Any comments on Julian Assange's arrest this morning in London?

He should be set free. By force, if necessary.

About time! No one is above the law.

Hurry up and get him to Sweden so he can face rape charges before the statute of limitations runs out (in 2020)

Assange is someone everyone has changed their mind about at least once. In 2010, conservatives hated him and liberals loved him. Then he posts stuff about Hillary and liberals hate him and conservatives love him (simplification, but more or less accurate from what I observed on the internet).

Is Assange truly just the messenger? Or did he play a larger role in the “hacking”? Or is this just revenge for Assange exposing the true nature of empire?

I’m inclined to agree with @ragingloli on this one.

I agree with Josie.

How did he contribute to Hillary Clinton’s loss?

Rape charges have been dropped.
Just saying.

Hillary Clinton contributed to her own loss, for being a terrible candidate. Saying that Assange bears some responsibility is completely ridiculous

If she was such a terrible candidate why did she get the popular vote @rockfan? If it wasn’t for the electoral college she’d be our president to today and things would be so much better.

Because many people who voted for her didn’t like her that much, politically speaking. Including me.

She wasn’t my first choice, either. Not sure who was , honestly. A lot of it is Obama would be a hard act to follow, but t I wasn’t going to be stupid. And I don’t think she was a horrible candidate.

Hillary is hawkish with the military and wouldn’t have done anything to improve the terrible healthcare system we have right now. She’s also not an advocate to change the corrupting influence of money in politics. She was the ultimate status quo candidate.

She wouldn’t have made health care worse, though. No way would she have wasted millions of dollars trying to dismantle the closest thing we have to universal care.

Hillary, like most of us, began as an idealist, and was brutally punished for the indiscretion. She learned the hard way and nearly too late that there’s really little point in truly defying the corrupt setup, and she damned near missed the boat on escaping the doom of confinement to the upper middle class. Her and her husband’s 30 years of relentless persecution for espousing then progressive measures should remain a lesson for us all. I still don’t trust my own objectivity regarding Hillary, so convinced am I that 30 years of submergence in the legend of unmitigated evil is impossible to shake. The best I can say is that if she were guilty of 1/10th the malfeasance of which she has been accused it is impossible to believe that those exerting such monumental efforts toward her apprehension would come away empty handed 100% of the time. 2 years of Trump investigations—35 indictments and an additional probability of 36 more sealed indictments. 30 years of ceaseless Clinton accusation and investigation resulting in zero, zilch, nada, NOTHING. In the end, you bitch all you want about the negatives with which we are deluged regarding the woman and her husband. But there is absolutely no disputing the fact that she is exquisitely adapted to the current political corruption, and remains one skilled, intelligent and dynamic politician. Credit where fkn credit is due.

@stanleybmanly They rigged the fucking primaries. That action disenfranchised a huge swath of the Democratic electorate, and ultimately resulted in Trump’s election. She’s a fucking monster.

Assange must pay the piper. The Russians, Chinese and every intelligence service hostile to our own has reaped a bounty beyond imagining from the man and his actions. He effectively deprived himself of a life the moment he turned the corner on the revelation of state secrets, and the judgement of hero or villain is a matter for history and unlikey for resolution. For my money, his saga and ensuing revelations merely confirm the views of cynics of all stripes on the degree to which we can trust and believe in our government. In any event, his miseries must only intensify, and the greatest security risk regarding the man now is the likelihood of his arrival at the realization of suicide as his most pleasant prospect.

If Assange leaked secrets on everyone, I would have no problem with him, but he leaked material on Clinton and nothing on Trump. That he seems to have ties to the Russians is disturbing. I held my nose voting for Clinton, but this goes beyond a single candidate.

@LostInParadise Blaming Assange and Russia for the evil shit Clinton was doing is a technique that the establishment has used to deflect from the reality that establishment/status quo policies are incredibly unpopular. Neoliberal policy sucks, it hurts Americans and is a betrayal of what the Democratic party used to stand for.

FDR’s policies worked. They were phenomenal for economic growth and building a strong American middle class. Republicans and Neoliberals have sold out to corporate donors, and the American middle class has slipped into debt and poverty as a result. We’ve been sold out by people like Clinton and her husband. But let’s blame Putin…

@stanleybmanly thank you for that. That is exactly how I feel, but I don’t have any where near the political acumen that you have.
She would have made an acceptable president.

I keep hearing the word “evil” applied to Clinton, but no one has ever explained exactly how she got such a label. What did she (they) do?

@Dutchess_III Give this a read and then we’ll talk.

@gorillapaws I disagree on that monster judgement. She played the hand she was dealt. The deck was crooked? For Christ’s sake—it’s the Democratic party we’re talking about here! Clinton took a pass and her acquiesence to the black man came with the implicit promise that she would be next. Not only was it her turn, but the threat from an outsider implicitly wired to dirupt the cozy setup rewarding the towing of the line was not to be tolerated. The rest of us have no business being idealists either. The party, Clinton, and everyone else simply unerestimated the extent of the numbers in the country susceptible to cognitive insufficiencies when frustrated.

