Friends, I'm of two minds when it comes to Julian Assange, the free speech radical who it appears is now at liberty, following a plea deal with federal prosecutors. They've agreed to let him admit guilt to a single charge, and in return to acknowledge that the time he's already spent in British jails is sufficient punishment. I say I'm of two minds because I believe strongly in free speech, and some of the information that Assange and WikiLeaks have released is, was, and ought to be fair game in a free society, and the public has a right to know. And isn't more information, and better and more truthful information, ultimately the answer to misinformation? I'd say so. On the other hand, every country has a legitimate interest in keeping some things secret, and willfully compromising that secrecy has to be punished. Ergo, Assange could have been justly prosecuted for his alleged crimes. Possibly, then, this deal is a reasonable compromise. It ends the federal vendetta against Assange, but only after his life has been turned upside down, and he's spent years in confinement. In a sense, you might say, both sides won...
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crgggyvp0j9o
In other news, the big Trump-Biden debate is just days away now, and almost everyone is eagerly anticipating the clash. What the Left and the mainstream media would like to make clear is that both major party candidates are old and potentially senile, so both should be under massive public scrutiny and enormous pressure to perform flawlessly. The truth, however, is that public doubts about Biden's competency are far more acute, so it's Biden who has the most to lose Thursday night. Then again, you could argue that expectations for Biden are so low that it's Trump who has to be on guard. My prediction, in case anyone cares, is that the most likely outcome is that the debate will change precisely no one's mind about Trump or Biden. Stay tuned! We'll know the answers to these important questions soon enough.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Apparently the Assange situation has international political importance and politics is often described as the art of the possible. So maybe this is the best we can expect. I wonder what his life was like in a Brit lockup. I suppose most Americans would take hereby a lesson that if you reveal sensitive American secrets, unavoidably handing them to the evil, you will at
ReplyDeletethe very least be highly inconvenienced and that the best way to avoid that or far worse is to refrain from committing treason. You cannot justify affording other countries or forces such information by citing American misdeeds. On balance (the only fair measure in this real world ) we are at least as beneficial as any great power and in some measures plainly more so.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Re the article on the upcoming debate: I do not agree that a verbal mishap could cement concerns about either candidate's mental acuity. Biden yes, DJT no. I think there are few reasons for DJT's vigor to be in doubt. Observations that they are "the same age"are beside the point; actual public behavior shows Biden to be impaired (presumably by age) and Trump to be remarkably fit, especially considering the terrible stress to which he has been subjected by the antiamerican left's vicious onslaught upon his very person. An incidental faux pas by Trump would of course be seized upon by that left and the MSM but for what? To prove that he is as debilitated as Biden? That would be as much as to admit Biden is seriously and perhaps dangerously disabled too Would it be to try to show DJT more burdened than Biden? Good luck on that!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I don't think the "moderators" will be able to resist asking questions designed to work to DJT's disadvantage. There is just too much at stake in this election and should the Dems win , the MSM will want to be in their good graces (after all, we know now what happens if you cross the Dems, don't we!).
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: With the severe antipathy which closely attends our political process now its hard to imagine many people thinking " well gee, I'll wait to see which one of them prevails in debate and I'll give him my vote".
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: In '88 , criminal loving Dukakis walked off after , I think, his last debate with Bush I, muttering "I blew it". But his compassionate support of an imprisoned lifer who had stabbed a youth so many times that the victim's blood had completely drained and his disdain for the victims of the monster's predictable onslaught while on his "furlough" (a term most often used for a deserved vacation afforded to our military members); that had already pretty well generally confirmed that he had his priorities all out of alignment.Perhaps Biden can be similarly discredited by November by relentless concentration on his sponsorship of the antiamerican left's plainly destructive policies (eg. the open southern border resulting in the murder of innocents whose safety appears to be of little moment to our malleable President, ala the disgraced Dukakis).
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: So even the Dems could not abide "demonstrative" Bowman. I do not doubt that the wronged loser will mount a vindictive independent carnival for redemption. But in the end , what does it matter? Any dem is going to be a vote for Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker. This repulse cannot hold as a sign of an abandonment of the dems' embrace of the far left. I am though, very glad to see in it a defacto denunciation of antisemitism
ReplyDeleteJack, I know it's hard to credit, but, before last night, there were actually MANY Democrats who viewed Trump as more cognitively impaired than Biden. They were awash in propaganda designed to prove that point, after all. Well, now they're reeling in the face of their own delusions... Trump isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he's essentially the same man he was, intellectually, back in 2016. Not so Biden!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: DJT has an abundance of hombre street smarts and has proven himself to possess an extraordinary ability to endure harrowing stress. These are qualities which commend a Chief Executive, I think.
ReplyDeleteOh, Trump is a cool customer, and boy has he needed to be!
ReplyDelete