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By sheer coincidence the badly under-reported subject of US military bases around the world (and their purposes) is finally receiving some serious attention in various essays and two forthcoming books, one by David Vine, the author of this article, an anthropologist and critic of US foreign policy at American University, and Lily Pad Roll (Punto Press), a spy/military thriller by Gaither Stewart, our European correspondent and a writer of considerable knowledge on the same topic. Lily Pad Roll is slated for publication sometime this fall.
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Cover by Sarah Edgar (© Punto Press, 2012)

Tomgram: David Vine, U.S. Empire of Bases Grows

Crosspost with Countercurrents.org
and Tomdispatch.com
Introductory words by Tom Engelhardt

It was January 15, 2004, and TomDispatch had only been in existence for a year when Chalmers Johnson, author of the prophetic book Blowback (published in 2000 and a bestseller after the 9/11 attacks), did a piece for this site entitled “America’s Empire of Bases.” He wrote then: “Due to government secrecy, our citizens are often ignorant of the fact that our garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire — an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling Baseworld, one can’t begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations or the degree to which a new kind of militarism is undermining our constitutional order.” Continue reading »

Dateline: 22 July 2012 Gaither Stewart’s forthcoming Lily Pad Roll, Journey to the Outposts of the Empire (LPR), second volume of his Europe Trilogy, and a novel zeroing in on the US-led encirclement of Russia, China and other powers regarded by Washington as emerging competitors for world dominance, is slated to be Punto Press’ first title bearing the imprint Trepper & Katz Impact Books. (TKIB).

Trepper & Katz editions concentrate on political topics, and particularly on the subterranean clash of superpowers representing different approaches to social and economic organization. The label Trepper & Katz was chosen to honor the memory of Leopold Trepper, the legendary chief of the Red Orchestra, the most audacious network of anti-Nazi spies in World War Two, and his friend and collaborator Hillel Katz, a heroic communist militant who died under torture in the hands of the Gestapo.

LPR is scheduled for publication sometime in early September 2012. Print and electronic editions are being planned.

Plus ça change…

The Punto Press site is being overhauled to accommodate new technical changes. What you see is only an incomplete blueprint of the final product. We request your patience while we introduce these changes.

—Thank you.

The Trojan Spy
Publisher’s Preface
By Patrice Greanville

The Trojan Spy, is the first title to be published by Punto Press, a new publishing company associated with The Greanville Post, and dedicated to advancing radical political thinking and social change. I do hope that the reason we inaugurated our publishing venture with this book (technically a work of fiction, albeit far more than that, authored by our own senior editor and European correspondent Gaither Stewart) will become clear as you read this introduction.

THE TROJAN SPY
Gaither Stewart
Paperback, 424 pp
(Special Revised Edition, 2012)

USD $9.45 + S/h

Steve Jonas’ The 15% Solution, scheduled for Winter Season, 2012-13

The 15% Solution

How the Republican Religious Right Won the White House
—A Futuristic Novel—
(revised edition)

Punto Press has now acquired the rights to produce an expanded, revised edition of the visionary The 15% Solution, by Dr. Steven Jonas. Much in the vein of political dystopias like Jack London’s The Iron Heel, or Huxley’s Brave New World, the book, originally written in 1996, presages the taking over of the American government by the insidious maneuverings of the radical religious right, today a distinct possibility in the United States. Continue reading »