Ecuador cut off Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's internet, because that is how you punish petulant teenagers.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Ecuador has cut Julian Assange’s communications with the outside world from its London embassy, where the founder of the whistleblowing WikiLeaks website has been living for nearly six years. 

The Ecuadorian government said in statement that it had acted because Assange had breached “a written commitment made to the government at the end of 2017 not to issue messages that might interfere with other states”. 

It said Assange’s recent behaviour on social media “put at risk the good relations [Ecuador] maintains with the United Kingdom, with the other states of the European Union, and with other nations”.

It has already been reported that being locked away in this embassy was having a "dangerous" impact on Assange's health, losing access to the internet might drive him out of his mind as well.

Gee' maybe then he will be forced to flee the embassy and he can be picked up by Swedish law enforcement for those sexual assault allegations, or by American law enforcement for his part in helping Russia hijack our democracy.

Either way he needs to have his day in court, and quit hiding like a pussy.

Robert Mueller now asking witnesses if Trump knew about Russian hacking before it was publicly known.

Courtesy of NBC News:

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe. 

Mueller's investigators have asked witnesses whether Trump was aware of plans for WikiLeaks to publish the emails. They have also asked about the relationship between GOP operative Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and why Trump took policy positions favorable to Russia. 

The line of questioning suggests the special counsel, who is tasked with examining whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, is looking into possible coordination between WikiLeaks and Trump associates in disseminating the emails, which U.S. intelligence officials say were stolen by Russia.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and has described the special counsel's investigation as "illegal" and a "witch hunt."

"Witch hunt" my ass.

In one line of questioning, investigators have focused on Trump's public comments in July 2016 asking Russia to find emails that were deleted by his then-opponent Hillary Clinton from a private server she maintained while secretary of state. The comments came at a news conference on July 27, 2016, just days after WikiLeaks began publishing the Democratic National Committee emails. "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said. 

Witnesses have been asked whether Trump himself knew then that Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, whose emails were released several months later, had already been targeted. They were also asked if Trump was advised to make the statement about Clinton's emails from someone outside his campaign, and if the witnesses had reason to believe Trump tried to coordinate the release of the DNC emails to do the most damage to Clinton, the people familiar with the matter said.

If it can be determined that Trump knew that the Russians had hacked the DNC and John Podesta's email account before he made these remarks, then there is your evidence of collusion right there.

Keep in mind that Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary back in May 2016. 

 About a month after Trump made the remarks above  Guccifer 2.0 started posting those DCCC documents and by the beginning of October Wikileaks was disseminating the Podesta emails.

And Trump was pimping Wikileaks the entire time.

There is also this from CNN:

Investigators for special counsel Robert Mueller have recently been asking witnesses about Donald Trump's business activities in Russia prior to the 2016 presidential campaign as he considered a run for president, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

Questions to some witnesses during wide-ranging interviews included the timing of Trump's decision to seek the presidency, potentially compromising information the Russians may have had about him, and why efforts to brand a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, two sources said. 

The lines of inquiry indicate Mueller's team is reaching beyond the campaign to explore how the Russians might have sought to influence Trump at a time when he was discussing deals in Moscow and contemplating a presidential run. 

I was not sure he could pull it off, but it appears that Mueller might actually be able to prove collusion after all. 

Julian Assange's health is suffering as a result of hiding from authorities in an Ecuadorian embassy. Don't everybody shed a tear at once.

Courtesy of The Guardian:  

Julian Assange’s long stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London is having a “dangerous” impact on his physical and mental health, according to clinicians who carried out the most recent assessments of him. 

The pair renewed calls for the WikiLeaks publisher to be granted safe passage to a London hospital. 

Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor at the Boston University’s school of medicine and public health, and Brock Chisholm, a London-based consultant clinical psychologist, examined Assange for 20 hours over three days in October. 

In an article for the Guardian, they wrote: “While the results of the evaluation are protected by doctor-patient confidentiality, it is our professional opinion that his continued confinement is dangerous physically and mentally to him and a clear infringement of his human right to healthcare.” 

Although the two did not go into details, Assange’s health appears to be deteriorating significantly after more than five years holed up in the embassy.

Well that's a real shame isn't it? 

Poor little Julian has to hide out after working with the Russians to interfere in our last presidential election and to avoid those allegations of sexual assault.

That must be a terrible burden.

But do you know where you can get top notch medical treatment?

In a Federal prison.

Yep they would certainly fix him right up, and I am positive that there are open invitations to prisons from all over the world. 

Or he could just stay where he is and take his chances.

Simply could not care less.

