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"Since barbarism has its pleasures it naturally has its apologists."

-- George Santayana

News and Opinion

The Empire Slowly Suffocates Assange Like It Slowly Suffocates All Its Enemies

The British High Court has ruled that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may potentially get a final appeal against extradition to the United States, but only within a very limited scope and only if specific conditions are met.

The court ruled that Assange may appeal only on the grounds that his freedom of speech might be restricted in the US, and that there is a possibility he could receive the death penalty. If the US provides “assurances” that neither of these things will happen, then the trial moves to another phase where Assange’s legal team may debate the merits of those assurances. If the US does not provide those assurances, then the limited appeal will move forward.

Absurdly, the court determined that Assange’s lawyers may not argue against extradition on matters as self-evidently critical as the fact that the CIA plotted to assassinate him, or on the basis that he is being politically persecuted for the crime of inconvenient journalism.

The mass media are calling this a “reprieve”, even “wonderful news”, but as Jonathan Cook explains in his latest article “Assange’s ‘reprieve’ is another lie, hiding the real goal of keeping him endlessly locked up,” that’s all a bunch of crap.

“The word ‘reprieve’ is there — just as the judges’ headline ruling that some of the grounds of his appeal have been ‘granted’ — to conceal the fact that he is prisoner to an endless legal charade every bit as much as he is a prisoner in a Belmarsh cell,” writes Cook. “In fact, today’s ruling is yet further evidence that Assange is being denied due process and his most basic legal rights — as he has been for a decade or more.”

Cook writes the following:

“The case has always been about buying time. To disappear Assange from public view. To vilify him. To smash the revolutionary publishing platform he founded to help whistleblowers expose state crimes. To send a message to other journalists that the US can reach them wherever they live should they try to hold Washington to account for its criminality.

“And worst of all, to provide a final solution for the nuisance Assange had become for the global superpower by trapping him in an endless process of incarceration and trial that, if it is allowed to drag on long enough, will most likely kill him.”

This kind of slow motion strangulation is how the empire operates all the time these days, across all spheres. Helping Israel starve Gaza while slowly pretending to work toward solutions. Drawing out a proxy war in Ukraine for as long as possible to bleed Russia. Slowly killing Assange in prison without trial under the pretense of judicial proceedings.

The US-centralized empire hunts not like a tiger, killing its prey with one fatal bite to the jugular, but more like a python: slowly suffocating the life out of its prey until it perishes. It favors the long, drawn-out, confusing strangulation of inconvenient populations and individuals, carried out under the cover of bureaucracy and propaganda spin. In today’s world it prefers sanctions, blockades and long proxy conflicts over the big Hulk-smash ground invasions we saw it carry out in places like Iraq and Vietnam.

These slow suffocations can take more time, but what they lack in efficiency they make up for in the quality of perception management. It’s bad PR to just openly invade countries and murder people, which is why the leaders of the western empire have been able to wag their fingers at Putin despite their being quantifiably far more murderous than Russia. People start snapping out of the propaganda matrix you spent so much time building for them and begin organizing against the political status quo your power is premised on.

So they opt for slow strangulation strategies where they can confuse the public about what’s happening and who’s responsible, outsourcing the blame to other parties while posing as the good guy who’s trying to bring peace and stability. It takes time, but the empire has time to burn. That’s what happens when you’re the most powerful empire in the history of civilization; you have the luxury of biding your time while orchestrating large-scale, long-term operations to advance your power agendas.

Meanwhile Gaza starves, Ukraine bleeds, and Assange languishes in prison, each needing this to end with more urgency every day.

Aaron Maté : Israel, Biden, and International Law

The People's Ceasefire

The Biden administration deserves no praise for abstaining from a United Nations Security Council resolution which demands that Israel observe a two week long ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. vetoed numerous resolutions already, and was forced into doing the barest of minimums because of domestic and international political pressure. ...

The thanks for this brief respite from the killing spree goes to ordinary people who took to the streets in mass protests, demanding that the carnage come to an end. Here in the United States the #AbandonBiden campaign made clear that voters would express their displeasure by defeating Biden’s re-election effort.

And yet, the determination to continue supporting Israel is clear. No sooner had the resolution passed, than the US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called the vote “non-binding” when there is no such thing as a non-binding UN resolution. Even after being forced into accepting a two-week cease fire, the Biden Administration makes clear that it will support Israel's war crimes, regardless of UN votes, or the wishes of other nations.

