Month: July 2011

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

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 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

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 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
.

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

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 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

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
 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