Image by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr
with John Pilger
South China Morning Post on Jul 8, 2022
Australian journalist, author and documentary filmmaker John Pilger has dedicated his life to the pursuit of truth and shining a light on inconvenient facts that often contradict the mainstream media narrative.
In this episode of Talking Post, Pilger sits down with SCMP chief news editor Yonden Lhatoo to discuss the war in Ukraine, the West versus China and the plight of jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
See also:
From the archives:
Finian Cunningham: Julian: Let’s Take a Stand
Michael Hudson: Finance Capitalism’s Self-Destructive Nature
Helen Caldicott: Why This Is More Dangerous Than the Cuban Missile Crisis, by Finian Cunningham
Daniel Ellsberg: Nuclear War and Ukraine
Certifying Julian Assange’s Extradition Puts Him at Great Risk + The Assange Family Struggle
John Pilger: The Supreme Court Refusal to Hear Julian Assange’s Appeal
Chris Hedges: Wedding Speech for Julian Assange + Craig Murray Barred From Attending the Wedding
Chris Hedges and John Pilger: Julian Assange Can Appeal To The UK Supreme Court
Dandelion Salad 
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I always have time to hear what JP has to say; he’s never wrong and his track record speaks for itself. This is the second time I’ve heard this interview. Of course, the fate of Julian Assange remains gravely precarious.
Truth inevitably suffers wherever suspect interests are predominant, and that applies to all systems of advanced application. The Kremlin establishment is certainly no exception ~ infested with blatant corruption of a most ostentatious and yet, also arguably ‘subtle’ nature; indeed truth itself is an evasive and elusive artifact, impossible to capture in its entirety as it is so dependent on subjective perspectives, preferences, circumstances, influences and prejudices.
I am certainly no friend of Putin and am unlikely to be persuaded that what he has undertaken in Ukraine is in any way justifiable, or anything less than a rolling atrocity of colossal, reprehensible violence. I’ll be delighted to see the end of his delirious ascendancy and witness total regime change in Russia; since I believe the potential for a greater Russia to evolve and mutate into a multiethnic commonwealth of tremendous significance, remains enormous and may yet happen within a generation.
Besides, this crisis is also of huge significance for the future of China and its relationship with the US, that has immense difficulties to overcome, bridges to cross; so I am not about to cheer-lead for American exceptionalism, quite the contrary. However the US has immense potential still and ‘theoretically,’ inalienable constitutional opportunities ~ because of the strength of its educational institutions, scientific foundations and those prosperous endowments that almost certainly guarantee potential continuity and future development. It all depends on the calibre and quality of leadership at all levels, the integrity and determination of the most wise, sincerely motivated individuals who can muster the vision and imagination and will, to prosper intelligent movement.
We must be realistic. The Webb telescope is truly an exceptional achievement. The sophistication is extraordinary. So bravo USA! This Ukrainian war is now a horrific testing ground for advanced technology and weaponry. War is still the ultimate context (so to speak) for evolutionary change, but to be more precise, only ‘almost’ so ~ as climate change and ecosystem disruption is a far greater concern and preoccupation of all of us with the wit to understand it. All the firepower and ordnance in the world is powerless against planetary forces that will inevitably prove to be and already are, the real game-changer(s) for humanity and sentient existence.
Thanks, David, always good to hear from you.