Head of the Trump Campaign's data-analytics firm admits he reached out to Wikileaks for Hillary's deleted emails.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Alexander Nix, who heads a controversial data-analytics firm that worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign, wrote in an email last year that he reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about Hillary Clinton’s missing 33,000 emails. 

On Wednesday, Assange confirmed that such an exchange took place. 

Nix, who heads Cambridge Analytica, told a third party that he reached out to Assange about his firm somehow helping the WikiLeaks editor release Clinton’s missing emails, according to two sources familiar with a congressional investigation into interactions between Trump associates and the Kremlin. (CNN later reported Cambridge backer Rebekah Mercer was one of the email's recipients.) Those sources also relayed that, according to Nix’s email, Assange told the Cambridge Analytica CEO that he didn’t want his help, and preferred to do the work on his own. 

The interchange between Nix—whose company made millions from the Trump campaign—and Assange represents the closest known connection between Trump’s campaign and Wikileaks.

Aha!

As we know Cambridge Analytica was funded by the Mercer family, and had deep ties with both Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn.

This was the Trump campaign's go to shop for analyzing voter data and formulating a strategy based on what they learned.

However that is an inconvenient reality and therefore the Trump folks must reject it.

Trump campaign issues statement downplaying Cambridge Analytica‘s role working for campaign, doesn’t address Assange/emails pic.twitter.com/N6L7MVtsse

— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) October 25, 2017

Courtesy of Vanity Fair:

When Trump adviser Jared Kushner bragged to Forbes about his role in steering the Trump campaign to victory, he emphasized the merits of its unique data operation. “We brought in Cambridge Analytica,” he said, referring to the Robert Mercer-backed analytics company. “We basically had to build a $400 million operation with 1,500 people operating in 50 states, in five months.” The relationship was lucrative for the firm, too: Between July 29 and December 12 of last year, the Trump campaign reportedly paid Cambridge Analytica $5.9 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. But on Wednesday, after the Daily Beast reported that its C.E.O., Alexander Nix, had reached out to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with an offer to help release Hillary Clinton’s missing e-mails, Team Trump moved to distance itself from the company. 

In a statement, Michael S. Glassner, the Trump campaign executive director, highlighted the operation's reliance on Republican National Committee data. “Once President Trump secured the nomination in 2016, one of the most important decisions we made was to partner with the Republican National Committee on data analytics,” he said. “Leading into the election, the R.N.C. had invested in the most sophisticated data-targeting program in modern American history, which helped secure our victory in the fall. We were proud to have worked with the R.N.C. and its data experts and relied on them as our main source for data analytics.”

Nothing to see here, just move along. Move along dammit!

Apparently the Trump team still thinks there might be too many bread crumbs leading to the campaign's doorstep, so they also made this extraordinary move:

WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of emails apparently hacked from the Democratic National Committee was legal and specifically protected by federal law, the Trump campaign argued in a court filing Wednesday. 

Lawyers for the Trump presidential campaign came to the controversial transparency website's defense in a bid to defeat a lawsuit three Democratic activists filed in July accusing Trump's presidential campaign of conspiring to publish sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and information suggesting that a Democratic National Committee employee was gay. 

The Trump campaign's motion to dismiss the case argues that WikiLeaks qualifies as the kind of online service that Congress rendered immune from legal liability through legislation passed more than two decades ago.

Do you know how they say that animals can smell fear?

Yeah, well I think I am getting a whiff of that myself. 

Co-founder of California secessionist movement issues statement welcoming Julian Asssange's support from his cozy home in Russia.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

The cofounder of the California separatist group Yes California said in an interview Monday that the group welcomes "the vocal support" of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who recently began tweeting about the California independence campaign known as "Calexit." 

"Ultimately the Calexit vote and its preceding debate will be up to Californians to decide but we welcome the vocal support of Julian Assange, as we would for any individual with the courage to stand up against and defy the powers that be in order to affect positive change in this world," said Louis Marinelli, the cofounder. "That's what our campaign is all about." 

Marinelli, a 31-year-old activist, announced in a 1,600-word statement on Monday that he would return to California after spending just over a year in Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg, with his wife Anastasia.

Let's see, cozy with the Russians, and being supported by Julian Assange, does this seem eerily familiar to anybody else?

I really thought this Calexit bullshit had died in its sleep after the Brexit fiasco blew up over in Britain. But apparently somebody is attempting to resuscitate it and get it back on its feet again.

Now ask yourself which political party would stand to benefit the most from California seceding from the United States?

And which country would love to sew the seeds of discontent in the most influential liberal state on the planet?

Keep in mind that though overall significantly more intelligent than their conservative counterparts, there are still some easily manipulated members on the liberal side as well.

This is clearly an attempt to cause friction among California voters, and to undermine the effectiveness that California wields as a political force in this country.

