Dresden Reprise: From the Ashes and Back, the Art of This City Lives Yet

Dresden 75 

by David Yearsley  - CounterPunch

February 21, 2020

When the English music historian Charles Burney arrived in Dresden in 1772, he found mostly ruins. This most beautiful of northern cities had not yet recovered from the ravages of the Seven Years War, concluded nearly a decade before.

 Dresden From the Right Bank of the Elbe Below Augustus Bridge by Caneletto

“It is difficult for a stranger to imagine himself near the celebrated capital of Saxony, … [since] so few of its once many cloudcapt towers are left standing; only two or three remain intire, of all the stately edifices which formerly embellished this city.”

Knives Out for Trudeau on Rail & Road Blockades: "Barricades must now come down"

Canadian PM proclaims indigenous “barricades must now come down”

by Roger Jordan  - WSWS

22 February 2020

At a press conference yesterday afternoon, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanded that the indigenous blockades that have paralyzed Canada’s rail system for the past two weeks “must now come down.” By ordering the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police and Quebec Provincial Police to forcibly remove the barricades, the Liberal Prime Minister is carrying out the dictates of big business, which has lobbied with increasing frenzy over the past two weeks for the protests to be suppressed.

Within minutes of Trudeau concluding his remarks, the Quebec Provincial Police moved in to demolish a blockade set up in St. Lambert, south of Montreal. The right-wing populist Quebec Premier, Francois Legault had been urging Trudeau for days to order coordinated cross-Canada police action to end the blockades. 

A Nagging Sense of Deja Vu: The Unshakable Persistence of the Democratic Party Elite

Shades of 68: How Far Will Our Elites Go to Stop Sanders?

by Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque

February 22, 2020

Because I have teenage children who sometimes look to me to give them a sense of hope for the future, I try to be as optimistic as I can whenever we talk of US politics and the possibility of positive change in the nation’s dire situation. The success so far of Bernie Sanders’ campaign is one thing they cling to in hoping that the world they inherit will not be as unrelentingly bleak as it now appears it will be. But in my deepest heart, here is what I truly believe: the bipartisan US power structure will never allow Bernie Sanders to be president, and they will use any and all means necessary to prevent this from happening.

Having been raised in a politically active family, I've followed US politics for more than half a century, and I witnessed the decisive period from April 4 to June 5 in 1968, when clear markers were laid down on what happens to those who are perceived to pose a genuine threat to the power structure. I don't hero-worship Sanders and disagree with some of his stances, particularly on foreign policy. But I do think he poses the most serious, genuine threat to the US power structure that we have seen since that period.

Getting Assange Out of the Prison and Media Crosshairs

Assange’s Persecution Has Exposed Media Depravity The World Over

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

February 22, 2020

This is the speech I gave at a demonstration last night in Melbourne for Julian Assange, whose extradition trial begins February 24th.

Julian Assange started a leak outlet on the premise that corrupt and unaccountable power is a problem in our world, and that problem can be fought with the light of truth. Corrupt and unaccountable power responded by detaining, silencing and smearing him. His persecution has proved his own thesis about the world absolutely correct.

Truth Stranger Than BBC Fiction: Talking About Skripal in Prison

WHEN THE SKRIPAL TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN THE BBC FICTION, GORILLA RADIO OPENS YOUR EYES

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears 

@bears_with [1]

February 21, 2020

If your eyes aren’t deceiving you, the picture you see ought to be preposterous.

A Russian assassin employed by the military intelligence agency GRU is pointing a bottle of Nina Ricci perfume filled with a deadly nerve agent called Novichok at a man turning the handle of his front-door. 

The man is Sergei Skripal, a GRU officer himself, who turned double agent for the British; was caught and imprisoned by the Russians; then swapped into a second retirement in Salisbury, in the middle of England, paid for by the British intelligence service, MI6.

