Action 4 Assange

[03:11] good evening and welcome to the free Assange vigil number 46.1 weird 46 weeks straight into this series uh my name is Steve boy Keenan I am joined by my co-host Andrew Smith and Kendra Christian today marks three thousand four hundred and fifty one days since the illegal and arbitrary detention of Julian Assange began 404 days and he was trafficked out of the Ecuador and he

[03:41] keyed up of units code a 4.2 billion dollar IMF loan to Ecuador 111 days until the second round of extradition hearings begin in London and our protests begin in DC one thousand eighty one days to incarceration for our reality winner and on the plus side sixty seven days of freedom for Chelsea Manning following the decades-long WikiLeaks grand jury dismissal we are joined tonight by the convo couches

[04:13] Fiorella Isabel by the Ron Paul Institute's Norman singleton and I believe eventually John Kerry akka will be on as well guys we are uh we are organizing for DC as we speak and as such we are trying to get our sorry behinds there we've you haven't go fund me up we're gonna post a link a few times throughout the vigil tonight feel free to share the link if you can't

[04:44] donate if you can't donate please do that the the trial is going to last about three weeks we are trying to make sure that at least some of us are there for all three of those weeks so please if you can donate if you can't share the link um let's go ahead and and start off the round of interviews though um how's goofy how you doing good see it it's you

[05:15] know quarantine eating doing as many shows as possible I'm still trying to get as much information out there as possible taking care of this advantage of this time to actually be putting out as much content and be diving deep into what's left of the electoral process in this country which is a sad sad state of affairs right now given that what is work well that's exactly you know there's a lot of people

[05:48] laughs people that need guidance but I think it's actually an opportunity to take things outside of electoral politics and actually go in that direction and stop relying on politicians to be the sole people that change anything right like there's a lot of movements that we could be a part of I couldn't agree with that more I've been screaming at people since the mid 90s doing I could vote for the first

[06:20] time the footing you're putting your faith in politicians is the last possible thing you would want to do and the voting is the latest and least effective political action anyone can make having said that I guess there's there's probably still down to like they haven't canceled elections entirely yet they're gonna try according to Greg Palast up to 20% of the vote can be tampered with by mail-in ballot which I

[06:51] guess is a little bit better than going and voting on an electron the Christian yeah I'm not entirely sure about that I don't know we are we are actually John Kerry ah cues in the house now - John how you doing hey folks how are you Steve doing well it's good to see you again sir pleasure and I'm gonna pitch this one - I'm gonna pitch this one - norm first and then you guys can hop in at what point do people do people stop

[07:25] paying attention to electoral politics as the sole vehicle through which change can happen that one's for you norm but if he doesn't on me then somebody else can field it hello oh sorry about that I'm putting my dog way okay and funny because dogs you have to treat them like like you would treat a

[07:56] dog or a toddler which is discipline and constant watching them and not letting them get away with anything and I think that the question about electoral politics I see the point that people say it's a dead end I would say that the problem is not so much that it's a dead end or the people put too much faith in politicians I would actually say that

[08:27] you shouldn't put any faith in politicians as a Christian I actually have a Messiah and Savior named Jesus Christ and I will i really prefer him to Donald Trump or Joe Biden but you the the the thing that people fail to do in political movements enough of is holding politicians accountable and forgetting that the real work begins the day after election because you really need to be

[08:59] pressuring constantly the politicians to make sure they keep their promises to make sure they don't portray you to make sure they don't sell you out to the special interest and the party leadership and not to step on anybody's toes here but from what I've been seeing and reading and hearing lately from a few progressive sources particularly Jimmy Dore is it correct pronunciation in is that and some others is that the

[09:31] left is actually doing a fairly bad job of that much worse than the right did I think the freedom caucus did a much better job of trying to hold Boehner and Ryan accountable and standing up to them then the Progressive Caucus is doing with Nancy Pelosi I don't personally don't think the possessive caucus is incentivize to hold to any sort of progressive ideals there the there's no accountability because

[10:03] they're either going to get primary from within the Democratic Party or they're going to get primary by somebody else who's going to go to Washington and run up against the wall that is Nancy Pelosi passing 82 to 88 percent of Donald Trump's agenda that's Chuck Schumer voting to fast-track what now a total of 198 judges but fast-tracking 37 of them they're running into a machine that

[10:33] incentivizes them to participate and to ignore the electorate am i and and fees got the fees got the pulse on this because that's what her show cover is 99 you know what that that's what the organization that I run and I just want to correct briefly that my introduction is i i'm with campaign for liberty which is dr. ron paul's 501 C 4 grassroots activism and education group we are separate from the Ron Paul Institute

[11:05] which is a 501 C 3 educational foundation that focuses on foreign policy and civil liberties although I am a big fan and good friend of Daniel McAdams and a fan of everything that the Institute does but I think that what we do at campaign for liberty as we try to mobilize people to call email and write their representatives on legislation I know people can be cynical and say well what good does one phone call do well one phone call doesn't do actually doesn't do any good the multiply but multiply one by a hundred phone calls

[11:36] and then you're you're you are actually going to make an impact there's strength in numbers there are strength and accountability and there is strength and backbone and ilona there's a lot of guys so when i when i worked for dr. paul for 15 years on capitol hill from 1997 to 2012 11 of those is this legislative director which is the top policy job at a congressional office and i can tell you from that we did see a chain in how politicians were willing members

[12:07] of Congress are willing to stand up and stand with dr. Paul on issues like audit the Fed and and even opposing the Patriot Act and foreign interventionism and that wasn't because all of a sudden they had a come-to-jesus moment and realized that Ron was right it was because they saw that there was a constituency out there for these ideas that was mobilized enthusiastic and was actually coming to their town hall meetings calling their office writing that their office is emailing their

[12:37] offices and demanding that they stand with Ron you know we just had a vote on provisions of the Patriot Act being reauthorized I believe permanently how about go see well it went really bad I mean there's several things there's the HR six six six six that allows that it's just less more privation of privacy

[13:08] rights against people then there's the resolution that was just voted down it was an amendment to protect the FBI from going after your browser history and ten ten senators didn't show up for that vote was only in the Senate the house hasn't loaded on it yet and one of those senators was senator Bernie Sanders he hasn't necessarily been the staunchest advocate of civil liberties I feel like that is one of his weak points from a person

[13:39] from my perspective but it was important that he was there and he didn't show up and that that sparked a lot of criticism because if he is to be the leader even still right now the progressive movement he should be protecting our civil liberties and I I think that's a very general assertion what did civil liberties I mean a lot of people in on the left and I consider myself to be part of the left do not even care or realize how important their civil liberties are they see that as a

[14:09] libertarian construct and they look at it with disdain and I think that is because some of the you know the Republican more conservative side of the libertarian has kind of been against social safety nets but I think there is a coalition there that could be built upon by certain candidates I think Jesse Ventura was would be a great candidate that kind of gets from both ends he gets from the left he also gets from the more

[14:39] independent minded libertarian saucy Gabbard was able to do the same while she was campaigning for the presidency but I think what we're seeing here is fascism of the left and the fascism of the right are entirely tools of the establishment the left the liberal left I would say loves to call out the the right as be fascist let's just say Donald Trump is a fascist but they fail to realize is both Democrats and Republicans are consistently getting rid

[15:12] of a BS corpus they're completely diminishing the power that we have the individual freedoms that we have as people and they use the idea the facade of national security and safety to do that we're seeing that happen right now because there's a pandemic and they can easily use that excuse to infringe upon our civil liberties and that's a very dangerous thing that's happening and I think it's something that more people on the left on the Socialist Left need to sort of pay attention to because I'm not really seeing it I'm seeing it more on

[15:42] on the independent libertarian side and I think there's something to be said about that and something to explore for whoever next that we support as either President Congress whatever they should be talking about your civil liberties they should be talking about the election integrity they should be talking about the issues that nobody's talking about right now the fact that our system is set up to make your vote not count it is it is it is jumping through hoops to simply cast a vote

[16:13] Americans are very lazy when it comes to participation in our political system also because of the fact that this is how the system makes it it makes you it's better for the the establishment that you don't pay attention that you're overworked so yeah so John um as someone that's personally experienced the power of the national security state and someone that's involved in traditional media structure um what do you think are some good ways that we could try to coalesce

