#All news about Julian Assange

[reality-detective]

NASA’s Darkest Secret: The Shocking Truth Behind the Planned Mass Extinction Event in 2025

Official NASA papers, now in the public domain, suggest a dark and dystopian future. These documents reveal that NASA has been secretly preparing for a cataclysmic event slated for 2025—a mass extinction event that threatens the very fabric of civilization.

The implications of this revelation are staggering. It suggests that a powerful institution, trusted by millions, is actively involved in a plan that could lead to the depopulation of Earth. This article delves deep into the details, exposing the potential reality of this impending catastrophe. If you’re reading this, you have the right to know the truth and prepare for what’s coming.

NASA’s Role in a Global Catastrophe. For decades, NASA has been viewed as the beacon of space exploration, innovation, and scientific advancement. However, the recently uncovered documents paint a different picture—a picture of a NASA that is complicit in a plot so nefarious that it defies belief. The documents, which include a PowerPoint presentation by NASA’s Chief Scientist Dennis Bushnell, outline a series of events set to unfold in 2025. These events are designed not just to disrupt but to annihilate civilization as we know it.

The most alarming aspect of this revelation is the precision with which these plans have been laid out. The documents detail a series of inside job terror attacks, combined with biological warfare, to be unleashed on U.S. soil. These attacks are not the result of foreign adversaries but are orchestrated from within, with the intent of causing maximum destruction and societal collapse.

The Timeline of Terror: A Prelude to Extinction. The plans for this mass extinction event are not new. The documents suggest that NASA has been preparing for this scenario for decades. This timeline of terror began long before the documents were made public. It is a methodical and calculated approach to reducing the global population, ensuring that those in power maintain control over the remaining resources.

What makes this revelation even more terrifying is the fact that many of the events outlined in the documents have already occurred. This indicates that the wheels of this deadly plan are already in motion. The global pandemic, widespread civil unrest, and increasing geopolitical tensions are all signs that the countdown to 2025 has begun.

- Julian Assange

NASA is NOT what you think it is, they are evil liars like the rest of the deep state and they have duped millions if not billions of people about the earth, the Sun and Moon and space itself. If you löök at their emblem it has a serpent tongue in plain sight. Their budget is around 63 million a day of taxpayer money. 🤔

[workersolidarity]

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UNITED STATES CONGRESS PASSES SERIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC AND PRO-WAR BILLS DESPITE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The United States Congress and Senate passed a series of bills, including three controversial anti-democratic and pro-war bills, two of which were tied together, on Saturday, bypassing public opinion and popular opposition to the profligate, pro-war, globalist, Neolib/Neocon agenda currently driving United States domestic and foreign policy.

Included in the bills passed was a bill to force TikTok to divest from its connections with China at risk of being banned immediately, which naturally was tied to a Foreign aid bill.

However, as even Republican Senator Rand Paul mentioned in an opinion piece in Reason Magazine, the Bill is almost certain to lead to more power for American political elites and their administrations to pressure companies like Apple and Google to further ban apps and sites that offer contradictory opinions to that of the invented narratives of the American Political class.

Before long, Americans, many of whom are already poorly informed, and heavily misinformed by their mainstream media, could lose access to critical information that contradicts the narratives of the United States government and corporate elites.

Horrifically, this only the start. The US Congress also extended the newly revised FISA spy laws, which gives the United States government the power to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners, while also conveniently sweeping up the conversations of millions of Americans, as we learned years ago thanks to the sacrifices of whistle blowers and journalists like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

The new FISA Law goes further than this, however, granting US Intelligence agencies the power to spy on the wireless communications of Americans in completely new ways.

A recent Jacobin article describes these new powers as a, "radical expansion of government surveillance that would be ripe for abuse by a future authoritarian leader", or it could just be used by the authoritarian leadership we have right now, and have had for decades.

In fact, when one commentator described the new powers as "Stasi-like," Edward Snowden himself replied with a long post in which he remarked, "invocation of "Stasi-like" is not only a fair characterization of Himes' amendment, it's probably generous. The Stasi dared not even dream of what the Himes amendment provides."

The amendment in question just "tweaks" the current law's definition of an "electronic communication provider," which is being changed to "any service provider," something extremely likely to be abused by the government to force anyone with a business, a modem and people using their broadband to collect the electronic communications of those people, while also forcing their victims into silence.

The government could essentially force Americans to spy on other people and remain silent about it. Cafe's, restaurants, hotels, business landlords, shared workspaces all could get swept up into the investigations of the Intelligence agencies.

Worse still, because picking out the communications of a single user would be next to impossible, all of their victim's data would end up being surrendered to the authorities.

Sadly, the assault on Americans by their own political elites didn't end there, to top this historic day in Congress, at time when the United States public debt is growing at an astounding rate of $1 trillion every 100 days, US lawmakers also passed a series of pro-war aid packages to American allies (vassals) totalling some $95 billion.

Included in the foreign aid bill are aid packages totalling $61 billion for the Ukraine scam, $26 billion for Israel's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific to provoke WWIII with China, at the same time we're also provoking a nuclear holocaust with the Russian Federation.

Also buried in these aid packages is the authorization for the United States government to outright steal the oversees investments of the Russian Federation, and thereby the Russian taxpayers.

Astonishingly, and in direct opposition to the wishes of their own voters, Republican support was won without the possibility of conditioning the aid to any kind of border security, this despite the issue being among the top biggest concerns of Republican voters.

Although much of the money is to be used replenishing the heavily depleted stocks of America's weapons and munitions, it remains unclear where the munitions are expected to come from, as US defense production has remained sluggish and slow to expand despite heavy investments and demand in recent years, despite the rapid urgency with which the policy elite describe the situation.

It bodes poorly for working Americans that only a relatively small handful of lawmakers opposed the bills, producing unlikely bedfellows like Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, opposing the FISA bill.

While in the House, the loudest opposition to the foreign aid bill mostly came from populist Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Goser. Only 58 Congresmembers voted against the Foreign Aid Bill in which the TikTok ban was tucked.

Not one word from American politicians about the need to raise the minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 2009 despite considerable inflation, nor a word about America's endlessly growing homelessness crises, property crime increases, or the 40-year stagnation of American wages, the deterioration of infrastructure, and precious little was said besides complaints about border security over the immigration crises sparked by American Imperialist adventures and US sanctions.

What we've learned today is that we are highly unlikely to see any changes to the insane behavior of the US and its allies any time soon, neither with regards to the absolutely bonkers Neocon foreign policy leading us to the edge of abyss, nor the spending-for-the-rich/austerity-for-the-poor Neoliberal domestic policy of the last 45 years.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

Blue: titles are opinion pieces or analysis, and may or may not contain sources.

[klett161]

So I think many people are not aware about the current state of Julien Assange, the founder of Wikileaks since he‘s not getting a lot of media attention any more and the news cycle has long moved on.

Around 2 years ago the British courts already ruled that hell be extradited into the Usa where he will spend the rest of his life in jail under according to amnesty International: „a real risk of serious human rights violations including possible detention conditions that would amount to torture and other ill-treatment“. In the Usa he will face charges for his Journalistic practices such as leaking footage of Us soldiers committing war crimes.

Right now he‘s being held in Belmarsh high security prison in the east of London, England. He has been there since two years ago and is currently being held in solitary confinement. While the courts in the Uk already ruled about his extardidment to the Usa two years ago he is right at the moment in the process of making his last appeal. if it fails which it mostly likely will his last chance would be an appeal to the Un human rights comitee. The last appeal in front of the court in the Uk will be held on the 16th and 17th of February.

