Assange, verb. Use: To be assanged.
Meaning: when the nationless alliance of elites imprison a dissident by using their power to manipulate vagaries in the laws of their respective nations.
Eg “I have information on war crimes that I should leak but I don’t want to be assanged.”

~

Murderous governments who deceive their citizenry are not entitled to any degree of secrecy whatsoever.

~

A society is only as free as its most troublesome truth-teller.

~

The large and enthusiastic Assange demonstrations in the UK have filled me with gratitude and love, but they’ve also made me ashamed of Australia. Those crowds dwarf anything I’ve seen here in Melbourne, and he’s our man. The Brits are defending an Australian citizen better than Australia is.

This is what happens when you use the same mass media propaganda that’s used everywhere else on a population whose only cultural value is not getting worked up about things. Wake up, Australia! For fuck’s sake, now is the time to start caring about something!

~

Ever notice how there are no “Don’t Free Assange” rallies? No “Extradite Assange” activist forums? That’s because the only normal human beings interested in his case want him free. It’s the Free Assange crowd versus the “Thinking about that will cause me cognitive dissonance” crowd. The only grassroots energy regarding Assange is on his side. The entire other side of the debate is (A) governments and their lackeys and (B) the propagandized masses who have been manipulated into staying silent and compliant as the empire works its will.

~

Sometimes I remember that Assange published leaks on the goddamn CIA just when it would hurt him the most, right at the height of the smear campaign, just after he’d pissed off all the liberals, and my jaw drops all over again. Publish or be damned is right. The balls on that guy.

Some of my friends and family can’t even bring themselves to publish “I support Assange” on their Facebook because it might make things a little socially awkward for them for a while. The contrast is striking.

~

As Assange’s case heats up I’m getting more and more Trump supporters in my mentions defending his persecution, because the propaganda against him in Trumpy echo chambers has been effective. It’s just like the liberals in 2016, watching them succumb to the narrative one by one.

~

Debunking smears is all well and good, but the actual Assange case isn’t about smears, it’s about a question: Should journalists be punished for exposing war crimes? Make people answer this question when they are smearing him. Demand they address this central issue.

~

It’s pretty clear that the magistrate at the Assange extradition trial came in with her mind already made up about how she’s going to rule. The prosecution is there to give her an excuse. The burden of proof is on the defense to prove she can’t legally do the thing she plans to do.

~

The prosecution’s argument for extradition has largely amounted to “This case has nothing to do with a journalist exposing war crimes. This case is about whether Assange broke the rules that we made to prevent journalists from exposing our war crimes.”

~

Per the Assange extradition argument the Saudis should be allowed to extradite and behead anyone who practices blasphemy.

~

Yesterday I saw someone justifying the persecution of Assange by arguing that his position as WikiLeaks founder actually makes him a powerful individual, and it’s not the first time I’ve seen his smearers try to spin that angle. It’s a common imperialist tactic: perform mental gymnastics to twist the most powerful empire of all time into the poor widdle victim, and down-power groups as powerful. Now the skinny computer geek is the big bully who picked on the poor defenseless CIA and Pentagon.

You see these power dynamic reversals everywhere: western-backed “rebels” are the little guys standing up to power, the Palestinians are bullying the poor defenseless IDF, Russia is controlling world affairs despite its relatively small economy, etc.

~

Humanity is on the back foot, and it shouldn’t be. We should be arguing over how much prison time US war criminals should be serving and taking the US military to court for falsely classifying information about war crimes, not playing defense like we’re the ones who did wrong.

Arguing that the US should not only be able to hide war crimes by falsely classifying the evidence, but also that they should be able to punish the people who exposed them, is like saying Jeffrey Dahmer was not only right to murder but that the police who went after him should go to jail.

~

Whenever anyone annoys dominant power structures, the political/media class instantly becomes very interested in informing us how horrible that person is. You see this with anti-establishment candidates, you see it with anti-empire national leaders, you see it with whistleblowers, and you see it with leak publishers.

~

Americans can’t afford a normal healthcare system because it’s much too expensive, unlike their current healthcare system which I guess is free.

~

Hi my name’s Snooty McCentrist. I write op-eds telling Berners that Americans would never elect a socialist, which I know for a fact because I spend the rest of my time writing op-eds persuading Americans never to elect a socialist.

~

The anti-Sanders Russia smears ares not going to get better. They are going to get crazier and crazier and crazier. And then they are going to get crazier. And then they’re going to get even crazier. They’ll make it as crazy as they need to make it to stop him. And then they’ll forget all about it.

Russiagaters are exactly as dumb as QAnon cultists. If this hurts your feelings, good.

“Read the Mueller report” is just a noise Russiagaters make to obfuscate the debate because they know hardly anyone’s read it. If you had read the Mueller report with a critical mind, you would know it’s laden with glaring, self-contradicting plot holes.

~

Even if nothing else good comes from Sanders securing the nomination, at the very least it would force the liberal narrative managers who’ve been posing as adversarial journalists against Trump to expose what they really are. That alone would be a huge win.

The emotional reactions that mainstream media manipulators are having to Sanders’ repeated wins tells you they identify with the ruling establishment which he keeps criticizing. They themselves feel they are part of that establishment, so they feel like he’s attacking them. The fact that these reporters feel attacked on an emotional level by the Sanders campaign tells you that they are not journalists, but court stenographers. Their job is to regurgitate lines favorable to the power establishment, and they know it.

Propaganda is the main obstacle preventing the people from using the power of their numbers to effect real change. If the Sanders campaign accomplishes nothing else, it is at least forcing the propagandists to expose themselves. The more mainstream that exposure goes, the better.

This is why I’ve been paying so much attention to the Sanders campaign lately. Not because I’m under any delusion that he’s perfect or that presidents make real changes, but because the establishment reaction to him can expose the propaganda machine before a mainstream audience.

