"UN Torture Rapporteur: Western States Persecuting Julian Assange to the Point of Breaking Him", RT (YouTube channel) (01 June 2019)

I've been meaning to post this to the website for quite a while, but simply haven't found the time until now. But I thought it important to do so just in case anyone hadn't seen this interview. Professor Nils Melzer—the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment—gives his devastating assessment of Julian Assange's treatment by the US, UK and Sweden.

Tim Hayward, "Conspiracy Theories and Epistemic Fluency: understanding the challenge", Tim Hayward's blog (19 April 2019)

Conspiracy Theories have become an object of considerable academic research lately. Yet they present a particular conundrum for scholars. At present, there is a significant rift within the field of studies relating to conspiracy theories. Much of the most prominent and highly funded work is being done by social scientists, especially social psychologists, who aim to diagnose the cognitive error and psychological predispositions involved in creating and believing conspiracist ideas. On the other hand, a smaller band of scholars based in philosophy – a discipline especially dedicated to epistemological questions – take a more dispassionate view of theories of conspiracy. Done right, these could represent an intellectually respectable and potentially enlightening activity in a world where conspiracies happen and where the public has an interest in understanding what is happening.

Jim Kavanagh, "Avoiding Assange", © ThePolemicist.net (24 April 2019)

The United States government is seeking to extradite and prosecute Julian Assange for one reason: to punish him for publishing true and embarrassing information about US crimes and intimidate every journalist in the world from doing so again. If the US government succeeds in doing this, it will strike a devastating blow to the fundamental elements of democracy throughout the world—the freedom of the press and the related ability of citizens to know what their governments are doing.

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Dr. James Tour, "The Mystery of the Origin of Life", Discovery Science YouTube channel (18 March 2019)

What I find particularly striking about this presentation by Dr. James Tour (T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Computer Science, Professor of Materials Science and NanoEngineering at Rice University) is his confidence in calling out "lies" and other misleading statements in peer-reviewed journals in the area of Origin of Life Studies. Some of the woolly language he points out in text books—designed to persuade the student that abiogenesis is fairly-well understood, when it's not—is also worth noting. It's also good to watch for his colourful style—maybe I should invite him to join us (?)

"A Solomon Asch Conformity Experiment", via Question Everything YouTube channel

This conformity experiment by the psychologist Solomon Asch is extremely famous, I know, so I don't really need to mention it. But when I came across this little excerpt from a documentary—which certainly gives the impression that this is a real instance of the experiment (though, of course, it might all be acting for the sake of the programme)—I was reminded of the experiment's importance for many of the things we talk about here at TMR. People—and, yes, I know that includes me and you (but at least we're aware of this, and hopefully self-critical enough to examine ourselves from time to time)—are manipulable, and manipulators know that.

Cory Morningstar, "The Manufacturing of Greta Thunberg", WrongKindOfGreen.org (January - February 2019)

I'm still wading through this series. It's an extended research piece in "six acts" looking at organisations and individuals associated with the now-famous Greta Thunberg. I don't know about you, but from the moment it was reported that Greta had been permitted to give a presentation at the World Economic Forum in Davos— to powerful people who, presumably we are to believe, don't want to hear her message—I have been a little suspicious: not of Greta herself, but of the forces that might be invested in propelling her to stardom.

Edward Curtin, "Between Yes and No : Heaven and Earth with Albert Camus on a Spring Morning", © EdwardCurtin.com (16 April 2019)

“To give up beauty and the sensual happiness that comes with it and devote one’s self exclusively to unhappiness requires a nobility I lack.  However, after all, nothing is true that compels us to make it exclusive.  Isolated beauty ends in grimaces, solitary justice in oppression.  Anyone who seeks to serve the one to the exclusion of the other serves no one, not even himself, and in the end is doubly the servant of injustice.  A day comes when, because we have been inflexible, nothing amazes us anymore, everything is known, and our life is spent in starting again.  It is a time of exile, dry lives, dead souls.  To come back to life, we need grace, a homeland, or to forget ourselves.  On certain mornings, as we turn a corner, an exquisite dew falls on our heart and then vanishes.  But the freshness lingers, and this, always, is what the heart needs.  I had to come back once again.”—Albert Camus, “Return to Tipasa”

Caitlin Johnstone, "Assange Has Been Arrested For US Extradition. The Time To Act Is Now", © CaitlinJohnstone.com (11 April 2019)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested and taken into custody by the London’s Metropolitan police, just as WikiLeaks warned days ago was about to happen. Assange’s lawyer Jen Robinson reports that his arrest is related to an extradition request from the United States, which the British government has until now refused to admit exists.

Ron Paul & Daniel McAdams, "US Henchmen Violently Arrest Assange! Show Trial To Follow", RonPaulLibertyReport YouTube channel (11 April 2019)

I know everybody's talking about this appalling incident—and rightly so—but I was so taken with this episode of the Liberty Report that I wanted to share it. I think Daniel McAdams, in particular, hits the nail on the head when he says that the arrest of Assange is the prelude to a totalitarian-style show trial designed to produce a chilling effect in the media. (Let me also add that I am ashamed of the British Government for their complicity in this, and proud of certain politicians, such as Diane Abbott, for speaking the truth about this vile arrest.)

Paul Craig Roberts, "9/11 : Finally the Truth Comes Out?", © PaulCraigRoberts.org (04 January 2019)

Although the United States is allegedly a democracy with a rule of law, it has taken 17 years for public pressure to bring about the first grand jury investigation of 9/11. Based on the work of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth led by Richard Gage, first responder and pilots organizations, books by David Ray Griffin and others, and eyewitness testimony, the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry has presented enough hard facts to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York to force his compliance with the provisions of federal law that require the convening of a federal grand jury to investigate for the first time the attacks of September 11, 2001.

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"Skripal attack: Bellingcat names second Salisbury suspect", BBC News (08 October 2018)

Wow, Bellingcat does it again! Aren't they amazing? No wonder its founder was promoted to the position of Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow, Digital Forensic Research Lab, Future Europe Initiative. But let's stand back from all this for a moment. Why are these "revelations" coming from an "investigative website" that was founded "with the help of a crowd-funding campaign"?

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Craig Murray, " "Boshirov" is probably not “Chepiga". But he is also not “Boshirov". ", CraigMurray.org.uk (27 September 2018)

Well, this is quite a find! In the update to his piece (see the bottom of the linked article) Craig Murray spots a nice little propaganda trick by the (always-above-board-and-eminently-trustworthy) BBC. He says—and this is on his word alone, since I haven't seen the news report myself—that the BBC news item, while discussing the identity of "Boshirov", showed only the two pictures of "Boshirov" while failing to show the picture of "Chepiga"! As he says, "incredibly..."

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