This ceasefire, such as it is, would not have happened if the people had not remained in motion, opposing U.S. and Israeli genocide as much as they could. But caution is called for. Turn coats and false friends like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, now use the words genocide and ceasefire when they had previously refused to do so. They are still false friends. Both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are committed Biden supporters but they know which way the political winds are blowing. They can no longer manage what they consider to be an inconvenient public relations problem. The activism on behalf of the people of Gaza created a political crisis, which is as it should be. There is never positive change unless the powers that be can see that they and the system they protect face some degree of risk.

This ceasefire resolution came about only because the people demanded it. any credit given must go to unnamed people who have made their outrage clear and who have acted upon it. The pressure must be sustained. If it is not, Biden and his partners in crime in the Congress and in the corporate media will behave as though all is well. They want to believe they have a marketing problem that can be resolved with enough focus group wordsmithing instead of a political movement that cannot be stopped.

Blinken UNLOADS On Bibi 'You're Going To Be STUCK In Gaza'

Biden administration’s Gaza strategy panned as ‘mess’ amid clashing goals

The Biden administration’s policy on Gaza has been widely criticised as being in disarray as the defense secretary described the situation as a “humanitarian catastrophe” the day after the state department declared Israel to be in compliance with international humanitarian law. Washington was also on the defensive on Tuesday over its claim that a UN security council ceasefire resolution on which it abstained was non-binding, an interpretation that put the US at odds with other member states, international legal scholars and the UN itself.

Analysts said the strain was increasingly showing as the administration sought to maintain a policy that aims to influence Israel’s actions and prevent a full-scale famine in Gaza, while avoiding the use of leverage, like the restriction of arms supplies, which could have political repercussions at home in an election year. ...

Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, acknowledged the depth and urgency of the crisis on Tuesday when he met his Israeli counterpart, Yoav Gallant, at the Pentagon. “Gaza is suffering a humanitarian catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse,” Austin told Gallant in remarks in front of the press, calling for a significant expansion in aid deliveries by land. ...

I​​srael announced on Monday it would stop working with the UN relief agency Unrwa, the main aid agency serving Gaza. Unrwa said its aid convoys had been blocked since 21 March. On the same day, the state department spokesman, Matthew Miller, insisted that the US currently had no reason to dispute Israeli assurances that it was complying with humanitarian law in Gaza. “We have not found them to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance,” Miller said.

12 Palestinians DROWN After Gaza Air Drop MALFUNCTION

Twelve people reported drowned off a Gaza beach trying to reach aid drop

Twelve people drowned trying to get to aid dropped by plane off a Gaza beach, Palestinian health authorities have said, amid growing fears of famine nearly six months into Israel’s military campaign.

Video of the airdrop on Monday showed crowds of people running towards the beach, in Beit Lahiya in north Gaza, as crates with parachutes floated down, then people standing deep in water and bodies being pulled on to the sand.

In Washington, the Pentagon said three of the 18 bundles of airdropped aid into Gaza on Monday had parachute malfunctions and fell into the water, but could not confirm if anyone was killed trying to reach the aid.

It was the latest in a string of incidents involving deaths during aid deliveries in the crowded Palestinian territory where some people are foraging for weeds to eat and baking barely edible bread from animal feed.

Aid agencies said only about a fifth of required supplies are entering Gaza as Israel persists with an air and ground offensive.

Israel's toxic legacy: White phosphorus bombs on south Lebanon

Abbas Baalbaki, an environmental chemistry researcher at the American University in Beirut (AUB), has been looking at white phosphorous dropped by Israel onto Lebanese soil for nearly six months. Then, one day, a sample he and a colleague were looking at burst into flames. That should not have happened. The samples had been dropped over Kfar Kila on October 17 and collected on November 10 after it had rained in the area. ... “[They] began emitting fumes,” Baalbaki recounted to Al Jazeera. ...

The white phosphorous dropped on Lebanon, Baalbaki believes, remains active, very toxic and flammable for much longer than information on the topic indicates. He joins a chorus of Lebanese researchers and experts warning that Israel’s tactics are causing long-term and potentially irreversible damage to south Lebanon’s environment, agriculture and economy, potentially making it uninhabitable.

New York Times Misreports Gaza UNSC Resolution

To no ones surprise the very same New York Times which relied on lying witnesses to falsely claim that Hamas had raped Israeli women is also lying about a ceasefire resolution for Gaza that yesterday passed the United Nations Security Council.

