Out of touch? The Justin Trudeau story

It’s not often that I’ll come to the defense of Prime minister Trudeau, but in this case, I think our perspective is a bit skewed. The 60’s were a remarkably different time. News travelled slowly, and our perspectives of people (and events for that matter) were seen differently as the decades moved forward.

Mr. Trudeau, by all accounts, led a very sheltered life. And his mournings are of a man as seen through his father’s eyes. A family friend. Right or wrong, this is how he feels and he should be allowed wholeheartedly to express those feelings without being vilified.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/11/29/trudeau-out-of-step-with-canadians-in-response-to-castros-death-paul-wells.html?campaign_id=A100

POTUS Oversight

.@POTUS: "I'm extremely proud of the fact that over 8 years we have not had the kinds of scandals that have plagued other administrations." pic.twitter.com/Uv6ZVHl4H8

— Fox News (@FoxNews) November 20, 2016

Obama must think the American people have short term memories.

During his two terms:
• He promised to close Guantanamo Bay Detention camp, a prison holding facility operated by the US Military. It still remains open.
• He was personally responsible for the approval of 423 drone strikes, killing up to 116 unarmed civilians and injuring close to 200 children
• His administration is to blame for mismanagement of the attacks on Benghazi that killed US Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
• Operation Fast and Furious allowed more than 2,000 illegal firearms into the US by way of Mexico.
• 162 mass murders between 2009-2015, and 18 incidents involving 8 or more deaths, compared to 20 mass murders under the Bush administration.

Eight Questions With… Part III

When researching individuals to take part in this segment, I try to choose people that not only have interesting perspectives, but also values I admire. I don’t necessarily agree with them 100%, but their core ideas and political ideals form a refreshing view and give a unique snapshot into a window that I wouldn’t normally see in my own day to day to life.

It is with this is mind, that I reached out yesterday afternoon to Ezra Levant, former Sun Media columnist, and in February 2015, he founded The Rebel Media, a social commentary website/media platform which posts original content on its Youtube page.

He has been quite vocal in the past during the Idle No More protests, and the human rights issues in relation to “the threat posed by radical Islam.”

I’m pleased to be joined this morning with Canadian media personality, Conservative political activist, writer and broadcaster, Ezra Levant.


Q: It’s been clear for a long time, that mainstream media very much wanted this election for Hillary, long before nominations were made. What are your thoughts on how the media has portrayed the two major candidates and how do you think this media bias will affect future elections?

Ezra Levant: You can already see that many in the mainstream media, after a week of being disoriented, have rededicated themselves to their partisan campaign against Donald Trump. I think this will continue to stimulate the growth of alternative media.

Q: How do you feel Bernie Sanders would’ve faired against Trump, had he been the democratic nominee?

EL: I think he would have done well, with young people and blue collar people worried about jobs. He might have won Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan — thus closing the door to Trump.

Q: In 2015, you founded Rebel Media. How have you found the process of subscription based viewing, and what are the differences between video/print media, and which do you prefer?

EL: Most of our videos are available for free on YouTube. Only 10% of our work is behind the paywall (only accessible via paid subscription) , but it is a premium product that is a commercial success. I come from print, but video is better in that you can show clips of video, audio, documents, etc. — things you had to describe in words. So you can tell a story more effectively. Video seems to be more viral as well.

Q: How do you think the recent incidents in Europe with refugees influenced the way Americans voted, and do you feel it’ll breathe life into right leaning fringe parties?

EL: I think that mass Muslim migration was an issue in the American election — but one that was added to the pre-existing issue of mass illegal Mexican immigration. I don’t think that parties that win can be called fringe parties; I think parties that believe in mass, unlimited, culturally alien immigration are the fringe ones.

Q: What do you think of the rumours that Milo Yiannopoulos, or Ann Coulter could be named press secretary in Trumps newly formed government?

EL: I like both of those people. But the rumours are surely not true.

