Inheriting the Whirlwind: Charting Biden's Course into the Gyre

The Rubble of Empire: Doctrines of Disaster and Dreams of Security as the Biden Years Begin

by Rebecca Gordon - TomDispatch

 

January 19, 2021

How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco.

Directly across the street, I can see a collection of tarps and poles (along with one of my own garbage cans) that were used to construct a makeshift home on the sidewalk. Beside that edifice stands a wooden cross decorated with a string of white Christmas lights and a red ribbon — a memorial to the woman who built that structure and died inside it earlier this week. We don’t know — and probably never will — what killed her: the pandemic raging across California? A heart attack? An overdose of heroin or fentanyl?

 

The Squad Hies Right: Closing the Democrat's Door on Progressive Left Hopes

The Obama-fication of "The Squad" Strengthens the Right at the Expense of the Left

by Danny Haiphong - Black Agenda Report (BAR)

January 13, 2021

The so-called ‘progressive” model would have us wait half a dozen election cycles before taking real action on the demand for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.

 

Not one member of “the Squad” withheld their vote for Pelosi 

or made the demand of a floor vote for Medicare for All

 

“Black Americans had grown more economically optimistic and pro-U.S. intervention than ever before by the end of Obama’s first presidential term.” 

 

"Left" Media Picking-Up Pentagon Propaganda

Why is the Guardian Promoting More Pentagon Propaganda?

by Dimitri Lascaris

December 19, 2020

Britain’s leading ‘’centre-left’ newspaper just offered us a textbook example of the liberal media’s embrace of Pentagon propaganda.

Sailors observe the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Groups 

steam in formation as the Nimitz Carrier Strike Force (CSF) in the South China Sea. 

Photo by 3rd Class Dalton Reidhead/Flickr. 

 

In an article entitled “US Navy to adopt ‘more assertive posture’ against China and Russia,” the Guardian reports that the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard have declared their intention to “accept calculated tactical risks and adopt a more assertive posture” toward Chinese and Russian naval forces. 

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Marjorie Cohn, Eric van de Beek January 14th, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

January 14, 2021 

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition recorded on this date, January 11/13th, 2021.

 

 

An astonishing week past in the United States guarantees, if nothing else Donald Trump’s place in history is assured. Democratic legislators have promised impeachment should the president not resign “imminently” rather than finish out the nine days left in his term; while others are calling for the invocation of the 25th amendment to have Mr. Trump forcibly removed. Either way, America finishes in 2021 where it began four years ago; a divided nation fighting over the legitimacy of its new leader.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita of law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego. A past president of the National Lawyers Guild, Cohn currently serves on the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and writes, lectures, and provides legal clarity to local, national, and international media outlets when invited to do so. 

 

Listen. Hear.

 

Early in her career she worked with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and participated in delegations to Cuba, Russia, and Yugoslavia. Her writing can be found at her website, MarjorieCohn.com, and for more than two decades at Truthout.org, where her series, Human Rights, Global Wrongs chronicling the abuse of both people and the legal process has appeared since, 2014.

 

Marjorie Cohn in the first half.

 

And; six and half years after departing Amsterdam bound for Kuala Lumpur, the cause of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17’s fiery crash in a Ukrainian farm field remains shrouded in mystery and misinformation. The criminal phase of the trial began in The Netherlands last Spring, but few in the country showed interest, thinking there’s nothing new to learn about the disaster that took the lives of 193 of their compatriots. And that, according to Eric van de Beek is the fault not only of the Dutch press, but a shadowy British internet news outlet known as Bellingcat.

Eric van de Beek is a freelance journalist based in the Netherlands who worked for several years at the leading Dutch weekly, Elsevier. His articles are published at his site, Ericvandebeek.nl and at The Grayzone.com, where I found his recent piece, ‘Bellingcat disrupts MH17 trial‘.

Eric van de Beek and digging through the wreckage of media disinformation and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service’s tangled MH17 investigation in the second half.

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

Assange's Future Is the Future of Journalism (& Global Citizenship)

Julian Assange and the future of journalism

by DiEM25

January 7, 2021

On Monday, January 4, a UK judge blocked the US request to extradite Julian Assange. Two days after, on Wednesday January 6, the same judge denied Julian Assange bail. 

