Chevron—the actual corporation—just sent a lawyer to prison for standing up to the fossil fuel industry, and now British judges are weighing whether or not to send a journalist to a US jail cell for practicing journalism.
When I was young there was a meme -- of course we didn't call it that -- of an old man wearing several sweaters sitting on a park bench mumbling about the government. I've come to realize this is me now.
How did America become so spectacularly wall-to-wall rotten? I hope someday I can grow to laugh at all this but I'm currently stuck in that awkward phase of giving a shit.
I disagree that the corporate media shut up when they realized that a journalist was going to be charged under the Espionage Act. They shut up after their smear campaign because it worked, and anything else they said about Julian Assange eventually would bring about more sympathy for him than harm. They're using blackout now - that's all it is - and they haven't connected the dots with their position as journalists because they aren't journalists. They aren't remorseful.
The journalists of the corporate media HATE Assange because he created a new publishing genre that takes the journalist out of the middleman & gatekeeper role between the source material and the public. With the Wikileaks model, the public gets the source material and any journalist who wants to cover it can only do so knowing that the public has direct access to the source material to fact check the journalist. Corporate "journalists" will never forgive Assange for that.
Damn right that's what western nations need to do! The blatant and unbridled tyranny would almost be a refreshingly honest state of affairs if it didn't come with the insane levels of gaslighting and the perpetuation of their outrageously cynical handwringing.
No doubt they'll put an effigy of Snowden in the dock and find him in contempt of court for refusing to plead guilty.
In the style of Caligula, expect a horse (or something equine) to be made senator, a mad hatter's tea party, and the queen will cry "Off with their heads!"
A regime which legally extradites and imprisons journalists right out in the open for reporting on its crimes is more evil and more tyrannical than a regime which disappears journalists in secret, because its entire system supports such acts of tyranny and publicly asserts that it is fine.
Indeed, it's an indication they have, or think they have the approval of a significant segment of a propagandized society. They see the mass formation coming about and they react with policies they think the mass movement is demanding.
The only true "leftists" are those who agree with the title of this essay. Anyone who tells you that the Democratic Party can be reformed from within or that the donor-class behind the Democratic Party Establishment will allow any change are just lying to you and themselves if they believe it.
It is indeed true that the UK & US governments along with virtually the entire media have treated Julian Assange disgracefully. However, let's not forget that, according to Reporters sans frontières, China currently holds 47 journalists in custody for doing their job of exposing state crimes. Bahrain currently incarcerates 12 for the offence of criticising the government.
In Saudi Arabia, "Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Sudanese journalist Ahmed Ali Abdulgadir was sentenced on 8 June to four years in prison for “insulting the state’s institutions and symbols” and “negatively speaking about the kingdom’s policies.” On Twitter, he criticised Saudi Arabia’s relations with the Sudanese government after the 2018 revolution and Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen, HRW said."
I am sure that the conditions in which Mr Assange is being held in HMP Belmarsh here in the UK, whilst difficult, are nowhere close to those suffered by these other journalists who are denied even the pretence of justice that Mr Assange enjoys and vital attention by Western Left media and activists. Those conditions in Belmarsh are suffered by every other male prisoner, too.
Perhaps not. But, from my own fairly recent experience of six years in English and Scottish prisons with almost my entire time spent in double cells, I can tell you that single cells are greatly coveted. It would not have felt punitive to me, nor to most other prisoners having to go to the toilet in full view of their cellmates.
When I was young there was a meme -- of course we didn't call it that -- of an old man wearing several sweaters sitting on a park bench mumbling about the government. I've come to realize this is me now.
How did America become so spectacularly wall-to-wall rotten? I hope someday I can grow to laugh at all this but I'm currently stuck in that awkward phase of giving a shit.
Keep writing, Caitlin. Every day. Every word.
I disagree that the corporate media shut up when they realized that a journalist was going to be charged under the Espionage Act. They shut up after their smear campaign because it worked, and anything else they said about Julian Assange eventually would bring about more sympathy for him than harm. They're using blackout now - that's all it is - and they haven't connected the dots with their position as journalists because they aren't journalists. They aren't remorseful.
The journalists of the corporate media HATE Assange because he created a new publishing genre that takes the journalist out of the middleman & gatekeeper role between the source material and the public. With the Wikileaks model, the public gets the source material and any journalist who wants to cover it can only do so knowing that the public has direct access to the source material to fact check the journalist. Corporate "journalists" will never forgive Assange for that.
Wow! That is a deep analysis.
Damn right that's what western nations need to do! The blatant and unbridled tyranny would almost be a refreshingly honest state of affairs if it didn't come with the insane levels of gaslighting and the perpetuation of their outrageously cynical handwringing.
No doubt they'll put an effigy of Snowden in the dock and find him in contempt of court for refusing to plead guilty.
In the style of Caligula, expect a horse (or something equine) to be made senator, a mad hatter's tea party, and the queen will cry "Off with their heads!"
A regime which legally extradites and imprisons journalists right out in the open for reporting on its crimes is more evil and more tyrannical than a regime which disappears journalists in secret, because its entire system supports such acts of tyranny and publicly asserts that it is fine.
Indeed, it's an indication they have, or think they have the approval of a significant segment of a propagandized society. They see the mass formation coming about and they react with policies they think the mass movement is demanding.
More on mass formation, its prerequisites, how it can be challenged and what its ultimate effect will be if it goes full monty: https://larryturner.substack.com/p/mass-formation-and-consequent-totalitarian
What amazes me are the number of people who still parrot "vote blue no matter who!" and come up with a sad litany of justifications for doing so.
The only true "leftists" are those who agree with the title of this essay. Anyone who tells you that the Democratic Party can be reformed from within or that the donor-class behind the Democratic Party Establishment will allow any change are just lying to you and themselves if they believe it.
Let's Go Brandon!
It is indeed true that the UK & US governments along with virtually the entire media have treated Julian Assange disgracefully. However, let's not forget that, according to Reporters sans frontières, China currently holds 47 journalists in custody for doing their job of exposing state crimes. Bahrain currently incarcerates 12 for the offence of criticising the government.
In Saudi Arabia, "Human Rights Watch said yesterday that Sudanese journalist Ahmed Ali Abdulgadir was sentenced on 8 June to four years in prison for “insulting the state’s institutions and symbols” and “negatively speaking about the kingdom’s policies.” On Twitter, he criticised Saudi Arabia’s relations with the Sudanese government after the 2018 revolution and Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen, HRW said."
https://rsf.org/en/news/rsf-calls-release-sudanese-journalist-jailed-saudi-arabia
I am sure that the conditions in which Mr Assange is being held in HMP Belmarsh here in the UK, whilst difficult, are nowhere close to those suffered by these other journalists who are denied even the pretence of justice that Mr Assange enjoys and vital attention by Western Left media and activists. Those conditions in Belmarsh are suffered by every other male prisoner, too.
I read that he is being held in solitary confinement, a punitive act and certainly not suffered by every other male prisoner in Belmarsh.
Perhaps not. But, from my own fairly recent experience of six years in English and Scottish prisons with almost my entire time spent in double cells, I can tell you that single cells are greatly coveted. It would not have felt punitive to me, nor to most other prisoners having to go to the toilet in full view of their cellmates.