Tonight both Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange are in jail, both over offences related to the publication of materials specifying US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both charged with nothing else at all. No matter what bullshit political and MSM liars try to feed you, that is the simple truth. Manning and Assange are true heroes of our time, and are suffering for it.
If a Russian opposition politician were dragged out by armed police, and within three hours had been convicted on a political charge by a patently biased judge with no jury, with a lengthy jail sentence to follow, can you imagine the Western media reaction to that kind of kangaroo court? Yet that is exactly what just happened in London.
District Judge Michael Snow is a disgrace to the bench who deserves to be infamous well beyond his death. He displayed the most plain and open prejudice against Assange in the 15 minutes it took for him to hear the case and declare Assange guilty, in a fashion which makes the dictators’ courts I had witnessed, in Babangida’s Nigeria or Karimov’s Uzbekistan, look fair and reasonable, in comparison to the gross charade of justice conducted by Michael Snow.
One key fact gave away Snow’s enormous prejudice. Julian Assange said nothing during the whole brief proceedings, other than to say “Not guilty” twice, and to ask a one sentence question about why the charges were changed midway through this sham “trial”. Yet Judge Michael Snow condemned Assange as “narcissistic”. There was nothing that happened in Snow’s brief court hearing that could conceivably have given rise to that opinion. It was plainly something he brought with him into the courtroom, and had read or heard in the mainstream media or picked up in his club. It was in short the very definition of prejudice, and “Judge” Michael Snow and his summary judgement is a total disgrace.
We wrapped up the final Wikileaks and legal team meeting at 21.45 tonight and thereafter Kristian Hrafnsson and I had dinner together. The whole team, including Julian, is energised rather than downhearted. At last there is no more hiding for the pretend liberals behind ludicrous Swedish allegations or bail jumping allegations, and the true motive – revenge for the Chelsea Manning revelations – is now completely in the open.
To support the persecution of Assange in these circumstances is to support absolute state censorship of the internet. It is to support the claim that any journalist who receives and publishes official material which indicates US government wrongdoing, can be punished for its publication. Furthermore this US claim involves an astonishing boost to universal jurisdiction. Assange was nowhere near the USA when he published the documents, but nonetheless US courts are willing to claim jurisdiction. This is a threat to press and internet freedom everywhere.
These are scary times. But those may also be the most inspiring of times.
UPDATE
We are reassembling Wikileaks/Julian legal and media team from 10am Friday in Doughty Street Chambers. I and others will be available for further media interviews from then. I can be reached on 07979 691085.
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So now I get it. US has requested extradition of Assange but Sweden has not. In fact the case against JA in Sweden has been closed. But troublemakers who do not want to be seen to be condoning the political stance with the US now instead want to use the identity politics issue of Sweden to muddy the waters. But it remains to be seen whether Sweden wants to take part in this Anglo American charade as in they case they do, they will be taking the political fallout of ultimate extradition from Sweden to US.
Even if this does not happen, the troublemakers will be rejoicing in the general increased anti-Assange demonisation.
https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/04/Julian-Assange-Arrest-is-Theatre .html
There are journalists in UK cells you’ve never heard of. Why does Julian deserve so much airtime?
Even the establishment media are talking about him.
Martin
Is this meant to be serious or just a mere diversion?
https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/04/Julian-Assange-Arrest-is-Theatre%20.html
The usual approach?
Ridge on Sunday
@SophyRidgeSky will be joined tomorrow morning by Julian Assange’s lawyer @suigenerisjen for an interview about her client’s case.
9am on @SkyNews
#Ridge #Assange
Marr at 10 has Theresa’s sidekick, Lidington, the CEO of the Co-Op and Batten from UKIP.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers
The papers have moved on from Julian. They have done their job. Today there is no mention of him on their front pages.
The media pushing the ‘feminism’ angle in the Assange case is another example of the Right enlisting useful idiots from the Left and the young to peddle their own agenda. They do it all the time with foreign wars – claiming they are for ‘humanitarian’ reasons. There is clearly a strong possibility the two women involved were part of a honeytrap operation by the Americans.
Speculation Tom but Julian Assange did say he ignored warnings by a Swedish journalist that he could be set-up for a ‘honeytrap’ in the same way Israeli intelligence had trapped Mordechai Vanunu, a scientist who exposed the country’s nuclear secrets only to be seized by agents, spirited out of Britain where he was in exile and taken to Israel to be holed up forever in prison.
True, Assange is guilty only of being a dickhead. He should have known that he would have been done for riding a bike on the pavement or an overdue library book, after he singed American Caesar’s beard.
Actually, Mr Vanunu was released years ago, so to say he was “holed up forever in prison” is garbage.
Nonsense. He is holed up in the fortress state of Israel. He cannot leave the country. Before that after serving his 18 year jail sentence he was held under house arrest. Moroccan by birth he is married to a Norwegian Kristin Joachimsen. He cannot go to Morocco or Norway.