Q: What are your thoughts on the Clinton/George Soros lead Purple Revolution, and their desire to reunite the country by turning their collective backs on president elect Trump?

EL: If you’re referring to the street protests, they are political violence — which is a basic definition of terrorism. If there is evidence that they are funded or organized by someone, those people should be prosecuted.

Q: By now, you’ve likely heard of the backlash over Donald Trump not allowing the press to follow him into a restaurant with his family. Do you think this outrage is justified, or do they need to set restrictions on how much access the government press is allowed?

EL: It’s a temper tantrum by the press. They hate Trump, and they hate the fact that he hates them back. Most Republicans respond to the media’s hate by trying to appease the media; Trump doesn’t.

Q: Finally, how did Vice Co-Founder Gavin McInnes become involved with Rebel Media, and what sort of projects are you working on?

EL: I invited him to make videos for us. We are working on expanding our journalism with more people and more beats.

 

Purple Revolution

Many people wondered (myself included) during Hillary Clinton’s concession speech, why her and Bill had decided to both wear purple. Was it coincidence, perhaps to show unity for Donald Trump (blue for the Democratic Party, and red for the Republicans), or perhaps it’s just one of her favourite colours.

Reuters/Carlos Barria

Well, wonder no more. The Purple Revolution has announced that it’s planning their first event, the Million Women March. A tad sexist, perhaps, but no one else seems to mind.

It came as no surprise to me, to find that the initiative is being funded by the Clintons and their campaign contributing friend George Soros, of the Black Lives Matter movement. There goal, is to unite the country (against Trump), which isn’t very democratic, and isn’t very grassroots either.

The revolution is aimed to help “Americans to Come Together in Hundreds Peaceful Gatherings of Solidarity, Resistance, and Resolve Following Election Results

Hundreds of Americans, dozens of organizations to gather peacefully outside the White House and in cities and towns nationwide to take a continued stand against misogyny, racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

Tonight, thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings in cities and towns across the nation, including outside the White House, following the results of Tuesday’s presidential election.

The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.org and allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump’s bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.

Within two hours of the call-to-action, MoveOn members had created more than 200 gatherings nationwide, with the number continuing to grow on Wednesday afternoon.”

But through the eyes of us here at Media Watch, it just seems to be another ploy to divide the country. The goal here, is to foment the country and overthrow the Trump era government.

We’ll be keeping close attention to these protests in the coming days, weeks, months and reporting on things from an unbiased perspective.

Eight Questions With… Part II

I was planning to hold off on this post until Friday, but the election has become such a hot topic, I honestly couldn’t wait. With anti-Trump protests across the country, I wanted to get the perspective of one of the first bloggers to appear on my radar.

Back in 2005/06, he made a regular appearances on Matthew Good‘s political blog. He is by all accounts, one of the earliest bloggers of my recollection and still maintains posts on his Busblog site. He’s also a lifelong Cubs fan, so I already liked him a lot.

Last night, on a whim, I decided to reach out and see if he’d join me in a Q and A session. Thankfully, he obliged.

His answers are warm, candid and as always, refreshingly entertaining. 

I’m incredibly excited to welcome, Tony Pierce.

Photo credit, Tony’s mom (pictured here at legendary Cub announcer Harry Caray’s grave)

Q: Firstly, this election is obviously a hot button topic. I did a bit of research, and from your posts, I’m deducing you’re a fan of Obama’s style of politics. How do you think the government would’ve been shaped, had Hillary been elected last night?

Tony Pierce: I have no idea how the government would have been shaped if vote of the majority of the United States had been counted instead of this antiquated Electoral College nonsense. When longtime Senators like John McCain said that the GOP would have blocked anything that she sent to them, you take him at his word. So it may have been years of unprofessional gridlock, or perhaps she would have been able to figure out how to work with the Republicans. One reason I liked Obama, was because he had very (little) cooperation from the Right – unprecedented cockblocking – and yet his list of accomplishments are impressive.

