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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Some time in the future...
Biographer: So, former President Correa, what do you consider to be the greatest mistake you ever made during your time in office?
Correa furrows his brow deep in thought...
Assange: Please grant me sanctuary from the mean ol' America!
Correa: Okay.
Disgusted, but not surprisedI agree. I'm just saying if they did it, the only news about it would be that it's a high profile case. Otherwise there'd be nothing special about it.
But yeah, Assange is so famous it really would backfire.
The case the US seems to be building against him is about Snowden and Manning's leaks. Apparently there's been a couple of cases where US authorities have actually confirmed that they're building that case, and they've already had Google hand over emails between Wikileaks staff, with the Assange case given as the reason why those documents were taken. I don't think Sweden would actually extradite him, though. If he walks from the rape charge in Sweden he'll probably request asylum status in a country that wouldn't hand him over to the US.
Let's be fair here: there's basically 0 chance that he'd actually get a fair trial in the US. It'd be a kangaroo court, no question. It doesn't seem he'd get the death penalty - it's not on the table for the charges they're planning to issue, according to leaks (via you-know-who). He would be in jail for decades, though - almost certainly the rest of his life. Whether that qualifies him for asylum would probably depend on which country he's asking, but I think most countries would probably take him. Even the UN has ruled that his current detention in the UK is illegal, and that's bound to help his case if he has to apply for asylum.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.The BBC are suggesting that Arizona could be a major battleground state this year.
The state has only gone Blue once since 1948, but Clinton is apparently putting serious resource into it, and Democrat groups are finding themselves not ignored for the first time in ages. Even out of state groups are apparently joining in.
This would tie into the voter registration thing - Hispanics are doing so in unprecedented numbers. Part of this is because of Joe Arpaio, the Sherrif of Maricopa County - which includes Phoenix, the 5th largest city in the country and home of my ex-fiancée (thus I'm very familiar with politics there as I still have friends in the area).
Arpaio is notorious for his roving bands of deputies who are virtual death squads. He's been known to do things like arrest a Latino family who lived next door to a drug dealer, claiming they should have known about the guy so were probably associated with him. And leave diabetics in cells overnight without medication. And good old fashioned beatings. Even deaths in his prisons, and he just doesn't care. He's beloved by the voters though, who have elected him 6 times. He's finally facing legal issues from the justice department which has been campaigned for for years so hopefully he'll be inside his own cell soon.
The key point about him though is that he was one of the first to declare for House Trump, and has done national campaigning for him. This could now backfire on both men and the state itself as its galvanising the victims of his atrocities into action. The fact that the legal actions might finally be starting to bear fruit is coincidentally but very well timed in that regard from a Democrat perspective.
Too early to say what will happen but the mere possibility of AZ even being a contest has got to be terrifying for the GOP.
edited 23rd Oct '16 7:43:49 AM by EruditeEsotericist
Considering it would actually be easier for the U.S. to extradite Assange from the UK then from Sweden, along with the economic pressure it could easily exert on Ecuador, that's not impossible.
Podesta did troll Assange by tweeting an image of the Clinton campaign team enjoying his homemade lobster risotto, which he bets is better than the embassy's fare.
edited 23rd Oct '16 7:51:44 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedIt wouldn't actually. I mean, it would in normal circumstances, but because Sweden is the one with the extradition request pending if the UK authorities were to arrest Assange they'd have to send him to Sweden even if the US was also requesting it. They can't just change that after pursuing the extradition to Sweden for 6 years.
If the US wants the UK to be the one to extradite Assange, they'll first have to get Assange back to the UK from Sweden.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.I just...
I just...
I just can't anymore. I'd never thought I'd compliment Bill Cosby, but at least he eventually accepted the accusations quietly. Eventually.
The "best" part is that he announced this during a speech in which he was supposedly going to announce what he planned to do in his first 100 days of office. Suing his detractors is more important to him than, y'know, acting as the President.
edited 23rd Oct '16 8:36:04 AM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprisedIn an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” the Republican strategist said that Donald Trump’s poll numbers are simply too dismal to end in victory on election night.
“I don’t see it happening,” Rove told Fox. “If he plays an inside straight, he could get it, but I doubt he’s going to be able to play it.”
Rove explained Trump’s electoral vote deficit, swing state by swing state. Mitt Romney only won 206 electoral votes in 2012, and according to Rove’s judgment, Trump can only feel comfortable about 168, with just over two weeks to go before the Nov. 8 election.
