Category Archives: New Utopia

Its what you call cognitive dissonance, right? We send the bullets and bombs by ship (billions of dollars worth for Saudi Arabia), by proxy (military aid for Israel), and we even deliver our bombs and bullets ourselves (the recent joint UAE-U.S. force that saw SEAL Team 6 in a tight spot). But when it sends people running like hell, seeking a more stable life in the West, thats when were supposed to worry that they might be terrorists.

Its not very sporting to do so. Its sort of like burning down a hotel and then saying the guests running out of the inferno were probably arsonists, every last one of them.

These are, of course, all finer points if you already know that the United States has done to the Middle East what the English rock band the Who used to do to hotel rooms. Except the Who never left 1.3 million people dead. (Deaf, maybe.)

But wed wager that the people most likely to support Trumps initial travel ban think that the United States has entered the Middle East and transformed it into something like Disneyland, and people arent fleeing this new utopia so much as rushing to the West in hopes of reducing Christendom to a burnt, smoking cinder.

Which is why on major corrective would be to understand what is happening on the ground in the Middle East. Kind of a shocker to actually point that out, right? Well, there is a new speaker series started in the international city-within-a-city of Hamtramck to delve into just such issues. Its called the Hamtramck Monthly Forum, and this months event will focus on just whats happening in Yemen.

This event will feature actual special guests familiar with the region. Author and activist Phyllis Bennis, who directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, has even written a book on the subject, Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer. Shell provide hard-won information, and will sign copies of her book at the end of the event. Also making an appearance will be Yemeni journalist Latifa Ali, a reporter, human rights activist, and a member of several charitable and nonprofit organizations.

If you cant go, (or, heck, even if you can: It might even make good preparation for the discussion) have a look at this half-hour documentary on the situation there to see what your tax dollars are doing, the woman-hating religious extremists theyre doing it with, and why any reasonable person would run as fast as their legs can carry them. Hamtramck Monthly Forum convenes to discuss Yemen War & Muslim Ban, at 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25, 8625 Joseph Campau, Hamtramkc; 313-207-3904; discussion to be moderated by Bill Meyer and Hanan Yahya;suggested $5 donation;event co-sponsored by JVP-Detroit (Jewish Voice for Peace) .

Read more here:

Knowledge can fight ignorance: New speakers series will shed light on Yemen - Detroit Metro Times

There is a list on IMDB.com of 110 TV shows and movies that feature Jack the Ripper, a never-identified serial killer who was active in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. So, exploring who he actually was is not a new idea.

But even though it doesn't really cover any new ground, the latest series featuring the notorious killer - ABC's "Time After Time" - still manages to be entertaining thanks to a charming cast and an unexpected romance set against a darker overall story.

Based on the 1979 novel and movie of the same name and executive produced by Kevin Williamson ("Dawson's Creek, "Scream"), "Time" stars Freddie Stroma as H.G. Wells, best known for the novels "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds."

In 1893, the yet-to-be-published author shows his skeptical friends the actual time machine he has constructed. All but one friend - Dr. John Stevenson (Josh Bowman) - think H.G. is crazy, while John chides him for not having the courage to test his invention or finish his novel. H.G. must summon the courage, however, when he realizes John is Jack the Ripper and must follow John when he escapes into present-day New York City via H.G.'s machine.

H.G. is disappointed when he realizes the utopia he had hoped for doesn't exist in 2017, while John revels in the present, continuing to kill at every opportunity. John plays cat-and-mouse games with H.G. over the key to the time machine, which will allow John to go whenever he wants without fear of H.G. following him. To help track down The Ripper, H.G. befriends Jane (Genesis Rodriguez), the curator of the H.G. Wells exhibit at a downtown museum. But as H.G. and Jane grow closer, Jane finds herself in danger from one of the most notorious criminals of all time.

There is nothing fresh or new about "Time" - especially since it follows the plot of the movie and novel pretty closely. So I was pretty surprised to find it still manages to entertain, thanks to its solid love story foundation. Stroma and Rodriguez are so adorable with so much chemistry, you can't help but root for them as a couple, even though the idea of it is so far-fetched. And Bowman is the perfect combination of creepy and charming to make The Ripper work and be the major obstacle - other than time itself - to a Jane-H.G. coupling. The show even manages to work in some interesting social commentary as John decides his warped ways might actually fit in the world of 2017.

"Time" may not be a new idea, but based on the hour I've seen, I believe it is an idea whose time has come again.

"Time After Time" premieres with a special two-hour episode at 9 p.m. Sunday, March 5, on ABC.

Link:

Angela Henderson-Bentley: New take on Jack the Ripper an idea whose 'Time' has come - Huntington Herald Dispatch

LIFESTYLES EDITOR

Kali Bradford

The final day of Carnival season, known as Mardi Gras, takes place on Tuesday. Carnival season began on Jan. 6, which is also known as Kings Day (Feast of the Epiphany).

Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, is the day before Ash Wednesday, which launches the 40 days of the season of Lent in the Christian tradition.

A Colorful History

Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan spring and fertility rites. The final day of the Carnival season, it is celebrated in many countries around the world mainly those with large Roman Catholic populations on the day before the religious season of Lent begins. Brazil, Venice and New Orleans play host to some of the holidays most famous public festivities, drawing thousands of tourists and revelers every year. -Photo Provided

According to the website, mardigrasneworleans.com, historians believe that the first American Mardi Gras took place on March 3, 1699, when the French explorers Iberville and Bienville landed in what is now Louisiana, just south of the holidays future epicenter, New Orleans.

