Judge Blocks Assange Extradition

by Steven Woskow | Jan 4, 2021 | Blog

Kyle breaks it all down on Conflict Of Interest

The U.S. has 14 days to respond – Trump could end all this, but my guess is he won’t. Though Alex Mercouris (see below) makes the case that this sets up for Trump to pardon him. Alex also states he should be free by Wednesday.

2021 01 04 07 46

LONDON – A high court judge has ruled today that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not be extradited for trial in the United States due to physical and mental health grounds, including the risk of suicide. The US have said they plan to appeal the UK decision.

British District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has ruled that extradition would mean “facing conditions of mere total isolation” which would be considered “oppressive” due to Assange’s current state of physical and mental health. Thus, the judge is ordering his discharge under section 91 of the extradition act 2003.

In the meantime, Assange is still being held in custody.

A bail application has been submitted by Assange’s defense team, and will be heard this Wednesday at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Assange’s legal defense team has asked that he be immediately released from London’s Belmarsh prison where he’s been held as an unconvicted prisoner now for over a year-and-a-half.

Supporters in London react

Celebration outside The Old Bailey #FreeAssange pic.twitter.com/e122ZkoXkC

— LetmelookTV (@letmelooktv) January 4, 2021

Human rights lawyer Alex Mercouris at The Duran reviews the decision here

More here and here

Could 2021 Be The Year Of Bipartisanship?

by Steven Woskow | Jan 3, 2021 | Blog

Starting out that way.

Homes of Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi Are Reported Vandalized

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, called the vandalism of his Louisville, Ky., home a “radical tantrum” taken from a “toxic playbook.”

The homes of Senator Mitch McConnell and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the two most powerful members of Congress, have been reported vandalized, days after the contentious passage of a stimulus bill that has been criticized as inadequate by a broad coalition ranging from progressive activists to President Trump.

More here

Vandalism Mcconnell Home Superjumbo

Senator Mitch McConnell’s home in Louisville, Ky., was found vandalized on Saturday

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The San Francisco home of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) vandalized

Freedom Agenda 21 – Agorism In The New Year

by Steven Woskow | Jan 2, 2021 | Blog

My New Years resolution – be more agorist

Mike Swatek at Off-Guardian

2021 01 02 07 07 Each of us can easily expand our fight for individual freedom in the new year. You can do many of the things shared below. In a nutshell, this includes anything, big or small, which weakens the state, its crony corporations or its global financial power-mad masters, altogether herein called, “the beast”.

If we all resolve to do this, we will become freer, especially in our own lives.

Whenever you buy or sell something, first consider doing so in the real free-market, also known as the Agora. Every time you avoid feeding or obeying the beast, without harming any individual, you’re an agorist. Going forward, let’s all do much more for our freedom, in as many of the ways described below as possible, and beyond.

More at Off-Guardian

Tommy Raskin’s Last Article, From Dec. 23: War Resisters, Take Back the First Amendment!

by Scott Horton | Jan 1, 2021 | Blog

Read it here.

RIP Tommy Raskin

by Scott Horton | Dec 31, 2020 | Blog

37474122 9103605 Image A 8 1609464331404 Tommy Raskin, former intern for Antiwar.com and a former staffer at the National Friends Committee on Legislation died today. He was 25. No cause of death was given.

Tommy was the son of Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-MD), who announced Tommy’s death today. Tommy had been attending Harvard Law School

During and after his Antiwar.com internship he was an occasional writer on our pages. Tommy wrote an article for The Libertarian Institute last week.

Tommy was active in recent efforts to lobby congressional opposition to US support of the Saudi war on Yemen. We will miss him, and his tremendous dedication to the cause of peace.

The Story Of 1-Year-Old Abdullah Is The Story Of Yemen

by Steven Woskow | Dec 31, 2020 | Blog

People cannot care about kids starving in Yemen if they don’t know kids are starving in Yemen. That’s where you come in.

Scott Horton

Children's Health Deteriorating In Yemen 2020

SANA’A, YEMEN – DECEMBER 13: A nurse checks a child who is suffering malnutrition at a hospital receiving treatment on December 13, 2020 in Sana’a, Yemen. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)

“Losing my child while I am watching is breaking my heart,” Mohammed Yousuf says as he tries to calm his crying son. “I feel so worried for my son. I won’t rest until my son is completely healed.”

Yousuf lives in Yemen. His 1-year-old son, Abdullah, has been at a health facility in Sanaa, the capital, where doctors are feeding him reconstituted milk from powder formulated for children with malnutrition to keep him alive.

On Dec. 5, Abdullah weighed 6 pounds on his fifth day of treatment for severe acute malnutrition, says his attending clinician, Dr. Abdelmalek Mohammed. That’s less than one-third of the average weight for his age. The doctor’s diagnosis of severe acute malnutrition is a medical classification reserved for the worst cases. Yousuf and his wife, Fadiah, traveled 15 hours by bus through dozens of military checkpoints to bring their child to the facility in Sanaa. He spoke to NPR by phone.

(NPR has withheld the family names of the parents and doctor because of concerns about their safety.)

In Yemen today, 1 in 5 children are severely malnourished, according to U.N. reports. The 5-year-old civil war has caused the country to plunge deeper into poverty that has been exacerbated by floods and locusts. And even when there is food available, a 3-year-old, Saudi-led blockade restricts goods coming into the country by land, sea and air. The resulting delays increase the cost of basic necessities such as food.

And for many Yemenis, any price is too high. Yousuf lost his job as a farm laborer last year when farmers couldn’t get diesel — required to run the pumps for irrigation and drinking water — because of fuel shortages caused by the war. Now his family depends completely on aid, which he says allows them to eat one small daily meal.

More here