Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 2:57am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Ah the Agiza case, it always gets held up as some kind of weird justification. "
For a reason. Here in Sweden it made a lot of waves.
"So, they were asylum seekers, which failed (one using forged documents) so they were sent back, after getting assurances from Egypt."
Nope. They weren't "sent back". They were handed over to american agents and transported via a chartered private jet courtesy of the US government.
Later investigations by the UN determined that Sweden had, in fact, violated its obligations and eventually both men were awarded settlements.
I mean, the fact that Sweden violates international convention at the request of foreign powers has been pretty well established. You could argue that the US had threatened sanctions if the extraordinary renditions didn't proceed, but the fact is, Sweden caves every time some big enough bully starts making threats.
We chickened out of opposing Hitler, we chickened out opposing the USSR and we chickened out opposing the USA. Assange may be a douchebag but I have no faith that my country will hesitate for five minutes before putting him on a gulfstream headed across the Atlantic.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 2:31am
Re: 'It's everyone's fault but mine!'
"Yeah Mike, that's why people are distancing themselves from you, an article about how you got frisky with a woman and gave her a drink. Not all the other stuff, just that."
Well, in his defense, in his little world that would be what drives "people" away. Going by his rhetoric the ones who'd be ok with that aren't really people.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 2:29am
Re: Re: the worst kind
"I didn't know there was a specific design."
There actually is. The sex tool industry is well up on ergonomy.
I very much doubt, however, that any conscientious adult store would be carrying goods from Mike Lindell, shame play being a very niched sort of kink.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 1:34am
Re:
"As an employee of state-sponsored/run media, it's in West Taiwan's best interest to present her with the state-approved version of things."
Which is made all the easier since in China, for about 90% of the citizenry, things are pretty good. It's that old imperial model well known in the west as the rule of bread and games. Keep the majority of the citizenry happy and you can do whatever you want with the dissidents and the ones falling between the cracks because revolutions won't start when Life Is Good for Zhang San.
"I got their money, a free trip, got to meet some nice people, and I'll be telling the truth about how sh-tty West Taiwan is because it's pretty bad.""
Which also plays right into the hands of chinese PR because you won't ever have seen something bad to mention despite criss-crossing the country and a hundred other influencers will just call you an anti-sino bigot with a hateboner against asians...without the chinese Ministry of Truth even raising a finger. Before you know it the US blogosphere will imply you were the guy handing the gun to Robert Aaron Long of the Atlanta Spa shootings.
No, if you want to get to China you need to stick with the hard facts because unlike the USSR the chinese spin doctors mix their PR with a lot of truth to make the medicine go down easier.
That means it's counterproductive calling Taiwan "China" - when there are 1,4 billion chinese claiming otherwise against Taiwan's 23 million. I mean if we're claiming democracy here we might not get away with claiming 1,6% of the citizenry should determine which area gets to inherit the name of the country.
Similarly we can't claim the chinese majority citizenry suffers. They don't. The vast majority of them is just A-OK with their government being an ultra-authoritarian bureaucracy/dictatorship because their living standard and purchasing power keeps rising, their kids all go to school, and the global economy is point proof their colleges aren't exactly substandard third world soviet knockoffs.
Stick with the parts where China doesn't have a leg to stand on. Even Xinjiang and Hong Kong are subject to gaslighting given the history of both areas.
Personally I'd say the one place where China literally can't make any claim of reason is Tibet. Tibet has a long history of not being a traditional part of Hua Xia and when tibetan dissidents have the habit of publicly setting themselves on fire as a means of protest you know things are bad.
Xinjiang, otoh, has been in a tug-of-war between chinese empires and warlord predecessors of mongols and turks for about two thousand years - and later on their independence movements were allied to Stalin in the 50's and Al-Quaeda/Daesch in modern times, effectively making western political intervention impossible - because all China needs to do when questioned about it is to reply "So, tell me about Iraq and Afghanistan" and the US falls conspicuously silent.
Hong Kong was extorted from China by british drug lords in the 18th century, again making it difficult to claim high ground.
