How GMOs will destroy Indian agriculture
Aruna Rodrigues
Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.
There have been five days of intense hearings on this matter in the Supreme Court (SC) — the GMO Public Interest Writ filed almost 20 years ago in 2005 by the author, which ended on 18 January 2024.
In these last 20 years, piecemeal hearings have dealt with submissions relating to individual…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/09/how-gmos-will-destroy-indian-agriculture/
Aruna Rodrigues
Hybrid Bt cotton, the only commercialised GM crop in India, has failed conclusively. Based on this failure and the evidence on GM crops to date, the Union of India’s proposal to commercialise herbicide-tolerant (HT) mustard will destroy not just Indian mustard agriculture but citizens’ health.
There have been five days of intense hearings on this matter in the Supreme Court (SC) — the GMO Public Interest Writ filed almost 20 years ago in 2005 by the author, which ended on 18 January 2024.
In these last 20 years, piecemeal hearings have dealt with submissions relating to individual…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/09/how-gmos-will-destroy-indian-agriculture/
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What NO ONE is saying about Tucker Carlson’s Putin Interview
Kit Knightly
Everyone is talking about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The two-hour long conversation was live-streamed on twitter. Every major news outlet has had some form of coverage.
You can watch the whole thing here:
After eight years of covering the Ukraine coup/civil War, and more specifically Western propaganda on Russia, I could pretty much tell you everything Putin was going to say before he said it.
Anybody who has covered Russia or Ukraine could tell…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/10/what-no-one-is-saying-about-tucker-carlsons-putin-interview/
Kit Knightly
Everyone is talking about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The two-hour long conversation was live-streamed on twitter. Every major news outlet has had some form of coverage.
You can watch the whole thing here:
Ep. 73 The Vladimir Putin Interview pic.twitter.com/67YuZRkfLL
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 8, 2024
After eight years of covering the Ukraine coup/civil War, and more specifically Western propaganda on Russia, I could pretty much tell you everything Putin was going to say before he said it.
Anybody who has covered Russia or Ukraine could tell…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/10/what-no-one-is-saying-about-tucker-carlsons-putin-interview/
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When “Good for You” is Too Good
Todd Hayen
The ultimate “good for you” is to be dead. At least that is what it would be if some outside authority, or entity, was watching our human behaviour and assessing what looks to be the “best” for us–meaning that if we are dead, nothing bad can happen to us. I would assume that if we fed all of the information a typical human life creates into a supercomputer, and then asked it “What is the best state of being for a human being” it would spit out, “that it never be born, and if alive, it would…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/10/when-good-for-you-is-too-good/
Todd Hayen
The ultimate “good for you” is to be dead. At least that is what it would be if some outside authority, or entity, was watching our human behaviour and assessing what looks to be the “best” for us–meaning that if we are dead, nothing bad can happen to us. I would assume that if we fed all of the information a typical human life creates into a supercomputer, and then asked it “What is the best state of being for a human being” it would spit out, “that it never be born, and if alive, it would…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/10/when-good-for-you-is-too-good/
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WATCH: The 7th Annual Fake News Awards
And now, from a deep underground military base on the other side of the flat Earth, it’s time for the 7th Annual Fake News Awards!
How did the disinformation specialists of the mockingbird media lie to the public this year? What rich, creamery nothingburgers did they use to whip the public into hysteria over matters of no consequence whatsoever? And what real scandals of earthshaking importance did they ignore? And who will walk away with the most coveted Dino of them all: the Fake News Story of the Year?
Find out in this face-meltingly, apocalyptically horrifying extravaganza of media…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/11/watch-the-7th-annual-fake-news-awards/
And now, from a deep underground military base on the other side of the flat Earth, it’s time for the 7th Annual Fake News Awards!
How did the disinformation specialists of the mockingbird media lie to the public this year? What rich, creamery nothingburgers did they use to whip the public into hysteria over matters of no consequence whatsoever? And what real scandals of earthshaking importance did they ignore? And who will walk away with the most coveted Dino of them all: the Fake News Story of the Year?