They held a small celebration and dubbed the spot Point du Mardi Gras. In the decades that followed, New Orleans and other French settlements began marking the holiday with street parties, masked balls and lavish dinners.

When the Spanish took control of New Orleans, however, they abolished these rowdy rituals, and the bans remained in force until Louisiana became a state in 1812.

On Mardi Gras in 1827, a group of students donned colorful costumes and danced through the streets of New Orleans, emulating the revelry theyd observed while visiting Paris.

Ten years later, the first recorded New Orleans Mardi Gras parade took place, a tradition that continues to this day.

In 1857, a secret society of New Orleans businessmen called the Mistick Krewe of Comus organized a torch-lit Mardi Gras procession with marching bands and rolling floats, setting the tone for future public celebrations in the city.

Since then, krewes have remained a fixture of the Carnival scene throughout Louisiana. Other lasting customs include throwing beads and other trinkets, wearing masks, decorating floats and eating King Cake.

Louisiana is the only state in which Mardi Gras is a legal holiday. However, elaborate carnival festivities draw crowds in other parts of the United States during the Mardi Gras season as well, including Alabama and Mississippi. Each region has its own events and traditions.

Senior Center sets Mardi Gras, Black History Month celebration

The Coffee County Senior Citizens Center in Tullahoma will hold a celebration marking both Mardi Gras and Black History month at 6 p.m. on Friday in the activities room at the senior center.

We are celebrating black history and we thought with it being February, we would add a little flare by adding Mardi Gras with it, said center executive director Vickie Fulmer.

We are doing a lot of Mardi Gras-themed foods along with having the talented local band Utopia come and perform for us. We want everyone to know they are welcome to come and join in on the festivities.

Lead singer for Utopia J.T. Northcutt said the group is excited to come and perform for the celebrations.

Tullahoma is home for us and this is a great cause. We are just glad to give back to the community. There would be no us without the community, said Northcutt.

Northcutt also points out what both of the events have in common.

Its important to point out that Mardi Gras and that style of music is not that far removed from R&B, soul, jazz and other forms of the music. Both were influences of each other, he said.

Fulmer added that Fridays event is free to the public.

We want everyone to come and have a great time, she said. This is a family friendly event that all ages can enjoy. Also come out and see what we are doing here at the senior center. Lots of activities for everyone.

The Coffee Country Senior Center is located at 410 N. Collins St. in Tullahoma.

Last Hurrah Recipes

With Ash Wednesday marking the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period of fasting before Easter, Mardi Gras is the last hurrah of sorts, with participants indulging in their favorite fatty foods and drinks before giving them up.

Check out the following recipes to celebrate Mardi Gras appropriately.

King Cake

Ingredients

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup warm milk (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cup butter, melted

5 egg yolks

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon multicolored candy sprinkles

Directions

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast and white sugar in warm milk. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

Stir the egg yolks and melted butter into the milk mixture. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, nutmeg and lemon zest.

Beat the flour mixture into the milk/egg mixture 1 cup at a time. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 8 minutes.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese and 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. Mix well. In another small bowl, combine the remaining 2 cups confectioners sugar, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons milk. Mix well and set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out into a 630 inch rectangle. Spread the cream cheese filling across the center of the dough.

Bring the two long edges together and seal completely. Using your hands shape the dough into a long cylinder and place on a greased baking sheet, seam-side down.

Shape the dough into a ring press the baby into the ring from the bottom so that it is completely hidden by the dough. Place a well-greased 2 pound metal coffee can the center of the ring to maintain the shape during baking. Cover the ring with a towel and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove the coffee can and allow the bread to cool. Drizzle cooled cake with lemon/sugar glaze and decorate with candy sprinkles.

Andouille, Shrimp and Chicken Jambalaya

Ingredients

3 cups chicken broth, divided

1 1/2 cups white rice

1 pound andouille sausage, diced

1 large sweet onion (such as Vidalia(R)), chopped

3 green onions, or to taste, chopped

1 cup chopped celery

1 large green bell pepper, chopped

2 tablespoons Creole seasoning

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon hot sauce

ground black pepper to taste

1 (14.5 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 cooked whole chicken breast, shredded

1 cup chicken broth

Directions

Bring 3 cups chicken broth and rice to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, 20 to 25 minutes.

Heat cast-iron Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook and stir andouille sausage in hot pot until browned, about 5 minutes. Remove sausage from the pot with a slotted spoon, retaining any drippings in the pot.

Saut sweet onion, green onions, celery, and bell pepper in the sausage drippings until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Season vegetable mixture with Creole seasoning, minced garlic, hot sauce, and black pepper; cook for 1 minute more.

Pour tomato sauce and diced tomatoes over the vegetable mixture; stir and add shrimp, shredded chicken, browned sausage, and 1 cup chicken broth into the tomato mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook at a simmer until he shrimp are no longer translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.

Scoop rice into bowls and ladle jambalaya over the rice.

