Podcasts about ecuadorian embassy

Assange seeks asylum at London's Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid facing charges abroad. It's supposed to be a safe haven, but it begins to feel like a prison. He started this fight for press freedom. Now, he's fighting for his own.Listen to British Scandal on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/british-scandal/ now.Do you have a suggestion for a scandal you would like us to cover? Or perhaps you have a question you would like to ask our hosts? Email us at britishscandal@wondery.comEXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ nordvpn.com/scandal Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You can just listen to episode 15, or start at the beginning of the podcast series at davidrovics.com/ahistoryoftheworld. 2016-2020 Thousands of people travel from all over to protest against the pipeline being put through the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota (“Standing Rock”) Grenfell Tower burns in London, killing 72 (“Names and Addresses”) White supremacists rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing Heather Heyer and injuring dozens (“Today in Charlottesville”) The state of Arizona cracks down further on those trying to keep refugees from dying on the border (“I Was a Stranger”) The Trump administration institutes the child separation policy on the US-Mexico border (“ICE”) Willem van Spronsen dies in an effort to prevent refugees from being deported in Tacoma, Washington (“The Time to Act”) The Great March of Return begins in Palestine on Land Day in 2018 (“Land Day”) Two-year-old refugee, Mawda Shawri, is killed by police in Belgium (“Mawda Was Her Name”) Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is forcibly removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy and imprisoned at Belmarsh (“Behind These Prison Walls”) Stella Moris announces to the world that she and Julian have two children (“When Julian Met Stella”) Annual numbers of people dying on the streets of Los Angeles County exceeds 1,000 for the first time (“Living on the Streets of LA”) Bernie Sanders runs for president again and has his campaign sabotaged by the Democratic National Committee (“Bernie 2020”) Jason Hargrove becomes one of the first “essential workers” to die from Covid-19 in the US (“Essentially Expandable”) The Oregon Employment Department demonstrates itself to be completely unprepared for the Covid-19 emergency (“Ballad of the Oregon Employment Department”)