Q: As a Canadian (I live in Ottawa, currently) we only get a small overview of things, how is the overall mood in California, a typically Democratic leaning state?

TP: I can’t speak for all of California – from what I understand there are as many people here as there are in all of Canada – but in my little circle, people were incredibly glum and judging from the protests in NYC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland and downtown LA, the feeling is mutual.

Q: How do you think Bernie Sanders would’ve faired in comparison to Hillary Clinton, had he been selected as the Democratic candidate instead?

TP: Bernie was a fascinating candidate. I gave him some money and there’s a cute poster of his image over my bed. So I am biased, probably, when I think he would have brought out more young people. Hillary has had haters ever since she said on 60 Minutes in 1992 that if Bill (Clinton) gets elected she wouldn’t be the type of first lady who sits around baking cookies and having tea parties. Bernie doesn’t have that sort of hate. But he is a Socialist and a Jew, which would have made other people uptight.

Q: What do you think the future (politically, or otherwise) holds for Hillary Clinton?

TP: I think Hillary will be a very popular public speaker where she will make a lot of money. Hopefully she will write a book about what it was like running against a game show host with no political experience. Although maybe she wants to just forget the whole nightmare.

Q: How can we rationalize the popular vote vs Electorals, when majority of people voted for Hillary, but based on key states (Florida, Ohio, Michigan, etc) Trump won? Is the election process flawed, in your opinion. And if so, what changes would you implement given the opportunity to improve the system.?

TP: I hate the Electoral College. People in California, for example, don’t feel the urgency to vote because the state overwhelmingly votes for Democrats, therefore the only thing you can say you really affected are local props and local politicians. The news refuses to instill this fascinating fact: 7 of the last GOP presidential candidates lost the popular vote. That includes our soon-to-be Commander in Chief. How is that a democracy? How does that inspire people to spend hours of their day to stand in line and cast a ballot. My vote here in Hollywood was far less powerful than someone’s in Florida or Ohio. How is that fair? It would be very easy to get rid of the Electoral College, the states just need to change their laws. If the majority do it, then all will be well. (http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/)

Q: What do you think will be Barack Obama’s greatest achievement once he leaves office?

TP: There’s a lot to choose from. Killing (Osama) Bin Laden was pretty good. Obamacare was a great first step to health care reform. Normalizing Cuba was pretty key. Getting us out of a nasty Recession was something that the entire globe benefited from because all markets freaked out when the US market was tanking. But to me his biggest accomplishment was to show that a black man could do the job well and do it with class, dignity and intelligence. He is the Jackie Robinson of US Presidents and he was one of our all time best ones. And the FLOTUS is a Top 10 FLOTUS. Any one who considers themselves a minority can be inspired by the Obamas showing that not only could they do it as well as their white counterparts, but in many ways they did it better.

Q: Alternately, what was his biggest failure?

TP: Obama’s biggest failure was he waited too long to start campaigning for Hillary. He, Michelle, Beyonce and Springsteen should have been on a month-long tour getting out the vote. Now with early voting it’s somewhat worthless to have a huge concert a day before Election Day.

Q: And finally, a non political question. As a life long Detroit Tigers fan (my hometown, London, was the farm team while I was growing up), and having been too young to remember when they won their last World Series in 1984, what sort of wisdom/reassurance can you impart after seeing your Cubs finally win a World Series?

TP: The lesson of the Cubs winning the World Series is better told from the perspective of Cleveland. No one was talking about the Indians at the beginning of the season. Everyone was talking about Baltimore, NY and Toronto in the AL and Cleveland overcame injuries and picked up Andrew Miller and dominated in the playoffs. Then they took the Cubs to 7 games and extra innings. The Cubs were loaded with talent, the manager of the year, hot rookies, a Cy Young and an MVP. And still it took them extra innings and a rain delay to win it all. So to me, Detroit can rest assured knowing they don’t have to be America’s team to win it all, they just need a good manager, a few good pitchers and a(n) offence that can score 5 runs a game. Sadly the Cubs will be super dominant over the next 5 years so good luck getting past them in October. 🙂

Election Rundown 2016

Unthinkable: https://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/2016/11/09/donald-trump-wins-america-elects-an-unthinkable-president.html?campaign_id=A100sd

That’s how the Toronto Star described it. Unthinkable.

