In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Greg Elich, a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea and the author of Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit to discuss ongoing military drills between the US and South Korea which are testing the potential bombing and invasion of North Korea, how this fits into the recent slate of military exercises in the region and how that reveals the absurdity of calling these drills “defensive,” how these drills fit into US preparations for war with China, and how North Korea is being framed as an aggressor by the US press despite the aggression from the US.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Sudip Bhattacharya, journalist and a doctoral candidate in political science at Rutgers University to discuss the neoliberalization of American universities and their reliance on underpaid work from graduate students, how the exploitation of grad students is driving students out of fields they are passionate about, and how the neoliberalization of the university has ultimately diluted the quality of education for everyone.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Erica Caines, founder of Liberation Through Reading and Editor of Hood Communist Blog to discuss how the termination of expanded SNAP benefits relates to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and US funding for it, how this and the termination of other benefits is connected to the vilification of Black mothers who receive welfare benefits, and why this demonstrates the necessity of connecting anti-war politics to the need to fund the needs of poor and working people.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Ted Rall, award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, and author of the graphic novel, "The Stringer," to discuss the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and the Biden administration’s subsequent moves to bail out account holders in order to stop the risk of further economic destabilization, Joe Biden’s recent actions indicating his 2024 re-election campaign will focus on so-called centrist policies, how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making up for his lack of charisma by focusing on wedge issues to secure votes as he considers running for the Republican nomination for president, and how narratives around climate change have excluded the systemic causes of it.
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