Tom
Honey traps by superpowers is a possibility but a personal honey trap by a woman who wanted to explore her own indignation at being raped as a child is also possible. Was Julian raped as a child ? Was Mrs May rapedvas a child?
The appaĺling way Mrs Msy’s male cabinet haves treated her over Brexit has been both suspicious and sinister. Is treating other people with total disrespect in the public view for three years a normal way to behave?
People who play politics also always play the side branch of politics called sexual politics.
Thus i have now constructed a story of sexual tension to divert attention from brexit.
This is what political people do.
Assange has dedicated his life to destroy the reputations of very evil people. People this evil are highly likely to use sexual politics to divert attention from their crimes. Too many crooks in the brothel. Where there is political evil inevitably there is also sexual politics too.
I think Mrs May has treated the country pretty appallingly, myself. She thinks negotiation is about making the EU happy, even if British interests are sold down the river.
Yes. The usual suppliers of left credibility for establishment smears and deflections have been invited to speak on Assange at every opportunity since Thursday — owen jones, Ash sarkar, etc. The same individuals who have tried to breathe credibility into the rightwing antisemitism smears against Jeremy Corbyn.
Tom
Very good, the european/american left is very much dead, they’re being led by rightwing and liberal propaganda on every topic these days. Instad of taking a stance against the arrest, warcrmes by the US Assange leaked about – they fold along their political enemies disinformation!
Since Australia refuse to help him. Could he at this stage, be given asylum by any country wanting to help him?
Another petition:
‘Tell the UK not to extradite Julian Assange’: https://www.rootsaction.org/
under English law I understand Assange can demand a trial by jury which is his right. why was this not enforced.
secondly the jury if they consider the law i.e skipping of bail to be unfair they have the right to countermand it and send it back to the HOP for review. Lastly why was the charges against Assange changed at the last minute. English law and justice appears to be sinking into the cesspit hole.
English trial by jury is pretty much a myth.
Its very much a Curates Egg, working well if you get a couple of critical thinkers on the panel. Needless to say there must be many instances of jury’s that do not.
Go tell Clive Ponting that. He was up on OSA II charges and a bent judge was picked who directed the jury to find him guilty. All twelve jurors told the judge to think again…..in my lifetime, I have seen no finer example of why trial by jury works in the interests of natural justice, against the interests of dictatorship and against the corruptibility of public officials.
Rhys Jaggar April 14at 12.55
Do you think such a jury could be convened now? The Ponting result was a brilliant day for democracy.
Scarey times indeed and hopefully the example of what is being done to Assange will make people realise how scary things really are.
But let us not forget either the number of people who failed to resist the rise of the Nazi menace in 1930s Germany until it was too late.
And so, like the train to Auswich or Belsen, Julian Assange is headed for the jet liner equivalent to the USA courtesy of its local UK vassal state.
Willie
Not scarey , exciting.
Assuming that the US is now being run by John Bolton and the UK by Gavin Williamson, these idiots would have been better to have left their self-documented war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq under the carpet. Today millions of people across the planet are weighing the balance between having sex without a condom and illegally invading sovereign countries on a shopping list in the Pentagon.
The entire planet is their potential target and the people in charge are nutters. They want to extend the 40 years of continuous war against Islam further East and Southwards into the continents of Africa and South America. Gavin wants empire2. It would have been much better for them to leave Assange alone.
I don’t believe in the Market . Not do I believe in the Internet. Both can deliver good and bad.
What I do believe in is God’s ability to bring the arrogant into abject submission as he did to pharaoh in Moses time
Lol, G Williamson running this country. God, what a horrible thought. I think he’s the dummy, do we know who the ventriloquist is?
Back to Milton Meyer’s ‘They Thought They Were Free – The Germans 1933-45’.
What has happened to Julian under the orders of the US suggests to me the US is doing across the world what the Nazis would have done if they’d won WWII. The theft of natural resources, the overthrow of socialist governments, the renewed lies against Russia, the murder of popular leaders etc. I’d say because of the false flag 9/11 and advances in microchip technology and the surveillance state the US is probably no more than twenty years behind where the Nazis would have been, and in the coming decade it will catch up. Hitler will win WWII maybe ninety years after he died, because the elite know under his system they’ll never be accountable again.
Michael
Power and politics can never rely on force, if only because consent is a much more vigorous human motivator.
USUKIS thinks it can destroy whole countries on the cheap with modern weapons and sling a bit of housing benefit to its nest of spies in London. But they cannot manufacture public consent out of scandal and racism. They can only manufacture emotional rage.
Donald Trump and theresa may have two drivers: sucking up to the zionists and racism. Neither trump nor May have any power because they every type of nationalism has more non-nationals than nationals.
Nationalism is always a self- limiting futility and waste of time.
When the vast majority of non-nationals perceive that they have been made scapegoats, they prepare for war as Russia and China have done in Syria.
Politics in the form of lies is therefore counter-productive
Politics has not always meant lies. There used to be a time when politicians built consensus and motivated people to action.
