Opinion
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
The “ADVANCE Act,” a bill to promote nuclear power, was passed 88-to-2 in the U.S. Senate last week. The ADVANCE stands for “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.” The only senators voting against it were Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
It was approved in the House of Representatives in May, also by a lopsided margin: 393-13. And it now has gone to President Joe Biden,
Among the many points in the bill are fast-tracking the federal licensing process for new nuclear power plants notably those described as “advanced,” reducing licensing fees, allowing ownership of nuclear facilities in the U.S. by foreign nations, and establishing within the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission an Office of International Programs “to carry out the international nuclear export and innovation activities.”
The action by Congress comes amid what Kevin Kamps of the organization Beyond Nuclear says is “the biggest push for nuclear power that I’ve experienced in 32 years of anti-nuclear power activities.”
After twelve years — including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London — Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasn’t extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act.
Instead, he took a plea deal with the U.S. government, pleading guilty to one count of violating that act — you know, threatening America’s freedom — for which he had paid by his time already served. He was officially pronounced free at a U.S. federal court in Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory), after which he flew home to his wife and two children in Australia.
My emotional relief at his escape from the clutches of this government far outweighs my feelings about the broader implications of the guilty plea, which has justifiably stirred concern and controversy. The government got its little triumph: a “legal” acknowledgment of its right to keep monstrous secrets about what it does and punish any unauthorized spilling of the beans as “espionage.”
Introduction
We well know by now that Trump remains the undisputed leader of the Republican Party and seemingly has the unwavering support of an electoral base numbering in the tens of millions. His cult-like base seemingly accepts his statements as absolute truths, even when they contradict or ignore the relevant verifiable evidence. They believe his “big lie” that he won the 2020 presidential election, while the overwhelming evidence refutes it (https://thefulcrum.us/ethics-leadership/trumps-big-lie). They also believe falsely that global warming is a left-wing hoax.
New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman lost a primary election Tuesday because of unprecedented spending against him by powerful forces that insist Israel does no wrong.
When: Saturday, June 29th
Registration begins at 5:00PM. Bowling begins at 5:30PM
$25-adult bowling ticket
$20-adult non bowling ticket
$15-child bowling ticket
$10-child non bowling ticket
Deadline to Register: Wednesday, June 26th
Where: Columbus Square Bowling Palace
5705 Forest Hills Blvd, Columbus, OH 43231
Trophies will be awarded to:
Top 3 Adult Teams
Best Male & Female Bowler
Medals to Top 3 Child Bowlers
Teams of 4 players
$25 Adult Bowling Ticket: 2 games of bowling, shoe rental, pizza and soda
$20 Adult Non-Bowling Ticket: Pizza and soda
$15 Child Bowling Ticket: 2 games of bowling, shoe rental, pizza and soda (12 & under)
$10 Child Bowling Ticket: Pizza and soda (12 & under)
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Why Palestine matters: The most important moral test of our time
[References at end]
This was said 30 years ago: “This is a unique colonialism that we’ve been
subjected to where they have no use for us. The best Palestinian for them
is either dead or gone. It’s not where they want to exploit us, or that
they need to keep us there in the way of Algeria or South Africa as a
subclass.” (Edward Said, in The Pen and the Sword: Conversations with
Edward Said, by David Barsamian, 1994.)
Day 262 of the murderous and genocidal attacks on Gaza Strip. Over 150,000
Palestinians killed or injured. 80% of buildings destroyed including
residential buildings, hospitals, schools, universities, streets, and other
infrastructure [R01]. But this genocide is implemented not merely with
bombing civilians but with starvation and denial of water, medicine, and
all aspects of livability. More people are now dying of diseases and famine
than from bombings. The environmental impact of this genocidal war has also
been devastating [R02]. In parallel with this, there is an attack here in