 

 

In this video, investigative journalist Stefania Maurizi, Brian Eno, Roger Waters, Yanis Varoufakis, Ken Loach and Frank Barat discuss the meaning of these decisions and what it means for the future of journalism and freedom of speech. 

 

This event/video was originally published on Frank Barat's Youtube page here: 

https://bit.ly/3hUbMtw​ 

Suicide Squeeze: Democrats Swing for the Dugout w/ Single Second Impeachment Article

Democrats Are Making a Mistake By Pursuing Articles of Impeachment Republicans Won’t Join. Or Not… 

by Ben Rosenfeld - CounterPunch

 

January 12, 2021 
 

The Democrats appear to be set to commit another tactical blunder by proceeding on a single article of impeachment against Donald Trump for incitement of insurrection. There is no doubt the House will sustain it, and it may even apply, though it is legally dubious. But there is next to zero chance that Senate Republicans will go along in the supermajority numbers needed to remove Trump from office. 

Photograph Source: Phil Roeder – CC BY 2.0

 

The goal, if Democrats sincerely believe Trump remains a clear and present danger to the country every moment he remains President, should be to leave only one switch left for the Senate to throw to kick him out in the event of a new emergency. (The 25th Amendment gambit seems doomed, and the process is actually more cumbersome and uncertain than impeachment in the current circumstances.) And some number of Senate Republicans have signaled that they might be willing to sustain “reasonable” articles of impeachment. 

 

In the Aftermath: Investigating the Revolting Trump Mob

New details about January 6 riot reveal need for full-scale investigation

by Eric London - WSWS

January 11, 2021

 

New information in media reports shows that Trump’s January 6 fascistic insurrection had high level support from within the Republican Party and critical sections of the police and military-intelligence apparatus. These revelations raise the need for a full-scale investigation into the plot to overthrow the Constitution and all those involved in it.

 

 

The Washington Post reported yesterday that in the days before the riot, congressional staff implored the US Capitol police to take seriously the clear signs that a coup attempt was being prepared, demanding greater protection for the scheduled Electoral College certification. Staff were “asking for briefings” and were desperate for information about the threat of violence, but Capitol police refused to provide any substantive response, the Post reported.

 

Resisting Nuland: Biden Reinstating Neocons

25 Organizations: Victoria Nuland’s Nomination Should Be Rejected

by World BEYOND War

 

January 11, 2021

Nuland played a key role in facilitating a coup in Ukraine that created a civil war costing 10,000 lives and displacing over a million people. She played a key role in arming Ukraine as well. She advocates radically increased military spending, NATO expansion, hostility toward Russia, and efforts to overthrow the Russian government.

Victoria Nuland, former foreign policy adviser to vice president Dick Cheney, should not be nominated for Undersecretary of State, and if nominated should be rejected by the Senate.

 

A Gas-Lit Serenade for American Democracy: Trump Exit Stage Left

Fascism by Gaslighting: Trump’s Coup and the Grassroots Insurrection Strategy

by Anthony DiMaggio - CounterPunch

 

January 8, 2021 

 

Donald Trump’s rolling coup attempt, which has been ongoing for months and reached a climax on January 6th, was a dramatic example of how demagogues manipulate their supporters in pursuit of fascist politics, while shrewdly trying to wash their hands of responsibility.

This con has worked for much of Trump’s base, with 52 percent of Republicans blaming Joe Biden, rather than the President, for the actions of the insurrectionists in D.C., and with 45 percent voicing support for the mob and their cause. Trump’s ability to sell his coup to the base is a classic example of fascist gaslighting, via his efforts to farm out insurrection to supporters, while pretending to remain above the fray. 

 

War Trek: The Next Generation

Will They Ever Be Over? The 20th Anniversary of the War on Terror Arrives

by Nick Turse - TomDispatch

 

January 7, 2021

 

“This is a different kind of war, which we will wage aggressively and methodically to disrupt and destroy terrorist activity,” President George W. Bush announced a little more than two weeks after the 9/11 attacks. “Some victories will be won outside of public view, in tragedies avoided and threats eliminated. Other victories will be clear to all.”  

 

This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the war on terror, including America’s undeclared conflict in Afghanistan.  After that war’s original moniker, Operation Infinite Justice, was nixed for offending Muslim sensibilities, the Pentagon rebranded it Operation Enduring Freedom. 

