Saturday, September 12, 2020

Immovable Bourgeois Democracy Meets Irresistible Global Power Elite

ELECTION 2020: Bourgeois Democracy Meets Global Governance

by Diana Johnstone - Special to Consortium News


August 28, 2020
A small number of very rich men are quite sure they know what is best for the future of the world and have enough wealth and influence to believe they can make it happen. They can be called oligarchs, but the term is inadequate. They are a special category, the shapers of the Global Governance destined to replace bourgeois democracy. 
 President Donald Trump arriving in Ashville, N.C., Aug. 24, 2020. 
(White House, Shealah Craighead) 

I can name two: one who is famous, notorious even, but very old, and another who is a generation younger, not yet so well known or so rich but probably even more influential.

Friday, September 11, 2020

Court of Public Opinion: Creating an Assange Caricature

How the US government put Julian Assange’s personality on trial

by Noam Chomsky and Alice Walker - AssangeDefense.org


September 9, 2020
On Monday Julian Assange was driven to the Old Bailey to continue his fight against extradition to the United States, where the Trump administration has launched the most dangerous attack on press freedom in at least a generation by indicting him for publishing US government documents. 

Amid coverage of the proceedings, Assange’s critics have inevitably commented on his appearance, rumours of his behaviour while isolated in the Ecuadorian embassy, and other salacious details.

Yesterday and Today: The 9/11 Century

9/11 at 19: Endless Wars, Guantánamo and 37 Million People Displaced 

by Andy Worthington


11.9.20
It’s 19 years today since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the US mainland, in New York City and Washington, D.C., and I’m shocked to discover that one-third of my life has elapsed since the attacks took place. I was 38 years old when 9/11 happened, and now I’m 57. Even more shocking is the realization that my son, who is 20 now, was just one year old at the time.

The 9/11 attacks on New York City, and prisoners at Guantánamo on the day that the prison opened, exactly four months later, on January 11, 2002. 

"That Damned Donziger Man!" The Curious Case of Chevron's Nemesis

Manufacturing Disgrace: Reuters Distorts Chevron v. Donziger

by Joe Emersberger - FAIR


September 11, 2020
Attorney Steven Donziger has been under house arrest since August 6 of last year. He is charged with contempt of court for refusing to turn over his cell phone and computer to Chevron as ordered by a federal judge. The order is still being appealed on constitutional grounds, one reason Donziger refused to obey it. 

Public prosecutors declined to take on this case, so the judge had a private firm (which had Chevron as a client) act as prosecutors.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Moria Camp Migrants Caught Between Fascists and Fires

Lesbos refugee-camp blaze leaves 13,000 without shelter

by Robert Stevens - WSWS


10 September 2020
A massive blaze has largely destroyed the Moria migrant camp. Located on the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos/Lesvos, the camp was the largest within the European Union. According to social media accounts, the fire broke out some time before midnight Tuesday.
photo: Al Jazeera

Around 13,000 men, women and children have been left without accommodation, food, and drink. The detainees held there were forced to flee for their lives as multiple fires spread. No fatalities have been reported, but people are suffering from injuries due to smoke exposure.

Wednesday, September 09, 2020

We Are Suckers (and Losers) When We Fight Their Wars

Trump Disses Troops but Correctly Labels 2 of America’s Costliest Wars Unjustified or ‘Stupid’ 

by Dave Lindorff - CounterPunch 


September 9, 2020
Let’s be honest about America’s wars and the men (overwhelmingly) and women who have fought them.

Most of the wars that the US has launched or fought in, dating back to at least the War of 1812, were not just or necessary, could have been avoided, and wasted precious lives and national wealth, often while slaughtering the people of weaker nations.

