The British ruling class, in cahoots with its Washington masters, shames the British nation.

ABOVE: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange © Peter Nicholls / Reuters

No outdoor space, no sunlight 

The 27-page report, written by an unnamed trauma and psychosocial expert, notes that Assange has been residing in a “usable living space” of approximately 30 sq meters since Ecuador granted him asylum at its London embassy in August 2012. The total size of the embassy is approximately 200 sq meters.

RELEASE: Psychological, medical, dental records for Julian Assange reveals his life inside the embassy siege

In addition to the small quarters Assange has called home for four years, the embassy has no outdoor space. It does not receive any direct sunlight, according to the report.

“Mr. Assange reports that he has made numerous attempts through his lawyers and through representations by the Embassy of Ecuador to be able to access the open air, for example on the roof of the building adjacent to the Embassy, for an hour a day (the legal minimum for prisoners) without risking arrest, but says that British authorities have refused this possibility,” the expert wrote.

Physical health

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he report notes that Assange has become sleep-deprived, as he is determined to sleep with “one eye open,” particularly after an incident in which several Metropolitan Police officers allegedly stood outside the embassy, with one officer throwing an object at Assange’s window.

Assange is also at risk of various illnesses due to his sedentary lifestyle within the embassy, including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension.

In addition, Assange is being deprived of adequate medical care, noting that there has been difficulty finding doctors who will agree to see him inside the embassy.

“The reasons given were uncertainty over whether medical insurance would cover the Embassy (a foreign jurisdiction); whether the association with Mr. Assange could harm their livelihood or draw unwanted attention to them and their families; and discomfort regarding exposing this association when entering the Embassy,” the report states.

The report also states that Assange is in need of an MRI scan and ultrasound imaging on his right shoulder, as he is plagued with pain which is “severe” and “growing progressively worse.” A December 2015 physician’s letter said the pain is “likely a chronic progressive condition” which is likely to worsen without treatment.

“There is a limit to how much a single person can take and Julian has reached that limit,” said his lawyer Melinda Taylor in a live link with RT from London. “The staff are being extremely helpful in allowing him to stay but it is an embassy, it is not a even a prison, it doesn’t have the services available in any standard prison.”

“One of the problems of being inside the embassy is getting proper diagnoses, so to have a thorough diagnosis of his health, he would have to go to hospital. But the UK government consistently refuses to give him safe passage to a hospital.”

The UK government confirmed in October 2015 that it had denied a September 2015 request from Ecuador for Assange to be granted safe passage to a hospital, where he could have received an MRI.

“The absence of a clear cut diagnosis and standard procedures is causing extreme stress to Mr. Assange, and concerns expressed range from permanent damage to the shoulder/arm to the possibility of cancer,” the report states.

The paper also mentions that Assange suffers from “chronic dental pain from a fractured tooth” which he claims affects his ability to sleep and work.

It references a July 2015 letter from Assange’s dentist, which says he is in need of gingival surgery and root canal treatment or surgical extraction. Such a procedure cannot be carried out inside the embassy.

Psychological health 

The report notes that Assange is under constant surveillance, and therefore “virtually under a microscope.” The writer called such a situation both “traumatizing and destructive” to his personality.

‘Ridiculous to say Assange faces no threat’ – WikiLeaks founder’s advisor to RT

When asked if he ever thought about self-harm, Assange responded that he feels self-destructive on occasion. He did, however, state that he had never acted in a manner to cause himself or anyone else harm.

“In my opinion he does have a degree of suicidal ideation, but his children are a strong positive factor, and objectively the risk of self-harm is low,” the expert wrote.

The expert recalled their first visit to the embassy, when they noticed that Assange’s working space was extremely cluttered.

“I commented on the clutter and asked couldn’t he see it? He replied that he ceased to ‘see’ things in that way, that it all became a blur in the total absence of any novel sensory input. He described it as a shutting down of his visual field in relation to his physical environment,” the expert wrote.

In his own words, Assange said: “…The walls of the embassy are as familiar as the interior of my eyelids. I see them, but I do not see them.” He went on to state that it has become increasingly difficult to see how objects relate to each other, or “to grasp the passage of time.”

The expert described Assange’s thoughts as being typical to those whose physical activities are restricted, as such people can experience a “slow unraveling of their cognitive faculties.”

The report goes on to note a number of interviewees who said that Assange has become increasingly introverted, and is now an “extremely sad person” who seems to sometimes forget about eating.

