"Ian Rankin once explained to an interviewer (the head of the Indian Communist Party!) that crime fiction is a way of talking about social inequality. Ron Jacobs applies that same maxim to the Sixties... in his wonderfully noir trilogy of those exhilarating and troubled times. And what Rankin does for Edinburgh, Jacobs amply illuminates for the Movement. Much much more than ripping yarns (though they are that too), from a master who's been there, done that, and lived to tell a tale or two."

--Ramsey Kanaan, Publisher PM Press/noir enthusiast

Friday, December 15, 2017

Sinking in the Swamp

The swamp is not being drained. It is becoming more toxic by the day. It is now ebb tide at the pig farm and the sewage is in the pool where your children go to swim.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/12/15/sinking-in-the-swamp/

Friday, October 20, 2017

Stop the Idiocy! Stop the Mattis-ness!

The (revised) toll in lives was: 36, 546 US soldiers, an estimated 1.5 million Koreans on both sides of the parallel (mostly civilians), 200,000 Chinese soldiers, and another 4000 soldiers from armies that allied themselves with the United States.  In addition, there were more than one million wounded and/or missing.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/10/20/stop-the-idiocy-stop-the-mattis-ness/

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Can NATO Still Make America Great?

The link below goes to an article I wrote for the previous print edition of Counterpunch magazine.  I am sharing it in the hope that some of you who read it will then subscribe to the print version of Counterpunch.  Why should you do that since you can read Counterpunch online for free?  Because most of the articles in the print issues are not reprinted online is a good place to start....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01dj5QyuLDed0gtT1JRREhod3NjeXRFRXZxOWZiUFdJOGVz/view?usp=sharing

If you want to subscribe, here is a link to do that.....
https://store.counterpunch.org/subscribe/

Thanks,
Ron

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Sharpening the Contradictions from the Fifty Yard Line

When I used to watch Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath throw the ball back in my earlier years, it seemed most NFL players were white.  They were also assumed to be very patriotic and supportive of the US war on Vietnam and in favor of the more conservative side of US politics.  Whether or not this was as universal as it seemed to be is hard to say since NFL players were not known for expressing their political views in public.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/27/sharpening-the-contradictions-from-the-fifty-yard-line/

Friday, May 12, 2017

McMaster’s Civilized War for Civilization

Just because a general has a new way to fight a war doesn’t mean that war should be fought. The war in Afghanistan is not being incorrectly waged. Instead, it is the war and occupation of Afghanistan that is wrong.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/12/mcmasters-civilized-war-for-civilization/

Thursday, April 27, 2017

One Hundred Years That Shook the World

It’s as if John Reed, author of the classic piece of revolutionary journalism, Ten Days That Shook the World, woke from a decades-long sleep to tell the story of 1917 once again.  Although there is less personal detail, the sweep of Miéville’s story is equal to Reed’s in its breadth while matching it in passion.  It is Reed’s contention that the masses of workers, peasants and soldiers were at the front of the revolution.  One hundred years later, Miéville’s telling agrees.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/27/one-hundred-years-that-shook-the-world/

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Syria: Beyond Western Myths and Half-Truths

A book about history that is ignored by so many....not meant as an endorsement of Assad and his army but certain to be taken that way by those unwilling or unable to look at the broader picture...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/11/syria-beyond-western-myths-and-half-truths/

Monday, March 6, 2017

Islam: A Conversation on Paper

"Mourad and Anderson recently published a book titled The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson. It is a text with a grand mission: to introduce and inform non-Muslims of the history, and philosophical underpinnings and debates that make up the Islamic religion.Despite its rather small size, the book manages to succeed in its task."

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/06/islam-a-conversation-on-paper/

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Fomite Interrogations

Fomite Press, which published my novels (so far) has begun a political pamphlet series.  Here is their explanation of the project:
"Given the exigencies of the time, Fomite would like to step outside its normal literary publishing practice, and add to its offerings a series of bound pamphlets on urgent political, social, cultural, and organizing issues from a radical, anti-capitalist viewpoint."

The titles are interesting and provocative.  My contribution to the project is titled Capitalism: Is the Problem...

Here is a link with more information and ordering details:
http://www.fomitepress.com/Tracts.html

Friday, February 3, 2017

Friday, January 27, 2017