~

Democratic Party leaders can’t get away with openly saying they want to kill Bernie’s nomination at the convention because they think he’ll rock the establishment boat too much. This has meant that all they’re left with is the hilarious argument that the guy who’s winning all the primaries definitely can’t beat Trump in the general election, but someone who’s failed to win any primaries definitely can.

~

Anyone who doesn’t want the CIA abolished is either ignorant or a depraved bootlicking sociopath.

~

Starvation sanctions, like the coronavirus, primarily kill the weakest and most vulnerable segment of their victims. The US is like if the coronavirus was a country.

~

The owners of mass media should not be allowed to own stocks in other industries. Their ability to manipulate public perception makes it a form of insider trading.

~

Language has always been enforced in a way that keeps the working class from rising to power. That’s why so-called “bad words” are always from the vernacular used by the poor. Anyone who truly wants a people’s revolution will therefore avoid language policing as much as possible.

~

Everyone I argue with online is basically just saying “Actually it’s good for a small group of sociopaths to have all the power and we should definitely give them more.”

~

People talk about the futility of internet debate, but I’ve found I can learn way more by kicking ideas around with normal human beings online than I can by reading the dry bloviations of some overeducated wanker on Counterpunch or wherever. In order to understand the narrative matrix, you’ve got to engage it.

__________________________________

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79 responses to “To Be Assanged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Great “Qualified ” poem.

  2. Assigning a verb to Assange, is a very appropriate addition to the modern present day political lexicon. Kudos !!!

    It is a new definition of hi-tech misdeeds the “Oligarchs and vested interests” are never ashamed to do.

    I hope it popularises and is used to unmask the dirty faces of the matrix.

    Well done “Caitlin the Voltaire” of our times.

  3. Stephen Morrell Avatar
    Stephen Morrell

    Two photos and one courtroom sketch of the beak.

    Here:

    https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Vanessa_Baraitser

    The photos are of her leaving the court on her bicycle. Appears to exude a Dickensian school mistress cruelty. She should have ridden a kangaroo to court.

  4. It is surely not a coincidence that in this 21st Century, we have the same elite that was in place in the days of Jesus, pharisaic Jews.

    So, the same elite is now persecuting Mr Assange.

    It gives credit to our days being the return of the days of Noah just before the Glorious return of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His Glorious return because I do have seen enough bs.

    1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
      Step O’Rafferty

      Pharisaic and parasitic. Baraitser and barrister.

  5. Assanged – the updated version of grassy knolled.

  6. Some secrets should not be leaked. Some secrets should not be secret. Mass survailance on citizens is wrong. It is also against the law. Sending Hellfire missiles into Weddings to kill one terrorist is wrong. Exposing election corruption should not be wrong. Assange and Snowden are heroes and should be Free. I support Trump and they merit PARDONS.

  7. “It’s pretty clear that the magistrate at the Assange extradition trial came in with her mind already made up about how she’s going to rule. The prosecution is there to give her an excuse. The burden of proof is on the defense to prove she can’t legally do the thing she plans to do.”
    .
    As I read Craig Murray’s latest synopsis of the events that unfolded in court on his web site, I was immediately reminded of similar “completely legal” hearings that took place only a few decades ago. Because the transnational western Elite are feeling more and more threatened by Their increasingly educated and bolder herds, no doubt these types of “legal” proceedings in which judges function as Their servants will become much more common.

    1. Sorry about that video not appearing. I guess the link must be altered so the naked address appears in the comment. Then people should copy and paste it within youtube itself. Just remove the dots between h and ttps and then copy and paste it in your browser’s address bar and hit enter.
      h……..ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aluekfYmo

      1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
        Step O’Rafferty

        Thanks for that link Iskabibble. Very sad and quite horrifying that this is now happening in England.
        Julian is facing a similarly demonic judge. So demonic that even the American prosecution feels that she is being harsh.
        If our society were awake to what is happening there would be a hundred thousand strong crowd at that courthouse to rescue Julian from the filth.
        The Australian Broadcasting Corporation did not report on Julian’s court case. They are in the pit with the filth and should receive no further taxpayer support.

      2. “If our society were awake to what is happening there would be a hundred thousand strong crowd at that courthouse to rescue Julian from the filth.”
        .
        I think the fucked up societies in the UK and US are fully “awake to what is happening” to Assange and that hundreds of thousands, if not millons, of these woke are going to do precisely nothing to assist Assange. They’re not even going to show up at Belmarsh, let alone rescue him from the filth. Let’s say a mircale happened and a million people did show up. Precisely what would they do — huff and puff and blow the prison walls down?
        .
        IMO, hundreds of thousands of motivated people could have knocked on the Ecuadoran embassy door and transported/walked Assange within the mass of people to, say, the Russian embassy in London without the British gestapo mowing them all down with machine guns. But that option is no longer possible.
        .
        IMO, Assange is being kept in that bullet-proof enclosure in the hearing room for only one reason — to prevent the remote possibility of him being whisked out of the place by supporters. In other words, in such a scenario the prison staff don’t want to shoot a bunch of innocent people, maybe even his lawyers, so, in order to prevent that, they keep him in a place where even a small crowd of people cannot gain access to him.
        .
        The irony is that a few weeks ago the UK authorities let a wanna-be terrorist out of jail, after which he immediately went on a killing spree, but those same authorities will do absolutely ANYTHING to prevent Assange from escaping his day in a US kangoaroo court and pre-ordained life sentence. This last week we witnessed the details of that absolutely anything. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t justice, not by a very long shot.

  8. The Sociopaths In Charge have unilaterally excused themselves of any consideration of truth or justice. They will destroy any who oppose them, unless there is an election pending, and often even then if they manage to convince enough of their tax slaves that their lies are more truthful than those of their opponent. They have now gone full tyrant, with the willing ascent of their slaves by convincing them that their tyranny is indispensable. There is nothing that governments do that would not be done better, cheaper, and with no coercion by a private entity, except for the one thing governments do best. Kill people.

