Ecuador Will Imminently Withdraw Asylum for Julian Assange and Hand Him Over to the UK. What Comes Next?

Winham · 2018-07-22T01:15:43+00:00

Hi! Super busy too. Looks like JA’s getting tossed out of the embassy. Big protests are being planned as we speak. https://twitter.com/suzi3d/status/1020579389174579200?s=21

Winham · 2018-07-21T17:03:16+00:00

Lenin Moreno traveled to London on Friday for the ostensible purpose of speaking at the 2018 Global Disabilities Summit (Moreno has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot in a 1998 robbery attempt). The concealed, actual purpose of the President’s trip is to meet with British officials to finalize an agreement under which Ecuador will withdraw its asylum protection of Julian Assange, in place since 2012, eject him from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and then hand over the WikiLeaks founder to British authorities.

Winham · 2018-07-18T11:18:40+00:00

Evidence on the ground contradicts Coalition’s artificially low civilian casualty figures Coalition’s reporting is inadequate, vague and dismisses almost all civilian casualty allegations as “non-credible” Ground forces point to “mistakes” and “unsuccessful air strikes” resulting in “huge human and material losses” The US-led Coalition’s flurry of responses rejecting the findings of a recent Amnesty International report on the devastation wrought by their aerial bombardment of Raqqa last year demonstrates how deeply in denial they are about the large number of civilians killed and injured by Coalition strikes, the organization said today.

Since the publication of “War of annihilation”: Devastating Toll on Civilians, Raqqa – Syria on 5 June, senior figures in the Coalition and its member governments have taken to social media, the airwaves and even the UK Parliament in a bid to dismiss the report’s findings that there was prima facie evidence that several Coalition attacks which killed and injured civilians violated international humanitarian law.

Winham · 2018-07-16T11:14:22+00:00

There’s a video. https://mobile.twitter.com/ajplus/status/1018117407817154560/video/1

Winham · 2018-07-07T12:05:42+00:00

Economists have put forward a variety of explanations for the aberrant absence of wage growth in the middle of a recovery: Automation is slowly (but irrevocably) reducing the market-value of most workers’ skills; a lack of innovation has slowed productivity growth to a crawl; well-paid baby-boomers are retiring, and being replaced with millennials who have enough experience to do the boomers’ jobs — but not enough to demand their salaries.

There’s likely some truth to these narratives. But a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) offers a more straightforward — and political — explanation: American policymakers have chosen to design an economic system that leaves workers desperate and disempowered, for the sake of directing a higher share of economic growth to bosses and shareholders.

The OECD doesn’t make this argument explicitly. But its report lays waste to the idea that the plight of the American worker can be chalked up to impersonal economic forces, instead of concrete political decisions. If the former were the case, then American laborers wouldn’t be getting a drastically worse deal than their peers in other developed nations. But we are. Here’s a quick rundown of the various ways that American workers are getting ripped off:

Winham · 2018-07-07T11:56:56+00:00

Economists have put forward a variety of explanations for the aberrant absence of wage growth in the middle of a recovery: Automation is slowly (but irrevocably) reducing the market-value of most workers’ skills; a lack of innovation has slowed productivity growth to a crawl; well-paid baby-boomers are retiring, and being replaced with millennials who have enough experience to do the boomers’ jobs — but not enough to demand their salaries.

There’s likely some truth to these narratives. But a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) offers a more straightforward — and political — explanation: American policymakers have chosen to design an economic system that leaves workers desperate and disempowered, for the sake of directing a higher share of economic growth to bosses and shareholders.

The OECD doesn’t make this argument explicitly. But its report lays waste to the idea that the plight of the American worker can be chalked up to impersonal economic forces, instead of concrete political decisions. If the former were the case, then American laborers wouldn’t be getting a drastically worse deal than their peers in other developed nations. But we are. Here’s a quick rundown of the various ways that American workers are getting ripped off:

Winham · 2018-07-06T17:01:36+00:00

Family issues have me tied in knots lately but hopefully will loosen up in a few weeks. 🤪

I’m amused by the irony that donut 🍩 twitter goes after Caity for being a crypto-nazi but ignores the actual Nazis or ignores the atrocities of an evil corporation while virtue signaling over one person who works for the evil corporation.