Credit: David Zalubowski/AP

I was out most of Tuesday night. Unavoidable. But just after 7pm, I received a text saying Trump had wrapped up Indiana and Kentucky, while Hillary was claiming a win in Vermont. Trump’s support was proving to be stronger than earlier predictions had indicated.

He jumped out to an early 19 to 3 lead. But the night was young. Plenty of time for the Clinton camp to mount a comeback, all but assured of locking up California (55 electoral votes), and very likely to win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes too.

Just after 9pm, Eastern time, another text came in. “Florida too close to call. Trump has closed the gap in Ohio. He still leads Florida, but they claim strong Democratic districts haven’t been counted.”

Just before 11pm, “Ohio is confirmed.” It was starting to sink in.

And then another, “New York Times has a Trump Presidency at > (greater than) 95%. Multiple networks are calling Florida for Trump.”

Shortly after 11pm as I was heading home, another text came in. “They haven’t called Pennsylvania, but she’s leading.”

I knew Pennsylvania would probably decide it. 20 votes wasn’t huge, but it has long been a Democratic stronghold. Surely the tide would roll if Clinton’s camp could lockup the Keystone state.

Trump had just wrapped up Indiana, Utah, and North Carolina, 11, 6 and 3, respectively.

Then, just before 11:30pm, Canada’s Immigration website crashed.

Shortly after 11:30, Fox called Wisconsin for Trump. 232 to 209. Then Trump won Florida. ABC called it first. 30,000 vote lead in Michigan. Trump won Georgia, putting him to 254 of a possible 270 needed to clinch. Trump mounted a 90,000 vote lead in Wisconsin.

Then the impossible happened. He pulled ahead in Pennsylvania.

Just before 2am, New York Times announced Trump had won Pennsylvania. It was all over.

Reports were rolling in that Clinton campaign chair John Podesta (Yes, that John Podesta), was urging supporters at campaign headquarters in New York, to go home. Tweets were saying that they’d turned off election coverage after Trump locked up Pennsylvania and that there would be no concession speech.

Just before 2:30 am, while CNN was still trying to count district votes for a “Miracle comeback”, Associated Press announced that Donald J. Trump was elected 45th President of the United States of America.

2016 Elections Scandal guide

A lot of people (myself included) are tired of this email scandal. The subsequent investigations by FBI director, James Comey and the constant bickering by Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton have been an unnecessary distraction leading up to this election.

Regardless of the attempts to investigate Hillary for the contents of these emails, and following a meeting with Loretta Lynch where she tried to dissuade him from releasing documents or investigating their content, it was announced yesterday by Comey, for a second straight time, that Mrs. Clinton “committed no criminal wrongdoing.”

How the FBI reviewed 650,000 emails in eight days, or why exactly Comey decided to double back, and review the situation, is unclear. What is clear though, is that this might be the worst lead up to an election in United States history.

With this in mind, a reader suggested on the eve of the 2016 election, that we review in chronological order, the scandals of both major candidates.

Here’s the Elections Scandal Guide for 2016.

March 2nd, 2015 – Private email server 
• New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton used a private email server as secretary of State.

March 10th, 2015 – Out of convenience  
• Clinton defends her use of the private server, saying it was out of “convenience” so she could have one device for personal use and one for business. “Looking back, it would’ve been better for me to use two separate phones and two separate email-accounts,” she said. “I thought using one device would be simpler. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out that way.”

June 16th, 2015 – Mexicans are rapists
• Donald Trump announced his presidency with a quote that immediately drew backlash for it’s criticism of Mexicans. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they’re telling us what we’re getting.”