Trying and Failing to Find Rationality in Assange Rulings

As UK Judge Denies Julian Assange Bail, It’s Time for Joe Biden to Drop the US Extradition Request

by Andy Worthington

January 6, 2021

Today, at Westminster Magistrates Court, just two days after ruling that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser refused to grant him bail, consigning him to ongoing imprisonment in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in south east London.

 

 Lady Emma & Lord James Arbuthnot of Edrom, Buckingham Palace May 2017 

[Source: Instagram] 

 

On Monday, at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey), Judge Baraitser refused to allow the extradition to proceed, ruling that his life would be at risk in a US supermax prison. 

Icing Trump's Cake: Pence Commands Pentagon, National Guard Take Back D.C.

Has Trump Already been Removed as Commander in Chief?

by Dave Lindorff - This Can't Be Happening

 

January 7, 2021

Little noticed during yesterday’s bizarre storming of the Capitol building by armed and violent Trump-incited American “brownshirts,” was the fact that National Guard troops, called for by Washington’s mayor, but not authorized by President Trump, were finally authorized by Vice President Pence.

 

 

Is Pence calling the shots when it comes to the Pentagon? 

 

Michael Ratner's Assange Story

The Empire is Not Done with Julian Assange

by Chris Hedges - ScheerPost   

 

January 4, 2021 

 

As is clear from the memoir of one of his attorneys, Michael Ratner, the ends have always justified the means for those demanding his global persecution. 

 

Shortly after WikiLeaks released the Iraq War Logs in October 2010, which documented numerous U.S. war crimes — including video images of the gunning down of two Reuters journalists and 10 other unarmed civilians in the Collateral Murder video, the routine torture of Iraqi prisoners, the covering up of thousands of civilian deaths and the killing of nearly 700 civilians that had approached too closely to U.S. checkpoints — the towering civil rights attorneys Michael Ratner and Len Weinglass, who had defended Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers case, met Julian Assange in a studio apartment in Central London, according to Ratner’s newly released memoir “Moving the Bar”. 

The Real Steal: Trump a Chump When It Comes to Rigging a Poll

Stealing Georgia: Raffensperger is No Hero: The Real Story of Jim Crow Tactics in the Senate Runoff Race

by Greg Palast in Atlanta

January 4, 2021

Despite the hype, an investigative report released today reveals Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is no hero defending democracy from Trump.

 

Rather, in this investigative film (produced by George DiCaprio, Thom Hartmann and Rosario Dawson, and narrated by Debra Messing), Raffensperger is exposed for using vote suppression Jim Crow tactics — even misleading a federal court to keep 198,000 Georgians from voting in Tuesday’s Senate run-off.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Steve Poikonen, Karl Grossman January 7th, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

January 7, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition recorded on the dates, January 4th/5th, 2021.

Today, Magistrate of the Crown, Vanessa Baraitser stunned Assange case followers, delivering a finding refuting American demands for the WikiLeaks publisher’s extradition to that country to face espionage charges. 

 

Despite the ruling, Julian Assange is still held in London’s Belmarsh Prison. Outside the court, Assange’s partner, Stella Moris told reporters now is not the time to celebrate saying, “I had hoped that today would be the day that Julian would come home…Today is not that day, but that day will come soon.”

Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast available on Patreon.com. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. 

 

Listen. Hear.

Poikonen and a retinue of activist have returned to Washington, D.C. to make again as public as possible in the American Capitol the miscarriage of justice being perpetrated in England against Julian Assange and all he represents.

Steve Poikonen in the first half.

And; A hundred years old is great for a bottle of fine cognac; okay for a stately home; and fairly good for a collector’s piece of furniture but when it comes to nuclear reactors like romantic interests, you’re probably best to keep them under ninety, and certainly less than a century old. It seems something that needn’t be said but tell that to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission who’re currently toying with the idea of extending the operating licenses of atomic power plants from the previously stretched 80 to 100 years.

Karl Grossman is professor of journalism at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, and author of, ‘The Wrong Stuff: The Space’s Program’s Nuclear Threat to Our Planet’, and ‘Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power. He’s also an associate of the media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), whose articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, where I found his latest, ‘Inviting Nuclear Disaster’.

Karl Grossman and the NRC playing doorman to an atomic apocalypse in the second half.