He is being charged for „being a risk to the national security of the United States of America“ under the 1917 Espionage act which was put in place during the Usa‘s Involvement in the first world war to fight german spy’s in Us Institutions and should have been abolished after the end of it. Instead it stayed in place up until today conveniently giving the Us-Government a reason to jail some of their stongest critics.

You just have to really think about the Implications that this whole case carries with it, if the Us Government can classify every document they don‘t want the public to know about because it would Inform them about their atrocities and crooked doings and everyone leaking them can get charged how can you still talk about a functioning Democracy? Not that I think that any representative democracy especially not the one in the Usa represents the true will of the people. But even taken this aside the rational of a democracy must be that information is somewhat available for voters to base their decision on. The thing is the Us-Government knows and this includes both parties that all of their little war adventures in the middle east and the all civilian casualties, displaced people and other atrocities commited would,even under the most ignorant Americans, raise some eyebrows. THEY FEAR THE TRUTH

And I think all of this is not only typical for the Us but for basically every liberal democracy. Nominally there is a right to free speech for everyone up until the point that you pose a real thread to the Government. And no, the constitution will not defend you because guess what even if there are no convenient laws like the Us espionage act that help to prosecute you, there are all sorts of secret services that don’t give a fuck about the constitution and their only purpose is to do what ever is best for the nation-state they are serving weather that is overthrowing government’s, bribing a court or assasinations doesn’t matter. And if the Usa can keep on silencing its sharpest critics without international condemnation or condemnation by their citizens, other western countries will follow this example and be more confident to prosecute their own critics openly, I do believe this is somewhat of a slippery slope.

There will be some last big demonstrations on the 20th and 21st of February outside of the royal court where the hearings will take place. Demonstrations starting as early as 8:30(GMT) so if you live in the area consider going. And even if you don’t live near london you can still get active, share Information, talk to friends and family, make solidarity graffitis, write an article for a local newspaper or zine, attend solidarity demonstrations or if there are none in your area organize one yourself. Anything really just don‘t look away

Please Reblog and share not only this post but all posts aiming to raise awareness about this topic.

This struggle is not merely about Julien Assange it‘s about press freedom as a whole. And not just in the Us but everywhere, so go and fight for free speech while you still can

Source:

amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/julian-assange-usa-justice/

[mariacallous]

April 12, 2019, Updated at 12:22 a.m. ET on April 15, 2019.

In the end, the man who reportedly smeared feces on the walls of his lodgings, mistreated his kitten, and variously blamed the ills of the world on feminists and bespectacled Jewish writers was pulled from the Ecuadorian embassy looking every inch like a powdered-sugar Saddam Hussein plucked straight from his spider hole. The only camera crew to record this pivotal event belonged to Ruptly, a Berlin-based streaming-online-video service, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of RT, the Russian government’s English-language news channel and the former distributor of Julian Assange’s short-lived chat show.

RT’s tagline is “Question more,” and indeed, one might inquire how it came to pass that the spin-off of a Kremlin propaganda organ and now registered foreign agent in the United States first arrived on the scene. Its camera recorded a team of London’s Metropolitan Police dragging Assange from his Knightsbridge cupboard as he burbled about resistance and toted a worn copy of Gore Vidal’s History of the National Security State.

Vidal had the American national-security establishment in mind when he narrated that polemic, although I doubt even he would have contrived to portray the CIA as being in league with a Latin American socialist named for the founder of the Bolshevik Party. Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno announced Thursday that he had taken the singular decision to expel his country’s long-term foreign guest and revoke his asylum owing to Assange’s “discourteous and aggressive behavior.”

According to Interior Minister María Paula Romo, this evidently exceeded redecorating the embassy with excrement—alas, we still don’t know whether it was Assange’s or someone else’s—refusing to bathe, and welcoming all manner of international riffraff to visit him. It also involved interfering in the “internal political matters in Ecuador,” as Romo told reporters in Quito. Assange and his organization, WikiLeaks, Romo said, have maintained ties to two Russian hackers living in Ecuador who worked with one of the country’s former foreign ministers, Ricardo Patiño, to destabilize the Moreno administration.

We don’t yet know whether Romo’s allegation is true (Patiño denied it) or simply a pretext for booting a nuisance from state property. But Assange’s ties to Russian hackers and Russian intelligence organs are now beyond dispute.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 12 cyberoperatives for Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate for the General Staff (GRU) suggests that Assange was, at best, an unwitting accomplice to the GRU’s campaign to sway the U.S. presidential election in 2016, and allegedly even solicited the stolen Democratic correspondence from Russia’s military intelligence agency, which was masquerading as Guccifer 2.0. Assange repeatedly and viciously trafficked, on Twitter and on Fox News, in the thoroughly debunked claim that the correspondence might have been passed to him by the DNC staffer Seth Rich, who, Assange darkly suggested, was subsequently murdered by the Clintonistas as revenge for the presumed betrayal.

Mike Pompeo, then CIA director and, as an official in Donald Trump’s Cabinet, an indirect beneficiary of Assange’s meddling in American democracy, went so far as to describe WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia.” For those likening the outfit to legitimate news organizations, I’d submit that this is a shade more severe a description, especially coming from America’s former spymaster, than anything Trump has ever grumbled about The New York Times or The Washington Post.

Russian diplomats had concocted a plot, as recently as late 2017, to exfiltrate Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy, according to The Guardian. “Four separate sources said the Kremlin was willing to offer support for the plan—including the possibility of allowing Assange to travel to Russia and live there. One of them said that an unidentified Russian businessman served as an intermediary in these discussions.” The plan was scuttled only because it was deemed too dangerous.

In 2015, Focus Ecuador reported that Assange had aroused suspicion among Ecuador’s own intelligence service, SENAIN, which spied on him in the embassy in a years-long operation. “In some instances, [Assange] requested that he be able to choose his own Security Service inside the embassy, even proposing the use of operators of Russian nationality,” the Ecuadorian journal noted, adding that SENAIN looked on such a proposal with something less than unmixed delight.

All of which is to say that Ecuador had ample reasons of its own to show Assange the door and was well within its sovereign rights to do so. He first sought refuge in the embassy after he jumped bail more than seven years ago to evade extradition to Sweden on sexual-assault charges brought by two women. Swedish prosecutors suspended their investigation in 2017 into the most serious allegation of rape because they’d spent five years trying but failing to gain access to their suspect to question him. (That might now change, and so the lawyer for that claimant has filed to reopen the case.) But the British charges remained on the books throughout.

The Times of London leader writer Oliver Kamm has noted that quite apart from being a “victim of a suspension of due process,” Assange is “a fugitive from it.” Yet to hear many febrile commentators tell it, his extradition was simply a matter of one sinister prime minister cackling down the phone to another, with the CIA nodding approvingly in the background, as an international plot unfurled to silence a courageous speaker of truth to power. Worse than that, Assange and his ever-dwindling claque of apologists spent years in the pre-#MeToo era suggesting, without evidence, that the women who accused him of being a sex pest were actually American agents in disguise, and that Britain was simply doing its duty as a hireling of the American empire in staking out his diplomatic digs with a net.

As it happens, a rather lengthy series of U.K. court cases and Assange appeals, leading all the way up to the Supreme Court, determined Assange’s status in Britain.

