Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Julian is free

I was so tired yesterday, I didn't say thank you to Ann.  She subbed for me this weekend with "That 10 Commandments nonsense in Louisiana (Ann)."  My wife and I had an anniversary and went off to do something fun.  I was worried about blogging and Ann told me to forget it, that she would fill in and she did.  Thank you, Ann.  Now I need to note that Elaine's "A really bad book gets reviewed -- plus Paul Rudnick, Diana Ross, Chase Rice, Sam Smith" covers Tina Brown's Vanity Fair Diaries and that she also spoke with Ava and C.I. about the book "Book Talk (Elaine, Ava and C.I.)."  On books, when are Rebecca and I going to do our summer read?  We've both finished with the book.  The first official day of summer was June 20th, so I guess we could do it this week.  We usually waited until at least July but I'm sure we can do it later this week.


So Julian Assange is finally free.  Thank goodness.  


             

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will walk free for the first time in 12 years after a US judge signs off on his unexpected plea deal on Wednesday morning.

In a stunning turn of events, the 52-year-old Australian was released from a high-security prison in London on Monday afternoon and had already boarded a private jet to leave the United Kingdom before the world even knew of his agreement with the US government.

He appeared in a US courtroom on the Northern Mariana Islands to formalize the agreement, officially pleading guilty to conspiring unlawfully to obtain and disseminate classified information over his alleged role in one of the largest breaches of classified material in US military history.

“I am, in fact, guilty of the charge,” Assange told the court in Saipan.

The remote Pacific island chain is a US territory, located around 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) west of Hawaii.     


THE GUARDIAN quotes the judge declaring, "With this pronouncement it appears you will be able to walk out of this courtroom a free man. I hope there will be some peace restored." 9News notes, " He will fly home to Australia today."

He never should have been targeted.  He never should have been a prisoner.  He's finally free and that's a good thing.  


Remember when Glynneth Greenwald told us Donald Trump was going to set Julian free.  And he never did.  And then Glynnet started offering ridiculous tales about the pressure Trump was under?  Reality, Trump just didn't want to take action so he didn't.


Glynneth Greenwald is just a hag for Trump and that's why he avoids noting that Julian's free when Joe's president.  Won't give Joe a minute of credit.  I really loathe Glynneth and, for that matter, anyone who goes around saying "LGB forget the T" and other such bully nonsense.  You know he's a big time sub who wants to be enslaved, right?  That's why he's so devoted to the GOP and MAGA.  He wants to have all rights removed and be a slave to a straight man who will beat him and cage him -- cage him in the crotch.  He really is sick because to achieve his fantasy, he will gladly sell everyone else down the river.


Joe did what Trump wouldn't and Julian is free. 

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Julian Assange is said to be free, the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case in the next term on transgender cure -- a case that requires four justices recuse themselves, the press examines the Israeli government's killing of journalists, and much more.

Jintamas Saksornchai, Alanna durkin Richer and Eric Tucker (AP) report, "A plane carrying Julian Assange landed Tuesday in Bangkok for refueling, as the WikiLeaks founder was on his way to enter a plea deal with the U.S. government that will free him and resolve the legal case that spanned years and continents over the publication of a trove of classified documents."



Kevin Gosztola discussed the news last night.  






Michael Kosnar, Ryan J. Reilly and Patrick Smith (NBC NEWS) explain, "A letter from Justice Department official Matthew McKenzie said Assange would appear in court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S.-controlled territory north of Guam, at 9 a.m. local time Wednesday (7 p.m. ET Tuesday) to plead guilty."  REUTERS adds, "U.S. prosecutors said Assange wanted to go to a court close to his home of Australia but not on the continental United States."   BBC NEWS spoke with Stella Assange and "Only after he signs a deal with an American judge in the US jurisdiction of the Northern Mariana Islands will Mr Assange be a 'free man', she said."

I can understand the desire to celebrate this but I'll wait to make sure the US government lives up to its side of the deal -- which apparently will be 7:00 pm EST tonight.  

Hopefully, by this evening, Julian will be free.

But none of us in the US are free from the corrupt and crooked Supreme Court.  Melissa Quinn (CBS NEWS) reported yesterday:


The Supreme Court on Monday said it will consider whether a Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming health care for transgender minors violates the Constitution, setting the stage for a major decision on transgender rights in its next term.

The justices agreed to review a lower court decision upholding Tennessee's ban, which was appealed by the Justice Department and transgender youth who argue that the laws are outside the bounds of the 14th Amendment. 