We talk the emperor of Japan coming to town, discuss boy gone wild Gavin Plumb and then devise a sitcom about Julian Assange's time in the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Find me and the show on social media. Click the following links or search @DrWilmerLeon on X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube! Our guest this week, Steve Poikenon can be found at his website here.  FULL TRANSCRIPT: Dr Leon (00:00): Now, usually I start this part of the show with a question or a few questions, but today I have to make a statement. After 13 years of either being held up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in Britain, or being in Belmar Prison in solitary confinement, Julian Assange walks free. Why does this matter what led the Biden administration to finally come to its senses and accept a deal? Why should this matter to you? Announcer (00:42): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge. Dr Leon (00:49): Welcome to the Connecting the Dots podcast with Dr. Wilmer Leon. I'm Wilmer Leon. We have a tendency to view current events as though they happen in a vacuum, failing to understand the broader historical context in which most events take place. During each episode, my guests and I have probing, provocative, and in-depth discussions that connect the dots between the events and the broader historical context in which they take place. This enables you to gain a better understanding and to analyze events that impact the global village in which we live. On today's episode. The issue before us is what's the significance of WikiLeaks and what's the impact on the freedom of the press? My guest for today's conversation is the host of AM Wake Up and Slow Newsday, which you can watch live on Rock Fin and Rumble, and you can listen anywhere. Podcasts are served. Steve Poin and Steve, welcome. Steve Poikenon (01:51): Thank you very much, Wilmer. It's good to see you not on the radio, Dr Leon (01:57): Man. Well, I have the perfect face for radio from what they tell me, and it's great to see you to be able to put a face with a voice. We've been talking for a couple years now, and it's finally great to be able to put a face with a voice. So footage tweeted by WikiLeaks, I think Julian Assange's wife showed him walking up the stairs onto an aircraft bound for Sipan in the US administered Mariana Islands. He has agreed to plead guilty to one count under the espionage act of conspiracy to disseminate national defense information. Steve, what were your thoughts when you first heard the news that Julian Assange was free? Steve Poikenon (02:44): I was a little stunned. This is something that we've discussed on and off over the last couple of years, and certainly in the last couple of months there have been substantiated rumors that the Biden Justice Department was preparing some sort of plea deal, whether or not the Assange team was going to accept it. That was the thing that we didn't have any certainty about whatsoever. They obviously have gone forward with accepting the deal. He should be, at this point, touching down or walking into the courtroom in the Marianas Islands says a lot about the state of the US empire that we even have a district courthouse in the Mariana Islands. That's just wild to me to begin with, but from the best that I can tell, and Wilmer, you may correct me if I'm wrong, from the best that I can tell, there's nothing in the initial plea agreement that says Julian won't be allowed near a computer or won't be able to access the internet. (03:51) Can't give speeches or interviews or can't have documentaries made about a situation. So by all accounts, up to this point, it appears that when he walks out of the courtroom later in the next couple of hours, he will be a legitimately free human being, and that is a win in and of itself. I'm a father. I can't imagine being taken away from my kids for making the US government angry and then having to know that they're growing up without me. And so the ability for him to take part in raising his own children, I think is the biggest godsend out of all of this. And then we can get into the implications and the impact that this is going to have on press freedom and citizen journalism and everything else going forward. But the huge win here is that he's no longer an inmate in the Guantanamo Bay of the United Kingdom where he was being held with the worst criminals on the island, having never once committed any crime of any sort of significance that would warrant that cell. Dr Leon (05:12): Do you have any idea in terms of why the Mariana Islands other than is the closest space that will enable him then to go from there to his home of Australia? Steve Poikenon (05:25): I think that was the ultimate deciding factor was proximity to Australia. It's not like the US can't construct a kangaroo court anywhere, and it's not like if they didn't have a different provisional, different courthouse, they wouldn't be going through the same sort of performative motions in the eyes of the Biden administration. I think the guilty plea is the thing that they were looking for, something that they could make at least a political, if not a legal for, and then also to not have it be an election issue going forward. Dr Leon (06:04): And from what I understand, this is not precedent setting because this was the result. This is the outcome of a plea deal. This did not actually come as the result of a trial. Steve Poikenon (06:17): If they would've gone to trial and evidence presented and a conviction was rendered and then upheld by a judge, then it would establish a legal precedent because he pled and pled out to time served for what he'd already done. The only thing that it can be used to set a precedent for is politically, or I guess emotionally or spiritually, where people are more hesitant to approach national security reporting or classified information, talk about it, disseminate any of that. And that is I think the real ultimate goal of not just the Biden administration, but the Trump administration and ultimately the Obama administration from where all of this stems is to redefine journalism in the future. Dr Leon (07:10): I want to read from the paragraph from the Washington Post as they reported out this story, Julian Assange's plea deal, sparks global celebration and condemnation reactions were divided as WikiLeaks. Julian Assange heads to a US Pacific territory to cement a plea deal that could soon set him free. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange's tentative plea deal with the United States, which could soon bring an end to his years long international legal legal saga, drew celebration and criticism reflecting the divisive nature of his role in obtaining and publishing classified military and diplomatic documents. A couple of things. One is the condemnation side of this. The only folks that I can see that would be condemning this deal are people that are tied to the Trump administration, people that are tied to the Biden administration. I don't understand where they get this idea that there's all this divisiveness and condemnation. Steve Poikenon (08:23): There were the usual, the people you just spoke of, but Mike Pence was one of the loudest. There have been a number of former Trump administration officials and a number of former Obama administration intelligence apparatus and national security apparatus officials who have expressed distaste. This now and again, realize that to be opposed to this means you wanted to see a 50-year-old man, 51-year-old man get effectively tortured to death in a US prison for the rest of his life. That's what being in opposition to this effectively means. The reasoning behind it though is because information is currency. Assange and WikiLeaks were a broker of this information that wasn't part of the sanctioned club, and so Pompeo called them a hostile rogue intelligence agency, non-state intelligence agency. If you are viewed like that amongst the apparatus that's making the national security decisions, it doesn't matter what the end result is, if it's not your wholesale destruction, they're going to be displeased. Dr Leon (09:43): There's another paragraph. While Assange supporters saw him as a courageous whistleblower of government misdeeds, his critics saw him as a self-promoter oblivious to the harm that his leaks might cause, oblivious to the harm that his leaks might cause. There has not been one shred of evidence presented to show that any harm other than embarrassment by Hillary Clinton and some of the other government officials who were identified through these WikiLeaks releases, maybe their egos were damaged. But short of that, there's been no harm. WikiLeaks publication of the Afghan War logs did not obscure the names of Afghan civilians who provided information to the US military and omission that dismayed human rights groups and national security officials. Who are they talking about? Steve? Steve Poikenon (10:49): Okay, so when they say that the harm that they're talking about, it's not just their ego, it's their ability to continue to spy on their friends and allies that was harmed. It was the harm that was done by letting people know what the US government is doing with our tax dollars and our names. But Wim Dr Leon (11:07): Steve, it's not as though the allies did not know that they were being spied on. Remember what happened with Bill Clinton and Angela Merkel's? I think it was the Clinton administration and Angela Merkel's cell phone. I mean, it's not as though we don't know. We don't know Israel. It's not as though we don't know that Israel is spying on us. I mean, it's the game that they play. Steve Poikenon (11:31): It is the game that they play, but we're not supposed to know. And the rest of the diplomatic core is all that operates on the pretense and the fiction that it's not happening. That everybody's there to politely try to sort out the ills of the world and that all of the espionage going on in the background is never to be brought up. It doesn't have to stop. You just can't talk about it. If you bring it to light, then the whole operation gets blown up. And that's why WikiLeaks is parent company is called the Sunshine Press. The whole point of it is to bring it into the daylight, that kind of stance from a political point of view, from a journalistic point of view that's going to get you targeted, which is as we saw exactly what happened leading to 13 years of illegal and arbitrary detention. (12:29) Just one quick point to what you were talking about though, when you see major press outlets come out now in defensive Assange, these are, and you had mentioned it, I think even this morning, some of these instant outlets that are reporting on it are outlets that shared the same information. Are these guys then going to look at the plea agreement and go, golly, if Julian Assange isn't being charged as a journalist, does that mean that everyone who has ever shared a piece of classified information can be charged under the Espionage Act? Because Wilmer, I don't know about you. When I read the plea, when I read the plea deal, they're charging Assange as a private citizen. They're not charging 'em as a publisher. They're not charging 'em as a government contractor or a government employee. And those are prior to this, the only people that could get a charge for conspiring to disseminate classified information in this manner. So is that saying that Nick, the janitor or Dan the trucker or whoever your English teacher is now susceptible to Espionage Act charges? Dr Leon (13:48): Well, I think one of the reasons why they're not charging him as a journalist, because that was one of the issues that was being presented in his defense, is that as a journalist, he has the right to disseminate this information. So if they charged him as a journalist, then I think that would probably throw a wrench in their own argument. But to your point, one of the ironies here is when you read the Washington Poll story and the New York Times reporting out on this is that they were complicit in disseminating the information that he made available. Hence during the Obama administration, they called it the New York Times conundrum, and many say that the reason the Obama administration didn't charge him is because Barack Obama didn't want to open up that can of worms. Steve Poikenon (14:45): Well, certainly the idea that the Biden administration would try to with less competent people than were in the Obama administration is somewhat ridiculous. The only reason they could get a plea deal out of the guy is because they'd been torturing him for five years on top of the seven and a half, eight, almost eight years of being confined to one and a half rooms in the most spied on building in London, which is saying a lot because London has more cameras per capita than any other major city. But more cameras were pointed at the Ecuadorian Embassy than anywhere else in London for a very long time. That kind of constant surveillance is going to wreak havoc on an individual. And I got to tell you, Wilmer, it really did surprise me seeing the video, the very brief videos that we have seen of Julian, the last I had heard, he had been in very poor health. He had suffered a stroke or a mini stroke 18 months ago, 20 months ago, something like that. So to see him moving that rapidly, being able to stand walking Dr Leon (15:59): Up the stairs to the plane, Steve Poikenon (16:01): Being able to stand that upright when we had all been told that his back was wrecked and stuff like that, I'm really, really taken away by that. And I can only hope that he remains in that good of health or gets a little bit better shape from here on out because I was imagining the worst I was. And we haven't seen that. So that's very heartening. Dr Leon (16:32): This some will say is a very obvious question, but I think it still needs to be asked and answered Why this deal? Why now? Because when I look at, when I read the plea, when I see what the Biden administration got out of this, could have done this five years ago, he's out on bond. They could have allowed bond five years ago. He could have, instead of being tortured in solitary confinement in Belmar prison, he could have been walking the streets of Piccadilly Circus. So why now? Steve Poikenon (17:14): There's a number of different factors, and one is that it does get eliminated as an election year issue. Trump, regardless of the reality that he's the guy who had Julian arrested was able to successfully run on, we love the WikiLeaks. Have you seen the WikiLeaks? Can't get enough of the WikiLeaks. He was able to gain a lot of ground with that. So it is popular among Americans to want to at least think you have some sort of transparency with your government or think you might be able to have some sort of citizen accountability with your government, which is one of the benefits that WikiLeaks provided. So that's off the table, the Biden administration, because people have goldfish, brain can try to spin it as well. Donald Trump's the guy who had 'em thrown in jail and we're the guys who let him out. Well, you didn't let him out. (18:11) You made him plead guilty to something he didn't do after torturing him for five years and threatening every one and everything that he held dear, that's coercion. That's not a liberation. That's coercion. That's not a victory in any way, shape or form. And I've seen some on the progressive left already try to be like, Hey, man, Trump locked him up, bite him, let him out because he forced him to plead guilty to something that he didn't do. I think we all just need to keep circulating that last part until it sinks in. But we discussed for a number of years on the critical hour how it is a huge problem for the Biden administration or any administration to have Julian Assange on American soil even if the trial takes place behind closed doors in the Eastern District of Virginia, because then you are really putting the press on trial in America for everyone to be forced to pay attention to. And that's something that not Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, definitely not Merrick Garland is capable of dealing with or quelling in a manner that doesn't look like a total brutal dictatorship. And that's what it was going to turn into. Dr Leon (19:35): We have been saying for a couple of years, the one thing, the Biden, for all of the discussion about extradition and all these appeals and the United States sending attorneys to London and going through the barrister and all of that stuff that they were doing, we kept saying, they do not want this man on American soil. They were trying to kill him through the process. Let's drag this thing out for as long as we possibly can and hope the man dies in Belmar prison. We were saying the last, in fact, I remember having a very extensive conversation with you where I was saying, I think the time has come for the Assange Camp to flip the script and take the deal. Tell Merrick Garland, we want to come to the United States. Please extradite us. We want to be on American soil. And we kicked that around for a while. Steve Poikenon (20:41): Yeah, you're absolutely right. And the last thing that any government wants to deal with is having all of its media suddenly turn against it. And in the US, even though the mainstream media is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state, there are people who are allowed to operate with a little bit more freedom. And those are the people who usually command the largest audiences because they're allowed to show a little bit of authenticity on mainstream airwaves, and people are desperate for that. So they don't want their press turning on 'em. They don't want free Assange banners every time they pan into the crowd at a sporting event. They don't want free Assange banners signs every time they go do a man on the street interview. They were in the worst possible position you could be having to make up your case entirely. And having a still somewhat engaged public to where they could mount not just a resistance, but a real jury nullification campaign and a real on the ground, real time education of exactly what their government is trying to do. Via the prosecution of Julian Assange, again, under the Espionage Act of 1917, we're going to take an Australian citizen with a publishing company, publishing outlet, registered in Iceland, give him fake charges in Sweden, imprison him in London and have a Icelandic FBI snitch, make up a whole bunch of stories about him, then recant his testimony. I think Aile, because that's the thing that happened. Pedophile. Yeah, a convicted, convicted pedophile. Dr Leon (22:40): And you haven't even gone through what we did as it relates to Ecuador and what we did in terms of the Ecuadorian election to be, now I'm drawing a blank on the president. Steve Poikenon (22:51): Lennon Moreno was more Moreno. Yeah. Dr Leon (22:55): We didn't even go through what the machinations that the United States went through to get Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy. Steve Poikenon (23:05): Yeah. Or touch on the security company that was there at the embassy, uc Global, which was hired first by the Ecuadorian government to provide security then by the CIA via a spook convention effectively at one of Sheldon Adelson's casinos, who was one of Trump's biggest donors at the time, where the head of the security company wound up getting arrested, trying to flee the country after it was discovered that he had had this double dealing with the CIA. And then it was revealed that because of the illegal spying equipment morales's company had placed in assange's rooms at the embassy that led to a planning session with the American CIA where they were plotting out how to kidnap and murder Julian Assange. That was Mike. Dr Leon (23:56): They Steve Poikenon (23:56): Came to, Dr Leon (23:57): That was Mike Ell at the time. And so what folks, and you laying this out, what folks really need to understand is this is not some tinfoil hat conspiracy theory. All you got to do folks is Google it. It's there in mainstream press that this is what the United States went through trying. These are the illegal machinations that the United States government went through in order to try to get this guy. Steve Poikenon (24:28): Absolutely. And people feel certain ways about the gray zone or what, you don't have to read the initial reporting that Max Blumenthal did based off of the reporting that the Spanish outlet El Pais did. Michael Isikoff, two years later, 18 months later, Michael Isikoff through Yahoo News, did the same story, picked it up and took out some of the more poignant points so that he could fit it into a Yahoo story and put out that version of it. But it's there in several mainstream outlets everybody should know. Mike Pompeo tried to have a journalist and publisher assassinated or kidnapped and then assassinated just to prevent him from being able to testify in his own defense is all you can really assume at that point. You're trying to take him out while you have him basically captured. You want to make sure he never works a day in his life again, and you damn sure want to make sure that he doesn't testify because then it becomes part of a court record and then somebody can sue to have that court record or it'll be public Dr Leon (25:40): As a wrap up to this part of the conversation. So I never thought I'd see, this day I thought Julian Sal was going to die in Bell Marsh. What do you see as being the more immediate impacts to this as it relates to press freedom and journalism and some of the longer term impacts? And some of that, I know we won't really know until we hear from him, but your thoughts, Steve Poikenon (26:10): I hope it inspires people to kind of see where the new limits are, because most journalists have just been not necessarily holding back, but the amount of leak based journalism has basically vanished the amount of journalists truly going out there and trying to bring to light some major problems. Boeing comes to Dr Leon (26:35): Mind. Investigative journalism. Steve Poikenon (26:37): Yeah. I want to believe that Julian Assange breathing air again will be a beacon to people to do investigative journalism more often, better than they have been, however you want to frame it. I want that to be a spark that pushes the current boundaries and hopefully pushes 'em back a little bit because it's been relatively restrictive over the last several years. Dr Leon (27:08): There's another issue related to this. It was in consortium news, help us fight theocracy Psychological operations or PSYOPs are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations and groups and individuals. William Casey, the CIA director under Ronald Reagan said, we'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false. And what happened with Julian Assange, I think is a perfect example of this type of behavior by the American government. Steve Poikenon (28:02): It is. And if you look at the amount of government shenanigans that have occurred in the last four, five years since they yanked Julian out of the embassy, there we're seeing more and more lawsuits being brought against major pharmaceutical companies for vital information that they withheld during the last several years were we found out that a lot of what we were originally told about the January 6th incident, and a lot of what happened then was not necessarily true. There's been multiple court cases that have kept political parties from taking part in the American political process. They've kept, Lawfare has been levied against everyone from the aru, the Aru fellas, Dr Leon (29:07): Mali. Yes. Steve Poikenon (29:09): Yeah, I can never, I know, yes. Ella is something that is just not chambered for me. It's not. But from those guys to, like Alex Jones has been a victim of lawfare. Donald Trump has been a victim of Lawfare, and the entire time there hasn't been a really adversarial reporting outlet with the international foundation that WikiLeaks has with the international audience, that WikiLeaks has to mount a citizen and open source intelligence challenge to any of this and the myriad ways, not just through the restrict Act or the new antisemitism bill or a number of the different laws in Europe and Europe, has the internet been shrunk down significantly? But Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter stating that he wants to turn it into WeChat where your entire internet based existence is on through this one app. I would imagine that Julian Assange would have a lot to say about what Elon Musk has been up to. (30:24) He'd have a lot to say about what happened with the WHO or the NIH over the last several years, but we haven't had that opportunity. And that to me is something that the US government can put as a Big W in their column. That's something that MI six could put as a Big W in their column and really goes right back to those forward documents where they were outlining the plan for what they wanted to do with WikiLeaks. They didn't get to scatter the organization to the winds the way they necessarily described 14 years ago. But when's the last time we got a WikiLeaks drop? Dr Leon (31:07): Well, and for folks that may not understand the significance of this, of course, it was the shooting of the civilians, the murder of the civilians in Iraq and the journalists in Iraq that were shot during the war. And WikiLeaks put that footage out for everybody to see the war crimes that were being committed. So if WikiLeaks had been allowed to continue to operate, I would think our understanding of Ukraine would be different. Our understanding of what's being done in Taiwan would be different. Our understanding of what's being done or trying to be done in North Korea would be different. We would have a lot more insight and information into the illegalities, whether they be international law, whether they be American law, whether they be war crimes, that the United States and its allies have been engaging in these various engagements around the world. Steve Poikenon (32:15): You're correct. And let's also recall that WikiLeaks and WikiLeaks alone disclosed the transpacific partnership. They were the outlet that that agreement came to. They published it, people looked at it and went, no, you want to do what? No, no. And those kinds of trade agreements being disclosed that were done in the dark, away from the eyes of the American public with zero opportunity for public comment or any sort of pushback that made WikiLeaks more dangerous in my opinion, then disclosing video of something that according to even the guys in the helicopter was like a three times a day event in Iraq. And it's something that people in the military kind of shrugged off like, well, yeah, that's what we do. But to the average citizen, it's shocking and horrifying, but not as shocking and horrifying as the United States government wants to set up a corporate court, and it will be a couple of CEOs that determine your future. And if you say something untoward about them on the internet, then they're appointed magistrates from the corporation will decide your faith. That's what the TPP was promising. And any outlet that is going to disclose information like that is suddenly become the most dangerous organization on the planet. Dr Leon (33:49): And when you said that, that I'm drawing a blank on his name, the attorney that sued ExxonMobil in Brazil, Steve Poikenon (33:58): Steven Inger, Dr Leon (33:59): Steven Inger, and how Mobil ExxonMobil was able to use a judge. I mean, they just flipped that whole thing. Don Zinger on behalf of the Indians in Brazil, sues ExxonMobil wins an ungodly amount of money, and he winds up going to jail and ExxonMobil because of what they were able to do with the judicial system in New York, it was criminal. So when you talk about a corporate magistrate, Don Zinger is what popped into my head. Steve Poikenon (34:42): And it was because of an agreement that happened during the Trump administration that that was even possible. And they basically dismantled the TPP, they put certain parts of it into different trade agreements and provisions, and then they got the quasi corporate court because the judge, I believe had been a former Chevron attorney. Correct. And that's how that may even be how he got his judgeship was Chevron bought his way into the judgeship. And that is kind of ordinary corruption, but it's ordinary corruption that also has multinational trade agreements codifying it. And again, in the absence of a WikiLeaks or an organization like it, disclosing these kinds of agreements on the regular, you're not going to get the rapid dissemination of that information amount, a successful pushback in time to stop it. You're not going to be able to get people on the same page understanding it because there's no trust with a number of these. (35:48) All of these other outlets are so disparate, nobody's really consolidated in a way that will lend the immediate mass public trust in what you're doing. Like Lit WikiLeaks had built up over a number of years to the point that when 2015, they disclosed the tpp, people from all over the world held rallies immediately, and there were people out in the streets immediately, and it became an election year issue and it wasn't. And people had to change their tone on it and say to the point where Donald Trump even won a lot of people over by saying, it's a bad deal. It's bad. I don't want to be any part of it. Hillary Clinton had to answer for it. They all had to answer for it. On that debate stage back in 2016, it became a real issue. And so if we don't have these kinds of things moving forward, we're going to be in a significantly less informed spot than we were a decade ago. And in the internet age, that should not be how information is progressing. Dr Leon (36:51): And final point here, and I want to go back to this William Casey quote, and this is the former director of the ccia A and Ronald Reagan will know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false. And that takes me, you've heard me say this too many times, Edward Bernas and the book Propaganda folks, you need to get a copy and you need to read Propaganda by Edward Bernas because that's to a great degree what Bill Casey was talking about. And this whole idea, the whole idea of psychological operations, PSYOPs and the PS ocracy. Steve Poikenon (37:47): Yeah. And fifth generation warfare is an asymmetrical warfare conducted on the citizenry, and that's conducted via all elements of propaganda. We're 12 years into living in a reality, a post Smith month modernization act reality. When the Smith Modernization Act passed and went into effect, government propaganda, military propaganda, and government analysts and experts became part and parcel of the media the better part of a halfway through a generation's worth of 24 hour, seven day a week asymmetrical warfare where the vast majority of the people walking around don't even know that they're at war, let alone with their own government, nor that their own government openly declared war on them. That's how good the propaganda is. Everybody should study Bnes. Everybody needs to internalize that the United States is the most propagandized country on the planet. And the only way that we can get out of that is if we understand the landscape that we're standing on and we start to look at how not necessarily individual people that make up that landscape operate, but the institutions that allow for those people to move freely on that landscape operate. And those institutions, we've been shown over and over and over again to be untrustworthy, to be acting not in our interest, to be acting at the behest of not even people in their own country. And yet for some reason, we still get Berna back into thinking that you can vote your way out of an oligarchy Dr Leon (39:44): And so quickly am wake up slow news day. Where do people go? What do they get when they listen to it? Steve Poikenon (39:50): You can go to am wakeup show.com for absolutely everything. We are live Monday through Thursday from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific us. There's content on the channel pretty much all the time. We stream out live on Rock fin and Rumble, and then you can catch them pretty much anywhere and everywhere else. And yeah, just thank you so much for having me on. I really have always enjoyed our conversations. Very glad to do your show. Dr Leon (40:22): Well, I got to thank you my guest, Steve Kin, for joining me today. I greatly, greatly appreciate you giving me time out of your schedule, and I always look forward to the conversations that we have and look forward to having many more with you here on Connecting the Dots. Thank you, Steve. Steve Poikenon (40:37): Thank you, Wilmer. Dr Leon (40:39): And thank you so much for listening to the Connecting the Dots podcast with me, Dr. Wilmer Leon, and Steve mentioned the Smith Mut Act, M-U-N-D-T Act. You all can Google that. Look it up. But simply put, for about 60 years that act prohibited the United States Department of State and the broadcasting Board of Governors from disseminating government produced programming within the United States over fear that these agencies would propagandize the American people. However, in around 2013, Congress abolished the domestic dissemination ban, which now has led to this big heated debate about the role of the federal government in free public discourse. Folks, stay tuned for new episodes every week and follow and subscribe. Leave a review, share the show, make a contribution. We would greatly, greatly, greatly appreciate it. Doing this every week is not an inexpensive venture. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Follow us on social media. You can find all the links below to the show. And remember that this is where the analysis of politics and culture and history converge talk without analysis is just chatter, and we don't chatter here on connecting the dots. See you again next time. Until then, I'm Dr. Woman Leon. Have a great one. Peace. I'm out Announcer (42:20): Connecting the dots with Dr. Wilmer Leon, where the analysis of politics, culture, and history converge.

