The Trouble with the Tomato: The Nation 7/27

The tomato is in trouble. The tomatoes in Big Macs and Taco Bell tacos and in supermarkets, especially in the winter, all come from the same place: South Florida.  The tomato fields there are “ground zero for modern-day slavery” – that’s what the Chief Assistant US Attorney says.  And there’s one other problem: those tomatoes taste like cardboard.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE.

Mike Davis: Connecting the Dots in the Global Economy – KPFK Wed. 7/27

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 What Happens When Three Sputtering Economies Collide? MIKE DAVIS connects the dots between China’s bubble, the Euro’s trouble, and the unfolding disaster in Washington.  Mike wrote about it for TomDispatch.com; he teaches writing at UC Riverside.

Plus: The mess in Washington: HAROLD MEYERSON looks again at Obama’s concessions to the House Republicans, and their refusal to accept and claim victory.  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: The Trouble with the Tomato: BARRY ESTABROOK reports on the winter tomato crop in Southern Florida – ground zero for slave labor.  Also, the tomatoes taste like cardboard.  Barry’s new book is Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit. His article for Gourmet on labor abuses in Florida’s Tomato fields received the 2010 James Beard Award for magazine feature writing. Read it here.  And he blogs at PoliticsofthePlate.com.

The GOP Abandons Victory over Obama: KPFK 7/20

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 The Republicans were winning everything in the budget debate – then they threw it all away.  We’ll have our political update from ARI BERMAN of The Nation.

Plus: “Being a white man in America is not what it used to be,” says GARY YOUNGE. He asks why so many people today are retreating into the refuges of religion, nationality, and race. Gary is a columnist for The Nation and the Guardian; his new book is WHO ARE WE: and Should It Matter in the 21st Century?
WATCH Gary’s videos for The Guardian of his 2010 roadtrip across the US HERE and HERE
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Also: Banned by Google! GREG MITCHELL has a new book out, about Hiroshima and Nagasaki – but Google told him they were “suspending” his online ad for the book on the grounds that it quote “promotes violence.”  The book is ATOMIC COVER-UP: Two US Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and the Greatest Movie Never Made.
WATCH banned footage of Hiroshima & Nagasaki HERE

Gary Shteyngart on “the near future”: Nation 7/18

JW: The Village Voice called Super Sad True Love Story “the finest piece of anti-iPhone propaganda ever written.”

GS: I was a person like Lenny, fairly analogue, and to research this book I hired an assistant who got me an iPhone, and got me on Facebook and Twitter. I went from somebody who didn’t want to have anything to do with this new technology to somebody who became wildly addicted to it. Then, after finishing this book, I began developing strategies for not being online all the time.

Do you have any advice for people with the same problem? . . . contined at TheNation.com HERE

Carmageddon in LA: The Nation 7/14

In my experience of 30 years of commuting on the 405 between West L.A. and Irvine, 55 miles each way, only one thing has significantly reduced traffic: the closing of the aerospace industry following its peak in 1987. . . . The one thing that reduces rush hour traffic is unemployment. Firing tens of thousands of aerospace workers cut my commute time by five minutes. It wasn’t really worth it.
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

Dems Win Wisconsin Primaries: KPFK Wed. 7/13

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 Yesterday Wisconsin voted in the first round of the campaign to recall Republicans in the state legislature — and all six “real” Democrats won their primaries, defeating the fake Democrats run by the Republican establishment. The big elections will be Aug. 19. JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation reports from Madison.
READ The Nation‘s investigation of ALEC HERE

GARY SHTEYNGART talks about his hilarious political satire set in “the near future” – SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY. It’s about a world where the Bipartisan Party rules and where everybody gets their news either from Fox Liberty Prime or Fox Liberty Ultra.  And then Lenny meets Eunice. . . WATCH Gary’s video HERE;   GET Gary’s iPod app HERE

Plus: our political update from HAROLD MEYERSON, who says Obama has “moved so far to the right that he has picked up many of the ideals the Republicans have jettisoned and embraced them as his own.”  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and he’s interim executive editor of the American Prospect.

Obama’s Amazing Mother: KPFK Wed. 7/6

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 Obama’s Mother, the amazing Ann Dunham: she married a black man – Barack Obama Sr. — when she was 18, and then she worked with poor women in the third world for more than a decade.  JANNY SCOTT of the NY Times tells that story – her book is A SINGULAR WOMAN.
WATCH Janny Scott on The Colbert Report HERE.

Also: When pop music meets politics – DORIAN LYNSKEY talks about 7 decades of protest songs.  He writes about music for The Guardian; his book is 33 Revolutions per Minute: A History of Protest Songs from Billie Holliday to Green Day. PLAYLIST: Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddam,” Live 1964; James Brown, “Say it Loud,” 1968; Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five: “The Message,” 1979; Green Day, “American Idiot,” 2004.

Plus: Seth Walsh committed suicide when he was 13 after enduring years of harassment at school in Tehachapi because he was gay. The federal Office of Civil Rights recently negotiated a sweeping settlement with the Tehachapi schools.  And the ACLU-SC launched The Seth Walsh Project to stop harassment of other gay kids.  JAMES GILLIAM explains – he’s Director of the Project.
GLBTQ students: know your rights: HERE. WATCH “It Gets Better” HERE

Lennon: NOT a “Closet Republican”: Nation 6/29

A guy named Fred Seaman is all over the conservative blogs today for a new documentary in which he claims that John Lennon was “a closet Republican” at the time he was shot. This seems unlikely.
First of all, who is Fred Seaman? . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE
and see also Patt Morrison’s blog HERE

Wikileaks and National Security: KPFK 6/29

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 A federal grand jury in Alexandria VA is working on the Wikileaks case and may soon bring charges against Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and 2 hackers for national security violations.  ERWIN CHEMERINSKY will comment on the terrible Espionage Act and on Obama’s record on overclassification — he’s dean of the law school at UCI.

Also: KPFK Sports!  The Dodgers are victims of “CEO capitalism run amok” – that’s what HAROLD MEYERSON says, he’s executive editor The American Prospect and writes for the op-ed pages of the Washington Post and the L.A. Times.

Plus: Homeless vets in Brentwood: the ACLU of Southern California is suing the V.A., which rents part of the Brentwood V.A. land to Enterprise rent-a-car and part to a laundry for the Marriott hotels, but refuses to fulfill their legal obligation to house homeless disabled vets.  MARK ROSENBAUM will explain – he’s Chief Counsel of the ACLU-SC.

Obama’s Afghan Pullout Plan: KPFK Wed. 6-22

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 President Obama will announce his decision on the speed and size of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in a speech tonight at 5:00pm – our JOHN NICHOLS will provide a preview.  He’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: Wal-Mart–Too Big to Sue:  NELSON LICHTENSTEIN reviews the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday that women workers at Wal-Mart can’t file a class action suit. Nelson teaches labor history at UC Santa Barbara and is the author of The Retail Revolution, a history of Wal-Mart.  READ Nelson’s NYTimes op-ed HERE.

Plus: Dodgers for Sale?  DAVE ZIRIN is the author of Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games we Love (Scribner) – and explains the latest news about how owner Frank McCourt is ruining the Dodgers. Dave writes for The Nation and blogs at Edge of Sports ; his new doc is “Not Just a Game.”
READ Dave on “This Day in History: When Muhammad Ali Took the Weight” HERE