War and rumours of it quickened yesterday, as Biden Secretary of State, Antony Blinken’s whirlwind Sabre Rattling Tour touched down in Kiev. Blinken, freshly arrived from G-7 meetings in London, picked up where he left off chastening “authoritarian states” around the World he claimed were, “trying to play us against each other”. Presumably addressed to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, countries who in another time might constitute an “Axis of Evil”, Blinken pointedly reminded, “… we hold our values of democracy, state of law, human rights and a global order based on rules against them, united and credibly.”
But is it all credible; does the new president and his energetic secretary really mean to marshal the troops for a new war of empire? A new series by the Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill attempts to plumb the depths of the new President’s character and divine his intentions; an attempt my first guest says, while “impressive and informative…ignores certain unflattering historical facts and perpetuates a few popular misperceptions.”
Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author who serves too as Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He’s the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including: ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, and ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’ co-authored with John Marciano. His latest at CovertAction is ‘Did Jeremy Scahill’s Analysis Fumble the Ball in Its Indictment of Joe Biden as an “Empire Politician”?’
Jeremy Kuzmarov in the first half.
And; the so-called “cancel culture” was a common invocation of right-wing American politicos and Trump supporters who claimed their left wing and progressive opponents were using “cancellation” to silence legitimate debate and rights to free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Now, those voices of concern have been joined from the progressive side of the political spectrum by labour lawyer, human rights activist, author, and essayist, Dan Kovalik.
Dan is too a recipient of the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, a frequent lecturer, oft sought television and radio political commentator, and his articles appear online at Counterpunch and Gorilla Radio Blog, among other places. His latest book is, ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture‘.
Dan Kovalik and turning the worm on Cancel Culture in the second half.
But first, Jeremy Kuzmarov and, Joe Biden: Tool of Empire, or merely tool?
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com
May 8, 2021
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded May 3rd, 2021.
On March 29th CLAS kicked off what will be a year-long celebration of 50 years of fighting for social justice. When the Community Legal Assistance Society began it was the first law office of its kind in B.C. All these years later, founding member, Mike Harcourt says of CLAS,
“Probably hundreds of thousands of low-income tenants, people facing burdensome debt, people living with mental illness and other disabilities, those living with addiction, and other individuals battling bureaucracies or facing discrimination have benefited from our unique service.”
Well the need is still there, and is now perhaps greater than ever.
Kevin Love is a lawyer in CLAS’ Community Law Program, working primarily in the areas of mental health, and workers’ rights. Kevin represents CLAS on a number of committees, including the Worksafe BC’s policy and practice consultative committee as well as serving as chair to the Workers’ Compensation Advocacy Group.
Kevin Love in the first half.
And; more reports about the Site C mega-dam project have come out since I last talked to today’s second guest. In fact, since I started talking to him more than six years ago, millions have been spent on reports and studies and surveys and province-wide dog and pony shows, and no matter what the results of any of these are the Great White Elephant thunders on. It seems not even bare-faced reality stands a chance of getting in the way of a monumentally bad idea, as long as the people behind it are determined to abide in dream land.
Ken Boon is a Peace Valley farmer and president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association. Ken and his family have laboured to make real the tommyrot at the heart of the Site C project from the very beginning, and now some of their worst fears are becoming apparent even to the dullest minds of a generation down at the Legislature. And yet, the project goes on.
Ken Boon and politician saying the damnedest things about the Site-C project to nowhere in the second half.
But first, Kevin Love and celebrating 50 years with CLAS.
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April 18th and 26th, 2021.
Contained within his 17th State of the Nation address President Vladimir Putin delivered the unambiguous warning that efforts by the United States and its allies to undermine the country’s security, sovereignty, or well-being of its people would not be tolerated. The speech came just a month after President Biden labeled his Russian counterpart a “killer”, and only three days after a report detailing the foiled assassination plot against the Belarus president, allegedly engineered at “the highest levels” of the Biden administration. The report follows too tit for tat diplomatic expulsions, leading to what my first guest calls the “nadir” of U.S./Russia relations.
Christopher Black is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer specializing in international war crimes cases. He’s also an executive member of the Canadian Peace Congress. Black’s articles on international law, politics, and World events appear at New Eastern Outlook among other places, where I found his latest, ‘Biden, The Killer President‘. His timely novel, ‘Beneath the Clouds’, “a story of how people, acting collectively, can defeat tyranny” is published by Badak Merah and is newly out.
Christopher Black in the first half.
And; when long-time friend and frequent guest of the show, Dr. Pablo Ouziel suggested one of his promising, graduated political science students collaborate with Gorilla Radio as part of his entrance prerequisite for London’s prestigious Goldsmiths’ University journalism program, I was only too happy to help. Denver Willson-Rymer II is a Victoria/Vancouver-based street and fine art photographer, political blogger, short story author, and principle behind the website, Indulgent.online.
Denver Willson-Rymer’s interview with Victoria activist, Caleb Asfaw in the second half.