And to top it off the west can't sanction China that much either - because for the last 40 years we've moved all our manufacturing there to the effect that any harm caused to their economy instantly rebounds to ours.
China won. Game, set and match. All that's left is for them to sanitize their image to save face. That at least we can prevent. But we're going to have to be smart about it and take the wins we can, because there'll be a thousand well-paid voices calling bullshit on every assertion against them.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 12:52am
Re:
"Following the Russian psyops model, but with their own spin, I see."
With one vital difference - The russian model was by far more clumsy. Everyone could see the USSR falling apart since they actually tried to be communist.
China, otoh, wears communism as flimsy window dressing while running a marketplace more red in tooth and claw than the US these days and have a large proportion of their citizenry catapulted from impoverished lower class to prosperous middle class to use as a backdrop for their spin.
That means the underlying message is "Our Country Works". After that it's just a matter of spinning the criticisms into silence through massive obfuscation and swarms of red herring. The best lie is the one with a good deal of truth in it, after all.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 12:43am
Re: Good for Hampton
"If far too many people won't listen to sex workers, won't they at least listen to recovering substance abusers?"
Probably not. You know the conservative values of today; "Compassion is for the weak, whores and junkies have themselves to blame. They should all just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and can rejoin civilized society after they've dealt with their own problems...because Fuck You, Got Mine and Who Gives A Shit About Other People" is what they live by these days.
With 25% of the US population willing to suffer grievous personal harm as long as it means some liberal or other is owned I suspect any legislation or policy with actual humanitarian intent will be shouted down by aggrieved hysterics trying to portray helping sex workers as an attempt to sell the children of honest americans into trafficking.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 12:33am
Re: Re: FCC, FAA, and focus
"That is the reason they should be forthcoming with their evidence of potential harm."
As Tknarr has it, the FAA operates on a whitelist. The Napoleonic code, if you will. Their job description is literally to make sure every technology used within their bailiwick is proven safe beyond reasonable doubt.
That being the case when new tech is introduced their job is actually to say "You say this is safe? Prove it". Not for them to produce indications that it's unsafe.
Objectively they have a point. Tech suppliers and OEM's have been known to cut corners in myriads of "interesting" ways.
Also objectively; it's still true that the FAA is a bureaucratic mini-empire, a state within the state and that being the case there will be bosses whose primary motivation is to flex.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 16 Dec 2021 @ 12:24am
Re: Re:
"True, but there's levels of badness."
...which only need to be applied because the banks are competitively desperate to gain more users of their services and as a result increasingly on convenient and cheap while sacrificing security. The golden rule of the security triangle still applies and customer-centric businesses have always opted to expose their customers to greater risk as a result.
This just reminds me of the old credit card scandal in the 90's, when anyone could apply for a credit card and the banks would simply send one to the address provided. As a result of which scammers sent in hundreds of applications and then followed the mailman through the neighborhoods, lifting the envelope with the fresh card from the mailbox before the home owner whose name was on the card could do anything about it.
The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history, and all that.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:31am
Re: Re: Mirror, mirror...
"A majority of American voters chose to demonstrate the truth of Plato's saying about those too lazy to engage in politics".
FTFY.
When one of the most important elections this side of WW2 was held the US could barely muster a 67% turnout.
And you can bet most of the stay-at-homes were progressives because the MAGA crowd would have pawned their testicles and firstborn for a chance to own the libs.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:28am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Sucks to be Turkish
[Addendum and TL;DR]
The US could have landslided the GOP right out of every office in the land plenty of times. Yet the voters chose not to. Because they drank the kool-aid, listened to the fear, were too lazy to vote, stayed at home come election. Etc.
Even the ones stating they don't want to vote for a crook and abstain aren't excused because when the choice stands between a crook and a monster it should be a no-brainer where you need to go.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:25am
Re: Re: Re: Sucks to be Turkish
"Got to love the "we get the government we deserve" people."
Well, in even a Miminal democracy that's the way it works. The most important election in the US, in recent times, was 2020. Barely 67% turnout of eligible voters.