Only an idiot would support this.

Or a Russian operative of course.  

Jared Kushner has a new defender on Twitter, Julian Assange. Wait, what?

Kushner correct to create channels with everyone. CIA has no authority over leadership and is financially motivated to increase conflict.

— Julian Assange (@JulianAssange) May 28, 2017

Okay so to be clear Kushner is now getting support from the guy who has been named by American intelligence agencies as the guy utilized by the Russians to spread hacked data and propaganda to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

Anybody else find this highly suspicious?

After all why would Assange give two shits about freaking Jared Kushner?

Well perhaps because they were both on the front line of disseminating that hacked information to undermine the Clinton campaign.

Courtesy of a Mother Jones article from September 2016:

On Tuesday, the Observer published a piece maintaining that the DCCC had coordinated—presumably improperly—with the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2015. The story, written by a freelance contributor named Michael Sainato, cited "an internal DCCC memo" leaked to the Observer from Guccifer 2.0—the handle of the hacker or hackers who have successfully targeted these Democratic committees. The Observer is owned by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been a top adviser to the Republican presidential nominee.

The New York Observer is of course Jared Kushner's newspaper, and it was certainly more than peripherally involved with spreading the material hacked by the Russians.

You know it is almost as if these people don't even care anymore if folks figure out that all of this was a coordinated effort, or who it was that coordinated it.

Are we still pretending that there is no evidence of collusion?

Edward Snowden is being paid as much as $30,000 to speak by satellite, from the comfort of his Moscow apartment, to American college students. And that is WRONG!

Snowden's Russian ID.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The university paid $30,000 through an American speakers’ bureau to digitally host Snowden, one of his largest known contracts to date, according to documents obtained by Yahoo Finance. The Ohio State event was one of a series of speeches that have netted Snowden — who is still a fugitive in the eyes of the U.S. government — well over $200,000 in the past two years, as Yahoo News first reported last year. He has continued to give paid speeches, including at U.S. colleges, in 2017. 

The ongoing speaking contracts come at a time when Snowden’s fate and influence are more uncertain than ever. A campaign by Snowden’s supporters to win him a pardon was rebuffed by the outgoing Obama White House, and new President Donald Trump previously labeled him a “terrible traitor.” 

Moreover, Snowden’s efforts to present himself as an Internet privacy pioneer are now complicated by an American political environment colored by increasing wariness and hostility toward Snowden’s host since June 2013: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Gee, no shit!

In my opinion Snowden should receive NO funds from American colleges or universities in the wake of the hack of our 2016 election by the Russians.

I think it is now beyond obvious that this the new Russian expertise in hacking American companies, political organizations, and US citizens is due to their access to the materials that Snowden pilfered from the NSA.

In my opinion Snowden is the worst kind of traitor and I believe his actions have undermined our very democracy,

Keep in mind that it was Julian Assange who sent one of his compatriots to assist Edward Snowden and helped him to gain entry into Russia, after dissuading him from going to Latin America.

As we now know it was through Wikileaks that Russia released the information they hacked during the 2016 campaign, leaving no doubt that they are Russian stooges.

And I am 100% certain that when Snowden arrived in Russia, with the NSA tools that he smuggled out of America, that they immediately found their way into the hands of the FSB, Russian Intelligence, and that THAT was the impetus for all of the hacking and manipulations that we have seen since.

Remember, Wikileaks JUST released those CIA hacking tools.

How could they have possibly gotten their hands on that without the information that Snowden carried with him into Russia?

They couldn't have.

It is time for all of these Snowden fan boys to finally recognize that their idol is at best a "useful tool" of the Russian government, and at worst a spy for Vladimir Putin.

Another news outlet has essentially reached the same conclusion that I have about the Wikileaks dump of hacked CIA materials.

As most of you know I posted about this Wikileaks dump on Tuesday.

During that post I stated that it was unlikely that this leak was a coincidence, that the Russians likely did the hacking, and that Trump's supporters would use it to suggest that the CIA had hacked the DNC computers and then blamed it on the Russians.

I know, crazy right?

However this news outlet, which specializes in foreign policy, does not think it so crazy.

Courtesy of the FP Group: 

In the first place, WikiLeaks has often timed its leaks for maximum political impact. It released 20,000 stolen DNC emails just three days before the Democratic National Convention on July 25, 2016. As expected, WikiLeaks generated headlines about DNC staffers disparaging Sen. Bernie Sanders, buttressing a Trump campaign effort to prevent Clinton from consolidating Sanders supporters. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned as a result, and the Clinton campaign suffered significant public relations damage. 