That’s what Corbyn is doing and why the lying Tories always try to present him as a Marxist or as an economic incompetent while they have borrowed much more in order to support their failed ponzi scheme of thatcherism than if the banks had been punished for their gambling.
How long will it take to rebuild Iraq Syria and Libya ‘s ancient civilisations the zionists have destroyed?
Assange probably thought the Swedish girl he slept with was a condom – issued by the Great Satan USUKIS who refuse to change.
Ridge has just been slaughtered by Assange’s brilliant lawyer, and Ridge was totally unaware……….
Their report on the interview with Jennifer Robinson.
Assange lawyer dismisses ‘outrageous’ Ecuador claims
Sunday 14 April 2019 10:21, UK
https://news.sky.com/story/assange-lawyer-dismisses-outrageous-ecuador-claims-11693566
Is there a catch up version one can watch on the web?
35 seconds of it on here!
https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1117353563913633792
Thanks, the news report you linked is the better, in that case, although Jen Robinson is such a beautiful woman in every way!
Cassandra Fairbanks tells of Assange’s degraded conditions in the Ecuadorian embassy since Moreno’s presidency.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV9YFYJqRMY
The comment section of the Fairbanks link tells it all. The arrest of Mr Assange has gotten everybody’s backs up across the spectrum of political views. Not a good place for our politicians to be, people who have their ire raised tend to cast a critical gaze at those who would lead them.
As for the media, their response is just another sign of their failure to adapt to the changes wrought by the internet. Its almost unreal that they would have us forget that it was they who sat hungrily at the table awaiting the food that Wikileaks would bring.
Dr Ron Paul on Julian Assange’s arrest: and how the British roll over and do what the USA tells them –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unp-1wNyIk4
Our society needs more silver-haired people to inject a measure of Wisdom into the clouds of knowledge and the muddy and conflicted stream of human consciousness.
MoA has a piece on Vault 7 and the timing of Mendaxs arrest-
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2019/04/assange-vault-7.html
While censorship is continuing on the Net, like the recent pulling from Chrome and Mozilla stores of the Dissenter plugin there are numerous countervailing forces, even PewDiePie is moving his streaming off YouTube after a couple of his videos mocking his subscriber count rival T-Series were blocked in India. I am reminded of the line “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”.
I am rather surprised that Craig has not posted regarding 77th Brigade putting up a Labour candidate in Scotland.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17556314.scottish-labour-candidate-facing-questions-over-links-to-secretive-military-propaganda-unit/
Interesting piece from Gordon Dimmack re 77th here: https://youtu.be/uHpYNpIuTRY See other videos of his from late last year on Integrity Initiative.
Great article Craig. Talking about hero’s of our time …I am sitting about 100 yards away from where the author of ” A hero of our time” was killed in a duel.
I hope Assange comes out of this a lot better than Lermontov.
I posted on here about Jon Snows sneering contempt for Assange on channel 4. Now channel 4 news editor Lindsey Hilsum describes Suzanne Moore’s spittle flecked diatribe against the “deranged looking gnome” of the Ecudorian embassy as “Exhilarating. Terrific.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/lindseyhilsum/status/1116730469737955328
The liberal progressive news programme of choice.
This vendetta against Julian has been going on for years now, but it never amounts to much more than the childish schoolyard stuff you see above.
They’ve clearly been given licence to bitch to their hearts content in msm.
But still, there’s something not right about it.
It’s much too over the top.
Can’t really remember anything like this in all my time watching media.
The only thing I can compare it with is those male celebs who dump or cheat on their partner. They get a good kicking from female hacks.
But you don’t see that so much in media which desires to be thought of as serious journalism.
Anyway, the thing is you don’t get any serious journalism in msm anymore nor do you get useful analysis.
You have to go to the independents for that.
Someone should make a black list of the guilty journalists, whether they are “opinion” merchants or “objectivity” machines, who have joined the chorus of “Go on Trump, electrocute the whistleblowers and rip their entrails out too – because they all poo themselves, look funny, and deserve a good kicking, so let’s all cheer as the dirty crybabies get their comeuppance”. Because that’s the message.
Perhaps juxtaposition with an explanation that hundreds of thousands were killed in Iraq and millions have lost their homes in Syria might get the point across to the few remaining people in the western world who don’t willingly tell all their business to the CIA’s Facebook operation and believe that the dog-eat-dog “moral” of “Game of Thromes” is “literature”. No wonder some people are driving lorries along crowded promenades and shooting down innocent people in places of worship as though they were metal ducks at a fairground. This is the fascist culture that these journalists are an active and willing part of.
John Snow, John Humphrys, Lindsey Hilsum, and Suzanne Moore are nothing but babyburners. I did say “journalism” wasn’t a respectable “profession”. Who’d want to be like those disgusting excuses for human beings?
I wonder how Lindsey Hilsum, whose dad sat on the Defence Scientific Advisory Council at the same time as chairing the board of defence contractor Peratech, and who swanned between the Ministry of Defence and the weapons company GEC, would feel if she were locked up for 7 years without being allowed out in the open air?
