#Julian Assange Partner

[meettrophywife]

Trophy Wife 2.0: How Successful Women Are Redefining the Label

The term “trophy wife” has long been a loaded one, evoking images of a glamorous, younger woman whose primary role is to stand by the side of a wealthy, powerful man. Historically, this label was used to imply that such women were mere accessories, valued for their beauty and status rather than their achievements. However, in recent years, this outdated stereotype has been challenged and redefined by successful, independent women. The modern “trophy wife” is far from a passive figure; she is an empowered individual who contributes equally to her partnership, reshaping traditional power dynamics and breaking down societal expectations.

The Shift in Definition

Traditionally, the concept of a “trophy wife” was grounded in a transactional understanding of relationships — where beauty and youth were exchanged for financial security and social status. The term itself had derogatory connotations, suggesting that the woman’s worth was tied solely to her appearance and ability to enhance her partner’s image. But as gender roles have evolved, so too has the meaning of this label. Successful women are increasingly owning the term, transforming it into a symbol of achievement, independence, and mutual partnership.

Today’s “trophy wife” may still be beautiful and stylish, but she is also educated, career-driven, and financially independent. She is no longer defined solely by her relationship with her spouse but by her accomplishments. This evolution reflects a broader societal shift where women are no longer expected to choose between personal success and a fulfilling relationship. In the modern context, a trophy wife is just as likely to be a CEO, a philanthropist, or a thought leader, showing that success comes in many forms — and beauty is just one aspect of it.

Example 1: Amal Clooney — Redefining the Trophy Wife

One of the most high-profile examples of the modern “trophy wife” is Amal Clooney, a highly respected human rights lawyer. Before marrying actor George Clooney in 2014, Amal had already established herself as a powerful force in the legal world. With degrees from Oxford and New York University, she built a career representing clients in high-profile human rights cases. Rather than being overshadowed by her husband’s fame, Amal has continued to thrive professionally, representing clients such as Julian Assange and the Greek government in its efforts to recover the Parthenon Marbles.

Example 2: Beyoncé — Power and Partnership

Another example of the evolution of the trophy wife can be seen in the dynamic between Beyoncé and Jay-Z. While Beyoncé is often praised for her beauty, talent, and success, her marriage to rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z has been scrutinized through the lens of power dynamics. However, Beyoncé has never fit the traditional mold of a trophy wife. As one of the most successful entertainers in the world, she has built an empire, leveraging her music career into a multi-faceted brand that includes fashion, philanthropy, and activism.

In her marriage, Beyoncé embodies the new definition of a trophy wife — one where both partners contribute equally to their shared empire. Jay-Z’s success in business and music is complemented by Beyoncé’s unparalleled achievements, creating a partnership that thrives on mutual respect and shared goals. Together, they have navigated challenges and controversies, reinforcing the idea that the modern “trophy wife” is a partner in every sense of the word. Beyoncé’s story shows that being a trophy wife is not about submission or passivity, but about building something greater with your partner while maintaining your own identity and success.

The Rise of the Empowered Trophy Wife

What Amal Clooney and Beyoncé represent is part of a larger cultural shift toward valuing women for their achievements, intellect, and agency, not just their appearance. The term “trophy wife” has been reclaimed and redefined, no longer implying a superficial, one-sided relationship. Today’s trophy wife is ambitious, self-reliant, and brings equal or greater value to her partnership, both personally and professionally.

This transformation has been influenced by several societal factors. For one, women’s education and career opportunities have expanded, allowing more women to achieve financial independence and pursue their professional goals. As a result, marriages are increasingly based on partnership rather than dependency. Furthermore, changing attitudes toward gender roles have made it more acceptable — and even expected — for women to pursue their success while also maintaining a relationship.

Media portrayals of high-profile women have also played a role in redefining the trophy wife. Women like Amal Clooney, Beyoncé, and Michelle Obama have shown that it’s possible to be both glamorous and accomplished. These role models demonstrate that a woman’s value is not limited to her appearance or her relationship, but encompasses her intellect, talent, and drive.

A New Era of Trophy Wives

The concept of the trophy wife has evolved from a symbol of superficiality to one of empowerment. In today’s world, the term can no longer be used to diminish a woman’s worth or suggest that she is merely an accessory to a successful man. Instead, the modern trophy wife is a powerful figure in her own right, bringing her achievements, intelligence, and ambition to the relationship. As more women continue to challenge outdated stereotypes and redefine traditional roles, the term “trophy wife” will continue to evolve, reflecting the values of equality, partnership, and mutual success.

In this new era, a trophy wife is no longer just a status symbol — she is an equal partner, a force to be reckoned with, and a testament to the strength and success that modern women embody.

[xtruss]

Extradition of “Australian Julian Paul Assange, The Founder of The WikiLeaks,” On Hold Until U.S. Gives More Assurances (Hello Australia! Where The F*** Are You?)

British Judges Asked the United States, Which Wants to Try the WikiLeaks Founder on Espionage Charges, For More Guarantees About His Treatment.

— By Megan Specia | March 26, 2024 | The New York Times

Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, speaking outside the High Court in London during a hearing in February. Credit...Carl Court/Getty Images

The High Court in London ruled on Tuesday that Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder, cannot be immediately extradited to the United States, saying American authorities must offer assurances about his treatment first, including over his First Amendment rights and protection from the death penalty.

The decision had been highly anticipated as the moment the court would decide if Mr. Assange had exhausted his challenges within British courts. Instead, in a nuanced ruling, two judges determined that clarity on his fate would again be on hold.

The two High Court judges said that the court “will grant leave to appeal” on narrow grounds, “unless a satisfactory assurance is provided by the Government of the United States of America.”

The court has given the United States three weeks “to give satisfactory assurances” that Mr. Assange “is permitted to rely on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which protects free speech), that he is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality, that he is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen and that the death penalty is not imposed.”