[16:45] people into like a post partisan dialogue about civil liberties like free speech about privacy and and things like that good question tough question I was thinking a minute ago that you know we've we've got to push some of these leaders on the left and the right people like Bernie Sanders because Ron Wyden is not gonna be around forever and we can't put all of our eggs in the baskets of Ron Wyden and Mike Lee and and Rand Paul it's just not gonna

[17:16] get us anywhere so with that said you know I feel like like the alternative media is gaining a foothold that I've never seen before I for one get my news from the likes of consortium news and reader supported news and and outlets like that I scan outlets on the left and the right and and I've gotten to the point where I rarely go to the mainstream media I think I'm not alone in that I think that

[17:48] that's a trend and I think that that's where we we need to go with that said what we lack most importantly is money we you know let me tell you a short story in 2016 I traveled to twelve states with Gary Johnson who was the libertarian nominee for president that year and one of the things he told me and he mentioned it very off handedly that really stuck with me was that the Libertarian Party does not have a

[18:19] benefactor there was a family in California that made its money in canned tomatoes he said that had been very generous but in terms of an actual ongoing benefactor there just wasn't one the Democrats and the Republicans have hundreds of such benefactors well it's the same thing with the alternative media we need a benefactor whether that media is on the left or the right because it's one thing to write for these outlets it's another thing for the news to actually get out there for

[18:51] people to actually see it I feel like I right my fingers to the bone right I write op-eds at least every week I try to pump out books as frequently as I can and that's not unusual there are a lot of people that do that but if nobody has access to the to the sites nobody's gonna nobody's gonna get the news nobody's gonna be informed the way we think people ought to be informed and I think that one of the things we need to do is to find ourselves one or two or 50 of these benefactors certainly we're not

[19:22] the the only people in America thinking this way um I have a question kind of for all the guests I mean given with what we've discussed then exactly you know how important you know if you could convey to people is it that we free Julian Assange you know that we that we work for this Free Press to get that out I mean and this is for all the guests to I think it's very important because the president here is chilling in terms of

[19:54] its effect on free speech and people who want to publish before he became the

[20:28] great defender civil liberties when the president a president his own party with the target of the deep state but he'd never really expressed that much concerned with overreach and massive government surveillance but it was just anti-war activists and even anti-tax Tea Party activists that were being targeted by the deep state yeah I mean I agree with that I mean I think it's important that we set a precedent for alternative

[20:58] media because mainstream media is a propaganda machine now for the further military-industrial complex and for the intelligence community they control what everybody the majority of the population in our country sees hears and believes and no matter how hard we try we are at a disadvantage in money and networking and reach as independent media and so when there is such misinformation and propaganda and mis-education of people

[21:30] you're going to get a population that doesn't see that they're walking right into the slaughter and that's where we're at and we're slowly creeping up as independent media the only issue I have with like well let me just first say a Julian Assange whoever is the President or whoever we start putting our support bike needs to be Pro protecting whistleblowers and they absolutely 100% need to be because our freedom of speech is one of the most important things that

[22:01] we have as a society and it's one of the things that America is always valued itself I have a freedom of speech of saying things you might disagree with this is why I've always been against censorship even if it came from somebody like Alex Jones it like once they started doing that they started going after everybody and so we need to be very like proactive in how we are going to handle that because right now they're just gonna label people as Russian assets etc and I think whoever

[22:31] else we support for any sort of politics has to be have that in the front of their mind they have to be protecting our truth tellers and that's that's what has to be pushed I don't see that being pushed on the left as much as it should be I think you know this last election kind of is showing that but even people like Tulsi Gabbard and other progressives are not really like when it comes to like civil liberties they like you know

[23:02] they'll say oh we have to protect people first and that's kind of something that I'm wary of when it comes to politicians they're just not really on it and I think it'll come from independent media like you guys and us and you know because it is our livelihood - it's our lives that depend on standing up for people like Julian Assange and other whistleblowers there you go ahead Andrew no I was just

[23:33] gonna I was just gonna ask John if you wanted oh yeah I actually would this is something I've been trying to talk about a lot in the the last several weeks one of the things that just flabbergast Smee is our seeming inability to convince the likes of The Washington Post and The New York Times and other mainstream outlets that if Julian is convicted they're next you know they think that well Donald Trump's not going to be around forever he might not even be around for more

[24:05] than another eight months but we saw under the Obama administration mainstream journalists described as unindicted co-conspirators by the Attorney General of the United States we saw raids on the homes of working mainstream journalists if they refused to stand up and admit publicly that Julian Assange is a journalist to any publisher there's literally nothing to stop the government from targeting them next it's as simple as

[24:36] that and that's to that that's what the special administrative measures within the United States really reveal is the true power that the federal government holds that it can push down against any individual that it chooses because that's something that they basically said yes Julian will be placed under special administrative measures when he gets here which basically completely limits access to his attorney access to information and a bunch of other just heinous things across the board

[25:06] including 23 hours a day if not more of solitary confinement could you talk a little bit more or do you kind of have a perspective on ways in general that we can push back against projects or not projects but policies like Sam's and other criminal and justices that happen inside of our justice system there are so many different organizations doing great work out there I work very closely for example with the human rights defense which also publishes prison

[25:39] legal news and criminal legal news magazines so there are a lot of us out there working kind of independently of one another if we if we can figure out a way to work together and to harness the power that we have I think will be far more impactful right now we're generally ignored by the mainstream media but I mean everything from these events like the one we're doing right now which I find to be very beneficial and I'm I'm always surprised

[26:10] at how many people watch these and go to them later on YouTube it's very heartening but we need to find a way to work together in a more integrated fashion so that we can get the word out and that we don't look like you know just some guy or some woman standing off to the side outside of Julian's trial yelling about civil liberties we have important things to say and you know people who have who have legitimate experiences that the media

[26:41] to focus on their they're on point with Julian and I think I think we've got a story to tell I think that there is some room for optimism the fact that there is an alternative media today the fact that there are organizations like campaign for they're pretty like the Ron Paul Institute on the libertarian side the fact that dr. Paul is a daily program that is doing quite well telling some of the truth about the braun virus and how

[27:12] crazy it is we basically shut down the entire economy for a virus that you probably have a less than 1% chance of dying unless you have a pre-existing condition but and also going back to something we talked about before this what happened last week in the Senate we came within one boat of getting put into law that you have to get a warrant now silly me I thought that there was this thing called the Fourth Amendment that already put a warrant requirement in the

[27:43] lobby for the government could take your your seizure papers and records but I guess that went out that actually went out with the war on drugs back in the 80s and 90s under especially under George the first Attorney General William bar that name may ring a bell with some of you but anyway that was actually when you consider where we were just ten years ago what on this bill that the first indication that he wasn't

[28:16] gonna be nearly as good on foreign policy and civil liberties as president as he was on the campaign trail voted for the FISA bill in Oh 8 and it was made clean widely acknowledged that this was just a political move on his part because he didn't think he could vote against it where today you see people on both sides lining up to vote for a wide Danes amendment you have a very liberal senator and you have a very conservative Senator libertarian is senator coming together to stop warrantless wiretapping

[28:47] and they almost won even though McConnell set a 60-vote threshold this is progress some other things were making progress on foreign policy on the Republican Party Donald Trump did what Ron Paul tried to do and back in the 90s Pat Buchanan tried to do which is run a successful campaign in the Republican primary challenging conventional neoconservative wisdom and running as the avowed enemy of Bill Kristol and dr. Paul did better than anyone

[29:20] could could have expected his son is not better than anyone could have expected in his career but then also look at Donald Trump in 2016 he stood up before a Republican primary debate and said that going into Iraq was a horrible mistake and he actually thought there is a groundswell of support of questioning of foreign policy of civil liberties and of the Federal Reserve which ought to be

[29:52] something that libertarians and progressives can join together on because the Federal Reserve is as Daniel McAdams once brilliantly called it the dark heart of the welfare warfare state we can argue about the welfare state but let's let's work together on getting rid of the world warfare state and let's at least get rid of the corporate welfare state I think it's about time that one thing that kind of annoys me about Republicans is when the farm bill comes up every four or five years Republicans get up and stand up and scream about we

[30:23] need to get single mothers off the dole so we need to put work requirements for the EBT program and then they'll shovel built several of billions of subsidies to millionaire farmers most of them don't even have their even walked on on a real farm and there's something that I think there's there should be room for convergence on the left-right convergence on libertarian and progressive conserve convergence on in some let's at least get rid of the

