The Slow-Motion Train Wreck of the Empire
Stella Assange said her husband Julian needs time to recuperate (Guardian, June 27, 2024). Since Assange has spent significant time since 2012 in both the Ecuadorian embassy and Belmarsh prison under horrific conditions, the question is whether or not he can resume anything like a normal life. He is effectively barred from sleuthing (publishing) for the secrets of the empire, so it’s unlikely that he’ll put himself in harm’s way anytime soon. The message both the US and Britain sent Assange and others who dare to divulge the secrets of war is to shut up, or we will shut you away and throw away the key: We’ll put you in the deepest darkest hole imaginable! A guess is that the limits of Assange’s plea deal will shut him up and out of ever bringing any wrongdoing of the empire and its sycophants to light again. Others will take notice. That’s why the power elite does this kind of thing with truth-tellers: To shut them up and get away with what passes now as public discourse.
The New York Times (June 25, 2024) in a seemingly unrelated article reports that Israel can now draft orthodox Jews into the military. Whether or not the latter is a ploy of the Supreme Court there to get at Netanyahu remains to be seen. The vast majority of orthodox Jews in Israel are unquestioning supporters of the genocide in Gaza. Some even dance for joy at murder.
Assange and the orthodox in Israel are related topics because both issues touch on the hubris of the empire to conduct wars with abandon even if those wars violate the rules of war and human rights. Technology applied to war makes war always indefensible. Lots of civilians and kids are routinely killed in war and that means all war. Try to comment on war in the mainstream press in the US such as the New York Times about either the war in Gaza or Ukraine and the din of pro-war propaganda will come down like the powerful cascade of water from Niagara Falls. There’s not much critical and well-informed information in the Times and other sources of news and commentary, but a majority of conditioned responses. The latter was not always the case, but it certainly is today with the lapdogs in the media. The weapons manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank!
Human needs here are largely ignored such as decent medical care for many, support for public education, housing that is affordable, an environment that isn’t burning up, adequate nutrition, etc., etc., etc. Those issues are off of the table as the cliché has it. If the political system here and elsewhere in the so-called industrial democracies means anything, and from last night’s presidential campaign debate, that system doesn’t mean anything at all, then we’re in pretty significant and deep shit. We’re in a slow-motion train wreck!
All of this, however, is no endorsement of Russia’s war in Ukraine, or the October 7, 2023 attack of Hamas-led forces in Israel. It’s all very bad business!
The Slow-Motion Train Wreck of the Empire