Syria's Idlib Offensive: Calling Turkey's Bluff and Revealing Western Media Masters

Syria - Turkey's Bluff Is Called - Media Opposition Sources Run By British Intelligence 

by Moon of Alabama

February 19, 2020 

Russia has called Turkey's bluff of a wide ranging attack on Syrian government forces. The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will now have to find a way out of the Idlib trap he set himself in. His excellent Syria adventure is coming to an end.

bigger

Some ten of Turkey's observation points are currently surrounded by 

the Syrian army. If Turkey starts to escalate they will be in a dire situation.

Meanwhile we learn that the British military intelligence ran another large dis-information campaign that brought 'Syrian voices' into the 'western' press.

Green Party of Canada Leader Clarifies Wet'suwet'en Stand for Parliament's Legal Laggards

Elizabeth May Responds to Justin Trudeau's Wet'suwet'en Statement

from Canada's House of Parliament

Feb 18, 2020

Watch on Youtube

Assange Must Be Free

JULIAN ASSANGE MUST BE FREED, NOT BETRAYED

by John Pilger

February 18, 2020

On Saturday, there will be a march from Australia House in London to Parliament Square, the centre of British democracy. People will carry pictures of the Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange who, on 24 February, faces a court that will decide whether or not he is to be extradited to the United States and a living death.

I know Australia House well. As an Australian myself, I used to go there in my early days in London to read the newspapers from home. Opened by King George V over a century ago, its vastness of marble and stone, chandeliers and solemn portraits, imported from Australia when Australian soldiers were dying in the slaughter of the First World War, have ensured its landmark as an imperial pile of monumental servility.

As one of the oldest "diplomatic missions" in the United Kingdom, this relic of empire provides a pleasurable sinecure for Antipodean politicians: a "mate" rewarded or a troublemaker exiled.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Gregg McElroy, John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft February 20, 2020

This Week on GR

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

February 20, 2020

The undeterred vigilance of Wet'suwet'en land defenders, (and draconian federal government response to their steadfastness) has focused global attention in part on the long and ongoing environmental struggles in Canada and British Columbia.

While those struggles are myriad, encompassing every species within this region, the plight of Pacific Salmon is perhaps most emblematic of the systemic failure of colonial/settler economics in providing an ecologically sustainable social model.

The situation is dire now, with wild species population collapse already underway, and extinctions an increasingly probable eventuality.



                     Listen. Hear.

Among the many creatures who won't survive without salmon are the endangered southern resident Orca, and it was their survival that inspired the creation of the Canadian Orca Rescue Society.

Gregg McElroy is a long-time environmental frontline activist and co-founder of the Orca Rescue.

Gregg McElroy in the first half.

And; it's been nearly two years since father and daughter Sergei and Yulia Skripal collapsed on a park bench in the middle of the picturesque town of Salisbury, in the heart of England. What followed was a tale of espionage, intrigue, and villainy; a story that seemed for a while even to threaten war.

John Helmer followed the Skripal saga more closely than almost anyone writing in the English-language press and says of the case, "The facts which you have seen, heard or read about the incident of March 4, 2018, have been falsified. Everything that has flowed from them is false too. Understanding this is a start to the other story, and so something solid to work from – not missed until now; more like seen but disbelieved."

Helmer's a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to governments, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. He’s also one of the most widely read Russian specialists in the business world for his news-breaking stories on Russian base and precious metals, diamonds, mining, shipping, insurance, food trade, and business policy.

Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, (co-authored with Claudia Wright) the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’, and his latest, 'Skripal in Prison'.

John Helmer and 'SKRIPAL IN PRISON' – THE FIRST BOOK TO REPORT THE TRUTH in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, 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 our town in the coming week.

But first, Gregg McElroy, Orca Rescue, and the mission to bring salmon back to every river and creek in BC.

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/

Our Way, No Huwai: More Threats From US to Europe

US threatens Europe over Huawei at Munich Security Conference

by Andre Damon  - WSWS

17 February 2020

Amid a sharp deterioration in US-European Union relations, Washington sent a bipartisan delegation of White House officials and members of Congress to the Munich Security Conference to pressure and threaten European countries not to do business with the Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who had just concluded a failed impeachment of the president, in support of the White House’s anti-China campaign.

