Podcast appearances and mentions of Chelsea Manning

 In this cybersecurity awareness training episode, we're digging into one of the most overlooked risks in any organization: insider threats. From malicious intent to simple negligence and even blackmail, insiders can pose serious security challenges. Learn how to recognize the warning signs—like job dissatisfaction, policy violations, or sudden lifestyle changes—and what you should do if something doesn't seem right. With real-world case studies like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, we'll show why everyone plays a role in prevention. Don't wait for someone else to speak up—know what to look for, understand how to report it, and help build a culture of trust and vigilance in your workplace.Pick up your copy of Cyber Rants on Amazon.Looking to take your Cyber Security to the next level? Visit us at www.silentsector.com. Be sure to rate the podcast, leave us a review, and subscribe!

As the Trump Administration crosses yet another Rubicon and begins revoking Green Cards for political speech, real life Naruto ninjas offer a potential way out. Chelsea Manning speaks out on the Luigi Mangione case, as the movement against the richest man in the world continues to ramp up. All this, plus a special guest joins the Party Girls to talk about the newest Stop Cop City speaking tour coming soon to a city near you! Which way will it be, western man? More of the same tepid sidewalk sign holding, or the activation of a movement capable of bending the course of history? More on the Stop Cop City Imaginary Crimes Tour: https://linktr.ee/sccimaginarycrimestour Remember 2020 Flyer: https://crimethinc.com/zines/remember... 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:35 Stop Cop City speaking tour 00:04:50 Arrest of Mahmoud Khalil 00:39:13 Chelsea Manning attended Luigi Mangione hearing 00:44:07 Updates in the takedown of Tesla, Elon Musk 01:00:37 Interview with Ruth, a presenter at the upcoming Stop Cop City Imaginary Crimes Tour *** SIGN UP NOW at patreon.com/partygirls to get all of our bonus content, Discord access, and a shout out on the pod! Join our YouTube channel as a member to get access to bonus videos (the same one's you'd find on Patreon!): youtube.com/@partygirlspod Follow us on ALL the Socials: Instagram: @party.girls.pod YouTube: @partygirlspod TikTok: @party.girls.pod Twitter: @partygirlspod BlueSky: @partygirls.bsky.social Leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you feel so inclined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... https://open.spotify.com/show/71ESqg3...

The real reason Wikileaks founder and self-styled freedom fighter Julian Assange was in self-imposed custody. Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Josh Burton with Jasper Leak. Our team includes Tiffany Dimmack, Lia Tsamoglou and Stephanie Coombes and our original music is composed by Jasper Leak. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jonny and Heather start off the show by listening to a public statement made by local Carbondale City Councilwoman, Clare Killman, who has a proposal for Illinois to defend itself from federal assaults on bodily autonomy. They then compare the clarity and firmness of her response to Congressional Democrats who seem to lack a spine and are throwing LGB but particularly T under the bus. In the back half of the show they discuss access to healthcare and a revitalized interest in discussing predatory insurance companies. The lesson there is that the assalut on gender-affirming healthcare is really an assault on all of our healthcare.

Jimmy and Megan have no doubt that the gender identity of one of their three kids is unfolding differently. What they're not sure about is whether it's safe to raise their kids in the home they love. (Produced by David Hunt in Raleigh, North Carolina) And in NewsWrap: the United States Supreme Court hears a constitutional challenge to Tennessee's ban on pediatric gender-affirming healthcare, seven are arrested in raids on three queer-welcoming Moscow nightspots “to combat LGBT propaganda,” Walmart abandons its DEI policies and will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, more than two dozen trans activists including whistleblower Chelsea Manning are busted in a U.S. Capitol bathroom protest at the same time as a Montana House committee gives Rep. Zoey Zephyr a pass, and more international LGBTQ+ news reported this week by Tanya Kane-Parry and Marcos Najera (produced by Brian DeShazor). All this on the December 9, 2024 edition of This Way Out! Join our family of listener-donors today at http://thiswayout.org/donate/ NOTE TO RADIO STATIONS: The weekly program uploaded to SoundCloud will soon include a pitch for This Way Out/Overnight Productions (Inc.). Stations can download a pitch-free version from radio4all.net or Pacifica's AudioPort.Org. For more information, contact Brian@ThisWayOut.org.

Friday, December 6th, 2024Today, the Biden Whitehouse is weighing preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets; a reporter finds that GOP led states are hiding their abortion ban death tolls; Ric Grenell paid influencers five figures to boost him for the Secretary of State job; Republicans in the House blocked a Democratic effort to release the Gaetz ethics report Thursday night; Chelsea Manning and others have been arrested for staging a transgender rights protest outside Speaker Mike Johnson's office; and Allison delivers your Good News.Thank You SmallsSmalls cat food is made with protein packed recipes made with ingredients you'd find in your fridge. To get 50% off your first order, plus free shipping, go to Smalls.com/DAILYBEANS and use promo code DAILYBEANS at checkout.Thank You Helix SleepHelix is offering 20% off sitewide plus 2 FREE  Pillows with any mattress purchase when you go to HelixSleep.com/DailyBeans.Stories:House votes against releasing Matt Gaetz ethics report for now (Scott Wong and Kyle Stewart | NBC News)'Bodies are piling up': Reporter finds GOP-led states are hiding abortion ban death toll (Matthew Chapman | Raw Story)In the case of Trump loyalist Ric Grenell, loyalty did not trump all (Natalie Allison and Meridith McGraw | Politico)Biden considering preemptive pardons for officials Trump might target: Source (Mary Bruce, Jonathan Karl, and Rachel Scott | ABC News)Guest: John FugelsangTell Me Everything | johnfugelsang.comThe John Fugelsang Podcast | Apple PodcastsThe Sexy Liberal Save The World Comedy Tour | sexyliberal.com If you want to support what Harry and I are up to, head to patreon.com/aisle45podHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good NewsForever 14 (forever14.org)Physicians for Human Rights (phr.org)leucistic-axolotl (axoplanet.com)LGBTQ+ teens won a grant for their school. Adults sent the money back. (Washington Post)Unitarian Universalist Association (uua.org) Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Subscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.comFollow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Substack|Muellershewrote, Twitter|@MuellerSheWrote, Threads|@muellershewrote, TikTok|@muellershewrote, IG|muellershewrote, BlueSky|@muellershewroteDana GoldbergTwitter|@DGComedy, IG|dgcomedy, facebook|dgcomedy, IG|dgcomedy, danagoldberg.com, BlueSky|@dgcomedyHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/ Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/Patreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

[SEGMENT 1-1] Silly Leftists 1   Welcome, folks. It's KJ Radio time…the show where common sense kicks the buttocks of Leftism. WITH steel-toed boots. And trust me, there's no shortage of targets. UnitedHealthcare CEO Gets ShotFirst up, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare got shot. Now, I'm not saying this guy was involved in something shady, but if you look up “suspicious deaths” in the corporate dictionary, his picture probably pops up next to “knew too much.” A random act of violence? Yeah, and I'm the Easter Bunny. I mean, who gets shot at 3 PM on a Tuesday unless they're either a mob boss or a whistleblower? Somewhere in a boardroom, some healthcare exec just said, “See? THIS is why we stick to overcharging customers—it's safer!” SCOTUS and the Transgender CircusOver at the Supreme Court, we've got the transgender issue. And let me tell you, it's a bloodbath for the Left. Watching Justice Thomas and Alito dismantle the ACLU attorney was like watching Tyson in his prime—just brutal. Meanwhile, Ketanji Brown-Jackson is over here proving once again she couldn't win a game of “Guess Who?” She's supposed to rule on human rights but doesn't know the difference between a man and a woman? What's her benchmark—pronouns on a Starbucks cup? And the ACLU arguing this case? Their strategy is basically, “Well, Your Honor, we think biology is mean.” Pro tip: when you're trying to overturn centuries of reality, you might want to come with something stronger than feelings. Daniel Penny: Subway Defender ExtraordinaireLet's talk Daniel Penny. The man subdued a crazed subway lunatic threatening passengers, and now he's the one facing charges. Meanwhile, New York is releasing criminals like it's a Black Friday sale at Rikers. I say let the guy get back to his life. The only crime here is that we don't have a Daniel Penny on every subway train. The Great Pardon PanicOh, the pardons! Leftists are scrambling like chickens in a fox den. Remember when they lost their collective minds thinking Trump might preemptively pardon his kids? They were frothing at the mouth like rabid dogs, screaming, “Only the guilty need pardons!” Fast forward, and Joe Biden actually pardons Hunter, and suddenly it's a heartwarming story of fatherly love. You've gotta admire the consistency—oh wait, they don't have any.  [SEGMENT 1-2] Silly Leftists 2 And now Biden's gearing up for mass pardons. Rumor has it Adam Schiff's already practicing his “thank you” speech. Fauci's probably prepping too—he'll need one for every agency under his control: the NIH, FDA, CDC. By the time Biden's done, he'll need a bulk discount on “Pardon Me” cards. Trump's Appointments and the Lawsuit ShowdownSpeaking of accountability, let's talk about Trump's appointees. Despite the Left's best smear campaigns, they're holding strong. And Kash Patel threatening to sue Pence's advisor? I LOVE it. Finally, conservatives are playing offense. I don't know about you, but I'm tired of watching Republicans act like it's a three-legged sack race while the Left is in a tank. Let's start suing these clowns into oblivion. Why Be a Democrat Today?Which brings me to this question: why would anyone want to be a Democrat today? What's the appeal? The policies don't work, their scandals are more predictable than Hallmark movies, and their leaders are walking punchlines. Your flagship legislation is “Men Can Have Babies,” your economic policy is “Spend Until Collapse,” and your presidential frontrunner is... Joe Biden? Imagine being on a sinking ship, grabbing a bucket, and saying, “This is fine.” That's the Democratic Party right now. SCOTUS SmackdownBack to the SCOTUS hearing—seriously, the level of delusion on the Left is staggering. They want “special rights” for a mental disorder. And yes, that's what gender dysphoria is. They're trying to legalize feelings. What's next? Mandating that everyone applaud when a grown man in a tutu demands to use the women's restroom?  [SEGMENT 1-3] Silly Leftists 3   [X] SB – Charlamagne on The View Pt 1 The week's insanity has been one big reminder: the Left's hypocrisy knows no bounds. Whether it's defending pardons for their criminals, championing “rights” that defy logic, or spinning corporate corruption into a soap opera, they've mastered the art of ridiculousness. But don't worry, folks—common sense isn't dead. It's just taking a coffee break. [X] SB - Charlamagne on The View Pt 2 Sick of watching everybody else get over?     Pardons, Power, and Protecting the Crooked: Biden's Legacy of Legal Abuse Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution grants the president the authority to pardon offenses against the United States, a power intended to provide fairness and avoid prosecutorial abuses. Alexander Hamilton envisioned this clemency as a tool to “restore the tranquility of the commonwealth.” But in the hands of Joe Biden, the pardon power looks less like a tool for justice and more like a sledgehammer wielded to shield a crumbling empire of corruption. Biden's recent pardon of his son Hunter has spotlighted the blatant hypocrisy of the Left's use of clemency. After years of moral grandstanding, claiming the high road on justice and accountability, Democrats are now orchestrating mass pardons to shield themselves from the fallout of their own malfeasance. Pardons as Preemptive Damage Control During Trump's presidency, Democrats practically dared him to issue preemptive pardons for his family, projecting their own propensity for guilt on the former president. When Trump pardoned Jared Kushner's father, the media spun it as though he had pardoned Kushner himself. That narrative stuck, fueling the perception of Trump as corrupt, even as his actual record on pardons tells a different story. Trump, notably, did not pardon his children or any close associates preemptively. Why? Because they weren't guilty of anything. Contrast that with Biden, whose pardons aren't just reactive—they're preemptive damage control for an administration rife with misconduct. Leaks suggest Biden is preparing pardons for a laundry list of allies, including Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney, Anthony Fauci, and members of the January 6th Committee. These aren't minor players; they are key figures in the systemic abuse of power targeting Donald Trump and his supporters. The January 6th Committee alone violated so many laws it could be a semester-long case study at any law school. Then there's Fauci. A pardon for Fauci essentially extends to the entire health bureaucracy—NIH, FDA, CDC—that oversaw the disastrous COVID-19 policies. Lockdowns, vaccine mandates, suppression of dissent, and the mishandling of public trust—it's no wonder Biden would want to sweep this under the rug. A Record-Breaking Abuse of Power[SEGMENT 1-4] Silly Leftists 4   Historically, presidents have used pardons sparingly, often to right specific wrongs. Franklin D. Roosevelt holds the record with 2,819 pardons and 3,796 total acts of clemency, largely for people convicted under Prohibition laws. Barack Obama granted 1,927 acts of clemency, including a controversial commutation for Chelsea Manning. But Biden's pardon spree could make FDR's record look modest. Biden's administration isn't dealing with isolated cases of injustice—it's mopping up the collateral damage from years of systemic corruption. Consider the scope:The FBI: With over 37,000 employees, including 10,000 special agents, the agency's involvement in targeting Trump and MAGA supporters is well-documented.The CIA and NSA: These agencies, with a combined workforce exceeding 50,000, played their parts in surveillance and misinformation campaigns.IRS and FISA Courts: From targeting conservative groups to enabling dubious investigations, their roles can't be ignored.Biden's pardons could easily extend to thousands of individuals across these institutions, creating a tsunami of public outrage. This isn't about restoring tranquility; it's about cementing a legacy of corruption while protecting a broken system. Democrats: Masters of Projection The hypocrisy is staggering. Democrats who lambasted Trump for imagined abuses of power are now actively orchestrating the largest clemency cover-up in history. When Joy Reid and Adam Schiff criticized the idea of preemptive pardons, they framed it as an admission of guilt. Yet here we are, watching Biden prepare to issue blanket pardons to his political allies without a shred of irony.   [X] SB – Joy Reid and Adam Schiff on preemptive pardon   Dishonest man… Heard of an innocent person getting a blanket pardon       Hunter Biden's pardon set the tone: a sweeping, decade-long absolution for crimes ranging from tax evasion to illegal firearm possession. The message? Rules are for the little people. Trump: A Study in Contrast Trump's approach to pardons highlights the glaring differences between the two administrations. While Biden's pardons shield the guilty, Trump's were measured and purposeful. Trump used his clemency power to address specific injustices, such as Alice Johnson's over-sentencing or the persecution of Michael Flynn. More importantly, Trump didn't shield himself or his family. His restraint underscores the integrity of his administration compared to the flagrant abuses we're witnessing now. Rebuilding Trust in Justice Biden's pardon spree will leave a lasting stain on America's institutions. But it also presents an opportunity for renewal. When Trump returns to office, he will face the monumental Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-kevin-jackson-show--2896352/support.

Julian Assange bliver for alvor berømt, da hans organisation Wikileaks i 2010 lækker amerikanske militærhemmeligheder fra krigene i Afghanistan og Irak. Men det var aldrig sket uden whistlebloweren Chelsea Manning, der dengang gik under navnet Bradley. De to rodløse hackere har været med til at afsløre vigtige sandheder om Vestens krige, men har måske samtidig smidt nogle uskyldige mennesker under bussen. Så hvem er de? Frihedskæmpere eller terrorister? Medvirkende: Sebastian Gjerding. Tilrettelæggelse: Martin Grønne og Isabella Askov Holbech. Vært, lyddesign og titelmusik: Martin Grønne. Redaktion: Celine Klint. Redaktør: Hanne Barslund.

  In an age dominated by surveillance and data collection, is it truly possible to achieve digital anonymity? On today's episode, recorded live from Web Summit in Lisbon, I'm joined by two trailblazers who are challenging conventional wisdom around online privacy: Chelsea Manning, well-known whistleblower and privacy advocate, and Harry Halpin, CEO of Nym Technologies. Together, they reveal why traditional tools like VPNs and encrypted messaging apps might not be enough to protect us in a world where advanced AI can mine metadata to uncover our most private activities. We explore the current state of digital privacy, dissecting the limitations of existing tools and introducing NymVPN, the world's first decentralized VPN powered by a noise-generating mixnet.  With AI's ability to sift through patterns in data, simple encryption isn't sufficient anymore. Manning and Halpin delve into the concept of metadata—the often-overlooked data about data—highlighting its importance in AI-driven surveillance and why it poses a significant threat to our privacy. In this engaging conversation, we break down how NymVPN's mixnet technology offers a unique approach by obscuring online behavior with noise and mixing up data streams. We also address practical questions: Can this technology be easily adopted by everyday users? How does it stack up against popular tools like Tor? And what role does it play in regions plagued by censorship and heavy surveillance? Whether you're a journalist, an activist, or simply concerned about your digital privacy, this episode offers a thought-provoking look at the future of online anonymity. Are we truly entering a new frontier in digital freedom, or is privacy becoming an illusion? Tune in to find out—and decide for yourself if it's time to rethink the tools you use to stay safe online. After listening, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Have your views on digital privacy changed after this discussion? Let me know. Until next time, stay informed and vigilant—because privacy is more than a right; it's a necessity in today's interconnected world.

We all feel in love with the Matilda's during the world cup last year and now besties, Matilda players Chloe Logarzo and Emily Gielnik are ready to win The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition. After injury ruled out the duo in the most recent Olympics, the pair took their heartbreak and created a business together to inspire the next generation of Matildas. In this chat with Antoinette Lattouf, Chloe and Emily share their new found love of reality TV and how they turned their FOMO into a positive. Watch the The Amazing Race Australia: Celebrity Edition on 10 or 10 Play now  Weekend List TO WATCH: Louis Theroux interview with Chelsea Manning on ABC iView TO WEAR: 7-Evelen sunglasses TO TRY: To Save Face Sunscreen from Mecca TO WEAR: Uniqlo basics Send us your weekend briefing recommendations! Follow The Briefing:TikTok: @listnrnewsroomInstagram: @listnrnewsroom @thebriefingpodcast YouTube: @LiSTNRnewsroomFacebook: @LiSTNR NewsroomSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This weeks episode of Changes Focus is a celebration of Trans lives. On this podcast we try to build empathy and connectedness through sharing people's personal stories and the only way we can understand what it's like to be a Trans person is by actually listening to those people who are living it every day. In this episode we've got Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower, who discusses her journey of transitioning while in military prison, the incredible poet and musician Kae Tempest shares their thoughts on going through puberty as a Trans teenager and the importance of being your authentic self. Performance artist and author of ‘None of The Above' Travis Alabanza shares their definition of transness and talks about how they got to the point of feeling able to come out as gender non conforming. And finally, activist and author of ‘The Transgender Issue' Shon Faye shares her experiences of transphobia and her thoughts on why people are so scared of change when it comes to gender. You can find all the featured episodes in full wherever you get your podcasts.Vote for Changes at the British Podcast Awards! Voting is open until 29th August. Just click this link and search for Changes. https://www.britishpodcastawards.com/votingGET IN TOUCHContact us at changespod@gmail.com with your emails and voice notes.Changes is a deaf friendly podcast, transcripts can be accessed here: https://www.anniemacmanus.com/changesPlease Note: The transcript is automatically generated in case you come across any typos or misquotes during your reading. Enjoy the episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Although Julian Assange is free and home in his native Australia, his story and decade-long suffering at the hands of the U.S. government must never be forgotten for the sake of the survival of the First Amendment. In this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast, host Robert Scheer is joined by Kevin Gosztola, who runs The Dissenter newsletter and has been reporting on the Assange case and whistleblowers in the U.S. for more than a decade. Together, they underscore the significance of the Assange case and delve into the details explored in Gosztola's recent book, "Guilty of Journalism." Gosztola makes clear one of the main points of the whole ordeal, which is the inconsistency in the U.S.’s interpretation of its own laws. “The First Amendment and the Espionage Act are in conflict in this country. You can't reconcile the two, at least the way that the Justice Department wants to use the Espionage Act against people who aren't even just U.S. citizens. They're trying to apply U.S. law to international journalists,” Gosztola told Scheer. The U.S. response to the internet age and the powerful journalistic revelations of Assange and WikiLeaks was to criminalize such actions, sending a clear message: anyone attempting to blow the whistle or expose the U.S. government's crimes would face severe punishment, including the use of the Espionage Act, which could imprison someone for life. “Unlike Daniel Ellsberg, [Chelsea] Manning didn't have to sit there at a Xerox machine making copies. [She] just sent the copies of the documents to WikiLeaks, and then WikiLeaks had all these files that they could share with the world,” Gosztola said. Despite the online journalism revolution, many in the media space still remained quiet throughout the  Assange debacle both because of their ties to government officials and their lack of professional rigor. Gosztola posed several questions to them: “Where were you? Why weren't you doing the investigations to uncover these details? Why did this WikiLeaks organization come along and reveal these details about Afghanistan, the Iraq War, the nature of US foreign policy? Why do you accept that all of this information that was classified should be classified?”