    1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
      Step O’Rafferty

      I agree with you JWK, ‘elected’ politicians all over the world have proved themselves unworthy of being trusted. They are so aloof that they only answer to the billionaires and the rest of us be damned.
      My concern and I guess that this is also the concern of many other people is that without a government and it’s police force, how will we deal with armed psychopaths who will not want to work or play a useful part in the community? At this stage we can call the police when a raging psychopath wants to harm us or steal the products of our labor.
      What I mean is: Are we ready to transition into a social structure that has no level of government to keep order? I think we are far from it. Most people live in giant cities and cities are a non-productive scourge on the face of the earth, sucking resources from the surrounding countryside giving rise to a terrible ecocide everywhere.
      What would happen in these cities, where virtually no-one has land to grow their own food, if government was withdrawn? I fear for the inhabitants, especially in a country like thje USA where so much faith has been endowed on armaments.

  9. Your Twitter comments are probably destined to be “Assanged”. Twitter has been purchased by vulture capitalist and far right Zionist Paul Singer, who is changing the management.

    1. So that is worse than the liberal slant and management we now have. Any type removal is wrong.

      1. Twitter has censorship problems. However, when a bad actor like Singer enters the picture, it is cause for worry.

    2. My comment was a bit off. A large share in Twitter has been purchased by Elliot Management, which is owned by the vulture fund where Singer is CEO. This company is now pressing for changes at Twitter. From Wikipedia:

      Elliott Management Corporation is an American investment management firm. It is also one of the largest activist funds in the world.[2]

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Management_Corporation

      It is the management affiliate of American hedge funds flagship Elliott Associates L.P. and Elliott International Limited. The Elliott Corporation was founded by Paul Singer, who is CEO of the management company, based in New York City. As of the first quarter of 2015, Elliott’s portfolio is worth over $8 billion.[3][4] By 2009 “more than one-third of Elliott’s portfolio was concentrated in distressed securities, typically in the debt of bankrupt or near-bankrupt companies.”[5] Elliott has widely been described as a vulture fund.[6][7][8][9]

  10. I have always considered protesters to be like traveling gypsies. They protest this today and move on to protest something else tomorrow. Then of course we have the George Soros paid protesters who are bussed in to form a protest. I see a couple hundred paid people protesting and the press approving and covering it with camera angles to imply more people showed up. The only protests that matter are the ones that show up enmasse like in Hong Kong or just won’t go away like in France. Most protests are a waste of time. Sadly I think the protests going on for Julian Assange fall into this category.

  11. Hi Caitlin. My name is Hubert Reiter, originally from Austria, but living in Melbourne-Australia for many years.
    I have this recurrent dream of you walking around with a target painted on your back. Has this ever happened to you? Besides that, I enjoy your thoughts and writings because much of it coincides with my own thoughts and views of this strange world. I would like to thank you for your selfless contributions. You must be a very brave woman. Please keep it coming. Best regards and my best wishes for a safe 2020 and beyond.
    Hubert Reiter
    25 Mephan Street, Footscray Vic. 3011

    1. Is this your first time on the internet, Hubert? NEVER NEVER NEVER give out personal information like that. Especially when they ask for it.

      1. Then again, an anonymous voice is far less effective than one displaying truth to power and willing to face the consequences.

  12. Thx for being a truth teller. It helps me fight the psyops inroads into my head.

  13. Where is Robin to further school us, the great unwashed and unread, in the sublime finer points of the law?! Woe! Are we to be loosed like ignorant Canaanites for the next 40 years, bereft of The Great Robin’s infinite knowledge and wisdom as we wander in the desert?! If we are to be denied that, then at least bless us with MANNA that we may not feel totally forsaken! I feel so rudderless!

    I weep…..

  14. Caitlin, we both want to help Julian. If I’m wrong about Chelsea and Collateral Murder so be it. If I’m right about about them but it makes no difference to Julian then also so be it. However, if I’m right and it does make a difference that’s important.
    .
    Please consider not simply writing off what I say.

    1. Don’t apply your effing conspiracy theories to Chelsea Manning. She’s the real deal.

      1. You find nothing anomalous, Lili-Ann, in the difference between Julian’s appearance after his 7-year lockup in the Ecuadorean embassy and Chelsea’s sparkling, sympathetic interview with Juju Chang (member of the Council on Foreign Relations) on ABC’s Nightline after her 7-year incarceration, some of which included 22 hours a day of solitary confinement.

        https://postmediacanoe.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/assange1000.jpg

  15. Thank you Caitlin. I was at the protest and march last Sunday in Melbourne, as I have been at previous protests, and have also been going on street campaigns to publicise the Socialist Equality Party rallies in support of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.
    I too feel ashamed, and disgusted at the huge amount of silence in this country regards Julian’s plight.
    I pin the blame squarely on 3 things: Propaganda and smears of the mainstream presstitutes.
    That many have been lobotomised by identity politics here.
    And thirdly, the psychological impact of Neoliberalism in this country.
    Several times I’ve been on campaigns attempting to hand out leaflets and saying things like ‘support Julian Assange – oppose extradition’ or ‘protest for Julian Assange next Sunday’ etc.
    The large majority point blank refused to take a leaflet, most just stared straight ahead and didn’t even blink. A few glared at me, but quite a few snapped No.
    The ones who were the most contemptuous, who made it blatantly obvious they couldn’t give a tinkers toss about Julian Assange were the Hipster and Yuppie types.
    They were the ones who glared, or made a comment under their breath.
    Yes, a small number did take leaflets, and they connected the dots, and got what this means for all of us.
    But nowhere near enough. Most only care about themselves and their creature comforts and overseas holidays and trinkets.
    That’s how far down the gurgler Australia has gone. And I feel really sad about it.