[30:54] welfare for the rich and then we can talk about what's it what what provisions the society could make for the poor and if I could just be engaged I apologize for rambling but I have a lot of these these topics excite me as you might might be able to tell somebody said libertarians are against the social safety net that's actually not true libertarians are against at least a federal government provided social safety net for a variety of reasons one

[31:26] of which is that send out checks to people without a screwing it up and be making sure that the big guys the fat cats are taken care of and the little and the average person gets some prompts and it's supposed to be great no that's it that's a good point I've said forever that I support the idea of a universal

[32:00] health care system I just don't want Congress running it i Andrew makes the point that like if the National Nurses Union was in charge of universal health care that would put us in a much better position than say you know Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell even in this situation right now pollen tier is in charge of our health care yeah yeah and we've got Palantir in charge running running the health care of you know partnered up with the NHS in the UK as

[32:31] well and when Peter Thiel is running the show the only person that wins or the only entity that wins is an ever-increasing surveillance state when I pause dramatically like that that someone's queue to hop in John you've been on before so one of the big things go ahead be I'm sorry oh no I was just

[33:02] gonna say you know like I I think people don't care who runs it as long as it happens other countries have a not necessarily been a cure for all but a nationalized type of health care system and they are able to manage it accordingly I don't think it's a matter of Congress being unable to it's a matter of Congress not wanting to because the money and the lobbyists are there I I don't necessarily trust the government to run

[33:32] it but I think if we were to point the right people to run a health care system where there was no middleman or you could just have basic health care the choice to do that if you'd if you'd like but I think I think it's important that we the argument that the government is going to infringe they're doing it right

[34:02] now when we have a private health insurance industry there they're doing it right now that doesn't matter I don't think it's going to hurt us go towards a universal health care system we just have to find what works for our country because our states we're obviously a different country than like say Denmark and it's gonna take a sort of different process for it well one thing to keep in mind about the Affordable Health Care Act or

[34:34] Obamacare widely known is that my friends MP party at the Washington great work and regulatory state has pointed out that while Obama was out in the Rose Garden demonizing the insurance industry for fighting against his health care plan insurance industry lobbyists were sitting back in the West Wing with Obama staffers writing the bill and when

[35:05] people say oh big insurance was against Obama care I say right because big businesses would naturally hate a law that says that it is a crime for you to fail to purchase my product so this is something a parallel to that that we're seeing in Julian's case when they were in court early on here after you'd been taken into Belmarsh the the judge who's supposed to be this neutral arbiter of this globally impacting press freedom case walks to

[35:38] the back of the room to meet with the americans that are there so it's this level of corruption whether it exists in like a corporate state or within the larger institutions of the I would say Allah privatized police state at this point but John if you could because you have the most experience in handling these kinds of situations firsthand and like litigation against the government and being prosecuted for proliferating truth could you talk a little bit about what Julian actually faces I know we've

[36:11] gone over it before but just to kind of lay it out again sure sure Julian faces a very tough experience in the Eastern District of Virginia and frankly much of that is just because he's headed to the Eastern District of Virginia I've told this story before but I think it bears repeating in the Eastern District here in Alexandria Virginia is known as the espionage court

[36:42] because that's where the government likes to file most of its it's national security charges I was charged here Julian's charged here ed Snowden's charged here Jeffrey sterling was charged here and no national security defendant has ever won a case in the Eastern District now I predicted for a long time wrongly as it turned out that Julian's judge would be judge Leonie brinkema who usually reserves these national security

[37:13] cases for herself it turned out that brinkema had the case taken away from her by the chief judge who just happens to have been a FISA Court judge before he was named to the Eastern District that makes me want to run screaming from the room we also know that that the government intends to invoke something called CIPA the control the the classified information Protection Act what they're gonna do is they're

[37:44] going to clear the courtroom they're going to cover the windows and the doors with plastic sheeting and duct tape so no one can can aim a laser beam at the windows and pick up the vibrations and hear what classified conversations are taking place inside the courtroom everyone will be dismissed except the prosecutors and Julian the I'm sorry the prosecutors the defense attorneys and Julian the clerk and the bailiff and the

[38:15] jury and that's it nobody else will be allowed in the room furthermore the judge is going to issue a list of words to the jury that will replace words that the prosecution alleges are classified so let's say the word NSA is class or the acronym NSA is classified maybe they'll call it zebra or swimming pool so anytime someone needs to refer to NSA

[38:46] they won't say NSA they'll say zebra and there's gonna be a little paper that the jury has and it'll say NSA equals zebras so they can follow along and understand what the heck is being said in the courtroom it's a ridiculous exercise and frankly I've always maintained that it serves to bias the jury against the defendant because the implication is even these Intervale individual words are so highly classified that we can't even utter them in this closed courtroom

[39:18] so he must be guilty he must be a bad guy he must have done all these terrible wrong things so we have to convict him uh with that said no let me add one more thing from my own experience and again I've told the story before but it bears repeating when I was headed to trial I hired Oh J Simpson's jury consultant he was the is the the father of my best

[39:48] friend's wife and so he did it for free the man's never lost a case he represented George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting he represented besides OJ William Kennedy Smith in his rape case the guy's never lost a case literally he's never lost a case and so he came up to Washington he lives in Dallas and we got him a security clearance from the Justice Department and he went through the files my files 15,000 pages of discovery and when it

[40:20] was all over we sat in the knot when it was over when he had finished going through the files we sat in my attorney's conference room and he said look here's the bottom line if we were in any other district in America I would say let's go for it we're gonna win this thing but the Eastern District of Virginia he said you don't have a chance he said your jury is going to be made up of employees or family members of employees of the CIA the Pentagon the Department

[40:51] of Homeland Security the FBI intelligence community contractors he said you don't have a chance it's all stacked against you that's why they charged you here in the first place he said my advice to you is to take the deal and I took the deal well Julian's not likely to be offered a deal the the whole point of Julian's case is to make an example of him because this case is far bigger than just Julian Assange this case is about media and media freedom and so long as the mainstream media

[41:24] decides that Julian is somehow their enemy and doesn't come out in their editorial pages every single day day after day to support him IIIi think that a very bad precedents gonna be said said here now I've said in the past that I think the one chance he has in the Eastern District is is the chance of jury nullification there has to be one right thinking person out there you know out of what's a jury 12 people at the federal level nine people

[41:57] 12 people I don't know I never made it to a jury but there's got to be one person out there who can think independently and and conclude that this is just wrong this whole prosecution is wrong the case is wrong the man has already suffered and it has to end that's not much to hang your hat on but I struggle every day thinking what we can do to make it better and I'm not coming up with a lot of ideas I mean

[42:27] not that kind of inspires me to something that Adam Koch Ash had talked about and one of our previous vigils I think where it was the way that people choose to educate other people about certain issues and how there's not any group using jury nullification as a standing point for their health project to the world um do you think that starting some kind of educational campaign in the Eastern District of Virginia about jury nullification ah

[42:58] would be effective do you find that what I do I do indeed and you know I've raised this with a number of attorney friends who said that I was crazy that jury nullification is is illegal that you can't encourage jury nullification I said I'm an independent citizen I'm not an attorney standing up in court and saying jury nullification right I'm allowed to have an opinion and I think that there's a role for jury nullification look you know at one time it was legal for six-year-olds to work

[43:29] in the mines now it's not sometimes laws are just bad laws the Espionage Act is one of them so I think that there is a role for jury nullification is that right like by going around the Foggy Bottom strip malls putting copies of the nose Melser interview under people's windshield that I'll go do that there used to be a group called the fully informed jury Association feature I'm not sure or if they're still around or

[44:02] how active they are but they used but one of their projects was having people stand outside the courthouse and hand out flyers targeting potential jurors informing them of their right to judge on the facts of the law so it has been done I think the the carrion party at one point was very much behind this effort as well I kind of I kind of like to get your reaction norm to to John's John story and the

[44:32] knowledge that he dropped in it was stuff that you were already aware of having worked in DC and been a part of that order uh well I actually think I heard John discuss this the the problem of the Eastern District of Virginia on Sputnik radio one day and now I just outed myself as clearly I'm a Russian agent but but I wasn't I was not aware

