On Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 02:56:10PM +0000, professor rat wrote:

It may deserve respect for its usefulness & antiquity, but predicting the end of democracy has not been found agreeable to experience.

Assange told the Icelandic anarchist historian Herbert Snorrason: “I don’t like your tone. If it continues you’re out. I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier, and all of the rest. If you have a problem … piss off.”

OK, so if Assange in fact said words to the effect you suggest he did, one is compelled to respond with something like "damn dude, what a dick!" It may well be that Assange is (was?) an epic ego, and such pride has been known to come before a mighty fall - love tinged with human ego can lead to immediate and sometimes long lasting versions of such a fall. And in any case, you gotta have SOMEthing in the engine to get anything done in -this- world ... That said, on any view, Assange is paying quite a price. Rightly or wrongly. Some deign to judge and dish out calls for "eternal" punishment, and in $CURRENT_WORLD it's far too easy to throw compassion out the window and empathize with such sentiment/calls. In this case I've listened to some of Assange's spoken words, and we witness the empire's revenge mission, and it's easy to say "he did something right". Turns out he was absolutely correct that the real extradition was and is that being engineered by and to the USA. Who am I to call for greater punishment of Assange for his crimes of ego? And I am so grateful also for Chelsea Manning - an epic champion of loyalty, dignity and personal principles lived like few ever live. What a beautiful journey, and inspiring example.