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Mardi Gras brings on the fun - Tullahoma News and Guardian

A city showing the effect of Climate Change Photo Credit: kwest/Shutterstock

We live in dark times. The planet is warming even faster than scientists anticipated, economic inequality is now likely the worst its ever been in American history, Wall Street and large corporations have enormous control over our lives and the media system, and mass incarceration and the war on drugs continue to destroy millions of lives and perpetuate structural racism. Capital and the state have fused, and reactionary elements hold the levers of state power. The United States government is now unapologetically a tool for capitalists and corporations to enrich themselves while repressing opposition. Neoliberalism has intensified into neofascism, just as capitalism morphed into fascism in the 1920s and '30s.

We are in a state of emergency, and its tempting simply to focus on the immediate threat in the form of Donald Trump and the reactionary Republicans. We will need to focus in the short term on defending basic civil liberties and rights, protecting the remaining shreds of the social welfare state, and guarding against far-right vigilantes attacks on societys most vulnerable. But seeking to return to the pre-Trump status quo, which was itself only a slightly more veiled state of emergency, is neither politically expedient nor ideologically desirable for the American Left. (Defending the status quo is never a good strategy for the Left, since the status quo always falls short of our cherished ideals of liberty, equality and solidarity.) Neoliberalism was exactly what tens of millions of people rejected in voting for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. Pretending that America was already great and that everything was essentially hunky-dory (as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attempted to do) is whistling into the void.

The Left must offer a vision worth fighting for, one that people genuinely believe it will carry out. We must break decisively with neoliberalism. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama dressed neoliberalism up in eloquent platitudes, but genuflecting to Wall Street profiteers and the military-industrial complex cant be papered over or forgiven. We must no longer mince words about what we are against and what we are for. Bernie Sanders campaign platform was an excellent beginning, but it cannot be an end. His promises were essentially the New Deal 2.0, a milquetoast social democracy spiced with perceived radicalism only because of how thoroughly debased and retrograde American politics have become.

Reinstating the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, more strictly regulating the banks, overturning Citizens United, and creating a public works program to fix broken infrastructure are all welcome proposals, but they are fundamentally rearguard actions aimed at shoring up the fragments of systems in crisis. Likewise with laws guaranteeing equal pay for women and safeguarding the right to unionize. Calling for a $15/hour minimum wage, expanding Social Security and investing heavily in green energy, banning fracking, and increasing taxes on the rich and large corporations are similarly commendable, but even these policies wouldnt upend the system as we know it. Bernies proposals to eliminate tuition at public universities, abolish private prisons, mandate paid family and sick leave, and establish a single-payer Medicare for All system come closer to requiring radical change to the status quo.

But in many cases, European countries have had universal health care for over 80 years now. Most developed countries never had private prisons to begin with. And compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. is incredibly backward in terms of guaranteeing free higher education and a minimum amount of vacation time for workers. None of Bernies proposals, with the possible exception of Medicare for All, would profoundly challenge a system where a few people have massive power over everyone elses lives. They are perfectly compatible with business as usual and capitalisms continued functioning. We see this confirmed in most of Europe, where welfare states are ample compared to the U.S. but capitalism still reigns supreme.

If we genuinely wish to combat global warming, which we know poses an existential threat to humanity, this alone will require us to advocate peaceful revolution. Capitalism will not magically solve global warming. Big Oil, Big Coal, and Wall Street banks heavily invested in fossil fuels will simply double down, as were seeing already in Trumps regime. The Left must commit itself to democratic socialism: a movement that will finally, thoroughly, and irrevocably democratize American economic, political, and social life. Our political system needs to be purged of all its undemocratic elements: gerrymandering, the Electoral College, the private funding of elections, the barriers to third parties, Citizens United and all rulings permitting corporate money to pollute the public sphere, voter ID laws, and much more. Politics and economics are inextricably connected, so this also means destroying large concentrations of economic power. Tinkering around the edges of the capitalist systemincreasing the minimum wage, increasing taxes on the rich, and instituting tougher safety regulationsis well and good, but it cannot be our final goal.

Universal human emancipation will only be attained when the corporate stranglehold over our lives is forever broken. It is unjust that a small handful of human beings exercise such grossly disproportionate power over everyone elses safety, happiness, and wellbeing. The modern corporation is an archaic mode of economic organization, an ill-disguised version of a medieval fiefdom. It deserves to be consigned to the dustbin of history. Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, and countless other corporations are devouring our futures. The principle of profit ber alles gives us the politics and economics of violence and death. It legitimizes the domination of nature. It yields modern-day enslavement in the form of wage labor, which allows capitalists to essentially own human beings. It unleashes a litany of plagues: corporate corner-cutting on worker and consumer safety; tax evasion and avoidance; propaganda and misinformation campaigns; and the ruthless suppression of any regulation or policy which endangers the almighty profit margin.

War, motivated by the basest profit-seeking, is an obvious form of violence. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia are all clear forms of violence: police brutality, mass incarceration, hate crimes, and discrimination do great harm. Poverty, inequality, and being forced to work menial jobs are also forms of violence: they kill people, squander lives, and injure the human spirit. More insidious forms of violence include the corporate medias suppression of ordinary peoples voices and representations, and corporate campaigns against critical thinking and public education. All these modes of violence are on full display in Trumps regime.