If every liberal, progressive, or non-deranged person in the US showed up at the ballots with good preparation in 2022 the republicans would nary have a single representative to their name. But they won't.
Meanwhile the 25% still voting GOP will turn up to own the libs if they have to crawl over two miles of broken glass to get there.
So tell me how this isn't the government you deserve? The GOP have won the popular vote only once in the last 40 years, and the one thing democrats never put the work in was fixing that. It's not as if the writing wasn't on the wall long ago on how that side of things intended to win.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:14am
Re:
"So, it takes more time and effort to work out where to view, and to set up an account, etc., even if you're willing to do that when you're already paying for 6 services, than it does to raise the Jolly Roger."
It's absolutely amazing how much work it takes to persuade copyright cultists that it's the inconvenience which is the usual dealbreaker for pirates and not the money. At least for the only ones which are potential customers.
After FSM only knows hos many studies.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:12am
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Nah, the copyright maximalists will live."
Well, the market always has an opening for snake oil miracle doctors, used car salesmen, grifters, con men and televangelists. Any representative of the church of copyright surely has the experience required in running any other cult based on the Prosperity Gospel.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 8:01am
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"So you’re defending a fuckwit like Assange who admitted that he edited the footage to make it as fomenting as possible?"
I'm defending the part of the footage which is incontrovertible and which has been fairly well established - that two american chopper pilots fired a 30 mm at a car containing children to get to a person who was obviously unarmed. The unedited film was also available - and paints just as damning an image in that regard.
After that it really doesn't matter that Assange is a fuckwit.
But let me guess, facts don't matter because you dislike the source.
"And like Trumpers and Q idiots who’ve been given clear evidence that that election footage was edited, you don’t give a shit that Assange edited the footage to paint as dishonest a picture as possible."
You're missing the point. That the unedited imagery is also available. And it presents the exact same situation. Two chopper pilots getting their rocks off killing a guy by firing into a car with children in it.
Assange may be a fuckwit and a douchebag but if I had to make a choice between him and the guy currently trying to explain away child killers then that's a no-brainer.
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 7:49am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"yeah, no, wouldn't have happened."
Easy to say when we have the facts in hand that yes, Sweden does, in fact, bend over backwards and break its own laws in order to shove people on board CIA planes to undeclared destinations at the slightest request of Uncle Sam.
It's an old tradition of Swedish "neutrality". Whenever a large enough neighbor makes a demand, we deliver. Thus why under the second world war we supplied nazi germany with large amounts of steel and allowed unfettered passage of prison trains back and from Norway to pass through swedish territory.
And why we under the cold war persistently supplied intelligence to the US about russian movements in the baltics. Etc.
So I'd posit the other question; Do you have any grounds for your assertion that Sweden would somehow not do what it has always done?
Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 15 Dec 2021 @ 7:38am
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to have a talk with the First Amendm
"First, the Trump Supreme Court is already doing a fine fucking job of burning down our civil liberties. This is about pushing back and saving what’s left so we can try to rebuild our civil liberties after we beat back the rising tide of ignorance and fascism. "
That ship sailed a long time back, when Reagan made compassion and reason an unamerican act and took out of government and citizenry alike any motivation or reason to assign any credibility to common decency, dignity or humanitarian values.
Compounded when GWB became president. Progressives and Liberals alike melted like candles under a blowtorch after 9/11 when the neocons successfully gutted every principle of decency and proportion you guys had in law.
Finally, during all this time, never did democratic voters bother to scour their own party and toss out the bought-and-paid-for sandal bearers and water carriers for the industrial, banking and entertainment lobbies. The reps meanwhile sure did put in the prep work for decades.
Most americans have spent their lives not caring about politics all that much. Never auditing their chosen party or roasting their candidates. You want to push back? Fine. All you need is to get 90% to vote in the upcoming midterms. The house will be left with hardly a single republican. Which will similarly leave Trump - or whatever wannabe Hitler manages to finagle the candidacy from him - steamrolled in 2024.