The New Statesman’s legal correspondent, David Allen Green, expended quite a lot of energy back in 2012 swatting down every unfounded assertion and conspiracy theory for why Assange could not stand before his accusers in Scandinavia without being instantly rendered to Guantanamo Bay. Ironically, as Green noted, going to Stockholm would make it harder for Assange to be sent on to Washington because “any extradition from Sweden … would require the consent of both Sweden and the United Kingdom” instead of just the latter country. Nevertheless, Assange ran and hid and self-pityingly professed himself a “political prisoner.”

Everything about this Bakunin of bullshit and his self-constructed plight has belonged to the theater of the absurd. I suppose it’s only fair that absurdity dominates the discussion now about a newly unsealed U.S. indictment of Assange. According to Britain’s Home Office, the Metropolitan Police arrested Assange for skipping bail, and then, when he arrived at the police station, he was further arrested “in relation to a provisional extradition request from the United States.”

The operative word here is provisional, because that request has yet to be wrung through the same domestic legal protocols as Sweden’s. Assange will have all the same rights he was accorded when he tried to beat his first extradition rap in 2010. At Assange’s hearing, the judge dismissed his claims of persecution by calling him “a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests.” Neither can his supporters.

A “dark moment for press freedom,” tweeted the NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden from his security in press-friendly Moscow. “It’s the criminalization of journalism by the Trump Justice Department and the gravest threat to press freedom, by far, under the Trump presidency,” intoned The Intercept’s founding editor Glenn Greenwald who, like Assange, has had that rare historical distinction of having once corresponded with the GRU for an exclusive.

These people make it seem as if Assange is being sought by the Eastern District of Virginia for publishing American state secrets rather than for allegedly conniving to steal them.

The indictment makes intelligible why a grand jury has charged him. Beginning in January 2010, Chelsea Manning began passing to WikiLeaks (and Assange personally) classified documents obtained from U.S. government servers. These included files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and U.S. State Department cables. But Manning grew hesitant to pilfer more documents.*

At this point, Assange allegedly morphed from being a recipient and publisher of classified documents into an agent of their illicit retrieval. “On or about March 8, 2010, Assange agreed to assist [Chelsea] Manning in cracking a password stored on United States Department of Defense computers connected to the Secret Internet Protocol Networks, a United States government network used for classified documents and communications,” according to the indictment.

Assange allegedly attempted to help Manning do this using a username that was not hers in an effort to cover her virtual tracks. In other words, the U.S. accuses him of instructing her to hack the Pentagon, and offering to help. This is not an undertaking any working journalist should attempt without knowing that the immediate consequence will be the loss of his job, his reputation, and his freedom at the hands of the FBI.

I might further direct you to Assange’s own unique brand of journalism, when he could still be said to be practicing it. Releasing U.S. diplomatic communiqués that named foreigners living in conflict zones or authoritarian states and liaising with American officials was always going to require thorough vetting and redaction, lest those foreigners be put in harm’s way. Assange did not care—he wanted their names published, according to Luke Harding and David Leigh in WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy. As they recount the story, when Guardian journalists working with WikiLeaks to disseminate its tranche of U.S. secrets tried to explain to Assange why it was morally reprehensible to publish the names of Afghans working with American troops, Assange replied: “Well, they’re informants. So, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.” (Assange denied the account; the names, in the end, were not published in The Guardian, although some were by WikiLeaks in its own dump of the files.)**

James Ball, a former staffer at WikiLeaks—who argues against Assange’s indictment in these pages—has also remarked on Assange’s curious relationship with a notorious Holocaust denier named Israel Shamir:

Shamir has a years-long friendship with Assange, and was privy to the contents of tens of thousands of US diplomatic cables months before WikiLeaks made public the full cache. Such was Shamir’s controversial nature that Assange introduced him to WikiLeaks staffers under a false name. Known for views held by many to be antisemitic, Shamir aroused the suspicion of several WikiLeaks staffers—myself included—when he asked for access to all cable material concerning ‘the Jews,’ a request which was refused.

Shamir soon turned up in Moscow where, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, he was offering to write articles based on these cables for $10,000 a pop. Then he traveled to Minsk, where he reportedly handed over a cache of unredacted cables on Belarus to functionaries for Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship, whose dissident-torturing secret police is still conveniently known as the KGB.

Fish and guests might begin to stink after three days, but Assange has reeked from long before he stepped foot in his hideaway cubby across from Harrods. He has put innocent people’s lives in danger; he has defamed and tormented a poor family whose son was murdered; he has seemingly colluded with foreign regimes not simply to out American crimes but to help them carry off their own; and he otherwise made that honorable word transparency in as much of a need of delousing as he is.

Yet none of these vices has landed him in the dock. If he is innocent of hacking U.S. government systems—or can offer a valid public-interest defense for the hacking—then let him have his day in court, first in Britain and then in America. But don’t continue to fall for his phony pleas for sympathy, his megalomania, and his promiscuity with the facts. Julian Assange got what he deserved.

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Another CIA Director was George HW Bush. No wonder the RINOs are so frightened to have Trump back in the White House.

"While decent, freedom-loving folks are celebrating the liberation of political prisoner Julian Assange, who’s finally heading home to Australia, a slew of deep-state cronies have revealed their true, dark colors. They can’t hide their anger and contempt for the fact that one of history’s greatest truth-tellers is getting his life and family back."

The hits keep coming from the 2 Mike P's: Mike Pompeo & Mike Pence

1-Flashback to that time Mike Pompeo threatened to arrest Tucker Carlson if Tucker published that it was indeed America's own CIA that murdered POTUS JFK. No wonder Tucker Carlson is so paranoid about our government unaliving POTUS Trump:

2-Mike Pence, who literally attracts flies (Jordan Peterson's choice for America's Next Top POTUS), is having a mental breakdown because Julian Assange is FREE:

Mike Pence: "Julian Assange endangered the lives of our troops in a time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Biden administration’s plea deal with Assange is a miscarriage of justice and dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families. There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever." — Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) June 25, 2024

While decent, freedom-loving folks are celebrating the liberation of political prisoner Julian Assange, who’s finally heading home to Australia, a slew of deep-state cronies have revealed their true, dark colors. They can’t hide their anger and contempt for the fact that one of history’s greatest truth-tellers is getting his life and family back. And leading the pack of fuming uniparty loyalists is none other than the traitor, Mike Pence, who is seething today. Unable to contain his fury, Pence vented on X with a post that’s just dripping with irony. Think about this: Mike rarely calls out his warmongering buddies who’ve endangered our troops with “weapons of mass destruction” lies and dragged us into endless pointless forever wars that have taken countless young American lives. If he’s truly serious about protecting our troops, Mike should be targeting his criticisms and concern at much bigger offenders instead of hurling his poison darts at Assange. But that’s classic deep state behavior—deliberately fanning the flames with propaganda and blatant lies. It’s the “look over here, not over there” mentality. Biden does the same thing. These guys are all operating from the same playbook.

It’s the classic “look over here, not over there” tactic. Biden and his crew are all reading from the same playbook.

When news of Assange’s release broke last night, we were right on top of the story:

Revolver: The nightmare is over for Julian Assange. Reports are hitting the wire that he struck a deal for his release, a development that’s being celebrated by freedom-loving people, his supporters, and especially his family. The momentum actually began about a month ago, when Assange won an appeal to contest his extradition to the United States.

NBC News: WASHINGTON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge this week as part of a plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department that will allow him to go free after spending five years in a British prison, according to court documents.