Supporters of Julian Assange have celebrated his return to Australia, after 12 years either in custody or holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the Wikileaks founder to welcome him home, a move criticised by some opposition politicians who say Assange is "no hero".

Is it true? Is Julian Assange really set to be freed and allowed to return to Australia after 12 years locked in the Ecuadorian Embassy and Belmarsh Prison? We phoned the Surfing Senator to get the low down on what's going on.  Sign up to our Patreon, here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has left London after agreeing a US plea deal that will see him plead guilty to a spying charge and go free.Assange was locked in a lengthy legal battle over his extradition with American authorities, including years living in London's Ecuadorian Embassy from 2012 before detention in HMP Belmarsh.He was sought by the US since Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of secret documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.Assange left Britain on a charter flight to plead guilty on a single spying charge at court in a US Pacific territory.Evening Standard home affairs editor Martin Bentham examines what's next in the legal case and Assange's timeline of being locked up in London.Plus, in part two, we look at the increasing price of a pint of beer in London - which has reached, on average, a frothy £6.75.Evening Standard business editor Jonathan Prynn discusses the soaring costs hitting the capital's hospitality sector. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count in relation to charges over disseminating national security material.  The plea deal was in exchange for his release from a British prison, clearing the way for him to return to Australia, and avoiding the need to face charges in the United States.  It brings to an end the 14-year ordeal that saw him spend seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and a further five years in a British prison fighting US attempts to extradite him.  In this episode of The Briefing we're joined by Kym Staton, documentary filmmaker and Director of ‘The Trust Fall: Julian Assange', to find out how and why Assange has finally decided to end his campaign for justice and return home. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Ferguson in the Morning 06-25-24 Julian Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge in exchange for no additional prison time. That will end his 14-year saga as a fugitive and prisoner. The Wikileaks founder has already served 5 years in a maximum security prison in England and spent 7 years hiding in an Ecuadorian Embassy. He's expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing. Story here: https://redstate.com/margaret-clark/2024/06/24/julian-assange-will-please-guilty-in-exchange-for-freedom-n2175915 Another deadly weekend in St. Louis City and Mayor Tishaura Jones blames Republicans and Jefferson City. Story here: https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/investigations/st-louis-mayor-tishaura-jones-responds-to-deadly-mass-shooting-calls-for-state-action-gun-control/63-b20eb812-1b8a-4953-89df-ef4bc8ca4c84 Dr. Robert Cherry from the American Enterprise Institute talks about black unemployment and the upcoming election. Dr. Cherry's column here: https://www.aei.org/op-eds/black-unemployment-is-a-weakness-for-dems-that-trump-exploits/ More articles from Dr. Cherry here: https://www.aei.org/search-results/?wpsolr_fq%5B0%5D=author_str:Robert%20Cherry (https://www.aei.org/) MORNING NEWS DUMP: St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones blames Republicans and Jefferson City for more weekend violence and deadly shootings. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) comments on misinformation from the administration regarding oil and gas leases.  There's an alligator in Bonne Terre Lake! It's about 20 inches long and the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources encourages you to not make friends with it. Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 at Busch Stadium. Game 2 of the 3-game series is tonight at 6:45pm. NewsTalkSTL website: https://newstalkstl.com/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsTalkSTL Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewstalkSTL Livestream 24/7: http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstreamSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Ferguson in the Morning 06-25-24 We discuss the situation surrounding Julian Assange, who has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge in exchange for no additional prison time. That will end his 14-year saga as a fugitive and prisoner. The Wikileaks founder has already served 5 years in a maximum security prison in England and spent 7 years hiding in an Ecuadorian Embassy. He's expected to return to Australia after his plea and sentencing. Story here: https://redstate.com/margaret-clark/2024/06/24/julian-assange-will-please-guilty-in-exchange-for-freedom-n2175915 SCOTUS will decide at least some of the so-called "transgender" legal issues. Story here: https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/nation-world/supreme-court-ban-on-gender-affirming-care/507-0ffd718a-df66-4428-a147-9b4dbed5dea6?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot Cam Edwards from BearingArms.com talks about the latest Supreme Court rulings regarding a domestic violence restraining order barring possession of a firearm, and he also discusses the Protect Illinois Communities Act. Story here on what's next for SCOTUS: https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/06/23/after-rahimi-whats-next-for-the-supreme-court-n1225362 Story here on the Court's silence on the Illinois gun case: https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2024/06/24/supreme-court-silent-on-illinois-gun-ban-lawsuits-n1225371 More columns from Cam Edwards: https://bearingarms.com/author/camedwards (https://bearingarms.com/) Is there dating app burnout? A survey shows almost 80% of Gen Z users say that they're burning out on dating apps. Story here: https://www.forbes.com/health/dating/dating-app-fatigue/ NewsTalkSTL website: https://newstalkstl.com/ Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsTalkSTL Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NewstalkSTL Livestream 24/7: http://bit.ly/newstalkstlstreamSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stella Assange is petrified that her husband WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - is about to go the same way of Jeffrey Epstein. Currently held in Belmarsh Prison in London after a stint in the Ecuadorian Embassy, his last ever appeal against extradition to the US is coming up at the Royal Court of Justice on the 20th and 21st February 2024, and she believes the CIA will finish him off. #julianassange #wikileaks #freespeech  Follow Stella on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellaassange/?hl=en Follow Stella on X: https://twitter.com/Stella_Assange Support Andrew's podcast: http://andrewgold.locals.com Andrew on X: https://twitter.com/andrewgold_ok  Insta: https://www.instagram.com/andrewgold_ok Heretics YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewgoldheretics Discover your inner detective when you download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iconic actress, Pamela Anderson, told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking ahead of the release of her memoir Love, Pamela and her documentary Pamela, a Love Story that was a “relief” to be able to tell her side of a story that has been told by many others over the years. Anderson catapulted onto our screens with Baywatch and Home Improvement and her career has featured more than 25 movies, dozens of TV shows and relationships with the likes of Tommy Lee and Julian Assange. “I never felt like I was ever going to get the chance to do it because I always felt so different, kind of like an observer looking at somebody else's life and the people that knew me always thought that one day I would tell it how it was. “It's such a relief. I haven't been this happy in a long, long time. I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders.” Anderson says that while the memoir has taken some time to be finished and released, the timing was fortuitous as her documentary was released at the same time as her book. “I said here's the keys to the archives, I don't know what I've saved, what's up there, but I know there's no dead bodies up there, just have at it and don't tell me anything, I'll see it at the premiere.” Anderson told Mike Hosking she wanted to bring the audience along with her and felt not wearing makeup would be the most authentic way to do so. “I just said film it, I don't care. I'm going to take everything off and I want to go through this journey with people. “If you like me at my worst, you can like me at my best, maybe. I thought I'm just a human being and this is what I look like.” Love, Pamela is out now. Photo / Supplied While Pamela is a pop culture icon to many, there are clips in the documentary in which she suffers horrendous treatment at the hands of the likes of David Letterman, but says it was moments like that that have made her who she is today. “I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now,” she says “I wouldn't be able to write a book, I feel like everything happened for a reason and I don't feel like a victim at all, I feel like I've had this really incredible opportunity now to be who I really am.” It's this reflection that Anderson says she is grateful for. “I kind of look at myself and think, wow, you got through a lot, I got through a lot of things and to still have joy and love and forgiveness and all of that good stuff.” When Julian Assange, activist and founder of WikiLeaks, was introduced to her the pair struck up a relationship in which Anderson would bring him vegan meals during his time at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. She told Mike Hosking she is saddened by his experience and hopes for a resolution in the form of a pardon by US President Joe Biden. “This psychological torture that he's going through, it's a waste of a beautiful mind and I don't know what's going to happen, I hope Biden pardons him.” Being 55, single and not knowing what the future holds may be frightening for some, but Anderson says it is liberating. “This is the sexiest time of my life, the most romantic time in my life,' says “the capacity to be alone is the capacity to love, you have to know how to be alone and how to love yourself.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EP149: Javier Milei of NY: Keith Redhead, Zuck's Doomsday Bunker, Assange Lawsuit, NFL Week 15 NFL Week 15 - Playoffs Belichick Out at Patriots Coach Flacco Deal -https://x.com/adamschefter/status/1735377510299242795?s=46&t=ye-2GyAK2iDh3yT1vKjfJg  Doomsday Bunker Alert - https://dailycaller.com/2023/12/15/mark-zuckerberg-100-million-estate-compound-hawaii-bunker/ Polancarz Bans Roads - https://x.com/markpoloncarz/status/1735094754550132935?s=46&t=ye-2GyAK2iDh3yT1vKjfJg; https://www.audacy.com/wben/news/local/poloncarz-turns-heads-with-post-on-essential-personnel Assange Lawsuit SDNY - https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/lawsuit-against-alleged-cia-spying-on-assange-visitors/;   https://thedissenter.org/attorney-update-lawsuit-cia-spying-assange-visitors/; Timeline - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11949341 in London prison for journalism for last 4 years after being confined to Ecuadorian Embassy since 2012 General Election 2024 -  Trump: Iowa Vivek CNN Townhall - https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1735126791142904074/video/1  RFK Biden ## About the Sports, Clicks & Politics Podcast SCAPP is a weekly podcast with a Livestream every Monday at 12pm eastern.  Join hosts Shawn Hannon and Ben Hussong as they separate the latest news from the noise impacting New York State. The podcast has frequent guest interviews for additional perspectives in the worlds or sports, politics and beyond! Follow the show on social media Website: scappodcast.com Facebook: facebook.com/scappodcast Twitter: @SCAPPodcast Follow Shawn & Ben on social media Facebook: facebook.com/hannon44  Twitter: @hannon44 Facebook: facebook.com/ben.hussong.3 Twitter: @benhussong  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/scapp/support

While most social media platforms spy on us, manipulate our emotions with hidden algorithms, feed our data to governments on request and censor with no notice or transparency, can there be an alternative that's friendly for everyone to use? We talk with John Kiriakou and Sean O'Brien about Pancake, a new messaging technology being built to address that question. We also discuss the important news from November 3rd that a New York judge has declared that oral arguments in the case Kunstler v. CIA will be open to the public. The suit alleges that the Central Intelligence Agency conspired with UC Global to illegally spy on Julian Assange and his visitors - including lawyers - at the Ecuadorian Embassy.Finally, we bring you a selection of voices from the November 4th March on Washington for Palestine. To see the entire rally, visit BreakThrough News on YouTube.About our guests:John Kiriakou is a journalist, former CIA counterterrorism officer, former senior investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former counterterrorism consultant for ABC News. In 2007, Kiriakou blew the whistle on the CIA's torture program, that torture was official U.S. government policy, and approved by then-President George W. Bush. He became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act — a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of the revelation.In 2012 the Ralph Nader family honored Kiriakou with the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage, he won the PEN Center USA's prestigious First Amendment Award in 2015, the first Blueprint International Whistleblowing Prize for Bravery and Integrity in the Public Interest in 2016, and in the same year the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, given by retired CIA, FBI, and NSA officers. Sean O'Brien is a Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School, where he teaches Cybersecurity and founded the Privacy Lab initiative. He is Chief Technology Officer at Panquake, recently launching the Panquake Me link cleaning, shortening, and archiving service. Sean developed a Web3 and Blockchain class at Yale as well as Hacking and Cybersecurity at the Lawfare Institute and was founding Head Tutor at Oxford University Cyber Security for Business Leaders. Sean's expertise has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, Bloomberg, Popular Science, AP News, NBC News, The Financial Times, Wired, The New Yorker, and more. Support the show

Julian Assange is an Australian citizen and the founder of whistleblower website WikiLeaks established in 2006. Wikileaks' release in 2010 of leaked video from a United States helicopter showing an air strike that killed civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, put Mr Assange on the world stage. Between 2012 and 2019 Mr Assange was granted political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and since August 2019 has been held in a London prison, fighting extradition to the United States. On this episode of BASED, I speak to Mr Assange's brother, Gabriel Shipton about his brother's life, political asylum, eventual imprisonment, what he faces should he be extradited to the United States and what that will mean for journalists around the world.

