Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jonathan Latham, John Helmer June 10, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

June 10, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, June 3rd and 6th, 2021.

Listen. Hear.
 

Almost a year and half into the Covid-19 disaster there is still debate about how and from where the Sars-CoV-2 virus emanated. Recently the Biden administration reversed course, granting credence to the once discredited lab origin theory put forward by the former Republican president. But politics aside, the issue of origin is of vital interest to public health world-wide; and the fact is, in June of 2021 we still don’t have an answer to the trillion dollar question.

Dr. Jonathan Latham holds a Masters degree in Crop Genetics, a PhD in Virology and is, along with Dr. Allison Wilson, co-author of a trilogy of controversial articles seeking to both discover the origins of Covid-19. Latham is too co-founder and Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project, and Editor of Independent Science News, where his article, ‘A Chinese PhD Thesis Sheds Important New Light On The Origin of the COVID-19 Coronavirus’ appears.

Jonathan Latham in the first half.

And; it seems Russia has stolen America’s hamburgers. Last month, alleged Russian hackers brought a major U.S. oil pipeline to a standstill in a cyber-ransom attack. That was serious, but now the Slavic dastards have allegedly gone farther than too far. If the American government and western press is to be believed, Russians are “probably” behind the reported ransomware hack into meat supply giant JBS, bringing to a grinding halt the Brazilian-based transnational’s vital role feeding America’s summer barbecues. The reported attack comes just weeks before a scheduled meeting between Russian and American Big Salamis, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to government, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. Among Helmer’s many books titles are, ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17’ ‘Skripal in Prison’, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, ‘Hitler Didn’t Die in Berlin – He Moved to Melbourne Where He Runs the State Government of Victoria: A True Covid-19 Thriller’. His recent article, ‘Russia Through the Looking-Glass of Anglo-American War examines alleged Russian “exceptionalism”. Imagine!

John Helmer and getting to the meat of what’s the matter with Russia/U.S relations in the second half.

But first, Jonathan Latham and proposing again an origin for SARS-CoV-2.

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.com

Understanding Gain of Function (GoF)

Understanding Gain of Function (GoF)

An Investigation of Meaning by Alina Chan (via Twitter)

 

June 12, 2021

 

Starting my 🧵 discussion of gain-of-function research based on yesterday's twitter survey.

This might be incredibly long so I will be using gifs and graphics to help keep people awake on a Saturday morning.https://t.co/nZAI7VBLw1

— Alina Chan (@Ayjchan) June 12, 2021

First things first. I made the survey yesterday morning to get a sense of the public perception of "gain of function" (GOF) research. This phrase has exploded in the media, even making its way into a congressional hearing. https://c-span.org/video/?c496233


 

It is clear that the public needs to know what GOF research means.

What does it mean when people say that the US might have funded GOF research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?

— Alina Chan (@Ayjchan) June 12, 2021




 

 


https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4962333/senator-paul-dr-fauci-clash-research-funding-wuhan-lab


 


Ape in Need of New Home

Ape in Need of New Victoria Home

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

 

June 5, 2021 

Your corresponding Ape, Bride of Ape, and Cat Master of Apes are searching for an August 1st tenancy in Victoria. We're looking for a Unicorn: affordable, close-in, cat-friendly 1 bedroom + den, or 2 bedroom place with a jungle-yard for the tile Tiger.

Any tips, links, or suggestions welcome in comments, or at:

lex at highspeedplus dot com

SolarWinds Still Chilling U.S./Russia Relations

RUSSIAN CODE SUPREMACY MEANS THERE’S ONLY ONE SECRET THE US GOVERNMENT HAS LEFT – THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO SECRETS FROM RUSSIA

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears 

  @bears_with

 

December 21st, 2020 

 

To believe what the US State Department is saying officially, and the Department is doing, the US is now at war with Russia; withdrawing from Russia as many of its personnel as possible; keeping this quiet.

Putin at Zapad 2017 military exercises, Leningrad region, 2017.

The Russian sources also believe the US intelligence gathered by Russian espionage will be especially negative for those Russian oligarchs who have been closest to Washington; that’s to say, the oligarchs on the US Treasury list of January 29, 2018, who have been shielded from sanctions in the two years since. Observe carefully the invitation and exclusion list of this year’s Kremlin Christmastime tea party, if there will be one.

 

Super Surreal British Columbia: Horgan Talks and Logs as Usual

SUPER-DUPER NON-COLONIAL PRESS CONFERENCE (a summary)

by Tasha Diaman

 

June 2, 2021

On June 1, 2021, BC Premier “Lie and Log” Horgan held a bogus press conference to “address” forestry issues. He said “fibre”and “value-added” a lot and talked about how fancy the Old Growth Strategic Review is—even though it came out last year and it recommended a deferral on old growth logging, but old growth logging went up 43% instead. 

