Original Proposal

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Ted Gurney
Site Admin
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:41 pm

Original Proposal

Post by Ted Gurney »

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Capitalsim vs. The Climate was originally proposed by Ted Gurney Sun Aug 09, 2015 2:41 pm.

It had 91 views before being selected for Feb 17 by the attendees of our 1/13/2016 meeting.

However, the original proposal did not contain much information about the book or its author. Accordingly, the following is substituted:

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The Approximately 150 Recipients of Our Weekly E-mail
Subject: Capitalism vs. The Climate – Feb 17
Date: Sat, January 16, 2016
Time: 2:42 am MST – 3:44 am MST (due to 100/hour limit)
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Dear Friends,

Our next meeting is Wed evening Feb 17 at the Salt Lake Public Library (210 East 400 South).

NB: For those who like to avoid having to Skype during vacations, our future meeting dates are:

Wed Feb 17 (Feb 10 is Ash Wednesday)
Wed Mar 16 (to maintain minimum 4-week gap)
Wed Apr 20 (Apr 13 is the Library’s semi-annual book sale)
Wed May 18 (to maintain minimum 4-week gap)
Wed June 15 (to maintain minimum 4-week gap)

NB: And for long-range planners, though the Library does not accept reservations for the last half of each year until May 15:

Wed July 13
Wed Aug 10
Wed Sep 14
Wed Oct 19 (Oct 12 is Yom Kippur)
Wed Nov 15 (to maintain minimum 4-week gap)
Wed Dec 14


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OUR FOCUS BOOK

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein ($10.23 paperback + shipping or $12.99 Kindle from Amazon.com – 466 pages sans index & notes).


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AUTHOR BIO

Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, syndicated columnist, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization and of corporate capitalism. She is best known for --

(1) “No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies” -- an international bestseller, translated into over 25 languages with more than a million copies in print. The New York Times called it “a movement bible.” In 2011, Time Magazine named it as one of the Top 100 non-fiction books published since 1923. The Literary Review of Canada has named it one of the hundred most important Canadian books ever published.

(2) “The Take” -- a documentary film about Argentina’s occupied factories that was written by Klein and directed by her husband Avi Lewis; and

(3) “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” -- an analysis of the history of neoliberal economics that was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom. Published worldwide in 2007 in 30 languages, The Shock Doctrine also has over a million copies in print. It appeared on multiple ‘best of year’ lists including as a New York Times Critics’ Pick of the Year. Rachel Maddow called The Shock Doctrine, "The only book of the last few years in American publishing that I would describe as a mandatory must-read.”

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Naomi Klein is a contributing editor for Harper’s and reporter for Rolling Stone, and writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is syndicated internationally by The New York Times Syndicate. Additionally, her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Globe and Mail, El Pais, L’Espresso and The New Statesman, among many other publications.

Naomi is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. She is a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at The Nation Institute and a former Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper’s won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. In 2014 she received the International Studies Association’s IPE Outstanding Activist-Scholar award, and in 2015 she received The Izzy Award honoring outstanding achievement in independent journalism and media. She holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King’s College, Nova Scotia.


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FOCUS-BOOK INFO & BOOK REVIEW EXCERPTS

“This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate” is the 2014 winner of the prestigious Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. An instant bestseller when published in September 2014, it debuted at #5 on the New York Times list and was named to multiple Best of 2014 lists, including the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2014. It was also shortlisted for the 2015 PEN Literary Awards. This Changes Everything is being translated into over 20 languages.

“[A]robust new polemic. . . . Drawing on an impressive volume of research, Ms. Klein savages the idea that we will be saved by new technologies or by an incremental shift away from fossil fuels: Both approaches, she argues, are forms of denial. . . . Ms. Klein is aware of the intractability of the problems she describes, but she manages optimism nonetheless.” (Nathaniel Rich - The New York Times).

"Klein is a brave and passionate writer who always deserves to be heard, and this is a powerful and urgent book." (John Gray - The London Observer).

“If global warming is a worldwide wake-up call, we’re all pretty heavy sleepers. . . . We haven't made significant progress, Klein argues, because we've been expecting solutions from the very same institutions that created the problem in the first place. . . . Klein's sharp analysis makes a compelling case that a mass awakening is part of the answer.” (Chris Bentley - The Chicago Tribune).

“Naomi Klein’s latest book may be the manifesto that the climate movement — and the planet — needs right now. . . . For those with whom her message does resonate — and they are likely to be legion — her book could help catalyze the kind of mass movement she argues the world needs now.” (Mason Inman - San Francisco Chronicle).

“Klein is one of the left’s most influential figures and a prominent climate champion. . . . [She] is a gifted writer and there is little doubt about the problem she identifies.” (Pilita Clark - The Financial Times).


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RSVP’s REQUESTED BY NEXT FRIDAY

In accordance with our quorum-policy revision of 6/12/2013, instead of waiting until the last week before each monthly meeting to request RSVP's and canceling if we do not have our minimum quorum of six, RSVP's are requested in our first-of-the-monthly-cycle weekly e-mail.

Those who have RSVP’d will be informed immediately when we reach six so they can proceed to read the materials with assurance a discussion will take place.

If there are not six RSVP's by 11:59 pm next Friday, then next week's weekly e-mail will announce that the 2/17/2016 meeting is cancelled.


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SKYPE PARTICIPATION

Non-Utah-residents (and residents who are out of town) are invited to participate in our meeting via Skype.

If you would like to do so, please press your reply button and type “request participation via Skype” and we will contact you to make appropriate arrangements.


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We hope to see all of you on Feb 17th.

Your friend,

John K.

PS -- To un-subscribe, please press "reply" and type "deletion requested."

Ted Gurney
Site Admin
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:41 pm

We Have Our Quorum

Post by Ted Gurney »

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---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: We Have Our Quorum
From: readingliberally-saltlake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sun, January 17, 2016 7:34 am - MST
To: ReadingLiberallyEmailList@johnkarls.com
Bcc: The RSVP’ers Listed Below Under “To”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

To Our Early RSVP’ers:

Denise Chancellor
Thomas Chancellor
Ted Gurney
Tucker Gurney
George Kunath
Steve Princiotta
June Taylor
Yours Truly

Dear Friends

We have our minimum quorum of six for Feb 17, so each of us is assured that reading Naomi Klein’s 466 pages (sans index & notes) will not be in vain.

As each of you is probably already aware, Tucker and Ted have undertaken to formulate the two quizzes (since we have a 5-week gap), their suggested answers and a suggested discussion outline -- as well as to preside over the discussion on Feb 17.

[This is because I, in effect, have recused myself as having pre-judged Klein’s thesis -- though I will, of course, offer my views on Feb 17 as a mere participant.]

FYI, I will be posting on http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org my take on the 1/13/2016 discussion of Items C-2, C-3 and D of the 1/13/2016 Suggested Discussion Outline. It should be relevant to our Feb 17 discussion (though certainly NOT a dominant feature). The reason for waiting so long to post it (and for saying only positive things about Naomi Klein and her book in yesterday’s e-mail) is that I want to facilitate (vs. hinder) the will of the group.

Please permit me to wish each of you Happy Reading!!!

Your friend,

John K.

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