On 12/24/2016 12:30 PM, Steve Kinney wrote:
there are way too many questionable assertions built into the article, and it has some of the earmarks of a heavily re-edited and/or manipulative text.
If nothing else, Julian Assange is a master manipulator on the order of... ahem. Donald Trump. Listen to what he says about why he's less worried about il Douche... Absolutely prescient. The good imho? Trump will force people to gtfo their asses and into the streets. Something they should have done years ago (but the society's repressive desublimation is crippling when there's 'teflon' in the White House). The bad? For Americans, their rights are OSTENSIBLY endangered in place of, lets say "Syrian lives" (or Yemeni, or Somali etc) in danger. That's hard on one's very merican self-centric exceptionalism. Human Rights Watch is actual running a fund-raising campaign based on the strong belief in the US that their Human Rights are in danger b/c [insert progressive cause here]. Rr
On 12/24/2016 02:33 PM, Cecilia Tanaka wrote:
Yep, my dear, I said he was alive weeks ago. Zzz was not informed about it, but you know, this "Hashist" guy is _not_ a real activist, is a pretty slow person and doesn't know to fake patterns well too, hahaha!! ;)
IMO there are way too many questionable assertions built into the article, and it has some of the earmarks of a heavily re-edited and/or manipulative text. Example:
"Assange described his feelings about the US election results in an interview..."
An interview with whom, where, and when? The Byline is Ben Jacobs "in Washington," and since he does not say who interviewed Assange, I will presume it was not him - so the quotes from Assange have no provenance.
One prefers journalists who hide in a spotlight that makes reprisals too costsly for hostile political operatives, to those who hide in dark shadows - an environment already well frequented by propagandists, spooks and other, even less trustworthy actors.
I also see the article uncritically parroting very dubious propaganda talking points about the published DNC e-mail: "The releases were highly damaging to Clinton, and US intelligence officials now believe they were hacked by Russia and passed to WikiLeaks to boost Trump’s bid for the White House." Said what accountable person, when, where and to whom?
The sole source for the Russia Did It canard is an October press release from DHS that says the release is "consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts." This is attributed to the USIC, an acronym for United States Intelligence Community. No such agency exists, so it is not possible for it to have an official spokesperson, except maybe the President - their ultimate boss, at least on paper.
That said, the Assange quotes in the article sound exactly like Mendax to me. Is he alive or is he dead? Maybe the "embassy cat" some sources mention was a gift from Erwin Schrodinger. As a long time fan, I think Assange's present position is a Super position.
Srsly: The best thing that ever happened to Julian Assange, in terms of his productive public service output, was forcing him to sit on stay in one place and stay busy enough to keep from going (even more) nuts.
Powder don't go BOOM until is confined, but never mind that metaphor: Assange has already built a terrajoule railgun in his spare time, and orbital mind control lasers won't be far behind.
:o)
On Dec 24, 2016 4:04 PM, "Rayzer" <Rayzer@riseup.net <mailto:Rayzer@riseup.net>> wrote:
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has offered guarded praise of Donald Trump, arguing the president-elect “is not a DC insider” and could mean an opportunity for positive as well as negative change in the US.
Assange described his feelings about the US election results in an interview as “mixed” before going on to sharply criticize Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and providing a more ambivalent assessment of Trump’s ascent to the White House.
“Hillary Clinton’s election would have been a consolidation of power in the existing ruling class of the United States,” Assange told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
“Donald Trump is not a DC insider, he is part of the wealthy ruling elite of the United States, and he is gathering around him a spectrum of other rich people and several idiosyncratic personalities.”
He added: “They do not by themselves form an existing structure, so it is a weak structure which is displacing and destabilising the pre-existing central power network within DC. It is a new patronage structure which will evolve rapidly, but at the moment its looseness means there are opportunities for change in the United States: change for the worse and change for the better.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/24/julian-assange-donald-tr ump-hillary-clinton-interview
<https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/24/julian-assange-donald-tru mp-hillary-clinton-interview>