Very little orchestration needed to arrest somebody that jumps bail.
Hello Hilary
Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
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Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#32Obviously the judge will be “impartial” and not recuse himself. Only bad countries don’t have justice like China and Russia according to the main stream media.
Is there a word to describe the effect of someone ending a comment in a phrase (in this case “according to the [mainstream] media”) that instantly invalidates the rest of the argument to a reader?
I bet there is one in German, they always have words for interesting things like that.
To be fair, I think there should also be a word to describe the effect of someone beginning a phrase that invalidates the rest of their argument..eg "According to CNN..."
*Edit* Sorry about the pronouns.
Here is a German phrase that is close to what is needed.
Backpfeifengesicht
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#33Most voices in support of Assange seem to come from people with strong conviction that he is clearly a good guy (unsurprisingly). I don’t really have an opinion. Could someone provide a more impassioned / balanced list of pros and cons? From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale (or is that…
>that he is clearly a good guy
The unspoken assumption behind this question is that any actor in our society needs to be morally or personally exemplary for their work to have value. It's a modern version of Donatism. Donatists were a group of Christians in the fourth century. Their core tenet was that priests need to be ‘faultless’ for their prayers and their sacraments to be valid
It's often faulty son-of-the-bitch that makes a lasting positive mark on society.
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About Assange.
Assange started a hugely positive movement with WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks continues to be a positive force.
The problem with WikiLeaks under Assange was that he could not keep it impersonal under stress. Assange allowed himself and WikiLeaks to be used as a tool. Then he adopted a conspiratory tone to everything. His supporters are now completely convinced that everyone in the government fulfilling their lawful orders is personally invested in an evil plot to get him.
Contrast Assange to Snowden. Snowden lives in Russia but is less a tool for Russians than Assange is. Snowden understands that people whose job is to get him, are not some evil cabal. Breaking the law for the good of the society is sometimes necessary. That does not mean that everyone on the opposite side is evil.
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#34Most voices in support of Assange seem to come from people with strong conviction that he is clearly a good guy (unsurprisingly). I don’t really have an opinion. Could someone provide a more impassioned / balanced list of pros and cons? From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale (or is that…
In summary, it's as you say. Wikileaks has released a tonne of sensitive material which has often made the US look bad and revealed war crimes. The US wants to punish Assange as the leader of Wikileaks to deter others from doing the same. Most journalists and lawyers (although not all) believe that Wikileaks' activity is journalistic, and therefore that Assange can't be prosecuted for this activity. So the US is tryi…
> Wikileaks has released a tonne of sensitive material which has often made the US look bad and revealed war crimes. The US wants to punish Assange as the leader of Wikileaks to deter others from doing the same
they are already making themselves look like fools when they are being so desperate in an attempt to punish a leaker
only makes me wonder more what other skeletons they hide in their closet?
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#35This was not the judge who ruled on the appeal. I see no reason to put any weight on this point.
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#36Whatever opinion you had about Assange, I think history will not look favourably on how he has been treated during this process.
yeah the world is already looking at it unfavorably as corrupt and unjust, generally when the view starts out like that history doesn't do anything but double down.
But probably the judge doesn't care about the view of history.
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#37 If he does end up getting extradited to the US, he should hope he ends up in Kalifornia or NuYork and gets released with no bail like all the thieves and lunatics.
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#38Most voices in support of Assange seem to come from people with strong conviction that he is clearly a good guy (unsurprisingly). I don’t really have an opinion. Could someone provide a more impassioned / balanced list of pros and cons? From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale (or is that…
>From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale
So? When did exposing espionage become a bad thing?
>States have a reasonable need to keep things secret, even against the immediate best interest of the citizens
Says who? The states themselves?
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#39Most voices in support of Assange seem to come from people with strong conviction that he is clearly a good guy (unsurprisingly). I don’t really have an opinion. Could someone provide a more impassioned / balanced list of pros and cons? From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale (or is that…
It's not about him, it's what this case tells us about us.
It's just not possible to believe the story western society tells to itself about itself, and it's a harsh realization. Also, that was a persons life and mostly we can just watch as selected the enemy of the empire gets destroyed.
Re: Assange judge is 40-year ‘good friend’ of minister who orchestrated his arrest
#40Most voices in support of Assange seem to come from people with strong conviction that he is clearly a good guy (unsurprisingly). I don’t really have an opinion. Could someone provide a more impassioned / balanced list of pros and cons? From my vague point of view, I get that he is sort of a journalist (so should be protected), but also the stuff he leaked did go quite far, like borderline-espionage scale (or is that…
If you grew up in the hacker-scene of the late 80ies early 90ies it might be easier to empathize with him than what is possible just reading the US/UK/SE documents claiming he is a rapey person that enjoys torturing cats.
I don't think he is either a hero nor a villain, but has the classic mentality of the hacker-scene (both useful but also highly toxic). Broken people (aren't we all?) who try to be larger-than-life figures.
The difference between Assange and the rest is he thought "sticking it to the man" is possible while not living in a safe place that supports his "work". Assange has been living this fantasy of a small good guy who can fight back because of his hacking skills and never grew up from the kid he was. Who hasn't tried to access *.mil domains in the late 80ies or hack a payphone for free international calls? At least everyone bragged about it. There are people still out there today claiming you can issue a "climb command"[0] to the CAN-bus of an aircraft via the infotainment system just so they are liked more on social media (same sad mentality).
His biggest flaw is not taking sides and thinking that he could get away with exposing US interests from US friendly territory. All of the wannabe independent citizen journalists who are successful must be backed by the intelligence community in the country they operate. Bellingcat is a good example because it paints the outfit as something that was bootstrapped by 1 guy without a job in his bedroom (Elliot Higgins) but Elliot has good friends in UK intelligence and Atlantic council. Belingcat does fantastic work but believe not for 1 second that they would be able to drop the intel that Assange did without getting retired quickly. You can not work in IC without choosing a side that you feed the info to and that you also rely on support. Assange thought he could live like a digital nomad traveling on his real passport while literally calling DoS asking to speak to H. Clinton and strongarm her.
His failure to chose a side meant life chose a side for him, by becoming the mouthpiece for Guccifer 2.0 (GRU). I do not think he decided to pick a side suddenly (RU), but that he ended up being a useful idiot that eventually had no choice but to double down. Both so that he isn't seen flip-flopping but also because FVEY already were out to get him. The sheer stupidity of doing all this from Europe and UK is hard to understand . If you upset your own Western government you better have a second passport from China or Russia and don't do it from that country. It's what activists who want to be martyrs do but not journalists or members of the IC. Assange thought he could play in all these camps which is why he will eventually get disappeared into the prison system after this farce of a trial. The biggest casualty other than Assange is the truth.
Also it anyone who who supported him has their own story about how they were hunted/harassed (Jacob Appelbaum, Ola Bini, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, ...)
[0] https://www.usenix.org/publications/loginonline/vulnerable-s...
[1] Australia today isn't a real country but just a propaganda mouthpiece for the US IMHO. Australia is where the most conservative idea that are too insane to be tested in the US get rolled out- check the AABill where the gov can show up demanding you implement a backdoor without being able to disclose it to your employer or end up behind bars. They even have a law now that let's LE plant evidence. There is a fantastic show called "underbelly" (the "Sopranos of Austriala") which does a great job showing how corrupt law enforcement is in Australia.