If those assurances are not given by April 16, then Mr. Assange will be granted a full appeal hearing. If the United States does provide the requested assurances, there will be a further hearing on May 20 to decide if they “are satisfactory, and to make a final decision on leave to appeal.”

While the United States has already provided some assurances over the treatment of Mr. Assange if he was extradited, the High Court judges asked for additional guarantees.

The Case Against Julian Assange:

— Who is Julian Assange? Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks. He rose to international prominence in 2010, when the group released diplomatic and military files related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan leaked by Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst. In 2016, ahead of the U.S. presidential election, WikiLeaks published Democratic National Committee emails stolen by hackers tied to Russian intelligence agencies.

— When did Assange’s Legal Troubles Begin? In 2012, Assange fled to the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to escape extradition to Sweden, where he faced an inquiry into accusations of rape and sexual assault that were later dropped. He remained in the embassy for seven years, until he was ejected in 2019.

— What Happened Next? The United States unsealed an indictment against Assange and sought his extradition, with prosecutors accusing him of violating the Espionage Act for his role in the 2010 disclosures and of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network.

— Where is Assange Now? After he was expelled from the embassy, Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail in London for breaching bail conditions related to the rape inquiry. He has remained at Belmarsh Prison, where he married his longtime partner in 2022, while his lawyers fought his U.S. extradition order.

— What’s the Status of the Extradition Case? Five years after Assange was first imprisoned in a high-security facility in Britain while fighting a United States extradition request, the Biden administration has given the clearest signal to date that it might drop its prosecution of him. His wife said that her hopes were tempered.

The United States has sought the extradition of Mr. Assange since 2019, and the British government approved an extradition order in 2022, but he has fought his removal through the courts while detained in a high-security prison in southeast London.

Mr. Assange, 52, is accused of violating the U.S. Espionage Act with WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of tens of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst.

Speaking outside the London court on Tuesday, Stella Assange, Mr. Assange’s wife, urged the U.S. government to drop the charges against her husband.

“The Biden administration should not offer assurances. They should drop this shameful case that should never have been brought,” she told reporters gathered outside the court. “Julian should never have been in prison for a single day. This is a shame on every democracy. Julian is a political prisoner.”

As Mr. Assange’s case has unfolded over the years, it has become highly charged politically, raising First Amendment issues and alarming advocates of media freedom. The United States, Britain, where his extradition case is being heard, and Australia — where Mr. Assange is a citizen — are all involved, and in recent months there have been calls for some political resolution to see the charges reduced or dismissed.

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said that Tuesday’s ruling “presents the U.S. government with another opportunity to do what it should have done long ago — drop the Espionage Act charges.”

“Prosecuting Assange for the publication of classified information would have profound implications for press freedom,” Mr. Jaffer said in a statement, “Because publishing classified information is what journalists and news organizations often need to do in order to expose wrongdoing by government.”

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.

Here’s a Brief History of the Case Against Julian Assange.

Mr. Assange moved to Britain in late 2010 from Sweden. The Swedish police issued an international arrest warrant for him later that year over sexual assault accusations.

In June 2012, he was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London — where he stayed for the next seven years.

Sweden dropped its case against Mr. Assange. He was thrown out of the embassy in 2019, and shortly after, the United States announced an indictment against him, charging him with 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act by participating in a criminal hacking conspiracy and by encouraging hackers to steal secret material.

He was promptly arrested, and has been seeking to halt his removal to the United States through British courts ever since.

In 2021, a British judge denied the extradition request for Mr. Assange, ruling that he was at risk of suicide if sent to an American prison. But the High Court later reversed that decision based on assurances from the Biden administration that he would not be held in the United States’ highest-security facility and that, if convicted, he could serve his sentence in Australia.

By 2022, Priti Patel, who as Britain’s home secretary was responsible for the country’s borders and security, had approved the extradition request — and Mr. Assange’s legal team fought that as well.

When a lower-court judge denied their request that he be allowed to appeal, they asked the High Court to overturn that move.

Mr. Assange’s lawyers say that he could face up to 175 years in prison if convicted, although lawyers for the United States government have said that he was more likely to be sentenced to four to six years.

And Here’s What Happened at the Most Recent Court Hearings.

During a two-day hearing in the High Court in February, Mr. Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald told the judges, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, that his client had been “exposing serious criminality” by publishing the leaked documents, and laid out nine grounds on which Mr. Assange hoped to appeal the extradition order.

In their ruling on Tuesday, the judges dismissed six of the nine grounds for appeal as unfounded.

But they said that Mr. Assange had a “real prospect of success” on three of the issues raised, including on the threat to his freedom of expression in the United States; that his trial might be prejudiced because as an Australian he might not be given the same rights as American citizens; and that there was nothing to prevent the death penalty from being imposed, which would violate British extradition policies.

The court decided that “unless satisfactory assurances are provided, the court will grant leave to appeal on those grounds.”

Mr. Assange did not appear in the courtroom, despite having been granted rare permission to do so for the first time since 2021. His lawyers told the court that he was not well enough to attend or even to attend via video link from prison.

At a news briefing in February, Ms. Assange had said that her husband’s legal team would “definitely and immediately file an application” with the European Court of Human Rights if blocked from further appeals in Britain, and that he would ask for an “injunction to stop the U.K. from extraditing him.”

— Megan Specia reports on Britain, Ireland and the Ukraine war for The Times. She is based in London.