The case will be argued in the Supreme Court's next term, which begins in October, with a decision likely by the end of June 2025. The dispute thrusts the Supreme Court into the center of a politically fraught issue that has sparked a wave of legislative action by state lawmakers.


The Crooked Court has refused to fall basic laws and precedents and fashions rulings as though this was day one, year one and nothing had ever happened before they hijacked the Court.

There is little reason that, come the first Monday in October, this would be any different.

Except for the fact that four of the nine members of the Court should immediately recuse themselves from this case.  

Molly Redden (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:


A group at the center of conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo’s network funneled $750,000 to an influential new lobbying operation that pushes anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the country, new tax records show.

Do No Harm presents itself as a grassroots association of doctors against gender-affirming care and diversity efforts in the medical profession. The group, which was founded in 2022, does not disclose its donors. But newly disclosed tax filings provided to HuffPost by Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog, show that the Concord Fund, the funding arm of Leo’s network, donated $750,000 in 2022 to Do No Harm Action, the group’s official lobbying effort.

Do No Harm also received more than $1.4 million from a nonprofit, the Project on Fair Representation, run by conservative activist Edward Blum, new records show. Blum, a conservative activist who helped engineer two Supreme Court cases that struck down affirmative action and major sections of the Voting Rights Act, is now a Do No Harm board member. 

HuffPost previously revealed that Do No Harm received $1 million in seed funding from Joseph Edelman, a billionaire hedge fund CEO, and his wife, Suzy Edelman, who has said she considers “transgenderism” “a fiction designed to destroy.” 

Leo is best known as the kingpin of a decades-long effort to pack the federal judiciary with conservative judges. As the leader of the Federalist Society, Leo assembled a vast and secretive network of wealthy donors and nonprofits to amplify the power of the conservative legal movement, culminating in Leo handpicking the list of former President Donald Trump’s potential nominees to the Supreme Court. While some of his efforts are highly public, others, like the funding of Do No Harm, occur with little fanfare.



Due to have been promoted for the Court by Leo, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett should recuse.  Leo is a known transphobe and homophobe.   I do not see how them being handpicked by this transphobe cannot impact on their decision making.  But they aren't the only ones who need to recuse, Clarence Thomas needs to as well.  This is from Emma Green's June 5, 2023 report for THE NEW YORKER entitled "Is It Possible to Be Both Moderate and Anti-Woke?:"



Suzy Edelman, another donor, who gave fair a million dollars in 2021, wrote in an e-mail to Weiss, “It’s your courage that inspired me to join the movement—not just to reform what’s been captured, but to build new, wonderful things.” I know Weiss a little bit—we’ve hung out in professional settings a few times over the years. When fair was founded, she had just left the New York Times in a very public way, and she was focussed on launching new organizations. “I think we are in a moment of profound change in American life, in which many old institutions are crumbling or have lost trust,” she told me recently.

[. . .]

Behind the scenes, there was deeper trouble. Suzy Edelman, one of the donors who gave a million dollars in 2021, had started asking questions about whether her gift had been used appropriately, requesting fair’s receipts and copies of the contracts that it used for volunteers and staff. For months, Edelman had also been questioning fair’s approach, particularly on gender issues. “Sex-based rights matter. Single sex spaces for women and girls must be protected. Transgenderism is a fiction designed to destroy,” she had written in an e-mail. She noted that fair had positioned its programs as an “alternative” to mainstream D.E.I., or diversity, equity, and inclusion, training, but, she said, “You can’t ‘DEI-lite’ this issue.” (A spokesperson for Edelman maintained that her concerns about fair were not related to its politics, only its “governance and use of charitable funds.”)

Weiss and Bartning exchanged terse e-mails about Edelman in August. “I am quite nervous that she has gotten to the Crows, which would be really damaging to me personally,” Weiss wrote, referring to Harlan Crow. (“I leaned on many of my personal relationships and friendships to help launch this nonprofit,” Weiss told me. “I was sick over the idea that their time, trust, and money wasn’t being properly protected.”) Bartning replied that he had recently spoken to Crow’s chief of staff. “She was complimentary of what we have accomplished, but said Harlan wanted to ‘let up on the gas a bit’ since their priorities/focus have shifted to more ‘in your face’ activism (my words, not hers).” (Crow did not respond to a request for comment.)


Harlan Crow -- that's Crooked Clarence's sugar daddy.