In the second place, WikiLeaks, which has often leaked American but never Russian secrets, has been identified by the U.S. intelligence community as a front for Russian intelligence. In January, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified estimate that found “with high confidence that Russian military intelligence … relayed material to WikiLeaks.” This was done with a definite purpose: “Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

 .........

It is significant, therefore, that one of the major storylines to emerge from the latest WikiLeaks release is that the CIA supposedly has a program to reuse computer codes from foreign hackers, thus disguising CIA fingerprints on a hacking operation. Never mind that there is no evidence that the codes used to break into the DNC were part of this CIA database. Right-wing outlets are nevertheless trumpeting these revelations with headlines such as this one on Breitbart: “WikiLeaks: CIA Uses ‘Stolen’ Malware to ‘Attribute’ Cyberattacks to Nations Like Russia.” Russian-controlled Internet “bots” are also said to be playing up these claims online. 

The implication is clear. Trump was a victim of a “false flag” operation wherein CIA hackers broke into the DNC and blamed the Russians. This may be nutty, but it’s eminently believable to an audience conditioned to believe that 9/11 was an inside job and that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged — favorite tropes of the radio talk-show host Alex Jones, whose work Trump has praised. Other WikiLeaks revelations — for instance, that the CIA can use Samsung smart TVs as listening devices — lend further credence to Trump’s charge that he was secretly wiretapped. 

Quite apart from its specifics, the WikiLeaks release changes the subject after a bad few days for Trump highlighted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from any Kremlingate probe after he was revealed to have lied under oath when he denied meeting any Russian representatives. Last week it was Trump on the defensive. Now it’s his nemeses in the U.S. intelligence community who are answering embarrassing questions about how this leak could have occurred and the contents of the leaked information.

Yep, those are the same conclusions that I reached as well.

Trump's supporters and his fellow Republicans are looking for some reason to reject the fact that the Russians hacked various computers to undermine Hillary Clinton's campaign and help Trump win the election, and this is all they need to make that to happen.  

Now Julian Assange is going to deny that the Russians provided him with the CIA data, just like he denied that they were behind the DNC hack and the John Podesta phishing expedition. But of course we now know that he was lying then, and so it is safe to assume that he will be lying this time.

And what is undeniably true is that he is now handing out the CIA's hacking tools to various technology companies, knowing full well they will find their way into the hands of America's enemies.

The idea presented by Assange is that this will help these technology companies patch their software therefore making it harder to hack, but it of course will also mean that the foreign agencies will now know how to block intelligence agencies from spying on them and that will likely make any further investigation into Trump's ties with Russia just that much harder to prove.

All of this will also undermine the credibility of the American intelligence agencies which will make what they DO reveal that much easier to dismiss by the public at large. 

What is that called? "Collateral damage?"

Or perhaps that was really the target all along.

P.S. It appears that Josh Marshall over at TPM has some more interesting crumbs that involve possible Trump representative Nigel Farage meeting with Assange before his big press conference today: 

During Sean Spicer's daily press briefing, an AP reporter asks Spicer about the Farage/Assange meeting and whether he carrying a message from President Trump. Spicer basically ducked the question. But when asked specifically whether Farage was "delivering a message" from Trump, Spicer replied: "I have no idea."

Hmm, curiouser and curiouser.

Before leaving office President Obama commutes Chelsea Manning's sentence. Update!

Chelsea Manning formerly Bradley Manning.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

President Obama on Tuesday commuted all but four months of the remaining prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the army intelligence analyst convicted of a 2010 leak that revealed American military and diplomatic activities across the world, disrupted his administration and brought global prominence to WikiLeaks, the recipient of those disclosures. 

The decision by Mr. Obama rescued Ms. Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year, from an uncertain future as a transgender woman incarcerated at the men’s military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. She has been jailed for nearly seven years, and her 35-year sentence was by far the longest punishment ever imposed in the United States for a leak conviction.

There has been quite a lot of pressure for President Obama to do this and clearly he wants to make some things right before he hands power over to the giant tangerine toddler.

Manning has been punished far more extensively than many that came before him, and quite a lot of what he leaked to the public helped to open the eyes of the American people to the atrocities being carried out in their name in Afghanistan and Iraq.

He has suffered enough and it is time to end that suffering.

Besides anything that gets Paul Ryan this upset can hardly be called a bad thing:

Speaker Paul D. Ryan called it “outrageous.” “President Obama now leaves in place a dangerous precedent that those who compromise our national security won’t be held accountable for their crimes,” he said in a statement.

Interesting, so I guess when the Russians hack our election to help hand power to their puppet that does NOT compromise our national security.

So now we wait to see if a certain Julian Assange is a man of his word.

If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017

Already starting to hedge his bets.