[hardynwa]

‘She said yes’, Australian PM reveals Valentine’s Day engagement

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday revealed his Valentine’s Day engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon, after “she said yes” to a carefully planned marriage proposal. The words “Canberra” and “romance” are rarely twinned, but on Thursday the centre-left leader one-upped Valentines across Australia, with a morning message that the pair had agreed to wed. “It is such a joy to be able to share this news with people,” a beaming and slightly bashful Albanese said, after walking hand-in-hand with Haydon from the prime minister’s official residence. “It’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with. Albanese, who met Haydon at a Melbourne business dinner in 2020, is believed to be the first Australian prime minister to get engaged while in office. Haydon gushed thanks to “everybody for such a warm congratulations today, from our friends to our family, from people that we don’t know. It’s just been overwhelming but beautiful.” Among those wishing the couple well were New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and English celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. “Love is a beautiful thing. I’m so happy for you both!” Foreign Minister Penny Wong posted. Albanese revealed that “a lot of planning and thought went into everything, from the date obviously Valentine’s Day, and the ring that I helped to design.” A smattering of online critics strained to allege Albanese was distracting from pressing political issues, from the war in Gaza to the legal case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Albanese, nicknamed Albo, joined the centre-left Labor Party while in high school and later became deeply involved in the bruising world of student politics at the University of Sydney. Australian PM elected… He was sworn in as prime minister in May 2022. The Australian leader was elected to parliament in 1996, and in his first speech thanked his mother, Maryanne Ellery, for raising him in tough circumstances. The pair lived in public housing in Sydney during Albanese’s childhood and his single mother often struggled to make ends meet. In May 2021, British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds set a wedding date for the subsequent year after delaying plans due to the pandemic. Known for his colourful love life, Johnson was the only second prime minister ever to marry while in office, following Robert Jenkinson in 1822. AFP Read the full article

[ailtrahq]

The gaming and Web3 company Animoca Brands USD-20m-for-its-mocaverse-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">announced on Sept. 11 the closing of a funding round to accelerate the development of its Mocaverse platform. Animoca raised $20 million in an effort to push forward its goal of building out the “Mocaverse” project to be the identity and point system for Web3 gaming, culture and entertainment. Yat Siu, the co-founder and CEO of Animoca Brands said the DAO-based approach of the project put community first to allow collaboration across the entire Animoca ecosystem.He highlighted that it will also serve as “the digital identity, reputation and loyalty system for other decentralized organizations.”Moca ID, which will take the form of a non-transferable nonfungible token (NFT) collection will allow users to create a digital identity, “accrue reputation, earn and spend loyalty points.”The funding round was led by CMCC Global, one of Asia’s first and primary VC investors in the Blockchain space, along with the founder of Sky Mavis Aleksander Larsen and the founder of Yield Guild Games Gabby Dizon, among others. The ID will also be used to access the larger ecosystem which makes up over 450 companies in Animoca’s Portfolio. According to the announcement, this would be access to a network of over 700 million user addresses.Martin Baumann, the co-found of CMCC Global said: “​​The project will unify the unique Portfolio of companies within the Animoca Brands umbrella… [becoming] a portal for hundreds of millions of new users to access Web3 and metaverse ecosystems.”Cointelegraph reached out to Animoca Brands for additional Information on its plans to develop digital IDs for Web3. This development comes after a period of decreased attention to the metaverse. With a huge hype in 2022, the following year the metaverse lost the limelight to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Nonetheless, it continues to hold opportunities for connection in the digital realm. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange held a political rally in the metaverse against his extradition on Aug. 26. Back in July the British Museum and the Sandbox partnered to bring the museum into the digital realm.

[bitcofun]

Key Takeaways The world's most renowned in-person Bitcoin celebration will occur in Europe for the very first time this October in Amsterdam. The Bitcoin Conference has actually experienced considerable development and direct exposure throughout the world considering that it initially introduced in 2018. The starting group intends to spread out the Bitcoin Conference around the world, branching off its yearly flagship occasion in Miami. The Bitcoin Conference, a two-day, in-person event of a few of the most popular voices in the Bitcoin community, is heading to Amsterdam for the very first time. Bitcoin Amsterdam Is Upon United States Organized by Bitcoin Magazine and BTC Inc. in partnership with Amsterdam Decentralized, the occasion will begin on October 12 at Westergras, among the most considerable cultural places found in the heart of the Dutch capital. The goal is to supply an online forum for conversation on Bitcoin, blockchain innovation, and the future of cash, in addition to promote the theory of "hyper-bitconization," or the concept that Bitcoin will end up being the default worth system of the world thanks to its borderless, censorship-resistant, and permissionless residential or commercial properties. Recognized as the most considerable Bitcoin occasion on the planet, participants will socialize amongst a few of the most essential figures in the market, consisting of essential public supporters, political leaders, stars, and more. Significant names will consist of Adam Back, Co-founder and CEO of Blockstream; Peter McCormack, Journalist and creator of the What Bitcoin Did podcast; and Stella Assange, the partner of activist and WikiLeaks creator Julian Assange. Amongst the subjects to be checked out are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CDBC), Bitcoin as an inflation hedge, the Lightning Network, and the combination of Bitcoin into today's payment networks. The bulk of the keynotes, panels, and fireside chats will happen over the very first 2 days of the conference. The occasion will close with the Sound Money Fest, including video games, Bitcoin free gifts, and efficiencies from a lineup of artists and DJs. Bitcoin Amsterdam's predecessor, Bitcoin 2022, happened in Miami in April of this year, which unified 26,000 Bitcoiners in the biggest event of this kind the world has actually seen to date. Bitcoin 2023 will go back to Miami next year on May18 Passes to next year's conference can be bought here Event passes to Bitcoin Amsterdam are offered now at the occasion's site Passes might be acquired with Bitcoin on the primary chain along with the Lightning Network. The details on or accessed through this site is acquired from independent sources our company believe to be precise and reputable, however Decentral Media, Inc. makes no representation or guarantee regarding the timeliness, efficiency, or precision of any info on or accessed through this site. Decentral Media, Inc. is not a financial investment consultant. We do not offer customized financial investment suggestions or other monetary suggestions. The details on this site goes through alter without notification. Some or all of the info on this site might end up being out-of-date, or it might be or end up being insufficient or unreliable. We may, however are not bound to, upgrade any out-of-date, insufficient, or incorrect info. You need to never ever make a financial investment choice on an ICO, IEO, or other financial investment based upon the info on this site, and you ought to never ever analyze or otherwise count on any of the details on this site as financial investment recommendations. We highly advise that you seek advice from a certified financial investment consultant or other competent monetary expert if you are looking for financial investment recommendations on an ICO, IEO, or other financial investment. We do decline settlement in any type for evaluating or reporting on any ICO, IEO, cryptocurrency, currency, tokenized sales, securities, or products.