July 8th, 2015 – John McCain’s war record
• Trump questions 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s war hero status. “He’s not a war hero,” he says of McCain, who was a prisoner of war during time spent in Vietnam. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

July 24th, 2015 – Compromised information
• Inspector general at the state department and the office of Director of National Intelligence asks the Justice Department to investigate whether classified information was compromised while stored on Clinton’s private network.

August 2015 – Federal investigation 
• A federal official confirms the FBI is investigating Hillary Clinton’s handling of government documents on her private server.

August 7th, 2015 – Megyn Kelly
• Shortly after the first Republican primary debate, Trump takes issue with Fox News host Megyn Kelly. He says “She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions. You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” The statement is interpreted to mean that he is referring to Ms Kelly’s menstruation.

August 11th, 2015 – Servers turned over to Justice Department 
• Clinton’s campaign says she was directed by the Justice Department to hand over the private server.

September 9th, 2015 – Carly Fiorina’s looks
• During a Rolling Stone interview, Trump criticizes Republican primary opponent Carly Fiorina. “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”

November 24th, 2015 – Reporter’s disability 
• During a rally, Trump appears to mock a New York Times reporter saying “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy.” mocking the reporters handicap gestures. The reporter, Serge Kovaleski, has anthrogryposis.

December 2nd, 2015 – Killing terrorists’ families 
• Trump suggests on Fox & Friends the US should kill terrorists’ family members. “The other thing with terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families.” Torture, or killing of citizens by the state is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention.

December 7th, 2015 – Banning Muslims
• Trump announces his plan to ban all Muslims from entering the US. “Donald J. Trump is calling for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States, until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The quote comes from a press release from his campaign.

February 1st, 2016 – Threatening protesters
• Trump encourages supporters to attack protesters at his rallies saying, “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Ok? Just knock the hell. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.”

March 22nd, 2016 Ted Cruz’s wife
• Trump threatens to “spill the beans” on opponent Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi. Two days later he retweets an unflattering picture of Ms. Cruz. Two days later, he says the retweet was “a mistake”.

March 30th, 2016 – Punishing women for abortions
• Trump suggests women that have abortions should be punished, if he’s able to overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court that prevents the government from banning them. “The answer is there has to be some sort of punishment,” he says during an appearance on Chris Matthews’ show on MSNBC.

May 2016 – Report issued 
• Inspector general at the State Department issues a report criticizing Clinton’s use of private email, saying department policies dating back to 2005 require that “normal day-to-day operations” be conducted on government issued computers.

May 27th, 2016 – Judge’s heritage
• Trump attacks a Hispanic American judge who issued an unfavourable rulling against his now defunct education venture, Trump University saying it was “an absolute conflict” and that he should’ve recused himself because of his “Mexican heritage”, The judge, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana.

July 1st, 2016 – FBI recommendations 
• Attorney General, Loretta Lynch accepts recommendations from the FBI, in an attempt to dispel criticisms of a potential conflict of interest after she met with former president Bill Clinton on the tarmac of Phoenix airport.

July 2nd, 2016 – Hillary Clinton interviewed by FBI 
• Hillary is interviewed by the FBI for 3 1/2 hours in Washington, D.C. During questioning, she states 40 times that she “couldn’t recall.”

July 5th, 2016 – James Comey recommends not to prosecute 
• As a result of his investigations, FBI director James Comey recommends not to prosecute Clinton.

July 6th, 2016 – Loretta Lynch announces recommendations 
• Attorney General Loretta Lynch takes FBI recommendation and announces Department of Justice will not press charges against Hillary.

July 7th, 2016 – Comey appears before the House Oversight Committee
• FBI director James Comey appears before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for more than four hours to defend his decision not to charge Hillary Clinton.

July 11th, 2016 – Investigation into perjory
• Republican lawmakers send letter to open investigation into whether or not Hillary Clinton lied to Congress during testimony about the email server.

