Re the thread below, my sympathy went out to Scrabb for being stuck in a room with Naiomi Klein and a load of Fruadianistas for the evening...I read the account with a shudder, so it's pissing me off no end now that find I may be in danger of a similar experience. Weeks ago I booked a ticket for a live 'Blindboy Podcast' (Ireland's No.1 podcast)...his guests are a surprise and usually only announced the day of the interview. I thought it was going to be a Patrick Kavanagh/poetry related guest as it's at the PK Centre in Co. Monaghan but it could be anyone. Unfortunately on Instagram today Blindboy announced he's interviewing Naiomi Klein and asked if his followers have any questions for her. I hope he's interviewing her by phone and will put it out at a later date and it's not his show tomorrow night! Even the thought of sitting through 2 hours of her is depressing. It's a very small venue of less than hundred with an audience probably in their late 20s to 40s mostly.
If I'm unlucky enough that she's the guest, what should I ask her if given a chance? Was thinking something along the lines of the Canadian parliament applauding a nazi or the northstream pipeline but don't know where to start. Or just ask her how she can justify writing for the Guardian. As I said, hopefully this is a false alarm and she's not the guest (apologies if so!)
Re: Klein again
Posted by Keith-264 on September 29, 2023, 5:24 pm, in reply to "Klein again"
Ugh! Don't fancy yours....Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Re: Klein again
Posted by Ken Waldron on September 29, 2023, 5:40 pm, in reply to "Klein again"
-Ask her why she thinks the Guardian is such a great paper when it actually promotes conspiracy theories like Russiagate and indeed employs utter fantasist chumps like Luke Harding to do so.
And actively participated in the take down of the journalist J Assange nm
Posted by dan on September 29, 2023, 6:26 pm, in reply to "Re: Klein again"
Re: And actively participated in the take down of the journalist J Assange nm
Dan's question hits the bull's-eye -- but as I said earlier it was right at the end of the session and there was no time to pursue the matter. Somebody (the woman with the foreign accent) was obviously exercised by the treatment of Assange and Wikileaks but she didn't accuse the Guardian directly of profiting from Assange so I don't know if she knew the full backstory of the paper's disgusting and disgraceful betrayal -- and abandonment -- of him.
Prior to the event, a question I thought of asking was Klein's attitude towards Russell Brand -- did she approve of triai by media. Because I read a comment of hers where she appeared to be jumping on the crucify Brand bandwagon instead of cautioning against the feeding frenzy and pleading for fair play and due process to prevail. Maybe that's a question you might ask.
Re: And actively participated in the take down of the journalist J Assange nm
You could tie the Brand and Assange issues into one question: why does she automatically express 'solidarity' with the anonymous women making lurid accusations against Brand when this was the same kind of smear used to discredit Assange before his imprisonment - 'rape charges' that weren't charges and didn't refer to rape, but sex without a condom, not that this stopped dozens of graun hacks gleefully laying in to the 'sex pest'. Isn't that far more dangerous than the 'knee-jerk denialism' she ascribes to Brand's audience?
Here's the offending tweet:
'Of course Russell Brand's followers deny the allegations. He has groomed an audience to deny/disbelieve everything they see and hear, which is very different from healthy skepticism. This knee-jerk denialism is precisely why people with plenty of skeletons in the closet love conspiracy culture: they have a built-in defense against accountability. It's all a conspiracy, always. I have met Brand, been on his show (years ago). It took a hell of a lot of courage for these women to come forward. They have all my solidarity.' - https://nitter.net/NaomiAKlein/status/1703743886022127971
...and I just searched her twitter account for 'assange', and apart from the fact she has only tweeted his name once in the last six years (with the obligatory 'whether you like the guy or not' framing - https://nitter.net/NaomiAKlein/status/1485448913289039875#m ), there was this one from 2010 which shows she at least used to understand that accusations of sexual misconduct could be politically weaponised to smear dissidents: 'Rape is being used in the #Assange prosecution in the same way that women's freedom was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up! #wikilieaks' - https://nitter.net/NaomiAKlein/status/12479573723709440#m
and, ironically given the subject of her latest book:
...and on Assange, crazy conspiracy theorist doppelganger Naomi Wolf has outclassed Klein at every turn. Here are her tweets in the same period, 2017-2023 where Klein only managed a single pro-forma mention:
Jun 10 10th June at 7:45am EST, via livestream, in Perth, W. Australia. Esteemed Cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, Banker & Author Ed Dowd, Julian Assange's father John Shipton and I; media/medical deception perpetrated on all humanity. theaussiewire.vhx.tv/ gettr.com/post/p2jbwss1361 DrNaomiRWolf on GETTR : Join me now:Saturday 10th June at 6:45am EST, I will be speaking, via...
