Fornits
General Interest => Tacitus' Realm => Topic started by: Froderik on December 07, 2010, 09:24:09 AM
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With every day, with every passing hour, the power of the state mobilises against WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, its titular leader.
The inner processes of statecraft have never been so completely exposed as they have been in the last week. The nation state has been revealed as some sort of long-running and unintentionally-comic soap opera. She doesn’t like him; he doesn’t like them; they don’t like any of us! Oh, and she’s been scouting around for DNA samples and your credit card number. You know, just in case.
None of it is very pretty, all of it is embarrassing, and the embarrassment extends well beyond the state actors - who are, after all, paid to lie and dissemble, this being one of the primary functions of any government - to the complicit and compliant news media, think tanks and all the other camp followers deeply invested in the preservation of the status quo. Formerly quiet seas are now roiling, while everyone with any authority everywhere is doing everything they can to close the gaps in the smooth functioning of power. They want all of this to disappear and be forgotten. For things to be as if WikiLeaks never was.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic cables slowly dribble out, a feed that makes last year’s MP expenses scandal in the UK seem like amateur theatre, an unpractised warm-up before the main event. Even the Afghan and Iraq war logs, released by WikiLeaks earlier this year, didn’t hold this kind of fascination. Nor did they attract this kind of upset. Every politician everywhere - from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton to Vladimir Putin to Julia Gillard has felt compelled to express their strong and almost visceral anger. But to what? Only some diplomatic gossip.
Has Earth become a sort of amplified Facebook, where an in-crowd of Heathers, horrified, suddenly finds its bitchy secrets posted on a public forum? Is that what we’ve been reduced to? Or is that what we’ve been like all along? That could be the source of the anger. We now know that power politics and statecraft reduce to a few pithy lines referring to how much Berlusconi sleeps in the company of nubile young women and speculations about whether Medvedev really enjoys wearing the Robin costume.
It’s this triviality which has angered those in power. The mythology of power - that leaders are somehow more substantial, their concerns more elevated and lofty than us mere mortals, who must not question their motives - that mythology has been definitively busted. This is the final terminus of aristocracy; a process that began on July 14, 1789 came to a conclusive end on November 28, 2010. The new aristocracies of democracy have been smashed, trundled off to the guillotine of the internet, and beheaded.
Of course, the state isn’t going to take its own destruction lying down. Nothing is ever that simple. And so, over the last week we’ve been able to watch the systematic dismantling of WikiLeaks. First came the condemnation, then, hot on the heels of the shouts of ‘off with his head’ for ‘traitor’ Julian Assange, came the technical attacks, each one designed to amputate one part of the body of the organisation.
First up, that old favourite, the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, which involves harnessing tens of thousands of hacked PCs (perhaps yours, or your mom’s, or your daughter’s) to broadcast tens of millions of faux requests for information to WikiLeaks’ computers. This did manage to bring WikiLeaks to its knees (surprising for an organisation believed to be rather paranoid about security), so WikiLeaks moved to a backup server, purchasing computing resources from Amazon, which runs a ‘cloud’ of hundreds of thousands of computers available for rent. Amazon, paranoid about customer reliability, easily fended off the DDoS attacks, but came under another kind of pressure. US Senator Joe Lieberman told Amazon to cut WikiLeaks off, and within a few hours Amazon had suddenly realised that WikiLeaks violated their Terms of Service, kicking them off Amazon’s systems.
You know what Terms of Service are? They are the too-long agreements you always accept and click through on a website, or when you install some software, etc. In the fine print of that agreement any service provider will always be able to find some reason, somewhere, for terminating the service, charging you a fee, or - well, pretty much whatever they like. It’s the legal cudgel that companies use to have their way with you. Do you reckon that every other Amazon customer complies with its Terms of Service? If you do, I have a bridge you might be interested in.
More: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41846.html (http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/41846.html)
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Not sure what Julian is threatening to do is very cool at all. He is saying know if he is extradited to the USA via Sweden via England then he will release even more revealing information illegally obtained. I was with the guy up until this latest comments where he revealed his true motives which as I see now our self-motivated. Then we also have the allegations of rape and molestation in Sweden, whether this is true or not will be determined shortly. Last, the dude just looks fucking weird man, he fits this whole nerdy (I have the power now) role. Like he is saying, "you people who rolled me over will pay now".
Not sure what to make or do with this guy...I'm sure I am not alone.
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In the interest of appropriate attribution, that 6 Dec. 2010 blog entry/opinion piece in the OP (http://http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32147&p=388729#p388607) was by Mark Pesce.
Great selection, btw.
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Personally, I think Julian Assange rocks!
(http://http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/67/Julian_Assange_%28Norway%2C_March_2010%29.jpg/230px-Julian_Assange_%28Norway%2C_March_2010%29.jpg)
Assange in 2010
Born 3 July 1971 (1971-07-03) (age 39)[1][2][3]
Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Nationality Australian
Occupation Editor-in-chief and spokesperson for WikiLeaks
Children Daniel Assange[4]
Awards Economist Freedom of Expression Award (2008)
Amnesty International UK Media Award (2009)
Sam Adams Award (2010)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange)
But maybe you'd appreciate these folks' attitude a little more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRXsy6cszM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaRXsy6cszM)
Or maybe this tone better suits you?
http://www.fornits.com/dchfans/ (http://www.fornits.com/dchfans/)
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/0 ... 94557.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/paypal-api-down_n_794557.html)
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Dear Interpol:
As a longtime feminist activist, I have been overjoyed to discover your new commitment to engaging in global manhunts to arrest and prosecute men who behave like narcissistic jerks to women they are dating.