Assange was charged by criminal information — which typically signifies a plea deal — with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, the court documents say. A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie to U.S. District Judge Ramona Manglona of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands said that Assange would appear in court at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (or, 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday) to plead guilty and said that DOJ expects Assange will return to Australia, his country of citizenship, after the proceedings.

U.S. charges against Assange stem from one of the largest publications of classified information in American history, which took place during the first term of Barack Obama’s presidency. Starting in late 2009, according to the government, Assange conspired with Chelsea Manning, a military intelligence analyst, to disclose tens of thousands of activity reports about the war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of reports about the war in Iraq, hundreds of thousands of State Department cables and assessment briefs of Guantanamo Bay detainees using his WikiLeaks website.

Court documents revealing Assange’s plea deal were filed Monday evening in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean. Assange was expected to make an appearance in that court and to be sentenced to 62 months, with credit for time served in British prison, meaning he would be free to return to Australia, where he was born.

Let’s hope that the American political prisoners and those who’ve suffered the “Assange treatment” under the Biden regime find justice too—hopefully without succumbing to these orchestrated “conspiracy” plea deals. In the meantime, we’re thrilled that Julian will finally be heading home to his family. We wish him all the best.

As soon as the plea deal was signed, sealed, and delivered, Julian made a mad dash for freedom—and why not? It’s tragic that he had to admit to any crime at all. Ideally, the US government would show some humility and humanity by acknowledging their mistakes, but that’s wishful thinking these days. They’re fixated on securing that “guilty plea” and are ready to strong-arm and wear you down until you cave. But don’t fault Julian; he deserves his freedom and his family. The blame lies squarely with our corrupt regime.

The regime and their uniparty cronies are hell-bent on silencing anyone who dares speak the truth about government actions, our elections, and other dubious shenanigans. Just think—if Mike Pence got his way, the non-violent J6 political prisoners, who simply waltzed through the Capitol with their jolly police escorts, might very well be facing the death penalty. But Pence isn’t the only deep state “Mike” had it in for Julian Assange. Mike Pompeo, another uniparty heavyweight, is probably reeling over the idea of letting a truth-teller who targeted corrupt governments and politicians walk free.

After all, for the longest time, rumors have swirled that Pompeo even tried to assassinate Assange. He was summoned by a Spanish court to explain the alleged US government plot to murder Julian Assange.

[beardedmrbean]

BANGKOK (AP) — A plane with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange departed Bangkok after refueling Tuesday and he is on the way to Saipan to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case over the publication of a trove of classified documents.

The chartered flight from London that Assange’s wife, Stella, confirmed was carrying her husband left Don Mueang International Airport, according to the Flightradar24 plane tracking app. The official WikiLeaks account on X said Assange was heading toward Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.

He’s expected to plead guilty to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information, according to the U.S. Justice Department in a letter filed in court.

Assange is expected to return to his home country of Australia after his plea and sentencing. The hearing is taking place in Saipan because of Assange’s opposition to traveling to the continental U.S. and the court’s proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.

British judicial officials confirmed that Assange left the U.K. on Monday evening after being granted bail at a secret hearing last week.

“Thirteen-and-a-half years and two extradition requests after he was first arrested, Julian Assange left the U.K. yesterday, following a bail hearing last Thursday, held in private at his request,” said Stephen Parkinson, the chief prosecutor for England and Wales.

The plea deal brings an abrupt conclusion to a criminal case of international intrigue and to the U.S. government’s yearslong pursuit of a publisher whose hugely popular secret-sharing website made him a cause célèbre among many press freedom advocates who said he acted as a journalist to expose U.S. military wrongdoing. U.S. prosecutors, in contrast, have repeatedly asserted that his actions broke the law and put the country’s national security at risk.

Stella Assange told the BBC from Australia that it had been “touch and go” over the past 72 hours whether the deal would go ahead but she felt “elated” at the news. A lawyer who married the WikiLeaks founder in prison in 2022, she said details of the agreement would be made public once the judge had signed off on it.

“He will be a free man once it is signed off by a judge,” she said, adding that she still didn’t think it was real.

She posted on the social media platform X that Assange will owe $520,000 to the Australian government for the charter flight, and asked for donations to help pay for it.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, said the deal for Assange came about after the growing involvement of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“This is the result of a long, long process which has been going on for some time. It has been a tough battle, but the focus now is on Julian being reunited with his family,” Hrafnsson told the PA news agency.

In a statement posted on the social media platform X, WikiLeaks said Assange boarded a plane after leaving the high-security London prison where he has spent the last five years. WikiLeaks applauded the announcement of the deal, saying it was grateful for “all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom.”

Albanese told Parliament that an Australian envoy had flown with Assange from London.

“Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long,” Albanese said. “There’s nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia.”

The deal ensures that Assange will admit guilt while also sparing him additional prison time. He is expected to be sentenced to the five years he has already spent in the British prison while fighting extradition to the U.S. to face charges, a process that has played out in a series of hearings in London.

Last month, he won the right to appeal an extradition order after his lawyers argued that the U.S. government provided “blatantly inadequate” assurances that he would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain.

Assange has been heralded by many around the world as a hero who brought to light military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the files published by WikiLeaks was a video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack by American forces in Baghdad that killed 11 people, including two Reuters journalists.

But his reputation was also tarnished by the rape allegations, which he has denied.

The Justice Department’s indictment unsealed in 2019 accused Assange of encouraging and helping U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that WikiLeaks published in 2010. Prosecutors had accused Assange of damaging national security by publishing documents that harmed the U.S. and its allies and aided its adversaries.

The case was lambasted by press advocates and Assange supporters. Federal prosecutors defended it as targeting conduct that went way beyond that of a journalist gathering information, amounting to an attempt to solicit, steal and indiscriminately publish classified government documents.

The plea agreement comes months after President Joe Biden said he was considering a request from Australia to drop the U.S. push to prosecute Assange. The White House was not involved in the decision to resolve Assange’s case, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Assange made headlines again in 2016 after his website published Democratic emails that prosecutors say were stolen by Russian intelligence operatives. He was never charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, but the inquiry laid bare in stark detail the role that the hacking operation played in interfering in that year’s election on behalf of then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.

During the Obama administration, Justice Department officials mulled charges for Assange but were unsure a case would hold up in court and were concerned it could be hard to justify prosecuting him for acts similar to those of a conventional journalist.

The posture changed in the Trump administration, however, with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017 calling Assange’s arrest a priority.

Assange’s family and supporters have said his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 and was granted political asylum after courts in England ruled he should be extradited to Sweden as part of a rape investigation in the Scandinavian country. He was arrested by British police after Ecuador’s government withdrew his asylum status in 2019 and then jailed for skipping bail when he first took shelter inside the

Although Sweden eventually dropped its sex crimes investigation because so much time had elapsed, Assange had remained in London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison during the extradition battle with the U.S.

[tmarshconnors]

Julian Assange is FREE!

Today marks a historic moment for press freedom and free speech advocates worldwide. After spending 1,901 harrowing days in Belmarsh Prison, Julian Assange is finally a free man. The news of his release, following a plea deal with the US, has brought tears of joy and relief to many who have tirelessly campaigned for his freedom.

Assange, 52, has been a central figure in the fight for transparency and government accountability. His work with WikiLeaks, which disclosed critical information about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, sparked global debates about the balance between national security and the public's right to know. However, it also led to severe legal repercussions, culminating in his incarceration in a high-security British prison since 2019, where he fought against extradition to the US on charges of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.