Assange is still happy to come to the US provided all his rights are guarenteed despite White House now saying Manning was not quid-quo-pro.

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 18, 2017

Personally I would imagine that if Assange WERE to surrender to the American authorities that he would wait to do so until the man who he helped undermine our democracy had taken power.

Hell, I imagine that in a Trump America that Julian Assange would be a contender for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Update: As expected Assange weaseled out. 

Sarah Palin apologizes to Julian Assange for not realizing that someday he would be on her side.

Courtesy of the wishy washy Wasillabilly's Facebook page: 

To Julian Assange: I apologize. 

Please watch Sean Hannity's interview with Julian Assange (Wikileaks). 

Exposing the truth re: the Left having been oh-so-guilty of atrocious actions and attitudes of which they've falsely accused others. The media collusion that hid what many on the Left have been supporting is shocking. This important information that finally opened people's eyes to democrat candidates and operatives would not have been exposed were it not for Julian Assange. 

 I apologize for condemning Assange when he published my infamous (and proven noncontroversial, relatively boring) emails years ago. (Oh there were some controversies in there all right.)


As I said at the time of being targeted and my subsequent condemnation, though, the line must be drawn before our troops or innocent lives deserving protection would be put at risk as a result of published emails. 

Julian, I apologize.

 - Sarah Palin 

ps. If you get the chance, catch the movie "Snowden." That movie and Hannity's interview tonight are quite enlightening.

And she's pimping Snowden's move too? Damn she really has been absorbed by the Borg!

Okay the first thing that should be mentioned here is that Sarah Palin NEVER apologizes.

She never apologized to her followers for leading them on about the possibility she might become a candidate for the White House.

She never apologized to Alaskans for making them all look like imbeciles in the eyes of the world.

She never apologized to her children for being the worst mom ever.

So for her to apologize to Julian Assange is a pretty big deal.

But why in the hell would she apologize to Julian Assange?

Well because right now Wikileaks is functioning as Donald Trump's very own intelligence agency.

He, and his sycophantic followers like Palin, are throwing shade on the traditional intelligence agencies that we have relied upon for years, and going all in with their support of Julian Assange and his wacky band of anarchists.

So now all past indiscretions are forgiven because Donald Trump desperately needs Wikileaks to help him push back on the findings of the intelligence community which will surely find that the Russians hacked and released information through Wikileaks to hurt Hillary's chances to win the presidency, and helped to ensure his victory.

Sean Hannity interviews Julian Assange who insists that he is NOT working with the Russians and the American intelligence agencies are a bunch of lying doo doo heads.

Courtesy of Variety: 

Sean Hannity has landed a sit-down interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that will air Tuesday on Fox News Channel, the network announced Monday. 

According to a Fox News release, the two will discuss Russian hacking, the 2016 presidential election, and both the Obama and upcoming Trump administrations. It will air at 10 p.m. on Jan. 3, with additional portions of the interview airing throughout the week.

For the record Sean Hannity used to despise Julian Assange right up until he started helping his side.

I'm sorry, ALLEGEDLY started helping his side.

If you have been paying attention Wikileaks has been tripping all over themselves with denials that they got their information from the Russians, or that they were trying to influence the election to favor Trump.

Which is a hard case to make since Trump himself quoted from the Wikileaks e-mail dumps to deflect from the pussy grabbing video, and to attack Clinton.

Speaking of Trump his spokesperson Sean Spicer (I assume that is his porn name.) also claims that there is "zero evidence" that Russia influenced the election.

Which is also essentially the claim that Vladimir Putin is making as well.

Well gee if you can't trust the organization that coordinated the leaks, the campaign that benefited from the leaks, and the government that may have been behind the leaks, then just who can you trust?

Julian Assange threatens to destroy Hillary Clinton's campaign, and then...you know...ends up trolling his followers instead.

Courtesy of Fox News:  

Anyone who stayed up late or got up early anticipating an "October Surprise" from WikiLeaks heard no bombshells from the organization's founder in an overnight appearance via video.

Julian Assange, who was originally planning to make an announcement from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London where he has lived for five years, instead appeared via videolink at a Berlin conference commemorating the leaked email clearinghouse's 10-year anniversary. 

Despite widespread speculation he would reveal game-changing information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Assange's 3 a.m. ET appearance featured no new revelations, although he did promise to publish information regarding the presidential election “every week for the next 10 weeks.”

The anticipation for this great "reveal" was amped up by one of Donald Trump's surrogates.

Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done. #Wikileaks.

— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 2, 2016

Well when asked if he was still going to destroy Hillary's campaign, Assange said this: 

“There’s been a lot of misquoting of me and Wikileaks publications,” Assange said when asked if he believed his work would end Hillary Clinton’s political career.