 

This time stuff is really gonna happen in 2023! Forests Minister Katrine Conroy is excited!

 

Getting to the Bottom of 'Russian Exceptionalism'

RUSSIA THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS OF ANGLO-AMERICAN WAR

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

@bears_with

May 31, 2021

“Vladimir Putin is not the president of my choice”.

 

 

This is how the daughter of a powerful apparatchik in Tatarstan begins the book she has just written from London, at a think-tank leading the propaganda war against Russia. The problem for Gulnaz Sharafutdinova (lead image, right), inside her mind, is “the gap between how many of my schoolmates, friends and family back home perceive Putin’s leadership, and how I perceive it.” The problem outside Sharafutdinova’s mind is that she is on the other side in the war against Russia, and she doesn’t want to admit it.   

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Selam Gebremeskel/Meron Dejene, Bill Johnston June 3rd, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

June 3, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, May 31st and June 1st, 2021

 Listen. Hear.

Last November, the federal government of Ethiopia, in concert with the dictatorship of neighbouring Eritrea, launched a military invasion of Tigray. Since, millions have been displaced and millions more are in dire need of humanitarian assistance in what the Biden administration said last week is shaping up to become the greatest manufactured disaster since the Ethiopian famine of the 1980’s.

Last week, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock told the UN Security Council, president Abiy’s troops and its allies have, as well as committing “mass rapes and murder“, “attacked, obstructed or delayed [deliveries of] life-saving assistance… and killed at least 8 aid workers since November“.

Selamawit Gebremeskel is an Ethiopian emigre who has lived in Canada for nearly thirty years. Selam, now a health care professional in Victoria, has relatives in Tigray caught up in a war the government there is waging against its civilians.

 

Selam Gebremeskel and Meron Dejene in the first half.

And; Day 295 of Direct Action against timber company Teal Jones’ clear-cutting of the Fairy Creek watershed was marked by more than 2,000 blockaders joining the nine months-long campaign in defiance of a BC court injunction and the massive presence of Canada’s paramilitary federal police, the RCMP. Despite scores of protesters arrested to date, or perhaps because of it, the size of the blockade has continued to grow. And the stakes are high. According to the Rainforest Flying Squad in the face of biodiversity and climate crises the logging of old growth forests must stop. It’s just as British Columbia’s own Old Growth Strategic Review Panel recommended last year, but the cutting continues.

Bill Johnston is a retired officer of the Canadian Foreign Services and active Green Party member. He and partner Jan have been traveling up island to participate directly in the blockade. They were up there Saturday, just two of the more than two thousand that showed up to slow up the clear-cuts.

Bill Johnston and the fight to save Fairy Creek in the second half.

But first, Selam Gebremeskel, Meron Dejene and Ethiopia’s engineered catastrophe in Tigray.

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.com

Covid Origin Stories: RaTG13 Dogs Wuhan Institute of Virology

A Chinese PhD Thesis Sheds Important New Light On The Origin of the COVID-19 Coronavirus

by Jonathan Latham, PhD and Allison Wilson, PhD - Independent Science News

 

May 11, 2021

One of the very earliest scientific papers from the COVID-19 pandemic era now has over 11,000 citations. Appearing in the scientific journal Nature on February 3rd 2020, Zhou et al., 2020 reported the genome sequence of a novel coronavirus isolated from patients with atypical pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Its senior author was leading coronavirus researcher Zheng-li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (the WIV). 

 

Along with what we now call SARS-CoV-2, her paper also reported the genome sequence of a closely related (96.2% identical) bat virus. The authors called this virus RaTG13. To this day RaTG13 is still the closest known viral genome by far to SARS-CoV-2.

 Listen. Hear. Jonathan Latham discuss article findings here.

On Balance: "Don't Worry Forest, Old Growth INCREASING!"

WORKING TO COUNTER ANTI LOGGING PROTESTER MISINFORMATION & PROTECT OUR JOBS IN THE WORKING FORESTS

by USW Affiliated with AFL-CIO-CLC SERVING MEMBERS THROUGHOUT COASTAL BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

May 28, 2021

The United Steelworkers Local 1-1937is mindful of the history of anti-logging protests against the work our members perform in the working forests. While we strongly oppose illegal blockades, we acknowledge the rights of individuals to peacefully protest. 

 

We also want to be clear that in doing so, protestors must not endanger the lives of workers and should consider the danger they put themselves in when they illegally enter active logging areas. 

