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. 

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.

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 Freedom Convoy, the Left and the Canadian State w/ Prof. Roberta Lexier and organizer James Hutt

Posted inpolitics

For a month, a group of truckers, anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and  various elements of Canada’s far right occupied the streets around Canada’s capital in Ottawa. They’ve also occupied border crossings between Canada and the U.S. The so-called “Freedom Convoy” has demanded  everything from an end to vaccine mandates and mask mandates to the jailing of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They’ve targeted  Canada’s liberal ruling class, but have disrupted and harassed the lives of Ottawa residents. Police and the Conservative Party either have  stood by or been in active support

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

This past week, Trudeau declared a state of emergency not seen since  unrest in Quebec in the 1970s. The police first cleared the trucker  blockade on the Ambassador Bridge. And then police moved in to clear the truckers occupation of Wellington Street resulting in 100 arrests.

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.

Winter in America

Posted inanti-capitalism, politics

Gil Scott-Heron said: “Turn around, turn around, turn around, And you may come full circle, And be new here again”

Listen In: https://apple.co/3FJgxAZ

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. A year after Trump and we’re no better off than we were. As Omicron numbers soar and Wall Street bankers and coal barons continue to run the table politically, the Honorable Bob Buzzanco and the Honorable Scott Parkin look back on 2021 and talk about what 2022 might bring us.

Scott’s Top Green and Red Episodes of 2021

Posted inChomsky, Climate, politics, pop culture

by Scott Parkin

Turns out 2021 wasn’t much better than 2020. Pandemic. Political crisis. Economic crisis. Climate crisis. The cascading crises keep coming at us.

BUT, Bob and I did some fantastic episodes covering a span of topics from peoples’ history of the 1960s with Noam Chomsky to politics in the middle east to campaigns and struggle related to the #climatecrisis and #COP26 to a whole bunch of left wing pop culture. Plus a lot more.

We also talked a lot about how to the Democrats fail time and time again, even when in the majority and handed gifts like the ruling class turning on the GOP and the capitol riot.

I’m proud of ALL the episodes we produced and the guests we interviewed.

So here’s my end of year click bait list of my most fav Green and Red episodes:

Noam Chomsky on the 1960s and the New Left

Posted inUncategorized

Noam Chomsky has been cited as “America’s greatest intellectual” who “makes the powerful, as well as their liberal apologists, deeply uncomfortable.” His participation in the New Left, in both intellectual and activist circles, is part of our history.

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

Bob and Scott speak with Professor Chomsky about the history of the New Left, the anti-Vietnam movement, the Black Panthers, Feminism, the destruction of Vietnam, the Responsibility of Intellectuals and current issues including Black Lives Matter, Gaza, and woke politics on the Left.

Dr. Ussama Makdisi on Sheikh Jarra, Gaza and the Israeli Colonization of Palestine

Posted inUncategorized

Beginning on May 9th, the Israeli Defense Force attacked Palestinian populations in Gaza for 11 days leaving 250 dead (including 66 children), more than 1700 injured and over 6000 homeless. This most recent attack by the Israelis was in relation to Israeli settler provocations against Palestinians in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

We talk with Dr. Ussama Makdisi (@UssamaMakdisi) about the history of Israeli colonization and displacement of the Palestinian people. How the U.S. supports Israel with $3.8 billion a year in military aid while trying to appear as a “mediator” in Israeli-Palestinian relations. The Israeli propaganda machine targeting of critics and journalists of Israel in the U.S.

Listen: http://bit.ly/PalestineGandR