She might as well have Arab baby lampshades. That’s the kind of person we are talking about.
Isn’t it time to confiscate inheritances received from those who trousered large sums from their participation at a senior level in the warfare $tate?
Sorry, she describes it as “Excoriating. And delicious.”
frankywiggles at 13.17.
What vile, self-serving creatures these people are. They can’t even see that they’re virtually carpetbaggers and only the very stupid believe their lies.
Julian Assange’s appearance is totally irrelevant and when the corporate stenographers start with their ad hominem attacks, they’ve lost the argument – if they ever had one.
I can’t believe people who write for the New Statesman or the once esteemed broadsheets, have descended to the mediocrity and dumbness of the dimmest pupil in the fourth form.
I agree with your fine comment Carmel, but …
“I can’t believe people who write for the New Statesman or the once esteemed broadsheets, have descended to the mediocrity and dumbness of the dimmest pupil in the fourth form.”
… oh, I can!
The Guardian has among its columnists the most poisonous ever and I’m sorry to say the women are the worst offenders.
Correct. Sadly, they just aren’t very serious. I’m all for gossip columns and opinions, but the Guardian ‘serious’ articles are – ironically – just a joke. Or, to correct myself, were a joke. I no longer read them, since they removed comments. Gab dissenter app may draw me back, to post some mockery, but I probably shouldn’t waste my time. I’m too old to be paying attention to the high school mean girls.
The Guardian is basically Cosmo these days. And I’m sure I’m not their target audience. Actually, the entire MSM is basically Cosmo these days, now I think about it …
The Guardian’s output does seem to be aimed primarily at unread women. Probably because it is being edited by one.
There’s an appalling Herald Opinion attack on Assange in today’s paper too. I’m not even going to post it.
From the paper that lauded itself over publishing the identity of Stakenife? All with information provided from a former member of the Fru?
If it was the Herald Scotland that you refer to, then yes, it reads like it was written by Judge Snow, but, of course that can’t be the case. A further article in the paper pursues the same line, no pretence of giving the man a fair hearing, let’s move right on to the verdict.
Yes Pete.
The other column was by Kevin McKenna and it appeared yesterday. I mentioned it here at the time further back on the thread. It too was disgraceful.
When the allegations originally emerged in Sweden, Assange remained in in the country while they were investigated, and once it was confirmed to him that there would be no charges, he left Sweden.
When a different prosecutor decided to reopen the case, he was then detained in the UK pending extradition to Sweden to be investigated once again on the same allegations, based on the same evidence. It now seems possible that he will be sent back to Sweden, to be investigated once again on the same allegations, based on the same evidence.
What will happen if this new investigation results in no charges and he leaves Sweden again, and then some new prosecutor decides to “reopen the investigation” again? Will he be detained pending extradition to Sweden for a third time, to be investigated once again on the same allegations based on the same evidence? If not why not?
It would be nice if something resembling a journalist would ask the lynch mob of Feminazis and Zionist parliamentarians this specific question: “How many times should Julian Assange be forced to return to Sweden to be reinvestigated for the same allegations based on the same evidence, before the matter is closed? Is there a specific number you have in mind?”
Is this like an EU referendum, where you keep having to do it until you get the answer right?
And what’s to stop the Swedish authorities, if he goes or is sent there, putting him on a plane to Washington?
There is only one condition which would prevent Sweden from sending Assange to the USA. it does not involve political offenses, Such treaties are powerful instruments which cannot be written off as simply empty.
Swedish Prosecution Authority
“Every extradition case is to be judged on its own individual merits. For that reason the Swedish government cannot provide a guarantee in advance that Julian Assange would not be subject to further extradition to the USA.
Once the British authorities enforce the UK Supreme Court’s decision to extradite Julian Assange to Sweden, Sweden is bound by the so-called “Doctrine of Speciality” which means that Sweden cannot extradite him further to a third country, for example the USA, without permission from the UK. This means that Julian Assange would be in the same position in Sweden as he would be in the UK with regard to further extradition to a third country”
As Trowbridge said.
The 1983 act precludes extradition for anything deemed Political. But if the USA authorities could get a bit more creative with the charges…
Who knows.
“This means that Julian Assange would be in the same position in Sweden as he would be in the UK with regard to further extradition to a third country””
I think it’s easier to extradite from Sweden to US, than it is from UK.
They only need the addition of a nod from UK.
It’s easy for UK to give this nod.
Much much easier than having to extradite from the UK itself.
I don’t know, but it strikes me that more Gulf money plays ball with British intelligence than with Swedish intelligence, which may be why those such as Stephen Kinnock and Meta Ramsey are saying send him to Sweden.
I’m under the impression Sweden tried to drop the charges in 2013 but the British said don’t you dare drop the charges.