But it's not going to happen. 2020, when the stakes were as high as they could ever be this side of bloody wartime you could barely muster 67% of eligible voters. Trump may be an inept and unlikable narcissist in way over his ability but if Hitler could swing Germany in 1932 with a mere 12% of the people on his side Trump has a real shot at getting it done 2024 with his 25% of the people.
Yeah, the system is broken...and progressives were sitting on their asses being comfy while it was being taken apart, for decades.
Call me a cynic but until the average american has suffered through some good old honest-to-Cthulhu fascism with one foot in '1984' and the other in 'A Handmaid's Tale' for a few years they aren't going to realize that sitting on their asses thinking it's someone else's problem has very personal consequences.
On the post: UK Court Says US Can Extradite Julian Assange And Prosecute Him For Doing Things Journalists Do
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Ah the Agiza case, it always gets held up as some kind of weird justification. "
For a reason. Here in Sweden it made a lot of waves.
"So, they were asylum seekers, which failed (one using forged documents) so they were sent back, after getting assurances from Egypt."
Nope. They weren't "sent back". They were handed over to american agents and transported via a chartered private jet courtesy of the US government.
Later investigations by the UN determined that Sweden had, in fact, violated its obligations and eventually both men were awarded settlements.
I mean, the fact that Sweden violates international convention at the request of foreign powers has been pretty well established. You could argue that the US had threatened sanctions if the extraordinary renditions didn't proceed, but the fact is, Sweden caves every time some big enough bully starts making threats.
We chickened out of opposing Hitler, we chickened out opposing the USSR and we chickened out opposing the USA. Assange may be a douchebag but I have no faith that my country will hesitate for five minutes before putting him on a gulfstream headed across the Atlantic.
On the post: Court Tells MyPillow CEO That Allegedly Dating An Actress And Buying Her Alcohol Isn't Defamatory
Re: 'It's everyone's fault but mine!'
"Yeah Mike, that's why people are distancing themselves from you, an article about how you got frisky with a woman and gave her a drink. Not all the other stuff, just that."
Well, in his defense, in his little world that would be what drives "people" away. Going by his rhetoric the ones who'd be ok with that aren't really people.
On the post: Court Tells MyPillow CEO That Allegedly Dating An Actress And Buying Her Alcohol Isn't Defamatory
Re: Re: the worst kind
"I didn't know there was a specific design."
There actually is. The sex tool industry is well up on ergonomy.
I very much doubt, however, that any conscientious adult store would be carrying goods from Mike Lindell, shame play being a very niched sort of kink.
On the post: Court Tells MyPillow CEO That Allegedly Dating An Actress And Buying Her Alcohol Isn't Defamatory
Re: Re: Re: Re: You might want to read up on the Catholic view t
""feeling defamed" is not the same as being defamed."
Good thing too. Lindell would have had grounds to sue his own mirror were that the case.
On the post: Court Tells MyPillow CEO That Allegedly Dating An Actress And Buying Her Alcohol Isn't Defamatory
Re: Re: Re: Re: You might want to read up on the Catholic view t
"But what does that mean for pastafarians?"
He's on safe ground as long as he does not covers his neighbors pesto.
Ramen.
On the post: How China Uses Western Influencers As Pawns In Its Propaganda War
Re:
"As an employee of state-sponsored/run media, it's in West Taiwan's best interest to present her with the state-approved version of things."
Which is made all the easier since in China, for about 90% of the citizenry, things are pretty good. It's that old imperial model well known in the west as the rule of bread and games. Keep the majority of the citizenry happy and you can do whatever you want with the dissidents and the ones falling between the cracks because revolutions won't start when Life Is Good for Zhang San.
"I got their money, a free trip, got to meet some nice people, and I'll be telling the truth about how sh-tty West Taiwan is because it's pretty bad.""
Which also plays right into the hands of chinese PR because you won't ever have seen something bad to mention despite criss-crossing the country and a hundred other influencers will just call you an anti-sino bigot with a hateboner against asians...without the chinese Ministry of Truth even raising a finger. Before you know it the US blogosphere will imply you were the guy handing the gun to Robert Aaron Long of the Atlanta Spa shootings.
