Nearly seventy-seven years following the atomic annihilation of two cities, politicians in America and its NATO vassal states today are debating the strategic merits of a nuclear war with Russia, (and presumable China to follow). Absent the debate, naturally, is the moral question of both war and its necessary means. August 6th marks the grim anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima by America – Nagasaki being unnecessarily destroyed three days later. In the years since, historians have proven neither attack was needed to bring Japan to the negotiating table; they had been attempting surrender for months before the bombs dropped. But as we learn, each time anew it seems, truth has little purchase for the warmongers.
The tragic and senseless destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will again be commemorated by the Victoria chapter of the Women in Black, who will stand silent vigil August 6th at the inner harbour. All are welcome to attend.
Terry Wolfwood is Director and co-founder of the Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation, at BBCF.ca. She’s a writer, poet, photographer, and long-time activist in pursuit of peace, social justice, and women’s rights. Her articles have appeared at Briarpatch, Peace News, and Third World Resurgence among other places. In conjunction with her many activities in support of justice and peace, Terry has served too as local coordinator for the Women in Black for many years.
Terry Wolfwood in the first half.
And; mere hours after signing an agreement allowing the safe passage of goods from Ukraine, an acknowledged Russian missile attack against the port of Odessa threatens to scotch the deal. Russia denies allegations made by Ukraine and western media it targeted grain silos in the port, instead saying a dry dock, warship under repair, and warehouse of American munitions were struck and destroyed. Meanwhile, Kiev’s president Zelenskyy spent part of his day today playing host to US congressional reps, eager to pad their war-making resumes in anticipation of the Fall election.
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.
John Helmer and Ukraine’s thickening fog in the second half.
But first, Terry Wolfwood and remembering still Hiroshima/Nagasaki.
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/
The late, and truly great, British playwright, Harold Pinter summed up the age in his 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech. Delivered dramatically via video stream – something not so common then – and at the height of America’s military demolition of Iraq . The terminally ill Pinter spent most of his thirty two and a half minute address addressing the profoundly ignorant state in which We the people exist, and how we blithely allow the horrors of our times be committed in our name. Who hearing that speech could forget his hoarsely stentorian remonstration of the Bush claque and its cowardly coalition’s willful crimes? “It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter.”
Seventeen years later, and millions killed, maimed, dispossessed and made desperate the lying and killing continues apace. Pinter would be unsurprised, because as he said then, for the powerful, “… it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives.” And so it is in Canada today, as we march towards another global war, standing on guard in ignorance.
Yves Engler is a Montréal-based activist, and author of 12 books, mostly on Canadian foreign policy, including his latest, ‘Stand on Guard For Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military’. He’s also a prolific essayist whose many articles appear at numerous sites online, including at his website, YvesEngler.com, where his recent article, ‘Is It Time for Canada to Apologize to Libya?‘ appears.
Yves Engler in the first half.
And; what’s old is news again: Inflation, the economy’s nemesis so long thought slain has resurfaced, its dragon’s teeth popping up in balance sheets and union negotiation positions, and most scarily, ravishing family budgets the World over.
Yves Smith is a Harvard Business School grad, blogger, and author whose investment banking and management career has intersected all the biggest names on Wall Street. In late 2006, seeing the financial ice bergs on the horizon and frustrated by the “obvious under-reporting…of the risk in all credit instruments” she started Naked Capitalism in an effort to “promote critical thinking through the medium of a finance and economics blog.”
Her 2010 book, ‘ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism‘ followed, dissecting the “obvious” and inevitable 2008 financial disaster and the dismal Obama administration reaction to it. Yves’ has also written articles for many major publications, appeared on US network television and alternative online news programs like The Real News, Democracy Now, and the now-banned RT.
Her recent article at Naked Capitalism, ‘The G-7 is Still Pushing Its Nutty Russia Oil Price Cap Idea‘ reveals how at sea the West is in what is rapidly emerging as a truly New (economic) World Order.
Yves Smith and the stark state of a capitalist system in crisis in the second half.
But first, Yves Engler and “the considerable bearing of the truth on where the World stands now“.
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/
July 17, 2022
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
