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

Lamar W. Hankins :
A problem with authority

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

By the age of 20, I was aware of the frequent exercise of authority in illegitimate, violent, corrupt, and otherwise abusive ways.

Eric Garner’s last moments. Screen grab from video.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | December 9, 2014

The recent cases in both Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City concerning the failure of grand juries to indict police officers for killing Michael Brown and Eric Garner, both African-American, led me to think about authority figures in our society and how we respond to them.

In the New York case, Eric Garner tried to discuss the situation before he was swarmed by several officers and suffocated to death in an action that the medical examiner ruled a homicide. In Missouri, Michael Brown was less cordial and reacted in a way that most adults know is highly likely to escalate what, from its inception, was a problem encounter with the police officer.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Authority, Civil Rights Movement, Eric Garner, Erich Fromm, Ferguson, James Baldwin, Lamar W. Hankins, Michael Brown, Police Shootings, Racism, Rag Bloggers, Texas Department of Corrections | 4 Comments

Philip L. Russell :
A third of the way: Peña Nieto’s first two years

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Sluggish economy, drug cartel crime, controversial reforms, student murders and ensuing mass demonstrations mark Peña Nieto’s presidency.

Mexico’s Enrigue Peña Nieto: A troubled presidency. Reuters photo.

By Philip L. Russell | The Rag Blog | December 8, 2014

Philip Russell will discuss the state of Mexico and the Peña Nieto presidency on Rag Radio, Friday, Dec. 12, 2-3 p.m. (CT), on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin and streamed live here. Joining Russell on the show will be Rag Blog Mexico City correspondent Johnny Hazard, who has been covering the demonstrations in Mexico.

Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, took office in December 2012 after receiving 38 percent of the vote in a media-driven, copiously funded, one-round election. Media hype spilled over from sympathetic Mexican TV networks to the international press. The Economist coined the phrase “Mexico’s Moment,” declaring that Mexico’s time had come.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Drug Cartels, Educational Reform, Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican Economy, Mexican Massacre, Mexican Politics, Mexican Student Movement, Mexico, Mexico City, Pemex, Peña Nieto Series, Philip L. Russell, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

Tom Hayden :
BOOKS | A political realignment over climate? A reflection on Naomi Klein

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

If Klein is half-right, most Democrats may choose climate justice over their irrational ties to corporate and confederate Democrats.

By Tom Hayden | The Rag Blog | December 8, 2014

Naomi Klein doesn’t say much about California in her brilliant must-read, This Changes Everything, Capitalism vs. The Climate. Yet California may be the place which indeed “changes everything,” assuming that such a utopian goal is even possible. At the very least California is the laboratory of the solar, renewables, and conservation r/evolution of the last few decades, for better and for worse.

Klein’s book is a great correction to the recent drift of environmentalism — she calls it market environmentalism — but perhaps another correction is needed soon, given the California experience.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Books, Cap and Trade, Environmental Movement, Environmental Politics, Finance Capitalism, Naomi Klein, Radical Reform, Rag Bloggers, This Changes Everything, Tom Hayden | 1 Comment

METRO | Elaine J. Cohen : To weave the future

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The Zapatista’s struggle to reclaim dignity and autonomy is similar to the struggle of the Lakota
and other First Nation peoples.

Image from Cooperativa El Rebozo.

By Elaine J. Cohen | The Rag Blog | December 7, 2014

AUSTIN — In mid-November, here in Austin, there was a meeting of two groups that reset the rhythm of my heart. Members of the Cooperativa El Rebozo of Oaxaca traveled to Austin and came to the Resistencia Bookstore in East Austin.

In spite of rain and cold, the room filled. Lilia Rosas’ welcoming hands revealed the small bookstore as sacred ground. The evening joined the continuum of culturally challenging events that the founder — the late poet and activist Raul Salinas — envisioned and nurtured.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Cooperativa El Rebozo, Elaine J. Cohen, Keystone XL Pipeline, Lakota, Metro, Native Americans, Rag Bloggers, Resistencia Books, Zapatistas | 1 Comment

Harry Targ :
Contradictions in this political moment

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

It’s unclear what the contradiction between reaction and resistance will bring in the months ahead.

Attentive Moral Monday protester in Raleigh, N.C., in July 2013. Photo by Ted Buckner / Wikimedia Commons.

By Harry Targ | The Rag Blog | December 7, 2014

On contradictions

Political philosophers influenced by the writings of Marx and Engels emphasize the connections among all social processes, the opposing characteristics embedded in them, and how social dynamics are intrinsically conflictive leading to new and different futures.

