Free At Last—-most likely
This will be a reason for great rejoicing. We may see Julian reunited with his family in short order.
Open Thread Jan.4, 2021
This will be a reason for great rejoicing. We may see Julian reunited with his family in short order.
Open Thread Jan.4, 2021
Thank you, NYCVG. Here’s the Guardian’s reporting:
U.K. Judge Blocks Assange’s Extradition to U.S., Citing Mental Health Concerns
I would imagine this story would not play well at TOP.
Who cares what those yahoos and their “fearless” leader think? Haven’t wandered over there in ages, and have no urge to.
I only go their when someone here provides a link, dont wanna give then the clicks but when some here does provide a link its usually worth the read
Right decision ultimately, though pretty scary they were ok with the free-speech implications of sending him to the US.
However, not on press freedom grounds
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/04/huge-relief-british-judge-rejects-trump-administration-attempt-extradite-julian
Duplicate from NY Times above
Assange Wins. The Cost: The Crushing of Press Freedom
This stupid sad tune has been sung for many decades. When, if ever, will it end?
If he goes free, I’ll be worried about an Israeli-style illegal extradition.
Related to the lead of this thread..
How the Pandemic Exposed the Failures of Capital Punishment
Poetic justice if the whole execution team died of Covid.
In light of the ForceTheVote issue that has caused a lot of twitter trolls to come out of the woodworks to sow division while helping neither cause, I point to this handy image create by gov. contractors and leaked by Snowden on how to infiltrate and sow division…
https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
Thank you! seems like they’ve pulled in some actual activists, too.
I don’t understand Dore’s motivations, other than it’s easier to criticize from the cheap seats.
ego gratification: jv degraz saying he’s threatened the Dems more than anyone (ok jv). and $$$$
and jv again: now it’s masks off. this is a favorite of the Dore fans. now even those of us who pointed out his bad behavior have exposed ourselves as soulless creatures who care for no one.
so sad. i guess i’ll quit following some people that were really favorites. i am actually baffled.
i read an article that Trump may have been addicted to having grievances–that constant complaining, i guess (should’ve saved and reread lol) results in a high.
if people didn’t reflect after the whole Bernie thing, that might have played into their wanting to relive the days of the campaign on twitter.
i’m sure Bernie and a lot of us would do things at least somewhat differently if we had it to do over.
or i may be becoming a little more liberal eeek! lol
pb4: you and I have always been liberal. It’s the deliberate FRightwing (successful) misuse of that word that has changed.
it sometimes requires a little effort.
y’all have a good day.
https://www.youtube.com/c/thejimmydoreshow/videos
I was not against ForceTheVote just think it would ultimately just tell us what we know,and dont agree with Dems leading the charge on a #FraudSquad campaign.. seems GOPish, or as I mentioned above.. an opportunity for non vested third parties to cause division.
With Republicans ina civil war over Trump, and leftists now divided over tactics and attacking personalities, centrist Dems are the only ones going into the new year as a coordinated group.
I disagree – what we know is very different from what the public at large knows (see: large percentage of voters thinking Biden supports m4A). The appearance of unity is overrated.
A reasonable interpretation of the situation.
The last few minutes are a good summation and worth viewing.
Actually the whole video is pretty good.
I listened to the first 2 minutes of this video. Had to tune it out when it appeared that he was going to explain why/how the progressive caucus was wrong for voting for Nancy. We all know Nancy is garbage. Today I listened to Cenk’s discussion of this issue which included an analysis of what the PLAN should be to achieve what we want like M4A and GND, etc. I don’t want to listen to any more discussion of why the progressive caucus is a “sell out.” If anyone has listened to the entire video and think I’m missing useful info, let me know. Thx.
You definitely should watch the whole thing. He doesn’t say what you think.
I probably read the Intercept article back in 2014 but it is important in many ways.
I have some comments as I go along, but first how I looked it up.
I use the Chrome browser almost all the time so I typed in the UK group name JTRIG for a search and it came up with Guardian article and other sources. I switched to the Edge browser and brought up the search engine duckgogo which I seldom use although it is on my android cell phone. It had much different results, three videos right at the start. If one wanted to find out more suggest you go there.
***
I copied the diagram above which I will now comment on.
The language of Science is used to persuade. And the intermingling of nature and culture.
Title “fracture” points. Crystals fracture. Glass fractures. Thus the collective is a substance, a thing, that can be broken.