[45:05] of the Eastern District problem and I don't think a lot of people are aware are aware of that but everything he said makes sense and it certainly makes sense in terms of the jury pool that you're going to be looking for you're going to be drawing because of the nature of it from people who are government contractors people with the Pentagon and they're in that culture that they believe that they are in the right that they are protecting America and the people like Julian Assange Chelsea

[45:36] Manning Edward snowed and John are bad people who are disloyal to the greatest country and the history of the world I have a question for Fiorella I'm wondering what what do you hit the most is like roadblocks for civil liberties and for you know like this situation Julian Assange within the left like what are some of the biggest roadblocks that you see there because like just even from what we were talking about you know we're looking at basically you know a

[46:08] secret court not being able to know what's going on I mean for the public to me this is also really bad for our civil liberties not to know what's going on in the biggest you know Free Press case of our lifetime yeah I mean I think the biggest roadblock is the fact that progressives especially though like progressives who consider themselves ultra leftist do not consider this a big issue well it's definitely not one of

[46:39] their main concerns and it's something that it should be a main concern but like what I see with people I know on the left they really like this is probably less on their list and because they look at immediate concerns they're looking at the immediacy of a health care system failing they're looking at the immediacy of being unable to pay right they're looking at all these issues and in an in a sense it's it's sort of a catch-22 because those two things work against each other you guys know pasta pasta is he was a Tulsi

[47:11] supporter primarily because he supported civil liberties and foreign policy above everything else my belief is that we should support both of them but at the same time it's like you're not in my opinion it's really hard to get people to tension to something like Julian Assange if they can't see the immediate concern so like if people are too busy like working you know for jobs and they can't pay their bills they're really not gonna care about people being bombed abroad in different countries just as

[47:42] much as they're really not gonna care about what happens to one guy they're not looking at the bigger picture as - wow this has so much of a precedent and it's so much affect so it's going to affect us for years and years and years because we're not paying attention to the biggest case regarding freedom of speech in our lifetime and it's really hard I think there has to be like working in tandem we have to address like the concerns a lot of the working people have while being like look people aren't gonna hear your concerns the

[48:13] government is free to do whatever they want and abuse you because we don't have real like journalism in America we we have the Fourth Estate was supposed to be like for the people it was supposed to be the fourth branch of government and right now it's just a propaganda machine for the military and the intelligence community and so if we can make people realize that they're not going to get all of these domestic issues and these concerns if they don't

[48:44] also pay attention to foreign policy and the civil liberties that are being constantly infringed upon us on the daily then we could probably make that connection you know what I mean they have to make that connection they're not listening to you when you're talking about Julian Assange because they're looking at it as like okay well that's him that's a separate case no it's all connected and we have to look and kind of highlight exactly why everything is connected something

[49:14] I've found to be effective at least on a person-to-person basis and then through through my show that I really don't hear a lot in media in general is that your cause is [ __ ] dead without the ability to access free and free and open information you're maybe whatever whatever it is you're into whatever is on the front of your sign if it doesn't have free Julian Assange on the back of it you're doing you're organizing wrong because if we don't have the ability to

[49:46] get this information out there regardless of what it is it's dead it goes nowhere you're talking to the three people that you know about it they'd already know about it well look I would say look at the Ron Paul campaigns of o8 2012 particularly Inouye when it started it was a very very took advantage of Meetup of Facebook and MySpace but anybody remembers MySpace and YouTube and all of those platforms that were at the time

[50:18] much more open to dissonant ideas and organized shared videos shared articles by dr. Paul and got the word out there as an IDE on what grassroots can accomplish unfortunately today you have these big tech companies in bed with the national security state and we see the D platforming going on the censorship for the constant problems with YouTube deep D monetizing certain voices but it's

[50:52] still but we still have this ability we can still find alternatives we can still get the word out to people and again you can always go back to your representative who is under our constitutional system there's a reason why there are more representatives that there are presidents and Senators so there's a reason why they're up for election every two years as opposed to every six or every four that's because they're supposed to be closest to to us and the Senators are supposed to be second in terms of being responsive to the people and I think that it's a problem with

[51:23] political activists across the board that they kind of focus upon what the executive is doing and they ignore the fact that in our constitutional system the president is not supposed to be the king the president is supposed to be actually accountable to the executive branch when they wrote the Constitution they knew what they knew they numbered the branches one legislative two executive three judiciary for a reason and I think we've forgotten that and I think that is one reason why we are losing our liberties to amount with the

[51:54] executive state and the only argument seems to be right now is which grumpy old man is fit to have this incredible power of Donald Trump or Joe Biden and I think to um in the activist communities there's a lot or there's a lot of talk about censorship where you have the left pointing out the censorship on the left and you have the right pointing out the

[52:25] censorship on the right but it's hard to find people on either side that are willing to say both our sensors and there are some that do and you guys are a combo couch do a great job of this I'm pointing out just the [ __ ] and the hypocrisy that exists means if you dynamics going back to the idea of building like a post ideological conversation like building people up around issues that are fundamental I

[52:56] think censorship and the fight for a free and open Internet is one of those really big things um could you talk about that a little bit feet about like experiences you guys have had with Internet censorship that you know maybe from a big flat or maybe one of those like coincidences that something happened when it did oh yeah absolutely I mean we're being censored left and right all of our videos that deal with anything regarding intelligence agencies anything regarding

[53:28] military industrial complex any mention of Syria any mention of any sort of foreign policy issue but as whele all of that gets entirely censored I it's also not as popular like whenever we were talking about election integrity it is a kind of a wonky subject so a lot of people like it's hard to like get them to tune in but that's some of the things that we've experienced are like are like being scrubbed off people being on - described our video our technology just

[54:00] seeming not to work at certain times and I and I know that this happens because YouTube is owned by Google so like I know that they have their preferences we also notice my friend Nico notice how like they were like if you were going to find one of his videos if he searched it using this one program he did it said it should be one of the top videos but in reality on YouTube it doesn't appear you have to search every single word for our videos to appear so

[54:31] it's the suppression is real and it's actually known that this is the thing that they can legally do so that's why we're trying to look at alternative like video sites like Rocklin that are more people like you know people friendly they're more like a co-op type of model where you still can make money off of it but you're not putting your viewers through so much stress and they're not subjected to ads and it's a little bit different and I think we need to find alternatives in media and and to kind of

[55:04] take away from YouTube and I think YouTube's time is definitely ending but I definitely see a lot of the you know the censorship also like in LA we we only have two providers we have either spectrum which bought Time Warner or we have DirecTV which is another corporation I think the majority of people use spectrum and in some parts they have a TMT which is also another another thing

[55:35] that we reuse as well and that's it you don't have access to internet from a different location and if your area is not Beverly Hills Beverly Hills for instance has fiber optic internet they have the fastest internet and the city of Beverly Hills can have that because they're rich and they put all their resources there whereas where I live in Pasadena it's it's not the poorest but it's also not the richest and so you know we were robbed Picone myself pasta we all went to City Council meeting to

[56:06] push for just municipal Internet and basically the AT&T lobbyist was there telling the City Council to that this just wouldn't work and they made up a reason as to why it wouldn't work but obviously it was money involved and we have to find ways creative ways and there's new technology coming up of creating our own networks creating our own ability to promote independent media I don't like the idea of somebody mentioned like just one provider I don't

[56:38] like that idea because I'm against centralized government I think a centralized structure and anything could be capitulate could be co-opted into a powerful powerful person having too much power whether like I TYT is an example of that they started out progressives quote-unquote and then they slowly you know started getting these people on their board that were venture capitalists and had other interests and you saw the reporting change a way to

[57:08] avoid that is to have a decentralized structure and in whatever sort of co-opting media can form and I think obviously it's gonna require people putting in money to it but it's it should be in a way that is very transparent that doesn't mimic the way the establishment is so I want to thank our guests for joining us on we do have to move to our news segment but if you could I'll start with norm

[57:38] could you let people know where to find you your work and organization your campaign Liberty campaign for liberty calm it is a 501c4 grassroots lobbying organization our major issues are audit the Fed repeal the Patriot Act free-market health care that lets doctors and patients not government bureaucrats or insurance agencies control the near health care and basically just the entire Bill of Rights

[58:10] from the first all the way up through the through through the tenth we were founded by dr. Ron Paul I really appreciate being being on here and everybody's time and I hope everyone stays involved in whatever way you feel you can best contribute to the important cause of protecting our liberties thank you thank you very much again and where