The emotional response to Assange's release is palpable. His wife, Stella Assange, expressed deep gratitude to his supporters, stating, "Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU - yes YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU,” in a heartfelt post on X, formerly known as Twitter. This acknowledgment highlights the power of collective advocacy and the unwavering dedication of Assange's supporters over the years.

According to CBS, Assange will spend no time in US custody and will receive credit for the time he has already spent incarcerated in the UK. The plea deal, which requires him to plead guilty to one charge, is set to be finalized in a court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday, 26 June. This unique location, a US commonwealth in the Pacific much closer to Australia, underscores the unusual nature of Assange's legal journey.

The US has long argued that the release of the WikiLeaks files endangered lives, a claim that has been hotly contested by Assange's supporters and various human rights organizations. The debate over his actions and their implications for press freedom and government transparency has been one of the most significant of our time.

As Assange prepares to return to his native Australia, as confirmed by a letter from the US Department of Justice, the global conversation about press freedom and free speech is reignited. His case has underscored the crucial role that journalists and whistleblowers play in holding power to account and the significant risks they face in doing so.

For many, including myself, this news is overwhelming. The fight for freedom of speech and the protection of those who dare to speak truth to power is far from over, but today's victory is a testament to what can be achieved through persistent and passionate advocacy. Assange's release is not just a personal victory for him and his family but a beacon of hope for journalists, activists, and free speech defenders worldwide.

As we celebrate this momentous day, we must also reflect on the importance of continuing to defend press freedom and the rights of individuals to expose wrongdoing without fear of persecution. Julian Assange's journey has been a stark reminder of the stakes involved, and his release is a powerful affirmation that the fight for truth and transparency is worth every effort.

In the words of Stella Assange, "Thank you" to all who have stood by Julian and advocated for his freedom. Today, we witness the impact of our collective voice and the undeniable power of solidarity in the face of adversity.

[theculturedmarxist]

On a flight, reading about the FBI’s arrest of Jack Texiera, already dubbed the “Pentagon Leaker.” A quick review reveals multiple media portraits already out depicting him as a dangerous incel who shared his wares on Discord, a social media app where “racist memes” and “offensive jokes” flourish. Writes the New York Times:

Dark humor about race or ideology can eventually shape the beliefs of impressionable young people, and innocuous memes can be co-opted into symbols of hatred, researchers say.

Well, clearly we can’t have dark humor or innocuous memes! Gitmo cages for all!

The Washington Post went with “charismatic gun enthusiast”:

The New York Times summarized key points in the secret defense documents, which among other things suggested “Ukrainian forces are in more dire straits than their government has acknowledged publicly.” Reading what’s out there, it’s not easy to parse what’s a legitimate intelligence concern in reaction to these leaks and what’s mere embarrassment at having been caught lying, to the public, to would-be U.S. allies the documents show we’ve been spying on, etc.

You’ll read a lot in the coming days about the dangers of apps like Discord, or of online gaming groups, which counterintelligence officials told the Washington Post today are a “magnet for spies.” The Leaker tale will also surely be framed as reason to pass the RESTRICT Act, the wet dream of creepazoid Virginia Senator Mark Warner, which would give government wide latitude to crack down on “communication technology” creating “undue or unacceptable risk” to national security.

The intelligence community has itself been massively interfering in domestic news using illegal leaks for years. Remember the “Why Did Obama Dawdle on Russia’s Hacking?” story by David Ignatius of the Washington Post in January of 2017, outing would-be Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn as having been captured in intercepts speaking with a Russian ambassador? That was just the first in a string of leak- or intercept-based news stories that dominated news cycles in the Trump years, involving everything from conclusions of the FISA court to supposedly secret meetings in the Seychelles.

When civilians or whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Julian Assange (in jail for an incredible four years now), Reality Winner and now the “Discord Leaker” bring leaked information to the public, the immediate threat is Espionage Act charges and decades of jail time. When a CIA head or a top FBI official does it, it’s just news. In fact, officials talk openly about using “strategic leaks” as a P.R. staple. In a world where media currency is becoming the ultimate power, these people want a monopoly. It’s infuriating.

Watch how this thing will be spun. It’s going to get ugly fast.

[darkmaga-retard]

by Ron Paul | Sep 9, 2024

Last weekend several hundred of us gathered in Washington, DC, at the Ron Paul Institute conference to again proclaim our dedication to the cause of liberty and our opposition to constant US government assaults on that liberty. Our collaborators included old friends like Judge Andrew Napolitano, who explained that the Bill of Rights was not added to the Constitution to grant Americans liberties, but to recognize liberties already existing for all persons – regardless of nationality – by virtue of their humanity.

That is why the US government was purposely or unwittingly in the wrong when it tried to argue that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange did not have the privilege of our First Amendment protections because he is not American. He has these freedoms because he is human.

Our rights and liberties are granted to us by our nature or Creator, so how do we get the government to stop interfering with the intention of our Creator? As I told our crowd at the event, one thing we must do is educate ourselves. We must read, study, and listen to others so that we can better share the message of liberty with others. That is the reason my Institute for Peace and Prosperity puts on its regular conferences: to help people learn about these issues so that they may better pass them on. That is why even with current challenges, our movement keeps growing.

The good news, as I often say, is that it’s really not that complicated. As I told our group last weekend, one of the best ways of restoring liberty is simply to…End the Fed!

[thelostdreamsthings]

The USA loves democracy unless the election results are unfavourable to the American Empire — like it happened with the referendum in Crimea in 2014. Then the propaganda repeats a million times, "Putin invaded Crimea/Ukraine."

Ukraine is not a sovereign country. Hasn't been since the 1990s, due to US money & influence.

2004: US overturned the Ukrainian election with color revolution.

2014: US overthrew Ukraine's democratically elected Ukraine's President. US Senator John McCain in Kiev.

It's just insanity. Can you imagine a Russian or Chinese leader visiting Mexico, riling up the crowd against the President, overthrowing the President, and installing a new anti-American leader... without an election????

This was the 2004 Orange Revolution in Ukraine, funded by George Soros. When the pro-US candidate/puppet lost the election, the Soros mobs flooded the capital and demanded a new election. "Democracy" -- American style. This was the real beginning of the end of Ukraine.

In Dec 2013, while the Maidan Coup was still going on in Kiev, cookie monster and regime-change expert Victoria Nuland gave a speech where she admitted that the US had spent whopping $5 billion buying Ukrainian elites -- oops, spreading democracy.

After the 2004 coup, the US installed a dumb but beautiful puppet. And she allowed the US Pentagon to start a whole bunch of bioweapon labs in Ukraine. Here's then Senator Obama visiting Ukraine's biolabs. When Putin invaded Ukraine, the US quickly destroyed all those labs!

❓Any European country condemn american war crimes against weak nations?

❓Are they demand drop charges against Julian Assange?

❓Are they question about blast gas pipeline?

❓Are they question NATO crimes against humanity?

EU states are not sovereign.

[luv-assangiebatch]

Mendax Undercover: Chapter 2 - The 27th Floor

Julian’s arrival at Santé Genomics was fairly uneventful, like many new hires.  He was given an office on the 27th floor with his team of bioinformatic and data scientists who worked to develop pipelines and interpret molecular data from sequenced flowcells which would eventually translate into a final patient report that detailed a wealth of genetic information about their tumor tissues, as well as recommended therapy options when applicable.  The 27th floor was expansive and included several other teams, including curation scientists, QA scientists, a team of medical writers and artists, Quality Management Systems personnel, other executives, and finally Kat’s team of variant scientists.  The variant scientist workspaces were adjacent to the bioinformatics teams, and Kat’s desk was situated not far from Julian’s office, just a few rows across and away.  Her desk was somewhat angled toward his office door to where she could see it, but it was also far enough away to not be in his general path of office travel.  Julian often kept to himself in his office and rarely ventured out to speak to anyone.  If people needed to chat with him, they usually went to his office.  He would sometimes venture out to stretch his legs and stroll around, check out the office café, or grab a cup of coffee.  He was not seen socializing much.

