Click here to access the 27:54m video which is posted on Consortium News, or watch it below.
Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria examine the issues related to the continuing confinement of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy and the well-documented intention of the agents of the US Empire to get him and do what they can to destroy him. It's clear from what the two discuss is that this is without legal precedent or legal foundation, but the power of elites or ruling classes have only occasionally been stopped from having their way. The rule of law which is often touted by capitalist ruling classes as a virtue of their rule will be easily dispensed with whenever their rule is threatened. The Anglo-American Empire is now being threatened like it has never before. Only the "distracted" people can stop them now from persecuting Assange and, above all, themselves.
If it were only the well-being of Assange that was at stake, people could ignore this persecution (and still survive). However, so much more is at stake. If the people continue to fail to act, they will permit the acceptance of fascist rule and the insane actions of an extremely threatened ruling class. The Empire's capitalist class knows it, but there are doubts about what the "distracted" people will do. Rarely have so much been at stake historically in a persecution of an individual by powerful elites.