This week we're featuring three segments. First up, you'll a conversation I had with Asphalt, a supporter of a recent federal grand jury resister in Charleston, South Carolina. [00:04:53 - 00:36:28] After that Cyprus Hartford, the grand jury resister, speaks for herself and reads her statement of resistance and here's her GoFundMe. [00:36:28 - 00:40:39] Finally, you can find an interview that Ian did with Marisa Holmes and Molly of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Committee about their recent anarchist film festival. [00:42:32 - 01:01:29] Then you'll hear Sean Swain's review of the presidential debate [01:02:06 - 01:09:16] Past GJ Eps Steve Martinez resists NoDAPL GJ in 2021 Jeremy Hammond resists Wikileaks-related GJ in 2019 & 2020 Chelsea Manning resists Wikileaks-related GJ in 2019 Katie Yow resists NC GJ in 2017 Standing Rock GJ resistance in 2016 Jerry Koch resists NYC GJ in 2013 Resistance to GJ in Pacific Northwest in 2013 ( 1 & 2) San Francisco GJ with Ian Coldwater in 2012 Federal Grand Juries By way of introduction to this first segment, I'd like to remind people that none of the people speaking about grand juries here are lawyers, but we are sharing information we've gotten from lawyers and legal experts to the best of our abilities. I'm going to read a bit from the website NCResistsTheGrandJury.Wordpress.Com: What is a Grand Jury? In the federal legal system, the grand jury is used to decide whether someone should be charged (“indicted”) for a serious crime. The grand jury hears evidence presented by the prosecutor: the U.S. Attorney. The grand jury uses subpoenas to gather this evidence. It can subpoena documents, physical evidence, and witnesses to testify. The “special” federal grand jury, created in 1970, can be used to investigate “possible” organized criminal activity rather than a specific crime. The California legal system also has grand juries, but it is optional whether criminal prosecutions are initiated by grand jury indictment, or by a complaint by the District Attorney and preliminary hearing before a judge. How is a Grand Jury Different Than a Trial Jury? Unlike the “petit” jury, which is used to determine guilt in a trial, a grand jury consists of 16 to 23 jurors who are not screened for bias. The purpose of the grand jury is not to determine guilt or innocence, but to decide whether there is probable cause to prosecute someone for a felony crime. The grand jury operates in secrecy and the normal rules of evidence do not apply. The prosecutor runs the proceedings and no judge is present. Defense lawyers are not allowed to be present in the grand jury room and cannot present evidence, but may be available outside the room to consult with witnesses. The prosecutor and the grand jury members may not reveal what occurred in the grand jury room and witnesses cannot obtain a transcript of their testimony. How Has the Grand Jury Been Used by the State? Because of their broad subpoena powers and secretive nature, grand juries have been used by the government to gather information on political movements and to disrupt those movements by causing fear and mistrust. The grand jury lends itself to being used for improper political investigation due in part to the prosecutor's ability to question witnesses without regard for rules that prohibit irrelevant, unreliable or unlawfully obtained evidence. Those called before the grand jury may be compelled to answer any question, even those relating to lawful personal and political activities. That information has been used by the government as a basis to conduct further surveillance and disruption of political dissent. When used against political movements, the grand jury causes fear and mistrust because persons who refuse to answer questions about their First Amendment political activities, friends and associates may be jailed for the life of the grand jury: up to 18 months. If a witness asserts their Fifth Amendment right to remain silent, they may be forced to accept immunity or go to jail for contempt. Even a witness who attempts to cooperate can be jailed if minor inconsistencies are found in their testimony. Such a perjury charge may stand even when the grand jury fails to hand down any indictment for what it was ostensibly investigating. The grand jury is a complicated and opaque process, by design.  Our movements have decades of experience resisting grand juries, and there are resources available to learn more and support those who resist. If you have been contacted by federal law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild has a national federal defense hotline at 212-679-2811. . ... . .. Featured Track: Setting Sun (instrumental) by The Chemical Brothers from Setting Sun

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Julian Assange a retrouvé la liberté cette semaine à la suite d'un accord passé avec la justice américaine. Avec le journaliste Olivier Tesquet, L'atelier des médias propose de revenir sur l'histoire de WikiLeaks et la figure de son fondateur, et discute de leur impact sur le droit à l'information et le journalisme dans son ensemble. Sécurité nationale, diplomatie, liberté de la presse : l'affaire Julian Assange a soulevé de nombreuses questions. Le fondateur de WikiLeaks, âgé maintenant de 52 ans – il en aura 53 mercredi 3 juillet – a retrouvé la liberté à la suite d'un accord de plaider coupable passé avec la justice américaine. Journaliste à la cellule enquêtes du magazine français Télérama, Olivier Tesquet est l'un des meilleurs connaisseurs français de WikiLeaks et Assange. En 2011, il publiait Comprendre WikiLeaks aussi disponible sous le titre La véritable histoire de WikiLeaks. En 2020, il cosignait aussi avec Guillaume Ledit Dans la tête de Julian Assange, aux éditions Actes Sud.Au micro de L'atelier des médias, Olivier Tesquet dit avoir été « assez surpris » par l'annonce de cette libération qui, il le rappelle, est assortie d'une condamnation de Julian Assange par la justice américaine. À lire aussiWikiLeaks: l'affaire Julian Assange en dix dates clésChapitres :(00:00) Introduction(01:18) La surprise de la libération d'Assange(03:06) Les débuts médiatiques de WikiLeaks(05:09) Une boîte aux lettres sécurisée pour documents confidentiels(06:04) Julian Assange, hacker australien féru de mathématiques(09:35) Chelsea Manning, une source(10:38) De l'ambassade d'Equateur à Londres...(14:54) à la case prison (16:02) Hommage à Christophe Deloire (RSF)(17:43) Assange peut-il encore être poursuivi ?(19:39) Que devient WikiLeaks ?(21:52) Le legs de WikiLeaks(23:41) Owni.fr, média partenaire de WikiLeaks en France(28:03) Les morts de WikiLeaks(29:55) Assange va-t-il reprendre du service ?(31:14) Assange pourrait-il s'installer en France ?(32:44) Parallèle avec Edward SnowdenÀ lire aussiWikiLeaks et Julian Assange, ou la révolution de l'information transparente 

People like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are amazing examples of principled men. Not only do they believe in liberty and abhor tyranny, they suffered great loss at the hand of the US Government. Today, Julian Assange was set free and returned to his home country of Australia. After spending at least 62 months in prison for publishing US Secret Documents provided to him by Chelsea Manning, he is a free man. It remains to be seen if Julian will continue his crusade against tyranny. I for one believe he should take a back seat now and just encourage others in the liberty-loving community. NBC News - Julian Assange is Free on Plea Deal with DOJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8FaEWZRisc&list=RDNSO8FaEWZRisc&start_radio=1 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/seth-martin0/message

El fundador de WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, salió ayer en libertad en Australia, luego de siete años de reclusión como refugiado en la embajada de Ecuador, seguido por cinco años preso en una cárcel británica. Para llegar a esta conclusión, Assange llegó a un acuerdo con la Justicia de Estados Unidos por el que debió declararse culpable de revelar secretos de defensa. Con WikiLeaks, Assange publicó cientos de miles de documentos confidenciales estadounidenses en la década de 2010. "Puede salir de esta sala del tribunal como un hombre libre", dijo la jueza Ramona V. Manglona al final de una audiencia rápida en el tribunal federal de Saipán, en las Islas Marianas del Norte, un territorio estadounidense que fue el designado para el proceso. Assange aterrizó ayer de noche en Canberra, la capital de su país natal, en un jet privado. Al salir del avión y cruzó la pista para abrazar a su esposa Stella y a su padre, ante la mirada de decenas de periodistas. No habló con la prensa. En virtud de este acuerdo, el exhacker de 52 años declaró que alentó a su fuente “a proporcionar material clasificado", en referencia a la soldado estadounidense Chelsea Manning, que fue quien le filtró la información. Las revelaciones de Assange pusieron a personas en "peligro", declaró en Washington el portavoz del Departamento de Estado, Matthew Miller. La información "identificaba a personas en contacto con el departamento de Estado, que incluían líderes de la oposición" y "activistas de derechos humanos de todo el mundo", agregó. Esta noticia tiene varias aristas. Por un lado, cierra un caso extendido en el tiempo que concitó mucha atención hace más de una década, y que es interesante repasar. El propio legado de Wikileaks está en cuestión: una organización que inauguró una modalidad de filtraciones masivas digitales y que fue considerada punta de lanza de un nuevo tipo de periodismo investigativo, pero que luego quedó enredada en escándalos. Por otro lado, hay analistas que consideran que el acuerdo de Assange con la Justicia podría suponer un precedente complicado para periodistas que cubren temas de defensa y de inteligencia y que tienen todo el tiempo vínculo con fuentes y acceso a documentos confidenciales. Les proponemos, entonces, darle una mirada en profundidad más allá de la noticia a secas.

After 12 years without freedom—first after seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then as a prisoner in high-security Belmarsh—Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is free and is back on home soil in Australia. Assange's crime was to publish classified information leaked from the US Army. He was working alongside Chelsea Manning, who had hacked the material. Assange claimed he was a journalist acting under the protection of the First Amendment in the US guaranteeing freedom of speech. A similar defence had been used in 1972 with the publishing of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times. In today's episode, Alan Rusbridger, who was editor of the Guardian—the UK paper that published the documents leaked by Assange—and former FT editor Lionel Barber are joined two special guests. James Goodale is a legendary lawyer who represented the New York Times during the Pentagon papers and Kenneth Roth is former executive director of Human Rights Watch. They discuss the legal precedents set by this case and debate the rights and wrongs of publishing classified documents. Plus, what does this case indicate for the future freedom of the media? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wednesday, June 26th, 2024Today, we'll get some Supreme Court decisions starting this morning at 10 AM ET; Jack Smith files his response to Trump's ridiculous evidence tampering claims in the Mar a Lago case; Julian Assange reaches a plea deal with the US for his 2011 espionage; a conservative backed group is compiling a list of civil servants who are traitors to Trump; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has an active investigation involving state Rep. Carolina Amesty and her family's nonprofit school; Israel's high court orders the army to draft ultra-Orthodox men; rattling Netanyahu's government; former North Dakota lawmaker to plead guilty to traveling to pay for sex with minor (we call that rape), 16 nobel economists warn of a trump inflation, and president biden will pardon veterans convicted under a military law banning gay sex; plus Allison delivers your Good News.Tickets and LIVE show dates https://allisongill.comSubscribe for free to MuellerSheWrote on Substackhttps://muellershewrote.substack.com Biden expected to pardon veterans convicted under military law banning gay sex, officials say (CNN)Scoop: 16 Nobel economists see a Trump inflation bomb (Axios)FDLE confirms investigation involving Orlando-area Rep. Amesty (Orlando Sentinel)Julian Assange agrees to plea deal with Biden administration that will allow him to avoid imprisonment in US (CNN)Former North Dakota lawmaker to plead guilty to traveling to pay for sex with minor (AP News)Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans (AP News)Israel's military must enlist the ultra-Orthodox. What will that mean for Netanyahu and the war? (AP News) Subscribe to Lawyers, Guns, And MoneyAd-free premium feed: https://lawyersgunsandmoney.supercast.comSubscribe for free everywhere else:https://lawyersgunsandmoney.simplecast.com/episodes/1-miami-1985Check out other MSW Media podcastshttps://mswmedia.com/shows/Follow AG and Dana on Social MediaDr. Allison Gill Follow Mueller, She Wrote on Posthttps://post.news/@/MuellerSheWrote?utm_source=TwitterAG&utm_medium=creator_organic&utm_campaign=muellershewrote&utm_content=FollowMehttps://muellershewrote.substack.comhttps://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrotehttps://www.threads.net/@muellershewrotehttps://www.tiktok.com/@muellershewrotehttps://instagram.com/muellershewroteDana Goldberghttps://twitter.com/DGComedyhttps://www.instagram.com/dgcomedyhttps://www.facebook.com/dgcomedyhttps://danagoldberg.comHave some good news; a confession; or a correction to share?Good News & Confessions - The Daily Beanshttps://www.dailybeanspod.com/confessional/From The Good NewsFact Sheet: The Biden-Harris Administration Urges Congress to Lower Drug Costs for Americans with Commercial Insurance (HHS.gov) Live Show Ticket Links:https://allisongill.com (for all tickets and show dates)Wednesday July 10th – Portland OR – Polaris Hall(with Dana!)Thursday July 11th – Seattle WA – The Triple Door(with Dana!)Thursday July 25th Milwaukee, WI https://tinyurl.com/Beans-MKESunday July 28th Nashville, TN - with Phil Williams https://tinyurl.com/Beans-TennWednesday July 31st St. Louis, MO https://tinyurl.com/Beans-STLFriday August 16th Washington, DC - with Andy McCabe, Pete Strzok, Glenn Kirschner https://tinyurl.com/Beans-in-DCSaturday August 24 San Francisco, CA https://tinyurl.com/Beans-SF Listener Survey:http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=BffJOlI7qQcF&ver=shortFollow the Podcast on Apple:The Daily Beans on Apple PodcastsWant to support the show and get it ad-free and early?Supercasthttps://dailybeans.supercast.com/OrPatreon https://patreon.com/thedailybeansOr subscribe on Apple Podcasts with our affiliate linkThe Daily Beans on Apple Podcasts

*Today EVERYONE on the right loves Julian Assange and is celebrating his release.*But his battle was a lonely one, LONG FOUGHT and nearly killed him.*A core group of relentless supporters across the globe are likely the only reason he is alive.*This is DESPITE the most vicious persecution, which came in 2017-2021 during the Trump presidency.*Julian Assange was an outspoken enemy of the UNIPARTY and exposed the FAKE electoral circus.*That landed him squarely in the crossfire of Trump's CIA and DOJ in 2017.Julian Assange is the founder of Wikileaks. His revolutionary platform used SecureDrop technology to assist government whistleblowers in safely uploading classified documents meant to expose government malfeasance, corruption, abuses and fraud. He assisted Chelsea Manning in exposing military abuses during the Iraq & Afghanistan wars by publishing leaked documents and was a relentless advocate for Manning during his arrest and trial here in the United States. His outspoken criticism of the FAKE 2016 election cycle landed him squarely in the crossfire of the deep state in 2017. He has beed detained for almost 15 years and was released YESTERDAY following a secret deal with the DOJ.We recap & analyze the Assange Saga today & MORE with John Burk who served in the United States Army during the the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars. John is the host of the All American Savage daily podcast on Rumble and other platforms.FOLLOW John on Twitter: @johnburk39WATCH John on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/JohnBurk______________________________________________________Show Notes & RESOURCES:Professor Mearsheimer makes his case why Julian Assange should not be extradited to the U.S and be pardoned. This is the CLEAR legal rationale underpinning the case for Assange's innocence.https://x.com/Real_Politik101/status/1802330064379334748CONTRA SPIN - good, deep dive & independent overview of the Assange Odyssey:https://contraspin.co.nz/beingjulianassange/WAPO 2020 - Assange lawyer says he cannot get a fair trial during Trump's administrationhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/julian-assange-fights-extradition-to-the-united-states-in-court/2020/02/23/7389ad1a-54f5-11ea-80ce-37a8d4266c09_story.html_________________________________________________Please support our sponsors!*Get 44% OFF Native Hydrate with this exclusive SJ offer!Go to nativehydrate.com/joyRestore Whole-Body Hydration,Reduce Brain Fog And Support Muscle Health!Native Hydrate is a zero-sugar electrolyte and amino acid drink mix that supports hydration, energy, and muscle health. Extra special bonus from Field of Greens!!!!Plug in the promo code SHANNON for an additional 15% off your purchase!Go to www.fieldofgreens.com to shop and save! Support the Show.Please Support Our Sponsors! Achieve financial independence with Colonial Metals Group!!! Set up a SAFE & Secure IRA or 401k with a company who shares your values and supports this show! Learn about your options HERE ——>https://colonialmetalsgroup.com/joy Get FIT and healthy with your daily serving of Field of Greens!!! Go to www.fieldofgreens.com and use the promo code JOY for 15% off! For TOTAL phone security and privacy check out our sponsors at Connecta Mobil! Visit them TODAY at www.Phone123.com/Joy Or talk to a real person by calling: 941-246-2156

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Julian Assange, el fundador de Wikileaks, ha sido liberado tras alcanzar un acuerdo con el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos. Assange se declaró culpable de violar la ley de espionaje, uno de los cargos más controvertidos que se le imputaban desde 2018. Este acuerdo llega después de que Assange pasara cinco años en una prisión de Reino Unido. En esta edición de El Debate repasamos el caso de Assange, el viacrucis judicial y las implicaciones de este acuerdo para la libertad de expresión.  Julian Assange aceptó declararse culpable de violar la ley de espionaje a cambio de una sentencia de cinco años de prisión. Gracias a este acuerdo, y considerando el tiempo que ya ha pasado en prisión, Assange ha sido puesto en libertad de inmediato. Este desenlace marca el fin de una prolongada saga judicial que ha captado la atención del mundo durante más de una década. En 2010, el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos abrió una investigación sobre WikiLeaks, una plataforma dedicada a revelar información oculta al público.La causa de esta investigación fue la publicación de miles de documentos secretos proporcionados por Chelsea Manning, analista de inteligencia del Ejército estadounidense. Estos documentos revelaban crímenes de guerra cometidos por Estados Unidos en Irak y Afganistán a principios de los 2000. Assange, enfrentando la posibilidad de ser extraditado a Estados Unidos, buscó asilo en la embajada de Ecuador en Londres en 2012. Allí permaneció durante siete años, alegando persecución política y temiendo ser procesado por espionaje y conspiración en Estados Unidos.Este periodo en la sede diplomática se dio también por una orden de arresto en Suecia por un caso de supuesto abuso sexual por el cual estaba bajo libertad condicional en el Reino Unido.En 2019, el presidente de Ecuador, Lenín Moreno, revocó el asilo concedido a Assange. Esto permitió a la policía británica arrestarlo dentro de la embajada ecuatoriana por violar su libertad bajo fianza en 2010.Posteriormente, Assange fue sentenciado a 50 semanas de cárcel en el Reino Unido. Leer tambiénTras un acuerdo con la Justicia estadounidense, "Julian Assange está libre", anuncia WikiLeaks Para 2021, Assange llevaba cuatro años en la prisión de máxima seguridad de Belmarsh. El Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos solicitó su extradición, lo que generó una fuerte presión por parte de defensores de la libertad de prensa para que la Administración Biden retirara los cargos en su contra. Durante el último año, Assange obtuvo pequeñas victorias legales en el Reino Unido que retrasaron su extradición hasta que se alcanzó el acuerdo con Estados Unidos. El caso de Assange ha sido uno de los más significativos en cuanto a las repercusiones sobre la libertad de expresión en todo el mundo. ¿Ha ganado Assange su batalla a pesar del coste personal? ¿Qué implica este pacto con el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos? ¿Ha actuado EE. UU. en contra de la libertad de expresión o hay ciertos documentos que deben mantenerse en secreto? Analizamos estas y otras cuestiones con nuestros invitados: - Félix Narváez, excónsul de Ecuador en Londres. - David Alandete, periodista y escritor. 