One can view the diagram as a chemical reaction. Various ingredients that can react on the left and ways that the chemicals and partial products can be pulled apart on the right. The term “tension” could be the chemical reactions.
I am not claiming that these comments are correct science, but ways of scientific actions in a stable nature are used in arguments.
The term “tension” in the middle could be mechanical, a spring. How to apply forces to stir things up. Or, in tensile strength, how to pull apart (pull a bar of metal until it breaks) or force to crush a piece of plastic.
On the left is a Force diagram of pushing a group together. Not a group arising from issues, but various forces. Notice that the key term is “shared” the commons. Hence this could be viewed as an assault on the commons. Suprise that a police attack on a protest also brings the group together. A shared experience. Note experience not in the diagram.
On the right hand side a theme is uncertainty and personality.
***
Enough of this wandering around.
As I type this I am reminded of Alistair McIntyre the political philosopher.
In his book After Virtue he makes the claim that the dominant ethical theory is emotivism. Which in a short form says that humans are either thumbs up or thumbs down. If one accepts this theory, one can manipulate anyone. The diagram is about manipulation.
So the marketing manipulation theme of the diagram is OK since humans are there to be manipulated.
The quotations above are from
Political Philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre
The comments above can be summarized as the destruction of politics.
Bruno Latour asked years ago, “is politics possible”?
Language is powerful and like sex can be good and bad
There is an argument against Rhetoric going back to Plato where he puts down the Sophists and their Rhetoric and instead points truth – the forms, math.
in Environmental Humanities and other places, they are about giving voice to non human entities like Water Protectors giving voice to water.
Here is a video by a Turkish scholar who got a PhD in the US on the importance of narrative and giving voice to non humans. What we are trying to do with Bernie is to restore politics by giving voice to humans in order to have democracy, and both humans and non humans to save some semblance of civilization
“Sites of Narrativity”
this shows the importance of language in facing Gaia
Posting some of the other slides here so I have them hosted where I can find them..
Exhibit A:
The UK Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13641184/julian-assange-spy-charges-suicide/
Some positivity on GA
NO counting chickens before they hatch, please.
No chickens. It will come down to how many more Republicans than Dems show up tomorrow. They need a lot more, but anything can happen
GOP Needing a lot more is positive. it’s possible we can pull this out.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-01-04/senate-races-runoffs-georgia-turnout-republicans
tRump’s latest fruitcake rant threatening the GA election officials will only piss off/scare more people into coming out and voting against the GOPuke incumbents. Watch.
Hope so, R’s have an annoying habit of turning out even if its an election for an dog catcher
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/politics/georgia-hancock-county-right-to-vote-senate/index.html
GA Republican civil war right before the election. Perdue is backing Trump in his attacks. This will likely turn off some Republicans who back Raffensperger and Kemp. Not everyone is a Trump cultist. And with Trump not on the ballot, some of them won’t even bother to vote.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/532504-perdue-defends-trump-over-call-pressuring-georgia-secretary-of-state
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/01/04/2021-best-way-fight-neofascist-republicans-fight-neoliberal-democrats?cd-origin=rss
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-google-union/google-employees-form-workers-union-in-united-states-idUSKBN29918A
I have more on this down thread.
https://indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/in-leading-indian-country-s-pandemic-recovery-secretary-haaland-has-an-opportunity-to-shape-a-new-era-of-federal-indian-policy-u39xqtp2sUmQQea4fsrzBw
“Sellout” AOC and other progressives managed to get this through the House.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/opinion/public-housing-faircloth-amendment-repeal.html
i’m on your side this time, jcb. hoping dore and his fans fade away, and the authentic ones reflect and return. they may be right about the “masks off.” their own.
Varshini Prakash
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/climate-biden-green-energy/
Not holding my breath. Joe’s a liar, corrupt to the core, and will have the evil Obama telling him what to do. And it will be a lot closer to “Nothing will fundamentally change.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/mcconnell-trump-senate-election/617539/
Right now in the Senate, it stands 12 contesting, 19 not contesting, and 20 uncommitted.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mcconnell-s-plan-unravels-gop-splinters-over-anti-election-scheme-n1252722
Popcorn time. Cotton came out against contesting
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1346110956078817280?s=20
Cotton just won another 6 years. He’s counting on people’s memories not being that long.
Celebrate! Celebrate! Dance to the Music!
(yes, I’m indulging in schadenfreude)
ohmygod!!!!! i haven’t read anything yet, but thank you for this so much!
Ryan Grim amplifies the point Ro Khanna made in his tweet that PB shared yesterday