Ukraine and the Fog of War ft. Jodie Evans w/ Code Pink

Posted inForeign Policy, politics

As the head of NATO says that the allies are prepared to support the Ukraine war effort for years to come, and Biden asks Congress for another $33 billion in war aid, we take a look at the anti-war movement over the past decades.  From Bush’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, to Obama’s drone wars to military build-ups in Asia and eastern Europe, the U.S. public has been lost in a fog of never ending war with critical voices for peace being the only light.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3yknc3H

In our latest episode, we talk with long time peace activist and co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink, Jodie Evans. We discuss the recent history of anti-war movements and the state of them today. Campaigns against war mongering politicians and arms manufacturers waged by Code Pink. The connection between the military industrial complex and the climate crisis, and the recent silencing of anti-war voices like Chris Hedges, Abby Martin and Lee Camp.

The Importance of Karl Marx w/ Prof. David McNally

Posted inanti-capitalism, Materialism and Economics, Peoples' History

David McNally is one of the more important Marxist scholars in the world, and we talked to him today on the anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth–May 5th, 1818.  McNally discussed a wide array of topics, including his introduction to Marxist thought, important texts to use to discover Marx’s writings, the importance of Marx’s concept of “alienated labor,” his formulation of class struggle, and why democracy is essential to socialism.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3MU7Xm6

We also discussed the history of Marx’s influence in European politics and how Americans came to discover Marx in the late 19th Century. And we finished with a discussion of why Marx remains relevant today and why Marxism is seeing a resurgence.

Climate and Punishment w/ journalist Alleen Brown

Posted inClimate

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. It’s about 25% of the world’s incarcerated population with over 2 million people held in federal, state and local jails. We’re also seeing unprecedented extreme climate disasters in the form of wildfires, heatwaves, drought, super-storms and more.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3M2uhJN

The aging infrastructure and failing logistics systems of many prisons are unprepared for the emerging climate crisis. The intersection of these two crises have created a pattern of human rights abuses across the country, and elected officials and their “regimes of cruelty” from California to Texas to Florida are only making matters worse. 

Noam Chomsky on JFK and Vietnam, contra Oliver Stone (transcribed interview with Chomsky)

Posted inChomsky, Foreign Policy, Peoples' History

Cross-posted from Medium

by Bob Buzzanco

I recently debated Oliver Stone’s writer James DiEugenio about the JFK Conspiracy theory and that will soon be up on Green & Red Podcast. Meantime, we just had my interview with Noam Chomsky about Stone’s movie and documentary alleging that the “Deep State” — the Military-Industrial Complex, the Intelligence Community, even perhaps Vice-President Lyndon Johnson — had JFK killed because he was going to end the Cold War and withdraw from Vietnam — transcribed, and here it is below.

In addition, see my interview with Noam Chomsky.

Scott and I also had a show going into more detail on JFK’s real policies, which were aggressive and hawkish.

I’ve also written a 3-part article on this topic on this Medium page, “John F. Kennedy Goes Hollywood: Oliver Stone’s Fantastic History,” part 1 at, part 2 at and part 3.

From Environmentalist to “Domestic Terrorist” with former Earth Liberation member Daniel McGowan

Posted inanti-capitalism, Climate, Direct Action, Peoples' History

In the past ten years, we’ve also seen state repression of movements coming out of Occupy Wall Street, the Ferguson uprising, Standing Rock, Line 3 and various anti-Trump movements. Green and Red has had numerous episodes on radical movements and state repression of political movements from antifascists in Portland and Austin to water protectors at Line 3 to DAPL saboteur Jessica Reznicek.

Listen to our latest episode: apple.co/3nvkrqk

But, before that, we had the era known as the “Green Scare,” where radical environmental and animal rights activists were targeted by the “state” (corporations, politicians, law enforcement) for its anti-capitalist politics and escalating tactics that included sabotage, animal liberation, property destruction and arson. The FBI called their operation to stop these radical movements “Operation Backfire.” After 911, they labeled people taking action “domestic terrorists.” Congress passed corporate lobbyist written legislation, such as the Animal Enterprise Terror Act and the Patriot Act, to stop them.

