Society's Child

Assange is working for the people, and now we need to help him

Slavoj Žižek
RT
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 18:56 UTC

Julian Assange has been silenced again, and the timing is most suspicious. With the Cambridge Analytica story dominating the news, it seems some powerful people have reasons to keep the brave WikiLeaks boss quiet right now.

Ecuador is a small country, and one can only imagine the brutal behind-the-scenes pressure exerted on it by Western powers to increase the isolation of Julian Assange from the public space. Now, his internet access has been cut off and many of his visitors are refused access, thus rendering a slow social death to a person who's spent almost six years confined to an apartment at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

This happened before, for a short period around the time of the US elections, but back then it was a reaction to WikiLeaks publishing documents which could have affected the outcome of the Trump/Clinton race, while there is no such excuse now. Because, currently, Assange's "meddling" in international relations consists only of publishing on the web his opinions about the Catalonia crisis and the Skripal poisoning scandal. So why such brutal action now, and why did it cause so little uproar in the public opinion?

Puigdemont breaks his silence in prison interview - 'I am not a criminal, we won the elections twice'

RT
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 18:51 UTC

Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said he is "not a criminal" in the first interview since his arrest. The exiled leader reaffirmed the region's campaign for independence, saying it's based on democracy and non-violence.

In an interview with two German members of parliament, Puigdemont said: "We are not criminals. We won the elections twice." An audio recording of the interview was published on Monday by weltnetz.de.

Last week, Puigdemont was arrested in Germany on foot of a European warrant issued by Spanish authorities. Spain accuses the 55-year old of organizing a rebellion in the form of an unauthorized referendum. Puigdemont responded to the charges by saying: "The crime of rebellion demands the use of violence, and there is no violence so there is no rebellion."

The former president faces up to 30 years in prison for the October 2017 referendum, which has been declared illegal by Madrid. German authorities are still considering Spain's request to extradite him.

Raqqa residents launch resistance against US-backed SDF occupation?

Sputnik
Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:36 UTC

Local residents have been expressing their discontent with the policy conducted in Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the US coalition-appointed authorities. They took their protest to the streets on March 27 and organized a resistance militia.

The press service of the Popular Resistance of Raqqa (PRoR) announced earlier today that it had fired several mortar shells at a US-occupied military base near the city, where he 93rd Brigade was deployed. PRoR also claimed that it will not tolerate "the occupation forces" on the Syrian territory, like the US and Turkey.

The Telegram channel Directorate 4, which monitors the situation in Syria and Iraq, posted an alleged video of the shelling on its YouTube channel. According to it, this was the first operation conducted by the group. The channel cites PRoR, who announced they will continue their fight until SDF and the US are expelled from Syria.

The first reports of PRoR appeared early in March, saying that they covertly recruit locals, who are opposed to the US appointed government's policies and the US-backed SDF. News about a full scale uprising in Raqqa appeared on March 30, allegedly due to the inability of the appointed government to deal with the humanitarian situation in the city and the forced mobilization. So far, no other information on the group's activity has been reported.

Comment: If the U.S. military plans for an extended stay in Syria, their occupation will be a difficult one - surrounded on all sides by people who want them gone - people with 7 years of non-stop experience at urban warfare. Their choice, but they'd probably be wise to follow Trump's wishes and get out alive while they still can.

Supreme Court backs cop who shot Arizona woman in front yard

RT
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 11:02 UTC

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an Arizona police officer who shot a woman four times in her driveway while she held a knife. The officer enjoys qualified immunity in the case, the justices said.

Officer Andrew Kisela shot Amy Hughes in 2010. Hughes was in her driveway and was approaching her roommate, Sharon Chadwick, while holding a kitchen knife. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2016 that Hughes could file a civil rights lawsuit seeking $150,000 in damages, but the Supreme Court threw out that case on Monday.

Hughes, who has a history of bipolar disorder, had accused Kisela of using excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and arrests.

The court ruled 7-2 in favor of Kisela, with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the two dissenting voices. In her dissent, Sotomayor wrote that Kisela's actions were unreasonable and that he should not be shielded from liability.

Comment: See also:

Pizzagate, Seth Rich murder and the Clinton Foundation: The pro-Trump internet is ablaze with the Qanon conspiracy theory

Will Sommer
Medium
Fri, 12 Jan 2018 17:26 UTC

Update, 3/30: Roseanne's tweets have drawn new attention to QAnon! Read more at my updated post here.

Barack Obama will be shipped off to Guantanamo Bay any day now.

MS-13 murdered Seth Rich, probably at the DNC's behest.

Special counsel Robert Mueller isn't investigating the Donald Trump campaign - he's actually investigating the Clintons, and Trump's helping.

And Pizzagate is real, but don't worry - Trump finally has its perpetrators on the run.

Welcome to the exciting alternative universe of "The Storm," an increasingly popular mega-theory on the right that has already absorbed gobs of smaller conspiracy theories. In "The Storm," which also goes by the handle "QAnon," Trump fans can inhabit a world where their wildest Trump hopes can come true.