    1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
      Step O’Rafferty

      Gezza In the early sixties we as innocent young primary school children, after being forced to swear allegiance to a rich bitch in England, were made to march from the flagpole into our classrooms to military music. I was the only person in that school to question that practice and I was considered to be kooky. Then we were compelled to be competitive, we had to run in races and strive to be ‘better’ than our fellow classmates. The ‘winners and losers’ indoctrination began then. There is one winner in a race and how many losers? Only one person deserved to be regarded as a member of the ‘elite winners class’ while everyone else had to fall into the subordinate class.
      Nowadays the indoctrination and zombification is more subtle, helped along by aluminium being injected into children and fluoride in the water supply. Both of these are ‘good for us’ and anyone who questions the practices is considered to be a kook.
      People who are poisoned by aluminium and fluoride and spend a lot of time under fluorescent or LED lights are having their nervous systems being constantly damaged. This has made people wide open to accepting the elite propaganda.
      Australian people have been coerced into trusting authority and believing what the media tells them. I have friends who I regard as being intelligent people who will not support Julian Assange because they believe he is a kook. The very principle that Julian’s heroic actions stand for is simply swept aside because the media has smeared him.

      1. Thanks Step. I have friends who lap up the bullshit in the MSM – nearly everyone I know reads The Guardian. And they have been the ones who have most stuck the boot into Julian in the most vile, revolting manner.
        Your explanation also fits, but what does that say about modern Australian ‘society’?
        I come on sites like this one, Offguardian, WSWS and others as an antidote to the mass groupthink out there.

        1. Step O'Rafferty Avatar
          Step O’Rafferty

          Thanks for the information about those websites. Melbourne newspapers are quite useful as medication: Look at ‘The Age’ if you want to relieve constipation, ‘The Australian’ if your blood pressure is too low and ‘The herald Sun’ if you really need a good vomit.
          I know the situation in Australia seems hopeless at the moment but I am not totally despondent. Surely the zombified will eventually wake up.
          Caitlin’s forum (is it a forum?) is very useful. There is quite a lot of negative stuff to deal with but it really does need to be confronted and discussed.

          1. Hi again Step… Other sites you may find useful are The Grayzone, Moon Of Alabama, The Saker, The Greanville Post and Mint Press News and, of course, Craig Murray.
            George Galloway gave an absolutely withering speech about Julian Assange on Feb 25th. He was on fire!
            I think that’s on his Facebook page.
            One of the other commenters at Offguardian gave me the link, but as a complete technophobe, can’t do links, sorry.

  16. Living inside Melbourne this week has been like living inside a giant clanging gong. The disconnect, and the silence, and the Mad as Hell skit have just fucked my health symptoms.

    Fitzgerald’s likening of the dialogue at one point of the hearing to Alice in Wonderland is totally true. I don’t think I’ve felt the discord as strongly as this week EVER. Which is unsurprising, and why this case is so important.

    Gotta keep reminding ourselves that some people are quietly changing their minds as they peek under the curtain.

    Good on you Caitlin for keeping on speaking about this. I’m grateful for you and please look after yourself.

    1. Fuck Micallef what a horrible prick of a human

      1. I LOVE Shaun Micallef but today I would love to punch him hard in the face.

  17. “Americans can’t afford a normal healthcare system because it’s much too expensive, unlike their current healthcare system which I guess is free.”
    When COVID-19 well and truly hits the USA, the USA will be horribly exposed. Connect these dots. Studies have shown that something like 50% of American families can’t afford an emergency expense of $500.
    Many Americans have “health insurance” with deductibles in the thousands of dollars. Meaning that the first few thousand they get billed for their health comes straight out of their pocket. These deductibles work on a yearly basis, and they all reset in January.
    Even after you’ve paid the deductible, a trip to the emergency room costs hundreds in “co-pays” and a stay in the hospital is even more expensive.
    Remember that bit about how many Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency. Because of that, many Americans don’t go to the doctor until it is really critical. They have to be that way, they can’t afford anything else. So, Americans will go to the Drugs Store and buy over the counter flu aids and try to suffer through it. They won’t go to the doctor until they are desperately ill. They can’t afford to.
    On top of that American workers get very low levels of vacation time and sick days. Many now work in jobs that give no sick days at all. Because of this, they have to go to work even when they are sick. Most Americans have worked days (or nights) when they could barely keep standing. If you can’t stay on your feet and at least kinda-sorta do your job while you are running a high fever and feeling like you are about to throw up, then you are not an American worker.
    To summarize, under the American health care non-system, many Americans can not afford to go to the doctor and the same group can’t afford to miss a shift at work. This ain’t gonna be pretty.

  18. Don’t expect to find the verb assange in the Oxford Dictionary.

  19. “It’s on America’s tortured brow
    That Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow
    Now the workers have struck for fame
    ‘Cause Lennon’s on sale again
    See the mice in their million hordes
    From Ibiza to the Norfolk Broads
    Rule Britannia is out of bounds
    To my mother, my dog, and clowns

    But the film is a saddening bore
    ‘Cause I wrote it ten times or more
    It’s about to be writ again
    As I ask you to focus on”
    — “Life On Mars” by David Bowie

  20. I wonder if you or any of your readers have further information about the information that Assange published, i know there was a lot of material but a specific list of the most damming items (war crimes) would be helpful, and would help me to bolster my defense of Assange. Thanks!

    1. Um. Try Wikileaks.

      1. Thanks 😉 To clarify, there is so much information out there, and as a father of two little ones, with my wife disabled, and me working two full time jobs, here in the good ol’ USA I was hoping for a video or article summarizing the crimes exposed. Something like Caitlin provided for the Douma gas scandal, which was very helpful for me, who does not have time to follow every thread. Though I admit in this case I am embarrassingly uninformed.

