With that āsaidā, āpoorā Scott Morrison.
Lying right out of the gate, not a good look.
Canāt wait to hear what he has to say about 2016 and the Trumpsā¦
Hope theyāve got good security on him. Between Putin and Trump, thereās a lot of folks who wouldnāt mind if he had an accident.
If by āpress freedom,ā you mean theft, he has a point.
If they can prove he tried to hack a government computer then, no, he is a criminal not a press freedom fighter. Anyway the SOB is obviously a Russian intelligence asset. My guess is we will exchange him to Russia for a spy sometime in the future.
I donāt think any real journalist out there is particularly worried about Assangeās arrest. Nor are most of the rest of us. Heās burned too many bridges with his narcissism and erratic behavior.
The only extradition order in force is from Sweden (I assume there are also criminal charges in the UK pending because he disappeared and showed up in the Ecuadorian embassy; Iām sure the local diplomatic staff has been begging the foreign ministry to get this idiot out of their hair.)
Unfortunately, it is the Trump administration thatās handling this. They want him dead, even more than the GRU wants him dead. So they toss him in the slammer and play for time before some federal prosecutor or congressional investigator gets to him. And they arrange a āvisitā from a very well dressed Russian who speaks fluent English. Iām sure theyāll go the polonium pellet route: much cleaner, and they donāt care that finding out the cause of death and sponsoring country will soon be public knowledge.
Iām just eating popcorn.
I think this also has something to do with Roger Stone going on trial soon. Stone may not be so confident that his secrets are going to stay hidden.
Tonight on Sean Hannity??
Suspicious timing. What did Trump promise Ecuador? Any bets on Assange living to trial?
This is one of those situations where you can see and acknowledge both sides or perspectives, that he did some good and even heroic things (Tahrir Square, which if you think his exposing it was wrong then youāre basically a fascist or fascist-friendly), but also some scummy and cowardly things, like hack into DNC servers and help throw the election to Trump. Same thing for legal/illegal, legal to publish illegally obtained materials, illegal to help illegally obtain them. And Iām not even going to get into the other accusations, like rape, abusing his internet privileges, not taking care of his cat, etc. Iām not one of those folks who are totally on one or the other side on Assange. Itās possible to be both, you know.
That said, between this, Barr playing hardball with the Mueller report and apparently now trying to turn the tables by investigating the investigators and possibly re-opening an investigation into Clintonās emails, Mnuchin refusing to release the tax returns, 36 charges just now filed against Avenatti, the house-cleaning at DHS, and intensifying saber-rattling by Trump, there appears to be something serious afoot, a coordinated strategy to, at the very least, evade justice and turn the tables on their accusers and tormentors, and, possibly, something far worse, like an orchestrated enabling event, or a more intense crackdown on political enemies.
Cornered animals lash out and are at their most dangerous.
A line from the seminal rap song The Message comes to mind:
ā¦
āTil one day you was found hung dead in the cell
It was plain to see that your life was lost
You was cold and your body swung back and forth
But now your eyes sing the sad, sad song
Of how you lived so fast and died so young, soā¦
āWikiLeaks! I love WikiLeaks,ā Trump proclaimed at a Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, rally on Oct. 10, 2016.
āYou see so much from these WikiLeaks,ā he told a Panama City, Florida, audience the next day.
āThis WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable,ā he said the following day at an Ocala, Florida, rally. āYouāve got to read it!ā
That right there is enough to convince me that Assange is a foreign intelligence operative.
Theft is not journalism.
Why now? If it was hackingā¦ they could have charged him long ago. Barr is no longer a credible AG for me. He is as much or more of an operative then is Assange.
āAssange, Manning and WikiLeaks, by making public in 2010 half a million internal documents from the Pentagon and the State Department, along with the 2007 video of U.S. helicopter pilots nonchalantly gunning down Iraqi civilians, including children, and two Reuters journalists, effectively exposed the empireās hypocrisy, indiscriminate violence and its use of torture, lies, bribery and crude tactics of intimidation. WikiLeaks shone a spotlight into the inner workings of empire ā the most important role of a press ā and for this it has become empireās prey. Those around the globe with the computer skills to search out the secrets of empire are now those whom empire fears most. If we lose this battle, if these rebels are defeated, it means the dark night of corporate totalitarianism. If we win, if the corporate state is unmasked, it can be destroyed.ā Chris Hedges