This Day in Legal History: Engel v. Vitale DecidedOn June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court made a landmark decision in the case of Engel v. Vitale. The Court ruled that the recitation of a state-sponsored prayer in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This case arose from a New York State law that required public schools to start the day with a non-denominational prayer drafted by the state education board.The plaintiffs, led by Steven Engel, argued that this practice amounted to an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. The Supreme Court, in a 6-1 decision, agreed and held that government-directed prayer in public schools was inherently coercive and an infringement on the separation of church and state.Justice Hugo Black, writing for the majority, emphasized that the government should remain neutral on religious matters to ensure freedom of belief for all citizens. This ruling sparked considerable controversy and debate, reflecting broader tensions over the role of religion in public life. Many supporters of school prayer viewed the decision as an attack on religious traditions, while opponents saw it as a vital protection of individual rights.Engel v. Vitale set a significant precedent for subsequent rulings on the issue of prayer and religious activities in public schools. It reinforced the principle that public education should be free from religious influence, shaping the interpretation of the First Amendment in relation to religious freedom and governmental neutrality. This case remains a cornerstone of American constitutional law concerning the separation of church and state.Federal judges on trial and appeals courts have received gifts such as private flights, football tickets, and substantial cash gifts, according to a report by Fix the Court, a judicial transparency watchdog. This report comes amid increased scrutiny over gift acceptance by federal judges, following revelations of undisclosed gifts to Supreme Court justices like Clarence Thomas.The most notable gift was a $24,000 cash gift in 2022 to Chief Judge Timothy Batten of the Northern District of Georgia from Medicraft Enterprises, a medical device company owned by a close friend. Batten also received a $4,000 gift from Medicraft in 2021. These cash gifts are rare on judges' financial disclosures, as noted by Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court.The judicial code of ethics prohibits judges from accepting gifts from those with court business or interests affected by court action. Judges can accept travel, lodging for educational or legal events, books, resource materials, and gifts from friends or family, provided they do not preside over related legal matters. Gifts over $480 must be reported in annual disclosures, but the judiciary's slow posting has caused delays.The Fix the Court analysis also found judges commonly received free tickets, including football tickets from alma maters and local teams. Judge Charles Wilson reported football tickets from Notre Dame, while Judges Steve Jones, Lisa Wood, and Julie Carnes received tickets from the University of Georgia Athletic Association.Judges also reported gifted vacations. Judge Aleta Trauger disclosed a private flight and hotel stay for a Christmas dinner, and Judge Daniel Crabtree reported travel and golf outings worth $4,100. Congress members face stricter gift limits, capped at $100 per donor annually, with exceptions for close friends and special events.Judges Disclosed Gifts Include $24,000 Cash, Football TicketsTwo federal judges issued temporary halts to parts of President Biden's student loan debt relief program on Monday. Judge Daniel D. Crabtree of the US District Court for the District of Kansas ruled that large-scale student debt cancellation should be decided by Congress, partially granting a preliminary injunction requested by a coalition of states. Crabtree stated that the Biden administration's plan represented a significant regulatory expansion without clear congressional authorization.In a separate case, Judge John A. Ross of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri also granted an injunction, stating that the states have a fair chance of proving that the administration overstepped its authority by including loan forgiveness. These rulings challenge the Department of Education's July 2023 rule aimed at reducing monthly student loan payments based on income and canceling loans after ten years for borrowers with up to $12,000 in debt.The relief plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education Plan, was set to take effect on July 1 and is estimated to cost $475 billion over ten years. This legal setback occurs as President Biden faces pressure to fulfill his campaign promise of student debt relief ahead of the November 2024 election. The Supreme Court had previously struck down a plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for 40 million people.Crabtree's nationwide injunction does not affect parts of the plan already in effect, while Ross's ruling limits the injunction to the loan forgiveness component. The cases involved are State of Missouri v. Biden and State of Kansas v. Biden.Biden's Student Loan Debt Relief Program Halted in Two CourtsSpotify's recent reclassification of its premium subscription service has sparked significant controversy in the music industry, leading to lawsuits, legislative pushes, and an FTC complaint. The conflict centers around Spotify's attempt to include audiobooks in its premium plan, reducing its royalty payments to songwriters. This move, seen as a "bait-and-switch," has led to accusations from the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC) that Spotify is attempting to underpay songwriters.The Music Modernization Act (MMA) of 2018 was designed to simplify royalty payments by creating the MLC, which issues blanket licenses to streaming services. However, dissatisfaction with the MLC's effectiveness is growing. Critics argue that the MLC's song matching process is inadequate, leaving many royalties unpaid. The NMPA has responded by lobbying for legislative changes to allow songwriters to negotiate royalties directly, outside the MLC's framework.This dispute comes amid a broader debate over the fairness of the current music licensing system. Songwriters and publishers feel squeezed by shrinking revenues from streaming services, and are seeking greater control over their royalties. The FTC complaint against Spotify represents a novel approach in this ongoing battle, highlighting the lengths to which industry players are willing to go to secure fair compensation.The MLC, up for its first five-year evaluation, faces scrutiny over its handling of unmatched royalties, which amount to significant sums. Despite some support for the MLC, there is a push for more transparency and improvements in its operations. As the industry grapples with these issues, the outcome of this multi-pronged conflict could reshape the landscape of music royalties and streaming.Spotify Royalty Drama Casts Shadow Over Songwriter ConsensusJulian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is set to plead guilty to violating U.S. espionage law, ending his 14-year legal saga and allowing his return to Australia. Assange will plead guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents. He will be sentenced to 62 months of time already served during a hearing in Saipan, chosen for its proximity to Australia.Assange left the UK's Belmarsh prison after being bailed by the UK High Court. This resolution follows a global campaign involving grassroots organizers, press freedom advocates, and political leaders. The Australian government has been pressing for Assange's release, and his wife expressed immense gratitude for the support they received.The espionage charges stem from WikiLeaks' 2010 release of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents, the largest security breach of its kind. The documents, leaked by Chelsea Manning, included sensitive diplomatic cables and battlefield reports. Assange's prosecution has been controversial, with press freedom advocates arguing that charging him threatens free speech.Assange's legal troubles began in 2010 when he was arrested in the UK on a European arrest warrant related to later-dropped sex-crime allegations in Sweden. He sought asylum in Ecuador's embassy in London for seven years to avoid extradition. In 2019, he was arrested and has since been fighting extradition from Belmarsh prison.The plea deal marks the end of a long ordeal for Assange, who has been compared to other whistleblowers like Reality Winner, who received a similar sentence for leaking classified information.WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to be freed after pleading guilty to US espionage charge | ReutersSales tax compliance in the US is fraught with challenges, largely due to the lack of transparency and a reliable system for reporting and calculating owed taxes. Unlike income tax, where employer reports help bridge gaps, sales tax relies heavily on businesses to self-report, leading to significant discrepancies in what is collected versus what is owed.A recent example highlighting this issue is GitHub's announcement that it will begin collecting and remitting sales tax in August. This move underscores a broader problem: the inconsistency in sales tax compliance across corporations. GitHub, a Microsoft subsidiary with $1 billion in revenue and over 1.3 million paid subscribers in 2023, should have been complying all along, which raises questions about the transparency and enforcement of sales tax laws.The administrative burden on businesses to comply with varied state policies is substantial. For smaller businesses, this burden can be overwhelming and costly, often requiring them to spend a significant portion of their operating capital on compliance. A survey by Avalara/Potentiate found that small and medium-sized businesses spend an average of $2,455 per month on sales tax calculations alone.The Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, which allowed states to require businesses to collect sales tax regardless of physical presence, aimed to level the playing field between physical stores and online retailers. However, the decision has led to a patchwork of state-specific policies, further complicating compliance, especially for smaller businesses.To address these challenges, states should not wait for corporations to voluntarily comply with sales tax laws. Instead, they should proactively enforce compliance among major corporations and allocate resources to support small businesses. This proactive approach could include targeted audits of large corporations, increased penalties for non-compliance, and providing tools to help small businesses calculate and remit sales tax accurately.For example, the creation of state databases of tax rates and an application programming interface for automated calculations could significantly reduce the compliance burden on small businesses. Ensuring compliance among large corporations like GitHub would also help level the playing field, making it fairer for small businesses that are struggling to comply.In summary, a more transparent and enforced sales tax system is needed. Large corporations should be held accountable, and small businesses should be supported in their compliance efforts. This dual approach can create a more equitable business environment and increase state revenues, ultimately benefiting all parties involved.States' Corporate Sales Tax Enforcement Doesn't Go Far Enough This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

As the Wikileaks founder heads for Australia, we go back to the start - two women's allegations they were raped by Julian Assange.  Find out more about The Front podcast here. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian's app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Josh Burton. The multimedia editor is Lia Tsamoglou and original music is composed by Jasper Leak.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A special thanks to our listeners for joining us, and please enjoy the final episode of Season 2. We hope to see you again soon!On this episode of Virtual Sentiments, host Kristen Collins interviews Lida Maxwell on whistleblowers, queer love, and outsider truth-telling. Lida uses Chelsea Manning, a representative outside truth-teller, as a case study to understand the interplay between personal identity and political activism, exploring the nuanced differences between public engagement and privacy. Lida also discusses her upcoming work on environmental and queer political theory that focuses on Rachel Carson's public advocacy, influenced by her private relationships, and emphasizes the role that personal experiences and identities have in shaping public truths and political actions.Professor Lida Maxwell is a political theorist and a Professor of Political Science and Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies at Boston University. She is the author of Public Trials: Burke, Zola, Arendt, and the Politics of Lost Causes (Oxford University Press, 2014) and Insurgent Truth: Chelsea Manning and the Politics of Outsider Truth-Telling (Oxford University Press, 2019). She is currently working in environmental and queer political theory and is in the process of publishing her next book, Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love (Stanford University Press, forthcoming).Check out Lida's work, "Another Silent Spring?" and "Whistleblower, Traitor, Soldier, Queer?: The Truth of Chelsea Manning"Read more work from Kristen Collins.If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.Follow the Hayek Program on Twitter: @HayekProgramLearn more about Academic & Student ProgramsFollow the Mercatus Center on Twitter: @mercatus

Joining Mike on this edition of Hittiing Left is Kevin Gosztola. Kevin is a journalist, and author known for work on whistleblower cases, WikiLeaks, national security, and civil liberties. Formerly the managing editor of Shadowproof, he writes for The Dissenter. Gosztola has covered the court-martial of Chelsea Manning as well as the extradition of Julian Assange.   His recent book is “Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange."

What’s Trending: Jason goes over the myths of the “lost” immigrant kids story. // Chelsea Manning is “safe” after tweets made people think she was contemplating suicide. // GUEST: Former Washington State Republican chair Susan Hutchison will challenge Maria Cantwell for her Senate seat. // SUV sales linked to pedestrian deaths.