It seemed in the bag. Going into the second round of Ecuador’s presidential election all the smart money was on Correista and Union of Hope leader, Andres Arauz. Arauz had mopped the floor with his two major opponents in the first round, falling just short of outright victory. But, South America’s Pink Tide will have to wait a little longer, at least in Ecuador. Instead of continuing the socialist path that had raised living standards for the poorest, (interrupted only by class traitor, Lenin Moreno) now millionaire banker, and former Coca Cola executive, Guillermo Lasso will take the reins of power in May.
Ron Ridenour is a journalist, author, editor, and peace and social justice activist. The ex-pat American has lived and worked in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Bolivia and currently calls Denmark home. He’s worked too as a special correspondent and freelancer for numerous publications in Europe the US, and Latin America, and served as press aid to Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales and the governments of Cuba and Nicaragua.
Some of Ridenour’s many book titles include: ‘The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert’, ‘Cuba: Revolution in Action’, and ‘Backfire: The CIA’s Biggest Burn’.
Ron’s articles also feature at numerous online sites, including on ThisCantBeHappening.net, and CovertAction Magazine, where his latest, ‘Ecuador’s New Socialist Party Set to Win Elections Despite U.S. Intervention and Deceptive Identity Politics‘ appears.
Ron Ridenour in the first half.
And; most Canadians take as granted the freedoms they have to be who they are and behave as they wish, (within the stricture of the law). But for some, enjoying the privilege of personal liberty is haunted by the knowledge there are others who must live in the shadows or face social exclusion, persecution, and even death.
Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams are award-winning, Vancouver-based filmmakers whose new documentary, ‘Someone Like Me‘ follows the effort of a group of LGBTQ+ rights activists to sponsor and support a gay Ugandan man seeking asylum in Canada. Steve and Sean have more than twenty film collaborations behind them, and ‘Someone Like Me’, their first feature length doc, is an Official Selection for this year’s Hot Docs Festival.
Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams, and fighting for the freedom to love fearlessly in the second half.
But first, Ron Ridenour and Ecuador’s election proving an ebb in South America’s resurgent Pink Tide.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, April 11th/12th, 2021
China’s meteoric rise to the uppermost echelon of international affairs is but one of the signals of America’s declining global stature. Russia too is testing its influence, both on its borders and further afield. In the past few weeks, events in both the Baltic and east Asia offer evidence the country no longer feels constrained by the whim, wishes or wants of the United States and its “international community”.
In Myanmar, Russia has stepped in to quell U.S./ U.K efforts to use UN Security Council sanction and threats of intervention to bludgeon the military coup government there; and, in the Baltic the country’s relentless drive to finish the Nord Stream 2 pipeline marches on, despite being engaged in a bizarre cat and mouse game with an off-the-hook Polish fishing fleet who, in concert with the Polish military, seem intent on provoking an incident involving the nearly completed operation.
John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to government, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Among Helmer’s many books titles are, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’ ‘Skripal in Prison’, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thriller’. His latest articles examine Russia’s foreign policy tightrope walk on the political knife’s edge in Myanmar and Europe.
And; despite Madrid’s state of denial, Spain’s separatist movement is alive and well and living in Catalonia. Regional elections in February maintained independence parties’ hold on a combined majority in the parliament there, while street protests that erupted in Barcelona and other towns following the arrest of popular rapper, Pablo Hásel serve as an unsubtle reminder to Pedro Sanchez’ federal coalition government just how tenuous its hold on the peace is.
Pablo Ouziel is a Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Victoria’s Political Science Department and Centre for Global Studies whose Fellowship Project at UVic, ‘Democracy Here and Now: The Exemplary Case of Spain’ was interrupted by the Covid-19 closure of the University. He currently resides in his native home, near Barcelona.
But first, John Helmer and RUSSIA AND MYANMAR – BALANCING ON A KNIFE’S EDGE.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com
Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded April 5th, 2021
The script parroted by those press outlets changed little from Afghanistan and Iraq, to Libya then Syria; the destruction of these societies was all for peace and betterment of the people.
But where those others fell, Syria remained standing. And so, the war goes on.
Mark Taliano is a retired teacher whose next career as researcher and investigative reporter led him to travel to Syria to discover for himself the truth behind the brutal war against the population there. The result of his 2016 dispatches from the country is the book, Voices from Syria, recently revised and reissued in a second edition.
And; terror isn’t always borne of bombs falling from the sky. There is too the existential fear of losing ones home due to a dysfunctional economic system. Call it a War on Poor. Right now, millions of Canadians live with the Damaclean prospect of failing to make rent or mortgage payments, or just being dispossessed by a landlord enticed into cashing out of the market by sky high property prices.
Leslie Robinson and Jeremy Brind are volunteer tenant organizers with VTAG, the Victoria Tenant Action Group, “a membership-based organization committed to transforming the housing system and ensuring access to housing for all”.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com
