This blog has covered the Julian Assange story before; Americans urgently need to be aware of what’s about to happen …
I get it.
President Donald Trump’s attempt to infect the United States with a mix of coronavirus, anti-intellectualism, and White supremacy should remain a news item before and after the November election — whether or not Joe Biden can unseat the incumbent.
But regardless of the Presidential bet, any celebration on November 4 can be considered a death march to the disintegration of the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
Democracy is on trial during WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in England — and at the Trump Administration’s urging.
I’ve previously rapped about the dangerous precedent emerging in the Assange’s arrest while referencing Daniel Ellsberg’s prosecution for publishing the Pentagon Papers. The two stories remain identical.
Like the case against Ellsberg in 1973, the US is leveraging the Espionage Act — a 103-year old law that generally addresses spies — to prosecute Assange.
The Assange case should be important to you because journalists publishing leaks they receive about government wrongdoing are still journalists — not spies. Ask the legions of journalists who’ve made a generous living out of writing WikiLeaks articles from Julian Assange’s disclosures.
Whistleblowers providing leaks to journalists are still whistleblowers — not spies.
But the US wants to prosecute Assange for behaving like a journalist.
And Chelsea Manning has been imprisoned for behaving like a whistleblower.
And we have Americans who are aware of the Assange case, and are rooting for Assange’s imprisonment as if the whole affair is the new bloodsport.
If Assange is found guilty in an American court — an outcome that’s all but assured, assuming Assange is extradited to the United States — government wrongdoing will continue to exist, but without any legally-protected threat from whistleblowers.
A new legal precedent will be born from the blood of a dying First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Meaning, anyone who leaks or reports on the US government’s wrongdoing — and the government believes the information reported is classified — will face prison.
America can no longer be called a democracy after that.
Think, for example about all those juicy leaks you’ve received from “anonymous sources” within the Trump administration.
Sources will begin to dry up immediately. And any suspected leaker, or reporter of leaks, will be put in prison.
We can have a future where hordes of writers and executives from large and small media organizations — including one-person operations — who would be imprisoned.
The death of democracy happens quietly. If you don’t believe that, check out the scant media coverage the Assange case is receiving today.
If you have an hour, check out the video podcast theAnalysis.news with Paul Jay that features Daniel Ellsberg discussing the parallels between his case and the Assange matter. I also urge you to read Craig Murray’s blog, which has been turning in religious coverage of the Assange trial — rights violations, outrageous hacking charges, Assange’s deteriorating health, and all.
What are your thoughts about the Assange case and democracy?
song currently stuck in my head: “evolution” – reggie workman
mentalunrest.com 