 

Stumped: B.C. Old Growth Forestry Policy Confounds Experts and Citizens Alike

Sierra Club BC reacts to expert old-growth report showing B.C.’s ancient giants logged to the brink

by Sierra Club of BC

 

June 4, 2020

 

An independent scientists’ report released today—B.C.’s Old-Growth Forest: A Last Stand for Biodiversity—shows in detail how shockingly little is left of B.C.’s most endangered old-growth forests, in particular those with very big trees. Of the little that remains, only a small fraction is protected from logging.

 

Photo: TJ Watt/Ancient Forest Alliance

“This report shows that things are worse than we thought for B.C.’s ancient giants,” said Jens Wieting, Sierra Club BC’s forest and climate campaigner. 

 

How the Horgan Regime Deserted Principled Stewardship

Open Letter to Horgan Regime North Coast MLA, Jennifer Rice: On your Silence and Complacency...

by Ingmar Lee 

May 29, 2021

to jennifer.rice@bcndp.ca

 

Dear Jennifer, last time we met in Bella Bella and walked down the street together, I mentioned that I appreciated your work and was glad to have voted for you. But since then, your John Horgan regime has just gotten worse, and of late, horrible is the only word.

 

 

I'm appalled at how absolutely useless John Horgan's "toolbox" against the dreadful "Justin Trudeau Pipeline" has been, and the shocking continuation of the "Site C Sucks" damn Mega-Folly just adds insult to injury. There was the seriously appalling racist RCMP violence at the forced-in Wet'suwet'en fracked gas pipeline demonstrations, and the full-bore disease-vectoring man-camps forging ahead, while all the rest of us endure strict COVID 19 restrictions.

 

Bipartisan Agreement on (Economic Warfare Against China) Innovation and Competition Act

Senate clears passage of economic warfare legislation directed at China

by Patrick Martin - WSWS

May 28, 2021

The US Senate moved towards passage of the United States Innovation and Competition Act Thursday night, providing more than $200 billion to fund economic warfare directed primarily against China, but also against other US competitors in Japan and Western Europe.

 

 

The key vote came Thursday afternoon on a motion to close debate and block any filibuster, which passed by a margin of 68–30, easily clearing the 60-vote threshold. While 30 Republicans voted against closure, it was supported by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and 17 other Republicans, in return for Democratic agreement to bring several amendments up for vote.

Starving Still Cuba: Sixty Years of Siege Continuing Under Biden

Hunger as a Weapon: How Biden's Inaction Is Aggravating Cuba's Food Crisis

by William M. LeoGrande - Common Dreams

 

May 27, 2021

If President Biden wants to support human rights in Cuba and empower the Cuban people, he can start by alleviating the food crisis by ending Trump's prohibition on remittances and restoring the right of U.S. residents to travel.

 

 America still following Ancien Regime policy on Cuba

 

While President Joe Biden dithers about when or whether to keep his campaign promise to roll back Donald Trump's economic sanctions on Cuba, people on the island are going hungry. 

 

Money for Dictators: Biden Budget Makes Room for World's Worst

Biden’s Budget Proposal Funds Most of the World’s Dictators

by David Swanson - World Beyond War

 

May 27, 2021

 

There’s nothing new about this, which is why I know it’s there before having seen the new budget proposal. The United States funds most of the world’s most oppressive militaries, sells them weapons, and trains them. It has done so for many years. 

 

But if you’re going to propose an enormous budget that relies on deficit spending, and you’re going to claim that a gargantuan military budget (bigger than the Vietnam War budget that derailed LBJ’s domestic priorities) is somehow justified, then I think you ought to have to stand and justify every bit of it, including the 40% or so of U.S. foreign “aid” that’s actually money for weapons and militaries — first and foremost for Israel.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Ken Stone, Nikki Skuce May 27th, 2021

This Week on GR

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

 

May 27th, 2021 

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates May 20th and 21st, 2021.

 

 Listen. Hear.

In December, 2019 Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was intercepted at Vancouver’s International Airport and ultimately arrested by the RCMP. It soon became apparent Meng was taken at the behest of the United States who hoped to use her incarceration as a “bargaining chip” in trade negotiations with China. Her mainly because more than merely being a top-tier executive, Meng is also the daughter of Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei. Today, two and a half years after her arrest, Meng Wanzhou is still a political captive who, like Julian Assange in Great Britain, awaits extradition orders to the United States.

Ken Stone is a long-time antiwar activist, serving as an executive member of both the Syria Solidarity Movement and Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War. Ken and the Hamilton Coalition have joined forces with online investigative journalism site, The Canada Files and rank and file Canadians upset with the country’s legal tradition being so rudely sullied in this case to pursue a Cross-Canada FREE MENG WANZHOU campaign. Last week, the webinar, “New developments in the Meng case” again addressed this ongoing sore point.

