Saturday, September 28, 2019

Making An Offer He Can't Refuse: Bidding Biden Bye, Bye

Trump and Biden Put US Regime Change Gangsterism On Display In Ukraine

by Kevin Zeese - Popular Resistance 


September 27, 2019

The corporate media is telling a false story about Joe Biden and the investigation of the gas company on whose board his son Hunter Biden sat. There was an ongoing investigation of the company and Biden threatened Ukraine with a financial crisis if the prosecutor was not fired and the investigation halted.


The sworn statement of Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin (beginning in paragraph 6 of the affidavit) that claims he was forced out of office by US VP Joe Biden because Shokin was investigating the gas company. Biden threatened to disapprove a billion-dollar loan to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired. Hunter was paid $50K per month for five years for being on the board even though he had no oil and gas experience.

Link to sworn statement of Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, shokin-ukraine-prosecutor-sworn-statement
 

The Trouble with Greta: Not Surrendering to Youth and Hopeful Exuberance

What to Do About All Those Infernal Accusations of Cynicism and Negativity

by Mark Petrakis - Dissident Voice


September 28th, 2019

In addition to the unprecedented giveaway of the people’s assets to multi billionaires that is outlined in the green new deal, when can I expect regime change for climate, bombing for climate, imperialist words for climate compulsory sterilization for climate, etc.
— A 9.21.19 tweet from @cordeliers

I hesitated today in posting this rather “ungloved” tweet from Club des Cordeliers… because I can see how folks are all SO worked up and feeling some infusion of “hope” in the wake of all the Greta business, but post it I did anyway. It was soon followed by a comment from someone who I know personally, and who cares for me, suggesting that “it is neither healthy nor helpful to see a boogie man around every corner and bad motives through every lens.”

I think there is something important in this well-intended warning that I would like to address, as I think it is reflective of a larger pattern of responses that I expect many of us – at least around these parts – encounter in the course of our day-to-day public communications.

Indelible Stain: Snowden's Job on Assange

Edward Snowden’s Julian Assange is an Unfamiliar Julian Assange

by Patrick Anderson - MintPress News 


September 27th, 2019

There is an unquestionable contradiction between Snowden’s opposition to Assange’s arrest and the rhetorical games he plays with Assange’s character in his memoir, Permanent Record.



NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks’ former editor Julian Assange have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, they share important similarities: both are perceived as dangerous enemies by the United States government, and both have been documentary subjects of filmmaker Laura Poitras. On the other hand, they clearly disagree when it comes to the means of achieving government transparency and accountability. After all, if Snowden had agreed with Assange about publishing practices, it is likely that he would have followed Chelsea Manning’s example and sent the NSA documents he collected and disclosed in 2013 to WikiLeaks.

The recent publication of Permanent Record, Snowden’s 336-page memoir, takes the Snowden-Assange dynamic to new—and problematic—heights.

An Education in Modern American Parenting - Lesson 1: Fixing School

Confession: I fixed my kids’ Admission into Top Colleges

by Greg Palast for Tikkun


September 25, 2019

Actress Felicity Huffman could be reading this from prison. Huffman got 14 days for paying some smart dude to take her daughter’s SAT.

There are others facing prison for paying backhanders to soccer coaches and hiring SAT shills to get their kids into Ivy. One Chinese family paid $6.5 million to a fixer to get their scion into Stanford.

Foolish parents, that’s not how you do it. Bribes and fraud are risky business.

Here’s how you do it. How you put in the fix legally. How I did it.

Afghanistan's Overwhelming Ordeal: The Wounds of War

The Wounds of War in Afghanistan

by Kathy Kelly - Voices for Creative Nonviolence


September 27, 2019

Recovering from a broken hip, peace activist Kathy Kelly reflects on her experiences with people disabled and traumatized by war.

Its economy gutted by war, Afghanistan’s largest cash crop remains opium. Yet farmers there do grow other crops for export. Villagers in the Wazir Tangi area of Nangarhar province, for example, cultivate pine nuts.