Media Freedom? Yes! Julian Assange Freedom? M'eh: Chatham House Media Confab Sticks to Establishment Narrative

‘Media Freedom’ Campaign Pushes Magnitsky Sanctions – But Ignores Case of Julian Assange

by Nina Cross - 21st Century Wire

February 17, 2020

At a meeting in Chatham House, London, last week, a ‘High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom’ announced their recommendations on ‘how to better protect journalists and address abuses of media freedom in line with international human rights law.’ The announcement shows the true nature and at least one purpose of the media freedom project set up last year by the former British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt and Canada’s Chrystia Freeland – to promote of an alliance in economic warfare using Magnitsky sanctions.

At the meeting, Amal Clooney, celebrated human rights lawyer, appointed by Hunt last year to be the UK’s media freedom envoy, described various cases of journalists being persecuted around the world including the recent case of Glenn Greenwald, accused by a public prosecutor in Brazil of criminal misconduct related to Greenwald’s anti-corruption investigation into ‘Operation Car Wash.’ However, absent from any mention was Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whom Amal Clooney had represented several years ago, and who, only a few miles away, was languishing in maximum security Belmarsh prison, without charge, held under an US extradition order after being indicted by President Trump’s Department of Justice on 17 counts under the Espionage Act of 1917. His extradition hearing begins one week from now.

Leaks Prompt New Questions on Malaysia Jet Downing Over Ukraine: Investigating the JIT's MH17 Investigation

MH 17 properly investigated?

by Max van der Werff - Bonanza Media

February 17, 2020

 

In this article the contents of four leaked MH17 Joint Investigation Team documents are analysed by me on behalf of Bonanza Media.

DOC 1. Is a ‘Record Of Interview’ (ROI) between an officer of the Australian Federal Police and journalist Billy Six.

DOC 2. As part of ‘OPERATION AVENELLA’ imagery specialist Shaun Ellis and geospatial specialist Tim Johns from Australia examined four images.

DOC 3. WITNESS TESTIMONY is a Record Of Interview with a witness refuting the claim Ukrainian Air Force did not fly.

DOC 4. LETTER about BUK Positions from the Dutch Military Information and Investigation Service legal affairs department addressed to the public prosecutor at the National Prosecutor’s Office on Counter Terrorism.

More Hole Than Ace: Trump's Libertarian Down Card Revealed

Trump Supporters Are George W Bush Supporters LARPing As Ron Paul Supporters

by Caitlin Johnstone - Rogue Journalist

February 16, 2020

The Trump administration has released its official statement to Congress justifying its drone assassination of Iran’s top military official Qassem Soleimani last month. Surprising exactly zero people, the formal notification makes no mention whatsoever of any imminent threat posed by Soleimani, a direct contradiction of this administration’s previous claims defending the assassination.

Green Party of BC Response to Unprecedented Protest Blockade of Legislature's Speech from the Throne

2020 Throne Speech Overwhelmed by Protests

by Adam Olsen, MLA

February 13, 2020

The 2020 Speech from the Throne was overwhelmed by the well-publicized protests that nearly shut down the British Columbia legislature.

For the most part the Speech was a recap of work that has been accomplished by our minority government through the Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) between the BC Green and BC NDP Caucuses.

Even in Defeat It's Win-Win for Klobuchar and Buttigieg in the Media

For Media in New Hampshire, Losing Is Winning and Winning Is Losing

by Alan MacLeod - FAIR

February 14, 2020

The results from the New Hampshire primary are in—mercifully quickly—showing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders victorious with 26% of the vote, ahead of former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg with 24%. However, it was third place Amy Klobuchar, with 20%, who seemed to draw the greatest media buzz.

 

The Minnesota senator has received a lot of press attention of late—almost all of it positive. 

Skripal in Prison: The Truth About the Infamous Poisoning in an English Country Square

SKRIPAL IN PRISON – THE FIRST BOOK TO REPORT THE TRUTH

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

@bears_with

February 13, 2020

It is exactly two years since the case of two Russians, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, began with their collapse on a park bench in the middle of England on the afternoon of March 4, 2018.