Holy shit. lmao.
New Survey coming this weekend!Donald Trump don't hesitate, he exhibits no restraint, he takes and he takes and he takes, and he kept winning until now, he fouled the game, he played and he raises the steaks, and if there's a justice he will not thrive, in fact he'll be lucky to survive. Wait for it, he's gonna get crushed, wait for it.
Donald Trump, congratulations, you have invented a new kind of stupid, a damage you can never undo kind of stupid, an open all the cages in the zoo kind of stupid. Truly, you didn't think this through? Kind of stupid. They begged you to take a break, you refused to. You're the only enemy you ever seem to lose to. You know why HRC can do what she wants? She doesn't dignify school-yard taunts with a response! So yeah, congratulations! You've redefined your legacy, congratulations!
Why do you tweet like you're running out of time? Why do you sniff like you're running out of time? Why do you creep like you're running out of time? Donald Trump, you're running out of time—wait for it.
Your empire is crashing down—wait for it.
Your name is going down the drain—wait for it.
Soon you'll be crawling down the drain—wait for it.
Wait for it!
edited 23rd Oct '16 8:52:21 AM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.You're absolutely right. My deepest and most humble apologies to the late President Nixon.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.![]()
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Nixon at least opened relations with China and left behind an interesting 600+ page collection of White House tapes.Trump, on the other hand, singlehandedly turned American politics into a year-and-a-half-long reenactment of the Feast of Fools song from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame.
TOP!
SY!
TUR!
VEY!
edited 23rd Oct '16 8:56:28 AM by Shippudentimes
The other difference is that Nixon didn't get into politics solely for his own ego. He was a state senator and a congressman. He worked his way up, and he knew what the job actually was. He even knew that nukes should never actually be used.
I guess my conclusion is that Nixon was a bad president but, he was a bad president. He did his job, maybe not well, but he still did it. Trump would be a bad president, in that he would be very bad at being president because he doesn't actually know what the job is.
edited 23rd Oct '16 9:09:34 AM by Zendervai
Nixon looks saintly when compared to today's Republicans, and let's be honest, the Reagan administration was way more corrupt — it was just better hidden and done in an era when the American public genuinely didn't give a shit.
"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."@145998
: ... He already said as much a few days after the accusations started flying.
Trump delivered this latest speech at Gettysburg.
Gettysburg, for those of you not familiar with American history, was the site of the largest battle of the American Civil War. It's still the largest battle ever fought in North America. More Americans died in the span of three days than did in the Iraq War. It was a decisive battle and the closest the Confederacy ever came to winning the war though military victory. Instead, the Union repulsed the invasion and inflicted such losses that the rebels never again were able to take the initiative in the war.
A few months later, President Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg to deliver a speech to dedicate the cemetery that was created for the dead of the battle. Lincoln's speech is one of the most important in American history; it redefined the United State's national purpose and war aims; fulfilling the vows of the Declaration of Independence, extending equality to African-Americans, and preserving democratic government.
And now 153 years later, we have Trump, at one of the most important sites in American history, screaming about suing women because they're saying mean things about him.
x4,
x5,
x6 — Okay, okay, bad example. I said I was sorry, already...
I just meant that Trump is under the mistaken idea that when/if (God forbid!) he gets to be prez, he'll be above the law and can go after everybody who ever said anything bad about him with total impunity. The man knows absolutely nothing about gov't, the law, or even what "facts" and "truth" are...
edited 23rd Oct '16 9:17:42 AM by pwiegle
This Space Intentionally Left Blank.You know what? Here's Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. It's barely two paragraphs long, but there's a reason Clinton keeps invoking the 16th president:
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Now compare that with whatever the most presidential speech that has ever come out of Trump's mouth.
Heck, compare it with Clinton's best speeches. She's not as eloquent, but I'm sure she has more Lincoln in her than Trump ever has.
I didn't mention the Gettysbug thing when I linked to that article about his speech because I assumed most Presidential candidates probably give at least one speech there. If it's not an established custom I must say it does reek of a degree of disrespect to use it as a platform like that.
edited 23rd Oct '16 9:34:45 AM by BestOf
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

I'm not denying that it is possible for Dems to take the house this year, just that it's best not to get our hopes up.
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