Bari knew what Harlan wanted and so does Clarence.   And Clarence is also indebted to Leonard Leo.  CREW noted last year:


Even as the Supreme Court was deliberating Citizens United, Crow reportedly provided the major funding for Liberty Central, another dark money group, this one with links to Justice Thomas. Liberty Central was a 501(c)(4) organization founded by Ginni Thomas in late 2009 that counted Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo as a board member. Ms. Thomas served as president through November 2010 and was paid a salary of more than $120,000. According to Politico, of the $550,000 in anonymous start-up funds the group received in 2009, $500,000 came from Crow, who also held an event for the group at his Dallas home a few months after it launched.


Even as the Supreme Court was deliberating Citizens United, Crow reportedly provided the major funding for Liberty Central, another dark money group, this one with links to Justice Thomas. Liberty Central was a 501(c)(4) organization founded by Ginni Thomas in late 2009 that counted Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo as a board member. Ms. Thomas served as president through November 2010 and was paid a salary of more than $120,000. According to Politico, of the $550,000 in anonymous start-up funds the group received in 2009, $500,000 came from Crow, who also held an event for the group at his Dallas home a few months after it launched.


It's all too incestuous and Crooke Clarence needs to recuse.  Let's note this from QUORA:


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Juris Doctor in Law, University of Southern California (Graduated 1978)Upvoted by
, JD & BS x 3 Law, University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law (1983)1y
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Do the recent discoveries regarding the millions of dollars in gifts and services that Harlan Crow gave to Justice Clarence Thomas, over the years, cast a shadow over the legitimacy of all of Justice Thomas’ judicial opinions and acts?

The canons of judicial ethics require judges to avoid “not only impropriety, but the appearance of impropriety”. Hell, my wife, who’s a judge, won’t even provide restaurant reviews on Yelp or TripAdvisor for any place in So Cal, out of concern to avoid the appearance of endorsement.

You tell me: do the gifts to Thomas LOOK fishy?



They do look fishy and no reasonable person can suspend disbelief and pretend that a fair vote can take place without recusals. 


Looking fishy.  The whores like Ben Stiller and Jerry Seinfeld and that bald headed idiot Julianna Margulies have to regularly lie for the Israeli government because that government is committing War Crimes and each day more and more people catch on.  Not only do they catch on, they shake their heads in disgust that so-called American citizens are whoring for a foreign government.

Their efforts to pretty up a genocide fail and expose them as the uncaring liars that they are.

RTE notes, "Two of the Israeli airstrikes hit two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 14 people, medics said. Another strike on a house in the Shati (Beach) camp, one of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, killed ten others."   Jennifer Hansler (CNN) reports:


             A high risk of famine persists in Gaza and the situation “remains catastrophic” as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, according to a report released Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

“A high risk of famine persists across the whole of the Gaza Strip as long as conflict continues and humanitarian access is restricted,” the report said. “Only the cessation of hostilities in conjunction with sustained humanitarian access to the entire Gaza Strip can reduce the risk of a famine occurring in the Gaza Strip.”

The report projects that 96% of the population of Gaza – more than 2 million people – will face crisis, emergency, or catastrophic levels of food insecurity through at least the end of September. Nearly half a million are projected to face catastrophic levels, the most severe level on the IPC scale where people “experience an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities.”     


The supporters of genocide can't pretty that up so they just lie about it and deny the children who have starved to death and insist it's not taking place (today THE TIMES OF ISRAEL throws reality out the door as it hops on that band wagon).  

And when not killing and terrorizing children, the Israeli government makes journalists the target.  This morning, Hoda Osman and Farah Jallad (INDEPENDENT) reports:

"Targeting of al Ghefari tower, which houses media offices, west of Gaza City,” read the chyron of Alhurra TV, a U.S. government Arabic broadcaster, just before 11:57 a.m. local time on November 2. The channel was covering the strike on an 18-story building, the tallest in the Gaza Strip. The building is visible in the far left corner of the screen when suddenly an explosion rattles the image. Debris and smoke fly live on camera. The presenter, unsure of what had happened, says, “We don’t know yet where this strike is, but it happened live just now.”

What the presenter didn’t know was that viewers were watching live on TV a strike on another media organization, Agence France-Presse, less than an hour after the one on the offices of Palestine Media Group in the al-Ghefari tower — the very building Alhurra TV was discussing while viewing the AFP live feed. AFP itself occupies the 10th and 11th floors of the 12-story Haji Tower, just a few hundred meters, or 0.2 miles, away on the same street.Targeting of al Ghefari tower, which houses media offices, west of Gaza City,” read the chyron of Alhurra TV, a U.S. government Arabic broadcaster, just before 11:57 a.m. local time on November 2. The channel was covering the strike on an 18-story building, the tallest in the Gaza Strip. The building is visible in the far left corner of the screen when suddenly an explosion rattles the image. Debris and smoke fly live on camera. The presenter, unsure of what had happened, says, “We don’t know yet where this strike is, but it happened live just now.”