Protect yourself and your family from the perils of modern technology now with Ronin.  Welcome to the Adams Archive. In this podcast we peel back the layers of official narratives to explore the intersection of advanced technology, government intrigue, and the ethics of scientific ambition.  Artificial Eclipses: Uncover the startling revelations surrounding engineered celestial events, exploring the technology capable of creating artificial solar eclipses.  The Dawn of De-Extinction: Step into the laboratories where the lines between past and future blur, as companies claim to possess the technology to resurrect extinct creatures. From mammoths to dinosaurs, examine the scientific breakthroughs, the dreams, and the ethical dilemmas posed by playing god with nature's design. Targeted Voices: The chilling confession of a CIA operative admitting to targeting Alex Jones sheds light on the power struggles between the state and the individuals daring to challenge it. Explore the implications of these admissions for freedom of speech, media integrity, and the right to dissent in a digital age. All the Links: For episode transcripts, bonus content, and direct engagement with the Echoes community, click here: https://linktr.ee/theaustinjadams Dive deeper into our investigations and become part of the movement unraveling the mysteries of our time. ----more---- Full Transcription   Adams Archive.  Hello, you beautiful people, and welcome to the Adams Archive. My name is Austin Adams, and thank you so much for listening today. On today's episode, we're going to have to cover a lot of ground, starting with the fact that Julian Assange could have his prosecution thrown away, according to Joe Biden. Biden. Now we'll talk why I think he might be saying this.  Maybe it has something to do with gaining popularity in a time where your dog wouldn't want to vote for him, but that's beside the point we'll read through that article together and talk through some of the more nuanced conversations surrounding Julian Assange. From there, we're going to discuss somebody of high, Notoriety within the AI community. What some people call the Godfather of AI warning about battle robots.  If that sounds terrifying to you, then we're on the same page. So we'll discuss that after that. We'll talk about how plants. allegedly scream when they're being harvested. That's a terrifying visual.  Then we'll jump into the Alex Jones situation. So Alex Jones, if you don't know, had the full force of the FBI, the CIA, they completely obliterated him in court. He over the Sandy Hook.  It's a crazy situation that he had. I think it was a billion dollars is what they said that he owed these defendants, which is like the most  egregious of all hearings in the history of the American judicial system. So  there was some updates on that, which is the fact that there was an individual from the FBI. Who came out and got caught on camera in one of the, I don't believe this was actually private project Veritas, but it was very project Veritas ask in the way that it was a gay man who somebody found on either grinder or Tinder. And apparently that's the only way that you can find these people who are willing to talk about this type of stuff. Um, but we'll actually watch the video where this man from the FBI comes out and, and admits that the FBI actually, um, Went after Alex Jones to make an example of him and how you might ask. Well, we'll talk about that in just a little bit.  Uh, we'll go through a couple articles about that. Then we'll talk about this new biomedical pharmaceutical company, I guess, biomedical company that's claiming that they're going to do something that has been shown rendition of this. ever, which is the fact that this company is saying it's called Colossal Biosciences. And apparently,  they're going to de extinct animals, starting with a mammoth. And if that doesn't terrify you, I don't know what will. So we'll talk about the implications of that. We'll talk a little bit about the company and the people that are behind it. All of that, and  then the last discussion we'll have today, and we might have one more, but if we have time, we'll, we'll talk about that. If we don't, the last thing we're going to talk about is the solar eclipse. So everybody went crazy over the solar eclipse. There was all these conspiracy theories about how there was earthquakes and all of this craziness, and there was going to be an EMP and  mass chaos was going to break out.  Well, it's been kind of silent since then.  That eclipse just a couple of days ago. And I held my opinion on this a little bit for a reason. Cause I don't know if I believed any of these things. Some people were saying that the solar eclipses were fake and all this crazy stuff,  but then I saw this article that came out. And it talks about, I think, I believe it's a Swedish or German, German article, um, talks about a technology that could be utilized to create eclipses.  Hmm.  That's interesting.  It's called the ESA proba three, and it's a satellite, I guess, two satellites. And we'll actually read more about this together, but two satellites that essentially  can cause pseudo eclipses.  Why would they want to do that?  Guess what? We'll talk about it. So all of that and more. And if we have time, we'll see just how far we get into this and how deep we go, but we might have a little bit deeper, darker, conspiratorial thing to discuss just after that. So all of that and more, but the first thing I need you to do before we can dive deep into those conversations is hit that subscribe button, leave a five star review, you know,  I know  that you know, that I know. How much I appreciate you.  I think there was something in there that, that was probably linguistically correct. So I appreciate you go ahead and hit that five star review button. It takes 10 seconds out of your day. And honestly, it means a lot to me. I read every single one of the reviews. Every time I see a new review, even if you don't write anything, it just, it, it honestly makes this worth it to see that you guys appreciate it. So if you haven't yet. Back out of this podcast while you're listening to it, hit the five star button. It takes 10 seconds out of your day. And it honestly means the world to me. I would appreciate it more than, you know, and if you feel so inspired, write something down, tell me what you love about it. Tell me what I should improve about it. Anything and everything you can think of, put it in there. Tell me your favorite. I don't know your favorite chips and salsa brand company. I don't know. I'd maybe I need some good salsa brands. I don't know. Whatever the fuck, whatever you can think of, just throw it in there. Tell me what you love about the podcast though. Seriously. And leave a five star review. I would appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. And  just to remind you. I am launching Ronin Ronin is my Faraday goods company, and we are going to have backpacks baseball hats beanies phone sleeves, laptop sleeves, wallets, all of these things specifically to help you protect yourself from modern technology, whether it be EMF radiation, which Robert F. Kennedy juniors talked at length about Andrew Huberman, all of those people I've mentioned that before, whether it be a stop people from swiping your credit card, Information from you, even when you didn't know what happened with RFID blocking materials for wallets, or whether it's helping you shut off, shut down and eliminate your digital footprint with our Faraday backpacks, which essentially block all inbound and outbound signals from your phone, from your laptop stops, the government stops corporations from being able to track you all of that nasty stuff that they're constantly doing. That is what I've been working on. That's why I've. Maybe had a few less podcasts more recently is because I've been diving head first into creating the by far best Faraday goods company in existence in the world today and for the future. So keep an eye out for that. The website, if you want to go check it out, there are some products listed right now. The wallets will actually be in next week. So if you want to go check those out and buy a Ronin wallet. Again, RFID blocking. You can head to Ronan, uh,  ronanbasics. com, R O N I N B A S I C S, ronanbasics. com, and you can actually get a wallet that will be shipped to you like within a week, I'll get it to you. No big deal. Now the rest of the stuff, I'm still working with the manufacturers and the suppliers and helping with the design and everything, because I want to make sure that it's perfect for you. But the hat that I have in my head right now is a Ronan hat and just a couple more tweaks to go, and it will be awesome.  Chef's kiss. So keep an eye out for that. Ronan basics. com.  All right. That's all I got for you. Let's go ahead and jump into it.  The Adams archive.  I should have been a music producer in a past life. Cause I promise you both of the intros that I've made, whether it was for red pill revolution or for the Adams archive is kind of a banger, kind of a banger should have been a music producer, but here I am talking nonetheless. All right, let's go ahead and jump into it. The very first article that we're going to discuss the very first conversation that we're going to have today is about Julian Assange,  Julian Assange, the leader and  whistleblower who has.  Unloaded a treasure trove of government and corporate corruption over  years and years and years of WikiLeaks has since fled the country, fleeing for his life while the full force of the government, the FBI, the CIA, manhunt, manhunt, manhunt going after this man.  And he would be put away for life, but he's been finding himself in Australia,  interesting enough, um, who has been sheltering him without extradition to the United States. And now Joe Biden is saying that he's considering dropping the prosecution against Julian Assange.  After a request from Australia. Now, this man should have been pardoned long ago.  This man should have been pardoned by Trump.  This man should have been pardoned by Obama. Right? The list goes on.  This man should have been pardoned long ago. There's no reason. Somebody  The only time The true case of authoritarianism is a government that cannot be questioned. And that's what Julian  Assange did. He questioned the government. He questioned their intentions. And not only did he question them, but he exposed them for what they were. He exposed them for all of the corruption, all of the surveillance activities, everything that they were doing that was horrific. You know, you go to wikileaks. com Or org or something right now. I was actually looking at their archives today. There's a unbelievable list of all of these situations where the government was doing things that it shouldn't have done. From the Guantanamo Bay,  uh, interrogation, what is it, enhanced interrogation techniques. Like so many of these things that were atrocious acts by our government that he exposed. Rightfully, you were doing illegal acts. You should be exposed for those illegal acts. This man exposed you for the illegal acts that you were committing, and now you want to go throw him in jail for committing, for, for, for exposing you. That's authoritarianism. That's abuse.  That's abusive behavior.  That isn't the act of an abuser, right?  So I would say this is the best thing that Joe Biden has  considered. This is the best possible thing. If Joe Biden did this one thing, I would scream the praises of Joe Biden from a mountaintop  for about two minutes, but nonetheless, I would still scream is my praise from a mountaintop and it would be that Joe Biden. Pardons Julian Assange.  And so let's go ahead and read this article. It says U S president, Joe Biden says the U S is considering dropping his persecution or prosecution, same thing against WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. For years, Australia has called on the U S to drop its prosecution against Assange, an Australian citizen who has fought U S extradition efforts from prison in the UK asked about the request on Wednesday, as he hosted Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida. For an official visit, Biden said, we're considering it. Hmm. Interesting.  Very interesting.  Assange has been indicted on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over his website's publication of a trove of classified U. S. documents almost 15 years ago. American prosecutors allege encouraged and helped U. S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal diplomatic cables and military files that Wikileaks  Or WikiLeaks published putting lives at risk. I want you to point me to one person who died within the government as a result of Julian Assange exposing the government and their corruption. Australia argues that there is a disconnect between the US treatment of Assange and Manning.  Then US President Barack Obama commuted Manning's 35 year sentence to seven years, which allowed her release in 2017. Assange's supporters say he is a journalist protected by the First Amendment, absolutely correct, who exposed US military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan that was in the public interest. Correct. Assange's wife, Stella Assange, has said that WikiLeaks founder is being persecuted because he exposed the true cost of war in human lives. Absolutely correct. She has said that his health continues to deteriorate in prison and she fears he'll die behind bars. A British court ruled last month that Assange can't be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless U. S. authorities guarantee he won't get the death penalty.  Wow.  The death penalty for telling the truth.  What kind of world do we live in?  That's so crazy that they would even consider that for exposing the truth, exposing corruption, exposing war crimes, exposing an enhanced interrogation.  Right? Hmm.  So there you go. That would be amazing. That would be a great precedence to set. If you find corruption and you expose corruption, you should be celebrated, not given the death penalty.  Very straightforward. So I hope that happens. I will be  So excited to hear if that happens. Like I said, that is the one thing that Joe Biden could do that you would hear my praise about is pardon, Julian Assange,  maybe Snowden to throw him on the list, throw him on the list, and then I'll be very happy. Right. So  I hope to see it happen. I hope to see it happen soon. Joe Biden is leaving office office, you know, somewhat, uh, in the near future. And that would be pretty incredible to see that that man walks free.  Alright, next situation. This is quite the segue.  The godfather of AI warns us of death. Battle Robots!  Now, when I think Battle Robots, I don't know if you remember this, but there used to be the Battle Bots, I think, or Battle Bots Arena, or something like that, where all these kids would like, I say kids, they were probably like 35 year old nerds, awesome nerds, by the way, because the show was Sweet, but they would create these little Circular like Roomba looking things, but they would throw razor blades on them and like little mini chainsaws and like little I don't know missiles or some shit  They would have saws on the side of them and like it was the craziest thing ever game show ever where they would literally physically fight these little tiny robots on remote controllers. I mean, essentially, they were like glorified little RC cars with knives, which I guess is pretty terrifying in itself. But that's what comes to mind. When I think of this, I'm sure you remember that if you are over the age of I don't know. Twenty six. Twenty seven.  I think it was even on like Nickelodeon or something at one point. Like a Nick at night. I don't know.  I'm gonna have to go back and watch some of those. Anyways, the technology is becoming more intelligent than people and could take over. Geoffrey Hinton says.  Hmm. The world can encounter, the world could encounter major disasters before the use of artificial intelligent weapons is regulated in a proper manner according to Turing award winning scientist Geoffrey Hinton, seen as a pioneer of the AI technology.  The former Google engineer who quit the company last year compared the use of the technology for military purposes to chemical weapons deployment. And I'm going to go ahead and throw this article up for you here so you can follow along with me. And if you can't see it, that's because you're listening and not watching. And if you want to watch, you can head over to YouTube right now and type in The Adams Archive and you'll find me. Maybe not, because  of all the platforms, for some reason, YouTube seems to hate me the most.  But head over there, you can actually follow along on the articles as I'm scrolling through these and see them with your own eyes. But if you're driving, don't do that. Just keep listening to my silky smooth voice.  The former Google engineer who quit the company last year compared the use of the technology for military purposes. I just read that, uh, to chemical weapons deployment, warning that very nasty things will occur before the global community arrives at the comprehensive agreement comparable to the Geneva conventions. And I totally agree with that. I can absolutely see that happening. The third I spoke about is the existential threat.  Professor Hinton said on Tuesday in an interview with the Irish broadcaster RTE News, emphasizing that these things will get much more intelligent than us, and they will take over.  I'm gonna read that again.  The man who essentially is called the, the man called the Godfather of AI, just said that these things will get much more intelligent than us.  And they will take  over.  The computer scientists highlighted the impact of AI on disinformation and job displacement and also on weapons of the future. One of the threats is battle robots, which will make it much easier for rich countries to wage war on smaller, poorer countries, and they are going to be very nasty, and I think they are inevitably going to be. And we see that kind of with the way that you see drone strikes, like the drone strike thing has completely changed the war landscape that we've seen between the war in Ukraine, uh, what we're seeing in Israel, like.  Drones have changed the game. You can sit back in some hut somewhere and some, you know, trailer in a military base and fly a, fly a  plastic plane over somebody and then blow them up or kill them, uh, pretty wild stuff. So yeah, if you think about how much that has changed warfare.  Now think about how sentient ish AI  robots armed with machine guns. With immediate reaction  times and unbelievable strength and perfect accuracy.  Yeah, that's terrifying.  One of the threats is battle robots. Just said that he urged governments to put pressure on tech majors, and, uh, especially in California to conduct in depth research on the safety of AI technology, rather than it being an afterthought there should, there should be government incentives to ensure companies put a lot of work into safety. And some of that is happening. Now, the scientists also highlighted huge benefits that AI can bring to humanity, particularly in healthcare, adding that one does not, that he does not regret any of his contributions to the technology. Despite the mounting interest in AI, several high profile picture, uh, picture figures, wow, in the tech industry have warned about the potential dangers posed by the unregulated adoption of the technology.  Hinton, who quit Google last year, has waged a media campaign to warn of the risks. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Apple co founder Steve Wozniak and Joshua  Bengio, who is considered an AI pioneer  for his work on neural networks, were among the top industry figures to co sign a letter last year calling for aggressive regulation of the AI sector.  Now I'll stop reading that to you and tell you this,  AI battle robots could be a very bad thing for humanity. like probably humanity ending  or it could also be very good for war. And by good for war, you know, my stance on war by now, I think it's useless. I think, but I also think that it will not go away. War is not going to go away. So to me, I had this thought the other day.  And there was an interesting little rabbit hole I found myself down where, think about this. What if AI robots  were now the only soldiers in major wars?  If you think about it, if their reaction time is way better, if they're literally unkillable, if they are extremely strong compared to humans, they're way faster than us, their accuracy is perfect, they have AI algorithms telling them exactly when a threat goes to reach for anything at any time. They can kill you from like, two miles away, probably like, it's just literally not going to be a fair fight.  So during the time, maybe the near future, the near ish future,  we're going to develop these weapons. If we haven't already, and my hunch would be that we already have, but if we haven't developed this already in the very near future, robots, AI battle bots are essentially going to take over the battlefield.  Now, if they do that,  and we're in wars with other countries who have essentially replaced their entire fighting force with robots, AI robots,  then what if the war was entirely fought between robots? Because essentially, what you're saying is establishing absolute dominance, because if our robots can kill your robots, and our robots could definitely kill all your people,  right? There's no contest, there's no conversation, right? So if our robots just obliterate China's, then China knows that we could essentially just have our robots kill all of them instantaneously or something like that, complete control, right? So, What if wars were no longer fought with people? What if they were only fought with robots in a safe arena esque  type of situation? 10 on 10, let's say.  10 US robots versus 10 Chinese robots, and they just fight it out in an arena because then we essentially know we don't need hundreds of thousands of these robots. But if we could just come to a gentleman's agreement,  That once the, once the octagon shuts and the robots fire, fire up their engines and whoever is the last robot standing, that country wins the war. Cause we already know the end result would be if you take that to its furthest extent, that their technology is better. And as a result of your technology being better, you could essentially kill everybody within our country, or we could kill everybody within your country.  Interesting thought experiment. And I kind of just want to see AI BattleBot war arenas as a sport, like betting and like drinking on the sidelines to, you know, two different jerseys, USA flags in the background, China with their, you know, little dinky Chinese flag. And, and, you know, we're drinking beer and they're doing math equations  on the sidelines. I don't know, however far you want to take that analogy. I think it's a cool one. I don't think it's the utopia that's gonna come of this, but nonetheless it's a fun thought experiment. But it does seem to make some rational sense that it could get to that point.  There's a sci fi book there you could write, but if you do, at least attribute me in your, you know,  your acknowledgments.  Anyways, that's,  that's the side tangent when it comes to AI battle bots. Uh, but that's terrifying. Robots could potentially kill us all. I don't know what I think is a bigger threat, whether it be AI or, you know, You know, nuclear bombs, the problem with that scenario that I just gave you, though, is it's not going to be nearly equal, right? There's still countries who haven't figured out nuclear bombs, right? They don't have the nuclear stockpile that we or Russia or China does. And so if we send these battle bots into, I don't know, Afghanistan or  a place where they don't exactly have that much It's not fair. It's just  complete dominance and control. There's nothing you can do. Go watch Terminator. You know where it goes from there.  Now on a completely different note, going from non sentient metal objects that are going to act sentient and have the possibility of, I don't know. murdering us all. There's also this flip side of things, maybe equally as terrifying,  which is that I came across this article the other day that said that plants scream  while they're being harvested.  This new study finds. Now there's something about scream and harvested in the same sentence. That just doesn't quite sit right with me. Now I'm not saying I'm going to go vegan,  but I think you're given some vegans, some more ammunition. So let's go ahead and read this article. Um, I actually came across this cool website, Indy 100.  com. I find a bunch of different websites to source some of my news articles and try to do some research for you guys. And this one had some, it had like the top 100 articles and discussions that are being had. Seems like a cool way to kind of source some, some interesting material and find some conversations. So check it out. Indie100. com.  No association. Um,  vegetarians, we're afraid we've got some news.  Vegetarians, we're afraid we've got some news that you're probably not going to like. Plants emit sounds  akin to screams. When they're distressed, according to a new study, I actually got it backwards in the way that I said that a little bit earlier. Yeah.  I guess this is ammunition for carnivores, not vegans.  It  plants emit screams when they're distressed. According to a new study,  I have the most terrifying visual picture in my head right now of a little baby plant, just screaming, uh, they allegedly produce clicking noises that humans can't hear without the use of scientific equipment. Research has found the research, which was published in, uh,  cell back in 2023 showed that plants produce these noises in times of acute distress.  Lilac Hadany is an evolutionary biologist at Tel Aviv University. Hadany said, even in a quiet field there are actually sounds that we don't hear, and those sounds carry meaning.  There are animals that can hear these sounds, so there is the possibility that a lot of acoustic interaction is occurring. Plants interact with insects and other animals all the time, and many of these organisms use sound for communication.  So it would be very suboptimal  for plants not to use sound at all. That makes sense. The findings show that plants which are distressed have incredibly high pitched popping noises, while unstressed plants do not emit these noises. emit these noises. The study's definition of distressed includes plants that were having their stems cut or were dehydrated.  However, it's not yet clear how the plants produce these noises. Now that we know that plants do emit sounds, the next question is, who does? Might be listening.  We are currently investigating the responses of other organisms, both plants and animals, to these sounds and we're also exploring our ability to identify and interpret the sounds in completely natural environments. Comes after a new study suggests that Western industrial diets may be changing the ways that humans digest plants. As modern diets lack fiber, cellulose found in fruits and vegetables is changing. Hmm.  All right.  So, that's a terrifying mental image, and now I feel a little bad for, you know, all the, all the weeds that I ripped out of the, the concrete when I was in the military. Um, anyways,  yeah, so now when a vegan comes to you and says, oh, you're hurting those animals. Well, just let them know that plants scream when they eat them,  literally, according to this study.  I don't really know where to take this from here. It just seemed pretty terrifying. And I had a lot of weird mental images of plants screaming while, while somebody was eating a, I don't know,  one of them anyways,  really not a ton of places to go from there, but I'm just letting you know, that's more of an FYI than a discussion piece.  Now, it is a discussion piece is the fact that Alex Jones has now come out and said that he's going to be pursuing a lawsuit against the FBI and the CIA for conducting a essentially a hit job on him, including the 1 billion settlement that he was forced to make. Now, it says.  Let's go ahead and see which one we should start with.  Alright, it says that Alex Jones, Alex Jones joined Louder with Crowder Wednesday to discuss the massive expose by Sound Investigations,  showing a CIA operator Or CIA operatives admission that the FBI and CIA vindictively targeted Jones for destruction. Jones explained the footage could significantly bolster a free speech lawsuit against the federal agencies for a violation of his civil rights, with which he's hoping tech entrepreneur Elon Musk could assist since the law firms coming after Jones are the same coming after Musk. Now I do want to look a little bit into the sound investigations because it was very very Project Veritas esque.  So let's go ahead and we'll take a look at them in just a minute. But this is from Sound Investigations. If you go to Twitter it's Sound I N V E S T I G is their handle. So. Sound investig.  Says breaking CIA officer, former FBI boss, uh, boss can put anyone in jail. Set them up. We call it a nudge.  FBI did what we wanted with Alex Jones. He took his money away, chopped his legs off. Estimates 20 undercover FBI agents at January 6th, works with some of them now at the CIA. Whoa. Let's watch this video.  You can kind of put anyone in jail if you know what to do. How? You set them up. Does the bureau practice entrapment a lot? Yeah. We get really close. We call it a nudge. A nudge. A nudge. Mmm. Sometimes you just gotta give them a quick little,  just to see what happens. Sometimes you like to fuse and just wait for it to follow. Nothing.  Sometimes you just gotta give them a quick little Just to see what happens. We're putting up a fake social media thing to like really get people mad. Alex Jones? Yeah, so, we were after him. You are? He did what we wanted.  Which was what?  Took his money away. Chop his legs off. Took his money away, chopped his legs, is a contracting officer at the CIAO. Lennis. Worked for the FBI in 2021 and 2022 in the San Diego office. Moved on to Homeland Security where he conducted asylum interviews at the southern border and now works for the CIA managing multimillion dollar contracts across government agencies and private.  I work for, um, I work like this, um,  I'm not supposed to tell people any job. If I say intelligence, what do you think?  CIA? Yep. Oh, you work for the CIA? I do.  That's incredible.  That is the worst  CIA  officer ever.  So I work in a field where you're like, not really supposed to tell people what to, what you do.  But when I say intelligence, you say  central intelligence. agency?  Yeah.  Wow, you're a tough cookie to crack.  That is the nation's best my friend. Let's listen to that one more time because that was amazing.  Sector Vendors. I work for, um, I work at this, um,  I'm not supposed to tell people. You're not supposed to tell intelligence. What do you think? CIA? Yep. You work for the CIA? That's me. I do work for the contracting officer.  So I deal a lot with, like,  different agencies. We're contracting with, like, uh, Directorate of National Intelligence to do stuff. We do Navy, Army,  many of them, really. I just, FBI, I used to work for the FBI, so. We went through the FBI, Abby. They're like, here, you used to work there. Oh, I'm permanent. I'm staff. I'm good. Well, why do they call it contracting? Because I do the contracting for them. I do all the legal contracts.  I fly out to vendors and evaluate them. I love the agency.  I like the Bureau too. The Bureau was a lot of fun. I got to do a lot of cool stuff at the Bureau. I was the guy in the back of the truck in the van.  Oblenus spoke to an Undercover Sound Investigations reporter about his work experience involving near entrapment and his employers involvement with political commentator Alex Jones legal battles. As long as the Bureau is able to  progress far enough to be able to put pro lifers in jail whenever they want. Yeah.  You think that's on the agenda? We can, we can  You can kind of put anyone in jail if you know what to do. How? You set them up.  You create the situation to where they have no choice but to act on their impulse. And once they act on that impulse, then we call that entrapment.  It's a fine line.  