192
   

monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

 
 
oralloy
 
  -2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:05 pm
@Brand X,
@ggreenwald wrote:
The @ACLU's point is vital: if the US can force the arrest and then extradite foreigners like Assange on foreign soil for publishing docs, what prevents China or Iran or, you know, Russia for doing the same to US journalists who publish secrets about them?

Nothing stops it now. Putin in particular already assassinates people all around the globe.
0 Replies
 
oralloy
 
  -2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:06 pm
@izzythepush,
izzythepush wrote:
Powerful women are a huge threat to the frightened little men who voted for Trump.

A huge threat to frightened little men on the left too. Look at the way they attacked Sarah Palin.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:07 pm
@oralloy,
A plaintiff has requested that Sweden’s investigation into rape allegations against Assange should be resumed, Sweden’s prosecution service said today.

The statute of limitations on the allegations run out in mid-August 2020.

georgeob1
 
  1  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:13 pm
@MontereyJack,
MontereyJack wrote:

Congress has had the power ro release tax returns since the aftermath of the Teapot Dome scandal, ca. 1924. You're a bit late to the party.


I don't believe that, and if it was true Nadler would have cited the law by now: he hasn't done so. Indeed this would be a usurpation of both the judicial and Executive branch powers by the Legislature, and likely unconstitutional.. Can you provide a specific reference or are you merely pulling stuff out of your ass?
oralloy
 
  -2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:13 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
Walter Hinteler wrote:
A plaintiff has requested that Sweden’s investigation into rape allegations against Assange should be resumed, Sweden’s prosecution service said today.

The statute of limitations on the allegations run out in mid-August 2020.

http://news.cision.com/se/aklagarmyndigheten/r/uppdatering-i-assangearendet,c2787361

Outstanding news! Very Happy

Thanks for sharing it.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  0  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:45 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
They are going to persecute him until he dies—unless the people rise up.

He revealed the truth about things people in this world should’ve considered critical information. The criminals he uncovered should all be in jail, but since the criminals were millionaires and world leaders, HE is being lynched by their puppets.

The world is fucked beyond recognition. Nobody even pretends veracity anymore.

If I live long enough - or if this new fascism evolves a bit quicker than I anticipate - I’ll be dragged out of my home because of posts like this.

#bernie2020
roger
 
  2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:55 pm
@blatham,
blatham wrote:

Well, that's the thing. Is it more likely, now that I've written that post, that a cartoon safe will fall on any of these folks? Will there be backrooms filled with cartoon moving-company employees plotting squshing our friends as flat as hammered **** because I've inspired them?


You finally got it!
oralloy
 
  -3  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 02:56 pm
@Lash,
Lash wrote:
He revealed the truth about things people in this world should’ve considered critical information.

How is "the identity of underground democracy advocates in dictatorships around the world" critical information?


Lash wrote:
The criminals he uncovered should all be in jail, but since the criminals were millionaires and world leaders, HE is being lynched by their puppets.

Assange did not expose any crimes -- at least, not when it came to the actions of US officials.
0 Replies
 
oralloy
 
  -2  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 04:25 pm
March 8, 2019
Chelsea Manning jailed for refusing to testify on WikiLeaks
http://apnews.com/569631f2b11c400cac05a29e0853624b

April 1, 2019
Chelsea Manning seeks immediate release from Virginia jail
http://apnews.com/59b824cccfee4d39ba0070a3137791a3
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  1  
Thu 11 Apr, 2019 05:41 pm
@roger,
Sorry it took me so long. By way of making up for my causing you this extra trouble, let me inform you that there might be a cartoon boxing alligator (puffy chest, horizontally striped shirt, bowler hat, stogie out the side of his mouth) living down in your toilet and who only comes out when things turn suddenly dark.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 12:54 am
@blatham,
He has his own song, just sing Bog Crocodile to Neal Diamonds' Sweet Caroline

Bog Crocodile dah dah dah
He's got a puffy chest.

He gave Roger piles dah dah dah
When he punched him in his nest.


This **** just writes itself, and later on today you'll find yourself singing it.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 01:25 am
I'm with Jez on this. Once Assange has served his sentence for breaking UK laws he should either be sent back to Australia, or extradited to Sweden if they still want to prosecute, but only if they give cast iron assurances he won't be sent to the US.

Quote:
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said the UK government should not extradite Julian Assange to the US, where he faces a computer hacking charge.

The Wikileaks co-founder was arrested for a separate charge at Ecuador's London embassy on Thursday, where he had been granted asylum since 2012.

Mr Corbyn said Assange should not be extradited "for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan".

Meanwhile, Ecuador's leader expressed anger at how Assange had behaved.

Australian-born Assange, 47, sought refuge in the Knightsbridge embassy seven years ago, to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that has since been dropped. But Ecuador abruptly withdrew its asylum and invited the police to arrest Assange on Thursday.