See complete conditions Bitcoin 2022 Kicks Off in Miami This Week Bitcoin 2022, the world's biggest event commemorating the firstly amongst cryptocurrencies, happens today from Apr. 6-9 in Miami Beach, Florida. Amongst the numerous speakers slated ... " Bitcoin Is Freedom": Reflections on Bitcoin 2022 Once every year-- disallowing pandemic, that is-- 10s of countless Bitcoin lovers come down upon the City of Miami to commemorate Bitcoin, the very first real cryptocurrency and still the biggest in the ... A Week in the Metaverse: Miami Art Week 2021 Reviewed Crypto Briefing checks out the NFT and Metaverse occasions accompanying Miami Art Week2021 On the Ground at Miami Art Week Miami in the winter season is a wonderful location ... Read More

[rnewsworld]

जेल में शादी करेंगे जूलियन असांजे: मंगेतर स्टेला मॉरिस से कर रहे शादी, 2 साल से लंदन की जेल में हैं विकीलीक्स के फाउंडर

जेल में शादी करेंगे जूलियन असांजे: मंगेतर स्टेला मॉरिस से कर रहे शादी, 2 साल से लंदन की जेल में हैं विकीलीक्स के फाउंडर

लंदन3 मिनट पहले कॉपी लिंक विकीलीक्स के फाउंडर जूलियन असांजे बेलमार्श जेल में बंद हैं। उन्हें बाहर निकालने के प्रयास चल रहे हैं, लेकिन इसमें कामयाबी नहीं मिल रही है। लेकिन अब उन्हें एक खुशी मिलने वाली है। उन्हें जेल में अपनी मंगेतर स्टेला मॉरिस से शादी करने की इजाजत मिल गई है। 2019 से लंदन जेल में हैं असांजेअसांजे 2019 से लंदन की जेल में कैद हैं। अमेरिकी कानून विभाग ने उन्हें अमेरिका प्रत्यर्पित…

[ms-hells-bells]

I can’t stop thinking about how Julian Assange managed to father two children whilst in the embassy. I read an interview with his partner and the mother of his two young sons and she sounds more like a disciple than lover. It’s such a male thing for him to do but I don’t have the words for why.

he also has credible rape allegations, which was the reason for running to embassies and seeking asylum in the first place, not wikileaks. leftists mocked and threatened the victims, despite them being leftists that helps assange with his touring of europe. major leftists think they're 'honeytraps' that 'tricked' assange into...raping them, i guess? i still don't get it, even if they were, you can't trick someone into sabotaging condoms and raping you in your sleep. i hate most political groups. assange is a disgusting misogynistic rapist, that thinks women don't deserve the same rights as men. also, when he got mad, apparently he would smear his faeces on the embassy walls. actually narcissistic child.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/4/12/18306901/julian-assange-arrest-wikileaks-rape-sweden-embassy

[usnewsrank]

Julian Assange given permission to marry partner in prison

Julian Assange given permission to marry partner in prison

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Stella Moris are set to tie the knot at HMP Belmarsh (Picture: PA) Julian Assange has been granted permission to wed his partner Stella Moris behind bars at Belmarsh Prison.   The WikiLeaks founder has been held at the maximum security Category A jail in south-east London since 2019 after the US launched legal action to extradite him. Assange, 50, met his…

[hardynwa]

‘She said yes’, Australian PM reveals Valentine’s Day engagement

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday revealed his Valentine’s Day engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon, after “she said yes” to a carefully planned marriage proposal. The words “Canberra” and “romance” are rarely twinned, but on Thursday the centre-left leader one-upped Valentines across Australia, with a morning message that the pair had agreed to wed. “It is such a joy to be able to share this news with people,” a beaming and slightly bashful Albanese said, after walking hand-in-hand with Haydon from the prime minister’s official residence. “It’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with. Albanese, who met Haydon at a Melbourne business dinner in 2020, is believed to be the first Australian prime minister to get engaged while in office. Haydon gushed thanks to “everybody for such a warm congratulations today, from our friends to our family, from people that we don’t know. It’s just been overwhelming but beautiful.” Among those wishing the couple well were New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and English celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. “Love is a beautiful thing. I’m so happy for you both!” Foreign Minister Penny Wong posted. Albanese revealed that “a lot of planning and thought went into everything, from the date obviously Valentine’s Day, and the ring that I helped to design.” A smattering of online critics strained to allege Albanese was distracting from pressing political issues, from the war in Gaza to the legal case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Albanese, nicknamed Albo, joined the centre-left Labor Party while in high school and later became deeply involved in the bruising world of student politics at the University of Sydney. Australian PM elected… He was sworn in as prime minister in May 2022. The Australian leader was elected to parliament in 1996, and in his first speech thanked his mother, Maryanne Ellery, for raising him in tough circumstances. The pair lived in public housing in Sydney during Albanese’s childhood and his single mother often struggled to make ends meet. In May 2021, British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds set a wedding date for the subsequent year after delaying plans due to the pandemic. Known for his colourful love life, Johnson was the only second prime minister ever to marry while in office, following Robert Jenkinson in 1822. AFP Read the full article