As a precaution, this year at harvest time, village elders notified the governor of the province that they would be bringing in migrant workers to help them collect the nuts. Hired laborers, including children, would camp out in the pine nut forests, they informed the officials.

They hoped their letter could persuade U.S. and ISIS forces, which had been fighting in or near their villages, not to attack.


Arriving in wheelchairs to receive duvets in Kabul.
Photo: Dr. Hakim

On September 17, 2019, exhausted from a long day of work, the migrant workers reached their rest spot for the night, and began building fires and making camp. In the early hours of the following morning, a U.S. drone attacked, killing at least thirty-two people. More than forty others were wounded.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Blowing Just the Right Whistles: Left Up in Arms to Protect (Some) Whistleblowers

MSM Defends CIA’s “Whistleblower”, Ignores Actual Whistleblowers

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist


September 27, 2019

The word “whistleblower” has been trending in news headlines lately, but not for the reasons that any sane person might hope for.


Read the whistleblower complaint regarding President Trump’s communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky“, says The Washington Post. “Trump responds to hearing on whistleblower complaint”, says MSNBC. “Trump-Ukraine scandal: what did the whistleblower say and how serious is it?”, writes The Guardian. “Whistleblower complaint says White House tried to ‘lock down’ Ukraine call records” announces CBS. “Whistleblower’s complaint is a devastating report from a savvy official”, declares CNN.

So who is this “savvy official”? Who is this courageous whistleblower who boldly shone the light of truth upon the mechanisms of power in the interests of the common man? Who is this brave, selfless individual who set off an impeachment inquiry by taking a stand and revealing the fact that the US president made a phone call in July urging Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to help investigate corruption allegations against Joe Biden and his son?

Well believe it or not, according to The New York Times this brave, noble whistleblower who the mainstream media are currently championing is an officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Seeing Assange: Short Visit from Far Away

Assange Behind Bars: A visit to Belmarsh maximum-security prison

by Felicity Ruby - Arena


27 Sep 2019

I have only ever known Julian Assange in detention. For nine years now, I have visited him in England bearing Australian news and solidarity. To Ellingham Hall I brought music and chocolate, to the Ecuadorian embassy I brought flannel shirts, Rake, Wizz Fizz and eucalyptus leaves, but to Belmarsh prison you can bring nothing—not a gift, not a book, not a piece of paper. Then I returned to Australia, a country so far away that has abandoned him in almost every respect.



Over the years I have learned to not ask, ‘How are you?’, because it’s bloody obvious how he is: detained, smeared, maligned, unfree, stuck—in ever-narrower, colder, darker and damper tunnels—pursued and punished for publishing. Over the years I’ve learned to not complain of the rain or remark on what a beautiful day it is, because he’s been inside for so long that a blizzard would be a blessing. I’ve also learned that it is not comforting but cruel to speak of sunsets, kookaburras, road trips; it’s not helpful to assure him that, like me and my dog, he will find animal tracks in the bush when he comes home, even though I think it almost every day.

Playing Julian: Letter to Cumberbatch on Film Characterization

First Letter from Julian Assange to Benedict Cumberbatch Over The Fifth Estate

by Julian Assange - WikiLeaks

9 October 2013

Today WikiLeaks publishes the first letter from Julian Assange to Benedict Cumberbatch regarding "The Fifth Estate", a Dreamworks movie about WikiLeaks set to open in the UK on Friday 11 Oct, and in the US on Friday 18 Oct. The press release about this letter is here. The letter was sent to Benedict Cumberbatch after he made overtures to contact Julian Assange in January this year, immediately before principal photography commenced.

Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 
From: Julian Assange 
To: Benedict Cumberbatch 
Subject: Message from Assange  

Dear Benedict,

Thank you for trying to contact me. It is the first approach by anyone from the Dreamworks production to me or WikiLeaks.