It is now over four years ago that Julian Assange was spirited away from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and detained in Belmarsh's maximum security prison. Being locked in a tiny concrete room for more than 1500 days has taken a serious toll on the Australian publisher; reports from this week suggest that his health is “deteriorating by the minute.”One man who has covered the Wikileaks co-founder's case closer than almost anyone is Kevin Gosztola. Gosztola is an American journalist, the managing editor of Shadowproof and co-hosts the Unauthorized Disclosure Podcast with Rania Khalek. He is the author of the new book “Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange.” Today, he joins “Watchdog” host Lowkey to talk all things WikiLeaks, Assange, leaks and cybersecurity.The U.S. government has always been hostile to leakers revealing embarrassing or compromising information about its actions. But Gosztola states that the Central Intelligence Agency's “gloves came off” in 2017 as it ramped up its attacks on Assange. By 2017, CIA Director Mike Pompeo had labeled WikiLeaks as a hostile non-state intelligence service and began turning the screw. For Gosztola, the CIA's response was a symptom of the agency's insecurity; “And so at that point, the CIA probably feels they are threatened, their whole regime of pursuing the global war on terrorism is in jeopardy as a result of WikiLeaks,” he told Lowkey.It is often forgotten how much incredible, extraordinary information WikiLeaks provided the world. This included the Guantánamo prison manuals, which showed that the U.S. Army hid prisoners from Red Cross inspectors and illegally held captives in solitary confinement to soften them up for interrogation.What WikiLeaks published was barely a toothpick in a forest compared to the amount of information the U.S. national security state keeps secret. Every day, Gosztola said, Washington produces tens of millions of pieces of classified information. This means, he added that it is becoming increasingly difficult and unwieldy to keep all these secrets under lock and key. If this continues, it might become “impossible for the U.S. government to keep doubling down and adding more infrastructure… eventually, the system might actually collapse in on itself because it isn't able to support all of the stresses that are being put on it to protect” itself, he addsSupport the showThe MintPress podcast, “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know – including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media.Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic and political campaigner. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network and The Peace and Justice Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has spoken and performed on platforms from the Oxford Union to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury. His latest album, Soundtrack To The Struggle 2, featured Noam Chomsky and Frankie Boyle and has been streamed millions of times.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit yasha.substack.comWe recently went to the local theater to watch Ithaca, a new documentary about Julian Assange that focuses on his dad's efforts to get him out of London's Belmarsh Prison, where he's been held in solitary since 2019 while fighting extradition to United States on espionage charges — initially under Trump but now under Biden. Oh how things change!To add some context to the film, we watched and discuss two other Julian Assange docs: Laura Poitras' Risk and Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets. They amount to a decade's worth of documentaries about Wikileaks — chronicling the increasing repression and marginalization and hopelessness of Julian and his project to change the world by freeing information.—Yasha and EvgeniaA couple of notes on our discussion.The three films are all very different. Of the three, Risk is probably the most interesting to watch but also the most deceptive and least informative. It gives viewers a false sense of intimacy and reality, while on the backend being very manipulative.As we discus in the ep, most viewers probably won't know that after Risk premiered at Cannes — and after Laura Poitras appeared and hugged on the red carpet with Wikileaks sidekick Jacob Appelbaum — Poitras re-edited the film, changing the narrative to show Julian Assange and Jacob Appelbaum not as heroes but as predators. Yasha first found out about this sneaky re-edit from Julian back in 2017 when Julian was still holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy. Julian felt betrayed and explained the re-editing of the film as Laura's attempt to protect her reputation from a couple of things that happened not long after the film had its premier in France. One was that Jacob Appelbaum — the Tor Project frontman with whom Laura was intimately involved with — was accused of being a sexual predator and was then cancelled by the privacy community. The second was that Julian became fully toxic in liberal circles during the 2016 presidential election: he was seen as a Russian asset who backed Trump over Hillary and released all those damaging emails.So as Julian explained: because of all of this Poitras had to betray her two friends — one of whom was in captivity, the other who used to be her lover — to make sure she came out of these scandals clean, even though she had no problem with any of this until it became public and a problem for her career. It was a tangled, gross situation.“I think it's mostly defensive. She's the daughter of a billionaire, and has an apartment in Tribecca, Manhattan,” Julian wrote to Yasha back then. “But she's pretty simple. She aspires to maximise her status among the Tribecca/Greenwich Village, etc. set.”

This April will mark four years since Julian Assange was forcefully removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been granted asylum, and jailed in Belmarsh Prison. Assange, whose health is declining, is being persecuted for being a publisher who made leaked material available to the public through Wikileaks. The materials, which exposed war crimes and corruption, were reported on by major media outlets around the world. The Biden administration could free Assange immediately by dropping the charges made by the Trump administration. Clearing the FOG speaks with Gabriel Shipton, Assange's brother, who is starting a US tour with his father, John Shipton, at the end of the month to show his documentary, Ithaka, and call on President Biden to act. The film provides an intimate view of Assange's family's fight to free him. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

Iconic actress, Pamela Anderson, told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking ahead of the release of her memoir Love, Pamela and her documentary Pamela, a Love Story that was a “relief” to be able to tell her side of a story that has been told by many others over the years. Anderson catapulted onto our screens with Baywatch and Home Improvement and her career has featured more than 25 movies, dozens of TV shows and relationships with the likes of Tommy Lee and Julian Assange. “I never felt like I was ever going to get the chance to do it because I always felt so different, kind of like an observer looking at somebody else's life and the people that knew me always thought that one day I would tell it how it was. “It's such a relief. I haven't been this happy in a long, long time. I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders.” Anderson says that while the memoir has taken some time to be finished and released, the timing was fortuitous as her documentary was released at the same time as her book. “I said here's the keys to the archives, I don't know what I've saved, what's up there, but I know there's no dead bodies up there, just have at it and don't tell me anything, I'll see it at the premiere.” Anderson told Mike Hosking she wanted to bring the audience along with her and felt not wearing makeup would be the most authentic way to do so. “I just said film it, I don't care. I'm going to take everything off and I want to go through this journey with people. “If you like me at my worst, you can like me at my best, maybe. I thought I'm just a human being and this is what I look like.” While Pamela is a pop culture icon to many, there are clips in the documentary in which she suffers horrendous treatment at the hands of the likes of David Letterman, but says it was moments like that that have made her who she is today. “I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing now,” she says “I wouldn't be able to write a book, I feel like everything happened for a reason and I don't feel like a victim at all, I feel like I've had this really incredible opportunity now to be who I really am.” It's this reflection that Anderson says she is grateful for. “I kind of look at myself and think, wow, you got through a lot, I got through a lot of things and to still have joy and love and forgiveness and all of that good stuff.” When Julian Assange, activist and founder of WikiLeaks, was introduced to her the pair struck up a relationship in which Anderson would bring him vegan meals during his time at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. She told Mike Hosking she is saddened by his experience and hopes for a resolution in the form of a pardon by US President Joe Biden. “This psychological torture that he's going through, it's a waste of a beautiful mind and I don't know what's going to happen, I hope Biden pardons him.” Being 55, single and not knowing what the future holds may be frightening for some, but Anderson says it is liberating. “This is the sexiest time of my life, the most romantic time in my life,' says “the capacity to be alone is the capacity to love, you have to know how to be alone and how to love yourself.”Love, Pamela is out now. Photo / SuppliedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Twelve years ago, ‘cable gate' was published by Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks.  251,000 confidential cables from the US State Department were released, disclosing corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale.   Assange claimed asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 and in 2019 was arrested on a US arrest warrant.  He has now been held for three and a half years in a high security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organised crime groups.  We're joined by Greg Barns SC, an Australian barrister, author, political commentator, to get the latest on Assange's case.   Assange is wanted for 18 criminal charges and if convicted, he faces up to 175 years in prison. There are growing calls and pressure for the Biden government from both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange's protracted prosecution.  So will 2023 be the year Assange is released?   Headlines: Qantas denies any issues with its flights Calls to block Kanye West visiting family in Australia  Police identify man believed to be US Lunar New Year shooter Peru closes famous tourists spot during deadly protests  Djokivic dominates De Minuar at Open   Follow The Briefing: Instagram: @thebriefingpodcast Facebook: TheBriefingNewsAUTwitter: @TheBriefingAUSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Continued reading of “The Trial of Julian Assange”. Download the Callin app for iOS and Android to listen to this podcast live, call in, and more! Also available at callin.com

On October 8, people around the world will take action to demand that Julian Assange be freed. Tens of thousands of people have registered to surround the British Parliament on that day. In the United States, people will demonstrate at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC. Clearing the FOG speaks with Randy Credico, a political satirist, host of Live on the Fly: Assange Countdown to Freedom, and an organizer on behalf of Julian Assange. Credico describes his meetings with Assange while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, provides an update on Assange's legal case and discusses his work to raise awareness about the importance of defending Assange, including his current billboard campaign. For  more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

GUEST OVERVIEW: Deborah Hrbek is a New York based Media Lawyer focusing on entertainment law, small business law and regulatory compliance for fine art dealers and the cannabis industry. Deborah is an Attorney and both her and other lawyers and journalists are suing the CIA and former director Mike Pompeo, alleging that they were spied on while visiting Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. In this interview Deborah will be discussing the details of their complaint ramifications and what, if any ramifications the breaches of attorney-client privilege could have on Assange's appeal to the High Court to have the ruling to extradite him overturned. Deborah will also talk what the legal defense Pompeo and the CIA might mount and give her assessment of legal actions already taken by the US and UK governments to extradite Assange.

Alex Vitale on the reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump; U.S. lawyers and journalists sue the CIA for spying on their London visits to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy; Calls grow for the compassionate release of 72-year-old political prisoner and Black liberation activist Mutulu Shakur, who is close to death. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

Alex Vitale on the reasons to defund the FBI that have nothing to do with Trump; U.S. lawyers and journalists sue the CIA for spying on their London visits to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy; Calls grow for the compassionate release of 72-year-old political prisoner and Black liberation activist Mutulu Shakur, who is close to death. Get Democracy Now! delivered right to your inbox. Sign up for the Daily Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe

Two lawyers and two journalists are suing the CIA, saying the agency violated their constitutional rights when it obtained copies of the contents of their electronic devices and helped enable the recording of their meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the latter part of his seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages in a lawsuit filed Monday in Manhattan federal court. New York lawyers Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, along with journalists John Goetz, who lives in Germany, and Charles Glass, who lives in England, alleged that the CIA got the information through a deal with UC Global, a private security company that was based in Spain and provided security at the embassy. The lawsuit said they suffered considerable emotional distress and anxiety from the uncertainty and concerns about how their personal and privileged information was being used. They said the illegal spying may have violated the rights of over 100 Americans who visited Assange at the embassy. The CIA declined to comment. Two years ago, two anonymous witnesses who worked for the Spanish firm that provided the embassy's security testified at a London court that Assange faced an intensifying bugging operation from 2017 onwards after Donald Trump became U.S. president. Assange, 51, lived in the embassy beginning in 2012 after seeking refuge there while fearing his potential extradition to the U.S. He was evicted in April 2019 and has been in a London prison since. U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks' publication of secret American military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. Assange's lawyers say he is protected by the First Amendment for the publication of leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also have said he suffers from wide-ranging mental health issues, including suicidal tendencies. In June, the British government ordered Assange's extradition to the U.S. He has appealed that ruling. Assange's lawyers have asked President Joe Biden to drop the charges against him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The MintPress podcast, “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know – including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media.On this week's edition of The Watchdog podcast, Lowkey explores the growing movement to free Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and is joined by his father John Shipton, to do so. Imprisoned in Belmarsh high security prison in London since 2019, and before that confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy, Assange has spent a decade locked up. If extradited to the United States, he faces up to 175 years in prison.Yet there are signs that his future might be brighter than his past. The global movement to free him, Shipton explains, is growing. In Australia, dozens of members of parliament have come together to lobby for Assange's release. In the United Kingdom, 23 MPs from across the political spectrum have done the same. Indeed, the parliaments of every single European nation have an Assange friendship group. And 26 major NGOs have signed a letter of support that was recently sent to President Biden.But, as Shipton explained to Lowkey, these groups are not acting on their own accord, but rather are reacting to popular pressure. As he said:These elements of institutions, parliaments and NGOs and governments represent an upwelling tide of support. They don't do it out of their own motivation. They do it because they either feel the injustice from the upwelling tide of support or realize as parliamentarians that their position is to carry this forward into the institutions of Parliament and resolve the situation.”The Biden administration is also coming under attack from Latin American nations. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador recently publicly stated that if Biden extradites Assange, he should tear down the Statue of Liberty as freedom will be over.“He is the best journalist of our time in the world and has been very unfairly treated, worse than a criminal..This is an embarrassment to the world,” Lopez Obrador added.Both Shipton and Assange feature in a new documentary film, Ithaka, which details the struggle to free Assange and the emotional toll it has taken on his family. The film is directed by Ben Lawrence and produced by Assange's brother, Gabriel Shipton. Late last month, Lowkey hosted a special screening of the film in London, alongside Shipton and Assange's wife, Stella.Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic and political campaigner. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network and The Peace and Justice Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has spoken and performed on platforms from the Oxford Union to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury. His latest album, Soundtrack To The Struggle 2, featured Noam Chomsky and Frankie Boyle and has been streamed millions of times.Support the show