However it should be noted that he himself said that his information was "significant" and could be a game changer.

This did not go over well with some Assange supporters:

So Assange is shilling his book now. I guess that's the #OctoberSurprise. Good lord. Can't believe I stayed up this late.

— Deplorable Frank (@TruthVictorious) October 4, 2016

Hillary is cackling and Assange got a big check. I wonder if it will be delivered by drone? #wikirolled #Octobersurprise

— Teri Cottone (@TeriCottone) October 4, 2016

I haven't been this disappointed since Junior Prom night. #OctoberSurprise #JulianAssange #WikileaksPressConference

— Bill McNeel (@billymacvegas) October 4, 2016

So far the biggest impact that Wikileaks has had was to get Debbie Wasserman-Schultz fired as the head of the DNC. (Which I still contend was due to pressure by Sanders' supporters and a misreading of those leaked DNC e-mails.)

Other than that most of his leaked material has had very little effect, and now that he and his organization have been linked to Russia, people are starting to suspect that his motives are not as honorable as they were once given credit for being.

Wikileaks is protecting our privacy and protecting the little guy by dumping all of the little guy's personal information on the the internet. Wait, what? Update!

Courtesy of the AP:

WikiLeaks' giant data dumps have rattled the National Security Agency, the U.S. Democratic Party, and the Saudi foreign ministry. But its spectacular mass-disclosures have also included the personal information of hundreds of people — including sick children, rape victims and mental health patients, The Associated Press has found. 

In the past year alone, the radical transparency group has published medical files belonging to scores of ordinary citizens while many hundreds more have had sensitive family, financial or identity records posted to the web. In two particularly egregious cases, WikiLeaks named teenage rape victims. In a third case, the site published the name of a Saudi citizen arrested for being gay, an extraordinary move given that homosexuality can lead to social ostracism, a prison sentence or even death in the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom.

WikiLeaks' mass publication of personal data is at odds with the site's claim to have championed privacy even as it laid bare the workings of international statecraft, drawing criticism from longtime allies. 

Attempts to reach WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for an interview over the past month have been unsuccessful and the ex-hacker did not reply to written questions. In a series of tweets following the publication of the AP's story, WikiLeaks dismissed the privacy concerns as "recycled news" and said they were "not even worth a headline."

I have been over this "hacktivist" nonsense for quite some time now.

I was down with hackers when they leaked those documents about the Iraq War and when Anonymous went after the folks protecting the Steubenville rapists.

But things have become much muddier as of late, and after Wikileaks leaked the information about the Democrats that was hacked by the Russians I am just not feeling it anymore.

And now this.

Update: Oh yeah, and then there's this:  

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange warned Wednesday that his website is slated to release another batch of documents that could prove “significant” to the general election race.

If it is like the earlier releases the only thing "significant" will be how the conservative press will be able to form mountains out of hacked molehills.

There is really no reason to release this information right before an election, unless you are trying to hurt one candidate and benefit another.

Julian Assange can no longer make the claim that he is doing this for the public good. He is doing it for other reasons entirely.

Wikileaks releases those DNC voicemail messages that the Russians hacked for them. My response is either "Ho" or "Hum" I haven't decided.

RELEASE: The DNC recordings https://t.co/OIv1xjpp6c #DNCLeak #DNCinPHL

Recordings: https://t.co/TTyre5UIOD

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 27, 2016

Courtesy of CNN:

Wikileaks released a series of voicemails Wednesday from the Democratic National Committee hack showing donors plying top-level officials for favors, and one donor expressing outrage that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had won a say in the drafting of the party's platform. 

In one of the 29 voicemails released, a woman who donated $300 to Clinton called the party finance director Andrew Wright and said she was angry the party was acquiescing to Sanders by allowing liberal activist and prominent Sanders surrogate Cornel West to have one of 15 seats on the party's platform-writing panel. 

"I'm furious about what you are doing for Bernie Sanders, he's getting way too much influence. I'm on a fixed income, I spent over $300, donated to Hillary, what I see is the DNC bending over backwards for Bernie and Bernie is the worst person in the world to even be running in the Democratic Party, because he's not a Democrat," said the unidentified woman in a voicemail that was sent to Wright's DNC email account. 

In another voicemail, Bill Eacho, a longtime Democratic donor and former U.S. ambassador, inquired about the details of a "small dinner with President Obama."

Wait, what? So the "smoking gun" here is that Democrats were upset that the  DNC did not crush the Bernie Sanders campaign?

Hell I already knew that!

Here is more from The Hill: 

Many of the voicemails were messages of callers leaving their numbers in hopes of being called back or innocuous greetings. 

