Read the full reivew here.
Latest News: Author Archive
“The lines between editorial and advertorial content continue to blur”: MARA EINSTEIN on Bric TV
Friday, October 14th, 2016Watch the full interview on Bric TV here.
“The suffering and the deaths of the Yemeni people is laid in large part on the responsibility not only on the Saudis but of those who provide the Saudis with the means to do that and that is the United States”: MEDEA BENJAMIN on The Real News Network
Friday, October 14th, 2016Read the full feature on The Real News Network here.
“For 19 months, the U.S. has armed and supported a destructive Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East”: MEDEA BENJAMIN is interviewed on Salon
Friday, October 14th, 2016“Benjamin discusses the hypocrisy of the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy that brutally represses internal dissent and refuses to grant basic rights to women.
“Saudi Arabia spreads its extremist state ideology known as Wahhabism throughout the world. Benjamin notes that ISIS shares a similar fundamentalist ideology. As Salon has previously reported, recently released emails from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton show that, according to U.S. intelligence sources, the monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have supported the Islamic State.”
Watch the full interview on Salon here.
“The Rise of a Cooperatively Owned Internet”: NATHAN SCHNEIDER on The Nation
Friday, October 14th, 2016Read the full article on The Nation here.
“A fascinating and revelatory critique of the ways in which digital adverts increasingly masquerade as news items”: BLACK OPS ADVERTISING is reviewed on Counterfire
Friday, October 14th, 2016“Those of us using social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter will notice the increasing extent of advertising and how intrusive the adverts can be. Adverts are, of course, a lucrative income stream for social-media corporations given the extent of their global reach to consumers and the ease with which adverts can be produced.
“The development of digital advertising is the subject of Mara Einstein’s book Black Ops Advertising. Her focus is not, however, on traditional adverts where the content, brand and manufacturer details are obvious. Instead, the book is a fascinating and revelatory critique of the ways in which digital adverts increasingly masquerade as news items, quizzes, ‘guess-what-happened-next’ videos, or lifestyle advice.”
Read the full review on Counterfire here.
“The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power”: ALEX NUNNS talks to Sean Moncrieff on Newstalk Radio
Thursday, October 13th, 2016Listen to the full interview on Newstalk Radio here.
“How on earth did Jeremy Corbyn become leader of the Labour Party?”: ALEX NUNNS in conversation with George Galloway on Talk Radio
Thursday, October 13th, 2016Listen to the full interview on Talk radio here.
“The Candidate: Jeremy Corbyn’s Improbable Path to Power”:ALEX NUNNS is interviewed on Doug Henwood’s Behind the News
Thursday, October 13th, 2016Listen to the full interview from Doug Henwood’s Behind the News on KPFA here.
“How ironic is it that we say that we’re fighting this war on terror yet we’re arming the very country that is most responsible for terrorism around the world?”: MEDEA BENJAMIN is interviewed on The Canary
Thursday, October 13th, 2016The Nobel Peace Prize announcement has had mixed reactions. Many see Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as a well deserved winner, and some believe it could help to rescue Colombia’s continuing peace process. But there are others who don’t think much of the entire process – at least not since Barack Obama won straight after becoming US President. In the eyes of many, this calls into question the entire process of awarding the prize.
Medea Benjamin, who has just released a very telling book, told The Canary:
“I think it is terrible what has happened to the Nobel Peace Prize. Giving it to Barack Obama for example, while he is championing drone wars.”
Read the full interview from The Canary here.
“Trump’s revelations hit far harder than Clinton’s”: JOHN K. WILSON interviewed on Rising Up With Sonali
Thursday, October 13th, 2016The second face-off between the two major party candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sunday night has pushed the election in favor of the Democrat. Both candidates were the targets of embarrassing revelations on the eve of the Town Hall-style debate, with the Wikileaks release of emails from Clinton’s campaign referring to her paid speeches on Wall Street, and a Washington Post exposé of Trump’s conversation with TV host Billy Bush from a decade ago referring to his habit of kissing, grabbing, and assaulting women when he felt like it. But Trump’s revelations hit far harder than Clinton’s.
With less than a month before the election, we turn today to the author of a new book about Trump. In Trump Unveiled: Exposing the Bigoted Billionaire, author John K. Wilson turns each aspect of the candidate’s persona into a chapter, such as “Trump the Narcissist,” “Lying Trump,” “Bankrupt Trump,” “Racist Trump,” and “Sexist Trump.”
Listen to the full interview on Rising Up With Sonali here.