No, if you want to get to China you need to stick with the hard facts because unlike the USSR the chinese spin doctors mix their PR with a lot of truth to make the medicine go down easier.
That means it's counterproductive calling Taiwan "China" - when there are 1,4 billion chinese claiming otherwise against Taiwan's 23 million. I mean if we're claiming democracy here we might not get away with claiming 1,6% of the citizenry should determine which area gets to inherit the name of the country.
Similarly we can't claim the chinese majority citizenry suffers. They don't. The vast majority of them is just A-OK with their government being an ultra-authoritarian bureaucracy/dictatorship because their living standard and purchasing power keeps rising, their kids all go to school, and the global economy is point proof their colleges aren't exactly substandard third world soviet knockoffs.
Stick with the parts where China doesn't have a leg to stand on. Even Xinjiang and Hong Kong are subject to gaslighting given the history of both areas.
Personally I'd say the one place where China literally can't make any claim of reason is Tibet. Tibet has a long history of not being a traditional part of Hua Xia and when tibetan dissidents have the habit of publicly setting themselves on fire as a means of protest you know things are bad.
Xinjiang, otoh, has been in a tug-of-war between chinese empires and warlord predecessors of mongols and turks for about two thousand years - and later on their independence movements were allied to Stalin in the 50's and Al-Quaeda/Daesch in modern times, effectively making western political intervention impossible - because all China needs to do when questioned about it is to reply "So, tell me about Iraq and Afghanistan" and the US falls conspicuously silent.
Hong Kong was extorted from China by british drug lords in the 18th century, again making it difficult to claim high ground.
And to top it off the west can't sanction China that much either - because for the last 40 years we've moved all our manufacturing there to the effect that any harm caused to their economy instantly rebounds to ours.
China won. Game, set and match. All that's left is for them to sanitize their image to save face. That at least we can prevent. But we're going to have to be smart about it and take the wins we can, because there'll be a thousand well-paid voices calling bullshit on every assertion against them.
On the post: How China Uses Western Influencers As Pawns In Its Propaganda War
Re:
"Following the Russian psyops model, but with their own spin, I see."
With one vital difference - The russian model was by far more clumsy. Everyone could see the USSR falling apart since they actually tried to be communist.
China, otoh, wears communism as flimsy window dressing while running a marketplace more red in tooth and claw than the US these days and have a large proportion of their citizenry catapulted from impoverished lower class to prosperous middle class to use as a backdrop for their spin.
That means the underlying message is "Our Country Works". After that it's just a matter of spinning the criticisms into silence through massive obfuscation and swarms of red herring. The best lie is the one with a good deal of truth in it, after all.
On the post: How Attacks On Section 230 Could Put Addiction Recovery Efforts At Risk
Re: Good for Hampton
"If far too many people won't listen to sex workers, won't they at least listen to recovering substance abusers?"
Probably not. You know the conservative values of today; "Compassion is for the weak, whores and junkies have themselves to blame. They should all just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and can rejoin civilized society after they've dealt with their own problems...because Fuck You, Got Mine and Who Gives A Shit About Other People" is what they live by these days.
With 25% of the US population willing to suffer grievous personal harm as long as it means some liberal or other is owned I suspect any legislation or policy with actual humanitarian intent will be shouted down by aggrieved hysterics trying to portray helping sex workers as an attempt to sell the children of honest americans into trafficking.
On the post: FAA Ignores FCC, Limits U.S. 5G Over Unsubstantiated Safety Concerns
Re: Re: FCC, FAA, and focus
"That is the reason they should be forthcoming with their evidence of potential harm."
As Tknarr has it, the FAA operates on a whitelist. The Napoleonic code, if you will. Their job description is literally to make sure every technology used within their bailiwick is proven safe beyond reasonable doubt.
That being the case when new tech is introduced their job is actually to say "You say this is safe? Prove it". Not for them to produce indications that it's unsafe.
Objectively they have a point. Tech suppliers and OEM's have been known to cut corners in myriads of "interesting" ways.
Also objectively; it's still true that the FAA is a bureaucratic mini-empire, a state within the state and that being the case there will be bosses whose primary motivation is to flex.
