July 16, 2022
Twenty-five hundred years or so ago, storied Chinese general and reputed author of The Art of War observed, “There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.” Today, twenty and some years into George Bush’s “generational war”, Sun Tzu’s wise maxim seems to have eluded the modern masters of war. The NATO Alliance has spent the 21st Century hopscotching from country to country dealing death and destruction as it goes with the abandon of a malicious child on an ant hill, wantonly thumbing flat people, nations, and the very concept of International Law until. In 2022, we find ourselves on the threshold of another global war, one leading through Russia to a final confrontation with China.
John Helmer is a journalist, author, and principle behind the web news site, Dances with Bears. He’s a past scholar, and advisor to government at the highest level, and spent decades living in and reporting from Russia. His many book titles include: ‘The Lie That Shot Down MH-17, ‘Skripal in Prison,’ ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia,’ and his latest, ‘The Jackals’ Wedding: American Power, Arab Revolt‘ is newly out.
His recent article, ‘The Coming Verdict in the MH17 Trial is Certain, and Double Dutch’ reminds, NATO’s determination for a war against Russia in Ukraine is a multi-layered operation, predating anything Russia has done.
Today, John Helmer and Dutch courts doing double duty and NATO’s media doing its damnedest to get and keep the war on Russia going.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998; in Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
As Summer’s dog days begin the drums of war are beating with heightening intensity. Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau at the close of NATO’s Madrid confab dedicated his country’s future to one of increased war-making, promising more weaponry to the current hot war in Ukraine, and announced the inauguration of a “NATO research project”, the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic devoted to expected wars the military alliance will wage to secure the continued global economic domination of its member nations.
Trudeau’s bellicosity and hubris is no surprise, but that traditional pacifist nations in the alliance are willing to go along with NATO’s blatantly antagonistic New Strategic Concept is a worrisome sign of disasters to come.
Ron Ridenour is an ex-pat American journalist, author, editor, and peace and social justice activist currently living in Denmark. He’s worked as a special correspondent and freelancer for numerous publications in Europe, the US, and Latin America, including CovertAction Magazine where I found his recent article, ‘Does Iceland Set Benchmark for Peaceful and Politically Engaged People?’
Ron Ridenour in the first half.
And; two and a half years after the onset of Covid-19 the pandemic is widely regarded as a past event. Even so, governments and media are warning of next wave variants they say require vaccination and booster regimens be again ramped up.
Leigh Vossen and Cassie Shroeder are members of Students Against Mandates, an organized manifestation of Canadian post-secondary students and their allies “fighting for the right of all students to receive an education, regardless of personal medical decisions.”
Leigh Vossen and Cassie Shroeder on students standing against mandates in the second half.
But first, Ron Ridenour and Iceland’s essential place in a possible peaceful global future.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998; in Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
Last week British Home Secretary, Priti Patel did what was expected of her and signed off on the extradition to the United States of political prisoner, Julian Assange. Assange you may recall has languished in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison, enduring the harshest conditions allowable under British law, since being dragged from asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy April 11th, 2019. But as deplorable as his treatment by British authorities has been – treatment that would illicit howls of protest were it discovered to be inflicted on a caged dog – central to Assange’s defense against extradition is the prospect of an even grimmer fate at the hands of American Justice.
Steve Poikonen hosts Slow News Day on Rokfin, the pre-news news place you go to get hip BEFORE the s*it hits the fan! Steve’s also an activist, documentary filmmaker, and contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has gone to the streets for Assange’s release in his home country, the United States of America.
And; next week NATO, the 73 year-old alliance to defend Europe against Soviet Russia, will hold its annual summit in Madrid. NATO says it’s meant to, among other things, present and endorse the war organization’s “New Strategic Concept”. Across Europe peace and civil society groups are set to demonstrate against the death and devastation created by NATO’s existing concept and protest the prospect of more of the same. Meanwhile in Canada, coinciding with the Madrid meet up, the Peace and Justice Network here is mounting Days of Action, a coordinated effort to: Stop the Weapons. Stop the War. And, Stop NATO.
Tamara Lorincz is with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, who last year led the No Fighter Jets days of action held across Canada. She’s also served on the advisory committee of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, and contributed her knowledge and talents to the organizations World Beyond War, and the No to NATO Network.
But first, Steve Poikonen and the the next turn of the legal screw for Julian Assange.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
June 22, 2022
Fitting for Gemini this numbered year would represent a 'twin prime', of the 18 prime numbered ones you've celebrated so far.
But, there's more!!! The number coinciding with the year of the Bay of Pigs invasion is too a 'Cuban Prime:
p = x3 − y3/x − y, where x = y + 1.
Fidel says, feliz cumpleaños
More incredibly...(as if it could be!)
The NGC 61 is a pair of lenticular galaxies, NGC 61-A (or NGC 61-1) and NGC 61-B (or NGC 61-2) in the constellation Cetus. (In case you were wanting to 'get away from it all').
Happy Birthday 61!
Fitting for Gemini this numbered year would represent a 'twin prime', of the 18 prime numbered ones you've celebrated so far.
(Oh yeah, did that twice!)
So, Happy 18th prime! Happy 18th prime!
Elementary Watson, observe 61 is also the number of the chemical element, Promethium which: "...is a chemical element with the symbol Pm and atomic number 61. All of its isotopes are radioactive; it is extremely rare, with only about 500–600 grams naturally occurring in Earth's crust at any given time. Promethium is one of only two radioactive elements that are followed in the periodic table by elements with stable forms".
Not to be confused with Prometheus,
(of whom it shall never be spake...)
