Worthy Victims? Two Professors Fired in Texas…..mostly crickets

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cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

Outrage over Nathan Robinson is fine….but others need help too.

To begin, I have no issues with Nathan Robinson, have never met him, and think that The Guardian’s cancellation of his column over a sarcastic comment about U.S. support of Israel is an outrage--and he deserves support from the Left and from anyone who believes in free expression.

And he’s getting that–lots of it. Since the episode blew up last week, I’ve seen countless social media posts about it, from some of the biggest names in the lefty media pundit celebrity world, and articles about it in various media internationally. I’m glad. People who criticize Israel have been the targets of smear campaigns for too long (I have my own personal experience with that–from the allegedly radical Pacifica Network no less). So, Nathan Robinson is a worthy victim–as Herman and Chomsky wrote about long ago….no doubt.

“looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit…” Politics on Campus w/ Bill Troveski from The Way Podcas‪t‬

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In this episode we talk politics and podcasting with Bill Troveski from The Way Podcast.

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

Students for a Democratic Society said in the Port Huron statement, “looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit…”  We discuss the current version of that discomfort that today’s students and youth are inheriting as the pandemic, economic collapse, the climate crisis and political crisis are all crashing down. With Bill, we discuss politics on campus at the University of Connecticut (where he’s currently a student), issues of student debt, the work force, climate change, healthcare and more.

Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on the Indigenous Peoples’ History of the U.S‪.‬

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In this episode, we’re excited to talk to author, activist and historian Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (@rdunbaro) about the Indigenous history of the U.S. We discuss her journey from activist and organizer to historian of the vast and complex subject of Indigenous people’s history. We also discuss settler colonialism and today’s protest movements for Indigenous rights.

Listen in here: https://bit.ly/DunbarOrtizGandR

Organizers vs. Pundits. How the YouTube and Twitter Left are failing us. w/Joshua Kahn Russell

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In our latest episode, we get into it! The left media universe includes YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, hundreds of podcasts and journals like Jacobin with 60,000 subscribers monthly. Yet that has translated in little support for on-the-ground organizers working in workplaces, frontline communities and the streets.

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

The Limits of Power: Donald J. Trump

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cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

by Bob Buzzanco

Mitch McConnell and Democratic Weakness produced Trump’s successes…….

Donald Trump, it seems, still reigns over the GOP and a good portion of the country.  Senators and representatives visit him to kiss his ring, the RNC is inviting him to speak at its upcoming conference, he and his supporters are unrepentant and still claiming victimhood.  He won’t go away.  The Monster, it seems, lives….

But Trump’s continued status is a continuation of his four years as president, built more on rhetoric, bluster, anger, and spectacle than the way he acted….because, in reality, Trump was far more limited in power than his supporters and, more importantly, his opponents ever recognized. If you want to compare him with evil historical figures, Charlie Manson and Jim Jones are much more appropriate than Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler.

Post-Mortem on Donald Trump: “He was more limited in power than we imagined.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 1, 2021
Contact: Professor Robert Buzzanco, buzzanco@yahoo.com or text at 713.269.1508. Available for interviews, podcasts, etc.

Post-Mortem on Donald Trump: “He was more limited in power than we imagined.”

Donald Trump and his MAGA-Movement are still in the eye of the storm. He’s facing impeachment and struggling to find lawyers, yet the GOP continues to cling to him and support him and new acolytes like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are filling the hard-right conspiratorial space he lived in the past four years.

Donald Trump instilled cult-like loyalty among his supporters and deep dread and anxiety in political enemies.  It gave them all the image than he possessed great power, controlled the state, and could dominate American life.

Why We Fight (and Podcast): A Green and Red Manifesto

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cross-posted from Medium

by Scott Parkin and Bob Buzzanco

As we reach the end of the first year of the Green and Red Podcast, we have more clear ideas on what we’ve done both good and not-as-good and where we want to go moving forward.

There are about one million podcasts in America, many of them political and many of them stressing some form of Left or radical politics, at least rhetorically. Finding a place within an independent media and political galaxy of that size is not easy, but we believe we offer information, insight, and even instruction in ways that others don’t.

Green and Red Co-Host Scott Parkin on why 2021 needs more direct action

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In our latest episode, Bob interviews Scott about his recent article “Why 2021 needs more direct action.”

Listen here: http://bit.ly/Action2021GandR

They discuss how elections and electing Democrats and Democratic Socialists won’t be the only way to get us out of the current cascade of crises hitting the world right now (COVID-19, economic collapse, climate change, political crisis around the far right). They also discuss Scott’s past work in fighting mountaintop removal coal mining, Wall Street banks and oil pipelines.

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

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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.