As for skipping bail here, one imagines a fine wouldve sufficed for anyone one else but Assange. Britain is just as guilty as the US in attempting to criminalise publishing and publishers, the main stream media don’t (or maybe they do) realise that by keeping quiet or condemning Assange, they’re actually giving themselves enough rope to hang themselves.
So its down to Britain to put a nail in the coffin of publishing and real journalism by handing over Assange to the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/11/sweden-tried-to-drop-assange-extradition-in-2013-cps-emails-show
“I’m under the impression Sweden tried to drop the charges in 2013 but the British said don’t you dare drop the charges”.
Please use the correct terminology. Assange has never been charged with any crime in Sweden. Allegations (mostly made by prosecutors and the police) were investigated for a while. When no evidence was found, it was decided to bring no charges.
“based on the same evidence”
Hearsay, is NOT evidence!
I am repeating myself here, but I feel it needs to be said: Under UK law there exists a “presumption of innocence”. That is to say, a person is innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty.
So Julian is guilty only of skipping bail.
It is worth also saying that this case highlights the grave dangers of the current popular attitude that anyone making an allegation of sexual misconduct “must be believed”.
I have never thought this a reasonable attitude and as a matter of principle I never believe allegations of sexual misconduct that cannot be evidenced other than by an accusation, by words.
Please, if you support Julian stop using the word “evidence” when referring to these malicious smears.
In place of the Law there has emerged a public shaming or trial by media.
It’s a fact of life today.
Don’t matter your guilt or innocence,
Media alone will destroy or exalt you.
It’s a return to the demagogue and barbarianism.
And it’s coming from the top.
If anyone is interested in what happened at the HMP Bellmarsh event yesterday, head over to the “Content over Everything” channel and watch the last four videos (one is very long) but the last two; Karen & the anonymous lady are spot-on. Great to have support from Ecuadorians too. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjkHf8gtv5gIyxiOkZ_6d6g/videos
Rusbridger takes time off from his onerous duties at Lady Margaret Hall to write about his concerns on the shutting down of free speech on the internet. In the Heil today of all places.
ALAN RUSBRIDGER: The woman who was banned from Facebook for posting these two photos of the Iranian volleyball team – and a chilling threat to your free speech
Alan Rusbridger is Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and former newspaper editor
He says he fears the end of the internet as we know it under Government plans
Raises the case of a woman banned from Facebook for posting two pictures
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6919537/ALAN-RUSBRIDGER-woman-banned-Facebook-posting-two-photos.html#comments
Search in vain for any support or even a mention of his erstwhile colleague in the Wikileaks reveal, Julian Assange, now banged up in Belmarsh.
Hypocrite and creep.
History trembles. Does it really?
Who remembers Horniman?
Who in 100 years will remember Assange?
https://indianexpress.com/article/research/remembering-the-british-journalist-who-was-deported-for-his-fearless-reporting-on-the-jallianwala-bagh-massacre-5675109
Still, those were gentler times when journalists were deported rather than extradited.
jake,
“Who remembers Horniman?”
I don’t know how it is funded, but the Horniman Museum is still in fine form, possibly the best ever. It is nearly as exciting and inspirational as The British Museum.
https://www.horniman.ac.uk/
“The museum was founded in 1901 by Frederick John Horniman. Frederick had inherited his father’s Horniman’s Tea business, which by 1891 had become the world’s biggest tea trading business.”
Tony
Jimmy Dore has follow up posts supporting Assange.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J4kWVE2M2h8
This one features Tulsi Gabbard. The more I learn about Tulsi Gabbard, the more I like. This is counterintuitive regards a politician.
Dore has also posted a powerful piece featuring Tucker Carlson. Carlson is loathsome in many respects but even a broke clock ….
Tucker Carlson in particular should be watched by those on the true Left (i.e. Communists/Marxists) because he represents “in plain sight” the transformation that has occurred in the relationship between the corporate/mainstream media and the Right since the emergence of the “populist” political movements in the West over the past decade or so (https://newleftreview.org/issues/II104/articles/wolfgang-streeck-the-return-of-the-repressed).
Very briefly, as Perry Anderson illustrates in his excellent sketch Considerations on Western Marxism (https://www.versobooks.com/books/2058-considerations-on-western-marxism), a whole current of academic ‘Marxism’ (the Frankfurt School) was deflected disastrously from Marxism by the publication of Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts (1844) in 1932. Philosophically pre-Marxist, its categories and concepts provided the theoretical foundation for ‘Critical Theory’ which, in turn, gave birth to the non-class based ‘identity politics’ that have underlain “progressive”, “Leftist” political practice since the mid-1960s.
This was an intellectual working class/”middle class” phenomenon: the manual working class just got on with surviving as best they could, relatively unscathed by considerations of gender-free toilets or personal pronouns. However, the economic devastation caused by neo-liberalism since the mid-1970s and the self-evident cosying-up of all the “establishment” political parties (both “Left” and Right) to this new economic reality (and their consequent abandonment of care for their domestic manual working class constituents – but, paradoxically, not their immigrant counterparts!) led to the emergence of the so-called “populist” movements at just the point that social media took off.