July 27th, 2016 – Russian hacks
• Trump calls on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Later, he takes back the comment saying he was being “sarcastic”.

July 30th, 2016 – Bereaved parents 
• Trump criticizes Khizr and Ghazala Khan, a Muslim family whose son Humayun Khan, died in Iraq, after the couple appears at the Democratic convention. “If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably – maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.” Trump says in an interview with ABC News.

July 31st, 2016 Clinton appears on Fox News 
• Hillary appears on Fox News Sunday and is asked about her claim that she never sent or received classified information. Clinton responds by saying Comey “said my answers were truthful, and what I’ve said is consistent with what I have told the American people, that there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails.” But Comey told congress during the hearing “There was classified material emailed.”

August 9th, 2016 – Second Amendment people 
• During a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina he seems to suggest supporters of the Second amendment should use their right to bear arms to go after Hillary. He says “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks,” adding “Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know.”

August 10th, 2016 – Obama and Clinton founded Isis
• Trump accuses President Obama and Mrs. Clinton of founding Isis. He says “President Obama is the founder of Isis. He founded Isis. And I would say the co-founder would be Crooked Hillary Clinton.”

September 16th, 2016 – Birther Conspiracy
• The birther accusations stretch all the way back to March, 2011. But for most of 2015, and large parts of 2016, Donald Trump was a leading proponent of the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama’s citizenship was up for debate, going so far as to say during an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News” “He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that. Maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim. I don’t know.”

September 27th, 2016 – Miss Universe 
• Former Miss Universe contestant, Alicia Machado comes forward to say Trump referred to her as “Miss Piggy“ after she gained weight, following her beauty pageant win. Trump follows up those comments by calling Machado “disgusting” and a “con”.

September 28th, 2016 – Comey Oversight hearing
• Comey appears for a congressional oversight hearing, but spends most of it defending his decision not to charge Clinton. “You can call us wrong, but don’t call us weasels. We are not weasels.”, adding “Whether or not you agree with the results, this was done the way you want it to be done.”

October 7th, 2016 – Groping Women
• Washington Post publishes a 2005 video where Trump brags about getting away with “anything” because of his celebrity status.

October 28th, 2016 – Comey reopens investigation into Clinton server probe
• Comey announces the bureau is reviewing new emails found on a laptop shared by Huma Abedin and her estranged husband, Anthony Weiner, that could be of relevance.

November 6th, 2016 – Comey announces updated verdict 
• Comey announced in a letter to lawmakers, that the agency’s review of the new emails matches the previous conclusion, that Hillary shouldn’t be prosecuted.

Donald Trump scandal count – 16
Hillary Clinton scandal count – 18

Eight Questions with… Part I

In a segment I’m calling ‘Eight Questions with…’, I’ll be asking politically involved people eight questions in a Q and A style segment. I won’t be censoring their answers at all, so for these particular posts, reader discretion is advised.

This afternoon, over email, I had the opportunity to interview Anton Newcombe, an American singer-songwriter, producer, and founder of the music group, The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Q: You’re from California originally, so I assume you still keep an eye on American politics. But as a resident of Berlin, you’re also exposed to the EU (European Union) and Angela Merkel. How do you find the two governments parallel and what are your thoughts on the geopolitics of how these two countries’ governments operate?

Anton Newcombe: Ok, first lets deal with the German government and how it was created. After WW2 the Americans with help from the English set out to build a system that combined the best of the UK and USA, in fact it was the Americans calling all the shots and I have to be honest, they treated it from the perspective like the founding fathers and improved on the American system.

In my passport it says”Let us raise a banner that wise men can improve.” Basically it doesn’t say, “Ok, we’re number one.” Fuck it. Anyway, the post war boffins did a great job, because it’s more or less a parliament type government. You have an election and if you don’t win out right, you form a coalition, and if you mess up, the other people can say we are leaving. Then it’s time to have another election, etc. (to) address that.

