As you know, I'm currently waiting news from the DC Superior Court on how long it will be before my "bloody stupid case" - now in its twelfth year - comes to trial. (Thank you, by the way, to all who have snapped up one of our limited-edition SteynOnline Liberty Sticks.)
The dirty stinking rotten corrupt US Department of "Justice"'s campaign against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been running almost exactly as long: He took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in June 2012 - a month before I wrote the Corner post that climate mullah Michael E Mann sued me over. As bad as things are in the dank septic tank of DC justice, at least I'm not facing, as Mr Assange is, the prospect of being banged up in the SuperMax or carelessly left to suicide myself on a night when the guards are asleep and the security cameras have seized up.
"Left" and "Right" are largely meaningless terms these days. Instead, the world divides into those who enforce the transnational received wisdom ever more strictly, and those who dissent from it at their peril. So Julian Assange has spent five years in Belmarsh, with nary a peep from his supposed comrades on the left. The incarceration without trial or conviction has destroyed his health, and the evil US DOJ (to whose tender ministrations no civilised nation should extradite) is determined that he will die in their custody.
In recent days, however, there has been a little bit of movement:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marjorie Taylor Greene unite in push to free Julian Assange
Maga Republican and leftwing Democrat among 16 US Congress members lobbying Joe Biden to drop extradition attempts against WikiLeaks founder.
I don't suppose if I met Assange that he would care for me or that I would care for him. But it's not about "Left" or "Right"; it's about first principles. What has happened to him, at the behest of the US government and its poodles in London and Canberra, is an outrage - about which I have been entirely consistent since the beginning.
So, in today's Mark Steyn Show, I revisit my initial commentary on the case with Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald - after which I welcome back to the show Julian Assange's brother Gabriel Shipton for an in-depth interview first aired earlier this year. We look at how things stand over a decade into a multinational legal nightmare inflicted on an Australian subject of the Crown because he had the temerity to embarrass the American Deep State. If you're concerned by the dirty stinking rotten corrupt US "justice" system and by the complicity in its revenge obsessions of its "Five Eyes" allies (UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), there is much to ponder in our conversation.
To watch this special edition of The Mark Steyn Show, simply click above.
~Among the benefits of Mark Steyn Club membership is that you can enjoy The Mark Steyn Show in any medium you desire: video, audio or text. So, if you find Mark and Gabriel more convivial in non-visual form, please log-in to our Audio and Transcript versions. To listen to the above show, simply click here.
~Among many casualties of the Covid years is free speech in the western world. Despite his health issues, Steyn is the first presenter in a decade-and-a-half to push back and sue the UK media censor Ofcom. You can read more on the case here. Many viewers have written to ask how they can support this important lawsuit in the English High Court. Well, there are multiple ways, including:
a) signing up a friend for a Steyn Club Gift Membership;
b) buying a loved one a SteynOnline gift certificate;
c) purchasing a copy of Mark's new book, pictured above (you won't regret it); or
d) treating yourself to the above-mentioned Liberty Stick.
With the first two methods, one hundred per cent of the proceeds and, with the latter two, a significant chunk thereof go to a grand cause - and you or your loved one gets something, too.
~This edition of The Mark Steyn Show is a special production of The Mark Steyn Club. One advantage of membership is access to our comments section. If you take issue with anything said by Mark or Gabriel (or Tucker or Glenn), then feel free to comment away below.