Monday, October 17, 2016

The weirdness continues



This Keith Olbermann entry is a real eye-opener -- not so much for what it says about Trump, but for what it reveals about Olbermann, and the conspiracy to take down the first Clinton presidency. Olbermann describes how he was recruited by Laura Ingraham to be the TV voice of that effort -- this, at a time before Olbermann had outed himself as a liberal.

Unstated here, but obvious to anyone who recalls 2008, is the fact that Keith Olbermann used to be a rabid Clintonphobe, which is no doubt the reason why Ingraham chose him for recruitment. These days, Olbermann doesn't like to admit that he was once among those who had a furious knee-jerk reaction to any and all mentions of the name "Clinton."

Remember 2008? Remember how every inane anti-Hillary smear that popped up online would bring forth the cry "Get this to Keith!"? Remember the way Keith transformed his show into a mud catapult? Remember how Keith's derangement became so severe that he eventually issued an on-air desire to see Hillary Clinton murdered?

I do. Sorry Keith, but I will never forget. (Years later, after the shooting of Gabby Giffords, Olbermann eventually apologized for his lapse into anti-Clinton madness.)

The early role of Donald Trump's current campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, is also detailed in this video. I still admire her -- that is, I admire her talent, not her political choices. (Think of the way Patton admired Rommel, or the way that many Union officers admired Lee.)

I'm still worried about this election. Paradoxically, even as Hillary seems to be expanding the list of battleground states, the gap between her and Trump has narrowed. Worse, the email controversy has been revived (see here and here). Although that brouhaha may not matter much to you, do not forget that many of your fellow citizens live in a different media ecosystem.

The latest accusations are all nonsense, of course. Funny thing: Nobody ever talks about the topics of those emails that were supposedly so highly-classified. So far, the most sensitive "classified" message seems to have been piffle concerning the newly-installed leader of Malawi. Every piece of information in that email was available to anyone willing to fire up Google -- which means that the State Department was quite right to question whether it should truly be considered "classified."

Besides, no-one who has followed the controversy is saying that any message was marked as classified in the header, and no-one has claimed that anything was sent by Hillary Clinton.

And that, my friends, is the sole basis for the cries of "Lock her up!" Freakin' Malawi.

How can right-wingers claim that Hillary was the one who endangered national security? It has become painfully obvious that the Trump campaign, working with Wikileaks, has functioned as an arm of the Russian government!

(See the video embedded below. Before you say it: No, I do not agree with the remarks about Crimea; Trump was uncharacteristically correct on that point. Everything else in this presentation seems to be on the mark.)

Moreover, a surprising number of Republicans have suddenly become pro-Putin. Yet they simultaneously decry Hillary Clinton for allegedly revealing incredibly important information (such as that thing about the president of Malawi) to the Russians. Once again, the right-wingers are displaying an uncanny ability to maintain two contradictory positions at the same time.

Assange. A "state actor" -- incorrectly identified as the UK although the actual "actor" seems to have been Ecuador -- cut off Julian Assange's internet access. At the same time, the UK has apparently severed his access to his own bank account.

I am amazed that this step has not been taken heretofore. Assange is not merely exercising his right to free speech. He is using private mail illegally acquired from United States citizens -- not the government: From citizens -- to interfere with our democracy and to hand the White House over to a disastrous, mentally unhinged candidate chosen by Vladimir Putin, who clearly hopes that Donald Trump will ruin our economy and our standing in the world. Sorry, but what Assange has done goes way beyond any reasonable definition of free speech. This is more like espionage -- but even that term does not go far enough. Assange has committed an act of war.

Repeat: Julian Assange has made war against the United States of America, just as Osama Bin Laden did. And he deserves the same end.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Me too it doesn't matter what's he is saying I can't stand his voice. The bitterness from 2008. how can we get rid of it. I don't think even Hillary's presidency can make me forget

Phil Ebersole said...

Julian Assange over the years has enabled people like me to learn the truth about war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and the contents of the nefarious Trans Pacific Partnership, as well as a lot of less (to me) important stuff like the rigged Kenyan elections and the truth behind the Icelandic banking crisis.

More recently he has brought to light stuff about how Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta are working hand in glove with the plutocracy.

What difference does it make what his sources of information were? If the CIA leaked accurate information about Putin's misdeeds (as may have been the case with the Panama Papers), would you refuse to learn about it?

Assange an enemy of the plutocracy and Big Brother government. That means he has lost his freedom and may well lose his life. He's a hero.

Joseph Cannon said...

Phil...? Are you serious?

"What difference does it make what his sources of information were?"

In a previous post, I brought up the example of Watergate. We still don't know what the burglars were looking for, weirdly enough. Let's presume that they found something truly bad. How would you have felt if Nixon used that rationale on the public? "It doesn't matter how we got the information. It doesn't matter that it was a burglary. Look what we found out about McGovern!"

I don't think that argument would have flown. Yet that's the argument you (and Trump) want to proffer right now.