But most importantly, 61 is one of the "Fortunate Numbers, to whit: In the list of Fortunate numbers, 61 occurs thrice, since adding 61 to either the tenth, twelfth or seventeenth primorial gives a prime number[9] (namely 6,469,693,291; 7,420,738,134,871; and 1,922,760,350,154,212,639,131)".
So, there you go...
Have a most fortunate 61st, and if it may not recur thrice for you, then consider yourself doubly fortunate!
Happy Birthday,
J9
Last week, CONAIE, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador began a popular protest over rising food and fuel prices and the neoliberal policies of Guillermo Lasso’s government. Across the country Monday transportation hubs, government offices, and oil productions facilities were blockaded. The actions prompted a quick response from Lasso, whose military and police launched an operation to snatch CONAIE president, Leonidas Iza; a move the confederation denounced as “arbitrary and illegal”.
Joe Emersberger is a Canada-based engineer of Ecuadorian descent. He’s a writer and activist, and co-author with Justin Podur of the book, ‘Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela‘. Emersberger’s many articles focusing on Western media coverage of the Americas can be found at FAIR.org, CounterPunch.org, TheCanary.co, Telesur English, and ZComm.org, among other places.
Joe Emersberger in the first half.
And; Britain’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel is charged with making the final decision on the extradition of Julian Assange to America from his current incarceration in London’s Belmarsh Prison, and she’s expected to make that decision imminently. The publisher, journalist, and founder of WikiLeaks has been held in isolation within the maximum security facility since being dragged from asylum in Ecuador’s London embassy three years, two months and five days ago.
Hundreds of doctors have petitioned Patel to deny extradition based on Assange’s frail mental and physical health. A similar argument was made by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Nils Melzer after visiting Assange with two medical experts “specialised in examining potential victims of torture and other ill-treatment” shortly after his arrest in 2019. Melzer’s demand for Assange’s release was ignored then, as have been myriad subsequent appeals to the UK government from all quarters.
Nils Melzer and the torturous destruction of Julian Assange, from an interview we recorded in June of 2019, in the second half.
But first, Joe Emersberger and Guillermo Lasso’s presidency one year on: The perfect Sturm und Drang.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
A foreign war is being used by the Canadian establishment to further entrench its thought monopoly on a nation still staggered following a two-plus year cognitive pounding. Now that the hoi polloi has been sufficiently head-softened, the reasoning seems, it’s time for the second of the old one/two punch combination. Ukraine is doing double-duty in this, both providing Bay Street warmongers the necessary pretense of moral rectitude for their bloody bonanza, while too granting social license for Ottawa to tear the guts out of a burgeoning popular opposition – even if it means eviscerating the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And, so far, the wind has blown from their back.
Stavroula Pabst is a writer, comedian, and PhD student in Communications and Mass Media Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her writing appears online at The Grayzone, Reductress, the Harvard Business Review, and at Passage, the “Canadian publication of thoughtful political, economic, and cultural ideas from a left-wing perspective” where I found her recent article, ‘Big Tech’s Purge of Dissenters is Impeding an Anti-War Movement.’
Stavroula Pabst in the first half.
And; this Victoria has undergone massive changes over its nearly two centuries of settler occupation. One enduring physical feature of the area epitomizes the altered landscape and displacement of both the First Peoples and flora and fauna living here at the time of contact. The Bowker Creek Watershed, named for an early settler/farmer, has tenaciously persisted despite having had a city land on top of it; but, like the rest of the south island it little resembles its original self. The Bowker’s survival though has never been certain, and now it depends on our diligent attention and continued vigilance in its protection.
Gerald Harris is a Director of the Friends of Bowker Creek Society and local leader of the Streamkeepers group working to reestablish salmon returns to Bowker Creek. The Friends are concerned by a recent sale of a section along the creek that could threaten both its ecology and the ability of citizens to protect it.
Gerald Harris and befriending the Bowker in the second half.
But first, Stavroula Pabst and deconstructing Canadian dissent.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
Its been almost thirty years since the Mike Harcourt NDP arrested more than a thousand people protesting the clearcut destruction of Clayoquot Sound. More than a generation later the ‘War in the Woods’ seems a cause lost to those still fighting to protect ancient forests here. Save Old Growth is a nascent citizen’s resistance campaign organizing to pressure the provincial government to legislate an end to old growth logging now!
Sophie Papp and Zain Haq are coordinators of the Save Old Growth campaign. Sophie is an islander who while studying at UVic worked too with Access4All advocating for expanded online access for immuno-compromised students, and those facing other in-person class barriers. Zain is a co-founder of and strategist for Save Old Growth. He’s been arrested multiple times for civil disobedience and was imprisoned earlier this year for blockading the path of the TransMountain pipeline.
Sophie Papp and Zain Haq in the first half.
And; Colombians voted in national elections last week. It’s seen as the first real chance to unseat finally the far right power structure that has brutalized social justice and environmental activists, the indigenous people, and union organizers there for more than three generations. The favourite going into the May 29th poll, leftist Gustavo Petro and running mate, Francia Marquez fell just short of the 50% needed for a first round victory, so will face another vote against second place finisher, Rodolfo Hernandez June 19th.
Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. Dan has observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia – where he witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an end to the generational war there. Of Kovalik’s 2020 film, ‘Nicaragua: The April Crisis & Beyond‘ on 2018’s so-called uprising in Nicaragua, Oliver Stone said, “Kovalik helps cut through the Orwellian lies and dissembling which make so-called ‘humanitarian intervention possible.”
Kovalik’s book titles include: ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest,’ ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ and the “Plot to” series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and to control the World entirely.
Dan Kovalik and Colombia’s second try at an electoral first in the second half.
But first, Sophie Papp and Zain Haq and stopping old growth logging.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing since 1998. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: cfuv.ca. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/
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