[harpianews]

Wikileaks' Assange to wed partner Stella Moris in prison ceremony

Wikileaks’ Assange to wed partner Stella Moris in prison ceremony

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will marry his long-term partner Stella Moris inside a high-security prison in southeast London on Wednesday at a small ceremony attended by four guests, two official witnesses and two security guards. Assange is wanted by US authorities to face trial on 18 counts relating to WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic…

[nftcryptonews]

Top secret Julian Assange and Pak NFT collaboration is wikileaked

“Details about the contents and ideas of the Censored collection have not been revealed. However, considering the two partners in crime, it will definitely attract attention,” said DappRadar.

from Cointelegraph.com News https://ift.tt/ry0bCgKWG

[back-and-totheleft]

‘There’s still a presence out there reminding people not to speak about JFK’s killing’

Oliver Stone is not a fan of “cancel culture”. “Of course I despise it,” the Oscar winning filmmaker says, as if utterly amazed that anyone needs to ask him such a dumb question. “I am sure I’ve been cancelled by some people for all the comments I’ve made…. it’s like a witch hunt. It’s terrible. American censorship in general, because it is a declining, defensive, empire, it (America) has become very sensitive to any criticism. What is going on in the world with YouTube and social media,” he rants. “Twitter is the worst. They’ve banned the ex-President of the United States. It’s shocking!” he says, referring to Donald Trump’s removal from the micro-blogging platform.

It’s a Saturday lunchtime in the restaurant of the Marriott Hotel on the Croisette in Cannes. The American director is in town for the festival premiere this week of his new feature documentary JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, in which he yet again pores over President John F Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963.

“I am a pin cushion for American-Russian peace relations… I had four f***ing vaccines: two Sputniks and two Pfizers,” Stone gestures at his arm. The rival super-powers may remain deeply suspicious of one another, but Stone is loading himself up with potions from both sides of the old Iron Curtain.

He has recently been travelling in Russia (hence the Sputnik jabs) where he has been making a new documentary about how nuclear power can save humanity. He also recently completed a film about Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev which – like his interviews with Vladimir Putin – has been roundly ridiculed for its deferential, softly-softly approach toward a figure widely regarded as a ruthless despot.

Dressed in a blue polo shirt, riffing away about the English football team one moment and his favourite movies the next, laughing constantly, the 74-year-old Oscar-winning director of Platoon, Wall Street, Natural Born Killers et al is a far cheerier presence than his reputation as a purveyor of dark conspiracy thrillers might suggest. He is also very outspoken. For all his belligerence, though, Stone isn’t as thick-skinned as you might imagine. I wonder if he was hurt by the scorn that came his way when his feature film JFK was released in 1991.

“I was more of a younger man. It was painful to me,” the director sighs as he remembers being attacked by such admired figures as newscaster Walter Cronkite and Hollywood power broker Jack Valenti for listening to the “hallucinatory bleatings” of former New Orleans DA Jim Garrison when JFK came out. “It was quite shocking actually because I thought the murder was behind us. I did think there was a feeling that 30 years later, we can look at this thing again without getting excited. But I was way wrong.”

Garrison, of course, was the real-life figure portrayed by Kevin Costner in the film; he was the original proponent of the theory that the CIA were involved in the killing of the US president, after his 1966 investigation. Garrison wrote the book On the Trail of the Assassins, on which the movie was partly based.

Even the director’s fiercest detractors will find it hard to dismiss the evidence he has assembled about the JFK assassination in the new documentary. Once I’d seen it and heard him hold forth, I came away thinking that only flat-earthers can possibly still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy all on his own. It’s that convincing.

Stone blitzes you with facts and figures about the Kennedy killing and its aftermath. At times, he himself seems to be suffering from information overload. “I am sorry. There are so many people,” he apologises for not immediately remembering the name of Kennedy’s personal physician, George Burkley, who was present both at Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was first taken, and then at Bethesda, where the autopsy took place. Burkley was strangely reticent when giving evidence to the Warren Commission.

“I think there’s still a presence out there which reminds people not to speak. I’ve heard that in, of all places, Russia,” Stone says. He was startled to discover that the Russians knew all about his new documentary long before it was discussed in the mainstream press. “They said, ‘We heard about it.’ I said, ‘How?’ They said, ‘We have our contacts in the American intelligence business. They are not very happy about it.’”

Stone believes that no US president since Kennedy died has been “able to go up against this militarised sector of our economy”. Even Trump “backed down at the last second” and declined to release all the relevant documents relating to the assassination. “He announced, ‘I’m going to free it up, blah blah blah, big talk, and then a few hours before, he caved to CIA National Security again.”

The veteran filmmaker expresses his frustrations at historians like Robert Caro, author of a huge (and hugely respected) multi-volume biography of President Lyndon Johnson, for ignoring the evidence that has been turned up about the assassination.

“I can’t say [LBJ] was involved in the assassination,” explains Stone, “but it certainly suited him that Kennedy was not there anymore and he covered up by appointing the Warren Commission and doing all the things he did.”

Stone tried to cast Marlon Brando in JFK in the role as the deep throat source Mr X, eventually played by Donald Sutherland.

“I realise now I am grateful that he turned it down because he knew better than I that he would make 20 minutes out of that 14-minute monologue and it wouldn’t have worked.”

Nevertheless, he filled the film with famous faces. He thought that having familiar actors would make it easier for audiences to engage with what was an immensely complicated story.

Getting Stone to stop talking about JFK is like trying to pull a bone from a mastiff’s jaws. To change the subject slightly, I ask if he is still in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. He is and is utterly horrified at how Assange is being treated, especially given that Siggi the Hacker, a key witness in the extradition case against Assange, admitted recently that he lied. Stone praises Assange’s partner Stella Morris as “the best wife you could ever have. She really is smart, she’s a lawyer … he has two children. He can’t even touch them or see them. It’s barbaric. It indicates America is declining faster than we know. It is just cutting off dissent.”