The Left must oppose the politics of death and violence and promote the politics of life, and we must speak of what we do in those terms. Making a direct connection between social safety net destruction, deregulation, militarization, and fossil fuel boosterism on the one hand and unnecessary injuries and deaths for ordinary people on the other would powerfully highlight a link right-wingers want desperately to avoid. Linking racism, toxic masculinity, and social structures that cause isolation and loneliness to domestic mass shootings would likewise connect issues which are usually kept separate. Connecting the promotion of violence and death abroad (through weapons sales, drone strikes, bombing campaigns, and the funding of various proxy groups) to a boomerang effect here at home would be a far more effective way of explaining foreign policy than the Democrats current, largely incoherent strategy. These rhetorical reframings would pave the way for advocating the politics of life.

Our goal must be a country and world where power, political and economic, is publicly accountable and used to eradicate poverty, war, and inequality; end militarism, structural racism and all forms of discrimination; reverse environmental degradation and global warming; and promote joy, pleasure and happiness. All large corporations need to be socialized or dismantled entirely; any major concentration of economic power that isnt directly accountable to the communities it serves is a threat to human freedom.

More concretely, what would the politics of life look like? What is paramount is zeroing out carbon emissions as soon as possible. Large-scale programs to replace fossil fuels, fully develop green energy, and create an environmentally sustainable society would revolutionize urban architecture, national transportation infrastructure and food systems, and peoples relationship to nature. In an America governed by the politics of life, the things that make life livablehealthy food, safe water, clean air, warm clothing, warm shelter, medical and mental health carewould be universally available, funded by the proceeds from socializing large corporations and terminating various industries that yield death, and in some cases provided by now publicly controlled companies.

Unpleasant but necessary work would be automated as much as possible (and highly paid if unable to be automated); pleasant but necessary work would be distributed through a democratic decision-making process within workers cooperatives and local communities. A balance would need to be struck between centralized, national economic activity, which can achieve economies of scale and be easily administered, and decentralized, local economic activity, which would give people more direct control over their lives and limit carbon emissions. The leisure time freed up by all this economic rejiggering would be redistributed throughout the population, enabling everyone to work far less, if at all. People would then be free to pursue the things that make life worth living: loving relationships with family and friends; immersion in nature; freely chosen work (as opposed to busy-work and alienating, degrading jobs); and music, art and learning of all varieties.

I have no illusions about how difficult achieving this utopia will be. Its no exaggeration to say that this will be the hardest task in recorded human history. In 5,000 years of sedentary societies, there has never been an instance of successful peaceful revolution where all forms of oppression are overthrown at the same time. Depending on the extent to which self-interest, greed and the lust for power, fear of the unknown, and institutional inertia and the failure to completely reimagine politics are fundamental characteristics of humanity, such a peaceful revolution may be impossible.

But even if human nature is fundamentally constant, the aspects of it which are most prominent do vary with social circumstances. Theres no reason to think that the ugly aspects of human nature are more fundamental than the good ones: compassion, empathy, a passion for equality, and solidarity are just as basic, as the primatologist Frans de Waals work attests. Whats more, humanity has incredible powers of reason and has devised countless scientific, industrial, and commercial technologies which were unimaginable just centuries and decades ago. To think that the human species is in principle precluded from bringing the full force of its rationality to bear on designing equally ingenious social systems is to surrender to despair.

There are many obstacles to achieving this utopia. There are the abstract, free-standing hurdles: self-interest, avarice, and the desire to maintain and expand personal power on the part of those who benefit from the status quo; fear of change and the desire to gain power and wealth on the part of those who have been ideologically conditioned to support the status quo against their own interests.

Then there are the concrete hurdles that our political circumstances give us. In the wake of 45 years of neoliberalism, even after Occupy Wall Street, Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and the uptick in social movement organizing in the form of groups like Black Lives Matter, Fight for 15, and the current, still somewhat inchoate resistance movement, the Left is highly disorganized. Social solidarity has declined substantially since the middle of the 20th century; an individualistic mentality is far more common nowadays; levels of trust in social institutions have dropped precipitously (and not without good reason). Labor unions, long the backbone of American progressive movements, are moribund. The Republicans have near total dominance at the federal, state, and local levels. They have gerrymandered the House and passed voter disenfranchisement laws in many states. A typhoon of corporate money has deluged our political system.

The Democratic Party, still controlled to a large extent by Clintonite neoliberals, obstinately refuses to reform itself, forcing costly internecine battles which expend activists energy. Trumpist faux populism has, at least for the moment, captured the minds of a significant chunk of people who would have otherwise been receptive to left-wing populism. Ordinary people work long hours for low pay, and this means that they have less leisure time to engage in politics. Sympathetic elites are lacking; grassroots morale is low in the face of the onslaught of horrific news; the political system is actively hostile to our agenda...few left-wingers of the past would envy us our current moment.

And yet there are certain possibilities in the present moment. Precisely because of how bad life is for so many people, and because of the Trump administrations assault on so many groups fundamental rights, the Left has the opportunity to politicize many people who were previously apathetic and disengaged. As the immense Womens Marches and the airport protests against Trumps Muslim ban demonstrate, grassroots energy is available. Anxiety, rage and resentment are powerful political forces; they are present in large swathes of the U.S. right now and they can be channeled in emancipatory directions, not just reactionary ones. Bernie Sanders unexpected success in the Democratic primary and polls which confirm both his nationwide popularity and widespread agreement with his policy stances signal that genuine left-wing populism is latent and ready to be tapped, especially in the event of another Wall Street crash, a calamity which appears increasingly likely now that the big banks are bigger than ever and regulations are being rolled back again. Capitalism was partially discredited by the 2008 collapse; another crash will discredit it even further, if not completely.