[58:42] people can find you and the wonderful work you do yeah thank you guys for doing this a lot of people aren't really covering Julius Julian Assange as much and I always get all my news from all of you guys so thank you for doing this and sticking with it I will help out and promote you guys forever I can my name is Fiorella Isabel I have a Twitter Fiorella underscore I am the channel we have is the convo couch spelled just like convo conversation and couch and you can find us on YouTube on Roxon

[59:13] we also have a facebook Instagram and Twitter so thank you guys so much appreciate you thank you don't bother we said hey so do you want to you want to run news in order that it is on the dock there yeah I think okay if you could grab that Guardian article we can go into it

[59:44] Mike Pompeo okay and y'all got by now by now hopefully you know that if there's an opportunity to kick your own Mike Pompeo I'm going to jump up and and take it this is pretty this is a case where Mike Pompeo is doing the kicking although we'll get into why it it may backfire the Trump administration has fired the State Department's inspector general he was reported to have been investigating

[1:00:16] Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for potential abuse of office the Inspector General Steve linic was given notice of his dismissal late on Friday night and has expended Jesus and is to be replaced by Steven ackard a close ally of the vice president mice mike pence from his home state of Indiana mine is a funny little sidebar here not funny because it's Mike Pence and the guy is really like as funny as a bus full of dead babies but but funny in that I grew up in the district what my parents have

[1:00:48] wound up representing now this is not my fault because I was already gone but Mike pants used to be a radio guy and his tagline for his radio show was that he was like Rush Limbaugh on decaf and that was enough for the people of the 6th congressional district to beat of Indiana to be like that's our guy we'll take that guy um back to the article a State Department spokesman said that a Kurd who had been running the office for foreign missions would

[1:01:18] take over immediately as acting IG according to a Democratic congressional aide just before his abrupt dismissal Linna could open an investigation into allegations that Pompeo had been using a political appointee at state to run personal errands for him and his wife Susan let's pause for a moment just to recognize how perfect it is that mrs. Pompeo is a Susan movie now go ahead Andrew you know I just want to just take

[1:01:50] a moment to reflect on the fact that Mike Pompeo has a politically politically appointed personal assistant but like someone had to make that decision like yep this dude your personal assistant Mike Pompeo I just find that I just find that absolutely ridiculous yeah and the you would yeah so under US law the president is required to give 30 days notice before firing an inspector general to allow Congress to investigate

[1:02:21] the reasons for dismissal in recent months Congress has not used that month-long notice period to prevent the termination of other watchdog officials fired by the president linic is the latest in a string of officials in watchdog roles fired by the president in recent months turning on its head the tradition that some such jobs are filled with non partisan figures Trump has demanded personal loyalty from officials working in the administration especially those in an oversight role linic is not

[1:02:53] the first Inspector General to be fired late on a Friday night on April 3rd this year Trump dismissed intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson who had first deemed credible a whistleblower complaint expressing concern about Trump's call last summer to his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir szalinski which ultimately triggered impeachment proceedings against the press president can we talk about this for a minute because this is absolute like hot steaming [ __ ] on a freaking

[1:03:24] cold pasture Lord yeah I wanted to pause here because I don't inherently disagree with the fact that that other guy was fired the dude that was spreading the [ __ ] about the yeah Jason burr miss was a whistleblower who should have all these protections and it allowed people to see the connection between the state censorship apparatus and the global media platforms

[1:03:56] because if you said the person's name Jason or Eric Eric caramello bar your video gets me and I still can't say the guys name so I'm stealing Jason Bernice's little tagline for him um so I think that's always super important to say when impeachment comes up is that it was [ __ ] and it was used as a way to exercise an enforcement of technology at the behest of the government to remove particular content from the

[1:04:27] internet in a very aggressive fashion well that and then also I don't know what you guys think about this but with all the things to investigate Pompeo for you know like this is what we're settling on this is what the Oversight Committee is interested in this is just when however you pronounce his last name lenok he was basically an investigator all the way through his career but during his tenure at the Department of

[1:04:59] Justice he supervised and participated in white-collar criminal fraud cases involving corruption and contract fraud against the US and Iraq and Afghanistan and just as as we know through the Washington Post release of the Afghan papers in late 2019 which did 100% uh codify and just validate everything that WikiLeaks had put out nearly a decade earlier Afghanistan and Iraq is based on

[1:05:31] drift like that's what what keeps us there that's why we went in the first place it's one of the biggest transnational rod scams in history and and to give him credit David McBride is facing 50 years in prison right now for exposing that grift in Australia he released documents and I don't a lot of people remember some people never heard but the ABC News the

[1:06:02] Australian Broadcasting Centre was rated to have these documents seized and removed by Australian Federal Police because Australia doesn't have a First Amendment protection so the federal police are allowed to just completely charge in ultra news records and take documents directly from journalists and it was David McBride's release of information that showed the bullets nation of the Iraq war or of the Afghanistan war that caused those rates to happen if we could circle back real

[1:06:35] quick though to the not a whistleblower or whistleblower and the Ukraine thing we just found out today that there's tape of Joe Biden bribing the freaking prosecute cranium prosecutor to drop the buries McKay's and his son holding a big s it's not holding a billion dollars over his head and it's on tape and Joey [ __ ] be goes no he doesn't come out and say I'm bribing you but he's like

[1:07:05] you understand what this is for a you know in it's gone [ __ ] day and like imagine just imagine for a second the Donald Trump was calling on a hot mic going now I'm not bribing you but here's a bag of cash and I'm pretty sure you know what to do with it right like can you imagine the field day the every single one of those bedwetting NPR

[1:07:35] liberals would have over this way and there's crickets in mainstream media about this about this tape crickets this further proves that they're not a whistleblower whistleblower isn't a whistleblower but in fact was a guy following orders from the CIA the last time that we had John Kerry ocula on this show in fact he was John was the

[1:08:06] one who was like look there's only two reasons that you become the CIA liaison to the White House and it's because you are a wide-eyed go-getter very early on in his career or you're Erika calimero Geller caramello bar who is a a someone who's on his way to another position and earned the right to a two-year soft detail at the White House well not to

[1:08:37] mention that I think - I mean when you go into the Ukraine thing I mean obviously even the fact that they went to impeach Trump over Ukraine showed even then not that most people didn't know that Russia Gate was complete nonsense and now we have that proven even more and yet people still don't know about it and I think that's part of what happens here with with Trump and not whole you know fake news and everything like that to really get through a different policy that has nothing to do with the elected president

[1:09:09] let me tell you what happened so in 2016 the Chicago Cubs broke their curse and they won the World Series first time in like 108 years or something like that and after that Russia Gate broke and people were like well [ __ ] it the Cubs won beating a dead horse is now America's favorite pastime we're so gay and we can do that forever and ever and ever and ever and ever long may it wave that's I and if somebody has a better actually how many

[1:09:39] goddamn years well the funniest part and this is before I get back in because I want to read from sledder to Pelosi but the funniest part about the Russia gate thing is that the the anti-communist boomers don't believe Russia gate that's the part that cracks me up like the pro Trump boomer generation that was raised during the height of the Red Scare don't believe the pro-russian propaganda yeah free love [ __ ] hippies are like I'm

[1:10:11] bringing in new McCarthyism baby we live in a cartoon it's leaderless paradox like I think I want to say his name's Robert Reich released a video talking about how literally talking about the history of how McCarthy used the Red Scare as a way to gain power to justify the Red Scare that they were putting on with Russia gate so it was just like the whole like complex of like the anti

[1:10:44] Russia anti-communists not supporting the anti Russia campaign was just that blew my mind but I do so this representative linic rohtul or President Trump I'm sorry I wrote a letter to me and CEO Pelosi about linic getting fired and I just want to read it in its full context it says dear Speaker Pelosi this is to arrive as I am exercising my power as president to remove from office the Inspector General of the Department of State effective 30 days from today it is

[1:11:14] extremely important that we promote the economy efficiency and effectiveness of federal programs and activities the inspector general the inspectors general have a critical role in the achievement of these goals as is the case with regards to other positions where I the president have the power to appoint by and with the advice and consent of the Senate it is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspector general it is no

