biffvernon wrote:China - Russia - Cuba - Venezuela - Ecuador The new Axis of Freedom. Interesting Times.
Yep, the irony is delicious. I am interested to see what the US's response is going to be. My guess is that, with regard to this latest whistle-blower, after a bout of initial bluster, they will go pretty quiet since, if they keep up the volume, this will only keep attention on the very things the whistle blower was blowing his whistle about.
So, my prediction is that we will get an eerie silence on the matter from the MSM in very short order.
Is it just me, or does that baby look like George W Bush? (You know that pained, puzzled expression he used to adopt when being asked a simple question about foreign affairs?)
"The US government is spying on each and every one of us, but it is Edward Snowden who is charged with espionage for tipping us off," Assange said.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
biffvernon wrote:China - Russia - Cuba - Venezuela - Ecuador The new Axis of Freedom. Interesting Times.
Was Cuba ever likely, given the foreign body soiling its soil?
Apparently you can place a bet at William Hill's on Snowden's next destination.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
Monbiot wrote:In various forms – Conservative, New Labour, the coalition – we have had the wrong government for 30 years. Across that period its undemocratic powers have been consolidated. It has begun to form an elective dictatorship, in which the three major parties are united in their desire to create a security state; to wage unprovoked wars; to defend corporate power against democracy; to act as a doormat for the United States; to fight political dissent all the way to the bedroom and the birthing pool. There's no need to wait for the "wrong" state to arise to conclude that mass surveillance endangers liberty, pluralism and democracy. We're there already.
You have to wonder how clever the fellow is? If he thought it out he will have kept some very important secrets, secret and let those that are pursuing him know that if he is arrested or turns up dead they will be released by some mechanism that works regardless of their acts against him. That would explain how he left China undetained and perhaps the delay in Russia is just a show to obscure his successful blackmail of the powers that be.
That sounds nice. But I'm beginning to wonder if there is any piece of information that could possibly dislodge any government now. Or perhaps there's still some that could embarrass a few particular influential individuals, and that's it.
RenewableCandy wrote:That sounds nice. But I'm beginning to wonder if there is any piece of information that could possibly dislodge any government now. Or perhaps there's still some that could embarrass a few particular influential individuals, and that's it.
I agree RC. In which case, the inescapable logic of what you have said is that bloodshed (or the very real threat of it) is the only thing that will dislodge the current power structures.
vtsnowedin wrote:If he thought it out he will have kept some very important secrets, secret and let those that are pursuing him know that if he is arrested or turns up dead they will be released by some mechanism that works regardless of their acts against him.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
RenewableCandy wrote:That sounds nice. But I'm beginning to wonder if there is any piece of information that could possibly dislodge any government now. Or perhaps there's still some that could embarrass a few particular influential individuals, and that's it.
I agree RC. In which case, the inescapable logic of what you have said is that bloodshed (or the very real threat of it) is the only thing that will dislodge the current power structures.
Orlov's Five Stages of Collapse lists political collapse as number three. The first two stages he has are financial and commercial and, in reality, they're overlapping each other and ongoing, though in real terms they'll be but a blip in time.
The third stage is just getting underway and will overlap and finish off stages one and two. It will be dirty (well, it is dirty now).
He actually recommends trying to stop at stage three, though he doesn't say 'during' or 'after'.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
You have to wonder how clever the fellow is? If he thought it out he will have kept some very important secrets, secret and let those that are pursuing him know that if he is arrested or turns up dead they will be released by some mechanism that works regardless of their acts against him. That would explain how he left China undetained and perhaps the delay in Russia is just a show to obscure his successful blackmail of the powers that be.