Julian had only been onsite for a few days before Kat finally got a glimpse of him from across the office, and once she did she had to do a double take.  This tall, slender man with his striking platinum locks was definitely a stand out image in an otherwise average office setting.  She blushed and shook her head to herself once she realized she spaced out a bit, and then leaned in to peer over Jun’s cubicle, which was right next to hers.

“Hey, Jun…” she whispered, looking to get her friend’s attention inconspicuously.

Jun looked up from their computer screen and gave Kat their attention.  “What’s up?” they returned.

“Who is that…?” Kat asked, then motioning her gaze toward Julian and his office.  Jun’s eyes followed.

“Um…I think he is a new VP in bioinformatics or something?”  Jun then went to their computer and brought up the organizational chart, looking at the bioinformatics team.  “Ah yes…VP of Therapeutic Bioinformatics.  Cool.  I bet he knows a lot.”

“What’s his name…?”

Jun looked back at the organizational chart.  “Julian Assange, PhD…”

Kat blushed after she briefly eyed his office again.  Handsome and intelligent… she thought to herself.  She often considered these qualities mutually exclusive when it came to men.  It was rare to encounter one who possessed both qualities.  Surely a guy like that is married, and quite out of her league.

“Well Dr. VP Assange is kind of a fox…don’t you think?  Dang…”  Kat quipped with a giggle.

Jun shook their head and shrugged lightly with a half smile.  “Yeah, not bad at all…”

Kat smiled again and retreated back down to her seat, shrugging off the silly conversation.  However, she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of personality went with those looks and that title.  Was he nice and down to earth, like her own VP, or was he an arrogant jerk?

* * *

Weeks passed by and business went on as usual for Kat at Santé Genomics.  Sometimes she would catch a glimpse of Julian from afar, and she would blush a bit and hide her face behind her computer screen while her eyes managed to still peer out for a bit. 

What was it about him that distracted her so? 

Once she became self aware of her pining, she became quite irritated with herself.  She was not usually so easily tilted by some man.  She thought those years were long gone— she could not even remember the last time any man ever caught her attention let alone excited her.  To help distract herself, she took a walk over to the coffee and water station and prepared to make herself a cup of coffee.  Kat typically opted for decaf due to her sensitive nervous system, but it was often difficult to find any decaf pods for the machine as most of the office drank coffee for the caffeine.  Kat just generally loved the taste of strong, dark coffee, but was not a fan of the accompanying anxiety.  While she aimlessly rummaged around the cabinets to look for the decaf coffee, Julian had stopped by to retrieve some coffee himself—the fully caffeinated kind.  He paused and furrowed his brows a bit as he noticed the woman obscuring the path to the coffee machine as she was frantically poking about in the cabinet. 

He bit his lip briefly before letting out a small sigh and muttered, “Excuse me…” as he attempted to step past her.

Upon hearing the smooth, deep voice, Kat jolted and hit her head on the cabinet, which of course made a bit of an obnoxious noise.  To top that off, she had dropped some of the coffee pods she was moving to get to the decaf ones.  She squeaked a bit as she dropped to the ground, not even noticing who was in the small alcove with her.

“Are you alright…?”  she heard the same velvety voice inquire.  He had knelt down to the floor and attempted to help her pick up some of the pods she had dropped.  She looked up and once she saw who was in front of her, her face flushed and her heart began to race.  She then immediately bowed her head in embarrassment.

“Oh my apologies Mister-- I mean Doctor Assange…I-I was just looking for the decaf and I guess I got a bit startled—I didn’t know anyone else had walked in…”  Kat continued to pick up the pods frantically, trying to distract herself from her incredible embarrassment. 

Of all the people on the 27th floor I had to do this in front of him… 

Julian handed her some of the pods he had picked up, and once she accepted them from his hands, she looked back up at him and saw his zircon eyes peering out from the platinum strands draped over the right side of his face.  He sported a slight grin, looking somewhat amused. 

He must think I am ridiculous…

This was the first time she got an up close look at him though, and noticed he was even more handsome than he was from across the room.  His eyes were dark in color, but they sparkled almost mischievously, matching his silly grin.  And that hair— it looked soft and ethereal—almost extraterrestrial—and the errant strands that flopped over the side of his face gave him a mysterious yet endearing look that was imperfectly perfect.

Who IS this man…?

Kat managed to stutter out a “thank you” before she stood up and turned around to put the pods back in the cabinet.  Julian followed, standing behind her.

“Julian…”

She turned to face him again. “What--?”

“You can call me Julian—just Julian…” he stated, wearing another soft grin.

Kat exhaled nervously with a smile. “Ohh, okay… Julian…”

“And you are…?”

“Oh!  My name’s Kat—err Kitty…well, most people call me Kitty…but I go by either—or both…”  She desperately wanted to make herself sound interesting and be memorable to him, however she worried that she just sounded desperate.  She had 0 game.

Julian nodded, still grinning.  His errant strands followed the movement. “Kitty-Kat...”

She almost melted where she stood when he muttered this version of her name.  It made her feel feminine, delicate, and desirable.  And it was his voice that said it.  His voice was just as dreamy as he was.  It was soft, smooth, deep, and had a distinct accent that she could not place.  Perhaps Australian?  Yes, it was Australian.  Salty-caramel Australian with a light lisp.  The lisp was likely a product of his mild overbite, which then contributed to the structure of his pouty lips.  His intoxicating blend of perfect and imperfect contributed to his overall charm.

“Do you mind if I sneak by you to make some coffee now?”  Julian asked.

“Oh!  Yes, please—yes, of course…” Kat blubbered.  She turned back to the cabinet to put the rest of the pods away as Julian stood almost back to back with her as he prepared his coffee.  Kat was thankful she was not facing him because she felt as if her face were on fire.  As the single serve coffee cooked, Julian asked Kat what department she worked in and he was pleased to hear that she was with the variant scientist group, as that team helped out bioinformatics sometimes when troublesome flowcells needed to be analyzed.  Julian learned that she was an American expat and he confirmed that he was in fact, an Australian expat.  Once his coffee finished, he nodded toward her before passing by to retreat back to his office.

“Later, Kitty-Kat…” he said with another silly grin.

She turned toward him as he took a few steps away before he turned back to face her again.

“Good call on the decaf, by the way…” he quipped with a final nod and mischievous smile while raising his cup to her before finally turning back around to make his way back to the office.  He was poking fun at her jumpy nerves.

Kat blushed yet again after he retreated, and she then turned back toward the cabinet and buried her head in it for a moment.  She finally found her decaf coffee.

[labbaik-ya-hussain-as]

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐀𝐫𝐞 - 𝙗𝙮 𝘾𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙣 𝙅𝙤𝙝𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙚

When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.

The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box.

For centuries western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today.

What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school. A much better representation of western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries. A much better representation of western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around.

It’s been so surreal watching western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while western civilization amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses.

That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced.

This is western civilization. This is what it looks like.

Western civilization, where Julian Assange awaits his final appeal in February against US extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes.