This synchronicity was vital. As the corporate media, full-on supporters of the neo-liberal/globalist project, defamed these movements (springing from the economic reality of the manual working class) as some kind of voluntarist “neo-fascist”/”racist”/”xenophobic” cluster-fuck of bigotry (see the Guardian’s current coverage of Brexit for a contemporary example), non-corporate/social media outlets were, for the first time in history, able to counter these lies. The increasingly panicked reaction of the State (of which the corporate media are ideological supports) can be seen in, variously, the Integrity Initiative, RussiaGate and the current Julian Assange situation.
Their reactions are a sign of ideological (if not physical) weakness. Jimmy Dore is wrong (or, at least, incomplete) in his assessment of Tucker Carlson. He and those who now stand at rallies in the US chanting “Fake News” at CNN, MSNBC and their ilk are far more dangerous to the State than CounterPunch or Democracy Now! precisely because they come from the Right, are working class and armed!
Adrian Parsons
You need to go a level above.
The phenomena you describe are not internally produced, but rather the product of external forces from the emergent East.
They don’t care about your Enlightenment dialectics.
“He and those who now stand at rallies in the US chanting “Fake News” at CNN, MSNBC and their ilk are far more dangerous to the State than CounterPunch or Democracy Now! precisely because they come from the Right, are working class and armed!”
Aye. They’ve been trying to get Rightey Whitey to rise up for a while now.
No real takers. Many fakers.
But Rightey Whitey just wants to restore the Constitution and the Rule of Law.
Get rid of the criminals in govt.
By lawful means.
I mean, that’s the point.
I thought I was going to agree with your conclusion when you eventually got to it, especially after you put social media together with the rise of right-wing populism, albeit with the here weak concept of “synchronicity”, but social media is not a possible vehicle for left-wing contestation. It is big business and the CIA offering a wall. Those who use it supposedly contestationally aren’t cleverly making use of its contradictions to undermine capitalism. Meanwhile Nike invented the identity of “urban youth”. Social media users can’t tell the difference between truth and lies, whatever their paper politics are. It’s all spectacle, and one they’ve climbed inside.
One of the defining characteristics of rising fascism is that it relies on strongarmed movements outside of the state as well as on state power.
A few points:
1. I did not “…put social media together with the rise of right-wing populism…” via the “…weak concept of “synchronicity”…”
Firstly, I was pointing out that, fortuitously, social media arose at the very point that the corporate media began their ideological assault against the “populist” movements on the grounds that they were “neo-fascist”, “racist”, “xenophobic” and all the rest of it, thus allowing this false “narrative” to be effectively countered – something that was hitherto impossible. Secondly, and consequently, the term ‘synchronicity’ was not operating as a ‘concept’ in what would inevitably have constituted some kind of technological determinist or voluntarist discourse, but rather as a descriptive device.
2. Your statement that “…social media is not a possible vehicle for left-wing contestation…” is patently absurd.
3. “It is big business and the CIA offering a wall.”
Just as the pre-social media space was constituted by both corporate and ‘alternative’ components, so today this structure is reproduced within the social media sphere, with Facebook, Twitter and their ilk representing the corporate and the Intercept, Media Lens and their ilk representing the ‘alternative’ components. Chomsky identified the censorship techniques operating in the pre-social media 40 years ago: outright no-platforming, the imposition of strict ‘acceptable’ limits on the sources of news/information, the imposition of strict ‘acceptable’ limits on the range of opinions to be aired, the sieving of the “experts” to be called upon to opine on current/world affairs according to their ‘ideological soundness’, etc. It is a measure of the threat posed to “establishment narratives” by social media that the corporate sector are now imposing the techniques of censorship isolated by Chomsky “in plain sight” as liberals stroke their beards and nod sagely, Google’s “The Good Censor” (leaked by Breitbart on 9th October, 2018 and subsequently ignored completely by the MSM) being a classic example (https://www.scribd.com/document/390521673/The-Good-Censor-GOOGLE-LEAK#from_embed).
4. The rest of this paragraph is gibberish.
Finally, the point of my last, too concise, paragraph was that when even the proletarian Right has woken up to the corruption of the MSM the State has a real problem. The Left has always understood that they are a pack of lying bastards but I don’t remember crowds in the 1960s/1970s chanting “Fake News” or some equivalent at them. This is a new and important phenomenon. All we need now is a Left that knows its arse from its elbow, and I don’t see one.
She’s not “bought” Vivian.
If I was an American she would get my vote in the next election.
Mike Gravel and Jill Stein have also had some good things to say in support of Julian.
Jill Stein probably likes him because like her, he helped Trump. (But look where it got him.)
Vivian
Thanks.. I do like J. Dore’s Style.