Making a Killing: Corporate Arms Makers and Ukraine with William Hartung

Posted inForeign Policy, Materialism and Economics, politics

In December, the Pentagon got a $768 billion budget approved, despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, with the aim to counter China and build Ukraine’s military strength. This has been a bonanza for arms makers like Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Gruman.

Listen in: apple.co/3qn4ELx

Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes popped the champagne open when saying “…[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.”

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw a spike in these companies’ stock prices.

In our latest episode, we talk about arms manufacturers with William Hartung of the Quincy Institute. We discuss how the war in Ukraine, potential conflict in the South China Sea and wars in Yemen and other parts of the world are critical to their business model. We also talk about how the bureaucracy of the Pentagon and Washington D.C. gives these companies so much influence.

Media Release- A Long March to War: the U.S., Russia and Ukraine

Posted inForeign Policy
University of Houston history professor available for media on the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. and NATO.
As Professor Buzzanco sees it, “the current conflict, clearly an act of aggression by Russia in violation of international law, also has to be observed in the context of a long confrontation with Russia since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Despite George H.W. Bush and James Baker promised the USSR that NATO would not expand eastward, the U.S. did that in the later 1990s, moving into ex-Soviet areas, which Russian leaders warned would be a “hostile act.”  The U.S. also invested heavily in the Russian economy and political system as ex-Soviet industries were nationalized.  Because of this, American power grew exponentially in areas adjacent to Russia, thus merging Vladimir Putin’s plan to expand Russian power aggressively with defense concerns of encirclement as NATO grew closer to Russia’s borders.  Now, as the Russian attacks are destroying Ukraine and killing innocent people, the need for negotiations based not just on Russia’s violation of international law but also the legacy of 30 years of political conflict with the U.S. is necessary to stop the bloodshed.”

Deep Background on Ukraine and Russia

Posted inForeign Policy, politics

This week, Russia invaded the Ukraine sparking the largest land assault on the European continent since World War Two. The markets went into turmoil. The price of oil and gas went up. Political and media establishments scrambled to act on what’s next.  Biden moved 7000 US troops to the Polish-Ukrainian border and NATO is expected to send more troops. In cities across Russia, antiwar protestors took to the streets to protest Vladimir Putin’s war with over 2000 being arrested. Finally, the Biden administration and allies have begun a sanctions war against Russia’s people, it’s elite institutions and Putin himself.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3sn9w4T

In our latest episode, we go deep into the history of the Ukraine-Russian conflict and the bipartisan involvement by the U.S. ruling class.  We discuss the break up of the Soviet Union, the expansion of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO), the role of the 1999 war in Kosovo in all of this and the Russian invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 2008. Most importantly, we talk about how U.S. foreign policy has sought to contain Russia and wield economic and political influence over Europe and the former Soviet republics.

Collin College strikes again! Dr. Michael Phillips, award-winning scholar, fired!

Posted inPeoples' History, politics

Another professor from Collin College has been fired in retaliation for  speaking out against President Neil Matkin’s continued rejection of  their First Amendment rights and their concern for safety on campus.

Listen in: https://apple.co/34ItAFq

Michael Philips has now been fired along with Suzanne Stateler Jones,  Audra Heaslip, and Lora Burnett, all in violation of their First  Amendment righs.  Philips first was reprimanded by Collin College for  being active in a campaign to remove Confederate statues in Dallas in  2017.

Why Oliver Stone and “JFK Revisited” are Full of S**t!

Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History, pop culture

Oliver Stone’s new documentary “JFK Revisited” have been hitting the airwaves of late claiming to have a “smoking gun” about the assassination of John F. Kennedy (JFK). Stone and his team of assassinologists main thesis is that the military-industrial complex conspired to have JFK killed because Kennedy was a secret dove and wanted to pull the troops out of Vietnam, end the Cold War and splinter the Central Intelligence Agency into a thousand pieces.

Scott interviews G&R co-host, author and professor of history Bob Buzzanco about Kennedy era foreign and military policy disproving the claims of Stone and his films.