Maybe we need a Happy Mutants in Germany thread
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I hope that I am doing this right.
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Well yeah, my comments are about the topic in this thread. I should point out that I’m on the other side of the world, so I don’t get a say, I just get to live with the fallout.
Well if they lose this race they will certainly have that opportunity. And as someone who really hoped Sanders would be their candidate, a little part of me would like to see the party suffer and reflect on what might have been. If they’d backed Sanders, it looks like his opposition would have flailed about like a fish on land.
But the vast majority of me wants to see the Republican party having that period of reflection instead. At best, if Trump gets elected it proves that the GOP made the right bet, that the United States is frightened and stupid and can be taken for suckers. At worst you have the undeniable global military supremacy of the US in the hands of a man who clearly thinks it should be used for domination and never thinks about consequences.
I know the “best of two bad choices” argument is tired, but do you really think the Republican party is less venal than the Democrats?
To be honest I haven’t been able to find much in the Podesta leaks to get me too riled up, but I haven’t looked too hard, and that could just speak to your point, or my cynicism. Can you give me some examples?
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Are you kidding? It’s the easiest to buy and manipulate.
Just look at Russia and see how it’s served Putin.
Go to another site or use an easily downloadable script to get around the wall. Speaking of walls, a ladder can be used to easily get over even very tall walls. So basically, walls aren’t really all that effective.
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How about posting direct urls to whatever is in the Wikileaks dumps that you think is so damning?
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The same Assanfe hiding in an Embassy from being questioned on sexual crimes while complaining that, really, he didn’t do it? Yeah, I sure trust his word and reliability.
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In that particular link I didn’t find an analysis of the dump itself but maybe it was elsewhere in another blog post.
“The same Assanfe hiding in an Embassy from being questioned on sexual crimes while complaining that, really, he didn’t do it? Yeah, I sure trust his word and reliability.”
I don’t think you are familiar with the details of the situation.
The sex crime he was accused of was failing to use a condom. Given he had sex with two ladies in a short space of time clearly that’s not very nice of him but it wasn’t the first time had had sex with the young lady concerned and there was no question of force or the absence of consent to sex. However I do think the failure to respect the wishes of a sex partner in Sweden is a crime. I’m just not sure how serious a crime it is.
Assange offered to speak to the Swedish prosecuted while in Sweden. They did not press charges and did not seek a statement. After he left Sweden they pressed charges. He offered to return to Sweden to speak to prosecutors provided they guaranteed not to extradite him to the US. They refused to give that guarantee. He has offered to speak to swedish prosecutors in the Ecuadorean embassy. The Swedish prosecutors ignored this offer for many years. Then accepted it. Then failed to come for the appointment.
Given that the US had charged him under the espionage act, there is every reason to believe he is at risk of being extradited to the US.
A reasonable observer might think that the Swedes didn’t really want to speak to him. They want to extradite him.
Let me know if i have any part of this wrong.
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Oddly topical.
“Fairly strong based on the dumps Wikileaks posted. There’s plenty of analysis of the dumps here and elsewhere that you can read up on, it’s been a topic of obsessive focus among independent security researchers.”
Forgive the request. No hurry, and of course ignore if busy etc. But I’m just trying to make my mind up about this. I thought you made very good points but it seems to me the data dumps are key.
I’m sure the Russians hacked the DNC. It’s their job after all. Same as I’m sure the NSA hack Russian emails and same as I’m sure the Israelis and probably the Chinese also hacked them. What I am making my mind up on is whether the Russians passed the emails to wikileaks.
So if you could point me to one of the analysis of the wikileaks data that would really help.
Someone hacked the hackers? Tell us the intentions of the Russian government, Nobby. Tell us what to believe.
I believe you misunderstood what I wrote. Try rereading.
As opposed to, for example, the WSJ, which won’t even allow one free article a month.
Figuring out how to continue to do professional journalism in the internet era is difficult; so far, the NYTimes seems to be doing a better job of it than a number of lesser publications.
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It does. But if you access 10 or fewer articles in a month you don’t even have to do that.
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You’re wrong. I’m very familiar with them. It is a cheap debate trick there and your facts aren’t even correct as stated (I.e. no one has pressed charges and your “charges” aren’t correct).
I’m not going to play back and forth on something that has been discussed to death in this very forum before.
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maybe it’s just the way I read newspapers, but I can read ten articles in a single morning.
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Oh, sure, me too! But then you go into incognito mode/private window/whatever from then on. I’m talking about what someone who wouldn’t normally be reading a lot of articles from a given periodical can do.
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I didnt specify charges. I specified circumstances. I believe the charge is “lesser degree rape”. But I dont know if you dispute the circumstances which do seem relevant to me. But you are right - he is not charged cos he is wanted for questioning. Not that makes your summary look so much better.
Sorry - you mean no one in US has charged Assange? I guess you dismiss the possibility of a sealed indictment.
Wikipedia.
“…WikiLeaks released the Manning material, US authorities began investigating WikiLeaks and Assange personally with a view to prosecuting them under the Espionage Act of 1917.[121] In November 2010 US Attorney-General Eric Holder said there was “an active, ongoing criminal investigation” into WikiLeaks.[122] It emerged from legal documents leaked over the ensuing months that Assange and others were being investigated by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.[123][124][125] An email from an employee of intelligence consultancy Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) leaked in 2012 said, “We have a sealed indictment on Assange.”[126] The US government denies the existence of such an indictment.[127][128]”
Its clear that there is an interest in prosecuting Assange in the US. Do you doubt if he was in the custody of a US ally that they might institute such proceedings quite quickly? After all, its not like Chelsea Manning was treated leniently. One might persuasively argue that the US has revealed a strong preference for punishing Assange.
Ok so lets agree that you are familiar with them. If so, you have summarized them in a way which seems pejorative and unreasonable. More to the point, if you could point to an occasion where Wikileaks has published false material or lied about their sources go ahead. Cos isnt that the underlying point? Assange could after all be a Rapist (of a special Swedish sort) and still tell the truth. Or he might not be a rapist and could be lying.
Personally I don’t see how it matters if the material came from the Russians if it is true. However if it does matter to you, then having the “journalist” who released the material tell you it didn’t come from Russians might give you a moments pause, regardless of the entirely predictable number of ad hominem attacks leveled at Assange. What he is saying adversely affects the chances of a very important person and a whole class of very important people winning an important election. I can see good reason why they might suggest he is not credible. Or to paraphrase Mandy Rice-Davies “they would say that wouldn’t they?”.
Then again you might not experience any moments pause. To me it does all look a bit questionable given I have yet to see one specific email pointed to as false. But once again feel free to correct me.
Feel free to explain the “cheap debate trick”. I dont see it.
Also feel free not to. Its a nominally free country.
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The cheap debate trick is acting like folks who disagree with you must be ignorant of the facts because if they knew as much as you, they would agree.
You’re wrong on the charges against him, were wrong on him being charged, and guilty of buying his PR about why he fled the country and is hiding in an embassy in an effort to avoid charges in a sexual case. I’m surprised normal humans are sympathetic with his “I can’t obey the law because the US might get me” reasoning on what is very clearly a case of him and people like Jake Appelbaum simply being serial sexual douche bros who abuse women.
You realize the U.K. Could have just as easily handed him over to the USA when he was under house arrest and yet no one tried t do so, right?
I hope he spends at least another five years in self imposed solitary confinement.
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