U.N. Security Council Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire in Gaza as U.S. Abstains

The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip during the remaining weeks of Ramadan, breaking a five-month impasse during which the United States vetoed three calls for a halt to the fighting.

The resolution passed with 14 votes in favor and the United States abstaining, which U.S. officials said they did in part because the resolution did not condemn Hamas. In addition to a cease-fire, the resolution also called for the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and the lifting of “all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”

UNSC resolutions are legally binding documents under international law. They therefore use a very specific language. If the UNSC 'calls upon' someone to do something it is the legal equivalent of asking 'pretty please'. It has no real consequences.

However, UNSC Resolution 2728 which passed yesterday on a 14 to 0 vote with the U.S. abstaining, does not 'call upon' Israel or Hamas to do this or that.

It demands them to do something:

The Security Council, ...
...

1. Demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain;

2. Emphasizes the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip and reiterates its demand for the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale, in line with international humanitarian law as well as resolutions 2712 (2023) and 2720 (2023); ...

... By using the 'calls for' wording instead of the 'demand' used in the real resolution the New York Times is deceiving its readers about the obligations the resolution created.

Zuckerberg NUKES Political Content on Meta Platforms; MORE Tech Censorship?

Texas attorney general reaches deal to dismiss securities fraud charges

Prosecutors on Tuesday announced an agreement with the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, that would ultimately dismiss securities fraud charges he has been facing for nearly a decade.

Under the 18-month, pre-trial agreement, the special prosecutors in the case would drop three felony counts against Paxton. As part of the deal, Paxton must pay full restitution to victims – roughly $300,000 – and must also complete 100 hours of community service as well as 15 hours of legal ethics education.

The resolution lets Paxton avoid a trial, which had been set to begin in less than three weeks on 15 April. Paxton was first indicted in 2015 after being accused of duping investors in a tech startup near Dallas before he was elected attorney general.

If he had been convicted at trial, Paxton could have been sentenced to life in prison.

The agreement with prosecutors, which lets Paxton remain in his elected position and doesn’t affect his law license, is another huge legal and political victory for one of the nation’s most visible Republican state attorneys general. The end of the case comes six months after Paxton was acquitted of corruption charges in an impeachment trial in the Texas senate.

Supreme Court Seems Set to Preserve Access to Mifepristone in Likely Defeat for Abortion Foes

US supreme court seems skeptical of arguments against abortion drug mifepristone

The supreme court on Tuesday seemed skeptical of arguments made by anti-abortion doctors asking it to roll back the availability of mifepristone, a drug typically used in US medication abortion. The arguments were part of the first major abortion case to reach the justices since a 6-3 majority ruled in 2022 to overturn Roe v Wade and end the national right to abortion. ...

Much of Tuesday’s arguments focused on whether the anti-abortion doctors who sued the FDA, a coalition known as the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, have standing, or the right to bring the case in the first place. The doctors claim they will suffer harm if they have to treat women who experience complications from mifepristone, an argument the Biden administration, which appealed the case to the court, has rejected as too speculative.

The US solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, who defended the FDA, argued that the doctors do not come within “100 miles” of having the legal right to bring the case, arguing that their case rests on a “long chain of remote contingencies”. Under their argument, Prelogar said, a woman would have to face complications from a medication abortion that were so serious that she needed emergency care at a hospital – an unlikely scenario, given mifepristone’s proven safety record – and then end up in the care of an anti-abortion doctor who was somehow forced into taking care of her in such a way it violated the doctor’s conscience.

A number of the justices – even the ones who ruled to overturn Roe two years ago – seemed skeptical that the doctors met the threshold required to establish standing. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh seemed to seek assurances that the doctors represented by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine were already covered by laws that protect doctors from having to undertake cases that violated their consciences. Justice Neil Gorsuch seemed to express concern over the sweeping implications of the doctors’ request of the court. “This case seems like a prime example of turning what could be a small lawsuit into a nationwide legislative assembly on an FDA rule or any other federal government rule,” he said.

The supreme court has historically rejected standing arguments based on such potential harm. However, Justice Clarence Thomas raised the possibility that perhaps the court’s own threshold for standing was too strict. His fellow conservative Samuel Alito also seemed incredulous of Prelogar’s argument. “Is there anybody who can sue and get a judicial ruling on whether what FDA did was lawful?” he asked. “Shouldn’t somebody be able to challenge that in court?”