Does the Bureau practice entrapment a lot?  We get really close. Not officially? No. We get as close as we can.  We get as close as we can to it without doing it. So they can entrap some of these pro lifers into doing things that they don't care about. Japan gang, yeah.  We call it a nudge. A nudge. We call it a nudge.  Mmm. Sometimes you just gotta get a quick little, just to see what happens, right? And how does that happen?  You put a post out there, or you have someone fake it. Profile, say something that triggers, that we know is going to trigger one, right? Like, we, we already know your history. If we're to that point, we already know everything about you. So we're like, oh, this'll piss them off. Oh. Sometimes you like to fuse and just wait for it to follow, right? Like a railing. Like a, oh. So when a railing happens, then sometimes the bureau behind it Yeah, sometimes.  So that's interesting. So  he's saying essentially that they would put out social media posts to try to get certain individuals to bite on it.  I'm not sure how you could put somebody in jail for a reaction to a social media post.  Not sure what he would be alluding to there, but the fact that a CIA intelligence  contracting officer just stated basically publicly and without any friction that the CIA conducts nudges or entrapment campaigns around people they disagree with the ideologies of That's pretty concerning Make an influence that you're influencer that you're after you like a  I don't know like um  I don't even know these names. Like a Fox News person, or like a Tucker Carlson, or like a Uh, oh, I'm sure he's  Right.  The youngest one's I think that's the loudest.  Like that, what was his name? The one that said, uh,  the, uh, San Diego didn't happen. Alex Jones. Yeah, so, we were after him. You are? Are you still after him? Yeah. Why? Because he's broke. He got found guilty. And had to pay like a hundred million dollars.  So what, why were you after him? We're not anymore. Just to get the money for them? Yeah.  Was that court case used? Was that a CIA case? Sure it was. That was an agency thing? Well, actually it was a defamation case. So it's a civil, not  government.  But we were looking at all of his followers, commenting, following, like, who's that gonna make us take the break?  So, even though it's technically not our, well, not the agency, definitely, but the Bureau, for instance.  Yeah, that's not our purview. It's a civil,  it's a civil matter.  But, since they got all this access to his stuff, and it's  there,  what can we go find?  And did you find anything? I can't tell you. Oh, God.  But,  so, you know, it's just kind of like, you know,  Realize the opportunity that you have so with Alex Jones  So he's essentially saying that during the civil case. They got access to all of his documentation over the Sandy Hook allegations And I'm sure you can't point to one thing Alex Jones said that pissed off the CIA It was probably a lot of things but within that list of things was obviously that the ability to find the silliest things  potential civil legal case to completely bankrupt a man who was just doing his job in trying to expose potential corruption and mass weaponization of  proven tactics that have been absolutely leveraged and at least proposed to be leveraged, right? If you go back to Operation Northwoods with the CIA, they proposed and it went all the way up to the president. To conduct fake mass shootings, one literally on a military base. And they were actually going to pay people to conduct it.  Right? So not faking a mass shooting, that's far more difficult than actually doing the mass shooting.  Right?  When you looked at the situation in Russia, what happened? They found people who were broke. Right? Maybe this was, maybe it wasn't the CIA. But maybe it was the CIA. Mm hmm.  Who has a track record of potentially finding people who are in a position that they can then bribe to do an act that would be in line with what they would want to see happen to cause something that they want to cause. And then they find them on telegram and then they convince them to do the thing through words and money and enablement, right? Just a little nudge, just a nudge, right? So  in the case of Sandy Hook, right?  The dumbest thing they could have done, the dumbest thing anybody could have done, was try to fake it like a movie, right? That's just, there's so many loose ends.  It's far easier to convince somebody who's already on a bunch of psychological medications, who's already, you know, maybe having some sort of mental breakdown, who's already talking about it on forums to just Yeah, what if this did happen? What if this showed up at your house tomorrow? What if I gave you plans to conduct that, right? Like, there's a lot of ways to do it without  creating a Hollywood movie scene, right? This isn't the moon landing.  Right? So this man is literally admitting here that what they did was they weaponized the government.  Right? Weaponize the CIA. Weaponize the FBI. Weaponize the judicial system in order to gain  insight, dirt, and knowledge.  And then go after Alex Jones, cut him off at the legs, which means the judge who conducted it, the prosecutors, all of that should be appealed at this point with this new evidence.  You were watching him long before anything ended up happening? Probably. It wasn't my office, but I mean, we would have been well aware of what he was doing. And the goal with him was what? Just to bankrupt him?  Oh, pretty much. And we let the families do it.  What? We let the families do it. Were they encouraged to do that by the Bureau? Like nudged? We don't encourage people, but like, we just say, there's no federal  statute being broken. But you do have the option for a civil,  for a civil case. And it's a pretty good case.  In our opinion.  So, oh, that makes so much sense. I have a cousin who's a lawyer.  So that's a lot of these cases, they're kind of encouraged by the FBI? Yeah, like,  there's nothing federally, federal law we can  Interesting.  Let's see. Just gonna kind of scrub through here so I'm not making you listen to this loud background  restaurant.  But, let's see if there's anything better.  Oh, here we go. January 6th, then we'll move on. Alright, here we go.  Maybe it won't. It essentially says, how many people do you think the FBI or the CIA had in the crowd? And he said, I'm talking, they maybe had 20, 20.  You needed a thousand to get rid of that crowd.  That's where we're stuck on here. So  there you go. That's the situation. Now, Alex Jones responds to this on Louder with Crowder.  Discusses this at length in an interview. Let's see if we at that. Lemme ask if you have a lawsuit planned yourself. Um, yes. Can you explain that to people so they understand what it is that you're Yes. And, and Steven, I apologize for going on and on, but, but I can just, just lemme just finish that last go. I'll get into that. My point is justice depart.  IRS, uh, law firms, uh, rig courts, who are not allowed to defend yourself. This is the cocktail they've used against Trump. It's the cocktail that they're now using against everybody. And absolutely, the only reason I want to sue them is to get my name back. I don't even want money, but I want to be able to call Oblevis in. I want to be able to call their other lawyers in. I want to be able to call in the PR firms because the mistake they made was run their mouth. I mean, the lawyers in Connecticut and Texas. And by the way, the Texas Crips, the same ones suing Elon Musk, by the way, they got up at the courthouse steps when they won their cases, the judge had already found me guilty and then told the jury to find me guilty for a bunch of money.  They said, our mission is to silence him. We don't want money. And that's now happening in the bankruptcy court where the judge is like, wait, the law says you can get money.  But the law doesn't say you get to silence people.  And so basically there's now findings about to be made public that they're dealing in bad faith. So that's an inside baseball. But, but yes, I've talked to several different civil rights law firms and I've had four conversations with four law firms, uh, since this just broke, uh, uh,  I was talking to him before it broke. So in the last week, they just broke a day and a half ago. It seems like a million years ago now. And so it's a big deal. You know, it's all God. Yeah. You're opening up the mouths of these evil people to then expose themselves. The Bible says the pit they dig for you is the pit they will fall into. And so absolutely. I don't like taking on the FBI and the CIA, but if somebody's on top of you breaking your nose and punching your eyeballs out and gang raping you and running over you and backing over you, All you can do is fight back. That's why when I saw the targeting of you a few years ago, I called you. We're already friends then. And I said, listen, don't let it get to you because you're successful. You're one of the top talk shows. You're a populist. People love you. Do not, I know you're smart, but you haven't been through a lot of this yet. You've been through some stuff. I said, I know the cut of this jib. I know the signature. This is 100 percent the Justice Department, the CIA. They create the narrative. They look at things. They go, we'll take this and we'll take that and we'll make Alex Jones the guy that bullies kids and pees on graves. Exactly. And then we'll make Steven Crowder this guy that, you know, literally, uh, breaks women's necks and human sacrifices them and it's just all made up and then they just hype it and hype it to, to, to, to, to, to take what you're known for being smart and being funny.  Alright, so there you go. That's his response. He's essentially going to go after the FBI and the CIA for conducting this, uh, this nudge operation, right? Uh, now,  again, I think that was pretty good work. Like, I think that's some of the better investigative journalism that's come out more recently, even above what OMG is doing. Uh, what I've seen more recently from James O'Keefe, which is, you know, OMG media project Veritas is essentially dead in the water. I haven't seen a single project Veritas thing come out, uh, in probably a year since they got rid of him.  Uh, but let's look, I just want to look at their, the sound investigations, Twitter account. Hopefully they're only 23, 000 followers.  Uh, investigating corruption in adult industries and more.  Hmm.  Wow. And since they posted that, that has 6 million views  on  Twitter.  Hmm.  Very interesting.  Uh,  And look, they have more posts. They posted about the Pornhub, C Suite, Executive, uh, Uh,  Very interesting. Okay, cool. Sound investigations. Good job. Good on, good on James O'Keefe for encouraging people to start doing this, right? That's real journalism. Absolutely incredible.  Okay, let's touch on this.  But before we do that, I just want to remind you that you're still here, still here listening to me. And if you haven't left a five star review,  I'm watching you.  Not really. Not like the CIA, but I am I am I do feel your presence right now And if you haven't done it yet, I know you want to just do it Just tippity tap that button and I also know you want to head over to Ronan Ronan basics calm and check out the website It's still a little bit of a work in progress. Most of the things are still on backorder But at least you'll be familiar, roninbasics. com, and I'll let you in on a little clue, something I'm pretty excited about, is that every single one of my order, every single one of the products that I sell will come with it  in some way, shape, or form,  a QR code. And on that QR code, it can lead you to become a Ronin affiliate, where you can make any a percentage of every person that you help  protect themselves from modern technology. So just by buying one of my products, you'll get a QR code that will be sent to you and you will make a percentage of every single sale. That has ever made  by anybody you encouraged to do so. So you can even make some money. Think about that high quality products, protect yourself from EMF radiation, get rid of corporate and government tracking. How could this get better? You ask?  Well, what if you have made money off of it? What if you did that? That'd be pretty cool, huh? So, RonanBasics. com, and this will start, again, the thing that I will have go live, that will no longer be on backorder, or presale, is going to be the wallets. Alright? Um, pretty awesome designs. They look super sharp, very high quality materials, RonanBasics. com. Check out the wallets that are there and make your order today. And I can start shipping it out as early as late next week. And I will include with that  a QR code for you to share the love with all of your friends and family.  All right. RonanBasics. com head there right now.  U. S. company hoping to bring back dead extinct animals.  This article says U. S. company hoping to bring back the dodo and the mammoth.  But here's why it won't be like Jurassic Park. I like how they're already going on a PR campaign. But here's why it's not going to turn into velociraptors tearing you and your children to shreds. Here's why. Let me explain. My name is James Robinson, news reporter for SkyNews. com. Let me tell you why this is a great thing for humanity. That we're going to bring back woolly mammoths. And also saber toothed tigers. And also maybe Velociraptors. Let me, let me, give me five minutes of your time and I shall convince you, sir, that bringing back extinct animals that the world no longer was able to, to need or was able to sustain at sizes much larger than animals that we have today, in an environment that is constantly surrounded by humans that are not like they were before, let me tell you why introducing  Extinct animals back into the ecosystem is a great thing. Okay, I'm listening, James. Tell me.  Well,  the idea of scientists bringing prehistoric creatures back to life with some clever DNA trickery might sound familiar to fans of the 1993 Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park. Yes, it does. But for Colossal Biosciences, a company that hopes to reintroduce extinct species such as the Dodo and the Mammoth, I like how they find like the most cuddly little stupid things that they could come up with,  right? We're not gonna do those big scary animals, right? We're not gonna weaponize  Tyrannosaurus Rex's, right? We're just just a little Dodo. They're stupid and harmless. That's all. Maybe a little woolly mammoth So you can give it a little belly rub  But not velociraptors. We would never do that. We would never. We would never. That's a terrible idea. We would never do that, guys. We would never start an island for rich people to go hunt velociraptors. To pay us millions of dollars  to go start our own  Jurassic Park Island, where you could view  Velociraptors, T Rexes, Bronchiosauruses, Triceratops, and, and all of your childhood dreams come true. We would never do that and monetize it for our benefit.  Just dodo's. And little belly rubs for the woolly mammoths. That's all we want to do, guys. Don't worry about us. Just dodos. They were stupid to begin with. We'll start there.  But for, uh, it, it says it is more than just a film script.  It's a reality, and one that could be just years away. We've got all the technology we need, says Ben Lamb, chief executive of the firm. Based in Dallas, Texas. It's just a focus of time and funding. And we are 100 percent confident we can bring back the Tasmanian Tiger, the Dodo, the Mammoth. The science behind the project is simple. Work out the genes that make an extinct animal what it is, and then replicate those genes using the DNA of a close existing relative.  Right?  We're not God. We're just creating  animals out of thin air. With our bare hands. Creating life. The very existence that maybe, just maybe, we may alter a thing or two there. Maybe make a purple woolly mammoth, because people love purple.  Right? But we would never. Not the big scary stuff, guys. Don't worry about  it. It's almost reverse Jurassic Park, says Mr. Lamb. Right? In the film, they were film filling in the holes in the dinosaur DNA with frog DNA.  We are leveraging artificial intelligence and tools to identify the core genes that make a mammoth a mammoth and then engineering them into elephant genomes. Right? We're not, we're not filling in the DNA with frog DNA. That's um,  such a huge part of this and all of the concerns have to do with the frog DNA. So we're not going to do that.  Wow.  Uh, that is the technical part, but there are some other practical hurdles for Colossal to overcome. Namely, once you have a mammoth cells, do you birth a real life mammoth? The answer, according to Colossal, is in the womb of an Asian elephant.  Hmm. But it is a process that could take nearly two years, even after they've worked out how to do it. Each of the different projects have different challenges. The mammoth is really around gestation, which is around 22 months. The dodo gestations, it's pretty great. They said we are using surrogate chickens. The hardest part is cultivating the primordial germ cells.  So after about 4, 000 years.  When could we see the return of the Mighty Mammoth, a creature that fell victim to human hunting? This is our fault, guys. Let's bring him back. And the changing conditions brought about by the end of the last Ice Age. We are well into the editing phase, said Mr. Lamb. We don't have mammoths yet, but we still feel very good. About 2028.  Geez. Away from the lab, led by Rona Hisoli, Colossal's head of biological sciences, there are a few issues to overcome, including where the newly returned species will live once they're born.  Mr. Lamb said Who gives Who the fuck gives you the right? Mr. Lamb who gave you who gave you the right to do this? How do you how do you say? Oh, I'm gonna be the guy to challenge nature  to say hey I know this happened in the past in history, but guess what?  Not on my watch, my name's Mr. Lamb. I'm gonna reverse engineer the cells and become God, and start to create animals that haven't been around for thousands of years. Without any regard to how this will affect our ecosystem, without any regard to what the actual predatory aspects of this might look like, without any concern for anything other than, this shit looks pretty cool, maybe I'll do that.  How is there not, and also by the way, what stops them from doing this with Neanderthals?  There's a weird situation. Oh, no, all you need is a surrogate mom and we have Neanderthals back  Isn't there like little people too? Like we I remember I went to the museum. I think it was in San Diego  Some some museum that I was at and they had a literal like little person dwarf That was another homo sapien esque type of figure  What's to stop them from doing this. With that, are we gonna bring back Neanderthals and dwarf homo, you know,  homo sapien esque creatures, and just see how that works out for us.  I could just see, let's go. Let's go into a new scenario. We went from battle bots to Neanderthals being regenerated into life. Maybe. Maybe let's cross them both together.  The battle bots.  And the only way to, to combat that is to bring back to life the strong, the, the eyebrow having Neanderthals, right? We were the reason they're gone anyways. Just bring them back. We'll see. Well, they're going to back us up. Right? If, if all hell breaks loose with the AI robots, let's just keep further experiment with us being God, you know, discount the metal God that we're creating. And let's just say, Hey, we're going to bring back the enderthals to fight off the AI  robot battle bots. Maybe that's the end result. Right? But literally, do you think they're going to stop a mammoths? Do you think they're going to stop at Dodo's or whatever they said, whatever the other one was. No, they're going to do everything and anything they can, which includes.  Includes dinosaurs includes other, uh, Homo sapien ask  creatures like the Neanderthals, right? That is going to happen if we are going down this road. We are opening up Pandora's box. Where these scientists are acting as if they're gods, where they believe they can do whatever they want without repercussions, without government oversight, because they're moving fast enough now to where we can't as humans be able to take in the information and what they're doing and have corrective measures and, and guidelines for them to follow, which says, Hey, maybe it's not a good idea to re introduce predatory species into our current state ecosystem that haven't been around for thousands of years. Maybe that's not a good idea.  Maybe it's not a good idea to create a hyper intelligent Metal figure that could break every bone in your body and has no emotions.  Maybe not,  you know Where do we start to put where do we start to draw the line, right? If it's not hyper intelligent godlike metal creatures, and it's not bringing back extinct creatures and developing Animals from scratch  and changing their genetic makeups with with the metal God filling in the blanks  Right? Like, there's so many sci fi books that I could create out of this, it's ridiculous.  And most of them, if not all of them, end terribly for us.  Right? We better hope the aliens show up and save our asses from these dumbass scientists trying to extinct humanity while bringing back dodo's  and creating metal gods like AI. Battle bots.  Jeez.  Our ultimate goal is to put all the animals we make back into the wild. He says new tools in the fight to protect nature. Colossal thinks the work is not just about rewilding animals previously lost to the world. The company is currently working with Dr. Paul Ling at Baylor college of medicine to create a vaccine to eradicate the deadly. E E H V virus, which kills about 20 percent of baby elephants. It is also working closely with the university of Alaska and the university of Stockholm on radiocarbon dating of American mammoths, as well as sequencing their genome, the largest study of its type ever undertaken.  Now what's interesting about this is that guess what they're getting to help convince you in their propaganda campaign, that this is a good thing.  They hired the guy. There's a very famous documentarian named Teton.  Not named Teaton Ridge, but James Reed, you've probably heard that name before and if you hadn't go look up his IMDB and you'll probably be pretty familiar with it. You know the Documentary that was very very famous region recently The my octopus teacher  is now been commissioned to create a docu series about this medical technology company The new Jurassic Park  says the company has teamed up with Oscar winning my octopus teacher James Reed's underdog films and Teton Ridge Entertainment to produce a multi year docu series about Colossal's work. The firm bills itself as the world's first de extinction company has raised some 225 million dollars in funding as it works to resurrect species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo. The announcement of the docu series comes on the heels of Colossal hiring former legendary Entertainment executive Emily Castell as chief marketing officer. Among other duties, Castell will help guide the company on its foray into the entertainment world. Teton Ridge Entertainment will finance the first phase of production with the intent of finding a distribution.  Coming to a Netflix near you!  The real Jurassic park. I like how every time they mentioned this, they also mentioned dodo's and woolly mammoths. Like they, I guarantee you that marketing executive CMO  probably did a huge survey market analysis  where they tried to figure out what are the least intimidating things that we could run our campaign on to not immediately sound the public alarms around us playing God, and that just so happens to be the woolly mammoth and the dodo.  Right?  Transparency is core to Colossal's missions and goals. Of course it is. So working with the right filmmakers to chronicle our journey was incredibly important.  Right? So this is just a big propaganda campaign. Huge money budget, big propaganda campaign to convince you that this is a good idea and we shouldn't be sounding the alarms over this. Okay,  now, the last topic that we're going to discuss today  is going to be  that the Everybody was talking about this week about the solar eclipse, right? There was all these conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse, right? It's going to be the end of times. It's going to cause all these earthquakes that the, all of the technology is going to go out. It's there's going to be this, there's going to be that there was all these conspiracy theories. And I didn't come out and say much about it at all. One, because I was too busy, busy building Ronan and have my head buried in the sand to sit and create content about it. Yeah. But two, I didn't really see the correlation, right? I know there's a huge buildup and it's in the air. Something's going to happen very shortly, very soon. I don't disagree with you.  Uh,  and side note, I listened to a podcast between Theo on Theo Vaughn's podcast, uh, this past weekend where he interviewed Tucker Carlson, probably one of my favorite podcasts I've listened to in a very, very long time. And Tucker Carlson sounds the alarm. It's the third time I've said that in like three paragraphs.  It really does. Sound the alarm bells around the potential for mass EMPs causing mass chaos by an external enemy. And there's some really sobering thoughts and ideas around, get a plan in place, because when all hell breaks loose and you can't call your mom, you can't call your dad, you can't get a hold of your kids, you can't get a hold of your brother, your sister, your mother, your best friend,  what are you gonna do? Do you have a plan in place? Do you have a place to meet up? Do you know where to source your water from? Do you know how to get out of the city properly? Do you know where to go hide in the woods? Do you know those things? Because if you don't,  and I certainly need to put together this plan as well, but you should have a plan. You should have some food storage. You should have a way to filter your water. You should have some of those things, right?  Go listen to that podcast. Really, really well done. But anyways,  uh,  all of these conspiracy theories around what's going to happen after the eclipse. Now.  Being somewhat interested in astronomy and and the cosmos and everything that's going on in the larger universe around us This eclipse is pretty cool to me I like looking up in and seeing that and and kind of being able to feel extremely small in this mathematical equation that is reality going on around us and I appreciate being able to witness that and I think it's pretty damn cool People that shit on the Eclipse are the same people that shit on New Year's resolutions. Like, you're just,  you're just lame.  So, I wrote off all these conspiracy theories.  And,  I didn't find any of them interesting. I didn't see any one of them that convinced me there was going to be something that went down.  But what I did see,  after the fact,  excuse me, is this article.  And I saw a video about it, that was pretty well done.  And it explains how  the Eclipse could have potentially been artificially created. And that sounds crazy.  But let me tell you how  this article  comes from the European Space Agency,  and it says face to face with sun eclipsing proba  three,  there is a satellite technology  rotating around the earth right now that has the capability to cause a pseudo solar eclipse. This is real technology. It's online.  Look it up, the article is face to face with sun  eclipsing Proba 3. And here's what it says. It says,  through exquisite millimeter scale formation flying the dual satellite making up ESA's Proba 3 will accomplish what was previously a space mission impossible. Cast a precisely held shadow from one platform to the other in the process of blocking out the fiery sun to observe its ghostly surrounding atmosphere  Now this should be fairly easy and simplistic to go back and see if prior to this thing being created was there a projected solar eclipse. It's just a mathematical equation, right? I'm sure somebody way smarter than me knows how to calculate it. But this should be able to be validated. I haven't done that math myself because it would take me 20 years of learning math and you know, maybe getting Neuralink in the, in the process to help me understand it. But  there's probably a way to validate this. So I just haven't gotten that far, but there are some interesting names for these things.  One of them is called the Occulter Spacecraft because there's two satellites that make this up. And it says, ahead of the Proba pair launching together later this year, the scientists who will make use of Proba 3 observations were able to see the satellites with their own eyes. Members of this team will test hardware developed for the mission during an actual terrestrial solar eclipse over North America. Next.  April dun dun dun. The two satellites are currently undergoing final integration in the premises of RedWire near Antwerp in Belgium. They are paid a visit by Proba3 science working team, a 45 strong group of solar physicists coming from all over Europe and the wider world.  Many of these experts are regular visitors to terrestrial solar eclipse around the globe, but looking forward to the new perspective Proba3 will open up on the faint solar corona. This mysterious region is important as the place where coronal mass ejections are created, vast eruptions of charged particles that trigger solar storms, as well as influencing the velocity of the solar wind, which is central to determining space weather. The satellite hardware was quite something to in close up, or in close up.  I was particularly struck by how close the camera had on the coronagraph  spacecraft is to the solar array. So those are the two names of it. Coronagraph?  And the other satellite's name is Occulter.  While the array relies on high solar illumination, the camera has to remain in complete darkness with no stray light whatsoever. It really brings it home how precisely that small shadow cast by the Occulter will need to be maintained in place. We also got to peek at the carefully machined edge of the Occulter spacecraft's disk, normally kept under protective cover before launch. Interesting.  Now this is pretty long. Let's see if we can find out and explain how it goes. Exactly does what it's supposed to do.  So it says there are telescopes that incorporate internal occulting discs to obscure the solar disc. The problem is that these internal occulters still experienced light spilling around their edges known as diffraction, blotting out the extremely faint signals of interest, right? So it looks like one, uh, one satellite in front of the other, both positioning itself in front of the sun and creating this. Pseudo eclipse, right? An artificial eclipse, it says.  It says Damian Galeno, ESA's Proba 3 project manager, notes the best way to reduce diffraction,  uh, is to increase the distance between the occulter and the chronograph, which is precisely what Proba 3 is going to do.  Interesting. By definition, full scale end to end testing of PROBA3 is impossible here on Earth, but the meeting here heard how the same set of filter wheels developed by PROBA3  will be used to observe the solar eclipse over North America on the 8th of April 2024 along the Liquid Parallel Crystal Imaging Technology.  The filter wheels allow observation of the corona in different polarization angles, like switching between different polarized glasses.  Uh, the nice about observing during an actual eclipse is we won't need any occulter to gain insight of exactly the kind of results we are going to get back from Proba 3. Now why would they want to do this? Right, why would they want to cause proba 3? A solar eclipse. It says, uh, Assuming the sun's output influences Earth's climate, it's important to measure any variations we precisely can. Probe 3 is due for launch this autumn. Like, what's the purpose of this? Why are you doing that? Why do you want to? And here's a actual good, uh,  Explanation as to what it's doing and how it's doing it and so you can go check that out Look up the article name, but the  last thing I'll show you is a video here This is a two and a half three minute video that explains h