@Dutchess_III: “I keep hearing the word “evil” applied to Clinton, but no one has ever explained exactly how she got such a label. What did she (they) do?”

We’ve explained this many times. A few months ago, you asked basically the same question and I responded with a couple of reasons. But one thing to keep in mind is that if dislike Trump, you’d probably describe the person who gave him to us as something resembling “evil”, right?

It won’t open @gorillapaws. :( I tried opening in a new tab but it just comes up blank.

I’ll look at your stuff again @hmmmmmm.

@Dutchess_III @gorillapaws’ link is a downloadable PDF.

I understand that @rebbel, but it doesn’t take me to the PDF, just a blank, white page. I had some trouble with that with a PDF KNOWITALL posted for me a couple of days ago. I couldn’t open it on my desk top, but found I could on my phone,but I couldn’t read it very well there. She ended up copying and pasting the text, but then got modded for it. But I read it first.

@hmmmmmm, yes I remember those comments. I don’t consider them “evil.” They’re just politics that you don’t agree with.
“Evil” is what trump does to the immigrants and their children at the border.

@Dutchess_III Try right clicking on the link and doing a “save as” on it.

That worked. Thanks.
See ya in a bit.

@stanleybmanly “The deck was crooked? For Christ’s sake—it’s the Democratic party we’re talking about here! ”

She’s a big part of the reason WHY the deck was crooked. Her campaign took over the DNC itself. The DNC had to run decisions by Clinton’s campaign before making them. Donna Brazile explained what went down.

That is a lot to pull apart and track down, @gorillapaws. For example: ”An example of the difficulties experienced in the New York primary were reflected in information provided before the election on the EJUSA web portal by Queens resident Alba Guerrero. She had registered to vote for the first time as a Democrat, and voted for Barack Obama in 2008. When she moved from Manhattan to Queens, she re-registered at the DMV. She checked on line over a month before the 2016 primary to be sure she was registered at her new address, but when she arrived at her polling place she was told she had been registered as a Republican since 2004.” 2004.

First, if she was registered as a Republican since 2004, how did she vote for Obama in 2008?

And second, Why is that being laid at Clinton’s feet and not on Obama?

@Dutchess_III Yes it’s a lot to track down. Pay close attention to the Section D where it talks about the voting machine discrepancies. I’m convinced that the machines were interfered with.

The people running the election edited people’s registrations. They had ties to Clinton. The NY Board of Elections admitted they broke the law in the primaries.

“The New York City Board of Elections is admitting it broke state and federal law when it improperly removed voters from the rolls ahead of the presidential primary last spring…” “Last spring” was referring to the 2016 election. Who was guilty of tampering the rolls in 2004?

Where does it state why they did it? I followed a link in the article takes me Here. 60,000 Democrats were removed from the polls. So how does that tie in with Clinton? Seems to me that helps trump.

I’m not trying to be argumentative. I just don’t want to get into a situation where I’m trying to address 50 things in one thread creating a wall of text that just gets confusing and mad.

@Dutchess_III “Who was guilty of tampering the rolls in 2004?”

Nobody. In 2015, someone edited the registration and backdated the change to 2004.

He looks like Theresa May with a beard, reason enough for an arrest…good riddance.

I see @gorillapaws. Thanks.

How did removing 60,000 Dems from the rolls help Clinton?

@Dutchess_III It was double that number in Brooklyn. Bernie was from Brooklyn and had a huge base of support there. Also, that’s not even including the number of people who claim their registration was changed.

This Article covers the timeline.

I see.
Well, it specified 60,000 in Brooklyn.

Hillary’s campaign headquarters was there too.

If there was foul play, what evidence is there that she knew about it and approved of it?

And could messing with 60,000 votes in Brooklyn actually sway the entire election through out the entire country?

@gorillapaws Thank you for the excellent link of Brazile’s expose’ of the Clinton campaign’s successful wrangling of the Democratic party. Again, I ask you to step back and consider what those revelations tell you about Clinton and her campaign as well as Braziel, another idealist still convinced that justice must prevail in a bottom line world. Perhaps I can save time in our discussion by asking you what alternative was available to Clinton and her campaign regarding the election and the then pending bankruptcy of her party. As I said before, both Clintons came late to the actual recognition of the REAL significance of money in our body politic, but have more than amply demonstrated the necessary mastery of the topic since. The enslavement of most of us to the requirement is a joke compared to those engaged in politics, and it matters not the level of idealism applied to whatever cause if the cure involves circumventing the irresistible force of money. Justice is all but impossible and becomes ever more elusive with each passing day. Even those most clearly engaged in defeating the starkest of evils, are fighting what amounts to delaying tactics and should be deemed credible only to the extent they are willing to admit it.

@Dutchess “If there was foul play, what evidence is there that she knew about it and approved of it?”

