The Reality of the Tet Offensive: Military Failure and Economic Crisis

Posted inUncategorized
embssy
Tet Attack on the Embassy

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Bob Buzzanco

Tet was a pivot point of the Vietnam War, and it’s been misrepresented ever since……

At the end of January the media will commemorate one of the more important and decisive events of the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive. On January 30th, 1968 the combined enemy forces of the Viet Cong, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces in the South, and the People’s Army of Vietnam from the North attacked virtually every center of military and political importance in the Republic of Vietnam, even invading the U.S. Embassy grounds. Within sixty days, President Lyndon Johnson would reject a request for a massive reinforcement of troops to Vietnam, begin to de-escalate the war, and withdraw from the 1968 presidential campaign. Tet was as determinative as any event in the Vietnam era and has maintained near-mythic status since.

Comics with Comrades with creator Brian Wood

Posted inUncategorized
In this episode, we talk with comic book creator Brian Wood and the influence of pop culture on politics. And vice versa. We discuss his work on Channel Zero, DMZ and the Massive. And how his work in those comics has focused on lefty politics and issues like media activism, far right militias, climate change and direct action. We also talk about Marvel’s The Punisher and the obvious connection to today’s fascist movements. 

Choosing Democracy with Direct Action Organizer Eileen Flanagan

Posted inUncategorized

In our latest episode, we have a lively discussion with Eileen Flanagan (@eileenflanagan) of Choose Democracy about mass organizing efforts to defend democracy from Trump.

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

We discuss their efforts to recruit and prepare thousands to hit the streets, taking advantage of “cracks” in ruling class institutions, like Wall Street and the military, and turning anxiety about Trump remaining in power into action.  We also discussed longer term organizing efforts around climate justice and challenging white supremacy.

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr., Radical, Democratic Socialist and Opponent of State Violence

Posted inUncategorized

In our special MLK day episode, we talk about the radical politics of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We discuss King’s democratic socialist  beliefs, his stance against the war in Vietnam, the campaigns he worked  on, –including the 1968 Olympic Boycott and the Poor People’s  Campaign–, and his thoughts on property destruction.   

Why 2021 needs more direct action

Posted inUncategorized
BOSTON, MA: June 3, 2020: Thousands take part in a Black Lives Matter march and rally on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts. (Staff photo by Nicolaus Czarnecki/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

cross-posted from Medium

by Scott Parkin

Back in the first week of June, 2020, soon after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, I found myself once again in the streets marching in the streets of Oakland, CA and taking action for black lives. I’d been here many times before after the murders of Michael Brown, Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling. Beyond that, I’ve been organized and partaken in campaigns, direct actions and mass protests on a myriad of issues from the war in Iraq to knocking Wall Street banks for their financing of fossil fuels to the Indigenous uprising around Standing Rock for decades.

Andrew Bacevich on the Military and Trump, the current crisis, and what to expect from Biden’s foreign policy

Posted inUncategorized

In  this episode, Bob interviews Professor Andrew Bacevich (@AndrewBacevich) about the extraordinary involvement in electoral  politics by Trump and the military, the military public repudiation of  the president, racial and hate group problems in the armed forces,  civil-military relations, the appoint of General Lloyd Austin as Defense  Secretary, what to expect from Biden’s foreign policy team–essentially  putting the Obama band back together–the nuclear deal with Iran, the  insane attacks on Cuba, and a new Cold War between the U.S. and China.

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

Andrew Bacevich is an emeritus  professor at Boston University and President of the Quincy Institute for  Responsible Statecraft.  He’s also the author of several books on U.S.  foreign policy and one of the foremost critics of America’s war and  interventionism for decades now.  He is also a retired colonel in the  U.S. Army, armored cavalry.  And he’s a frequent columnist in The  Nation, as well as many other publications.

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

Posted inUncategorized

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.

Capitol Hill Riots and The Ruling Class

Posted inUncategorized

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

This Is Not a Coup

Posted inUncategorized

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.