Ken Stone in the first half.

And; last week Environment NGO’s SkeenaWild and the BC Mining Law Reform Network released a study of mining practices in British Columbia. ‘Dirty Dozen 2021: B.C.’s Top Polluting and Risky Mines calls for reforms and better enforcement of scofflaw companies whose current practices threaten both community cohesion and the natural environment.
Nikki Skuce is Director of the Smithers-based Northern Confluence Initiative, (in Wet’suwet’en territory). She also works on salmon conservation and land-use decisions, and is the co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform network.

Nikki Skuce and airing the dirt on B.C. mining in the second half.

But first, Ken Stone and new developments in the festering Meng Wanzhou 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.com

AP Loses Its "Nuance", Firing Reporter for Past Political Activity

AP Firing Shows Right-Wing Hypocrisy, Illusion of ‘Objectivity’

by Ari Paul - FAIR

May 22, 2021 

Emily Wilder had thought she’d hit it big. After interning at the Arizona Republic, she earned a newsroom assistant job at the Phoenix bureau of the Associated Press, starting May 3. It wouldn’t last long. 

 

As student, Emily Wilder compared Sheldon Adelson to naked mole rat

 

Several right-wing organizations, including the Federalist (5/19/21) and Washington Free Beacon (5/18/21) outlets, attacked the news service over Wilder’s previous affiliation with Students for Justice in Palestine, when she was an undergraduate at Stanford University. AP, which recently had its office in Gaza destroyed by Israeli missile fire, bowed to the pressure (Washington Post, 5/20/21).

 

Peru Election: An 'Ecuador Moment' for Castillo's Left?

Will the U.S. allow a socialist president in Peru? Peru Election: Close Race Between Left and Right

by Ron Ridenour - This Can't Be Happening

 

May 18, 2021

Peru’s election pits two extremely opposite candidates against one another, uncannily similar to Ecuador’s election on April 11. Nearly at the last minute, the millionaire conservative Guillermo Lasso, former banker and Coca Cola director, won the run-off election over socialistic candidate Andres Arauz, 52.5% to 47.5%. Arauz had led the pack of 16 presidential candidates during the first round with 32.7% of the vote over Lasso’s 19.74%.

Pedro Castillo, Peru left candidate at rally. - El Nacional photo

 

Pedro Castillo Terrones, 51, a rural schoolteacher and peasant farmer surprisingly led the race of 18 candidates on election day, April 11.

 

White Russia Whites Out Palestine

WHITE NOISE, WHITE SILENCE — RUSSIA & PALESTINE

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

 

May 20, 2021

  @bears_with

It has been eleven years since the Levada Centre, the independent national polling organisation in Moscow, reported a survey of Russian attitudes towards the Palestinians and the Israelis. “We had such a poll in 2010,” Denis Leven, a Levada sociologist, said yesterday. “I can’t say exactly if we are going to make another one in the near future. Now we focus on the events in Russia and neighbouring countries.”

 

This isn’t true; in recent weeks, Levada has polled Russians on their attitudes towards Turkey, the US, the European Union, China, as well as the states which Russians regard as enemies — Great Britain, Poland, the Baltic states, Germany, France, Japan, and Canada.

 

Unfit for Consumption: British Columbia's Poisoned Forests

BC wild berries – Unfit for human and animal consumption?

by  Peter Ewart - Special to the PG Daily News

May 18, 2021

Is it a good idea to pick and eat wild raspberries and blueberries in forest cutblocks in the Central and Northern Interior of British Columbia?  Not if these lands have been sprayed with the weedkiller glyphosate sometime in the last few years.  

 

Bear eating huckleberries (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
 

And the same caution holds true for wildlife like moose and bears who, besides berries, also consume large quantities of fireweed, willow and dogwood shoots, all of which can contain low levels of glyphosate residue for relatively long periods of time.  

 

Press Becomes the Story: Casualties of Israel's Latest Blitz

Israel’s War Against Press Turns More Literal

by Ari Paul - FAIR

 

May 19, 2021

 

The Israeli government’s targeted destruction of a Gaza building housing offices of the AP and Al Jazeera has seemingly brought a new dimension to the latest military action against Palestinians.

 

Free press advocates slammed the action, and the Israeli government’s defense that the building was a Hamas military installation was met with eye-rolling skepticism—Hamas denies this (Intercept, 5/17/21), the US State Department claims it hasn’t seen evidence of this (Axios, 5/17/21) and AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt (AP, 5/16/21) said, “We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building.”