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Jack Douglas Teixeira has been charged with violating the Espionage Act after he leaked upwards of 100 classified documents to a discord server. The Espionage Act has a long and controversial history over the last century and has been used against the leaker of the Pentagon Papers, against whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and even against Donald Trump. Let's learn about this wild law. Check out http://rocketmoney.com/leeja or scan the QR code on the screen to start managing your personal finances today.  

In 1969, Leila Khaled became the world's first female aeroplane hijacker when she took control of a flight from Rome to Tel Aviv. Now, at almost 80, she remains on the national committee for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and is set to appear as a speaker at Green Left's Ecosocialism 2024 conference in WA in June.   But with her past history and her more recent activism, would she be allowed entry into Australia? Or would her name be added to the long list of other controversial figures - like Novak Djokovic, Chelsea Manning, Chris Brown, who have been banned from entering the country? In today's episode, Bension Siebert speaks with LiSTNR Investigations Editor, Clair Weaver, about how visa decisions on controversial figures are decided.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

P173 - Neutrality | Grace Petrie Better The (CENSORED) You Know | Jesse Jett : LIVE From The Blacksite https://jessejett.bandcamp.com/album/live-from-the-blacksite The Message: Mavis Staples - Action Howard Zinn - on being Neutral The Four Fathers - Warriors - a song about Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange and Wikileaks https://thefourfathers.bandcamp.com/track/warriors Caitlin Johnstone - You Have Already Taken A Side https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/03/03/you-have-already-taken-a-side-on-israel-palestine-whether-you-admit-it-or-not/ Jowan Safadi - I am the Semite https://jowansafadi1.bandcamp.com/track/i-am-the-semite Grace Petrie - Build Something Better https://gracepetrie.bandcamp.com/album/build-something-better Consolidated - https://consolidated.bandcamp.com/track/the-machine-is-dead-long-live-the-machine-america-no-2-headbolt-mix Polyrical History - episode 3 - P3 - Feminism | Hazel Dickens The Music: Action | Mavis Staples : Livin' on a High Note If You Think You Are Being Neutral - Howard Zinn - The Lottery of Birth | Howard Zinn : YT Warriors | The Four Fathers : CJ - You Have Already Taken A Side On Israel-Palestine (Whether You Admit It Or Not) | Caitlin Johnstone : I am the Semite | Jowan Safadi : Meanwhile in Texas | Grace Petrie : Build Something Better Whatever's Left | Grace Petrie & the Benefits Culture : Whatever's Left Next Episode Starts | Grace Petrie : Build Something Better The Machine is Dead! Long Live The Machine!/ America no. 2 (HEADBOLT Mix) | Consolidated : Not Cynical (feat. Time) (Kitchen Sink Mix) | Consolidated : This Is for My Girls | Kelly Clarkson, Chloe x Halle, Missy Elliott, Jadagrace, Lea Michele, Janelle Monáe, Kelly Rowland & Zendaya : This Is for My Girls - Single Work For Peace | Gil Scott-Heron : Gascd. [Disc 2]

The war on humanity includes making the sharing of information a crime. The persecution of Julian Assange is showing the blueprint. Suppressing real information is the goal. Two decades of censorship to cover up US brutality. This was about torture. The misuse of the Espionage Act is key. Chelsea Manning and the setup plans. Assange didn't leak info, he published it. Aiding and abetting charges could crush all journalism. Data collection intensified after 911. These were crimes committed under W. Robert Storch and controlling Ukraine corruption rumors. It was all helped by making propaganda legal. Little wars that make big money. The dangers of exposing state criminality. The ICC threatens to prosecute. Not all the Nazi's were hung. . Leaking dirty laundry sometimes helps. DARPA and the socials is old news. Trump actually pardoned Assange. Surveillance in the center of the business model. Who knows about Zingo Labs? Block chain tools to enhance security. Baking things into the code. The college of the deep state. This is how we will be voting. They never thought she would lose. It's not looking good for them, so everyone tread very carefully.

WikiLeaks oprichter Julian Assange probeert vandaag en morgen voor het Britse Hooggerechtshof in Londen nog een laatste keer zijn geplande uitlevering aan de VS te voorkomen. De Amerikanen willen hem hebben, op verdenking van spionage, vertelt correspondent Meike Wijers vanuit Australië. De aanhangers van Assange vrezen dat met zijn veroordeling juist de persvrijheid in het geding komt.Gast: Meike WijersPresentatie: Egbert Kalse Redactie: Rosa van Toledo en Esmee DirksMontage: Yeppe van KesterenHeeft u vragen, suggesties of ideeën over onze journalistiek? Mail dan naar onze ombudsman via ombudsman@nrc.nl. onder het tekstje zettenZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Julian Assange who founded WikiLeaks in 2006 went on to win multiple awards for his investigative journalism covering, among other stories, political killings in Kenya and social unrest in Tibet. Assange came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, including footage of US airstrikes in Baghdad, and US military logs from Iraq and Afghanistan. The US government—charging Julian Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, and later for violating the Espionage Act of 1917—has pursued Assange relentlessly. Since April 2019, Assange has been confined in HM Prison, Belmarsh as the US extradition effort grinds forward and is contested in the British courts. We're joined by Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange, for an urgent conversation about the imminent fate of someone who dared to tell the truth.

In our latest episode, Scott talks with Josh Davidson (@certaindays) co-editor of "Rattling the Cages," about his new oral history of political prisoners in North America. Josh, along with co-editor Eric King, has put together over 35 interviews of political prisoners and former political prisoners. From members of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Front to whistle-blower Chelsea Manning to members of SHAC and the Earth Liberation Front, the book dives into life on the inside for people with radical politics. We hope to capture a bit of that in the interview. Bio// Josh Davidson is an abolitionist who is involved in numerous projects, including the Certain Days collective that publishes the annual Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar and the Children's Art Project with political prisoner Oso Blanco. Josh also works in communications with the Zinn Education Project, which promotes the teaching of radical people's history in classrooms and provides free lessons and resources for educators. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Outro- "Police Story" by Black Flag Links// +AK Press: Rattling the Cages (https://bit.ly/3RMbKGv) Follow Green and Red// +G&R Linktree: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/greenandredpodcast⁠⁠ +Our rad website: ⁠⁠https://greenandredpodcast.org/⁠⁠ +We're part of the Labor Podcast Network: ⁠⁠https://www.laborradionetwork.org/⁠ Support the Green and Red Podcast// +Become a Patron at https://www.patreon.com/greenredpodcast +Or make a one time donation here: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/DonateGandR⁠⁠ This is a Green and Red Podcast (@PodcastGreenRed) production. Produced by Bob (@bobbuzzanco) and Scott (@sparki1969). “Green and Red Blues" by Moody. Editing by Isaac

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comWriters write. And sometimes talk shop! This week, Sarah and Nancy chat with one of the best: Kerry Howley, essayist extraordinaire and author of the superlative and unclassifiable Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs, a book about “the deep state,” according to its cover, though Kerry admits, “I don't know what this book is about.” Bottoms Up is unsettling, quietly profound, introducing us to whistleblowers like Reality Winner (yes, her real name) and how technology has us flattened us into data that can be harvested to create whatever story the Powers That Be want to tell. Good times! Also discussed:* Is Monster energy drink a tool of the devil?* Why Kerry thought the subject of her book sounded boring, too* Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning are not the heart of this book* Reality Winner is a hell of a character* The Intercept's fateful mistakes* Do you have to interview a person to profile them?* When the “compulsion to help” leads to dangerous places* Why a bad memory is the key to good writing* Empathy for Britney Spears' father Jamie* Profiles on Larry Nassar, whistleblower Daniel Hale* The argument for reading celebrity memoirs* We love a journalism assignment!* The first pages of Moby Dick are … funny?* The writers we turn to for inspiration* Kerry and Nancy each have a daughter named Tavi* Why writing is like a possession

Nym CEO Harry Halpin and security consultant Chelsea Manning sit down with The Agenda to explain how the Nym mixnet and VPN help keep users anonymous online, as well as how privacy tools can fight AI algorithms and surveillance, why institutional adoption can be good for privacy, and more.The Agenda is brought to you by Cointelegraph and hosted/produced by Ray Salmond and Jonathan DeYoung. Follow Cointelegraph on Twitter at @Cointelegraph, Jonathan at @maddopemadic and Ray at @HorusHughes. Jonathan is also on Instagram at @maddopemadic, and he makes the music for the podcast — hear more at madic.art.Follow Chelsea Manning on Twitter at @xychelsea and Harry Halpin at @harryhalpin.Check out Cointelegraph at cointelegraph.com.If you like what you heard, rate us and leave a review!The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast are its participants' alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. This podcast (and any related content) is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice, nor should it be taken as such. Everyone must do their own research and make their own decisions. The podcast's participants may or may not own any of the assets mentioned.