Now this would be a problem in America right now, because we have this insane ‘shoot yourself in the foot’ politics over every subject and in Germany people are more rational even over very unpopular topics like letting 1.5 million refugees in your country.

Now, Merkel is a very interesting person. She’s dealt with unification politics and economics…and she has to deal with Russia…and that’s one 500 pound gorilla.

She has to deal with the legacy and relations with Israel (for instance Germany designed and built 6 attack subs for Israel.) She has to deal with America, and Germany is the defacto power house engine on many levels for Europe and 500 million people…it’s a tightrope.

On the one hand we all know Germany’s past. On the other hand it takes a certain type to see clearly the geopolitics of this century.

Geopolitics – gosh, I will really have to qualify so many topics I touch on for this.

In a nut shell. Sit back, this will take some time.

There is an economic side, to what end, it’s debatable a new world system? How can every country owe money to who? There is the grand chess game? (here he’s referring to Zbigniew Brzezinski‘s 1997 novel The Grand Chessboard) Ever hear of that term? You should google it.

There is the Caspian Sea and the honey pot of oil. There is Israel and safety and the truth about the Leviathan field…that the gas goes from Egypt to Turkey. There is Russia, China, Iran, The Shia, Isma ‘ilisim… proxy wars, India and generating power from a natural gas line that never gets finished. South China sea..Brexit…

where should we start?

All of this leads to an awareness that USA politics and geo-politics are not left to the whimsy of the mob.

Q: You touched on the new world order. Do you see Germany’s place in that sort of position as a figurehead or more of a tag along party along with another superpower like the United States or Britain?

AN: Well New World Order means one thing to an Alex jones fan and another to George Bush…or maybe not but the truth is nationalism as we know it is on it’s way out from a Neo-Conservative perspective and the goal is economic unions and federalism etc.

The political landscape changed because I truly believe one of the weapons America uses quiet effectively is economic and there was a crash in 2008 at the very same time the US dollar was sinking and China, quite aggressively positioning its own currency among a basket. At that point several things happened one of them iceland… but also Western QE (Quantitive easing) i.e., printing fake money on a large scale.

The migrant issue only affects me specifically in that it became a hot button issue in Europe and the UK, now Brexit. But people are in fear and rightly so. They should fear what will happen if there are no plans to deal with the fact that a billion people’s brightest idea is to move to Switzerland. The other part, the displaced by war? That’s another subject and it’s two fold because refugees are a tool of war.

Q: You’ve always been outspoken on issues you believe in. Living in Europe since 2007, how has the political landscape changed, and how does the recent migrant situation affect your day to day life (if at all) in Germany?

AN: The world is leaning more to the right. I don’t find Hillary Clinton to be all that different than George Bush to be honest… it’s only the tone that people take, and a few small gestures that come and go. However the tolerance levels in society for many things are changing quite fast…

If you are asking about Germany or Europe, it’s polarized between people that want to be forward thinking and people that are saying hold on, letting a million people from another culture just roll on in when they are completely against our way of life is a bad idea and I fear what is happening along with terrorism.

Merkel took an interesting stand, but it sets in play an interesting thing because the borders are now not as free and we are on the edge of a real war.

Believe it or not they are pushing Putin to the limit knowing that he will have to react or get removed from power and they believe they can win quick and he will be removed from power. At the same time the ngo’s (Non-governmental organization)  with the colour revolutions, whip up internal dissent in the countries like Russia and China in hopes that an internal change happens…but we are looking at a conflit in the South China sea and one over here on multi-fronts and one in the Persian gulf and smaller ones in Africa all at once…pushing…pushing towards a goal.

But my day to day, I am a hermit…I ride the trains…go to my studio..do my thing.

The news is like an alarm clock for me. I keep waking up in the night, I see the time, I go back to sleep because I know I have an hour, 30 minutes whatever.

Q: How have Berliners reacted to the flow of refugees, and where do you see the country’s politics/laws changing (if at all) as a result of that influx?