Calls for international criminal court to end ‘impunity’ for environmental crimes

The international criminal court (ICC) has been urged to start investigating and prosecuting individuals who harm the environment. Academics, lawyers and campaigners from around the world have sent expert opinions to the court outlining what they call its current regime of “impunity” for serious environmental crimes. The comments were made in response to an invitation by the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who announced in February that his office was developing a new policy paper on environmental crimes. ...

The only explicit reference to the environment in the [Rome] statute is in relation to war crimes, and it criminalises “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause … widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment”. Experts say the treaty could be better used to address environmental destruction during conflict as well as in peacetime.

Contributions to the consultation highlight the many legal developments that have arisen since the Rome statute was established in 2002, such as the growing recognition of the human right to a healthy environment, increasing criminalisation of ecocide and toughening due diligence requirements for corporations.

In a joint comment, lawyers and scientists at the University of London’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies, the Oxford Sustainable Law Programme and the International Nuremberg Principles Academy note that human activities leading to severe environmental harm usually also violate human rights. This, they argue, potentially qualifies as a crime such as genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

The experts say charges could be levelled against politicians, corporate bosses and leaders of organised criminal gangs directly responsible for acts that destroy the environment such as widespread deforestation, chemical spills or oil pollution. Others who contribute to such activities, or do not do enough to stop them, could also be implicated – examples given include military commanders and the bosses of fossil fuel and mining companies.

‘Tone-deaf’ fossil gas growth in Europe is speeding climate crisis, say activists

Europe’s “tone-deaf” expansion of fossil gas is accelerating climate breakdown and increasing reliance on hostile regimes, campaigners have warned. Just four of Europe’s gas-fired power plants have a retirement plan and new projects will increase the continent’s gas generation capacity by 27%, according to analysis from the campaign group Beyond Fossil Fuels.

It argues that the dash for gas contradicts the International Energy Agency’s recommendation that rich countries decarbonise their electricity grids in the next 10 years to stop the planet from heating 1.5C.

Governments must send a clear message to the gas industry that its days are numbered, said Alexandru Mustață, a campaigner at Beyond Fossil Fuels. “This undermines our security, exposes us to volatile power prices and toxic emissions, and heightens the risk of stranded assets.” ...

The analysis found that Italy, the UK and Germany had the greatest planned and installed capacity to make electricity from fossil gas – a fuel that is cleaner than coal but still pumps planet-heating pollutants into the air when it is dug up and burned. The three countries agreed to “fully or predominantly” decarbonise their power sectors by 2035 at a meeting of G7 climate and energy ministers last year.

Although about one-third of the planned power plants are also used to generate heat, which is harder to provide cleanly than electricity, the rest of the projects are just for power or do not specify.

Experts Warn of Toxins in GM Corn Amid US-Mexico Trade Dispute

Friends of the Earth U.S. on Monday released a brief backing Mexico's ban on genetically modified corn for human consumption, which the green group recently submitted to a dispute settlement panel charged with considering the U.S. government's challenge to the policy.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced plans to phase out the herbicide glyphosate as well as genetically modified (GM) or genetically engineered (GE) corn in 2020. Last year he issued an updated decree making clear the ban does not apply to corn imports for livestock feed and industrial use. Still, the Biden administration objected and, after fruitless formal negotiations, requested the panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"The U.S. government has not presented an 'appropriate' risk assessment to the tribunal as called for in the USMCA dispute because such an assessment has never been done in the U.S. or anywhere in the world," said agricultural economist Charles Benbrook, who wrote the brief with Kendra Klein, director of science at Friends of the Earth U.S.

The group's 13-page brief lays out health concerns related to GM corn and glyphosate, and the shortcomings of U.S. analyses and policies. It also stresses the stakes of the panel's decision, highlighting that "corn is the caloric backbone of the Mexican food supply, accounting, on average, for 50% of the calories and protein in the Mexican diet."

Blasting the Biden administration's case statement to the panel as "seriously deficient," Klein said Monday that "it lacks basic information about the toxins expressed in contemporary GMO corn varieties and their levels. The U.S. submission also ignores dozens of studies linking the insecticidal toxins and glyphosate residues found in GMO corn to adverse impacts on public health."

The brief explains that "since the commercial introduction of GE corn in 1996 and event-specific approvals in the 1990s and 2000s, dramatic changes have occurred in corn production systems. There has been an approximate four-fold increase in the number of toxins and pesticides applied on the average hectare of contemporary GE industrial corn compared to the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this upward trend is bound to continue, and may accelerate."