          1. Thank you! You inspired me to stay up the other night watching as Many Assange interviews and documentaries as I could muster. It is truly a heart-breaking and twisted dystopian situation. I now feel I have the info to verbalize a critical defense of Assange. I am embarrassed that it has taken me this long but grateful that you were the catalyst!

  21. Richard Childers Avatar
    Richard Childers

    Assange’s judge: ‘Baraitser’ is an anagram of ‘barrister’

    My sense is that the judiciary refuse to hear a case where they have been handed the verdict beforehand and so the security services have stepped in to provide a judge. They surely have personas on tap, just like they have costumes, and uniforms – ID cards, background notes, pictures of house the ‘persona’ supposedly grew up in, maps of the area, etc – and I would like to suggest that Baraitser is one of those dramatic personae, and that this is not a legal proceeding, so much as it is a drama, with actors, manipulating the public’s perception as part of a psychological operation, AKA ‘psyop’.

    1. That thought had occurred to me. That’s why there are no photos of this Judge available anywhere, as Caitlin has pointed out before. (Unless it’s Meryl Streep, great pal of Hillary Clinton, doing the biggest gig in her caricature library).

      1. Its just a guess from someone who (thankfully) is not English, but my guess is that they have a secret court with secret judges just like the Land of the Free. These courts handle intelligence cases. Thus, my guess is that this judge is from that bad crowd.

    2. Grant van Rensburg Avatar
      Grant van Rensburg

      Caitlin here is the only information I could find on the web on Judge / magistrate Vanessa Baraitser

      https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/who-are-the-judiciary/list-of-members-of-the-judiciary/dj-mags-ct-list/

      1. So, if she existed before this trial she is a magistrate, a former lawyer trained in the Westminster system of lying and obfuscation, not a judge intent on truth seeking.

        http://netk.net.au/Whitton/OCLS.pdf

  22. Thank You Ms Johnstone for being true to yourself and to your readers. I am old and cranky so I do not try to convince anyone of anything any more. Human stupidity knows no bounds. There are just too many people ” stuck on stupid “! Ah, behold, the Buddha Ms Caitlin speaks the truth!

    1. Just to clarify…
      “Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed”
      So “stuck on stupid” is more or less a permanent thing.

      1. As a child I heard the expression ” stuck on stupid ” many many times. In those days it was very common for children to be ” beaten ” for mis-behaving anywhere. If you got caught doing something that you should not be doing you got beaten, sometimes more than once. If you got caught doing the same thing over and over again and got beaten over and over you were deemed:permanently ” Stuck on Stupid “.

  23. You don’t get it. We don’t do “war crimes” so any “whistleblower” of such is lying and anyone who publishes this info slanders us.
    Only other countries do “war crimes”.