For most activists this means that politics and history are complicated. Before drawing premature conclusions about what is going on and what to do about it, thoughtful reflection on the multiple dimensions of causes and effects and effects and causes are needed. No more is this so than in coming to grips with the political “time of day” in which we live.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged 21st Century Socialism, American Society, Environmental Movement, Harry Targ, Neo-Facisim, Police Murders, Political Contradictions, Progressive Politics, Rag Bloggers, Reactionary Politcs, Resistance Movements, Social Justice | Leave a comment

Jonah Raskin :
Happy Birthday, ‘High Times’

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

‘High Times’ has always had to walk a fine line because the cultivation, distribution, and sale of marijuana has been and still is illegal by federal law.

High Times: 40 years and still… smoking.

By Jonah Raskin | The Rag Blog | November 22, 2014

The High Times 40th-anniversary party took place at 95 Delancey Street in New York on the next-to-the last Thursday in October. I went because I’ve written for High Times since the early 1980s, under my own name and under an alias, too, including Joe Delicado. HT also published my paperback book, Marijuanaland: Dispatches from an American War, which might be called gonzo reporting in the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson, though I don’t claim to be anywhere near as good as Thompson.

By coincidence I was in New York at the same time as the party and close by, too; 95 Delancey was a 10-minute walk from the apartment where I was staying and where I’d smoked a pipe or two of New York State weed. To get into the party you had to be on the list.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Cannabis, High Times, Jonah Raskin, Magazines, Marijuana, Rag Bloggers | 4 Comments

Alan Waldman :
‘Foyle’s War’ is a smart English mystery series set during and just after WWII

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Michael Kitchen is an unflappable British top cop who solves wartime crimes and post-war
spy shenanigans.

Michael Kitchen is Chief Superintendent Foyle.

By Alan Waldman | The Rag Blog | November 19, 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.]

Set in the South English coastal town of Hastings during World War II, and in London shortly thereafter, Foyle’s War is a compelling crime drama that follows police inspector Christopher Foyle and his team as they solve a range of military and civilian crimes.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Alan Waldman, Anthony Horowitz, British Television, Criticism, Foyle's War, Michael Kitchen, Rag Bloggers | 3 Comments

Johnny Hazard :
From the streets of Mexico: ‘Fue el estado’ (‘The government did it’)

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

President Peña Nieto has decried incidents of inconsequential or fabricated violence by
protesters without mentioning government-perpetrated atrocities.

Graphic from La Pinche Canela / Tumblr.

By Johnny Hazard | The Rag Blog | November 19, 2014

“We have been tolerant — excessively tolerant, according to some critics. But everything has its limit.”
— then-president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, one month before orchestrating the massacre of October 2, 1968

“We have worked through dialogue, but this too has its point of tolerance, and that is when the rights of others are affected.”
— Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, lead cabinet official,
November 14, 2014

MEXICO CITY — The drama of the police murder of six students and others in Iguala, Mexico, the disappearance of 43 education students and the subsequent cover-up at all levels of government continues.

The federal government’s attempt to provoke a catharsis and an end to the controversy by releasing certain (unverified) details of the atrocity has not had the desired effect. The Friday afternoon (November 7, 2014) release, timed so that people would just go on with their weekend, didn’t work, either; supporters of the students in Guerrero responded by setting fire to the headquarters of various political parties and government agencies.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged El Buen Fin, Enrique Peña Nieto, Guerrero, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Johnny Hazard, José Luis Abarca, Mexican History, Mexican Massacre, Mexican Student Movement, Mexico, Mexico City, Official Oppression, Paro Nacional, Rag Bloggers | Leave a comment

Paul Krassner :
The six dumbest decisions of my life

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

We’re talking really dangerous dumb decisions that continue to make me humble.

And then there’s this…

By Paul Krassner | The Rag Blog | November 12, 2014

I’m talking here about seriously dumb decisions, not those minor regrets like that time in 1970 when Esquire magazine assigned me to fly to New Mexico where director Monte Hellman was filming Two-Lane Blacktop, about street-racing. Among the actors was a pair of musicians, James Taylor as a driver, and Dennis Wilson as a mechanic. They both agreed to be interviewed, besides screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer and others.

During a conversation with Taylor about not laughing at jokes, he said, “My brother once told me a joke that made me laugh.”
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Andrew Breitbart, Dental Care, Humor, Jan Kerouac, Magic Mushrooms, Paul Krassner, Police Brutality, Rag Bloggers, Saint Stupid's Day, Satire, White Night Riots | 1 Comment

Michael James :
Spreading the word and the love with ‘The Heartland Journal,’ 1979-2005

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

I was in a phase of life when I was trying to integrate radical politics, spirituality, and personal growth and development.