No end in sight 

The writer of the 27-page report noted that Assange’s situation has “no end date,” adding that there is “convincing evidence” that indefinite detention causes “severe harm” to the individual being detained. They added that it is “urgent” that Assange’s circumstances are resolved as quickly as possible.

“Mr. Assange’s mental health is highly likely to deteriorate over time if he remains in his current situation. Such highly stressful circumstances, with no end in sight, can lead to unpredictable and sometimes very destructive consequences for individuals. They may become very ill mentally and physically and carry out desperate acts to try and gain relief,” the expert wrote.

Read more

‘Assange kill attempt’? Unknown man climbs Ecuador’s London embassy, sheltering WikiLeaks chief

Stating that Assange is in a “state of chronic health insecurity,” the expert wrote that he needs, at the bare minimum, “access to fresh air, sunlight and exercise space on a daily basis.” They added that Assange’s “unusual circumstances” have placed him in a “precarious situation.”

“The effects of the situation on Mr. Assange’s health and well-being are serious and the risks will most certainly escalate with the potential to becoming life threatening if current conditions persist,” the expert concluded.

Assange has been living inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London since Quito granted him asylum in 2012. The 45-year-old is wanted in Sweden for questioning in connection with allegations of sexual assault against two women in 2010, an accusation which he has always denied. Several additional charges against Assange were previously dropped because their statute of limitations were reached. However, the current charge is not due to lapse until 2020.

The WikiLeaks founder fears that if he goes to Sweden, he will then be extradited to the US, where he is wanted on espionage charges related to publishing classified US military and diplomat documents in 2010 – a move which amounted to the largest information leak in US history.

His legal team believes that Assange is entitled to compensation from the UK and Sweden for having to stay at the embassy for the past four years.

“His rights have been violated. His right to protection against arbitrary detention, his presumption of innocence, his right to a fair trial, his protection against cruel and inhumane treatment – all of these rights have been violated, so he should be given compensation,” Taylor told RT.

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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda?

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By Jordan Chariton, Mediaite Columnist

“The message to both parties right now should be we need to find ways to work together to speak to the American public,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told Chuck Todd on Sunday.

Get that substance-less, talking point drivel out of here!

After all, Democrats like Booker are the reason Donald Trump was elected.  According to CrowdPac’s data of campaign contributions dating back to 1980, Booker tops all Democrats in Wall Street donations, with 12.4% of his checks coming from the money men and women.

This brand of neoliberalism, which began in the 1980s and accelerated under President Clinton in the 90s, tosses around tag lines like “party of the working class” while having fundraisers with the special interests stomping on said working class.

But, there was Booker on Sunday, talking the same ol’ same ol, pretending Trump’s victory was some electoral abnormality, standing in denial at what the real problem is: Americans are done with bought-off politicians like Cory Booker.

Wall Street, big oil, and big pharma might still have a stranglehold over corporate Dems; after years of serving at their pleasure, these folks have forgotten what truly representing people looks like. But, for the large percentage of Americans with a passionate interest in keeping Donald Trump to a one-term president, we must tune these people out.

Sure, Trump himself conned millions of voters into thinking he isn’t just another bought-off stiff, which he’s already proven he is by having lobbyists handpick his White House team.

This kind of political stubbornness and unwillingness to move away from corporate servitude only scratches the surface.

When you add in the establishment media, pro-corporate Democrat lovers like George Stephanopoulos, Chuck Todd, Wolf Blitzer, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, Jonathan Capehart, Joan Walsh, Joy Reid, the “we’re not changing a damn thing!” kicking and screaming is palpable.

Well, we did it your way, which consisted of barely covering the historic rise of Senator Bernie Sanders in favor of wall-to-wall Trump (and his empty podiums), and we ended up with President Trump.

Those hell-bent on doing everything possible to stop a danger like Trump from reaching the White House followed your lead, listening as you extolled the virtues of Clinton’s experience, credentials, and campaign juggernaut while ignoring hard data that clearly showed Sanders was the stronger candidate to defeat Trump in a general election.

As a result, we’re looking at a cabinet consisting of Rudy Giuliani, Ben Carson, Sarah Palin, and, who knows…maybe the guy from Duck Dynasty. We watched as these political and media brainiacs looked the other way while Clinton spent all of August rubbing elbows with celebrities and Wall Street bankers in the Hamptons. Don’t worry, we were told…Trump’s unelectable.

Many capital P progressives even swallowed their disgust and supported Clinton, even while she delivered speech after speech saying nothing but “Trump’s a monster, vote for me.” 