My assistants communicated your request to me, and I have given it a lot of thought and examined your previous work, which I am fond of. I think I would enjoy meeting you.

The bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant.


If the film reaches distribution we will forever be correlated in the public imagination. Our paths will be forever entwined. Each of us will be granted standing to comment on the other for many years to come and others will compare our characters and trajectories.

But I must speak directly.

Remembering the Ukraine Shoot-Down of MH17: Biden, Leading the Lie

MH17 – THE LIE TO END ALL TRUTHS, AND THE NEW EVIDENCE


by John Helmer - Dances with Bears


September 17, 2015

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama have on file three pieces of evidence showing both of them knew what had caused the crash of Malaysian Airlines MH17, and of the deaths of all 298 souls on board. They knew it little more than two hours after the crash had occurred in eastern Ukraine. They also knew each other knew it, because they discussed what had happened in a telephone call which took place before 19:45 Moscow time, 11:45 Washington time, on Thursday, July 17. MH17 was downed that day at 16:20 Ukraine time, 17:20 Moscow time, 09:20 Washington time.



Moscow- The first piece of evidence is the agenda paper for the telephone call. This had been negotiated and formalized by the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Embassy in Washington, the State Department and the White House before July 17. The second piece of evidence is the tape of the Putin-Obama conversation, as recorded by the Kremlin. The third piece of evidence is the tape of the Obama-Putin conversation, as recorded by the White House.

This evidence establishes that Putin believed, and Obama believed Putin would announce, not that a ground-to-air missile had brought MH17 down, but that other weapons had done so. The story that a Russian-made Buk missile had caused the disaster began after Obama had spoken to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko at about 19:00 Kiev time, 20:00 Moscow time, 12 noon Washington time.

Take away that story, because Obama knew it to be false when he had spoken earlier to Putin, and what do you have? A war crime by two governments. How to prove innocence and guilt? The tapes at the Kremlin and the White House.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

US "Sorry Again" for Killing Scores of Afghan Civilians

Thank our “Heros” for their service. They just wiped out 40 Members of a Wedding 

by Paul Craig Roberts


September 26, 2019 

Joint US-Afghan Strike Kills 40 Civilians at Wedding - US statement says deaths probably al-Qaeda’s fault

For the second time in a week, a US military operation in Afghanistan has ended with a large number of civilians dead, and US officials offering very dubious arguments as to why it wasn’t their fault.

The Sunday night attack saw US and Afghan commandos raid a house in Helmand Province, and ultimately launch airstrikes. The attack killed at least 40 civilians, including a number of children.

Instead of the Taliban building they thought they were raiding, it turns out the airstrike pounded an ongoing wedding reception. The Afghan government has already admitted to what happened, saying they are “saddened” by the deaths and want to take extra caution in the future.

Meanwhile in Ukraine: Monitoring the War America's Left Would Escalate

Civilians Remain in Bombed & Machine-Gunned Frontline DPR Village, Facing Near-Daily Ukrainian Attacks

by Eva Bartlett - In Gaza (And Beyond)


September 26, 2019

In Krutaya Balka, a frontline village north of Donetsk and just outside of Yasinovataya, 15 people (mostly elderly) remain, under near-daily Ukrainian shelling & heavy machine gun fire.

I spoke with those I could find at home while I was there. All told me they were constantly being assaulted by Ukrainian forces, by heavy machine gun fire and shelling.

The machine gun fire not only punctures the walls but also can set fire to the roof, thus the whole house.

All said they had no where to go, so they stay, living in hell in an area otherwise quite lovely. Same as I heard in Zaitsevo, further north in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

This video is the first of a few I’ll upload from Krutaya Balka, letting the civilians speak about what corporate owned media will not.




Biden, Burisma, and the Hunt for the Missing Foxes

THE HUNT FOR BURISMA – WHEN THE PACK OF HOUNDS IS MISSING ITS MASTER, THE FOX ESCAPES

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears


September 19, 2019



Moscow - Burisma, an influential Ukrainian oil and gas company with disputed ownership involving Nikolai Zlochevsky and Igor Kolomoisky, is under criminal investigation in the UK. But you wouldn’t know it from a release issued by the company on January 22.