But multiple messages came from voters upset that the DNC was giving too much support to Sanders.

Okay if Julian Assange and Wikileaks is trying to damage the Clinton campaign, and the Democrat's hope of winning the 2016 election, this does not seem to be helping much.

Here was the headline over at Gawker:

BREAKING: Wikileaks Retweets Some Boring-Ass Voicemails 

Yeah, that about sums it up. 

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has seemingly just lost his mind.

Courtesy of MSN:  

Many of this video's cultural references will probably be lost on American viewers, but if you've got any desire to see Julian Assange in a blond mullet wig (and who doesn't?), then you should probably watch it right now. The song he's singing sounds like a hit by John Farnham (the one-time lead singer of the Little River Band) called "You're the Voice," but the lyrics have been replaced with lines like, "We're all wiretapped now / we're all being fed lies." A WikiLeaks spokesman described the video, which is part of Assange's Senate campaign in Australia, as "a lot of fun," which the litany of Australian politicians portrayed offensively in the video may not agree with. But again, the pleasure of seeing Assange in a wig and denim jacket transcends party lines.

Hey do you remember how I said that Snowden's association with Assange, who we learned is a Ron Paul supporter, was destroying any chance for him to be taken seriously, and then I kept getting attacked in the comments section? Good times.

Yeah well, what do you say now?

Oh and for those uncultured Americans, like myself, who have no fucking idea who Assange is parodying, click here.

Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, claims that only hope for America is to elect Rand Paul. Annnd there goes the last of your credibility.

Courtesy of Daily Kos: 

It's always good to know where people really stand-what their core beliefs are. Well, for those who may not have been sure about Julian Assange, he gave us a peek during a forum hosted by Campus Reform and OurSay.org. : 

[I] am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues, * * * * They have been the strongest supporters of the fight against the U.S. attack on WikiLeaks and on me in the U.S. Congress. Similarly, they have been the strongest opponents of drone warfare and extrajudicial executions. 

Assange concluded by saying 

The only hope as far as electoral politics presently, is the Libertarian section of the Republican party.

By the way Rand Paul is also the choice of crazed conspiracy theorist Ales Jones,  Joe Miller, and of course Sarah Palin. Need I say more?

Oh and did I mention that he also likes Matt Drudge?

Publishing information that the establishment media would not. It is as a result of the self-censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform and so of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship.

And we're done here.

If Edward Snowden ever wanted to be taken seriously, he should have avoided Glenn Greenwald and Assange like the plague. 

Here is an Edward Snowden Timeline which might give you pause.

Edward Snowden in Moscow Airports, sitting next to Sarah Harrison of Wikileaks

Courtesy of Joshua Foust:  

July 18, 2012: Wikileaks is reported to be nearing bankruptcy due to a freeze-out by banks. 

December 2012: Freedom of the Press Foundation, which has Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras on their board of directors, announces their launch with the explicit purpose of funneling money to Wikileaks. 

December 2012: According to Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden first emailed him, anonymously. In an interview with Harpers, Greenwald says he initially ignored the emails. 

January, 2013: Edward Snowden contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, according to an interview in Salon. Poitras notes her familiarity with encryption methods thanks to her close contact with Wikileaks for a previous film, and her involvement with TOR developer and hacker Jacob Appelbaum (who was investigated for his ties to Wikileaks in 2011). 

February-May 2013: Snowden exchanges emails with Greenwald and Poitras, according to the Washington Post, but does not reveal his identity. 

March, 2013: Snowden takes “infrastructure analyst” job at Booz Allen Hamilton for the explicit purpose of stealing documents from the NSA, according to an interview he gave the South China Morning Post. 

April, 2013: Jacob Appelbaum goes on vacation in Hawaii, according to a June 25 talk he gave in Berlin (approximately 25:30 into the video). He does not report having any contact with Snowden. 

May 1, 2013: A real estate agent in Hawaii says Snowden and his girlfriend moved out of their house, but did not know where they went afterward. 

May, 2013: Poitras and Appelbaum conduct an interview via encrypted email with Snowden, asking detailed technical questions to ensure Snowden possessed the skills and knowledge he claimed. Appelbaum says in an interview in Der Spiegel that he did not know Snowden’s identity. Appelbaum does not release any further details about the content of the technical discussion. 

Early May, 2013: Snowden “indirectly” contacts Barton Gellman (the meaning of “indirectly” is unclear), who begins working on the PRISM story at the Washington Post. 

May 16, 2013: Snowden directly communicates with Gellman for the first time (the meanings of “direct” and “indirect” are unclear). 

