Apr 112019
 
 April 11, 2019  Posted by at 7:08 pm Primers Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Salvador Dali Hallucination. Six Images of Lenin on a Grand Piano 1931

 

47 years ago in American Pie, Don McLean talked about The Day The Music Died. Or of course the music didn’t really die, but at the same time it did. “The three mean I admired most, the father, son and the holy ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died.”

Back then you could still have claimed the country merely lost its innocence. And you could have said the same in 1861 or 1914 or 1941. Today, not to take anything away from music, or the song, something much bigger died. America itself died, not just its music or innocence. America didn’t just lose its innocence, it pled guilty.

No doubt most of you would proclaim that’s a gross exaggeration, and an insane hyperbole, but you would all be wrong, sorry. There’s no way back this time.

America, the United States, with all its initial prejudice and lethal screw-ups, was founded as a place where people could direct their own lives without having to fear any other party, let alone a government, that would stand in their way while they did it. And a big part of not having to fear one’s government is not having to fear that government purposely lying to its citizens. The Founding Fathers, for all their faults, got that right. And today erases all of that in one fell swoop.

That is what died today. Or, you know, it may have died much earlier, and a thousand times before as well, but with the arrest in London of Julian Assange, an Australian citizen wanted by the US Deep State, a myriad of strands connecting, and connected to a bloated dying corpse came together. And now we know there is no salvation possible. Today made it all terminal. America is no more. Or it is no longer what they tell you it stands for, whichever comes first.

And it’s not just America, mind you. ‘The UK is a serious country’, PM Theresa May said today when addressing Brexit. No it’s not, Theresa, it’s a banana republic hopelessly stuck in a spaghetti western and it no longer knows the rule of law. It sells people to the highest bidder in a meat market, be they Windrush, refugees from her Majesty’s wars in Libya, or just white and poor English, or Julian Assange.

The UK is a parody on a country, it’s a sordid piece of third rate slapstick. It kills people while trying to maintain the image of being a serious country. You know, whatever that is?! The British judge Assange faced today was bleeding mocking him, the arguably greatest journalist of this century and millennium. A serious country?

 

Julian Assange Branded ‘Narcissist’ By Judge As He Faces US Extradition

Julian Assange has been branded a “narcissist” by a judge as he faces both a UK prison sentence and being extradited to the US. The Metropolitan Police said the Australian hacker was initially detained at the Ecuadorian embassy for failing to surrender to court. He had been summoned in 2012 over an alleged rape in Sweden, where authorities are now considering reopening their investigation into those allegations.After arriving at a London police station on Thursday morning, the 47-year-old was additionally arrested on behalf of the US under an extradition warrant.


Mr Assange was taken to Westminster Magistrates’ Court and found guilty of breaching bail hours later. He faces a jail sentence of up to a year. He denied the offence, with lawyers arguing that he had a “reasonable excuse” could not expect a fair trial in the UK as its purpose was to “secure his delivery” to the US. District Judge Michael Snow described the defence as “laughable”, adding: “Mr Assange’s behaviour is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests. He hasn’t come close to establishing ‘reasonable excuse’.” He remanded Mr Assange in custody ahead of a future sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court.

 

And where was opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn when this all went on? Haven’t seen him, other then in the afternoon when he was ‘discussing’ Brexit details with May in Parliament on day 1021 since the Brexit referendum, while he should have been out in the street denouncing May and protecting Assange at the loudest voice there is.

Screw you, Jeremy, you’re a pathetic loser. No matter what else you do, there are times when you have to stand up and be counted. You were nowhere to be seen, you coward. Screw you again. And all of your family. A curse on y’all. You had a chance to be counted, and you whimped out so enormously only an elephant could whimp out more. Today was your day, and you were a no-show, again.

But don‘t you mind me, I’m not British and I’m not one of those ass-hat followers of you. I’m just someone calling you a coward. So, you know, your campaign team can keep polling and intervene as soon as they see too many ass-hats become concerned about Assange. Until then, who cares, it’s all in the numbers. It’s not as if you have any principles anyway. If you can screw up Brexit there’s no reason why you couldn’t screw up Assange’s situation as well.

 

As for the Donald, man, it’s just 6 days ago that I issued a well-meant warning to you, to tell you that those who are after Assange are the same people who are after you.

And now you’ve given those very people a huge stage to execute their anti-Assange and thereby their anti-Trump messages from. Mr. Trump, you’re helping Brennan and Clapper and Comey and their ilk persecute the only person who could ever stand up to them. And who did that better than you ever did. Because he’s so much smarter.

And where are all the media? Where are all the other governments? Where is the European Union? Where is Australia? Yes, Ecuador took away Assange’s citizenship too today, like that’s a piece of candy or something. Asylum, citizenship, they can be bought and sold whenever a bell tolls.

Why do we have international law anyway if nobody abides by any of it? You can’t just grant someone asylum, and then a citizenship, and then rescind it when you like on a rainy morning when your medication runs out or they’re on to you for blatant fraud, Lenin Moreno. Do that and all international law becomes null and void. Hereby.

 

Pardon me, I’ve just been, like hopefully many people are, so sad and angry and despondent today, all day. The entire world watched the music die today, and never realized it, and a man much smarter and braver and real than any of us is out there paying for our sins, and we have no media left to tell us an honest story about it, and George Orwell is laughing somewhere out there.

And I am still stupid enough to think that we can do better.

 

 

 

Home Forums The Day America Died

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #46650

    Salvador Dali Hallucination. Six Images of Lenin on a Grand Piano 1931   47 years ago in American Pie, Don McLean talked about The Day The Music
    [See the full post at: The Day America Died]

    #46653
    zerosum
    Participant

    And where are all the media?