On the post: Banks, ISPs Increasingly Embrace 'Voice Print' Authentication Despite Growing Security Risk
Re: Re:
"True, but there's levels of badness."
...which only need to be applied because the banks are competitively desperate to gain more users of their services and as a result increasingly on convenient and cheap while sacrificing security. The golden rule of the security triangle still applies and customer-centric businesses have always opted to expose their customers to greater risk as a result.
This just reminds me of the old credit card scandal in the 90's, when anyone could apply for a credit card and the banks would simply send one to the address provided. As a result of which scammers sent in hundreds of applications and then followed the mailman through the neighborhoods, lifting the envelope with the fresh card from the mailbox before the home owner whose name was on the card could do anything about it.
The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history, and all that.
On the post: Turkey's Dictator Erdogan, Who Has Sued Thousands Of Critics, Jailed More, Now Claims That 'Social Media' Is A 'Threat To Democracy'
Re: Re: Mirror, mirror...
"A majority of American voters chose to demonstrate the truth of Plato's saying about those too lazy to engage in politics".
FTFY.
When one of the most important elections this side of WW2 was held the US could barely muster a 67% turnout.
And you can bet most of the stay-at-homes were progressives because the MAGA crowd would have pawned their testicles and firstborn for a chance to own the libs.
On the post: Turkey's Dictator Erdogan, Who Has Sued Thousands Of Critics, Jailed More, Now Claims That 'Social Media' Is A 'Threat To Democracy'
Re: Re: Re: Re: Sucks to be Turkish
[Addendum and TL;DR]
The US could have landslided the GOP right out of every office in the land plenty of times. Yet the voters chose not to. Because they drank the kool-aid, listened to the fear, were too lazy to vote, stayed at home come election. Etc.
Even the ones stating they don't want to vote for a crook and abstain aren't excused because when the choice stands between a crook and a monster it should be a no-brainer where you need to go.
On the post: Turkey's Dictator Erdogan, Who Has Sued Thousands Of Critics, Jailed More, Now Claims That 'Social Media' Is A 'Threat To Democracy'
Re: Re: Re: Sucks to be Turkish
"Got to love the "we get the government we deserve" people."
Well, in even a Miminal democracy that's the way it works. The most important election in the US, in recent times, was 2020. Barely 67% turnout of eligible voters.
If every liberal, progressive, or non-deranged person in the US showed up at the ballots with good preparation in 2022 the republicans would nary have a single representative to their name. But they won't.
Meanwhile the 25% still voting GOP will turn up to own the libs if they have to crawl over two miles of broken glass to get there.
So tell me how this isn't the government you deserve? The GOP have won the popular vote only once in the last 40 years, and the one thing democrats never put the work in was fixing that. It's not as if the writing wasn't on the wall long ago on how that side of things intended to win.
On the post: Austin The Latest City To Try And Impose A Netflix Tax
Re: Re: Well, it doesn't exactly come as a surprise.
That only makes it worse, really. Means that shit is happening among texans who are a fair bit sharper than the rest of the knives in that drawer.
I suppose I ought to apologize for assuming that people voting republican these days are dumb.
Nah...I think they get to own that bit.
On the post: EUIPO Study Indicates It's Likely That Piracy Traffic Has Decreased Significantly, Even During The Pandemic
Re:
"So, it takes more time and effort to work out where to view, and to set up an account, etc., even if you're willing to do that when you're already paying for 6 services, than it does to raise the Jolly Roger."
It's absolutely amazing how much work it takes to persuade copyright cultists that it's the inconvenience which is the usual dealbreaker for pirates and not the money. At least for the only ones which are potential customers.
After FSM only knows hos many studies.
On the post: EUIPO Study Indicates It's Likely That Piracy Traffic Has Decreased Significantly, Even During The Pandemic
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"Nah, the copyright maximalists will live."
Well, the market always has an opening for snake oil miracle doctors, used car salesmen, grifters, con men and televangelists. Any representative of the church of copyright surely has the experience required in running any other cult based on the Prosperity Gospel.
