Men of Steele: Taking the Pee Out of the Trump/Putin Narrative in Court (and Winning)

THE REPUTATION OF MIKHAIL FRIDMAN AND PYOTR AVEN IS WORTH £18,000 EACH, BUT IT COST SIXTEEN TIMES THAT MUCH TO DEFEND — ENOUGH TO BANKRUPT CHRISTOPHER STEELE 

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

July 9, 2020

It was the 412th of Francois de la Rochefoucauld’s maxims that doesn’t stand the test of either time or money. “Whatever degree of disgrace we may have brought upon ourselves,” he said, “it is always within our power to re-establish our reputation.”

For years Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven, the controllers of Alfa Bank of Moscow and LetterOne Holding in London, have been trying but not succeeding. This week they scored a success, but not quite of the kind they, or La Rochefoucauld, meant.

A Rae of Continuity: Canada's UN Amabassador Appointment Disappoints

New UN ambassador Bob Rae pushes pro-US, militarist and anti-Palestinian positions

by Yves Engler

July 6, 2020

Bob Rae’s appointment as ambassador to the UN is a direct result of Canada’s defeat in its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council. But, it suggests the Liberals are ignoring the lessons of that defeat and calls to rethink Canadian foreign policy.

Three weeks after the Trudeau government suffered an embarrassing loss in its bid to sit on the UN’s most powerful decision-making body the individual who lead the multi-year campaign is out. 

A History of the Jewish National Fund

The JNF’s sordid history: Tower and stockades, forests and Jim Crow vetting committees 

by Jonathan Cook

July 7, 2020

This is the expanded text of a talk I gave to the “Stop the JNF Campaign” webinar on Saturday 4 July 2020. The video can be watched below, or on Facebook, starting at 5.50 mins:

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) rightly presents itself as the most venerable of the Zionist institutions:

It stands at the heart of a state-building project launched more than a century ago;
It is an organisation that is today deeply embedded in the structures of the Israeli state;
It is the guardian of the Israel’s most precious resource – land;
And it is the bridge connecting Jews abroad to Israel, allowing them to become practically and emotionally involved in its continuing national mission of colonisation.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Radhika Desai, Ken Boon, Janine Bandcroft July 9th, 2020

This Week on GR

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

July 9, 2020

Welcome again to Gorilla Radio’s continuing efforts, NOT broadcast live from CFUV Radio in the basement of the Student Union Building at the University of Victoria, but emanating live-to-tape via skype from our home-based … studios on this date, June 30th, 2020.

As day by day the duration of this Covid disaster grows longer it becomes increasingly clear there will be no normal, new or otherwise, to return to; especially no economic one. What we’re witnessing, my first guest argues, is more cyclone than cyclical downturn; an effective overturning of the entire neo-liberal financial order. Not only are we not in Kansas anymore, but Kansas has done gone too!

Radhika Desai is a scholar, educator, author, editor. She is too director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group and professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba, and author of the books, ‘Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire’, ‘Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics’, and ‘Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party’.

Listen. Hear.

Desai also serves as co-editor with Alan Freeman of the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press. Radhika’s many essays, primarily on the topics of political economy, culture and nationalism can be found at among other places, CanadianDimensions.com where her seven part, multi-week series, WHAT IS TO BE DONE? A MANIFESTO FOR POLITICS AMID THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND features.

Radhika Desai in the first half.

And; the people of Old Fort don’t know what to expect next. The small town in British Columbia’s Peace River Valley has been under an evacuation alert since June 19th when a landslide destroyed their only road access. It’s the second time the road has been wiped out in the last two years, and locals want to know what’s going on beneath them, but the provincial government has yet to shed light on the geological cause of the slides.

Requests for information made through channels have been refused “pursuant to section 15” of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Section 15 regards disclosure of requested information as quote, “harmful to law enforcement”. Further explanation of how that may be has not been offered, but the geological and political fragility surrounding the contentious Site C dam has long been an issue for Peace Valley opponents of the project.

Ken Boon is a Peace Valley farmer and president of the Peace Valley Landowners Association. Ken and his family have lived at the heart of the resistance to the Site C dam project from the beginning.

Ken Boon and does the Old Fort slide mean things going sideways for Site C too? in the second half.

And; long-time Gorilla Radio contributor and ‘Green Vegan Grandma’ YouTuber, 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 Victoria in the coming week. But first, Radhika Desai and just what is to be done in a World undone?

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.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/

Guaidó Lackey Declares War on Journalism: "There's a price on your head."

Guaido Representative Threatens FBI Investigation Into Journalists Exposing Her Dealings

by Alan MacLeod - MintPress News

July 6, 2020

 From the Twitter account of her communications firm, Asymmetrica, Vanessa Neumann accused four journalists of a “criminal conspiracy” to support Venezuelan vice-president Delcy Rodriguez. “There is a price on your head,” she threatened. 

Vanessa Neumann, the U.K. ambassador of self-declared President of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó, claims that she is working closely with the FBI in an investigation exposing a “transnational criminal network” of journalists, including John McEvoy, Pablo Navarette, independent outlet Venezuelanalysis and former MintPress News contributor Camila Escalante.

Dirty Laundering: Meng/Huawei A Blatant Case of USA-ing Canadian Justice to Pressure Wash China

Meng, Huawei and Canadian Law: Soap, Rinse and Dry-Laundered

by Harry Glasbeek - SocialistProject

June 25, 2020

One of the graver risks for big-time criminals is that investigators will be able to identify them and their deeds by ‘following the money’. The criminals have to hide the proceeds of their crimes. This is done by depositing their monies into legitimate finance houses and businesses. It often requires some fancy book-keeping tricks and intricate transactions. This is called layering by the afficionados of this dark art.

Once it is done, the criminals can draw on the accounts created and mix the ill-gotten gains with legally garnered capital. The term for this is ‘integration’ and it makes the investigators’ tasks much harder. The rotten fruit of crime will have been laundered.