Back to the No Future: Killing the INF Nuclear Treaty

US Withdrawal from INF Treaty Creates Greater Nuclear Instability

by TRNN

August 2, 2019

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US is unilaterally withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which could have been re-negotiated if the US had acknowledged its own responsibility for the treaty's problems

Friday, August 2nd marks the day that the United States officially withdraws from the Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, also known as the INF Treaty, in effect since 1987 when US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed it. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo justified the US withdrawal from the treaty, tweeting Friday, “On February 2nd, 2019 the US gave Russia six months to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Russia refused, so the treaty ends today. The US will not remain party to a treaty when others violate it. Russia bears sole responsibility.”

Geoff Wilson is a Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation where he hosts the “Nukes of Hazard” podcast. 

Ford Pleads for Nature: "Act Now, or We'll Be Shit Out of Time"

"If We Don't Protect Nature, We Can't Protect Ourselves"

by Harrison Ford - Global Climate Action Summit

#TellTheTruth #ActNow #BeyondPolitics
via ExtinctionRebellion

July 26, 2019

We are facing an emergency resulting from our toxic economic and political system. The way we relate to each other and to nature is destroying Earth’s capacity to sustain life.

Unending economic growth and profits drawn from a planet with limited resources is causing gross inequality, poverty, mass misery, and species extinction.

We are sold an illusion that consumption will bring purpose and happiness into our lives, yet this systemic consumption is threatening our very existence. It is based on unjust and unethical land use and ownership, unsustainable and increasing amounts of debt and enslavement of individuals.

Something Rotten at the Heart of United Church of Canada's Palestinian Stance

United Church should come clean on anti-Palestinian accord

by Yves Engler

August 2, 2019

Toronto church Trinity-St. Paul’s shameful suppression of a Palestinian youth cultural event highlights anti-Palestinian rot festering in the United Church of Canada. It ought to also shine a light on a little discussed anti-Palestinian accord UCC leaders signed with Israel lobby groups five decades ago.

Under pressure from B’nai B’rith and the Jewish Defence League the Trinity-St. Paul Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts recently canceled a room booking “to celebrate the artistic and cultural contributions of Palestinians in the diaspora.”

The Palestinian Youth Movement’s spoken word event was to “showcase the winners of the Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship”, (pictured above) which the JDL and B’nai B’rith chose to target on the grounds the famous novelist was a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the early 1970s.

Testing the 'Kalibr' of Iran and Russia's Defense Capabilities

Blitz Wolf Caught in Persian Gulf - Iran and Russian Stronger on Defence Than the US and UK in Offence

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

August 1, 2019

This month’s escalation of US and British threats to Iran’s oil export shipping and maritime defences in the Persian Gulf is to be matched with Russian assistance to the Iran Navy and to shore batteries of air defence missiles, as well as the 300-kilometre range Russian Kalibr missile, a US Navy ship-killer.

Moscow - The Kalibr, according to US assessments, “skims just above the sea, making it difficult to detect at a distance, before leaping up to three times the speed of sound on the terminal approach—offering a challenging target for missile-defense systems. The Kalibr can be fired not only from underwater by submarines, but also by relatively small and cheap corvettes.”

Iran, according to its experts, has its own anti-shipping missiles and drones deployed along the Iranian coastline, on the sea surface and on board submarines, concentrating at the Strait of Hormuz. What the Iranian arms may lack in speed, range and electronic capabilities, the introduction of Russian electronic counter-measures, which Russians sources say has begun, will assist by jamming or spoofing US tracking equipment.

The result has already been signalled by the British, German and French governments in their response to Trump Administration requests for a multinational naval convoy operation in the Persian Gulf, and also in response to Iranian warnings.

Justin and the Ladies: Adding a Progressive Veneer to Haitian Corruption

Justin Trudeau “feminizes” Support for Corrupt and Repressive Haitian President

by Yves Engler - Dissident Voice

August 1st, 2019

The Trudeau Liberals are attempting to “feminize” their support of an illegitimate government hated by the vast majority of Haitians. And Radio-Canada seems to have fallen for it.

After Radio-Canada published a story about nine of eighteen ministers in Jovenel Moïse’s newly proposed government being women, Haitian Canadian feminist Jennie-Laure Sully replied:

“Haitians of all social classes have been demonstrating for more than a year demanding the resignation of the president and a change in the political system. But what does Radio-Canada talk about in this country? A cosmetic measure adopted by this fraudulently elected government accused of embezzlement and human rights violations. Gender parity in such conditions is a smokescreen (“poudre aux yeux”). Radio-Canada is doing identity politics of the lowest order while ignoring Canada’s role in maintaining corruption in Haiti.”