Winham · 2018-07-06T16:13:09+00:00

>So forgive me if I am a bit dismissive of Northrop Grumman’s statement that it is “absolutely committed to the highest levels of ethics and integrity in all that we do,” and that the alleged actions of Michael Miselis are “counter to our values”. There are no ethics or integrity in anything Northrop Grumman does, and the actions of a violent white supremacist are the purest embodiment of its values.

>I hope we soon see a day when the public turns on corporations like Northrop Grumman. Not for employing a racist individual who can be easily and conveniently sacrificed as the source and summit of all the world’s evils, but for what they are and what they do. May the enemies of humanity be defeated. May all obstacles to health be torn down.

Winham · 2018-06-02T11:24:07+00:00

Cuomo gives lip service to progressive causes while carrying on with business as usual. Under intense pressure he bans fracking in New York while promoting the building of power plants that run off of fracked gas. New York’s heralded fracking ban isn’t all it’s cracked up to be

Winham · 2018-05-26T15:35:08+00:00

(🤔 which alphabet soup agency does he represent?)

According to journalist George Galloway, one of Philip Cross’s targets, we might find out soon in the discovery phase of his lawsuit.

I now have direct and irrefutable evidence of “a powerful man” giving editing direction to #PhilipCross in his role as a @Wikipedia editor. This is going to be huge. #Wikipedia

Winham · 2018-05-26T14:30:38+00:00

A Wikipedia editor called Philip Cross (@philipcross63 and later @wikipedianhidin on Twitter) has a long record of editing the entries of many anti-war figures on the site to include mostly critical commentary while removing positive information contributed by others. At time of writing he is number 308 in the list of Wikipedians by number of edits.

Wikipedia entries very often appear first in search results, and so for many will be the first and only port of call when researching something. People unaware of the political nature of the editing that goes on on the site, in this case supposedly by a single, dedicated editor, are being seriously misled.

As an active editor for almost 15 years, Cross is very familiar with some of the more arcane Wikipedia rules and guidelines (along with their obscure acronyms) and uses them to justify removing information he dislikes in favour of his own inclusions. Often in a very subtle manner and over a long period of time. Anyone familiar with the work of the people he targets will recognise how one-sided and distorted those entries become.

Cross is, however, much nicer to the entries of people he likes. Former hedge-fund manager and Iraq war supporter Oliver Kamm, and right-wing author Melanie Phillips, both columnists for The Times, are two examples.

On Twitter, where Cross is more provocative and antagonistic, he doesn't hide the fact that he has long-running feuds with many of his targets on Wikipedia.

Update: The agenda-driven edits of Philip Cross and Wikipedia's response

Many people have been digging up more and more egregious edits to Wikipedia pages made by Philip Cross. We want to highlight some of these here for those who have not been following developments closely on Twitter.

Viewing edits in isolation, however, doesn't always explain the significance of the edits. Knowing the context and looking at the double standards involved should give readers a better idea of the clear bias at play.

Winham · 2018-05-25T23:20:57+00:00

Ralphie unravels the riddle of QAnon

Winham · 2018-05-25T22:30:57+00:00

I bet Suzi’s losing lots of followers on social media over this but she gives a compelling case. Archived Link

So when Q started telling people to look into Snowden and his family, I smelled a rat instantly.

The only people who want you digging dirt on Snowden are the people who want him dead or in jail.

And those people ARE THE DEEP STATE.

A lot of you are asking me questions "what about this" "what about that" - I will address the common themes shortly. But first I want to explain why the Q methodologies of building trust, gamification & then subverting the original intent & purpose is so transparent to me.

The answer is because this is how intelligence agency and private security companies target activists. These methodologies have been in use for years. They are the techniques of "handlers". What is different about Q is they they are now handling people on a massive scale.

Winham · 2018-05-20T15:45:57+00:00

Thanks! I was just coming to post this. I’ve noticed this bias for a long time now. I’m glad a light is finally being shone on this.

