This Week on GR
by C.L. Cook - GRadio.Substack.com
Parisians in their thousands came out into the streets over the weekend; not just to bask in the Printemp glory of the City of Light, but too to raise hue and cris against the bitter state of affairs there. Sunday, followers of the polls-leading party Rassemblement National gathered before the Napoleon's Tomb to both rally support for their recently convicted leader Marine Le Pen and to "Save Democracy". They insist the French court's recent verdict finding Le Pen guilty of embezzlement is less justice served than Justice serving a political agenda. And, as if to underline the point, on the other side of the Seine, National Rally's political opponents came out in force to protest the protest.
Diana Johnstone is an American author and journalist who's lived in Paris and followed and written about French and European politics for several decades. Diana has too served as press secretary to the Green Group in the European Parliament, an experience recounted in her latest book, 'Circle of Darkness: Memoirs of a World Watcher'.
Johnstone's other titles include: 'Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO and Western Delusions', and 'From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning', co-written with her father, Paul H. Johnstone. Some of her many essays on global affairs are also featured at ConsortiumNews.com.
Diana Johnstone in the first half.
And; Europeans aren't the only ones bemoaning political and economic stagnation. In North America too citizens are generally agreed they are suffering - if not a crisis - then certainly a malaise of democracy. Compounding that is the apparent abandonment of foundational mores of Western Civilization; witnessed through the aiding and abetting of Israel's genocide in Gaza, and reinforced by American president, Donald Trump's expressed desire to abrogate international law and annex Canada, Greenland, Panama, and further parts south.
Iain Tdone is an independent scholar and author, publishing at HeySlick.Substack.com, probing he says, "the tensions between past and future, memory and progress, through the fault lines of philosophy, storytelling, and cultural critique." It's where I found his February article, 'The Technate of North America: How the New Oligarchy Plans to Rule the Future'.
Iain Tdone and the practical guide to life in the coming technocratic feudal order in the second half.
But first, Diana Johnstone and rallying against the twilight of France's Fifth Republic.
Songs: Mahmoud Khalil (remix)
Meanwhile in Gaza
Artist: David Rovics
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/and on Telegram at: https://t.me/gorillaradio2024