The mood lightens when I invite Stone to discuss some of his favourite films. He recently tweeted a list of these, which included Darling starring Julie Christie, Joseph Losey’s Eva starring Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau, and Houseboat, a frothy comedy starring Cary Grant and Sophia Loren. “I love films, always have. People don’t know that side of me. I could go on forever.”

Between his darker and more contentious efforts, Stone has made a few genre films himself, for example the underrated thriller U-Turn starring Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez. He notes, though, that even when he tried a sports movie, he ended up right back in the firing line. The NFL was furious about his 1999 American Football film, Any Given Sunday. “They (the NFL) are arrogant, very rich people who close down any dissent, so I had to change uniforms and names… but they got the point.”

Last year, Stone published the first volume of his autobiography, Chasing the Light, which took him from childhood up to his Oscar triumph with Platoon. It was well received but it didn’t make nearly a big enough splash for his liking. “There was a curtain of silence about that. Maybe it is Covid… it was not reviewed by many people,” he says. “I wish the timing had been better. The publisher was terrible. They didn’t really promote anything. So now I have to start over again if I am going to do a second book, which I would love to do. But I have to find the right publisher.”

The book contains a barbed account of Stone’s experiences as a young screenwriter working in London for British director Alan Parker and producer David Puttnam on Midnight Express. “I wrote about it in the book, so you got my point of view. They were not very friendly people. I gave my criticism of Parker that he had a chip on his shoulder. He was from a poor side of the English. There is this phenomenon you see in England of hating the upper classes until they approve of you.”

No, they didn’t stay in touch. “And Puttnam is a Lord, right? He reminds me of Tony Blair. He is such a weasel.” For once, Stone feels he has overstepped the mark. He doesn’t want to call Puttnam a weasel after all. “Put it this way, Tony Blair is a weasel. I wouldn’t trust Tony Blair. Puttnam is a supporter of Blair. Let’s leave it at that.”

On matters English, he isn’t that keen on soccer either. He watched the semi-final between England and Denmark but had no intention of tuning into the final.

“Soccer is a different kind of game. It’s a different aesthetic. It is constant movement. The United States game allows you to re-group after every play and go into a huddle and so it becomes about strategy. I still enjoy it although people think I am brutal.”

Ask him why he so relishes American Football and he replies that he “grew up with violence in America … we were banging – cowboys and Indians, a lot of killing and that stuff. How do you get away from that? We weren’t playing with dolls.”

Stone’s feelings about the US are deeply ambivalent. He is old enough to remember a time in the late 1940s and early 1950s when “everything in America was golden” and part of him still seems to love the country but his mother was French and he talks about the US as a nation now in near terminal decline.

Perhaps surprisingly, his real political hero isn’t JFK. It’s the former President of France, Charles de Gaulle. “He said no to NATO and he said no to America. He understood the dangers of being a satellite country to America. You have no power in Europe. Don’t kid yourself. The EU is just an artificial body that was amazingly stupid in cutting off Russia and cutting off China too now.”

He doesn’t much like Boris Johnson either. “Boris, listen. He’d simply throw you in jail in a second.” He rails against the English for holding Assange in Belmarsh prison.

When he is not on a crusade or unravelling a conspiracy, Stone relaxes through Buddhist meditation. “Moderation in all things,” the man who came up with the phrase “greed is right, greed works” says with no evident sense of irony. He enjoys hanging out with his friends. “I have a nice life. I’m lucky,” he says before quickly adding, “I wish I had been more honoured and respected in my lifetime, but it seems that I took a course that is in conflict with the American Empire.”

Stone’s films have had relatively few strong female characters. Ask if he welcomes the #MeToo movement and the challenging of old gender norms and he gives a typically contrary answer. “It cuts both ways, though. There are reasons for patriarchy through the centuries,” he says. “Tribes tend to have a strong leader. You need strong leaders, but I do see the feminine impulse as being important, especially when situations become too militant. The feminine impulse, I’m talking about the maternal impulse not the Hillary Clinton/Margaret Thatcher version of feminism. They’re men. They’re not women,” he says. “I don’t want women in politics who want to be men. If a woman is a woman, she should be a woman and bring her maternalism. It’s a leavening influence.”

The director deplores the rush to judge historical figures about past misdeeds from a contemporary point of view. “I am conservative in that way… don’t expect to rejudge the entire society based on your new values.”

He met with Harvey Weinstein in Cannes a few years ago to discuss a potential Guantanamo Bay TV series. “At that point, maybe he knew he was on the ropes; he was delightfully charming and humble.” The project was scuppered by the scandal that that engulfed the former Miramax boss, who is now behind bars as a convicted sex offender. Stone’s gripes with Weinstein are less to do with his sexual offences than with the way that he attacked films like Born on the Fourth of July and Saving Private Ryan to boost his own movies.

“The press loved him [Weinstein]. Don’t forget, they loved him in the 1990s,” he says, remembering the disingenuous way in which Weinstein portrayed himself as the underdog taking on the big, bad Hollywood system.

“I think he robbed Cruise of the Oscar, frankly,” Stone huffs at the intensive Weinstein lobbying which saw Daniel Day-Lewis win the Academy Award for Best for My Left Foot, denying Tom Cruise for Born on the Fourth of July in the process.

Stone acknowledges his status in Hollywood has diminished. “All that’s gone. The people have changed,” he says of the days when the studios doted on him and his films were regularly awards contenders. Now, he’ll often finance his work out of Europe. He is developing a new feature film (he won’t say what it is). “Never say die, never say it’s over,” he says of his career.