    1. This was marked as sarcasm but it did not show up in the message.
      Don’t jump my “stuff”

      1. LOL … yeah, I’ve tried the do the sarcasm brackets like it was HTML code before, but it don’t come through. 🙂

  24. I have to admit not keeping abreast of what is actually happening in Julian’s case, however, I can see it all looks very bad.
    .
    I ask Caitlin and her readers to consider whether you think this would help, assuming you believe my hypothesis to be true. And I ask you to consider this very, very carefully.
    .
    _____________________________________
    Propagate that Chelsea Manning is an intelligence asset and Collateral Murder is faked.
    _____________________________________
    .
    Before you decide whether my hypothesis is correct I ask both Caitlin and her readers to consider the following:
    .
    — The evidence I present for my claims below (with further support on my webpage)
    .
    — The concept that the power elite understands very well the types of people we admire and support, for example, brave whistleblowers and that they will supply simulations of these people to infiltrate and misdirect us. What I’ve found in my study of psyops is that actors in the form of “brave whistleblowers” are often present, sometimes in a relatively large number. Please consider the possibility that you may have been seduced by Chelsea’s “brave whistleblower” persona but that she is not, in fact, who she seems.
    .
    — In support of both points above, it would be unthinkable that the power elite would not attempt infiltration of Wikileaks and Julian and that they would be perfectly likely to use an item that makes them look bad in that effort, as “looking bad” is not necessarily what they shy away from and they also know that Collateral Murder only looks bad to a certain percentage of the population, most others don’t pay the slightest attention and even some of those who do will think that what allegedly occurred in that video is not particularly bad and does not break the Rules of Engagement.
    .
    — Consider that even though Collateral Murder may look bad that what really goes down is probably much worse than what we are shown in that video and the worse stuff is completely suppressed. Please consider that Collateral Murder, while looking bad, may, in fact, be a Hollywood, sanitised, controlled simulation of what really goes down and that if we saw what really went down we wouldn’t necessarily simply be politely discussing this online.
    .
    — Please consider that the power elite want control of all narratives and in that effort they will certainly push out stuff (genuine or faked) that makes them look bad – control of the information is vastly more important to them than looking good.
    .
    EVIDENCE
    .
    The first thing to consider is that when the power elite hoax us they – most counterintuitively – slip us the clues. So there is always a two-part hypothesis.
    .
    H1a. Chelsea is an agent and Collateral Murder is faked
    H1b. They let us know in implausibilities and ridiculousness, sloppiness of execution, things not adding up, contradictions in the story and different versions of it, etc
    .
    versus
    H2. Chelsea and Collateral Murder are genuine.
    .
    CHELSEA
    1. The method provided of release of documents by Chelsea is not credible:
    .
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
    The media sources for the method are given in the article footnotes
    .
    On January 5, 2010, Manning downloaded the 400,000 documents that became known as the Iraq War logs.[107] On January 8, she downloaded 91,000 documents from the Afghanistan database, known later as part of the Afghan War logs. She saved the material on CD-RW and smuggled it through security by labeling the CD-RW media “Lady Gaga”.[108] She then copied it onto her personal computer.[109] The next day, she wrote a message in a readme.txt file, which she told the court was initially intended for The Washington Post.[110]
    .
    Comment: They could have provided a much more credible method but they didn’t so this item supports both H1a and H1b. There are five other items in the Wikipedia entry that I find not credible and have put my reasons.
    .
    2. In her interview with Juju Chang, ABC’s Nightline anchor, after her alleged 7-year incarceration, Chelsea says things that seems at odds with who she is and there are other anomalies in the interview. She also seems in great spirits, is treated in an extremely friendly manner and I think the interview shows signs of scripting.
    I highly recommend watching the interview for yourself here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSx1VG8UnF8
    .
    In response to viewing of footage of Collateral Murder Chelsea says:
    “Counterinsurgency is not a simple thing. … It’s not as simple as good guys versus bad guys. It’s a mess.”
    .
    Comment: Her response to the footage is in no way negative and yet this is the footage she valiantly released to Wikileaks.
    .
    In response to Juju’s question about reaction to her reporting of the video to a superior is that the superior said to her:
    “It’s just another incident. The only reason it sticks out and is prominent is because it was two journalists. There are thousands and thousands of videos like that.
    .
    Comment: Thousands and thousands of videos is not credible.
    .
    Juju says in discussion of released documents, “Turns out some of the low-level army battlefield reports were found in Osama Bin Laden’s compound after his death.”
    .
    Comment: We know this is complete BS. There are a number of other anomalous items pointed out in this interview
    .
    COLLATERAL MURDER
    1. The audio track sounds as if it’s bits of genuine audio stitched together over faked footage and what is said often doesn’t match what we’re shown (a typical feature of staged events is mismatch of what we’re told and what we’re shown thus H1b very much in evidence here. They surely could have scripted actors to provide the audio rather than stitching bits of genuine audio together with poor matching to the footage in order to make it more credible.)
    .
    Supporting this hypothesis:
    .
    We are told that two Apache helicopters are involved but even taking into consideration ground control there are simply too many callsigns – 13:
    Bushmaster Five, Bushmaster Forty, Bushmaster Four, Bushmaster Seven, Bushmaster Six, Bushmaster Six-Romeo, Bushmaster Three-Six, Bushmaster Two-Six, Copperhead One-Six, Crazy Horse One-Eight (one helicopter), Hotel Two-Seven, Hotel Two-Six (the other helicopter), Victor Charlie Alpha
    .
    Interestingly, in the Wikipedia entry, July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, we are told that there are two Apache helicopters one with callsign Crazy Horse One-Eight and the other Crazy Horse One-Nine but there is zero mention of One-Nine in the video while in the Wikileaks transcript the two Apache helicopters are identified as Hotel Two-Six and Crazy Horse One-Eight.
    .
    Below are comments on what we hear against what we are shown in the footage.
    2:48 – There’s more that keep walking by and one of them has a weapon [cannot see people or weapon]
    2:53 – Arab-sounding voice says “two-oh-eight” [not in transcript – where does this come from?]
    2:55 – See all those people standing down there [can’t see anyone]
    3:19 – That’s a weapon. [seemingly directed at “Namir” with camera. This is supposed to make us believe that in very unprofessional lack of recognition of camera, the soldier is looking for an excuse to kill, however, obviously if it’s stitched-together audio snippets the soldier saying “That’s a weapon” could easily be referring to a person genuinely carrying a weapon. I have to say that the soldier sounds to me as if he’s perfectly serious and is not misidentifying a camera as a weapon as an excuse to kill.] There are a number more of these comments.
    .
    For more:
    https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/wikileaks-controlled-opposition.html

    1. When you get down to the level of how many helicopters there actually were, I have to ask you why? What’s the benefit? Your case isn’t strong enough – just to be able to control the narrative, regardless of how bad they (the USA) looks. There are plenty of other simpler, quicker and cheaper ways of sowing misinformation and lies.

      The only way this could be plausible is if the US was committing a much much bigger crime than all of the atrocities it has committed in its various wars over the last 50 or 60 years. Genocide? Well, the numbers of innocent civilians killed by the USA must add up to several hundreds of thousands, if not millions by now. We know this already. Mass torture? We know the USA has used various forms of torture for a very long time. That’s now new either.

      What then?

      1. Can I suggest Willd, that if you think it’s important to determine whether Chelsea is an agent and the video is faked you need to do more than just read my comment here. What you need to do is look at all the artefacts I refer to for yourself, evaluate my comments and evaluate the artefacts for yourself. Simply arguing against a couple of points is a pointless exercise, you need to look at all the points made and you also need to think very carefully about what evidence might support the opposing hypothesis: that Chelsea and Collateral Murder are genuine. If you cannot find anything that favours Chelsea and Collateral Murder being genuine over them being fake then you should seriously question that lack.

        Please apply yourself more seriously to the task, rather than simply picking on a couple of items. Careful analysis of the evidence rather than speculating about what you think would or should happen is a much more reliable path to the truth.

        1. As coroberation to the truth, I offer this dot to connect. Patrick Cockburn is a reporter for the Independent (UK) in the Middle East. He wrote this first hand experience about the events shown in the Collateral Murder video.

          “When WikiLeaks did release the video, it was obvious why the US generals had wanted to keep it secret. Three years earlier, I had been in Baghdad when a US helicopter machine-gunned and fired rockets at a group of civilians on the ground, who its pilots claimed were armed insurgents, killing or wounding many of them.

          Journalists in Iraq were disbelieving about the US military claim because the dead included two reporters from the Reuters news agency. Nor was it likely that insurgents would have been walking in the open with their weapons when a US Apache helicopter was overhead.