What Wikileaks did in the past is immaterial. At this point, Assange is working at the behest of a foreign power seeking to impose a "leader" on America who is temperamentally unsuited to democracy, and who would end our freedoms the moment he could find a pretext to impose emergency rule. Putin and Assange are doing this precisely because they know that Trump could weaken the US to such an extent that Russia could power forward to "sole superpower" status. If you can't see that this is the goal, look harder.

Assange deserves death. He IS a friend to Big Brother government. He IS a friend to plutocracy. His Big Brother is named Vladimir, and his plutocracy is the Russian oligarchy. Why can't you see that? What's wrong with your eyes?

In previous posts, I've written about "revelations" from the stolen communications that were obviously faked, such as that nonsense about the Clinton Foundation which was so transparently phoney that even Assange and Trump won't touch it. (It was "washed" through Guccifer 2). The fact that some of it was clearly fake calls the whole lot of it into question. If I were Clinton, I would leave a question mark over the whole caboodle for as long as possible.

And nothing I've seen from the Podesta trove has bothered me at all. "Open borders"? She was talking to bankers; she was talking about capital flow. "I'm your representative"? EVERY New York senator is, in a literal sense, the representative of Wall Street.

Beyond that: As I've said many times, words are just words. If Lloyd Blankfein paid me enough money, I'd tell him whatever he wanted to hear. I'd tell him that his penis was so long that I could spy the head peeking out of the hem of his left trouser leg. And after the speech was over, I'd smile and get back to the real world.

YOU would tell Lloyd whatever bedtime story he wanted if he paid you enough to quit your day job. Don't pretend otherwise. Doesn't mean you'd be bound to do this or that if you were later handed the presidency.

Joseph Cannon said...

By the way, Phil -- are you seriously arguing that Donald Trump is the ANTI plutocracy vote? Are you mad? Donald Fucking TRUMP? What more can one man do to establish himself as the living essence of materialism? He has made clear that his goal is to lower taxes on the rich and to get rid of regulations that would aid and protect working people. How could he possibly be friendlier to the concept of plutocracy?

Anonymous said...

Russia.. .Putin... National Security... Now YOU are calling for the assassination of Assange?

Anonymous said...

May be it's the geek in me, but when I read her(I dream of open borders) thing what came to my mind instantly was a futuristic star trekki kind of image. She didn't say she will strongly advocate for or implement it she dreams. My dream is for a world like that without war or disease. Commerce and knowledge flow freely between the people of the planet. Any thing WRONG with that

prowlerzee said...

Wow, maybe I will brave listening to Olbermann, given what you hint he confesses. It boiled my blood to see the hypocrite speak on Donald given he called for Hillary's death in 2008. Not today, but I will give it a try one day.

b said...

From Donald Trump's five-point plan for ethics reform:

"Fourth: I am going to issue a lifetime ban against senior executive branch officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government."

"Fifth: I am going to ask Congress to pass a campaign finance reform that prevents registered foreign lobbyists from raising money in American elections."

Does he mean Israel?

b said...

Espionage against a country committed outside its borders by a non-citizen does not fall under that country's jurisdiction. Theft of electricity inside the country does.

But anyway...

...what do people think about Assange's rambling speech in Berlin? He goes on about three "pillars" of history: everyday technical knowledge, the historical intellectual record, and what powerful interests seek to keep out of the record.

Where's he coming from? That intellectual framework is obviously very important to him. He says it here too.

Could there be a Steinerite influence? (If anyone wants to pooh-pooh this suggestion, please get acquainted with the role of Triodos Bank, why it's called that, and "social threefolding" first.)

Kathleen said...

Latest link I've seen on Assange's Internet access: https://twitter.com/ericgeller/status/788506808918810624

Ecuador has admitted it pulled his internet access because he was interfering with the election in the US.

Apologies if I'm duplicating someone else's information or link.

Anonymous said...

Joseph, I've been following you for ten years, and since your hospitalization I feel that I don't know you any more. Calling for Assange's disappearance is over the top. I will be glad when the election is over. Surely we can expect you to become your usual muckraking self if Trump is elected--and I hope you will rake muck similarly if we get Clinton. I like you much better as a critic of the powers that be than as an advocate.

There's a difference between the burglars at Watergate, who were servants of the powers that be, and Assange, the quintessential outsider.

Ivory Bill Woodpecker said...

"There's a difference between the burglars at Watergate, who were servants of the powers that be, and Assange, the quintessential outsider."

True. As far as I know, none of the Watergate burglars were accused of rape. :P

arbusto205 said...

Maybe too far Joseph. Assange and Wikileaks may be the channel of choice of Russian propaganda today but during the Crimean situation the Russians liked to use youtube to transmit intercepted cell phone calls. As your blog (my favorite) is still hosted by google/youtube maybe a call for death of the sun deprived grey-one is a leap too far towards Trump-level hypocrisy.

Ivory Bill: Assange may be a coward, but American rapist is not really credible either. Unless you mean politically...then I concede the point. BTW, I really like your posts here, even when I disagree.