Stone is based in Los Angeles and also has “a place in New York”. During the pandemic, he still managed to travel to Russia to make his nuclear power/clean energy documentary. “I got my shots over there because the EU is so f***ing stupid,” he says of the of the Europeans’ refusal to recognise the Sputnik vaccine. “It’s ridiculous, part of the political madness of this time.”

Now, he is putting all his energy into his new documentary about nuclear power. He waves away the idea that the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters show what can go wrong – they were accidents.

“Accidents you learn from. If there were not a few crashes, how would you fly?” he says. It’s a line that somehow seems to express his entire philosophy of life.

-Geoffrey Macnab interviews Oliver Stone, The Independent, Jul 15 2021 [x]

[veronicaeagles]

Pamela Anderson - Dating History

Pamela’s first known relationship was with childhood friend Tyrone Anderson. It was a 4 year relationship from 1982-1986

Her next relationship was in 1987 to photographer Dan Ilicic

Pamela’s first public relationship was in 1988 to American Actor Johnathon Schaech

Her next relationship was an on and off relationship with film/television producer Jon Peters starting in May 1988 till 1991. Their relationship was reinvigorated in September 2019 and culminated in a 12 day marriage from the 20 Jan 2020 to Feb 2020

Pamela’s next relationship was a short fling with actor Sylvester Stallone in 1989

Pamela’s next relationship was another short fling with American actor Mario Van Peebles in 1990

Her next relationship was with actor Scott Baio, the relationship lasted 3 years from 1990 to 1993

Pamela’s next relationship was a short fling in 1992 with model Eric Nies

Her next relationship was with her Baywatch (1989) costar David Charvet for 2 years from 1992 to 1992  

Pamela’s next relationship was a short relationship with actor Dean Cain in 1993

Pamela had a short relationship in 1993 with Mötley Crew’s lead singer Vince Neil 

Pamela’s next relationship was in 1994 to Poison frontman Bret Michaels. It was during this relationship that Pamela’s infamous sex tape was filmed.

Pamela had a short relationship in 1994 with Actor Antonio Sabato Jr.

In 1995 Pamela had a short relationship with TV personality Arsenio Hall

Pamela’s first marriage was to Mötley Crew Drummer Tommy Lee who she was married to after knowing him for 2 days. Their marriage lasted for 3 years from 1995 to 1998 and includes the birth of two children

Following her divorce Pamela entered a 1 year 8 month relationship with American surfer Kelly Slater

Pamela’s next relationship was a short 10 month relationship from May 2000 to Mar 2001 with Swedish model Marcus Schenkenberg

Pamela then had a short relationship in February 2001 with singer Michael Bolton

Pamela’s second marriage was to musician Kid Rock, their relationship lasted for 5 years 3 months, however their marriage only lasted for 28 days

Pamela then dated American model Christian Monzon for 1 year from 2003 to 2004

In 2003 Pamela also had a short relationship with Limp Bizkit lead singer Fred Durst

Pamela’s next relationship was a 1 year relationship with Actor Stephen Dorff from 2004 to 2005

Pamela then had a short fling in 2004 with Welsh talk show host Steve Jones

Pamela next entered a 5 year relationship with Laurence Hallier from 2006 to 2011

In July 2006 Pamela was in a relationship with American singer Ray J

Also in 2006 Pamela had a short relationship with American Singer Usher

From April to September 2007 Pamela was in a relationship with NFL player David Binn

Pamela married a third and fourth time to American poker player Rick Salomon. Their first marriage was from September 2007 to March 2008 and their second marriage was from January 2014 to April 2015 

Pamela’s next relationship was with Dutch magician Hans Klok. The relationship occurred in 2007 and lasted 5 months

Pamela was in a 7 month relationship with American Magician Criss Angel from December 2007 to July 2008

Pamela’s next relationship was a 1 year relationship with Jamie Padgett (non celebrity)

Pamela then entered a short 5 month relationship with American surfer Jon Rose in 2011

Next Pamela entered a 10 month relationship from 2012 to 2013 to American pair skater Matt Evers. The pair met on tv show dancing on ice after being partnered 

Pamela’s next relationship was with journalist Julian Assange. The relationship lasted for 2 years from 2015 to 2016

Pamela’s last relationship lasted 2 year from 2017 to 2019 with French footballer Adil Rami  

Pamela Anderson has been involved in many rumoured relationships these include:

First rumoured relationship was in 1987 with Canadian business executive Peter Nygård

Pamela’s second rumoured relationship was in 1994 with Guns n’ Roses lead guitarist Slash

Her third rumoured relationship occurred in November 2005 and was with American Musician Mark McGrath 

Pamela’s fourth rumoured relationship occurred in 2007 with American Actor David Spade

Her final rumoured relationship was with Russian Head of State Vladimir Putin in 2012

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

What about politics on the other side of the Atlantic? On the 2020 Democratic nomination race, Žižek says, ‘My longstanding analogies are fully confirmed by recent events. Isn’t it absolutely clear that the message of the Democratic party establishment is, “better Trump than Bernie Sanders”?

‘I noticed how on the one hand you have this, let’s call it, “electability problem”. The Democratic establishment is saying Bernie Sanders is too extreme and so on and so on, but my God, that’s how Trump got elected!’ he continued. ‘I mean this line of reasoning that “play safely, stay in the middle if you want to be elected”, no longer works.

‘We have a large socialist movement which gained a serious foothold in United States politics and in the mainstream, and this is incredibly important to be visible there as a serious option.’

Žižek goes on to claim that the Democratic party and Republican party mainstream are becoming ‘indistinguishable’, pointing to billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s brief presidential run as a recent example.

‘If the Democratic establishment were to make a decision at gunpoint as it were — Trump or Sanders — they wouldn’t say, but de facto they would have preferred Trump. So I think, politically, there is the irony.’