What the presenter didn’t know was that viewers were watching live on TV a strike on another media organization, Agence France-Presse, less than an hour after the one on the offices of Palestine Media Group in the al-Ghefari tower — the very building Alhurra TV was discussing while viewing the AFP live feed. AFP itself occupies the 10th and 11th floors of the 12-story Haji Tower, just a few hundred meters, or 0.2 miles, away on the same street.

Alhurra broadcast the strike live not because it had its own camera in the tower, but because the network was tapped into an AFP live feed from a camera set up on the balcony of the 10th floor. The attack caused extensive damage to the building and offices: a large hole in one side of the building, and significant interior destruction. Fortunately, no one was there. AFP’s Gaza City staff of eight had evacuated the building, leaving behind a mostly unmanned camera powered by solar panels, broadcasting a 24/7 live feed. AFP was the only one of the three major global news agencies still broadcasting live from the Gaza Strip.

AFP immediately contacted the Israeli military. The initial response was that there were no strikes on the building. Pressed for more details, the Israeli spokesperson said the army had carried out a strike nearby that “might have caused debris” but that “the building was not targeted in any way.” AFP said the extent of the damage cannot be explained by the military’s response and requested “an in-depth and transparent investigation.”

The condemnations were swift. AFP’s chair and chief executive Fabrice Fries said the bureau’s location was known and communicated to the Israeli military routinely “precisely to prevent such an attack and to allow us to continue to provide images on the ground.” The Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, issued a statement categorizing it as an “attack.” The International Federation of Journalists demanded “an immediate investigation.”

After the early November strike, the war in Gaza grew more intense and the number of Palestinians killed, reported to be over 37,000 today, continued to climb. The scale of the destruction was beyond anyone’s expectations.

The AFP incident was mostly laid to rest until Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and its partners, including AFP, began looking into it as part of the Gaza Project: a collaboration of 50 journalists from 13 media organizations coordinated by Forbidden Stories to investigate attacks on journalists and press infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank. 



 A collaborative investigation by international media outlets on Tuesday (Jun 25) shed light on the circumstances behind more than 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers being killed in the Gaza war, some while wearing a press vest.

A consortium led by investigative outlet Forbidden Stories and involving around 50 journalists from 13 organisations including AFP, The Guardian and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism group (ARIJ) took part in the four-month probe.

It looked into strikes involving journalists and media infrastructure since Israel launched a devastating offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas carrying out an unprecedented attack in Israel on Oct 7.

"More than 100 journalists and media workers have been killed," Forbidden Stories' Laurent Richard said in an editorial accompanying the Gaza Project's publication.

"Today's Gaza journalists have long known that their 'press' vests do not protect them," he wrote.

"Worse still, the protective gear might further expose them."






As Israel’s offensive in Gaza has become the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history, its military has repeatedly said it is not deliberately targeting the media.

“There is no policy of targeting media personnel,” a senior official said, attributing the record number of journalists killed to the scale and intensity of a bombardment in which so many of Gaza’s civilians have died.

However, an investigation by the Guardian suggests that amid a loosening of the Israel Defense Force’s interpretation of the laws of war after the deadly Hamas-led attacks on 7 October, some within the IDF appear to have viewed journalists working in Gaza for outlets controlled by or affiliated with Hamas to be legitimate military targets.

The investigation is part of the Gaza project, a collaboration led by the Paris-based non-profit Forbidden Stories, which has analysed the deaths of journalists in Gaza since Israel began its offensive.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) records at least 103 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in the war in Gaza. Other lists suggest that number is higher.

Since foreign media are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza, the work of documenting the war on the ground has fallen to Palestinian journalists in the territory, many of whom have continued to work despite grave risks to their safety.

In a war in which Israel has dropped tens of thousands of bombs on a densely populated territory, it is perhaps inevitable that so many journalists have been killed. Among the dead are also doctors, teachers, civil servants, aid workers, paramedics and poets.



Gaza remains under assault. Day 262 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 37,658 Palestinians have been killed and 86,237 others injured in Israel's war on Gaza since October 7, the enclave's Health Ministry said. Over the past 24 hours, 32 people were killed and 139 injured."    Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

  



April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."



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