Corporate America’s Mass Exodus from Russia w/ Pratap Chatterjee

Posted inForeign Policy, Materialism and Economics

A mass of western companies are exiting Russia over the war in Ukraine.  This has included some major corporate heavyweights, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, Nike, Netflix, Apple, Visa, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Exxon, major western law firms and most major film distributors.

Listen in: https://apple.co/3qy13ud

Jeffry Sonnenfeld at the Yale School of Management compared it to the boycott of apartheid era South Africa. We’ve talked on past shows about the role that multinationals have played in the political economy. But have they developed a new conscience?

In our latest, we talk with investigative journalist and Executive Director of CorpWatch Pratap Chatterjee (@pchatterjee) about the latest round of corporate activism. We talk about who benefits, who’s being hurt and whether it’s having enough of an impact on Russia.

The U.S. Empire and Ukraine w/ Prof. Clinton Fernandes

Posted inForeign Policy, politics

Our latest episode on the Ukraine is a wide-ranging conversation with our good friend Prof. Clinton Fernandes on the U.S. empire and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. We discuss Russia and Putin’s adventures in Georgia and Ukraine to the lack of strategic empathy from the West (particularly the U.S.). We break down the motives of the U.S. drive to expand NATO and encircle Russia, and the effect it has on global politics.

Listen to part one here: https://apple.co/3I9zY6v

Listen to Part Two Here: https://apple.co/3JlgYn7

We discuss the tensions in the South China Sea and the impact of the Ukraine conflict on Australia’s coming election. Finally, we get an update on Clinton’s law suit trying to get the Australian government to release documents showing intelligence agencies supporting Pinochet’s coup in Chile in 1973.

War Pigs: Ukraine and the History of the Military-Industrial Complex

Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History

Recently, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes reported to his shareholders, “[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.”  While lauded in the press for his comments, Hayes’ thinking embodies structures established by government and private industry for over a hundred years.

Listen in: https://apple.co/34cn5KZ

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.

The Capital Riot and the Persistence of the Old Regime

Posted inpolitics

A year ago, former President Donald Trump (the guy that LOST the election by 7 million votes) screamed and cried about a stolen election. At a giant rally on the Washington D.C. mall on January 6th, Trump encouraged the crowds to join a pre-organized attack on the Capital and try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election.

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

You’ve seen the images of Trump supporters attacking Capital and DC police, trashing the building and hunting Vice-President Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC and others. Five people (including a cop) were killed and millions of dollars of damage were incurred to the building.

80,000,000 Bombs in Laos: A Conversation with Sera Koulabdara of “Legacies of War”

Posted inForeign Policy, Peoples' History, Uncategorized

In this episode, Bob had a conversation with Executive Director Sera Koulabdara (@SeraKoulabdara) of “Legacies of War” about the 50+ year crisis of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in Laos.  Scott was away on assignment.

Listen: https://bit.ly/LegaciesGandR

At the same time as it was attacking Vietnam, the U.S. conducted a “secret war” against Laos through the air, dropping 2 million tons of bombs as part of its “sideshow” to the main war against the Vietnamese Revolution.   Included in that massive campaign were 270,000,000 cluster bombs, smaller bombs–about baseball-sized–or “bomblets” that often did not detonate.  So today, decades after the war ended, about 80,000,000 bombs remain in Laos.

The Limits of Trump’s Power and the Left’s failure to respond to i‪t‬.

Posted inUncategorized

In this episode, we offer a postmortem on Trump’s presidency and the limits of his power.

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

The “opposition” gave Trump powers that he never had.  He was never popular, his positions never had close to majority approval, his own judges and GOP officials rebuked him, and, as we’ve talked about plenty, the

Impeachment: The Democrats Botch it Again

Posted inUncategorized

cross-posted from Afflict the Comfortable

By Bob Buzzanco

Five Dead. Lighting-fast trial. Dems rely on Republicans to “have spine.” No witnesses called. GOP on the ropes but given new life.

Donald Trump incited a violent crowd to storm the capitol, with dozens of police injured and five people killed. Large majorities of Americans believed he was responsible for the assault and the damages.  He was quickly impeached and now he’s been, predictably, acquitted by Senate Republicans who really didn’t even need to try to make up any good reasons for their vote.

Everyone has seen this played out before, several times.  Trump commits some heinous deed and gets off the hook.  Liberals and the Left ramp up their outrage and hatred of Trump, and he doubles down, ultimately to the point of inspiring people to violently attack the Capitol and the “blue lives” they claim to cherish.

Perhaps instead of always blaming Trump, the Democrats should look elsewhere, like inward, to analyze these situations.

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

Posted inUncategorized

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.

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.