US News President Joe Biden said he is considering a temporary gas tax holiday. The tax reduction would cut gas prices by 18.4 cents per gallon. [Link] Biden said rebate cards are also being considered. [Link] Miami police were offering $50 for handguns, $100 for shotguns and $150 for “high-powered” rifles such as AK-47s or AR-15s in a gun buyback drive. The city says it will transfer the weapons to Ukraine to aid the war effort. [Link] Space X is working with the Department of Defense on a rocket-launched troop movement system that can deploy forces anywhere in the work within hours....
WikiLeaks
News Roundup 6/20/2022
Colombia Left-wing ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro won Colombia's presidential election. [Link] Assange Extradition Australia is lobbying the US behind the scenes to secure the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. [Link] Russia Ukraine’s Parliament passed two bills that will restrict Russian music and books. If President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the legislation, it will be a significant step forward in Kiev’s attempt to purge the Russian culture. [Link] The Washington Post reports the White House is planning for an extended conflict in Ukraine. Leaders in NATO, the UK and Germany have...
PayPal Releases Funds Seized From Independent Media Orgs
PayPal has reversed course after freezing thousands of dollars belonging to alternative media outlets Consortium News and MintPress News, agreeing to return money to both sites after seizing it without explanation last week.
4/22/22 Kevin Gosztola on the Next Steps in the Assange Extradition
Download Episode. Keven Gosztola returns to the show to give an update on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s legal situation. The British magistrate's court recently ordered Assange to be extradited to the United States. Gosztola walks us through how we arrived at this point and what the expected next steps are. Notably, the Assange legal team will get to appeal the U.S. government's near-certain acceptance of the extradition. The appeal will present Assange and his lawyers the opportunity to bring up a whole range of important issues that have so far gone unexamined. Chief among those...
The Russiagate Hoax Goes Deeper Than We Thought
The latest filing by Special Counsel John Durham, investigating Russiagate and the Hillary Clinton campaign, suggests the rabbit hole goes a bit deeper than we thought. One hates to sound like Rachel Maddow, but it is just that much more likely the walls are closing in. Durham filed a new, 34-page motion on April 15, 2022, in answer to defendant Michael Sussman's request to dismiss the case against him. Durham accused Sussman of lying to the FBI about his working for the Clinton Campaign while he was trying to sell the Bureau on an investigation into Trump's ties to Russia, focusing on...
3/15/22 Kevin Gosztola on the Dangers Posed by the Prosecution of Assange
Scott talks with journalist Kevin Gosztola about the most recent developments in the attempt to extradite Jullian Assange to the United States. Gosztola gives a background of the legal process so far. They then discuss just how blatantly political the effort to punish Assange is. There is no legal distinction between Wikileaks and the other publications that reported on these various leaks. But Assange is an outsider who has regularly and effectively embarrassed the U.S. government. And he is paying a severe and disproportionate price for that. At the end, Gosztola lays out why he...
UK Supreme Court Rejects Assange Extradition Appeal
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost an appeal to block his extradition to the United States, with the UK’s Supreme Court outright refusing to hear the petition. Some legal options remain open to him, however.
A Four-Step Guide to the Cancel Culture Playbook
Cancel Culture only has a total of four plays in its playbook: Accuse of misinformation/fringe opinion Accuse of racism Accuse of sex abuse Accuse of national security threat/threat to democracy After that, they're out of plays. And Cancel Culture nearly always uses each of these plays in order. Play #1 -Misinformation The first play, the claim of misinformation, is usually enough to get most normies canceled on social media. The psychology behind it is fairly powerful; most people don't like liars. Even among those who are disposed to treat inaccurate speech with other speech that's...
COI #221: Biden Must Make Concessions to Defuse the Ukraine Crisis
On COI #221, Kyle Anzalone discusses the Ukraine crisis. Biden has overextended American commitments and now must make concessions to defuse the crisis. Even if it leads to war, the Blob will demand that Biden hold firm against Putin. While the US continues to take aggressive positions against Russia, behind-the-scenes talks could be working towards a deal to prevent such a war. Kyle talks about the U.K. High Court’s ruling that Assange can appeal his extradition to the U.K. Supreme Court. The decision is key in the Wikileaks founder’s fight for freedom. However, Assange will remain...
12/10/21 Kevin Gosztola on Assange’s Future After the High Court Ruling
Scott is joined by journalist Kevin Gosztola to discuss the evolving situation Julian Assange finds himself in. The UK’s High Court recently overturned a decision blocking Assange from extradition to the United States. This plunges the case into further rounds of litigation. Gosztola explains these next steps and discusses what is needed for Assange to walk free. Discussed on the show: “Assange Plans to Appeal High Court Decision Backing Extradition to the United States” (Shadowproof) “Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks” (Yahoo! News) Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of...