The great satirical video production group The Juice Media in their second evolution under Giordano when making their "Honest Government Ads" series invoked the wonderful term "Shit Fuckery". I want to explore that term with respect to recent (like, today) media publications and those comments on "western values" and "political actions". I start with the USA efforts to extradite a journalist and publisher, Julian Assange to the USA to answer charges of possessing and disseminating "national security information" under the ammended 1917 Espionage Act. https://youtu.be/YL98k7mRjMw As an aside, the 'conspiracy' charge under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is just rubbish. One side of the conversation between, now Chelsea then Bradley, Manning is known. It was Manning. The other side of those chat messages is unknown. It could have been any member of Wikileaks. But, the Espionage charges are substantiated. Publishing the "Rules of Engagement" or the manual for Guantanamo Bay kidnapees was publishing classified information which had some aspect of "national defense information". Whether those documents should have been classified is another kettle of fish. During the extradition proceedings, particularly those of evidentiary nature in the Westminster Magistrate's court under Magistrate Baraitser, the USA won every one of their 'points of law'. This is insane for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that the defence council was spied upon by the prosecuting government (by UC Global, paid by Sheldon Adelson on behalf of their "American Friends" aka the CIA). The Magistrate Baraitser should have just thrown the whole case out. Instead she ignored every point from the defence except the medical testimony allowing her to deny extradition because the US penal system is so abhorrent. The USA thus has every point of "law" it could want, but not the extradition. During the most recent (Consortium News) CN Live episode three Australian members of parliament, one major party conservative, one major party "left wing" and one independent all agree that, politically, what the USA is doing is batshit crazy. IF the USA gets its hands on Assange AND a trial is held in East Virginia (where nobody has ever won in defence against an charge against "national security information") AND if that is appealled it will wind its way up the USA's federal circuit to the Supreme Court. Now, whilst the Espionage Act charges are strict liability, meaning there is no "public interest" defence, and the legal arguments will wander around technical points of law which may be very interesting, the public discourse will be about the right of the accused to receive 1st Ammendment protections and the constitutionality of the ammended 1917 Act. i.e the Executive branches actions are going to bring into question the very law which they are using to try the accused. And it is very easy to see where this goes. A headline like "US tries to imprison for publishing the Truth" says it all. I hope the by-line goes "but publishing falsehoods is rewarded". The summary here is that three Australian politicians with very different political outlooks are calling on Australia's great ally to STOP EMBARASSING itself. Next we move to Syria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5eb-z-QLXw or a decade the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Isreal and Turkey (plus others) have been funding, training, equiping, and provide media and political coverage for insurgent forces in Syria against the endemic Assad government. There is a term for this sort of thing that intelligence agencies create -- a dirty war. The term really comes from the 1980's USA involvement in the central american constructed civil war in Nicaragua, but goes way back. The USA + UK overthrow of Mosaddegh (Iran 1953), and USA overthrow of Jacabo Arbenz (Guatemala 1954) show the beginnings. But these are short, sharp operations involving minor bloodshed over a very short period. What emerges after the 1980's are long term campaigns involving many, many people over a long period and huge amounts of funding. Take the funding of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan by the CIA, as an example. We have just had a former member of the USA government come out and describe the religious extremist forces in Syria as an "asset". This could largely be summarised as "the enemy of our enemy is our friend". It is on-its-face insane. There is no consideration of morality, ethics, social norms, or stability. (Oh wait, thats financial capitalism.) Its about domination, or more precisely, destabilisation. Not destablisation by creating an effective movement towards a free media and identifying corruption or other malpractice by the Syrian government, but training people to commit violent insurgency and giving them the weapons to do it. This is what the "West" would accuse the USSR of doing. This is diametrically opposed to what the "West" wishes to portray itself as. After the 9/11 events in the USA, there is one, just one, only one, a singular voice, a "city on the hill", shining light of caution and calm in their parliament who countenances AGAINST the will to smash the world into little pieces. Her name is Barbara Lee. She warned "As we act, let us not become the evil we deplore." If you have not watched her now almost 20 year old speech, do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvnLtMKzX6Y So, I come back to "STOP EMBARRASING" yourself. Supplying training and arms to religious extremists who kill people for criticising the powerful? What the **** are you Doing?