Новости за 15.04.2019

The date – April 11, 2019 – will live in infamy in the annals of Western “values” and “freedom of expression.” The image is stark. A handcuffed journalist and publisher dragged out by force from the inside of an embassy, clutching a Gore Vidal book on the History of the US National Security State.

NATO's aggregate military budget is 20 times larger than Russia's. If NATO's purpose is defensive, that isn't very efficient. But what if NATO exists to siphon off money from its allies for the purchase of American weapons?

The story at Salon sets the stage for what should take place for resetting US – Russia relations. According to author Matthew Rozsa, President Donald Trump is considering turning both “Bill Browder and a former US ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul, over to the Russian government for interrogation.”

The glimpse of Julian Assange being dragged from the Ecuadorean embassy in London is an emblem of the times. Might against right. Muscle against the law. Indecency against courage. Six policemen manhandled a sick journalist, his eyes wincing against his first natural light in almost seven years.

After two years of intense anticipation and speculation, the findings of the Mueller Report are finally in: President Trump did not collude with the Russians.

1. Governments’ (monstrous and criminal) behavior should not be secret. People should know what their government is doing, and what a powerful foreign government is doing to their own countries. The actual results of the work of WikiLeaks have been hugely beneficial.
2. If U.S. courts were to get busy prosecuting the crimes exposed by WikiLeaks, rather than trying to turn the act of revealing them into some sort of crime, they would simply not have time for the latter.

Checkpoint Asia is an excellent new site which scours the media for the best Asia news with a geopolitical focus, plus 1st-class original journalism ranging from Russia to China to the Middle East. Smart, incisive, and free of globalist baloney. Reader-supported, please donate! They have a great Facebook page, with very good memes.

The US has been planning to have Julian Assange handed over for a longtime, that much is obvious. Mike Pence, the Vice President, was visiting Ecuador last year, notionally to discuss the Venezuela situation, and trade. But it was fairly obvious at the time, and even more so now, that they were discussing the details of Assange being handed over to UK authorities, and eventually extradited to the US.