Find out in this face-meltingly, apocalyptically horrifying extravaganza of media…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/11/watch-the-7th-annual-fake-news-awards/
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This Week in the New Normal #83
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
As usual, since there was no edition last week, we’re technically covering two weeks in the new normal today
1. Are you ready for “heat-related deaths” to spike?
Last week Sky News reported the last scary climate change numbers: “10,000 people a year could die as a result of heatwaves”
Now, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend those numbers aren’t just…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/11/this-week-in-the-new-normal-83/
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
As usual, since there was no edition last week, we’re technically covering two weeks in the new normal today
1. Are you ready for “heat-related deaths” to spike?
Last week Sky News reported the last scary climate change numbers: “10,000 people a year could die as a result of heatwaves”
Now, for the sake of argument, let’s pretend those numbers aren’t just…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/11/this-week-in-the-new-normal-83/
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The Unexpected
Edward Curtin
Despite calendars and clocks and all the mental gymnastics we use to control life and time, surprises are at the heart of existence. This may seem like a truism, but if so, it is one of those truths we often avoid in our desire for stability and the quelling of anxiety.
Our expectations, a form of knowledge based on the past, are efforts to avoid pain and the joy of the new. They are often scarecrows to frighten away reality, as Ortega y Gassett put it. Habits of mind meant to forget that life is an experiment…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/12/the-unexpected/
Edward Curtin
Despite calendars and clocks and all the mental gymnastics we use to control life and time, surprises are at the heart of existence. This may seem like a truism, but if so, it is one of those truths we often avoid in our desire for stability and the quelling of anxiety.
Our expectations, a form of knowledge based on the past, are efforts to avoid pain and the joy of the new. They are often scarecrows to frighten away reality, as Ortega y Gassett put it. Habits of mind meant to forget that life is an experiment…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/12/the-unexpected/
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AI and the new kind of propaganda
Johan Eddebo
Do you remember how the unconstitutional, pastel-authoritarian and totally batshit insane “Disinformation Governance Board” – with its Mary Poppins-cosplaying, Monty Python level of unintentional self-satirizing department head – was rolled out two years ago like a half-joke, half-beta-test of a version of the 1984 Ministry of Truth?
Well, kids, I wouldn’t really call this 4D chess or anything, but of course this was just bait. This parody and its rapid withdrawal reassures us that nothing of the sort could conceivably take place, while also seeding a visible, red-herring template for how we should expect heavy-handed, overt propaganda…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/12/ai-and-the-new-kind-of-propaganda/
Johan Eddebo
Do you remember how the unconstitutional, pastel-authoritarian and totally batshit insane “Disinformation Governance Board” – with its Mary Poppins-cosplaying, Monty Python level of unintentional self-satirizing department head – was rolled out two years ago like a half-joke, half-beta-test of a version of the 1984 Ministry of Truth?
Well, kids, I wouldn’t really call this 4D chess or anything, but of course this was just bait. This parody and its rapid withdrawal reassures us that nothing of the sort could conceivably take place, while also seeding a visible, red-herring template for how we should expect heavy-handed, overt propaganda…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/12/ai-and-the-new-kind-of-propaganda/
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2024 Is the New 1984: Big Brother and the Rise of the Security Industrial Complex
John & Nisha Whitehead
2024 is the new 1984. Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state.
Fueled by a melding of government and corporate power—the rise of the security industrial complex—this watershed moment sounds a death knell for our privacy rights.
An unofficial fourth branch of government, the Surveillance State came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/13/2024-is-the-new-1984-big-brother-and-the-rise-of-the-security-industrial-complex/
John & Nisha Whitehead
Big Brother is Watching You.”
George Orwell, 1984
2024 is the new 1984. Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state.
Fueled by a melding of government and corporate power—the rise of the security industrial complex—this watershed moment sounds a death knell for our privacy rights.
An unofficial fourth branch of government, the Surveillance State came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/13/2024-is-the-new-1984-big-brother-and-the-rise-of-the-security-industrial-complex/
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Richard D. Hall – A Travesty of Justice
Iain Davis
UK independent journalist, researcher and documentary filmmaker Richard D. Hall faces conviction, sizeable damages and an injunction that could potentially end his career and his livelihood. The High Court of Justice has denied Hall the opportunity to present any kind of meaningful defence. This travesty of justice has potential implication, not just for Richard D. Hall, but for all journalists who dare to question power.