And; sad news to relay: CFUV Radio broadcaster and host of Plant Powered Radio, Janine Bandcroft will no longer maintain the Left Coast Events Bulletin, heard here weekly since 2002. But, you can still catch her show, every Tuesday at 11am pacific time right here at CFUV.ca.

But first up, Steve Poikonen from Washington, D.C. and staying on the Assange case.

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

Call Him "K": Processing Julian Assange

Journalists, Activists Condemn UK Decision to Keep Assange Locked Up without Charge

by Alan Macleod  - MintPress News

 

January 6, 2021

“To us, that is nothing more than a pretext to keep him detained. This seems unnecessarily punitive and adding insult to injury after the 10 years of hell that he has endured” — Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders 

A United Kingdom court has ruled that Wikileaks cofounder Julian Assange must remain in prison, despite an earlier ruling that he could not be extradited to the United States.

Explaining her decision, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said that, “As far as Mr. Assange is concerned, this case has not been won,” adding that the United States must be allowed to appeal her earlier decision. 

 

Part of the ruling was based upon her assessment of the Australian publisher being a serious flight risk if released, noting he had “huge support networks” that could help him “should he again choose to go to ground.”

 

The court’s decision was immediately panned by journalists and press freedom organizations who had hoped to see Assange released today, after seven years in prison and hiding in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. 

 

“To us, that is nothing more than a pretext to keep him detained. This seems unnecessarily punitive and adding insult to injury after the 10 years of hell that he has endured…We are deeply disappointed with today’s decision,” said Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders’ Director of International Campaigns, outside the courtroom. 

 

Off But Not Away: Assange Verdict Leaves Door Open for Further Press Prosecutions

Assange Wins. The Cost: The Crushing of Press Freedom 

by Jonathan Cook - CounterPunch

January 4, 2021

The unexpected decision by Judge Vanessa Baraitser to deny a US demand to extradite Julian Assange, foiling efforts to send him to a US super-max jail for the rest of his life, is a welcome legal victory, but one swamped by larger lessons that should disturb us deeply.

Those who campaigned so vigorously to keep Assange’s case in the spotlight, even as the US and UK corporate media worked so strenuously to keep it in darkness, are the heroes of the day. They made the price too steep for Baraitser or the British establishment to agree to lock Assange away indefinitely in the US for exposing its war crimes and its crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

 

But we must not downplay the price being demanded of us for this victory. 

 

British Court Rejects U.S. Extradition of Assange (for all the wrong reasons)

The Assange Extradition Ruling Is A Relief, But It Isn't Justice

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

January 4, 2021

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser has ruled against US extradition for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but not for the reasons she should have.

 

Baraitser's frightening ruling supported virtually every US prosecutorial argument that was made during the extradition trial, no matter how absurd and Orwellian.

 

Assange Reality: It's Our Freedoms Being Tried

Let’s Be Absolutely Clear What’s At Stake In The Assange Case

by Caitlin Johnstone

January 2, 2021

 

When it comes to human behavior, things only change for the better when there is a lucid and unobstructed perception of what’s going on. Self-destructive behavior patterns only go away when there’s a lucid and unobstructed perception of the previously unconscious psychological dynamics which were driving them.Victims of abuse only end their abusive relationships when they obtain a lucid and unobstructed perception of the abusive dynamics as they truly are.

 

 

Toxic social dynamics like racism, sexism and homophobia only begin moving toward health when society collectively begins gaining a lucid and unobstructed understanding of how disordered and damaging those dynamics really are.

 

Propaganda + Bad Science = 9/11 Untruth Movement

Good Science vs Bad Science and Propaganda: A review of Seven

by Dr Piers Robinson - OffGuardian

 

January 2, 2021

Among the many controversies surrounding the events of 9/11 one of the most prominent has been the question of how, many hours after the collapse of the Twin Towers, the 47-storey WTC7 building suffered a total collapse, all in a matter of seconds.

University of Alaska Fairbanks – SEVEN, AE911 / 1091 Pictures

The persistence of this controversy is hardly surprising. WTC7 was not hit by an airplane, it had suffered from only a few isolated office fires whilst multiple sources on the day were foretelling the collapse of the building, even though in history no steel-framed skyscraper had ever been brought down by fire alone.