According to Burisma,

“Britain closed criminal proceedings against the assets of Nikolay Zlochevskyi [sic]. The case was closed after the Court analyzed the period from 2002 to December 2014 for alleged illegality of the source of funds of companies the ultimate beneficiary of which was Nikolay Zlochevskyi [sic] and ‘found no grounds for further consideration of the case’, said the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales decision.”

A statement issued yesterday by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in London, which initiated the criminal proceedings against Zlochevsky in April of 2014, said its investigation of Zlochevsky and Burisma is “ongoing”.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Gorilla Radio Redux with Chris Cook, Susan Power, Maximilian C. Forte, Janine Bandcroft Sept. 26, 2019

This Week on GR

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


September 26, 2019

[Originally aired April 25, 2019 (September 26, 2019 Left Coast Events)]. 


After a year and a month of bloody conflict at the barriers separating Gaza from the World, The Great Return March continues yet.

Every Friday Palestinians demanding an end to their dispossession and forced isolation have faced Israel’s military, for the most peaceably, and suffered mightily for it. And though hundreds have been killed, shot down bare-handed by soldiers with sniper rifles, and thousands more gassed and wounded in other ways, the “international community” of nations has largely remained silent.

The run-up to Israel’s recent elections occasioned harder lines on the “Palestine Problem” in Gaza by politicians on all sides, while one prominent among them even promised, should he be elected, he would too annex the settlements, bringing a Gaza of sorts to the West Bank.

Listen. Hear.

Dr. Susan Power is Head of the Legal Research and Advocacy Department at Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights NGO based in Ramallah. Established in 1979, Al-Haq’s mission is to protect human rights and promote the rule of law in the Occupied Territories both individually and collectively, while seeking to end breaches of international law “irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator.”

Susan Power in the first half.


And; April 11th, a date that will for many live in infamy, Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno delivered from its embassy in London into the hands of the British government, political asylee and WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange. Miles of newsprint, and terabytes of misinformation has been produced regarding Assange and the nature of the case manufactured against him, but at its heart are some basic facts vital for both his just treatment and the future fairness of the planet the rest of us will inhabit.

Dr. Maximilian C. Forte is a scholar, educator, author, and creator of the Zero Anthropology Project, a “Canadian anthropological approach to the study of empire and the human condition” and its website, ZeroAnthropology.net.

Max Forte teaches full time in Anthropology and Sociology at Concordia University in Montréal, at the rank of full Professor, and is a member of the Concordia University Faculty Association, the trade union body for full-time faculty, and the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

Forte also publishes The New Imperialism series, which features research by students in his advanced seminar in the field, and his own research. Max is too a past finalist for the Quebec Writers Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction, and his book titles include: ‘Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs: (Post)Colonial Representations of Aboriginality in Trinidad and Tobago’, and ‘Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO’s War on Libya and Africa’.

Max Forte and untying the media tangle to find a coherent explanation of what the Assange arrest says about the state of the Empire and fate of democracy 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, Susan Power and Palestine’s prospects in an extended Netanyahu era.

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/

Hong Kong's Holy Terror: Living in Fear of the Rioters

Hong Kong is Scared of the Rioters

by Andre Vltchek - Dissident Voice


September 24th, 2019

It was once a British police station, as well as the Victoria Prison Compound. Hong Kong inhabitants used to tremble just from hearing its name mentioned. This is where people were detained, interrogated, humiliated, tortured and disappeared.

Now, after Hong Kong ‘returned to China’, it was converted into the Tai Kwun Center – one of the biggest and the most vibrant art institutions in Asia.

This transformation was symbolic, the same as the conversion of the former British-era slums into public parks has been symbolic.

