The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – the international tribunal that adjudicates and decides whether governments comply with their human rights obligations – has ruled that Julian Assange has been detained unlawfully by Britain and Sweden.

https://newmatilda.com/2016/02/05/freeing-julian-assange-john-pilger-on-the-final-chapter/

A pretty worthwhile interview despite the packaging.

Via Brenda Schouten-Beckett​

https://youtu.be/0e4Ii_qyNng

Trump’s campaign lacked the voter-targeting and turnout capabilities to translate a 7-point polling lead in Iowa into a win in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, and his disappointing second-place finishhinted at potential trouble for him in upcoming states that should otherwise be more favorable.

Cruz and Rubio’s campaigns ran circles around Trump’s bare-bones operation, which gambled that Trump’s star appeal could overpower modern organizing tactics, and relied instead on big rallies, an outlandish social media presence, a flashy endorsement from Sarah Palin and a late advertising blitz to try to get supporters to the polls.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-iowa-voter-data-218654#ixzz3z9JFgGtB

Those scoundrels!

Originally shared by The Onion

http://onion.com/1JYJ4UW

I’m guessing that the Democrats will be pretty happy with this result.

Originally shared by Tim Elkins

Bernie Bros and Hillary Goons battle it out on the internet and yet only the former get called out by the opionistas in the media. The journos complain that they only get nasty comments and abuse from Bernie supporters and that is because they are all uniquely beastly and misogynistic (and weirdly socialistic).

It doesn’t seem to occur to many of these luminaries that what they are experiencing is not a phenomenon exclusive to Bernie supporters but a thing generally known as “the Internet” and that their generally pro-Hillary stance affects the kind of abusive feedback they get from online anonymous strangers.

It may come as a surprise to them that many Hillary supporters in fact act in exactly the same obnoxious fashion. In my experience they tend to think it is their duty to counteract the “lies” told about their favourite establishment candidate. Some have suggested, in an attempt to shut down all discussion on the matter, that criticising Hillary’s record is “doing the Republicans’ bidding” and so on.

Of course any sensible assessment of the noise of political discussion is that it is made up of all personality types, some of whom are obnoxious and abusive but most of whom are merely exercising their democratic rights to discuss and support their preferred candidate. This phenomenon apparently makes many of the dummkopfs in the media uncomfortable.

Originally shared by Jeff Zahari

“When people with vested interests disagree about politics online, they will be rude and abusive to each other, use unacceptable language, and try to shout down their opponents. When people with vested interests disagree about politics in the real world, thousands of people end up dead. This isn’t a facile comparison: here, the whole point of the constant earnest bleating about the first type of disagreement is to drown out any discussion of the second.”

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/sam-kris-bernie-bros-internet-abuse-820?utm_source=vicetwitteruk