Gabriel Shipton is a Film Producer & advocate for his brother Julian Assange; Stella Moris is a lawyer & wife to Julian Assange. In this interview, we discuss the unprecedented State assault on Assange's freedom, the effects on his mental & physical well-being, & the threat to journalism. - - - - On March 15th 2006, US forces dropped from helicopters onto the roof of a house in a village north of Baghdad. The mission was reportedly to intercept a member of al-Qaeda who was visiting the dwelling. The US troops gathered 11 family members in one room, handcuffed them, and shot them all in the head. This included 5 children under 6, one of whom was a 6-month-old baby. US soldiers then called in an airstrike to destroy evidence of their crimes. Iraqi police reported the details of the incident at the time, but the US military refuted these claims, stating a fire-fight with insurgents caused the deaths, and that “[US forces] take every precaution to keep civilians out of harm's way.” Their investigations ended, effectively neutering any other external examination of their conduct. This was until 2010 when WikiLeaks released a series of classified US documents on the Afghan War, Iraq War, and cables between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world. One such cable was from a March 2006 investigation of the above incident by the UN, which corroborated the Iraqi police's accusations that a horrific war crime had been committed. WikiLeaks releases in 2010 highlighted hundreds of other unreported civilian deaths at the hands of the US military in both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, including military coverup of the torture (using drills and acid) and execution of Iraqi detainees by Iraqi authorities. Julian Assange is the only person linked to these incidents who has been punished. In August it will be 10 years since he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. During that time the CIA had planned to kidnap and execute him. Then, 3 years ago Assange was arrested in the embassy and taken to the UK's highest security prison, Belmarsh, where he's still kept. All because he published source material, a journalistic practice acting as a bedrock of democracy. US authorities have indicted Assange, an Australian citizen residing in the UK, using their 1917 espionage act; this has never previously been used against a journalist. The US is seeking to extradite Assange using a 2003 UK-US treaty, which was hurriedly brought into law without oversight as a response to the war on terror. The rights of individuals in the UK are limited by this treaty. To compound issues further, Assange will not benefit from US constitutional rights. The full weight of the US and UK states is being used against Assange. His physical and mental condition is deteriorating. Assange's treatment is being used as a warning to others. Whatever your preconceived ideas are about this case, the implications are chilling: the US is seeking to make journalism a crime, and those they accuse suffer.

“He represents democracy and freedom at its strongest, and they've put him in prison. It's in everyone's interest that Julian is freed, it's a disgusting injustice that demeans our democracies and has a real effect on our freedoms because it sets a precedent. What they're doing to Julian, they will do, it's not just that they can do, they will do to others, it's a matter of time.”— Stella MorisGabriel Shipton is a Film Producer & advocate for his brother Julian Assange; Stella Moris is a lawyer & wife to Julian Assange. In this interview, we discuss the unprecedented State assault on Assange's freedom, the effects on his mental & physical well-being, & the threat to journalism. - - - - On March 15th 2006, US forces dropped from helicopters onto the roof of a house in a village north of Baghdad. The mission was reportedly to intercept a member of al-Qaeda who was visiting the dwelling. The US troops gathered 11 family members in one room, handcuffed them, and shot them all in the head. This included 5 children under 6, one of whom was a 6-month-old baby. US soldiers then called in an airstrike to destroy evidence of their crimes.Iraqi police reported the details of the incident at the time, but the US military refuted these claims, stating a fire-fight with insurgents caused the deaths, and that “[US forces] take every precaution to keep civilians out of harm's way.” Their investigations ended, effectively neutering any other external examination of their conduct.This was until 2010 when WikiLeaks released a series of classified US documents on the Afghan War, Iraq War, and cables between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world. One such cable was from a March 2006 investigation of the above incident by the UN, which corroborated the Iraqi police's accusations that a horrific war crime had been committed.WikiLeaks releases in 2010 highlighted hundreds of other unreported civilian deaths at the hands of the US military in both the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, including military coverup of the torture (using drills and acid) and execution of Iraqi detainees by Iraqi authorities. Julian Assange is the only person linked to these incidents who has been punished. In August it will be 10 years since he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. During that time the CIA had planned to kidnap and execute him. Then, 3 years ago Assange was arrested in the embassy and taken to the UK's highest security prison, Belmarsh, where he's still kept. All because he published source material, a journalistic practice acting as a bedrock of democracy. US authorities have indicted Assange, an Australian citizen residing in the UK, using their 1917 espionage act; this has never previously been used against a journalist. The US is seeking to extradite Assange using a 2003 UK-US treaty, which was hurriedly brought into law without oversight as a response to the war on terror. The rights of individuals in the UK are limited by this treaty. To compound issues further, Assange will not benefit from US constitutional rights. The full weight of the US and UK states is being used against Assange. His physical and mental condition is deteriorating. Assange's treatment is being used as a warning to others. Whatever your preconceived ideas are about this case, the implications are chilling: the US is seeking to make journalism a crime, and those they accuse suffer.- - - - This episode's sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyBlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial servicesBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is herePacific Bitcoin - Bitcoin‑only event, Nov 10 & 11, 2022Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletCompass Mining - Bitcoin mining & hostingCake Wallet - Open-source, privacy-focused Bitcoin walletBCB Group - Global digital financial Services-----WBD525 - Show Notes-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

Black cumin's anti-inflammatory potential may have airways/asthma benefits: RCT   University College London, January 27, 2022   Supplements containing oil from black cumin (Nigella sativa) may improve asthma control and lung function, says a new study. The new study, published in Phytotherapy Research , found that one gram per day of the oil for four weeks led to significant improvements in scores of asthma control and a “remarkable reduction of peripheral blood eosinophil count,” wrote the authors “Eosinophil cell plays a major role in asthma inflammation, and blood eosinophil count is considered to be a vital biomarker in asthma trials. To our knowledge, this is the first [randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial] that showed a significant reduction of blood eosinophilia by [Nigella sativa oil (NSO)] among asthmatic patients.”   (NEXT)   Meat, multiple sclerosis and the microbiome   University of Connecticut, January 27, 2022   Eating more meat, having less of certain bacteria in the gut, and more of certain immune cells in the blood, all link with multiple sclerosis, reports a team of researchers led by UConn Health and Washington University School of Medicine. The work, published in the 27 January issue of EBioMedicine, teased out subtle connections that could lead to a better understanding of the causes of the disease. But teasing out the exact relationships between diet, immune response and MS has been difficult. MS is most obviously an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the insulation surrounding its nerves. When the insulation is damaged enough, the nerves begin to misfire and malfunction like wires with frayed insulation. But what triggers the body to attack the insulation in the nervous system in the first place is unknown.   (NEXT)   Flavonoids may reduce mortality risk for people with Parkinson's disease   Pennsylvania State University, January 27, 2022   People with Parkinson's disease who eat more flavonoids—compounds found in richly colored foods like berries, cocoa and red wine—may have a lower mortality risk than those who don't, according to a new study. Specifically, the researchers found that when people who had already been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) ate more flavonoids, they had a lower chance of dying during the 34-year study period than those who did not consume as many flavonoids. Additionally, they found that eating more flavonoids before being diagnosed with PD was associated with a lower risk of dying in men, but not in women.   (NEXT)   Team Links Social Media Use to Worse Physical Health   University of Buffalo, January 26, 2022   A new study finds a link between social media use and biological and psychological indicators associated with poor physical health among college students The researchers found participants who used social media excessively had higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a biological marker of chronic inflammation that predicts serious illnesses, such as diabetes, certain cancers, and cardiovascular disease.   (NEXT)   Can A Lack of Sleep Make You Feel Older?   University of Exeter (UK), January 28, 2022   A study from the University of Exeter in the UK suggests that you are more likely to perceive yourself to be older than your biological age if you don't get enough sleep. Researchers looked at the aging and sleep patterns of nearly 4,500 adults aged 50 years and higher, asking them about sleep quality and sleep duration and giving them cognitive performance tests and lifestyle questionnaires. The participants were given the same questionnaire twice—once at baseline and again a year later. The result? Overall, those who reported sleeping poorly also had a higher awareness of negative age-related changes, while those who slept better tended to feel younger. "Our research suggests that poor sleepers feel older and have a more negative perception of aging," noted Serena Sabatini, the lead author of the study. One interesting finding of the study: middle-aged adults with healthy sleep habits tended to feel younger than their biological age, but those who had trouble sleeping felt every year of their actual age…or, more troubling, they felt older than they were. Why does this matter? If you feel like you are older than your actual age, it can have a lasting impact on your physical, mental and cognitive health.   (VIDEO)   Bill Maher Rant Against the Left - about 8 min Brussels - What Really Happened - 7:30 minutes Canadian Constitutional Crisis | Brian Peckford | The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast S4: E78 Mainstream Media Melts Down as National ‘Defeat the Mandates DC' Rally Overcomes Political Divides   (OTHER NEWS)   The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship   Glenn Greenwald, January 29, 2022   American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party). For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then demand that such “hateful” views be prohibited on that basis. For that reason, it is now common to hear Democrats assert, falsely, that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech does not protect “hate speech." Their political culture has long inculcated them to believe that they can comfortably silence whatever views they arbitrarily place into this category without being guilty of censorship. Constitutional illiteracy to the side, the “hate speech” framework for justifying censorship is now insufficient because liberals are eager to silence a much broader range of voices than those they can credibly accuse of being hateful. That is why the newest, and now most popular, censorship framework is to claim that their targets are guilty of spreading “misinformation” or “disinformation.” These terms, by design, have no clear or concise meaning. Like the term “terrorism,” it is their elasticity that makes them so useful. When liberals' favorite media outlets, from CNN and NBC to The New York Times and The Atlantic, spend four years disseminating one fabricated Russia story after the next — from the Kremlin hacking into Vermont's heating system and Putin's sexual blackmail over Trump to bounties on the heads of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, the Biden email archive being "Russian disinformation,” and a magical mystery weapon that injures American brains with cricket noises — none of that is "disinformation” that requires banishment. Nor are false claims that COVID's origin has proven to be zoonotic rather than a lab leak, the vastly overstated claim that vaccines prevent transmission of COVID, or that Julian Assange stole classified documents and caused people to die. Corporate outlets beloved by liberals are free to spout serious falsehoods without being deemed guilty of disinformation, and, because of that, do so routinely. This "disinformation" term is reserved for those who question liberal pieties, not for those devoted to affirming them. That is the real functional definition of “disinformation” and of its little cousin, “misinformation.” It is not possible to disagree with liberals or see the world differently than they see it. The only two choices are unthinking submission to their dogma or acting as an agent of "disinformation.” Dissent does not exist to them; any deviation from their worldview is inherently dangerous — to the point that it cannot be heard. The data proving a deeply radical authoritarian strain in Trump-era Democratic Party politics is ample and have been extensively reported here. Democrats overwhelmingly trust and love the FBI and CIA. Polls show they overwhelmingly favor censorship of the internet not only by Big Tech oligarchs but also by the state. Leading Democratic Party politicians have repeatedly subpoenaed social media executives and explicitly threatened them with legal and regulatory reprisals if they do not censor more aggressively — a likely violation of the First Amendment given decades of case law ruling that state officials are barred from coercing private actors to censor for them, in ways the Constitution prohibits them from doing directly. Democratic officials have used the pretexts of COVID, “the insurrection," and Russia to justify their censorship demands. Both Joe Biden and his Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, have "urged” Silicon Valley to censor more when asked about Joe Rogan and others who air what they call “disinformation” about COVID. They cheered the use of pro-prosecutor tactics against Michael Flynn and other Russiagate targets; made a hero out of the Capitol Hill Police officer who shot and killed the unarmed Ashli Babbitt; voted for an additional $2 billion to expand the functions of the Capitol Police; have demanded and obtained lengthy prison sentences and solitary confinement even for non-violent 1/6 defendants; and even seek to import the War on Terror onto domestic soil. Given the climate prevailing in the American liberal faction, this authoritarianism is anything but surprising. For those who convince themselves that they are not battling mere political opponents with a different ideology but a fascist movement led by a Hitler-like figure bent on imposing totalitarianism — a core, defining belief of modern-day Democratic Party politics — it is virtually inevitable that they will embrace authoritarianism. When a political movement is subsumed by fear — the Orange Hitler will put you in camps and end democracy if he wins again — then it is not only expected but even rational to embrace authoritarian tactics including censorship to stave off this existential threat. Fear always breeds authoritarianism, which is why manipulating and stimulating that human instinct is the favorite tactic of political demagogues. And when it comes to authoritarian tactics, censorship has become the liberals' North Star. Every week brings news of a newly banished heretic. Liberals cheered the news last week that Google's YouTube permanently banned the extremely popular video channel of conservative commentator Dan Bongino. His permanent ban was imposed for the crime of announcing that, moving forward, he would post all of his videos exclusively on the free speech video platform Rumble after he received a seven-day suspension from Google's overlords for spreading supposed COVID “disinformation.” What was Bongino's prohibited view that prompted that suspension? He claimed cloth masks do not work to stop the spread of COVID, a view shared by numerous experts and, at least in part, by the CDC. When Bongino disobeyed the seven-day suspension by using an alternative YouTube channel to announce his move to Rumble, liberals cheered Google's permanent ban because the only thing liberals hate more than platforms that allow diverse views are people failing to obey rules imposed by corporate authorities. It is not hyperbole to observe that there is now a concerted war on any platforms devoted to free discourse and which refuse to capitulate to the demands of Democratic politicians and liberal activists to censor. The spear of the attack are corporate media outlets, who demonize and try to render radioactive any platforms that allow free speech to flourish. When Rumble announced that a group of free speech advocates — including myself, former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, comedian Bridget Phetasy, former Sanders campaign videographer Matt Orfalea and journalist Zaid Jilani — would produce video content for Rumble, The Washington Post immediately published a hit piece, relying exclusively on a Google-and-Facebook-aligned so-called "disinformation expert” to malign Rumble as "one of the main platforms for conspiracy communities and far-right communities in the U.S. and around the world” and a place “where conspiracies thrive," all caused by Rumble's "allowing such videos to remain on the site unmoderated.” (The narrative about Rumble is particularly bizarre since its Canadian founder and still-CEO, Chris Pavlovski created Rumble in 2013 with apolitical goals — to allow small content creators abandoned by YouTube to monetize their content — and is very far from an adherent to right-wing ideology). The same attack was launched, and is still underway, against Substack, also for the crime of refusing to ban writers deemed by liberal corporate outlets and activists to be hateful and/or fonts of disinformation. After the first wave of liberal attacks on Substack failed — that script was that it is a place for anti-trans animus and harassment — The Post returned this week for round two, with a paint-by-numbers hit piece virtually identical to the one it published last year about Rumble. “Newsletter company Substack is making millions off anti-vaccine content, according to estimates,” blared the sub-headline. “Prominent figures known for spreading misinformation, such as [Joseph] Mercola, have flocked to Substack, podcasting platforms and a growing number of right-wing social media networks over the past year after getting kicked off or restricted on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube,” warned the Post. It is, evidently, extremely dangerous to society for voices to still be heard once Google decrees they should not be. This Post attack on Substack predictably provoked expressions of Serious Concern from good and responsible liberals. That included Chelsea Clinton, who lamented that Substack is profiting off a “grift.” Apparently, this political heiress — who is one of the world's richest individuals by virtue of winning the birth lottery of being born to rich and powerful parents, who in turn enriched themselves by cashing in on their political influence in exchange for $750,000 paychecks from Goldman Sachs for 45-minute speeches, and who herself somehow was showered with a $600,000 annual contract from NBC News despite no qualifications — believes she is in a position to accuse others of "grifting.” This Post-manufactured narrative about Substack instantly metastasized throughout the liberal sect of media. “Anti-vaxxers making ‘at least $2.5m' a year from publishing on Substack,” read the headline of The Guardian, the paper that in 2018 published the outright lie that Julian Assange met twice with Paul Manafort inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and refuses to this day to retract it (i.e., “disinformation"). Like The Post, the British paper cited one of the seemingly endless number of shady pro-censorship groups — this one calling itself the “Center for Countering Digital Hate” — to argue for greater censorship by Substack. “They could just say no,” said the group's director, who has apparently convinced himself he should be able to dictate what views should and should not be aired: “This isn't about freedom; this is about profiting from lies. . . . Substack should immediately stop profiting from medical misinformation that can seriously harm readers.” The emerging campaign to pressure Spotify to remove Joe Rogan from its platform is perhaps the most illustrative episode yet of both the dynamics at play and the desperation of liberals to ban anyone off-key. It was only a matter of time before this effort really galvanized in earnest. Rogan has simply become too influential, with too large of an audience of young people, for the liberal establishment to tolerate his continuing to act up. Prior efforts to coerce, cajole, or manipulate Rogan to fall into line were abject failures. On Tuesday, musician Neil Young demanded that Spotify either remove Rogan from its platform or cease featuring Young's music, claiming Rogan spreads COVID disinformation. Spotify predictably sided with Rogan, their most popular podcaster in whose show they invested $100 million, by removing Young's music and keeping Rogan. The pressure on Spotify mildly intensified on Friday when singer Joni Mitchell issued a similar demand. All sorts of censorship-mad liberals celebrated this effort to remove Rogan, then vowed to cancel their Spotify subscription in protest of Spotify's refusal to capitulate for now; a hashtag urging the deletion of Spotify's app trended for days. Many bizarrely urged that everyone buy music from Apple instead; apparently, handing over your cash to one of history's largest and richest corporations, repeatedly linked to the use of slave labor, is the liberal version of subversive social justice. Democrats are not only the dominant political faction in Washington, controlling the White House and both houses of Congress, but liberals in particular are clearly the hegemonic culture force in key institutions: media, academia and Hollywood. That is why it is a mistake to assume that we are near the end of their orgy of censorship and de-platforming victories. It is far more likely that we are much closer to the beginning than the end. The power to silence others is intoxicating. Once one gets a taste of its power, they rarely stop on their own. Indeed, it was once assumed that Silicon Valley giants steeped in the libertarian ethos of a free internet would be immune to demands to engage in political censorship ("content moderation” is the more palatable euphemism which liberal corporate media outlets prefer). But when the still-formidable megaphones of The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, CNN and the rest of the liberal media axis unite to accuse Big Tech executives of having blood on their hands and being responsible for the destruction of American democracy, that is still an effective enforcement mechanism. Billionaires are, like all humans, social and political animals and instinctively avoid ostracization and societal scorn. Beyond the personal interest in avoiding vilification, corporate executives can be made to censor against their will and in violation of their political ideology out of self-interest. The corporate media still has the ability to render a company toxic, and the Democratic Party more now than ever has the power to abuse their lawmaking and regulatory powers to impose real punishment for disobedience, as it has repeatedly threatened to do. If Facebook or Spotify are deemed to be so toxic that no Good Liberals can use them without being attacked as complicit in fascism, white supremacy or anti-vax fanaticism, then that will severely limit, if not entirely sabotage, a company's future viability.