          We could not prove anything until WikiLeaks made public the film from the Apache. Viewing it still has the power to shock: the pilots are cock-a-hoop as they hunt their prey, which included people in a vehicle who stopped to help the wounded, saying, “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards” and “Ha, ha, I hit them.” Anybody interested in why the US failed in Iraq should have a look.”
          —————
          So, he was in Baghdad at the time. He and other reporters definitely knew that two Reuters reporters had been killed. That story was reported in the media at the time. Now you can hear that when Assange showed the world the video that the Americans wanted to suppress, he knew it was confirmation of a story he’d been trying to get evidence about.
          https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/26/with-wikileaks-julian-assange-did-what-all-journalists-should-do/

          1. It’s astounding how well the propaganda works even very close to the site of reporting.

    2. How that labyrinthine account of things might ever be reasonably assimilated under the concept of ‘Occam’s Razor’ is unfathomable. It might be that you’ve got too much time on your hands and too little of good merit to do with it. Or maybe , by your very own reasoning, you’re a CIA asset?

      1. Can I suggest, Greg, that you do the same as I suggest for Willd above. Please look for yourself. Please examine:
        — Chelsea’s Wikipedia article
        — Her interview with Juju Chang on ABC’s Nightline
        — The audio track against the footage in Collateral Murder
        .
        Please get serious as this is a serious matter and throwaway, speculative comments such as yours serve no purpose whatsoever.
        .
        If you wish to debunk what I say please do it in methodical fashion and apply yourself to each point – obviously, you don’t need to go through every point but how about we start with one, Greg, just the one.

        1. You can suggest it Petra, and I can ignore your suggestion for the fundamental reason that I do not have the time to spend down a bottomless rabbit hole, the entrance of which screams nonsense and convolution in accord with any cogent grasp of the primary facts.

          There is no basic logic to what you are proposing. There is no advantage for the US to do as you are proposing. Assange wasn’t much, if at all, on the US radar prior to the Manning releases. Why would they create such a publicity burden for themselves where there wasn’t one to begin with? Please give me a scenario in which such apparent exposure and self-harm would make any sense at all. While you’re at it read this linked article and describe how your suggested voluntary exhibitionism by the US fits the nature of power that the author discusses. https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2020-02-24/story-of-power/

          Being human you will no doubt find the reinforcement you need to within the essentially subjective interpretation of the fine details you are citing. Conversely I will not because I would not be looking to find them as validation of a predetermined position. And then we could waste even more time arguing about that. Why in fuck would I want to do that? Beyond the direct personal vexation of such an exercise, taken at a broader level you’re proposition would fatally interrupt the attention that is desperately needed to usefully intervene on the threats clearly evident arising right now within the attack on Assange, and by extension upon Manning. At best that is self-indulgent, even reckless on your part. At worst you’re up to no good.

          By all means, knock yourself out with your inverse reality. It is shared by a quantum of SFA across the planet. No-one with any sense is likely to be interested. It’s simply too arcanely batshit crazy to be worth thinking about.

      2. I reply to your last comment here because of width issues. Very interesting Cook article.

        “But it is not just that his media outlets play a part in shaping and controlling what we talk about on any given day, for good or bad. They also control – all the time – what we are capable of thinking and not thinking. That is true power. And that role will never be mentioned by a Murdoch organisation – or any of his supposed rivals in the corporate media. It is the preserve of blogs like this one for very obvious reasons.”

        The quote on my website’s home page is this:

        “Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.”
        Salman Rushdie

        No need to go down a rabbit hole, Greg. What first alerted my suspicion of Chelsea was a glamour photo – it struck me as anomalous to her situation. Do you think that’s unreasonable? I discovered she had a number of glamour photoshoots done in the MSM. And as soon as I was convinced that she was an agent, I immediately suspected that Collateral Murder would be faked. Do you think that’s an unreasonable suspicion based on research confirming the first?

        There are only two artefacts needing examination for Chelsea.
        — Her Wikipedia article
        — Her interview with Juju Chang after her alleged 7-year incarceration (11 minutes)

        In the case of Collateral Murder just look carefully for a few minutes and compare the audio track with the footage.

        If you don’t think it makes any difference with regard to Julian if she’s an asset and the video is faked then sure don’t bother looking, however, if you think it would make a difference then I ask you, as someone who cares, to simply take a look. It doesn’t take very long and the thing is, say, in the case of the Juju Chang interview, if you don’t get a sense of anomalies within the first few minutes then there isn’t any sense of continuing. The anomalies are there pretty much from the start.

    3. Literally everything you post here advances longstanding US intelligence agendas. All your comments everywhere on my page. You’re gross.

      1. Caitlin, we both want to help Julian. If I’m wrong about Chelsea and Collateral Murder so be it. If I’m right about about them but it makes no difference to Julian then also so be it. However, if I’m right and it does make a difference that’s important.
        .
        Please consider not simply writing off what I say.

        1. We should only fight the battles we have a chance to win. If your Chelsea collateral murder proposition were true, that’s not one of them.

          1. You may well be right, JWK. I don’t know, however, if it would make a difference then it’s worth determining if it’s true and propagating if you decide it is, no?

        2. I can 100% promise you that I am going to write off every single thing you say. And I will continue telling you how disgusting I find you until you leave my site forever.

      2. I reply to your comment further down here (only just saw it). Would you agree, Caitlin, that what you show to me and what I say is hostility rather than disagreement? As one analyst to another I ask you to question that feeling. Why do my claims inspire hostility rather than simply disagreement, even if, say, an angry disagreement (what I often feel)? Is it that they challenge deep-seated beliefs? Quite honestly, I simply do not understand why people are so attached to the idea that Chelsea is a brave whistleblower. I certainly believed she was for close on a decade but when my suspicions were aroused and when the evidence clearly indicated she was not who she seemed it didn’t feel like such a letdown for me. Then again, so very many people I’ve believed in have fallen from their pedestals over the last five years – it blows my mind how many.
        .
        What I’ve come to realise over the last five years is that the power elite massively squat in the opposition space – so massively it is really hard to credit – and in that effort they will push out (real or fake) significant amounts of stuff that makes them look bad – at least to some of us – but we already think they’re bad anyway so why would they care? They completely take over the opposition space and we need to be alert to it at all times in order that we don’t become the “controlled” opposition (as opposed to the professional “controlled opposition”) ourselves.
        .
        You are against censorship and even though you would be so glad for me to disappear from your pages, you haven’t blocked me. I appreciate that.
        .
        I will continue as I believe in the truth as you do and perhaps one day your mind may change in relation to Chelsea and Collateral Murder (of course, if that film is faked we have to wonder about other documents). So far, you haven’t presented any actual argument against my claims. As an analyst, that lack is also something I ask you to question.

