Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dan Kovalik, Kim Goldberg May 17, 2023

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded May 17th, 2023

The status of Crimea is becoming the main issue forbidding peace between Russia and the NATO-backed government in Kyiv. Canada’s official position – one shared by its NATO partners – treats the peninsula as “occupied” territory, referring to the 2014 referendum on joining Russia as “unconstitutional” and therefore invalid.

For his part, Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week, “The world should know: Respect and order will only return to international relations when the Ukrainian flag returns to Crimea.”
Needless to say, Russia sees things differently.

Dan Kovalik is a lawyer, educator, labour, peace, and justice activist, democracy defender, journalist, author, and filmmaker. He’s just returned from an extended research mission in Russia, including travels throughout Crimea.

Dan’s observed elections in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia – where he witnessed the 2016 peace plebiscite promising an end to the generational war there. His book titles include: ‘Cancel This Book: The Progressive Case Against Cancel Culture,’ the ‘Plot to…’ series on American efforts to undermine the governments and economies of Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, ‘No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interest,’ and his recently released, ‘Nicaragua: A History of US Intervention & Resistance‘.

Dan Kovalik in the first half.

And; the epochal events roiling our World may seem to us to be all of the moment, but they are merely more of the same found under the Sun. History waxes and wanes, just as Fortune, ever capricious, turns the magnificent to meanness in a twinkle. It is all illusion, a bubble blown and popped and done. What endures are words of wisdom; verse uttered on a stage, prose printed on the page. It’s a great and humbling realization to know our times will seem someday to some others as so many tempests in a char’s pail.

And if that sounds to you like so much philosophy, and all too poet-y, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet!

Kim Goldberg is a Nanaimo-based poet, journalist, and author. She’s written 8 books of poetry and nonfiction, including her most recent collection ‘DEVOLUTION: poems and fables of eco-pocalypse‘. Kim is playing host this Saturday, May 20th in Nanaimo to ‘Poetry of Resilience’, a gathering of lettered presenters at the Harbourfront library branch. It will feature fifteen local poets and musicians sharing their vision of resilience through word and song.

Kim Goldberg with the constant poets in the second half.

But first, Dan Kovalik and Crimea as crucible of the Russia/Ukraine war.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. Check out the Archive at Gorilla-Radio.com, GRadio.Substack.com, and the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Yves Engler, Steve Poikonen March 26, 2022

Welcome to Gorilla Radio, recorded March 26th, 2022

Fortified with the assurance of a majority government, Canada’s prime minister jetted off to Europe for “emergency” meetings at NATO’s HQ in Brussels last week. It’s fitting too in this instance that Justin Trudeau’s political mandate, like that of the Kiev regime, was neither poll earned, nor an expression of the country’s confidence in his leadership, but rather wrested from an NDP leadership too weak to defend democracy. In Ukraine, power was seized the old-fashioned way – from the barrel of a sniper rifle – as democrats bled in the streets. For Canadians, already hemorrhaging treasure in support the fascists over there, the real bleeding is perhaps yet to come.

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 articles have focused on Canada’s growing involvement in the crisis in Ukraine, including ‘Ukraine No-Fly Zone “Could Lead to End of Human Civilization“.’

Yves Engler in the first half.

And; a too brief ray of light shone down on journalist and publisher, Julian Assange last week. The world’s preeminent political prisoner wed behind the walls of London’s Belmarsh Prison, where he’s been held contrary to all norms of British and international justice for nearly three years. The saga of Assange’s struggle for freedom is well known to listeners of my second guest’s Pre-News News Program, Slow News Day, available at Rokfin. It’s where you go to get informed BEFORE the s*it hits the fan!

Steve Poikonen is an activist, documentary filmmaker, contributor to the Union of the Unwanted and MCSC Networks, and host of Slow News Day. He’s also been an organizer with Action4Assange, co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil, and has participated in and helped organize multiple actions for Assange’s release in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere in the U.S.

Steve Poikonen and justice denied again for Julian Assange in the second half.

But first, Yves Engler and the dreadful inertia dragging Canada further into the mire of war.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio and serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Aidan Jonah August 19th, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded August 10th and 14th, 2021.

At month’s end, Ukrainian president and former teevee clown, Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Washington, doubtless in search of reassurance from long-time Kiev booster, Joe Biden. Zelensky’s position is particularly fragile now, as the U.S. has relented on its effort to halt Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. That effectively puts an end to Ukraine’s strategic value as stumbling block between Russian gas and the lucrative European market.

But all this is cold comfort to those Ukranians East and West suffering a “proxy” civil war dragging on into its seventh year.

Jeremy Kuzmarov is a journalist and author who serves too as Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He’s the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including: ‘Obama’s Unending Wars’, and ‘The Russians Are Coming, Again’ co-authored with John Marciano. His latest piece at CovertAction, co-written with Steve Brown is, ‘Our Mission is to Lead the White Races of the World in a Final Crusade…Against Semite-led Untermenschen‘.

Jeremy Kuzmarov in the first half.

And; we in Canada, (and citizens throughout what was once called Western Democracy) are experiencing a political emergency. It is a crisis of trust: Trust in government, in corporations, in media; in fact a lack of faith across the spectrum of society. This apotheosis of incredulity is expressed in voter apathy, cynicism, and even resistance to public health information disseminated by government, media, and the corporate sector vital amidst a global pandemic.

No-one disagrees, unity of purpose is urgently required in this time of global calamity, but what’s to be done once belief is lost?

Aidan Jonah is Editor-in-Chief of The Canada Files, a web news site focusing on “Canadian imperialism, federal politics, and left-wing resistance to colonialism across the world.”

Aidan Jonah and the death and rebirth of Canadian journalism in the second half.

But first, Jeremy Kuzmarov and the next Nazi crusade finding purchase in Kiev.

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