Sweeping new EU privacy law aims to give users greater control over what tech companies do with their data

Harper Neidig
The Hill
Sun, 01 Apr 2018 23:35 UTC

Facebook and other internet companies are racing to prepare for a sweeping new European Union (EU) privacy law that aims to give consumers greater control over the use of their data.

The law comes at a critical time for the industry, which is already facing tough questions over its data practices.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect across the EU on May 25, will drastically change what internet companies can do with customers' data.

Users will have greater control, including the ability to learn what information companies have on them. The GDPR will also codify what's known as "the right to be forgotten," meaning consumers will be able to order web services to delete their data or stop distributing it to third parties. The rules will also require companies to give users the ability to easily revoke consent for handing over personal information.

Land Day: Why is land so important to Palestinians?

Riham Darwish
Mondoweiss
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 16:42 UTC

It's Land Day in Palestine today (March 30th of every year). At least 12 people have been killed in Gaza amidst the peaceful "The Great March of Return". Although today's event is not expected to take any refugee home by tonight, because it's a symbolic event and nothing more, I think it's a great chance to explain why there's such a thing as Land Day. And why there are millions of people who continue to be called refugees 70 years after their grandparents were forced to leave their home villages in historic Palestine (besides the fact that most of them still live in impoverished refugee camps).

Comment: Exactly: a symbolic event. But in the imaginations of the literal-minded Israeli government, what the Palestinians really wanted to do was "swarm" into Israel, and destroy her precious security in the process. And of course, that justified murdering a dozen or two of them, and crippling or otherwise injuring another thousand or so.

The society of historic Palestine (before 1948) was largely a rural one. People lived and made a living off pieces of lands they inherited through many generations. It is actually hard, if not impossible, for most of us to know who the first great grandfather settling in their village was, or where they originally came from.

Farming the land was everything people knew. How much land a family owned determined their social class, because it meant they could make more money planting more trees. Culture varied by village, traditional songs featured the fruits people grew. Fashion wise, embroidery patterns and colors were inspired by the natural surroundings people were more familiar with, the colors of their fields and crops. People by the coast of the Mediterranean grew citrus, bananas, pomegranates, and melons, in other areas olives were the deal, in addition to almonds, grapes and figs.

Teacher's adopted child taken away over classroom sex abuse accusations, which were all untrue

RT
Tue, 03 Apr 2018 13:09 UTC

A teacher accused of groping female pupils had his newly adopted child taken away, although it later emerged all the claims were untrue.

The unnamed man was suspended for almost a year and his child was taken away. He was also banned from being alone with his teenage son.

Police and social workers investigated stories he had indecently touched children, although the accusation was made when he was on adoption leave. He and his wife had adopted a baby, which was taken away after the claims were made. The baby will never be returned to them.

Neil Butler, honorary treasurer of the NASUWT, told the teaching union's annual conference that such incidents take place, despite claims by the government that they are extremely rare. Figures revealed there are a worrying number of false accusations of wrongdoing by teachers.

Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and others join calls demanding Ecuador stop 'gagging' Assange

RT
Sat, 31 Mar 2018 16:10 UTC

Human rights activists including Noam Chomsky, John Pilger and Pamela Anderson have published an open letter demanding that the Ecuadorian government restore Julian Assange's freedom of speech.

The WikiLeaks editor is living in virtual isolation within London's Ecuadorian embassy after authorities at the State Office scrambled his internet connection. The decision was taken due to Assange's critical remarks on social media regarding Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont's arrest.

Russia can replace all their expelled diplomats, says US official

Yahoo! News
Fri, 30 Mar 2018 16:02 UTC

© AFP Photo/JIM WATSON
The US says that Moscow can apply to replace personnel at the Russian Embassy in Washington -- shown here -- who have been expelled from the country

Russia is free to apply to accredit more diplomats to replace the alleged spies that have been expelled from the United States, a State Department official said Friday.

This week, in response to an apparent attempt to assassinate a Russian double agent in Britain with a nerve agent, Washington joined a score of Western allies in expelling more than 150 suspected intelligence officers attached to Russian missions.

In all, 48 alleged Russian operatives working under diplomatic cover for its US mission were on the list -- along with 12 attached to the Russian mission to the United Nations in New York.

Russia's consulate in Seattle will also be closed, but the total size of its diplomatic footprint in the United States might not shrink for long, because the expelled staff could be replaced.

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Society's Child

Assange is working for the people, and now we need to help him

Puigdemont breaks his silence in prison interview - 'I am not a criminal, we won the elections twice'

Raqqa residents launch resistance against US-backed SDF occupation?

Supreme Court backs cop who shot Arizona woman in front yard

Pizzagate, Seth Rich murder and the Clinton Foundation: The pro-Trump internet is ablaze with the Qanon conspiracy theory

Sweeping new EU privacy law aims to give users greater control over what tech companies do with their data

Land Day: Why is land so important to Palestinians?

Teacher's adopted child taken away over classroom sex abuse accusations, which were all untrue

Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, and others join calls demanding Ecuador stop 'gagging' Assange

Russia can replace all their expelled diplomats, says US official

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