Sparki

Video: An Air Force Vet and a Teenager Walk Into a Podcast….

We talked with Jeremy Sayers and Chesney Sayers briefly about their impressions of the riot in the Capitol on January 6th. Jeremy’s also my nephew, and he’s an Air Force vet and we talked about right-wing extremism in the military and his thoughts on the events of last Wednesday and views of military veterans about Trump and the right wing he incites. Chesney’s his daughter and she told us what she and her friends, an increasingly politicized generation, thought of Trump and mobs who attacked the Capitol.

Continue reading “Video: An Air Force Vet and a Teenager Walk Into a Podcast….”

Capitol Hill Riots and The Ruling Class

And we thought 2020 was bumpy. In this fresh episode, we talk about the shocks happening in the liberal democratic capitalist system–How the ruling class is destabilized by Trump and the far right actions at Capitol Hill this week, and how they are responding to maintain order and their own power as quickly as possible. It’s an analysis you won’t find in many other place, if anywhere.

Listen: https://bit.ly/RiotsRulingClassGandR

Continue reading “Capitol Hill Riots and The Ruling Class”

This Is Not a Coup

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

The Treachery of (Words and) Images

Wednesday’s events were horrible, dangerous, infuriating, and predictable. People with weapons easily breached the Capitol, gallows were hung (perhaps performative, perhaps not), and people were attacked and some died. The country was stunned, and both establishment and social media have been deeming this Trump’s “coup” or an “insurrection” from the first. It’s hard to talk about this. Trump is horrid, detestable, and dangerous, and any time you try to reel the rhetoric back, you can be accused of being an apologist for a cruel, racist, inhuman bigot who happens to be president—which all makes sense. But doing awful things doesn’t mean we have fascism, and vandals and thugs breaking into a sacred public building doesn’t mean we’ve had a coup. There’s no saving grace to any of this, but it needs to be viewed clearheaded and coldblooded. Continue reading “This Is Not a Coup”

COVID in California and other mutations w/ Prof. Sarah Koster

We’re back! In our first episode of 2021, we’re joined by our frequent guest Prof. Sarah Koster to discuss the outbreak of COVID-19 in California, virus mutations, whether vitamin D is a virus preventor, food scarcity and housing insecurity.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/COVIDCaliGandR Continue reading “COVID in California and other mutations w/ Prof. Sarah Koster”

Swipe Left on the Democrats and Electoral Politics

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

They’re Just Not That Into You

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There are currently two feuds dominating the Left—Jimmy Dore vs. AOC in “The Brawl Over Medicare-for-All” and various segments of the Left vs. The Squad on its vote to re-elect Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

If you want/need better evidence of the futility of the Left, it would be hard to find. There’s a huge ongoing dispute over whether “The Squad,” a group of about 6 elected officials (hell, throw Sanders and Markey in there and make it 8) out of 535, should force Congress to have a vote on socialized medicine to put everyone on the record, and another argument over whether to vote against the incumbent (and politically inept) speaker of the house. Social media is still in in an uproar over these issues with “support AOC” and “The Squad is dead to me” opinions seeming to alternate in frequency and intensity. Continue reading “Swipe Left on the Democrats and Electoral Politics”

Marx on the immiseration of humanity

Prof. Bob Buzzanco with Karl Marx on “the immiseration of humanity,” from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, 1844.

Video below text of the quote.

“By reducing the worker’s need to the barest and most miserable level of physical subsistence, and by reducing his activity to the most abstract mechanical movement; thus he says: Man has no other need either of activity or of enjoyment. For he declares that this life, too, is human life and existence. Continue reading “Marx on the immiseration of humanity”

Hope Among the Ruins of 2020

Happy New Year, Tender Comrades! In our last episode of 2020, we talk about the past year.

Listen in: http://bit.ly/HopeRuins2020GandR

We discuss what we’ve learned, the worsening precarity, the absence of community and a rewarding life, the barriers posed by the Professional Left (NGO Industrial Complex, labor leadership, etc), the often-unhinged, conspiratorial left, but also the inspiring moral courage and bold action we saw in the streets, the role of organizers and activists, and what we can do moving forward. Continue reading “Hope Among the Ruins of 2020”

The Myths of JFK!

In this episode, we go myth busting. Our target is “Camelot” itself.

It’s the 60th anniversary of the election of John F. Kennedy and since his untimely death in 1963, he has been elevated to liberal sainthood by all parts of the establishment. We discuss JFK’s legacy, and debunk the many enduring lies that people–from Oliver Stone to QAnon to today’s liberal scholars and media– still believe about John Kennedy’s saintly acts, whose politics have lived on in Clinton, Obama, and now Joe Biden.

Listen in: https://bit.ly/MythsofJFKGandR

We get into John and Robert Kennedy’s relationship with the red-baiting Joe McCarthy; and JFK’s role as a civil rights “hero” (while simultaneously wire-tapping Martin Luther King). We also pierce the myth, perpetuated by Oliver Stone’s film “JFK”, that Kennedy wanted to withdraw troops from Vietnam and end the Cold War.

December 20th is also the 29th anniversary of the release of Oliver Stone’s film and we take particular aim at its falsehoods.

Continue reading “The Myths of JFK!”

Challenging Nancy Pelosi with Shahid Buttar

In this episode, we talk with progressive congressional candidate Shahid Buttar about his challenging of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 election. We discuss the history of Pelosi’s rise, the San Francisco “progressive prevention” coalition of San Francisco and the recent attacks on the “Squad” by centrist Democrats. We then talk about Shahid’s other work as a constitutional lawyer around digital liberties and dangers we’re all facing from the surveillance state.

Listen here:https://bit.ly/ShahidGandR

Continue reading “Challenging Nancy Pelosi with Shahid Buttar”

#TDIH: The Wobblies Start the First-Ever Sit-Down Strike in 1906

In 1906, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) began the first ever sit down strike at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York

Three thousand IWW members stopped work at a General Electric plant by remaining seated in the building. This action was taken in response to the firing of three IWW members and the company’s refusal to rehire them. This is the first record of a sit-down strike of the 20th Century. When management called in scabs, the striking workers stood in place and took control of the machinery, making it impossible for the plant to be run by scabs.

One of the principal organizers of the action was the famous Irish Marxist, James Connolly.

An IWW leaflet retorted, “…the question of numbers does not enter into the matter. For the simple reason that if discrimination is permitted in one case. Who then can feel protected? The principle of organization is that protection reaches down to the last man.” Continue reading “#TDIH: The Wobblies Start the First-Ever Sit-Down Strike in 1906”