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

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW– SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
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.

Hard Hats and Hippies, Together at Last: Nation 10/14

After decades in which “hard hats” were described as enemies of the left, and four decades after construction workers in lower Manhattan attacked anti-war demonstrators on Wall Street, the AFL-CIO on Thursday called on its members to defend Occupy Wall Street from the NYPD as the city moved to arrest and evict protestors in Zuccotti Park.  Hard hats and hippies, together at last!….
. . . . Continued at TheNation.com HERE

Republicans Kill Jobs Bill: KPFK Wed. 10/12

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW– SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 Last night Senate Republicans blocked Obama’s jobs bill, which would have taxed millionaires to fund infrastructure construction, repair schools, and rehire cops, teachers, and firefighters who have been laid off.   Meanwhile,  Occupy Wall Street grows.  JOHN NICHOLS will comment–he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Big Bill Broonzy – he left the Mississippi Delta to become a leading Chicago bluesman of the 1930s, singing about racial injustice alongside Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel; then traveling to Europe to ignite the British blues-rock revival of the 1960s with Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend. BOB REISMAN explains – his new book is I Feel so Good: the Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy.
Playlist: “Black, Brown, and White,” “This Train,” “I Feel So Good.”

Also: Whatever happened to the American left?  MICHAEL KAZIN says socialists. anarchists and communists never won much political power, but nevertheless their utopian spirit brought far-reaching cultural change.  And then there were the Abolitionists: we could learn a lot from them.  Michael’s new book is American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.

What Does Sarah Palin Want? Money. Nation 10/9

When Sarah Palin announced last week that she was not running for president, many wondered, what had she been trying to do during the last three years, when she seemed to be almost a candidate?  Now we know: she was trying to make money.
. . .  continued at TheNation.com HERE

Cold War Culture Workers: Dissent Fall 2011

From High Noon to The Ten Commandments, from low-budget horror films like Them! to noir melodramas like Panic in the Streets, Hollywood was a key arena for the giant U-turn in American politics that took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  (Review of  An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War by J. Hoberman; Dissent, Fall 2011) . . . . continued HERE.

Occupy LA Endorsed by City Council: Nation 10/5

In a move that dramatizes the political differences between Los Angeles and New York, several members of the LA City Council today declared their support for Occupy LA and introduced a resolution that will put the city officially on record as endorsing the demonstrators camped at City Hall. City Council president Eric Garcetti, who is running for mayor, visited the encampment yesterday and said, “Stay as long as you need, we’re here to support you.” . . .
Continued at TheNation.com HERE

Occupy Wall Street: The Spark – KPFK Wed. 10/5

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 Everybody has advice for the protesters at Occupy Wall Street –What do these people want, anyway?  They need to explain their demands!  BETSY REED, executive editor of The Nation, says progressives have plenty of policy ideas.  Occupy Wall Street provides something new: a spark.
Occupy L.A. : news HERE, live video feed HERE.

Also: RUSSELL BANKS is one of our best writers – in his new novel, Lost Memory of Skin, his protagonist, “The Kid,” is a registered sex offender forbidden to live within 2,500 feet of a school or park – and thus forced to join a homeless camp under a Florida freeway bridge.  Russell Banks will be appearing at Writers Bloc tomorrow/Thurs at 7:30pm in Century City at the MGM Building, 10250 Constellation Boulevard, tickets are $20.
.

Plus: The rise of a new American security state: Pulitzer-Prize winner DANA PRIEST of the Washington Post reports on a world so vast no one knows how many people it employs, how much money taxpayers spend on it, or whether “counterterrorism” and “homeland security” accomplish anything worthwhile.  Dana is co-author of the new book Top Secret America.

and Your Minnesota Moment: remember the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul?  Remember how Amy Goodman and two DemocracyNow producers were arrested while reporting on protests outside the convention in downtown St. Paul?  Amy won a significant settlement: details on air.