On the post: UK Court Says US Can Extradite Julian Assange And Prosecute Him For Doing Things Journalists Do
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Mea Maxima Culpa
Yeah, I mixed the M230 with the M61.
On the post: UK Court Says US Can Extradite Julian Assange And Prosecute Him For Doing Things Journalists Do
Re: Re: Re: Re:
"So you’re defending a fuckwit like Assange who admitted that he edited the footage to make it as fomenting as possible?"
I'm defending the part of the footage which is incontrovertible and which has been fairly well established - that two american chopper pilots fired a 30 mm at a car containing children to get to a person who was obviously unarmed. The unedited film was also available - and paints just as damning an image in that regard.
After that it really doesn't matter that Assange is a fuckwit.
But let me guess, facts don't matter because you dislike the source.
"And like Trumpers and Q idiots who’ve been given clear evidence that that election footage was edited, you don’t give a shit that Assange edited the footage to paint as dishonest a picture as possible."
You're missing the point. That the unedited imagery is also available. And it presents the exact same situation. Two chopper pilots getting their rocks off killing a guy by firing into a car with children in it.
Assange may be a fuckwit and a douchebag but if I had to make a choice between him and the guy currently trying to explain away child killers then that's a no-brainer.
On the post: UK Court Says US Can Extradite Julian Assange And Prosecute Him For Doing Things Journalists Do
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
"yeah, no, wouldn't have happened."
Easy to say when we have the facts in hand that yes, Sweden does, in fact, bend over backwards and break its own laws in order to shove people on board CIA planes to undeclared destinations at the slightest request of Uncle Sam.
It's an old tradition of Swedish "neutrality". Whenever a large enough neighbor makes a demand, we deliver. Thus why under the second world war we supplied nazi germany with large amounts of steel and allowed unfettered passage of prison trains back and from Norway to pass through swedish territory.
And why we under the cold war persistently supplied intelligence to the US about russian movements in the baltics. Etc.
So I'd posit the other question; Do you have any grounds for your assertion that Sweden would somehow not do what it has always done?
On the post: The Bipartisan Attacks On The Internet Are Easily Understood If You Realize They Just Want To Control Speech Online
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: We need to have a talk with the First Amendm
"First, the Trump Supreme Court is already doing a fine fucking job of burning down our civil liberties. This is about pushing back and saving what’s left so we can try to rebuild our civil liberties after we beat back the rising tide of ignorance and fascism. "
That ship sailed a long time back, when Reagan made compassion and reason an unamerican act and took out of government and citizenry alike any motivation or reason to assign any credibility to common decency, dignity or humanitarian values.
Compounded when GWB became president. Progressives and Liberals alike melted like candles under a blowtorch after 9/11 when the neocons successfully gutted every principle of decency and proportion you guys had in law.
Finally, during all this time, never did democratic voters bother to scour their own party and toss out the bought-and-paid-for sandal bearers and water carriers for the industrial, banking and entertainment lobbies. The reps meanwhile sure did put in the prep work for decades.
Most americans have spent their lives not caring about politics all that much. Never auditing their chosen party or roasting their candidates. You want to push back? Fine. All you need is to get 90% to vote in the upcoming midterms. The house will be left with hardly a single republican. Which will similarly leave Trump - or whatever wannabe Hitler manages to finagle the candidacy from him - steamrolled in 2024.
But it's not going to happen. 2020, when the stakes were as high as they could ever be this side of bloody wartime you could barely muster 67% of eligible voters. Trump may be an inept and unlikable narcissist in way over his ability but if Hitler could swing Germany in 1932 with a mere 12% of the people on his side Trump has a real shot at getting it done 2024 with his 25% of the people.
Yeah, the system is broken...and progressives were sitting on their asses being comfy while it was being taken apart, for decades.
Call me a cynic but until the average american has suffered through some good old honest-to-Cthulhu fascism with one foot in '1984' and the other in 'A Handmaid's Tale' for a few years they aren't going to realize that sitting on their asses thinking it's someone else's problem has very personal consequences.
Next >>