The Cotler, Dershowitz, Epstein Nexus: Faux Humanitarianism and the Appalling Agenda It Masks

Faux Humanitarian Irwin Cotler, the White Helmets, and the Whitewashing of an Appalling Agenda 

by Vanessa Beeley - MintPress News

August 1, 2019

Cotler’s campaigns for foreign regime change or intervention almost always march in lock-step with neoconservative U.S. foreign policy. His “humanitarian” branding is but a thin veneer of hypocrisy to conceal his establishment policies — policies that almost always serve the interests of Israel.

On July 22, 2018, Israel organized and facilitated an exceptional evacuation of White Helmet operatives from southern Syria, claiming the operatives were at risk from an advancing Syrian Arab Army. A number of NATO member states backed the move, calling on Israel to bring their intelligence assets to safety.

The White Helmets have been discredited and exposed as a British-government-incubated project by a number of independent geopolitical analysts, including Scott Ritter, Philip Giraldi, John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, Eva Bartlett, Graham Porter, Rick Sterling , Cory Morningstar and many more.

This journalist’s extensive work has shown that the U.K. Intelligence-manufactured group of pseudo “humanitarians” — financed by the majority of member states within the U.S.-led interventionist alliance waging war against Syria — is nothing more than an auxiliary of the Al Qaeda generic offshoots in Syria. The White Helmet image has been professionally polished by a vast network of PR agencies, billionaire philanthropists, and media outlets aligned with their respective government objectives to overthrow the Syrian government and reduce Syria to a “failed state,” as they succeeded in doing with Libya.

Israel has a history of supporting terrorism in Syria since the start of the U.S. coalition war against the nation officially began in 2011. Israel has offered medical treatment to the various militant groups previously occupying areas of southern Syria. Stories abound of Israeli troops providing covering fire for groups dominated by Al Qaeda affiliates or rebrands as they came under attack from the Syrian Arab Army legitimately reclaiming territory lost to internationally-backed armed groups.

Gabbard v. Google: The Fight for America's Media Leash

Tulsi Gabbard vs Google Goliath

by Rick Sterling - Dissident Voice

July 31st, 2019

Tulsi Now vs Google 

The Tulsi Gabbard presidential campaign has filed a major law suit against Google. This article outlines the main points of the law suit and evidence the the social media giant Google has quietly acquired enormous influence on public perceptions and has been actively censoring alternative viewpoints.

Tulsi Now, Inc vs Google, LLC was filed on July 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The attorneys demand a jury trial and seek compensation and punitive damages of “no less than $50 million”.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Joe Foy, Dahr Jamail, Janine Bandcroft August 1, 2019

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

August 1, 2019

Following a century and a half of forestry here, British Columbia's industrial-sized logging operators are struggling to find the trees needed to maintain the profits they've become accustomed to.

The result is Big Timber leaning ever more heavily on provincial decision-makers to get access to areas of the public forests once thought off-limits.

For the Spotted Owl, just one of a host of species endangered by habitat loss, the provincial government's reluctance to take a stand may make the difference between its survival or extirpation.

Listen. Hear.

Joe Foy is Co-Executive Director of the Wilderness Committee, an organization dedicated to, "preserving wildlife, defending parks, safeguarding public resources and fighting for a healthy climate." Joe leads the campaign team, and helps put together, coordinate and carry out strategies for its nature-protection campaigns.

Joe Foy in the first half.

And; while the numbers for July are not yet official, bets are that month's global mean temperature will too join June in breaking the mark as the hottest on record. According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, "global land and ocean surface temperature departure from average for June 2019 was the highest for the month of June in the 140-year NOAA global temperature dataset record."

In fact, nine of the ten hottest June's have occurred since 2010. Perhaps even more troubling though is the dearth of Antarctica's "ice extent", the smallest ever measured.

Dahr Jamail is a journalist and author who has, as staff writer at Truthout, been writing about climate change for the past decade or more. Dahr toured the island in early June with his book, 'The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption

Dahr Jamail and finding a way of life in a time of climate disruption in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist, and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to be gotten up to in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Joe Foy and allowing the Spotted Owl's habitat be logged away.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.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.ca/

Wad Guano's Epic Trip to the Political Wilderness

Juan Guaidó’s Regime Change Lobby

by John McEvoy - VenezuelAnalysis

 

July 30, 2019

 

After Juan Guaidó declared himself Venezuelan president on 23 January, the opposition leader immediately sought to legitimise his parallel government by garnering international support. 

 

The US, most European states, and large parts of Latin America moved swiftly to recognise Venezuela’s new ‘interim president’ (indeed, US Vice President Mike Pence had already given Guaidó Washington’s blessing), and the opposition leader began announcing his ambassadorial positions before the month’s end.

In the time since, however, Guaidó’s international credibility has suffered a series of blows. 