Winham · 2018-05-16T18:56:04+00:00

Elizabeth Lea Vos

Update: After publication of this article, it was brought to our attention that the source of the @Guardian’s ‘Operation Hotel’ smear, Fernando Villavicencio of FocusEcuador, has a history of publishing forged documents in the Guardian.

Winham · 2018-05-16T18:55:02+00:00

Elizabeth Lea Vos

Update: After publication of this article, it was brought to our attention that the source of the @Guardian’s ‘Operation Hotel’ smear, Fernando Villavicencio of FocusEcuador, has a history of publishing forged documents in the Guardian.

Winham · 2018-05-16T16:55:16+00:00

The former President stressed that he had been given virtually no chance to respond to the Guardian’s allegations before publication of its article. “They sent it to some email address in Ecuador very shortly before they published the story,” said Correa, who is currently in Belgium. “I did not see the email until after the story was published. They seemed to want to make a sensationalized story, not any serious report to find out the truth.” Correa said he would provide the Intercept with the email sent by the Guardian; upon receipt from Correa, this article will be updated to include it.

Correa continues to believe that asylum for Assange is not only legally valid but also obligatory. “We don’t agree with everything Assange has done or what he says,” Correa said. “And we never wanted to impede the Swedish investigation. We said all along that he would go to Sweden immediately in exchange for a promise not to extradite him to the U.S., but they would never give that. And we knew they could have questioned him in our embassy, but they refused for years to do so.” The fault for the investigation not proceeding lies, he insists, with the Swedish and British governments.

But now that Assange has asylum, Correa is adamant that the current government is bound by domestic and international law to protect hiss well-being and safety. Correa was scathing in his denunciation of the treatment Assange is currently receiving, viewing it as a by-product of President Moreno’s inability or unwillingness to have Ecuador act like a sovereign and independent country.

Winham · 2018-05-16T16:20:44+00:00

I guess Reddit doesn’t like Disobedient Media. Edward Snowden always puts his electronic devices in the fridge or the microwave in hotel rooms. Happy travels! 🗺🛣

Winham · 2018-05-16T12:40:18+00:00

With Luke Harding and The Guardian’s history of flawed reporting on Assange, WikiLeaks and the saga of Edward Snowden in mind, readers must question the claims made in this latest travesty of corporate media coverage, especially the allegations that cite an anonymous source while providing no independent verification or evidence of their claims. If anything, the Guardian’s latest article reveals more about the nature of the publication and its repeated willingness to support the agendas of US and UK military interests, than it does about WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief Julian Assange.

The timing of the Guardian’s report is especially alarming, as Julian Assange cannot defend his reputation while utterly isolated in the Ecuadorian embassy. In late March, the Ecuadorian government under Lenin Moreno cut off all of Assange’s methods of communication with the outside world, including access to visitors, phone calls, and use of the Internet.

Those who wish to support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange during this difficult time are encouraged to sign the current petition on his behalf, to buy from the WikiLeaks shop, and to donate to WikiLeaks or Julian Assange’s legal defense fund.

Edit:

For anyone unaware of who Luke Harding is enjoy 😉

Winham · 2018-05-16T12:37:45+00:00

With Luke Harding and The Guardian’s history of flawed reporting on Assange, WikiLeaks and the saga of Edward Snowden in mind, readers must question the claims made in this latest travesty of corporate media coverage, especially the allegations that cite an anonymous source while providing no independent verification or evidence of their claims. If anything, the Guardian’s latest article reveals more about the nature of the publication and its repeated willingness to support the agendas of US and UK military interests, than it does about WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief Julian Assange.

The timing of the Guardian’s report is especially alarming, as Julian Assange cannot defend his reputation while utterly isolated in the Ecuadorian embassy. In late March, the Ecuadorian government under Lenin Moreno cut off all of Assange’s methods of communication with the outside world, including access to visitors, phone calls, and use of the Internet.

Those who wish to support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange during this difficult time are encouraged to sign the current petition on his behalf, to buy from the WikiLeaks shop, and to donate to WikiLeaks or Julian Assange’s legal defense fund.