“A horrifying yet gripping account”: CHAOS AND CALIPHATE reviewed in The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies and Development
Thursday, October 13th, 2016“Not so long ago, Syria, Iraq and Libya were peaceful if repressive countries. Now each has descended into war, while the entire region of the Middle East and North Africa is racked by instability and violence. This has largely been brought about by western interventions which were either ill-considered or ill-motivated. Patrick Cockburn’s book covers the whole of the century up to 2015, during which he has somehow survived as a Middle East correspondent for the (UK) Independent newspaper. This is a horrifying yet gripping account of those years, made up of his on-the-spot reports from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, sewn together by later observations on the way events have unfolded since. Unreservedly recommended for any student of the MENA region or of why wars happen.”
Read the full review from The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies and Development here.
An excerpt from GAY PROPAGANDA to celebrate National Coming Out Day
Tuesday, October 11th, 2016“I’ll never forget it. I was 6. My mother and I went to the movies to see The Amphibian Man. In the middle of the movie, my mother bends down to me and whispers: ‘Look how beautiful Guttiere [the female protagonist] is!’ I nodded weakly, while not taking my eyes off Ichtiandr [the male protagonist]. I fell in love with him and asked to be taken to this movie a number of times. This goes to the question of why the very idea of ‘gay propaganda’ is absurd. As a biologist, I know that sexual orientation is formed in the womb and is impossible to influence in any direction. It’s not a matter of choice. When I was a child, I didn’t know any of this, of course, and didn’t understand why I was attracted to the beautiful Ichtiandr.”
—Vitaly, from Gay Propaganda: Russian Love Stories, edited by Masha Gessen and Joseph Huff-Hannon.
Celebrates LGBTQ voices and National Coming Out Day
Gay Propaganda
Russian Love Stories
Gay Propaganda offers an intimate window into the hardships faced by Russians on the receiving end of state-sanctioned homophobia. Here are tales of men and women in long-term committed relationships as well as those still looking for love; of those living in Russia or joining an exodus that is rapidly becoming a flood. More |
NIGHTS AT RIZZOLI
Glamour and books don’t often converge, but they did at Rizzoli, one of New York City’s greatest bookstores: a memoir by a writer (and Rizzoli manager) who lived the unchecked, wild life of a young gay man in pre-AIDS, post-Stonewall 1970s New York. More |
THE DREAM OF DOCTOR BANTAM
A Novel
“… Thornton’s Dr. Bantam is pure Americana, cinematic and idly mean. It’s lush and trashy. I guess it’s the most graphic-novelly feeling book about loss I can think of. It’s all punk heart, messily thudding.” —Eileen Myles More |
Inferno (a poet’s novel)
“I was completely stupefied by Inferno in the best of ways. In fact, I think I must feel kind of like Dante felt after seeing the face of God… I can tell you that Eileen Myles made me understand something I didn’t before. And really, what more can you ask of a novel, or a poet’s novel, or a poem, or a memoir, or whatever the hell this shimmering document is? Just read it.” —Alison Bechdel More |
LEAN OUT
The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-Up Culture
Why aren’t the great, qualified women already in tech being hired or promoted? Should women seek to join an institution that is actively hostile to them? Edited by tech veteran Elissa Shevinsky, Lean Out sees a possible way forward that uses tech and creative disengagement to jettison 20th century corporate culture. More |
I TOLD YOU SO
Gore Vidal Talks Politics
In this series of interviews with writer and radio host Jon Wiener, Vidal grapples with matters evidently close to his heart: the history of the American Empire, the rise of the National Security State, and his own life in politics, both as a commentator and candidate. More |
“What Alex Nunns has achieved with The Candidate is remarkable” Red Labour on THE CANDIDATE
Tuesday, October 11th, 2016“What Alex Nunns has achieved with ‘The Candidate’ is remarkable. It’s the real, inside story of the campaign to elect Jeremy Corbyn, from the ground up. It’s as if someone has followed the participants with a video camera throughout, carefully detailing the important moments. But it’s more than that: it bears all the hallmarks of someone who genuinely understands the decisive forces that made up the Corbyn moment. And Nunns communicates all this expertly. The book reads like a political thriller, and even though we all know the ending, it’s nevertheless an enormously exciting read. As the book gives Red Labour it’s rightful place in this bit of history, we’re also delighted to recommend it to the Red Labourite family. What’s not to like?”
Read the full statement here.
“Ghamari has performed a valuable service to posterity”: the New Internationalist reviews
REMEMBERING AKBAR
Monday, October 10th, 2016
“The mass killing of leftists by the Islamic Republic is a matter of historical record; Ghamari’s account takes us beyond the cold statistics, with affectionate pen portraits of the many dissidents he encountered during his imprisonment, most of whom did not come out alive. In documenting their youthful utopianism, their courage in the face of totalitarian thuggery, as well as their human foibles, Ghamari has performed a valuable service to posterity.”