We arent bereft of models for a theory of change. Sociological research on social movements by Sidney Tarrow, Kim Voss, Doug McAdam, and others identifies numerous elements necessary for successful social movements, among them sympathetic elites, grassroots mobilization (and institutional structures capable of sustaining grassroots energy), cultural receptivity to the movement, and material and logistical resources. Movements need to be capable of recruiting, educating, organizing, and coordinating people locally and nationally. To do this, its necessary to have structures in place that create community and foster bonds between members of the movement. These structures need to have a high level of internal democracy, at least on the local level. To efficiently coordinate local chapters of a national movement, some degree of hierarchy is necessary, but hierarchies must be democratically accountable. Social movements often require decades of careful planning; organizing isnt necessarily something that happens overnight. Nonviolent civil disobedience can be quite effective in exposing the contradiction between a nominally democratic societys professed values and its reality, but marches, protests, and demonstrations need to be strategic: they must be directed toward specific goals and be planned with police and state repression in mind.

There are precedents in American history when it comes to mobilizing against steep political odds. As Lawrence Goodwyn details, the Populists were able to reach 2 million people through a system of itinerant lecturers, journals and newspapers, farmers co-ops, rallies and picnics. They ran up against political obstacles that they were unable to surmount, but they used cultural tactics masterfully. Starting in the late 1800s, the labor movement faced vicious repression from the police, army, and private security forces in its attempts to unionize workers, but it persisted. As Steve Fraser, Nelson Lichtenstein, and James Green write, it created a wide array of social and educational institutions (including soup kitchens, newspapers, food co-ops, choirs, reading groups, libraries, and training programs) to create a common identity for workers, bind them together within a shared culture, and teach workers how to be more assertive and militant in advocating for themselves. That shared culture created a sense of kinship and obligation which empowered workers and fortified them when facing retribution from corporations. The labor movement also formed institutions on a national level and used strikes of various kinds, boycotts, organizing campaigns, and electoral mobilization to achieve its goals.

The civil rights movement used similar organizing strategies. As Charles Payne and Michael Honey chronicle, the civil rights movement engaged in long-term grassroots organizing and used educational programs like the Freedom Schools as a way of instilling a culture of empowerment in the rank-and-file. Many of the chief civil rights organizers disliked bureaucracy and tried to balance participatory democracy with coordination (without subscribing to the simplistic view that hierarchy was always bad). They also used novel activities like Freedom Rides to raise consciousness and appeal to the court of public opinion. Before he died, Martin Luther King was planning a Poor Peoples March on Washington, one that would unite Latino farmworkers, Native Americans, poor white Appalachians, women, and all people who suffered deprivation behind a campaign for an Economic Bill of Rights.

We can learn from past American freedom struggles. Politics is a battle of ideas, but it is also a struggle over power, and it requires power to win. It relies on culture, a sense of personal involvement, symbolism, and emotion just as much as on reasoned argumentation. Money is necessary but not sufficient to prevail. Organized people can defeat organized money, but they have to be tremendously disciplined to overcome the many hurdles that confront any movement for significant change. Generally, the path from genesis to fruition for a social movement is measured in decades. The trouble is that we dont have decades to spare; our environmental, political, and economic systems are all in crisis right now, and we cant afford to wait for change. Nonetheless, we must thoughtfully organize. We can be sure of very little these days, but one thing we can be certain of is that many more crises loom on the horizon.

I dont pretend that I have all of the answers to the vexing question of how to translate our loftiest ideals into practice. Such a task requires the combined brainpower and humanpower of millions of people. But the difficulty of fully realizing our ideals doesnt invalidate them. What I am certain of, however, is that the common assumption of neoliberalism and New Deal liberalismthat a successful accommodation could be reached with capitalmust be transcended if we are to convert resistance into something more fruitful. The disastrous consequences Obamacares repeal will have underscores something that has always been true, although occasionally forgotten: politics is a matter of life and death. Trumps policies threaten to kill our present and future. Let us respond by promoting the politics of life.

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Fighting for Utopia in Tough Times - AlterNet

Courtesy of Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images

Ithacas formidable history of activist theatre counters Trumpism with its own brand of resistance protest cabaret. Not My President, happening February 20th all over the country, is an international event hosted by the activist collective Bad and Nasty. Ithacas own cabaret rendition will play at the Kitchen Theatre Sunday at 6:30PM.

Co-producers Sara Warner in the Performing and Media Arts department and Ross Haarstad of Theater Incognita found space at the Kitchen Theatre and outreach progressed from there. Warner recounts, performers from Civic Ensemble, The Cherry Arts, Ithaca College, and Cornell immediately signed on, leading to a quirky but refreshing line-up of artists and academics.

The quantity and diversity of performers displayed on their Facebook event page signals a night of theatre that deliberately renounces conventional theatre norms. Radical inclusivity is a crucial component of this national initiative, which the production embraces as artists from across Ithacas often-disparate academic institutions and community organizations will collaborate. The tapestry of partners generates a performance list that is sure to represent a hodgepodge of resistance tactics and invent some new ones. The loose structure of the event is intended to amplify the variety and multitude of voices and forms and modes of expression that are rising up in response to the election, claims Lois Weaver, a trailblazer in the feminist theatre world and national organizer of the event.