Last week, one of the most important digital rights cases took place in Quito, Ecuador. Ola Bini, a software designer who makes tools for activists to protect their privacy, was arrested at the Quito airport in April, 2019 just hours after Julian Assange was taken from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Bini has been detained in Quito for almost three years. His prosecution has been fraught with irregularities. Clearing the FOG speaks with Veridiana Alimonti, a human rights lawyer and the Associate Director for Latin American Policy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, about the case, its connections to the Julian Assange case and the broader assault on our digital freedom. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

New Year, New Us. Chris the Plumber and John Barber are locked away in an Ecuadorian Embassy, so Paul and Pat got together to revive S.P.A. and bring back the hardest hitting political and conspiracy podcast in your feed. hate mail -> paul.realpolitik@gmail.com

On the show, Chris Hedges discusses the torture of Julian Assange with his father, John Shipton. Julian Assange committed the empire's greatest sin – he exposed it as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, callous disregard for human life, rampant corruption, and innumerable war crimes. Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Labour, Trump or Biden – it does not matter. The goons who oversee the empire sing from the same satanic songbook. Empires always kill those who inflict deep and serious wounds. Assange is in precarious physical and psychological health, and suffered a stroke during court video proceedings on October 27. That he has been condemned to death should not come as a surprise. The 10 years he has been detained – seven in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and nearly three in high-security Belmarsh Prison – were accompanied by a lack of sunlight and exercise, as well as unrelenting threats, pressure, anxiety and stress. “His eyes were out of sync, his right eyelid would not close, his memory was blurry,” his fiancee Stella Moris said of the stroke. His steady physical and psychological deterioration has led to hallucinations and depression. He takes antidepressant medication and the antipsychotic quetiapine. He has been observed pacing his cell until he collapses, punching himself in the face and banging his head against the wall. He has spent weeks in the medical wing of Belmarsh. Prison authorities found “half of a razor blade” hidden under his socks. He has repeatedly called the suicide hotline run by The Samaritans because he thought about killing himself “hundreds of times a day.” The executioners have not yet completed their grim work. Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the Haitian independence movement, the only successful slave revolt in human history, was physically destroyed in the same manner. He was locked by the French in an unheated and cramped prison cell and left to die of exhaustion, malnutrition, apoplexy, pneumonia, and probably tuberculosis. Unless we mobilize to halt this judicial execution, this will be Assange's fate as well.

The High Court in London has upheld the U.S. government's appeal to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a key step towards his rendition to the United States. The Australian publisher faces up to 175 years in prison once he sets foot on American soil.Whether he ever makes it to the United States is still in question. His legal team has indicated they will challenge the ruling, which will inevitably draw out court proceedings and prolong his stay inside Belmarsh Prison. Also of note is the 50-year-old's health. This weekend, it was revealed that he had suffered a stroke in October as a result of the stress of the trial.Two individuals who have been closely monitoring the Assange trial are Pablo Navarette and John McEvoy. Pablo is a British-Chilean filmmaker and the founder of Alborada magazine, an outlet concentrating on Latin American politics. John is an investigative journalist whose work documents the impact of the British national security state on public life. In November, the pair published an article entitled ‘“A Lot of Mistakes”: The Guardian and Julian Assange,' which can be read on MintPress News. Today, they discussed the role that The Guardian, and the mainstream press more generally, have played in persecuting him.It is now known that UC Global – the private security firm hired to protect the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange was confined – was secretly spying on their charge, sending the information they gleaned back to the U.S. government. This included security cameras and audio bugs.Guardian journalist Stephanie Kirchgaessner was aware of the spying long before it was made public. Yet rather than blowing the whistle, she instead chose to write highly dubious articles insinuating that he was an agent of Russian malfeasance.The Guardian was one of WikiLeaks's partner organizations, being fed bombshell after bombshell, revelations that helped build its brand and its audience. Yet, far from standing up for free speech, it was in the lead in attacking WikiLeaks and its founder. Of particular note is Luke Harding, who published the passcode to a trove of WikiLeaks documents, an act that the U.S. government claims endangered its representatives around the world.In 2018, Harding also published a viral story that claimed that Assange had secretly met with Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and unnamed “Russians” while in the Ecuadorian Embassy. The insinuation was that Assange (and Russia) was partly responsible for Trump's shocking election in 2016.From being Assange's partner, the newspaper morphed into “the spearhead of a campaign of vilification by the mainstream media,” Navarette told Lowkey.MintPress News is a fiercely independent, reader-supported outlet, with no billionaire owners or backers. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and by subscribing to our social media channels, including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.Also, be sure to check out the new Behind the Headlines channel on YouTube.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/MintPressNews)

Jim DiOrio is a Former FBI Interrogation Expert, Military Veteran, Undercover Operative, and Savage. A member of West Point's Class of 1986 (along with his roommate and former Secretary of State/Director of The CIA, Mike Pompeo), Jim served overseas as an Army Ranger in the late 80's and early 90's before leaving the military and joining the FBI. He went on to spend 10 years as one of the most successful undercover agents in the Bureau's history––and another 15 as a ferocious Special Agent In-Charge and heralded FBI interrogator around the world. Basically, he was the guy who told Captain Phillips he could have his boat back.    Currently, Jim is the CEO of J3 Global, an international crisis/security firm (or as he explains it: “I'm Ray Donovan with more experience”). In his spare time, he also owns a Jersey Mike's because why not. ***TIMESTAMPS*** 0:00 - Intro; How the Federal Prosecutor process works with new administrations 15:08 - Making cases at the FBI and politics behind it; Jim sent his former boss Jim Comey a Christmas Card (it wasn't nice); The hilarious story behind Jim's infamous Chris Christie Joke; 36:52 - Jim and Julian wonder if Trump is actually going to run for President again; Jim appeals to his friend and TikTok Executive, David Urban, to stop banning perfectly-harmless videos from this podcast; A Nantucket-Bound Private Jet & Container Ships; Jim loves his buddy Post Malone; Jim tells a funny story about his childhood baseball coach 58:22 - Julian questions Jim's lifelong friend former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's stance on former NSA / CIA Whistleblower Edward Snowden; Revisiting Snowden's background; The Yahoo Report regarding the Then-Director Pompeo and the CIA's efforts to assassinate Wikileaks Founder, Julian Assange, while he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London; Why Julian considers Snowden's leaks about US Government Privacy Violations incredibly important; Jim talks about the importance of intent when evaluating people like Snowden; Revisiting the time the Bush White House tried to push through the illegal Stellar Wind Program while then Attorney General John Ashcroft was in the ICU 1:27:48 - Jim tells the story behind something special that happened as a result of his last podcast in here; Julian talks about the responsibility he feels with creating content from the conversations on this podcast 1:40:22 - Jim talks about a Charity he and many of his West Point Classmates Founded in honor of their fallen friend; Jim tells a story about 9/11 Firefighter's son who left everything behind to carry on his father's legacy 1:49:48 - Julian talks about the impact Jim had on many who heard his first podcast and reached out seeking  his life advice; Jim tells a story about an old Mafia informant of his at the FBI who actually became a friend; The one thing that Jim says he will never lose 2:03:33 - Julian talks about Charlie Jabaley's incredible “I Am You” Theory; Jim discusses private investigations he did involving the Catholic Church and the impact that had on how he viewed religion; A story about a Korean War Chaplain whose body was just recently discovered 2:23:44 - Jim brings up a famous FBI Case he worked on: The San Bernardino Shooting; Julian and Jim passionately debate whether or not Apple CEO Tim Cook's decision to not unlock the terrorist's iPhone for the FBI was the right call; The collateral damage of privacy vs. safety; Jim expresses his frustrations working the case without access to the information on the iPhone; Jim talks about the difficulties behind legally executing wiretaps; Jim tells another old case story 2:55:24 - Discussing the controversial Ross Ulbricht / Silk Road Federal Government Case ~ YouTube EPISODES & CLIPS: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0A-v_DL-h76F75xik8h03Q  ~ Get $100 Off The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Mattress / Mattress Cover: https://eight-sleep.ioym.net/trendifier  Julian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianddorey  ~ Beat provided by: https://freebeats.io  Music Produced by White Hot

Michelle Witte, co-host of Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, joins us to discuss the political fallout in Germany after the SPD secured victory in the federal election and upcoming task of building a coalition, as well as plans by Mike Pompeo and Gina Haspel to allegedly kidnap or kill Julian Assange while he was living at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.Chris Smalls, organizer and former-Amazon warehouse worker, joins us in a discussion of Amazon's continuing worker suppression and the efforts to fight back, with the National Labor Relations Board set hold a hearing on September 28 to review charges that Amazon illegally retaliated against two of its most outspoken internal critics, and the chilling effects of Amazon's practices on labor organizing.Dr. Iyabo Obasanjo, professor of public health at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, tells us about the New York governor declaring a ‘disaster emergency' amid a staffing shortage crisis prompted by vaccine resisters, what could be done to overcome these challenges, Pfizer beginning a late-stage trial of its potential COVID-19 pill as a preventive treatment, and how this could work in conjunction with vaccines.Sean Michael Love, founder and editor-in-chief of Black House News, and Nick Cruse, Cofounder of Fred Hampton Leftists and citizen journalist focusing on state violence, the class war, and foreign policy, join us to talk about a New York Times story citing a spike in murders throughout 2020 to make the argument that what the country needs is more police, and the redesign of Monument Avenue in Richmond after the Robert E. Lee statue was taken down.Dr. Robert Epstein, author, editor, longtime psychology researcher and professor, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, and current Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, joins us to talk about YouTube announcing new restrictions on what is considered “advancing false claims” related to the German elections and how these tech giants could pose a threat to press freedom, and Facebook pausing development of an Instagram Kids service that would be tailored for children 13 years old or younger.