Patrick Henningson speaks at HMP Belmarsh today, then Chris Williamson is cut-off mid-stream… https://youtu.be/miVBKLKYSbo?t=4651
Lawyer: Assange doesn’t fear justice, he fears extradition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpwyMu3PsUg
It seems obvious to me that the UK will ship Julian off to Sweden who will then extradite him if a request is made and thus absolves the UK of any part of extraditing him. Just like Ecuador, the UK will have moved the problem on as will the Swedes. In short, he’s becoming ‘someone elses problem’ so it’s either extradition or assassination to resolve the problem once and for all.
Not a good position for an individual to find themselves in..
Maybe but, Sweden basks in the light of being an ‘Enlightened’ country amongst the European nations ? No doubt the image projected would depreciate somewhat under scrutiny ?
If even half of the stories relating to the progress of the formation of the complaints against Mr Assange are true, one would have to suppose that the Swedes would see little to gain, and much potential for damage to their rather clean image were they to resurrect their desire to get hold of him. Added to which each passing day now sees support for Mr Assange growing amongst those who do not rely upon the legacy media to become informed, so it would be inviting problems for Sweden’s political class ?
That of course begs the question as to why we are at the point we are today with the same criteria applied to HMG ? Probably it all boils down to the carpet biting of that Lenin bloke in Equador, and the fact that HMG could not be seen to be doing nothing ? What we might call the establishment have certainly got the wind up, what else could account for the media’s desperation to blacken the image of Mr Assange ?
Casual Observer,
I’m afraid the time of ‘enlightenment ‘ dimmed sometime ago in Sweden.
Yes, ZiggyM,, especially after those assassinations of PM Olof Pal,r. and lookalike and behaviorlike Foreign Secretary Anna Lindh which the Brits were involved in.
Meant Olof Palme. Usually, I don’t read over my posts for fear they will be deleted.
In his case, they supplied the assassin, and in the second one, they helped make one through their remote viewing (RV) experiments.
@Trowbridge – Was Mijailo Mijailovic a subject in RV experiments? In which lab? Have you got a link? Some of the stuff in psi labs is “selective”. Much doesn’t get written up in journals – that’s obvious.
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel who drove the lorry in Nice may well have been worked on by MC pros.
IDK, I think that neocon rabble in Westminster would love to have a hand in shipping Julian off to the US. They could barely disguise their glee at his arrest. The scumbags are proud of themselves.
Our elected representatives have shown themselves lacking in judgement of late, the Assange situation, or rather the reaction to it by many of them is merely yet another sign of their poor judgement ? Dont forget, governments generally end up being driven by the results of their own bad decisions, hence Labour have probably made the right call on this one, albeit because they have the luxury of not being in government at this time.
Although in fairness, its difficult to see what course other than arresting Mr Assange that HMG could have taken ? Seven or more years on, his refuge was always going to be going off bang at some point, and the timing was always going to be in the control of a minor country from a continent not noted for its stability of politics. Suffice to say that the whole thing should be handled in a calm and considered manner, rather than the jingoistic approach that Ms May and her cohort seem to think a winner.
A fascinating interview by France 24 of a very emphatic and clear-thinking Rafael Correa:
“Correa on Assange: ‘You don’t grant asylum to someone because he’s nice’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r2akjGMV-o
That was a brutally honest interview, I’m with free speech WL & JA so cannot but recommend that interview despite the criticism. Thanks @Observer.
You are very welcome.
Barrett Brown comments on the indictment-
https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_/status/1116366849669779456
“If a Russian opposition politician were dragged out by armed police, and within three hours had been convicted on a political charge by a patently biased judge with no jury, with a lengthy jail sentence to follow, can you imagine the Western media reaction to that kind of kangaroo court? Yet that is exactly what just happened in London.’
A very powerful way to sum the situation up.
Thank you.
I copied the claim to another forum discussion about the “armed police”. I was then challenged to justify the claim as there seems to be no visual evidence of guns.
Can anybody provide more details from the time of Julian’s expulsion. Don’t forget Diplomatic Protection officers on duty outside embassies in UK is the norm, and they are always armed.
Many thanks…_
WikiLeaks ‘dead man’s switch’? Assange’s arrest prompts speculation about possible major data dumps
https://on.rt.com/9s6x
They should wait until we see how the arrest develops.
Much as I love RT this is silly.
Would very much be what our friends in the Holy Land would refer to as the Samson option ?
There is probably stuff on a certain incident in New York in September ’01 I wouldn’t mind getting to see.
@ John Goss April 14, 2019 at 21:01
I suspect he genuinely has no info on that, or there would at least have been a hint of it.
But A&E and Lawyers have got a New York Attorney to agree to convene a Grand Jury to evaluate their evidence…..
Goodness Me the threads are moving fast these days.
So; sorry if this is already posted –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBHkiNRIp9M&fbclid=IwAR19vHRt1Kc3pQ-2IOuW2Oz_mPgRdWZsvm7I0A9K7OJaEkMrfrIYN-qtZgs
AND –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBHkiNRIp9M&fbclid=IwAR19vHRt1Kc3pQ-2IOuW2Oz_mPgRdWZsvm7I0A9K7OJaEkMrfrIYN-qtZgs
Many people wonder what Mr Julian Assange lives on (financially). Presumably he derives income from Wikileaks, which raises the question of how Wikileaks is financed. Is it by the general public with small donations, or are there some bigger paymasters somewhere?