For one thing, a woman named Diane Haslett-Rudiano sold her rat-infested house in 2014 for a dramatically over-inflated amount of $6.6 million. It wasn’t even on the market. It was bought by the daughter of superdelegate and huge Clinton supporter, Nita Lowey. Later, Haslett-Rudiano is suspended for purging the Brooklyn roster.

Then you have a huge Clinton supporter named Frank Seddio that hires a clerk named Betty Ann Canizio. Canizio is suspended for her role in the Brooklyn purge. None of that even includes the widespread claims of people’s registration being changed, that’s just the ones who were purged.

“And could messing with 60,000 votes in Brooklyn actually sway the entire election through out the entire country?”

There is so much more to the report than just the shenanigans in Brooklyn. Particularly damning is Part 2, Section D that begins on page 36. Basically Clinton consistently beat Bernie in cities/counties by numbers that were much larger than the exit polls (which is pretty much impossible without fraud). Interestingly This error was only ever in Clinton’s favor and it only happens in cities/counties with electronic voting machines.

As for whether it could have changed the outcome:

“Election Justice USA has established an upper estimate of 184 pledged delegates lost by Senator Bernie Sanders as a consequence of specific irregularities and instances of fraud. Adding these delegates to Senator Sanders’ pledged delegate total and subtracting the same number from Hillary Clinton’s total would more than erase the 359 pledged delegate gap between the two candidates.”

@stanleybmanly “Braziel, another idealist still convinced that justice must prevail in a bottom line world.”

I would hardly characterize Braziel as an “idealist.” She helped Clinton cheat in the debate by giving her a question ahead of time after all. This was revealed by Wikileaks. I don’t think anyone would argue that this was Putin or Assange’s fault.

Also, let’s not pretend that the DNC got itself into trouble and then was happily rescued by Hillary and her gang. The DNC was being lead by Debbie Wassermann Schultz—Clinton’s former national campaign co-chair, and the woman whose Wikileaked emails proved that she was unfairly helping Clinton in the primaries and ended up resigning as a result. Schultz, who likely rigged her own election in Florida btw, was almost certainly acting on behalf of Clinton when she manufactured the crisis that Clinton “solved.” Remember the “solution” created a tool for large donors to bypass election donation limits.

Also, let’s not forget that Clinton believes in rigging elections when she feels it’s appropriate:

”And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win”

Q: Any comments on Julian Assange’s arrest this morning in London?

A: He had it coming. Long overdue.

To those that support the arrest of Assange – why is this?

I see him as a spy dealing in top secret information to the highest bidder.

^ Specifically, what do you believe that he did that was (and should be) illegal, and is this what he’s currently being charged with?

He divulged state secrets by releasing (to the public and other entities) information that was not his to release. If he didn’t divulge the information directly, he did so indirectly, aiding and abetting, knowingly full well the sensitivity of what was being released.

^ What did he release specifically? And are you opposed to press freedom in general, or just in this case?

Honesty is always the best policy. But some things are better left unsaid. This second part is especially true when the information is not the teller’s to tell.
The rest of your questions can be answered by watching the national news.

@kritiper: “Honesty is always the best policy. But some things are better left unsaid. This second part is especially true when the information is not the teller’s to tell.”

What does this mean? Does a journalist have a responsibility to only publish information that has been provided through official channels? In other words, is a journalist merely someone whose job is to publish government-approved press releases?

@kritiper: “The rest of your questions can be answered by watching the national news.”

It clearly cannot. I’m asking if you if you support press freedom in general, but feel that this is an exception. And I have asked you what you feel he did that was illegal, whether you feel it should be, and whether you feel that the charges being brought against him address your specific concerns.

@gorillapaws, Since I couldn’t read the post to your link without paying, I went searching and found this.
To verify that source I Goggled the address, 118 West 76th Street, and The “Rat infested house” is now for sale for $16 million. That is a good article explaining the relationship between buyer and seller.

Continuing through your post now….

Oh…this, from the article above “If Lowey wanted to influence the election, would she really go through her daughter, considering the risk that would pose if she was caught?

Her daughter, Dana Lowey Luttway, is no stranger to the real estate market. She has had a reputation as a skilled house-flipper since 1984, owns her own real estate company and has pulled off multiple deals like this one.”

”In one sense, the magnitude and consistency of red shifts in the 2016 general Presidential election was far less impressive than the red shifts seen in the 2004 Presidential election or the 2016 Democratic primaries. Exit polls predicted a Clinton margin of 3.2 percent nationally, while she won the popular vote by a little less, 2.1 percent. So the red shift for the national popular vote was only 1.1 percent. However, much larger red shifts occurred in four of the five largest swing states, and a fifth swing state (Michigan) demonstrated a smaller red shift that could have made the difference, as follows:” Here is the link to the source

I am having a hard time finding the evidence for exit poll discrepancies for the 2004 election, but I’ll keep looking.

I was guilty of contributing to the derailment of this conversation, and now I regret it. Looks like we won’t really have a discussion about Assange without a new thread, which I might start.

What more is there to say about him?