugration concert, Lincoln Memorial, 2009. Photo by H. Darr Beiser / USA Today.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2014

Several weeks ago, I began writing a column I intended to publish on the first Wednesday in May to mark the 95th birthday of Pete Seeger. But Pete died this past week before reaching that milestone. Among the handful of public figures in America during my lifetime that I consider heroes, Pete is prominent.

I must have been about16 years old when I discovered Pete Seeger. For a boy from Port Arthur, Texas, by way of Vidor, Pete was a revelation. He has always delighted me, challenged me, entertained me, encouraged me, educated me, and perked me up when I was feeling down.
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Thorne Dreyer :
Award-Winning Rock Journalist Margaret Moser on Rag Radio

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The irrepressible Margaret Moser, Austin Chronicle music writer and director of the Austin Music Awards, visits with us on Rag Radio.

margaret moser amp awards

Margaret Moser at the 2013 AMP Awards at the Moody Theater, Austin, April 21, 2013. Image from The Austinnot.

By Rag Radio | The Rag Blog | February 4, 2014

Rock journalist Margaret Moser, a prime mover behind the Austin music scene, was our guest on Rag Radio, Friday, January 24, 2014.

Rag Radio is a weekly syndicated radio program produced and hosted by long-time alternative journalist and Rag Blog editor Thorne Dreyer and recorded at the studios of KOOP 91.7-FM, a cooperatively-run all-volunteer community radio station in Austin, Texas.
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Carl Davidson and Harry Targ :
In State of the Union, Obama pulled his best punches

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The speech reflected the fact that Obama is ‘back in the game,’ but things still aren’t looking good for most of us.

obama state of union 2014

President Obama delivers State of Union address, January 28, 2014. Photo by Chip Somodevilla / AFP / Getty Images.

By Carl Davidson and Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | February 3, 2014

In the lead-up to President Obama’s speech Chris Hayes, MSNBC host, presented a segment on the national mobilization of low wage workers in 2013. He described courageous work stoppages by fast food workers, campaigns by public employees, particularly health care and home care workers, and how seemingly isolated pockets of protest spread like wildfire across the nation.

This, Hayes suggested, stimulated progressive groups, selected Congresspersons, and visible pundits such as Robert Reich and Paul Krugman to reemphasize the economic crisis the American working class is facing, particularly youth, people of color, women, and older workers. Hayes suggested that we are on the verge of a new mass movement and that Obama would capture the spirit of this movement in his State of the Union address.
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Bob Feldman :
A People’s History of Egypt, Part 15, 1952-1953

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

After Nasser’s Free Officers coup, the Revolutionary Command Council consolidates power.

Egyptian Free Officers Council

The Egyptian Free Officers after the coup, 1953. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

By Bob Feldman | The Rag Blog | February 3, 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.]

While not encouraging Nasser’s Free Officers military coup of July 23, 1952 — which set up the Revolutionary Command Council [RCC] — prior to the coup the anti-imperialist Democratic Movement for National Liberation [DMNL] secular left Egyptian activists had been supportive of the nationalist Free Officers military group that opposed British imperialism.
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Alan Waldman :
‘The Sandbaggers’ was a gripping, very realistic Brit spy thriller series

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Roy Marsden starred as a spymaster facing both dangerous foreign threats and agonizing political backstabbing.

sandbaggers

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | February 3, 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, and Scotland. Most are available on DVD and/or Netflix, and some episodes are on YouTube.]

Most North Americans have never heard of the excellent British spy series The Sandbaggers (1978-1980), although it had a cult following in San Jose, California, where station KTEH aired five runs of it.
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Jack A. Smith :
Obama defends NSA spying on Americans

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Senator Obama pledged to dismantle the most intrusive aspects of Bush’s surveillance programs. Instead, President Obama secretly allowed those programs to expand.

obama nsa speech

President Obama, standing before a wall of U.S. flags, spoke on NSA reforms, January 17, 2014. Image from WSJDigitalNetwork.

By Jack A. Smith | The Rag Blog | January 29, 2014

When he ran for the presidency in 2007-08, Sen. Barack Obama pledged to dismantle the most intrusive aspects of President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 surveillance programs. Instead, since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has secretly (until a few months ago) allowed those programs to expand as well as adding a number of his own measures that increasingly jeopardize American civil liberties.