The most vocal motive driving Not My President is embodied in the cut the bullshit disposition of Jayme Kilburn grad, a Cornell theatre graduate student: I am just plain fucking pissed off about this administration and need an outlet for my rage. Nourishing these vibes, Kilburn will be performing excerpts from SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men). Prof. Rebekah Maggor, a new theatre professor at Cornell, woke up in Jerusalem the day of the election alongside a group of Palestinian theatre artists. She will share her experience with a performance piece entitled The View From Tahrir, about the Egyptian play Comedy of Sorrow, which questions how we react the day after a dictator falls. Godfrey L Simmons Jr. will perform Obamas famous speech on racial tensions, known as A More Perfect Union. Decontextualizing the moment, it becomes shockingly re-purposed as a critique of Trump era racism.

As energy and anxiety rapidly stockpile across the country, the performance event will provide a space to grieve and have fun at the same time, as well as invent and create with our bodies and minds. Maggor explains that When were in a situation where we are constantly putting out fires, we also have to find a space to devise alternatives. Performance space, and art in general, play a role in imagining an alternative future. Can we use performance space to invent a new what-if utopia in a political climate that toes a wobbly line between social stasis and political revolution? Not My Presidents diverse artists will take a jab this Sunday.

Sam Morrison is a senior in the College of Arts &Sciences. He can be reached at shm89@cornell.edu

We are an independent, student newspaper. Help keep us reporting with a tax-deductible donation to the Cornell Sun Alumni Association, a non-profit dedicated to aiding The Sun.

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Protest Cabaret: Ithaca's Resistance - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

In February one of Moscow's most celebrated theaters marks 90 years of bringing some of the finest works to the stage. Lenkoms performances are almost always sold out, and it was here that the world-famous rock opera, Juno and Avos, was first staged.

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Besides Soviet authors, Lenkom staged Ibsen, Tolstoy, Dickens and Rostand, which communist officials were not particularly happy about. Photo: Mark Zakharov, 1987. Source: Andrey Soloviev/TASS

The Theater for the Working Youth was established in the USSR in 1927, riding the wave of leftist ideas and universal access to art. In the evenings after work, young men and women could stage plays here. This was a socialist utopia, which soon ended. The theater then became professional and received a new name: Lenin's Komsomol Theatre (Komsomol was the Communist Youth Organization), or Lenkom for short.

Lenkom was supposed to stage contemporary plays that accorded with Soviet propaganda, but the theater tried to step out of ideological boundaries. Besides Soviet authors, it staged Ibsen, Tolstoy, Dickens and Rostand, which communist officials were not particularly happy about.

The young theater director, Anatoly Efros, came to Lenkom in 1963 and raised particular concern among authorities. His poetical, frank and profound direction stood out from Soviet clichs, and clashed with the socialist realist mold, and so in 1967 he was dismissed. However, he went on to even greater success, in another Moscow theater - Malaya Bronnaya. Efros productions are now classics of Russian art. After Efros' departure, Lenkom went through a period of decline.

A new golden era began with the arrival of director Mark Zakharov. In 1974 he stagedTill, a rollicking musical comedy about the Middle Ages and the Inquisition, but which really meant about something else. The audience understood the Aesopian language it used.

Soviet censorship did not at first understand his pungent and subtle play, initially not picking up on the obvious allusions to the country's horrid state of affairs. After the premiere, however, officials were shocked and wanted to shut down the production and fire the director, but it was too late. The news of the brazen play had spread throughout Moscow, and the lead actor, Nikolai Karachentsov, woke up famous the following morning.

Two years laterthe theater stagedThe Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta, one of the first rock operas in the USSR. Even though it was based on a work by Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and communist, the Soviet authorities didnt like the plays format. They thought the genre of a rock opera was strange and dangerous.

At this time, Andrew Lloyd Webber'sJesus Christ Superstarwas rocking the world, and Zakharov and composer Alexei Rybnikov clearly drew inspiration from it. The sympho-rock music and half-naked girls of The Star and Death of Joaquin Murrieta shocked Soviet censors. The production was banned but nevertheless the premiere took place, having the impact of a bomb going off. The first viewers thought, "That's it. Now they're going to arrest us all."

Soviet actor Nikolai Karachentsov (L) as Till Eulenspiegel and actress Inna Churikova as Nele perform in the play Till based on Belgian playwright Charles de Coster's 1867 novel and staged by Mark Zakharov at the Lenkom Theatre in 1983. Source: Yuri Lizunov/TASS

World fame came with Rybnikov's next rock opera, Juno and Avos, based on poems by Andrei Voznesensky, and which premiered in 1981. The sad love story between a Russian count and a young Spanish lady in California touched the hearts of people from various countries. Fashion designer Pierre Cardin fell in love with the play and brought it to Paris and then New York, where the theater had to remain for two months, so great was its success.

Zakharov remembers that, "Pierre Cardin did a courageous thing. He had received threats over the phone, letters saying that he should not get involved with Russians! But he wasn't afraid. I thought that going on tour in Paris was utopic. The play was considered anti-Soviet, shaking our moral and artistic foundations. We were allowed to stage it no more than once a month and in no way during communist party holidays."

The play toured half the globe, had more than 1,000 performances, and is still being staged. It became the theater's calling card, with its snappy, vivid, and audacious style.