    Just as I expected. They are not disappointing me.
    They are bringing forth an array of experts that sound like they are experts on the inside track.
    Those experts are an insult to everyone.
    Those experts are proving that they believe that humans are stupid idiots with low IQ.
    Those experts actually believe that the listeners believe them.
    Its no wonder that the news media could not foretell and predict the success of Trump.
    The people are sending a message and there is nobody there that can understand the message.
    Correction: There is nobody there that can notice/tell that there is a message.

    #46654
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    This is the end stage of the America’s Empire. Today’s Apparatchik are as divorced from reality as the Soviet Union’s. I was told second hand that the 1991 fall was due to Russians realizing that State propaganda was lies. Julian Assange is persecuted because he is a truth teller exposing the West’s lies and corruption. The Democrats will never forgive him for unmasking them. The Oligarchs and their Handmaidens will hide him away in the Gulag. The Show Trials will be for Hollywood Stars bribing college admissions for their kids.

    The tragedy is that under stress humans revert to ancient tribal beliefs. The neo-lib-cons have become so proficient at fanning ethnic hatreds in the forever wars that the embers of the coming conflagration are already smoldering in the West. The only way to avoid it is restoration of government by and for the people.

    But the Plutocratic Hoarders will never change. They are clueless. What revolts of 1789 and 1917? This is the 21st century! The meritocracy disrupts markets. Billions are being spent on the development of AI controlled Autonomous Vehicles that will make the top 1% rich by not paying living wages to human drivers. They act as if there is no downside to making quick deregulated profits until 737 Max airliners start falling out of the sky or Twenty-somethings realize they have nothing left to lose.

    #46655
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    The Day America Died

    Kudos for a well written piece Ilargi; it’s spot on in every respect.

    Once again, I tried to donate and once again a fail. I don’t know what else to do…

    #46657
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Well, I finally know what went wrong; one cannot change the original country of the Paypal account.
    I have to open a new account…grrrrr…

    #46669
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yes, it is quite a roll call. Everyone playing their part.

    Kind of reminds me of Elizabeth Warren, where the head of the Native newspaper said, okay, turns out you’re not Indian, so what? People can be adopted into the tribes. The point was, where were YOU at Standing Rock? Where were you for the last 50 Indian issues, while you were a safe Congresswoman from a state that has its share of Indians? No where. No show. THAT’S how you really failed. That’s how they were really mad at her play-show.

    That’s not to pick on Warren. The point is that life is not about where you’re BORN. It’s not about what you MEANT. It’s not about what you SIGNAL. It’s about what you DO. That’s the measure of a man, do you show up when it counts? Do you speak up and ACT? Not just when it’s popular, but when it’s risky and everyone is against you? Where are your principles then?

    So we’ve cut the measure of many men this week, and the accounting was no surprise. It went like this:

    “Mene mene tekel upharsen”

    #46670
    Dr. D
    Participant

    These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis shrink from the service of their country, but he that stands by it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

    Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.

    Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right … “to bind us in all case whatsoever” and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth.

    The period is now arrived in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! What is he? … Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.

    But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. … Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally…

    I once felt all that kind of anger which a man ought to feel against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door with as pretty a child in his hand about eight or nine years old as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, “Well! give me peace in my day.” Not a man lives on the continent but … should have said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;” and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty.

    There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.

    http://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-01.htm

    #46673
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    Couldn’t face the news yesterday, as RTL and NOS dismissed the whole thing, but not before reminding everyone that J had jumped bail on a rape charge. Today’s Daily Mail was beyond belief – not that I read that disgusting rag, mind you, but the Mrs read a tiny bit to me about J having bad habits, as if that is what this is about!!

    Anyway, great piece, kudos for writing it, I only wish it would actually make a difference.

    #46674
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    Assange’s arrest comes thanks to the Trump administration’s decision to pursue WikiLeaks. The Obama administration refrained from indicting Assange for fear of establishing “a precedent that could chill investigative reporting about national security matters by treating it as a crime,” according to Charlie Savage of The York Times. Obama’s government had difficulty distinguishing between what WikiLeaks did and what traditional news media organizations like the Times “do in soliciting and publishing information they obtain that the government wants to keep secret,” Savage wrote. News organizations, including the Times, published articles that drew on documents WikiLeaks had published in 2010, including “logs of significant combat events in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

    THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION INDICTS ASSANGE. But the Trump administration decided to come after Assange. In 2017, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service.”

    #46675
    PlanetaryCitizen
    Participant

    The above copied from Truthout.

    #46678
    democritus
    Participant

    Yesterday in Parliament the shadow home secretary spoke in defence of Assange according to my memory and this article:

    “Diane Abbot has been criticised after defending Julian Assange following his removal from the Ecuadorian embassy and arrest.”

    https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/home-affairs/policing/news/103203/diane-abbott-sparks-row-after-backing-wikileaks-founder

    #46679
    palloy
    Participant

    When Assange received Manning’s leaks he would have known the US Empire would be angry and would never forgive and forget. He has probably been surprised at how long he has been able to remain at large. But unless he were to die in the Equadorian Embassy, he was sure to end up in the US on serious charges. They will try him and find him guilty, but whatever the outcome, they will look bad, vengeful and full of hate, all part of Fall of Empire.

    Corbyn has spoken in support of Assange, as has Tulsi Gabbard. In Australia, both PM and Opposition Leader have said “he will get consular assistance”, further degrading the meaning of the expression.

Viewing 12 posts - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.