But now, as the pro-Western and anti-Chinese treasonous hooligans are dividing and ruining this former U.K. colony, the old-colonialist flags of “British Hong Kong” are being waved alongside the flags of the United States, while Chinese flags are being humiliated, and thrown into the bay.
                 
            Latest HK-UK flag 

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

The Other Global Emergency: Waters on Militarism & Climate Crisis

Roger Waters: Militarism is Exacerbating the Climate Crisis

by TRNN


September 24, 2019

Harold Square in Manhattan - I’m here today with legendary musician Roger Waters, also known widely around the world for his peace activism and his activism for human rights. We are here for the People’s Mobilization Against the U.S. War Machine and Save The Planet.

 

Pink Floyd co-founder and activist Roger Waters speaks to the Real News at the People's Mobilization Against the U.S. War Machine in New York City.


What a Gantz Government Means for Palestine

Netanyahu on Steroids: What a Gantz-led Government Means for Palestine

by Ramzy Baroud - www.PalestineChronicle.com


September 24, 2019

Experience has taught Palestinians not to pay heed to Israeli elections. But to every rule there is an exception.



Although it is still true that no Israeli Zionist leader has ever been kind to the Palestinian people, the dynamics of the latest Israeli elections on September 17 are likely to affect the Occupied Palestinian Territories in a profound way.

Indeed, the outcome of the elections seems to have ushered in a new age in Israel, ideologically and politically. But the same claim can also be made regarding its potential influence on Palestinians, who should now brace themselves for war in Gaza and annexation in the West Bank.


Monday, September 23, 2019

Furore in a Beaver Pond: Trudeau's Skin Problems Covers Historic Canadian Racism Blemish

Canada’s furore over Trudeau’s racist problems is only skin deep

by Finian Cunningham - RT


Sept. 20, 2019

Canadian premier Justin Trudeau has had to prostrate himself with groveling apologies for past “racist behavior” when, as a younger man, he showed a penchant for donning turbans and skin-darkening make-up for school galas.



Fair enough, the self-proclaimed champion of “liberal values” should be subjected to a bit of public pillorying given that his youthful minstrel days of imitating people of color flatly contradict his more recent years of virtue-signaling.

Since Trudeau (47) was elected as prime minister in 2015, he has made a big deal about promoting human rights as well as gender and ethnic equality. On international relations, he talks about Canada having a “feminist foreign policy.”

Fukushima Drowning in Radioactive Water

Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Crisis 

by Robert Hunziker - CounterPunch


September 16, 2019

Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, which experienced three massive meltdowns in 2011, is running out of room to store radioactive water. No surprise! But now, what to do about phosphorescent water?

Addressing the issue, Japan’s environmental minister Yoshiaki Harada held a news conference (September 2019). Unfortunately, he proffered the following advice:

“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it.” (Source: Justin McCurry in Tokyo, Fukushima: Japan Will Have to Dump Radioactive Water Into Pacific, Minister Says, The Guardian, Sept. 10, 2019)

“The only option”… Really?


Canadian Union Sanctions VP for Syria Visit

Open Letter to trade unionists in support of brother Donald Lafleur, Executive Vice President, Canadian Labour Congress

Via Syria Solidarity Movement


September 22, 2019

Dear Comrades,

We write to you as fellow trade unionists and comrades dedicated in the struggle for workers’ rights in support of Donald Lafleur and his visit to the GFTU trade union congress in Damascus. Brother Lafleur has been unjustly placed on administrative leave despite the fact that he attended the meeting as a private individual, on his own time and at his own expense.

The Union Executive is continuing its deliberations and considering further actions against him.

We demand that he be permitted to resume his full duties!

We are surprised by the witch hunt against a fellow comrade and double standards taken by western media and governments when it comes trade unionism in Syria!


Donald Lafleur, Executive Vice President, CLC

We draw your attention to the fact the Canadian Labour Congress has never endorsed the economic sanctions against Syria and we don’t believe it would ever support actions that would bring hardship and undermine fellow trade unionists.