Berkeley Faculty Condemns Chancellor for Police Violence: Nation 11/28

The Berkeley Academic Senate voted 336 to 34 on Monday afternoon to “condemn” Chancellor Robert Birgeneau for his administration’s “authorization of violent responses to nonviolent protests over the past two years,” culminating in the police attack on nonviolent Occupy Cal demonstrators on November 9. . . .
. . . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.

Berkeley Faculty: No Confidence in Chancellor Over Campus Police Violence: Nation 11/25

On Monday, the Berkeley Academic Senate will vote on a resolution expressing “no confidence” in their chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, because of police violence against Occupy Cal campus activists there on November 9. The chancellor’s defense of police conduct was particularly outrageous: “It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms,” he declared the day after the police confrontation. “This is not non-violent civil disobedience.”. . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

All Night, All Day, Occupy USA: KPFK Wed. 11/23

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The OccupyUSA live-blog at TheNation.com tracks the movement across the country and the world with updates often every 5 minutes: it’s the work of GREG MITCHELL – he has a new book out, 40 Days That Shook the World: From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere.

Also: REBECCA SOLNIT says “If you ever doubted whether you were powerful or you mattered, just look at the reaction to people like you (or your children) camped out in parks from Oakland to Portland, Tucson to Manhattan”—the militarized police attacks on Occupyers from Manhattan to UC Davis. Rebecca wrote for TomDispatch.com.

Plus: Newt Gingrich’s cruelest campaign: replace school janitors with child labor.  JOHN NICHOLS talks about the current Republican front-runner – he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and blogs for TheNation.com.

Pepper Spray on Campus: A Tale of Two Videos — The Nation 11/20

Two unforgettable videos flew around the world wide web on Saturday, one horrifying, the other inspiring. Everybody knows the first: black-clad cops at UC Davis shooting pepper-spray into the faces of Occupy Wall Street student demonstrators who are sitting passively on the ground with linked arms. More than two million people have watched that video on YouTube—you might title it “the whole world is watching.”  But there’s a second video, shot the next night, that is amazing in a different way . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

The Audacity of Occupy Wall Street: KPFK 11-16

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Monday night the Occupy Wall Street camp in Manhattan was destroyed by the NYPD; today the activists are back, but barred from camping overnight.  RICHARD KIM, executive editor of The Nation will comment on what Occupy has accomplished and what’s next – his report, “The Audacity of Wall Street,” has been posted on 3,400 Facebook pages, and he was a guest on MSNBC last week.

Today’s show is part of the Pacifica National Archives annual fundraiser – we will be asking listeners to support the Archives’ Campus Campaign, to place audio collections in high schools and colleges across the country.  Please call and pledge during the show 800-735-0230 or online here.

Special feature: RY COODER’s new song for the Occupy movement, “Wall Street Part of Town”–world premiere!

GOP Defeats at Polls: KPFK Wed. 11/9

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Voters yesterday rejected right-wing overreach with an unbroken string of Democratic and progressive victories: HAROLD MEYERSON comments on the defeat, 61-39, of the Ohio law stripping public employees of collective-bargaining rights, and the defeat in Mississippi, 57-43, of a sweeping antiabortion initiative.  Harold writes for the Washington Post and The American Prospect.

Also: TOM WAITS has an amazing new CD out, “Bad as Me”SASHA FRERE-JONES of The New Yorker will comment.  SEE the “Visibile Tom Waits” HERE.

And FRANCES FOX PIVEN says Occupy Wall Street “has already made the concentration of wealth at the top of this society a central issue in American politics.  Now, it promises to do something similar when it comes to the realities of poverty in this country.” Piven, “the professor Glenn Beck loves to hate,” wrote about it for TomDispatch.com; her latest book is Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?

Eric Hobsbawm: How to Change the World — LA Review of Books 11/4

Eric Hobsbawm, How to Change the World: Reflections on Marx and Marxism
He’s Back! cried the headline in The Times of London in fall 2008 as global stock markets crashed and banks failed. The “he,” of course, was Karl Marx, who had written 160 years earlier about the periodic “crises of capitalism.” . . .
. . . continued at the L.A. Review of Books HERE

How Homeland Security Increases Your Cancer Risk: The Nation 11/2

The cancer danger from the new airport security scanners–which look under a traveler’s clothing–is greater than we had feared.   “Research suggests that anywhere from six to 100 Americans could get cancer each year from the machines,”  ProPublica’s Michael Grabell says.  “Still, the TSA has repeatedly defined the scanners as ‘safe.'”. . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Occupy Fox News: The Nation 10/21

Only in LA: On one side of Pico Blvd., the Rancho Park golf course, with joggers, dog walkers and of course, golfers; on the other, a hundred “Occupy Fox News” demonstrators outside Fox Studios, chanting “We – are – the 99 per cent!”; in between, a hundred LA cops, many with riot gear at the ready, and an entire city block of TV news trucks, bristling with giant satellite dishes, power cables up and down the street, and news reporters under lights talking earnestly into the cameras. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Ry Cooder’s L.A. Stories: KPFK Wed. 10/19

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Occupy Wall Street made a stunning showing over the weekend – we’ll talk about the different manifestations around Southern California with ALAN MINSKY, KPFK program director.  My personal favorite: Occupy Irvine – more than 500 people marched on Saturday.  Who would have thought?

Also: It’s time to abolish the death penalty in California – with an initiative on the November ballot.  JAMES CLARK, southern California coordinator for the SAFE California Campaign, will explain the strategy—and the need for volunteers to help gather signatures.

Plus: RY COODER has a book out: Los Angeles Stories is a collection of  noir-ish tales of  L.A. in the late forties, and the outsiders and oddballs in the old downtown neighborhood Bunker Hill  and out  in Venice Beach.  Los Angeles Stories is our featured thank-you premium, along with Ry’s new CD, “Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down.”  Today’s NYTimes suggests Ry Cooder’s Song “No Banker Left Behind” as an anthem for the “Occupy” movement: watch “No Banker” HERE.
Please call and pledge during the hour: 818-985-5735 — or at kpfk.org.