Our guest this week is Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. You can find me and the show on social media by searching the handle @DrWilmerLeon on X (Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. Our Facebook page is www.facebook.com/Drwilmerleonctd All our episodes can be found at CTDpodcast.com.   TRANSCRIPT: Dr. Wilmer Leon (00:14): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I am Wilmer Leon. Here's the point. We have a tendency to view current events as though they occur in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I will have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between current events and the broader historical context in which these events occur. This will enable you to better understand and analyze the events that impact the global village in which we live on today's episode. The question before us is what has happened to academic freedom and free speech? For example, there's an article in the Manitoban, the student newspaper of the University of Manitoba Canada, and it's entitled you of Manitoba, professor Soft on Putin, an Alumnus, thoughts on a Professor's Interactions with President Putin. My guest is a professor in the Department of Political Studies and Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Canada. She's an author of numerous books, and she's the subject of this article. She's Dr. Radhika Desai. Dr. Desai, welcome to the show, and let's connect some dots. Dr. Radhika Desai (01:44): Absolutely. Wilma, let's get going. Dr. Wilmer Leon (01:46): So you and your husband attended the Valdi Discussion Club and all expenses paid trip to Sochi Russia. You went earlier this month and this forum, the Valdi Forum, is billed as a wide ranging conference about international issues. Russian President Putin speaks at the conference every year. Now, as a result of your attending this revered and respected international conference, you and your husband have come under attack. So if you would please, first let's explain to the audience what is the VALDI Conference? Dr. Radhika Desai (02:25): So the Valdi Club is called the Valdi Discussion Club, and as its name indicates, every year, well, first of all, it holds discussions of course, throughout the year. It has a very good website with some leading commentators from around the world posting analysis of what's going on in the world, in the world economy, in world politics, et cetera. And then every year it has an annual conference to which it's an invitation only event. And of course the press is there as well. And every year they essentially analyze the world context in which the fast changing world context, shall we say, it's been going for 20 years. Indeed, the last conference we went to was the 20th Anniversary conference. A couple of other things about it that are important is that firstly, because Russia has been, if you think about the last 20 years from 2004 onwards, Russia has really been sort of in the eye of the storm that is changing the world so quickly and so rapidly, particularly over the last few years. (03:28) So that conference is actually a very fascinating conference to be at because people from, as I say all over the world, experts and academics, and even people, former diplomats, et cetera, all these sorts of people who really know what's going on attend the Wildlife Conference. So these conversations are absolutely fascinating. And second, the second thing I wanted to say is that of course the organization was set up by a few academics. As you say, president Putin always speaks at it. And in a certain sense, it will be interesting to think of it as the Russian equivalent of, for example, the Council of Foreign Relations in the United States or the Royal Institute of International Affairs, otherwise known as Chatham House in the United Kingdom. Dr. Wilmer Leon (04:17): And so you and your husband attended the conference and you even were able to submit a, well, you and your husband were able to submit a question to President Putin. And one of the things that for me is utterly amazing is he takes all comers, the questions aren't really screened. You're able to ask him anything that's relevant to world events, and he will at times speak for two and three hours just openly engaging with the press. Absolutely. I can't imagine Joe Biden, I can't imagine Barack Obama, bill Clinton. I could see doing it, but because it's so, it's structured but unstructured. Dr. Radhika Desai (05:12): Yeah, I mean, you are absolutely right about that. And I think the fact that we have political leaders who can barely read a teleprompter, let alone talk for four hours to essentially unscripted questions. This is really quite interesting. But anyway, to get to the point, president Putin, I've asked questions before. So I remember earlier in a 2014 Valdi Club conference when I had a previous possibility of asking a question, it was completely unscripted. And I had asked him about his economic policies for Russia and why he wasn't being, shall we say, more developmental in his policies. In one of my criticisms of President Putin would be that his economic policies remain a bit too neoliberal even today. I mean, of course they've become much more developmental than they were in 2014, but that's a small point. But anyway, this time around Dr. Wilmer Leon (06:05): Minute, it's important I think for people to realize that not only is Vladimir Putin and attorney, he has a PhD in economics. Dr. Radhika Desai (06:17): Yes. Dr. Wilmer Leon (06:18): A lot of people don't know that. Dr. Radhika Desai (06:21): True. Exactly. And as I say, I mean, in fact, I have a very good friend of mine pointed this out to me years ago that Putin is one of the few people who can simply give speeches that are really interesting, historically informed as he did this time around, and then engage with the audience on unscripted questions, giving a wealth of information and detail about what his government is doing. So it is really quite interesting. But anyway, this time around in more recent years, we have been asked to submit questions. So I submitted a question last year, but I wasn't called upon to ask my question, but this year I was called upon, and the question, I actually hadn't submitted a question when we set off, but then the Canadian Parliament engaged in the most astonishing act, essentially the Canadian Parliament on the occasion of President Vome Zelinsky visit to Canada, invited to Parliament, a man, a very old man, a 98-year-old man who was billed as a great hero veteran who had fought against the Russians. And the entire Parliament stood up and clapped. And by the next day, however, essentially the, you know what had hit the fan and the entire country was a Russian news stories about how this man was a Nazi. Now, how could such a thing happen? The fact of the matter is we have a deputy prime minister who is of Ukrainian heritage, who has a PhD in Russian and Ukrainian studies. There's absolutely no way that the Canadian government did not know that it was bringing a Nazi to Parliament. There were Dr. Wilmer Leon (08:08): Hoka is his name. Dr. Radhika Desai (08:11): Exactly. So Mr. Hunka, the Parliament, not even a single person in the hundreds of people in Parliament actually thought to ask, wait a minute, if he was fighting the Russians in the Second World War, who was he fighting with? And then it emerged that he was a member of a certain Kian division in the Waff ss. And this was actually totally a collaborationist Nazi unit which had participated in the genocide of Jews, Russians polls, and of course, Roma President Putin, in response to my question, also reminded us that an uncounted number of Roma people had also been attacked by these people and eliminated by these people. So anyway, no one in parliament had the guts to ask this question. And to me, and the whole country, of course, was shocked and really, and I felt it was really important to give President Putin a chance to have his say on this matter, because which is the country that is most wronged by this, it is Russia. Because of course, the direct target of this action was of course Russia. We were applauding Mr. Hunker because he had fought the Russias. So what better thing to do than to ask the president of that country, who by the way, is also the target of a demonization campaign in the Western media. (09:43) It's as though Putin is some kind of a macabre, omnipotent person who runs everything in Russia. Everything that happens in Russia, and quite frankly, everything that happens abroad, which is not good, is usually attributed to Russia, which is so the point. Dr. Wilmer Leon (09:59): Russia, I even wonder, was he responsible for the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, and did he murder Jimmy Hoffa? I mean, he gets accused of everything. Dr. Radhika Desai (10:11): Of everything, exactly. And the fact is, we have to remember that if it had not been for the Russian contribution to the Second World War, if it had not been for the Russian effort, which cost Russia anywhere between 25 and 30 million lives, I mean, this is, Dr. Wilmer Leon (10:27): We'd all be speaking German now. Dr. Radhika Desai (10:30): Well, exactly. I mean, it was the critical contribution to the defeat. I mean, think about it this way. The Soviet Union rescued the capitalist west from its own, shall we say, from the very monster that it had created, namely fascism and Nazim. So in that sense, in this current war, which is essentially a proxy war, that the US is waging against Russia using Ukraine as proxies, fighting Russians, as John Muir Heimer likes to say, to the last Ukrainian in this war, all we hear in the West about Russia is of course the wall to wall propaganda that is everywhere. It's anti Putin and it's even anti-Russia. We are de platforming Dostoevsky and Tchaikovsky. I mean, this is ridiculous. And so it has gone to such an extent. And so one of our purposes in attending the conference was that we want to remain in touch. (11:32) We have many friends in Russia. We have had long collaboration with a whole variety of Russian scholars and academics, so why shouldn't we go? And in fact, just a few days before we were to arrive in Russia, the Canadian government imposed sanctions on Russia, and we immediately got down, Valdi wrote to us saying, we have have been sanctioned by your government. If you do not come, we would understand. Please make up your mind and let us know whether you'll be coming or not. We sat down and read the sanctions law. We realized that it does not apply to attending a conference. It applies essentially to doing business with providing buying and selling goods, providing finance, et cetera, et cetera. So these were the sorts of activities to which it applies. Anyway, so we decided to go and we went. And so essentially, I am being pilloried, we are being pilled foregoing at all. (12:29) And for asking this question, which according to the media gave, it was a sort of softball question to Putin, which allowed him to essentially talk about how ridiculous Canada had been. This was called by some people who are, of course, we can talk about who these people are as well, but they're highly politically motivated, and this was called morally reprehensible. I ask you, what is morally reprehensible for 400 plus people who are the elected representatives of the nation who have the, shall we say, the honor and dignity of the nation to maintain, to indulge in and act like this, and to applaud Mr. Somebody like Mr. Hunker, or is it reprehensible to ask the president of the country, which is already the target of so much attack, giving him a chance to say something meaningful about how bad Canada Canada's leaders have been? Essentially the entire political class in Canada, in a single act discredited itself. I mean, this is how bad things have got. Dr. Wilmer Leon (13:36): And as a result of this, your prime minister, Justin Trudeau, apologized profusely called the honoring of Mr. Hunka in your parliament, a joint session of Parliament as an accident. But here's what I find to be really, really confusing, is Zelensky was there, and Hunka was brought in as a kind of a tangential honoring of Zelensky. And what we know very clearly, even though many in Western mainstream media don't want to discuss this, is that with organizations like the Wright sector and the as Ofv Battalion in Ukraine, that there are Nazis many call, but they ain't nothing neo about 'em. They are Nazis who honor the late Stefan Bandera, who was a just brutal, horrific war criminal. And so all of this was orchestrated as a way to pay homage to Zelensky and then pay homage to the Nazis that the United States is paying training and organizing with in Ukraine. Now, is that rhetoric on my part or is that supported by the data? Dr. Radhika Desai (15:09): Absolutely supported by the data. I mean, and by the way, it's not just the United States, the Canada, and the Oh yeah, absolutely are also contributing to the training and equipping of this army, of which Nazis are such an important and big part. In fact, I would say they're the kind of cutting edge of the army. So absolutely this is the point. But the other thing that occurs to me when you were sort of reeling out all these facts is that we are often told when we point out that there are Nazis, Ukraine has a Nazi problem, we are told, oh, well, of course Ukraine has no Nazi problem because President Zelensky is Jewish, Dr. Wilmer Leon (15:47): A Jewish. So here Dr. Radhika Desai (15:47): You are, you want to respect this Jewish gentleman who is, and you bring a Nazi and applaud him in front of this guy. What kind of a ridiculous thing it is. Wilma, I think many people, of course, prime Minister Trudeau said, oh, it was a regrettable mistake. It was a tragic accident, et cetera. There was nothing accidental about it. The fact of the matter is that nobody gets into Parliament without being vetted. The people would've known there's an entire process of vetting, and even if there was no process of vetting, the fact of the matter is that our Deputy Prime Minister, Christia Freeland, is not only of Ukrainian origin in Canada, her ancestors have been the beneficiaries of laws that explicitly encouraged Nazis to immigrate to Canada in the post-second World War period at a time when it was difficult for Jews to immigrate to Canada. (16:50) Jews who had been fleeing what remained of the Jews in Europe who were fleeing Europe at the time, even they were not welcome in Canada, but the Nazis were welcome. And what's more Christia Freeland, she is the granddaughter of one of these people. Now, nobody can help who our parents and grandparents are. I mean, that's not her fault. But what she has done is she has consistently maintained that she's very proud of her grandfather. She believes he's a great hero, even though it has been revealed that he too was a close follower of Bandera, was working very closely with them. All this stuff has come out in the newspapers, and it has simply the mainstream press after one or two stories are published, they completely sort of forget about it. And Christia Freeland also has a PhD in Russian and Slavic studies. She speaks Russian, she speaks Ukrainian. She speaks many other European languages, absolutely no way. She did not know that Mr. Hunker was, this person was essentially a Nazi. So the idea that it was a mistake that only the speaker has to resign, and then everything is fine. This is completely ridiculous. Dr. Wilmer Leon (18:12): What, if anything, does this say to you about the broader issue or context of white supremacy? And what I mean by that is when I was in high school and learning history, oh, the Nazis were evil, Hitler was evil. All of that is true, and Hitler was vilified. The Nazis are vilified, and oh, the one thing you don't want to be called other than anti-Semitic, you don't want to be called a Nazi. But what we find out now is the United States worked with them in World War ii, the United States insured Safe Passage, and I say United States, and also in that is United States allies insured safe passage of a lot of Nazis to the United States, to Canada, to South America. So one, then I think this only begs the question was or was the conflict, or is the conflict not so much ideological, but procedural? Oh, because does that make sense? I think you got my question. Dr. Radhika Desai (19:32): Yeah. I mean, I think that of course, during the, first of all, in order to understand the second World War, you have to see in a certain sense, the first World War and the second World War as a single conflict, it was a single inter imperialist conflict. So in that sense, the First World War, everybody recognizes that it was an inter imperialist conflict in which although Western countries, the Anglo-American part of the west continues to maintain the silly idea of German guilt. In reality, all the imperialist powers, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, everybody included, were all equally complicit in the outbreak of the First World War. So there was this conflict, and then after it ended the versa, so-called Versailles settlement actually settled very little. It simply laid the foundations of the causes that would lead to the Second World War, because as I say, it settled very little. (20:35) So in that sense, the second World War also has to be seen as an inter imperialist conflict with one big difference. And that is that the Soviet Union and also Chinese forces, communists, but also nationalists, but mostly communists, these forces were the ones who were able to turn the tide and save the liberal west. I put this in quotes because, but in name, at least these were the liberal west as against the fascist west, and they were able to save the liberal west from the fascist west. But of course, contrary to the notion that somehow fascism and communism are closely connected, in fact, fascism is the progeny of capitalism. Many would say that once you get to the monopoly stage of capitalism, which we were at basically in the early 20th century, already fascism is inherent in the system. It is a permanent temptation, a permanent possibility. And it is not surprising by the way, that today we are seeing the resurgence of fascist forces. And this resurgence is also facilitated by something else you alluded to, which is that, so we fought the Nazis in the Second World War, but you know that before the onset of the Second World War, many major world leaders were sympathetic to the Nazis. Many major western leaders were sympathetic to the Nazis, to the fascists in Italy and so on. George Dr. Wilmer Leon (22:06): Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush was sympathetic to the Nazis in World War ii. Dr. Radhika Desai (22:11): Very interesting, very interesting. I didn't know that. But yes, or people like Churchill and so on, they were secretly or openly the royal family for that matter, everything. So I mean this already then of course, there was this terrible war and the discovery of the Holocaust and all of these things, but even thereafter, in order to preserve capitalism, in order to ensure that the enormous sympathy that communism in general and the Soviet Union in particular had among the masses of Europe, would be pushed back essentially the West Connived in keeping many fascists in power in countries like Germany, Italy, and elsewhere. So in that sense, there was already this collaboration. And since that time, I mean, the fact of the matter is that, take for instance, something very recent, the Bernie Sanders Trump thing, Sanders campaign as a left-wing politician, he was absolutely not allowed to come anywhere near power. I mean, not within sniffing distance of power, but the election of Trump could be tolerated. (23:27) And so we see that fascist temptation is always there, and it is, the bias of the system is so much to the right. And today we are in this absolutely awful situation in which we have completely useless leadership, but the only opposition to this completely useless leadership that western countries have comes from the right because the left over the last so many decades has been completely beaten down. You began this conversation by asking about academic freedom and freedom of speech and what is happening. I should say, by the way, for the record, that my university has maintained the academic freedom stance, and I'm glad that is so that's very good. However, the fact that you can be pilled on Twitter and by personal emails that I'm sent on Facebook, et cetera, for essentially doing something very simple like putting a question in a conference, this kind of behavior, this kind of cancel culture that exists, this is essentially, you can say it is the verbal version of the sort of vigilante action which is associated with fascism. There's absolutely no doubt about it. Dr. Wilmer Leon (24:47): In this article that I referenced in the Open an Alumnus thoughts on professors' interactions with Russian President, I'm going to read a bit of it. I'm an alumnus of the Department of Political Studies, and I am a former student of Professor Desai. I cannot say that I aligned with all of her positions at the time, but after finding out that she had spent part of last week shilling for War Mongerer Putin, I found her actions to be particularly disgusting. The student continues, former student continues, A discussion club may seem like a noble endeavor in a free and democratic society. However, in Putin's Russia, public discourse is manipulated and dissenters are repressed and punished. I would be shocked if this Valdi forum was anything more than premeditated theater for Putin to stoke his own ego. Couple of things. One, if this was a former student of yours, this individual obviously didn't spend a lot of time paying attention in class. (25:52) That's the first point. And this idea that in Putin's Russia public discourse is manipulated, I would ask the individual that wrote this, if they know anything about Julian Assange and what the United States is doing, what Joe Biden is trying to do to Julian Assange, then this idea that public discourse is manipulated. This individual obviously knows nothing about what Tony Blinken did before he became Secretary of State trying to kill the story of Joe Biden's son Hunter and the Hunter Biden laptop story. So all of this is subterfuge and rhetoric, but this is just one example. There are what, five or six articles that have been written against you. Speak to that, please. Dr. Radhika Desai (26:48): Yeah, I mean, first of all, let me just say that this idea that there is no freedom of speech in Russia, and for that matter in China, I often encounter this because as it happens, I have a very big range of academic connections, both in Russia and China. And I visit these countries regularly for conferences and so on. And what I found is very ironic, but the actual spectrum of opinion in both of these countries in Russia and China is actually much broader. In all of these countries, you have sort of open expression of neoliberal positions on the one hand on the right, and then socialist positions on the other. And everything in between is at least expressed. Whereas what we find here is that there is a systematic suppression by the mainstream media of anything but a set of views within a fairly narrow spectrum of opinion. (27:47) And people like the author of this article, some of the authors of the reporters and others who have written other articles who have been participating in an attempt to create a Twitter storm against me, which hasn't been very successful. But nevertheless, the attempt is made. What these people do is they're sort of what I call the ankle biting little yappy dogs of the authorities who kind of try to do some of the little work for the authorities. So that's what they're trying to do. Now, I do want to say one or two other things about it. There is no doubt that there is a certain amount of censorship in Russia. For example, my very good friend Boris Kaki, who is one of the contacts, he's a very fine scholar, a very prominent historian, sociologist of Russia. He's also a political activist. He has run for parliament. (28:37) He works actively for essentially trying to promote some sort of socialism in Russia. Now, as it happens, he is deeply opposed to this war. I mean, I'm opposed to any war as well. I don't think it's a very good way of settling things. But by not entirely agreeing with Boris, I think that I understand his position. Anyway, Boris has essentially been jailed by some part of the state apparatus for essentially allegedly AB betting terrorism. I can't believe that. And few people who have been pillaring me for asking Putin this question about what happened in the Canadian parliament mentioned the fact that I had actually two things to ask President Putin. The first was about this matter that we've already discussed about the Canadian Parliament, and the second was a personal appeal that he himself look into the matter of Boris Kaki, along with some friends. (29:37) We delivered a letter to him, in which we also pointed out that there was absolutely nothing to be gained by doing this in any case. So my point is that there is a certain amount of censorship in these countries, but as you rightly point out, such censorship also exists in our country. Look at what we are doing to Julian Assange or Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning or a whole range of other academics who've actually lost their positions for the views they've expressed and so on. So I mean, this sort of persecution is going on all the time, but in the West, we don't just have this censorship of what I call the censorship of sticks. We also have the censorship of carrots. And what do I mean by that? Essentially, the entire media world and the academic world is manipulated by essentially giving out everybody, making it known that if you repeat what we want you to repeat, you will get a good job. (30:36) You will get promotion, you will get grants, you will get preferment, you'll get tenure, tenure. You'll get to hold the, that is the media. So all of these things are available provided you do certain things. And a lot of people, too many people, I would say most people in academia tend to fall for some version of this. I don't say all because there are still independent voices in academia and more power to them and more power to us. But nevertheless, too many people fall for this because it's just so easy and it's so convenient. So anyway, the point is that both of these forms of censorship exists, and what they have done is they have narrowed the spectrum of opinion. (31:21) And this is a very serious problem because the West is now part of the reason why nobody said anything in Parliament is because also in parliament where our leaders, our elected representatives are supposed to speak their mind, to represent the ordinary people. They are essentially not doing their job. So our political systems are broken. As a result, we desperately need to widen the spectrum of opinion to have more voices speaking out. This is key. Now, I think if we continue, because it's also fueling the wars that our countries are promoting around the world. Now we have, until recently we had Ukraine. Now we also have Israel Gaza, which is getting to be exceedingly dangerous. And tomorrow, by the way, we might have one with China. Dr. Wilmer Leon (32:10): And to your point about censorship and what's going on in Gaza, and to your student that talks about suppression in Russia, university of California, Berkeley law professor Stephen Davidoff Solomon called out some of his students for supporting anti-Semitic conduct on campus. What this law professor did was wrote a open letter to the law firms that he is in touch with telling them not to hire certain of his students who have proven to be pro-Palestinian. Quote, my students are largely engaged and well-prepared, and I regularly recommend them to legal employers. But if you don't want to hire people who advocate hate and practice discrimination, don't hire some of my students. anti-Semitic conduct is nothing new on university campuses, including here at Berkeley. That's just one example of the stifling pressure that academics are imposing upon their own students. We know what happened at Harvard, thank God the president of Harvard, I think her last name is professor President Gay, did not succumb to the requests and the pressure to turn over the names of Harvard students that were protesting in support of Palestine. I believe the same thing has happened at Columbia University. So these are just examples, real clear examples of how stifling the pressure can be in the United States. Dr. Radhika Desai (33:59): Absolutely. And when you do that with students, it's a bit like get them young, so that sort of slap them into shape before they get into bad habits sort of thing, according to the authorities. But this sort of thing is going on around the world in the uk. They're trying to ban the Palestinian flag and trying to essentially, they're persecuting people for going to pro-Palestinian demonstrations. But you know what? Wilmuth around the world, what we are seeing, especially in the Western world, is that the Western world's leaderships, which are all repeating the same mantra of Israel, has the right to defend itself completely ignoring the context, et cetera, the historical context and everything. They are completely out of touch with the vast majority of the people. Dr. Wilmer Leon (34:51): And they're ignoring international law. Dr. Radhika Desai (34:55): Indeed. And they, in fact, absolutely, they keep saying that they should abide by international law. But the fact of the matter is Israel is not abiding by international law. It has already declared that it is at war, but at the same time, it is essentially by corralling all the people of Gaza into Gaza, not allowing them to leave, depriving them of water, electricity, sanitation, bombing hospitals killing children over 2000 of them already. This is completely against international law and Dr. Wilmer Leon (35:33): It, it's called collective punishment. And collective punishment is a war crime. Now, I don't think you're making that up. I know I'm not making that up. If you pay any attention to the International criminal court, if you know anything about, and this conversation is not anti-Semitic Pro, international law and collective punishment is a war crime. Dr. Radhika Desai (36:06): Absolutely. And it is. It is also pro justice. I mean, at the end of the day, what these people Dr. Wilmer Leon (36:11): And pro morality Dr. Radhika Desai (36:14): And promo, they decontextualize, everything Hamas, everything begins in this discussion of the West today. Everything begins from the 7th of October when Hamas attacked Israelis and killed many of them and so on. But the fact that Palestinians have been living, Palestinians have had their land occupied since 1948 and before 1948, this is completely forgotten the fact that Palestinians have been displaced, that the Palestinians have the right to resist, and they have the right to self-determination. All of these things are completely swept under the carpet. It's really shocking. And this is entirely a result of the fact that the spectrum of opinion has been narrowed. The forms of censorship that I pointed out earlier operate both in media and in scholarship, so that more and more we are hearing either completely irrelevant things or things that are only repeating what the authorities want repeated. Dr. Wilmer Leon (37:17): And let me give an example of that. President Obama published an op-ed thoughts on Israel and Gaza, and I'm going to read the three opening paragraphs. It's been 17 days since Hamas launched its horrific attack against Israel, killing over 1400 Israeli citizens, including defenseless women, children, and the elderly. In the aftermath of such unspeakable brutality, the US government and the American people have shared in the grief of families, prayed for the return of loved ones and rightly declared solidarity with the Israeli people. As I stated in an earlier post, Israel has a right to defend its citizens against such wanton violence. And I fully support President Biden's call for the US to support our longtime ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities and facilitating the safe return of hundreds of hostages. But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters. In particular, it matters as President Biden has repeatedly emphasized that Israel's military strategy abides by international law, including those laws that seek to avoid to every extent possible, the death or suffering of civilian populations. I just wanted to read the opening here because this is really where I formulated the earlier question to you about white supremacy. And this being not a matter of ideology, but a matter of strategy. Because what I take away, there are a number of fallacies in what Obama wrote, but what I take away in that last paragraph is Obama saying this slaughter, slaughter Hamas, as you want to just be a little nicer in how you go about doing it, Dr. Radhika Desai (39:13): But it gets worse than that Wilma, because the very next paragraph. So it says all of these things that we should try to avoid as much as possible, not try to avoid, only try to avoid as much as possible, which is already a big qualifier. But then, or Dr. Wilmer Leon (39:29): Don't do it because you're violating international law. Dr. Radhika Desai (39:33): That's right. Yeah. How about that? He already is giving Israel a free pass there, but then he says, this is an enormously difficult task, so trying to minimize the suffering of the civilian population is already too difficult, so it may not be possible to minimize it anyway. And then he says, the United States has fallen short of this high values when we are engaged in war. And then he says, it is understandable that Israelis have demanded that their governments do whatever it takes to root out Hamas. And then he repeats the, oh my God, if I hear it one more time, my head will explode. They are using civilians as human shields. So he repeats this old trope that the Israeli government sources never fail to repeat. And so the thing is that this whole thing is really a gift. He's doing nothing. He seems to be calling for sympathy for Palestinians and so on, but Israel has rights. (40:39) Palestinians only have our sympathies. And there is a big difference. Sympathies is, at the end of the day, an empty sentiment, especially if it is not backed up with action, of real support, of real solidarity, of a real, even-handed attempt to try to, I mean, the whole thing is, I talked about the earlier history, the fact that Palestinians have, have had that land occupy for decades. So all of these things are true. And throughout this time, the United States has always intervened in this situation in a way that is heavily loaded in favor of Israel while trying as best as possible to make a show of even handedness. The fact of the matter is that this article by Obama, which completely supports the Biden administration, essentially is just repeating what the Biden administration is doing, and it is simply showing the pronounced US bias in favor of Israel. And he says at one point he says that we should try to minimize civilian casualties because it'll otherwise alienate the people of the world. The fact of the matter, it's Dr. Wilmer Leon (41:58): Bad for business Dr. Radhika Desai (42:01): And it's bad for business. But also the fact is that at this rate, there will, and he says that there will not be enough actors in the region who support Israel's right to exist and also support the Palestinians will not be able to broker a deal. But at the rate at which Israel is going and the way in which the United States is completely behind Israel, there will be very few actors in the region who will continue to recognize Israel's right to exist because the street will not allow them, the ordinary people. I already read in today's newspaper a report that the Tunisian parliament is going to outlaw any kind of normalization of relations with Israel, and also essentially prevented citizens from engaging in any kind of contact with Israelis. So this is already one of the reactions. And I would say that if as the collective punishment of Gaza continues, as children continue to be killed in Gaza, the whole world is going to turn against Israel. It's not good for Israel, actually, for the way in which this is unfolding. Dr. Wilmer Leon (43:14): Libya, I believe, has taken a similar action as Tunisia is taking. And we know that based upon the Abraham Accords that the United States was trying to broker reproach monk between Saudi Arabia and the Zionist colony of Israel, and that as a result of Hamas' action, the Saudis have put that whole thing on hold because to your point, they see what's happening in the street and they don't want to be overthrown following the United States down this rabbit hole. And they see what's happened in Ukraine. They see what the United States is doing relative to Taiwan, and they see that's a formula for World War iii. Dr. Radhika Desai (44:10): Absolutely. And I just like to add one other thing. I mentioned street. You mentioned street. The fact what we know is that you, many, many of the governments of the Middle East, including Arab countries, would have been happy to compromise with Israel. But what has held them back, what has kept the Palestinian cause on the front burner throughout all this time is popular protest and P, we talk about how the Arab Street has been essentially the defender of the Palestinian cause, the people who have essentially not allowed it to be snuffed out. But today, I would say that people in the West are also fed up with this one sided support. I mean, I'm reading in the papers not only about big demonstrations in the capitals and big cities of Middle Eastern countries, but throughout Europe as well, and also in North America. I mean, you folks, you've had huge demonstrations in your big cities in the United States. We've had big demonstrations. London apparently had a demonstration that was 300,000 strong, which is the biggest demonstration of its sort since the 2003 February, 2003 demonstrations against the Iraq War, which were historic, as you will remember. (45:30) And already, it's such an irony because Kier has become the leader of the Labor Party precisely on the antisemitism bandwagon where anybody who supports Palestine is essentially branded as Antisemite. Kier and his gang have essentially participated in a process of pushing out Jeremy Cobin as the leader of the Labor Party on these completely flimsy grounds. But today, STAMA is facing a revolt from within his own party because he, like all the other Western leaders, is essentially backing the US position and the Israel position. Without question. I mean, people are saying, look, folks, there's got to be a ceasefire. There's got to be a negotiated settlement. Anybody with a small amount of knowledge of the Palestinian Israeli situation can easily see that, but the leaders cannot, and they are really getting say, completely unstuck from the people who support they will need come the next election. Dr. Wilmer Leon (46:40): The title of the show is Connecting the Dots. Is it hyperbolic for me to look at, again, Ukraine, look at what the United States is trying to do with Taiwan, and look at how now the United States is involved in this conflict in Palestine and see similar traits. And I'm just using the three most recent events. I don't have to go too far back in history. I can talk about Afghanistan, I can talk about Iraq, but just looking at where we are right now, again, Ukraine, Taiwan, Juan, and Palestine. Am I wrong to connect those dots? Dr. Radhika Desai (47:24): Absolutely. No. And you know what? All three of them are interesting proxy wars. And by the way, the United States has developed the idea or developed the practice of proxy wars into a fine art because the United States used Islamic fundamentalists to fight Russia in Afghanistan, for example, and other such. There have been many such ways in which they have done so in the present context. Yes. So the United States, Dr. Wilmer Leon (47:53): The United States is doing that in Congo right now. Dr. Radhika Desai (47:56): Yes, exactly. Dr. Wilmer Leon (47:57): Doing the same thing in Dr. Radhika Desai (47:57): Congo. The United States is fighting Russia via using Ukrainians. The United States hopes one day to fight China using the Taiwanese. And today, think about this, what is probably given the possibility that if Israel stages a land invasion of Gaza today, it may be very difficult for Iran to stay uninvolved. And Iran has been the consistent defender of Palestinian rights throughout this period. Really an important and interesting point now in this context, then what will happen, the United States will use Israelis to fight Iran. And so again, as I like to say, everyone who's in our countries in the US and Canada who's saying we are standing up for Ukraine, et cetera, et cetera, they are the ones contributing to the destruction of Ukraine. And it may ironically be the case that everyone who will say we stand up for Israel's rights to exist, et cetera, et cetera, and to defend itself, will essentially be contributing to the destruction of Israel. So there may be one of the biggest ironies of all, Dr. Wilmer Leon (49:08): You mentioned people standing up and saying that they're trying to prevent the destruction of Ukraine, but what they are also supporting in that is a destruction of the United States. Because when you look at the budget, when you, I think very recently, or Joe Biden's now trying to get another 125 billion to be sent to Ukraine, and people need to understand what this money is doing. The United States is paying the salaries of Ukrainian civil servants. The United States is paying for the pensions of Ukrainian civil servants when the UAW is on strike in the United States trying to get pensions restored in the United States. All of this under the pretext of democracy and defending democracy, when it was the United States in 2014 with the Maidan coup that went in and overthrew the democratically elected jankovich government in Ukraine, which was the precipitant to where we are today, the hypocrisy in all of this is nauseating. Dr. Radhika Desai (50:28): And also when they say, I mean anybody knows when the United States says that it's defending human rights and democracy, what it's really doing is first of all, it's using usually some sections of the middle class as essentially the protesters who will protest against the government that the United States does not like, et cetera. So they're again using them as instruments and appealing to their liberal principles, et cetera. But more to the point that the kinds of rights and freedoms the United States wants to see realized in all the other countries of the world are those rights and those freedoms of US corporations to go there and do as they please engage in whatever economic activity that they want to, and all sorts of exploitative activities that they want to get into. So that's what the defense of human freedom and human rights actually amounts to. Anyway. And then on top of that, the irony is that the United States requires all its partner countries. Whoever wants anything from the United States must enact neoliberal policies. What are neoliberal policies? They're precisely the policies that make democracy impossible, because in a capitalist society, you cannot have anything like a functioning democracy without making some substantial material concessions in the form of good wages, good welfare states, et cetera, to the ordinary people. But this is precisely what is made impossible. So what is there for ordinary people to vote for? Dr. Wilmer Leon (52:05): And that's a great, great point. And there's something else I think from a societal and a cultural perspective that needs to be taken into account here. And that is the United States, and this has been a stated objective since this whole Ukraine conflict started. The United States wants to engage in regime change in Russia. They want to get rid of Vladimir Putin. But I've seen independent polls, and what I mean independent, I mean from Princeton University and other US Ivy League institutions that say over 86% of Russian people support their government. I've seen independent polls from, again, American institutions, 96% of the Chinese people support President Xi and the Chinese government, we tried to overthrow Ade in Syria. He won the last election with 86% of the vote. And I have friends of mine that were election observers in Syria who said, free and fair election. Same thing with Maduro in Venezuela, free and fair elections. So my point is there forms of democracy because of their histories and their cultures are different than our form of democracy. But that doesn't mean they're not valid. That doesn't mean they're not supported by the people, and that means that does not mean that they should not be supported by us. Dr. Radhika Desai (53:44): Absolutely. I mean, I remember I used to teach a course on democracy and capitalism, and my students had to read this particular text written in the seventies by CB McPherson, a very important Canadian Marxist philosopher, but also very widely respected. And you read there in the seventies, it was completely natural for people to say, you know what? We may have our form of democracy, but it is a liberal democracy. But in the communist countries, which existed at that time, they also have their own form of democracy, and that's a different one. And third world countries are trying to realize their own forms of democracy. So this type of pluralism had to be accepted because the fact that the Soviet Union existed was an important restraint, constituted an important restraint on the West and on the United States. The moment the Soviet Union has ceased to exist, the United States has gone full fledged into this completely delusional quest for supremacy around the world, which is an impossible quest. (54:48) The United States can never enjoy that form of supremacy, but the problem with the United States is failing that it has no plan B. So US leaders keep trying to achieve that supremacy, as you rightly put it, destroying the United States itself in that process. But also I would say, of course, causing mayhem around the world, causing economic crises, wars, financial crises across the board, essentially making people's lives a misery. I mean, it's no wonder that China is today welcomed with open arms in so many countries where the United States and the West more generally have historically visited very little but abuse on these countries. Dr. Wilmer Leon (55:34): We have just about probably four minutes left and you saying that just made me think. When you listen to President Putin, he talks about the shift away from the unipolar dynamic to a multipolar dynamic. When you listen to President Xi, he talks about the shifting away from a unipolar dynamic to a multipolar dynamic. And I just heard Joe Biden say recently, we're getting the sense that the world is shifting and we need to consider a new world order. I've heard that before. And then he says, and the new world order needs to be led by the United States. I said, Joe Biden, man, you are, if not senile, you are at least out of your mind. Dr. Radhika Desai (56:28): Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, as I said, there is a certain level of delusion. I mean recently, I can't remember the exact words, but President Joe Biden was asked whether the United States could fight a two front war, and he said, of course we are. Of course we can. Of course we can. We're the United States. I mean, the fact of the matter is Wilma, if you think about it, and you are the historian, I'm not. But if you think about it, the United States has never won a single war, which it has fought on its own. I mean, not counting it later, Dr. Wilmer Leon (57:01): Ii, since World War ii, the United States, maybe we could say Grenada, and maybe we could say Panama, other than those two, the United States hasn't won a thing where didn't win Vietnam. I could tick off the didn't win. Afghanistan didn't win. Iraq we're like, oh, for five. Dr. Radhika Desai (57:26): And so the question arises. We are told in the same breath that the United States, we are told that the United States spends almost a trillion dollars a year on its military. What good does that do if the United States can't win wars? Dr. Wilmer Leon (57:44): What if the United States spent a trillion dollars on its infrastructure? Dr. Radika Desai, how can people reach you and connect and read your work? Dr. Radhika Desai (57:54): Well, my email is very easy to find. So if you just Google ika dea, university of Manitoba, you'll find my email and my website is ika dea.com. Dr. Wilmer Leon (58:05): I want to thank my guest, Dr. Rika Desai for joining me today, and thank you all so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon. Stay tuned for new episodes every week. Also, please follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share my show, follow us on social media. You'll find all the links below in the show description. And remember, folks, this is where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge because talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Wier Leon. Have a good one. Peace