Wall Street, big oil, and big pharma might still have a stranglehold over corporate Dems; after years of serving at their pleasure, these folks have forgotten what truly representing people looks like. But, for the large percentage of Americans with a passionate interest in keeping Donald Trump to a one-term president, we must tune these people out.

They’ve been kneeling at the altar of big money while middle America quietly revolted against them.

If we follow their lead—making symbolic changes around the edges while making no real break from special interests—we’re risking serious damage in the form of eight years of Trump.

So, whether you voted for Clinton or Sanders—the time for righteous-indignation has passed. We must all look at the obvious: the era of big money is over and candidates with the right message that connect with the people can not only compete in presidential politics.

They can win.

How do we win? For starters, tune out the status quo stewards that got us into this mess in the first place.

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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda?

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BY GILBERT MERCIER

Donald Trump’s election is viewed by most on the United States’ left coast and worldwide as a regressive historical anomaly. It has left the political class in Washington, and the rest of the world, in a state of shock. The type of nightmarish hangover that a drunk time traveler would get if he was accidentally taken to let’s say the McCarthy era in the US or to Germany in 1933.

Uncertainty usually provokes anxiety, and this is precisely what we are witnessing in this time of history.

Trump is an accidental president as he was never supposed to be elected. Case in point: at the early stages of his campaign, the man running it was Tony Podesta, brother of Hillary Clinton’s main handler John Podesta.

Trump’s initial function was to be a decoy, a scarecrow and  an ostentatious crude comic relief to ensure Clinton’s election. Almost nobody made the forecast of a Trump victory, but it was however highly predictable as Trump started to personify a populist anti-establishment protest movement: the raw expression of rage from the victims of disaster capitalism.

The miscalculation was that Trump not only likes to compete, he also most of the time manages to win.

The mainstream US media, more or less all paid for or in collusion with the Clintons, is flabbergasted by the result and has lost the little credibility it had left. Wikileaks’ Podesta emails disclosures exposed many of them as corrupt propagandists. The problem with propagandists is that they often end up believing their own lies. Of course Trump became their favourite punching bag [something mightily facilitated by The Donald’s wild and outrageous proclamations, managing to offend and menace just about every minority or decent bystander—Eds.] but it eventually backfired on them and finally, blew up in their faces.

Trump claimed rightly that the US political system is rigged, but his mandate is far from a plebiscite, as Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Therefore, before his inauguration in January President-Elect Trump must reach out and make peace with the left coast.

During this election, the divide between the heartland Bible and rust belt and the rich urban east and west coasts has grown. Trump’s first task should be to rebuild bridges between two cultures hostile to each other.

This is imperative, if he is to succeed, but it is, to say the least, an extremely challenging task. How will he reconcile the clash of values between a left coast socially liberal in terms of civil rights and climate change, and a poor heartland economic casualty of globalisation, living paycheck to paycheck, but socially conservative and a proponent of increased policing? 

Some of the names of the political players actively jockeying to jump on Trump’s train for the key cabinet positions give an indication that an olive branch strategy might not be in the forecast to bridge the deep cultural divide of this land.

Is the house of Trump built on quicksand?

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n November 8, 2016, Americans rolled the dices and opted for the candidate viewed, rightly or not, as the anti-establishment candidate.

The premise is accurate: America is broken, but how to rebuild it is the issue.

If Trump is to succeed, rebuilding America will be an extremely challenging task. How will he reconcile the clash of values between a left coast socially liberal in terms of civil rights and climate change, and a poor heartland economic casualty of globalisation, living paycheck to paycheck, but socially conservative and a proponent of increased policing? 

Trump did start a movement to get elected; it had its slogans “Make America Great Again” and “Drain the Swamp”, but how will they be applied exactly and will they end up in the dustbin of history like Obama’s unfulfilled promises of “Hope and Change”?

Slogans are political marketing devices and get people elected by motivating voters, but they are rarely implemented and are certainly not policy indicators. 

If America dodged the bullet of a potential civil war if the Clintons had successfully rigged the elections and won, the country is still divided and bruised. Does Trump have what it takes to be a healer-in-chief?

Further, the key campaign slogan refers to an era when America was great, but it never refers to an exact time frame. Are we talking about Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Nixon, or Reagan? If we are talking about the latter, I am sure that the president-elect is fully aware that Reagan was merely a figurehead run by George Bush Sr. who endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Perhaps Nixon could be an interesting model, as he managed to extract the US from the Vietnam quagmire as well as establish foreign relations with China, not to mention create the EPA.

President-elect Trump must clarify, as a guideline, when he thinks America was great so we may study that time frame and its leadership.