Hall was attempting to defend himself against a civil claim for harassment brought against him by two of the reported survivors of the alleged Manchester Arena bombing. The claimants’ original claim…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/13/richard-d-hall-a-travesty-of-justice/
Iain Davis
UK independent journalist, researcher and documentary filmmaker Richard D. Hall faces conviction, sizeable damages and an injunction that could potentially end his career and his livelihood. The High Court of Justice has denied Hall the opportunity to present any kind of meaningful defence. This travesty of justice has potential implication, not just for Richard D. Hall, but for all journalists who dare to question power.
Hall was attempting to defend himself against a civil claim for harassment brought against him by two of the reported survivors of the alleged Manchester Arena bombing. The claimants’ original claim…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/13/richard-d-hall-a-travesty-of-justice/
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The New Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccines Promise to be Double, Triple, Quadruple the Fun!
Karen Hunt
Just when you thought you’d heard the last of the Covid vaccines—those mRNA vaccines you’ve come to “know and love” as MIT so endearingly puts it— there’s a new version in town.
Welcome to the next generation of self-amplifying Covid vaccines, also known as replicons.
No, they aren’t “replicants” like in my favorite movie, Blade Runner (the original from 1982).
Although, in a way, it is disturbingly like that. Except they’re replicating inside our bodies. Like a photocopy machine. Yeah, inside our bodies.
Whatever will they think of next?
Japan just announced it’s become…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/14/the-new-self-amplifying-rna-vaccines-promise-to-be-double-triple-quadruple-the-fun/
Karen Hunt
Just when you thought you’d heard the last of the Covid vaccines—those mRNA vaccines you’ve come to “know and love” as MIT so endearingly puts it— there’s a new version in town.
Welcome to the next generation of self-amplifying Covid vaccines, also known as replicons.
No, they aren’t “replicants” like in my favorite movie, Blade Runner (the original from 1982).
Although, in a way, it is disturbingly like that. Except they’re replicating inside our bodies. Like a photocopy machine. Yeah, inside our bodies.
Whatever will they think of next?
Japan just announced it’s become…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/14/the-new-self-amplifying-rna-vaccines-promise-to-be-double-triple-quadruple-the-fun/
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The “they’re all in it together” rebuttal canard
Iain Davis
I am among a relatively small group of independent researchers and journalists who question the proposed multipolar world order.
One of the objections often thrown my (and our) way—by those who presumably support a new world order led by the BRICS+ group of nations—is that we critics of multipolarity are claiming, with regard to national governments, that “they’re all in it together.”
Having never once made that argument, constantly refuting it is very annoying. So let me outline why the “they’re all in it together” rebuttal is a canard.
Essentially the “all in it together” response runs…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/15/the-theyre-all-in-it-together-rebuttal-canard/
Iain Davis
I am among a relatively small group of independent researchers and journalists who question the proposed multipolar world order.
One of the objections often thrown my (and our) way—by those who presumably support a new world order led by the BRICS+ group of nations—is that we critics of multipolarity are claiming, with regard to national governments, that “they’re all in it together.”
Having never once made that argument, constantly refuting it is very annoying. So let me outline why the “they’re all in it together” rebuttal is a canard.
Essentially the “all in it together” response runs…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/15/the-theyre-all-in-it-together-rebuttal-canard/
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A Plague of Saints
J R Leach
In the digital age, the incessant calls to action reverberate across the virtual landscape, summoning legions of fervent warriors to wage battles against perceived evils.
This rallying cry, echoing the urgency of a multitude of crusades, permeates our online existence. Be it the casual dehumanization of entire swaths of people to the slow deterioration of language through constant decries of ‘racist’ and ‘pedo’—everything is a conflict now. A conquest. A campaign against the devil himself. We do not ‘treat’ cancer; we FIGHT IT. We do not discuss climate change; we FIGHT IT! It is not enough…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/16/a-plague-of-saints/
J R Leach
In the digital age, the incessant calls to action reverberate across the virtual landscape, summoning legions of fervent warriors to wage battles against perceived evils.