I am dismayed to inform people that today, war was officially declared on open source journalism and various bloggers and vloggers across the internet. The warning that this was in the making was first explored when Alex Jones of Infowars was banned from various technical platforms online. There were others that had controversial views that were also banned or blocked.After these first steps were made in controlling controversial speech, Julian Assange was arrested and charged with violating the Espionage Act.While many civil libertarians are alarmed at what his prosecution could signal for journalists, national security hawks have been saying Julian Assange got what he deserved. Despite Assange's role in upending the 2016 election by publishing Democratic National Committee emails as well as longstanding conspiracy theory that he himself is a Kremlin asset, the grounds for his indictment by the U.S. government center on having “conspired” with whistleblower Chelsea Manning for hacking into a Pentagon computer in 2010, before publishing the findings via WikiLeaks.Originally Broadcast On 6/5/2019This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/4878838/advertisement

In 2010, aged 22, whilst on leave from deployment to Iraq, Chelsea Manning leaked half a million US military incident reports on Wikileaks. She had 12 hours before her flight back to Iraq and was relying on a wifi connection at Barnes and Nobles. Chelsea knew she'd lose her job but instead she was made an example of by the military and lost her anonymity and her freedom. Since then she has also changed her name and her gender, her identity being something she had questioned for many years. Chelsea has always claimed that she released the information in the public interest to expose human rights abuses and discrepancies in public awareness. Some celebrated her, some condemned her as a traitor. Prior to her trial she was kept in military prison for three years and was subjected to solitary confinement for eleven months. Eventually, she was given a 35 year sentence. It was whilst in prison that Chelsea came out publicly as identifying as a woman. In 2017, seven years into her sentence, Chelsea wrote President Obama a letter pleading for her release and he commuted her sentence. Chelsea now lives in Brooklyn New York, she has written a memoir called README.txt, referring to the file name she used for the leaks and she has a documentary called XY Chelsea on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. Here, she joins Annie to talk through these monumental moments of change in her life, her life before Iraq, experiencing homelessness, war and prison - three extreme situations, and exactly what freedom is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When we hear the term "whistleblower," we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange—people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protect those who blow the whistle on their employers, too, especially when those employers are breaking the law and/or endangering their workers and the public.Michael Paul Lindsey II is a military veteran who has worked for Union Pacific as a trained locomotive conductor and engineer for the past 17 years, and he has maintained good standing as an employee throughout that time. Over the course of his career on the rails, however, Paul has seen and experienced firsthand how corporate greed has destroyed the railroad industry, damaged our supply chain, run workers into the ground, and put the public in danger. Even though he knew it could put his career at risk, Paul has been outspoken on these issues, using his popular TikTok channel, writing op-eds, and giving interviews in which he has exposed, with a veteran railroader's insight, the destructive business and labor practices of Union Pacific and the other Class 1 rail carriers, and how those practices have contributed to catastrophes like the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Then the company came for him. In suspected retaliation for his whistleblowing, Paul has officially been fired from Union Pacific. In this urgent and exclusive interview, we talk with Paul about his career on the rails, the changes he's seen take hold of the industry he loves, and the dubious circumstances that led to his firing. This episode originally aired on the Working People podcast feed on July 13, 2023. Read the transcript of this podcast: https://therealnews.com/he-tried-to-raise-the-alarm-about-railroad-safety-then-he-got-firedShow links / additional info: https://workingpeople.libsyn.com/michael-paul-lindsey-iiMusic / Post-Production: Jules TaylorHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews

When we hear the term "whistleblower," we tend to think of names like Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange—people who have risked their freedom, even their lives, to expose government lies, abuses of power, and state secrets that the public needs to know about. But there are a range of federal statutes designed to protect those who blow the whistle on their employers, too, especially when those employers are breaking the law and/or endangering their workers and the public. Michael Paul Lindsey II is a military veteran who has worked for Union Pacific as a trained locomotive conductor and engineer for the past 17 years, and he has maintained good standing as an employee throughout that time. Over the course of his career on the rails, however, Paul has seen and experienced firsthand how corporate greed has destroyed the railroad industry, damaged our supply chain, run workers into the ground, and put the public in danger. Even though he knew it could put his career at risk, Paul has been outspoken on these issues, using his popular TikTok channel, writing op-eds, and giving interviews in which he has exposed, with a veteran railroader's insight, the destructive business and labor practices of Union Pacific and the other Class 1 rail carriers, and how those practices have contributed to catastrophes like the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Then the company came for him. In suspected retaliation for his whistleblowing, Paul has officially been fired from Union Pacific. In this urgent and exclusive interview, we talk with Paul about his career on the rails, the changes he's seen take hold of the industry he loves, and the dubious circumstances that led to his firing. Additional links/info below... Paul's TikTok channel Paul's TikTok video about East Palestine derailment  OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program Michael Paul Lindsey II, Railway Age, "The Game Has Changed" Michael Paul Lindsey II, Railway Age, "‘Dear National Carriers Conference Committee and AAR'" Maximillian Alvarez, Breaking Points, "Railway Companies Engage In 'CORPORATE TERRORISM' Ahead of Strike" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, ""This Was Preventable": Railroad Workers Explain How Wall St Caused the East Palestine Derailment" Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "East Palestine, 100 Days Later" Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "What Union Pacific and the Media Aren't Telling You About the Baker, CA, Train Derailment" Mel Buer, The Real News Network, "Corporate Billionaires Are Wrecking the Supply Chain. Just Look at the Railroads" Useful Idiots, "‘Union Joe' Biden Sells Out Rail Workers" Permanent links below... Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song

We remember Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971, in hopes they would help end the Vietnam War. He died last week at the age of 92. We'll listen to our 2017 interview with him. "I identify more with Chelsea Manning and with Edward Snowden than with any other people on earth," he told Dave Davies. "We all faced the same question which is, who will put this information out if I don't?" Also New York Times correspondent Charlie Savage shares a story about Ellsberg continuing to battle government secrecy when he was 90.Also, David Bianculli reviews the new reality TV competition show Morimoto's Sushi Master on the Roku channel.

How To Hold The New York Times Accountable (w/ Margaret Sullivan)Margaret Sullivan is one of the country's most astute media critics. During her time as Public Editor of the New York Times (essentially an ombudsman) Sullivan became widely respected for her willingness to call out the paper's lapses, often to the considerable consternation of her Times colleagues. Sullivan criticized the paper's reliance on anonymous government sources, its practice of allowing sources to approve their own quotes, its previous deference to the Bush administration's "national security" justifications for suppressing a story, its failure to adequately cover the Panama Papers, Chelsea Manning's trial, and the Flint Water Crisis, and even the paper's habit of reporting nonexistent style trends as if they were real things (e.g., the supposed hip comeback of the monocle).Sullivan also spent much of her career in local journalism, serving as the managing editor of the Buffalo News. Her book Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy is about the destruction of local newspapers and its consequences for the country. Her new memoir, Newsroom Confidential, discusses both her time running a city paper and her time as an in-house critic of The New York Times.Today, Margaret Sullivan joins to discuss why local news matters, why holding the media accountable is crucial to maintaining public trust in it, and how she tried to keep the New York Times trustworthy during her time there. Sadly, with the Times having eliminated the position Sullivan held, the paper is no longer conducting the same level of public self-scrutiny, which is unlikely to help it in the mission to rebuild public trust. Sullivan's old Public Editor posts can be read here. Those interested in this subject should also listen to our interview with Victor Pickard, the author of Democracy Without Journalism?"I understand very, very well why they wanted to get rid of that position. ... The more powerful a media organization is, the more important some kind of oversight or accountability is." — Margaret Sullivan Audio note: Nathan sat too close to the microphone. Also someone started hammering in the background on Margaret's end toward the end. Apologies for these distractions. Subscribe to Current Affairs on Patreon to unlock all of our bonus episodes and get early access to new releases.

Clarence Thomas's “grifting” faucet just won't turn off, says an exasperated Danielle Moodie on this episode of The New Abnormal politics podcast. It was recently revealed that the Supreme Court Justice reported income from a firm that doesn't exist, and hasn't for a while, and Moodie, and her co-host of the show Andy Levy, are over this man's antics. They discuss a lot of them on this show in particular given the recent news. Later, Spencer Ackerman, columnist for The Nation and writer of the Forever Wars newsletter, breaks down the case ofJack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents and why it's different than the whistleblowing cases of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Then, George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren't Blue, one of the now-many banned books in America, shares with co-host Danielle what it's like to be the author of a banned book and the most “fascinating” and mind-boggling thing about Republican behavior. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The right and the left seemed to have gotten super worked up about the classified documents found in the private homes of both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, but NSA and surveillance writer Kerry Howley, also the author of Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State, saw the findings differently. She joins Andy Levy on this bonus episode of The New Abnormal to talk about what classified docs really mean—the bad and the-not-so-bad but still bad. Plus! She shares with Andy what whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning have in common and shares the story of a whistleblower named “Reality Winner,” a woman not a horse, whose story will infuriate you. And, as always, Danielle Moodie and Andy listen and make fun of clips of “racist” and really dumb Republicans. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American transparency activist Chelsea Manning discusses pulling off one of the largest intelligence leaks in history, copying government files onto CDs with band names to avoid being caught and writing “README.txt” to be more of a coming of age story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker flashes a phony police badge during a debate, Dulcé Sloan highlights the history of Reggaeton, and Chelsea Manning discusses her memoir "README.txt."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The former military analyst has been called both a whistleblower hero and a traitor for leaking classified information about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a new memoir, READ ME.txt, she talks about why she did it. We also talk about her childhood and gender dysphoria, her time in Iraq, and her experience in solitary confinement.

On this episode of the H3 Podcast we joined by American hero Chelsea Manning! Together we discuss her incredible life journey, what she's up to now, her upcoming book, and most importantly what her favorite anime's are!