Heartland Journal comes off the presses at Newsweb, Chicago, 1984. Photos by Michael James from his forthcoming book, Michael Gaylord James’ Pictures from the Long Haul.

By Michael James | The Rag Blog | November 11, 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 love the motto “educate to liberate” and am no wallflower when it comes to sharing my opinions, especially on political issues and current events. Through the ’60s and ’70s I was involved in spreading the word by working on and starting several publications, notably Rising Up Angry from 1969-1975. And not so long after opening the Heartland Café in 1976 I began to feel the urge to return to the presses. Thus in 1979 I was back at it, and began publishing The Heartland Journal: A Free American Journal of Heath, Sport, Culture and Change.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Heartland Cafe, Lester Dore, Memoir, Michael James, Movement History, Pictures from the Long Haul, Rag Bloggers, The Heartland Journal, Underground Press | Leave a comment

Thorne Dreyer :
PODCAST | Cesar Chavez biographer Miriam Pawel with poet-critic Gregg Barrios

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

Gregg Barrios, a veteran of the original Rag, moderated a conversation with author Miriam Pawel at the 2014 Texas Book Festival.

Miriam Pawel and Gregg Barrios on Rag Radio in the studios of KOOP-FM, Austin, Texas, October 24, 2014. Photos by Roger Baker / The Rag Blog.

Interview by Thorne Dreyer | The Rag Blog | November 10, 2014

Our guests featured on this Rag Radio podcast are Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Miriam Pawel, author of The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, and poet, playwright, and critic — and contributor to the original Rag — Gregg Barrios.

Miriam Pawel was a featured author at the 2014 Texas Book Festival in Austin, where she appeared in conversation moderated by Barrios. On Rag Radio, we discuss Pawel’s latest book, the first biography of Cesar Chavez, the iconic founder of the United Farm Workers Union. Barrios addresses the history of the Chicano movement — with which Chavez did not identify — and reads from his collection of poetry, La Causa.
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Posted in RagBlog | Tagged Cesar Chavez, Chicano Movement, Gregg Barrios, Interview, Miriam Pawel, Podcast, Rag Bloggers, Rag Radio, Texas Book Festival, The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, The Rag, Thorne Dreyer, Underground Press, United Farm Workers | Leave a comment

METRO | Lamar W. Hankins : Birthing book linked to death of Pursley baby in East Texas cult

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Thorne Dreyer

The Texas Family Code states explicitly that parents have a duty to provide medical care to their child.

Kristen and Daniel Pursley with their three older children and the baby born after the death of Faith.

By Lamar W. Hankins | The Rag Blog | November 10, 2014

“I have some grievous news. The Lord took her.”
– Daniel Pursley

WELLS, Texas — When I first wrote about the May 2012 death in Wells, Texas, of the three-day-old baby Faith Shalom Pursley (The Rag Blog, August 11, 2014), two related and unanswered questions kept occurring to me: (1) Why would people who usually accept medical care fail to provide medical attention to their new-born baby? and (2) What made Daniel Pursley, who had no training in birthing, want to deliver his own child without medical or even midwife assistance? Since then, thanks to information from several sources, I may have an answer to those questions.

Four books and publications are connected to the death of Faith Pursley: the Texas Family Code, the Texas Penal Code, the Bible (as interpreted by the “elders” of the Church of Wells), and Born in Zion, a book written by a former nurse from Tampa, Florida, whose ideas are on the extreme fringe of evangelicalism, home birth, and midwifery.
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Posted in Metro, RagBlog | Tagged Born in Zion, Carol Balizet, Childbirth, Church of Wells, Criminal Justice, East Texas, Faith Healing, Faith Pursley, Fundamentalism, Lamar W. Hankins, Metro, Rag Bloggers, Religious Cult, Spiritual Midwifefry | 88 Comments

By the age of 20, I was aware of the frequent exercise of authority in illegitimate, violent, corrupt, and otherwise abusive ways.

Sluggish economy, drug cartel crime, controversial reforms, student murders and ensuing mass demonstrations mark Peña Nieto’s presidency.

If Klein is half-right, most Democrats may choose climate justice over their irrational ties to corporate and confederate Democrats.

The Zapatista’s struggle to reclaim dignity and autonomy is similar to the struggle of the Lakota and other First Nation peoples.

It’s unclear what the contradiction between reaction and resistance will bring in the months ahead.

‘High Times’ has always had to walk a fine line because the cultivation, distribution, and sale of marijuana has been and still is illegal by federal law.

Michael Kitchen is an unflappable British top cop who solves wartime crimes and post-war spy shenanigans.

President Peña Nieto has decried incidents of inconsequential or fabricated violence by protesters without mentioning government-perpetrated atrocities.