Ever since whistle-blowing NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the elephantine extent of the Bush-Obama Surveillance State’s domestic and foreign spying last summer, White House and NSA officials have sought through obfuscation and fabrication to minimize the impact of these disclosures. Public opinion against surveillance measures, however, has been slowly gaining over the months.
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Steve Russell :
Fallujah on fire again

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Had the Iraqis been willing to sign the Status of Forces Agreement, our troops would as we speak be lined up to bleed over Fallujah for a third time.

Battle of Fallujah

The Marines were told to take Fallujah. Twice. “OO-RAH” was their response.  Image from TheSleuthJournal.

By Steve Russell | The Rag Blog | January 29, 2014

The  New York Times reported that Al Qaeda has taken control of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, for the first time since the U.S. Marines hauled down the Stars and Stripes over the memory of the Second Battle of Fallujah at the end of 2004, having first spilled their blood earlier in the year in the indecisive First Battle of Fallujah in April.

It was a nasty bit of business, taking Fallujah, and it inspired a famous song written by Billy Joel and performed by Cass Dillon.
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Larry Ray :
Pentecostals, Baptists, and ‘naked images’

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Too much naked truth for Mississippi prison workers when they get zapped by body scanners.

naked scans

Here’s looking at you, kid! Graphic by Larry Ray / The Rag Blog.

By Larry Ray | The Rag Blog | January 29, 2014

GULFPORT, Mississippi — Here’s looking at you, kid!

There ought to be a law! And there might be one shortly to protect Mississippi prison workers from anyone sneaking a peek at their private parts.

Some Mississippi prison guards and other civilian prison workers are now required to stand in front of surplus TSA airport X-ray body scanners installed in the prison as they report for work. It is apparently part of their daily work check-in routine to be scanned for hidden contraband, and this has upset State Rep. Dennis DeBar of Leakesville. Not the contraband checks, but the X-ray machine that can see through workers’ clothes!
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Lamar W. Hankins :
When conscience rules…

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

There may be a silver lining to religion-based attacks on the ACA.

stand up religious freedom

Protesters in Philadelphia rally against contraception mandate in ACA. Photo by Alex Brandon / AP.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | January 28, 2014

The legal cases filed against the Affordable Care Act requirements that health insurance include contraceptive coverage have opened, potentially, a Pandora’s Box.

The Catholic order of nuns — Little Sisters of the Poor — object to having to provide such health insurance to their employees at nursing homes that the religious order operates. Likewise, Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties, and as many as 40 other businesses, have lodged similar complaints in federal courts against the ACA because the owners of those companies, like Little Sisters, have religious objections to the contraceptive requirement.
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Harry Targ :
Progressives need to remember that history is complicated

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

In the words of Pete Seeger, “Though it’s darkest before the dawn, These thoughts keep us moving on…”

seeger and a guthrie

Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Image from Last.fm.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | January 28, 2014

[This essay by Harry Targ first appeared at The Rag Blog on October 20, 2010. Moved by the passing of Pete Seeger, Harry reflects, “As we mourn the loss of our movement treasure, we each recall what Pete Seeger has meant to us.” Also see Rag Blog remembrances of Pete Seeger by Steve Russell, Lamar Hankins, and Harvey Wasserman.]

I became a radical in the 1960s. I kept putting off being active until the late ’60s but I slowly involved myself in the anti-war movement. When I started teaching around this time I noticed that many students became instant radicals; 19 year-old- kids going from lack of political awareness to militancy in a matter of weeks.
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Harvey Wasserman :
Remembering Pete and Toshi Seeger

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

So long, Pete & Toshi. It’s been amazingly great to know you.

pete seeger rivertown kids

Pete Seeger recording with the Rivertown Kids, June 2011. Image from RivertownKids.org.

By Harvey Wasserman | The Rag Blog | January 28, 2014

[Also see Rag Blog remembrances of Pete Seeger by Steve Russell, Lamar Hankins, and Harry Targ.]

Toshi and Pete Seeger defy description except through the sheer joy and honor it was to know them, however briefly.

Their list of accomplishments will fill many printed pages, which all pale next to the simple core beauty of the lives they led.

They showed us it’s possible to live lives that somehow balance political commitment with joy, humor, family, courage, and grace. All of which seemed to come as second nature to them, even as it was wrapped in an astonishing shared talent that will never cease to inspire and entertain.
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