 

Not Believing Everything You Think

How The Question “Who Benefits From This?” Can Change Your Life

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

July 28, 2019

“Cui bono?” is a phrase you’ll often see used on conspiracy-minded Youtube videos and discussion forums. It’s Latin for “Who benefits?”, and it refers to a perspective in legal analysis that the one who stands most to gain from a crime is often the perpetrator. It’s the “motive” part of “means, motive and opportunity“.

The term comes up in conspiracy circles a lot because motive is often the biggest plot hole in the official story promoted by the authorized narrative managers of the political/media class about a given event. The alleged Douma chemical attack last year, for example, had no discernible benefit to the Assad government whatsoever, but would have benefited the cornered Al-Qaeda affiliates in the city by provoking air strikes from the west, so there remains a lot of skepticism from those who don’t automatically believe their government and the plutocratic media when they say that Damascus was responsible.

Such skepticism is dismissively branded “conspiracy theory” by the establishment narrative managers, but it is fully justified. So it’s a useful concept for analyzing world events in a way that punches through the fog of imperial propaganda. But the question “Who benefits from this?” can, and should, be taken much further.

Canada's Intimate Connection with Ukraine's Far Right

How Canada emerged as a haven for Ukrainian Nazi collaborators

by Roger Jordan - WSWS

29 July 2019

Earlier this month, Canada hosted the third Ukraine Reform Conference, a gathering of diplomats and officials from over 100 countries aimed at bringing Kiev even more directly under the geopolitical and economic domination of the western imperialist powers.

Photo: Kyiv Post

After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the conference sidelines, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed “to stand with Ukraine against Russian interference and aggression,” and to support it in the struggle to end Russia’s “illegal annexation” of Crimea.

Trudeau’s portrayal of Russia as the aggressor in Ukraine and Eastern Europe turns reality on its head. It conceals the fact that Canada played a major supporting role in the US-orchestrated, fascist-spearheaded February 2014 coup that chased Ukraine's elected president from power and brought a far-right, pro-western regime to power in Kiev; and that the 2014 coup was the continuation of a longstanding US-led, Canadian-backed drive to expand NATO to Russia's borders and harness Ukraine to the West.

Disrupting "Indian Act Governance" - A First Nations "Currency" in Canada

OneFeather and BlocPal to Provide First Nations with Digital Financial Services

by Richard Kastelein - BlockChain News

July 23, 2019
 

Canadian Blockchain company OneFeather – out of Victoria, Canada – and BlocPal International headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, have broadcast a new strategic partnership to jointly develop and release the OneFeather digital wallet app for First Nations members across North America.

The new wallet, to be launched later this year, will provide never before available digital financial services as well as important administrative and governance functions designed specifically for Indigenous peoples, communities and governments in both Canada and the United States.

Matkap, Bebek Matkap: Turkey's Dangerous Drilling Ambitions

Turkey's War in the West - Cyprus is Now Surrounded by Drill-Ships and Warships; Cannon Ready to Fire at Europe - 150,000 People per Month

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

 @bears_with

July 29, 2019

Moscow - Under cover of its Russian S-400 air defence batteries, and ignoring US and European sanctions, Turkey is going on the offensive at sea, surrounding Cyprus, and by land, launching a weapon against the European Union against which there is no defence: a Turkish cannon firing 150,000 people at Europe’s borders each month.

They are the refugees from the wars the US and NATO launched in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

A Russian analysis entitled “Turkey will open the door to Europe for millions of refugees”, written by Vladimir Dobrinin, was published in Vzglyad (“View”) on July 24.

(An English translation follows below.)

This should be read in conjunction with the strategic consequences of the Greek and Cypriot governments not to mount a military defence of themselves and their territorial waters and seabed resources, but to apply instead to the European Union (EU) for sanctions against Turkey, and to the US Congress and Trump Administration for an American protectorate.

Killing Palestinian Children: The Natural Violence Resulting a Racist Ideology

Killing Tariq: Why We Must Rethink the Roots of Jewish Settlers Violence

by Ramzy Baroud - The Palestine Chronicle

July 24, 2019

Seven-year-old Tariq Zabania from Al-Khalil (Hebron) was killed on the spot when an Israeli Jewish settler ran his car over him on July 15.

Little Tariq’s photograph, lying face down on the road, was circulated on social media. His untimely death is heartbreaking.

Tariq’s innocent blood must not go in vain. For this to happen, we are morally obliged to understand the nature of Jewish settler violence, which cannot be viewed in isolation from the inherent racism in Israeli society as a whole.

Saving the Djab Wurrung with Sussan, Honest!

Djab Wurrung Trees - Honest Government Ad

by Juice Media 

July 25, 2019

The Australien and Victorien Governments have made an ad about destroying ancient sacred trees to upgrade the Western Highway, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative!

Stand with the Djab Wurrung: dwembassy.com