NATO Schisms in Eastern Med

As Washington retreats, Eastern Mediterranean conflict further marginalises NATO

by Ramzy Baroud - MEMO


September 7, 2020
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance in name alone. Recent events notwithstanding, the brewing conflict over territorial waters in the Eastern Mediterranean indicates that the military union between mostly Western countries is faltering.
NATO Allied Land Command Headquarters, Izmir, Turkey August 04, 2020 
[Mehmet Emin Mengüarslan/Anadolu Agency]

The current Turkish-Greek tension is only one facet of a much larger conflict involving, aside from the two Mediterranean countries, Israel, Egypt, Cyprus, France, Libya, and other Mediterranean and European countries.

Dispatches from a Travesty: Assange Hearing (Day 7)

Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 7

by Craig Murray


September 9, 2020 
This morning we went straight in to the evidence of Clive Stafford Smith, a dual national British/American lawyer licensed to practice in the UK. He had founded Reprieve in 1999 originally to oppose the death penalty, but after 2001 it had branched out into torture, illicit detention and extraordinary rendition cases in relation to the “war on terror”.

Clive Stafford Smith testified that the publication by Wikileaks of the cables had been of great utility to litigation in Pakistan against illegal drone strikes.

American Igors: Monsters and Their Enablers

Tens of Millions of People Displaced by the ‘War on Terror’, The Greatest Scam Ever Invented

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist


September 9, 2020

A new report from Brown University’s Costs of War project has found that at least 37 million people have been displaced as a result of America’s so-called “war on terror” since 9/11, a conservative estimate of a number that may actually be somewhere between 48 million to 59 million.

That number, “at least 37 million”, happens by pure coincidence to be the exact same number of Americans reported to suffer from food insecurity because their government spends their wealth and resources killing and displacing people overseas.

Tuesday, September 08, 2020

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Tyler Shipley, Joel Bakan, Janine Bandcroft September 10, 2020

This Week on GR

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


September 10, 2020
Welcome back 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".
We all grew up with those infomercial-lengthed Canadian history bites, Heritage Minutes. With production values just hoakey enough to appear made by the Ministry of Education for your Grade 6 Socials class, the upbeat and nationhood-affirming vignettes have become, like the TransCanada and some other stuff one of the things that makes us Canadians Canadian.

And, like some of the best-loved stories we like to tell ourselves about ourselves, Heritage Minutes is just a pile of crap. Or so contends my first guest, (in not so many words).

Tyler Shipley is Professor of Culture, Society and Commerce at Humber College’s Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and founding member of Canadian poliprog band, Consumer Goods.

Listen. Hear.
Shipely's first book, ‘Ottawa and Empire: Canada and the Military Coup in Honduras’ taught us more about ourselves than we hoped to learn, and the same is promised of his second title, ‘Canada in the World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination.’ His recent article, ‘The stunning misinformation and whitewashing of racism behind Canada’s Heritage Minutes’ currently challenges our childhood indoctrination from the pages of The Canada Files website.

Tyler Shipley in the first half.


And; way back near the turn of the century, when the unbridled power of transnational capital and its enabling mechanism the modern corporation threatened to destroy democracy, Vancouver-based legal scholar and filmmaker, Joel Bakan released the now classic documentary film, ‘THE CORPORATION’.

Now, more than fifteen years later, Bakan has revisited the topic with his newly released book, ‘The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations Are Bad for Democracy’, and he’s teamed up again with fellow CORPORATION director, Jennifer Abbott on the new film, ‘The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel’.

Joel Bakan and revisiting The Corporation fifteen years later in the second half.

And; CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin, bringing us up to speed with some of what’s good going on in and around our town in the coming week. But first, Tyler Shipley and catching up on Canada’s pretend history, even as the real one catches up with us.

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/

Assange Justice is All Our Fight

THE STALINIST TRIAL OF JULIAN ASSANGE. WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

by John Pilger


7 September 2020
When I first met Julian Assange more than ten years ago, I asked him why he had started WikiLeaks. He replied: "Transparency and accountability are moral issues that must be the essence of public life and journalism."

I had never heard a publisher or an editor invoke morality in this way. Assange believes that journalists are the agents of people, not power: that we, the people, have a right to know about the darkest secrets of those who claim to act in our name.

