Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alan MacLeod, John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft

Last week, America came closer to accomplishing its long-sought Clash of Civilizations magnum opus. Where George Bush and Barack Obama failed, despite years of financial sanctions, support for terror attacks, and covert assassination operations, Donald Trump has succeeded in goading finally Iran into direct military retaliation.

But, Mr. Trump’s real fight is just beginning; not to be conducted on some obscure battlefield in a distant land, but instead played out between the ears of every citizen in a concerted effort to woo the heart while beguiling the mind of a war-weary America.

Dr. Alan MacLeod is an educator, essayist, and author whose research interests include media theory, propaganda, social media and South American politics.

His first book is, ‘Bad News From Venezuela, 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting’, and he served as editor of ‘Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent’, described as “a collaborative volume which updates Herman and Chomsky’s propaganda model for the twenty-first-century media landscape”.

MacLeod’s a MintPress News staff writer, whose articles too appear at CounterPunch.org, and FAIR.org, and his latest is, ‘In Redux of Iraq War Run Up, Media Cheers on Assassination of Soleimani’.

Alan MacLeod in the first half.

And; though America and its allies have worked diligently to foster instability in West Asia for decades, the real chaos is only now beginning to peak. With everyone armed and fighting, largely through proxies, it seems all that’s needed to set this metaphorical tinder box aflame is a spark struck by accident or design to embroil local and regional powers alike into a potentially global conflagration.

John Helmer is a journalist, author, broadcaster, former political advisor to governments, and principal behind the news website, Dances with Bears. He’s also one of the most widely read Russian specialists in the business world for his news-breaking stories on Russian base and precious metals, diamonds, mining, shipping, insurance, food trade, and business policy. Helmer’s book titles include: ‘The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society’, ‘The Jackal’s Wedding – American Power, Arab Revolt’, (co-authored with Claudia Wright) and his latest is the political memoir, ‘The Man Who Knows Too Much About Russia’.

John Helmer and a dangerous quickening in the second half.

And; Victoria-based activist and long-time Gorilla Radio contributor, Janine Bandcroft will be here at the bottom of the hour with the Left Coast Events Bulletin of some of the good things to do in and around our town in the coming week. But first Alan MacLeod and tuning the media orchestra for an Iranian danse macabre.

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Alan MacLeod, John Helmer, Janine Bandcroft January 9, 2020