Or if it’s not from Wikileaks, from where then?
Some detailed info on this would be welcomed by many.
Charles, my dear friend, a bright guy like you should be thinking of bigger things.
I’m beginning to think that our politics in our country, yes despite the Brexit impasse, and despite all the abuse hurled at Westminster, including by our host here, our politics is like a Teddy Bears’ Picnic compared to the game of politics in the USofA.
Check this out for ‘known unknowns’, but bear in mind that there are some people, however few, to whom these ‘unknowns’ are in fact known.
Never mind the loose change that Assange never got to spend for a nice cup of hot coffee in a local Knightsbridge cafe.
“Julian Assange has information that could ‘destroy Russian hoax’: Jerome Corsi”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k848RRhBJXc
Julian Assange on Seth Rich
942,603 views
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7FkLBRpKg
Blimey !! The Dutch interviewer went in hard there :O
I’d have to think that the Seth Rich angle is far more likely than stuff that happened nearly a decade ago ? The prize would be immense, the Democratic Party rendered unelectable for 20 years at least 🙂
I was intrigued that Seth Rich was a dead a week after Trump Jr learned of a major data leak by a Democrat insider while meeting with Russians in search of dirt. Well before word of a data trove had begun to spread as far as I understand it. Despite appearances, Trump was very close to the Clintons (certainly at that time) and most certainly shared their exotic tastes (their jaunts to Epstein’s island for example.) It’s certainly possible the Clinton team learned about the leak directly from Trump at around that time or not long after Trump knew of it, within a day or two of the meeting.
@ J April 14, 2019 at 23:13
Yes, Trump is indeed as thick as they come, but he acts even thicker. He’s part of the TweedleRepugnant/Tweedle Demoprat carnival roundabout.
Which is why he (it?) hasn’t gone after the Clinton Crime Family, as he seemed to be promising.
No one gets to be POTUS without beaucoup skeletons in their cupboards these days.
@ Charley B April 14, 2019 at 19:40
I think it would be a good guess to say JA doesn’t get his dosh from you, or your ‘mates’; that narrows it down quite a bit.
And he’s not likely to get it from the government, MSM, police or military.
We can thus narrow down the search for the ‘funders of the truth’.
Paul
I think your list of people and bodies who are NOT funding Mr Julian Assange and his operation is very probably correct. But that was a kind of “negative list”. Could you possibly supply a “positive list”; ie a indication of who might then be funding him? I mean, let(s face it, no one can live on love and thin air, can they. Your description “funders of the truth” is far too vague, especially when you compare it to the precision of the “negative list”.
“Many people wonder what Mr Julian Assange lives on (financially)”.
That would be wholly his business, and not yours at all.
You are correct in a certain idealistic sense but given the impact of the Wikileaks/Julian Assange affair I believe that some insight into how he finances the organisation and himself would be in the public interest.
I mean, it would surely not be unreasonable to hold that any champion of openness and transparency for others should be willing to have the searchlight turned on him or her equally?
@CB
Have you considered the simple answer – ask WikiLeaks. And leave the rest of us to consider the important issues.
Who funds individuals and organisations is often an important issue, Borncynical. After all, there are many posts on this website which refer to where various people and organisations get their money from and who supports them (as an example, it is often said on here that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are CIA fronts, which implies that the CIA finances them, at least in part).
As for asking Wikileaks itself, I thought I’d get a an answer more quickly if I asked on here since there are a lot of posters who seem to be very familiar with Wikileaks in its various aspects, and Wikileaks probably have more important things to deal with at the moment than answering a question from a humble member of the public.
BC or CB? Follow the money.
Tom
If you look a few posts down, you’ll see another poster busily telling us about Home Secretary Javid’s finances. So at least s far as the Home Secreatry’s concerned, some people don’t think his finances are only his own business. D’ye see what I mean?
Oh I answered your questionable comment on Vanunu here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/04/chelsea-and-julian-are-in-jail-history-trembles/comment-page-6/#comment-855331
@Mr. Bostock. Welcomed by yourself and a man in a cloth cap in possession of two whippets, more likely.
No, I think there are many who would like some light shed on who finances Wikileaks and Julian, especially at this moment when both are so much in the limelight. It is even possible that some people are hearing of Wikileaks for the first time.
Sky put up stolen footage (acquired by El Pais we are told) of Julian in his room at the embassy. More of the MSM fixation about his habits and hygiene is included.
https://news.sky.com/story/julian-assange-wikileaks-founders-life-in-ecuadorian-embassy-captured-on-security-camera-11694026
Gawd..as an Out door person of the Mountains..It always Struck terror in me Julian’s Torture..
I see you went through my Photos..Feel Free.. Did you see your Yes Stone at holyrood Cairn
Stay well