Where we are fed a nonstop deluge of mass media propaganda to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions in the 21st century alone.

Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting.

Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by western governments.

Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives.

Part 2 of 2 below:

Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also.

Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China.

These are western values. This is western civilization.

Ask somebody to tell you what their values are and they’ll give you a bunch of pleasant-sounding words about family and love and caring or whatever. Watch their actions to see what their actual values are and you’ll often get a very different story.

That’s us. That’s western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.

[mariacallous]

The first time I saw a Vivienne Westwood dress in the wild was while shopping for my best friend’s wedding, almost 10 years ago. She told me she wanted something black, not white, something in the sale, something she could wear after the wedding and – turning to face me on the middle of London’s Regent Street, added: “something that will stretch because I’m six weeks pregnant”. So off we went to the Vivienne Westwood store on Conduit Street in London, and left half an hour later with a loose black silk sleeveless pencil dress, with a draped neckline and ruched waist with plenty of give. She successfully wore it, five weeks later and 11 weeks pregnant, to her wedding.

Vivienne Westwood, who died on Thursday night, could pack more contradictions into one collection than most designers could in a lifetime. But in her clothes, she did the one thing designers are unable – or rather unwilling – to do. That is, make fancy stuff for real people with real bodies, making her truly the mother of all fashion contradictions.

Probably more famous for her transgressive marriage of punk and fashion in the late 70s – for dressing the Sex Pistols in rips, and Adam and the Ants in Elizabethan blouses – it wasn’t until the late 80s and 90s that Westwood began making proper tailored clothes by dissecting existing pieces, inadvertently changing the landscape of high-end womenswear.

The best example is perhaps her 1990 Portrait Collection show. Here, skirts were full, waists were boned and bosoms spilled. The models who took part in her shows were thin – but in spite of this, some of the clothes seemed to support their wearer, somehow making them look fuller. Removed from their catwalk context, they didn’t just expand the definition of acceptable body type; they encouraged it.

This was part of Westwood’s shtick, of course. If trends went one way, she went another. But at the time, viewed between the wide-shouldered soft power of fashion’s main New York players such as Donna Karan and the “heroin chic” thriving within its subcultures, Westwood’s 90s aesthetic was an outlier, exaggerating the female form rather than reducing it. The 18th-century-inspired gowns were not outrageous because they showed their wearer’s knickers, but because they understood what fashion for women with breasts and bums wasn’t – which was fashionable.

“All my clothes are really sexy, about meeting the body and making it look attractive and powerful,” she said, at the 2004 launch of her V&A retrospective. “I aim to make people look important.” Among her fans were undoubtably famous and powerful women – most famously the artist Tracey Emin, the actor Christina Hendricks (who also fronted a Vivienne Westwood campaign in 2011) and the shape shifter Kim Kardashian. Celebrities, yes, but also women with bodies who relied on clothes that celebrate the female form.

Not everything Westwood made in the 90s was about wearability, of course. Just ask teenage Naomi Campbell, who fell on her 1993 catwalk in 9in platforms, or Kate Moss, who in 1995 walked out wearing just a skirt while eating a Magnum. Nor is body image something Westwood particularly wanted to interrogate with her clothes (it’s telling that in a 2018 documentary, she described her approach to fashion not as attacking the establishment, but as “a distraction”). She cared about animals, and was a vegetarian, but partly because her favourite food was lettuce – she once alleged that she and her husband, Andreas, went through one iceberg a day.

It could also be said that Westwood, perhaps hypocritically, deployed nudity as a shock tactic rather than anything more helpful, particularly later in her career. When Pamela Anderson, her one-time muse – in politics too, with both campaigning for the release of Julian Assange – walked in a show in 2009, and revealed a nipple during the final bow, the effect was mainly comic.

Still, as someone who dressed punks, then supermodels, translating the shock tactics of one movement into the other through plaid and scissor-work, she pioneered a rebelliousness that often led to change. In 2017, her catwalk show was one of a few that season to include menswear and womenswear. What seemed like a gimmick then was actually fairly progressive – this is fairly normal practice now. Still, as the clothing was sold in separate departments, the only real way to identify the unisex stuff was to check the label.

Not all catwalk shows have real-world impact – and as empowering as it was to see heaving bosoms on her catwalks, how many women think of a catwalk show when hunting for something to wear? They did with Vivienne Westwood. As my pregnant friend walking down the aisle in a black dress proves, the clothes actually worked for women in the real world.

[voskhozhdeniye]

When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it. The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box. For centuries western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today. What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school. A much better representation of western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries. A much better representation of western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around. It’s been so surreal watching western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while western civilization amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses. That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced. This is western civilization. This is what it looks like. Western civilization, where Julian Assange awaits his final appeal in February against US extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes. Where we are fed a nonstop deluge of mass media propaganda to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions in the 21st century alone. Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting. Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by western governments. Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives. Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also. Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China. These are western values. This is western civilization. Ask somebody to tell you what their values are and they’ll give you a bunch of pleasant-sounding words about family and love and caring or whatever. Watch their actions to see what their actual values are and you’ll often get a very different story. That’s us. That’s western civilization. We say we value freedom, justice, truth, peace and free expression, but our actions paint a very different picture. The real western values, the actual product inside the box underneath the attractive label, are the ones you see acted out in Gaza today.

[clouds-of-wings]

I'm just glad I had my feminist trial by fire - aka "a man you like is accused of rape" - at a very young age. 'Twas the year 2010 and Julian Assange was accused by two Swedish women of doing stuff like "saying he used a condom but actually not using one". I'm glad because I managed to actually suspend judgement - not the fake "Innocent until proven guilty, so I'm gonna dig into the accusers and use every hare-brained thing I can find to undermine and harass them, for great justice" thing.

My position was that I thought the whole thing should be brought to trial, but that I was also aware that a fair trial was unlikely due to the huge political pressure. When Assange pointed out that Sweden had a 100% compliance rate with US extradition requests, that seemed like a good reason for him not to go to Sweden. But mostly, I just... you know... didn't talk shit about the accusers or assume that the allegations couldn't possibly be true (and they're obviously CIA agents in disguise). I was part of an activist group back then that worked to translate and spread the Cablegate cables that we deemed the most relevant to our country, and I actually ended up leaving it over the non-stop misogynist hate aimed at the women who had accused him.

I understand that some feminist women stopped supporting WikiLeaks over the rape accusations, and I understand that completely. But I thought and think that what they were doing was very important and deserved to be supported regardless. They brought war crimes and corruption to light and changed journalism for the better. For a while, those in power were actually scared of this new form of information insurrection. And, to be honest, I was fascinated by how revolutionary and exciting it all was. I still am, in a way. I don't judge people whose priorities are different though. It's impossible to choose between these issues, impossible to rank the suffering of rape victims and the suffering of the victims of imperialist violence. Everyone must make these choices based on what they can stomach.

The only high profile WikiLeaks supporter, by the way, whom I know to have a similar position to mine is Yanis Varoufakis. It's nice to see a man with a level of actual feminist principles.

Assange’s detractors have been saying for years that his confinement was self-inflicted: he hid in Ecuador’s embassy because he jumped bail in the United Kingdom to avoid answering sexual assault allegations in Sweden. As a man, I feel I have no right to express an opinion regarding those allegations. Women must be heard when reporting assault. Only the violence that men have inflicted upon women for millennia is viler than the disrespect and denigration to which women are subjected when they speak up. I recall saying to Julian that, had it been me, I would want to confront my accusers, and listen to them carefully and respectfully, regardless of whether official charges had been brought. He replied that he, too, wanted that. “But, Yanis,” he said, “if I were to go to Stockholm, they would throw me in solitary and, before I got a chance to answer any allegations, I would be bundled into a plane heading for a US supermax prison.” To drive the point home, he showed me his lawyers’ offer to Swedish authorities to go to Stockholm if they guaranteed that he would not be extradited to the United States on espionage charges. Sweden never considered the proposal.