Read the full review in the New Internationalist here.
“Why in the world do we allow our governments to arm this repressive Saudi regime to the teeth?”:
MEDEA BENJAMIN talks to The Canary.
Monday, October 10th, 2016
“Why in the world do we allow our governments to arm this repressive Saudi regime to the teeth, becoming the number one arms purchasers of US weapons, of British weapons? How ironic is it that we say that we’re fighting this war on terror yet we’re arming the very country that is most responsible for terrorism around the world? So [the book’s main objective is] to point out these contradictions, to get people to be angry about our governments’ collaboration with the Saudis, and to support the Saudi people who are taking tremendous risks trying to change their own government.”
Read the full interview on The Canary here.
“Trump is not ideologically conservative . . . He follows the ideology of Trump”: John Wilson talks to The Chicago Maroon.
Thursday, October 6th, 2016John Wilson discusses Trump Unveiled with The Chicago Maroon.
“‘Of course, Trump is not ideologically conservative,’ Wilson said. ‘He follows the ideology of Trump. Back in 1999, he was pro-choice, he wanted a 14 percent wealth tax, the biggest tax on the rich in history—and now he’s turned around and he’s become a conservative.'”
Read the full article on The Chicago Maroon here.
“It is time to wake up. There is no free lunch, free movie, news report, or factoid. We are paying and paying dearly.”: Extract from BLACK OPS ADVERTISING on TruthDig
Thursday, October 6th, 2016“Click a button and we can read the New York Times or watch our favorite TV show or stream the latest movie. Submit a query to Google and a world of knowledge appears on the screen, albeit algorithmically delimited. Newspaper or magazine, TV or movie, fact, tidbit, or commentary, no matter how big or small, how significant or trivial: it’s all available at our fingertips, and it’s all absolutely free.
“This is the perception we have been lulled into believing. It is time to wake up. There is no free lunch, free movie, news report, or factoid. We are paying and paying dearly.
“We pay with our time and our attention—a scarce and valuable resource in the twenty-first century—and the coin of the realm in today’s “attention economy.”
Read the full excerpt on TruthDig here.
“Well-written, clear and analytically sharp.” – James Meadway, economic advisor to John McDonnell, on THE CANDIDATE
Thursday, October 6th, 2016“Well-written, clear and analytically sharp.” – James Meadway, economic advisor to John McDonnell, on THE CANDIDATE
“It’s all over bar the shouting – although shouting there will be”: ALEX NUNNS talks to RT about the unlikely rise of Jeremy Corbyn
Thursday, October 6th, 2016“It’s all over bar the shouting – although shouting there will be”: ALEX NUNNS talks to RT about the unlikely rise of Jeremy Corbyn.
“It’s all over bar the shouting – although shouting there will be. Jeremy Corbyn won an even bigger landslide victory at the Labour Party conference, despite 240,000 people being deprived of their votes for one reason or another. And who could have imagined that in just a few months he would’ve built the biggest political party in Europe? How did it happen?”
Listen to the full interview on RT here.
“If Americans Can Sue Saudis over 9/11, Drone Victims Should Be Able to Sue U.S.”: MEDEA BENJAMIN talks to Democracy Now!
Thursday, October 6th, 2016“If Americans Can Sue Saudis over 9/11, Drone Victims Should Be Able to Sue U.S.”: MEDEA BENJAMIN talks to Democracy Now!
“Finally, we have an example of the U.S. Congress putting U.S. citizens above the relationship with the Saudi government,” says CodePink’s Medea Benjamin in response to the vote by Congress to allow Americans to sue Saudi Arabia over the 9/11 attacks, overriding President Obama’s veto of the bill. The legislation would allow courts to waive claim of foreign sovereign immunity after an act of terrorism occurs within U.S. borders. “If innocent families [of drone attacks] were able to take the U.S. to court instead of seeing joining ISIS or al-Qaeda as their only resort, that would be a very positive thing.”
Listen to the full interview on Democracy Now! here.
“We have to recognize the failure of capitalism. We have to recognize the impossibility of socialism.”: WALTER MOSLEY talks to This Is Hell
Thursday, October 6th, 2016“We have to recognize the failure of capitalism. We have to recognize the impossibility of socialism.”: WALTER MOSLEY talks to This Is Hell.
“We have to recognize what it is that we’re working for in the world, which is basically as good a life as we can get in this brief span that we have. And we have to recognize who we are in relation to these things – and not allow these incredible, large systems which govern us, but don’t care about us – to take over.”
Listen to the full interview on This Is Hell here.
How well did our finest political pundits deal with the rise of Corbyn?