[1:11:45] longer the case with regard to this Inspector General at a later date I will submit to the Senate my nomination of an individual for this position who has my fullest confidence to meet the appropriate qualifications so not really much to be said there it's not like a groundbreaking thing but I just wanted to make sure that got put in that because those were the official words of trunka Pelosi in regards to that I

[1:12:16] suppose if you're the President of the United States and you're never going to be anything more than the public relations space for the oligarchy because that's all a president is then you would want to remind I guess your subordinates that you're the president all the time because Trump always finds a way to work that in like oh and by the way I'm the president so I get it to this like not only do I get two scoops

[1:12:47] of ice cream every day but I get to fire inspectors generals and sometimes they let me sit in the truck and let me on the Lord like internship job that's my point that's what I'm trying to get at we want to go to the consortium news article now absolutely you want to take this one Kendra yeah sure do you want I'll just start at the beginning

[1:13:17] um-hmm Scandinavian activist group has open signatures for an appeal to the Swedish government for a full and transparent investigation into a possible disappearance of documents and the illegal destruction of evidence in the Swedish prosecutors and police probe of sexual allegations against Julian Assange the appeal also demands a Sandra's release from Belmarsh prison in London where he is on remand an extradition request by the United States on espionage charges for unauthorized possession and dissemination of

[1:13:47] classified material it calls on Sweden to provide him Asylum the investigation the appeal seeks would also look into why Assange as case appears to have exceeded a statute of limitations as well as into pressure British authorities brought to bear on a Swedish prosecutor against Assange Sweden has three times dropped the case against the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher the appeal acts on the findings of Nils Meltzer the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment who said

[1:14:19] Swedish police forged evidence in the case against Assange do you want me to go into the history or read onto the case what do you guys think if we could I would say skip down to the actual text itself at the bottom okay oh just oh I was just gonna say for anybody who hasn't seen this article yet it's a really great one it's another one of those good articles to share with people too because they may give a great breakdown of the Swedish case which I know what most people are familiar with

[1:14:50] but especially someone who might not know it's a good it's a good quick break found at that so the text of the appeal set Julian Assange free appeal to the Swedish government the whistleblower website WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is detained in the British high-security prison Belmarsh his health is in a critical condition we the signatories of this appeal fear for his life and mental health do the treatment he is exposed to we demand his immediate release respect for his fundamental human rights a fair and

[1:15:20] transparent judicial treatment action against extradition to USA the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel inhumane or degrading treatment Niels Meltzer visited Julian Assange in prison on the 9th of May 2019 with a group of medical doctors they concluded that Assange showed all symptoms that are typical consequences of prolonged mental torture we are deeply alarmed by the UN findings concerning Assange a state of health and of the legal proceedings he has been

[1:15:50] subjected to in particular by the Swedish police from 2010 and onwards that's just 2010 for a decade Assange was arrested for breach of bail in the UK an act which is not a crime as he feared extradition to Sweden for accusations of rape raised by the Swedish police Meltzer holds that Assange a subsequent fear of extradition to Sweden and then further to the US was well-founded the UN report argues that this and the number of other serious breaches of law may have been carried out by the authorities during the

[1:16:21] process against Assange Sweden has said Sweden has since it started this ball to roll under the protection from torture treaty CIT a responsibility also for the pain inflicted upon Assange in Belmarsh and Britain the Swedish prosecutor and police have refused to respond to claims presented in a letter of the 12th of September 2019 not to respond to the UN report and the serious accusations it presents is unacceptable it undermines the authority of the United Nations and the public is entitled to this

[1:16:52] information if respect for judicial institutions is to be upheld we the signatories of this appeal find the report of the United Nations repertoire on torture and of the UN's an office on arbitrary detention deeply alarming we demand the immediate release of Julian Assange from British prison and that he be granted asylum in Sweden or another country of his choice guaranteed not to be extradited to the US the present coronavirus threat aggravates the situation even further and makes his release even more pressing did you guys want to jump in at all

[1:17:23] before I keep going I just wanna I want to give this a shut up before you get to the end of it because I threw it in the on live chats for everybody to there is a link at the bottom of this article that lets you actually go and sign on to this appeal yourself on the original signers of it were JumpShip tin noam chomsky I believe Julian's mom is on there Eva Jodie and

[1:17:54] they're just a bunch of other wonderful wonderful well-known and high-profile activists and things like that many politicians like there's a German politician that's on there so if you could please go I believe that set Julian free is the website for that let me just double check though it's a.org I threw it in my chat - yep it's at Julian free.org so please go and sign that because that is super important to get as many signatures on there as we

[1:18:24] possibly can no I agree that you want to wrap up the letter and then we'll discuss and whatnot yeah sure so the end of this we further demand that the Swedish Minister Ministry of Justice respond to the allegations brought forth by the said UN authorities and instruct appropriate Swedish legal action be taken for a full and transparent investigation into a possible disappearance of documents alleged by

[1:18:55] the UN report in order to clarify if or to what extent illegal destruction of evidence and perversion of the course of justice has taken place a full and transparent investigation into the why the into why the case Assange has been in to why the case against the signed has been stretched out over years when Swedish law sets a strict limit of months for such proceedings a full and transparent investigation into the nature of cooperation between Swedish and British police with the alleged aim of conducting extra legal arrest

[1:19:25] harassment and detention of Julian Assange and with the possible aim of extraditing him to a third country that Sweden respect the United Nations by fulfilling its obligations to inter alia the following international treaties of which it is a signatory States the convention against torture and other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment cat ratified 1986 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights CCP are ratified in 1971 international law commissioned the International wrongful

[1:19:56] act of a state ALC and I was we finally demand that Julian Assange be given a fair treatment in accordance with principles of basic human rights and the rule of law and that any wrongdoings against him brought about by representatives of the Swedish authorities be rectified and fully compensated for in accordance with Swedish law so that's the end of that and I in the bottom here to Andrews point you know some of the other people who signed on were John Pilger yes John John shipped and Julian's father Noam

[1:20:28] Chomsky NSA whistleblower Tom Drake German journalist Goethe Wallrath and former UN assistant secretary general Dennis holiday holiday and then everybody watching the vigil tonight as well every last one of you share this article around and please share that link around most specifically for Assad Julian free org because that is super important to get people signing onto that and while your any link sharing

[1:21:00] mood we're going to go ahead and put the GoFundMe up one more time because you know three weeks in DC is a long time to - won't be away and yeah it's it's one of those things where we went into we went into February knowing it was going to be a learning experience and we learned a ton and we can't wait to be able to roll it out onto the streets of

[1:21:32] Washington DC but we definitely need your help to be able to do that so if you can please do donate if you can't we totally get it please share the heck out of the link and please join us because it is gonna be a blast we're in leather we've had for probably about three or four like behind the scenes organizer meetings and I'm just really excited to put out the official

[1:22:02] dates and times and all that for when things are going on because it's going to be if we can pull it off right it's going to be super impressive so I hope that it it's a way that we can build attention and momentum around this issue but for this was actually an article that this next one that Kendra had recommended out of the medium um so let me get this pulled up here let me know when it's up on screen Josh but this is

[1:22:39] Assange is hell in the US spice so this article really breaks down what we've learned recently about the theft of documents from Julian out of the Ecuadorian Embassy the money that got transferred at all that do you want to pick this one up Seaver do you want to Kendra I got it give me just a second I'm posting a link to our discord in my chat and by the way it is in the action

[1:23:09] document as well I don't guess we missed a call to actions so this is by Jude Flemming it was it dropped two days ago and it says the unimaginable happened to Julian Assange on April 11th 2019 today of betrayal when he was abducted by British police and then transferred to a high-security prison on behalf of the United States the Bata breach infraction was a ruse for the immediate goal putting him in proxy custody for the US but it got worse Ecuadorian officials

[1:23:42] received a u.s. request for access to Assange his personal property left in the Ecuadorian embassy post kidnap then a judge authorized a judicial request to go through everything it was an invitation to pillage his privacy and legal defense last May 20th to 23rd 2019 Assange is personal professional legal and medical effects including cash 27 phones cameras handwritten notebooks sim and memory cards routers legal documents digital storage devices laptops and paper files

[1:24:14] and binders the objects were removed by prosecutors Wilson told ANCA me I'm out screw that all up and Fabian Chavez in cooperation with a criminal assistance request by the u.s. within the extradition process it was a massive heist for which Ecuador was handsomely rewarded items were first transferred to Quito and placed under the custody of the judicial police Ecuador allowed the u.s. to help themselves do Assange his

