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Welcome to the official beginnings of America’s full on hurly-burly, hurdy gurdy, election season. In case you’re just returned from your extraterrestrial vacation, the Iowa caucus kicked off the 2016 democracy pageant Monday, and despite the escalating insanity of American political life since the first era of hope in the 1960’s, this year seems by orders of magnitude the zaniest poll in living memory; really one for the books.
William Blum has been writing books chronicling the progress of his native America through the World for more than four decades. Leaving his State Department job with the Johnson administration, Bill became a founding editor of the Washington Free Press, the Capitol’s first “alternative newspaper.”
He’s also worked as a freelance journalist, filing stories from Europe, (notably collaborating with former CIA operative, Philip Agee) and in the Americas, with an extended stay in post-Allende Chile.
William Blum’s book, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, from which his website, KillingHope.org takes its name, was first published in 1995 and is cited by Noam Chomsky as “far and away the best book on the topic.” Blum’s other titles include: ‘West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir,’ ‘America’s Deadliest Export: Democracy – The Truth About U.S. Foreign Policy and Everything Else,’ ‘Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire,’ and ‘Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower.’
William Blum in the first half.
And; last week, the environmental organization, Wilderness Committee won in BC’s Supreme Court a ruling throwing out a defamation suit brought by extractive industry heavy weight, Taseko Mines. In what the CBC reported as a “strongly worded” decision, Supreme court Justice Gordon Funt ordered Taseko pay “special costs.” Wilderness Committee National Policy Director, Gwen Barlee expressed relief over the court win, saying “It’s time for British Columbia to enact anti-SLAPP legislation to prevent this from happening again.”
Joe Foy is the Wilderness Committee’s National Campaign Director, and joins us in the second half.
And; Victoria Street Newz publisher emeritus and CFUV Radio braodcaster, Janine Bandcroft will join us at the bottom of the hour to bring us newz of the coming week from our city’s streets, and beyond there too. But first, William Blum and the American election crucible fires lit.