AN: There are right wing marches, and Gegen Nazi marches to protest them. Merkel’s party got 12 percent. The ultra right (Alternative for Germany, or AfD party for short) 14 percent in the city election so that shows you something, it’s a coalition government but thats a big change and its vocal – this is the most Liberal and progressive.

Q: During your recent tour, you were offering tickets/vinyl records to people who donated to Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders). What sort of voice/platform have social media sites like twitter and Facebook given you to inform people of causes you believe in?

AN: Nothing specifically that isn’t out there for anyone else to use, but it occurred to me that I could raffle off tickets and things by asking people to show proof of donation – it takes nothing for me to give away two tickets to a sold out show and all of our shows are sold out – I must have raised £50k ($82,428) or more and I gave people a choice. But my goal was to get other people to do it – no money touched my hands – it would take Beyoncé nothing and she would raise millions.

Museums, sports, theatre any event / people could do this and it was my idea that sadly never caught on.

Q: You recently played a string of shows in Canada (including a show I attended in Montréal this past May), after being banned for comments made on stage. How do you feel about government regulations/red tape or work permits required to perform in this country?

AN: I love the people of Canada and I have great hope as many do for the new leader and a fresh perspective in hard times. I see no reason for any government to make it hard for artists to share culture.

For someone to assume that I am a negative instead of a positive is a serious mistake. I am a very creative person and I do a lot to create and foster Canadian content internationally including Tess Parks, (a) Toronto native and an extremely talented woman.

I reacted when someone threw a glass bottle at my face and it shattered glass into my eyes and without seeing, without having any way of knowing gender affiliation I spit out a racial and a homosexual slur at once. Now, it was a set up because no cameras were allowed and that person should have been arrested for gbh (Grevious bodily harm) – furthermore I’m not ashamed that I said those words at that second because I wasn’t using them correctly or directly.

In my mind, (I) basically spit out the most offensive thing, be it conscious or unconscious as a reaction. In hindsight could I have reacted different? Yes. I could have attacked the person with a mic stand. Or said nothing, but here we are and I have that to think about it. (It) says less about me, or a word, than a person that would go to a concert with a friend to specifically wound someone for a reaction to film.

Basically mother fuck them. Judge me as you wish, I can live with it.

I’m fine with Canada. I even like Stompin’ Tom (Connors), haha.

Q: What sort of voice do ordinary citizens have compared to mainstream media, who are allegedly complicit in picking sides within this current US and other past election? And do you think sites like wikileaks have a future in providing a polarizing information for those who seek it?

AN: You have to remember that we cannot want for other people what they do not want for themselves. I honestly think that most people no longer have any need for the truth and that slumber is self preservation. It’s not like anyone has to go to any great amount of effort to hypnotize anyone because people need the rest.

Wikileaks? I have mixed feelings about. The big drop. We should talk about that.

But really, most people have a computer more powerful than these ones that put a man on the moon…in their pocket and what are they doing on it?

Nothing.

Satanic reverses…. they call it a smart phone but it’s not really being used to its full potiential – equals dumb phone.

Q: Finally, you recently released a new Brian Jonestown Massacre album called ‘Third World Pyramid.’ How would you describe this albums sound compared to previous albums? And do you have plans to tour North America (more specifically Canada) in 2017?

AN: I recorded 45 songs at once, wrote them one after another…but I knew immediately that there were at least two different things happening with me, one was that I solidified the old and the constant in me… Sun Ship is as fine of a song as I will ever write but it is in now way even the tip of who I am or what I can express in the full spectrum of awareness – the other grouping explores what I can be,what I might be, what could happen and there are some excellent things happening in this exploration – some of my best work again – so this second record coming in December is the punchline to Third World Pyramid –

I really hope I tour again. –

I love playing music. –

I could give a fuck about being a rock star.

I love creating this thing together with people – this music, these ideas.

This conversation – being real.