May 20, 2013: Snowden flees Hawaii for Hong Kong, winding up in the Mira Hotel. 

May 24, 2013: Snowden tells Gellman of his desire to apply for asylum in Iceland, then asks Gellman to “publish — within 72 hours — the full text of a PowerPoint presentation describing PRISM.” When Gellman balks, Snowden apparently contacts Greenwald. 

June 6, 2013: The Guardian publishes the first in its ongoing cache of documents provided by Snowden. 

June 9, 2013: The Guardian reveals Edward Snowden as the source of the leaks and publishes the first of two video interviews with him. Snowden says of his leaking: “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong.” 

June 10, 2013: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange praises Snowden as a hero from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. 

June 10, 2013: Snowden checks out of the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong, whereabouts unknown. 

June 19, 2013: Assange says Wikileaks is giving Snowden legal counsel and helping him “broker” asylum. 

June 22, 2013: A New York Times story included “a person familiar with the case” saying Snowden was staying at an apartment under Hong Kong police protection. It is removed within 24 hours.

 June 23, 2013: Snowden leaves for Moscow. The Wall Street Journal reports that Wikileaks advised Snowden to leave Hong Kong; fearing a loss of internet access, he does. A source tells the WSJ no Chinese officials were involved in his departure; a New York Times report disagrees. Izvestia, a state-owned Russian newspaper, writes that the Kremlin and its intelligence services collaborated with Wikileaks to help Snowden escape from Hong Kong (Wikileaks did not mention any official involvement in Snowden’s departure from Hong Kong in their press statements). 

June 28, 2013: The AP reports that the transit hotel where Snowden is staying costs $300 per night. 

July 4, 2013: Israel Shamir, a Wikileaks spokesman (Wikileaks denies this, but former Wikileaks employees insist he worked closely with Julian Assange. Shamir had earlier helped Belarussian dictator Alexandr Lukashenka oppress dissidents with Wikileaks data, and was placed in charge of editing Russian-language cables), praises Snowden to Zavtra, an anti-Semitic Russian-nationalist magazine edited by Alexander Prokhanov (whose own background of communism and anti-Semitism is worth noting). Shamir favorably compares Snowden to renowned British defector Kim Philby. 

July 9, 2013: Bernd Fix, a fundraiser for Wikileaks, says the group has gone from raising €2,000 a month in 2012 to €1,000 a day, still below the group’s high of €20,000 a month in 2010.

There's  more, a lot more, and all of it backed up with links, but you get the idea.

So the question, besides Snowden's motives, is WHO has been helping Snowden, and what are THEIR motives?

It also should be noted that Russia has not officially given Snowden asylum, and that Eric Holder issued a letter to Russia saying that if returned Snowden would not be executed, nor face torture.

Which may mean that he is in no way out of the woods yet. In fact the Russian woods may be much worse for him in the long run than anything he might face in the United States.

The reason that nobody could locate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is that he was in hiding from....Sarah Palin?

From Time Newsfeed:

Julian Assange could not be reached by Swedish authorities investigating sex crimes allegations against him because the WikiLeaks founder had become spooked by "death threats" issued by American politicians including Sarah Palin, Assange's Swedish lawyer told a British court today.

One of the central mysteries of Assange's extradition hearing in London this week is why the 39-year-old Australian faces extradition at all. Why did he not voluntarily return to Sweden to face questioning in the weeks following the accusations by two Swedish women?

Giving evidence in London, Assange's Swedish attorney Bjorn Hurtig said his client could not be reached by Swedish authorities because he had gone into hiding due to fears that he would be killed by forces from the United States.

"There were a lot of threatening statements made by politicians in the U.S. ... you should keep in mind that during this period I've known Julian he has actually received death threats in the media ... that he should be given the death sentence," Hurtig said, using an interpreter, in court on Tuesday. "As a consequence of this Julian was duly worried."

Hurtig's statement is part of a an effort by Assange's lawyers to fight extradition to Sweden on the grounds that doing so would violate Assange's human rights by putting him at risk of execution. They support this claim by citing British media reports that U.S. Republican politicians Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee have called for him to be executed. Palin is reported to have said that Assange "should be hunted down like Al Qaeda."


Seriously?  Assange takes on the United States, thumbs his nose at Sweden's attempts to extradite him, and yet he is panic stricken because of threats made by Snowdrift Snooki?

Calm down Julian, haven't you seen this?



See?  It would take her at LEAST six shots to hit you, and she absolutely cannot hit a moving target.  Relax, with her on the hunt you have nothing to fear.

Sarah Palin is not dangerous she is nothing. Yes some of her supporters are crazy, and might do just about anything,  But Palin herself is just a joke, and certainly nothing to fear.