Mainstream Media and Medical Convention Livestream gettr.com
Jan 22 Replying to @DavePosMil @GeneralSceptic I support Assange. Like the release of the Pentagon Papers, the material Wikileaks released constituted a public service.But the issue of classification is real and when a journalist leaks classified intel he or she always understands that he/she is risking legal consequences.
Jan 22 This is a nonsensical distinction. Classification is classification. One leaked document can get people killed. Julian Assange is in solitary confinement, facing execution via Espionage Act, if deported, for the same act of mishandling classified intel that Pres Biden committed.
24 Dec 2020 I’ll never forget going to visit Assange for an interview in the Ecuadorean embassy and on my departure, a British police officer stationed at the entrance said to me, ‘See you again.’ Chilling.
28 Nov 2020 Thank you, Mrs Assange. I wish I’d been wrong. I am so sorry for what your family is going through.
28 Nov 2020 Thank you, Mrs Assange. It breaks my heart that we are even having this conversation, in a situation that was so foreseeable if people had managed to recognize their own inevitable fates mirrored in that of your son.
27 Nov 2020 Replying to @Stella_Assange @StellaMoris1 @SomersetBean @RSF_inter It’s killing me to get DMs these days about the deteriorating conditions in Belmarsh, and about Assange’s respiratory vulnerability, from Julian Assange’s mom. What is happening to civilized norms?
19 Nov 2020 Via his mom: Julian Assange prison block locked down after Covid outbreak | Julian Assange | The Guardian theguardian.com/media/2020/n…
20 Oct 2020 I recall warning Jeffrey Toobin on camera, when he was cheerleading the arrest of Assange under the Espionage Act, that this was an unwise position for a journalist, as sooner or later it would be him in the firing line. This was not what I meant... vice.com/en/article/epdgm4/n…
3 Aug 2020 Replying to @LeeCamp @Flwrgirl66x Excuse me, I stood up to defend Julian Assange. But indeed there were precious few mainstream journalists who have done so. They should see their own fate in his.
2 Mar 2020 Replying to @OwenJones84 @rhondaneu You don't have to like Assange to understand that if he can be imprisoned, extradited to a hostile nation, so can any journalist.
31 Jan 2020 Replying to @medowieyowie @BernardGyorgy @littleaussiegek @pepiermargot @mswarriorLMS @Barnaby_Joyce @rationalbitch @very_grem @elliemail @BelindaJones68 @nswfire Um, there’s more danger in that context for sure. Not just for me but for any journalist. Probably not an arrest but something slightly intimidating. Like when I visited Assange and the police guard said ‘See you soon.’
22 Nov 2019 .I've spoken up about Assange for almost a decade consistently. I suggest you challenge public figures who are supposed to stand for press freedom, who were actually silent, and there are plenty. Glenn Greenwald, Amy Goodman, about three public figures and I spoke up for Assange.
22 Nov 2019 Are you aware that I stood against most of the left when I wrote and spoke up about the miscarriages of justice related to Assange for years around 2010? Are you aware that I visited him at the Ecuadorian Embassy? Hard to be on the right side of history then have history erased.
22 Nov 2019 True. I can attest as can other reporters that now some subjects are met w/ full-on global digital reputational attacks: Palestinian human rights; due process for Assange; and, believe it or not, geoengineering. In each case, powerful interests (IP in last case) are at stake.
21 Nov 2019 In 2010, when I warned that Assange was being railroaded as a way to chill and control all journalists and punish whistleblowers, I was piled on by feminists as a traitor to rape advocacy; I am a lifelong antirape activist and survivor. Which is to say: reject binary thinking.
21 Nov 2019 I think you may be misinterpreting what I believe we are both saying. BECAUSE Assange exposed US war crimes THEREFORE sex abuse charges against him were treated much more seriously than they ever are for other cases. IN ORDER to publish and extradite him. Hope that is clearer.
21 Nov 2019 I'd like to stop accurately predicting awful outcomes. @caitoz cites 2010 article I wrote re how differently Assange's case was treated vs every sex crime case I've ever reported. I said he'd be extradited. Here we are. No one powerful cares about rape. consortiumnews.com/2019/11/2… With Assange Safely Locked up, Sweden Drops 'Investigation'
He is caged, and public support for him has been deliberately demolished. The Swedish legal parody did its job, writes Caitlin Johnstone. By Caitlin Johnstone CaitlinJohnstone.com Now that WikiLeak... consortiumnews.com
17 Apr 2019 Replying to @manifesto2000 @Greg_Palast @BBfromPA @DailyClout I wrote a twitter response yesterday you may have missed: some exposure in Assange allegedly having tried to enter a password to a computer owned by the DOD but not at level of the Espionage Act. It's at the level of an editor opening an envelope that a source gave him/her.
