Jan 30 2012
Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America
On January 30, 2012, Uprising host Sonali Kolhatkar spoke with author, historian, and Huffington Post writer Nancy L Cohen, about her new book, Delirium: How the Sexual Counterrevolution is Polarizing America.
In Delirium, Nancy Cohen asks the question of “Why, when the United States is mired in its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, would birth control, abortion, and the rights of gays and women top the agenda of the Republican Party?” But Cohen also maintains that “the sexual counterrevolution has been a bipartisan affair,” indicting the Democratic Party of political calculation at the expense of women’s and gay rights.
Watch the video of the interview here:
Martina Steiner recorded this interview.
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Just seven weeks after a violent police raid cleared away Occupy Los Angeles’ tent city on the steps of City Hall, downtown LA this week has been the site of evening military drills. The drills are significant because they are being held by the US military, jointly with the Los Angeles Police Department. According to CBS News, the joint military drills will be held in various other parts of the LA area and are among other things, “designed to ensure the military’s ability to operate in urban environments.” Meanwhile, long time local activist Carlos Montes had a scheduled court appearance this week on 6 felony charges stemming from an FBI raid of his home last May. The raid was conducted by an LA County Sheriff’s SWAT team accompanied by Federal FBI agents. …
The coal company, First Energy Corporation announced yesterday that it will shutter 6 of its aging coal-burning power plants rather than invest in changes to comply with newly passed environmental regulations. First Energy will close plants in Maryland, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania where it deemed retrofits would not be cost effective. Energy companies have 3 years to revamp coal-burning facilities to comply with clean air standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency in December that require a significant reduction in emissions of mercury and other toxins. The Natural Resources Defense Council applauded the closures, saying “it’s been cheap to be dirty,” for coal-plant owners but not for surrounding communities that have paid a high price through adverse effects on public health and the environment. 
Five police officers were fatally shot outside Mexico City on Monday as they stopped a vehicle suspected to have been carrying members of a local drug gang. A member of La Familia Michoacana drug cartel was also killed in the attack when a taxi and van pulled up during the officers’ stop and opened fire with high-powered weapons. The number of drug-related killings across Mexico has now reached 50,000 since December 2006 and continues to rise. 
Up and coming Mexican playwright Tanya Saracho has written a new play, El Nogalar. Inspired by Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Saracho tells the story of the privileged Maité Galvan, her daughters Valeria and Anita and their housekeeper Dunia. Greeting the family home in northern Mexico after years of living in the U.S. is a new and brutal climate and class divide due to the drug cartels. Adjusting to the new changes does not come easily for Maité and her family who continue to spend their money and risk losing their home and beloved pecan orchard to a drug cartel. 
In Utah, the Bureau of Land Management is poised to approve a permit in the southern region of that state for a massive expansion of coal mining. The Sierra Club and a coalition of environmental advocates and concerned Utahns rallied yesterday at the Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office to deliver the signatures of 210,000 people opposed to the Alton coal strip mine expansion. Alton Coal Development LLC has applied for a permit to lease 3,576 acres of land about 10 miles southwest of Bryce Canyon National Park for the project. Bryce Canyon is described by its defenders as one of the last few “pristine and preserved” federally protected spaces left in the nation. They say the strip mine will pollute water and air and may ruin the skyline, famous for dark night skies that sparkle with stars. 