After his dramatic arrest, he was taken to Westminster Magistrates' Court and found guilty of a British charge of breaching bail. He spent Thursday night in custody and is facing up to 12 months in prison for that conviction.

Earlier in the House of Commons, Labour's shadow home secretary Diane Abbott questioned the US government's motivation for charging Assange. She said: "Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect US national security. He is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by US administrations."

The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Landale said backing Assange is not without political risk and will not find universal favour among Labour MPs - but Mr Corbyn's intervention "means the battle over Assange's future will now be as much political as it is legal".


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47904837

More at link. I still think Assange is a narcissistic arsehole.
oralloy
 
  -3  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 01:42 am
@izzythepush,
izzythepush wrote:
Once Assange has served his sentence for breaking UK laws he should either be sent back to Australia, or extradited to Sweden if they still want to prosecute, but only if they give cast iron assurances he won't be sent to the US.

I think the charges in Sweden should take precedence over the US. They are much more serious offenses. But the US has a right to prosecute him too after he has faced justice in Sweden.

If any countries choose to shield criminals from American justice, the US government should follow Putin's lead and assassinate those criminals in whatever country they are hiding in.

And perhaps we could be a bit more sloppy about collateral damage than Putin is.


Quote:
Mr Corbyn said Assange should not be extradited "for exposing evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan".

There is little chance of that. Assange has never exposed evidence of a single American atrocity anywhere.

About the only thing that he exposed was the identity of underground democracy advocates in dictatorships around the world.


Quote:
Earlier in the House of Commons, Labour's shadow home secretary Diane Abbott questioned the US government's motivation for charging Assange. She said: "Julian Assange is not being pursued to protect US national security. He is being pursued because he has exposed wrongdoing by US administrations."

Assange has never exposed any wrongdoing by any US administration.
0 Replies
 
FreedomEyeLove
 
  -2  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 02:32 am
hightor
 
  3  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 02:57 am
“It Looks Bad. It Smells Bad. It Is Bad”: Democrats Are Digging into Kushner’s Cozy Relationship with M.B.S.

Quote:
There was some confusion inside the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh before Jared Kushner arrived in Saudi Arabia in February. Washington was still reeling from the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi, which had thrown an unexpected wrench into an already tense U.S.-Saudi relationship, and diplomats were still navigating the aftershocks. Ordinarily, embassy staff would be intimately involved in organizing the details of such a trip. But Kushner’s schedule with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was largely a mystery. In fact, a source familiar with the planning told me, the royal court, not the U.S. Embassy, was arranging Kushner’s itinerary. According to the source, an embassy notetaker was also not present in Kushner’s meetings with King Salman and the crown prince, nor was the embassy briefed on what the president’s son-in-law discussed behind closed doors.

The semi-surreptitious visit is the most recent of several remarkable episodes involving Kushner that are now being investigated by congressional Democrats. Their guiding hypothesis is that Kushner’s diplomatic naïveté and close relationship with bin Salman, better known as M.B.S., might put U.S. national security at risk. “I’m not only troubled—I am stunned by the friendship,” Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern told me. “It looks bad. It smells bad. It is bad.”

The Kushner-M.B.S. bromance, which has been a source of intrigue and consternation dating back to the earliest days of Donald Trump’s presidency, is of particular interest to Congressman Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. At the end of last month, Engel sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting documents and records related to Kushner’s February trip to Saudi Arabia, including any “handwritten notes” related to any meetings attended by Brian Hook, the sole State Department official included in Kushner’s delegation. The goal, a congressional staffer told me, is to glean any insight into what Kushner discussed with M.B.S. and other foreign officials.

The State Department missed the deadline this past Friday to provide the information and documents requested by the committee, according to the first congressional source. In a statement to the Daily Beast, which first reported that the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh had been left in the dark about Kushner’s trip, a senior administration official said, “This reporting is not true, and the sources are misinformed.”

On Capitol Hill, however, concerns about Kushner’s diplomatic freelancing are widespread. “I think people deal with him because he is the president’s son-in-law,” a second congressional aide told me. But that familial back channel to Trump also leaves the U.S. government vulnerable. As The New York Times has reported, M.B.S. marked Kushner early on as a potentially malleable asset for advancing Saudi interests in Washington. “[Trump’s] inner circle is predominantly deal makers who lack familiarity with political customs and deep institutions, and they support Jared Kushner,” a delegation of Saudi officials, sent to the U.S. in November 2016, wrote in a slide presentation obtained by the Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar. The Saudi crown prince later boasted that he had Kushner “in his pocket,” according to the Intercept.