On their anniversary it is necessary to tell this story. 

But it isn’t the story of what happened. This is because the only people who can tell that one, the Skripals, are locked away in isolation, guarded by determined men under secret government orders. Instead, this is the story of what didn’t happen – provably didn’t happen because it was quite impossible circumstantially; and because the legal papers warranting that it did have not been signed by a judge, tested in a court of law, or released in public.

Torturing Assange: UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Demolishes Phony Charges Against WikiLeaks Founder

‘Burned At The Stake’ – The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Demolishes The Fake Claims Targeting Julian Assange

by Media Lens

13th February 2020

On the face of it, the task seems almost hopeless. As Tolstoy wrote:

‘The power of the government is maintained by public opinion, and with this power the government, by means of its organs – its officials, law courts, schools, churches, even the press – can always maintain the public opinion which they need.’ (Leo Tolstoy, ‘Writings on Non-Violence and Civil Disobedience,’ New Society Publishers, 1987, p.111)

Last December, we witnessed the awesome capacity of state-corporate power to manipulate public opinion and undermine a democratic election with a ruthless propaganda campaign smearing Jeremy Corbyn, a passionate anti-racist. The campaign depicted Corbyn, not just as an anti-semite, but as someone who might ‘reopen Auschwitz’. The truth wasn’t just distorted, it was reversed.

Wall Street's Role in Wet'suwet'en Invasion

Wall Street Invading Wet’suwet’en Territory 

by Joyce Nelson - CounterPunch

February 12, 2020

The uprising across Canada in support of Wet’suwet’en First Nation land defenders shows no sign of stopping. As of February 11, ports, bridges, rail lines, highways and roads have been blockaded across much of the country by solidarity protesters, who have also occupied the offices of politicians and at least one bank.

Wet’suwet’en fishing site on Bulkley River and the entrance of 

Moricetown Canyon, in Moricetown, British Columbia, Canada

Photograph Source: Jerome Charaoui – FAL

These actions were prompted by the RCMP’s invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory on February 5, after which they began arresting Indigenous members opposed to the 670 kilometers (416-mile), $6.2 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline being constructed on their unceded territory in B.C.

The Wet’suwet’en have never signed a treaty and in 1997 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that they hold “Aboriginal title” to the land on which the pipeline is being built.

XRVI Call for Government Building Pickets in Solidarity with Wet'suwet'en

BC Government Shutdown -- Friday 8am- 12pm

by Howard Breen - XRVI

February 13, 2020

We are in a real social crisis. A deepening moral crisis. A state of indigenous and ecological emergency. And we need you! The Trudeau and Horgan governments recent oppressive treatment of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and their people have set a precedent for all indigenous sovereign nations from coast-to-coast.

 Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and Witset Band councillor Freda Huson. 

Photo: Unist’ot’en Camp Facebook  

We are all indeed in a very sad place. But we are not disempowered – if we act, together, boldly -- now. Our politicians don't deserve a smooth trip home from work, and a relaxed carefree evening at home – like nothing whatsoever has changed. 

Canadian State and Province Use of Violence and Arrest of Lawful Protest in Violation of International "Injunction"

Canada and BC violate UN “injunction” while lawful protesters arrested and threatened with armed force  

by Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)

February 12, 2020

Canada and BC violate UN “injunction” while lawful protesters arrested and threatened with armed force

While peaceful protesters are arrested from coast to coast, Canada’s Minister of Transportation Marc Garneau calls the blockades in support of Wet’suwet’en land rights defenders illegal, citing the Railway Safety Act. He fails to mention that actions of the governments of Canada and British Columbia and the use and threatened use of force by the RCMP are themselves in violation of Canada’s binding international law obligations and therefore ”illegal.” The protesters, on the other hand, are exercising their legal rights to peacefully and strongly object to serious violations of the rights of the Wet’suwet’en.