I see that Julian Assange is accused of having consensual sex with two women, in one case using a condom that broke. I understand, from the alleged victims' complaints to the media, that Assange is also accused of texting and tweeting in the taxi on the way to one of the women's apartments while on a date, and, disgustingly enough, 'reading stories about himself online' in the cab.
Both alleged victims are also upset that he began dating a second woman while still being in a relationship with the first. (Of course, as a feminist, I am also pleased that the alleged victims are using feminist-inspired rhetoric and law to assuage what appears to be personal injured feelings. That's what our brave suffragette foremothers intended!).
Thank you again, Interpol. I know you will now prioritize the global manhunt for 1.3 million guys I have heard similar complaints about personally in the US alone -- there is an entire fraternity at the University of Texas you need to arrest immediately. I also have firsthand information that John Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, went to a stag party -- with strippers! -- that his girlfriend wanted him to skip, and that Mark Levinson in Corvallis, Oregon, did not notice that his girlfriend got a really cute new haircut -- even though it was THREE INCHES SHORTER.
Terrorists. Go get 'em, Interpol!
Yours gratefully,
Naomi Wolf
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wol ... =fb&src=sp (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-wolf/interpol-the-worlds-datin_b_793033.html?ref=fb&src=sp)
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Funny how much folks seem to hate the truth. :nods:
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No shit! Anybody else having connection problems all of a sudden?
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No shit! Anybody else having connection problems all of a sudden?
Yep. Had some trouble getting this to play -
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxPB9yy7IJ4&feature=player_embedded
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No shit! Anybody else having connection problems all of a sudden?
Yes! Any insight as of yet?
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No shit! Anybody else having connection problems all of a sudden?
Yes! Any insight as of yet?
Not really. Last night, my wired network just quit working, despite all indications and tests showing a healthy connection. At about the same time, though, my wireless adapter, which had been non-functioning for the last couple of months, spontaneously healed itself and my connection restored by this morning.... It's almost as if some benevolent geek hacked into my router and fixed a bunch of shit while I was sleeping. Thank you, benevolent geek! :notworthy: :-* ... Weird!
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http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=5815859 (http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=5815859)
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http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=5815859
I posted a article here Anne, that says just about the same thing Ron Paul is saying. viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046)
I am a little confused on this one because I hear Julian speaking of himself to much and these charges in Sweden. Will see.
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http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=5815859
I posted a article here Anne, that says just about the same thing Ron Paul is saying. viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046)
I am a little confused on this one because I hear Julian speaking of himself to much and these charges in Sweden. Will see.
Ok, you think he talks about himself too much. This is a purely subjective personality issue. And he appears to be taking a classic $cientology type attack.
The known hard facts and historical context of the case don't outweigh that by something like 99 & 44/100ths %?
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http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=5815859
I posted a article here Anne, that says just about the same thing Ron Paul is saying. viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046 (http://www.fornits.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=32046)
I am a little confused on this one because I hear Julian speaking of himself to much and these charges in Sweden. Will see.
Ok, you think he talks about himself too much. This is a purely subjective personality issue. And he appears to be taking a classic $cientology type attack.
The known hard facts and historical context of the case don't outweigh that by something like 99 & 44/100ths %?
This is absolutely subjective on my part, I have a judgment in my mind of him that maybe contrary of who he really is. His motives maybe along the lines of a Daniel Ellsberg, I am just not feeling this. Ellsberg was being stunted by the Whitehouse from releasing his finding, the news papers outlets were being told they could not release info. I did not see or hear Ellsberg or his associates threaten or act to harm anyone or anything because of Richard Nixon's actions.
Julian seems to want attention, I just don't know why.
Where as the subject matter should be garnering all the attention, nope he is. This may be purposely orchestrated by the media to tone down the damage by these leaks but Julian seems to be continuously fueling the fire, which is burning him.
What about these rape and molestation charges??
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I think the sex charges are a red herring. The timing of those charges is ridiculously suspicious and the charges just as silly. Here's a recent article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/de ... nge-sweden (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden)
I don't know what the laws are in Sweden, but here it's not actually a crime for a guy to argue over using a condom. If the actions described by his accusers in this case are criminal then at least half the men in any town are probably just as guilty.
I don't really have a problem with the dude trying to accomplish big things. It's a dangerous thing that he's been doing all these years. And it's not unlike what we do around here. Granted, we're only going after relatively small orgaizations as compared to world governments. But that can get pretty beasty sometimes. If I had the power at the time, I might well have considered holding back some dox in order to protect myself from Sue Scheff and others. Might have saved us a good many server hops and we might not have lost 4 months worth of data. Course, we also might not have gotten to know our Anonymous friends quite so well, either. And that would have been a lot of missed lulz.