According to Žižek, President Trump is too passive. A flaw he cites as being behind the United States’s decision to pull out of Syria, which Žižek described as ‘one of the most catastrophic things that Trump did’.

‘He sacrificed the Kurds,’ Žižek said. ‘The main victims. Everybody wants to screw them. I have full sympathy with the Kurds. Not so much with the Kurds in the north of Iraq, who are more conservative, but the Kurds in the southeast of Turkey and northern Syria.’

‘Trump opened up with unilateral withdrawal, a new situation where basically the two partners there are now Putin and Erdogan, and it’s clear what’s the target of both of them…to ruin Europe. European unity. People even didn’t notice that a similar thing is happening now in Libya. Russia is moving in, supporting one side, Turks supporting the other side in the civil war, and then they are making the deals.

‘I think that this is all coordinated. How this tension threatens Europe with new waves of refugees, which if — now it will sound horrible for a leftist — but I think that the new wave of refugees in Europe means a total ideological, political catastrophe. I am for more refugees…but four years ago when there was the first wave, it should have been done in an organized way. The way — this chaotic way — means that it will not only be Hungary and a couple of other populists. Populists will simply gradually take over Europe, and we should never forget what strange alliances we get here.’

To Žižek, Putin’s Russia and Erdogan’s Turkey are part of a ‘new Axis’ which, due to European passivity, ‘can always blackmail Europe’ through both oil and refugees.

‘I’m just shocked at this passivity of Europe,’ he declares. ‘We pay Turkey €6 billion if they help the refugees. I thought this is a disgusting compromise, but

OK. Then, the time that we had four years of relative peace should have been used for Europe to mobilize not against the refugees, but to change the situation there…of course, Europe should receive more refugees, but this is not the solution.

‘The wealthiest countries there…Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates. They’re simply not receiving any immigrants. Why Europe? Why not Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Emirates? Rich, wealthy countries. It should have been easy for them to receive.’

On the ‘populist left,’ Žižek, is skeptical, claiming they prefer to ‘write wonderful books about why things went wrong’ than get their act together.

‘I would like to have a modest, realist left which has positive proposals of what to do. Like, OK, to talk frankly, we cannot obviously step out of capitalism. How to deal with it?’ he said, adding that the populist left needs to work out ‘how to use capitalist mechanisms’.

Žižek, says that ‘the rise of Trump and populism signals the end of this old liberal centrist consensus’.

‘The majority is disappointed by it and we cannot simply return to it. That’s why all around Europe — Le Pen, AfD, and so on — all around we have this populist revolt,’ he declared, before encouraging the left to ‘do what Trump did on the right’.

‘I remember when Trump began, people thought he was too divisive. No! That’s how you win!’ he says. ‘Hillary lost because Hillary tried to play this game. “We must move more to the center”,…the moral majority, the silent moral majority. I think the left should appropriate this. The left’s strategy should not be, “we are radical, we provoke, we use dirty words in public”…I think that the left, to reinvent itself, should present itself in this way. If by postmodernism we mean obscenity, irony, inconsistency, fake news and so on, then Trump is the ultimate postmodern president, and I think that the left should shamelessly begin to scream, “no, we address not just some fringe group, we address normal, modest, impoverished everyday people”.

‘The left should also stop this obsession with it’s this LGBT minority, that minority, and so on and so on. I think that this obsession with different lifestyles, minorities, is ultimately just a maneuver to avoid the big economic problem.’

‘Class struggle is returning,’ Žižek proclaimed, noting that ‘the two surprising mega hits of the last year’, Joker and Parasite, are ‘both movies about class struggle’.

Whether the digital age will help workers in the class struggle, however, is an ‘ambiguous’ question on Žižek’s mind.

‘On the one hand, internet, of course, opens up the new space of immediate social coordination. You can reach millions instantly,’ he explained. ‘On the other hand, here Julian Assange enters I think.’

‘We are gradually becoming aware to what degree the control of internet, who will control the digital space? It’s one of the big battles today…I think this digital space is not simply either good or bad. It’s just one domain of struggle.’

I ask him about Nick Land and the increasingly popular philosophy of accelerationism, which starts from the idea that capitalism and technology should be sped up in order to precipitate social change. He doesn’t seem to know about Land but he says: ‘What I see good in accelerationism is that I don’t buy this idea that you can oppose global capitalism through some kind of local traditional resistance. Some of my Latino American friends claim we should return to ancient tribal traditions and so on and so on. No. I still remain a Marxist here. You have to go through radical capitalist modernization. There is no way back.’

[guyghoul]

I hope Donald Trump manages to pardon Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Lisa Miller.

The firs two really revealed how deeply invasive is the United States government agains the same people the govenrment i supposed to protect (ironically, given how they were, with some justification, arreste due to how they violated national security).

The last one wanted to leave an abusive situation wit her daughter, but her former partner wants to exercise her pity points.

[libertariantaoist]

Foreign Policy Focus is a podcast hosted by Kyle Anzalone. It covers current events overseas and how those events affect you at home. While US military operations in the Middle East seem like they are on the other side of the world, they have real impacts on the everyday lives of Americans. Wars are the most costly of all US government actions and politicians use them to strip away rights of Americans. Knowing what your government is doing around the globe will give you insight into what they are doing at home.

On FPF #478, Will Porter returns to the show to discuss Julian Assange’s perilous situation. A year ago, Assange was ripped from the Ecuadorian embassy and thrown in UK top maximum-security prison. Over the year, Assange’s health has declined. Adding to his health risk is a coronavirus outbreak at the prison he is caged in. Assange’s legal team recently appealed to the judge in his extradition case to allow him to leave the prison under house arrest for the remainder of the coronavirus outbreak, something the UK is allowing 1,000s of other prisoners to do. However, Assange was denied the request, and the judge took it a step further by announcing she would reveal the identity of Assange’s partner and children.

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