This rallying cry, echoing the urgency of a multitude of crusades, permeates our online existence. Be it the casual dehumanization of entire swaths of people to the slow deterioration of language through constant decries of ‘racist’ and ‘pedo’—everything is a conflict now. A conquest. A campaign against the devil himself. We do not ‘treat’ cancer; we FIGHT IT. We do not discuss climate change; we FIGHT IT! It is not enough…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/16/a-plague-of-saints/
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WATCH: Pay It Forward – #SolutionsWatch
You’ve heard of “paying it forward,” haven’t you? Instead of paying back someone’s kindness, sometimes it is best to pay that kindness forward to someone else who is in need.
If the independent media is trying to create a different model from the old establishment media, then, is it possible to create a model based on people paying forward their gratitude to a worthy cause? If so, how can that idea best be implemented?
Join James Corbett for this episode of Solutions Watch as he muses on these questions with Aaron Smith of The Subtlecain Podcast.
Sources, shownotes and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/16/watch-pay-it-forward-solutionswatch/
You’ve heard of “paying it forward,” haven’t you? Instead of paying back someone’s kindness, sometimes it is best to pay that kindness forward to someone else who is in need.
If the independent media is trying to create a different model from the old establishment media, then, is it possible to create a model based on people paying forward their gratitude to a worthy cause? If so, how can that idea best be implemented?
Join James Corbett for this episode of Solutions Watch as he muses on these questions with Aaron Smith of The Subtlecain Podcast.
Sources, shownotes and…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/16/watch-pay-it-forward-solutionswatch/
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What Do They Care?
Todd Hayen
Think for a moment about what you really care about. Let’s say you are an average working Joe or a partnered mother with three kids. You have a family, a medium-sized house, two cars. One for your husband to go to work in, the other for you to do your family errands—or the other way around, although not as common, let’s say you bring in the majority of the income, and your husband “works” the homestead.
Let’s say you both work, hard, and relentlessly, and when Christmas comes, if you celebrate it, it is a struggle to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/17/what-do-they-care/
Todd Hayen
Think for a moment about what you really care about. Let’s say you are an average working Joe or a partnered mother with three kids. You have a family, a medium-sized house, two cars. One for your husband to go to work in, the other for you to do your family errands—or the other way around, although not as common, let’s say you bring in the majority of the income, and your husband “works” the homestead.
Let’s say you both work, hard, and relentlessly, and when Christmas comes, if you celebrate it, it is a struggle to…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/17/what-do-they-care/
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Shall we talk about Navalny…?
I mean “they” obviously would appreciate it if we did right? It’s a nice, polarised divisive topic that can never be resolved, gets people all worked up and ultimately doesn’t really change anything. So, pretty much an ideal talking point for these post-covid days.
And Navalny – the trooper – certainly did his best to be topical with his demise – dropping tragically dead in nice time for the Munich Security Conference, enabling his widow to address this august assembly the very same day – with a speech she must have written very hastily indeed – unless it…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/17/shall-we-talk-about-navalny/
I mean “they” obviously would appreciate it if we did right? It’s a nice, polarised divisive topic that can never be resolved, gets people all worked up and ultimately doesn’t really change anything. So, pretty much an ideal talking point for these post-covid days.
And Navalny – the trooper – certainly did his best to be topical with his demise – dropping tragically dead in nice time for the Munich Security Conference, enabling his widow to address this august assembly the very same day – with a speech she must have written very hastily indeed – unless it…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/17/shall-we-talk-about-navalny/
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In the hollow of the rock
Sylvia Shawcross
It is cold again at night and the raccoons that reach their little hands up to the bowl of food are not there under the porch light again. When it was warmer they stirred in sleepy hunger to feed but now they are in their dark dens. With the recent snow now draped on branches, spring seems far away again.
And that is when the somber thoughts arrive. Stray thoughts that keep you up at night—about the state of the world and the struggle of the human condition and how it is that I should find myself…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/18/in-the-hollow-of-the-rock/
Sylvia Shawcross
It is cold again at night and the raccoons that reach their little hands up to the bowl of food are not there under the porch light again. When it was warmer they stirred in sleepy hunger to feed but now they are in their dark dens. With the recent snow now draped on branches, spring seems far away again.
And that is when the somber thoughts arrive. Stray thoughts that keep you up at night—about the state of the world and the struggle of the human condition and how it is that I should find myself…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/18/in-the-hollow-of-the-rock/
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OffG Recommends…Wag the Dog
Kit Knightly
Wag the Dog is possibly the greatest political satire Hollywood has produced. It’s just that simple. If you only take one message away from this review, it should be that.