World fame came with Rybnikov's next rock opera, Juno and Avos, based on poems by Andrei Voznesensky, and which premiered in 1981. Photo: Yelena Shanina as Konchita and Nikolai Karachentsov as Count Rezanov in Alexei Rybnikov's rock opera "Juno and Avos", Lenkom Theater. Source: Rybchinskiy/RIA Novosti

Zakharov was able to assemble an incredible troupe of stage and film stars - Alexander Abdulov, Oleg Yankovsky, Inna Churikova, and others. It was often impossible to get a ticket to Lenkoms plays.

In the early 1990s, the theater officially changed its name to Lenkom, as it had long been informally known among the public. The name of Lenkom sounded like an expensive cosmetics brand, which suited the theater very well. While the Taganka Theater was an open political party, and the Sovremennik Theater impressed audiences with its honest depiction of modernity, Lenkom enticed with the lights of Broadway, promising a show and a celebration.

In recent years the theater has suffered many losses, especially as many stars passed away, but Zakharov is still at the helm. He sometimes invites one of Russia's most radical young directors, Konstantin Bogomolov, and occasionally he himself stagesThe Day of the Oprichnik, based on the novel by Vladimir Sorokin. This modern-day masterpiece describes a dystopia that is a veiled criticism of today's political establishment. Once again Lenkom is pushing the boundaries of what is possible and causing a stir.

In recent years the theater has suffered many losses, especially as many stars passed away, but Zakharov is still at the helm. Source: Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

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Lenkom Theater: From Soviet utopia to post-modern dystopia - Russia Beyond the Headlines

Ghost are spending 2017 getting to work. Now that they've won a Grammyand toured the world, they are ready to settle down and record a new album.

In a new interview withMetal Wani,frontman Tobias Forge under the guise of being A Nameless Ghoul (spoiler: 99.9% of Ghost interviews are with Tobias, who portrays Papa Emeritus on stage) and he was not shy explaining the band's vision for the next record, hoping to go for a more darker sound:

"The ideas for the new record will be quote-unquote darker, because it's thematically set in a different in a darker setting. Meliorawas supposed to reflect some sort of utopia/dystopia in the modern society, whereas this new one is gonna be a little bit more apocalyptic, a little bit more back to the medieval times, which, obviously, is associated with darkness. "

He continued: "Obviously, in metal, in extreme metal, you have a myriad of records that are thematically in the Middle Ages, but the idea for this new album is to combine So where [other] records [covering similar lyrical themes are] drowned and surrounded and drenched in death, it's gonna be a record about survival. So that constantly working with those polar, sort of, elements is also a difference, I guess, between If you find a black metal record that is about the Plague and the death, you will have only death everything is just black and everything just ends black. Whereas one of my driving forces writing a record like that is to write a record about the survival of that and the prosperity."

"It's gonna be a darker record. Is it gonna be all through and through heavier? I don't know, obviously. But we do have melody and we do have songs that are not so heavy. From my point of view, from where I'm sitting, knowing a little bit of the material coming in, it's gonna be both. It's gonna have everything from heavy, crushing metal to big, ballady anthems."

Forge added that he is still writing the band's new album, and they are hoping to begin recording in August when all of Ghost's touring commitments are over.

Blabbermouth, who transcribed the interview, touched on a rumor that at the end of the band's last tour, Forge fired all the other members of the band. Seeing as though they all perform under masks, and their identities are secret, most fans would likely not notice the change, even though there was some hoopla last year when the band added a female bassist.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the story, is Forge, under the guise of being A Nameless Ghoul, essentially confirmed there are changes, but noted that it shouldn't impact the band's sound, in the same way Queens of the Stone Age's sound remains consistent despite lineup changes because of founding frontman Josh Homme.

"From a practical point of view, you're interested in, on the one hand preserving the sound, or the elements that make up the sound, and you still wanna progress," he said. "I think one of the secrets behind our preserving ability is the fact that we don't necessarily have to have the same six people in the room to make that sound, which helps.

"It's always a blessing and a curse when you have some of these classic bands over the course of rock and roll history, where in order for them to sound like that exact band, you need those four individuals, and if one is missing, it does not sound like that," he continued. "And, fortunately, we don't have that problem. Because performing GHOST and recording GHOST has never really been the same thing. So that we can preserve our sound; we don't have to rely on if some people come and go, which is good.Queens of the Stone Age is the same thing. Everything goes through Josh's [Homme] hands, and therefore it sounds likeQueens of the Stone Age, regardless of who he brings in and out of the band, which is, I guess, a similar situation."

Here's the full interview audio. I'm excited to hear what Ghost have up their sleeves.

Here are our interviews with Ghost throughout the years:

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GHOST To Record "Darker" New Album This Summer, Tease Completely New Lineup - Metal Injection.net

HANOVER Dartmouth Department of Theatre serves up a send-up of greed, political movements, love and musicals in a future where water is worth its weight in gold.

A 25-member cast will sing, dance, pun and romance its way through its production of the Tony Award-winning Urinetown Friday through Feb. 26 in The Moore Theater of the Hopkins Center for the Arts.

The story of a drought-crazed dystopia in which a malevolent company profits from one of humanitys basic needs began in the mind of actor/playwright Greg Kotis when, in the mid-1990s, he took an ill-financed trip to Paris during which the citys pay-per-use toilets were a strain on his meager means.