CIA Director Mike Pompeo back in April 2017 depicted Wikileaks as a grave threat to American national security. He also called it a Non-State Hostile Intelligence Service was a grabby rhetorical talking point However, with some exclusive reporting from the Yahoo News Team - Zach Dorfman, Sean Naylor, & Michael Isikoff - Pompeo's branding opened the door for the CIA to plan all sorts of extreme measures to dismantle the organization. Including a snatch operation to kidnap the group's leader Julian Assange, then holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and possibly to even assassinate him.This and so much more uncovered including a plan for a gun battle on the streets of London. Zach Dorfman joins to break it all down.GUEST:Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman), National Security Correspondent @yahoonews, Former Senior Staff Writer @aspencyberHOSTS:Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES:Yahoo News Article Inside the CIA's secret war plans against Wikileaks - Here.Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPodListen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.Email us with feedback, questions or tips: SkullduggeryPod@yahoo.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

*) Taliban deny targeting civilians Taliban militant group denies it targeted and killed civilians during its offensive against Afghan troops. The statement comes as the insurgents make rapid advances, and are now in control of 10 of the country's 34 provincial capitals. The UN is warning of a humanitarian crisis, as tens of thousands flee their homes from conflict. *) Dixie Fire rages across California The largest wildfire in California's history has been raging across the US state for 27 days. The Dixie Fire has already destroyed hundreds of residential and commercial structures. Authorities say only 27 percent of the blaze is contained, with more than 5,000 firefighters working to extinguish it. *) Protests against controversial media bill in Poland Polish lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voted in favour of a highly controversial media ownership bill. The legislation, which is expected to be defeated in the senate, means the country's largest remaining independent TV stations could lose their licenses. Several protests were held against the vote, saying it's an attempt to silence critical broadcasters. *) US moves a step closer to extraditing Assange The US has won the right to challenge psychiatric evidence in the extradition case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Dozens of Assange supporters rallied outside the High Court in London. The psychiatrist failed to add into evidence that Assange had fathered two children during the seven years he was holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. And finally ... *) Chelsea beat Villareal in UEFA Super Cup Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa made two crucial saves in a penalty shootout to emerge the hero in his team's victory over Villareal in the UEFA Super Cup. Extra time ended 1-1 at Belfast's Windsor Park before the match moved to a deciding penalty shootout, which Chelsea won 6-5. Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel made the masterstroke tactical change by bringing Kepa on for the shootout, and adding yet another trophy to the Blues' collection.

“By and large the system functions or so I thought. But when I started scratching the surface of this case, That to me was profoundly shocking: to see how much dirt was coming to the surface”. Nils Melzer in 2016 was appointed as the Special Rapporteur on Torture for the United nations. In 2019 he assessed that Julian Assange showed all signs of being a victim of psychological torture. Shortly after Melzer started his investigation, Assange was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and transferred to Belmarsh prison where he remains to this day fighting extradition to the United States. Bailey Lamon and Rico Brouwer talk to Melzer in this 90 minute interview for a chapter in their own upcoming book; ‘the Whistleblowers Book of Courage'. How can it be that the United Nations rapporteur on torture, appointed by the countries of the world to report on torture is now considered a whistle-blower for just doing his job?website / links: https://potkaars.nl/blog/2021/6/17/whistle-blower-on-the-case-of-julian-assange-united-nations-rapporteur-on-torture-nils-melzer

Dan Lazare, investigative journalist, author of "America's Undeclared War," joins us to discuss the CIA. Lee Camp's latest article reviews the recent Director of National Intelligence report, and argues that it is a perfect example of how the CIA and its sister agencies have gotten out of control. Camp recalls historical evidence of former US heads of state long ago, warning that this eventuality would be destructive for the nation.Neil Clark, journalist and broadcaster, joins us to discuss Julian Assange. A recent report demonstrates that the UK government played an integral part in the extraction of Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy. Also, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, has a new book in which he raises serious allegations about powerful interests manipulating the justice system.Elisabeth Myers, lawyer, former editor-in-chief of Inside Arabia and democracy lead for Democrats Abroad, joins us to discuss Yemen. The Biden administration has admitted that they are still maintaining the Saudi air force. This seems to contradict earlier statements which implied that they intended to ease up support for the genocidal war against the impoverished nation of Yemen.Ted Rall, political cartoonist and syndicated columnist, joins us to discuss propaganda in the US media. CNN is getting intense pushback for hiring Natasha Bertrand. Opponents argue that Bertrand has little credibility as a journalist, but is extremely useful for pushing unsubstantiated propaganda from the intelligence community. Bertrand has been repeatedly panned for playing fast and loose with the facts regarding the infamous "Steele dossier."Netfa Freeman, host of Voices With Vision on WPFW 89.3 FM, Pan-Africanist and internationalist organizer, joins us to discuss President Biden's infrastructure plan and the US moves to restrict African nations' access to Chinese investment. The US is warning African nations against doing business with China in a move that smacks of colonialism and economic arm twisting. Also, President Biden's infrastructure plan is being pushed as a counter to China rather than a needed upgrade for America.Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, joins us to discuss Iran. As the Iran nuclear agreement negotiations seem to drift aimlessly, US National Security Adviser and noted neocon Jake Sullivan has been meeting with Israeli representatives to keep them apprised of the status of the deal. Also, Code Pink argues that little has changed in US foreign policy after President Biden assumed power.Dr. Jack Rasmus, professor in the economics and politics departments at St. Mary's College of California, joins us to discuss the economy. Our esteemed guest discusses President Biden's proposed "American Families Plan." This plan includes increases in taxes for the wealthiest of Americans and would directly follow the infrastructure plan.Gary Flowers, host of “The Gary Flowers Show” on radio station Rejoice WREJ-AM 990, joins us to discuss police killings in the US. A group of human rights experts are calling on the International Criminal Court in the Hague to investigate US police killings against Black Americans as a crime against humanity. The move to take the US government to the international court regarding the treatment of Black Americans recalls the legacy of William L. Patterson and Paul Robeson's 1951 "We Charge Genocide" petition to the UN.

On our 1000th episode of Going Underground, we firstly speak to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer. He discusses the significance of the arrest of Julian Assange on this day two years ago on the war on press freedom, how Julian Assange’s persecution started with the arbitrary detention at the Ecuadorian Embassy, the health of Julian Assange and his assessment that he has been psychologically tortured, the war crimes and corruption WikiLeaks has exposed, the media’s role in the psychological torture of Assange, and much more! Finally, we speak to former counsel at the Ecuadorian Embassy Fidel Narvaez. He discusses the events leading up to Assange having his Ecuadorian citizenship revoked and the British Police entering the embassy to arrest him, why Lenin Moreno’s decision leaves him ashamed, the significance of Julian Assange’s contribution to journalism and the fight against corruption worldwide, the end of Lenin Moreno’s presidency, the candidacy of Andres Arauz, a socialist economist in the Ecuadorean elections, and much more!

