Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, John Walker, Eva Bartlett, Janine Bandcroft Jan 30, 2020

Before listening to today’s program, a warning: human communication in this medium, radio is made of words and music. We welcome all tongues, idioms, and strains of both here at CFUV. But, and it’s an enormous but; there are those who find “natural language”, that is to say the way people actually communicate with each other, so offensive they would make an offence of it.

We’ll be talking about them, and others like them today, in the rude, crude, and necessarily scatalogical lingua franca favoured by the hoi polloi. You’ve been warned!

Assholes; you know them. You probably have to deal with one or more almost every day. Perhaps you’re one yourself; and certainly, truth be told, haven’t we all been on at least one occasion? It’s just natural.

But, even though you’ve known some doozies in your time, you’re likely not aware of the vast array and dazzling plentitude of the genus; or realize the profound effect assholes, both singly and collectively, have on all of our lives.

John Walker is an award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker. He’s a multi-Donald Brittain Award nominee and co-founder of the Documentary Organization of Canada, advocates for, and foremost voice of the nation’s community of independent documentary film creators. The producer, writer, cinematographer, and director has made films on both sides of the Atlantic, and his titles include: ‘Quebec My Country Mon Pays, ‘Arctic Defenders’, ‘A Drummer’s Dream’, and the Canadian dramatic classic, ‘A Winter Tan’. Walker’s latest is, ‘Assholes: A Theory‘, inspired by the Aaron James’ best-selling book of the same title.

John Walker in the first half.

And; it’s been almost two years since that April morning when Donald Trump let fly more than fifty Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria. The bombardment was meant as a demonstration to Syria’s president, Bashir al-Assad of America’s resolve in answering Assad’s alleged chemical attack against Al Qaeda affiliated forces in Douma. But the story was suspect from the beginning. Now, the narrative spun by the US and its ally in this subterfuge, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has unraveled, with whistleblowers inside the OPCW saying their report on the attack was corrupted.

Eva Bartlett is an independent Canadian journalist and activist who has lived in and reported extensively from Gaza and Syria over the last decade. She’s been one of the few Western witnesses to the destruction of war from where the missiles and bombs land, and one of even fewer to fix properly the blame on the Western powers responsible. I spoke to Eva in April of 2018, as she was preparing for another foray into Syria.

Eva Bartlett and back to Syria in the second half.

And; Victoria activist and CFUV Radio broadcaster at large, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour to bring us up to speed with some of what’s good to do in and around our town in the coming week. But first, John Walker and Assholes: A Theory. 

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/

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Author: Chris Cook

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcasting since 1999. The show is archived at: www.gorilla-radio.com. The GR blog is at: gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com, and you can find and support the program at GRadio.Substack.com. Financial support is also possible through the Patreon site: https://www.patreon.com/PacificFreePress. He's too the past contributing editor to the web news site, www.pacificfreepress.com, (now defunct) and tweets at @paciffreepress. G-Radio is dedicated to social justice, the environment, community, and providing a forum for people and issues not covered in the corporate media. Some past guests include: M. Shahid Alam, Joel Bakan, Maude Barlow, Ramzy Baroud, David Barsamian, William Blum, Luciana Bohne, Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Paul Cienfuegos, Yves Engler, Laura Flanders, Denis Halliday, Julia Butterfly Hill, Sam Husseini, Robert Jensen, Dahr Jamail, Chalmers Johnson, Malalai Joya, Kathy Kelly, Ingmar Lee, Dave Lindorff, Andrew Gavin Marshall, Stefania Maurizi, Greg Palast, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Kevin Pina, Ted Rall, Paul Craig Roberts, John Ross, David Rovics, Joan Russow, Danny Schechter, Vandana Shiva, Norman Solomon, David Swanson, Andy Worthington, Mickey Z., Howard Zinn and many others.

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