16 Apr 2019 Replying to @DefendAssange @Govt4theP No it does not. We read the First Amendment along with Assange's indictment on @DailyClout Youtube and sure enough it makes ZERO mention of freedom of speech being restricted to ANY group. Duh, @AP
16 Apr 2019 Replying to @manifesto2000 @GregLBean @DailyClout Well that is true. We read the actual indictment -- you can see it on DailyClout Youtube -- and it really has so little meat. 6/7ths of it is about Mannings crimes, not Assange's alleged crimes.
16 Apr 2019 Replying to @manifesto2000 @micahflee @DailyClout Not exactly Alan -- if Assange did indeed try to access a password on a government computer as alleged, that is a crime. But it is NOT a crime under the Espionage Act, which governs speech, not classification. And Assange isn't even a US citizen.
16 Apr 2019 Dem Senators who called for the revocation of Assange's asylum. facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=…
15 Apr 2019 How is it that I only found the Wikileaks editors' press conference on the Assange arrest -- on RT??? Surely major news?? piped.video/watch?v=QFq38d3Q…
14 Apr 2019 Watch carefully. There is a ton of Manning's crimes in this indictment but the one Assange crime alleged is his trying to use a password to a source's classified file. Yes, if true, a crime. But the rest of indictment makes journalism into a "conspiracy. " piped.video/watch?v=CciKoPTf… Assange Indictment: Criminalization of Journalism?
Julian Assange has been removed forcibly from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and fears extradition to the United States. His greatest fear is that he will ... youtube.com
14 Apr 2019 Just finished reading for @DailyClout Youtube the indictment against Assange. Also explained the evil Espionage Act now directed at him. PP4-7 categorically criminalizes the act of being a journalist or editor and American media, you accept this indictment at your eternal peril.
13 Apr 2019 Replying to @ACLU Thank you, @ACLU. Yesterday we @DailyClout read the indictment of Assange and reached the same conclusion of pp 4-7. Criminalizes journalism.
13 Apr 2019 Replying to @bboerner2332 @TulsiGabbard @America1stPeace I read and posted the indictment against Assange. Pp 4-7 criminalize journalism.
12 Apr 2019 Replying to @TulsiGabbard @America1stPeace As a journalist observing the arrest, it is clearly meant to chill people like us. And the dramatic, demeaning carrying of Assange bodily has no purpose but to make the message more theatrically chilling.
12 Apr 2019 Replying to @GreenInvestGuy @democracynow Why are there about three national US public figures who are stating what’s obviously illegal, dangerous and unconstitutional about extraditing Assange?
12 Apr 2019 Replying to @SenSchumer You represent me. Assange’s arrest in a country whose laws he didn’t violate, chills every American journalist and if you support his being charged under the Espionage Act, you are violating your constitutional duties.
12 Apr 2019 Thank you, CS Hecht. Assange indictment. Military sources explain that even though it was Manning’s password the computer, content belong to the Defense Dept so it still is ‘hacking’. However the ‘conspiracies’ on pp 4-7 do criminalize journalism. assets.documentcloud.org/doc…
12 Apr 2019 Thank you,@CSHecht. Indictment doesn't support calling what Assange allegedly did, "hacking". Manning gave Assange a password, Assange tried unsuccessfully to use it. (p 2). P. 3-7 alleges "conspiring' to do a number of things that sound like "journalism." lawfareblog.com/document-jul…
12 Apr 2019 Replying to @cs_hecht I am trying to find the original text of the charge against Assange. @CSHecht can you kindly send me the legal papers in a format I can read and share?
11 Apr 2019 A dark day indeed, and one I’ve been trying to warn about since 2008. You don’t have to like or agree with Assange to know that once they imprison journalists under the Espionage Act, next it’s you and me. washingtonpost.com/world/eur…
20 Mar 2019 Replying to @Jonathan_K_Cook I hate to say I tried to caution everyone about this. Censor hate speech and you give the OK for Julian Assange’s mom and yours to be censored next.