Draining the Washington Swamp

Ron Paul should be considered for Secy of State, instead of someone in the warmongering Neocon stable.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]rump was elected because he is an outsider, a savvy businessman who has promised to rebuild a land wrecked by globalisation and poor management. But now, he has to deal with the traitorous waters of Washington’s insiders.

There is a saying in DC: if you want a friend get a dog. This is why enduring politicians value loyalty above anything else.

Cultivating loyalty has its shortfalls, and as it becomes inbred and corrupt it can become borderline criminal.

In March 2015 I coined the notion that the two leading US political dynasties, Bush & Clinton, were largely operations like crime syndicates. This idea became very popular with Trump’s core base of the so-called deplorables.

The Bushes betrayed Trump during the elections, therefore we’ll find none of their crew in Trump’s cabinet.  This also goes for anyone connected with the Clinton crew and their Wall Street sponsors. President Barack Obama  was apparently given a list of Wall Street approved cabinet members before his election in November 2008.

One hopes that Mr. Trump will stay away from this type of conflict of interest. It is clear, judging by the way he has run his campaign, that President-Elect Trump will be the boss in the White House.

This seems to be exactly what the American people want at the moment, and as the CEO of America Inc. he will hire his own trusted people and won’t have any problem, if needed, with using his famous TV reality show line: “You are fired!”

Trump’s cabinet

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t appears that former Speaker of The House Newt Gingrich [bad omen, this guy is a notorious rightwing scoundrel] will play a leading role in the Trump administration.

Other names are being floated, some of them contradicting the notion of “draining the swamp”.

Nominating for State a filthy diehard Neocon and overt hegemonist like Bolton would signal to everyone that there is no hope for a New America, and that, walking back on his promises, Trump failed before he even started.

Gingrich has been mentioned for Secretary of State, but this is not apparently what he wants. Another name is mentioned to head the key position of head of the State Department, and it is unfortunately the Bush crew man John Bolton.

Bolton, besides being tainted for his role in the Bush administration, has a short fuse, which is not really the best quality for the top diplomat of a country. Robert Corker is also considered for Secretary of State.

In my opinion, If Trump wants to depart from US aggressive hegemony foreign policy, and ease the tensions with Russia and China, he should seriously consider Ron Paul for the job.

It is likely that former Mayor of New York, Rudolph Giuliani will become Attorney General, and he is certainly more than qualified for the job.

Unfortunately, Trump is considering his friend Steven Mnuchin, formerly at Goldman Sachs, for Secretary of the Treasury.  [Fox guarding the chicken coop, again.—Eds]

Jeff Sessions is the likely choice for Secretary of Defence. I think that Chuck Hagel should also be considered in some capacity, as well as Paul Craig Roberts who served in the Reagan administration.

David Clarke is on top of the list to head the Department of Homeland Security.

Perhaps the most disastrous name mentioned, at least for people concerned by climate change, are the names considered for Energy Secretary, Interior Secretary, and EPA: for Energy Harold Hamm, an Oklahoma billionaire who made his fortune in fracking is a shoe-in; Forrest Lucas from Lucas Oil, might become Interior Secretary; and perhaps the most controversial choice of all would be the one of on record climate change denier Myron Ebell to head the EPA.

For the sake of bipartisanship and inclusiveness, it might be a good idea to consider someone like Bernie Sanders for either Secretary of Labor or Education. This type of idea would go a long way to unite a divided country.

Last but not least, President-Elect Trump should consider putting pressure on Sweden’s government to drop the manufactured charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, considering that without the release of  Podesta’s emails, Hillary Clinton would have likely been elected. All Americans and the world citizenry should want the Trump administration to be successful. Our common future depends on it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gilbert Mercier

Gilbert Mercier is the Editor-in-Chief of News Junkie Post and the author of The Orwellian Empire.

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

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What will it take to bring America to live according to its own propaganda?

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Dispatches from
STEPHEN LENDMAN

  I   n his book “Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man,” Marshall McLuhan (1911 – 1980) said “(t)he medium is the message” because it shapes and controls “the scale and form of human association and action.”

Media affect societies, influencing how messages are perceived and understood, especially at a time mass communication, reaching virtually everyone on one form or other.  

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STEPHEN LENDMAN

 E  xcept for short-lived Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, America hasn’t seen sustained street protests since the largely inner city civil rights movement and Vietnam War years, notably on college campuses nationwide – memorable because they proved committed activism works. 

Peaking in 1968, anti-war rage got Lyndon Johnson, in a March 31 address, to announce “I shall not seek, nor will I accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

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