That might seem an absurd claim in a world where Dr Strangelove and Network exist, but Wag the Dog does something no other film has ever really dared to do…
…it keeps the story…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/18/offg-recommends-wag-the-dog/
Kit Knightly
“Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail were smarter, the tail would wag the dog.”
Wag the Dog is possibly the greatest political satire Hollywood has produced. It’s just that simple. If you only take one message away from this review, it should be that.
That might seem an absurd claim in a world where Dr Strangelove and Network exist, but Wag the Dog does something no other film has ever really dared to do…
…it keeps the story…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/18/offg-recommends-wag-the-dog/
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The Global Deep State: A Fascist World Order Funded by the American Taxpayer
John & Nisha Whitehead
The debate over U.S. foreign aid is a distraction.
That’s not to say that the amount of taxpayer money flowing to foreign countries in the form of military and economic assistance is insignificant. Even at less than 1% of the federal budget, the United States still spends more on foreign aid than any other nation.
The latest foreign aid spending bill includes $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Since World War II,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/19/the-global-deep-state-a-fascist-world-order-funded-by-the-american-taxpayer/
John & Nisha Whitehead
“The madmen are in power.”
Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle
The debate over U.S. foreign aid is a distraction.
That’s not to say that the amount of taxpayer money flowing to foreign countries in the form of military and economic assistance is insignificant. Even at less than 1% of the federal budget, the United States still spends more on foreign aid than any other nation.
The latest foreign aid spending bill includes $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.
Since World War II,…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/19/the-global-deep-state-a-fascist-world-order-funded-by-the-american-taxpayer/
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Farmers’ Protest in India Reignites: A Struggle for the Future of Food and Agriculture
Colin Todhunter
In 2021, after a year-long protest, India’s farmers brought about the repeal of three farm laws that were intended to ‘liberalise’ the agriculture sector.
Now, in 2024, farmers are again protesting. The underlying issues and the facilitation of the neoliberal corporatisation of farming that sparked the previous protest remain and have not been resolved.
The World Bank, the World Trade Organization, global agribusiness and financial capital are working to corporatise India’s agriculture sector. This plan goes back to the early 1990s and India’s foreign exchange crisis, which was used (and manipulated) to set this plan in…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/20/farmers-protest-in-india-reignites-a-struggle-for-the-future-of-food-and-agriculture/
Colin Todhunter
In 2021, after a year-long protest, India’s farmers brought about the repeal of three farm laws that were intended to ‘liberalise’ the agriculture sector.
Now, in 2024, farmers are again protesting. The underlying issues and the facilitation of the neoliberal corporatisation of farming that sparked the previous protest remain and have not been resolved.
The World Bank, the World Trade Organization, global agribusiness and financial capital are working to corporatise India’s agriculture sector. This plan goes back to the early 1990s and India’s foreign exchange crisis, which was used (and manipulated) to set this plan in…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/20/farmers-protest-in-india-reignites-a-struggle-for-the-future-of-food-and-agriculture/
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Let’s talk about…Assange’s Final Extradition Hearing
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange returns to the courtroom this week in a last-ditch effort to avoid extradition to the United States.
Assange himself, we are told, is too unwell to attend court in person (Assange has become the poster boy for legal proceedings in absentia), but his lawyers will be arguing that he faces a “flagrant denial of justice” if he is sent state-side.
A fact so obvious you would think it should be a given.
But then obvious facts – and basic justice – have never been permitted much of a voice in this case.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/20/lets-talk-about-assanges-final-extradition-hearing/
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange returns to the courtroom this week in a last-ditch effort to avoid extradition to the United States.
Assange himself, we are told, is too unwell to attend court in person (Assange has become the poster boy for legal proceedings in absentia), but his lawyers will be arguing that he faces a “flagrant denial of justice” if he is sent state-side.
A fact so obvious you would think it should be a given.
But then obvious facts – and basic justice – have never been permitted much of a voice in this case.…...
Read full article ...
https://off-guardian.org/2024/02/20/lets-talk-about-assanges-final-extradition-hearing/
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