On Thursday, I wrote about the testimony of Julian Assange of WikiLeaks at a Tuesday meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Assange’s testimony provided an informative overview of his persecution for helping expose disturbing government secrets.
In his testimony, Assange stepped back at times from the particulars of his story to address broader issues related to government that are important for proponents of freedom of speech and press, and opponents of warmongering, to understand. Then, in his answering of questions after his testimony, Assange provided some insightful description of a dangerous government tendency that it is important for people to understand.
Assange described a persistent, powerful, and often successful effort to direct government to act against the liberty and well-being of the people. This, he indicates, supported the United States government taking action against Assange that appeared barred by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and judges in Britain giving great deference to the US effort to seek Assange’s extradition to the US.
Regarding the action of the US government against him, Assange stated:
We performed a legal analysis to understand what the abilities and limitations were within Europe for publishing documents from a number of different countries, including the United States. We understood that, in theory, Article 10 should protect journalists in Europe. Similarly, looking at the US First Amendment to its Constitution, no publisher had ever been prosecuted for publishing classified information from the United States — either domestically or internationally.
I expected some kind of harassment, legal process. I was prepared to fight for that. I believe the value of these publications was such that it’s OK to have that fight, and that we would prevail because we had understood what was legally possible.
My naivete was believing in the law. When push comes to shove, laws are just pieces of paper and they can be reinterpreted for political expediency. They are the rules made by the ruling class more broadly, and, if those rules don’t suite what it wants to do, it reinterprets them or, hopefully, changes them, which is clearer.
In the case of the United States, we angered one of the constituent powers of the United States — the intelligence sector, the security state, the secrecy state. It was powerful enough to push for reinterpretation of the US Constitution.
The US First Amendment seems pretty black-and-white to me. It’s very short. It says the Congress shall make no law restricting speech or the press. However, the US Constitution and those precedents relating to it were just reinterpreted away.
And, yes, perhaps, ultimately if it had gotten to the Supreme Court of the United States and I was still alive in that system, I might have won, depending on what the makeup was of the US Supreme Court. But, in the meantime, I had lost 14 years in the house arrest, embassy siege, and maximum security prison.
So, I think, this is an important lesson that when a major powerful faction wants to reinterpret the law it can push to have the element of the state – in this case the US Department of Justice — do that, And it doesn’t care too much about what is legal; that’s something for a much later date. In the meantime, the deterrent effect that it seeks, the retributive actions that it seeks, have had their effect. […]
— Read More: granitegrok.com
Why One Survival Food Company Shines Above the Rest
Let’s be real. “Prepper Food” or “Survival Food” is generally awful. The vast majority of companies that push their cans, bags, or buckets desperately hope that their customers never try them and stick them in the closet or pantry instead. Why? Because if the first time they try them is after the crap hits the fan, they’ll be too shaken to call and complain about the quality.
It’s true. Most long-term storage food is made with the cheapest possible ingredients with limited taste and even less nutritional value. This is why they tout calories so much. Sure, they provide calories but does anyone really want to go into the apocalypse with food their family can’t stand?
This is what prompted the Llewellyns to launch Heaven’s Harvest. They bought survival food from multiple companies and determined they couldn’t imagine being stuck in an extended emergency with such low-quality food. They quickly discovered that freeze drying food for long-term storage doesn’t have to mean sacrificing flavor, consistency, or nutrition.
Their ingredients are all-American. In fact, they’re locally sourced and all-natural! This allows their products to be the highest quality on the market, so good that their customers often break open a bag in a pinch to eat because they want to, not just because they have to due to an emergency.
At Heaven’s Harvest, their only focus is amazing food. They don’t sell bugout bags, solar chargers, or multitools. They have one mission – feeding Americans in times of crisis.
What they DO offer is the ability for people to thrive in times of greatest need. On top of long-term storage food, they offer seeds to help Americans for the truly long-term. They want them to grow their own food if possible which is why they offer only Heirloom, Non-GMO, Non-Hybrid, Open-Pollinated seeds so their customers can build permanent food security on their own property.
We exist in anarcho–tyrannies under communist rule in thr FIVE EYES nations — this is rzther a highly understated article!