If Assange really wanted to go to Sweden or if he only imposed that condition because he knew the court wouldn't agree to it is a different matter. But I still think he would probably have been extradited by Sweden, just like he is now being extradited by Britain.

Either way... it was an emotionally difficult matter for me. And maybe I would approach it differently today. But I am glad that I can look back at that time without being ashamed of my behaviour.

[wjmc2023]

WJMC FULL EXPERIENCE

Sunday

I arrived at George Mason University around 12:30 to my dorm to see that my roommate was already moved in, then I went to The Hub to check in with the leader of my group to make sure she had all of my information. From there on, I talked to a few people in The Hub and made quite a few new friends, then we went on a tour of the George Mason campus.

The food was great, but our speaker Savannah Behemann; a WJMC alumna, former Congressional Reporter for USA Today, and currently is the Senate Correspondent for National Journal.

She spoke on the significance of journalism, especially in the wake of backlash directed towards the field along with disputing disinformation. She also spoke on how competitive the field is; a company rejecting an article of hers but not letting it get to her, but rather going to another one that would carry her story.

I thoroughly enjoyed one of her overarching themes of her speech highlighting the importance of humanizing your story and asking yourself “why should I write this?” and “why would someone read this?”. It’s one of the core values that I find in journalism which is the reach.

She also spoke on taking opportunities and putting yourself out there for potential future employers to see. The need for networking with people in the journalism field and keeping your options open.

Monday

On Monday, we went to Planet Word to check out the museum, and see Doni Holloway, producer of the podcast "Why is This Happening?" and multi-media journalist. The best part of his speech was the story of him meeting Hoda Kotb when he was younger and she wrote a note to him that read "See you at 30 Rock!" it really struck a cord with me because I too met Kotb a few years ago and managed to get a picture with her after she hosted The Today Show.

The rest of the museum was nothing short of fascinating. One of the best parts was the interactive book section where you would place a book underneath a light projector and it would create an animation. Luckily, the camera on my phone works wonders so I could really capture the magic as I turned down the brightness on the screen to reveal the beautiful scene that was projected.

We finished up at Planet Word, and made our way to The White House. It wasn't my first time seeing The White House, but it was my first time seeing it under a new administration. As much power and integrity that single building holds in our country's history, my favorite part was getting a chance to listen to a man speak in front of The White House.

He was posted up at the iconic White House peace vigil. His stand had varying flags of varying countries along with a myriad of global political issues relevant to our time like Julian Assange, climate change, mass shootings, and the war machine.

He talked about the many attempts from the government to remove the vigil, but how they remained triumphant and beat them in the Supreme Court. He also thinks that it's our generations duty to help make the world a better place

After that, we did a tour of the monuments as the day started to turn to dusk. It was my first time seeing the monuments light up in the dark; the coolest one being the Lincoln Memorial.

TUESDAY

On tuesday, we took the bus to the George Mason campus in Washington, DC to listen to a few speakers, Lauren Ober, and Lauren Barron-Lopez. Both of the speakers were amazing.

Lauren Ober is a host of the Spectacular Failures podcast, and an award winning producer for WAMU's magazine Metro Connection. I found her advice about finding your skillset very meaningful. If you don't find your niche or something that you're well versed in (especially in the field of journalism), your experience in the field won't be as enjoyable compared to knowing what you know best.

Another enjoyable aspect of her speech was her belief in going right to the source. Someone asked a question about interviewing people for her podcast, and she said that she practices field reporting; meaning that she meets with the people that she's talking about/interviewing in person whenever she can.

Our next speaker, Laura Barron-Lopez gave the audience a very raw perspective of what it's like to be in journalism, especially for a woman of color. One thing that I very much appreciated was the fact that she wears her hair in its natural curly state; she doesn't water herself down or try to fit in with a certain beauty standard.

There was one quote that she said that really stuck with me, which was "Objectivity makes journalists say difficult things". Things that go against your own biases, but also things that people don't want to hear.

At around 2:00, we went over to the National Press Club to see two more speakers, Nicholas Johnston from Axios, and Alexis Johnson from Vice News. I had been looking forward to seeing Alexis Johnson speak since I have been watching vice for a few years now, and I have seen many of her segments.

Nick Johnston's speech was pretty interesting, he works for Axios News, an online publication that prioritizes brevity in their stories. He talked about building trust with the consumer and delivering news effectively while still maintaining brevity in its delivery along with key details and nuance.

After that was Alexis Johnson, the speaker I was waiting for. She talked about how she started off working at a local TV station doing closed captioning, and she is now a multimedia journalist. Johnson discussed the importance of networking, staying informed, and a very interesting piece of advice; finding a character for a story so the viewer or reader has somebody to relate to when they're getting information from the story.

After her speech, I had time to take a picture with her, and I got her autograph. I asked her a question having to do with facing backlash online when covering controversial topics, she told me that in order to stay safe, make sure to keep your social medias safe and not let bad faith actors get to you.

WEDNESDAY

On wednesday, our first speaker was Anna Layden, a photojournalist based out of Washington D.C. Photojournalism wasn't a career that I had really considered until she showed the evocative shots that she had taken.

She spoke on capturing a certain emotion when she was doing her job, and she also spoke on the hectic nature of being a freelance photojournalist.

Our next speaker was Patrick Money. His speech was on college admission. He talked about what colleges are looking for when it comes to admissions. He spoke on things like extracurriculars and AP & Honors classes and how the quantity doesn't matter to college admissions offices; but rather what the student learned while participating in these activities.

A few hours later, we went to our breakout session speakers. Mine was Donna Harris, a public information officer. She gave us a look at what goes on behind the scenes when it comes to live reporting and public relations. From her speech, I learned about the amount of work that goes into live broadcasting, especially when you're having to contact several different people and organizations in your community.

After the breakout session, I decided to network with Kayla Sharpe, a digital multimedia journalist who has covered many underreported topics around the world. Since my main interest in journalism is political extremism (more specifically the rise of the far right in the west), I asked her how she hones in on a story or issue that not many people may know about so she can get her point across to the reader, and she told me to focus in on one person in the story, to find a character much like Alexis Johnson said.

THURSDAY

On thursday we made our way back to Washington D.C and I went to the African American History museum with a few friends. I had been wanting to go to the museum ever since it was built. The museum had about five floors to it, but we only had time to look at the first floor which was dedicated to the origins of west Africa before the slave trade, and the beginning of slavery.

The most moving part of the museum that we saw was the Emmett Till Memorial. The tragic story of the young boy is enough to bring anyone to tears, but it's the parts that get left out that are especially enraging. Like how his mother got his body out of the Tallahatchie river after he carried a cotton gin fan down to it.

I definitely want to make a trip back down to DC to finish the entire museum, even if it would take the whole day.

After that, we went to the hotel that was hosting our gala. The food that we had there was amazing. Following the meal, we danced for a few hours and then headed back to campus again.

On friday, we packed up all of our stuff from the dorms, and we left. It was bittersweet, I had to leave all the friends that I made throughout the program, but at the same time I had learned so much.