The ruling class follies continue both at home and abroad.
Another $40 billion going to aid the Ukrainian war effort while there are baby formula and COVID vaccine shortages in the U.S. Plus George W. Bush gives a speech at the Bush Institute about stolen Russian elections (what about Florida 2000?) and illegal invasions of Iraq… er… Ukraine..
In all seriousness, the brutality of military and economic war against populations around the war is heartbreaking. We continue our commentary on the history and politics around the war in Ukraine.
Listen in: https://apple.co/3GxvtDr
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.
Websters defines atrocity as “a shockingly bad or atrocious act, object, or situation.”
Russian atrocities on Ukrainian civilians have been the top of the 24 second news cycle since the invasion began. Since the advent of industrial warfare at the end of 19th century, war has been waged increasingly on civilian populations than opposing military forces. Wars of attrition have had the goal of subjecting the populace to “shockingly bad” actions to force the downfall of its ruling regime or submission of a resisting insurgency. The 20th century is full of examples of this by the British, the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians, and of course, the Americans.
Listen in: https://apple.co/3vt9eth
As the stories emerge from the war between Ukraine and Russia, detailing atrocities committed on civilian populations, we thought it was a good moment to talk about some of this history. We start with the Civil War and World War One (early industrial wars), the advent of air power, brutal occupations in Nanking, Korea and Vietnam, bombings of Dresden, Tokyo and Hiroshima, U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam, Central American death squads and the forever wars in the Middle East.
We’ve been using the term “NATO liberal” quite a bit in our recent series of Ukraine-Russia episodes. But, you may ask yourself: “what exactly do Bob and Scott mean when they say ‘NATO Liberal’?”
Part One, listen in: https://apple.co/36S2fSw
Part Two, listen in: Coming Soon
We dive deep into the history of NATO liberals and discuss their role in developing the U.S. empire during the 20th and 21st centuries.
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.
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.
