Chris Hedges: Julian Assange Could Soon Be Extradited To The United States
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2021/12/11/chris-hedges-julian-assange-could-soon-be-extradited-to-the-united-states/
MPs blast government inaction on Julian Assange
https://www.rt.com/news/542911-mps-australian-government-inaction-julian-assange/
John Pilger: A Judicial Kidnapping
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/12/11/john-pilger-a-judicial-kidnapping/
Infection rates after recovery vs. vaccination (SPR based on Goldberg et al)Data from Israel and some other countries has shown since August that infection-acquired immunity offers much stronger protection against coronavirus re-infection than vaccine-induced immunity. A new Israeli preprint study by Yair Goldberg et al. confirms this result and offers new insights.
I’m writing to share our statement on today’s UK court ruling on the extradition of Julian Assange. I hope you’ll join us in speaking out for press freedom and human rights.
A British court today ruled that Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face Espionage Act charges. We condemn this decision, and reiterate our condemnation of the United States’ outrageous prosecution of Assange.
Assange ruling a dangerous precedent for journalists and British justice
https://dissidentvoice.org/2021/12/assange-ruling-a-dangerous-precedent-for-journalists-and-british-justice/
U.K. court permits Assange extradition to U.S. on spying charges
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2021/12/10/u-k-court-permits-assange-extradition-to-u-s-on-spying-charges/
Middle East Eye – 10 December 2021
On Friday, the English High Court paved the way for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States and tried over the publication of hundreds of thousands of documents, some of which contained evidence of US and British war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Democratic Party Betrayal, Abortion, and the Supreme Court
Democrats have been fooled into thinking that only the courts can protect abortion rights. In fact, legislation could protect abortion permanently, but their party has refused to do that. Now that SCOTUS control is lost because of their corruption and betrayals, they continue to spin lies that bamboozle the party faithful.
People Centered Human Rights and the Black Radical Tradition
The West’s fiction of “human rights” has been weaponized by neoliberals to rationalize naked imperialist interventions. But if human rights are to have any relevance for the oppressed, they must be “de-colonized” and given meaning by the oppressed themselves: a People(s)-Centered Human Rights (PCHR).
Tomorrow, Saturday 11th December, we’re staging an urgent protest against Boris Johnson’s plans for mandatory Covid passports on Parliament Squareat 12pm.
The time to stand up and be counted is now.
BY KEVIN GOSZTOLA
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange | Photo by Cancillería EcuadorAttorneys for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plan to appeal to the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom after the country’s appeals court overturned a decision that blocked the extradition of Assange to the United States.
Mwamba Chikwemba (Zambia), Power, 2019.Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute of Social Research.
United States President Joe Biden has suborned 111 countries to attend his Summit for Democracy on December 9–10, ending on Human Rights Day. ‘We welcome all countries, organisations, and individuals to support the goals of the Summit’, the US State Department wrote. However, there are 82 countries that have not been invited, including two large countries that are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the People’s Republic of China and Russia) and two small countries from the Caribbean (Cuba and Haiti). In the name of democracy, the US government is pushing its own agenda to consolidate power and further its national interests. This is not a summit for democracy as much as it is a summit for bringing together a grouping to refurbish the tarnished image of the United States.
US President Joe Biden (R) and aides talking with Russian president Vladimir Putin, December 7, 2021This must be a rare occasion when Russian President Vladimir Putin during his 18 years in the Kremlin came out second best in an encounter with an American president. And it had to be at the hands of President Joe Biden who has not yet completed one year in office. Yet, Putin has met with every sitting American president since Bill Clinton, in dire circumstances filled with awkward silences, icy stares and even professions of trust.
Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. Across a number of countries in Europe, governments wishing to drive up levels of COVID-19 vaccination have decided to abandon suasion and the generous supply of medical information in favour of penalties and punishments.
Story at-a-glance:
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is really fear”.
Gandhi (1)
We live in the age of anxiety. We who see, see clearly this is a pandemic of fear. One of the central emotional responses during a pandemic is fear. Fear comprises both an emotional and physical response to stress. Functional fear helps people develop coping strategies, and the ‘right’ amount of anxiety can help us perform better and stimulate action. However, the fear created during this pandemic is completely disproportionate and irrational (2). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemonium is associated with highly significant levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress (3). The ruling class say functional fear predicts our compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic (4). The more anxious we are, the more we comply. Eastern religion philosopher Alan Watts wrote, “If we look deeply into such ways of life as Buddhism, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy” (3) . Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, helps eliminate or alleviate disturbing symptoms to enable one to encourage personal well-being and encourage healing. Our controllers know this hence they apply behavioural science techniques on us that discourage well-being and healing; the intention to increase compliance (5).
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Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: news you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental justice, radical municipalism, new politics, political theory, and resources for action and education.
This, from Israel, is somewhat weird:
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Mossad chief David Barnea will push during their meetings this week in Washington with senior Biden administration officials for the United States to carry out a military strike on Iranian targets, Israel’s three main TV news broadcasts reported Sunday night.
…
Along with calling for tougher sanctions, the Israelis will reportedly ask the US to take military action against Iran.Channel 12 news said the target of a US potential attack would be not a nuclear facility in Iran, but rather a site like an Iranian base in Yemen. The aim of such a strike would be to convince the Iranians to soften their positions at the negotiating table.
Much like Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald began to be condemned by liberals only post-Trump. The liberal visceral hatred of Donald Trump has trumped rational discourse.
By Riva Enteen
Street’s CounterPunch article, “Glenn Greenwald is Not Your Misunderstood Left Comrade,” obstructs political dialogue and struggle. He gives no substantive rebuttal to a Greenwald article that declares “grotesque” the sight of “masked servants and unmasked elite at the New York Met Gala.” In a classic ad hominem attack, since Street couldn’t summon up an intelligent response, he just hurled insults. Sadly, this is what currently passes for political debate.
A few years back:
In his State of the Union message in January, President Bush approvingly cited the report. “
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” said Bush.
…
On Thursday, standing beside British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said of Britain, “Not only our intelligence, but the intelligence of this great country made a clear and compelling case that Saddam Hussein was a threat to security and peace.”
Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
US President Biden dismisses Russia’s red lines on UkraineWhat has unfolded in the past 24 hours in the US-Russia diplomatic tango can be seen as a foreplay of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, which is slated for Tuesday evening.
Russia has got what it has been keenly seeking — a meeting between Putin and Biden. Beyond that lies the “unknown unknown”.