England's Disgrace: Assange Show Trial Reveals Demise of Britain's Rule of Law

The working class must demand an end to the show trial of Julian Assange

by Thomas Scripps - WSWS


8 September 2020
The first day of Julian Assange’s resumed extradition hearing, held in London’s Old Bailey, saw a country that boasts of being one of the oldest democracies in the world sink to the level of a tinpot dictatorship.
Assange and minders in court appearance September 7, 2020
Artist's rendering: Julia Quenzler

Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has exposed war crimes, torture, state surveillance and the diplomatic conspiracies of the US and other imperialist powers. But he was delivered to the court from his cell in a maximum-security prison in an unmarked van, after being imprisoned in conditions worse than those accused of murder. In the cells under the Old Bailey, he was able to see his lawyers in person for the first time in six months and given his first look at the final written submissions in his own case.

Monday, September 07, 2020

Novichok Redux: Germany's 'Skripal' Moment

BRAIN POISONING BY RUSSIAN NERVE AGENT – ALEXEI NAVALNY INFECTS GERMAN CHANCELLERY

by John Helmer, Moscow

@bears_with

September 7, 2020
There is only one certainty (zweifelsfreie Nachweis) in the case of Alexei Navalny and the traces (Spuren) which have been found in his skin, urine and blood, and in a water bottle, by the German Army’s chemical warfare laboratory in Munich.

This certainty is that, in order to believe the German and other government interpretations which have been given of the evidence to date, you have to be suffering from a severe case of brain washing. The lighter the spectrometric mass or weight of the reported Novichok spuren, the heavier the measurable wash on the brain required to believe they are evidence of a Russian state crime.

The Crucifixion of Julian Assange: A Supine Gallery Content to Damn Journalism's "Judas"

Media Freedom? Show me the MSM Journalist Opposing the Torture of Assange

by Craig Murray


September 7, 2020

Today, the corporate media that cried “Media freedom” when Extinction Rebellion blocked the billionaire owned propaganda presses, is silent as Julian Assange’s Calvary for bringing real truth unfiltered to the public moves on to its next station; the macabre Gothic architecture of the Old Bailey.

The Tories appeared remarkably tolerant in the days when Extinction Rebellion were causing general disruption to the public. But to threaten the interests of billionaire paymasters is something against which the entire political class will unite. 

A Nightmare for the Whole Family: The Evil Root of Monopoly

Monopoly: Root of All Evil

by David Swanson  - Let's Try Democracy


September 7, 2020
The Monopoly game originally had an anti-monopoly, pro-cooperation (not corporation, COOPeration!) version. Somebody should revive it, along with the understanding of the game as a warning of horrific evils, not just arcane Wall Street issues, and not just an opportunity to inculcate greed or generate fun family arguments.

“Horrific evils”? Can I be serious? I’m afraid so. Pick up a copy of Thom Hartmann’s The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream. 

Presente! Kevin Zeese

Activist Kevin Zeese Passes Away

by Telesur English


September 6, 2020
 
U.S. lawyer, advocate, writer, activist-organizer and comrade, Kevin Zeese, passed away on Sunday morning.
The dedicated, long-time organizer is being remembered for his important 
work on the frontlines of countless struggles for justice. 
(photo - Ted Majdosz Twitter)

Zeese, alongside his partner Margaret Flowers, was the Co-director of Popular Resistance, an online resource providing news and information, which brings together movements for peace and economic, racial and environmental justice.

Sunday, September 06, 2020

The Journalists Paving the Way to Assange Gulag Exile

For years, journalists cheered Assange’s abuse. Now they’ve paved his path to a US gulag 2 

by Jonathan Cook


September 2, 2020
Court hearings in Britain over the US administration’s extradition case against Julian Assange begin in earnest next week. The decade-long saga that brought us to this point should appall anyone who cares about our increasingly fragile freedoms.

A journalist and publisher has been deprived of his liberty for 10 years. According to UN experts, he has been arbitrarily detained and tortured for much of that time through intense physical confinement and endless psychological pressure.