[1:24:44] belongings yet he can't access them I am not sure where his belongings are now they could be in Ecuador where the US examines them or possibly in the u.s. much of it has likely been uploaded to a secure cloud for remote access and team forensics by one estimate the computing and cellular equipment has a hundred and ten terabytes with thousands of encrypted files according to the Evening Standard quote the search is being carried out under the authorization of a judge and following a request for

[1:25:15] judicial assistance from the United States adding that other countries had also made similar requests if officials do decide to confiscate any of the whistleblowers belongings these will be sent to Ecuador for analysis and then possibly passed on to those seeking judicial assistance it has been a year since Ecuador sneeze diss on his assets and subsequently gave access to the United States his arch adversary the search and seizure of legal defense manuscripts cell phones laptops and memory storage devices is the horror of every

[1:25:47] journalist activist researcher or publishers Assange was robbed even though his even though it is his stuff neither he nor his lawyers family or colleagues can access it by extension the Assange defense team has been robbed that is what he meant when he spoke during an October 21st 2019 case management hearing quote this is not equitable I can't research anything I can't access any of my

[1:26:19] writing it's very difficult where I am in Belmarsh I'm up against a superpower with unlimited resources I can't think properly and real quick here this is we read the indc the first time the introduction for the book cypherpunks which is a transcript of one of the TV shows that Julian had a series that he did but in that first opening

[1:26:49] and we actually have a vigil where we went through the first chapter of that book and the prologue of it he specifically points out how what it comes down to is that encryption and the ability to secure information behind a digital border so to speak is innate within the universe and it'll come down to a time when it essentially is drawn out between the powers of the state being exercised to perform torture

[1:27:19] against Julian and the ability for them to solve the keys to these encryption codes and the the words that he uses is no amount of torture can solve a math problem or no amount of force can solve a math problem and I think that that's what this heist I hope ultimately shows is that the u.s. even though they have this immense physical global power to reach and grab this man and drag his life down for ten

[1:27:50] years still can't cross that barrier of that encryption wall without him being the one to allow them to do it you want to go ahead and move on to the the contract tracing can't I always say contract because I feel like these are paid Pinkertons say a little lower down

[1:28:21] in this article if we could scroll down a bit in this Josh it actually gets into the possessions like the list of possessions that they took from Julian so I just wanted to make sure because that's about the most important thing to get out to people for all this well and I think it's also important just real quick to remember that you know I mean they they did all of this for somebody who supposedly just violated a bail charge you know I mean and that's that's a big deal to remember and now he's you know he is just on remand even in the

[1:28:52] eyes of the law he is not you know he has not been convicted of anything ever so it's again that you know punishment by by process and then even making sure that the process is not in any way going to be fair to him whatsoever that's it I just wanted to get that in there for this specific article so our own Taylor hoodak is in my chat right now on slow news day she has question specifically

[1:29:22] for you Andrew can Andrew explained the definition of solidarity and what it means to him so solidarity is and everyone's laughing at this points back to a super old vigil but solidarity is standing alongside someone in so many words it is recognizing that they have a a struggle as well and that it may or may not in some way be inter related to

[1:29:54] yours but still matters in the grand scale of everyone existing um I like to add to that and I don't know if there's a proper word to express it but that feeling of solidarity put into action and I don't necessarily know what that term is so if anyone has any suggestions for either ideas it's one of those verbal failings that I have I got a phrase for it and Reverend Annie chambers gave it to me and Malcolm X gave it to her and that phrases we only

[1:30:26] get what we organize and take I think that defines it pretty well I I think every little hipster out there in YouTube land should get a nice little delicate strip tattoo of that on them and then like go flex in the mirror and be like oh yeah we only go we organize and take yes I'll organize and go take it at least what we're after is a show of non-violent force or

[1:30:56] solidarity if you will in Washington DC to move a a conversation into a post partisan realm and that conversation is like I was saying earlier individual no matter what your cause is it doesn't get a chance to proliferate if we don't have free and open information if we can't it okay first of all if we can't have

[1:31:28] unfettered access to what the truth is through primary source documentation first person primary source interviews then all we have is what we're being told to think or how to feel about something by people whose job it is to obfuscate so I can't stress this enough if you're someone who is currently involved in an activist cause on the

[1:32:01] front of your sign should be your cause on the back side of your sign should be free Julian Assange and you can feel free to spin that around as often as you like because you don't get one without the other I think that's so true and to your point in solidarity it reminds me too of like even the minds coming together when we were all in DC you know you had some different political ideas and different things like that at least I know for me but um but you know you see people coming

[1:32:33] together like to Steve's point and something more important and so I think that that's part of what we have to remember especially in this solidarity movement is you know you might hear things depending on what side you're on that are a little bit you know that might be like cat claws on a chalkboard or something but you just you know you got to let that go while we concentrate on us being able to you fight about it with truthful information later on you know because right now it's like we have an alien invasion going on that we have to stop I mean I'd like to

[1:33:03] point out that on today's vigil just to what you were talking about we had someone who is in support of a government ran health care system on the same panel standing in solidarity with someone that is running an organization that is about making sure private health care still exists so in so many words to define the organization so ideas like this like Julian Assange and press freedom and basic privacy rights and the

[1:33:34] right to trial and things like that are so much more fundamental that it just builds this great foundation for everything else to then be placed upon true and then also you know the First Amendment you know you don't have any other civil liberties without that you have to have that because otherwise you don't know what's happening with you all the other ones and you have to it you have to have the second to ensure that you get to keep the first and you have the fourth so that you're not freaking

[1:34:06] your what's left of our civil look I can't I can't stress enough just how god-awful it is that that Wyden amendment failed by one vote to make sure that your web browsing history isn't accessed whenever the hell the federal government feels like accessing it to be used against you it's not that the federal government wants to send targeted advertising to you so you buy their shoots they want to use this

[1:34:37] information against you legally against you politically to [ __ ] your activism to [ __ ] your organization um I don't really got I so like but I still don't want my browser history read that's a very [ __ ] intimate thing like I like [ __ ] it's not yours I said that out loud

[1:35:07] didn't I I think I was talking over them you know so to a point with that - like as ridiculous as having to argue against allowing the federal government unlimited access to your browser history actually is but for the way that it can be used beyond just simply targeting people is collecting people's data about what they're observing in a more direct fashion to be able to tailor the propaganda better and I don't know if

[1:35:39] I'm really explaining that well or simplifying it well but essentially being able to see what content people are viewing and then tailoring the content to make them think a certain way John Bolton has a super PAC and if you didn't know that John Bolton has a super PAC John Bolton has a super PAC and a few years ago he they put out a document that basically was an instruction manual for to do exactly what you're saying how to best target people to psychologically

[1:36:10] manipulate them to get them to vote your way there there's a whole workup there's a white paper on it it's one of them have to go find that link but I will find that link and all we can show it on Saturday yeah industry built around the regulation of voter thought essentially and it starts at its core with the algorithms that exist within social

[1:36:40] media companies in the way they actually allow people's information to be proliferated which I was always a big thing that you know Julian Assange was talking about and especially right before they you know cut his internet at the Embassy that they'd had these advanced algorithms where you wouldn't even you would you know you would have been gone it step one even though it took you five steps to get where they wanted you to go but that you're gonna end up there no matter what you know and that's that's scary thought I had an absolute legend in independent hip hop

[1:37:11] on my show this morning and I asked him like just a general question about I think I think it was related to Julian Assange but he was like look man you got to understand this isn't the mid-90s anymore people get big because they sell out before they make it big because an algorithm determines their success the

[1:37:43] artists ability doesn't determine their success the fans don't determine their success they don't know their fans until the algorithm tells them they need to like it because it already conforms with everything that they have co-signed man you know with with their consent fully manufactured and that's just a wild way to look at it and it's true not just with art but with information and with politics like I've been you a number of

[1:38:16] different candidates for president that nobody's ever going to get a chance to vote for because even the Green Party in the Libertarian Party seem to be doing a pre selection process but those guys all have the right to be heard their ideas all have the right to be discussed but because algorithmically they get shut out of the conversation before a real conversation takes place they're you