Monday, October 3rd, 2016Watch the book trailer here.
“A heroic counterculture figure” ROSSET excerpted in The Talkhouse
Monday, October 3rd, 2016“One of the actors was Hervé Villechaize, who became quite famous later when he appeared on the TV show Fantasy Island. One night, after the film crew had left my house, my mother-in-law stepped outside and came back screaming, “There’s a midget in the pool!” And there was Hervé floating on his back, unconscious. My wife Cristina and I fished him out, placed him on the side, and raced to Bridgehampton, where Norman was, and said “Go get your midget!” And he did, and took Hervé to get his stomach pumped.”
Read the full article here.
“Required reading” ROSSET in the Los Angeles Review of Books
Monday, October 3rd, 2016“How is the finished product? Rosset has many riveting passages, and will certainly be required reading for anyone interested in postwar American publishing.”
Read the full article here.
“What if users were to band together and buy Twitter for themselves?”: NATHAN SCHNEIDER proposes cooperativism to save Twitter
Friday, September 30th, 2016“What if users were to band together and buy Twitter for themselves?”: NATHAN SCHNEIDER, coeditor of Ours to Hack and to Own proposes cooperativism to save Twitter.
“If you ask Wall Street, Twitter is in trouble. The user-base is growing, but not quickly enough. Ad revenue is growing too, but not as quickly as it once did. The only answer to this leveling-out, it seems, is the platform’s acquisition by a bigger corporate bird, which can regurgitate an influx of capital and absorb our tweets into its own data-craving metabolism. Disney, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google’s parent Alphabet are all circling above Twitter’s wobbly stock price, salivating.
“The trouble is, Wall Street’s economy has become Twitter’s economy, even if Wall Street’s view of the platform’s usefulness isn’t necessarily our view. But what if we changed Twitter’s economy? What if users were to band together and buy Twitter for themselves?”
Read the full article here.
“Burhan Sonmez has written the real Istanbul novel”: ISTANBUL ISTANBUL extract on Scroll.In
Thursday, September 29th, 2016“Burhan Sonmez has written the real Istanbul novel.”
“It was cold in our cell. While I was telling the Doctor my story, Kamo the Barber lay curled on the bare concrete floor. We had no covers, we warmed ourselves by huddling together, like puppies. Because time had stood still for several days we had no idea if it was day or night. We knew what pain was, every day we relived the horror that clamped our hearts as we were led away to be tortured. In that short interval where we braced ourselves for pain, humans and animals, the sane and the mad, angels and demons were all the same. As the grating of the iron gate echoed through the corridor, Kamo the Barber sat up. ‘They’re coming for me,’ he said.”
Read the full extract from BURHAN SÖNMEZ’s Istanbul Istanbul here.
“Medical Errors Should Not Be Our 3rd Leading Cause of Death.” KILLER CARE in Huffington Post
Tuesday, September 27th, 2016Suppose two jumbo jets crashed every day, killing a total of about 365,000 people in a year. Remarkably enough that’s about the level of carnage caused every year in our country by avoidable medical mistakes.
We would never tolerate such an incredible loss of life were it caused by recurring plane crashes (or most anything else). The Federal Aviation Authority would be given immediate and unlimited funding to figure out exactly why the planes were crashing and to do whatever it takes to make them safe again.
In fact, complete reporting of mistakes, and constantly correcting them, has made flying in a commercial plane about the safest thing a person can ever do.
In contrast, and inexplicably, we tolerate an equivalent loss of life caused by medical mistakes, despite the fact that they have become the third leading cause of death in the US. There is no public fear and rage, no sustained and coordinated effort to identify the major sources of error and eliminate them.
Read the full story here.
“They were scattered everywhere, all drowning.” OPTICIAN OF LAMPEDUSA in The Telegraph
Monday, September 26th, 2016“It was so intense to hold a stranger’s hand in mine,” he explained. “I have never felt anything more intimate. When I pulled that first young man from the water it felt like….”
Rosaria, who had been nervously fiddling with the strands of her silver necklace, finished his sentence for him.
“It felt something like love,” she said simply and I held her hand under the table.
Read the full story here.
Robert Guffey blogs on Cryptoscatology
Friday, September 23rd, 2016“The most recent issue of New Dawn Magazine (No. 158, September/October 2016) includes Part One of my epic three-part series entitled “What’s At the End of Main Street?: The Struggle Between the Artificial and the Real in Recent Gnostic Cinema,” in which I analyze key examples of “Gnostic Cinema” (i.e., films that explore the illusory nature of reality within a fictional framework) ranging from Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. in 1924 to Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook in 2014.”
Read the full post, and many more, here.