Today we celebrate the first snow of 1855 on Walden Pond. We'll also learn about the young woman who became an emblem for a raisin company. We’ll remember the gardener spy who discovered photographer in the last decades of his life. We hear a verse of flowers for a poet’s dead friend. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that takes us through 100 gardens to help us understand the history of landscape design. And then we’ll wrap things up with the sweet story of a sweet potato party and the fascinating woman who came up with the idea back in 1969.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Why Kenya's Giant Fig Tree Won Over A President | BBC News   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts for yourself, you're in luck because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events December 9, 1855 On this day, it was starting to snow on Walden Pond. The winter Landscape appeared before Henry David Thoreau’s eyes, and he captured the transformation in his journal: “At 8.30 a fine snow begins to fall, increasing very gradually, perfectly straight down, till in fifteen minutes, the ground is white, the smooth places first, and thus, the winter landscape is ushered in. And now it is falling thus all the land over, sifting down through the tree-tops in woods, and on the meadow and pastures, where the dry grass and weeds conceal it at first, and on the river and ponds, in which it is dissolved. But in a few minutes, it turns to rain, and so the wintry landscape is postponed for the present.”   December 9, 1892 Today is the birthday of the American model Lorraine Collett, born on this day in 1892 in Kansas City, Missouri. At the age of 23, Lorraine worked as a Sun-Maid Raisin girl and wore a blue bonnet with a white blouse and blue piping. Lorraine and the other Sun-Maid girls handed out raisins. In a spectacular marketing stunt, Lorraine even hopped aboard a small plane every day of the festival and tossed raisins into the crowds of people. One Sunday morning, after her mom had set her hair into eight long black curls, Lorraine was outside drying her hair in the warmth of her sunny backyard in Fresno. That afternoon, Lorraine had swapped out her blue bonnet for her mother’s red one. The combination of her silky black curls and the red bonnet in the sunshine made an arresting sight. Coincidentally, a group of raisin coop executives and their wives walked by at that very moment, and they asked Lorraine about the red bonnet. After that day, all the Sun-Maids wore red bonnets, and Lorraine agreed to pose for a watercolor painting.  Lorraine and her mom had to rent an apartment in San Francisco for a month to work with the artist Fanny Scafford. All month long, Lorraine posed every day for three hours a day. She held a wooden tray overflowing with grapes while wearing the red bonnet. The portrait ended up as the symbol for the company and was included on the cover of every box of raisins. One newspaper article about the story in 1978 had the headline “Hair A-glinting in the Sun Made Girl an Emblem.” After many years, the painting ended up in Lorraine’s possession. Later on, Lorraine returned the watercolor to the company. Today, the portrait hangs in a conference room at the Sun-Maid Growers plant. And the faded red bonnet was donated to the Smithsonian by the company in honor of Sun Maid's 75th Anniversary.   December 9, 1913  Today is the birthday of the lawyer, politician, diplomat, scholar, photographer, award-winning gardener, writer, and spy Peter Smithers. Peter learned to love gardening as a little boy. One of his earliest memories came when he was four years old and planted mustard seeds with his nanny. He said, “She was quite aware of a child's inability to wait long for anything. Instead of having me plant a bulb, which would have taken weeks to appear above ground, she handed me mustard seeds that popped up the next day. I was hooked for life.” Incredibly, in his adult life, Peter inspired the fictional character of James Bond. Peter’s 2006 obituary alluded to his past as a spy and politician when it stated that: "Flowers were ... important to him. [He said] "I regard gardening and planting as the other half of life, a counterpoint to the rough and tumble of politics." Once he turned 50, as his days in politics came to an end, Peter devoted himself to gardening. Rhododendrons, magnolias, tree peonies, lilies, and wisteria were his favorite flowers. In keeping with Ruth Stout’s approach, Peter strived, to develop a garden that didn't require a ton of work. He wrote: “The garden is planted to reduce labor to an absolute minimum as the owner grows older.” Peter's travels to gardens worldwide inspired the Royal Horticulture Society to ask him to write a gardening memoir. The book was a part-autobiography and part-garden book. Peter said: "I consider every plant hardy until I have killed it myself." In 1986, regarding his late-blooming career as a floral photographer, Peter said, “I still don't think of myself as a photographer. I'm a gardener with a camera. I have always said that gardeners are by far the most dangerous animals to be found in a garden because we all tend to over-garden. When I have a camera in my hands, I am less likely to make trouble.”    Unearthed Words Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale gessamine, The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, The glowing violet, The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, And every flower that sad embroidery wears: Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, And daffadillies fill their cups with tears, To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. — John Milton, English poet and intellectual, Lycidas   Notes: December 9, 1608 Today is the birthday of the English poet and intellectual John Milton. Born in Cheapside in London, Milton is best known for his books Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. John’s Lycidas is a pastoral elegy. John dedicated the work to the memory of his friend, Edward King, who drowned when his ship sank off the coast of Wales in August 1637. John’s Lycidas poem mentions many different flowers he imagined to be thrown at the hearse of his friend Edward King. The tufted crow-toe is likely a reference to the English Bluebell, gessamine is Jasmine. The white pink refers to Dianthus, and the woodbine is usually a reference to Honeysuckle. Still, it could also be a reference to a generic vining blossom. Amaranthus is perhaps a reference to Love-Lies-Bleeding. See if you can catch all eleven of the flowers mentioned in John's poem.   Grow That Garden Library The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens by Linda A. Chisholm This book came out in 2018, and I must say that the cover of this book is memorable and gorgeous. In this book, Linda explores how society, politics, and money influenced the creation of 100 gardens in history. Naturally, Linda’s book is organized chronologically and by theme, starting with the medieval garden Alhambra and ending with the modern naturalism of the Lurie Garden. Like the beautiful cover, this entire book is lavishly illustrated. Linda is a master at making garden history both fascinating and memorable. An evocative storyteller and a lover of detail, Linda’s book is beautifully written. Linda’s insights into history and garden design help everyday gardeners appreciate the evolution of gardens over time. If you’ve ever studied Landscape Design on your own or in a classroom and left feeling uninspired and bored, Linda’s book will provide the guidance and insight you’ve been waiting for all along. Every gardener and garden designer should have this book because, as Linda advises, we should “draw freely from the past.” This book is 536 pages of a must-have reference for gardeners, garden designers, history-lovers, and even travelers with a desire to see and understand gardens and garden history in an enlightened and informed way. You can get a copy of The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens by Linda A. Chisholm and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $22   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart December 9, 1969 On this day, The Daily Times in Salisbury, Maryland, shared a story by Kelvin Adkins called Mrs. Zieger Has Some Sweet Ideas For Sweet Potatoes. The article explained: “Mrs. Peyton Zieger is one of those persons who always has a project of some sort going. Frequently the project turns into some excuse to have a houseful of friends over. But this particular episode started with a yellow jacket's nest and a banged-up knee. Peyton was working on a neighborhood beautification project (a flower garden nearly as long as the street) and disturbed the yellow jackets. Bugging out in a hurry, two yellow jackets hit her with such stinging force, she fell and bruised her knee. While off of her feet for a few days, she thought of [hosting a sweet] potato party and started putting the recipes and details together.” Now when I was researching Peyton, I discovered she was an avid gardener. Peyton had planted a “ditch bank” at her home that she called “Peyton Place.” The ditch bank was planted with shrubs and flowers to provide interest and color throughout the year. Peyton was ahead of her time. Concerning sweet potatoes, Peyton had two chief concerns. She said, “Number one, it really hurt me when I read in the paper about the local farmers having to plow up their sweet potatoes because of the low market. And number two, many housewives think there are only three ways to prepare sweet potatoes: candied yams, potato bread, and potato pies.” So, as the article said, Peyton “decided to yam it up with a sweet potato tasting party.” Peyton called the party "Peyton Presents Some Sweet Ideas" and invited, “some fifty home economists, housewives, and Twin Tree Road neighbors to judge the recipes. There were a few newspaper and radio people there too.“ Peyton prepared some 25 recipes and started the party off with her own creation: sweet potato punch. For this libation, Peyton was inspired by a recipe from the Ecuadorian Embassy - no kidding. The party's overwhelming favorite was Peyton’s sweet potato cheesecake, which captured a local bakery's attention. Peyton pointed out that every time her sweet potato cheesecake is made, a farmer has a market for ¾ cup of potatoes. Peyton was doing her part. In addition to her cheesecake, Peyton made, “Sweet potato pineapple pie, sweet potato pudding, pineapple sweet potato balls, sweet potato pecan pie, triple apple sweet potato cake, and sweet potato candy, to name a few.” And as a party favor, Peyton sent every guest home with a printed recipe book featuring all of her sweet potato creations.   Peyton Zieger’s Sweet Potato Cheesecake 1 box cheesecake mix ½ cup sour cream ¾ cup cooked mashed sweet potatoes (cold) 3 T baby food apricots 1 T lemon juice ½ tsp vanilla ⅛ tsp mace ⅓ cup milk Mix all ingredients except cheesecake mix and blend thoroughly. Add cheesecake mix and beat 3 minutes until thick. Pour into a crumb crust prepared according to directions. Reserve a few crumbs to sprinkle on top or top with sour cream. Sour Cream Topping: Mix together: ½ cup sour cream 1 T sugar 4 tsp vanilla Spread on top of cheesecake. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes. Chill 2 hours or more.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Guest: Mohamed Elmaazi. We talk about the Assange extradition hearings, what transpired in weeks 3 and 4 and what procedures lie ahead in this process. Mohamed has been providing continuous coverage of the extradition hearings both last year and this year from the press annex of the different court facilities or from nearby facilities via video link when in person coverage wasn’t possible.  Mohamed Elmaazi is a journalist with experience in human rights law, with degrees from American University in Cairo and SOAS. He writes for Sputnik News, he publishes The Interregnum blog and he has been a contributor to Open Democracy, The Canary, the Grayzone and The Real News Network.   FOLLOW Mohamed on Twitter at @MElmaazi. Find his writing at Sputnik News, The Canary and visit his blog The Interregnum Around the Empire is listener supported, independent media. Pitch in at Patreon: patreon.com/aroundtheempire or paypal.me/aroundtheempirepod. Find all links at aroundtheempire.com.  SUBSCRIBE on YouTube. FOLLOW @aroundtheempire and @joanneleon.  SUBSCRIBE/FOLLOW on iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Google Play, Facebook or on your preferred podcast app. Recorded on October 9, 2020. Music by Fluorescent Grey. Reference Links: Mohamed Elmaazi articles at Muckrack Assange's Extradition Hearings End With Warnings That 'Journalism is on Trial' From WikiLeaks Chief, Mohamed Elmaazi Assange's Lawyers 'Priority Targets' of US-Backed Espionage of Ecuadorian Embassy, Court Told, Mohamed Elmaazi I Had Convinced Myself That They Were Ok' Ex-Prison Warden Tells Assange Hearing on Detainee Regime, Mohamed Elmaazi  

The First Amendment and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act collided last month when the UK arrested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on, among other things, a US extradition request for computer crime. He has since been sentenced to 50 weeks in a British prison. For roughly seven years before his arrest, he'd been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, but on April 11, the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum.

Richard welcomes an independent researcher and host of a popular podcast to discuss the recent arrest of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. Assange was taken into custody when London police dragged him from the Ecuadorian Embassy where he had been holed-up for the last seven years.  He is awaiting possible extradition to the United States.  U.S. authorities say Assange conspired with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to steal and publish huge troves of classified documents.  GUEST:George Freund is a fiercely independent researcher, investigator, and writer. He is the host of the alternative media podcast, Consipracy Cafe. George was the recipient of the 2016 “Conspiracy Factist Award” from TruthRising.net. REMOTE VIEWING THE ARROW AIR DISASTER Richard speaks with a world-renowned remote viewer and trance-clairvoyant about the crash of Arrow Air Flight 1285 which crashed shortly after take-off on December 12th, 1985 in Gander, Newfoundland killing all 248 passengers and 8 crew members. GUEST: Douglas James Cottrell is best known as a trance clairvoyant. He is a spiritual healer, teacher, and published author who demonstrates many abilities studied by Noetic Sciences (the study of consciousness), including clairvoyance, telepathy, energy healing, remote viewing, prediction, and prophecy. He is one of a select few able to demonstrate all of these abilities and even fewer who are considered a reliable information source. He teaches people the world over about spiritual development through the practice of meditation and the application of spiritual principles in daily life.  He is the author of  Secrets of Life, The Compleat New Age Health Guide, The New Earth: A Prophetic View of Our Future, Gems of Wisdom and Conversations With The Akashic Field.

The election has been called, what would a truly liberal vision for Australia look like? (2:03-18:36) Julian Assange has left the Ecuadorian Embassy, should we be concerned about this, and what is at stake? (18:36-30:27) Israel Folau's sacking by Rugby Australia raises an interesting question, what should liberals support in a battle between contract law and freedom of expression? (30:27-44:16) And Dr Peter Ridd's fantastic victory for freedom of speech, what are the lessons for young academics out there? (44:16-50:57) Dr Chris Berg is joined by Andrew Bushnell, Daniel Wild and Dr Zach Gorman to discuss these questions and share things they've been reading, watching and listening to this week, including The History of England podcast, Ken Burns' The Civil War, Narcos: Mexico and The Art of the Score. (50:27-1:02:40) Show Notes: 20 Policies To Fix Australia https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/parliamentary-research-briefs/20-policies-to-fix-australia Peter Ridd Wins Biggest Victory on Free Speech in a Generation, Gideon Rozner https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/peter-ridd-wins-biggest-victory-on-free-speech-in-a-generation The History of England Podcast https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/ Ken Burns: The Civil War https://www.netflix.com/au/title/70202577 Narcos: Mexico https://www.netflix.com/title/80997085 The Art of the Score Podcast http://www.artofthescore.com.au/

In this special episode, "The Investigation" takes listeners inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and the tiny room that Julian Assange called home for the past seven years. Senior Executive Producer Chris Vlasto along with investigative reporters Matt Mosk and James Meek speak with documentary filmmaker Sean Langan, who has spent over 50 hours visiting with Assange in what he called "a gilded cage...with very old fashioned, 1950's, Spanish Mexican furniture." Langan tells "The Investigation" about his last meeting with Assange just 20 days ago: "he looked me in the eye and I could sense…he had this real fear now…of spending the rest of his life in a Supermax federal prison in America," and what Assange really thinks about Roger Stone and Donald Trump,Jr.: "he said, 'those bunch of clowns…couldn't conspire and organize this kind of thing.'" Follow Kyra on Twitter @kyraphillips Follow Chris on Twitter @vlasto Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmosk Follow John on Twitter @santucci Support this podcast with a review on Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/2UJIsJs Recommended listening... -- Start Here: The daily 20-minute news podcast from ABC News. http://bit.ly/2SA62eg -- Powerhouse Politics: Headliner interviews and in-depth looks at the people and events shaping U.S. politics. http://bit.ly/2SsGwr7 -- FiveThirtyEight Politics: Nate Silver and the FiveThirtyEight team cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and "game-changers" every week. https://53eig.ht/2RF3eb1 ==================== The Investigation is produced by ABC Radio.

The Mandatory Sampson Podcast is back as Chris and Joey sit down to break down the first Democratic Presidential Debate and discuss Ben Carson's recent Holocaust comments, how Steve Jobs took advantage of Carly Fiorina in HP's iPod deal with Apple, Sweden's six-hour work day, London's removal of MPS officers guarding Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, a ridiculous development in the Tamir Rice case, Fox News' "shocking" ISIS report, Planned Parenthood's poor decision regarding fetal tissue reimbursements, and Joey presents his Fuck Up Of The Week. Thanks for listening everyone! Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ManSamp ... twitter.com/A_Lozzi ... twitter.com/JoeyFromJerzey ... twitter.com/StandUpNYLabs Subscribe on YouTube for full episode videos and to watch the show stream LIVE Thursdays at 4:00pm: http://youtube.com/mandatorysampson Please rate and subscribe on iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/manda…id932147356?mt=2 Go to http://standupnylabs.com to listen to all of the other great podcasts on the network.

Nicole's theme for the day is "Sad but True," recounting truly sad, but sadly true news items. Huffington Post's Ryan Grim tells about meeting with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and Crooks & Liars' Susie Madrak is back for our Wednesday morning get-together.

On this week's show, Andy and Devindra look at the trials and tribulations of OnLive, a pioneer in cloud gaming that this week faced bankruptcy, massive layoffs and major restructuring; disappointment in the stock market for Facebook, and record-breaking success for Apple. But first, the headlines...Wikileaks founder Julian Assange finds asylum in UK's  Ecuadorian Embassy, Twitter clamps down on their API, and a a long hidden security risk is discovered on SMS for iOS. Headlines WikiLeaks' Julian Assange granted asylum in Ecuador Twitter clamps down on developers with restrictive API rules Huge iOS text message security hole found, dating back to original iPhone Audible Book of the Week Shada: Doctor Who: The Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams, Gareth Roberts Musical Interlude #1: Video Games by Lana Del Rey Hot Topic: OnLive Restructuring OnLive reportedly hit with mass layoffs, possibly filing for bankruptcy Confirmed: OnLive's assets sold to another company Cloud-gaming service OnLive reveals details behind its asset sale and new investor Source: OnLive Found A Buyer, Cleaned House To Reduce Liability Prior To Acquisition Game company OnLive reveals new details of restructuring HTC Loses US$40 Million From OnLive Restructuring Musical Interlude #2: Winners and Losers by Social Distortion Final Word: Tech Stock Ups and Downs Facebook Shares Fall to New Low as Lockup Expirations Begin Apple becomes most valuable firm of all time – but Facebook shares hit new low Apple Is Not The Most Valuable Company In The History Of The World Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! Sign up here to be alerted by SMS when the podcast is live! Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), VentureBeat editor Devindra Hardawar, marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor. Occasionally joining them is Techmeme editor Lidija Davis.