        1. Petra, for the time being i think you wrong but will consider more evidence if it comes. Hopefully Soon as i am 80 in a couple of months. For now let Manning and Assange go free and let Snowden come back to the US or anywhere he desires.

  25. You have to always remember what the great Sir Thomas More has to say about governments of his time. And it is always the same 500 years after but worst:

    “Therefore I must say that, as I hope for mercy, I can have no other notion of all the other governments that I see or know, than that they are a conspiracy of the rich, who, on pretence of managing the public, only pursue their private ends, and devise all the ways and arts they can find out; first, that they may, without danger, preserve all that they have so ill-acquired, and then, that they may engage the poor to toil and labour for them at as low rates as possible, and oppress them as much as they please; and if they can but prevail to get these contrivances established by the show of public authority, which is considered as the representative of the whole people, then they are accounted laws; yet these wicked men, after they have, by a most insatiable covetousness, divided that among themselves with which all the rest might have been well supplied…”

    It is the same but worst because we are in the return of the days of Noah just before the Second Coming of Jesus and I pray the Rosary to hasten His return because the bs is becoming unbearable.

    1. Yes, the elites are showing their vindictiveness as to the propositions made by the proles about the “rule of law.” It’s their law and they will see to it justice is done.

      And the problems that Americans have faced!

      “A little socially awkward” must have had quite the enervating effect on many Amcits as there was as great a hero here as Assage, but in the confusion there was not a great desire to protect such a changeable face. Isn’t there a Netflix coming about that? That’s why it’s not too much a surprise that the acts attempting to justify truth telling as a defense have been criminalized and Amcits are OK with good download speeds.
      Though…it is looking a bit dicey for some who would think straight information about incipient infections would be a good thing.

  26. OLE Caitlin! At 80 i dont do facebook but i salute you for the above and all you do.
    I wonder how it would go if Trump shut down the effort to kill Assange?
    I fear that we the people are going to let Assange burn at the stake.

  27. All good, indeed very good, but…

    I don’t understand why you took a swipe at alternative media in your final paragraph. From where do ‘normal’ folks get to inform their idea development without such media? I know you’re angry at the moment. Any sane person has to be. But that last pronouncement was a bit of an un-necessary head-bang. Maybe just poor wording?

    1. To clarify my concern, the wording proposes an either/or situation when in fact both activities are vital.

      I agree entirely with the underlying assertion that people can and must take direct action and not just lean vicariously upon the words and deeds of others. It is not enough just to know. Knowledge should catalyse appropriate action. The idea that ‘arguing on the internet’ is pointless is very often simply an excuse to remain isolated, which is tantamount to helplessness. That said there are many ways of arguing on the internet that do indeed engender pointlessness. It does need to be done with some mindfulness of purpose and technique. If nothing else one (hopefully) learns how to deal with severe frustration.

    2. Counterpunch used to be more sane. But I found J. St.Clair to be off his rocker about Russiagate in the past and that goes for Paul Street too. I still peruse some of the essays published, (I like Rob Urie), but I stopped my daily reading of Counterpunch quite some time ago. They simply were wrong about too many things of great importance. And they do seem like elitists at times as well. I’m having none of that!

  28. to get a job you need experience; to get experience, you need a job. ((sketch-22))”Man’s vocation ought to be the use of the art of intelligence in behalf of freedom.” ~Sydney Hookp.91 “In the words of Jean Rostand, “The obligation to endure gives us the right to know.” ~ “Rachel Carson (Literature & Life)” by Carol B. Gartner, Jul 1 1983″Isolation is the sum total of wretchedness to a man.” ~Thomas Carlyle”Community depends on the sympathy and moral imagination that “thrives on contact, on tangible connection.” ~ Wendell Berry”LIBERTY is the absence of COERCION by other human beings.” ~John Hospers“The absence of freedom is tyranny. The absence of freedom is also poverty.” – anon.“Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult,” said the British essayist Samuel Johnson in 1782.“If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living the truth. This is why it must be suppressed more severely than anything else.”~ Vaclav Havel”Sometimes you have to act as if acting will make a difference, even when you can’t prove that it will. That, after all, was precisely what happened in Communist Czechoslovakia and Poland, when a handful of individuals like Vaclav Havel & Adam Michnik resolved that they would live their lives “as if ” they lived in a free society.””The distinguishing characteristic of absolute despair is silence. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: Namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.”~Wendell Berry”The distinguishing characteristic of absolute despair is silence. There is a world of difference between the person who, believing that there is no use, says so to himself or to no one, and the person who says it aloud to someone else…A person who marks his trail into despair remembers hope – and thus has hope, if only a little. “But something more is involved that is even harder to talk about because it is only slightly understandable, and that is the part that suffering plays in the economy of the spirit. It seems plain that the voice of our despair defines our hope exactly; it seems, indeed, that we cannot know of hope without knowing of despair, just as we know joy precisely to the extent that we know of sorrow.” ~ Wendell Berry“Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. (pg.99, “The Body and the Earth”) ~ Wendell Berry“Only by restoring the broken connections can we be healed. Connection is health. And what our society does its best to disguise from us is how ordinary, how commonly attainable, health is. We lose our health — and create profitable diseases and dependencies — by failing to see the direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving.”~ Wendell Berry“If the devil doesn’t exist… how do you explain that some people are a lot worse than they’re smart enough to be?” ~Wendell Berry

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