[1:38:47] know confined to the the dark corners of the interwebs well and you have you know this convincing of the public going on but it's you know it's not in your interest to hear these these other stupid candidates you know that's always been a complaint I've had even with the presidential debates that we don't have a third party and they're you know I mean that's even if you say that that you know that's nothing for the people okay well then let them make that let's let us make that decision you know and I understand there has to be some process

[1:39:17] where you can't have you know like I can't just be on the presidential debate because I decided to you know but still you see what I'm saying so Juliana talked about the use of artificial intelligence propaganda I think that was one of the last conversations he got to have before he got cut from actually being able to speak and communicate and so I just want to point out to people because he did a really good job of breaking down the way

[1:39:49] money and our current media structure influences the way people consume content and I just like to leave people with the idea of being aware that there are some people and channels and media institutions that exists specifically to heard people into specific narratives and it applies broadly and sometimes it's individuals and sometimes it is institutions but just keep an eye out

[1:40:20] for those because it's one of those things that you can't really tear it down but at the same time you have to be intimately aware of when something like that is occurring and sometimes it's individual institutions and sometimes it's individuals who should be institutionalized to work for the institutions who are individually doing what Andrew just said you all talk about

[1:40:50] privacy international yeah let's do that because it really is one of those things where where I feel like the concept of contact tracing the the snitch patrols they're never going away there's going to be multiple reasons to deploy a snitch army throughout especially as we become more and more impossibly offer Terry

[1:41:20] so yeah let's go ahead and and take a look at that one I had it up where'd it go so it starts by going over it's what they call key findings and privacy international has done great work they speak out against a whole lot of things but this in particular I want to point out because it's something that's very disconcerting to me as someone that understands why privacy exists which is to limit people's ability to bring down

[1:41:53] institutions against other individuals essentially not allowing people to use processes punishment and this contact tracing throughout this entire article is framed as well we can do it the right way and I think that the entire framing of this article is completely I don't know just overshadowed by the fact that they're not arguing against contact tracing they're just arguing against how to make it okay

[1:42:24] well I think that goes to the point of the you know the echo chamber which are you know allowed a certain lively debate within that but what's not on the table is whether contract tracing is okay in the first place I can't get this stupid article little own song useless right now I'm floundering closing out every

[1:42:56] other okay well if anybody has it up already go ahead and hmm run with it is there any specific part in here Andrew that you kind of wanted to go over the key findings of the privacy international article okay um so their key findings guys are contact tracing is an important emergency healthcare initiative and is necessarily invasive

[1:43:27] coronavirus apps do much more and much less than manual contact tracing there are dangerous tracing initiatives that regular regularly report on your activities there are interesting initiatives that may or may not work these are somewhat privacy aware and can be either centralized or decentralized Apple and Google support decentralized proximity tracing and privacy and security aware ways those who build these systems need to quickly build and in trust they've been failing in secrecy no

[1:43:59] much that's interesting wording especially when it comes to Apple and Google Apple and Google support decentralized proximity tracing and privacy and security aware way that is the exact same thing as a politician supporting Medicare for all it Pramila jayapal for example who wrote a medicare-for-all bill introduced it into Congress last year ostensibly supports

[1:44:30] Medicare girl just the other day hopped on the tweeters and said Americans need access to affordable health care which is the exact same thing as saying [ __ ] you peasant you're not getting your Medicare for all you're not getting universal health you're not you're not we're gonna work on getting you access to affordable health care I have access to a Bugatti I cannot afford a Bugatti

[1:45:02] but I have access to it you know in the same way that Google and Apple support the privacy and security awareness in a decentralized fashion but will they implement it oh no oh no they're already not well and one thing too I was gonna ask you guys maybe you could confirm this but I know that I had heard that I thought that they were just kind of automatically loading this into the

[1:45:32] updates anyhow is that correct or it's not just they're talking about doing that well that's may update the contact tracing app is inker may update and i think it's important we should try to get Shawn back on as soon as possible just to give people some type of presentation about installing on like f-droid or something on an iPhone or things like that just so that way it can I'm gonna get around it I don't know if we're allowed to show people how to do

[1:46:04] something like that but I feel like we should and I think Shawn could probably put something gather pretty quick to help us out I feel like if it'll get a 4a in trouble then we can do it through slow news day and all get in trouble yeah yeah I really do you know I mean I'll go ahead and step up for that one I will in this privacy international article there's not one mention of volunteer right they

[1:46:36] mentioned the UK multiple times they talked about their system and how they're rolling out contact tracing apps and things like that but not once do they mention the actual private intelligence company that is running the data sets for this and the people and other organizations and institutions that have contracts with that company that would then be able to access those data sets and I think that that's highly irresponsible to not mention anything

[1:47:07] about Holland here to not mention anything about the five eyes and 4a international privacy institution to not put five eyes and pollen tear on the front of this Perona virus contact tracing is beyond irresponsible to put it to put it like who have you heard referenced the five eyes outside of like people who were like personal friends with Suzy Dawson I mean the honest

[1:47:39] that's an honest question like is there a discussion about the five eyes global intelligence sharing that we're going on in another corner of the internet that I'm unaware of because like the first time that I heard it Julian had brought it up yeah it was a like a 2012 speech maybe he was already in the embassy it was I mean he was giving like a good speech at a conference or something like that and he mentioned it and it's one of those

[1:48:12] things were like if you know great but like it's not a secret handshake more people should know what this institution is in who they are and what they do and volunteers involved in the three different pieces of healthcare legislation in Australia right now - I think that will give them control of three of the five five eyes nations and there's no alarms being sounded at any level of the media about that level of

[1:48:44] consolidation of information that I'm aware of no and every single one of those simulated exercises from dark winter all the way on to eventual on crimson contagion all of them all of them what's make tin to it continuity of government and a complete shutdown of the people's internet who prospers during that transitional continuity of government period its organizations like Palantir who not only have the contracts

[1:49:18] but they have all of our data they have all of our information and they've got direct clients they've got direct clients who sole purpose of their job is to target activists organizers and and people who are trying to take an individual or collective stand for some level of corporate responsibility and

[1:49:54] because we got to be more we're gonna start wrapping up here in a little bit we got a couple minutes but just to kind of piggyback off of something that Steve had been talking about the the entire coronavirus institution now essentially that's forming that's allowing all of this crazy stuff to happen a lot of times you hear the argument from people when you try to talk to them a lot like the global power consolidation that's happening right now with all of these institutions and they say well they're not just going to go bankrupt like

[1:50:25] they're not just going to close down all this and shut it down for nothing and a lot of times they they will because it's an investment into a larger larger plan the big players were still allowed to continue and keep operating throughout all of this the small businesses were destroyed but those larger institutions took a loss because there's a lot to gain down the road and there's a lot of money to be made through the use of intelligence

[1:50:56] community data basing contact tracing and advertising not including the political torture that can come from it by selling this information off but I would like to thank everybody for joining us tonight for our 46 vigil we will be back again on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time my name is Andrew Smith you can find me on Twitter at Andrews Zigman Zi ji and und and you can find all of us and this on Twitter at action underscore the

[1:51:27] number for Assange and action for Assange on YouTube as well and hi everybody into the chat and thank you to Josh and Kimber as well and my name is Kendra Christian and you can find me on Twitter at Deb's 13 and you can follow Denver free Assange at dnv free DJ a if you're seeing me for the first time my name's Steve Boykin and I do host a show called slow news day you can find it here on youtube by typing slow news day podcast into your search bar I am also

[1:52:00] on the rock fendi live and a couple other platforms occasionally depending on how much they are Kevin ting me at the moment um do you check out the interview I did with RA the rugged man this morning it's freaking it's a really good conversation ray mcgovern will be on my show this Sunday I'm really looking forward to that I don't have a lot booked this week I'm gonna be on a panel with Nikko house on Thursday our wonderful tech guy here sleepy josh

[1:52:30] is also my tech guy and I'm trying not to kill him because I tried to the last few weeks so I'm taking a break from murdering my tech guys slowly and and just trying to get out some quality shows in between big thanks to our guest tonight Fiorella is karoku and norman singleton again thanks sleepy Josh on the ones and twos mean panda for the graphics you guys in the chat we we love you we we do we we do

[1:53:01] this because you guys give us all of the energy in the world forest thank you very very much do pass around to GoFundMe link do look at the action link for the week if you can donate to the GoFundMe please do that if you can't again no big deal just proliferate the link please and we'll see you saturday good luck to us all