28 Dec 2018 Having visited Assange in the Ecuadoran Embassy, I confirm that no one can go in or out without documentation by the UK police/intelligence. Which means: if Manafort DID visit Assange, not noted in log, only way is w/UK intelligence/police collusion. mondediplo.com/outsidein/gua… The Guardian's fake scoop
Open access // by Serge Halimi (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, January 2019) mondediplo.com
27 Nov 2018 Replying to @SMaurizi @duncanmacmartin @EmbajadaEcuUK I visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and I confirm that this was true at least in my own experience of the documentation of my passport etc for the visit. Dr Naomi Wolf
Replying to @suigenerisjen To be clear: Assange needs to stand trial for any alleged sexual offense. But that should not be mixed up with the US trying to kill him judicially for releasing documents in the public interest, per the Espionage Act.Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
Thanks for the thoughtful responses folks...I've been interrogating Naiomi in my head all morning!...but Blindboy has just announced the guest this evening is Monaghan novelist Patrick McCabe (The Butcher Boy, Breakfast on Pluto, etc). Such a relief! Maybe I should ask him why he hasn't spoken up for Assange
No mistaking Wolf and Klein is there?
Posted by scrabb on September 30, 2023, 3:34 pm, in reply to "False Alarm!!!"
Thanks to impressive and diligent archive work by Ian M in tracing the differences between Klein and Wolf in relation to Assange.
From Wolf's twitter account:
28 Dec 2018 Having visited Assange in the Ecuadoran Embassy, I confirm that no one can go in or out without documentation by the UK police/intelligence. Which means: if Manafort DID visit Assange, not noted in log, only way is w/UK intelligence/police collusion. mondediplo.com/outsidein/gua… The Guardian's fake scoop
My emphasis at the end. So Wolf clearly recognises and identifies the Guardian's duplicity and blatant deceit in its treatment of Assange and calls it out, whereas Klein hardly mentions him (just once in fact) and expresses no solidarity. She is either unaware of the Guardian's shameful treatment of Assange or she is aware and ignores and dismisses it -- both positions to her discredit. And, as I witnessed on Wednesday evening, gushing in her praise and adulation of the Guardian's status and "values".
I'm seeing her with fresh eyes -- so perhaps going along to the book launch wasn't so vomit-inducing and such a waste of time after all.
I think you deserve a prize for your fortitude. A curry would help, do you have a preference?Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Kind of you both, thx I usually go for a lamb jalfrezi or madras if not too hot. Not sure how the logistics would work though...Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
I shall send a minion with the curries hanging from a cleft stick. ;O)Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016 Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018 Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
Patrick Kavanagh.
Posted by Morrissey on September 29, 2023, 9:24 pm, in reply to "Klein again"
He lived in Parnell, Auckland, for some years.
A Kiwi connection!
Re: Patrick Kavanagh.
Posted by Dovetail Joint on September 30, 2023, 7:18 am, in reply to "Patrick Kavanagh."
Klein characterizes the attitude of a swathe of liberal/left peopl in the media, who are very critical of 'conspiracy theories', using it as a pejorative label for all sorts of things they disagree with; except the 'conspiracy theories' they believe in! For example, that Brand 'groomed' his audience for years knowing that his past behavior would eventually come to light and he'd need a solid 'praetorian guard' of loyal followers to protect him from 'justice.' or, that Donald Trump is really a Russian spy!
Talk about 'kneejerk' responses! Why are the woman incredibly brave to come forward sith their allegations about Brand, precisely? They are anonymous aren't they in the Dispatches documentary? Why choose a tv show rather than the police? Because the standard of 'evidence' is far, far, lower on a tv show than making a statement to the police. If Brand has had sex with over a thousand women/girls, he's doing pretty well, if only a handful, after so many years, come forward with their allegations of questionable or criminal behavior, that hardly constitutes a 'pattern' by Brand.
Re: Patrick Kavanagh.
Posted by Fionn on September 30, 2023, 12:06 pm, in reply to "Patrick Kavanagh."
Are you sure? I believe he left Monaghan and subsistence farming on his smallholding when he was 30 to move to Dublin and lived as a starving artist for many years. He became fond of the drink there. Apart from a stint in London, I wasn't aware he lived anywhere else...
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Sorry, it was Hugh Walpole
Posted by Morrissey on October 1, 2023, 11:40 pm, in reply to "Re: Patrick Kavanagh."
We read and studied several Patrick Kavanagh poems at my school in Auckland, and somehow I always associated him with the city.
By the way, someone needs to make a movie of Kavanagh's life.
By the way, someone needs to make a movie of Kavanagh's life.
I'd pay good money to see that, if it was made well. Not sure what actor could portray the man though, as he was one of a kind. Maybe Michael Fassbender if he was made more haggard and could pull off the rural Monaghan dialect.
on September 29, 2023, 5:12 pm
I usually go for a lamb jalfrezi or madras if not too hot. Not sure how the logistics would work though...