“No one is impressed that he is friends with M.B.S. No one cares. It is a bad thing,” the second congressional aide said, adding that Kushner’s trust in the crown prince makes him look “completely out of his depth.” Shortly after Kushner’s first surprise trip to Saudi Arabia, for instance, in October 2017, M.B.S. initiated a sweeping crackdown on his political rivals, imprisoning more than 30 Saudi elites at the Ritz-Carlton, reportedly torturing some of them, and allegedly kidnapping Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. (The Saudi government has denied allegations of torture and abuse during the “anti-corruption proceedings.”) Defenders of the U.S.-Saudi alliance, including Kushner, Trump, and Pompeo, argue that these are the realpolitik costs of containing Iran and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But critics of the administration say the White House is getting played. “[A relationship with M.B.S.] does not mean that you are going to be the guy who is going to bring Middle East peace,” the congressional aide said. “It is an embarrassment.”

As is the case with his father-in-law, Kushner’s reluctance to provide a window into his interactions with M.B.S. has raised questions as to what, if anything, he may be trying to hide. Some Democrats have pointed to Kushner family businesses, including Thrive Capital and Cadre, that courted Saudi money. Others have highlighted financial entanglements, including the Kushner family’s underwater mortgage on 666 Fifth Avenue, which was bailed out by a Qatari-connected asset-management company in August. In its sweeping document request to 81 individuals, agencies, and entities earlier this year, the House Judiciary Committee included a request for Kushner to provide information related to his business interests. Last week, House lawmakers launched an investigation into how Kushner obtained a high-level security clearance after reportedly being red-flagged for “significant disqualifying factors” on his résumé.

“This all comes back to giant questions about the president and his family and his business’s conflicts of interest, and to what end policy decisions are being made—whether it is to advance American interests or some other interests,” the first congressional aide told me. “There is this total lack of transparency and lack of understanding about what he is doing, how he is doing it, what his charge is—you know, you name it. He is like an ambassador without a portfolio.”

House Democrats are particularly worried that some of the conversations between Kushner and M.B.S. may have occurred outside of official channels, not only breaking protocol, but potentially leaving the U.S. exposed to unknown security threats. Congressman Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, revealed in a letter last month that his panel is investigating whether Kushner may have violated the Presidential Records Act by using the encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders. (The White House did not respond to a request for comment.)

As I have previously reported, Kushner’s use of WhatsApp to communicate with M.B.S. has been a point of contention within the administration. According to one former administration official, H.R. McMaster, Trump’s former national-security adviser, raised his concerns with Kushner, who eventually began providing screenshots of his conversations with M.B.S. Even after Kushner made this shift, however, it was still unclear whether he was providing the entirety of the conversations to the National Security Council. “I don’t think it was their entire conversation. He would selectively send things,” the official explained, noting that Kushner may have just been providing exchanges of substance. “You would see the screenshots. You would see that there were things above and below it that you hadn’t seen earlier. So it is definitely not all-encompassing . . . Undoubtedly, it would be beneficial to the U.S. government to have a full picture of how these conversations were going.”

Few Democrats are inclined to give Kushner the benefit of the doubt. “I don’t trust this president, or anybody who works with him. These people lie every single day—and multiple times a day. I wouldn’t trust them to tell me the correct time, never mind turn over screenshots of what was sent to the Saudi crown prince or anybody else,” Congressman McGovern told me. “I think their M.O. is to do things that are wrong and inappropriate, and lie about it. And if they get found out, they lie about it even more.”

vf
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  1  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 05:58 am
@izzythepush,
I almost like your idea, izzy. The negative element is Neil Diamond's music.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 06:09 am
@blatham,
There's a lot worse than him. I wouldn't buy any of his stuff, but I won't rush to turn off the radio if he comes on.

Listen to this and Neil Diamond suddenly sounds really good.

Baldimo
 
  -2  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 09:31 am
@FreedomEyeLove,
Tim Pool is the reason I now see a difference between liberals and leftists, he calls out the regressive leftists for what they are, liars and authoritarians.
MontereyJack
 
  3  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 09:33 am
@Baldimo,
Nonsense.
Baldimo
 
  0  
Fri 12 Apr, 2019 09:46 am
@MontereyJack,
You ever seen a Tim Pool video?
 

Related Topics

Obama '08? - Discussion by sozobe
Let's get rid of the Electoral College - Discussion by Robert Gentel
McCain's VP: - Discussion by Cycloptichorn
The 2008 Democrat Convention - Discussion by Lash
McCain is blowing his election chances. - Discussion by McGentrix
Snowdon is a dummy - Discussion by cicerone imposter
Food Stamp Turkeys - Discussion by H2O MAN
TEA PARTY TO AMERICA: NOW WHAT?! - Discussion by farmerman
 
Copyright © 2025 MadLab, LLC :: Terms of Service :: Privacy Policy :: Page generated in 0.47 seconds on 07/10/2025 at 03:00:28