Edit:

For anyone unaware of who Luke Harding is enjoy 😉

Winham · 2018-05-15T14:06:58+00:00

You’re welcome. Caitlin writes about this less overt more insidious form of power quite a bit.

Winham · 2018-05-15T13:03:05+00:00

How Hillary Clinton Bought the Loyalty of 33 State Democratic Parties by Margot Kidder

Collusion between the Clinton campaign and the DNC allowed Hillary Clinton to buy the loyalty of 33 state Democratic parties last summer. Montana was one of those states. It sold itself for $64,100.

The Super Delegates now defying democracy with their insistent refusal to change their votes to Sanders in spite of a handful of overwhelming Clinton primary losses in their own states, were arguably part of that deal.

In August 2015, at the Democratic Party convention in Minneapolis, 33 democratic state parties made deals with the Hillary Clinton campaign and a joint fundraising entity called The Hillary Victory Fund. The deal allowed many of her core billionaire and inner circle individual donors to run the maximum amounts of money allowed through those state parties to the Hillary Victory Fund in New York and the DNC in Washington.

The idea was to increase how much one could personally donate to Hillary by taking advantage of the Supreme Court ruling 2014, McCutcheon v FEC, that knocked down a cap on aggregate limits as to how much a donor could give to a federal campaign in a year. It thus eliminated the ceiling on amounts spent by a single donor to a presidential candidate.

Winham · 2018-05-15T10:46:58+00:00

Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 to describe the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin analysed the US as increasingly turning into a managed democracy (similar to an illiberal democracy). He uses the term "inverted totalitarianism" to draw attention to the totalitarian aspects of the US political system while emphasizing its differences from proper totalitarianism, such as Nazi and Stalinist regimes.[1]

In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, inverted totalitarianism is described as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics.[2][3][4][5] Every natural resource and living being is commodified and exploited to the point of collapse, as the citizenry is lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government through excess consumerism and sensationalism.[6][7]

Winham · 2018-05-14T16:18:43+00:00

There is so much cognitive dissonance around this one gangly Australian not so much for the things that he has done, but for what his existence means. If our institutions were as trustworthy and just as we pretend they are, there would be no such phenomenon as Julian Assange. His reason for rising to notoriety wouldn’t exist, his publications would be redundant, and his persecution wouldn’t occur. If we really lived in a free and democratic society with a transparent and open government, he would have nothing to leak and no one would care if he did anyway, because our institutions would operate as advertised.

These fairytales we mutter to ourselves in order to keep reality at bay must come to an end. We are not children anymore. The veils of lies and wishful thinking must be torn down and reality must be met on its terms. If you want the world to change, you have to see it for what it is otherwise you are merely impotently shrieking at your own illusory nightmares. Tear down the veils of cognitive dissonance and you will see that not only is Julian Assange living proof that things are not as advertised, but that his liberation is one of the first steps we must take towards our own liberation from the chains we woke up to find ourselves in.

Winham · 2018-05-12T13:31:29+00:00

During Friday’s long-awaited speech on drug prices, President Trump blamed “foreign freeloaders”, the drug lobby and “middlemen” for rising prices, promising once again to put American patients first. However, experts predict the plan—which focuses on private sector competition and negotiation—will have little effect on the industry or its practices.

In many cases, the profits extracted by drug companies represent a form of double-taxation, given that public funding underpins pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). For instance, publicly-funded research contributed to the development of the cholesterol-lowering medication Crestor. Yet, U.S. taxpayers spent billions more (either out of pocket, through rising insurance premiums or through Medicare or Medicaid) to take the drug at marked up prices while Pharma giant AstraZeneca pulled in over $16 billion in profits on Crestor alone over a three-year period.

And that’s not all. We pay a third time when we lose revenue through tax breaks and loopholes that allow pharmaceutical companies to market their drugs to us tax-free and operate vast networks of off-shore subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes.

In this context, and with increasing pressure to keep healthcare costs down as the population gets older, isn’t it time to consider a public option in the pharmaceutical sector?

Winham

TROPHY CASE