The U.S. statement's assurances about risks from Bacillus thuringiensis or vegetative insecticidal protein (Bt/VIP) residues "are not based on data and science," the brief warns.

"The U.S. is, in effect, asking Mexico to trust the completeness and accuracy of the initial GE corn safety assessments carried out 15 to 30 years ago by the companies working to bring GE corn events to market," the document says. "The Mexican government is both wise and on solid ground in refusing to allow its people to participate in the experiment that the U.S. government is seeking to impose on Mexico."

"The absence of any systematic monitoring of human exposure levels to Bt/VIP toxins and herbicides from consumption of corn-based foods is regrettable," the brief adds. "It is also unfortunate that the U.S. government rejected the Mexican proposal to jointly design and carry out a modern battery of studies able to overcome gaps in knowledge regarding GE corn impacts."

Friends of the Earth isn't the only U.S.-based group formally supporting the Mexican government in the USMCA process. The Center for Food Safety sent a 10-page submission by science director Bill Freese, an expert on biotech regulation, to the panel on March 15. His analysis addresses U.S. regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMO) along with the risks of GM corn and glyphosate.

"GMO regulation in the U.S. was crafted by Monsanto, now owned by Bayer, and is a critical part of our government's promotion of the biotechnology industry," Freese said last week, referring to the company known for the glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup. "The aim is to quell concerns and promote acceptance of GMOs, domestically and abroad, rather than critically evaluate potential toxicity or allergenicity."

His submission notes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration "does not require a GE plant developer to do anything prior to marketing its GE crop or food derived from it. Instead, FDA operates what it calls a voluntary consultation program that is designed to enhance consumer confidence and speed GE crops to market."

"When governmental review is optional; and even when it's conducted, starts and ends with the regulated company's safety assurance—what's the point?" Freese asked. "Clearly, it's the PR value of a governmental rubber stamp."

"The Mexican government's prohibition of GM corn for tortillas and other masa corn products is fully justified," he asserted. "The U.S. government's case against Mexico has no more scientific merit than its sham GMO regulatory regime, and should be rejected by the USMCA dispute resolution panel."

In a Common Dreams opinion piece last week, Ernesto Hernández-López, a law professor at Chapman University in California, pointed out that Mexico's recent submission to the panel also "offers scientific proof and lots of it," including "over 150 scientific studies, referred to in peer-review journals, systemic research reviews, and more."

"Mexico incorporates perspectives from toxicology, pediatrics, plant biology, hematology, epidemiology, public health, and data mining, to name a few," he wrote. "This clearly and loudly responds to American persistence. The practical result: American leaders cannot claim there is no science supporting the decree. They may disagree with or dislike the findings, but there is proof."

The Biden administration's effort to quash the Mexican policy notably comes despite the lack of impact on trade. While implementing its ban last year, "Mexico also made its largest corn purchase from the U.S., 15.3 million metric tons," National Geographic reported last month.

Kenneth Smith Ramos, former Mexican chief negotiator for the USMCA, told the outlet that "right now, it may not have a big economic impact because what Mexico is using to produce flour, cornmeal, and tortillas is a very small percentage of their overall imports; but that does not mean the U.S. is not concerned with this being the tip of the iceberg."

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

‘Madness’: Netanyahu’s handling of US relations under scrutiny after UN vote

Iraq And Iran Will Expedite Development Of Sanctions-Busting Shared Oil Fields

In A Crisis We Can Only Afford What We Can Already Do

Andean alarm: climate crisis increases fears of glacial lake flood in Peru

UK Citizens REFUSE To Pay Taxes Over Israel Genocide

Another round of Israeli terror at Al-Shifa hospital

25 years after NATO attack, Vucic says no to NATO

A Little Night Music

Sam Lightnin' Hopkins - Cotton

Lightnin' Hopkins - Good Morning

Lightnin' Hopkins - Mojo Hand

Lightnin' Hopkins - Jailhouse Blues

Lightnin' Hopkins - Let's Pull A Party

Lightnin' Hopkins - Trouble in Mind

Lightnin' Hopkins - Shake That Thing

Lightnin' Hopkins - My Starter Won't Start This Morning

Lightnin' Hopkins - It's A Sin To Be Rich, It's A Low-Down Shame To Be Poor

Lightnin' Hopkins - Fan It