Back in the States, he shared an idea for a new show with theater friend Mark Hollmann. Deciding to self-produce a production, they got the show accepted to the New York Fringe Festival in 1999.

From the standing ovation opening night, the show became a runaway hit, its popularity moving it first to Off-Broadway, where it won an Obie, and then to almost 1,000 shows on Broadway and multiple Tony wins.

The story centers on a longterm drought, and heartless corporate control of dwindling water resources mean common citizens must pay increasingly steep fees to relieve themselves in sanctioned facilities.

Along the way, the characters make witty, self-aware commentary on the conventions of musical theater and hilariously skewer the genre with numbers reminiscent of Les Miserables, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof and Threepenny Opera.

Director Jamie Horton, a Dartmouth theater professor and actor, likes how the satirical treatment still manages to deal with substantial issues. Its unabashedly entertaining but also profound.

That opposition is what makes it the kind of work it is, he said.

In program notes, he elaborated: I have loved this musical since I first saw it in 2003, because of the boldness of the questions it asks, certainly, but even more so because of the brilliance of its form its wit, its sense of humor about itself, its biting, entirely modern, no-holds-barred approach.

In addition to a production team of faculty and visiting theater artists, Dartmouth senior Julie Solomon is serving as associate scenic designer.

In conjunction with Dartmouths staging of the show, a panel discussion titled Our Dystopian Moment: 2017 and the Politics of Urinetown will take place at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21.

Shows are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. It then continues at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 23-25, and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26.

Tickets are $15, with a $5 discount for youth.

For information, visit hop.dartmouth.edu or call 646-2422.

Link:

Drought-crazed utopia flushes away common sense - NewHampshire.com

Variety

Bruno Ganz on New Film About Last Days of East Germany: 'This Is a Subject That Will Never Let Me Go' Variety Capturing the history of East Germany in microcosm, the film, based on an adaptation of Eugen Ruge's bestselling 2011 autobiographical novel, revolves around a 90-year-old communist patriarch who has never lost his belief in the socialist utopia even ... and more »

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Bruno Ganz on New Film About Last Days of East Germany: 'This Is a Subject That Will Never Let Me Go' - Variety

Remember that time when Ronnie Wood released a solo album, put together a band to promote it that included Keith Richards and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, and played a bunch of arena shows centered not around Richards but perversely Wood and his songs?

Unless you're the most diehard of Rolling Stones fans, you probably have zero memory of that moment. But Rob Chapman's new book, New Barbarians: Outlaws, Gunslingers and Guitars (Voyageur Press), finally tells the story of one of the most oddball and least-chronicled moments in the Stones' history.

As Chapman details in his art-crammed book, Wood and his new label, Columbia, decided he should play some shows to promote his 1979 solo album, Gimme Some Neck. Richards, who was in between Stones sessions, signed on to his bandmate's ad-hoc group. Richards was also eager to hit the road, because, as Chapman writes, he was "on the run from heroin, [girlfriend] Anita Pallenberg and endless psychotherapy sessions" after his 1977 drug bust in Canada. The band, a truly odd lot of musicians, included two naturals, Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan and on-again, off-again Stones saxman Bobby Keys, along with two others Clarke and Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste who had barely played rock & roll before.

For a brief moment, Chapman reports, Neil Young almost joined the lineup after stopping into early rehearsals for the tour. He eventually opted out due to the birth of one of his children and the editing chores involved in his then-upcoming concert movie, Rust Never Sleeps. But after Young remarked "you guys are nothing but a bunch of barbarians," the ad-hoc band at least had its name, adding a "New" after learning there was another band called the Barbarians. Ringo Starr and Boz Scaggs also stopped by rehearsals but, like Young, didn't join up.

Over the course of its month-long tour, ending with shows at England's Knebworth Festival on a bill with Led Zeppelin, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, and Todd Rundgren and Utopia, the New Barbarians crammed in a lifetime of rock & roll. Drugs, booze and private jets were a daily treat; a small room was built near the back of the stage so the band could get high without the audience noticing. When Clarke offered Richards a health shake, Richards just replied, ruefully, "Stanley, Stanley."

As Chapman reports, drama was also part of the recipe. Unsure if Wood's name would sell out arenas, some on their business side began suggesting to reporters that the shows could include "special guests," hinting at Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Jimmy Page. None of those musical pals ever materialized, and early in the tour, fans showed their displeasure at not seeing Mick but hearing an hour and a half of Wood originals, covers of blues and country songs, and the very rare Stones cover (usually "Honky Tonk Women"). In Milwaukee, a riot broke out, resulting in 81 arrests and a very pissed-off Richards.

Packed with details of stage designs, offstage and onstage photos and reproductions of tour T-shirts and limousine bills, New Barbarians is surely the last word on one of rock's most oddball superstar tours. As a bonus, it also comes with a 10-track CD of previously unreleased live recordings including Wood's "Mystifies Me" and covers of Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Rock & Roller" and the blues standard "Rock Me Baby" that revel in the band's proudly sloppy swagger. Would a similar lineup with a similarly quirky set list make it anywhere near a 20,000-seat arena these days? Probably not, which only makes the story of the New Barbarians that much more flabbergasting today.

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New Barbarians: Inside Rolling Stones' Wild Seventies Spin-Off - RollingStone.com